Hearts and a little bit of Art

There has been a lot of love around here...

Hearts in our sandwiches, hearts on our toes and of course hearts filled with love when his little hand wants to hold mine while watching movies

And it won't be a complete week without a shaving cream bath - this time filled with hearts. With the addition of a few paint brushes, food coloring and small plastic bags, the bath kept them busy just long enough for me to do a little painting myself.

This week my mind has been on gymnastics and  beautiful vintage balance beams

Have a wonderful week everyone 

May Flowers

With so many cute flower crafts and stickers around this time of year, we decided to make our own blossoming tree.

With a branch from outside we slowly add whatever crafts the kids are doing that day.

Semay even made some out of play dough- including a chrysalis, but my favourites are the giant papertowel beauties dyed with neon food coloring.

Next ones are these gorgeous but easy looking ones

Spring blossoms

It will be a while before we get tulips in our garden, so we are hurrying things along today. 

Easter Snow bunnies

 

It's not too often that snow and Easter fall on the same week, but it happened. So instead of the usual snowman, we thought we'd welcome the Easter Bunny with a sculpture of himself, complete with fluffy tail.

Happy egg hunting!

rubber bands, feathers and rocks

Oh Dollar Store how I love thee...

With $3 in my pocket I feel like a rich woman, walking out with a bag full of goodies.

Your bags of rocks, rainbow rubber bands and colorful feathers inspired days of play for big and small

The littlest fingers loved wrapping the rocks, only to spend another hour unwrapping them.

The rubber bands soon became laser beams between cabinets and tightropes for little dollies

And oh those colours! On white dreary days those colours popped and inspired more paintings than I can mention

Yup, I'm a huge fan!

Snow dough - snowman

For some reason my kids have decided 4am is a perfectly reasonable time to get up! 

This new change has made our days in this cabin looong, meaning at 7am you might find us eating our 3rd breakfast, wondering what to do next?

This activity recommended by my sis-in-law has been awesome in keeping them busy, giving me time to sneek in one more nap ;)
 

Some call it moon sand, others call it snow dough... 

...in our house we call it SUPER MESSY and SUPER FUN!

It smells so good and molds just like sand. 

It is perfect for early morning fun when I still have some energy to vacuum it all up afterwards.

Here is the recipe, couldn't be easier...


                 Recipe ::


      4 cups flour + 1/2 cup baby oil

      

Quick Christmas craft :: hand painted ornaments

We had a short time left before the little brother woke up, the same brother who bugs her every time she brings out her craft supplies. 

She wanted to make something... and I wanted to paint. 

So out came all our nail polishes - they come in such amazing colors now don't you think? And the paintbrushes and glitter is all there in the bottle, ready to be used. 

While painting them,they kept rolling away on us, so we cut a toilet paper roll shorter to balance them.

This was fun. The finish was shiny and durable, and the colours so bright.

I can see us paint a lot of things with nail polish in the future.

Harvest moon

We have been mesmerized by the harvest moon and bright stars covering the dark cold sky at nights

So to celebrate we've been dancing to this

             ::  Under the moon

To learn we've been making this 

       :: Light table constellations

 





 



(supplies -  white oil pastel, black construction paper and a pin)





And to be transported to a whole other world we've been enjoying these

    :: by Laurent Lavedera

 For more photos by this amazing artist follow this link :: moon games

Science play

An old pair of sunglasses (safety goggles), plastic gloves and a broken microscope inspired a whole afternoon of serious "scientist" play. 




Everything came from our kitchen:

 - soap, vinegar, oil, water, salt, 
   baking soda, cinnamon and 
   old crunchy leaves. 

 - I also gave her my expired cosmetic oils,  a few bottles with caps on it, magnifying glass and whatever else I could find that looked sciency;)

 She made it look so fun, that the whole family eventually joined in.

Definitely an activity we will try again

freezie scarves

I'm not sure if this happens only to my kids. They will be ecstatic to get a freezie, and then cry because it is too cold on their hands : (

 So one rainy afternoon while watching RIO we made some scarves for our freezies. 

I used leftover pieces from other projects. Some were felted wool, others just nice and soft.

At first we embroidered patterns, but when time ran out, we simply added buttons and cut  slits.

So quick, so easy and now freezie eating time involves only smiles : )

Fizz - baking soda and vinegar color mixing

Oh the many uses for baking soda and vinegar

We saw this on pinterest and had to try it.

The directions said to squeeze the food colored vinegar onto the baking soda for colored explosions,but the fun did not end there for these two

Etian was having trouble squeezing liquid into his pipette, so he dipped it into the baking soda instead, and then dunked it into vinegar for a whole other effect

Semay dumped all the baking soda in her vinegar, and made a slimey sort of dough

Definitely an activity I'll do again! It kept them busy and amazed for a long time

Bleeding heart necklace - summer craft

I have always admired how Maya can knit together nature's inspiration, creativity and poetic words to create a space on line that is so refreshing and motivating. 

After reading her recent post my heart broke for her loss. Even though her heart is bleeding, her honesty and positive humble attitude is just so beautiful. 

This necklace is for you Maya - a touch of nature strung together with lots of love.

You can visit her blog here

How to :

Simply sew flowers with needle and thread. So easy

Easy cherry parfait

Today the laundry stopped, the dishes were left unwashed and dessert was served before supper.

Because it was one of those days where everyone woke up in the wrong mood, and we took our turns taking a time out.

A day when gentleness was in order, when breaking rules and routine was a must. 

We needed a break but mostly we needed something sweet to turn the day around

Easy "time out" dessert 

                 (lil' ones can make this too)

Crumble a cookie on the bottom of your most special tea cup, layer a bit of instant vanilla pudding and whipping cream till the cup is almost full. 

Give the rest to the kids to lick out of the bowl - they'll be much happier if you do!

Top with cherry pie filling and put in fridge till you can't wait any longer.

Now take a time out, watch the birds and listen to the bees

You deserve it :)

Love is in the air

 

 Ooh Valentines day is almost here,and although we don't do much as far as dates, I do like all the crafting going on during this time.

 We painted lace hoping to transfer the design to paper ~ it didn't work, but we did end up with some pretty pink lace instead.

The Perfect nap

It was noon, the sun warm on our faces and the house quiet - for a change

A certain someone who has sat on mom's hip all morning, screaming with poking teeth finally went for a nap

Usually I fall on the couch in an exhausted heap, but today was different. Today I wanted to sew something... 

Starting out with a simple idea it soon evolved into sleeping bags for her dolls. I didn't care what we made, I just wanted to feel fabric in sun, hear the machine hum alongside the birds and spend some quiet time with her

Then 2 o'clock came,  and well I'll spare you the details of the rest of the teething feverish afternoon, because it doesn't matter...

...nap time was Perfect:)

Belly painters - future tatoo artists perhaps

Since Semay was little no matter how much paper I put in front of her she always managed to find her belly and paint that instead

Well it seems to be genetic.

All on his own Etian quickly found painting himself so much more fun ;)