Fun things to do with kids #2:- Tiger Ears

We went to the Melbourne zoo the other day. We saw lots of animals. Highlights were the seals in their new pool, the butterfly house

and the lions
Unfortunately the queues were very long to see the new baby elephant so we didn’t get to see her. We had a great fun family day and then we went into the zoo shop. Khye spotted the tiger ear headbands and wanted them. He really wanted them. There were tears. So Sean said “I’ll make you some tiger ears when we get home”!!!!

So a snooze in the car and an hour later, here is the making of the tiger ears!

What is he drawing on the cardboard?

Oh I see, he’s making it like a headband?!

Cutting it out

Trying it on for size. "That'll do"!

More cutting out

What’s he doing now?

Oh okay, he’s making some orange headbands.

Missed a couple of photos here (must have been distracted by Maya) but Sean tells me he glued the orange headbands onto the cardboard headband.

He then asked Khye to point to where he should draw the tiger’s stripes. I would have just asked Khye to draw the stripes himself…

And then it’s time to have fun getting down on all fours and roaring like a tiger!

But there were some problems ‘cos the headband kept falling off his head.

So back to the design table for some modifications.

Looks like he’s sticking some straps on at the back and the front.

Yep and it’s back to roaming and roaring like a tiger!

It’s not how I would have made tiger ears but they both had lots of fun!

(I would have made them like the reindeer ears!)

This week’s bargains…

It’s been a good op shopping week!

Beautiful single bed sheets. They just don’t make sheets like this anymore. Not sure whether I’ll cut these up or use them as sheets. At the moment I’m just enjoying seeing them sitting there adding a little joy to my boring linen cupboard, every time I open the doors!

This cot sheet for Maya. Sean thinks it's ugly but I like it.

Love this vintage kitty fabric remnant.

Also picked up some other fabric scraps, ribbons, buttons and another skirt for myself, a dress and a rattle for Maya and more puzzles for Khye. Still nothing for Sean though - he always complains I never bring anything home for him.

Check out Sophie's flea market finds at Her Library Adventures.

Black Saturday

Thank you to all those who have helped my parents after the fires of Black Saturday. And a huge, special thank you to Jenny and Steve for helping mum and dad save their house and garage during the fire. They couldn't have done it without you.

Our thoughts today are with all those who have been affected by the Black Saturday bushfires.

Fun creative things to do with kids #1: - Reindeer Ears

Well they're not really ears but that's what Khye calls them. Yesterday we made some reindeer antlers. Khye's very creative Grandma gave me the idea, inspired the Eric Carle book "The mixed up chameleon" about a chameleon who wished to be more like other animals, including a reindeer.

It's a simple activity and all you need is some stiff paper or card, crayons or pencils or textas and some tape.

1. Ask your child to spread their hands on the paper or card and trace around them with a pencil.

2. While your child colours in the hands, cut a strip of paper, wrap it around your child's head and tape the ends together to create a headband.

3. Cut out the coloured hands.

4. Tape the hands to the headband.

5. Time to have fun pretending to be a reindeer! Or maybe pretending to be a chameleon wanting to be a reindeer!

I couldn't miss out on all the fun - I made myself some antlers too and we had great fun running around the garden pretending to be reindeer!

I'll have to remember this one for christmas. It would be fun to decorate the antlers with some christmassy glitter!

PS. Thought I might share with you the activities we have fun doing at home in a series of blog posts called "Fun creative things to do with kids". Hope you find it useful and enjoy it!

Skirts & Scarves

My latest op shop finds:

I love the colours of this scarf.

And love the print too! Not sure what I’ll do with this yet.

I love the fabric in this skirt.

But there are too many pleats and the skirt does not look good on me. I will either modify the skirt to suit me or I’ll use the fabric for some other project.

It’s very difficult to take photos when the 2 year old is running around!

I couldn’t go past this scarf.

It is a huge piece of fabric.

Blue is not really my colour but I love the woven design.

Not sure what I’ll make with this either.

I love this skirt.

And it needs no modifications!

Fat chance

So much for the posting every few days! Its been over a week since my last post! Where does my time go? Oh yeah my time goes into a toddler and a 4 month old baby. And to think I was considering a post a day... ha! Fat chance of that ever happening!

This is dried and hardened fat. Looks like beautiful textured lizard skin doesn't it.

I have that horrible sick feeling…

5 years ago we holidayed in the UK and I loved the textured wallpaper that lined the walls of a few of the places we stayed at. It was like puff paint – raised and spongy – and there were some beautiful designs.
I was so excited when we went into a hardware store (I have no idea why we did that on our holiday!) and discovered rolls of wallpaper that you could tear off small samples for free! I collected a sample from every roll and carted it with me for the rest of the holiday, planning to do something with it when I got home. For 5 years it has been sitting in the cupboard waiting until I finally had an idea for it the other day. But when I went to the cupboard to get it out I could not find it. I have searched high and low throughout the house and I cannot find it anywhere. I had a big cleanup last year before Maya was born and I now have this vague memory of discussing with Sean whether I was actually going to do anything with the wallpaper samples or not. And now I can’t remember for the life of me whether I threw it out or put it away very, very safely. I have that horrible sick feeling I have thrown it out. Of all the junk in our house and of all the things I could have thrown out. Sigh…

A million photos

In a bid to update my blog more often and to do something with my arty photographs which are just wasting away on my computer, I am going to try to post a new photo or series of photos every few days. (Maybe I'm setting the bar too high considering I only post every few weeks but lets see how I go!) This is today's photograph which was actually an accident but I love the colours.

Our Holiday

We recently spent 5 days in Callignee at Mum and Dad’s and we all had a great holiday. (This is going to be another one of those long photographic blog entries!)

We had a few very hot days watching beautiful fluffy clouds..

And we spent most of our time out in the cool shade of the paulownia tree which has flourished since the bushfire… There was lots of water play (Mum and Dad have a spring fed dam so no water restrictions were breached)…
There was some pegging fun…
Lots of laughing at “silly grandad”!
Moments spent watching Maya learn to roll (and at only 16 weeks!)… Note the quilt she is lying on – one of Mum’s many beautiful handmade quilts.

There was some climbing up charcoal trees…
And falling down charcoal trees… ouch!
Followed by some sprinkler fun to wash off charcoal…
Sean helped Dad put the roof on the woodshed…
And Dad spent some time staring at his new shed (a bit like the in colourbond ad) … Although the woodshed is not quite complete, it’s a big milestone for Dad to have that done. But there is still plenty of other work to be done.

Khye enjoyed our picnics for afternoon tea every day – particularly when they involved biscuits…
Kiera had stacks of fun running around finding sticks…
We saw some great light shows. First was the neighbours garden filled with Christmas lights… Apparently they won the best Christmas lights in Callignee – not too much competition this year with most residents still rebuilding after the bushfire.

And on New Years Eve we were treated to this fantastic “nature’s light show”…

I managed to catch a lightning bolt!

And yes this is lightning!

New Years Day we went for a drive up the road to Tarra Bulga National Park – one of the last remaining temperate rainforests in Australia. The bushfire just missed the Park, so it is a lush green oasis after being surrounded by the devastation of the fires.
There are many pine plantations on the road up to Tarra Bulga which were not so lucky and burnt in the fires, and unlike native vegetation, pines do not regenerate. But the native trees around Callignee have now well and truly sprouted and are looking really fluffy dominating the bush once again with green…

So how were your holidays? What did you do?

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and hope that you had lots of fun too!