Wise Craft

the polymer clay cookbook

 

So, Emma, myself, and, pretty much every girl that comes into contact with it is freaking out over The Polymer Clay Cookbook. It is so crazy cute. We've had it for a couple of weeks and its been by Emma's bed for nightly reading ever since (she has a so much homework these days, that's when she gets her leisure reading in, poor girl). The allure of baking clay here at our house is strong. Emma has been playing with it since she was able to hold it in her hands, and over the years, her creations just get more elaborate and detailed. And now this book is taking it all to a whole new level.

We were looking for an easy craft activity for our Girl Scout meeting this week and I was totally inspired by this book. The girls are coming to us straight from classroom Halloween parties and will probably be pretty sugared up, but I am hoping they will love this. We'll be setting up three tables (there will be about 10 girls). At each table, there will be supplies, directions, and a parent to guide them in making a piece of jewelry. The projects I chose were the candy corn earrings (or rings), a tiny cinnamon bun (scented with cinnamon and a mixture of school glue and white paint to create the icing), and a pink cupcake, both of which can be hung from a thin cord necklace I'll have for each girl.

And because it is the responsibility of a good Girl Scout leader to be fully prepared, I felt the need to spend an afternoon testing out each craft and making samples before I let the girls try them.

chocolate cupcake with raspberry frosting and a cherry

my cinnamon roll with a head pin that's ready to be twisted into a loop. And it smells like cinnamon.

Cute????!!!!!

I thought about keeping this book locked away until Emma's birthday, then giving it to her with all new clay and supplies, but I just couldn't wait. (I decided to give her this book instead, with a stack of felt and notions.)

I thought I would post more this week but it just didn't happen that way. I will see you here on Monday though. Till then, happy weekend!

planted...

We did some agressive tidying in the front yard over the weekend. We need to do so so much more, but time is short, so we take it in baby steps and try not to make ourselves crazy with the list of what remains undone. Lucky for us, there are many plants in our yard that are well established, like this epimedium, and really don't need much from us. I love their heart-shaped leaves.

Ferns are some of my favorite plants and they do really well here in the pacific northwest. Our yard is full of them, and I find ways to tuck more in everywhere I can. I think of painting that urn every time I look at it, but I also kind of like it the way it is. Its one of those things I've had my whole married life.

A few plants made it inside over the weekend. And I finally made a terrarium, which I've always wanted to do-

As if the front yard were thanking us for the attention, flowers are blooming like crazy since we weeded and thoroughly watered over the weekend.

* I recently did the sweetest Q & A with Nicole of Kirei Nest about memorable gifts for a wedding or new home. It was so fun to remember all those things Peter and I received when we were married 15 years ago, thank you Nicole.
* I also did a little write up on nonchalant mom about finger knitting with Emma and Ian, a fun thing to pull out from time to time.

Tomorrow we are having a Bastille Day Story Trading gathering. We've got the Carla Bruni queued up on the Ipod Dock. I refuse to make snails.

i do like a big flower

I made a bag. (I made some other stuff too, just need to snap a picture of them.) I had some of Anna Maria's lovely Drawing Room fabric that I bought in Portland and I wanted to make a bag from it, but was feeling zero inspiration the other night until I stumbled onto Ali Foster's pleated bag pattern (she's got a special running on 3 pdf patterns for $9.50, a great deal. I think I'm going to make myself the laptop case next ). It came together quickly, in one evening, which is about all I can allow for personal sewing right now. Plus it satisfied my need for something colorful to carry around this summer. Do you do that? I bet a lot of you feel the same way I do in the summer. Give me a navy blue T-shirt, white jeans, and my leather sandals all day any day, but I feel much happier when I can fling some happy color over my shoulder.

Emma has been getting up each morning and printing out a toy from A Toy A Day to cut out, fold, and glue together. She's amassing quite a collection, and it occurs to me we've really moved to a whole new level of ability at her age. The fine motor skills are sharp and capable, these little cuts and joints are absolutely no problem at all for her little hands. Which reminds me, I have noticed some great summer lists for kids cropping up all over, I think having one from me seems redundant at this point. I was looking at Let's Explore this morning and felt properly inspired in all sorts of new ways. I think I will print out some stationery from their blog post about letter writing and tuck it into Emma's camp bag (her first sleepover camp is less than 2 weeks away). I'm nervous. She's not. I am.

I wanted to let the Seattle readers know that my friend Cheryl Kuczek is teaching kids sewing classes all summer around the Seattle area. Emma took a class from her last year, made some great friends with the other kids in the class, and came out of it a very confident little sewer and had a great time learning from Cheryl. (And I don't want to set expectations too high, but there were baked goods included in Emma's class.  I'm just sayin...) From Cheryl-

Cheryl Kuczek of Paradiso Designs is pleased to announce her dates for Summer Sew Camp this year.  All kids boys and girls are welcome ages 7-17.  Projects are tailored for kids and designed by Cheryl.  Camp price includes project materials and a healthy snack each day!!!  Each 4 day weekly session is $145.00.  Please email paradisodesigns@comcast.net for more information.  Let’s Sew Rama for Kids!!!  Credit and Debit cards are welcome!

