The spring light through our kitchen window is blinding in the morning. I really should get a shade or curtain, but we love watching the birds at the feeder and bunnies munching clover in the backyard. So we put up some paper the other morning to block some light and had a AHA moment: shadow puppets. So I googled them, Martha came to the rescue, and we've been having some fun breakfasts under the sea.
Toby was home sick today and it was pouring, so we decided to set him up with a new play table. I scored this shabby train table at a church sale last summer for $5 and it's been sitting in the basement.
I got out a box of maps I had and trimmed one to size...
We glued it down...
And an hour later...
Play time!
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Lucia loves the part of the Goodnight Show where you do a project. You would think I would be more amenable to this with all the crafting paraphanalia I have. But at 7:00 PM at night the last thing I want to do is scrounge two toilet paper rolls to make a pair of binoculars or gather spoons to create wind chimes that I do not want in my house or hanging in my trees. (I caved and made the binoculars.)
On the plus side Lucia is finally interested in projects AND able to take direction, so when I am in the mood, it's really, really fun! This week I needed a quick craft to kill an hour before work and I decided to make laundry peg people. All you need are round top laundry pins, markers, yarn, fabric scraps and a hot glue gun.
Draw little faces on them, create a hairstyle out of yarn, glue on a dress or pants and voila! peg people.
Lucia is so proud and she has played with them non-stop for several days. She even drew a big playmat for them on butcher paper with little houses, roads and pathways and an ocean full of shrimp.
Lucia wanted a throne, a fairy or princess chair of sorts, for her bedroom. One garage sale, and $3.00 later...one happy little girl!
Three year old girls must be born with some sort of genetic instinct for love of all things pink. I try very hard to dress Lucia in other colors but ever since she turned 3, I am Sisyphus fighting a losing battle....So today Lulu is sick and I decided to put on Funny Face for her to watch. She sat entranced during the "Think Pink" number, but gradually grew bored and demanded another episode of Angelina Ballerina. My girl...
And today I finished up sewing Hillary's Pointy Kitty. Wee Wonderfuls is fun blog and Hillary has boundless energy; she makes me feel so lazy! So when she gave away a free pattern for her Pointy Kitty I was determined to give it a go. 
Well-she's not too pointy! I need to work on my stuffing technique. And I need to practice embroidery stitches before I actually try them on the project! It was my first try with blanket-stitches and they are very wonky. I did find this great site that shows you how to make embroidery stitches. It has little quicktime films that you can watch, very helpful! After partially mangling her head, I gave up on her back stripes and just tied a bow 'round her neck. The bow also strategically covers how her neck is sewn on. Don't ask.
I made her from a scrap of my grandma's old pink drapes and she was supposed to be a little Valentine's surprise for Lucia, but she became a UFO for a few days instead. Determined to be done I just glued her face on! The smile was given to me by Lucia. She found that smile scrap on the floor and gave it to me to make her Pink Kitty happy. So there she is...maybe I should stick to straight seams!!
Lucia adores her stuffed animals; they are all her "friends" and she cares for them lovingly. We were reading Kids-Fun Stuff to do Together (the Martha Stewart magazine) and she saw a project about making stuffed animals. I told her we could make one together and we went upstairs and rummaged through my fabric stash. Lucia picked out all the fabric, told me the shape and placement of the ears, picked out the buttons for the eyes and helped me design the face. It was so much fun to do together! Considering that we totally winged it she didn't turn out so bad. Here is Fifi tucked in the cradle while Lucia is at school.
