Sy is into ALL things fairy around here. She can’t get enough of the blasted Rainbow Fairies. For her birthday, one of her best buddies got her a gnome and fairy door. Holy cow! Is there anything NOT on Etsy??
Our fairy haven (otherwise known as the backyard) is now complete. We love this little door. It’s very sturdy, varnished within an inch of its life (which is good because Sy opted to put it right near a sprinkler in the tomato plants), and even has a knocker that works. The door sticks a little, so we left it ajar so the fairies have no trouble popping through their very own portal at their whimsy.
Gotta go sprinkle some fairy dust. AGAIN.
A pair of fairies have adopted our family and garden. They’re Tuesday Fairies, which means they visit regularly on Monday nights, with tiny treats or notes left behind for their human chums to discover on Tuesday mornings. We need only leave pixie dust (fine-grain glitter available at craft stores) and feathers (for our Feather Fairy) and petals (for our Petal Fairy) to attract them to stay the night. FYI: We’ve heard there are Pebble Fairies and Foliage Fairies and Seed Fairies, etc., out there, too….
Last week we went to Michael’s on a quest for some basic building materials to construct our very own Fairy Condominium. I happened to stumble upon a section of balsa wood kits and found a bag of plain pieces of various sizes—light wood perfect for fairy homes and for assembly with a hot glue gun. We picked up a Bag o’ Moss and some silk flowers and were ready for business.
The simplest construction design, it seemed, was A-Frame, so that became the model for what is becoming a tract of Fairy Manses in our ‘hood. We added side porches and ladders in different combinations. Balsa wood is easily cut with kitchen shears and/or an exacto-blade, so poking out windows and doors was relatively simple, as was slicing small pieces to construct ladders and beds. The biggest challenge was assembling parts before the hot glue dried
Who doesn’t love Etsy? Check out these amazing upcycled-bicycle-parts-clocks! Clock creator Liz Dickey says, “In many ways, my work with recycled bicycle parts relates to my work with children. Children see possibility in all materials and the more time we spend with them, the more we too begin to see the extraordinary that exists in the ordinary. The French artist Jean Dubuffet sums it up when he says, “True art is always there where you least expect it, where no one thinks about it or utters its name.” You can say that again, sister.
And how cute would that little pig clock look in a nursery? I’m in love with a clock!
A friend of mine came to visit us over the winter holidays and like any industrious parent, brought along with her some cool tricks and toys. The most notable? Wikki Stix or Bendaroos, which she declared a lifesaver on the airplane ride.
GHM loves Mahar Dry Goods, our favorite online outpost of vintage and artisan crafted curiosities for children. I love this downloadable gingerbread cottage. All you need is a printer, some card stock and three bucks and you are on your way to assembling one cute little village. Once you order, the PDF will arrive within 72 hours. I smell a weekend project with Sy.
If you see about 45 other things you want, you can order by the 21st and still have it there in time for Christmas morning.
Check out this groovy tube of five containers of eco modeling dough from Eco Kids - handmade in the USA with 100% plant-based coloring. This safe modeling dough contains no chemicals, no artificial dyes and no heavy metals. It is safe enough to eat but not tasty so kids won’t try again!
Each 4 oz container is made from 100% post consumer recycled plastic and the tube is made from 100% post consumer waste. This dough doesn’t dry out like many name brands. If left out overnight, just add a few drops of olive oil and it comes right back! Bonus: you can compost it when you are done! Comes in green, yellow, orange, pink, and blue. You can add a bamboo rolling pin for just four more bucks. Suggested age: 18 months+
I like that the sellers, peek a green, even give us a list of ingredients: flour, salt, cream of tartar, vitamen E oil, organic rosemary oil, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, citric acid and fruit, plant and vegetable extracts from beets, spinach, paprika, carrots, purple sweet potato, red cabbage, blueberries and tomatoes.
Happy Eco-Shopping!
Who can resist a product called Happy Tape? For the past two years, one of my daughter’s only wish-list items has been tape. More markers and tape, please! This year she went crazy and added glitter. I can just imagine watching her eyes popping out of her head if she received this tape.
Available in scads of colors and designs, this Japanese washi paper tape is finally available in the US. You can buy single rolls, 20 packs and even your very own Happy Tape dispenser. Most rolls are about $5.00 individually, with the price going down in the prepackaged sets. $5.00 a roll. For tape! Dang.
GHM writer Heidi just purchased some for her daughter (and herself, natch). I’ll have her review it after the holiday melee is over.
Sy has always loved play dough. Sadly for her, I usually make her the hippie homemade kind in homely colors. Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to make purple play dough? It’s hard! So when Sy’s best buddy Kara got this Hasbro Play-Doh Magic Swirl Ice Cream Shoppe, she was beyond thrilled. All those attachments and colors and smells! Micky busted it out one day and the girls were immediately entranced. They made oodles of ice cream sundaes topped with mountains of sprinkles and swirls. They hardly looked up for a half hour (almost eternity to a four year old). I have to admit, I was charmed. The sprinkles were so twee and the swirly cones of multi-colored delight were irresistible. All those cute little sundae dishes and little spoons were too fun. And the play-doh smelled so good; who can resist that old school smell? So, of course, I folded. I bought it for Sy one rainy day and set it up for her when she was away at school.
