All hands on deck

Oh how busy we've been. Crafting up a storm. 

School holidays are in full swing and we have been little worker bees creating all sorts of  Eastery goodies.

Our wheatgrass we planted a week ago is growing at a cracking pace, almost in need of a mow.

Our Washi Eggs are drying slowly, with a lovely sheen appearing all over. Great instructions can be found over at Martha's, and I can highly recommend making these. Hard to stop at just one, I already have a half dozen from a previous year. All these need now are a little hook and they will be ready to add to our tree.

The birdhouses are finally finished, ready for Easter morning. If anyone is interested, I've kept the templates for the birdhouses and mama chicks and will happily email them through. Easy enough to put together and fast if you leave out the rough decorative hand sewing. I was aiming for a more rustic birdhouse design you see...

And the teeniest bunny is waiting, watching and hoarding carrots. 

Needle felting has made a small come back here of an evening, but after making half a dozen inch high creatures, I may well be done. Tricky to multi task. Reading subtitles on DVD's and wielding a long, sharp, fast moving needle don't seem to go together. My poor fingers have been stabbed just a bit too much.

Now off to make chocolate bilbies, ready to dip in a Easter latte.

A Mother's Love

Honestly.

These poor little darlings have the faces only a mother could love. Startled. Permanently. Kind of like their mother really.

Best we don't startle them anymore. Don't want mama chick to fly the coop (and between you and me, I'm not even sure that they are hers). 

Do you think there was a mix up with the eggs?

Nest Guarding

Just a quick peak.

Somebodies guarding a nest.

Do you think we should disturb her?

If you're very, very quiet, you might just get to see three little eggs.

Best we sneak away now and leave the mama chick in peace.

All going well, we might return in a day or so to see if those babies have hatched (and the house has been finished).

And the Winner is....

Thankyou so much for all your kind words. Easter goodness will be in the post tomorrow!

Meanwhile, if you're desperate for some bunny love, see in store.

Easter Diorama Tutorial

Sprouting already. These little Easter Dioramas are what the Prep/Grade 1 kids will be making this week.

Here's what you'll need:

Coloured Card (red and green)

White Paper

Foam Egg

Fuzzy Chicks

Plastic takeaway containers 

Brown Paper 

String or yarn

Cotton Balls

Elastic Band

Stick Tape

Glue Stick

Sticky Dots

Wheatgrass Seeds

Cut your grass to cover the base of your container. Mine was 14 x 9 cm. I then clipped the edges to give a rounded appearance.

Here's some templates you might find handy.

      

Cut your toadstool top from red card, cutting halfway through circle, then overlap and tape together.

Trim base of foam egg so it sits flat, then glue mushroom top to egg.

Cut out spots from white paper and attach using glue.

Cut out larger circle from brown paper.

 

Cover small plastic container with paper, place rubber band to secure and dress with yarn.       

Fill with cotton balls, moisten, then sprinkle wheatgrass seeds over.    

Place chicks in container, secured in position with a sticky dot.

Your little wheatgrass garden will begin sprouting after only a few days.

Make sure it is kept moist at all times, and keep in a nice bright room.

All up, these cost about $2 for each little diorama.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway, only a couple of days to go. Easter goodies are a waiting.

Bloggy Giveaway

Well doesn't time fly! Next week will be my first Bloggy Anniversary, and to celebrate I have a giveaway.

Just a little bit of Easter cheer. A lovely linen and cotton breakfast mat, with a pale blue polka bunny detail. Very wash and wear (mine have even had a spin through the drier) and perfect for you or your kiddley come Easter morning.

And to make Easter even sweeter, a small collection of Easter Tree Ornaments. These have all been made right here in hausfrauland, ready to wing their way to you and yours.

A washi egg, a wee little felt bunny and a darling orange carrot to keep those rabbit nibbles at bay.

Mine hang from a tree, but these also look super cute from a mantle, or perched in a bit of Wheatgrass.

Leave a comment in the next week. Drawn Thursday the 25th March.

Congratulations pink and green mama.

Easter Crafting for Kids

Because I can't walk past these little ones without wanting to buy them, I thought I would base this Easter's school crafting activity around them.

They are so sweet, and every year I seem to see an even cuter version. Last year's were all about bonnets and baskets. This year they have darling little scarves.

Here's a sneak peak of what we will be doing.

Mama, Papa and Baby. With a toadstool. And what will eventually be a wheatgrass garden.

Easy Peasy.

Instructions soon. Here.

Alice

Paper cuts with an Alice in Wonderland theme. A match made in heaven.

