Day 318 - A pantsformation

The true title for this blog post should be 'What not to do with transfers'. It all began with a plain pair of black size 1 stretchy pants and some transfers. From there it seemed to go from bad to worse.

First I put the iron straight onto a transfer, transfer ruined, iron not so good either. Then I chose a different set of transfers that I thought were separate transfers but they were one big one so when I cut it out crudely and ironed it on it looked ridiculous. After another hour or so of trying to work out how to fix it I settled on transferring on top of a transfer, which didn't work out too badly. Whew!

Melted transfer - first mistake.

These 2 cuties were supposed to be one on each side.

Badly cut out transfer :-(

Transfer over transfer.

The recipient!

What to do next - go outside and bathe in wet sand for a bit.

Day 317 - A socktastic picture

School resumed again today after the long 6 week break, and although I generally love the holidays, this one seemed more difficult than most, and I am glad to be home with the two little ones again. I feel like a balance has been restored.

Dylan is not too well, and Aidan and I have had some time today relaxing, and making this sock picture, inspired by the Nick Sharratt 'Socks' book we borrowed from the library yesterday. We used some of Dylan's old tiny socks. Aidan was quite keen to ensure we got all the details correct.

Day 316 - fabric stretched on canvas

I have always loved this fabric, and I only had a tiny scrap left, so I thought I would try stretching it onto these cheap canvases I picked up at the reject shop a couple of weeks ago.

Day 315 - Channeling my inner preschooler

Juliet and I were on our 2 hour train ride today playing with scrabble tiles and I decided to make a diamond shaped poem like Liam has done at school.

Here it is.

Juliet did this, which showed how much she had missed being with her family.

Here's how she reacted when seeing her brothers at the train station.

This made me feel like representing my poem in different ways when we arrived home. Using liquid chalk on our glass doors, and channeling my inner preschooler by making a glue and glitter poster. Not great art, but fun nonetheless.

And although I didn't make this last picture, I have to take some credit. I can't believe how crafty Mr Crafty is getting. Him and the boys made these hand print sunflowers while Juliet and I were away as my present for day 21 in my 40 days of gifts. They are awesome and will greet visitors who come to our front door.

 

Day 314 - A sea turtle

We have had a wonderful and healing couple of days together, just me and my girl. This morning we had the whole of StKilda beach pretty much to ourselves and we made this sea turtle out of sand and shells.

Day 313 - A tiny book of love

Juliet has been staying with my parents for a few days after we had to go to my uncle's funeral in Melbourne on Wednesday. I am going down on the train to meet her today and we are having a girls getaway in Melbourne for 2 nights. We just thought she might benefit from some special time.

I made a tiny book of my family to take with me. I love it!

I found a tiny scrap or lovely paper, printed out some tiny pictures, cut them to size, glued some back to back to make them double-sided, and the sewed down the centre seam.

Day 312 - Origami

Liam is into Pokemon at the moment after finding some books at the op shop for 20 cents and reading them. Then he discovered it was on tv in the mornings and with this a new obsession was born.

He has been drawing these pictures below and cutting them out and sticking them on his bedroom door. Dylan has had other ideas and has been pulling them off. Amazing reach for a 13 month old!

 I decided to make him this Pokemon character called Pikachu (the yellow guy below), which then led to me making some butterflies. The small butterfly is only about an inch in size as I wanted to see if I could make a tiny one too. This has lead to another idea for tomorrow. Yay!

Day 311 - Bangle with 1970's magazine decopauge

I was browsing in an op shop the other day and happened to find some 1970's magazines that I couldn't resist. Some were from my birth year which I immediately bought, but then I returned to buy some others today.

I decided to make a bangle with some of the pretty floral prints from ad pages.

I have found some great articles too which I may share with you, but for now it is getting late, and my present for today (40 days of treats) is to watch a 1973 movie whilst eating 1970's snacks. :-)

Day 310 - Pasta and wooden bead necklaces

We have made some gorgeous pasta and wooden bead necklaces today. We painted some of our pasta first. You may be wondering why  Little A has been seen a few times wearing a lovely pink frock. He and Juliet have been playing a game of 'twins' a lot lately where they are best friends and twins and this seems to frequently involve him dressing as a girl. :-) He looks quite pretty doesn't he????

Day 309 - Toddler shorts refashion

Today's craft is for a friend. She didn't like these overalls on her one year old, which I turned into a dress. I then used the leftover scraps to make these plain white shorts more interesting with some pockets at the back, strips down the side, and a patch with some lace.

Day 308 - We're going on a bear hunt (with our toilet roll binoculars)

We are off exploring today with our toilet roll binoculars. We painted them first, and used wool scraps for safety straps. We have spotted a kookaburra, a few kangaroos and a handful of magpies so far.

Day 307 - A birthday card

A birthday card for a friend whose 40th we are celebrating today.

Day 306 - A reminder of all that is good

My little girl seems to be going through something at the moment which is very challenging for me. My usually positive child is having periods of explosive anger and having trouble managing it. It's been really hard for me and for the rest of the family. I have tried so many things, and today I have made her this picture, to hang above her bed, and remind her of how much we all love her, no matter how angry she is or how wronged she feels. I hope it helps her to work through her feelings, or to smile sometimes when she doesn't want to. Sometimes being a parent is heartbreakingly difficult, and it's hard not to blame yourself for everything.

Day 305 - Vintage paisley and doily skirt

Juliet is going to yet another party tomorrow. I found this scrap of fabric in my cupboard which was the perfect size for a skirt, no cutting out required. I added some pieces from a cut up doily and what a cute little skirt it made. This is for the birthday girl by the way, although the model did try to nab it for herself.