Crafty Moms Share

A Princess Sort of Day

Today we finished a few store provided (one bought and one was a gift) of princess crafts and I made Hazel her Snow White pajamas. It was a very princess craft day here.

This morning we woke up and finished coloring our Princess Shrinky Dinks. The kit came with some to be stickers and some to be charms. (Yet the chain bracelets it came with for the charms does not have a clasp, so until I get one, we cannot finish it.)

While we finished up the coloring I preheated the oven and then we put them in on the parchment paper above. Hazel watched them in the oven and this is what they came out as.

We put the sticker backs on the ones that were stickers and the s-hooks on the charms.

The other day we started painting the suncatchers Hazel received as a birthday gift. They needed to dry over night, so today, we hung them up on Hazel's windows.

Painting the suncatchers

The box told you what colors to mix to get the appropriate colors for each part, but we just did it however we wanted. I actually did touch up some of them afterwards, but that was more to see the color so she would like them.

Then this afternoon, I made Hazel's Snow White pajamas. She has been waiting for them for a long time. I bought the flannel at Joann Fabrics (with a 50% off coupon back in November or December). I used McCall's Pattern Number M5965, which is the easiest pajamas ever. They literally only took me a couple of hours and that included tracing the pattern onto freezer paper so I could use the larger sizes when she grows. She loves them though she was unhappy in the picture because she found her pink toothbrush in the garbage and I told her she could not take it out. Oh, well. At least they are done. Now I just need to make her bathrobe and a few more pairs of pajamas.

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The Golden Slipper--Vietnamese Cinderella

This year I am going to do my Multicultural Mondays a bit different by exploring some fairy tales that are in different cultures. We are first going to focus on Cinderella. I did an introduction to Cinderella with the most common version of the story by Charles Perrault. Today we are going to look at the Vietnamese version of the story called The Golden Slipper or The Brocade Slipper.

Sewing Lesson--A Snowman Head

Sharing Saturday is still open! Please stop by to share your child-oriented crafts and activities and be inspired by the amazing ideas already shared!

So before Christmas Amy at One Artsy Mama shared some adorable felt tree ornaments her Little Crafter made by sewing. I had really wanted to do these with Hazel. I have the supplies sitting on my bookshelf, but we never got around to them this year. Then I saw these cute ornaments on Amazon. I thought that is what we could try to make with a sewing lesson.

Today we had our sewing lesson. Now it was not her first, but it was the first time she stuck with it long enough and was successful. We sewed two white felt circles together.

With some help she made it most of the way around. We put a little stuffing and some lavender into them and closed them up. By this time she was sick of sewing so we decided to glue on the faces. I then sewed strings on them so she could hang them on her seasonal tree.

Not bad for a first successful lesson. We had a very busy morning crafting, so I will share some more of our crafts later in the week.

Sharing Saturday 2013 #2

I have a feeling I am not the only one who is playing catch up after the holidays. We had a small numbers of shared posts last week, but there were some amazing ideas. If you have not had a chance to check them out, please do so! Once again we did not have a winner for most clicked, so here are a few of my favorites (though I did have a hard time choosing).

1) From KiKi's Korner: Flower Girl Basket (I think it makes a great May Day basket as well!)
2) From Discovering The World Through My Son's Eyes: Crazy Socks
3) From Life with Moore Babies: New Year's Eve with Kids
4) From Tales of the Scotts: Fun January Holidays
5) From Art Mama Says: Thank You Streamers
6) From Mess For Less: DIY Play Organizers

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here or earlier this week, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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From Your Hostess: Although I did not do many crafts this week, I did introduce our new idea for Multicultural Monday and also did a post about motherhood and the Virgin Mary. However my favorite this week was the Waldorf School Birthday Party for Hazel. I made this needle-felted picture to remember the story told at the celebration.

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Now for This Week's Party
I made a few changes with the beginning of the new year. Since Mama Mia's Heart 2 Heart has not had a new post since July, and I have not heard from her since that time, I decided to take her name off the party button. If and when she returns to the blog world, she of course will be welcome to join me in hosting again, but for now I'm solo again.

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Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest.

