Kidzarama

My goodness has it been nine years already? It seems like it’s been both longer and shorter. In a really good way, though.

So I thought Thursday 13 would be a good place to share 13 reasons I think our relationship has survived for so long. And will continue to thrive in the future.

1. We are friends.
Best friends, in fact. It was almost nine months before we first kissed. ~We had months to get to know each other without all the chest~beating of dating.

2. We talked about values before we got married.
And we feel the same way about most things. We also lived together for 18mths and had time to discover a lot about each other before we tied the knot.

3. We take the time to listen to each other.
Even when I want to rant and shake him, it’s worth hearing what WonderHubby has to say first. ~And then shake him.

4. We compromise on little things as well as the biggies.
It’s not always one person ‘giving way’.

5. We are moving in the same direction.
And support each other in our goals. Even when we don’t exactly understand why.

6. We can imagine life without the other.
And we don’t like it.

7. We have both put a H.U.G.E. amount of energy into our relationship and each other.
To put it bluntly, why would we possibly want to go and start again with someone else? How likely is it that we would ever meet anyone else who shares even half of our values?

8. We share the work.
Both in our relationship, around the home and parenting.

9. We accept each other’s weaknesses.
WonderHubby can be annoyingly indecisive, and I’m sure I must have some faults… False modesty isn’t one of them though.

10. We are honest with each other, but respectfully.
We share with each other about most things. Storing little annoyances up for later does not work, and choosing the time and place for discussions is vital.

11. We have been through times I thought we would not survive.
Financial troubles, communication issues, family/in~law problems. Having worked through them successfully together, we find that we feel even closer to each other after each challenge.

12. We have two beautiful children.
Regardless of the old saw, “staying together for the children”, it’s true that they are a very strong glue for us.

13. We are still in love.
Because of points 1~ 12.

There have been times when we have not been 100% head~over~heels in love, but our commitment to each other, our children and ourselves has so far been strong enough to see us through everything we’ve faced in eleven years together and nine years of marriage.

Here’s to many more loving years ahead.

I’ve been looking around on Blogcarnival, and there isn’t a carnival that features childrens’ craft projects.

Imagine that!

So I decided on the spur~of~the~moment to host one here @ Kidzarama on a monthly basis.

As anyone who has read about my fancy haircut will know, I am good at spur~of~the~moment.

I even received a compliment from Wren’s keyboard teacher when I picked her up. Before she knew I’d done it myself.

So, for those interested, the only rules are that your post must be about a craft project that:

(a) was made by a child or for a child
AND
(b) includes a photo of said craft

Feel free to share what your child loved most, plus how the craft was made, so that others can use your idea.

The deadline will be on the second Wednesday of each month, with entries to be posted two days later on the Friday.

You can register here at BlogCarnival.

And if anyone has some tips on creating a logo without any you~beaut programs, pleeeeeze let me know.

As promised, here is the how~to to go with the lurvely Mother’s Day card I made for my amazing mother.

Just why is she so amazing?

Well, apart from giving birth to moi, she’s the most loving, giving, caring person I’ve ever met. Patient too.

You can tell she is because I made it to adulthood.

You will need:

• Coloured cardboard ~ 10×20cm (4×8in)
• Coloured paper ~ 9×19cm (3½x7½in)
• Patterned tissue paper
• Thin ribbon ~ 30cm (12in)
• Tiny heart button
• Needle & thread
• Tiny flower button

What to do:

Making the card itself.

• Fold cardboard and paper in half.
• Using needle, lightly mark the spine of the cardboard at 5 points: Centre and once at both 1cm and 2cm on either side of the centre. Pierce holes.
• Position paper neatly inside cardboard, hold tightly while open (to prevent paper moving) and pierce paper.
• Using threaded needle, go out through the centre hole, in the nearest hole above, out the last hole above. Then go back in the second hole and out the centre hole. Now repeat with the holes below the centre hole.
• Tie a neat knot in the centre of the card.

Decorating the front.

• Trace a small circle onto your tissue paper ~ I used a fat cotton spool. Cut and glue onto the front of your card in the centre.

• I got the idea for the cute flower from Pink Paper Peppermints, where Melissa is featuring 31 Crafty Flowers during May. Each day she will be showing how to create a different crafty flower, and her directions are so detailed (photos even!) that even yours truly could follow them. Use your little heart button for this.

• After creating your ribbon flower, sew it onto your card in the centre of the circle. Take care not to bend the cardboard or mark it. Don’t sew through the paper yet, and don’t cut your thread.

Decorating the inside.

• Mark the centre of your paper lightly and continue sewing through the paper to attach the little flower button. Pass through each hole once only to avoid tearing the paper. Again, take care not to bend or mark it.