Because we haven't had a chance to see the movie yet, I thought that we could at least enjoy a bit of fabulous Alice artistry, courtesy of Fantastic Toys.

It comes as a downloadable PDF, and printed on cardstock it stands up beautifully.

(my passion for cardstock also knows no bounds, and I hoard quite a stash of archival 300gsm)

Currently gracing our mantle piece, Alice and her cohorts are just perfect.

Little Things

With one kiddlet away at camp, today I decided to tackle a room. The worst. The girl's. She has so much stuff. Outgrown stuff, manky show toys, half chewed things (eewww) and about a suitcase full of broken pencils. Honestly.

What do you do with it all? So much garbage comes in through those front doors, it's not funny. As I headed in with plastic bags, it occurred to me that most of it won't be missed. I could probably get rid of half before it would even be noticed. Do we really need a house littered with fuzzy headed Barbies and Polly Pockets? Admittedly I was quite fond of the My Little Ponies when they first arrived, but now? On the floor and the vacuum will get them.

But what to do with the really gorgeous things, things that don't ever get a look in anymore. Too good to give away, but how much to save I'm unsure of. What will they wish they still had in thirty years time?

Size eleven Tap shoes. Barely marked. Too small.

Size two Snowsuit. Super cool, Mambo, worn twice. Too small.

Beautiful wooden puzzles. Too easy.

Little collections of foreign coins, stones and shells, and oddly enough piles of bark chips.

I kind of wince every time something gets thrown out.

It was certainly easier when the eldest grew out of things. With another child planned at some stage, it was simply a case of hoarding stuff for a bit longer.

By the age of seven, an awful lot was decreed babyish, right down to the Bunnykins crockery.

And because I may just cry when this set of Bunnykins goes away, I am whipping up another little placemat. A kind of homage to rabbits and wee little ones.

Not that you see too many green rabbits.

The only worry is that the six year old may be a seven year old before I complete all that teeny stitching.

How to: PomPom Chandelier

For a ten balled chandelier you'll need the following:

Twenty five cardboard rings (mine were 6cm with a 3cm inner)

Six balls of wool

A foam ring (mine was 15cm)

Two metal washers (2.5cm)

Two wooden beads

Invisible thread

Wrap wool around cardboard rings, trying to wrap reasonably firmly.

Continue until it becomes difficult to thread wool through.

You're pompoms need to be thick.

Carefully cut through the layers

Tie around the middle, and then remove the cardboard.

Trim any longer threads.

Wrap the foam ring, covering twice.

Wrap the two metal washers.

Wrap each of the remaining five cardboard rings.

Stack the cardboard rings, metal washers and beads together. I used invisible thread to attach them to one another.

Using wool matching your foam ring, tie four strands to the ring, then feed through the stack. This is how your pompoms will hang.

Using your invisible thread, attach each of the pompons to the foam ring, varying the lengths.

Voila!

This would be the perfect mobile for a nursery or playroom, but for us, it's perfect for our lounge room.

They can be quite time consuming to make, but terribly addictive. My youngest LOVED making these (and she was faster than me).

Because I can't knit...

I love wool. So beautiful to work with, infinite colours to choose from and seemingly endless blends. Mohair, alpaca, possum???, merino, bamboo, you name it really.

So this week has been dedicated to the PomPom. Many PomPoms. Super addictive. I've made ten so far and want to make more.

I've made them on the sofa in the evening, in bed in the morning, in the car on a long drive (don't worry, I was the passenger) and while waiting for soccer training to end. Always in my hand, or in my bag, waiting.

And look at these colours. Gorgeous.

I am going to make a PomPom Chandelier when finished, and I can't wait to see all the colours together.

Indoorsy

Try as I might, I just couldn't get a flattering shot of these. Chocolate Acorns. Autumnally themed sweetness. I had been waiting and waiting for the best part of six months to try these, ever since I saw them here.

Fun, albeit messy to make and being no chocolatier, I found the colours somewhat tricky to replicate.

But given our indoorsy, stormy weather it didn't seem to matter. Chocolate is chocolate after all, and I really don't think the kids cared what it looked like.

MouseTrap was out and they were hungry!

Our poor garden has suffered from hail damage, leaves are shredded and trees stripped. The ceiling and windows leaked rather badly, but we were all safe and sound and no serious damage occurred. Gardens grow back and roofs can be repaired.

We actually got off fairly lightly, friends nearby had hail damaged cars and flooded houses. In hindsight I wish I had taken more photos, but was simply too chicken to brave the elements. By the time I was out, most of the hailstones had melted down to marble size and the golf ball ones had all but disappeared.

Crazy, crazy weather.