Imagination Station

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Muscaria Mushroom Madness!!!

Today we went for a lovely walk at the Richmond Nature Centre and I was pleasantly surprised!!! I am always searching for mushrooms (incase you didn't notice in previous posts) to take pictures of but today I got to photograph Many Muscaria Mushrooms.

I am not sure why but I love these mushrooms and in all my years of beautiful fall hikes I have never been able to find any.

That changed today...Today we found many! Lots of them had imperfections but I didn't care...I just snapped and snapped and snapped until I was left behind and had to run to catch up with everyone else. I am almost tempted to go back tomorrow while the girls are at school/daycare and take more time getting better shots :)

We'll see...perhaps I have enough photos for now...I was just sooo excited!!!

Yes I did manage to take a few other photos as well...

Aayla Bo Bayla...with a mischievous grin!

Sierra, Grammy and Bluebell enjoying the stroll

As always...more mushrooms

Fall Foilage

Sierra giving us directions on which way to go

Sierra found these witch fingers on the trail and had so much fun with them

A little family of mushrooms

Aayla enjoying Tic Tac Toad and Grammy Sue and Sierra testing out the feely boxes at the Nature House

Visiting the bees

I am so happy to have Muscaria mushrooms off of my list of things I want to photograph some day...(still working on Polar bears) and will still of course photograph more in the future :)

I've put together a little list of mushroom crafts that would all be great to go along with Elsa Beskow's Children of the Forest book. If you don't know this book...go find it! It's wonderful!

and if you want some wonderful wooden goodies to go a long with the book and crafts...check out these by mamakopp on etsy

and these too by barefeetnfreespirit on etsy

Here is a list of some of my favourite Mushroom crafts. Enjoy!!!

Paperbag mushrooms at Mayamade

Spun Cotton Mushrooms at Martha Stewart

Footprint Mushrooms at Crafty-Crafted

Cork Mushrooms at Craftideas

Mushroom Math at Family Education

Adorable Mushroom fairy houses at Pink and Green Mama

and these adorable Mushroom Stools at My Mommy Makes It

Check out my own mushroom ornaments on etsy

I have always loved these mushrooms but feel so inspired now and have some cute tutorials of my own in the works so check back soon...Until then...

Mushroom LOVE to you all!

Another wonderful mushroom toy by Mamaroots on etsy

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Scrap felt=Halloween Pumpkin Heads

Looking for a Halloween idea to use up some of your scrap felt pieces? Here's a simple and fun spin on Mr Potatoe Head... Mr Pumpkin Heads. Simple to make and hours of fun to use!

Using your scrap felt peices

Cut out various shapes for eyes, mouth and noses (you could also let older kids make their own).

Meadow adding some fabric paint accents to the
felt face pieces. Note Aayla in the background
making a felt hat and decorating her shoe ;)

Aayla proud of her shoe decorating and her felt hat

After assembling all of your felt face pieces, stick a velcro dot (rough side with barbs so the felt will stick to it) onto a pumpkin. You could use a real pumpkin but we chose to use a fake pumpkin so we could use it longer without it spoiling (If you have trouble with your velcro pieces sticking to the real pumpkin, you can tack it on by hammering it onto the pumpkin with a small nail).

Allow your children to attach the faces over and over again making new faces every time!

Sierra thinks her pumpkin is too hilarious!

These pieces could also be used on a felt pumpkin shape on a felt board as well and this activity would be perfect to make the pieces to go along with the story Go Away Big Green Monster! Enjoy :)