Show and Tell

Recently Nature Girl started in a program at the library where kids can practice their reading skills by reading to a dog. A few weeks ago she saw this dog coming into the library and begged the librarian to allow her to read to him. Isn't he cute?!! His name is Fritz. He's a five year old great dane that has been trained to be a therapy dog. Look how he lays on her. He even does this while she's reading to him.

Fritz is a sweetheart and I think it was love at first sight. He's as big as she is but Nature Girl thinks he's the best. She asked his trainer if she could take him to school for show and tell. We had to get permission from the principal for Fritz to visit school, but Nature Girl went to the principal and asked him herself. The principal agreed to allow the visit. So Fritz went to school this week as Nature Girl's show and tell. The kids were amazed and had lots of questions about Fritz and his job. Fritz visits nursing homes, libraries and now schools too. He's a companion and a good listener even though he is deaf. Because he is deaf his trainer uses hand signals with him. He responds to the signals and is well behaved.

Fritz is a wonderful therapy dog. He loves to be around kids and people. As you can see, this little girl likes to be around him too!

A Girl and Her Art

Nature Girl brought home this picture yesterday. It's her with her new stuffed Webkin pig. She purchased the pig with her own money. Look how happy she looks in the picture. I think it's a sweet little drawing and could picture it as a greeting card or in a little book with cute sayings about friendship.

She drew this on the back of a math sheet at school. She told me that the kids at school watch her draw and tell her that she's an artist. She seems surprised by the comments but it makes her feel good. She loves to draw and it makes her happy. Watching her draw makes me happy! I'm glad she has an outlet for her creativity and a talent that makes her proud of herself.

I have to share another drawing too. This is Nature Girl's tortoise drawing. Things that are important to her come out in her art. We've been talking a lot lately about getting a pet. We had adopted Ruby back in the fall but after she tried to bite Nature Girl several times she is now happily living in an adult only home in NY. I'm happy to say that Ruby is very happy there but I miss having her around. We're definitely ready for a pet and have discussed several possibilities including kittens, a dog or a Russian tortoise. I'm not sure what we will get but I know we're both ready to love some special little animal.

Mushroom Fairy Tutorial

Nature Girl and I have been creating together. We sat down and made these mushroom fairies together. I sewed and then Nature Girl stuffed them. We each painted our own little mushroom fairy. Nature Girl asked me to do the details on her fairy but she did all of the base coat painting herself. I just did the arms, details on the face and the polka dots. She wanted red polka dots on her wings so our fairies would look different. I think they turned out pretty cute, so I thought I'd share a quick little tutorial on how to make your own mushroom fairy. Eventually I'll add a pdf of the tutorial to the sidebar. In the meantime here are the steps.

Mushroom Fairy

Materials:

Muslin

Poly-fil

Acrylic paints

Paint brushes

Sharpie(ultra fine)

Pencil

Instructions:

1. Cut out the pattern for the mushroom fairy.

2.Fold the muslin in half, so that you have a double thickness, then pin your pattern pieces to the muslin. Cut out your pieces. You will have two of each piece when you are done.

3. Sew the two mushroom body pieces, leaving the bottom open. Clip your curves then turn and stuff your mushroom. Sew the opening closed.

4. Sew the mushroom fairy wings, leaving an opening for turning. Clip your corners then turn the wings right side out. Press your wings flat with an iron, then sew the opening closed.

5. Now attach the wings to your mushroom fairy's back. Place the wings on the back then hand-stitch a vertical line down the center of the wings to attach them to the body.

6. After your doll is sewn and stuffed, it's time to paint it with a base coat. I chose the tan of the face so I'd be able to see if I missed any spots. Good thing, you have to go back to paint a few times as the fabric will suck up the paint and you end up with light spots even though you know you painted it.

7. After the base coat dries use a pencil to mark where you want the face, top and bottom of the mushroom. Now paint the colors you want your mushroom to be, like the red and the white.

8. To add spots to your mushroom you can use an unsharpened pencil end dipped in paint to put the spots on. When your spots dry, finish off your mushroom by outlining using sharpie. Add your face, arms and hands with the sharpie.

Created by Jill Tacy – May 2011

Happy Mail!

Yesterday I arrived home to find three packages waiting for me. One was an Amazon order, one was YOE flower fairy swap mail and the third package contained this beautiful bag. Sew Mama Sew hosted a giveaway day at the end of May. I happened to see it listed as I was reading one of my favorite blogs and went to check it out. It's amazing to see the talent and generosity that is out there in the blogosphere. I stayed up way to late perusing blogs and entering some of the giveaways. I was super tired the next day, but guess what. . . it paid of. I won this amazing bag! There were many amazing things in the give away but this bag was one of my favorites and now it's mine, all mine, I tell you! Yipee!

As if the bag wasn't enough, which is totally is, Stephanie sent along rainbow fat quarters too. I can't wait to get them washed and start planning what I'm going to create with them. If you get a chance pop by Stephanie's blog and take a look at the new bag she's giving away. Thank you Stephanie! I love my new bag! By the way Stephanie has an ETSY shop with more bags like mine for sale. Go check it out.

