On Saturday, Steve and I went to Hazel's school for a special presentation for parents in the parent/child classes that are interested in the nursery school class for next year. Although we didn't gain too much information from it, we did get to make some felted mice. I had to help Steve with the sewing of the ears, but we had fun.
The mouse body is wet felted. We took some grey wool roving and rolled it tightly folding the ends in a bit as we went. Then we dampened it with water with a bit of Ivory soap in it and rolled it between our hands until it became felted. Then we made the tail by rolling it between our damp hands. Then we went and rinsed the mouse in hot water (as hot as we could stand) and then cold water and also rinsed the soap out of the tail. Then we sewed on the tail and the ears (which the nursery teacher had precut from grey felt for us). We brought them home to dry. Hazel loves them. She had asked me for a mouse awhile ago so it had been on my list of things to try. Now the only trick is to keep them away from the cats!
Another interesting article to share about our children and education: From the Asia Times Online: How America Made Its Children Crazy.
We are getting a good number of people interested in the Kids' Valentine Swap. Are you interested in having your child make valentines for kids internationally and send them with a post card and then receive them from the same kids? Check it out--just click on the button above.
Sharing Saturday is also open!! There are over 130 entries thus far. Go check them out by clicking on the button above.
I hope you are having a terrific Monday!!
A Mouse or Two
Labels:
crafts,
Waldorf,
wet felted
Some Needle Felting
Last night was a rather quiet night at my home. My dear husband fell asleep with Hazel in her bed. I knew he was really tired, so I didn't wake him. I did go in and turn off the light before I went to bed, but since I had time to myself, I visited many of the entries to Sharing Saturday. (If you haven't gone to check them out, you really should--they are amazing! And of course it is still open for more sharing!!)
I had total control of the television. Steve and I only watch it when Hazel is sleeping or not home. Of course Saturday night television is not very great, but I watched a few shows On Demand that are on later than I would like at night. And I did some needle felting. I had bought a needle felting kit at the Paper Source which was on their clearance table. It was to make a flower pin. It came with three bright colors of wool roving--brighter than I have seen around here. I made the flower and decided I would either glue it onto a barrette or sew it onto a hairband for Hazel.
Then I played with making some hearts. I started with the bright colors since all three colors came with equal amounts but then used a purple and white that I already had to fill in the center.
Then I made a red and white one. Seems perfect for a Valentine.
Finally I made a smaller pink one and then added a white H on it for Hazel. Then I thought about what I wanted to do with these. I decided to make the smaller one into a necklace for Hazel. This morning I sewed a piece of embroidery floss onto it and she wore it to church.
And I sewed a loop on one of the other ones for Hazel's craft tree (or small Christmas tree that I bought on clearance and we are going to hang our crafts on).
Now we just need to hang it up and sew strings on the other two. Hazel of course loved them.
An interesting article to share which makes me happy that we are sending Hazel to a Waldorf School: Wall St. Journal Article: The Importance of Child's Play
Hope you are having a relaxing weekend!
I had total control of the television. Steve and I only watch it when Hazel is sleeping or not home. Of course Saturday night television is not very great, but I watched a few shows On Demand that are on later than I would like at night. And I did some needle felting. I had bought a needle felting kit at the Paper Source which was on their clearance table. It was to make a flower pin. It came with three bright colors of wool roving--brighter than I have seen around here. I made the flower and decided I would either glue it onto a barrette or sew it onto a hairband for Hazel.
Then I played with making some hearts. I started with the bright colors since all three colors came with equal amounts but then used a purple and white that I already had to fill in the center.
Then I made a red and white one. Seems perfect for a Valentine.
Finally I made a smaller pink one and then added a white H on it for Hazel. Then I thought about what I wanted to do with these. I decided to make the smaller one into a necklace for Hazel. This morning I sewed a piece of embroidery floss onto it and she wore it to church.
And I sewed a loop on one of the other ones for Hazel's craft tree (or small Christmas tree that I bought on clearance and we are going to hang our crafts on).
Now we just need to hang it up and sew strings on the other two. Hazel of course loved them.
An interesting article to share which makes me happy that we are sending Hazel to a Waldorf School: Wall St. Journal Article: The Importance of Child's Play
Hope you are having a relaxing weekend!
Sharing Saturday #4
Wow, we had over 150 entries last week. Mia and I are so excited about the amazing ideas being shared and I know I have already tried some with Hazel. Thank you to everyone who shared and to everyone who checked them out (and especially those of you who showed some blog love with comments).
While I have your attention I want to mention my Kids' Homemade Valentine Swap. We are looking for your children to make a small number of Valentines to swap with other kids close in age and possibly all over the world. I'm hoping people would also include a postcard from near their house so it can be a learning event. If you are interested click over on my side bar and check it out more.
Happy Friday!
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Hand Love Tree |
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Painting using cookie cutters, bubble wrap hearts and rubber stamps |
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I was framed |
I was glad I waited so long to bring the donations in since we just bought a new wardrobe in the next size this past weekend as her clothes were beginning to get tight.
Oh, and a reminder of the Valentine Swap. Do you have a young child who would like to exchange homemade Valentines with people from all over the world? Please check it out.
Hope you will visit a bit later or over the weekend for our Sharing Saturday! We had over 150 wonderful entries this past week.
Kids' Valentine Swap
Button Code:
I got to thinking, wouldn't it be fun for our kids to do a homemade Valentine exchange with maybe a postcard of some place around where you live. It can be a learning experience for the kids to see where they all come from and go and also it is always fun for them to receive mail.
