Merry Christmas

 

Sock Snowmen

Says one snowman to another: "Do you smell carrots? " :)

Sometime in the 1990's, a local shop here in South Africa sold the terrific American Parents magazine and I use to love buying them. One of my favourite copies was a December issue that had the most amazing Christmas crafts in it. I don't ever part with such great inspiration and ideas, so these have been safely kept in one of my many art-and-craft flip files for all these years! These very sweet snowmen are one of those crafts.

Little One has amused me so, by saying that they are "cool" (which they are:)) and "key-ute"! But, each time I leave him alone with them, he rips off their noses!

Hope you are having a great Christmas week.

PS. I'm linking this to  

Tot Tuesdays @ My Delicious Ambiguity

Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 

                               

Pipe Cleaner Teddy Bear

I found this Teddy Bear tutorial a few years ago at my local craft shop Joh Se Winkel. Now having the blog, I just couldn't resist sharing it. So here is the tutorial and pictures:

Take one pipe cleaner (the thicker, fluffier ones work better) and cut off 6cm. These are the ears. Then cut off 10cm (the arms). You will be left with 14cm (the legs).

Bend each end of the 6cm piece to the middle and then do the same for the 10cm piece and the 14cm piece. After bending the 14cm piece, bend it down into the shape of an upside down "V".

Take the second uncut pipe cleaner and make a tiny loop at the top. (It looks like a long walking stick). Put the ears into the loop and fold the pipe cleaner twice over the middle of the ears. Then continue folding the pipe cleaner over, but once to the side (of the middle) and then to the other side. You have now created the face. If you lift the ears, the little face will show.

Put the arms under the chin and put the legs directly under the arms. Bend the remaining pipe cleaner over the legs and over the one shoulder and then repeat over the other shoulder until the pipe cleaner is finished. Tuck the end of the pipe cleaner in somewhere. Lastly add the eyes and nose carefully (otherwise there is glue all over the face) and dress as you please! :)

I made some teddies today with some eight year old friends and they managed to get it right (with just a little help). So this is a nice fine-motor activity for older kiddos.

I hope you found this easy to follow and will be making some of your own.

PS. I'm linking this to: 

Christmas Link-up Week @ Mummy Crafts 

The Christmas Blog Party @ Holiday Haven 

Christmas Sharing Time @ Raising Memories 

Tot Tuesdays @ My Delicious Ambiguity 

Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 

Christmas Cards Cont.

 Some more Christmas Cards...the children did join in for one or two this time around, but I think I still enjoyed the making of these the most. These were definitely easier to make than the fabric and buttons cards (to see those, click here).

Some more Christmassy crafts coming up this week, so stay tuned!

Christmas Cards

I love making and giving homemade Christmas cards, but I must admit that in the last few years I have resorted to store bought cards. I decided that this year would be different and so made these. I had intended for the children to be involved, but Big One wasn't in the mood and the fabric and buttons were a bit finicky for Little One, so I made them without the kiddos. I like how they turned out.

 

I will share another round of Christmas cards...hopefully kiddos included!

PS. I'm sharing this at
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123

Chocolate Play Dough!

 

I have never much liked store bought play dough. I think it's the smell of it that mainly puts me off. But year after year I have continued to buy it, never considering making any of my own. I have always thought that there would be far too much work involved. How wrong could I be! I first tried a no-cook recipe, as I tend to avoid the stove at all costs, but it wasn't very successful. I then came across this recipe at My Montessori Journey (via Counting Coconuts). What a pleasure to make! And it's just the best playdough to play with! This, pictured here, is my second batch and as you can see I decided to be a little adventurous. I made two batches with different amounts of cocoa added (10ml and 50ml). Little One tried to eat it a few times, but a taste or two of the salty doughy mixture and he spat it out very quickly!

I recently spoke to some girlfriends of mine who have never made play dough either. This one is especially for you ladies. Have fun!

PS. To keep your dough lasting well, store in an airtight container in the fridge.

PPS. I'm linking this to  Show and Tell @ ABC and 123.

{Added at a later date:  A nicer and easier play dough recipe (in my opinion) found here.}

Christmas Sensory Box

The first advent calender surprise for my kiddos was this sensory box. It was very much inspired by the amazing sensory tubs of Mari-Ann at Counting Coconuts . I used a nice rectangular plastic container (available form the local plastic shop), coloured rice, ornaments, nicknacks from my Christmas decoration's box and some yummy Father Christmas chocolates.

