This is the simplest and cheapest of toys: the fishing rod and toy fish.
I took a plastic screwdriver from a kid’s tool set and tied a long string on it (no hook because my kids are too young).
I drew fish on pieces of coloured felt and cut them out.
Voilà, the kids are outside “fishing” out of their wagon, feeding the fish to the toy dog, divvying up the fish loot by colour.
You can tie the string to a pencil, twig, fork, anything. Cut the fish out of paper, an old cereal box, anything.
Hi Folks,
This is from a financial blog that I follow on what you can try if your cell phone gets wet. Of course from the cell phone store’s point of view this is a “buyer beware” kind of thing.
When I had my truck crash, my cell phone (Nokia) flew around as the truck flipped and wound up somewhere in the smushed metal soaking in motor oil. The scrap yard guy found it while he was pulling the remnants of the truck apart. Since I had paid cash for the phone roughly 7 years prior, I decided to try fixing it. I took it apart, dried off the motor oil, charged it and voila! It worked. Mostly. The only feature that remained broken was the microphone part that picks up your voice. I could make and receive calls, hear the caller, speak, but the caller wouldn’t hear me. The most important feature of the phone, text messaging, worked just fine so I didn’t buy another cell phone for another 2 years since the only person I really text to is Hubby on his way home from work to please pick up milk.
Having children in the “It didn’t come off the first time so I’ll give it a big frustrated yank” phase of wearing jewellery, I have a lot of beads collected from former necklaces and bracelets. Compound that with the costume jewellery I buy from mark. (Avon) that they occasionally “borrow” and I could become quite an angry Mommy. I went to the craft store and bought a spool of Stretch Magic Bead and Jewelery cord to save us all.
It’s a clear, elastic, thin string that you use to restring the broken bracelet. It’s stiff and thick enough to thread through beads without needing a needle and stable enough to tie a knot without pliers. I also used it to reduce the size of the bracelet my son made me for Mothers’ Day. He made it with regular string and big enough to fit my shoulder. I restrung 2/3 of the beads with this elastic stuff so the bracelet will stretch over my hand then nestle securely on my wrist.
In order to be “one size fits most”, some of the mark. ring bands are held together with this stretchy stuff. When your daughter borrows the ring 3 hours after the Avon box arrives and you later find it hidden in a corner in pieces, you can put it back together and not have to spend $20 for another ring or lament the $20 you just spend on the ring your daughter broke.
Parenting: trying to be one step ahead of your children 10% of the time.
The children earned themselves a “one special toy” purchase this week and my daughter chose a 3 inch high Rapunzel doll with tower. I tried to suggest she get Cinderella since Cinderella had more outfits, but she was adamant about Rapunzel (which is good, I enjoyed that movie and didn’t find Disney’s Rapunzel to be a vapid doormat). This doll is made of plastic, as is her dress which comes in two halves that snap together.
Thus the challenge I imposed on myself was: how to make more dresses for wee Rapunzel (“Rumpunzel” as my daughter pronounces it). I conferred with my favourite sewing blogger, pillows-a-la-mode, who suggested using a thin felt to make the tiny dress. This was a brilliant suggestion since I didn’t know felt came in the “thin” variety and it would be perfect for this doll’s size. The problem isn’t with the felt but with the operator who is 3 and unable to get a dress over/under the doll’s arms, head, waist, etc. Buttons and zippers are out of the question too. So that left cape as the only article of clothing I could make for Rumpunzel for the time being.
The cape is made from a baby wash cloth, one corner cut out in a round (very accurately with the “eyeball it” technique). The corner goes on her head and becomes the hood.
Even though I hate hand stitching, it really was the only way to sew the little, tiny hem around the bottom of the cape.
The hood is measured and sewn with the absolutely precise measurement of: put the corner of the cloth on her head, pinch it shut under her chin and sew it shut with a bow right there.
1. Begin with an 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch piece of card stock.
2. Measure 5 inches from the right side and fold over.
3. Fold the access card stock over the bottom layer and make a crease. Fold the bottom end up about 1/2 inch and make a crease.
4. Measure 4 inches from the bottom of your bag and draw a line.
Do you ever squeal with delight when you see a blog post? Of course you do! :) That's what happened when I saw the DIY Poppy Teapot from the lovely Natalie of La gang à Nat. Seriously, go look at it now right HERE. Isn't it gorgeous??? And all I could think of was that I had a plain white sugar bowl and creamer that I've used for YEARS, and wouldn't they look LOVELY with Natalie's poppy a-la-mode?
Some time ago we took the kids to an Island of Sodor park, complete with a real, life size, functional Thomas the Train. The kids were struck speechless and the teenage Chinese volunteer almost got trampled by a stampede of toddlers heading for the Thomas play tables. She should have stood on a chair, not sat on the floor, but I guess at 16 you don’t really think of those things.