Email Cheryl directly to get the complete class schedule and all the details.

Summer is good so far, just what it should be, nothing more or less. Hope yours is too. All we need is some more new music, and that's just a week away.

Thanks for reading my randomness today!

oh! the clock

 

I wanted to remember to tell you about the clock in the new banner (for those of you reading through bloglines or some other feed, click on through to see what I mean, I've cleaned house around here). When the book Wallpaper Projects: More than 50 Craft and Design Ideas for Your Home, From Accents to Art (boy, book titles are long these days) came in the mail and I saw the project for the clock in there, knew that's the first prject I'd make. I didn't use wallpaper scraps, instead I used a piece of scapbooking paper that I had on hand and like a lot, and just used spray adhesive on the back. I bought the clock workings, which were originally brass-colored, from Michaels and spraypainted them black (I had plenty of black spraypaint leftover from the Halloween shoot). It was a super satisfying project and, although it took me 2 tries to get my house cut out neatly from the foamcore, pretty quick.
 
The projects in the book are lovely, as is the photography. There are many sellers on etsy selling wallpaper scraps, which many of the projects call for, and I also noticed that Julia Rothman wallpapers at Hygge & West are now being sold by the yard (so tempting!). I'm loving printed walls these days. Feeling some wallpaper or at least a painted stencil is going to show up somewhere around the house whenever we repaint next.

Molly reminded me that I need to do a little summer to-do list for kids as I have the past few years. I'm behind, but an updated list will be more important then ever for our upcoming summer vacation. There's not much travelling, or summer camps involved this year, so we'll be getting creative at finding fun. I did a post today over at the Boomerang blog about my beloved Childcraft book set. There is usually one of two of these out in our family room for casual reading, but I pulled the whole set out today, getting ready.

I forgot to mention its 90 degrees in Seattle today. I'm going to go ice myself now.

herbs, crafts, and yacht rock

Thanks so much for all the great suggestions for summer hands-on activities for Ian, really good ones. I love the woodburning idea Jennifer suggested, I did that at many a summer camp, and remember feeling very grown up, being allowed to use the hot wand. And the Buffy Porson book (thank you Anne) And macrame! Maybe some string art would be fun (I've been wanting to do some myself).

There was a piece in the New York Times today celebrating working with our hands, reminded me of Emma, knitting, and being excited about seeing each row finished. I will definitely find more projects like this for the kids this summer.

I just wanted to share these cute seed packets. Leave it to Peter going by Kinokyunia and finding something cool for the kids. I love that place! These matchstick gardens will be going into pots this weekend, we'll see what happens.

OK, yacht rock. Love it. I love that it is a genre. I think it should be. I have (quite unapologetically) created my own playlist after listening to it the other afternoon as I was getting my hair cut.

Peter is going to be cringe, but honestly he's been listening to just a wee bit too much Bob Marley downstairs anyway.

Here's my current yacht rock mix, let me know what you'd add. I will need more songs if I'm going to play it all day.

Fly Like An Eagle- The Steve Miller Band
Hey Nineteen- Steely Dan
Baby I Love Your Way- Peter Frampton
Love Will Find a Way- Pablo Cruise
Bungle in the Jungle- Jethro Tull
Wild World- Cat Stevens
Biggest part of Me- Ambrosia
Peace Train- Cat Stevens
The Things We do for Love- 10cc
Year of the Cat- Al Stewart

I had to draw the line at adding in the Yes and Doobie Brothers (the Kenny Loggins years) I was close to clicking on. It takes me right back to those retail floors I spent more of my high school youth standing on than I care to remember right now.

Sorry for the randomness of my thoughts today.

under the fence...catch the sheep...

Oh! My girl knitted yesterday! With me!

As obsessively as I craft, I've always worried that the kids would turn a blind eye and reject it all.

However... I see approximately 13 weeks of summer vacation ahead of us, which can be blissful, or excruciating, depending on my frame of mind (really, mine, not theirs). I decided that having a knitting project to pull out and work on here and there might be a good place for Emma to start, to answer the I'm bored's. (this event was a long time coming, she IS ten, after all.) I pulled Kids Knitting off the bookshelf and together we read through casting on, simple garter stitches, pretty much keeping to the basics. (It was Melanie Falick was teaching her, not me, you see.) Emma chose some variegated yarn, which had an added bonus of helping her see the individual stitches better.

Under the fence,
Catch the sheep,
Back we come,
Off we leap.

I've moved on, but I can hear her saying this over and over in the other room, sitting on the beanbag.

She's already aiming for bigger and more complicated projects (I've no idea where she gets that from). She's keeping it in one of the drawstring bags I made for her. After all, a project like this really does come down to good gear, right?

Now, I'm looking for 7 year old boy friendly how-to's. I'm evisioning wood and power tools in my summer's future. What do you guys have for me, any thoughts? He's a tough one, I'll warn you.

