Enjoying the Cape

Esther and her cousin played with the super-hero capes the other day.  They ran down the hall, capes flying out behind them, and cracking up when they almost ran into each other.

I wish the pics weren't so blurry, but you know, faster than a speeding bullet and all.

Aquarium-inspired Craft

I have been thinking about an ocean-inspired flannel board for a while now, ever since we did the felt Christmas tree with felt decorations.

After our trip to the aquarium, Esther's enthusiasm for fishies grew, and I was motivated to get back on track with this project. Here's the big picture:

And a zoom-in...

And another...

For this project, I grabbed one or two of each of the solid colors of felt at JoAnn's. They were having a 4-for-$1 sale, good deal! Then I grabbed a bunch of colored Sharpies and drew shapes, mostly with dots.  There are a few solid lines, but very few. You can see the faux-pointillism in the pic above, with a textured starfish and randomly-shaped reef.

Aquarium Trip

A while back, we went to the Baltimore Aquarium with family friends.  Esther loves fish, and raved for days about the "silly dolphins" who splashed us and gave us "mess hair" during the dolphin show.

This inspired me to get to work on a project I had been thinking about for a while... you'll see it tomorrow. For now, just a few pics from the day.

This is Gram, family friend, Esther, and FF's special teddy bear. This was the outside-under of the dolphin tank.

This is Esther busily adoring some turtles. We watch "A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventure" quite frequently on Netflix, a cute eco-friendly, kid-friendly, not-particulalry-girl-friendly movie that Esther enjoys.  She kept calling the turtles Sammy and Shelly, the main characters of the movie.

Gram took this on her phone. You can see we've been splashed by the silly dolphins. Here's my fearless girl petting some kind of hissing cockroach. It wasn't hissing at the moment, but that dude was huge.  And a cockroach. And she was all ready to pick it up and bring it home or something.

Super Esther!

I bought Esther a PJ shirt at le Target that has a cape velcroed to it at the shoulders. She called it her SuperWhy* shirt, and would wave the cape around. She always wants to be carried up and down the stairs, but I said, "SuperEsther can do it herself!" And she did! She ran up the stairs like the super-toddler she is.

She got to where she asked for it every night, and since I don't do laundry every single day, it was not always available. So I came up with these.

These are "capes" that I made from some of her too-small dresses.  I just cut out the neck in the back, and kept cutting in two diagonal lines from there to the bottom of the front, like a big triangle. These are dresses that have some kind of button closure around the neck so that the capes can come on and off, but I suppose you could just use any ole neck-band and just pull it over your kid's head, as long as their bigger-kid noggins still fit through the too-small clothes.

I'm trying to think of the super-hero names that might go with these...




*Super Why is a TV show on PBS/Sprout where these kids have reading/spelling/alphabet/rhyming superpowers. Reading as a super power? I am so on board!

Lacing Toy

Esther has shown an interest in tying my shoes lately.  Or maybe I should say, untying.  She really likes pulling the laces out of my sneakers entirely.

She also likes trying to tie things.  Here she is with my uncle after she untied his shoes...

So instead of having to re-lace my sneakers every other day, I decided to make Esther a lacing toy.  You've seen them: they're plastic shapes with holes around the edges and they come with shoelaces...

I found some laces in the clearance section of the shoe department at Target, but everything else was stuff I had on hand.

As the mother of a toddler, I have a few diaper boxes laying around.  They're good cardboard!

I have a few old coffee table books that have some great pictures but don't really serve much purpose in my life right now. I've been contemplating ways to upcycle them or their pics...

I tore out two pics and mod-podged (is that a verb?) them to the cardboard. I cut out shapes with a utility knife.

 

Then I used a hole punch to... punch holes (duh) around the edges of the pic.  BONUS: Esther learns about Van Gogh at a young age! 

I finally finished with varnish.  I deliberately painted it thickly on the edges and in the holes, and I applied three or four coats, front and back.

The finished product with laces!

This whole task made me realize that I will someday have to teach Esther how to tie her shoes.  That sounds like a really hard parenting challenge. Props to all you parents whose kids know how to tie shoes!

New favorite nightgown

 I mentioned I'd started sewing... it started with a quilt for my niece, which was supposed to be a day-of-birth present, but which ended up being a first birthday present! In between, I took a sewing class in which I re-learned how to use a machine.
For the class, we were taught how to make a reversible child's dress. It was fun and I learned a lot, but more importantly, it whet my appetite for sewing!

Since my first quilt, this is probably one of my favorite projects. It's a really easy pattern that involves a piece of elastic around the neck.  It's how you finish the top of the front, back, and sleeves, making it super easy to complete.  (The pattern calls for elastic in the arms, too, but I like them fluttery... and it's easier this way.)

The fabric is a cotton knit that I pulled out of the remnant bin at JoAnn's. It's lucky that Esther is still small, because the remnant bin is half off, and the pieces are all less than a yard! I had to work with stripes for the first time, which I found to be helpful-- I'm not always so great at sewing a straight line! The knit of the fabric meant I didn't have to hem the bottom ruffle, either.  Jersey rolls up with just a little tug, making it looked finished-ish enough.

