The mess. It starts over breakfast, after the first round of washing has already been mysteriously whipped into the washing machine. Alice enjoys baby cereal off a spoon – but she hasn’t quite got that you hold the spoon by the handle – preferring to get stuck right into the action on the tip of […]
Art
Dear Mummy…
An imagined letter from my children to me: Dear Mummy, We’re sorry for the mess we left everywhere, but do you like the painting we did for you? The painting is of you being busy. You are always busy, but we like that you stop to give us a hug and play with us too. […]
Mummy says we can put glue on the window!!!
When the girls heard about this fun window collage activity, which I discovered via the Crafty Crow, they couldn’t believe their ears… They were actually being told to put glue on the window! They looked at me as though I’d gone mad or been reading too many Roald Dahl books. Madness is part true (makes […]
Flowing with watercolours
Whilst the rain continues to lash down outside we have been flowing with watercolours inside. I know little of art techniques, but I do enjoy a quiet moment to draw or paint. I have fond memories, from my childhood, of whiling away hours drawing and painting, particularly on weekends away visiting extended family. Dan also […]
Swinging clip folk and clocks
Charlotte has been busy creating fun swinging clip folk and clocks this week. My favourite is the robot she made for me, which I’ve pinned in the kitchen. In my dreams the robot comes to life and performs the tasks Charlotte has set for it to do: ‘Do all the housework’, ‘Make breakfast’, ‘Tidy up’ […]
Masked Fun at Capital E
Capital E always pulls out the stops to entertain children over the school holidays. We spent Thursday morning making masks and enjoying the wonderful ‘Commedia Dell’Arte Performance’, a form of mask theatre that evolved in Italy, influencing early clowning and ballet. We had a very fun morning of inspiration and comedy. Here’s the girls creating […]
Marzipan Toadstools
Punga Fern Easter Art
The Maori people identify the unfurling Punga fern frond or ” Koru” design, with values of youth, strength and vitality, life unfolding, the family or WhÄnau, its care and protection. It seems, therefore, a perfect symbol with which to celebrate Easter in New Zealand. Charlotte came up with the idea of Punga art for Easter, […]
Easter eggs, masks & baskets
A special Easter parcel arrived from Chicken Grandma and has kept the girls busy creating decorative Easter eggs (a fabulous Marks & Spencers kit), masks and baskets. With Charli off school due to a virus and eye infection the timing of the parcels was perfect. The girls are in their element being creative and turning […]
Chicken Grandma in more ways than one!
When Charli was very little my Mum used to make animal sounds on the telephone and one sound in particular stuck – that of a chicken. When Grandma phoned, Charli would say, ‘Chicken Grandma!’. Well, Chicken Grandma has been doing an art course and sent the girls a copy of one of her latest paintings […]
Sophie’s finger puppet
She’s had a busy week and amongst other things she created this wonderful finger puppet: She’s also been cleaning the windows… And enjoying the sunshine in the garden…
Sophie’s Quill Pen
One sunny autumnal day last week Sophie and I were walking along the beach. She started collecting seagull feathers, which promptly joined the bottle tops, leaves, pebbles and sweet wrappers in the bottom of my bag. I mentioned that many years ago feathers were used to write with and were called quills. She didn’t believe […]
Charli’s before school weaving
Charli never stops, from the moment she wakes until she reluctantly surrenders to sleep (and even in her sleep she talks – or screams!). She has such an active mind and is forever off in a corner of the house creating something, be it art, writing, a song or a dance; or in the garden […]
Sophie’s Tulips
We found a lovely quick craft idea to make tulips for Easter (we’re in total denial of autumn!). Sophie loved this little project. We started by painting old egg cartons green (as in the video demonstration on About.com), for the bud of the tulip, but then Sophie came up with the idea of covering the […]