Doodle Stitching

I think the title of this blog describes my life and my personality perfectly, organized chaos!  I originally was going to focus on using this blog to get my life in order and be held accountable for the commitments that I have published.  For the first couple months everything was going along great but then life happens and things start to get busier on the homestead as spring draws near.  So I am all over the map with my blogging, I hope you don't mind! 

Today I am going to post about some embroidery that I have been doing.  I bought this book last year and have really enjoyed using it for different projects and ideas.  Doodle Stitching can be seen here.

The first project that I did was a pillowcase.  It was meant for my mom but it hasn't made its way there yet, oops!  

I traced this pattern onto the pillowcase using pencil and then when it was done threw it in the wash and it came right out.  I used two different patterns - the rainbow and the bird family.

I used a split stitch for the rainbow, cloud and the branch.  I used a simple back stitch for the birds.  For the leaves I used a satin stitch and for the eyes a french knot.  I know it seems like a lot of different stitches but believe me they are all pretty simple. 

For the edge I actually just free-handed a flower and stem design.  Overall it turned out pretty good.  I'll have to wait and see who gets to use it, someones birthday must be coming up soon....



Momma Time

I am not sure if this was really classified as "Momma Time" or "Bribed Time" from Momma Senior!  Last year I decided that I would make something from ceramics for my mother for Mother's Day.  Instead of having the task of searching the rows trying to find the perfect piece that would best suit my Mother's taste I decided to leave it up to her.  So on Mother's Day I told her I would take her to the ceramic shop and she could pick whatever she wanted and I would paint and finish it for her.  She choose an 18th century man and then politely asked if I would also paint the lady to go with it.

The man was done in no time and she was very happy with it.  The lady however has taken some time to get into.  With some 'gentle' nagging from my mother and me deciding that this lady was going to be finished before anything else gets started has resulted in it being finally DONE!!!

She is painted using acrylic paints and is finished with a spray varnish that can be purchased at any craft store.  She stands about 30 cm or 12 inches tall.

Obviously as an artist you always will think that there could be more to do on a piece and different things that could have been done.  I did enjoy the time I spent painting (even if it was somewhat forced) and would say it was some Momma to Momma time.  The important part is that I showed it to my mother and she was really happy with it and really that's all that matters.

Early Easter

I know that it is a little early to be thinking about Easter but the way I look at it if I don't start now then I'll just be rushed once Easter is upon us.  So this was our first Easter craft for all your wee ones to enjoy.

Materials:
       Foam sheets
       Stamps
       Glitter Glue

Easter Eggs

Cut an egg shape out of your foam.

These are the stamps that we used because they were given to the wee ones for a birthday.  They work really well because they re-stamp themselves.

And they are done before you know it!  This is a really easy craft that takes little effort, little time and very little clean up.

Easter Eggs Part 2

For the next Easter eggs we cut out some more egg shapes from the foam sheets.

Then we used glitter glue to decorate them.  This is available at most stores.  I'm sure you can get better Easter colours but this is what we had.

Here are the results.

Again this was a pretty easy craft that had little clean up. (which is my favourite kind)  The wee ones liked that it was open palette and they could chose their colours.  I even managed to do one while the wee ones were working on theirs!

Earth Hour

In Tune With Mother Nature~Anonymous

If you listen for the songbirds
As they greet the summer sun,
And love the way the wind can make
The trees sings just for fun;

If you like to hear the ocean
As it drums upon the shore,
And imagine all the whales out there,
And hope they'll sing some more;

If you think of all the animals
As players in a band,
Each with a lovely tune to play,
All needed on the land;

And know that as a boy or girl
A woman or a man
You have a vital role to play
In Mother Nature's plan;

If you honor every living thing
As a part of nature's treasure
You're in tune with Mother Nature
 So let's all sing her song together.
  

Photo Friday

This Moment

familiar

caring

cuddles

love

friendship

Playdough

Today I decided to stop putting off making playdough for Sadie's Kindergarten class.  The teachers have been sending home the recipe and asking the parents to make some now since September.  It was always on my list of things to do but never seemed to get done.
So today while Seth and daddy were out doing the chores I decided that I was going to tackle this task.  I was surprised that it only took 15 minutes from start to finish.  The recipe was super easy to follow and make and there was no cooking. 

