Summer Fun, Week 2

this past week, we continued with the summertime fun. here is a list of what we did:
* C is continuing with her summer homework. i give her some math, handwriting, and spelling work.
* i have also continued with reading to both girls the pippi book and C reads to me from some early reader series of books we checked out of the library. right now she is reading "alone" from days with frog and toad, by arnold lobel. she reads to me and i help her sound out new words and add them to a list of words to practice reading.
* we are still enjoying or daily games of hopscotch. C is showing a lot of improvement on her hopping skills and as she progresses, i add more rules to the game to make it a little more challenging. when we first started playing i basically had no rules but to hop on all the squares and make sure to pick up their markers. M is still too little, so she does whatever she wants. and everyone has fun!* we poured a large container of bubble solution into a bucket and got our two badminton rackets to try to make lots of bubbles by waving the wands and using the wind. it was messy, but fun!
* we then turned on the sprinklers and let the girls rinse off all of the bubble solution.
* we invited the girls only boy cousin, N, to come over to play hopscotch, make giant bubbles, and run under the sprinklers. i think N had lots of fun that day!

* we took the girls to the museum of natural history. this was a reward for the girls because they have been doing their homework, playing well with each other and making my summer with them much more bearable!

C chose to go to the museum. here are the girls "digging" for fossils. next week, if they do well, the girls will get to have a sleepover party and invite their cousin N. i look forward to planning some fun activities for the kids!

as for me, i'm getting less time to craft for myself. i do have a project i'm working on for my niece's birthday coming up. the weekends seem to be the only time i have to craft because my husband is at home to help with the girls. so i have gotten some work done this weekend and i hope to finish it in time for the party. i was hoping C would help me with the project or make a gift for her cousin, but i'm finding little time to plan these things, so it hasn't been possible. the birthday is in a week, so i'll see if C and i can do something fast, simple and cute.

Fun For Nothin' Challenge: Hopscotch and Beanbag Markers

i was reading sew liberated's blog and in one of her latest posts she talks about her fun for nothin' challenge. i realized that some of the things my girls and i have been doing this summer would fit this challenge. one that stands out is the hopscotch game we played with the little bean bag markers we made.i know this isn't a new idea, in fact it was one of my favorite games as a kid, but i haven't seen anyone mention this game as an idea for a free or low cost game and source of entertainment for little ones, so i thought i would mention it here. we have since bought a new bucket of sidewalk chalk to use for this summer because when we first came up with the idea to play the game, i only had a piece about 1 inch thick, left over from last year. it was just enough to draw our first game on our cemented walkway in our front yard. but if you have to go buy some chalk, i'm sure they could easily be found in dollar stores everywhere at this time of year. we started out playing with rocks, we found nearby, as markers because we couldn't find anything else. after seeing how dangerous it was to throw the heavy rocks, as they bounced hap hazardously, we came up with the idea of making little bean bags. so off we went back inside to escape the heat for a while and make our markers. i had the girls go through my scraps to find colors or prints they liked and cut 2" x 5" pieces of fabric. i folded the piece right sides together and quickly sewed down two sides to leave a pocket. i then let the girls fill these little pockets with split peas. i recommend using small beans because the bags are so small. lentils and even rice would work as well. i had split peas on hand, so that is what i used. i then handstitched the last side closed using a blanket stitch. because the bags are so small and we filled them up as much as we could, i couldn't use the sewing machine for this step. so if you do as i do, i wouldn't recommend using the machine for this last step or else you might have a big mess and possibly ruin your machine if any small beans or rice get stuck in your dog feeds. and that is all! the bean bags should have a nice weight to them to make tossing them at long distances easier. they also don't bounce so they are safe to use.

i hope everyone likes this idea and i get to see more and more moms writing in their blogs and posting pictures of their kids playing hopscotch!

