christmas part 2/ fairy madness

Not to self... when the needle is bent, stitches it does not sew.


Its been total action stations here this weekend bordering on madness as I try and race myself to complete all the things I stupidly committed myself to doing for Jumeirahs party. Luckily for my gang, pretty much all the madness is relatively confined to my head :)

Over the weekend I:

Made poor Rosalina 4 dresses none of which fit ( stupid sewing machine, I am sure its all your fault)

started on the plaster moulds for the party


started on the fairy skirts (AGAIN SEWING MACHINE YOU ARE CRAP)
(this was actually a really dumb project which seemed like such a good idea but has really taken its toll on me and my sensitive dewing skills)

Made Ribbon twirlers on elastic

Took two hyped children to a 3d movie ( ok this part was fun except we got there an hour too early so we HAD to go for ice cream whilst I tried not to think about what I could have made in an extra hour at home)

Turned Door handles into mushrooms ( fun and easy these ones!!)

Craziness I tell you... brain truly frazzled but I have enjoyed the challenge :)

Today though, I wanted to make christmas cards with whoever was interested for our christmas card swap.
Jumeirah was keen so we decided to marble them with shaving cream.
I absolutely love the effect that this type of craft produces.


You'll need:

a can of shaving cream ( shaving gel wont work)

a container large enough to fit the paper in ( or paper cut small enough to fit in)

a ruler ( or a strip of stiff cardboard)

food colouring

a stick,skewer, fork or something to be able to gently mix with

a spoon for smoothing out the cream

a towel ( this can be a messy activity so a towel is handy)

How to do it:

spray the shaving cream into the container and fill till the bottom is well covered.
We spread ours out to make it a smooth surface with a spoon.



place a few drops of food colouring in various spots in the shaving cream ( we used an eye dropper cos i have no control at pouring food colouring)

using a fork or skewer, gently run the ink through the cream. Dont mic it too much so you will get a great pattern



lay your paper on top and gently press down.





life up paper and place on the table



Using the ruler or cardboard, crape off excess shaving cream. ( I hold the ruler upright and run it along the paper to the end) ( excess cream can be put back into the container)

DONE!
how cool does it look!

You can do it again without adding more colour, just run the skewer back through it again for more pattern.
You can also add more than one colour for more effect. We will cut ours into christmas trees tomorrow.

Simple, effective marbling.

Plus your paper will smell nice too :)

What a bonus.

open ended toys/fimo

Jumeirah came out this morning to a row of little fairies that I made last night. The look on her face was priceless :) Yup today I am the best mum ever :)

After breakfast, she asked if she could have a go at making something from the left over Fimo. I got it out for her and she made this beautiful christmas tree. I was pretty impressed, and left her to it to make something else.

Half and hour later, I am called to find this.

The most gorgeous little fairy girl I have ever seen. I love her wildness, her awesome hair, free flowing skirt... I so should have let her make them all for me last night :)

Have I ever told you how I love all toys wooden and open ended?? By open ended I mean toys that can be used for a variety of different play, things you can add to, things that inspire imagination, creativity, things that have no set way to play with them. LOVE IT
This morning saw one happy boy as Ma gave him his christmas present from her ( yeah its early but she wont be here for christmas so she gave it to him now)
Its fantastic! A mat from Le Toy Van (its a castle mat, Jumeirah is getting the fairy one for her birthday) and a set of Melissa and Doug castle blocks.

I loved how Jared went straight into play with Jumeirah and built some great looking castles.

Jumeirah provided the voice overs for people who were in the castle. Jared copied her in the same voice. Amahli was dead set on being the enemy destroyer and crashed through as castles as fast as they could make them :) A happy, productive little gang. How I love toys like this.

And you know what the best part is???
The fairy mat Jumeirah is getting is currently 50% off! I just checked and its still on sale! Its absolutely gorgeous so check out Young Mind Toys.

To Jumeirahs I am adding a fairy figurine set, a painted set of mushrooms ( ha yes well I had better get onto that!) and a wooden rainbow.