I mention the girl’s ethnicity because I saw all ethnicities represented at this park. There were Mennonites and Muslims in traditional attire, women who’d clearly had “work done” whose oversized chests were practically leaping from their clothing. There were Goth parents, in black and heavy makeup, with their little darlings in Thomas clothing. There were parents tattooed from fingertip to earlobe, again with little blonde darlings getting their faces painted. There were many languages spoken, many different prayers before meals, and many parents running after an over excited child headed for the train tracks.
Single fathers, grandparents, children with two mothers, teenage mothers, boys, girls, saris, and shorts. Not a single fight (except over Thomas toys of course), not a single religious argument, not a single child standing on the 105 year old upholstery on Annie and Clarabelle (Thomas’ coaches). Everyone was polite and sharing because their focus was the children and Thomas. So I propose that the United Nations adopt Thomas the Train as their emblem, at least in North America, because it seems to unite everyone.
You will need:
A few old handtowels, one for every bed you want to make.
Ruler
Marker
The rest of your sewing supplies
What you do
Although this is technically the second step, after you’ve measured how long your doll bed needs to be, I thought I’d show it to you first so you’d have an idea how the thing will go together.
Once you’ve measure the length the bed needs to be, add three inches at the top, bottom and sides, three inches being the upper limit of what a flimsy towel will hold. Mark off the corners as shown, cutting only those four lines.
My super accurate measuring technique
I used an old cloth diaper liner, clean clean clean, as the mattress.
How to sew the corners
A bit like my fold and smush basket technique.
The sides will be a bit flimsy, so reinforce them if you like, and/or use a less degraded towel, but for the purposes of little girls putting their dolls to bed, this’ll do quite nicely.
I made up this technique because I’m rather proficient at origami and this seemed the easiest way to turn fabric into a box and when it comes to sewing, since I’m not that good at it, it’s the easy way or no way. So, this technique is copyrighted by me but feel free to use it if you give me credit for it.
Incidentally, I made the pillow for the bed yesterday, also out of an old cloth diaper, I just sewed a pretty pillowcase for it. And doll beds are an excellent place to use up fabric scraps to make quilts.
My son asked me for a bed hat. I don’t know why, but if it makes him happy, why not. So I made one, a blue one since it’s his favourite colour, and a pink one for his sister. They’re very easy to make and don’t even have to fit properly.
Here is your pattern:
Also a pattern for a bed hat.
Fold fabric in half. The opposite side goes along the fold. Make the adjacent side roughly 7 or 8 inches long, the hypotenuse roughly 18 inches and sort of round the hypotenuse a bit as it approaches the adjacent side (helps to fit on the round head). Or don’t do the rounded hypotenuse bit if my instructions don’t make sense to you.
Cut out the triangle, open it up to hem the bottom (adjacent), then fold in half again and sew the hypotenuse shut, right sides facing. Turn right side out and Voilà! bed hat.
Adjust lengths to fit various sized heads.
Can also be used to make elf hats.
By Yahoo comments, something related to the honesty with which I described how some women feel after having a baby. In case you haven’t figured it out, they feel like shit, shit and more shit. I was of course, way more eloquent and verbose in my Yahoo comment, but I guess too many people found it…offensive? True? Didn’t want to be reminded that post-natal parents may just need a bit more care and consideration than our society seems to offer them? Whatev’ man, whatev.
Not living in a country that kills people for having opinions differing from those of the ruling party, I’m considering this a compliment to my writing career. I can apparently upset people with my words, make them think, make them uncomfortable, make them consider new things. Make them so aware of their mistakes that they don’t want to hear about it anymore.
I do find it a bit odd that Yahoo comments will allow racist comments, comments spelled so poorly you can’t really read them, sexist comments, even violent comments, but some of the truth about childbirth just crosses the imaginary line.
So here’s what I’m suggesting, if you’re a man who’s been there for your partner’s traumatic childbirth and you have some lingering “WTF” and “Holy Shit Now What?” feelings, talk to someone, I highly recommend the public health nurse. It’s their job and believe me, they’ve heard it all. They genuinely care about you and your family. If you’re the poor woman in question who just had the traumatic childbirth or even just an uncomplicated (but lets face it, even that is traumatic enough) childbirth and you feel like things are not quite right, or you’re wondering if you should be feeling this way, talk to someone. Again, the public health nurse is awesome. And they come to your house! At least they do in Canada.
And men: if she doesn’t want to have sex with you, maybe it’s because SHE DOESN’T WANT TO. Maybe because that “simple” act basically made her world and body explode from the inside out and risking that again makes her think becoming an astronaut would be easier and safer.