Summer Fun, Week 1

it has been about a week into C's summer vacation and i have been trying to keep my girls busy, entertained, and active with fun crafts and activities. here is a list of what we've done since C's last day of school:

*C graduated from kindergarten! she was really sad to be leaving her school, teacher and classmates, but i'm sure she'll be looking forward to first grade by the end of the summer!
*we have started M's potty training. wish me luck on that one! M is really smart and communicative, but with trying to take care of two girls all day, everyday, i don't know how long it's gonna take me to accomplish that job!
*everyday i have C do some math, handwriting, and spelling home work before we play or do anything fun. at the same time i try to teach M her colors, abc's, numbers and shapes and sometimes C helps to teach M. she seems to really enjoy teaching her little sister!
* we went to the library and checked out a few books. amongst them is astrid lindgren's "pippi longstocking", which i plan to read to them. my girls love to watch the movies so much, i thought this would be a good way to wean them off the t.v. this summer.

*we played hopscotch and had to improvise by using found rocks as place markers. but then i got the idea to make some out of fabric scraps and some dried beans. with the help of my girls, we quickly sewed them up, filled them, and stitched them closed in time to play a few more rounds before the end of the day. we made enough place markers in case we have some visitors who would like to play with us. C is still working on keeping her balance while hopping, but i'm sure by the end of the summer she'll have it down pat! M just hops around on two feet and doesn't really follow the rules, but she looks so cute hopping around and she has so much fun playing with us!
*we played with a hula hoop. well, we tried to play with it. the hoop was too small for me, so i couldn't show the girls how to do it properly. C still needs some practice and M is just too small. she is only 2 years old, but she tries, and she looks adorable doing it! she holds the hula hoop over her head, with her body in the center, then lets it fall as she stomps in place and wiggles her little body. she really thinks she's doing it!
*we baked cookies. yum!

*we made homemade play dough using kool-aid for color and to give it a fruity smell. the girls love it when we make our own play dough because they get to help and the play dough is much softer and more fun to play with.

*C lost yet another tooth! now she has two missing front upper teeth! she looks so cute!
*we took C to get her first real haircut and it's a short bob that looks really cute on her face!
*we celebrated C's graduation from kindergarten with a pool party. we had most of our family over and all the little ones had so much fun in the kiddie pool!

*we went to a new park, while poor Dadda had a dentist appointment. but the girls enjoyed their outing!
*we made a makeshift house using a tarp we draped over our unused clothesline. we brought the girls' little table and their chairs and set them up in their little house. i made them pb&j sandwiches and they ate them in their little house. they had a nice time eating their snack in their temporary playhouse!

we have been having so much fun! and i have enjoyed watching my two girls laughing and playing together and learning to get along better. and i still have many things on my list to keep them busy, so i'm sure i won't run out of ideas any time soon. we have also done most of the things on the list more than once. i want to make this summer really fun and memorable for my girls, especially C, since it is her first vacation from school, other than xmas vacation, of course.

Latest Craft Hobby

i've been wanting to try out stamp carving. so a few weeks ago my husband was kind enough to indulge me in buying some supplies to get started. i've read many tutorials and with the clear information they gave i was able to get my first two stamps done with what i think are very good results.

these are the stamps that i carved. it took a little while to get the hang of it. i had to get used to keeping my hand steady and make sure not to cut too deep or cut too far into parts that i didn't want to cut out. i realize now that i could have tried an easier approach of just carving out the drawn lines and leaving the blank spaces solid, so that i could get a negative image. it would have been much easier, but still i think i did pretty good for my first try at stamp carving. i'm really excited about all the ideas i have sketched out and i can't wait to carve some more!

here are the supplies i got to start with. the most important, i think, is the speedball carving tool. it comes with several different cutting nibs that can be easily stored in the handle. that's important to me because i always have to worry about my girls getting into my craft supplies. i also bought a staedtler carving block, but i haven't used it, yet, so i don't know how well it handles my carving. instead, i used some cheap white erasers i bought in your typical office or school supply aisle in many stores. i thought i could use these erasers for practice because i don't want to spend too much money on my crafts. it might discourage my husband from giving me these kinds of indulgences! and last but not least, i got the tsukineko versa magic dew drop stamp pads. i got these mainly cause i liked the variety of colors. i really wanted to get the versa craft ink pads because i like the idea of being able to stamp on fabric so that i can make my own personalized labels on either fabric or twill tape. i also think a cute stamp on fabric would add a nice detail on plain looking sewn projects. i will post my progress as i continue to make stamps and experiment with using my stamps in combination with my other projects. i can't wait to see what i come up with!