Here is the recipe:

Mix together 2 cups of flour and 2 Tbsp. cream of tartar.  In a separate bowl, mix 1/2 cup of salt, 4 Tbsp vegetable oil and food colouring.  Add 1 1/2 cups of boiling water.  Mix the contents of bowl 1 and 2 together.  Once mixed knead it together until the colour and consistency are what you desire.  I also added some vanilla to the recipe to make it smell a little better too.

I probably could have made it a little prettier but when I thought of the 26 little hands that will be molding it and realizing that it will only last a couple days I decided that this was good enough.

Life on the Farm

Today started off with us putting one of our momma-to-be cows into the barn.  She was suppose to have her calf around this time of the year and sure enough when we checked her we saw little feet starting to peak out. 
So while she was being set up in a nice quiet stall of the barn the wee ones and I were out enjoying the mud and puddles.  All of a sudden another cow came charging out of the barn, looked at us and turned and ran off in another direction.  Of course I instantly grabbed up the wee ones and put them in the back of the pick-up truck to stay safely out of the way of a confused cow.

Of course the kids loved it and thought it was very exciting!  With the aid of our helper Katie (our dog) and about 20 minutes of running around we had the confused cow happily back in the barnyard.  Of course it was just that we hadn't gotten around to closing the barn door and of course it was a cow that wouldn't go into the barn when you wanted it too even if you left it a lovely grain trail.

After about an hour of quiet and time to push, momma had a lovely baby calf.  Sadie decided to call it snowangel, which is what every calf has been named this year regardless of sex or colour.

This isn't the best picture but I didn't want to bother the new momma and baby too much, especially with the flash because our barn is pretty dark.

After making sure everything was ok with the new baby the wee ones decided to go and check the rest of the herd.  They love going around the barnyard and checking the cows.

I decided to go and check my strawberry patch.

It's still pretty cold and wet.  I planted it new last year and got a lot of berries from it.  Hopefully it comes back this year and is even better.



Spring is FINALLY here!

On this first day of spring I decided to embrace the warm sunshine and gentle breeze.  The wee ones went with their Uncle to enjoy one last day on the ice fishing while I stayed home and did the most spring inspired chores I could think of.  I spent an hour in my flower beds, just trimming back old stems and clearing out dead leaves since the ground is still very much frozen.

Then I decided since it was wash day I was going to hang a load of laundry out on the clothes line.  It felt great to hang up the clothes and see them blowing in the breeze.  It is a sure sign of spring when you see clothes hanging on the clothesline!

Watery Day

Well the farm is changing on a daily basis here.  I am starting to see the signs of spring everywhere you look.  The wee ones love it as well since they no longer have to worry about the super cold weather that we have had this winter.  The scarves have been put away!!  The mitts, hats, coats, snow pants, and boots remain!  One step at a time right?

It started with a HUGE rain the other night which didn't melt a lot of snow but did cause a lot of back up and puddles.

We had to unclog the ditches at the end of the road.  The whole family came out to help.

This is what it looks like just outside the barnyard.  We actually had to make little dams and direct the water away from our well and house.

Of coursed the wee ones LOVED the huge puddles and were jumping, running, splashing, discovering and doing just about whatever momma would let them do outside in the cold water.  This is our backyard right now.  I don't think their snow pants are helping keep the water out too well.

One of my own signs of spring is when we see a leftover apple from last year on the ground.  First it means that the snow is melting and second it means that there are new apples just waiting to get out and replace it. 

The wee ones had so much fun but were ready to go in because they were getting WET and COLD.  It was great spending the time outside playing in puddles, even if they are more like small ponds right now.



Of course after the time outside in the puddles there was a load of laundry left too do but everything is washable so I don't mind.  We had so much fun playing together.  Take the time this spring and go jump in some puddles with your wee ones, I can guarantee that everyone will have fun.

Garden Tour

Well since little miracles do happen (meaning my mom has offered to take the wee ones for another night) I thought I would use this time to give you a garden tour.

This is what my garden looks like right now.

Yes, no joke, up here in Canada we still have HEAPS of snow!  I have started my green house indoors hoping that the snow will melt in the next couple of weeks. 

Here are my apple trees in the back yard.

The trees have lost their snow and are looking a little better but I really want spring!  If you wondering what those little yellow things are it is the roofs of the wee ones plastic cars. 

