For my little ukulele player...

Have you heard about the Waverize It! Facebook contest over at Jo-Ann Fabrics? I have been waiting to tell you all about it. Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts and Waverly Fabrics have joined together to celebrate National Sewing Month and Waverly's 90th Anniversary to bring this amazing contest! To help advertise for the contest Jo-Ann's sent me two yards of Waverly fabric to make something outside the box. Well I thought the perfect thing to make would be a case for Hazel's ukulele. Now I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, since I have not shared about her ukulele yet here. 

Back in June, we were at the Cape visiting my parents and my sister and nephew came up. My sister was dropping my nephew off for his six week visit. Well my sister has started to learn to play the ukulele and she had hers and her son's with her. Hazel loved playing her cousin's ukulele so much. Well my sister had happened to buy a ukulele before finding her son's and didn't know what to do with it, so she mailed it to Hazel. Talk about a wonderful surprise package!! Hazel was so excited!! All we had to carry it around and store it in was the box that it was sent in. Not all that pretty or exciting. I also didn't like to take it to too many places since I didn't trust the box to last forever. However Hazel had other plans. She wanted to bring it to both sets of grandparents and then she had an invitation to play at the library with some of the librarians.  The first week, the librarians forgot their ukuleles so Hazel played by herself. The next week, only one remembered hers, so she and Hazel played together. She happens to be the children's librarian so she tried to teach Hazel a bit. (Note: Since I did not ask permission of the librarians I am blocking out their faces.)

Then this past Monday, three of the librarians brought their ukuleles in. (We had only planned on two, but a third was working at a different time and brought it in since she knew we were on the schedule.)

Oh, and then there was one of Hazel's friends at Trader Joe's (yes, my daughter has friends at every store) who wanted to hear her play, so we stopped there one of the Mondays, but she wasn't there, so Hazel played for other friends there. Needless to say with all this public playing, I wanted Hazel to have something besides a cardboard box to carry it in. Oh, she has also been told she can play at church anytime as well for a service.  Now enters the Waverize It! Contest. (If you would like to hear Hazel play and sing, you can go here.)

Now I had been contacted to see if I would I would like to help promote this contest for National Sewing Month which is September. It is put on by Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores and Waverly Fabrics. Waverly is celebrating its 90th anniversary.  I of course jumped at the chance. They sent me two yards of fabric.

They asked the bloggers to Waverize their lives by making something with this fabric for every day use. I thought a ukulele case would be perfect. Then I thought about what I would want. I wanted it to be padded on the inside to protect the instrument and to be stiff on the outside to protect from banging, etc. I decided to put between the lining and the exterior, quilt batting and plastic canvas. This way the case is fully washable. I also envisioned it having a zipper. I called my sister and talked to her about it and she said to make sure the zipper went around the head of the ukulele, so I did. 

My first idea was to use the box as a pattern, but I decided to be more sophisticated. I traced the ukulele and added a bit for seam allowance and give and used this for the base. I also wanted to give it a pocket so she could store something small like her picks. Then I made a little bag to put the picks in with some of the scraps. I attached a ribbon to it so we can attach it tothe case so she doesn't lose them. She doesn't really use her picks anymore, but my sister sent her some, so she has them. 

I put a pocket with Velcro closure on the front. I also added some iron-on flowers and star to jazz it up for my sparkly girl. 

Now if I had this to redo, I would sew it in a different order. I was not sure which to do first with the plastic canvas as part of the lining. I should have sewn the zipper in first. Oops!! It is a little messier than I had hoped, but it works.

And Hazel loves it!! I used a parachute clip to make the strap adjustable so it can grow with her. I put a flower pin on it to make it work a bit better for her now. 

With some of the remaining fabric, I made Hazel a tote bag so she can bring her music (if she ever officially learns how to play and read music) with her and a little zippered pouch to keep money or a key in. The pouch fits in the pocket on the case as well as on the tote.

Hazel asked what she could use the bag for and I suggested music or library books or to take her toys to Nonni's. Then she got really excited about it.

So that has been one of our main forms of entertainment this summer. Hazel LOVES playing her ukulele. And now she has a wonderful case to take it places. The music teacher at her new school already told her to bring it in when they have music class. Needless to say, Hazel is very excited.

Now it is your turn to head over and Waverize your life. To enter the Waverize It! Facebook Contest, just sew something unique with Waverly fabric and take a picture of it. Then head over to this Facebook page to enter. You can also check out the entries that have already been submitted there. The Grand Prize is 30 yards of your favorite Waverly fabric and a $250 Jo-Ann Gift Card. Then there are nine Second Place Winners who get 9 yards of their favorite Waverly fabric and a $150 Jo-Ann Gift Card. You can get more details here.