Finished Gifts!

these are the paintings C made. one is for her teacher and the other two are for her grandfathers for father's day. they are acrylic on flat canvases. it was their first time using real paints and real canvases, so it was exciting for all of us to see the results. as you can see, they came out pretty good!

these are the paintings that M made for her dadda and her two grandfathers. you can see that on her first painting she started out really enthusiastic. she didn't want to stop painting on it, until i showed her that she had two more canvases to paint on and asked her if she was done. so she quickly continued on the next one and on this 2nd one she started mixing paints more, which caused me to get a bit worried about the colors getting all muddy. so i tried to discourage too much mixing and by the 3rd painting she wasn't having so much fun anymore. she started putting the brush onto the canvas and looking at me for approval and then moved on to the next color and repeated the process. i felt bad that i ruined her fun and she obviously did, too cause she didn't want to paint much more after that, which explains all that empty space. too bad. still, i'm really proud of the work she did and hopefully the next time we paint she will want to paint again and be more careful, too.

seeing as how father's day is tomorrow, i thought it would be safe enough to show what my girls and i made for their dadda.

first off, i decided to do a typical (read cheezy) father's day t-shirt. i chose to do this one with the words "this dad deserves a pat on the back" freezer paper stencilled because at the time we were working on this project my husband was also going through some work-related stress that was getting our whole family down, but it obviously affected him the most. and i think that despite all the worry he had, he was still taking care of his responsibilities and being a wonderful husband and father.here is the back where the three of us stamped our hand print as if giving him a pat on the back. i didn't have enough fabric paints and so i borrowed a few from my MIL. those are the ones that didn't show up so well because the paints she let me borrow were thinner and probably not meant for printing on knit shirts. i think they were more for painting on silk with paintbrushes. oh well! i know he probably wouldn't have worn this shirt anywhere but at home. i don't blame him either, but still, it was a nice project to do with my girls.

i still remember when i only had C and she was 2 years old that we did a similar father's day present with a t-shirt that said "my daughter walks all over me!" and i had C walk around the shirt with paint on her feet! it was very messy! but what i find amusing is that the next day we did that project she asked her father if she could paint with her feet and he was so confused! i had to explain it all to him after we gave him his present on father's day. we had a good laugh!

this is another t-shirt that i made using the silhouettes of my girls. i also did this with freezer paper stencils. i had to ask my husband for help with this project because i'm still not really good with using our drawing program. he usually doesn't ask any questions because he knows it will be a surprise for him, even if he does help me out. i hope these shirts don't fit him too big. i made the mistake of ordering them a size too big. we'll see!

and here is another project we made using pictures of my girls from M's birthday party. i printed the pictures on paper because i wasn't sure if the project would work out the way i wanted and so i didn't want to waste any of our photo paper. i cut the pictures into oval shapes glued the pictures onto wax paper. i then helped the girls glue the sequins because my glue bottle was really difficult to squeeze. and then had C make some crayon shavings and let the girls sprinkle glitter and crayon shavings as they pleased.

once they were satisfied i put another piece of wax paper on top and a layer of newspaper on top and below the project and ironed it just enough to melt the crayons and making a seal around the edge of the picture. after it cooled off, i cut it out using scalloped edge scissors, punched a hole on top and tied a piece of string for hanging.