If you are interested please send me an email: craftymomsshare@gmail.com. Let me know your child(ren)'s names and ages and address. I'll put together a list and make it a reasonable number and try to match ages, etc. Please feel free to grab a button and spread the word.
Also, if you need ideas you can check out my Valentine's Day Pinterest Board.
We are off to school today, I hope you are having a great day!
Shared On:

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Link |
Valentine Day Painting
Today was...
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Hazel's craft today |
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My Heart Craft |
With the rain last night and the warmer temperatures, most of the snow melted. One of our first activities was moving the snow from the few snow piles left from the plow and our snowmen to the yard. Hazel did this with her shovel and then she wanted to use her hands. She touched it and said, "Cold!" So after a few tries she decided she needed some mittens.
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Her Shovel |
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Her First Snowball |
She ran into the garage and came out with her bigger truck to use.
She is always thinking!
Then she wanted to play basketball, catch, tag/gingerbread man and finally blow bubbles. She had a great time blowing bubbles.
She is finally getting how to blow things--bubbles, horns, etc.
Oh, she also had to bring out her chair to sit on for two seconds. Then it was time to bring out the sidewalk chalk. She tried to draw squares but they came out more like circles. We worked on straight lines a bit and then she wanted me to make her a hopscotch game.
Unfortunately, the time we had flew by and it was time to get to our appointment. Hopefully we will get another nice day outside again soon. Though I did have to promise her it would snow again. (I just added that it might not be this year.)
That was our day. How was yours?
Oh, and one more thing to share--check out this article on children and playing from The Christian Science Monitor. It makes me so happy we are not pushing Hazel to learn to read, etc. and have made the choice to send her to a Waldorf school where they are not taught to read until they are 7.
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Baking with Hazel again
So on Saturday morning Hazel had it in her mind that we were going to bake muffins. She came up with this idea Friday night. I slept in (Thank You Steve!!), which was wonderful and Steve had already fed her some breakfast. But she was determined, so I pulled out a cookbook. We did not have overripe bananas this time, so we decided on pumpkin blueberry muffins.
I adapted the recipe from C is for Cooking: Recipes from the Street by Susan McQuillan, RD. It is a cookbook I bought awhile ago for Hazel when we were letting her watch a bit more television and she was so into Elmo. She still loves all the characters and loves the cookbook. The recipes are relatively healthy and very easy. They also mark the parts they consider kid friendly to do.
Pumpkin Blueberry Muffins
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 egg
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
1 cup uncooked oatmeal
1 cup blueberries (or you could use 1/2 cup of raisins or dried cranberries)
Well then I remembered the Paper Source and they were still open. Do you know the Paper Source? It is a great store. They have an on-line store as well at http://www.paper-source.com/. I never order on-line but I love wandering around and looking at all the great craft things. They are basically a great store for any paper craft and stationary. They have beautiful kits for paper flowers (see above) and wreaths as well as ones for kids. It is really a fun store. Well, I found some great scrapbook paper to make some of the wonderful crafts I have seen on this week's Sharing Saturday (there are already over 145 entries and they keep coming).
The crafts are from the crafting fiend: Toddler Valentine Craft
and It's Overflowing: Simple Valentine's Day Craft
They are pretty similar. I think I will cut double the hearts and have Hazel do one while I do one.
Isn't that heart paper perfect? All I have to do is cut them out. Plus I have the stencil to make other sizes. Then the needle felting flower kit was on sale--half price and the clothespins were so cute. I thought I might use them with something from a couple weeks ago Sharing Saturday.
From Desire Empire: Pretty Artwork for a Little Girl's Room. Won't they be perfect?
Well I'm so excited to be able to share my purchases with you. I was so excited to buy them and wanted to share them with someone who would appreciate them. Somehow I didn't think Steve or Hazel really would.
Hope you have a great day!! Happy Monday!
I adapted the recipe from C is for Cooking: Recipes from the Street by Susan McQuillan, RD. It is a cookbook I bought awhile ago for Hazel when we were letting her watch a bit more television and she was so into Elmo. She still loves all the characters and loves the cookbook. The recipes are relatively healthy and very easy. They also mark the parts they consider kid friendly to do.
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My Little Baker with Ducky Watching |
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 egg
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
1 cup uncooked oatmeal
1 cup blueberries (or you could use 1/2 cup of raisins or dried cranberries)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line or grease 18 muffin cups
- In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger.
- In a different small bowl, have child crack egg and take out any shells (if there are any). Then beat egg with a fork.
- In a large bowl stir together sugar and oil. Then add egg, pumpkin, and yogurt and mix until blended.
- Stir in the flour mixture and oatmeal.
- Gently stir in blueberries (or raisins or dried cranberries).
- Distribute batter into the muffin pans filling each to about 2/3.
- Bake for about 25 minutes. Cool on rack slightly and serve warm. Store in an air tight container for up to 3 days.
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Magnolia Flowers from kit from the Paper Source (my first ever purchase there) |
The crafts are from the crafting fiend: Toddler Valentine Craft
and It's Overflowing: Simple Valentine's Day Craft
They are pretty similar. I think I will cut double the hearts and have Hazel do one while I do one.
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My Purchase at the Paper Source last night |
From Desire Empire: Pretty Artwork for a Little Girl's Room. Won't they be perfect?
Well I'm so excited to be able to share my purchases with you. I was so excited to buy them and wanted to share them with someone who would appreciate them. Somehow I didn't think Steve or Hazel really would.
Hope you have a great day!! Happy Monday!
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