December- What's on the Tray, week 1

Here are some Winter/Christmas activities we have on our shelves this week.  We are having a good time doing our themed tray work and also completing a special Christmas craft each day. (Kenna finds a note describing our daily craft in our advent calendar each morning! She thinks Santa is leaving the notes- so exciting!) I'll post some of our more exciting crafts later this week.

 Spooning glittery pom poms into an artist palette. I was encouraging a red/green pattern, or big/small, but my kid has a mind of her own.

 This tray has a sweet red box with a toggle lock on it- Kenna loves to open and close it!

 Tonging red and silver gift bows.  I provided a pair of tongs, the bows, and a two sided sorter. Kenna chose not to use the tongs the first couple days, but then she started using them avidly. She likes squishing the bows with the tongs before sorting them.

 Cute wintry box to store the bows. Thank you, Dollar Tree!

 Reaching in to grab some bows.

 Taking a break to build a fort and crawl around. We threw around a bean bag and used words "under, over, in, out and through." It was fun! The fort is actually Quinn's blanket, handmade by Grammie. I need to start a post documenting all of the amazing handmade quilts and blankets we have been given by my mom and Bill's mom. They are works of art!

 December Texture Tub- snowy cotton balls, reindeer, presents, christmas lights, candy canes and a tree.  The snowman suitcase has a nifty latch, and provides Kenna an outlet for her favorite activity- stuffing stuff in containers. 

 I also threw in some jingle bells, a santa figurine, and some glitter at Kenna's request. She likes playing with the cotton balls- stacking them, smooshing them, and pulling them apart. I may switch out the cotton balls for something else like polyfil beads or white pompoms in a week or so, when I get tired of picking fuzz from between the baby's fingers.

Stringing popcorn.  Yes, I let Kenna have a real needle and thread. (She's 34 months old.) We have done some "sewing" with a real needle before, and she can handle it. She is very careful, and I remain very alert to prevent her from losing focus and hurting herself. This round, she got about 10 pieces of popcorn strung before she lost interest.  She was really proud of herself and thoroughly enjoyed hanging that tiny strand on our tree.  (She also really liked cooking popcorn on the stove. We watched and waited for the first kernel to pop, poured in 1/2 cup, and listened while the kernels merrily clinked against the metal lid. It was fun and kind of magical for her to see the white fluffy popcorn pour out of a pan that started out full of yellow kernels! We read a picture book called Countdown to Christmas, and the girl in the story strings popcorn and cranberries- so now I have been instructed to find "cwanbewies" to string. 

 This tray is stolen inspired byThe Adventures of Bear.  By the way, all of her trays and activities are awesome. Her tray used pompoms, but I was using our pom poms somewhere else, so we tweezed jingle bells instead. These shapes come from a truck shape sorter that we have had for years.We used them to do some stamping a few months ago, so they look a bit icky now- but it's just white paint.  And I would have set out all red shapes, but I have NO clue where they are. I could swear I had every piece just last week...

 Christmas tree stamping with a giant ink pad. I provided about 8 small sheets of paper and we'll see how long that lasts Miss Stamps-a-Lot. (she's highly interested in stamping right now. She chooses stamping several times a day, and works on it for long periods of time. This is a great time to nurture her sensitive period and do more stamping! I have letter stamps, number stamps, coin and bill stamps, shape stamps, and more! Bring on the inkpads!)

Decorate a Christmas tree cone. This tray was linked up on LivingMontessoriNow, from Blissfully Domestic. Her trees are lovely. Can't guarantee ours will be as nice, but they will be as much fun!

I made a cone shape out of cardstock, and set out a tray which includes:
green cardstock
a 1 inch hole punch
a bowl with some already punched circles, in various shades of green.
Glue to afix the circles to the cone.

My hope is that Kenna will use the punch to cut circles, but also that she will take time to glue the circles. I'd like to see it completely covered so that we can use it on our Nature table. 
I will update at the end of next week and share a pic of our Christmas tree. I plan to leave the tray out for Kenna to do in spurts- she doesn't have the attention span to cover a whole tree in one sitting.
UPDATE 12/21/11:
Kenna loved this. She loved using the punch, and she loved gluing on the circles. We did just use one cone for two weeks. There are a lot more punched circles loose than glued on- she really liked the punch. Kenna discovered that she could make moons and half-circles with the punch- Exciting.

 Side with a "Moon" glued at the top.

 Can you see the little "light" she jammed into the top of the tree?  A little star, mommy. A red star.

 Hope you are having a merry start to the Christmas season!

On the sewing table 11.20.11

I've finally caught up on all the custom orders I had, so I am taking some time to make some gifts for my own family and friends for Christmas. (36ish days left???? ACK!)

This little gnome is part of a set of four. He's Fall. There is also Summer, Spring and Winter. I just need to take pictures. I love how he turned out, so much so that I decided to keep him and put him on our Nature Table. So much for gifting!

Soo stinking cute!  Our Waldorf style nature table makes me feel calm and peaceful. I can't wait to get some playsilks to add to the scene.

Rainbow Beanbags. Each bag is made with a different textured fabric. They are small for little hands. They have black and white backs.  I really like them. I made 5 sets. I'm kinda in love. Watch out, everyone on my list- every kid I know is getting a set this year!

Awesome! More sewing projects coming soon! I gotta get on the ball.

I'm the Map, I'm the Map, I'm the Map!

Finally! A break from the non-stop custom orders from the last month or so... and just in time to start working on some Christmas gifts!

