Paper Toys

Back on our train-themed day, I made some little paper trains and scenery that I found templates for at sanrio.co.jp. They were fun to make and really cute. Yesterday, I got the bug again and made a bunch of new paper toys.

 I found the template for the LMFAO robot on so-fresh.fr:

 

By far the simplest toy that I made was this simple cube with Monstro's face (from The Binding of Isaac). The template for this one can be found at the cubeecraft website:

I also made a couple of cute paper toys of the Spongebob Squarepants characters Gary and Plankton. These templates can be found at kamibox.de.

These paper toys certainly don't last long in the hands of a toddler, but I have fun making them and E has fun playing with them until they're too scrunched up to be classed as 'toys' any longer.

Anyone else found a crafty obsession lately?

-Polly

Flowers and Warm Weather

We spent a lot of time this morning out in the backyard, on the swing-set, pottering in the garden and just enjoying the warm weather. The day will soon become too hot to be doing much at all out there, so luckily we were all up fairly early to enjoy it. It has been hot and sunny here every day this week. Here's E on her swing, somewhere you can find her at least once a day:

The new seedlings in the garden are going well and have been getting lots of sun. The sprinkler system is all set up again, so they're getting well watered too. E and her dad went out and bought some more plants the other day: some flowers this time, which they planted along the back fence.

I'm not sure what these flowers are called. They are all different colours: pink, yellow, orange, magenta, bright red and deep red. We added a few bags of redgum chips around them and I think it looks rather pretty.

:)

-Polly

Spring Planting

So we finally got around to doing our Spring garden. We left it too late to start with seeds, so yesterday we went out and bought some seedlings, a bag of manure and a couple of big bags of mulch. This morning, E and I went outside in the (much needed) rain and planted all our new seedlings in the veggie beds. E also had great fun jumping in puddles. It's been a while since it rained.

Golden Oregano

Heirloom Oxheart Tomato

We've filled all of our veggie beds again now. The new plants are sweetcorn, zucchini, two different types of tomato, jalapenoes, mild chillies, basil, mint and oregano. Still surviving from last season's planting are parsley, beetroot, kohlrabi, red onion, celery, silverbeet, parsnips and one lonely Japanese burdock. We also have some eggplants, oregano, brown onions and older tomato plants that aren't in the beds, but surviving elsewhere in the garden. I'm looking forward to the bounty.

E enjoying the garden in the afternoon sunshine

We pulled  up some of the silverbeet, beetroot and parsnip and the last of the turnips and swedes. They became the base for a minestrone that I made for dinner. Gotta love those home-grown veggies. When hubby got home from work, he installed new sprinkler heads, so it will be easy to keep it all watered.

Happy gardening :)

-Polly

Peek-a-boo

It's been a whole week since I've posted here. Miss me?
I haven't been taking a lot of photos of our life lately and those that I have are still on the camera which I don't have access to at the moment. I still have my phone-camera, so here's a couple of photos of E playing a favourite game:

Peek-a-boo!

-Polly

Jiggling Jellyfish

The letter 'J' is a very active letter... think 'jumping' and 'jiggling'. We certainly did a lot of jumping and jiggling as E was learning about the letter. Our picture is of a jellyfish in the shape of a 'J'.

The following weekend, we visited AQWA (Aquarium of Western Australia), where we could see some real jellyfish.

We got to see a lot of other interesting sea creatures, too. E loved the giant sting rays and the sea turtles. Here's some pictures of some other things we saw:

anemone

boxfish

lots of fish

octopus and corals

-Polly

Princess E

E received some new books recently. 'Princess of the Potty', and 'Princess Polly's Potty'. See a theme here?

Even though E isn't really into the whole princess thing, it's really hard to find decent books on toileting for girls that aren't full of princesses. The first book to arrive was 'Princess of the Potty'. E was immediately taken by the crown that the "little princess" was wearing in the book, so I made her one. It was really quite simple to make and E sat on the bed (my sewing area is in the bedroom at the moment) and gave directions. The crown is made from yellow craft felt and stays on with a piece of black elastic. I sewed on some purple buttons as jewels before sewing the edges of the felt crown on my machine, using orange thread.

The second book to arrive, Princess Polly's Potty, was also a hit. It has a button that you can press that makes a cheering noise and E liked that Princess Polly has a green potty, just like hers. It's also nice that this book talks about "nappies" instead of "diapers".

E loves her books, so these have been a nice addition to her collection.

-Polly