May's YOE theme was flower fairies. I was partnered with Val from Yarnigras! Val and I have been blogger friends for years so it was lots of fun to be paired up. Val always sends amazing packages! She certainly spoiled us once again. Val sent two flower fairy ornaments, flower hair clips, post it's(every teacher loves these,) items for my fairy house that I still need to build, a bookmark, book, and goodies for Nature Girl including paper dolls, candy and a pencil with erasers that Nature Girl uses as a wand.

My favorite ornament is this flower fairy house. Val crocheted the flowers and leaves then attached them to a little painted bird house. It's so unique! Thanks Val, I love my package! You can check out the package I sent to Val and other flower fairy packages here. June's YOE theme is ladybugs.

Making Progress on UFO's

Remember this skirt I made when Nature Girl was in preschool? Well, it finally got a make over this weekend. I hadn't worn the skirt in forever so I ripped it apart about 6 months ago and cut it up to be an apron. Unfortunately it sat in a UFO(unfinished objects) pile waiting to be sewn. I finally finished it on Sunday. Here's what it looks like now.

Exhibit A

It's my new favorite apron. Yes, I know I always say that every time I get a new apron, but can you blame me? There all so pretty! Really, I love this fabric! I've made Marilyn aprons for lots of other people but never made one for myself, until now.

This wasn't my only UFO, I've been uncovering them all weekend. I found a scrap quilt that was half finished in one of my craft buckets. I started it about 5 years ago, so it was definitely time to finish it. I worked on it this weekend and it's almost done. It still needs a binding but will be a picnic quilt when it's finished. I haven't gotten to the fabric store to buy binding but we were dieing to try it out. We took it outside for a family picnic in the backyard. It worked great!

Here's another UFO. A few years back my sister asked me to make an apron for her husband. This is a picture of the apron I made him. I had a little bit of the fabric left and planned to make a matching apron for my sister. Of course, I never got around to it. Over the weekend I finally used the left over material scraps to make that apron for my sister. She's been in Hawaii for a year but will be moving back here in July. I'm excited to see her again and thought this would be a good welcome home present. (The picture is a little dark. Nature Girl was the photographer.)

Exhibit B

I was on a roll with UFO aprons so I decided to finish this apron for Nature Girl's teacher. Nature Girl had requested that I make an apron for her teacher as a Christmas gift but I ran out of time. New plan, we'll make the apron for Teacher appreciation week instead. That didn't happen either as I was super busy at school.

Exhibit C

Now the end of the school year is approaching so I decided to I use left over fabric from the spring fling apron to create this reversible apron. Nature Girl wanted a purple apron for her teacher. When I finished it she said, "That's pretty but I think she'd like red with polka dots better." Ugh!

Exhibit C (reverse side)

While I've been on a roll, I don't think I will get around to making a red polka dot apron anytime soon. If she waits for me to make one, it will be another 6 months before it's finished! Now with it completed, I'm second guessing. I do hope her teacher likes aprons. While Nature Girl and I are apron crazy it seems that the rest of the world does not necessarily share our obsession. Go figure! Really, who doesn't love a pretty new apron? Every new apron I get is my new favorite. See Exhibit A above for proof.

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!

This hangs in our front foyer. It's made from an old ironing board top that I painted back when I was a stay at home mommy. The flag is a colonial flag because I knew I'd never be able to sew all fifty stars on. It's one of my favorite decorations and is a good reminder of how fortunate we are to live in the land of the free. To those who protect our country and our freedoms, we say thank you! Happy Memorial Day to you and yours!

May Artwork

Nature Girl created this crayon rubbing landscape in art class today. I just love it! The textures are perfect for each section of the landscape. This one is definitely a keeper. I'm thinking I might even frame it and hang it in my office. Of course the last piece I did that with cost me $70 for custom framing. I think I can buy a regular old frame for this one. Phew!

Nature Girl takes pride in her artwork and even took this picture of the paper mache piggy bank she made in art enrichment at school. She already owns several piggy banks so this one is purely for decoration. The paint has peeled from the plastic cup used to make the snout so we have been planning to re-do it. We just haven't tackled that yet.

Lastly she shared this apple doodle with me. I have to say my first thought was dang that's good! And my second thought was I'm going to copy that and start drawing my apples like that. Is that wrong to steal an art idea from your 7 year old? Ha, ha! I hope not. I don't think she minds as she likes to draw and craft with me and feels very proud when she's created something that is better than mine. She's competitive and a perfectionist.

I just love to watch her create and see her art growing. Not only is it a great way for her to express herself, but it's something she feels really good about. I've framed a few pieces, hung other pieces on the fridge and I've saved a lot of her artwork in a box with her school papers for her to look at later in life. I often wonder what else to do with her artwork. What do you do with your kids artwork?