christmas fun

 Here's how our living room looked in the morning. It's a lot of fun fun getting wrapped up in the excitement of it all. I was a lot more chilled out this year, deciding not to dwell on any of the christmas "questions" that were plaguing me last year. Should we "do" Santa or shouldn't we? How do we reconcile the different traditions Steve and I have brought from our own childhoods? Have we got too many presents or not enough? Should I really put pressure on myself to make handmade gifts when clearly there won't be enough time? Why can't I seem to get christmas cards done? (I'm hopeful that one day when the boys are a little less demanding of my time I'll manage to do more :)
Although we were all a bit manic in the run up, christmas itself was lovely- relaxed and cheerful and most importantly, SLOW. Hooray for slow days.

Here are a few photos of Brendan and Tadhg out trying out their new scooters.

And here's one showing what I discovered when going to check on what Brendan was up to after noticing he had been quiet for some time. He had decided to decorate the bannister with ornaments taken from the tree. I was sooo impressed and sat happily at the bottom of the stairs, listening and watching, while he finished the job.

Tadhg still didn't show much interest but Brendan wrapped his own presents for the three of us (with a bit of help) and then made homemade labels.  Oh and a small one for Belle the cat, by which time he was tired of writing so he just drew a cat.

There wasn't a lot of making going on but we did manage a bit of sewing. I made two pairs of christmas stockings- one out of repurposed felted wool and another pair out of an old airline blanket pinched long ago from and Air Canada flight. 

There were no photos of our meal. It was lovely, but not quite as special as the one Steve had cooked and we had shared with Caitlin, Billy and Paddy the weekend before.

Costume making

What a perfect day! Every Wednesday Brendan finishes school at noon and recently we've been leaving Tadhg with his babysitter for the afternoon so that we can have a special me-and-mama-only afternoon. Plans for today started on Monday when Brendan asked for help to become Robin Hood right at a time when I was trying to do a hundred things at once. On Tuesday he drew "a picture" of Robin Hood and we talked about what he would need. So after school today we had a quick lunch and then headed up to the room with all the crafty bits and pieces and put together a costume.
He loved choosing the fabric, measuring his waist, trying it on and looking in the mirror. He played with his wooden sewing machine as I sewed and "helped" by unravelling some thread as I hand sewed.
It was so much fun!
We made a quiver from an old poster tube. He drew around that himself- I'm flabbergasted by how his skills are developing. He has started drawing people and naming "things" he draws rather than just abstract scribbling and shapes.

Then we went outside to find sticks for a bow and arrow. He practiced for about an hour and was doing well until he fell off the tricycle while trying to shoot while riding. The "special afternoon" still tires out my wee boy- he can still have a two hour nap some days!
So the tears have dried up and he's now sitting on the sofa watching robin hood and holding onto his bow and arrow. He has just told me "mama, if you pay taxes you have to go to jail." I tried to clarify the misunderstanding but he insists that I must not pay taxes or I WILL go to jail.
Ha- he now says it's okay, I can pay taxes if I want to because he will rescue me from jail.
We really don't watch much TV and are quite picky but I still wonder about what this stuff does to their heads:)

And one final picture. Here's Fireman Brendan out for a walk the other day. He stopped at EVERY manhole cover to check if anyone was trapped and needed rescued.

Advent

It's the last day of November today and we're gearing up for christmas. I made this advent calendar with some help from Brendan, Steve and Brian. I took a bunch of old envelopes and cut them in half. Next year I'll save envelopes from post we receive- these ones are unused but ancient, those airmail ones are at least 20 years old- shows how often I write letters :(
Each envelope has a card in it on which I wrote an advent activity to do that day. We'll see how it goes- I'm sure some will work and others will be a complete flop. I'll try to keep track in case we do this again.
Brendan is working on his scissor skills so really he just cut up magazine pages and glued them together.

Here's our bungee Santa that hangs over the kitchen table.

We went to the Gagetown Village Christmas fair yesterday. One of the vendors at our Saturday market has a small farm there so we met some friends there for lunch. We met the goats, a big pig and some chickens too. The food was gorgeous- it was a treat to eat some wholesome, home cooked food- not easy to find in Fredericton.

And finally, Tadhg in a pair of trousers I made from an old T-shirt last week. He loves to go on this little slide on his own now. I can't believe he's nearly one. I have no idea what to get/make for him for his birthday. Will need to put some thought into it.

We've decided not to go to New York next week so that we can just save money for our trip to Montreal and the UK. So we'll be able to have a little birthday supper with Daddy and maybe a couple of friends.

Mei Tei making

Just finished the mei tei carrier I promised Jo. It's much more professional looking than the one I made for myself a couple of years ago.
The patterned fabric is one that I bought at the Djenne market in Mali. I bought the black twill here and reused some old fleece for the padding.
(I just looked back and realised we didn't do a post about Djenne- not good as it was one of our favourite spots in Mali)

There's a baby boom among our friends at the moment so I'm hoping to make three of these as presents.

I used a combination of two tutorials linked to below. Thanks very much to those girls for the detailed instructions. I still made a couple of mistakes but nothing that will affect the strength of the carrier.

http://stilllearninglife.blogspot.com/2008/01/diy-hood-to-headrest-mei-tai-tutorial.html

http://scanditute.blogspot.com/

The next one is half done and I've made it a little bigger for an older/bigger baby.