The last exciting is that I finished Rosalinas hair tonight. I loosely tied a couple of strands to the back with a bow so the poor girl can see..All she needs now is some clothes.. yes of course the first dress is crap! Luckily I expected that :)

Well now I must fly ( ha yes well) and make some fairy wings..... lots of fairy wings......
Wont be blogging over the weekend but will post all things glittery and spectacular on Monday!
wishing you all a wonderful weekend :)

fimo fairies

Found one little boy this morning eyeing off the carrot tops.. With all the excitement over our beans and tomatoes, he was wondering what was going on with the carrots. You see, carrots are little surprises, you cant really see whats happening until you pull it out. So thats what he did. I havent laughed so hard in ages at the shocked look on his face at pulling out what I guess you would almost call a carrot. So tiny he couldnt even eat it. And so afte close inspection, he passed it onto Jumeirah who cradled like "a baby carrot" and replanted him back in his home. Hopefully he will not be too stressed to grow any bigger :)

Today was another fairy project today.. my aim is to have everything for Jumeirahs party done with time to spare because knowing me and my hilarious gift of things not working out the first time around, I dont want to be stressing the day before the big day! So today was cake decorations.
I asked Jumeirah what cake she wanted. A fairy cake I'm told. Shouldnt be too hard you wouldnt think. Except my cake skills are almost as wonderful as my sewing skills.... in the past I have made a snow white cake ( snow white kept trying to fall over in the oven. I ended up making 4 of them before the damn girl would stand up and fight for herself), a Wall-e cake ( this had my husband and I in absolute stitches, his body wasnt big enough for the rest of him... check him out below) and Jareds last cake was Thomas ( another fairly hilarious cake involving plastic surgery on Thomas' face, although he was more repairable and looked semi ok).








So I wanted to make in fairly simple and instead of making the whole cake into a fairy I thought I would make fairies to sit around the edge.
I found a great pattern at Polymer Central, and went off to buy some fimo.
The pattern was easy to follow, I just made our girls a bit bigger. Totally stuffed their faces up so they will be painted on tomorrow :)
They are really cute!



But the best part of all was their wings.


I made them from translucent fimo and they are absolutely gorgeous!
Thinking about making some christmas tea light holders from the same stuff.... another day :)

advent calendar

Slip and Slide Fun :) Summers almost here!


We took a step to the left today ( mum-of-kids brains cant focus for very long on the same thing :) ) ( especially crafty ones too!) and put down the fairy glitter and began our Advent Calendar.
As we were walking through the shops the other day I came upon a massive stand of "countdown calendars". Hannah Montana, Thomas the Tank, Ben Folds, Twilight even! were all there. I just couldnt bring myself to prepare for christmas with my kids this year with a calendar that meant nothing but who could get the chocolate first each day. So we decided to make one ourselves :)
All over the net are the most amazing advent calendar ideas... oh my gosh I had about 5 I wanted to do already! But seeing as my kids are only young, we decided to make a simple one that had a fun surprise for each day.
I had some calico so I tore it into 4 strips and penciled out 6 pockets per strip. Jumeirah began to paint the numbers on each pocket and decorated around the number.

I then sewed the strips on to another piece of calico and stitched down the penciled lines so we had 24 pockets.
We then found 24 different fun things to do to go into each pocket for everyday on December.. some ideas were:
Paint our toes in christmas colours
Make christmas cards
Dress up for a special dinner
go and see the christmas lights after dark.

and so on :)

I love it! It turned out so lovely and will look great hung on our wall.

So each pocket now has something for us to do as a family when dad gets home in the lead up to christmas. Jared and Jumeirah are so excited they wanted to start today :) I must admit I am a bit excited too.They dont know all the activities to do so it will be a surprise as to what we will do each day.
Plus I have also put a small freddo frog into each pocket as well :)

Jared also started our christmas cards today ( YES HE ASKED TO PAINT!!) in preparation for out christmas card swap.




