This felt snowman activity was also inspired by Itty Bitty Love and Starfall. I actually made the snowman before the turkey, and I really love him :) I've really enjoyed making these felt activities because they are so quick and easy. It's great to be able to start and finish something in the same night! I hope that O is going to have fun playing with him!
After seeing O have some difficulty getting her art supplies out of the tote, I decided to rearrange things. After she woke up from her nap yesterday, she was VERY excited to see the new arrangement. She kept saying "ook (look), mama! ook, mama!" She was especially excited about the markers in the blue mug since buh-looooo (blue) is her favorite color! She's been making lots of art lately :)
After coloring with markers for a while, O announced that she was going to use crayons. Then she said "ook at O's M's!" I certainly wasn't expecting to see actualy M's, so I was shocked when that was exactly what I did see. O has been talking about making M's for a while, but usually she just draws lines. I called my mom (because I certainly haven't taught her how to write an m), and she said that they've worked on it some since O has been requesting that we write everyone's name lately (and we have LOTS of M's in our family!). She was also shocked :) O said these M's are for "mama."
After making salsa last night, O made art at her new art shelf. I put her art tote, a basket of crayons, and a pad of paper on a shelf that she could easily reach, and she was thrilled. I filled the art tote with her art supplies this summer so we could easily take everything with us outside (which was where we were doing most of our artwork), but after watching her last night, I think I need to move everything out of the tote so she can access it a little easier. I'm not brave enough to let her have free access to all of her paints, but I am going to let her have access to her watercolor paints and her dot painters. I'm so happy to see her making art of her own initative instead of me prompting her to do so. It's all about accessiblity and presentation!
My mom and I worked on O's baby doll quilt this weekend, and it's almost finished! I cut the squares out about 3 months ago, and we are just getting back to it :) I was hoping we could be discreet and work on it while O played, but as soon as I pulled it out she came running and said "that's a kilt (quilt) ?" Then she had to help me sew, of course! I'm doing some token sewing in this picture. My mom sewed the vast majority of the quilt. I'm the cutter and designer :) I did sew at least one block, one row, and one side since I REALLY need the practice!
I saw this on a blog somewhere recently (I have no idea where!), and thought it was a great idea :) I painted O's foot white and then pressed it onto the black construction paper. Once the ghost dried, we glued the googly eyes to the heel, and I wrote the message with a silver sharpie. I had O sign her name. I planned on her writing an O, but she insisted on writing and M (her version) for Mommy. Her M's are basically just a few lines. I said "Oh, it's an M," and O said "No, it's not. That's just lines! O not know how make M!"
We had lots of little pumpkins that needed decorating, so I thought O would have fun putting dot stickers on the pumpkins. She loves dots, but she was disappointed that there weren't any blue dots (blue is her favorite color). She was proud of her "smiley face," and we were, too!
The idea to color a pumpkin with washable markers which O could then wash off came from A Bit of This and That. O had a great time tracing her pumpkin and then coloring it. I was sure that she would also love washing the pumpkin. I was wrong! She was proud of her pumpkin, and she refused to even consider washing it off. She said it "made mama feel better." She's constantly doing things and giving me things to make me feel better. I keep telling her that I'm not sick anymore, but she doesn't seem to believe me. I guess she's picking up on my sadness even though I'm trying really hard to put on a happy face :) She's a perceptive little monkey!
Yesterday afternoon, O, my mom, and I took a walk to look for leaves. She was so cute, and she'd pick up a leaf, look at it, and say "that one is too crunchy." She was so excited when my dad came to visit because we'd told her that he'd love to rub leaves with her. She showed him how to do it, and he was very impressed with the finished product. My mom and dad are holding the paper still for her in this picture. This was a fun and educational fall activity!
My mom and I recently finished making a bunch of felt food for my niece and godson (and his brother). I cut the felt out months ago, but I'm scared to use the sewing machine without my mom (it breaks every time we use it), so I was waiting for her to come sew them. My mom did all of the machine sewing, and I did the cutting and hand sewing (sewing the chocolate chips onto the cookies). My mom loved sewing the eggs and said she could sew a hundred eggs :) We are thinking of opening an etsy shop, which is something we've been talking about for a year or so. I'm hoping that this nausea will pass soon, so that I can be more productive :)
Woo hoo! It worked! I've tried resizing before, and it didn't help with the off center issue. I must not have made the pictures small enough in the past. Thanks, everybody, for your advice!!! Gotta love the blogging community! You guys are great :)
I found these unfinished wooden animals at Michael's months ago and thought they'd make great baby gifts. Since then I've been trying to decide how to paint them. I finally decided to decopage them using scrapbook paper, and I'm so happy with how they turned out :) These 2 cuties will be headed to 2 sweet California girls soon!
Again...I am very frustrated by the off center picture. If you'd like to see the whole picture just click on it. Sorry!
I've been wanting to try freezer paper stenciling for months, but it was nearly impossible to find freezer paper! I finally found it (after about 2 months of looking), and I was pleased with how easy this project was. I stenciled these onesies for one of my best friends who is having her 1st baby girl in a couple of months. For a great tutorial on freezer paper stenciling go to My Montessori Journey.
These off center pictures are driving me crazy! I've tried resizing my pictures, but it doesn't help, so I apologize for the pictures :(
I've been planning on hanging O's artwork and pictures at her level for a LONG time, and we finally got around to doing it a week ago. I bought lots of these cheap acrylic frames from Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off (so they were REALLY cheap). I hate to use so much plastic, but I didn't think it would be safe to have glass frames down low since she likes to take them off the wall and hold them. O LOVES the pictures. She walks by and says "O likes this one and this one and this one..." She especially loves the baby pictures since she is REALLY into babies right now :)
I gathered several kitchen utensils for O to paint with a week or so ago. She had a great time mixing the paint with them, but she wasn't too interested in actually putting anything on paper :)
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After art time, she had a great time making bubbles with this super cool bubble blower :)I made this memory game for O for Christmas, and I know that she is going to LOVE it! To make the game I cut a piece of balsa wood (from Hobby Lobby) into 10 equally sized pieces, sanded the edges, and decopaged the wallet sized pictures to the boards. The hardest part about making this game was choosing the pictures. I planned on choosing 5 pictures from each year, but I've got 5 pictures here from O's 1st 4 months! I ran out of boards long before I ran out of pictures. I hope to buy more boards soon, so I can finish this game and mark it off my list!
Sorry for another off center picture! It looks perfect in draft form. I don't think that blogging through flickr is going to work out :(
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O was excited about this new way to paint, but she kept looking at the bath scrunchie and was concerned that it had paint on it..JPG)
Here's her pink masterpiece :)
