Organize yourself in 2013 with an almanac

A new year is coming, and with it a new organized life. Or at least that is what I hope!

I follow the blog of Madame Zsazsa since a couple of  years ago; when I bought her pattern to make a carrying cloth for Anna (see the post I wrote on the topic). A couple of days ago, Madame Zsazsa wrote a wonderful post with an almanac that she has drawn herself, and I have immediately printed it. The almanac is in black and white, so I took some markers and coloured it.

Then, to make it more resistant, I took a piece of carton from a cereals box and I covered it with a piece of red textile (just to have it as background and to make the almanac a bit more cute). And the almanac is ready, as you can see below,  after adding some red strings to put all the months together.

And, of course, you can download the Mde Zsazsa almanac here.

Do-it-yourself body scrub

I came across the blog Hey Gorgeous via Pinterest, and I found a great idea for gifts: a body scrub. The most charming thing is the simplicity of it, and actually, the good results.

In the original receipt, they suggest two kinds of sugar, which I substituted by coloured sugar meant to bake cakes. I could not find almond oil here in Kigali, so I used olive oil. And since I could not find any vanilla extract either, I rasped some lemon. You can see the result below!

I downloaded the labels "Scrub Sweet Scrub" from Wedding Chicks, here is the link. The result is quite professional and super-cute!

Paper flower

Here comes a very easy activity for pre-schoolers, and it can be done very easily at home. Simply draw something simple in a piece of paper, and have your child gluing small pieces of paper (preferably colored) into it.

The only thing you have to take into account is the glue. I tried different kinds of glue, and some of them are really too difficult to be used by 2 or 4 year-olds. Either the glue gets dry and stuck very easily, or you have to be Superman to get some glue out of the bottle. Now we are using Pritt in a liquid version, and that works fine even for Anna.

Enjoy crafting!

What is Nederland?

Will our children remain familiar with the Netherlands if we continue living abroad for long? Are they going to have a clear picture of who-is-who in their family?

My husband had the idea to make a big poster about the Netherlands. We simply used one of our removal carton boxes and opened it flat. Then it is all a matter of drawing together few things (mo matter if they are really beautiful or not), gluing some others and printing some family pictures. Of course, all in an orange background.

The result is not particularly impressive, but it helps the children to talk about their home country. Even if they are only 2 and 4 years old, they talk about it to visitors and friends, like: "Look, this is my opa (grandpa) and he is reading books for me". And that is already worth the effort!

Pirates!

Carnaval has just passed, but dressing up as pirates is something you can do at any time of the year.

The day care had organized a carnival party, so children could go with a special outfit. Paul is really picky regarding what he wants to wear, so I thought it made no sense to buy him something. He would probably just not want to wear it.

So... we made his pirate outfit together. I took some pieces of colored felt, and he could choose the colors he liked (he chose blue and red, not a surprise). Then he could cut them in little pieces and point where he wanted them placed in his trousers, T-shirt and hat. I just sew them in the right spot and it was ready!

On the day itself I used some special pens to paint his face, and obviously he also wanted to paint himself some extra lines in his face.

The result is the one below!

Handmade dog with toilet paper roll

I am always surprised by how patient the care takers of my children are.
Paul comes again and again with handmade stuff he does during the day. And I know that the care takers have to help around with more than one child at the time!

So, here is one of the little pieces of art: a handmade dog made with a toilet paper roll.

Make your own mama with children picture

Pictures are lovely, but drawings are so cute!
My syster is really creative, and this is the drawing she made for us picturing Anna, Paul and me.



We are waiting for the next one having the full family!
Let me know if you like it as well!

Drawing on glass

I was wondering; how do people in the bars / restaurants write those menus on the glasswindows? So, I said to myself, let's have a look at a toy store and see if I can find pens or something that can be used to write on glass.

And I found them! These ones are from SES Creative, and I can tell that they are really washable when being used on glass.



The result is quite nice; we use it a lot on the window of our kitchen door.



Paul really likes drawing with them, and he can keep himself totally entertained while we are cooking. Of course, under supervision! I would not use it with children that still put things in their mouth; but it should not be a problem when they are being used under close supervision.



Drawings are easily removed with a wet cloth; no problem!

Crochet blanket

Some things look so familiar to me that I do not even think what is special about them.

