LBG made a very interesting point recently whilst watching one of her favourite CBeebies programmes, Mike the Knight. "Girls can be knights too, can't they?" "Of course they can, darling" was my lightning-fast response. Which got me thinking about children's programmes in general and CBeebies more specifically, since that is the channel that we watch almost exclusively. There seems to be quite a strong leaning towards the more traditional … [Read more...]
Introducing Art to pre-schoolers: Damien Hirst
When Maggy at Red Ted Art recently mentioned her idea for a linky to encourage the introduction of Art-with-a-capital-A to children, I got a little bit excited. I don't remember Art Galleries or Museums so much when I was a child, which is more a reflection of my life overseas and my generation than a judgement on my upbringing. I remember going all the way from school in Yorkshire down to London for the day to see 'proper' Art as part of my GCSE … [Read more...]
Floral Crown for Swedish Midsummer (or just because you want to)
With the rain falling, LBG and I resorted to DVD entertainment today. A few moments later, she declared that she absolutely needed to have a flower-crown like the princess on the television. By coincidence I had, the night before, been figuring out a craft that we could make to go alongside our Swedish Visiting Cake on the Swedish leg of Around the World in 12 Dishes. Though we came to the idea from different starting points, I'm delighted to … [Read more...]
How to make a sand-trapping boot tray
I've seen several boot trays on the web, particularly in the run up to winter: some places get an awful lot of snow. It makes sense that you would need a practical place to leave snow-boots to drip dry, like the boot tray made by Clean and Scentsible: the couple of times that we have had snow here there has been a trail of soggy footprints through the hallway. It's fair to say that we don't ordinarily have a major issue with snowy footprints in … [Read more...]
How to make a drawstring bag: Take One Pair of Jeans Challenge
I missed out when Missie Lizzie B ran her Take One Jumper Challenge. I never quite got around to making the things I planned to: I never found the right sweater. So when she reached out on Twitter, suggesting that I might be up for a Jeans challenge, I was a little more responsive. I cut out the fabric almost immediately. And then I did nothing with it: progress of a kind. And yet a flurry of activity today gave me some progress. Following … [Read more...]
Easter Bunny Cookies
I'm pressing merrily on and making lots of Easter stuff that has been inspired by things I have seen on the remarkable collection-creator website. A case in point, this beautiful collection of Bunny Biscuits. They are deeply gorgeous. And small. Mine were not so small, partly because the only egg-shaped cutter I had was a larger one. How did I make them? … [Read more...]
Painting Leprechauns with straws
Putti gave me a brilliant idea, so I pinned her paint-blowing painting to remind me. See that's an example of Pinterest working really well: I saw something that inspired me to do something else. But anyhow, I took her some watered-down paint and a straw and made: a lucky leprechaun. and Dimples made this one: … [Read more...]