Please say it with me: MELT SNOW MELT
                                 MELT SNOW MELT

Baking Day

Today we took a nice long walk outside because although there is still a lot of snow it was a beautiful sunny day.  The sun was so warm shinning on our faces and the wee ones just loved getting outside and exploring for signs of spring.

Of course our trusting companion had to come along too.

A sure sign of spring when the creeks start to open up again.

Beautiful scenery along the way.

Sadie got her first digital camera for her birthday last

year and is already an avid picture taker!

I absolutely love the farm at the end of this road. 

One of my favourite places to be.

After our morning walk we took some time to do some baking.  The wee ones love to help with anything in the kitchen so why not bake?!

Making a cake with our "fun" aprons on.

I asked them to go shopping for the ingredients (while I actually prepared the real ingredients) and this is what they came back with.  Luckily for Eclipse "cat" wasn't in the recipe!

Here is a recipe that has been passed along to me from an Aunt.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/3 cup flour

2 cup oatmeal

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 pk (1cup) chocolate chips

Mix it all together.  Take out spoon size balls and place on greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes.

Hope you are having a great March Break so far.  The wee ones are off to their grandparents for a fun sleepover tonight.  They are so excited and so am I!

Creative Hands

The March Break has been going really well in this house.  The wee ones are loving all the time spent together and today we even went to our local theatre and watched a puppet show and concert geared towards 2-7 year olds.  So if you are looking for something to do this week check out your local theatre to see if there are any shows for kids.  The best part of the show was the price - FREE!

Also the local pool and skating rinks have free public swims and skates all week long everyday so you can check those out too.

Our craft today was rock lady bugs!

SUPER EASY

Materials needed:
           rock
          acrylic paint - white, red and black

Pick out a rock that you would like and paint it white.  *It is easier to cover something when it has a base coat of white.  Once that is dry paint the rock red.  Let that dry.  Paint on the head and spots with the black paint.  You can add googly eyes if you wish and spray it with some varnish too.  I wanted to put them in the only plant that I can keep alive in our house - a cactus- but the wee ones thought differently!

Cute and like I said SUPER EASY!

Enjoy.

Eggsperiment Part 2

Here is another fun "Eggsperiment" that we have done.  This project is making egg heads.  I got the idea from the book Creative Kids, Exploring Nature which you can see here.

Materials you will need:
          egg shells
          permanent markers
          soil
          grass seed
          water

After you have used a cleanly cracked egg, was the shell.  When it is dry draw a face (carefully) on the shell with the permanent marker.  Make sure the open end of the egg is the top of the head.  Fill the egg with soil and sprinkle some of the grass seeds on top.  *You may use other seeds as well for different effects.  Put some water on the soil to keep it damp.  Put the eggs back in the egg carton and place in a nice sunny location.  Pretty soon the seeds will sprout and you will have some nice hair on top of your egg heads that you can trim however you want.

Putting the seeds in

Making them look good

Seth very proud of his egg head

Put in a sunny window to start growing hair

Eggsperiment

Well the March Break has officially began and we decided to start things off with a little science.  The science experiments that I will be showing you are pretty simple because my children are only 3 and 4 years old but it is a great starting ground for someone who would like a little scientific inspiration and then you can go from there.

For this experiment you will need:
                                            1 clear glass jar with a lid
                                            1 egg
                                            Vinegar

You start by placing a whole (in shell) raw egg in the jar, careful not too break it.  Then you cover the egg with vinegar and put the lid on your jar.  Let it sit for approximately 1 week.  You will notice the shell starts to dissolve because the vinegar eats away at the calcium of the egg shell.

You will roughly be able to see the yolk inside the egg.  I put it in a fairly small jar to start with and had to change halfway through because the egg expands when it fills with vinegar as well.

This picture isn't very clear but it is the egg after a week in the vinegar.



The egg on the left is the vinegar egg and the one on the right is a regular raw egg.  As you can tell the membrane of the egg stays intact. 

You can press down on the egg and it feels like rubber. Just don't press too hard or it will pop.  We even bounced it a little in the bowl.  It would bounce from about 3-5 inches off the bowl but only carefully dropped.

And Seth did drop it a little too hard, which made Sadie slightly upset!  I was amazed that the yolk was still actually pretty strong.  Another good thing is that after sitting for a week on our counter it didn't even smell when it broke.

Thinking about what to do next!  Don't forget to turn your clocks ahead as well for 'spring ahead'!  I can't wait for more sunshine.