Educational Toys at Alphabet Trains & Toys

 

Disclosure: I was sent this toy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I get to share an online educational toy store with you. When Hazel was young, I loved getting educational toys for her and especially loved when they were made from natural materials. Today I get to share with you my experience and a toy from Alphabet Trains and Toys. I was approached to review a toy and share my experience with you. 

Kids' Felt Cuties -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Leisure Arts sent me a copy of this book in return for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

We enjoyed a few days visiting the very western part of our state. We finally took Hazel to the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum. We promised her a couple of years ago we would take her. Then we saw a few natural wonders and relaxed at the pool. I didn't have a lot of time for crafting, but want to share with you a fun book to make kids' felt toys. It is Kids' Felt Cuties by Kim Layton. 

Felting with Crafty Felt Products -- A Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent this product to review free of charge. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Recently I heard from My Crafty Felt to see if I would review her wool roving or needle felt kits here and I agreed. She recently opened her Esty store and is selling a very high quality wool. She is in Europe but ships worldwide. I know here in the United States I often have trouble finding good needle felting supplies so I am very excited about this. After looking at her selection I asked to be sent the Nudes with one change. Instead of the Black Coffee I wanted Soft Blanket because I knew I wanted to try to replicate an ornament I saw at Target. I wanted the Nudes because I am always looking for good skin tones to make people and currently Hazel wants fairies!! We are getting ready for her fun fairy tea party for her birthday party. So my first crafts were fairies.

Adorable Felted Animals -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

One of my favorite crafts from our couple of years at a Waldorf school is needle felting. It was for the holiday fair that I first learned to needle felt. It is an easy craft to learn and has so many options!! I knew I had to check out Adorable Felted Animals from the editors of the Gakken Publishing Company. Just look at the realistic animals on the cover of the book!!

Finger Knitting Fun and Pom Pom Kits -- Product Reviews

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Quarto Books USA. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

What can you do with a ball of yarn? Lots of things, but here are some fun crafts that you do not need much more than a ball of yarn to make. Both of these crafts were handwork Hazel would have done if she remained in the Waldorf school, but since she is no longer attending there, I got to do them with her. The handwork was one of the things I loved about the Waldorf school. Hazel and I started with two Pompom kits. The first is Make Pompom Animals.

The kit comes with a book, six balls of yarn, two pompom makers in different sizes and some googly eyes and paper clips. I started by making a blue bird similar to the one on the cover.

Simple Cloth Daisy Doll Book Review

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Disclosure: Search Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

So just before Christmas Hazel informed me she wanted a soft doll that looked like her so she could sleep with it. Now I have all of my Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving, so it was out of the question. Then I received a copy of Simple Cloth Daisy Dolls by Wenche O. Steensen. I knew I would make her a doll so I could write a proper review of the book.

Sharing Saturday 14-45

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! And a very special thank you to all who took the time to check out what others shared!! If you haven't yet, you should. There were some amazing ideas shared!! We did not have a most clicked, so my features this week are Thanksgiving themed and a few favorites.

A Waldorf Birthday Celebration

 Today we had the pleasure of joining Hazel's class in her birthday celebration. Steve took the day off so he could join us. He and I needed to arrive at 9:45. We spent a few minutes in the hall waiting for the class to be ready and then we joined them for a story written for Hazel about crossing the rainbow bridge and then for snack with the added part of cake and fruit. We brought the fruit. Hazel picked strawberries to bring. It was truly wonderful.

Tonight I made a quick needle felted picture of the story Hazel's teacher told. It started with a star child playing with her star children friends in a beautiful garden. They were playing hide-and-seek and she hid under a large green leaf that was as big as an umbrella. While hiding she noticed for the first time a small hole. The closer she looked the more she saw in the distance and was fascinated with it. She saw a cozy home where a man and woman came out and asked her to stay. She was shy and went back to play with her friends but continued to visit this new place each day. Until she got brave enough to find her angel and ask to go live with this new couple in this new world. The angel was happy for her and took her to see Father Sun who gave her courage. Then they saw Lady Moon who gave her wisdom. Then they went to see the stars who gave her joy. Then her angel put her in a boat to cross the rainbow bridge. Before leaving the star child asked where the angel would be since she would miss him and the angel told her he would always be near watching over her even if she could not see him. Then he covered her with a blanket and she took the ride to cross the rainbow bridge. When she arrived on the other side hands helped her out of her boat and there were the man and woman. The name of the star child was Hazel. 

If you lift the leaf, you can see the star child hiding and the black hole she noticed.

