Magazine bead necklaces-the perfect gift!

L was invited to a friends birthday a few weeks ago and we were trying to think of a present we could make.  We came up with these beads made of magazines.

Super easy to make we just cut long triangles from different pages from a magazine, rolled them tightly around a wooden skewer and glued the ends.  It took L a couple of tries to get them right and then she was a bead making machine!

 After the beads were finished I covered them in Modge Podge to make them sturdier and give them a bit of a glossy look.  We left them on toothpicks and let them dry in the sun.

L found a necklace shell on the beach with a hole in the top and threaded the beads onto some cord.

 Here is L modelling the finished product.  We also made one for her auntie's birthday and are hoping to make matching ones for ourselves.  We have been combing the beach for more necklace shells.

The Voice of an Angel

It's amazing how time passes.  I realise I haven't been doing much blogging lately and I think it's because now I'm working part time my creative mom-jo is worn out!   I did however want to write a post about a couple of L's birthday presents.

We wanted to get L her own CD player for her birthday but after looking around quickly realised they are pretty much becoming obsolete!  We weren't quite ready to get her an Ipod but eventually found something much much better.

A karaoke machine!! It was the perfect gift for our little performer and L LOVES it.  It even has disco lights!  L uses her own CDs in it and either sings along with the microphone or dances to them.  She can spend hours this way.  The other night she preformed the whole Nutcracker Ballet with her assortment of dolls.

We also gave her a case for her CDs so she can be completely independent with the whole thing.

L's second favourite gift was a CD from her absolute favourite singer Jackie Evancho.  After showing her this Youtube video last year, L has been Jackie's number one fan.  We also recorded a whole Jackie Evancho concert from PBS and L loves to watch it and attempt to sing along.

If you haven't had a chance to listen to this girl I would highly recommend checking her out.  She seriously has the voice of an angel.

L puts on her flower girl dress (or as she calls it her "Jackie Evancho" dress)daily to perform along with her CD.  She even told me the other day the she is going to be Jackie for Halloween next year!

It's all good for me. I don't mind her having a singing angel for an idol at all!!

 

Birthday Follow Up

In an earlier birthday post I talked about how in lieu of presents I asked all of L's friends to bring a donation to the food bank.  I still wanted something for L to have to remind her of her party and her friends so I came up with this idea....

I set up a little fabric painting station and had all of her guests paint a little square of fabric with fabric paint.

 Here they all are drying.

 Then my lovely Mom sewed them onto a piece of fleece to make a birthday memory blanket/quilt.

My Mom recently had a birthday as well.  For her gift I contacted all of our family and her friends and asked them to write down a few fond memories they have of times with my Mom.  I put them all in this decorated jar added some electric candles to make it glow and wrote "Mom's Memory Jar" on the lid.

She had a wonderful and touching time sitting by the fire reading and reminiscing! 

Gifts and Your Child

I was going to post about how we deal with gift giving and receiving in our house after L's birthday and just discovered this timely post on the subject over at The Magic Onions. 

For L's birthday we made all of L's gifts.  My husband made her the marimba and a wood doll bed and my mom knitted clothes for her doll.  A close friend made a quilt and pillow for the doll bed.

Over the last few years I've been able to train all of our family members on what appropriate gifts are and usually can recommend gifts for close family.  A good option I find is getting them to pay for a class that L would like to take like swimming or dancing.

 We invited L's whole Montessori preschool class to her birthday party so there were a lot of people.  We put on the invitations to please bring a donation for the foodbank instead of a gift.  This took away the pressure on us but also on the guests.

Look at all of the donations we received!!  L and I gathered them up and took them to the foodbank after her birthday.  We got a tour of the foodbank, learned about how it all works and got a list of items they are always short of for next time. 

I think this was the perfect time to start this tradition while she is still young enough to not question it and we'll carry it on now for every birthday.  L got more than enough gifts from her family and it's a great for her to learn about giving and sharing.  I also think we'll put together a small donation for every birthday in our house.

Luckily for me I love to do crafty things so I always have something homemade for gifts that we give.  Whenever it's one of L's friends I try to involve her in the making of the gift such as a necklace or card.

