even easier stained glass windows/cool paint for little boys

And so we put up our new little tree in our new little house :) OK so it has no decorations at the moment, but it still looks good!


Had such a great day with my little guy today... he must have caught the christmas bug cos he was actually excited to do some craft with me today! I jumped pretty quick to that request I tell you!
And so we started with a very simple stained glass window. He watched Jumeirah do hers yesterday and wanted to have a turn. I cut a tree shape out of cardboard and he then happily stuck tissue paper to the sticky side. Its a great non messy craft and the results are so effective. He was very proud of himself :)

And so, while he was full of self-crafty-love, I got him out a little wooden car I found at Spotlight on the weekend which was unpainted and he painted it. Deep in concentration he was. So much so I kept getting into trouble for talking and once for moving to the fridge :)

After rolling the wet train across my shiny clean benchtop, he asked for some paper and I gave him some cars to run through paint to zoom across the page.

And so in the space of an hour, we had completed THREE really simple but fun crafty things just for him.
So a very craftyful morning!! One happy mum, one content and satisfied little boy.
And seeing it was so hot here today, I put out the paddling pool and my happy kid increased to two happy ( and very naked) kids :)

christmas cards/ stained glass art

anyone for breakfast at "Jumeirahs cafe"? This morning serving sausages, eggs and mini cabbages...

So we dived headfirst into christmas stuff today... boy, is it glittery!!
We started with our cards we are making for our christmas card swap. For this we cut the paper we made last week from marbling into christmas trees and glittered on the top. Very easy, very effective :)

I must say though, I have had a sneak peek at some others who are also making cards for the swap and I am well impressed... they are spectacular! So stoked to see happy kids and parents who are up to their elbows in glitter and paint :)

Jumeirah acutally spent most of today completing a Mosaic Kit she recieved from a friend for her birthday.Its one where you have to put tiny squares in the right Such a great idea! Not only did it keep her totally busy today, it was great for her to be able to complete something on her own and she was really proud of herself when she had done it. ( you can find these in the National geographic shop)




This afternoon, whilst Jared and Amahli had monster snoozes ( almost 3 hours!) we sat together and made a beautiful stained glass window. I printed off the template from the net then taped it onto black paper.


Then, using a terribly blunt blade, I cut around the black line ( really need a new knife me thinks).


We then then stuck contact paper onto the back and began to fill in the picture with tissue paper(this would have looked good with cellophane also).

We stuck it on the front window its beautiful :)




And then to top off a lovely day, we had the Salvation army caroling in our street.


I love christmas!!

how to host a fairy party

christmas toes... one of the activities on our Advent Calendar:)

Well party time is OVER. Finally I can relax... and get ready for Christmas :) Whos idea was it to have these kids all at this time of year?? crazy!

Anyway, the party yesterday was really fun. And, as it normally happens, I didnt really need to go to any trouble to do things as Daddy had the entertainment happening with box sliding down the hill :) Isnt that always the way???
Jumeirah was the only one who wore a home made skirt, jared was the only wing wearer *sigh* although I did manged to get Amahli in one briefly :)

The girls were very excited to paint the plaster moulds, some completing three or four.

We then played on the slide until I realised that we only had 45 minutes left of party and hadnt had food, pressies, cake, or any of the games I so carefully prepared. And so we ate, made fairy bracelets, did pressies and with 5 minutes to go, we did the cake. Which, I have to admit, looked awesome :) Considering I lost the bottom of the cake tin last week making the fairy skirts ( made for a great template!) I had a few tired fairies and two tired but happy parents at the end.
And that was all that mattered :)






This week there should be lots of cool stuff posted on here: another christmas card idea, calico angels, another Waldorf babe to make ( OH NO!) and lots of other fun stuff.

Make sure you check it out!!

And a little secret... my very first giveaway is coming up! So make sure you know how to post comments so you dont miss out!!

sorry!

sorry for the Blogless day yesterday... fairy fever hit an all time high... it was blog or finish everything I had half started :)
no blog tonight as brain is fried but will do one tomorrow of the awesome party today :)
wishing you a happy weekend :)

happy birthday sweet girl

Your birthday is a special time to celebrate the gift of 'you' to the world.”

5. How the heck did you become so amazing in 5 short years???
I am utterly blown away by you.You are thoughtful, kind, caring, sweet and funny. I'd like to think I had something to do with that but mostly I know, its just you :)

And so we celebrated this lovely little girl today. She went to preschool ( yep I had to cut the first of some strings today, I offered her everything to stay home and celebrate with me but she really wanted to go. I know she had the best day) and had her first preschool concert where she read if front of everyone for the first time. I thought I would burst :)



We came home and decorated her cake with smarties and freckles. We had a special dinner. We raced down the hill in boxes.

