Mail!

Less than sixty seconds after I announced to the Engineer, "You got some mail today!" I found him at the piano. He had torn open the plastic cover to the latest Piano Explorer and turned right to the Music Corner.

He did his best, but this one will take him some practice to master.
Update:
After the Artist helped our neighbor's children make their dough ornaments, she made some of her own. The next day she painted them.

Craft Leader

Don't get any ideas that I would be a good craft leader, or even a person to ask about fun crafts for kids. The suggestion is likely to make me turn tail and run.

The Artist is a natural, however. Today when our neighbor's children came over to play she had a home made play dough for them. She led them in rolling and cutting out some ornaments. The first batch is baking in the oven as I type.The kids will not be here long enough to see their creations come out of the oven and cool, but tomorrow the Artist will bring them to their house and they can have at painting their ornaments at home.

The Artist included some ornaments of her own, and a nativity scene, a favorite of mine. Special thanks to National Geographic Kids magazine for the idea and to Grandma and Grandpa for the subscription!

Artist & Crafts

The neighbors are enjoying a craft time with the Artist this afternoon. She led them through making paper plate lions first. You can see them on the table. Now they are beginning some Thanksgiving turkeys.This seems to be her forte. I have little patience to lead crafts like this myself.

Boy's Crafts

I'm not much of a crafty person. My talents will never be confused with painting, drawing, and sculpting. While I can use scissors and glue, it is not often that I want to. For some reason I still find the craft stores fun to browse, even when I'm not in the knitting aisles.

Earlier this week the kids and I had an opportunity to go to a craft store with my Aunt. She is a real, true, genuine artist and shopping with her was fun. First, because she came into the store knowing exactly what she wanted. Second, she wanted those things because she was going the give the Artist an all day painting workshop.

The Engineer was not so keen on painting with his great aunt. He did get to pick out some things of his own, however. He got some watercolors and a coloring/activity book, and a sun catcher craft kit.Leave it up to his little eye to spy the sports themed sun catcher on the wall with all the flowers, hearts, rainbows and butterflies. It was the very last one.

When we got home and got the girls started on their workshop, he read all the directions aloud to me. Then he carefully filled the sections of the frame. That part held his interest longer than I expected it would. He was patient for the baking, but not for the cooling off. He could not wait to get the sun catcher in the window where Daddy could see it.

Look at What They are Doing!

Two blogs I enjoy have some interesting things going on in current posts. I thought I'd use my small web voice to spread the word.
Die Steppdecken des Quilter is having a contest. You can click here to read about it and view the selection of prizes. Which one would you choose if you were to win? Hurry! September 15th will be here before you know it!

While I'm not the greenest, most environmentally-minded person out there, I certainly do not condone waste of raw materials or finished products. There is no good stewardship in waste.

That is why I was curious when Hakucho first began writing about knitted shopping bags. She has had several posts on this project. Each of them has held my interest and made me want to knit a shopping bag or two for myself.

I'll begin with the most dramatic of the shopping bag posts--you have to see these photos! If that has piqued your interest, you can get the pattern. For details about how to make the yarn, see the June 6th entry.