It was so interesting to see the class in action since I hear stories about the children. It was a bit disappointing that three were absent, so the class was very small today (only four children). However, we really enjoyed the snack and the cake. The snack ended up being my lunch since it was vegetable soup and I had two bowls. After the celebration, Steve and I went to Starbucks and then came back to pick her up. What an amazing way to celebrate such an important event. I truly love the Waldorf story of the star children crossing the rainbow bridge and that they customize it to match the child's personality and interests.

Show Me a Story Review & Giveaway--Ways to Inspire Creativity in Our Children

Today I have the pleasure of telling you about a book, Show Me a Story by Emily K. Neuberger. Even more exciting is that Storey Publishing is giving one of my readers a copy of this book. See below for details. 

My First Waldorf Doll & Pumpkin Pie

I would like to introduce you to....

Well actually, we haven't decided on a name for her yet. I also have not made any clothes for her yet, but she is my newest creation. I ordered a 16-inch doll kit from Weir Dolls. One of my goals was to make a Waldorf doll. Now that I have, I have to say I found it much easier than I thought it would be. I can see myself making more dolls. I made her in a matter of a few days mostly at night after Hazel (and often Steve) went to bed. I finished her hair this week at the Cape. Hazel and I went to visit my parents one last time before school started. I used the money my parents gave me for my birthday to buy the kit. Now I have told Hazel that I will share the doll with her since she is after all my birthday gift. Plus I don't like how she is assuming everything I make and buy is for her. For the doll's hair I followed this wonderful tutorial at Crafty Sheep. I loved that it was a bit different than the traditional ones. Tonight I hope to make her some clothes!!

Update: She is dressed!! I made her a dress and underwear. I have to say I did not like the pattern much so I will be designing her some new clothes soon.

While at my parents, Hazel had to check on her vegetables. My father has been giving her pumpkin reports. Well she of course wanted to pick one and bake a pumpkin pie. She seems to have Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman on her mind. My mother bought a pie crust and some canned pumpkin and they made a pumpkin pie together. My mother followed the recipe on the can of pumpkin. Now my parents' house is not air conditioned and the kitchen gets HOT!! So my mother did not want to bake the pumpkin first nor did they really have the time to do it all. So we brought the pumpkins home so we can do it here. Sorry I didn't take any pictures of them making the pie since I was enjoying a bit of relaxation time knitting in the other room.

I have to say we all enjoyed the pie. Hazel liked to eat the filling and not the crust!

Gone Fishin'

Every time we go to Lakeshore Learning Store, Hazel becomes obsessed with their Magnetic Fishing Set (the store leaves toys out to be tried). I had seen one to make in Creative Play for Your Toddler: Steiner Waldorf Expertise and Toy Projects for 2-4s by Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol. I had big plans to make really fancy fish. I even started them, but never finished. I did a needle felting kit of a fish that reminded me of The Rainbow Fish. I have to find where I put it so I can finish it for her. If you haven't heard of The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, it is a wonderful book that teaches that being beautiful and having nice possessions is not the most important thing, but being kind and sharing will be more rewarding in life and bring you happiness. It is one of our favorites.

Then of course last weekend we went to our church's Easter Fun Day and they had magnet fishing which Hazel loved. There they did simply paper fishes with a paper clip where its mouth should be and a magnet fishing pole.

This got me motivated again. Oh, and Hazel was using cat toys with a plastic Easter egg stuck on the end as fishing poles and kept needing help when the egg fell off. It was driving me a bit crazy. So I decided instead of fancy fish to make simple fish. I cut them out of wool felt. Then I looked for some washers. I couldn't find the ones I had put away over the summer so I went to Home Depot. We have a friend from church who works there and always helps me find what I need, so it makes it easy to shop there. He found us a good package of washers and some super magnets. Of course we didn't get to Home Depot right away so we tried paper clips but the wool felt fish were too heavy and the paper clips too small. We did a few paper fishes that Hazel cut out herself.

So Friday afternoon and evening I spent sewing the washers on the wool fish. I used embroidery floss to sew them on.

Then for the fishing pole, I bought a wooden dowel and had Steve cut it in half. I tied a string to it and tied on one of the super magnets. I made two so someone else can fish with her.

Now we are ready to go fishing! She loves it and played for quite some time.

She even got out a basket to put the fish in after catching them. Oh, and brought out containers of food to feed the fish in case they were hungry. Guess she doesn't quite understand about bait yet. Oh, well.

Have to share this last picture. While I was typing this up, Hazel had her doll, Bella, as a fishing partner since I was too busy.

Well we are off to go fishing. Hope you are having a great day!!

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