two peas in a pod

or two buddies sharing the step stool while watching tv .

No, we are not forcing Antonio to sleep on Soren's bed, he is finding the bed all by himself. we also believe that kitten is more as fast enough to escape Soren's hands, still half of the time Soren is snatching him up and only once a while gets scratched from the little wild beast. They are such buddies and good for each other.

 Over a year ago I made a simple quilt top. However I always dread the quilting step. Last night I finally layered this quilttop with thin batting and quilted it during the day with Soren's support. Since he is sick he is very clingy and wants to help me in everything I do. Perhabs it was having him around or the different batting, but for once there is no wrinkle in the back. The quilting is not perfect, but with time it will get smoother.

The last bit of valentine as brownie bites in heart shape. It took two attempts. The first attempt turned out cute, too, but started as a disaster. Brownies stuck in pan, stuck on cookie cutter, stuck on knife --- ending up iin bitty pieces scrambled and decorated, just not as planned.  Simply crazy as normal.

happy valentine's day

 

v.a.l.e.n.t.i.n.e

Thursday night it already started. The tiny valentine actions in the house.

    Writing over 70 little valentine cards for school. No, even Bella still intended to we did not make the kids' valentine cards for all of their classmates this year ourselves. We actually purchased them and Soren's are really neat. Little paper soccerfields with a punch out goal and a paperball to kick. How cool is that instead of candy! He had to test it right away and had a blast. We do have a few handmade valentine roses.

    On Friday afternoon Soren had his Valentine's party at school. Pre-k kids in actions with yummy snacks and goodybags and lots of cards. In the evening all three got ready for the Valentine's dance at school. It was just plain CRAZY. They loved it, I am happy it is over.

- 4th graders -

- pre-k kids -

- 2nd graders -

Today we started on Chiara's heart shaped cookies on a stick for her Valentine party at school and to take a few in the afternoon. We are still working on the last ones with icing and sprinkles and wrapping them all nicely and individually.

artsy crafty kids @ work

Three kids of mine, one kid had a friend over, one kid was happy, one kid was not and one was being the little bugging brother.

However to get everybody busy and smiling we simply got some pink felt out, an old can of tuna finally got used - the kids wondering that it is still full, because nobody wants to eat tuna - , a marker, scissors, needle and thread.

No all that was needed a traced circled from the tuna can onto the felt and cut out and a Chiara's swirl or snail like Soren's snail in the middle of the circle drawn, cut on the line, rolled up and held together with a few stitches.Follow step by step Felted Rose Tutorial from Pretty Handy Girl. The kids did not make up there minds yet how to use their roses yet, attaching them to a stem like a real flower or perhabs a headband or even a belt. I am sure they are coming up with more ideas as they have rosebuds. lol

Don't forget to check out yesterday's post.

Sweet Valentine's - Done

School is out for the week, the valentine cards are handed out and the valentine party is over. The kids are happy. Just Mama is a little disappointed. The school sent home a Cupid Express Order Form to send little surprises and notes to the kids in the school and from student to student if you want to and our order did not got through obviously. Because nothing arrived. No notes, no sweets. It was just a tiny order, but there were supposed to be surprises.

This year we jUsT had to make valentine's for two kids' classes and sunday school, next year we need cover three classes ...

We took these pictures outside last week. just with a closed fist and a strechted out arm.

I resized the pictures about 3x4 so I could fit 2 pictures on a 4x6 prints. Wait for the right timing to print at Walgreens they always offer a good price around holidays & special occasions. I got mine 40% off, the next day I printed 25 and got 25 free. - so I was all set for getting all my january pics printed as well! -

Then the factory line went into works.

I made two small cuts, on on top off the fist and one on the bottom.

Soren handed Bella a lollypop.

Bella slipped the lollypop into the slits.

Chiara added a pieces of tape on the back to hold it inplace just in case.

aLL dONE.

"Crafty Mieschief" Or "one or the other"

It's early when our girls go to the bus in the morning, still dark, so they are days Soren is still sleeping and there are days we crawl back in bed to doze off for a little bit longer. Today was one of those. But Soren wasn't dozing off as long as me and crawled out of my bed and thought he is a "sweetheart" and bringing me breakfast in bed or perhabs was just hungry, because he came back with one of his plastic bowls from the kitchen and set in next to me in bed. A moment later he took my big water glass and tried to fill his bowl with it and dumped it all on me. I was really fast out of bed. Believe me. Walking into the kitchen I find the sugar jar sitting on the floor in the middle of a sugary mess. Thanks, Soren.

