Count down to Christmas and our Elf on the Shelf returns

You know it's December 1st when you wake up and see this guy hanging around...

Elfie returned...however I think he took one look at all the renovations going on and grabbed onto where the would be chandelier will go and held on for dear life not knowing if he should stay or go. Kind of scary moving into this renovation scene we call a home!

With December 1st came our countdown to Christmas activity boxes. We reused our same boxes from last year as we are in such a mess here I am not sure how we will even get all our activities done! I know they aren't very Christmasy but you can read HERE from last year to see why if you want.

Our first activity was to make snowflakes which we did and they are up on the window but I apparently neglected to take pictures of them. Basic snowflakes...you the the picture :) I did see THESE SWEET BALLERINA SNOWFLAKES after we made ours that we might have to try soon.

December 2nd we found Elfie having a little Cherrio snack. He must have been starving as he was sitting right in the bowl eating them by the handfuls.

Our activities on the 2nd was to make candy cane reindeer and have a candy cane bath. These will be cute on the tree and are a bit different then how candy cane reindeer are made and take a lot of adult supervision due ti the glue gun to hold everything together.

I got the idea for the candy cane bath from HERE. For our bath I found an Aveeno shaving gel for sensitive skin and with no fragrance so it would be safe for Sierra to use. At first it didn't foam up because it was a gel but after stirring it with a paintbrush after adding the food colouring and peppermint oil it puffed up enough :)

December 3rd we found Elfie holding hands with the snowmen candles the girls made last week. He must have been homesick since our snow is all melting.

Sierra and I were sick this day so we opened the days activity which was to make Candy cane playdough and decided to do it the next day when we felt better.

This morning we woke but couldn't find Elfie until after school. He was hanging on the chandelier in our bedroom! Silly Elfie!

We had double the activities to do tonight. Our neighbour Kodey came over and made the Candy Cane playdough with us.

Here the playmobile people are making snowangels

Here is the recipe we used here. I am not sure where it came from but it's my favourite that we have used at daycare for over 20 years so it's tried and tested and I think it's the best!

Homemade Play Dough (makes 4 cups)
takes 5-10 minutes to mix up and about 5 minutes to heat

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tarter
2 cups water
2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
Food coloring, as desired

Directions:

1. In a 2-quart sauce pan, whisk together the flour, salt and cream of tarter. Add the water and oil and whisk until smooth. Add desired food coloring. 

2. Place pan over low heat and cook and stir until it thickens and forms a ball (about 5 minutes increase time for double batches). When it's impossible to stir and looks like a big sticky lump, it's done! :)

3. Turn out onto the counter. Knead the warm dough a few times, and place in a loosely-covered container to cool. Store in a sealed container or ziplock bag when not in use.

After we were finished with the playdough it was time to do today's countdown to Christmas activity which was to make felted candy canes. I saw the idea HERE (which is better explained then what I'm about to write if you want to try them).

First gather your materials. You will need pipecleaners, wool roving in white and red, and a dish of warm soapy water.

Wrap your pipecleaner in white wool roving. My girls did their completely themselves so following the pictures in the tutorial mentioned above will give you better directions :)

Then roll out some red roving very thin and wrap it around the white roving covered pipecleaner.

Add some dish soap directly to the covered pipecleaner and add water and squish and roll it but be careful the roving doesn't ball up and roll off!

 Here is a pic of one before being wet felted and one that was just finished. The wool binds to itself with the warm water, soap and rolling.

 Once dry shape your sticks into candy canes...or put two together for some candy cane love!

We are also starting a new tradition this year of unwrapping a Christmas story each night and reading it together as a family. These are books we had already. I did have to go to the thrift store and pick up a couple more to make up the 24 as we sold off alot of stuff before we moved. We now will have 24 for years to come. Do you have any special Christmas traditions?

Etsy shop opened!!!

I finally got around to trying my luck out on Etsy. I like to make things but the trouble is, I usually only make things as gifts or for myself. I am a jack of all trades so I have a problem with settling down and perfecting one craft! There's too many out there to choose from!

View my shop here!

I only have 2 crowns listed. I have a few more in different colours I will list in a bit. These are crowns I have are left over from an Early Childhood conference I attended with Meadow in February. I am by no means an excellent sewer but these crowns are loved by Sierra and Aayla, and a few of our friends, and hopefully your little ones might like one too!

They are made from wool felt. They do have jewels sewn on so they are not intended for children who still mouth their toys. They have a single piece of ribbon sewn in for a tie. This ribbon tie, allows the crown to be one size fits all from toddler to adult! They are wonderful to use with your play silks for princess, prince and other imaginative play. Sierra is just coming to the age where she like to dress up and play make believe and it is so much fun to watch her imagination develop.

Here's a picture of Sierra with hers.

Sicko Sierra and intro to our first nature table

It's been a long week. Sierra has been sick for about 5 days now. She has never had the flu and it was hard for her to understand what was happening to her. I feel so helpless as a parent trying to explain to a 2 1/2 year what is happening to her poor little body, and there is nothing mommy can do to make her gurgling belly stop, but cuddle together and wait it out!

Today there is a bit of hope, as she is in much happier spirits but still not feeling good. I decided to break out the set of wooden Brown Bear Brown Bear toys I bought from mamakopp which I was going to save for her birthday. She adores that story. It is so fun to watch her read it to her little sister. But she's been so sick and so good about it, I thought she needed a little treat!

She has been snuggling up on this bed in our spare room/craft room alot this weekend. (Really though her favourite spot has been in her daddies arms. He has been her biggest source of comfort.) Please excuse the quality of the photo. Sierra hates her picture taken lately and with her being sick I didn't want to push her for a great shot.

She had fun with a set of owls that mamakopps son Lucas made. (Sierra calls them kitties which I think is cute) She enjoyed matching all the colourful animals from the Brown Bear story to the coloured animals Lucas made.

I am also posting a picture of my current project. I am trying to put together a nature table. I think nature tables are a wonderful way to bring the outside in. I am very intrigued by the the Waldorf philosopy lately and have been spending any spare moments I have looking for good websites about Waldorf. If you have any sites to recommend please leave them in the comments section or email me at siaylaaa@gmail.com.

I found a green scarve at a thrift store to use as the grass until I get a green silkie. This picture is just the begining, a hint of what is to come as the table we are using is the top of an old dresser I store my material, wool felt, embroidery and sewing stuff in and is about 5 feet long. My current project though is my first big needle felting venture and I think it is turning out OK.

It will have removable leaves so it can change with the seasons, it's my version of this one from Manyharmonytrees on Etsy. (I just bought this book from her and can't wait for it to arrive.) I have a long way to go with finishing my tree but it's a glimpse into our first nature table. The wooden animals pictured are from mamakopp, as are the mushrooms. The pine trees are from a dollar store find, the crystal I received in a wonderful swapbot swap months ago, and the curly knotted wood was a recent beach walk.

Hopefully this week when Sierra is feeling better we can go for a walk to to collect some items for our table, and then we'll post some finished pictures. Until then, I hope all is well, enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Making wet felt balls

I wanted to try my hand at wetfelting eggs for Easter this year and found a great tutorial at Resurrection ferns blog. I will be making the girls some eggs as a surprise for Easter, but in the mean time, Sierra and I tried using the same technique but to make balls instead of eggs. She really was a bit too young to do it and I ended up doing most of it but she had lots of fun playing in the water and attempting to squeeze and roll her ball. Next year she should be old enough to try her hand at making eggs :)

Here are some pictures of our process.
After the balls dry I'll post a finished picture