-Oh! I wanted to mention that the new issue of Stitch is out on newsstands now, filled with lovely projects by some equally lovely folks. Like our good friend Melissa, she's got a stencilled pillow project in there that I think I might make for our bedroom (or someplace in our house that might be done sooner than our bedroom, but more on that in another post).

-And mailorder #10 is already eating at me. I loved the first papercuts Amy did, and these new ones look even more amazing.

-I have just started Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Its good, but my feet have been hurting since page 5. No kidding! The footbinding!

old school crafts really are the best

These's God's Eyes, or Ojo de Dios, have been around forever, truly a kid's summer camp classic craft. I did some with my Girl Scout troop over the weekend and they loved them. Once they "get" the weaving part, they run with it, exploring color combinations and patterns. It doesn't require a lot of adult help, which makes it more enjoyable for parents like me who would prefer to do one alongside them instead of hovering and instructing.

We would have added bells or feathers on the ends of the sticks if I'd had them with me. I would love to try a necklace version.

mother's day sachet

I wrote up a tutorial for a really cute mother's day idea for drawer sachets kids can make for their moms over at the Crafty Crow. Enjoy!

news

 

Good morning! A few things to share-

- I created a paper flower Mother's Day project for the folks at Parents magazine for the May 09 issue, trickling out to newsstands now (just as an aside, I love working with these guys!). These flowers are simple, fun, and pretty to do with kids (Emma and I had a whole afternoon of fun making these as I was developing this project). A bouquet of these (maybe with a perfume-scented magazine strip) would be something I know I would love for Mother's Day (hint). My personal recommendation is to recycle JCrew catalogs for these. Since they are out of my price range these days, its a fun way to enjoy the colors!

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- The new Boomerang website is up! Go have a look! We have been working behind the scenes for a few months now, creating a new look and feel for Boomerang and we are so proud of how its coming together. As you may know from reading this space, Boomerang has been a valuable piece of learning and enjoyment for my kids long before I knew Dave Strohm (the creator), so I'm quite passionate about this project, as a consumer and as a brand consultant.  The graphics you see on the site were designed by Story Trading (props to my brilliant husband for his hand drawing, and to Shawn, for the current issue's imagery on the homepage), the content is still all Dave and his crew in the Boomerang studios. We are working on the final element~ adding some sample audio clips~ to the site today. After that, we will continue to add in some fun things for our young Boomerang fans who visit our space. In the meantime, check our and join our facebook page, where we will keep you update on some exciting things we have in the pipeline.

To help celebrate our website, Eren and Stefani are having a Boomerang giveaway over at their new collaborative blog, The Magnifying Glass, an online nature journal for kids. I bookmarked The Magnifying Glass as soon as I saw it, ts full of all kinds of ideas for getting our kids (and ourselves) outside. Something we all need to do more of.

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- I am excited to be starting a new collaboration with nonchalantmom, as a contributing author on their blog. Founded by Carina Schott, pictured above from a Domino Magazine spread, an extensive background in the fashion industry, working with companies such as The Gap, Baby Gap, Banana Republic, and Espret, she created nonchalantmom as a well-designed, modern, hip, very cool online space for moms and their kids. I will be posting there on a continued basis about living a creative life with kids, and have put an easy-to-find button over on my left sidebar <---. Here's a little background from Carina-

"I know my story will sound cliché, but the idea behind “Nonchalant Mom” is anything but commonplace. When we had our son Sander in 2002 and we decided it was time to move so we packed up and moved ourselves from Manhattan to Rhode Island. I found myself with a lot of energy, 20 years experience in the fashion industry behind me, and no one with whom to share my love for natural living to raise my son. I also found it hard to network and get information on raising my son as naturally as possible. We still go all the way back to New York just to see our pediatrician, Dr. Michel Cohen, because his approach is laid back, and he let us bring up Sander according to our own intuition (although he laughed every time we told him that Sander was still sleeping with us).

Nonchalant Mom was born from a need to find great toys, clothes and information on natural parenting, all in one place. It wasn’t on the internet yet and I knew I could bring these ideals together, and make it FUN! I also wanted to meet other parents that enjoy these things, and create a community of “natural parents” so I don’t feel so alone. I know you are all out there, so lets get together!"

Nonchalantmom has posted  a little interview I did with them over at their blog today. (correction: its not up yet, I'll let you know when it is) edited to say its up!

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On the homefront here, the weather turned gorgeous here in Seattle over the weekend, and we spent every minute we could outside. I spent a lot of time getting the kid's outdoor spaces ready for the warmer days ahead...putting air in delated soccer balls, repairing or getting rid of toys that weren't working...but the biggest project was getting our play structure/clubhouse/treehouse ready for some serious meeting time. The process of working on the cleanup inspired a whole string of crafts (I attribute this energy burst to some outdoor time and Vitamin D as well). I wanted to share these here on the blog, and have made a new category, The Treehouse Appreciation Society. You will see our society projects popping up in the next few weeks (many are still in the works).

Happy Easter to you

Emma made palm crosses for Palm Sunday (last Sunday) with her Mamere (their grandmother).

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates!