Meet …

… Rosie the Owl!

I finished sewing Rosie last night and at the end of November she will be going home to a small friend of mine who’s going to turn three!

Rosie has flappable wings, button eyes, a beak that lifts up and down and cute heart buttons on her front. She is also soft and cuddly and hopefully just the right size for little hands.

I’m sure that Rosie will get a new name all her own and I hope she’ll be a part of many exciting adventures created by G!

Until then, I’m enjoying having Rosie’s cute face around and am starting on some owl-friends for my niece and god-daughter.

So grateful to my lovely honorary-mum for the wonderful pattern, adapted with the help of brilliant advice from hubby and friends! 😉

Forest School!

In September I was thrilled to be asked to help out with a local forest school for pre-schoolers!

I’d been hearing about it since March, as a friend of mine, C,  was going along and helping to look after a mutual friend’s (M) little girl while said mutual friend was running the sessions. It sounded like lots of fun! Maybe I was a tiny little bit jealous … 😉

C and her husband have just adopted a gorgeous little one of their own, so I now get to go along with M’s awesome girl G!

Both little G and forest school are amazing and so much fun!

Here are two things I’ve made while helping (playing) at toddler forest school …

A couple of weeks ago we painted pictures with mud and blackberries – I got more messy then G, who did a nice picture of “splotches”! 🙂 Just in case you can’t tell what my masterpiece is, this is an owl. One mum told her toddler it was a pussy cat …

This last week we made mud sculptures – so many good opportunities to get messy in the name of learning!! 😉

I decided to make a mud-face on a tree – I set out to make a rabbit but quickly decided I was making a moose!! 😛

One dad and his kid made this incredible dog, complete with lead, eyes, tail … dad worked hard to conceal his disappointment when kid insisted on taking dog for a walk … bye-bye dog sculpture!

I love being out in the woods and fresh air with lots of little people who treat every new find of an acorn or a mud puddle as an incredible discovery! The joy on one little girl’s face when she got completely covered in mud, head to toe, after stomping and splashing around in lots of gooey, messy, brilliant mud!! 🙂

Now I just need to work out a good excuse for how come I couldn’t avoid stomping in the mud and I’ll be a happy girl!! 😉

Christmas Stitching

This year I am trying to make as many Christmas presents as I possibly can by hand … preferably from inexpensive materials 😉

This, of course, takes time, so my Christmas present planning started over two months ago …

Here is my latest project:

An Owl Christmas Tree Decoration

My Grandma loves owls. She has always had a thing about owls, as long as I can remember. Kind of like me and dots I guess. Grandma has paintings of owls, aprons with owls on, cross-stiches of owls, ornaments of owls, sweaters with owls on the front, mugs with owls on … you get the picture! My Grandma also likes handmade, crafty types things.

So I made this especially for my Grandma, although I might not last out until Christmas … her birthday is on the 10th December, so I might give into temptation … 😛

I am going to make myself an identical owl to go on L and I’s Christmas tree. It is our 3rd Christmas being married and I’m making a new Christmas tree ornament every year!