I found an elf!

Over the weekend, Little Bean, Little Bean's Daddy and I were out exploring the woods, when we discovered an elf in the undergrowth! Little Bean was more excited about a stick we had found earlier, so the little elf climbed into my pocket!

I found the idea for the elf after looking through some 'Etsy' shops, they looked so cute. It gave me the ideal opportunity to try needle felting again, in a different way, creating the felt clothes for the wooden head and body. I think I may make a smaller one next and make him or her a little felt leaf home to sleep in! Possibly some little red elves may appear around Christmas time too, to join in the celebrations!

I have to confess, I really got a little bit carried away with taking photographs of our elf in amongst the flora and fauna (whilst Little Bean ran around whacking things with his stick!) it was so much fun!

New to Needlefelting

Over the Summer, I tried needle felting for the first time, I found it incredibly relaxing and really enjoyed it. Maybe stabbing something with a small needle is a great form of release! ;)

My first project was a gift for my Auntie, I had to wait until she opened her birthday present before posting the photos on here! I kept the needle felting simple, creating both free hand flowers and cookie cutter flowers on a woolen scarf. I am really proud of my first attempt at needle felting. I nearly kept the scarf for myself as I did not want to part with it! However I know my Auntie will appreciate it in blustery Devon! ;)

Body Outline

A few weeks ago I found a crumpled up roll of wrapping paper. It came in very useful with a recovering child. Little Bean was not keen on my initial idea of drawing round him, so with Daddy's assistance, they drew around me!

Little Bean was absorbed in using the crayons to colour in his Mummy! I was able to say "Can you colour in the hands?" and away he would go to draw on that part of the body.

The artwork was proudly displayed on the hallway door, Little Bean took a photograph, it did not stay on the door for long though, Little Bean loved the crunchy sound it made when trampled on!

Got me thinking about making some sound boxes though!..... Watch this space!

Sick Little Bean :( and the finger knitted flower :)

Little Bean has chicken pox, so we have been keeping cool, running oat baths, sleeping and finding things to do which will distract Little Bean from the itchiness, poor little mite.

Whilst he was sleeping (rather than cleaning or tidying!) I made a finger knitted flower, which I attached to a piece of leather, it can be worn as a necklace, headband or as I prefer to wear it, as a bracelet. I think I will attempt this at work with some of the children, if they are interested. You can find a good video on You Tube which describes how to make a flower



Simple, fun and in my opinion, great to brighten up an outfit!

Wild flower weaving

Being in Northern Finland we make the most of any sunshine offered to boost our Vitamin D levels for the long Winter! As the sun was shining and there were few children in daycare, we headed outdoors.

We began by winding the yarn around the fork in the branches we had collected from beneath the birch trees, blown down by the Summer storms. We then gathered some flowers with long stalks to weave in and out of the yarn. The children then began to add grasses and different leaves to their creations, they were very proud to display them in amongst the flower box. As they worked you could observe the intense concentration on their faces, as their fingers handled the flowers. A fun activity for fine motor control, using the nature around us.

Memory game and dancing rings...

I first saw a wooden memory game on the blog 'Childhood Magic' and stored the idea away in my head for something to make in the future. I am really pleased with how it turned out, I kept it incredibly simple and Little Bean loves it. When he matches the pictures, he cheers out "YAY" and he particularly loves the picture of the tree. When he matches the pair he walks around the room, saying "puu, puu" (Finnish for 'tree') with a big smile on his face.

The dancing rings were easy to make, I took the idea off a cover of a book I saw ( I wish I could remember which one). I just need to tidy up the ends of the ribbons to stop them fraying. I have tried to capture Little Bean dancing around with the ring of ribbons but to no avail, I am not a skilled enough photographer and Little Bean is a funky dancer! He loves to make the ribbons swish through the air and will sing a little tune along with his jig!

Here we go gathering pine cones in August?!...

Things have been hectic as I am back at work though Little Bean is settling into his new routines, however by evening we are both shattered, so we are pretty early at settling down to snooze! Urm, apologies, this relatively new blog has fallen by the wayside, at least during the week! But Little Bean comes first and foremost and I need my beauty sleep! ;)

Therefore I thought I would share some photographs from last weekend. We went to the woods to gather pine cones to make Christmas decorations, I know it seems insane to think of Christmas in August! Autumn is on it's way to Northern Finland though, the mornings are cooler and mushrooms can be found, together with blueberries ready to pick (next on my list of things to do!). Once the frost and snow sets in, the pine cones are very difficult to find.

Little Bean was so happy to be gathering the pine cones, he was squealing with delight as he wandered about :) The basket of pine cones are now out in the porch to give any little insects time to move out before Little Bean becomes a creative whirlwind!