crayons and paper

The girl's conversation went something like this the other day:

Grace- "Me and Maeve never stop drawing, we love it sooo much! We never stop drawing, do we Maeve?"
Maeve- "Well.....we do stop for lunch sometimes"

And that pretty much sums it up at the moment. Two girl's in love with their crayons and paper, endlessly drawing at every possible moment. The house littered with trails of artworks to be found in one room and then the next, and so on...and so forth. Paper everywhere. They love it.

Maeve has taken to copying whatever it is that Grace is drawing and I find it interesting how her attention to detail has come along in the last two months. We went to look at some Chicken's with friends of ours recently, they were hoping to buy some new hens. We were merely dreaming. One day when we are some place bigger and quieter, yes indeed we will have chickens! For now we will just continue to dream and of course draw.

Top: 'Rooster, chick and hen' Grace 6 1/2yrs

Bottom: 'Rooster' Maeve 3 3/4yrs

Left: Grace's butterfly

Right: Maeve's butterfly

They are both big on butterflies at the moment. We have many of these drawn then cut out carefully around the house. We are trying to photograph their creations to keep a record, without having to keep all that paper! I would be interested to know how other parents keep their children's artworks. Do you file them, stick them in scrapbooks, keep only the best, bin it all? Don't forget, if you have the time it's always a nice idea to turn them into an embroidery that can be enjoyed for years to come. Remember this post and this one?

edited to say: I also forgot to mention the art wire for displaying favorite drawings. Clearing it at the beginning of every term is always a good way to keep it fresh and uncluttered.

I like...

The sun was lovely and warm on the front steps this morning. A very inviting place to sit and finish off my latest embroidery. Jude sleeping, Maeve making cakes in the sandpit and me stitching. Rare quiet moments like this need to be seized while they last... I am slowly learning.

This is another one of Grace's drawings. Very special because it was one of the first sentences she wrote on her own (without copying it out of a book), that I happened to find lying around the house. The girls would love a pet. Unfortunately right now (and I can see for a very long time to come) three children is more than enough for me to cope with. So sorry kids, pets are just going to have to wait.

 

I have put together some photos for those of you that wanted to see how I attached the linen to the canvas. 

1. Use a cheap art canvas to cover with your embroidery
2. Lay your fabric over the canvas taking care to position it so it looks balanced. Stick a few pins in to hold it in place.
3. Flip it over and start stitching the sides together at the back. You will need a very long piece of strong thread, and may even need to join it a few times if it runs out. If the edge of the fabric is raw it will fray easily. Just turn it under a centimeter or two so you are stitching through two layers. That should make it strong enough. You need to make sure you fabric is pulled firm so it sits nice on the front of the canvas. Mine looks like I have pulled it too tight, but my linen was super soft and needed to be pulled into place.
4. When your sides are done, fold the top and bottom piece of fabric towards each other taking care to fold your corners nicely so they sit flat without looking bulky.
5. Pin the corners in place and stitch the top and bottom edges together in the same way you stitched the sides.
6. The back of your canvas should look something like this. The dog one I did last week was way messier, but hey...no one will ever know! 
7. Then if you like you can put some thread across the back so it can be hung on the wall. I cant explain exactly how I did this...goes something like this though: Knot doubled thread to one edge then knot it on the opposite edge, so it is fairly tight not loose. Take it back to the other side and repeat process so its quiet a few strands thick. Then knot along the thread to hold them all together. 

And you're done!

(edited to say: alternatively, get yourself a staple gun and save yourself half the hassle. Thanks to my wise friend Lissa for the advice!)

dog and blog

Remember this post? I surprised myself and actually turned that super cool drawing of Graces into an embroidery! She loves it. I love it. In fact, we all love it. If you don’t have any kids artworks to be inspired by, maybe you could try this one from Loobylu, or this one (pattern here) from Geninne’s Art blog. They are both pretty cool, and on my ‘to do list’.

And thanks for being patient with my blog. My hubby and I have put on our nerd hats this week and delved into the world of HTML. We really don’t have much idea what we are doing, so the blog has taken on some weird and wonderful looks as of late. Sorry if you happened to stop by at one of the ‘weird’ times. I think we are finally happy with the layout.

holidays

I cant believe how much I am enjoying the school holidays. Especially considering two of the children have been unwell. No mad scrambles in the mornings or me loosing my patience over children being slow to eat breakfast, put on their shoes, do up their seat belts. Not to mention trying to decide what to put in the lunchbox. It's been so nice. Given me a chance to catch my breath one again. I have been trying a few new projects like embroidery which have been incredibly relaxing too. Having a go at turning some of Grace's drawing into embroidery's we can hang on the walls. She is very pleased that her artworks are being copied onto fabric, and watching with great intent to see the finished project. This morning we sat out the back in the sun, I watched the kids play and stitched away. We shared morning tea together and chatted and laughed over bowls of mandarins and tasty biscuits. It's so special being able to relax together as a family and enjoy each others company and silly jokes.

markets

We've had a bit of a lazy Saturday.
Managed to venture out late morning to check out some local handmade markets for kids which was a lot of fun.
They were the Billycart Markets.
Its always nice to have a chat to the stall holders talk about handmade.
I would love to have my own stall one day, but with three little one's that idea may just have to go on hold.
 My life is chaotic enough as is!
 

