eric carle butterflies

Another gorgeous day in Paradise :)
This is today... Im sorry, its been a big beachy week. But really Im not sorry, just sorry you couldnt be here.. how much fun would that be?!?!

tried so hard to catch the "plop" of this never ending rock throwing game but the iPhone just isnt fast enough :)

Thought I would revisit a craft we did last year for a little bit of Rainbow Friday fun... it also links well with my butterfly wings of last week.

Today we made our own paper designs using forks, spoons and our fingers...

I cut a few different templates out and they got ready to trace and cut.

Then we put them together on a page with glue.

I loved the result of these!




Eric Carle is an amazing story writer and artist.. go check out his blog sometime! But before you do, have a go at making these gorgeous butterflies :)

happy weekend to you!

Eric Carle blog

rainbow friday.. on monday :) Hungry caterpillar costume

I didnt get a chance to blog last friday.. with daddy flying home and a gala dinner I was a busy bee!

As promised, here are some shots of Jumeirahs gorgeous butterfly costume for book parade last week .
She didnt really make a huge show of it at school ( its not her style) but begged me to let her play in it for a little while when we got home.

And boy, did I get click happy :)













Today we did some simple activities you can do with things around the house.

Sorting with buttons, cotton buds and tongs was first up and was quite popular. Activities like this one are great for little fingers. It encourages fine motor control, hand eye coordination and patience :) It was also good today as it encouraged them to share together as well. They came back quite a few times to this today, I left it set up so they could come and go as they pleased which worked well although it meant I had to pick up buttons pretty much all day long.
You can use buttons or for smaller children ( or ones who have a habit of putting small things in their mouths) you can use cotton balls or something larger anything else thats a bit bigger than using small buttons.



Later in the day, Jared asked to paint (!) ... maybe I am wearing off on him :)
He wanted to paint "green" and so I went with this and got out green paint, white paint and green glitter paint. With the green paint, I added white to two of the pots of green so I had three different shades of green.









They were both pretty keen on this today, more to just explore and play in the paint rather than actually paint "something". I didnt get any photos of Jared as he wanted me to paint with him but it was a great time of greeny fun :)

the very hungry caterpillar costume/ rainbow playdough

Today is short and sweet, I cannot stop coughing and feel rather average and have a cosutme to make, a kitchen to clean, and need to go to bed early..... so its a quickie but a goodie ( sometimes they are just as good;) )

Today we made rainbow glittered playdough. For no other reason but that its pretty :)

I gave them patty pans, rainbow sticks and a knife and Amahli set to work making cakes and singing happy birthday over and over and over again :)

The other rainbowliscious thing I am having a slight panic over at the moment is Jumeirahs book week costume... I suggested going as Cinderella as its one of her favourite boosk and we already have that costume but she turned to me and said " But Mum, then you wouldnt have the fun of making something fantastical for me!" So thoughtful, isnt she??

And so shes going as the butterfly from the hungry caterpillar. And so this is how its going down.....
I made a pattern using cardboard and cut out a ridiculous amount of wings. Then I began to cut out circles and placing them onto the wings.

A quick dash to spotlight today, I got Vliesofix and more rainbow fabric...hoping to conquer this weekend ( well tonight really)...
Wish me luck!!

Rainbow Friday :hairstyles that really suck!!

Ok so whilst this technically ISNT a rainbow post, the moment was a "rainbow" one :)

You know the ones.. the one that makes you smile especially when you werent expecting it... something that makes you giggle HOURS after it happens... the one you tell people about and they dont kinda get it cos they didnt see it?? Yep one of those moments... Just like seeing a rainbow ;)

So we had day Three of crappy fevers and a sick babe but in the midst of my hair pulling rant about not seeing the light of day for a week and wondering if the world is the same as when I left it a week ago, Jared comes to me. Im vacuuming ( arent I always??) and asks me to do his hair.


Me: "not right now mate, Im vacuuming"

Him: "Yeah I know! So do my hair!"

Me: (taking a breath and counting to three cos thats all I can remember today)
"Buddy, I will do it as soon as I finished"

Him: " No Mum, I'll show you" and he picks up the vacuum cleaner nozzle and sticks it on his head, grins, pulls it off his head and exclaims " See?? Its done now!"


Man, he knew just what I needed :)

And so we spent the next 20 minutes creating him some new "dos".

You like??

So now, if you have a function, need some "volume",

A wave,


A curl,







or just a smile.... find yourself a vacuum cleaner and stick it on your head :)

rainbow friday: just for me/ big kid craft

How I love this winter weather.. today its an outside, warm enough to sit without a jumper, no breeze, I can actually feel that Vitamin D goodness soaking into me... right to the very core :)

Last week I went to a community trade party, where a woman was selling things that she buys from countries to support local trade. I was fascinated by the stories she told, of lives so different to my sheltered existence, so different from the corner of the world I live in. Lives that know prostitution just to feed their families, children that know hunger like mine will never know. Families affected by drought, famine, and diseases that only two days ago I complained at being immunised against.


I bought myself these little pieces of rainbow... not only to support a community that has now closed all the brothels as they now have a source of income to support themselves, but as reminder to be thankful for the life I have. The group is called Eden Ministry (http://www.edenchina.org/).

Now I can have rainbows whenever I feel like sticking them in my ears :) But I also am praying that for someone else in the world, they will have rainbows too.

This week, I found a sale on ( A SALE! A SALE!) at Lincraft and found the most fantastic activity for Jumeirah to try. Shes been asking me to teach her to knit for sometime now, but seeing as I DONT knit AT ALL, I thought this might satisfy.
Check out the last one!! RAINBOW WOOL :)

Its a weaving kit that makes a scarf. The kit contains a black wool weaving mat and gorgeous coloured wool for her to weave into the mat. They were $2.50 for a kit which is just fantastic! So I got a few to put away, and gave one to her to start.



She really enjoyed doing this as you can see it working straight away.


After two long rows she wanted a break, but its something that she will come back to from time to time until its finished.



I had a short go, but am leaving it for her to complete...

I havent started mine yet but its rainbow wool so its going to look awesome!

Happy Weekend!!