Bits and Bobs

With this seemingly never-ending cold weather, in order to maintain a socially responsible level of sanity, we've been doing a lot of indoor project-ing.  It is tough to keep those kids from bouncing off the walls, when it's yet another cold, rainy day...here's what's been happening in our world:

A little sewing, for the girls.  (By the way, Tyler can sew quite well, but usually gets a bit of a too-cool attitude about it, and I know better than to push.)

 

My cutie niece there is having a go at her first sewing project, and I gave her the same tools Devin began with.  A tiny embroidery hoop, a plastic needle (you can pick these up at craft stores and quality kids' toy stores, I got mine at White Horse Toys, in Issaquah), and a piece of burlap, cut from an old rice bag.  The loose weave on the burlap makes it easy to poke the big plastic needle through, and gives her time to get used to the feel of sewing.  And she was so sweet doing it...every stitch was prefaced with:  "Like this, Auntie?"  Aw.

Devin's working on a project from a very cool book,  Sewing School: 21 Projects Kids Will Love to Make  by Amie Plumley, and Andria Lisle.  I like the handiness of this book, because it's something she can browse through herself, and decide what she feels like getting up to.  Don't get me wrong, it's fun (sometimes only in theory) coming up with a project for a child, but I don't always have the time or the inspiration.  Plus, this way, she's actively pursuing what interests her.  Which means she's pretty sure to maintain interest and see the project through to the end.  Good stuff.  And here's the end project:

 

He's called Stuffy.

Tyler has come up with the clever idea of making pop-up birthday cards.  I have no idea where he found his inspiration, but love that he found it, on his own.

And Miss Devin's been designing some felt clothes for her felt dolls (which are store bought, but she decided they didn't have enough of a wardrobe).  This too was her own idea.  A little pattern-making, cutting and sewing, and voila!

Boy, I love this phase my kids are in!  Still young enough to be cool with hanging out and crafting with Mum, but old enough to sort it out themselves, should I have my hands in a few other pies at the moment.  And they are pretty darn creative.  Not that I'm biased or anything.

And we've rediscovered this lovely book in our home library:  Beach, by Elisha Cooper.

 

I adore this book, the illustrations are a little abstract and funky, the words are almost poetic, with an Ernest Hemingway bare-bones kind of style...and it gives us hope that winter may just go away, and we can get ourselves to the beach...soon.