Kid Crafts: Week One

Bug and I do kid 'projects' together several times a week while Moo is napping. I love the time we spend together and try and mix crafts and learning during this time. I thought every week I'd do a wrapup of what we have been working on.

We made Snowman inspired from here. Bug loved this project, and ate all the eyes and buttons off the snowmen before hubby could get home with the candy for the hats.

For Christmas she got a big bag of misc. supplies for our projects, and these Martha Stewart puppet kits were included. She and Moo played 'sroggies' the rest of the day.

Moo got magnetic Melissa and Doug animals and we have been working on identifying the animals. However, she would rather just slide all the animals off the fridge ten times and call it quits. Yikes - it looks like she has a mullet in this pic. Gotta do something about that.

My big Christmas gift this year? Pots and pans. I love love love them. I couldn't stand to throw all the wrapping materials away, so with the help of Bug and Moo ( love it!) we played in the felt and turned these plain cardboard pieces into princess crowns!

Selvedge fun

I have been dreaming about doing a project with all those beautiful little color dots on the selvedge edge of fabric for a long time. I finally dove in this week and I am so addicted! I opted to use edges all from the same fabric line on this one, and I like how it turned out. I had some wool blend felt in brown for the inside. Sending this one to my Grandma Kitch. LOVE IT!

Loved it so much I attempted one for myself! Fun, bright colors on this one! I was in such a hurry to finish while Moo was still in the highchair eating breakfast I forgot to look which side I was putting the elastic on... oops! I actually liked that side better, so whatever.

Together! They just make me giddy. Glad I have been saving these edges!

Finishing touches

I have spent the last week working on finishing all the gifts I started in October with great intentions of getting done early. Oops. So this week I have:

made my mom a necklace... this one I actually started this morning because somehow I missed her on my list...

Sewn this fabric Frosty the Snowman book for Moo,Finished binding this quilt for my Sister-in-law's mother, who will be joining us for Christmas.This quilt took 12 hours to quilt, and I used 27 bobbins! Not sure I will do pebble quilting this small again, but I love the finished look. Thank goodness it's just a lap quilt!

I have also almost finished a doorway puppet theatre (another post on that later), made a dozen scrapbook pages for my mother-in-law's book, made a dress for a friend's daughter, sewn 8 microwaveable rice bags for an order, finished knitting a hat, and beaded 3 lanyards for namebadges for a coworker. Thank goodness my family is okay with pizza, frozen noodle dinners and spaghetti for dinner!

Winter Wonderland

I saw this adorable winter scene on Chasing Cheerios, and Bug begged to make her own house. We still have a lot of felt from a great thrift store find, and we put it to good use. We dug through the felt and she chose colors while I cut.

I love how she decorated the tree. And the pink snow. That's my Buggie for you. The final scene is really cute - I imagine we will play with it a lot during Moo's naps in the coming weeks.

and... after another entire day knitting this hat again, I think it looks like I tried to knit armor from the game hubby has been playing on the xbox. Not a great look. So, I ripped it all out. Again. And started another hat. Hopefully success with this one!

testing, testing...

I have been picking up knitting the last two weeks, and started AND finished 10 hats in 12 days. Wow. Five of these are for Christmas gifts, I still need to make a little boy hat and then Christmas knitting will be done.

I am still new to knitting, and have not ventured with anything too fancy. However... after my mom brought this book over, I knew I had to try something new. I love all three 'One Skein Wonder' books {hint hint hubby}. Just missing the other two...

Well, after a few tears and a 'yarn over' lesson from my mom, I felt confident and began knitting. Three + hours and 24 rows later, I realized the hat I was making for myself would fit my two year old neice who has a small head. Oops. So, out came all those stitches. I went up a needle size, grabbed a Diet Dr. Pepper and began again. Hope my guage is right this time!

Impromptu Project

I try to do little 'projects' with Bug's help on a regular basis. I would say we do 5 or so art projects a week, although they are usually pretty basic stuff. I have been a little lazy lately, and she has noticed. When I got home from work tonight (I work 4pm-12:30am) she was up (again... we really need to work on her sleep schedule!) and begged to make her daddy a project. Just one. How could I tell her no? I had this snowman printed off, and she got to coloring. Have little kids? Check out the coloring page, it's a good one. A little glue, and she was a happy girl with a project to give her Daddy.
Notice the clock in the background? Oh, you can't see it underneath the dirt? Well it says 1:02 am. Seriously.

Christmas sewing - round two

I have been working on bags this weekend - first I made these matching 'church bags' for the girls. I will fill them with coloring books and finger puppets... and other quiet toys. Just for Sundays so they will be a special treat. They each got one, although you can see from the arm in the picture they may not be a surprise or even stay hidden until Christmas.

Next, I made bed book bags to hang on the outside of their beds. Bug loves "Ten, Nine, Eight" and it's often missing at bedtime. I am hoping we can just keep it in one spot and have bedtime go a little smoother. These bags are big enough to hold a couple books and made out of a sturdy canvas (again, from our thrift store... $1) and fabric that matches their blankets- I wanted them to be specific to each girl. I used this 'kidlet' tutorial as a guide, but added two separate straps so I could button them on. I will upgrade from the safety pins.

I love it when in one night of sewing I can make four projects start to finish.