Although Spring didn't officially begin until the following week, we in Virginia got our first real delicious taste of the warm weather, and we made sure to take full advantage of it. We went outside right after breakfast and played for a while. I worked on writing shipping labels for swaps, and eventually Sugar Bear and Daddy went to work on one of the cars and Rainbow Girl and I had circle time.
Rainbow Girl looks so sweet doing the movement verse in our circle time that I had to take line by line pictures.
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| "I see!" Said the Bee. "I can see to the top of the tall tall tree!' |
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| "Ah!" Said the Star. "I can see far!" |
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| "Oh!" Said the Gnome. "My home is in the stone." |
The next day, I worked on completing some snuggly dolls for a nursery toy swap that I am in. I wrote a tutorial on how to make them, if you are interested in the process.
While I was working on the dolls, Sugar Bear found a piece of scrap fabric and requested that I make him a coat out of it. Since I already had the sewing machine out, I went ahead and did two lines of stitching on it, making sleeves. He is quite pleased with it.
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| Sugar Bear with one of the completed dolls. |
Later that day, we received a package of items from the spring time animal children's swap that the kids participated in. You may recall that my children made mama birds and nests with eggs to send in for this swap. They were very pleased with everything that they got in return.
Rainbow Girl has been requesting to make little flower fairies. She purchased one at the Waldorf Holiday Bazaar that she has loved and taken car of for months, but wanted her to have some friends. I looked closely at the handmade doll to see what she was made of and off to Michaels Crafts we went.
The dolls are made out of one pipe cleaner, one wooden bead for the head, some wool locks for hair, two feathers for wings, a lovely thready yarn for her dress bodice, and a false flower for her dress bottom.
For the false flowers, I made sure to pick flowers that did not have plastic "veins" on them and that were attractive from all sides.
Her original doll has an acorn hat, but as it is the end of winter here, there were very few acorns to find outside. Rainbow Girl suggested that we needle felt the acorn tops, and she made them all on her own.
After the first three were completed, Rainbow Girl suggested that we go outside for dinner and for the Fairies to "have an explore."
She had an amazing time taking them all around the yard and going into a fairy imagination land with them. She told many wonderful stories!
That night, I went over to one of my dearest friend's new homes for adult craft night. You may recognize some of her toys from previous posts as she is the mama who hosts Playgarden and many other events that we have attended. She lived in one house when we met her, moved to the farm for a spell, and has now moved back to civilization. Although the farm was a magical place, we love that she's back, closer to everyone.
For craft night, we made wet felted eggs and needle felted rabbits. It was super fun to have adult conversation and do crafts that I love with great friends.
The following morning, I wet felted even more eggs, but with the children. They loved it. We set aside three for a children's egg swap that they are signed up for.
My little embroiderer decided to embroider eggs for her share of the swap.
Through the week, whenever we were outside playing, I worked on needle felting these delightful cave playmats for yet another swap that I am signed up for. This one in particular is for woodland animals, and I am in the "shelter" group. I absolutely adore how they turned out.
The base of each of these playmats is a section of a felted wool sweater. I began by designing the ground details, generally starting with a brown or moss color and defining the water area. Then, separately, I made the cave by needle felting it flat, leaving the ends unfelted so that they would attach well to the mat. when the cave was comfortably thick, I rounded it and started attaching it to the playmat, using needle felting. Once attached, I added more "grass" to further attach everything and make the ground look more natural.
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