contact table

Jumeirah came to me with a picture she had drawn.. this is it. Wasnt sure whether I should be concerned (!) but she explained it like this...

"mum you went to a duck pond ( on the right) and you wanted to keep a duck you found ( on the left) but you were thinking that you would go to jail if you did that and that made you sad".

Wild Imagination that one :)

Its funny when you have a major event happening and it totally consumes every thought and you wonder how you'll ever get finished on time... then suddenly its two days after the event and you wonder what you were so worried about. Time marches on, not stopping even though you wondered how it will ever get past it...

Finally, I finished the project I have been working on in every waking hour I can possibly snatch without completely neglecting my children. Mums ( in law) book.
She turned 60 last week and last year I decided to make her a memories book. I collected letters and photos from her family and friends (actually collected sounds like it was easy, most of them I had to beat it out of them to get a letter done!) and made a beautiful scrapbook of each person who had written her a letter. Stupidly I didnt photograph every page but heres a sample.

>



It was a great way to show her that she is loved :)

So that has taken up so much of my time, my blog looked a bit sad and sorry last week. But now I have no deadline projects until APRIL and thats only to lose weight so I really have no excuse not to produce an awesome blog!!

On Friday, amongst the cleaning ( we also had a party for her at my place, which meant I had to do some major toy control cleaning and general house fix upping) I also got out this little activity for the little people who kept buzzing around my ankles needing something to do.
Its a collage table, contains no paint, glue and is minimal in mess and easy to clean up! The perfect craft :)

My only trouble is with the contact so dont do this craft if you are frustrated or in a bad mood or you will find things a whole lot worse... the contact knows your mood :)
Lay out the contact with the sticky side upwards on the table.


( for first timers to contact table, its easier to use a smaller square and give one to each child instead of having a piece that covers the whole table). Give your child some things to use as collage. We had: feathers, cellophane, tissue paper, glitter, sequins and ribbon. Things that lay flat are better. Jared wasnt keen to begin with, the went and got himself some tongs and became a crane which was waaay more fun than using fingers.

Amahli got lots of practise at picking up one or two pieces at a time, which was pretty tricky but she thoroughly enjoyed it.

Allow them to completely cover the contact in colourful gorgeousness. Try and get them to not touch it too much with their hands as its really sticky and can get frustrating to continually try and get off.

Once its done ( and there are no more uncovered places) you can place another piece of contact over the top to seal in the collage and allow you to display it.
Hang it in a sunny window to allow the sun to shine through.

Step back and admire the amazing colours and patterns you have created!!