Ramble On

We made fairy houses.

Today our family cat passed away. He was very old, nearly 17, which is very old for an outside cat living in the woods, so I am told. I got Morgan when I was 10 years old, he has met all my children and I am glad for that.

I'm sad.

My littlest is going to be 8 months old next week. I can't believe it. Time has gone by so fast. This post from Soulemama has me thinking about it. I know that out time nursing is growing shorter with each passing session. It's hard to stay upset at the lack of sleep when I realize that she'll be one so so soon. She's still getting up 3x a night to nurse and we're having roof work done so we're all up by 7:15AM due to the noise. It's been a rough couple of week on the sleep front.

Today is Wednesday, only 3 more Wednesdays until the end of the school year. Today it's supposed to rain, so we have The Tale of Despereaux to watch. If it's not raining (it's sunny right now!) we might take a trip down to the lake, our first of the year. It's going to be cold but we're used to really never backing up the winter clothes around here so we're always well prepared for cold weather.

As for now, I'm still in my pj's, as are both the girls. It's hard to get motivated, there is some significant family drama going on this morning that I can not talk about but never the less is taking a toll on me. I've prayed about it and I feel like that's all I can do about it right now.

My hands are tingling. I just finished dying some play silks. I had visions of the freshly dyed silks drying on the clothes line and fluttering in the breeze as I stepped outside, clothes pins in hand, and starting pining the first (and largest) silk onto the line I noticed that the picnic table had water droplets on it. I leaned over the porch railing and held out my hand, small warm droplets. Dang.

So they are in the basement laying on the drying rack. The big one is in the dyer, on low heat, hopefully it'll be okay.

They took the dye nicely. I used food coloring with a splash of vinegar and dyed them using the microwave method that I use to dye yarn. The kids are not impressed as of yet, since when they are wet the silks are nearly see-through and almost not there. I think the largest silk looks the nicest, it's light light blue and is exactly how I envisioned it turning out. Hopefully it won't look too white once it's dry but I think it's alright.

I'm thinking about getting a couple more blanks to dye for xmas but I'm not sure that my friends would like these for their children. I'm anticipating the question "what do they do with them?".

I was never really into play silks cause, well, I thought they looked boring. I ordered a rainbow one from atoygarden for my littest's Easter basket on a whim and she loves that thing dearly, it goes with her everywhere.

So I finally ordered a couple of blanks from Dharma trading co to dye and the kids have been playing with them for about an hour now non stop. I got one super big one and they made a tent (using some play clips) and with the smaller ones they've been tying to themselves as pieces of clothing (a hat, eye patch, a belt, and a bandage for a pretend wound). It's nuts. I haven't even dyed these yet. Now there is a great debate going on about what color to actually make them.

I made these fairy jars for my daughter's 4th birthday party as centerpieces. I made five which was a good idea because a couple of people wanted to take them home and I was able to keep one for myself and one of my little girl for a decoration in her room, on a high shelf because these are glass. I was toying with the idea of making one with a plastic container as well for her but we'll see how this one holds up in her room.


*ahem*

How to make a fairy jar.


Ingredients:
* a clear jar with a lid
* a photo that will fit into the jar
* small wood block
* fuzzy yarn
* ribbons
* fabric flower
* flat back marble
* scrap book paper
* sparkles and spangles
* glitter
* glue
* scissors

Here we go! Cut out your picture, embellish with glitter and glue your little fairy to the small wood block. I took a picture of my daughter dressed up as a fairy so I didn't have to fashion her wings.



Next I take my clean jar (using a spaghetti sauce jar here) and glue the wooden block to the bottom of the jar. I usually just drop it in then use the tips of my scissors to push it down and make sure it's nice and stuck.



Then I cut a length of fuzzy yarn and pushed it down into the jar around the wooden block. I tried to make sure the block was covered with the yarn it gives the appearance of a nest.




Next I threw in a handful of star shaped sequins to give it some sparkle.



I took some sparkly scrap book paper and cut a bit of a rectangle with it. This then gets placed in the jar for a background.




I also had these little star ornaments left over from xmas time so I put the string against the threads of the jar and twisted on the lid.



Then to embellish the top of the jar I first take apart the fake flower and glue it one layer at a time to the lid of the jar, finish it off by gluing a button or flat marble to the middle of the flower to hold it all down (you could also use a button or anything with a flat side)



If you need to (like I did) wrap a piece of ribbon around the lid of the jar to cover up any writing and there you go!



(The little fairy in the tub beside the fairy jar is an embellished photo of my youngest daughter. I added the wings and glued her to a wooden block.)

In the next week I will be posting:

* a review on the things we bought from A Toy Garden
* a how-to guide for a fun center piece for a Fairy Party
* a fancy cake
* and other general rambling as I prepare more gift-guides (I'm getting ready for Christmas already, not shopping just brain storming ;-)

Happy Easter to all those who celebrate!