Sharing Saturday 13-34

Thank you to all of you who shared with us last week and to those who came to be inspired by the amazing ideas shared! If you haven't had a chance to visit them, you should!! I know I am exciting to try out some of the activities.

Now that the end of August is upon us, I have decided I cannot pretend summer is not ending anymore. Well the end of August and Hazel starts school this coming week. So, in honor of her school starting, I figured I would feature a few of my favorite back to school posts from last week (there were quite a few, but I just picked three to share with you).

1) From For the Love of Spanish: Back to School en Espanol // School Supply Flashcards in Spanish
2) From Rubber Boots and Elf Shoes: How to Build a Classroom
3) From Jelly Fish Jelly: Notebook Handbag

Here are a couple of my favorite non-school posts. Ok, Hazel would LOVE both of these!!

1) From Making Memories with Your Kids: DIY Lipstick made with Crayons
2) From We Made That: DIY Washer Necklaces

Then we had two posts about postcards. Since they were on an unusual topic, I figured I would share them with you!

1) From Wesens-Art: Video Cases for Storage
2) From The Crafty Scientist: Louisiana Postcard Art

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here , please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

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From Your Hostess:
This week we shared some great DIY party crafts and reviewed Shindigz Party Supplies, shared our second Donald Crews book for Virtual Book Club for Kids, shared an Algerian Snow White, shared some great books for math lessons in nature, shared our homemade xylophone and shared a great story on friendship for Flamingo Friday.

 

We have some exciting things coming up this week!! I cannot wait to share my post on Sunday with you, so I hope you will stop by tomorrow!

 

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Flamingo Friday--Fish and Flamingo: A wonderful story of an unusual friendship

Today I am going to share a book Hazel and I have been enjoying. It is a tale of an unusual friendship between a flamingo and a fish. The book is called the Fish and Flamingo and is written by Nancy White Carlstrom. The two became friends and talked every day about their lives. One day the flamingo tells the fist about flying at sunrise and the beautiful pink sky. The fish tells the flamingo about coming to the surface of the water at night time and seeing the glowing stars. Each wishes to show their friend the beauty they have seen, but do not know how to do it since the friend is not awake at the correct time.

One day the flamingo tells the fish that she will be leaving with her flock the next day. She tells him to be at the same spot at the same time the next day since she will be flying overhead and will wave to him. The fish is so excited and he tells all his friends and has them come with him. 

At the time the flamingo flies over with her flock, the fish and his friends look up and see a pink sky. The fish thinks that his friend has found a way to show him the sunrise and finds it so beautiful. The flamingo looks down and sees many fish and as the sun comes out the silver on each fish sparkles and the flamingo thinks the fish is giving her the gift of seeing the stars. 

Neither friend knows that they have given their gift to one another, but they both feel so honored that the other has.

For this book, we tried out soft pastels. Hazel immediately drew a sun and I suggested we draw the sunrise. She and I added pink and smudged it all together. Then I worked on the ocean. I made it blue and then added some silver. The silver did not shine enough, so we added some glitter glue to be the fish showing the flamingos the stars. I loved how it came out and how well it goes with the story.

Making Musical Instruments--Homemade Xylophone

We found a fun book at the library. In Nifty Thrifty Music Crafts by Felicia Lowenstein Niven has wonderful ideas to take recycled objects and make music. Many of the ideas are familiar, but some have new twists. Hazel cannot wait to make a ukulele, but we need to finish our box of cereal first. This book also has rhythm blocks, panpipes, finger cymbals, colonial drum, American Indian clapper, tambourine, rain stick, maracas and a ukulele. We are definitely going to try the ukulele at some point. I also like the rhythm blocks, but we will see. Anyway we started with the xylophone. 

Now we have a xylophone, but making one is part of the fun of the homemade one. To make one you need empty jars, a wooden stick (chopstick, pencil or a stick) and water. You can also have food coloring--Hazel will tell you this is one of the best parts.

You fill the jars with different amounts of water and can add food coloring to each one. We made different colors in each one and tried mixing colors to practice what colors would make the secondary colors. We used different jar sizes, but they could all be the same.

Then you hit the jars with the stick to play it. Hazel had the best time experimenting. She tried hitting the sides where the water was, the sides where the water was not and the tops. Then she asked if we could put the lids on. Apparently I did not take a picture of this, but in this picture you can see the lids all around.

With the lids on she hit the sides and the lids to see if they made different sounds. She had so much fun with this activity. She did not want to dump it out so she could play for Daddy. She also asked if we could do it again. My little musician is always happy making music.

Needless to say, we will be doing this again. I think she liked the homemade one better than her store bought one.

Math Lessons: Math in Nature

Today I am sharing some books to combine math with nature. Now as a math teacher I know the importance of seeing math everywhere. It allows the student to really see why mathematics was invented. People needed to understand the world around them and mathematics helped them do this.