Organized chaos

We finally finished the cabinet. It's in the corner of the downstairs room and holds various things we use for arts and crafts. It needs a little rearranging so that Brendan can help himself to certain things but while others remain well out of reach.

Here he is experimenting with lots of different drawing media. He's just getting the hang of holding a pencil properly (almost) and drawing circles. But each time we get stuff out he is only interested for a matter of minutes.
Something he loves to do at the moment is perform for people. Yesterday at playgroup in the park, he stood up on the climbing frame and yelled "look a t me" and then did the sticky kids peapod rhyme, with actions, for 6 adults and a bunch of kids.

Five little peas in a peapod pressed.
One grew, two grew and so did all the rest.
They grew and grew so fat and round.
The pod went pop! and they fell to the ground.

Craft cabinet before

Brendan and Steve adding shelves to the "new" rickety old cupboard that will be our arts and crafts cabinet.I saw this old wardrobe in a thrift store and thought it would make a good cabinet to keep all the crafty stuff we are gathering in one place. It's been sitting in the garage for a couple of months but we finally got round to sanding it down, adding shelves, fixing some really rickety bits and painting it white. It's nearly finished so I'll add an AFTER photo soon.

We gathered some driftwood from the shores of the head pond last weekend and I decided to make this branch into a place for Brendan to hang stuff in his room.

Now to work out what to do with the rest of the sticks and logs we dragged home.

Just finished this needlefelted doll for a friend whose baby is due in a few weeks' time.

I was a little hesitant to try a human figure as I have painful memories of trying hard (and failing) to make some sort of human likeness out of clay in Art class at school. Needless to say I gave up Art as soon as I could and have regretted it ever since. Like giving up the piano. And swimming. And a hundred other things. But hey ho, I did a hundred different things instead and have no regrets on that front!

Dyeing

Look at these beautiful playsilks!! If only they belonged to us. A friend came round yesterday and we spent the whole day dyeing fabric in the back garden.
All four children were very patient with us as Agi and I got totally engrossed in the dyeing process. And what a process- it is pretty complicated and time consuming but lots of fun. Below was taken as we were rinsing all the fabric out. We did play silks, silk scarves, a couple of bed sheets some clothing for us and the kids and a lunch bag.We learned a lot and are happy with how some things turned out- less so with others. The playsilks are beautiful and held the colour really well, perhaps as they were the first things to be done. Many of the other things didn't hold the colour so well. Possible reasons include not enough fixer and trying to do too much fabric per dye bath. So if Agi's up for it maybe we'll dye another day. Ooh, I always wanted to be spy.


And Brendan eating watermelon. He HAS TO HAVE the biggest piece.

picnic breakfast

Brendan and Tadhg were both up and a ridiculous hour the other day. Brendan was in a miserable mood so to sort us all out Steve packed us a picnic breakfast while I got us dressed and we headed to the park at 7.30am as Steve left for work. Great idea Steve!
Ready to go.
Playing around the wading pool but it was a bit cold for going in.
The thumbs up and the new bulldozer are to celebrate the doing the pooing in the potty. It didn;t really happen though, it was more like a tipping of the poo from the pants into the potty and pretending. Anyway, it's now a few days later and it didn't quite work. he is still a reluctant pooer. Sorry Brendan.
Playing with diggers on the deck with various food stuffs as sand, gravel and rocks. Oh, and a new sun suit being broken in for Senegal.

First tie dye attempt.

Other things we've made recently

Sewed some hot air balloons onto a pair of bargain curtains to brighten them up for Brendan's new room- more on that later as it's still a work in progress.

A little wash bag for Grace for her trip to Europe. I think they are using it to put her crayons and little book and stickers in though. The fabric used for the inside pocket has the Eiffel Tower on it. (They are going to Paris next week)
I enjoyed making this. My mum used to make then for me for school. We weren't allowed to bring sweets to our boarding school so mum used to sew secret pockets in my bags and soft toys. :)
And I love the pink butterfly and flower tablecloth above- a recent thrift find.


This is a long cushion cover made out of a wrap around skirt I bought somewhere years ago- maybe Madagascar?. I had never worn it so it has been re-purposed. Next job is to cover a piece of foam for a bench cushion.

A beautiful new shelf unit for Brendan's room courtesy of Steve. I think he enjoyed this and he's now working on refurbishing an old school desk we bought for $3 at a yard sale. It's in bits all over the family room floor at the moment. I hope it all fits back together.

A simple bunting string of felt triangles to add some colour. It may end up in the toy box or being used outside because I don't like it all that much. Although Brendan loves to point and name the colours getting faster and faster until it becomes a tongue twister and he collapses into hysterics.
A little taggy blanket for Tadhg from one of our many fleece baby blankets and a bunch of ribbon scraps.

A paper owl mobile. I'll do this again using nicer paper with coordinating colours.

Bird mobile

A friend of mine was flying to the UK yesterday and is staying with Caitlin for a bit so I had a deadline and finally finished this mobile. I sent it with Cheyanne to give to Caitlin and Billy as a house warming present. I love all the colours and hope they think it's funky rather than childish.
Here's another one showing some of the bellies.