More Progress and Feeling Better

this is where i'm at on my teacher gift. i embroidered the words "criss cross applesauce", "thank you!" and her name on the bottom (not shown). i remember when C first started saying "criss cross applesauce" and she would sit with her legs crossed on the floor, like a really good student. apparently my C is what you would call a teacher's pet. she strives to impress her teacher and always do her best. i admire that she tries to do her best and that she respects her teacher so much that she wants to get her approval. i'm glad that she has learned the importance of being a good student from what we've taught her. so, because her teacher says this a lot to her students when she wants them to sit and pay attention, i thought it would be nice to embroider it onto her present. i still need to finish embroidering and add the drawing that C made of herself. i'm working on it right now.

other than that, i have been really busy getting some cleaning done! my body is achey and sore, but i think it was well worth it because now i have nice, bright, clean floors! it had been ages since i last did a thorough cleaning of my kitchen, dining room and living room floors. i don't really like to clean cause i feel it takes away from all the crafting i could be doing, but since i've been getting a lot of crafting done, i thought it was time.

so, i guess i'm finally out of my depression. i feel good and i feel hope and i look forward to this summer! i need to start planning what trips or activities we would like to do this summer as a family and what new projects i want to start on. the future is looking bright and full of opportunities!

End Of School Year Teacher Gift

as i'm finishing father's day gifts a lot quicker than i had anticipated, i started working on an end of the year teacher gift. i wanted to continue with the embroidery/appliqué kick i've been on for a while in gift making. i've loved every piece of work i've made and given away and i'm starting to think that one day i'll have to make something that i'll be able to keep for myself. especially if they are embroideries of my daughters' drawings. so, i decided to go with the typical 'apple for the teacher' gift. i know many people think that this is done so much that most teachers are probably tired of gifts with apples. but, i think (and i might be wrong!) that in my child's school very few parents, if none, actually remember to thank their child's teacher at the end of the year. my guess is that C's kindergarten teacher hasn't received many gifts, so i'm sure she will appreciate my gift, even if it does have the typical apple. i hope she likes it because of the hand work that i'm putting into it and because it will also be a cooperative project with C. as you can see my appliquéd patchwork apple is complete with embroidered stem and appliquéd leaf. like i said, i still have some more details to add, but i thought i would show my work in progress.

i asked C to make me a drawing that i could add to the appliquéd apple and she made me a small drawing of herself. she asked me if she should draw herself with her missing tooth and i thought it was a good idea, so this is what she came up with. actually, the picture is of the embroidered version. her drawing was actually a lot cuter. but i guess i wasn't getting the stitches to cover well, so i kept adding stitches until i made her mouth look like she had botox and some invisaligns! seeing as how i wasn't doing a good job, i decided to not add this piece to her teacher's gift. she made me another drawing with a simple line smile. i think the new drawing will be easier for me to embroider. we'll see! but, i decided to keep this piece for myself because although i think it doesn't really do her drawing justice, it is a reminder of this time in her childhood. i hope to do a lot more embroideries of my girls' drawings and someday make a quilt out of them. i think this piece will look quite nice in C's embroidery quilt.

C Lost Another Tooth!

c lost her third tooth this past weekend. this tooth is special because it's her first upper tooth she's lost. i think it makes her look so cute! and she's very happy with her cute look! of course it didn't come without the usual freaking out she does every time she looses a tooth. but i guess most kids would freak out with the sight of blood coming from their own mouths. it happened while she was eating. she took a bite of her food and it became so loose that it was just dangling by a piece of her gums. she was running around screaming and crying with her mouth open and blood spreading around her gums and teeth. it was a sight to see! i tried to calm her down and asked her if she would like me to help by pulling it off. she said 'no' but she approached me anyway. i guess she really wanted to get it over with but was afraid of the pain. i got a piece of paper towel and took hold of the dangling tooth and when she freaked out and started running, it was all over! soon after it was pulled out she was fine, again. i chuckle even now as i remember the events! but i do feel bad that she was so scared. i'm sure it will get easier as she continues to lose her baby teeth.

this is her tooth fairy pillow i made for her in late fall, when i first found out she had a loose tooth and she would soon be losing her first tooth. i made it using crafty carnival's tutorial. it was a very easy tutorial to follow and my daughter loved the cute tooth stuffie.

i made both the pillow and tooth stuffie because i wasn't sure when she would lose her tooth. so i thought that the stuffie would be a good idea to keep in her backpack. it has a heart pocket on the back so that she could stick her tooth in it. c loves her tooth stuffie and pillow and she carries one or the other around with her as soon as she thinks she might be losing her next tooth.

