The Joy of Making Gifts

Knowing that Lily just got a new Kitchen for her Birthday, I figured some pretty felt treats would be a wonderful addition and with some pretty pink measuring bowls...what more can a girl want! Maybe....some pretty Birdie hair clips with a necklace to match! I tell you, I am really enjoying making gifts for Gi's friends. I kinda think about the child and do something I think is in tune with their personality. I always ask Gi what she thinks to get her in on it. I will ask her " So do you think Lily will really love it if I make her some felt cakes, cookies and strawberries and also some birdie clips and a necklace for her Birthday?"  She got very excited and said "Yes, she will! Make them, Make them!!"  I let her cut my thread for me sometimes to keep her part of it. It's really a joy to make something and be able to give it as a gift. It is very rewarding and so far all of the time extremely very well received and appreciated. Next Birthday is Lucy...hmm what will we make for her? Anyway... Enjoy Lily, we love you!!  

New from Old

I have always had this thing for trying to making something out of nothing, or something new from something old or broken. I was thrilled to pass this idea down to my child. Last week while digging for colors in the big crayon tin we noticed lots of small broken pieces. Gi actually pointed out how many broken ones there were. I felt it a great opportunity to show her this little trick. I said "hey we can change them. We can make one big colorful crayon from all these small pieces. Then you'll have one crayon with lots of colors in it."

She was excited to see how we were going to do this. "It's sooo easy!" I said. So, we took all the scraps put them into a  metal mold, melted them in the toaster oven, let them cool down to room temp  then into the freezer for a few minutes then pop them out!"

I got a great "WOW" response that was very pleasing!  It was so pretty too that we decided to make another to use as a decorative element on a friends birthday present! I can expect we will be doing this with all of our broken crayon bits for years to come!

Egg Proud!

"Here's the Easter Rabbit Horray" - Buggs Bunny

 Just after breakfast we made our Easter eggs. This is the first year with G that we really dove into the traditions of Easter. My girl is three now and it just seems like this year she is much more able to have fun with it all. She does not get the religious aspects of it of course....maybe next year. Right now she thinks we are celebrating the arrival of Spring, and for now that's fine by me. Worth celebrating don't ya think!  We had lots of fun trying different techniques to make our eggs. She was very taken with the way the marbleized ones turned out. As we made them she said "Oh, look at that!"  She will do her first Easter Morning Egg hunt and she is very excited about it. As I made her first real Easter basket and hid the eggs I thought about the many years to come doing this, how certain things will remain the same as she grows and how some will change. I remember always enjoying it as a child and well into my teens. My two sisters and I would always get really into it. Without fail, every year my Mom would forget where she hid some of the eggs. Remembering that, I jotted down all their locations! I wouldn't want my dog sniffing out a bad egg in a week or so!!   

Gi's  special Egg. I love it! It's the oddest one of the bunch, she made it all by herself and it's her favorite and therefor mine too! Too bad she is allergic to eggs....she won't be eating any poor girl!

For Marbleized egg effect just put some olive oil into the egg dye and spin egg around in it! Try layering the colors, put a solid first then a marbleized on top!

And why not put all your eggs in one basket???  Especially  if the basket is this pretty? These are all ready and waiting for the Easter Bunny to come and hide them.