I have only recently heard about this and missed out on joining one internationally so thought I would start one myself :) ( ANYONE KEEN TO JOIN? I NEED TO KNOW BY THIS FRIDAY 27/11)

SO we have started our cards, done our Advent calendar.. looks like christmas is cracking along nicely :) Better get back to the fairy party organising......

outdoor fun/fairy glen!

take time to smell the roses... or eat the beans or just watch the tomatoes grow :)


I had the best day with my little ones today :) Jumeirah at preschool, the day without her is normally quieter, its a slower paced day. This morning after taking her to preschool, we came home, but Amahli to bed and set to work. Jared helped me clean the bathrooms ( something he actually really enjoys and something I should encourage him with more instead of waiting until hes busy to do it). He chats constantly while we work, loving the uninterupted chance to tell me everything he knows :)
After cleaning, instead of the normal craft stuff I do, I told him he could pick whatever he wanted to do (something else I should do more often). He chose to play soccer. Now I am not a soccery person, nor do I like the heat and would much prefer to sit in the shade. But it was his choice and so out we went.
And, my gosh did we have fun. This little guy is really just an awesome ball of energy and fun, loving every second of playing with me and having undivided attention. I tired faster than him and Amahli woke up so he brought her outside to continue playing. We came in after an hour, exhausted but absolutely blissed out :)

And check out out our veggie patch! Its just amazing to watch nature grow and see changes everyday after never growing anything in my entire life.

I have been just as stunned as Jumeirah was when she tried her first bean and exclaimed:

" MUM! It tastes like real bean!"

fairy invites and mushroom printing tablecloths

(having immense trouble uploading photos today, its taken me just over 2 1/2 hours to get 4 up!) (will put some more up tomorrow)

We have had such a great (if not a bit too short) break for a few days with my family. Spending the days swimming, shell collecting and just hanging out was such a welcome change to the busyness of normal life.

But back into the swing of it today, I had to start preparing for Jumeirahs fairy party. After Amahli's beach party, we decided that the whole thing would be easier at home. But being at home instead of the beach means I need to have some things organised to do for these little fairies so they dont turn into crazy wild ferals and go mad on me :)
But first, to invites. I, for some reason I dont completely know, decided to make the invites. After all, there is only 8 to make. And so last night I painted fairies on cardstock as her invite. The picture in my head wasnt quite how it turned out but she loved it and helped me paint a few this morning.

With the list done, they are ready to go. Invites? DONE.

AS we are having a fairy themed party, we decided to make a tablecloth of printed mushrooms. This was really easy and has turned out so cute. To make it, we cut half a potato, and chiseled out small circles from the half potato. Dunk it in red paint and print away! The stalk is cut from a piece of potato too.


Tablecloth? DONE.



Jared didnt want to print or paint today, but he did want to sit up and be part of the action so instead, I stuck masking tape onto the bench and made him some roads for his cars. He thought this was fantastic and busily rushed around town collecting fairy things for us :)

Happy children? DONE :)

christmas cards

Yesterdays beados creations

You know its going to be one of those days when your "h" key goes missing...

Busy day today.. not so much in a good way to start with. It was kind of a mad kind of busy.. We are going away for a few days to spend sometime with my folks ( who have flown in for my cousins wedding and will only be here for a few days :( ) and have our family Christmas. As my parents dont live in Australia we dont get to see them for christmas so we all get together some time around then. So my gang are so excited to see not only Ma and Pa, but uncles, an Aunty and a cousin! Its been awhile :)
They are also extremely excited as we stayed at the same place in february this year and they had a ball.

So today I tried to pack, wrap christmas presents, shop, clean and referee three children who we hell bent on annoying the life out of each other. I cant say
I was the nicest mother today, I got cross, cried, gave warnings and timeouts. But in amongst this craziness we made some grogeous easy christmas cards.

This is a really easy but really effective christmas that is virtually fail proof!
To do it you'll need:

Contact paper
white cardboard (I use scrapbook card stock)
Water colour ink ( I used Food colouring)
scissors
paintbrush

Cut the shape of a christmas tree (or anything other christmas shape) out of contact

Paint all over the card with watercolour

Allow to dry before peeling off the contact

Voila! a gorgeous card :)

You can do this craft with any age as it doesnt matter how messy it looks as you always have a nice shape in the middle when its finished.

When then worked together to wrap all the presents, Jared helped with the cutting ( everybodys present has some lovely fringing on it) and Jumeirah helped with wrapping and sticky tape.

And then, calm and peace seemed to reign for while this afternoon. Maybe present wrapping took it out of them :) But I found all three happily engrossed in their own little worlds... I sat and watched my littlest babe for about 40 minutes as she built, destroyed, giggled and then rebuilt her tower of blocks.

And although I have moments where I would like to hand in my resignation, moments like this make me realise how much I love my job :)

I will be away for a few days making me internet devoid.. but I will be back on Monday!