A Morning at the Farm

Today I went along on Autumn's school field trip to Clark's Elioak Farm in Ellicott City. We took a hayride through a magical forest to a pumpkin patch where the kids each picked out their very own pumpkins, then headed off to meet the farm animals. Of course, right as we reached the goats my camera's battery died, so I was only able to take a few pictures. Oh well. Autumn fed baby goats (they were so tiny!) and sheep, and even got to pet a chicken. She said it was feathery.After that the kids played for a while on the old Enchanted Forest playsets that the farm had adopted, and I bought some funny little gourds from the shop to use as a fall centerpiece on our kitchen table. I had almost decided not to go on this trip at the last minute, but I'm glad I did. Autumn seemed really pleased to have me there with her, and I got to meet some of her friends and their parents. All the kids in her class are so smart and well behaved! I don't think we could have picked a better school for her.

Miss Luna

It started with a random polymer clay head I sculpted on a whim while watching Oprah yesterday. I thought it looked pretty cute, so I decided to bake it even though I had no idea what I'd do with it after that. I've never sculpted any sort of face before, so I was surprised at how pretty and whimsical it looked. The head sat staring up at me on my craft room table for an hour or two while I worked on other things and tried to think of something I could do with it. At first I was going to use a glass jar and a teacup for her body and make her into a funky art doll to sit in my craft room. But once again I was inspired by Autumn and ended up making something for her. After some experimenting, some frustration with a jammed sewing machine (thank you for fixing it Adam) and a lot of hot glue, the head became Luna.
Luna is a dream fairy who watches over children at night and uses her magic dream wand to help them sleep soundly. Her body is stuffed with polyester fiber and beans to give her balance since she's a bit top heavy. Get a load of those stripey legs! I love them. Her wings are felt, her hair is more polyester fiber, and her scarf is a piece of trim from my own childhood security blanket. After I finished her I snuck into Autumn's room and perched her on top of her night light. When she woke up this morning she gasped upon seeing Luna and whispered, "You're beautiful!" This is the first doll I've ever made and I do think that, imperfections and all, she is very beautiful.
And yes, Autumn did have a good dream last night.

Fun With Clay

Autumn loves to play with clay, but doesn't love to put it away when she's done. We usually end up with several hardened multicolored lumps of Play Doh on the kitchen floor that we have to throw away, and each time her supply gets smaller and smaller. So today we decided to try making our own clay from a recipe found on Martha's website.

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon cooking oil
food coloring (optional)

In a saucepan, combine flour, salt, and cream of tartar. At this point, if your small one starts chanting "I want to do it! I want to do it!" let her do it. Add oil, 1 cup water, and food coloring as desired. When did stores stop selling liquid food coloring? I had very little on hand so our clay became a lovely salmon pink instead of red. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly--or mostly constantly while you try to unload the dishwasher--until mixture pulls away from sides of pan. Remove from heat, and let cool 1 minute. Transfer to a work surface, let cool for another three minutes if your kid yells "it's still too hot!" and knead until smooth. Store in an airtight container; it will keep for several weeks if you can manage to return it to the container every time she's done playing with it. Good luck with that.
I also got my clay on last night making these polymer clay horns for the shop. I think they'd be perfect for Halloween. The flames and skulls are my favorites.After watching me make them Autumn decided she wanted to make some for Adam and me, so she sculpted and painted these all by herself. And yes, I cropped most of my face out of the picture because I think I'm tragically un-photogenic. Oh well. Anyway, my unicorn horn is awesome and Adam nearly cried when she gave him his pair. Aren't they cute?

A Knight to Remember

Oh dear. Pardon the pun. I couldn't help myself. Anyhow, yesterday's party was a hit. We had it in the basement since it has easy access to the yard and the biggest table. All but one of Adam's nieces and nephews attended and they all had a blast. Adam made Autumn this fantastic castle cake topped with her plastic knights and her favorite of Adam's D&D dragon figures, a blue one she calls Sapphira.
First, the kids worked on a craft project decorating wooden masks while Adam fired up the grill, then we had a delicious lunch of cheeseburgers, hot dogs and baked macaroni and cheese. We drank fruit punch and water out of plastic goblets and snacked on fruit kabob "swords."After lunch the kids were unleashed into the backyard to play with Autumn's inflatable pirate fort--er, castle--and foam swords and shields. This was by far their favorite part of the party. Adam and his brother joined in and took a vicious beating from a bunch of preschoolers.
When the knights and ladies grew tired from their battle we coaxed them inside for cake and ice cream. Autumn blew out all four of her candles and the great castle was demolished. It was delicious.After cake the kids returned to the fort while the adults sat around the table chatting, then came inside again for a game of Pin the Flag on the Castle. After each guest finished they received their favor bags; wrist armor disk launchers and yo-yos for the knights, and costume jewelry and fairy dolls for the princesses. I made red velvet princess dresses and gray knight tabards for the kids, but for some reason never got a good picture of them. I think I have an extra dress somewhere that I'll photograph later. The girls didn't keep the dresses on for long but the boys loved their tabards, and Autumn had a special red knight tabard and helmet that she wore the whole time. They also each got to take home a shield and sword.This was my first time hosting a party of any sort, and I must say it was exactly the way we wanted it to be. Everything went very smoothly, the children loved every activity, and the parents thought it was great too. After all the guests were gone Autumn told me, "Mom, this was the best party ever." That really made it worth all the effort.

