New Year and a Return

We are just returning from our Christmas break and hope you have all had a good start to the year. Every year we try to hand make a few extra stocking fillers for the children and I thought I would share some of the things we made here quickly. Last year I made little monsters, this year my crochet took a slightly different turn.

My daughter is a huge fan of the Despicable me films so I decided to crochet a minion, she was absolutely thrilled on Christmas morning.

I also had a go at making a replica of Edith's hat. Edith is one of the little girls from the film. My son is more interested in games so a Boo was made from the Mario games.

The children love these little extras, my husband also hand made some extra stocking fillers that were amazing. He made a beautiful wooden ring toss game I have put links in if you would like to take a look. A lovely tower of hanoi puzzle and large wooden dice, he also cut out all the parts for a bird house and wrapped them with instructions for the children to make for themselves, which made a good alternative craft present to be put up in our nature garden.

We also made some catnip mice for new our kittens, can't forget presents for them. I would like to introduce our newest members here at lightly enchanted Crow and Tesla.

This was a photograph from when they first arrived, they are a little larger now. Crow was named after two things, the bird is a spiritual messenger and also a character from my husbands favourite series in which a crow was the nickname for a member of the nights watch. Tesla is named after one of our favourite genius inventors, Nikola Tesla, the master of lightning. They have both been exploring the garden a lot lately and are learning how to get along with the chickens.

Happy New Year

I know it's a belated Happy New Year as I have been taking some much needed time off to spend with my family, but I thought I would send you all good wishes for this year and share some of the things we made over the Yule season.

As we had been studying life on the home front during WWII, we thought it would be nice to try and hand make some of the small stocking presents for the children. During the war many children received home made gifts at Christmas time and we thought this would make a change from the usual gifts. My husband made some beautifully turned spinning tops and cup and ball sets and I thought I would have a go at amigurumi, a sort of miniature crochet toy.

There are many patterns online but I had a huge problem following them and in the end I gave up and made up my own simply based on the style of a hat I made for my daughter last year. Not bad really for a first attempt, I have tried to give the little monsters a character matching one of the children's interests. A little ballerina and an alien, I had plans for more things but totally ran out of time.

We even made Christmas gifts for the cat, he has a little felt bird on a stick complete with feathers and catnip.

It has been very cold here the last couple of weeks and the children have spent a lot of time playing in the snow, they have also conducted so many experiments I have lost count. It has been cold enough to freeze the water in the chicken feeder on a daily basis, giving us beautiful ice bowls which have been saved in the freezer to be used as lanterns.

This is the smallest one with a candle inside, so beautiful... definitely worth saving. I hope you are all having as interesting start to the new year as we are.

Melted Fabric Flowers

Over the Winter I have been trying out a few crafts and I thought I would share a couple of photographs here with you quickly. Melted fabric flowers are something I have been wanting to try for a few years, and kept putting off, but as it turns out they are quite simple.

I have cut out a few circles of man-made fabric decreasing in size towards the middle and snipped the edges where the petals should go. Then you slowly lower the edges towards a candle flame...I started quite high above the candle you will notice when the fabric starts to melt probably about 4 to 6 inches above the flame, you need a gentle approach here and never get low enough to touch the flame.

Man made fabric melts whereas natural fabric would probably burn, I took safety precautions here and had a bowl of water close by just in case but nothing has ever caught fire. As you can see in the photo when the edges melt they curl inward like flower petals. I have stacked together a few colours and glued beads in the center to give the flower an anemone look.

I used one of the flowers on this hand made card for my daughter. I also sewed one on the crochet hat I made for my youngest daughter.

This hat was very simply worked without a pattern just increasing from a ring until it was the right size. I made the flower to go on the side of the hat as seen in the above photo but my daughter had other ideas and always wore it on the front of her head like a little mini pink Dalek.

Crochet Snowflake

Just a quick post to show you the crochet snowflake I made earlier, as you know my husband and I usually try to make some new decorations for the tree each year. This year I have already made quite a few things but I set myself the challenge of making a crochet snowflake... so here it is.

Not too bad for a first attempt... I hope anyway. It is made with metallic silver thread and I was thinking of making a garland of them for the window but I have dropped the thread in my coffee and had to wash it. Really hope it will be OK but it seems to be taking ages to dry so one hanging decoration will have to do. I got the pattern for this snowflake from pinterest, if you would like to make one I'll post the link to attic24 here.