A Waldorf Birthday Celebration

Today we had the pleasure of joining Hazel's class in her birthday celebration. Steve took the day off so he could join us. He and I needed to arrive at 9:45. We spent a few minutes in the hall waiting for the class to be ready and then we joined them for a story written for Hazel about crossing the rainbow bridge and then for snack with the added part of cake and fruit. We brought the fruit. Hazel picked strawberries to bring. It was truly wonderful.

Tonight I made a quick needle felted picture of the story Hazel's teacher told. It started with a star child playing with her star children friends in a beautiful garden. They were playing hide-and-seek and she hid under a large green leaf that was as big as an umbrella. While hiding she noticed for the first time a small hole. The closer she looked the more she saw in the distance and was fascinated with it. She saw a cozy home where a man and woman came out and asked her to stay. She was shy and went back to play with her friends but continued to visit this new place each day. Until she got brave enough to find her angel and ask to go live with this new couple in this new world. The angel was happy for her and took her to see Father Sun who gave her courage. Then they saw Lady Moon who gave her wisdom. Then they went to see the stars who gave her joy. Then her angel put her in a boat to cross the rainbow bridge. Before leaving the star child asked where the angel would be since she would miss him and the angel told her he would always be near watching over her even if she could not see him. Then he covered her with a blanket and she took the ride to cross the rainbow bridge. When she arrived on the other side hands helped her out of her boat and there were the man and woman. The name of the star child was Hazel.

If you lift the leaf, you can see the star child hiding and the black hole she noticed.

It was so interesting to see the class in action since I hear stories about the children. It was a bit disappointing that three were absent, so the class was very small today (only four children). However, we really enjoyed the snack and the cake. The snack ended up being my lunch since it was vegetable soup and I had two bowls. After the celebration, Steve and I went to Starbucks and then came back to pick her up. What an amazing way to celebrate such an important event. I truly love the Waldorf story of the star children crossing the rainbow bridge and that they customize it to match the child's personality and interests.

Circle of Moms--Please Vote and the Virgin Mary

Source

As you may know this year I really tried to focus with Hazel on the true meaning of Christmas and not all the commercialism. To see some of the things we did you can check out my post with the Focus on the Nativity Blog Hop here. We also went to a live nativity which I highly recommend. Anyway, with our focus on it and going to church (my favorite time is Advent since I love all the Christmas music and stories), my mind has been on the Virgin Mary. Now I should add that the sermon at church the Sunday before Christmas was about Mary, so it was planted in my head. The sermon was on the true personality of Mary. She is always portrayed as obedient and good, however doing what Gabriel asked was a huge sacrifice and could have caused her death. Plus we tend to overlook that she was an unwed pregnant teenager when we look at her as a role model for our children. However this is not my focus of my thoughts completely tonight.

Has your family done anything different and fun this week? Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I would love to hear about it. Please share it below. Kelly has done a wonderful round-up of her favorite family activities shared!!

This is our last Happy Family Times. Kelly and I both feel we are not able to give this link party enough time anymore even though we love reading what your families have been doing. We hope you will continue to come read our blogs and share at Sharing Saturday.

This week Hazel and I drove to New Hampshire for a birthday party for twins of a friend of mine from graduate school. Steve would have joined us, however he had caught a bad cold and stayed home in bed. They had the party at an indoor play place called Nuthing But Good Times. Look at the crazy play set they have there.

The big slides scared Hazel and so did the crowds of people on the large playset, so she decided to stick to the small one after going on the big slide with one of my friend's babysitters holding her hand. Hazel and I tried the snake tube slide as well, but it also scared her. Personally I was fine with the little one since there were comfortable chairs for me to sit and watch.

Climbing on the small one

Small Slide

After some pizza, play time we were called back into the party room for cake and ice cream.

We had a good time. Hazel mentioned hoping she gets invited again next year.

Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.

~ please link up (family time oriented giveaways are ok, but please no Etsy shops)
~just crafts will be deleted since this is to share family times ~ use our button so others can join the fun

Button Code:

~ we'd love for you to follow us Crafty Moms Share and Happy Whimsical Hearts
~ check out our Happy Family Times Pinterest board where we will be pinning some of our favorite ideas

Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!