• Push the needle back through the cardboard and finish the thread securely within the ribbon flower.

• You can hand~write ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ or print and glue it on. I tried hand~writing it but hated it, so I then fell back on ‘print & glue’.

Other Thoughts:

• Use colours that your mum loves. My Mum’s favourite colour is blue, so I chose blue cardboard & paper and ribbon, buttons & tissue in colours that contrast or match.

I made the most lovely Mother’s Day card last night & couldn’t wait to see my Mum’s response.

Usually, I forget to give her one and concentrate on organising the kids’ gift giving.

To be honest, I’m not even that good at organising the kids with it…

Mum usually gets shoes, slippers and possibly underwear, all of which she had a hand in choosing (if not outright buying).

It’s embarrassing to admit that my mother probably spends more on me for Mother’s Day than I do on her. ~She likes to make sure that the kids have something to give me.

You see, WonderHubby’s not the best at organising gift~giving with the kids, either.

I’ve made a bit of an extra effort this year.

Okay, she still received the slippers she picked out the other day, but I did pay for them for once.

But apart from that there’s a blue ceramic pot, a plant that WonderHubby & the kids bought (see, he’s getting more organised, too!) and a box of chockies I know she’ll enjoy.

But I forgot to wrap them.

And I forgot to show the kids the slippers and chockies, so it was as much a surprise for them as for Mum.

But I did better than most years.

On top of all that, I created the beeeeyoootiful card you will get to see later in the week, along with instructions.

Hope you had a lovely Mother’s Day, too.

In which I embark on a moving trip down memory lane, sparked by this post about avian home invasions and toddler eating (or not) habits by Trish at My Little Drummer Boys.

Do you remember when milk came in bottles? I do.

I just remembered it, because I just remembered the Luv dog biscuits I used to secretly eat from our two dogs’ bowls and the box that was kept on a shelf in their kennel.

That was when I was younger, of course.

They don’t make that type of dog biscuit anymore.

They were something special and looked a bit like the one in the above image, only smaller and in different shapes. And the colours weren’t the same. But still a bit like that one, sortof.

~ But nowhere on the web~according~to~Google could I find an image of them!

I thought it was amazing how they came in all types of shapes, sizes and colours. So you could eat according to your mood.

A bit bored and looking for some action? Try one of the red heart~shaped ones.

Feeling a bit down~in~the~mouth? How about a yellow triangle for some lithium~yellow therapy?

Never was sure what they were meant to be. Cheese maybe?

They didn’t taste like cheese…

And then I remembered the white milk bottle ones. I think they had added calcium or something. They were definitely my favourite. I know I’ve only ever had one broken bone, and that was just a fracture.

Hey! If only they still made these biscuits, I could go on television and reveal the cure for osteoarthritis.

So that’s when I remembered that I remember when milk came in bottles.

Interesting thought process, huh?

So now I’m thinking how sad it is that you can’t trust anyone enough to leave money out for milk.

If they delivered it around here still.

Which they don’t.

I know you’ve always thought I’m weird.

Now you have written proof.

Next time your little preschool artist is doing some painting, try some of these ideas to add a little something different.

Do you have any different painting ideas that your kids enjoy?
Let me know & I’ll add them here with a credit to your site.

• Finger painting ~ let them get all gooshy making patterns in paint on the table, then rub a plain piece of paper over the top.

• Add sand or glitter to paint or sprinkle it over the finished (wet) artwork.

• Dip a sea sponge in paint and dab it around. This makes great tree leaves and bushes, just paint lines for branches afterwards.

• Soak a regular flat sponge in paint and use it to dip stamps in. Gives lovely even coverage.

• Instead of stamps, drive an old toy car over the sponge and then drive it over a piece of paper for a great tyre track painting.

• Another alternative to stamps is a simple fly swat. Smack the paint~soaked sponge with it and then swat your paper. You can even draw a few little black flies on there.

• Put a few dabs of different coloured paints in the middle of a piece of paper and fold in half. This gives you a butterfly shape which you can cut out (once it dries) and stick on the wall with blutac.

• Paint leaves, flowers, and plastic toys to use as stamps. Kids will learn by seeing what sort of results they get with each item.

• Make up a half~in~half mixture of acrylic paint and pvc glue to make coloured glues for craft projects.

Now you’ve made all those creative works of art, you just need to think of ways to use them.

Tune in next time for more ideas…

This photo was taken when I was 9mths pregnant with Wren, doing cross~stitch and being laid upon by my much~adored cat Tiki.

It’s not a very clear picture, but it’s important.

