Needle felting.

 Needle felting has quickly become our favorite craft to do lately.  

It all started the day I let go of, what I believed to be, a reasonable fear of my children gouging their tiny body parts with nasty-sharp serrated needles.   I decided to get over it.  It happened.  They cried.  I cried.  Then they cried more because they thought I wasn't going to let them do it again and then I realized, "hey, what's the fuss all about then?  Let's get back to felting here."  So, we did.  

 It is such a peaceful and personal craft.  Each person has their own felting pad and needle and there is plenty of "community" wool to share.  We can each just hang out, chat and work on our own creations separately, but still very much together.

The best method we have found so far for sparing little fingers from those vicious needles is using wool cutouts from felted sweaters or 100% wool felt used a bit like a canvas so they can "paint" pictures with the wool.  At first I insisted on cutting out nice little rectangles so they would have these perfect backgrounds to use for their work.  Then, after much pleading from my people, they convinced me to relinquish control of the scissors.  They started cutting out their own backgrounds which were, and usually are, much more organic then the somewhat sterile rectangles I had insisted on.  
Once they have their backgrounds ready we pin them down to the felting pad with straight pins to hold them in place.  This way they can add wool over the background, create whatever image they have unfolding behind their wide and focused eyes without really having to hold their hands near the sharp end of the needle.

So far this has yielded many enjoyable afternoons of needle felting 

and oh my, ever so many works of felted art.

Our new pet

A Sweet Gum tree fruit wrapped in wool.

Red

Bringing in February with a bit of color.

First person

I'm in love with this picture that Owen drew for me this morning. He always draws these images that resemble maps and puzzles, but this was his first "people" drawing. It was as if drawing a person had never occurred to him before. But, this morning he did. I love it!

Birdie cookie

Did you happen to know that February, in addition to being irritating to spell, is National Bird Feeding Month. True story. I was all keen on making bird seed cookies last year for this occasion but never got farther than making our traditional pinecone bird feeder people. We have tried out one batch of bird cookies so far and we did not have too much luck. They turned out pretty cute but so crumbly that we couldn't really string them like we had planned. The other problem, that is certain to remain a problem, is the whole idea of calling them COOKIES. When a person, especially a small person, makes a cookie they expect (and often demand) to EAT the cookie.

So today, to avoid long explanations about why we should not eat the suet cookies that we made for the birds, we decided to just celebrate the little birdies with some bean drawings.

Maybe we will try the bird cookies in a few more days, but the cookie calling has to go. How about birdseed wafers? Birdie biscuits? Tweety treats? Any ideas?

A play-dough pallet

This crazy scientist looking table just might be our new favorite rainy day activity around here. Normally when we make playdough we use a bigger recipe that is made over the stove and is more or less like this:

1 cup water

1Tbs vegetable oil

1/2 cup salt

1Tbs cream of tarter ( I used to put this in as a preservative but have since found that the playdough usually dries out from use before it ever goes bad.  I rarely use it now.)

Food coloring

Heat all 5 of these in a pan and then add

2 cups flour

 

I thought it would be more fun for Owen if he could make his own, but heating up ingredients on the stove was not an option.  After trying several smaller batches that ended up way too sticky I found this one (Here).  The link is great.  It shows all the ingredients placed in small child friendly containers which clearly,  is a much better option than Owen carrying a bag of flour across our kitchen floor. 

4 Tablespoons flour

2 Tablespoons salt

1 dropper full of vegetable oil (ours is about .8ml)

2 Tablespoons water

and Mix

We waited to add any coloring until Owen rolled the playdough out.  Once it was rolled out we added two wells for food coloring on each side of the circle.   We used yellow and blue together, one in each well, so he could see  the "change" when he made them meet in the middle. 
This was really fun for both of us.  The smaller portion is just right for him experimenting with one or two colors.  The bigger portion is fun because we can add more colors and have a bigger "painting" surface.  Currently, this is ranking as my favorite rainy day activity.  Days of rain in the forecast for us.  Anyone else have some rainy day ideas? 

Bunny surprise

Our good friend Anke, affectionately referred to as Mama Anke around here, came over yesterday to give us a tutorial on making little clay eggs with the sweetest little surprise inside.

She had the kids wrap foil around a plastic egg and then cover the foil with bits of clay.

After cleaning up tiny bits of clay from window panes and out of mouths, she helped them finish smoothing out their eggs before she whisked them off to a safer location ( the eggs, not the kids). As it turns out, a safer location is out of our house and a bit closer to a kiln and some glaze so that they may reappear at a later date.....
...looking seriously cute.

I can't wait! There's always something fun going on around that Mama Anke!

Pine cone people

I have been feeling inspired lately (originating here, because she is such a good birdie momma) to spend a little more time caring for our bird population around here. So, last night Andy took Owen outside to collect some pine cones for a little project I had in mind for us this afternoon. This time of year nearly all of our pine cones are tightly closed up, but after they overnight next to the wood stove they are perfectly ready. Ready to become little pine cone bird feeder people, that is.
I have seen this activity in several different books. This one and this one are really my favorites because they have so many activities that are fun for me too (which is essential because, come on, the project manager really needs to be enjoying the activity especially when tiny participants are involved? Right?).


I had originally imagined them being cute little fairy-princess-like bird feeders but they didn't turn out like that at all. They turned out more like funny little bug-eyed bird feeder people instead which is probably better. Better because pretty soon the birds are going to come and pluck their eyes out and I'd hate for the feeders to be too cute when that happens. I hope this doesn't traumatize my children. I can just hear the therapy session 20 years down the road "and I loved it..and then...and then... this bird came and started ripping its eyes out...and my mom...and my m m m mom was just laughing...it was terrible."
So then, without dwelling on any of the drawbacks here, I think we will all enjoy watching our birdies pluck away at these little guys.