School Holidays

Is anyone else quietly looking forward to school going back tomorrow? First thing on the list...replenishing our supply of glue and sticky tape.

The Jim-Jam Tradition

Easter is a week away. I had been putting that thought to the back of my mind, but something alerted me today. Perhaps it was the sight of my babies coming through the door on their way home from Little Bookworms with whiskered snouts and very long fluffy ears. Or it could have been the package in the mail containing sweet little felt Easter baskets from the Queen. I remembered in a panic that Easter equals pyjamas and set to work with a tried and true nightdress pattern and a stack of vintage flannelette sheets. The cutting is done. Hopefully the stitching can happen in bursts during the coming week.

My sewing has taken a back seat since I started knitting for more than just my own leisure. Lately my sewing machine has been calling to me but I've had to ignore it as I try to finish yet another hat. I've been yearning to set aside a day, or an afternoon, or an hour, to make something small. I gaze longingly at my collection of patterns, at the enormous stash of fabric. 

Next week. When I return from a weekend in Sydney for a special get-together with friends. When I submit another month's worth of recipes and breathe out before starting on the next. When I finish a handful of tiny beanies in preparation for the next stage of the grand plan. Next week.

Is it just my family that insists on new pyjamas at Easter?

A Visit from the Queen

I've mentioned my dealer before. In other circles she goes by the name of the Craft Queen. Every time I see her, she hands over a bag or two of booty. This week she paid us a visit, and she didn't disappoint.

I've known the Craft Queen, aka Nicole, since high school. Craft runs in her veins. She grew up in a gingerbread house adorned wall to floor by her incredibly crafty mother. Together they would patchwork and scrapbook and quilt the days away. No teenager had a tidier, more beautifully decorated room. There was a running joke that our friend Ollo avoided coming to visit because he was afraid that while he was inside sipping tea and passing the time of day, Nicole's mum would be outside decoupaging his car. It never happened, but it would've been bloody good.

I've used Craft Queen buttons on many of my handknits - see here and here and here and here. Her wooden and coconut buttons are my favourite, but I think I'll be trying out some of the new Fimo ones soon. She also supplies an enormous range of ribbons and papercraft supplies, and there's a huge shipment of washi tape on its way.

My girls had a wonderful couple of days entertaining, and being entertained by, the Craft Queen. Lola has very happily taken on the Craft Princess title, disappearing into her room and her restocked craft cupboard to make stuff. Last I looked, there was a pair of cardboard spectacles and a new cuddly toy called Fluff.

Disclosure: The Craft Queen didn't ask me to write this post, and while she does provide me with an endless supply of buttons and ribbons, she didn't pay me either. She did, however, 'accidentally' leave two huge tins of home-baked biscuits on my kitchen bench which I discovered long after she'd skipped town...

Miss Maker

I've been tripping over her creations all over the house. They frustrate me and charm me in equal measure. 

- A selection of preschool constructions (made from other people's recycling)

- A coffee tray train with passengers

- One dozen cotton wool eggs

- A box with some fairy fabric and four cotton balls stuck to it. Purpose unknown.

- A birthday present for her dad - an iPhone case with his name on it, backwards.

Happy big 4-0 from her, and all of us, my love. We hope you liked the cake, or what was left of it. 

A Very Handmade Birthday

There was a flurry of activity in the days leading up to this birthday. A flurry of making. Apart from a handful of books and some clothes, everything the girls unwrapped yesterday morning was handmade. Since moving house, I've been trying to cull the *crap*. There is just so much stuff. Lola was inundated with stuff when she was a baby and toddler, so everything a pair of two-year-olds could need is already on the shelves and in the baskets. So for fun, we passed up a trip to the shops, and Lola and I got busy making gifts for our girls. 


First we turned a stack of old crayons into some cool new ones following this tutorial. They were going to be heart shaped but I found out just in the nick of time that our heart-shaped ice-cube tray wasn't silicone like I thought it was. I grabbed it out of the oven milliseconds before it melted entirely away. We settled instead for round crayons made in a mini muffin tray.

Next we made some simple two-piece puzzles using the pages of a falling-apart book of animal photos. We stuck them onto some heavy cardboard with adhesive spray, then cut different ziggy-zaggy shapes from them. Jigsaws and matching pairs all in one.

I haven't seen Fernando since we went rural. Something tells me he jumped ship, destined to remain an inner-city frog forevermore. Never mind, now we have Fred and Phyllis to take his place. They haven't got eyes yet, and to be honest, they're a bit wonky. That's what happens when you're cutting and sewing a few minutes before midnight the night before.

And finally, the tepee. I've been wanting one for the girls for ages but couldn't bring myself to part with all that dosh. Then I saw an easy tutorial in a magazine and decided to give it a go. I used bright fabrics from IKEA, the ones from the kids department that come in three-metre bolts. The dowels are from the hardware shop and the ribbons came from here. I found the instructions for the tepee online via here. Easy-peasy. Let the lounge room and backyard camping trips begin.