To colour the rice, I simply took dry uncooked rice and slowly added red food colouring. I mixed it thoroughly and when I was happy with the colour, let it air dry in the bowl. I have read on the net about oven drying coloured rice, but this worked very nicely and I didn't have to go near the oven :). Thanks Trudie for the tip.

The baubles were carefully selected to teach some new concepts: shiny and dull (or matt), big and small, as well as silver and gold. I intentionally used different textures too...it is a sensory box after all! So there is hard and soft items and I included plastic, wood, wool, fabric and paper! The tinsel tickles (tactile), the chocolates smell (olfactory) and taste yummy (oral), the small bells ring (auditory) and the whole box provides lots of visual stimulation. The rice is, of course, also part of the sensory fun and by adding a spoon and cup, lots of scooping and pouring can happen. Having said all this, the trick is to spend some time with your child playing with the sensory box. Little One loses interest quite quickly, unless I join in on the fun. I must add that even Big One enjoyed this box.

I need to warn you, this gets messy! I am trying to teach Little One to keep the rice in the container, but it's difficult to really enjoy this activity without a bit of mess. To keep me sane, 'cause I'm a bit of a neat freak, I have a Dustbuster. Pick n Pay sell an AEG model for R189. I think this is the best money I have ever spent!

Happy playing till next time :)

PS. “Come over to play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up”

Matchbox {Magnet} Advent Calender

With December only a few days away,  I have just finished making our advent calender! I took matchboxes and covered them with a fun stripy wrapping paper and then added embellishments that I had from pretty gift tags and cards of Christmas's past. I then added magnets to the back of them so that they can stick to the fridge. Our fridge is metallic in colour, so I added a sheet of white cardboard as a backdrop.  I think the result is very festive :)

Inside each box is a happy Christmas message or a message describing a surprise. The surprises vary from  sweets to a happy event/outing to activities planned for the day. Big One LOVES the daily surprises and I know Little One will feed off this excitement. I'm predicting that he will probably be asking me to open these little boxes more than once a day in the hope of more fun! 

PS. I'm linking this to:

Tot Tuesdays at My Delicious Ambiguity

Christmas Link-up Week @ Mummy Crafts 

Christmas Sharing Time @ Raising Memories 

Georgie's Picks {Cakes}

Today I'm going to combine three things I really love...photography, birthday parties and cakes! Oh, I just LOVE photographing birthday cakes and eating them too, of course! :)

Here are some wonderful cakes that I've photographed over the past year. Wherever I could, I have given credit to the baker (all Cape Town based) and provided the contact information for you.

Don't you just love the use of NikNaks for the Lion's mane! 

This was baked by a lovely friend of mine, for her son's second birthday.

(Cezanne bakes beautiful wedding cakes. If you would like to see more, visit her website at designer cakes by Cezanne) 

This AMAZING Handy Manny cake was baked by The Chocolate Moose.
(Click on the link to view their website and some more amazing cake creations.)

This is the top tier of a very pretty two-tiered fairy cake!

Red, white and blue is one of my favourite colour combinations!
Love this one!

 

I also love this turtle!  I think the colours of the cake are just awesome against the blue background.

And last, but not least, to view a super Frogs and Polka Dots cake, that was made for Little One's second birthday, click here.

This was so much fun to compile, I think I'll do another some time!

Till next time.

Go get 'em

 

Where are all the educational toys packed in your home? All those puzzles and games that require you to sit down with your kiddos to play. Up somewhere, out of reach (to avoid little one's mixing up puzzle pieces and ruining nice cards)? I'll admit, that's where ours have always been packed...out of reach of little hands! Many of the boxes are still in great condition and the pieces all there and intact, but I ask myself, have these really been played with? The truth is, these toys have been packed too far away. I have the best of intentions, but somehow they just stay up there, packed away nicely in the top cupboards.

So recently I decided to pack all the age appropriate educational toys at the very bottom of the cupboard...in easy reach for both me and my toddler. I'm really hoping to not go into his room and find all the boxes emptied out onto the floor!:) What I'm hoping for, is that by being more accessible, we will use these toys more often.

One such wonderful educational toy that I want to share with you, is made by a very well-known South African brand, Smile Toys. It's called Quartet and pictured here is the colour matching puzzle. The box also includes shape matching, animal homes and missing parts - all two-piece puzzles. I have been doing the colour matching puzzle with Little One since our recent focus on learning colours and also included these puzzle pieces in our buckets of colour. (In case you are new here, I recently did ten Colour Fun posts. To see all colour posts, click here.)

So if you haven't done it yet, go get those toys down, close at hand and ready to play!