Feeding The Wildlife

This afternoon I spent an hour or so making some bird feeders with Little L.

We used breadcrumbs, dried fruit and lard to make these 

and covered some toilet roll tubes with peanut butter then rolled them in bird seed for these (another idea which I first saw on Pinterest).

Now we are going to have a rummage in Little L's bedroom for any craft kits that we might not have got around to doing yet.

Keeping Little L Entertained

Well the Summer Holidays have started for all the children in our house and I'm sure it won't be too long before I hear the cries of ... ' I'm bored '. The boys aren't so bad really as they are at the age where they are barely in the house and off gallivanting with their friends. It's Little L who needs the entertainment. I went down to our local library this week and signed her up for the Summer Reading Challenge . Children read six books over the holidays and collect stickers, book marks,etc along the way. When they have completed reading the books they receive a certificate and a medal. This will be Little L's first year doing this but the boys joined in every year until they started High School, they loved it and still have their medals. I also noticed that our local library hold a craft session one day a week so it might be worth me popping in with Little L to see if she enjoys that.

I've been on Pinterest quite a bit this week, pinning kids crafts and collecting up bottles, cardboard tubes, etc. to use.

This afternoon we made some fairy jars using glo sticks and glitter. Little L says that they would come in handy if we ever had a power cut .. very practical.

Using a glo stick again she made this rather heavy looking bug. Little L says its just having a rest.

I'm determined to fight off cries of boredom for as long as possible.

A Quick Catch Up

I didn't realise it has been so long since I last posted anything but we haven't been up to a great deal here due to cold and sickness bugs doing the rounds.

At the beginning of the month we had another day out at the beach where Little L saw her first jellyfish 

and caught her first crab.

We went swimming while we were there this time (in a pool though not the sea). This is the first time I've worn a swimming cossie for over 20 years. I don't much like the idea of wearing them because I'm not very covered up and to me its not much different than walking about in my underwear which is something I wouldn't be caught doing in front of complete strangers. Anyway I braved it and donned a cossie. My swimming cossie has a skirt attached so it was more like wearing an extremely short dress so it wasn't so bad after all. I must say that I certainly didn't take to the water like a duck more like a stone. Trying to swim after 20 odd years made me feel like a new swimmer but I liked to linger in the shallow end with Little L. Another thing water wise which I thought a bit odd was the water seemed to me slightly murky. After conferring with the boys,  I have found that because I need to wear specs now a days that maybe that is the problem.

On the way back home we went to take a look at The Duke of Lancaster ship again. This is the latest art work which has been added.

I've not been doing much craftwise as I'm finding it far to warm here at the moment. I made a start on another crocheted hexie blanket

and finished off this top for Little L which I made with wool passed on to me by my sister's friend. It is a very pale blue colour which I can't seem to pick up in the photos.

At the end of last week one of Little L's teachers asked me if I could alter some of the curtains in the classroom. They just needed taking up ... taking up by quite a lot. They were enormous. Almost four and a half metres wide and very heavy. I ended up cutting off 47 inches to make them the required length which was a 31 inches. I was asked if I could make some cushion covers with the off cuts so I'll be doing that some time during the Summer holidays. This is an off cut from one curtain folded in half. When Anders saw it on the washing line, he asked if I'd bought a marquee home.

New Craft Books

I'd not bought any craft books for a while so when I saw the Mollie Makes Feathered Friends was due to come out I hopped over to Amazon and popped it in my basket as I knew that Little L would love some of the projects in it. It arrived last week and the first thing Little L was drawn to was some colourful hanging parrots which are designed by Laura Howard from Bugs And Fishes

I made two of the smallest size, one for Little L and the other for one of her friends.

Little L's is currently tied to the handle on her wardrobe door.

The next thing that Little L loved from the book was a crocheted penguin pillow. This was really quick to made and I just need a pillow to fill it and to sew the bottom up.

The other book which I was working from last week was folk art needlecraft which I was lucky enough to win in a give away from Cut Out And Keep.

The only thing I have made from the book so far is this small sewing case but there are plenty of projects in this book that I want to get around to making.

I especially like these tiny dolls

and this hedgehog bag. A free tutorial for the hedgehog bag can be found here

Summer Sewing

This week I've been using my sewing machine to make a couple of summery garments.

For this top ( made for my Mum ) I used a New Look pattern 6871 which includes four other versions of this style as well.

I also altered this dress of Little L's in to a pair of shorts. I think that she has only worn it twice and now outgrown it.

I used pink tape to cover the side seams and reused the covered buttons from the dress by sewing them on the bottom of the seam.

Knowing Little L's aversion to dresses I think that she may get more wear from a pair of shorts and she has already been looking for something suitable for chopping up and altering.

Recycling Socks

This morning was spent making Gilbert & Freda, a pair of sock monsters. Now sitting on a chair in Little L's room waiting for her to come home from school.

Chicken News

Last month all three of our hens were broody so my sister sent me four eggs for them to sit on. One hatched last week so we now have a lovely fluffy little chick. As soon as we discovered the chick we moved it along with the hen who hatched it to an empty rabbit hutch as the other hens tried to attack it as soon as they saw it. My sister had warned us that they may over mother it and kill it as they were all broody.

The chick is a sablepoot which looks like this but hopefully ours will be a hen so we can keep it. The sablepoot cockerel is the photo is Gorgeous George ( before he grew his full tail ) who lived with us for a while. Last year my niece hatched a clutch of sablepoot eggs and ended up with one hen the rest cockerels so she asked if we wanted one. I said on condition they have him back if he starts making too much noise (I live in a residential area so I don't think being woken by a cock crowing would go down to well with the neighbours). It took him quite a while to find his voice and for a little thing, he was very loud. Also he started to attack us which didn't hurt us at all because he could only reach our legs. He was becoming very protective of his girls and didn't like us hand feeding them which while we knew to keep an eye on him, he could easily get Little L in the face so we set him back to my sisters. He's settled in well and hangs about with their sablepoot hen. Our chick is from those two getting together so at least my sister knows George is fertile.