« January 2008 | Main | March 2008 »
A wintery day, a road trip, a flat tire, a gas station, an awesome papa who can lift up the whole car, a friendly cashier who digs Hotwheels, an almost fresh donut, a hot cocoa, a cold papa, a fixed tire, a fresh start . . . overheard on the way home . . . "Hey Poppy can we get another flat tire?"
Ivo to donuts: "If lovin' you is wrong, I don't wanna be right!"
I think I posted about our shadow puppet theater a few months ago. It's just a plain old cardboard box, with a square cut out of one side and then covered over with freezer paper. It didn't cost any money at all to make, and it's one of those toys that never seems to lose it's appeal. We get it down every so often, I guess once a week maybe, and it's always good for a few laughs. Ivo recently invented a new way to play with it, too. It's a guessing game, and here's how it's done . . .
1. Collect several items from around the house. They should have a distinctive shape. Or not. They can just be whatever.
2. Set up the shadow puppet box with a light, and the items you collected. We used an apron as a tablecloth here to hide the basket of items from the audience.
3. One by one, hold the items up to the paper and see if the audience can guess what they are based on the silhouette.
4. Then we get to see if we've guessed correctly . . . the big reveal . . .
Good old-fashioned family fun, like the parlour games of yester-year. And I know they didn't have YouTube in yester-year, but Ivo loves these shadow puppet video clips, so I'll post a few links to them here. Also a link for how to make your own shadow puppets . . . fun!
Ivo's favorite one (He says "That poor hippo just wants to play!")
How to make your own shadow puppets (My favorite-- gotta love "Vampire Ducky")
Kings among men, and I mean it. Happy Birthday guys. We love you!!
Thank you so much to everyone who entered their names into the crafty giveaway drawing I announced last week! I am so amazed and beyond grateful for all the kind and encouraging comments you left for me. And it is really neat to see readers from all over the world. I feel like I have pen pals on every continent. Well, except Antarctica (any penguins or scientists out there? Time to de-lurk yourselves!) So now without further ado I will present the four names drawn out of this little cowboy hat, on loan from a three-foot-tall cowboy who was passing through the living room this evening:
The winners are:
Allison
Hollie
Stacey of Blooming Fields
and Meghan D.
I will send you each an email to tell you that you won and to find out where to send your package. Expect a little cheerful mail in a few days!
Thanks for playing to everyone. And don't worry if you didn't win, cause you can still make your own!
And a little somthing for the family members that mostly come here to see pictures of Ivo . . . Here are an action shot and a glamour shot, both from today. The cowboy didn't have his portrait made, because he was too busy wrangling the vacuum cleaner. ("Mama, this is still 829,but I'm pretending it is a horse named Jon Stewart, ok? Gibby-up!")
Today we hosted another art party, this one with a Valentine theme. In all of the hustle and bustle, the only picture I took was this one, of Ivo and his friend watercolor painting in our building's community room. I cropped the photo because I don't post pictures of other people's children online-- but they were both all smiles.
We always use the community room for art gatherings because the children usually aren't interested in doing a table project if they are in a house full of someone else's toys. So we start off in the "art room" and move toward the toys later on. This particular party lasted six hours-- oy! No one wanted to go home-- which must mean I am the hostess with the mostest :) The most messy-fun art supplies that is. It was so much fun to spend a whole day with our friends. First we made picture frames for the dads with lots of glue and paper hearts, and of course a picture of each kid with his or her dad. Then we took a break for a morning snack. Our friends eat a much more selective diet than we do--all organic, no meat, no added sugar-- which is a very good influence on Ivo and me (who are known to entertain the odd salami sandwich and chocolate pudding). Snack was organic pear, apple, and banana slices and whole-grain crackers, then some playing with toys, LOTS of running in the hallways, laughing, playing musical instruments, then it was time for lunch (organic peanut butter on sprouted grain bread, served with bell pepper and cuke slices with homemade hummus), then watercolor painting and more playing (and veggie snacking) before it was almost four o'clock and we all had to go our seperate ways. After we waved good-bye to our friends and headed back down the hallway, Ivo reached up to hold my hand and said, "Mama, I have to tell you a secret. I really love sugar. I really, really do. Can we get a donut?" When Josh got home and asked Ivo how his party was, Ivo said, "Fun," and Josh said, "What was fun about it?" Ivo's reply . . . "Eating with my friends. And pooping with them." And to think I spent over an hour cutting paper hearts and mixing watercolors!