Last Easter I was paying attention to a particular blanket from my grandma. I have seen it for ages, but I never considered how it was made. Well, my grandma made it using crochet, she told me. Recycling is for her as common as breathing, so around 20 years ago, she noticed that she had some wool left-overs and she made the blanket below.



I got totally curious about it. But, you guess, after we made an appointment to discuss the whole process and to make a first go, she confessed that she did not remember anymore how to do it.

Luckily, there are fellow bloggers with crochet as a passion. I finally got the pattern!



So, the beautyful "flower" above is called a granny square; now I know. And I got some blue and green wool; so guess what is my next project?

Stamps for pirates and princesses

I had the chance to go to the toy store last weekend. I hardly ever buy any toy for Paul or Anna, but I could not stop myself when I saw the stamps and ink (these are from Djeco, by the way).



I got the inspiration from the MUS werk blog. Absolutely amazing how creative some people are.

They are really simple to use. You soak the rugged part of the stamp with the ink. Then you carefully turn the stamp around. Make sure you have a big paper, and stamp it! Paul really loved it. Of course, I had to make sure we agreed on the rules. The ink part is definitely my task; otherwise you may get a kid (plus table, etc) with all sort of stains around.



By the way, there were stains anyway in his hands. Those are easily removed with the same towels that I usally use to clean his bottom. And make up remover works well for heavy stains in the face.

Queen's Day!

Paul came with this sort of hat from the daycare. Of course, it is a great outfit to celebrate Queen's Day in fashion. All you have to do is:

- Cut a piece of thin carton. The lenght depends of the size of your child's head
- Print a drawing (you can take some samples from internet)
- Let your child paint it
- Glue that marvelous piece of art on top of the thin carton
- Close it with a staple (or two)

There is your crowd ready!

Little shoes for little princess

We all know that babies and toddlers do not really need shoes until the moment that they start walking and they need to have something in their feet (specially if you live in a cold country!). Until then, socks with antislip are usually more than enough.

But yes, little shoes look so cute! Specially on little princesses like Anna! My mother is ready handy in making clothes, pathwork and all sort of handcrafts. Last thing she made is a pair of shoes for Anna.


You will need:
- Felt
- Four buttons
- Some cord
- Special scissors to make the irregular cuts

How to make the shoes?
My mother bought the materials from Dona (www.miescaparate.com/donapuntdecreu/); and she used a pattern from Marie Claire Idées. If you want it, just write me (a comment or an e-mail) and I can try to get it to you. For the rest, it just involves making sure it is the right size for your child, sew it together, put the buttons, ...and voilà!

Of course, it is easy to say and not so easy to do, ... but the result is great!

Who is who? Getting to know the family

If you are two years old, it is not easy to get to know all your family and their names. Mama and papa; that is easy. What about aunts, granmothers, grandfathers, uncles, cousins, etc?

My sister had a good idea to solve the issue. She made a selection with pictures from our family. Then she printed them in 13x18 format and glued them: each picture in a piece of colored carton. Afterwards she protected each sheet with the plastic used to protect books. Finally, she binded all sheets in a sort of booklet. The album is pictured below:



The result is very nice and quite resistent to be used by naughty boys! Paul really likes it and we use to go over the whole "family book" together. Who is who? Now he knows perfectly well!

Little happy boxes: what is a "traktatie"?

In The Netherlands children bring little presents ("traktaties") to the school when they have their birthday. My son will become two years old tomorrow; which means that we had to prepare the little presents this weekend. It usually consists of a small sweet, or a little toy.

Personally, I believe small plastic toys are not that educative. Chocolate is also not that recomendable for young children. And I do not want to spend a fortune. So, what to do? Fortunally, after a walk around Hema, I got an idea for the "traktaties".

What did I buy?
- 2 boxes with 10 color pencils in each
- 3 different rolls to make the laces
- 1 package of colored sheets to make origami
- 1 package with 40 little carton boxes of Jip en Janneke raisins



I also needed some cello tape and scissors.

See the result below! Those are my little happy boxes ready to be distributed tomorrow! I hope that the children will enjoy them.



For more ideas about "traktaties", check the Home in Leiden website (one of my favourites!)

http://www.homeinleiden.nl/html/dutchfestivalsandtraditionstraktaties.htm