Messy Mache Bowl

My 2 year old loved this project. Plenty of opportunities to get messy and indulge the senses!

Paper Mache Recipe

• 2 cups water
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup PVA glue

Whisk ingredients together. Use immediately.

• Newspaper
• balloon
• tissue paper

Tear newspaper into strips. Blow up balloon. Dip strips of newspaper into glue mixture and layer over top half of balloon, the size and depth that you would like your bowl. Create a neat edge using straight edges of newspaper around the outside. Put a layer of tissue paper over to finish and then leave to dry for a day. Then paint.

A Photo...

Why is barbed wire, rust, decayed wood, peeling paint and old bricks so aesthetically pleasing to me? hehehe. 

Poppy's Sketch Collection and Exhibition

 So remember that art folio I made? (for myself). I did a couple of water colour sketches and let my four year old daughter have a muck around as well. 'Mucking around' is what I was doing compared to the sketches and drawings SHE came up with! She filled my whole book. So here is an exhibition of some of her work, we stuck up on the walls in her bedroom.

'A Colour Man'
Pen and watercolour 

 'A Funny Angry Man'
Pen and watercolour
(I love this one- it looks like a sugar skull / R2D2)

 'Angus and Mum'
Pen and watercolour
(a sight drawing of me and Angus whilst breastfeeding haha!)

And it looks like there are more to come. I might just have to make her her own folio.

Crocheted Love is Forever

This blankie is older than I am.

When our son was born, Charlie's mum gave us the blanket his Grandmother crocheted for him as a baby. That makes this blanket more than thirty years old. It is still as beautiful as ever if not more with all the love that it has received over the years and all the cold nights it kept my husband warm and for the many more to come where my son will lie cosy inside its soft folds. So from Nanna Green, whom never got the chance to meet our baby boy, her love is still felt and she lives on.

Here is a free tutorial to crochet this exact pattern.
http://www.knitting-n-crochet.com/Crochet-ripple-afghan.html

Has anyone else got a hand-me-down they cherish?

Playing Skirty

Here's my cheeky girl in the skirt I made for her. I've had this material forever and its about time I did something with it. So for Poppy, whom everything has to be pink for at the moment, I designed a skirt with enough length not to be cheeky in a showing your bottom all the time kind of way and short enough to run in, with room enough for karate kicks and doing the splits. Most importantly it was damn easy. I made it within 2 hours and it did not require too much concentration or detail or changing the foot on the sewing machine (which I have no idea how to do) and best of all, dodgy sewing is hidden... hehehe.


Instructions:
(Based on a size 3-4)
Cut one piece of material 30cm in length (the length can be altered to your child's preference) and at least 60cm in width. Cut in half. Pin the two pieces together, top sides facing each other. Sew a seam on the two lengths. Sew 60cm of binding at the bottom. Measure your child's waist and cut a piece of elastic slightly shorter. For a good waist band, make sure the elastic is 2cm in width or more. Sew a rough seam at the top at least 1cm wider than your elestic. Leave a 5cm gap to insert elestic through. Thread the elastic through and pin. Check that this fits the child before sewing together. Next, push the elastic down so that it is pressed up against the stitching. Now fold the band over and sew a neat seam as close as possible below the elastic without sewing the elastic. This creates a tight elasticized waistband without having to tediously thread the elastic through, its also nice and thick. Turn inside out. Now put it on your lucky kid and send them out to play.