Multicultural Monday--Fairy Tales from Around the World

It has been awhile since I have done a Multicultural Monday. I am so sorry!! This year I thought I would take some time to focus on fairy tales with a bit of their known origins and look at different versions of popular stories from our culture. I was inspired by April over at April's Homemaking since I have so enjoyed her 52 Weeks of Fairy Tales series and another blog that I apparently did not record that had a list of ten versions of Cinderella from around the world. If it is yours or know which one I am talking about please let me know so I can give them credit!!

Virtual Book Club for Kids--January Author is David McPhail

Sharing Saturday is still open to share your child-oriented crafts and activities!! Or come by and visit a few to be inspired!

As you may know I have joined a wonderful group of bloggers to present the Virtual Book Club for Kids where each month we pick an author and all choose a book by this author and come up with an activity or craft to go with the book. Then we post our ideas and open a blog hop where you can join us. The blogs hosting are:

Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids - 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo - The Educators' Spin On It - Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom - Mommy and Me Book Club - Crafty Moms Share - No Twiddle Twaddle - The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls - Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles - Train Up a Child - Smile Play Learn

One of the the things I love about this book club is it has introduced me to some great authors that I would not have read otherwise. This month is one of those authors.I had heard of David McPhail, but had not paid any attention to his books. I am not sure why. I guess I looked quickly at a couple and didn't think they were our style. However now that I have investigated them some more and actually read them, I am finding several I really like. I hope you will join us on January 21st for our David McPhail Blog Hop. Make sure you visit all the other hosts so you can see all the great ideas and learn more about David McPhail books!!

Sharing Saturday 2013 #1

Happy New Year!! I know the last few weeks have been a bit crazy for me, but I am almost all caught up now. I hope 2013 is going well for you and wish each of you happiness, love and good health! Thank you to all of you who shared your wonderful, creative ideas last week. We had many inspiring ones, so if you have not had a chance to check them out, please do so!!

You may remember at last week's Sharing Saturday I had not had time to visit all the posts that had been shared the previous week and therefore did not pick features. I finally did visit them all and picked features earlier today here.

We had a tie last week for most clicked, so I am just going to share some of my favorites.

1) From Life with Moore Babies: Icy Water Bead Cubes
2) From Family Home and Life: Fold-up with Handle Toddler Play Mat (Yes, I had to show you two pictures to give you the full picture--open and folded)
3) From Pam's Party Planning & Practical Tips: Pretzel Snowmen
4) From Raise a Boy: Decorating Popcorn Balls
5) From Adventures at home with Mum: Outdoor Play of Mixing Flower Cocktails for an Afternoon Tea Party
6) From The Iowa Farmer's Wife: Blessing Box

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here or earlier this week, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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From Your Hostess: Hazel's Princess Party Actual party and Royal Menu and more

4) I would love it if you would follow me on Facebook and Google+

Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest.

Sharing Saturday #51 Features

As promised I finally got to visit all of the 70 shared posts from Sharing Saturday #51. There are many amazing ideas shared there including many, many Christmas ones. Since Christmas was over a week ago, I am not going to share those here, but if you have leftover candy canes there are a couple of ideas there as well as some great Elf on the Shelf ideas and many Christmas crafts and lessons. So you if you want to be inspired for next Christmas go check them out and pin them!!

My mind this week has been on snow. Perhaps since our ground is now snow covered and Hazel finally got to make a small snowman. We did not get as much as I had hoped, but she really wanted to make a snowman. We also have been reading some great snow books which I will share another day. So my first features are snow related.

1) From Everyday Mom: Snowmen Cupcakes
2) From Adventures at Home with Mum: Melted Snowman Sensory Play
3) From Little Wonders' Days: Epsom Salt Pine Cones
4) From Life with Moore Babies: Snow Ice Cream
5) From School Time Snippets: Snowflake Canvas
6) From De Gulle Aarde: Pasta Snowflakes
7) From The Stitchin' Mommy--My Silly Stitchin' Adventures: Crocheted Snowflake Clip
8) From Boy Mama Teacher Mama: Snowflake Math

And here are a few of my other favorites that were not snow-related.

