Monday 28 January 2013

Catching up

Gosh, January is all but over, and personally it has been all about bunting!!  I made some Little Red Hen story bunting just after Christmas, posted it on Facebook, and had an order to furnish a nursery that was soon opening with around 30 metres of bunting, ranging from outdoor bunting to various story buntings with the largest consisting of 31 flags!!
 
Sophie is loving school, and will often sit down with pen and paper to do her "homework".  This is all self-imposed homework, where she just enjoys spelling out words and writing them down.  Here she has written "ant", "red", "cat", and "ant" (again!!)
 Then we were hit by the snow.  I had seen an idea on pinterest or Facebook, one or the other, where you freeze water with food colouring in in a balloon, and it makes a coloured ice globe.  So as the temperature plummeted, Sophie and I set to work.  First night, nothing happened, the tops froze but the earth insulated the bottoms of the balloons.  Second night, it snowed, and the balloons got lost under mounds and mounds of snow.  I tried to find them, but to now avail.  Now the snow has melted I discover they were furtther down the garden than I had remembered, and still not frozen.  I think we'll have to resort to the freezer!!
 First couple of days of snow, much playing was had, although the novelty soon wore off.
 And my old wooden sled from when I was a child, worked wonders.  Here is it carrying 4 children down the hill!
I have spent alot of time with material this month, and drawing round countless triangles.  
 Sophie, completely off her own back the other day decided she was going to make her own bunting.  She said she'd pretend the paper was fabric, and she needed a bowl and some scissors.  She proceeded to draw three circles using the bowl as a template, cut them out, and decorated them.  We just need to string them together now, and she has made her own bunting!  She's also been helping with taking the needles out when I'm sewing on the machine, and turning the fabric!  We'll make a seamstress of her yet ;)

 And here is half of the bunting, about 15metres worth. 

I've only half of one bunting to finish off now, and then there's lots more ideas in the offing!

In other news, Luke won a painting competition at a wargaming conference the other day, and came back with a prize of a whole load more models. So he was really happy. 

Alec's school was shut through a burst water main, not that he minded in the slightest!!