Thanks for joining me on the last day of this series! if you want to have a look at the other posts click here

I learned an aweful lot during this series (like that it is impossible to take a picture of a costume without a child in it!) and I had a great time doing it . I hope you enjoyed it too!

Todays costume has been waiting to be made for a long time. I drew the pattern october 2010 bough the fabric a months later and for some reason it just wouldn't come together. This series finally motivated me to get it all out again and finish the job and I must say I am really pleased with it. It is impossible to show it of properly and those pictures will have to wait until the boys get the costumes on the 25th.

This dragon has a long tail lots of spikes and is cuddly soft. He was made from fleece so is lovely and warm too (a bonus in this drafty house!)
I am by no means a seamstress and this pattern is pretty basic requiring only a backstitch to put everything together. I freehanded the spikes the tail and the ears but the body was a simple hand to hand measurement. The length of this is the diameter of the square that is the body

The above image should print out to a full A4 if you wanted to print it. As you can see only basic shapes where used. FLeece doesn't fray so I didn't need to do anything fancy with the edges. The square shape provides built in wings and it could even be put on over a wintercoat as an extra layer (or just because your kiddo is like mine and likes to dress up everywhere )

I promise to put pictures up of the 3 dragons when I have them :)

Thanks for joining me on day 29, other posts in this series can be found here

I uhmed and ahed about this post because I try not to get political on the blog because politics are such a touchy subject. But right now with the occupy movement continuing way beyond what the media said they would, showing time and time again that they are not "fornicating hippies" and that they have a reason for doing what they do its hard to not have this come up at all at some point.

I was talking to a friend last night who expressed frustration at not being able to join in, she like me has young children, and she, like me, is terrified of being there when the cops show up. Experience has shown they are not the best people to have around at a peaceful protest.

I was going to embed a video of the police violence during the occupy protest but found this instead:

I started looking through the posters and flyers available and did not find one that enabled me to express solidarity to the movement, that maybe would help spread the message and hopefully (as with all my statement bags and buttons) would become a conversation starter.

I made a few simple posters with the words "My H<3rt is @ #occupy

My friend and I never do anything big for each other for the holidays always something silly or small and never for Christmas or yule but somehow always beforehand. So this morning I sent her a bunch of iron on sheets with this printed on it so she can show solidarity to her hearts content. I used twitter hashtags on purpose because I think both twitter and camera phones have shaped this movement so much and allowed it to grow as quickly as it has. CAmera phones have allowed much violence to be documented that would otherwise not be documented. It has allowed people from all over the world to be right there when it happend even if they couldn't be there.

I am the 99% and we will be heard

Day 28! other posts are available here!

Suddenly temperatures have dropped in this part of the world, I had to break ice this morning so the girls could get to their water and its c-c-c-cold! The boys complained last night that their bed was so cold to get into so St. Nicolas will be dropping something in their shoes tonight to warm those beds right up!

Gather 2 different fabrics (one for the inner bag and one for the case) needles thread scissors and a stuffing. I used red lentils that had somehow been pushed to the back of the cupboard and where way out of date.

You can make this any shape and pretty much any size you want. We don't have a microwave so I put the lot in our slowcooker/crockpot and it worked a treat. I imagine a ricecooker would work great too!
Here I sewed the bag that holds the lentils. nothing too fancy just 2 pieces from my stash that lined up sewed together using a backstitch filled about half with the lentils and them sewed shut. Before you sew it shut hold it up in your hands to determine the weight you don't want something too heavy but also not too light because it would cool down really quickly

This is the case, I folded the ends over twice to create a seam and sewed it up with a running stitch. fold it over to create a pilowcase type closure and sew the sides shut

Once its turned inside out this is what you end up with, now you can fill it with the lentil bag and pop it in the microwave/oven/slowcooker to warm it up.

Always shake the filling really well before handing it too a child to ensure that there are no super hotspots especially when you use a microwave to heat them up!

If you are a keen walker these are great to make pocketsize to heat before you go and keep you toasty warm for longer!

Thanks for joining me on day 24! other posts in this series can be found here

In hindsight we made felt balls that where to large for the next one we will make smaller balls otherwise this came out pretty great. This is another idea that I've seen floating around on the internet. You can make them pretty much as big as your wire can handle.

You need wire (same as I used in previous project in this series) beads or felt balls washing pegs. You might want pliers and a holepunch

I used a holepunch to make holes in the felt balls, when on the smallest setting the hole was pretty much invisible.

String everything on the wire bead-peg-bead etc. Twist the metal at the top and make a loop to hang it from, and you're done!

Thanks for joining me! other posts in this series can be found here

I made trees, the soft fabric stuffed ones. This idea has been floating around the internet for several years and I've seen them made round, with 3 sides with more sides, this is my take on it. I used a small left over piece of fabric which turned out to be a pain to use because of the weave and the semi elesticity. if you have plain cotton or linnen that would work great as would felt and fleece

Cut your pieces, 4 triangles and a square. Make sure to add seam allowance as the file with the pattern doesn't have any seam allowance.

I embroidered the fabric with some simple snowflakes in the same colour thread as the fabric which really added a nice dimension to the whole.

sew it together, long side against long side and the bottoms against the square.

Stuff it sew it shut and you're done! here you can also enjoy the biew of my untidy desk with multiple colours of floss (the boys where all embroidering a green tree on a panel of cotton) my phone, a padlock, a crochet hook (to aid the stuffing) and sealing wax because you know we all need that to hand all the time.

