{kid craft} Coloring clay eggs

Remember last week's clay egg ornaments? Well, the weather turned ugly on Thursday and so we found some time this week to color them after all. Little brother's fever is down, but he's still tired, cranky and not eating or sleeping well. We needed a no-brainer craft, using things we had on hand.

Like our clay ornaments. I love them. You can use any old marker to color them, no fancy paints required. Since we made quite a few, I let them color them the way they wanted.

Yellow ones, of course.

Green ones.

Pink even.

Some of little brother's creations.

Big brother made a smiling bunny.

Mommy tried making some, too. They were too much fun to leave all to the kids.

Once done, we added some thread. Big brother didn't really like that part. Little brother went off to play.

We then grabbed some simple cellophane bags and Easter grass and stuffed some inside to make a little nest for our eggs.

Some basic thick colored paper cut to size, folded over the bag's top and stapled in place. Easy. Big brother wrote names on it.

And we added stickers for decoration.

This is what my dining room table looked like. I didn't even look at my floor.

But we did get quite a few cute bunnies and egg ornaments for the kids to give to family and friends for Easter.

Apart from the smiling bunny, this simple egg with a face is my favorite.

For little kids, coloring clay eggs is way easier than the real version - plus, you don't need to figure out what to cook with all those blown-out egg yolks! We'll be giving most of these away, but we did keep some for our Easter tree. I think we'll go hunting for fresh branches on the weekend.

What are you up to this weekend? Wishing you a great one - eggs or not.

Swenja

Sew cute part 1

Little brother has not been sleeping well this week. Last night he got a fever, which was gone again by the time he came over to my bed at 2am. But when I sat at my desk at work, my husband called to tell me little brother had a fever again and barfed. Lovely.

He's sleeping now, and I'm tired and can't really think straight (don't believe me? Just look at the title of this post. See? Told you).

So just a tiny little post today to show you some things I made recently. I'm really trying to learn my way around that sewing machine. Now, I don't expect to sew something complicated or frilly, but some basic things are just fine with me.

Like my new oilcloth lunch bag. Large enough to fit my water bottle, a sandwich or two and some fruit.

And two new sofa cushions to get my couch ready for spring. The black and white one on the left is from Ikea, the other two I made. I love the fabric.

What's that thing about yellow? It's been sneaking into me life. First came Noelle. Recently I bought a yellow belt. A sweater. Cardigan. And a lemony yellow blouse. And now it's starting to take over my couch. Not sure if this is scary or lovely. Well, little brother loves it!

Well, I'll obviously better go catch some sleep.

Swenja

DIY vintage magnets

My fridge needed something to make it ready for Spring. And no, I'm not talking cleaning here (although it could probably use that, too). More like something pretty to hold those flyers, pictures and all the other stuff that gets put on the fridge door. My fridge door, at least.

Then I found this one day. A vintage memory game.

Way too cute to let my kids play with it. I mean, look at this one.

Or this one. I love the way he looks at you. Oh hello there.

There were birds, too.

And my favorites.

Some vintage girls, flowers and a boat.

Simple graphic ones.

Some rather famous ones.

Look at those colors!

There were even Christmas ones.

And some rather, uhm, interesting ones.

I picked my favorites, gave them a quick coat of modge podge and stuck a magnet on the back. Finally snapped a few (bad) pictures in between chopping bell peppers for dinner. All in five minutes here, ten minutes there. It didn't take long, but it felt like forever to get it done and be able to post it.

Those owls just crack me up.

My fridge isn't any more organized or clean, but it sure looks prettier now.

I also made that pen holder out of an old spice tin. So it's a little bit more organized. Maybe.

Here's to vintage toys and finding those tiny bits of time in between daily life to do tiny projects!

Swenja

{the simple things} almond tree

Spring is here. Actually, today it felt like summer was here already.

Just last week I managed to put some of the kids' winter hats, mittens and boots away, getting out regular shoes and sewing lighter hats (yep, that's right. Me and my sewing machine made something my kids can actually wear. Not that I managed to take a picture of them yet).

Today I had to dig out sandals, sunscreen and sun hats. Go figure.

Anyhow. I did manage to get a couple of quick pictures of our little almond tree, snapping them after dinner just before the sun went down and the kids had to be put to bed. 

Just a few more days and the flowers will be gone already. Last year we got a plate full of almonds from that tiny tree. But I think I love the blossoms most of all.

Linking up with Rebecca today.

Happy Sunday!

Swenja

{kid craft} Clay ornaments for Easter

Remember the clay ornaments we did for Christmas? Well, we figured what worked for Christmas couldn't be so bad for Easter. Just that we did eggs and bunnies instead of snowflakes.

We have had the most unbelievably sunny weather this week, so snowflakes would have seemed just a little bit out of place. Although we've had snow for Easter before. This year I already had to get out the sandals and sunscreen.

The gorgeous weather also means I spend most of my time at home outside or in the kitchen, but rarely at my computer. And I'm just so tired at night that I can't even think straight. But I've started quite a few projects recently and hope to finish up and photograph them so I can post about them. If I manage to get the pictures off the camera and the words into the laptop, that is. So we'll just start with this one, shall we?

We got out some air-drying white clay, rolled it out and used cookie cutters to make eggs and bunnies. Actually, that's all there is to it. But I took pictures anyway. It's what I do.

Add a hole to the top if you want to be able to hang these. That's little brother's favorite part, actually.

Big brother also made a bus. See the wheels?

Then daddy came home and made a fish.

Mommy and kept making a couple more eggs and bunnies. We might color a few of them next week, give the bunnies a face and paint eggs that don't break. We'll see.

While making dinner today I realized that although we had made the clay eggs early in the week, they were still sitting on the tray where I left them to dry. While I had been sitting in the sun. Oops. So I quickly grabbed a couple, added some yellow twine and hung them onto the same twigs we used for our egg carton flowers.

Maybe we'll be painting them. Hopefully we'll wrap some of them up to give as little gifts for Easter. But maybe we'll just go out, play in the sandbox and go for walks in the sun, practicing with little brother's balance bike. But that's a different post.

Hope you all have a sunny weekend!
Swenja