Chinese new year and review

We have had so much fun learning about the Chinese new year celebrations, we have done many craft projects, some of them have been featured in previous posts. We have also located China on our globe and looked up it's flag, as part of our China project we have looked at traditional lion dancing, some of the history through stories and studied the well known story of how the new year animals came to be. We have also looked at some man made features and some of the geological features of the country, naturally, as there are many dinosaurs dug up there!

We didn't stop there though, the children are always very excited to learn new things, so my son tried out some Chinese writing, they both learned how to say 'happy new year' in Chinese and the chorus of a Chinese new year song. Which my 2 year old daughter has been singing constantly! We had a home cooked Chinese meal to celebrate with fortune cookies and of course they had the red envelopes that we made and filled with 8 coins each for luck.

The little gifts you can see in the above photograph were from my eldest daughter, who not only managed to find Chinese gifts, she also found some Chinese coins for the children to see close up. They had such a good time and learned so much they are now wondering what the next celebration is and which country we will be studying next. I'll have to get thinking on that one!

As for me, well I have been trying to crochet these mittens for my daughter... trying being the appropriate word, she has lost hers and as it is still a little cold so she will need some for about another month. I decided to crochet the mittens as it looked easier than knitting them, the thumbs had me confused every time! I know they are not perfect or even close to looking like the pattern but they will do for a month and she loves them. When it gets warmer I'm going to pull them out and try again with a simpler pattern for next winter. It's all good practice isn't it?... and I obviously need lots of practice!

Quick Update

    December has roared in with lots of snow and freezing cold weather, and for the last week or so we have been stuck inside due to stomach bugs and bad weather. Only venturing outside to play with the snow in short bursts as it is so cold. We have been getting ready for the Yule / Christmas craft sessions and choosing which things we will try to make. Very exciting stuff!

   I still haven't improved much with the crochet, I made the above headband for my daughter, but not much else. I think maybe using the cheap wool that has been in the craft cupboard for years is probably not a good idea, so before I carry on with more I'll probably buy some of the good wool.

     With the onset of bad weather our thoughts have been with the birds that visit our garden, my husband and the children have been busy making bird feeders from coconut shells as you can see above, and various other ways of feeding the birds. If you would like to read more on our bird feeders you can check out my husbands blog here. Last year we made bird treats by rolling pine cones in peanut butter then in bird seed, which they loved, both the birds and the children.

   My husband has also been making lots of these little wooden plaques for me, various designs and all from recycled materials. Isn't he handy and thoughtful and just plain lovely. If you would like to read more about these and see all the other designs have a quick look here .

   

    Well, that was a very quick round up but I will be back here very soon with some of our Yule / Christmas crafts. We are intending to make as much as possible ourselves, some hand made things make the season much more magical and will bring many lovely memories for future years.

Not so guilty pleasures?

    As you can see I have been trying to make good use of my time now that my university courses have finished for this year. I have been putting absolutely everything off until the studying was finished as I kept feeling guilty if I did something that wasn't studying!!... Even if I was up to date or ahead with my studies or the project was small, as in the patch on my daughters jeans that you can see above, I wouldn't allow myself the time off from studying because I felt guilty. I will have to work on this and be a bit more lenient with myself... everyone is allowed free time... right?

   The patch above was one of the first things I did after the exam finished, before you laugh and point out all the mistakes in the sewing I must just say that this is the first time I have done anything like this for a very long time and my daughter really loves the little bee. I have chosen to patch the jeans as they still fit and have a lot of wear left in them. The embroidery on the patch also fits in completely with the jeans as they have lots embroidery all over them in the same style.

    I have also been catching up with some reading and have got through quite a few books and I have been trying to re learn how to crochet... I have practised all of the stitches and I am now the creator of many granny squares with which I am going to make into bedding for my daughter's dolls cot. I am hoping to give it a vintage feel hence the crochet blanket and maybe a patchwork quilt too.

   It is so nice to have some free time to do all the things I've been putting off for so long... It is quite hard to shake the feeling that I should be studying... but I definitely have a few months off to enjoy my not so guilty pleasures.