Midweek Crafts and things

This week seems to be flying by. I feel like I have had no time to get things done. I have been working on visiting all the amazing posts shared on Saturday. Have you checked out our current Sharing Saturday? There are 81 posts so far!! They are all so wonderful. You should really go check them out. So many fabulous ideas of things to do.

We have been a bit busy here. Hazel had her 3-year-old well visit on Monday. And I feel like I have been running around all week. In fact we have to leave soon for my doctor's appointment--a follow-up--nothing too major.

One quick craft we did was make a Valentine's Day frame. I bought a bunch of the wooden frames at Micahels for $1. These have the heart cut out for Valentine's Day gifts. Our first one, we glued on Conversation Hearts. I need to seal them still, but it came out cute.

Since I don't have a picture to put in it yet, I decided to do some word art. Last week I read about this great site--Tagxedo. It allows you to enter a website or words and choose a shape, color themes, etc. and makes these beautiful word arts. Here are a few I did using my blog.

I also did some playing around with love, and bible quotes about love.

Ok, I think you get the point. I highly recommend you check out Tagxedo.

What was in the box

The other thing we did today was to make another gingerbread house. A friend gave us two kits that her aunt gave her (and then realized she couldn't use them since they contain tree nuts and her son is very allergic). Hazel of course was excited to do it. It came with everything, but we didn't use most of what came with it. We used the leftover frosting we had from our other gingerbread house and some candy we had floating around.

First Hazel gave it a face. These are the eyes, nose and cheeks. I'm not sure about the mouth.

I gave it a graham cracker door and some heart windows. Then we had fun decorating the roof. We'll see what we do with the other one.

Conversation hearts worked well as decorations!

Pattern Blocks

Several years ago, I found some pattern blocks at a discount store for around $1. Being a math teacher (at least back then), I was amazed since I knew how expensive they could be. I bought a set for my nephew and one for myself. I recently have been seeing some various sets for toddlers, so I decided to pull mine out and find some of the templates on line. I did a google search and discovered many. I think my favorite place was PreKinders. They have many animals and flower designs. Then I showed them to Steve and left them for him to do with Hazel while I was at work.

I took a few pictures of what was left out when I got home. Hazel also told me before she went to sleep that she wanted to do the "shapes" with me tomorrow. So I'm guessing she liked them.

Pattern blocks are usually wooden or plastic blocks of various shapes: squares, equilateral triangles, regular hexagons, two different types of rhombus, and an isosceles trapezoid. The side lengths are all equal to one another except for the longer base of the trapezoid. You can use them to teach about shapes, colors, patterns or for making shapes and creatively. I have also used them in algebra classes to introduce variables and in geometry classes to discuss the angles of shapes.

There are many lessons using pattern blocks on line. Since we have decided to go with a Waldorf education, we are not pushing the academic learning but more discovery and creativity at this age so my idea is for her. However there are so many sites you can check out including this one that you can play on-line with pattern blocks. Or Math Playground that also lets you play with them on line without the grid. You can also print your own from sites like this one (by page) or at Utah Education Network you can get them on one sheet (they also have some great activities for all age children).

Confessions of a Homeschooler also has some great pattern activities. Making Learning Fun has pattern templates of letters and numbers as well as Valentines. There are so many things you can do with these. Plus they can just be used to make designs and be very open ended.

This Weekend--Winter Onederland Party

So on Friday, I was given a gift from my mother-in-law of almost an entire day off from parenting duties. My plans run the few quick errands that I had planned to do with Hazel and then come home and finish my quilt. However, I came home from running my errands and called a friend to check in with her. Her son's first birthday party is today, and I knew they were having an awful week of doctor's appointments due to his food allergies. (He is allergic to just about everything but now needs to avoid touching all wheat and dairy.)When I spoke with her my day changed to helping her with the party. The only things she had for it so far were the decorations I made for her, the napkins I bought for her and the cake her mother-in-law was making (which her son cannot touch or eat). You may remember I showed you the invitation and pieces of the banner I designed for her when I reviewed My Memories Software. Well, using that same software I made her a few more posters to hang around for decorations.

Sharing Saturday Remake!

Today is the day I have been hinting at for a few weeks. MiaB over at Mama Mia's Heart2Heart is joining me in hosting Sharing Saturday!! So now your entries will appear on two blogs so hopefully they will be seen by more people. Since we are changing this we have new buttons and a few new rules.

I still want to feature some of the wonderful ideas from last week. The four most popular ones are:

Winter Candles

As they suggest in the Waldorf school, we like to have candles on our table. In the fall we made some tissue paper candle holders with Mod Podge and fall colored tissue paper pieces on old baby food jars. They are perfect for tea light candles. I found some beeswax ones at the Holiday Fair at school.

For the winter I saw some beautiful ones on Pinterest. We finally got around to making them yesterday. I followed the Pinterest posting to here. I bought some Epsom salts at the drug store for less than $2 and had the Mod Podge glue and jars and some food coloring. I also had some votives already in glass leftover from favors for a baby shower I threw. One thing I discovered, the smallest baby food jars are not big enough to get the tea light with its container into. I removed the plastic/metal container and just put the candle in the one we made, but I would suggest not using them for candle holders. Hazel had a blast painting on the glue and I did the rolling. She also had fun mixing the colors.

Now we have candles that remind us of a snow storm. Since we haven't had much snow yet, that is a good thing. Some winters I wouldn't want to be reminded of snow, but this one is ok. Aren't they beautiful lit up?

The other thing I would like to share is our breakfast table today. Apparently many of Hazel's dolls and animals wanted to eat waffles with us. Of course her new doll high chair is not big enough for all of them at the same time, so she had to pull up a chair as well for one Baby.

And Barney is in there too!

Come back tonight or tomorrow for the new Sharing Saturday. There will be some changes announced tonight!!