My friend Rachel was there with her stall Art Wish, selling beautifully painted reward charts for kids.
I also met Sophie from Barefoot Babies with her stunning range of children's clothing.
And I was totally inspired by the beautiful handmade horses by Calamity Bolt.
Each horse was so unique and beautifully detailed.

The girls also held their own markets on our coffee table this morning.
Beautiful artworks, handmade paper toys, paper baby blankets etc, were all on sale.
They spent well over an hour preparing stock!

How do you like the picture of the dog on the rainbow lead in the middle?
Its totally killing me with cuteness!
Might have to turn this one into an embroidery so I can enjoy it for years to come.

They spend hours drawing, cutting and sticky taping things together daily.
Grace's cutting skills are nothing short of impressive.
It means I constantly have confetti like debris strewn throughout the house (and not to mention the mash of paper pulp I keep pulling off the roof of Jude's mouth) but it is all so worth it.

If the day ever did come where I was able to have my own stall,
I know I would have two very keen helpers who would want to sell their own wares,
and probably out do their mother!

rainy day prints

Yesterday was an indoor day, thanks again to the weather.
We did some printing with the end of toilet paper rolls, some folded into shapes for variety.
Just thought I would share, because sometimes when your stuck indoors with small children, it can be tough coming up with an easy craft to keep them amused!

wordless weekend #5

nana & humpty

Got to love some of Grace's drawings.
No, Nana looks nothing like that. She most certainly will not be seen in short skirts with her belly button hanging out. She is much more classy in real life!
And Humpty, well he actually looks the way Humpty should.
Hope these bring a smile to your day.

stretch for summer #2

There's a lot of practical sewing going on in this house as of late.
Plenty more stretch for summer. Nothing very exciting, more every day kind of clothes.

A pineapple shirt for Grace

Grace has been begging me to make her a shirt with a kangaroo on the front, so here's what we came up with. She wrote 'kangaroo' for me on a piece of paper, and I stenciled it on with fabric paint. Love this shirt! Came in very handy for Australia Day.

Some simple legging for Maeve.
Fabric is really floppy, so they may end up as PJ pants.

Comfy long shorts for Grace. I am loving the honeycomb stitch on my machine at the moment.
It's great for detail and hems on stretch. My tip would be to use the 'walking foot' on your machine. Best machine accessory ever!

And a cool little dress for Maeve. I have so much of that pineapple fabric to get through. These dresses are great for summer, she loves wearing them.
All these patterns are sewn from Ottobre. Let me know if you want specific pattern numbers.

busy and tired, and not quite ready for Christmas

We have been so busy around here, but I guess who isn't at this time of year. Luke and I were up extra late last night packaging what seemed like hundreds of these biscuits for friends. We also had to put together a wooden kitchen for the girls that came in kit form. It proved to be rather frustrating with limited instructions...luckily, it came together fine in the end.

The girls (with much mummy supervision) have been doing artworks to give out to special people. Oil pastel with watercolour. They look so pretty drying in the sun.

I also finished this shirt for Luke's Mum, the same pattern as one I made earlier in the year but shorter sleeves. There is so much sewing I had wanted to do for the girls for presents, but I can see that its not going to happen, so I will deal with the disappointment and hopefully catch up on sewing in the new year. It's always special to be able to give handmade.

And here are some of Grace's card she made for Luke to give to friends at work. A Christmas tree, Jesus in the manger with animals and the star, Santa (we don't give out presents from Santa at Christmas, but its funny that she still knows who he is and thinks he has something to do with Christmas), and another Christmas tree with presents under it.

We are off for a much needed 2 week break tomorrow, so I wont be around for a while. Actually really looking forward to not sitting in front of the screen daily! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus with family and friends! 

Naomi xo

one from grace

Grace wanted me to show you her artworks she did a little while back, now framed and hung in her room. You have probably seen the outside two here, and the one in the middle was done a few days later. I love the middle one because she had it all finished, then decided that the person in it needed one last finishing touch- lipstick. I was about to shout 'NOoo!!' as she slapped on the red, then realised that her idea of beauty is different to mine. And I love that because instead of just being a painting, to me each one tells a story and shows me more who Grace is.

organising our art

It feels so good to have accomplished something around the house today. I finally put some hooks up in the kitchen to hang all the kiddy art on, thanks to a little inspiration from Soulemama's book and my good friend Lissa. I always hate the thought of putting holes in the walls, since we spent so long painting them...but it did look good once it was all done. I stretched the string from hook to hook, and threaded a whole bunch of mini pegs across. Now we have the perfect spot to display all those colourful creations!



