Tie Dye

We like to make messes... the harder to clean up, the better. The more likely to leave stains, sign us up! I exaggerate but we do have a way of gravitating towards splotches and splats. Tie Dye was no exception. During this project, Chandler was in a bit of a hurry to get through so that he could pursue some other interests, so he more or less splattered his shirt with one color and called it done. Once all of the finished projects were untied and rinsed out, I could tell he was slightly disappointed with his results. I believe he learned from it, and if he's anything like his Momma, it will be one lesson amongst many on the fine art of being fully present and focused. (Am I the only one here who battles the multi-tasking monster?) He went on to help with another, more traditional shirt and put a humorous spin on the first one. We have at least half a bottle of each color left over, but we have run out of 'blank slates' to tie dye. Rye was determined she wanted tie dyed underpants, and she got them. Everyone else, however, declined to tie dye even a single pair of  underpants, thus the current shortage of blank canvases. Stay tuned, I'm sure we'll come up with something soon.

SEED BOMBS

There are various ways to make seed bombs. We chose the method that used materials we already had on hand. It was one of the cleaner options as well. 

Start by choosing seeds that grow well in your area. A quick glance at 'native' plants may be helpful. 

Put scrunch tissue in a large bowl - this scrunchy filler can often be found in the gift wrap section of your local Dollar Tree (and possibly lingering in the bottom of any recently received gift bags) If you have a paper shredder, you could recycle the collected shreds or make your own shreds using colored paper.   

(gotta make time for BigSib Photo breaks)

Toddler helper optional but highly encouraged. 

Pour water into the scrunchy paper. You may wish to add layers of color separately to prevent dyes from blending. 

Mush the paper together until it will hold shape, then drain excess water: 

Mix in seeds: 

Roll paper to form jawbreaker sized bombs (or larger if desired) Paper can also be pressed into cookie cutters to form other shapes. 

This part is not unlike the process for home made paper. Once a shape is formed, squeeze any remaining water and place on a cookie sheet to dry. This may take a day or longer. 

As you might be able to see, by the time we returned to this project, the 'bombs' had already begun sprouting. 

All that remained was to toss them into abandoned lots or areas that needed a touch of life. To me, it was the trickiest step. For all the positives associated with planting flowers and sprucing up unsightly plots, tossing the bombs from my car window into scrubby areas,  without the benefit of explaining, "We are not littering!" felt deviant. 

Sleepy Cat~ A Tiny Friend

Sleepy Cat (needs a nap)

 Start with a clean candy tin. We used a miniature one. 

 The pillow and blanket are made from ribbon. 

 Sleepy Cat is two pieces of felt, hand stitched together; wide awake wiggly eyes on one side, snoozy sleeping eyes on the other.

 Snoozer is Sleepy Cat's teddy-mouse. Smaller felt scraps stitched together, again with differing eyes to denote asleep/alertness.

 A small story book and a ball of yarn for playtime. 

All put together...

 ...and portable...

Flowers for Micah's Place

The first sample flower  became the property of Riley.

Logan's Sunday School Class made care packages for ladies in the care of Micah's Place. We spent Saturday cutting out a million-dozen (it's a real number) circles, large and small, from decorative paper then assembling them into flowers for the packages. We used a pattern found online.

(Who doesn't love Pinterest? )

Flowers in progress

Flowers closer to the finish

Flowers ready to be shared

Logan was unable to go to the assembling party, but that's another story. The girls were able to give much to the ladies and experience the Gift of Giving to Others. Logan was happy to get to share in the effort.

SS Teacher Connie shared a photo of the care packages all ready to go 

Pizza Play

For another 'chapter' in our busy book:

Pizza Play

I ask you, what can't be made out of felt? 

Add Toppings

Making The Big Kids each a slice  

Carefully arranging things

Riley Wren; Pizza Chef

ColorSicles

 I had seen several variations of color matching activities using paint swatches and clothespins... what we came up with was sort of a mish~mash of all of our favorite ones. I used fabric glue, popsicle sticks, clothespins and 3 swatches each of our favorite hues (the popsicle stick is between two swatches, so that the colors are on either side of the stick.) This is the first addition to a project we have under construction currently- a 'busy book' (a zippered binder found  for $1) filled with activity pouches (pencil bags marked to a quarter each)

Riley loves her 'popsicles' almost as much as playing with the iPad or watching t.v. Which is the point...she happily stops asking for a glowing screen in exchange for playtime with the popsicle bag.

She has assigned every family member a color. She walks around, handing out popsicles like the Good Humor Man and watching to see that it is 'eaten'. If it isn't, she quickly instructs us on how to enjoy our treat.

"Lick it!"

Mmm! Nothing quite as scrumptious as felt...

When she is older, the colors can be matched by hue. 

 I only had the video camera available~ these stills run together for a snippet of Rye on the first morning with her ColorSicles.