1) From Life on the Gravelly Road: Felt Stove Top (sorry I can't take a picture from her blog)
2) From Tousled Day: Angel Messages
3) From Bridgit's Bell: Winter Gnomes

What were your favorites from last week's Sharing Saturday? I hope you will join us tonight for this week's!!

Gingerbread Play Date

Today we had a gingerbread play date with one of Hazel's best friends and his mother. To get started we had foam gingerbread men to decorate. I had bought them ages ago at the Dollar Tree I think. We had glitter glue, stickers, ribbon, googly eyes, beads and pom poms out to decorate them.

Hazel and I also read Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett (December's author of the month for the Virtual Book Club for Kids). Our friends were running late, so we did not have time to read it as a group, but Hazel and I enjoyed the story.

We had made some gingerbread cookie dough. I cheated and used a Betty Crocker mix I bought on sale post-Christmas. I had planned on making the dough from scratch, but didn't quite do it and then read my favorite recipe needed at least four hours in the refrigerator before rolling and cutting, and since they were due in just over an hour, I decided that wasn't going to happen. I had bought a white cookie icing for each of them and lots of candy and sprinkles to decorate.

We also made some gingerbread playdough. I combined the recipes from The Imagination Tree and Two Big and Two Little. I used all the spices in Two Big and Two Little's recipe, but the amounts and mix style of The Imagination Tree's recipe. We did not have a lot of time to play with it together, but sent some home with her friend and Hazel and one of her high school babysitters played with it more this afternoon. These pictures are a combination of both.

I know we were a little late for gingerbread, but we had fun anyway!

Happy Family Times #39--Build-a-Bear

Have you done something fun with your family this week? Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting fun ideas so we can all have more fun family adventures. Please share yours below.

Decorated Bedroom Door

Well we had a lot of family time this week since we celebrated Hazel's birthday. However I already shared her birthday party pictures. On her actual birthday, we had planned on having a small gathering of her grandparents and us, however my father got a bad cold, so they could not travel. We did some special things in the morning. I had decorated her door before going to bed. She loved it! She opened her gifts right away and we had to dress all her dolls. Only Pocahontas had to get an older outfit. Even Ducky got a new outfit. Sarah is still sick, but she got new pajamas and was put back in bed.

Steve's mother came over and wanted to take her to Build-a-Bear. We had done Build-a-Bear when she was two and she really was too young. Now at four she is a perfect age. And Nonni let her get whatever she wanted. We all went to the mall.

It was hard to choose, but she decided on the rainbow bear. Then she picked the Brahm's Lullaby to go in the paw. Next she picked outfits. Oh, so hard to choose from all the choices. I think she ended up with a First Communion Dress, but she really liked it because of the cross necklace.

And Nonni got the bear a pink purse and brush and Hazel a carrier.

Yes, Hazel walked around the mall carrying her new bear, Princess Teddy. We stopped in the Disney Store and they gave her a crown and pin for her birthday. Then we headed over to the rides they have in this mall. While Nonni and Hazel played on the rides Steve and I did our other errands. Then we came home for lunch and a cake of course. Overall it was a great birthday.

Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.

~ please link up (family time oriented giveaways are ok, but please no Etsy shops)
~just crafts will be deleted since this is to share family times ~ use our button so others can join the fun

Button Code:

~ we'd love for you to follow us Crafty Moms Share and Happy Whimsical Hearts
~ check out our Happy Family Times Pinterest board where we will be pinning some of our favorite ideas

Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!

A Princess Sort of Day

The Golden Slipper--Vietnamese Cinderella

Sewing Lesson--A Snowman Head

Sharing Saturday 2013 #2

A Waldorf Birthday Celebration

Circle of Moms--Please Vote and the Virgin Mary

Happy Family Times

Multicultural Monday--Fairy Tales from Around the World

Virtual Book Club for Kids--January Author is David McPhail

Sharing Saturday 2013 #1

Sharing Saturday #51 Features

Gingerbread Play Date

Happy Family Times #39--Build-a-Bear

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