Esther likes this one because it's comfy.  It's her first nightgown. Sometimes when I check in on her at night, it is tangled up around her chest (she is a shifty sleeper!), but I tug it down and she doesn't seem to notice.

Here it is in person, one night while Esther was doing my hair before bed:

Here's the pattern: Simplicity 5695

Sewing

I've been sewing a lot lately!
I bought this machine from a nice lady on Craigslist... It's an old Kenmore, surely older than me!

I'll be sharing some of my sewing projects and some other stuff I've been doing...

A sweater for Esther

I had three different colors of this cotton-ish yarn that I bought on sale from a local yarn shop a few months ago, and I've been wanting to make something with them for Esther.  I was worried about how long they were, so I added just a bit of the leftover pink from Esther's birthday sweater.

I found the pattern HERE.

It's a quick and easy knit because it uses fairly big needles.  The pattern's author did some color-work in the torso, but I just stuck with the stripes. Again, I was worried about how much yarn I had, and using two strands at once would use it up too quickly.

I ended up with mere inches of each color when I was done, so my caution paid off!

The left shoulder has a split in it. It allows room for it to slip over a kid's head. I added the blue button and made a loop out of a tiny crocheted chain from the pink yarn.

So far, I haven't been able to snap a picture of Esther wearing it.  She has vehemently protested putting it on.

Party Prep II

The other game... a cheesie poof toss through the mouth of a smiling monkey!

To make:
1. Scan image of choice.
2. Crop photo to face.
3. Check your printer's poster settings. I made mine three sheets by three sheets. Print. (I was apparently running out of yellow ink as this was printing.)
4. Mount the printed sheets onto cardboard.  (I used an old Ikea box and Elmer's spray glue.)
5. Using a utility knife, cut around the image and cut out the mouth.

6. Finally, use another cardboard box to make a kickstand.


I figure folks of all ages will have fun throwing cheesie poofs at each other... I mean, in the monkey's mouth.

Party Prep

Esther will be 2 on Monday. I can't even believe it. Her party will be this Saturday, and I've been doing all kinds of stuff to get ready. (Unemployment is good for something, anyway.)

I've tried two different recipes for banana cakes to make the monkey cupcakes. This one won.
I tried two flavors of icing: Nutella and chocolate/peanut-butter. Nutella won.

I've been working on a sweater for Esther. (A few more inches to go!)

And a dress. (Still need to finish the bottom hem, wash, and press. I'll show you in a few days.)

And today I finished the games. The first is a ring toss, inspired by "Rings on fingers. Rings on thumb."

I scanned the page from the book and added the text in the corner.  It's a decoration/sign to identify game.

I assembled and painted a "hand" from dowel rods and wooden ovals from A.C. Moore.

Then I made some rings. I used shower rings and tied some big shiny beads to them with wire.

It will be quite a feat for anyone to actually ring a finger with these, but I figure it will occupy the menfolk for a bit.




The other game posts tomorrow!

Party preview

A hint as to Esther's wardrobe for the big day.

Another hint:

http://www.petitepurls.com/Summer10/summer2010_p_sourpatch.html

Felt snowman

I made this for Esther. It's cut out of white felt (felt by the yard from Michael's) and decorated with black felt circles and an orange felt carrot.
The idea came from a Pin of a felt Christmas tree. I taped it to the back door with painters' tape, and cut out a bunch of felt decorations for it.  Just circles in primary colors. Esther had fun decorating her tree whenever she wanted, especially since she wasn't really excited about not being allowed to touch the real tree.
My mom and I figured, you can make anything with this idea. A snowman for the rest of winter, maybe an ocean scene come summer time...
The snowman, as you see, is not taped to the door. One of the advantages of having a mom who has been a teacher/director of a preschool for 25 years is that she >happens< to own a flannel board.

She's not really into it, unfortunately.  Maybe next year?

Blow! Blow! Blow!

One of the favors for Esther's birthday party is a hankie. I know nobody uses handkerchiefs anymore, but the monkeys in the book do! This page was the inspiration, obviously.

By the way, this is how we get Esther to blow her nose.  I give her a tissue and say, "Hands with handkerchiefs!" She says, "Bow! Bow! Bow!"

I chopped up the book (gasp! I know!) and scanned a few of the pages for decorations at the party.  I cut out the monkey in the front and scanned him in all by himself.

I also printed out the words. I printed them all together, monkey and caption, and used up 8 of my 10 pages of Ink-jet-to-T-shirt transfer sheets.

I was about to start cutting them out when I realized I hadn't printed them backwards.  (You put the transfer sheets face-down, so they have to be the mirror image of what you actually want to see.)  So I used those last two pages to print the words. Doesn't it look funny?

Ok, on to the business. I ironed the transfers onto the hankies. I put it on the hottest setting and didn't use water. Steam makes the ink run. I kept the iron moving, but kept the heat on the image for 30 seconds to a minute each.  Of course, follow the instructions on whatever brand of transfer stuff you use.

Lay the images face-down and Iron! Iron! Iron!

The final product. Kinda cute, if I do say so myself.