Playground

We finally got some nice Autumn weather!
Yesterday, E and I hopped on the bus for a day out. We had lunch in the markets. We had a quick look in an op-shop where E bought a book and a basket. Unfortunately, we didn't get to the playground which is E's favourite thing to do.
So today, even though we were all a little tired after E's soccer class, we went for a drive and had a picnic lunch and a long play on the playground.

There were plenty of things to climb on and explore:

This cool cubby:

And a slide:

It was overcast all day and we thought it might rain. It didn't, which was fine by us.

-Polly

Ballerina E

No, we haven't enrolled E in ballet classes. She has a soft toy of the character "Angelina Ballerina". We don't watch the TV show, but she does like the toy and loves to point out that Angelina has a tutu and a crown. E will often wear her 'princess crown' that I made for her and dance around the house pretending to be Angelina Ballerina. We have a couple of Angelina board books that my husband found in an op-shop, one of which is called "Angelina Can...". It's a very simple book. "Angelina can... leap... spin... do an arabesque... etc." E loves to do "as Angelina can".

Today I made E a "no-sew tutu" using this short video tutorial. I had just enough tulle left over from another project and I already had the elastic on hand, too. I know this next photo is really blurry, but it shows E "doing an arabesque," her favourite ballet move.

E loves to dance around the house, which is great because it has been stormy here for the last few days and we haven't had much chance to run around outside. Her other favourite dance is "Gangnam Style". It's funny to watch her do that dance.

-Polly

Japanese Sewing Books

It can be hard to find time to craft and sew, so sometimes I'll go weeks without making anything. Sometimes, like these last couple of weeks, I will get inspired and sew in whatever spare minutes arise. This time around, I was mostly inspired by the 'Stylish Dress Book' (English edition), by Yoshiko Tsukiori, which arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago. I traced out a dress pattern, as I had some fabric in my stash which looked much like one used in the book (dress I). Then I realised that my fabric wasn't nearly wide enough. Oops. My husband chose a different dress from the book that he would like to see on me (of course he chose a tricky one) and we all went on a shopping trip to our local fabric store.

I have cut out the pieces for my dress, but they're still sitting on our dining table (I don't have a sewing room at the moment) because I had a couple of other projects that I wanted to get done first. These projects  included a pair of denim pants (or "jeans like Daddy") and a new hat for E. I used the 'Black Linen Hat' pattern from 'Carefree Clothes for Girls', by Junko Okawa. It's the second time that I've made this hat for E (although I've never used black or linen for them) and have a third one cut out and ready to sew. E loves that these hats sit so low on her head. People are always pulling her hat up so that they can see her eyes and she just gives them a look and pulls it straight down again. This doesn't help her habit of walking around with her head in the air. E's favourite dress is one that I made from this book, too. It's the 'Dress with Lace Doily' in orange cotton with a vintage doily that I found in a country op-shop. The dress is nearly two sizes bigger than I would usually make for her, but she loves it and there's plenty of room to grow.

These Japanese pattern books have been so inspiring that I've recently ordered three more. I see a lot of sewing in my future.

-Polly

L is for Leaves

We have had so many nice, clear days over the past week, I can't remember the last time I saw a cloud. E still likes to go outside and collect flowers so, the other day, I thought we'd mix it up a little. Instead of going out and collecting flowers, our morning walk became a leaf-finding expedition. E took along her little basket (another op-shop find) and we headed towards a local park where there are lots of big gum-trees. We found only a couple of fallen leaves along the way, but once we got to the park, her basket was soon filled.

We carried it back home and sorted through all the leaves that we had found. Some were long and some were short. Some were green, while others were brown, or orange, or even purple. Some were big and some were very small. It was a really good activity for introducing opposites and adjectives (although E, of course, just sees it all as talking and playing).

E had a great time making collages with some of the leaves, using pieces of clear contact that I had cut for her. The contact works really well for this because there's no need to use any messy glue and once they're finished, the leaves aren't going to fall off. We stuck the finished collages up on a window to let the sun shine through. The morning sun gives them a nice glow, showing all the different colours in the leaves, while the late afternoon sun gives a silhouette effect.


There were a lot of leaves left over after making the collages. I think we collected a few too many, but I may use it as an excuse to do another craft project with them later this week (if they last that long). Most of the left-over leaves were arranged in one of E's vases where she'd usually only have fresh flowers.

I also did a new drawing for our alphabet series (two leaves in the shape of an 'L') and E, as usual, helped with the colouring. It seems that activities with leaves are usually reserved for the Autumn months, when many leaves are changing colour and starting to fall. Doing these activities in Spring, meant that we found a lot of new leaves sprouting (like on our little plum tree which has just 'woken up' after the Winter) and we could compare different types of leaves on each new plant that we found. There just isn't as much variety in the leaves that are on the ground at this time of year.

-Polly

Trees and Treasures

Today is so clear and sunny, we just had to get out and go for a walk around the neighbourhood. Here's E at a local park, checking out the kangaroo paw in flower:

 and here she's found a dandelion flower and is pointing it out to her toy duck:

E gets excited by trees. As we were walking along the footpath, she noticed some gum trees in the park ahead. "Trees!" she said, and hurried in that direction. A number of the trees got hugs from E, but thankfully not all of them needed hugs today or we'd probably still be there hugging trees.

My little tree-hugger

Back at home, E shows off her new treasure: a big, white, shiny rock

Look what I found!

and a couple of smaller items are added to her treasure bowl.

I bought this little wooden bowl at an op-shop last week for $2. It makes a perfect little treasure bowl and looks lovely filled with E's little bits of nature. I love op-shop finds.

-Polly