Children's Book of the Week!

With Maurice Sendaks so recent passing; I felt it only necessary to honor him this week,

Although he did not write this cute book, his illustrations are unmistakable and so familiar to most people who grew up reading 'Where the Wild Things are' and 'In the Night Kitchen'.

With our frequent visits into New York City lately this book is doubly applicable for us.

Any book about a young boys freedom will surely find its way into our story pile.

One of my quests is always to find books that will stir up a conversation with Van, whether it be about an animal he has never seen, a place he has never been or a journey he'd love to embark it is fun for me to hear what he thinks about after reading a story. The excitement he has when seeing places he's been in a storybook is the best.

Happy Reading!

Ted talks to Kids!

If you've been listening you will have noticed that we are big fans of Ted Talks in our house.

Even a topic that may not normally interest you will have you intrigued and enthralled when it appears on one of these short webisodes.

So, in my journey on Netflix to find more reality crime documentaries I somehow stumbled upon THIS; Ted Talks for kids. Since Van has already retired for the night I will sit with excitement until tomorrow evening to pop some popcorn and curl up as a family to get informed! From puppets to parrots we'll learn fun little lessons; hopefully about journeys and discoveries, passions and experience!

The link I posted is on Netflix, hope you'll be able to view some!

Anorak Test Run

Sewing has been real popular in our home lately and I wanted to share what Guys been working on..

Using the Green Pepper Pattern he made an anorak jacket in a few hours!

He has been wanting this pattern for awhile and finally bought it, along with some less expensive ripstop nylon from the local fabric store. This test run was necessary since he'll be ordering a waterproof, lighter ripstop nylon for the final cut. I've been trying to encourage him to add a great flannel lining.

On this jacket Guy used elastic on the wrists, velcro under his chin and a sport zipper on the chest.

I'll post photos of the final cut, with the front pocket, drawstrings and the whole nine yards.

We really recommend Green Pepper, Guy has used their patterns in the past to make vests and socks.

Using cardboard to trace your pattern onto can prolong the life of your patterns for the future; making templates is always a recommendation!

Stay tuned for photos of the final cut!

Rocketship landing!

Two great people in my life just had their first baby after being together for 19 years!!

They were surprised to find out in the delivery room that they had a boy, The entire time they referred to their kid as 'Rocketship'. And, well this week he landed.

Totally excited about this little dude, he's got an awesome life in store.

So in his celebration I crocheted them a bag, maybe a not-so-average diaper bag.. I used 100% wool, added some pockets and washed the crap out of it. The end result; a wonderfully tight felted bag! Originally I had planned to needle felt this rocket but have been obsessing over hand stitching lately and took a different route.

Although I don't have a pattern to share since I act too spontaneously on my crafting, I wanted to post this idea. I used felt squares from the fabric store and cotton thread and just stitched away. I believe that I used a double threaded blind stitch for the bulk of the pieces which I think gives a real homemade feel to the project.

In the photo the appliqué is actually on the black bag, and hanging from the straps is a wool felted yellow star. I'm pretty happy with the results. I need to get my camera out to take more clear photos, but in the meantime my phone will do..

Happy Stitching!

Children's Book of the Week!

There isn't much reading in this book, but it did get Van into some Yoga positions!

He has joined Guy and I at a yoga class when he was younger, but too young to join in. Although, I am sure that he recognized what we were doing.

To keep up with a theme, youtube has a bunch of videos to watch with your kid and practice. We are currently looking up some kid yoga classes to take with Van which should be a great time.

Namaste.

Wool Headdresses

For Van and a few of his friends I put together an afternoon craft. Turned out, it was more fun for the parents.

Of course I had to make a sample headdress for myself and got a bit carried away. Attached were ribbons, beads, feathers, hand stitched edging, even made wool felt flowers, feathers and shapes.

This was easy enough and fun for all.

I folded a piece of felt in half for double thickness and glued in the ribbons that'll tie in back of your head and that'll hang in front. I laid these out overnight with a few heavy books on them to keep the glue in place.

The next day I hand stitched around the edging to secure it all. I stitched on roses and a few of my shapes that weren't secured with the glue. Fabric glue is tricky and takes time and patience to adhere your pieces together. So I broke out my sewing needles and us moms got to work. 

I've been planning this is out for awhile now and am so excited to finally execute this craft. Plus, while on a visit to the zoo this week Van found a feather in the grass, his excitement to embellish his headdress with it just adds to mine!

Even Dad got into it. Guy had inherited and added to a collection of feathers for fly making. He had bought a terrific looking fly reel and kept the knowledge he'd learned from his Grandfather, about ten years prior. So, out came this feather collection, beautiful patches of feathers (that I will soon be making headbands out of!)  that he plucked from and added on to the side ribbons which looked really great.

Once I start with projects like this, I run with it. Hope this gave you some ideas.

A way to get the kids involved could be to lay everything out and hand over the glue, I wore my headdress the entire time to hopefully encourage them to worry theirs. Turns out the kids weren't as impressed as the adults! 

Children's Book of the Week!

I think most kids will love an interactive book. Especially when it involves singing loud, jumping around and well, acting like a rockstar. This was cute and not your average read aloud book. As much as we love 'If you're happy and you know it' and books that have you sing along, this was a fun little change.

Another good book that I was excited to get from the library was 'Levi Strauss gets a bright idea' by Tony Johnston. Van wears mostly Levi 511's (which are adorable on his tiny legs) so now he knows all about how Levi, himself came about his business!