While we were pinning up all the paintings, we came across a bag of gumnuts/pine cones/seed pods. We collected these a while back to make a natural mobile, but somewhere never found the time to make it. So we did that too, and hung it from one of the beams. Its so simple, but the beauty of the natural objects speak for themself and somewhere I find myself endless staring at them.

button bag

Things have been a little slow around here lately. The internet had painfully switched back to dial-up, thankfully its now back to normal. Dial-up is torture.
This is a bag I made a couple of weeks back. It was a present for my sister-in-law. I haven't really been into bag making, but this was really fun to put together.



I made up my own pattern which was very basic, and lined it. I really need too learn how to do the lining properly, I think my method was rather unconventional...but at least it worked. If I was making this for myself I think I would slightly enlarge the pattern and add a button/clip for closure.


And a close up of the covered buttons. The red fabric is some from my vintage surprise pack- very nice! The blue flower is from the lining fabric, and the other pattern is from a much loved vintage apron.


And what good is a present without a beautiful card to match? This one is thanks to my budding little artist who is swamping me with the cutest drawings as of late. The birthday girl is in red and she is holding a bunch of balloons. I am sure this will make her day!



Next on my bag list is a little girls hand bag for Grace. The current one has just had the handles re-stitched...thanks to one little sister who loves to grab and snatch. Her one specification is that it must have a zip, apparently snaps just aren't good enough fo keeping little sisters away from your special things. So the verdict on bag making...I loved it! There are many more patterns floating around in my head, some on paper and some yet to get there. Hopefully I will have more to show you very soon.

a parcel in the post

You can imagine our excitement when this arrived on the doorstep...


Its our creative pack from the competition over at BloesemKids, thankyou Irene and Arrouna! The owl bag from bookhou is just beautiful, and the art supplies are going to get a good work out...actually Grace put them to use straight away to produce these beautiful masterpieces.



Let me tell you about this one first. This is a picture of Grace walking her 'dream' dog. She is drawn inside the world. Its a lovely sunny day...but then it starts to rain (dot dot dot). Later she tells me that the rain drops have actually changed from rain to flowers on the grass. What a beautiful scene!


This one is looking a little more Gothic. Its a picture of me (looking very tired and worn out...none the less, still smiling) and Maeve. I am the one in the middle wearing a blue dress. I am taking the 'dream' dog for a walk and in my other hand I am carrying a worm that I found in the garden. We are also drawn inside the world, where it is raining red. Over to the left is our black circle house with three windows. Superb!

shadow box

Grace and I have been working on this, little by little over the last few weeks. Sometimes it is really hard to do craft with Maeve around...she tends to be rather destructive. So today we finally finished it while our littlest napped. Its a picture of our family down at the beach, enjoying a walk on the sand. We got the idea from Arounna's craft projects over at BloesemKids. They have some really awesome stuff to make with children!

clay creatures

Check out these little dudes. These are Grace's creations from playgroup. The left is a person, and on the right we have an Echidna. I love how her person looks so much like the way she would draw a person, and I love the fact that she created them all on her own with no adult assistance.

art in strange places

What a surprise it was to find this little artwork on the furniture in my bedroom.
When I asked the culprit this morning, "What is this?"
she replied in the sweetest voice "its a picture of you Mummy...I thought you would like it"
Of course I like it, but it would have been much nicer on a piece of paper!
She ended up telling me that it was a drawing of me sleeping in bed with my teddy (as I do??). It was a cute story, but I am not sure if she was just making it up on the spur of the moment to cover herself.
We all had a good laugh about it, and I may even leave it there for a couple of days...just because it makes me smile.

pig puppet

Our big girl loves pigs. It all started when we watched 'Charlotte's Web' for a mum and daughter movie night. I then ended up buying the novel which we read together. It is not unusual to see me out shopping with a kid dragging a large, toy pig around the shops on a dog leash. I am sure it puts a smile on most shoppers faces.
She wanted to pull out the craft supplies this afternoon, and this is what she ended up creating. I helped curl the tail, and she pieced the pig together. She added a butterfly sticker just so people know it is a girl pig. Very pretty, isn't she!

mothers day

It was a great day for celebrating mothering. I awoke with Grace's arms around my neck and loudly whispering in my ear- 'Happy Mothers Day Mama!'. The girls & Luke had a beautiful card they had made for me, and present, which was really sweet. I had tea in bed, which was a treat, no rushing out of bed to feed starving children. Then the day got quite hectic- church, driving a friend to the airport, calling my mum, visiting Luke's mum, kids in bed, and finally time for us.
Amongst all the busyness there were many treasured moments with the girls, lots of laughs, a few frustrations, plenty of cuddles and happy memories made. There is nothing that quite compares to mothering!

plum tree

Grace is now starting to use her imagination and draw things apart from people, which we are loving! A couple of days ago I was presented with this little treasure.
It's a drawing of the sun, a blossom tree and a plum tree. A couple of the plums have even fallen off the tree! A few minutes later she came back with a second drawing of me holding plums in my hand. She had even cut it out for me.
If only we did have a plum tree. It looks like the perfect, plum picking kind of day!