I'm pretty sure you know "Map" from Dora the Explorer. If you don't, consider yourself very, very lucky.  If you do, I apologize for the stupid song now running continuously through your head.  My sweet Kenna is rather taken by Dora and friends. We watch very little television, so Dora DVD's are a real treat for her.  Recently, Kenna has taken to wadding up any paper she can find, calling it "her map" and stuffing it into her little backpack.  She sings the Dora songs, she pretends that Swiper is lurking around every corner, and calls Daddy Boots more often than not. ?

 So yeah, making her a Map is a no-brainer gift! I haven't seen anything like this around, so I just kinda winged it. I wanted the map to roll up and show his face, and when it was unrolled, I wanted the three destinations to be interchangeable. I grabbed some felt and got to work. I have to say I am in love with this project, and know Kenna will be, too!

 Here's the map. The only thing glued down is the road. You can see a small square of scratchy velcro I handstitched on so that the map will stay rolled up.

 Then I got to start making the "destinations". First, through the flower garden...

Then hike over Big Mountain!

 Go around the Red Barn!

Here are three destinations, laid out on the map- flower garden, wooden bridge, dark cave.  :)

 Forest, alligator lake, big mountain!

Park, pumpkin patch (in honor of our two recent trips there... I just knew Kenna would love this...) and red barn.

When I finished making the pieces for the inside, I quickly cut out Map's Face. Because he is a cartoon, his face is completely outlined in black. To mimic this, I simply cut two layers of felt. I think he came out pretty adorable!

Here's the whole set. I am sure that when Kenna gets ahold of it, she will ask me for some specific things to add, and I can't wait! I plan to make at least one more set for an upcoming 3 year old birthday girl who loves Dora, too!

Halloween Felt Candy Corn Cookies

 As I was bathing the kids last night, my mind wandered (shocking, I know) to my favorite things about Halloween. Besides the spookiness, the adorable pumpkins, and the fun of dressing up, I truly love Candy Corn.

It's a disgusting cross between waxy texture, tons of sugar and waay too much food coloring, and I LOVE it.  :) I decided in that moment to make up a couple little cookies decorated like candy corn.  They could be considered "stuffies" at this point, but I'm sticking to my sugar cookie theme...
These little guys would be fun treats for your kids or cute table decor.
 Check 'em out in my Etsy store!

Halloween Felt Cookies

***First a little PSA:  Halloween is my favorite holiday. Brace yourself for the onslaught. ***

Okay, so I am finally back from maternity leave, and so happy to be sewing again for my Etsy shop, Kenna's Felt Forest. I don't have a lot of free time to sew, so I am going to try to keep my store instock and not get backed up with a lot of customs.
That said, if you REAAAAALLY want something, just ask.  :)

I decided that the best way to get back in the saddle was to make some fun Halloween themed sugar cookies. These felt cuties are completely hand-sewn and I accomplished it today while all three- ALL THREE- kids napped at the same time. The same time. Are you listening closely?
I just experienced a miracle!! :)

Anyhow, I finished up the purple and orange ones cookies and was going to add one more orange cookie to the pile when Kenna woke up and demanded a pumpkin cookie. Okay, sure. 

So, for your purchasing pleasure, I offer up a set of three felt sugar cookies- one orange, one purple, and one with a pumpkin! They can be found here.
I am going to make a huge batch of these tonight with different designs. Any suggestions? I am thinking bat, cat and a witch's hat!

Pillowcase dress, take 1

My incredibly crafty husband went to Goodwill and bought a pillowcase. Then he made some bais tape and whipped up a pillowcase dress for Kenna! My job was to embellish, and since I recently found the YoYo love, I couldn't resist adding them to this sweet and simple dress.

Then I decided to make a matching hair clippie- with another yoyo of course! I even whipped out my button maker, and covered a button with a little of the pillowcase fabric. SO cute! :)

Handy Husband 10-10-10

My hubby is always into some interesting project or another. This week, he decided to create a dress form so that he can "drape" and sew clothes for me. Without a pattern. Dress forms are pretty darn expensive, so he found a tutorial online to help him craft one out of duct tape. He told me that the end result would actually end up being the size and shape of my body. How, you ask?

By wrapping me in duct tape. Lots of duct tape.

We started with Hubby wrapping me in cling wrap." So the duct tape wouldn't adhere to my skin," he explained.
Super.
I crossed my fingers and kept reminding him to cover carefully.

The clingwrap was bizarre looking and since I was indecent, I didn't allow pictures. Please feel free to use your imagination.

Next, Hubby started with the duct tape. he worked from the top down, using short lengths of duct tape to control the shape, and being sure to really smooth it down before moving on. It did seem to get tighter and tighter as he went- so if you attempt this, be sure to keep it a little looser than you think you should.

Ack... can't breathe!

He totally finished the body, and went all the way up to my neck and around my armpits, so that he had an accurate shape and size to work with. Don't I look cute... I'm a bit woozy from the chemical smell of the duct tape in these pictures!

When he was done, he ran some thin blue tape at my waist, hips and bust as reference marks. Then he cut me out of the suffocating duct tape dress!!

On to Stuffing:
Hubby matched up the blue tape lines and re-taped the duct tape shape back together on the inside.

Using some old pillows we got at Goodwill plus some newspaper, Hubby stuffed the body of the dressform. He used cardboard to seal up the neck and arm holes, and then added more duct tape. About halfway through stuffing, he stuck the pole into the form so it would get wedged in nicely around the stuffing. (He used an old broom handle.) It took a few tries to get the stuffing just right- the dress form started out with a GIANT backside and a very lumpy side! He just kept adjusting and stuffing til it looked right.

Lastly, he stuck the pole into a christmas tree stand and Viola! A perfect dress form to start his career in fashion design.

Isn't my hubby cool? Next week, his first attempt at draping a dress! :)