There was one other handmade birthday surprise. This one I knew nothing about. Lola had taken herself off one afternoon into my sewing room (yes, I know, I have one now!) to turn pipe-cleaners and cupcake papers into flowers. She also decorated some toilet rolls with stickers to make telescopes. Then she wrapped everything and presented the parcels to her sisters on Sunday morning. It might just have been the sweetest sisterly thing I've ever seen.

'Crafting' with Kids

When the Showgirl was tiny, I used to envision the fun things we'd do when she was a little older and had more control over her limbs and bodily functions. I imagined the glorious afternoons we'd spend painting and colouring in and fashioning interesting and useful things from twigs and leaves. I even poo-pooed one of the women in my mother's group who said she'd be leaving all that messy stuff to the day care and preschool teachers. What sort of mother didn't want to fingerpaint, I thought, with only a hint of superiority.

Of course, four years later and hardened by reality, I've come to accept our home crafting sessions as a necessity that, while occasionally fun, must by all means be minimised, both in scale and in mess, as much as possible. I apply a formula that goes something like this:

quality of craft = time killing capacity + creative stimulation

                    (mess x labour)2

Or...amount of waking minutes child is occupied plus stimulation provided divided by mess multiplied by mummy involvement squared. Clear as mud.

There are loads of great books out there filled with kids craft activities, but so many of them are so convoluted and involve things like salt dough and beads and, eugh, glitter. And all of those things equal, in my opinion, big-time hands-on for mum. Which isn't useful, you see, because our long afternoon 'craft' sessions have become a vehicle for my own little obsessions in the crafting arena -  the more an activity can engage them, the more time available to me to knit/sew/cook.

So with that in mind, I thought it'd be fun to blog about my five top kids 'craft' activities that fit the following all-important criteria: they are easy to set up and clean away, they are at least mildly creative and stimulating (ie they're not TV), they cause minimal mess and, most important of all, they require absolutely minimal mummy involvement, freeing her up for more important pursuits like casting on a new cardigan or trying out a new recipe.

1) The Sticker Poster

Take a large sheet of paper and a sticker book or four, and go! Lola came up with this one herself after receiving an incredible sticker book for her birthday. She has pulled it out dozens of times and quietly passes half an hour filling the blank spaces with sticker after sticker. Sometimes she chats about what she's doing, other times she's off on a reverie, no doubt imagining stories about the characters in front of her. It's the ultimate quiet pursuit. Baby sisters optional.

2) The Rainy Day Box

Our rainy day box is a tub purchased at Kmart, though I've seen variations all over the place. It's basically a box full of a gazillion bits and pieces for sticking and twisting and gluing and creating. Cheap, easy, opportunity-laden. Hint: If minimal mess is your aim, remove any glitter or glitter glue before handing it over to the kid. We like to pair this with the recycling craft tub filled with toilet rolls and tissue boxes and coffee trays. Just add good-quality kid scissors, sticky tape and glue. Hours of entertainment.

3) Playdough

That old favourite, the playdough. We make our own by following the back of the cream of tartar packet, but instead of adding cold water and 'cooking' it, we add boiling water and just mix and knead it in a bowl. It lasts for months. The bubs have just discovered playdough joy and will happily pass half an hour in their high chairs rolling and pressing and, yes, tasting. We have a basket full of plastic moulds and shapes, as well as knives and forks and rollers. Lola also loves to raid my baking cupboard for trays to put her 'cookies' on. I do believe there's a batch baking in the oven as we speak.

4) The Scrapbook

They say never say never, but I am not and never will be a scrapbooker. Lola, however, has been into it since William married Kate and we set to work with the Women's Weekly and an empty book to record the occasion. Now she attacks catalogues and magazines with fervour, cutting out anything that takes her fancy, then she'll turn her attention to gluing the pictures into her scrapbooks. Great for improving scissor skills, and if you run out of paste (easy when a four-year-old is in charge), just make some gloopy glue out of flour and water.

5) Large-Scale Drawing

Clear some floor space, take a roll of blank paper (ours are from IKEA) and spread out a few metres of it. Stick down on all sides to secure. Place pencils and crayons around the place then let them at it. They can come back to it again and again as the day progresses, friends and visitors can get involved, and when they're all tucked up in bed sound asleep, sneak that massive artwork into the recycling bin 'cause there won't be a wall big enough to handle it. The next morning, repeat.

And there you have it. Ironically, I still have the 'crafternoon' fantasies - but they've morphed into a kind of Austen-esque tableau in which I sit serenely with my three girls, perhaps in a parlour of some sort, all of us working busily away on our knitting or embroidery projects, chatting amiably about our days, Bach playing softly in the background...

I am, as always, the eternal optimist.