Welcom to day 20! Only 10 days to go! Other posts can be found here.

Today we've made book corners. They are a lovely thing to make from left over bits of cards stock or water colour paper. We made a bunch for all the book readers in our family (which is pretty much everyone) to pop into their stockings or to give away as RAK (random acts of kindness) just leave them in library books.

I made them pretty easily using watercolour leftovers and some normal printer paper off cuts.

Cut a piece of card 3" by 1.5" fold it in half and colour/paint decoupage it whatever takes your fancy.

Cut half a square with a little bit on the side to glue it with.

here it is over the top of the cardstock with the gluebit sticking out. this bit folds over one of the open sides

colour the paper stick it on the card, fold up one corner (or cut it off and ignore all steps after this!)

Stick a brad trough it or a stocker or googly eyes etc etc. amd you are done!

Make loads and leave them in library books as a nice surprise for a stranger :)

Hi, thanks for joining me on day 19! Other posts in this series can be found here

Today my eldest and I made up a basket with things for garden birds for an aunt of mine who is particularly keen on her feathered visitors. We made seedy pinecones with the help of some peanut butter and we made a nest material ball. We will add in some mealworms and add it into a nice basket.

Cover a pinecone completely in peanut butter, don't overdo it just give everything a nice coating. When it is all covered hold it over a bowl with birdseeds and pour them over the pinceone untill all the peanut butter has been covered with seeds. Press them down lightly so they don't fall off too easily.

To gift them I wrap them up in greaseproof paper like big sweets with ribbon to tie it of either side.

This ball of left over bits of carded wool and wool thread is a favourite during nesting season. Make sure that you put only natural materials in it, if you don't have bits of yern from your knitting projects you can but nesting materials for budgies or parakeets in most petstores which will do nicely.

We made this ball the same way as we did the candle holders earlier. We used the same wire and just kept bending it into squares that slowely got bigger until we had them about 10 cms across, we then made a few squares the same size and the slowely started to decrease the size again unill we where left with a slightly wonky but perfectly fillable shape. We stuffed it with bits of yellow carded wool and a small amout of brown hand spun left from a project a couple of years ago and we where done.

We might add some popped corn strings to this if we get around to doing it and then we add it all into a basket.

Veraxx

WElcome to day 18! Other posts in this series can be found here

I love making these candles and we make a large batch every year. They are great as a little extra, a stockingstuffer or as a lovely box filled with them (save the expensive chocolate box works great!)

I don't melt any wax for this so it is very suitable to do with small (or just fidgety) children.

You need was (grated of chips) wicks I buy them ready made like this, a knife for opening your walnut and a walnut.

Push your knife into the flat end of the walnut along the natural break line. Now gently wiggle it, you will hear the nut cracking go slow and gently so you have a good chance of breaking it nicely

place the wick in the bottom and press it down a bit to shape the metal to thhe botton of the walnut

if you have a block of wax you can grate it. I was using some left over soy candles here.

Fill your walnut all the way to the top

The only childunfriendly bit in the whol making process, gently warm the wax a bit with a lighter. You could put it on a hot radiator for half an hour or so till its soft enough to compress it together. This will stop it all from falling out.

Turn of all the lights and light your candles and make a wish :)

Welcome to day 17! other posts in this series can be found here

Today I made a simple crochet scarf which could with the help of a few more buttons easily become a cowl. I started it late this morning and worked on it during tea breaks, and inbetween working in the garden. I used a heavy dk cotton and a large hook which made this a very quick project.

I used about 3/4 a 50 gram ball of organic heavy dk cotton, a 7mm hook and a vintage mother of pearl button. The loose stitches meant that I didn't need to worry about creating a buttonhole.

Chain 67
skip 2 ch and work hdc all the way to the end
turn and repeat
keep going until you have 9 rows (or more if you have enough yarn!)
cut yarn work away ends

Button placement. In the image above the scarf was folded in half and half again the middle fold is the one to the left and as you can see the button was placed just a little bit away from the middle.

So there you go another very quick project that is easily done by beginners and super quick for the more experienced hookers :D

Veraxx

Thanks for joining me on day 16! check out the other posts in this series here.

Today I made some dreamdolls. The are little simple dolls with a pocket at the front to put something in. My eldest has a doll like this in his bed and the pocket holds his sleep crystal. We made it together and stuffed it with wool and lavender. After this first one many more have been made for friends of his and friends of mine. The pocket can be made large enough to hold a worry stone, or smaller to hold a simple piece of folded paper. My doll holds a piece of paper with things that I currently want to focus my energy written on. A small visual and tactile reminder can be especially helpful during stressful times.

Print out the pattern listed below. I added a scaleline but size doesn't matter too much it is a fairly basic pattern that can easily be adapted.
The pattern contains 2 doll shapes one with a slightly larger head and this is the one I made this time. I cut a front and a back a face a pocket and 2 extra headpieces as a bonnet.

pin and sew the pocket first

embroider the face

sew face onto head (over the bonnet piece in this case)

sew the doll together. I used a simple runningstitch because I like the look of it and this will not be given to a child. Don't sew it all the way shut as you do need to stuff it still!

Stuff head and arms first

Finish stuffing the doll and sew her shut.

This one was stuffed with a few different herbs and a couple of crystals and is basically a medicine pouch doll. I will add a few affirmations in her pocket before I wrap her up.
If you choose a plain fabric she can be decorated with embroidery or fabric pens to.