colored pencil on wood

 

Ji drew a pine tree and a mushroom on a

wooden "cup" for Sl for his name day today

... when it comes to small art, i like using colored pencils

more than paint - nicer detail and a lot less messy :)!!!

after, give it a coat of translucent paint so it won't smear.

black current syrup

i'm not that fond of black currents to eat fresh off the bush, but this is THE BEST berry syrup i have ever had and i finally had enough black currents to make make it this year :)

the recipe is form a different friend than the aronia syrup recipe, so it's a little different :

- 4 kg of black currents
- 2 liters water
- 50 g of citric acid
- sugar - for every 1 liters of current juice 1 1/2 kg of sugar

- MUSH the berries by hand (try to mush all of them), ADD citric acid, cover and let stand for 2 days to ferment
- STRAIN the juice from the berries and try to squeeze out all of the remaining juice from berries (do it over the strainer).
- in a pot combine juice with SUGAR and bring to a BOIL and remove from burner.
- GATHER and discard the foam from the top (so it doesn't go moldy).
- FILL bottles and cap. (my friend also recommended before putting the top on, dipping it in the citric acid to help preserve).

p.s. my friend uses this recipe for all kinds of berries.
p.p.s. you can recycle and use empty glass bottles with twist-off tops.

sandwich napkin-bags

made some cloth sandwich napkin bags for my nephew, who is starting kindergarten in a couple of days :)

(inspired by ikea pillow cases, only with the flap on the outside!)

really easy...

- cut desired size (plus flap)

- with the fabric heighth-wise, sew a top and bottom seam,

- fold over with what is going to be the outside facing in with the flap folded in and pin sides,

- sew the right and left sides together + zigzag edge stitch,

- turn inside out (you will have the flap open), put sandwich inside and flip flap closed! yay!

- after you finish eating, you can use it as a napkin ;)

p.p.s. when washing make sure you rince well and don't use fabric softener so it doesn't get into your food!

snail pouch

.....Ji loves snails :)

....btw, this is an awesome! stitch library that i came across and plan on visiting often!

bathing outside :)

...can you tell he was having so much fun ?!!

t-shirt applique

it was sailor day at Ji's preschool today :)

this was a last minute t-shirt applique and it was quick and easy.....yesterday i found out that it was going to be sailor day today at Ji's preschool and since he didn't have anything appropriate, i had to make something.

i've had some freezer paper on my supply shelf for a while and so i decided i shoud finally try it.

- it worked great! it made drawing the design and cutting it out so much easier! just drew the deisgn onto the f-p, cut it out, ironed it on the applique fabric, cut it out, peeled off the f-p(careful w/ sharpangles!), glued onto shirt (using fabric glue) and sewed it on.

salt shaker



one of my mom's beautiful ceramic pieces

 

ornamental raspberry

plain old wooden building blocks

Ji is at the age where he loves to build. he loves his legos but he loves his wooden blocks just as much!.....it reminds me how much we (and mainly toy manufatureres!) underestimate our children's imaginations. we should give them more room to have fun and explore...
   
every day i am surprised with how wonderful Ji's imagination is...this is a parking garage :)

p.s.these are plain ol' jenga blocks and all natural wooden fire-starter strips - a while back when i was at the hardware store a large and really cheap bag of natural wooden strips caught my eye and i read the label: wooden fire-starter strips!?!?...natural strips of wood, all the same length and width. of course i bought them, but not to burn, to play with :)!

fabric stamp designed by Ji

no, i'm not still on "vacation". we have been home for almost month already and i haven't posted because i have been busy with mainly...uh hum...spring cleaning (especially organizing winter and outgrown boys' clothing into boxes and then up into our attic).

we did this with Ji about a year ago and i use the bag for grocery shopping every week ;)!  

the idea came from this wonderful book: Printing by Hand by Lena Corwin.

you need:

- have your child draw a design,

- pen and paper,

- craft foam paper,

- piece of cardboard,

- piece of fabric,

- fabric paint

- roller or a sponge 

directions:                                                  

1. trace drawing onto craft foam paper    

- first trace the original drawing onto another

piece of paper, then trace onto the foam paper

making sure it indents through onto the foam, 

btw - the paper will tear...                                 

2. cut out and glue onto cardboard               

3. using roller or sponge apply fabric paint to the stamp

4. have your child do the printing (we used this IKEA fabric)

5. and you do the sewing ;)

p.s.  it's supposed to be a flower :)

at first he drew one stem, then he looked at it, drew another,

looked at it again and said "and now i need to connect it here..."

it was so cute to watch him draw it:)

it reminds me of a little cloud with a ladder.