So after breakfast with the sun out we went outside. There's enough to do and we took some picture of our papermachee hearts which are finally DONE. Done.

On some we painted the string, on some we didn't and left it natural. A few all red painted hearts we covered with different colored glitter as a little extra. Now we have to see what are going to do with them, after all the work it would be a pity to hide them in a box until next year for Valentines.

Perhabs you find them in you Easter nest again? LOL

Another little birthday present is finished. It is done since a few days, but waited desperately to be filled with crayons. The CRAYON ROLL for a little boy who turns TWO this weekend.

It was so much fun making it that I made two more right away, I just ran out of crayons, because my rolls have 17 instead of 16 slots. One crayon extra. Also I noticed I have a huge stack of fabric, I have no boys fabric besides those two and the frogs are all used up now. But there is more little cowboy fabric perfect for living in Texas.

I hope the little boy will like it as much as I had fun making it.

Do you think the water and sugar incidents were enough mieschief for one day? Then you don't know Soren.

He knows how to open doors since a few days. Fun. More fun he had today whenI changed him in a department store restroom and that stinker locked himself in the stall behind me while I packed my bag again. He and DOORS and LOCKS. Luckily he loves to lock and unlock them, too, because I really did not love the thought crawling underneath the door into the bathroom stall.

Now he is in bed and no more mieschief for today.

Hop, hop, hop

What do you say? I actually started early for once. The first EASTER decorations are done on time. That alone is an acomplishment, but the little felt egg shape ornaments with beaded hearts are also not breakable, I didn't say undestroyable for toddler hands, but I am realisitc and know we do NOT need to blow out real eggs for painting and hanging up. The girls would have a little fun and lots of creativity painting and decorating and we would have LOTS of DRAMA and TEARS and BROKEN eggshells. So, that has to wait another couple years or decades.

I just played a little around before and made this little heart ornament out of felt, but I like the egg once more. Those I fill a little with and it gives them some volume.

Here is a photo of the little gift for my secret valentine Jerrica. She received it on Saturday, so now I can show it to you, too. I send her a notebook with a fabric bookcover and of course it had to have hearts on it, it was a Valentine gift exchange.

a day full of hearts - red, pink, sweet, ...

Just in time we got to hang up our sun catchers at the kitchen window. The girls helped melting red, pink and orange crayons between wax paper with an iron and after letting the paper cool, just simply cut it out. Now we aer out of wax paper (our first roll of wax paper ever. lol)

The girls loved finding their flowers from Daddy in the morning on the table. Next two to little mailboxes with little treats and Soren surprised them with lots of hugs and kisses throughout the morning and a cute little bear for each of them and more hugs.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!


Do you remember this picture? Yes, we were recycling the Cove Herald and making papermache. At this step just soaking lots and lots of strips and tiny pieces of paper for 2 days in water until it looks like oatmeal and mush.

After expressing all the water out of it and adding white glue in the proportion 1 : 4 to the mix we form hearts out of it. It was very sticky and to a long time to try so eventually I just put it on a low temperature in the oven to speed to process up. After all we had plans to get them done by Valentines Day.


We started painting them while Soren was sleeping and still have some work ahead to see how we are finishing them up.

Homemade Valentines Cards

Felt is still the big hit in the house, so we came up with an easy idea to use it for making a few valentine cards.




We took some cardstock cut it in half and folded it to cards.

Traced hearts onto felt and cut them out.

Used a few tiny drops of glue to stick them on the card just so they don't slide of right away.

As last step we used the sewing machine to attach the hearts to the card with a straight or zig zag stitch, once or twice ot three times. It doesn't need to be perfectly straight.

After showing the girls the idea Bella can make them all by themselves and Chiara just needs a little help with the sewing machine.



Preview of our next project in progress:

More Stuffed Little Hearts

Those little hearts are a cute decorations for the house, I just still try to find the perfect spot for them. I even likethem hanging from a doorknob, but Soren disagrees with me and usually takes my doorknob decorations faster down as I put them up.

All hearts have a pocket in the front so I can a little note, perhabs folded or rolled up and a sweet treat with it for my girls on valentines. Perhabs the striped hearts still need a bow, but I didn't make up my mind yet and like them as simple as they are. I hope you enjoy them, too.

Hearts full of Love

Both of my girls were busy sewing hearts last weekend especially Isabell. Look at big pile she made with Oma's help. But she sewed all the bows on by herself and each has a different pearl or bead. She was working really hard all afternoon.

Here is Chiara' heart. Isn't it cute?