And by the way, he got the donut. I am a pushover for those sweet supplications :)
If you wondered where it is all of those scraps are coming from, the ones I talked about re-using for Wednesday's project, many of them are coming from these birthday banners I have been making for family and friends. Have you ever noticed how many people have February birthdays? I mean besides the Presidents who shall remain nameless, only because I'm not 100% positive that it's Lincoln (*swoon*) and Washington (heh, wooden teeth--yikes!). In our family it's Papa/Josh, our nephew Quinn, My Grampa, Uncle Jason, Uncle Jack, and three little friends, who will all be turning three. I think I may have forgotten a few . . . apologies!! Anyway, I think February must be the best month of all for a birthday. Something festive to look forward to during a sort of "blah!" time of year. And aren't these banners festive:
They are made on double-sided cardstock, too. So they can be hung in mid air--like suspended over one of those super-wide doorways or something--and look pretty from each direction. Our apartment doesn't really have anywhere to display them, though, except above Ivo's "deli". So he thinks it's his birthday. Is that such a crime? nah.
Here's a funny Ivo quote: I was giving him a bath and said, "Ivo you have the cutest litte belly. It is just adorable." He thought for a minute and then said, "Mama, your belly is NOT cute. It is big and wavy. It is BEAUTIFUL." big, wavy, beautiful? Too bad it's not my hair he's talking about! But I'll take it anyway :)
I am so happy to finally have a chance to make this blog post! What a crazy couple of days we've had. And by the way, THANK YOU for every kind and encouraging word. I know I am behind on answering emails but I really appreciate every thought sent my way. And I hope everyone who reads this will scroll down to the bottom of this post and take a minute to enter my giveaway drawing. I have four little cheerful bundles ready to brighten the day of some faraway friends. Each little package includes a Scrap Happy Recycled Stationery Kit (what's that, you ask? Just keep reading!), some pretty clothespins as seen here (you know, for your kitchen and other clippy needs), and some other assorted goodies to surprise and delight. If you've never left a comment on my blog before, now is a good day :) It's fun to see who's out there, and where, and I am more than happy to ship overseas, so don't be shy! I'll leave the comments open until next Wednesday, and draw the names on Thursday (Valentine's Day). Don't forget to leave your email so I can tell ya that you won. Your email will only be visable to me and I promise not to spam ya'll.
Now, what I have been wanting to share for a few days . . . something cute and fun that I hope you will enjoy. . .
Over the years I have gotten so many free patterns and crafty lessons from the internet and more specifically, from other blogs, and today I am going to try my hand at making a craft tutorial to share. Technical writing is not my specialty, as you will see, but luckily I think I was able to snap enough pictures that the basic instructions should be pretty easy to follow. This project has a difficulty rating of . . . not difficult at all. And the total expense should be about a dollar well spent at the scrapbook paper shop ( a lovely way to spend a winter's hour, let me tell you!)
Okay, here goes the craft tutorial . . .
Scrap Happy Recycled Stationery Kit
This project consists of a paper wallet that holds re-usable scraps of paper for jotting down quick notes and shopping lists. When your wallet gets too old to use, it can become the scrap paper for the next one--clever :)
What you will need:
Step 1: Cut the big piece of cardstock to 10x 6 inch rectangle.
Step 2: Fold it exactly in half as shown below. The outside of the wallet is shown face up here.
Step 3: Now measure 1 ¾ inches from each of the short ends, and fold again. What you have now should look like the picture below. There are three creases in all.
Step 4: Cut two circles from the coordinating cardstock, mine here are 1 ½ inches across and 1 ¼ inches across. It doesn’t need to be exact. Use the nail to poke a hole in the center of each circle, and in one side of the paper wallet, about 3 ½ inches from the center crease.
Step 5: Stick about 2 inches of the string through the hole in the wallet, then poke the brad through the small circle, then the bigger circle, and then the wallet with the string sandwiched between the wallet and the bigger circle. Fasten the brad down tightly.
Step 6: Stitch up both sides of the wallet as shown, or use tape if you like.
Step 7: Now fill your wallet with scraps of paper and you are done! You can leave love notes or make your grocery list on your own recycled paper. Too cute!!
Now don't forget to leave a comment so you can win a funky cute stationery kit like this one! And yours will be filled with all of my best most beautiful scraps, with hand stamping and other fun details.
Have a wonderful day everyone!!
. . . I'll have to try that again tomorrow. We've had one of those days today that just seemed to go into a tailspin! I promise to be back tomorrow with details. Now I am off to veg in front of TV with a blankie and a cup of something warm. . . goodnight . . .