Year 4

Happy birthday Ootie. We love you.

Lanterns, toile, and a very Bossy Bear

Bossy Bear is very bossy. He is also Autumn's favorite book by David Horvath. It's a story about a little blue bear who wants things his way all the time, but learns to share with the help of a small turtle with a balloon. So my second birthday gift to her is this hat, which I whipped up today while she was at school. Adam loves it and I think she'll get a kick out of it too.
In other news I've been on a major organizing mission in my craft room lately. I'm rearranging and repurposing much of my abundance of stuff as well as parting with a lot of things I've finally admitted to myself that I'm not going to use. I've also been trying to bring a little more personality into the room with the addition of things like these paper lanterns I bought on our summer vacation. Aren't they pretty?
A fellow crafter showed me this ingenious way (one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" moments) to store fabric, by folding and wrapping it around pieces of cardboard to make mini bolts. I think my fabrics look adorable lined up this way on my shelves, and it takes up a lot less storage space as well as making it easier to find what I'm looking for. See that red and cream toile on the right? Delicious. I guess for some toile is a little too old fashioned and stuffy looking, but I'm madly in love with it and pick it up whenever I find it for a good price. This was a thrift store score I got a few weeks back. The fabric was folded up nicely when I bought it and I hadn't thought to unfold it before I was ready to use it, so it sat neatly on my shelf all this time. When I unfolded it to wrap it on my little cardboard bolt yesterday I was in for a very pleasant surprise.
That is my four dollar thrift store fabric trailing all the way down our staircase and about three feet into the kitchen. Holy guacamole. When I found this stuff I thought I was buying a yard, maybe two of some pretty toile that I'd use for a purse or something, but here I've got yards upon yards of the stuff. It really doesn't look like that much when it's folded up, does it? Needless to say, my jaw dropped to the floor and I just stared at it for a while, amazed at my luck. My guess is that someone bought it to make curtains and then abandoned the project for some reason. Bless them for donating it to MY Goodwill instead of letting it gather dust in a closet somewhere. I haven't decided yet what I want to make with it. If I'm feeling adventurous I might try a dress, but for now I'll just admire it on my craft room shelf.

Birthday Crafting

Yesterday was the first day of fall, and already I can feel the change in the air. The weather is cooling, the leaves are starting to drop from the trees, and my little one is nearly another year older.
Autumn's birthday is almost here, so for the past week I've been in my own little crafty world making party favors, decorations and, of course, presents. I'll post more about the party stuff when that time comes around, but for now here are my gifts to the small one, inspired by her recent interest in the culinary arts.

A reversible apron (recognize that puppy fabric?). This was my first time making anything reversible (or making an apron, for that matter) and I couldn't be happier with the results. I didn't use a pattern, just made it up as I went along. Each side has a nice big pocket for holding all her chef stuff, and I used ties instead of a loop for the neck so that it will fit her as she grows, assuming that she'll still want to wear it.
When I finished making these oven mitts, I actually squealed. I think they are just so, so darling. Definitely my favorite part of the set. They were based on this super easy tutorial (if you have the time, My Longest Year is a great blog and I strongly recommend reading more of it) and they were really fun to make. I used some fleece left over from last year's Halloween costume for the batting. I was concerned about the sizing at first, so I actually tried one on her with her eyes closed (it fit). Oh well, better to have it be not quite a complete surprise than see her disappointed on her birthday if they hadn't fit.
And last but not least, the all-important chef's hat, modeled by Donce the shark. My first attempt at the hat got thrown into the scrap pile because the poofy part (?) was much too small and looked more like a beret, but I'm satisfied with this one. I'm really proud of this little set and I hope Autumn loves it too. Tomorrow I'm hoping to finish the last of the party favors and I'll be making one more small gift on Wednesday while she's at school.

Special thanks to My Longest Year for the tutorial, to Crafty Pod for keeping me entertained in my craft room, and to Donce for his awesome modeling.