We watched a movie I made of her life so far. And I know I am the luckiest.

And now that its over, I can finally say that Rosalina was a big hit. The second pattern was so much better than the first one I posted.
So here it is :) The pattern. The tutorial
Its all done in photos and even for the worlds worst sewer, I found this worked so well.
And she is well loved already. Just like my big girl :)




I only have fairy wings to go! yay me!

HOW THE HECK DO I DO THOSE???

simple fun in bug catching

Im finding mornings tricky to get going lately, late nights and midnight visits from a variety of kids is not really helping in trying to get out of bed. So I decided to help myself out.
The preschool teacher in me always loved to be super organised when kids arrived for the day. Everything was set out ready to go. The mother in me also loves this concept and its one that WORKS ( Well for me anyway!) in our house too. The night before, I set up some activities for all three kids. No paint or anything too messy as it has to be things they can do completely themselves.
Heres what mine looked like this morning.

It is fantastic :)

I came out and all three are totally engrossed in their own activity. No tv on, no fights, I got breakfast all done, swept the floor, had my own breakfast, all before anyone even noticed I was up. BLISS :)

Well I have hit panic stations here... its the night before Jumeirahs birthday and things kinda fell apart. Stupid stupid stupid sewing machine wont sew me a top for the gorgeous doll I made for her weeks ago, I have now made 6 of them and none work :( Finally finished one about 10 minutes ago and it goes with the fairy skirt and will have to do until I can con someone into making one for me:)

The dirt I made for the flower bed also isnt cooperating and so I had to paint one ( lucky for me I had a huge random piece of foam.. probably from the felt cakes i was going to make) which looks ok and at least does the job I need it to do.

I didnt do much with the kids around today as we had an awesome play with some friends. 3 mums, 6 kids, one seriously toy-exploded house = LOTS OF FUN. It was refreshing to chat like an adult for a few minutes and watch happy kids play :)

After that, Jumeirah and Jared asked for their bug catchers they got receently from Ma and Pa and went off into the yard exploring. Jumeirah came back with a tiny moth and so we googled about moths and how they live. I got her some paper and asked her to draw it so she would remember it after she had to let it go.

Her drawings change so much from day to day. Some are two second, quick and messy which I try very hard not to comment badly on, and some are like this one where she even has puffy sleeves and has gone into more detail. We thought that throughout the next week we would collect more bugs from our garden to make into a book. I am kinda dreading what we'll find but it could be interesting!

Whats in your garden??

felt flower garden

Chance made us siblings, hearts made us friends :)

( how these three melt me)

Today was a great day :) First day of summer here and its been the coolest day we've had in ages! Had the blankie up Amahli to go for a walk this morning even!

Today, after taking Jumeirah to preschool and putting Amahli to bed, Jared and I pottered. I got stuck into the cleaning, he got stuck into (literally) the stickers :)

I have hearly finished all the paraphanalia for Jumeirahs birthday... two more fairy skirts were done, the two that I almost ruined I managed to save, Rosalina got another dress ( still not quite right but its getting there).... and I almost have finished this one last surprise for her birthday: A Felt Flower Box.
I found an awesome blog of a lady with great ideas and even better tutorials. I loved the cake idea but then found this.

Jumeirah is mad keen on flowers and often asks me to cut some so she can arrange them in vases. This cool idea will keep her busy for ages :)

And so I traipsed off the Bunnings for thin dowel and happened on a pool noole from clark rubber. (somewhere in her tutorial she said she had seen it done with a noodle rather than the foam and seeing as the foam was really expensive I went with this instead).

I cut all the flowers and sewed them last night, inserted the dowels and covered them today. I think they look really cute. Husband thought they were a bit too long stemmed so for some of them I made shorter stems. I wished I had more time so I could do a better job but it still looks good.



If only I could put all my kids on pause for a whole 8 hours I would get so much more done... :)

I need to fix the box somehow, I havent been able to find a wooden one so a cardboard one will do.

I also tried to get a nice christmas photo to go our cards... thought I should start now cos it will take me all week to get a good one.
This is day One:

And tonight we started our Advent fun from the calendar we made. Tonights fun: dancing to Christmas music. OH SUCH FUN. Its amazing how connected you feel as a family when you do things like this together. Normally after dinner, we tend to all drift to our own things in the quiet time before bed. But tonight was crazy and fun and dancy and we all had a ball.

I cant wait to see what we will be doing tomorrow!