Recently, Lauren and I had a couple of mommy & me days where all we did was craft. She has little interest in anything else these days, so I'm very thankful that there are so many wonderful websites (Like Nick Jr, which provided the means to make these Kai-lan paper lanterns that Lauren absolutely loves to crank out.) with great crafting ideas for kids. And Lauren should be thankful that her mommy has amassed so many craft supplies that we can pretty much make anything we want on the fly!
Lauren had her first experience with perler (or hama) beads at pre-school, so naturally she want to try some at home too.
This super cute bird collage idea came from Kaboose. The nest is made from basket filler that I had left over from Christmas.
Some of the crafts that we've stumbled upon have been a little advanced for Lauren, but they're so irresistible that we have to give them a go anyway. Take this little yarn octopus, also from Kaboose. Lauren picked out the colors, but I did all the heavy lifting, thus defeating the purpose of it being a kids craft. I'm not ashamed to admit that I struggled a little with it myself. Remember: fiber and fabric crafts typically hate me.
I too have found myself to be a little craft obsessed lately, although I don't get much of a chance to craft for myself. One of these days, I will settle down and read this big stack of Marie Claire Idees. These are fairly tough to find (It is published in France afterall!), so I count myself very lucky to have found someone selling the last year and half worth of issues. Also lucky for me is that I can read a bit of French, but besides that, there is so much eye candy to enjoy in each issue that I probably won't even bother to break out the old French-English dictionary.
I also picked up a few books in English. Rainbow of Stitches is written by a Marie Claire Idees contributor. Once I cracked it open, I had to immediately put it down for fear of being driven insane by all the adorable embroidery inside. Each chapter is dedicated to a color: red, pink, green, and blue. Just about everything is stitched on white fabric. Very clean, very simple, very Martha. Love it.
The New Handmade contains directions to make several stylish bags. Lauren has already picked this one out for herself. I'll have to add that to the list after the giant strawberry pillow.
Lastly, I've finally found a form of knitting that even I can do: loom knitting. This iPod cozy was my second project (The first was a newborn sized hat that Lauren uses as Mommy Elephant's sleeping bag.). Some of my stitches were wonky, but that was fixed thanks to the amazing process of felting. After two times in the washer's hot cycle, I was thrilled that my pouch shrunk to just the right size. I want to tackle a larger bag after I get my hands on some more yarn.
On a figure skating note, I'm so excited that Lysacek won the gold medal! Somewhere in Canada right at this moment, Plushenko is still whining about it. Maybe this means that the curse is lifted and that my AI Season 9 pick will win too!
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