With Christmas looming and L's birthday over I need to get myself organized to start making all of the Christmas gifts.

What do you do about gifts for your littles for Christmas and Birthdays?

3rd Birthday Celebrations part 2

There is a group of local young people in our community that have started an African marimba band.  They play at local events and family dances.  We went to see them last March and since then L has been besotted.

We have to go and see them every time they play, she always talk about them and pretends to play the marimba.

So we decided to try and make her one of her own.  My wonderful husband found some plans for a small xylophone on the Internet and spent hours in the garage creating it.

 Here is the finished product.

 L couldn't believe her eyes when she removed the cover.  She had to have a go and then another and another.

We also made a marimba cake for her.  I melted some dark chocolate into tin foil molds and then cut the cake in the shape of the marimba.  I used black licorice for the little key holders.

 The best part was that we actually managed to get the marimba band to play for her party!!  It was a surprise and L was in awe when they came to the door and started setting up.

My heart nearly burst when all the children were dancing and playing instruments and my little L was playing her marimba alongside her idols.

Now that my husband has the hang of it he's hoping to make one of the marimbas in the front of the picture for Christmas.  I can't wait!!

Birthday Pressies

Our week of birthday parties begins tomorrow and we finally finished all of the presents. I decided to make treasure bottles for the kiddos. They are all turning two and I know how much L loves her treasure bottle so I hope they go over well. I'm so happy with these because L got to make them herself.
From coloring the rice
to pouring it into the bottles (mommy way overloaded the measuring cup!)

to adding the treasures

and I got to test out my new laminator for the first time! Woo hoo!

Birthday overload

L has been invited to four of her friends birthday parties all in the next week and a half! So we've been hard at work making cards and pressies for them all. Here are the cards.

I gave her each of the colors separately so it wouldn't turn into a brown mess. We used acrylic paint which I find easy to wash off of skin as long as it doesn't get on clothes.

Now for a little sponge painting to finish them off and

Viola! Four original L cards for her little friends!

Happy birthday to me!!

Okay my birthday isn't really for another month and a bit but.... I found my birthday present already. Some women want shoes, some want jewelry, others want massages (well that would be nice) what do I want more than anything? A laminator!! That's right thanks to Montessori my priorities are a little different now! ha ha. The other day I was in the craft store and low and behold the laminators were on sale reduced from £57 to £19.99. I just couldn't pass that one up. My husband is happy because he doesn't have to worry about my birthday present now.

Of course now that I have this laminator I'm a bit like a kid in a candy shop. I can't decide what to laminate first. I don't want to use up all of my laminating pouches on just anything! I'm sure you'll be seeing it put to use in future posts. : )

Art

Yesterday and today have been art days. L has been asking to paint so yesterday we tried a few things from some other posts I've seen. First of all we made toilet paper tube stamps (courtesy of 4 Crazy Kings) and dipped them in paint. Then we moved on to shaving cream thanks to Making of a Montessori Mum. After the initial dislike of getting her hands dirty (I have a strange kid who doesn't like mess or being dirty except at meal times!) she was off.

Then she decided to use the stamps in the shaving cream. I know where she gets this aversion to being dirty as all of this time Daddy was standing in the side lines twitching. He hates when she does painting and can't wait to wash her!

Daddy's and my sister's birthdays are both coming up in July so I decided to try these silhouette paintings to give them as gifts. You can find out more on how to do them here. Well I was all gung ho at my local Crafts mega store when I asked for contact paper. The girl looked at me like I'd grown a third eye or something. She had everyone in the store looking and there was nothing. So as I had my heart set on doing it anyway I had to come up with an alternative. In the end I cut the silhouette out of cardboard and then taped it with painters tape onto the canvas. L and I painted the canvas, although she was very attracted to painting the cardboard. When I took it off it was a disaster as I'd figured it might be so I then took the negative part and painted inside with a single color. I was then able to do some small touch ups. I think in the end I'm happy with the results. I wouldn't recommend doing it this way though unless you have a lot of time on your hands and no other alternative.