Begin rant:
My friend Micky is wicked crafty. At last year’s school auction, she donated some of her off-the-hook cookies. The mom who won them figured they’d just be delivered under some foil, but Micky got her craft on and went a few steps further. She got clear paint cans at the Container Store*, lined them with some beautiful paper and Bob’s your uncle, you have one super cute cookie delivery system.
*I can’t find the paint cans online at the Container Store, so here there are over at Stampendous. I think Paper Source has a very beautiful selection of decorative papers.
More pictures after the jump.
Ed. Note: Here’s part three of my sister’s four part review series. Thanks, sis!
My daughter and I have very different opinions of the Zizzle Spotz Creator. She thinks it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and has spent hours and hours playing with it. I think it is a relentless conspiracy plot to bankrupt well-meaning parents and to fill the world with lots of little plastic pieces. We’ve agreed to disagree.
That T loves the product is, of course, a good thing as self-directed craft-play is always welcome. On the surface, the Spotz Creator seems promising. The central ‘Creator’ console is made of strong extruded plastic in bright kid-centric colors and has smooth edges. The gears are big, the punch simple and the concept clear: put the parts into the obvious places, punch down, get Spotz (a little plastic ring with paper inside). You color/draw on the paper (it comes with translucent paper with little printed pictures to color and with blank sheets in case you want to design your own), cut it out square, put it in the top punch machine, line up the little plastic rings with the little plastic covers, push down, and PRESTO, you have a Spotz of your own making.
Ed. Note: Here’s another gem from my sister. Keep it coming, G!
The outside of the packages says that Knot-A-Quilt kits are for children 6 and older. I guess at 41 I can still qualify under ‘older’, right? Made by ALEX toys, a company that seeks to provide quality creative products, this kit has far surpassed my expectations for ease of use, quality, and sheer entertainment value.
We went looking for the kit to diffuse an on-going problem. My 7-year old daughter T always wants to knit with me. I love that she wants to be with me, I love that she wants to knit and have dreams of us knitting together. But at 7, knitting is still too hard. So every time I bring out my knitting we have a problem. She simply isn’t developmentally ready to knit without tears. But now, now we have been saved by knots.
The thing that Knot-a-Quilt gets right is that it isn’t too easy but it isn’t too precise either.
I always imagine myself to be the Martha Stewart of my family. Except that really, I never have time, inclination or mad skillz to pull any of it off. What I really do is clip pages from MS Living and other magazines, file them neatly away (or shove them in folders) and rarely complete a crafty task. So when Julene Montgomery of Be Crafty sent me a sample craft, I was stoked. Cute craft, items already assembled in handy paper bag, shipped straight to my doorstep and easy to make with my kid. Watch out, Martha, Missy’s on your ass now.
OK, there are so many reasons to get this cool art project in a can: birthday, holiday present, or as a big sibling gift.
Eye Can Art began in Seattle, Washington as the brainchild of three professionals and moms. From the site: Each Eye Can Art kit provides a kid-tested project to delight your child’s imagination, and includes enough materials to experiment. Developed by professional art educators, Eye Can Art replaces the predictable craft kit with a journey of creative exploration based on the fundamentals of visual learning. Make dramatic-looking collograph printed images, multiple-layered drawings on melted wax, and Japanese-style brush paintings.
All kits provide high quality, washable, non-toxic art materials; enough to do the projects multiple times. The easy-to-follow instruction booklets provide clear steps to follow, suggest ideas to further explore, and show the work of professional artists who use the same techniques in their own work. Each kit comes packaged in a reusable, easy-to-carry container. Designed by artists with years of experience helping kids and adults explore together.
I think Teri Dimalanta has super powers. Not only does she have kids, but she also co-runs Kukunest, my favorite organic bedding line. She must have been three people in her last life because she has yet another line to wow us with, giddy giddy. Turns out Dimalanta is an investment analyst turned craftaholic mom. She is most giddy when sewing, painting, designing and making stuff. It was as if turning into a mom 4 years ago ignited the inner artist and crafter.
What inspired these handmade felt creations for little girls’ pretty little melons? The desperate need to tame her new daughter’s unwieldy mohawk with something cool, quirky, and fun. Equally important to creating adorable designs is making the clips functional and safe. These clips are intricately handcrafted with a snap clip sewn securely inside. They are designed to stay on, even on baby fine hair.
giddy giddy’s inventive line of handmade felt barrettes and felt pouches pouches had me at “Hello”. Too bad my girl refuses to wear barrettes because I’d have her decked out in these every day.
When Micky threw Kara’s third birthday party, she set up a few different easy things set up for the kids to do outside. One of her little outposts was a big white sheet hung on their back fence. She left out a bunch of squirt bottles filled with (mostly) water and washable paint and let the kids go hog wild squirting paint, Jackson Pollack style all over the sheet. Since it was washable paint, the sheet was easily cleaned as were the children. Micky soaked the sheet first, I’m not sure if she soaked her daughter. Of course by the end of the party all the kids were squirting each other instead of the sheet, but that’s all part of the fun.
She got the squirt bottles at Michael’s and just used Crayola washable paint.