A Present For My Father

i finished my father's present for father's day. i made him a passport sleeve with an embroidery of one of C's drawings. i followed sewbunnybum's tutorial found here. (Thanks to sewbunnybum for answering my question!) i decided to make him a passport sleeve because he has recently become a U.S. citizen and has also recently acquired his passport and is planning on taking a trip back home. (obviously i didn't actually sew the flaps closed when i took these pictures. but these pics show the details i added to this present much better this way. i have since sewn the flaps.)

the tutorial was really easy to follow. i have yet to see if it fits because i don't have a passport of my own and so i'll have to wait until father's day when i give this present to my father.

I Like Owls

my MIL, grandma K bought this owl pendant necklace on one of her weekend shopping trips to antique stores and thrift stores. she didn't know what it was and she saw that i liked it very much. all she saw was an eggplant shaped pendant with a couple of squiggles, until i pointed out that those squiggles were the owl's eyes and beak. so she resold it to me for $10.

i like how it has a modern feel to it because the features are so simple; but at the same time, it looks like an antique because the shape is not symmetrical. the pendant also has a nice weight to it that i like as it lays in between my collar bones because the chain isn't long.

i don't know if it is silver, but it does look like it. and i don't know who designed it or what year it is from. does anyone out there have any ideas? did i pay too much? does anyone recognize it?

Back to Work

well, i don't have much to show for myself right now, but it's mainly cause my camera is not working. i'm still not feeling so good, and i guess my husband is feeling out of sorts, as well, so because i don't want to make it worse for our little family i decided to try to be more positive, active and productive. and i'm happy to say that i'm finally crafting again!

one of the projects i'm working on is a father's day present for my husband. of course, it wouldn't be a father's day present if it wasn't done in collaboration with my two daughters. i won't say anymore on that because i would like it to be a surprise for him.

another project i'm working on is a father's day present for my own father. he just recently became a U.S. citizen and so he just got his new passport and is planning to go back to his home for a visit. so i thought it would be nice to make a protective sleeve for his passport and maybe a bright luggage tag to make finding his luggage at the airport much easier. i am embroidering a little drawing C made on the passport sleeve and i'm letting M decorate the luggage tag with fabric markers. i think i may also embroider over the decorations M makes, but i'm still not sure. and i also plan on embroidering my dad's initials on his luggage tag. i'm guessing that he would probably need more than one, but i'm not sure if i'll be able to make more than one, so for now that will have to make do. maybe i'll make more for him for his birthday when it comes up in sept.

i was also going to do the same for my FIL but i decided against it because i'm pressed for time. he is also planning on making a trip to his homeland and he will probably be staying there for about 6 months, so i decided to just make him a little gift set of a box of homemade green tea cookies with a box of tea and a flat canvas painting from each of his granddaughters. i also plan on letting the girls make paintings for their dad and for my father.

all in all, i feel better about what i decided to make for the fathers in our lives. and i feel confident that i will get them done on time and that they will be appreciated. so it makes me feel good knowing that; and it makes me look forward to completing the gifts and presenting them.

the picture i added has nothing to do with my post, other than showing how much M loves to be with her daddy. it's a picture of M with her daddy on her birthday. in most of the pictures of her birthday party she was not smiling, but in the ones with her daddy, she was. i guess she was happiest that day being with her dad.

just seeing how much my girls love their dad makes me love him even more. and because he's currently having a stressful time, i really want to help make him feel better, more appreciated and loved. so i'm also trying to do more for him any way that i can to make his days a bit more cheerful. i think sometimes we forget that we should celebrate each other and celebrate life in everyday, rather than just on the days that we're told to. so i'm gonna try to do that with my husband and my children more often. hopefully that will help us deal with our stress and depression.