Tiki had developed feline diabetes about a year earlier, and not long after Wren was born she passed away.

I adopted Tiki when I was 19 and very ill. She was the best company I could have had, and she loved that I spent so much time cuddling in bed with her. CFS does that to a body.

It’s been over seven years, and I still miss her every day. Particularly now that I’m in the middle of a relapse and no longer have her to nap with.

But I can still feel her with me.

Tiki was really something special.

It’s the end of the first week back at school and this is the most relieved I’ve ever been to see the end of school holidays, for several reasons;

1. It rained for 13 out of 16 days, the last 3 being kind of sunny but still colllddd (sorry, that’s my teeth chchattterrrinnggg).
2. Mr Bump & I had two servings of virus with antibiotics ‘to go with that’, while Wren had one serving with similar accompanying side~serve.
3. The other medication I’m taking was still making me sleepy and I kept falling asleep mid~conversation. ~thank goodness it’s worn o…zzzzzzzzzzz

So you can see it wasn’t the best time for all of us. Now we can get back to normal and I can get back to my real life blogging.

It wasn’t all bad. We did do a little craft between snotty kleenex, popping pills & overdosing on dvd’s. There was The failed window clings, my trendy new ‘do (well, it was creative), the pollination of Mr Bump’s tomato plants and the Anzac Biscuits that I forgot to take a photo of (d’uh).

Not much really, now that I look at it.

BUT. I’ve gotten into papier mache in the last few days, and should have some results to show tomorrow sometime before the end of May.

Plus I found my notebook filled with craft recipes, so I’ll be posting those soon too.

To keep the craft bugs happy, here’s a couple of interesting sites I found over the weekend when I wasn’t playing with paper and glue…

I haven’t been doing much in the way of blogging this past week or so, but I have been bloghopping a bit and one of the best things I found was how to do hand~made books.

Warning: They’re so easy to make, it’s kind of addictive.

I found the idea at The Crafty Crow, who got the idea from Glittergoods.

The glitterfairy (I have no idea what her name is, as her posts are not signed and there is no ‘about me’ page, so this is the name I’ve given her) got the idea from Soulemama, who got it from the Grecos.

Confused enough?

Right, then you’re ready to start.

Because the state you’re in now is how I live.

You will need:

• A4 cardboard in various colours

• White A4 paper

• A paper cutter or guillotine

• An awl or a needle & a piece of Duplo thimble

• Some thin ribbons, pretty thread or cord. My ribbons were between 5mm (1/5in) and 8mm wide.

What to do:

• Cut a piece of A4 cardboard and some sheets of A4 paper in half.

• To make sure the pages don’t stick out of the finished book, trim the height of the paper by ¼( in ½ cm) and the width by twice that.

• Fold them in half and mark the spine lightly 1½ in from each end and again in the middle.

• This is where you will need your awl to make the holes (I used a tapestry needle & pushed it through with a piece of Duplo ~ necessity, the mother of invention).

• After punching the 3 holes, thread your needle with ribbon or thread and poke it through the centre hole from the outside of the book. Leave about 2 inches of the end sticking out.

• Come up through one of the end holes, go back down through the other end hole. Lastly, come up again through the middle hole.

• Now remove the needle and you will see that you have one long piece of ribbon stretching from the bottom hole to the top hole.

• Make sure that the ends of the ribbon (poking out of the middle hole) are on either side of the ribbon, and tie a knot around it.

Other Thoughts:

• Alternate Threading ~ Go in through the top hole, out the middle one, in the other end hole and up through the middle again. Then carefully tie a knot near the top hole, the tricky part being to make sure the knot ends up where you want it to be.

• I also made one booklet with five holes in the spine, using the alternate threading technique to tie the knot near the top hole.

• Add some beads to your ribbon or thread.

• Try using some glittery tapestry thread, fine plastic piping or curling ribbon.

• Also metallic cardboard, handmade papers, scrapbooking materials.

• Wren is using one to write a story about her guinea pig, Olga da Polga.

You’re limited only by your own imagination!

Decorating them is fun too. I’m having lots of fun looking around for inspiration on the net. I’m struggling with my conditioning against cutting up books.

~ I’m sure it doesn’t apply to the Mr Lazy book that our Mr Bump has torn pages from, but I still can’t seem to make myself do it!

I have a new hobby, and the kids & their friends are really enjoying them as well.

Since it’s Anzac Day, we’ll be baking up a batch of Anzac Bickies today.

I had planned to add a photo once they were done, but I got so caught up in eating cooking them, that I just plain forgot.

This is my Mum’s recipe & it’s super-yum, so I hope you’ll give it a try and let me know what you think.

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