Teacher's Gift: All I really need is a song in my heart

My daughter's last day of school is Wednesday. Today she "graduated" from kindergarten to grade one.  For her teacher gift, I stitched up a tote using House on Hill Road's Teacher's tote tutorial .  The fabric is 7 oz canvas (Save our Planet by Contemporary Cloth).

Inspired as well by this teacher tote idea posted by Sun Scholars over at Come Together Kids, I wanted to include some of Lily's handwriting.   Instead of using a sharpie to create the notebook lines, the pocket is made from the same stitched notebook fabric that I posted about here. The words are simply written using a permanent fabric marker. 

Lily wrote out one of the verses to Raffi's "All I need is a song in my heart" which happens to be one of our family's favourite songs, but also a song which she performed at the graduation ceremony.

 I don't remember having these sorts of ceremonies when I was in kindergarten in 1978!

I also thought I would share a photo of my nephew's gift to his teacher. The crayon monogram idea is from a recent isssue of Family Fun.

The last day of school is the 29th.  I also can't remember it being so late!

Canadian Icons: Canada Post Mail Carrier Costume

Canada Day is July 1st.   We have something very special planned this year, so to get the girls excited we have been discussing Canadian icons. 

The first icon is Canada Post. {As an aside this post is kind of timely, for most of June, Canada Post service has been disrupted due to labour action and last week management locked the workers out.   Last  week, legislation was tabled in Parliament to end the lock out - or the strike; however, you want to describe it.} 

We have been discussing stamps and the postal service and writing letters (I love stamps. As a child I had many pen pals around the world and collected stamps like my dad and uncle, belonging to stamp clubs, and writing for an amateur stamp newsletter).

Another great idea to discuss the postal service is to add a mail carrier to your child's costumes.  My sister created a really great Canada Post mail carrier and I thought I would share it here. She used Create Studio's pattern.

 
AJ  used cream canvas for the bag. The logo is made using heat bond. She printed the logo from the computer and traced it on to the heat bond.  The visor and button down are thrifted.

Have a great week!

Paint it White: Display Shelf

The Point of View bloggers are hosting another thematic linky party over at Just between Friends. This month's theme is the humble shelf. 

 
I thought I would share this little DIY.  I have been wanting a little shelf to display small objects - the sort of things I don't want the girls playing with everyday.  One of my neighbours was getting rid of this gem

Before

After

It was in pretty rough shape.  I cleaned, sanded, primed and painted the shelf white (Benjamin Moore Cloud White).  I backed a couple of the shelves with scrapbook paper (Crazy Quilt).

(Image via Basic Grey)

Our house was built in 1912. There are lots of odd crevices. The shelf fit perfectly between two pieces of duct work.

A couple of my husband's childhood Lionel CN trains.  The patent shoes were worn by both my daughters on their first birthdays.

Left me. Right him.

My baby shoes. They were also worn by my sisters. My mum had them bronzed.

There is still a little space to add a few more items.

Be sure to check out all the shelf links and add your own at Just Between Friends POV shelf link party.

{Thanks again for the birthday wishes} and have a wonderful weekend,

Birthday Moments

This isn't a crafty project and I wasn't going to post today as I am barely keeping it together this week - stressed out at the day job, we have 10+ hours of ballet practice before for Saturday's final show, our crafts remain unfinished, the sewing projects are in a "to finish" baskets, and potty training is creating an enormous amount of laundry - but there was one of those Oprah "aha" moments. 

I am 39 today.

My BFF sent me a gorgeous bouquet (lots of purples and yellow - sorry no photo!).

When I wasn't looking, Lily took the yellow ribbon off the bouquet and wrapped our dog, Ramsey up in the bow and said mummy close your eyes, here's your present.   

Made me smile.

  

What would Charles Ingalls do?

This is our handmade Father's Day gift (which was accompanied by the complete season 5 of LPH). 

I created some fabric notebook paper (The 'Ol Stitcharoo has a little tutorial here).   Once the notebook fabric was created,  Lily wrote the words in pencil in her own writing and I embroidered over top.

For the notebook fabric, I used heavy white twill, then I sandwiched some insulbrite batting and backed it with some ticking (old pair of shorts!).

Next, I added three eyelets and bound the entire piece with vintage red gingham bias tape (I found it here).  It was a nice way to preserve our daughter's 5 year old handwriting.

{If you love Charles, I came across this adorable mug on Etsy}
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A few photos of our fairy garden

I thought I would post a few photos of this year's fairy garden.  Besides the inpatients, the plantings are mostly herbs for a more sensory experience.  On either side of that center shell, you can see a magical bean stock.  Lily planted this.  This year, we also included mementos from our holidays (shells from Mexico, rocks Norway, and volcanic rock from Iceland). The large pink felted gnome is from Iceland.

I hot-glued dollar shop turf the fairy house roofs.

Updated{Our garden is linked to The Magic Onions 2011 Fairy Garden Competition}

Have a lovely weekend,

Crafting with my Kids: Footprint Butterflies

I haven't posted about our crafty adventures for awhile.  There are a number of large uncompleted rainy moment projects, but mostly we have been playing outside, puddling around the garden, taking off training wheels, potty-training etc.    I realized this past weekend that we hadn't made any Father's Day Cards so we got out the paints.  [Unfortunately, due to the Canada Post postal strike disruption I doubt these will reach their intended recipients in time (so this spoiler post is a good thing).]
The inspiration for this project came from a really neat blog called Handprint and Footprint Art, and specifically this butterfly footprint.    Instead of a paper collage, we created our footprints on muslin fabric and then I stitched the muslin to card stock to make a greeting card in the shape of a butterfly.
There were lots of giggles involved when the girls painted each other's feet.

I have also been on a mission to print out photos on my camera's memory card, while doing that I printed some extras to make a photo wreath. The girls enjoyed going through the photos over the past year and picking out which ones to include.  Digital photos are great, but there is something really nice about  holding a physical snapshot.

I hope you are having a great week,

Summer Sun Hats and the experiences that go along with wearing a really great sun hat

On Saturday, we attended the Ontario Equestrian Federation's Toronto Horse Day at the Exhibition site.  It was a bit of a trek on public transportation, but it was the most wonderful experience for the girls to engage with the horses and watch the demonstrations.  Being a city dweller who doesn't drive, I sort of jump at any opportunity where the country comes to the city and in the end it is usually worth it {There was also  little celebrity siting as Daniel Fathers of Camp Rock & Heartland fame was the m.c.}

The event was very fitting for the girls new summer hats. I made Lily's hat using the pattern from the July Martha Stewart.  I knew this hat would be perfect because Lily doesn't like a traditional tailored bucket hat, she prefers things a little more floppy.  The hat is reversible. The novelty cowboy boot fabric is You Go Girl #3435 (Dawn Sun Valley Quilts for Northcott).  The reverse fabric is cream thin wale corduroy.

Evangeline Hope's, is the bucket hat pattern from Oliver & S' Little Things to Sew.

The girls had a chance to get up close to a number of different breeds and try a horse simulator.

 Below is Reese, he really liked Lily's hat.  He actually pulled it off her head, but returned it (thankfully).

Another sidebar: I have a very soft space in my heart for service animals.   I love stories about animals who do jobs.  Here is a shot from the Toronto Mounted Police demonstration.

{As an aside, Lily has now decided she wants to be a mounted policewoman.  She asked me to print off a mounted policewoman colouring page. If you know of one, can you please let me know.  In the meantime she is adjusting her pages to add ponytails.}
We ended the day at the Summerhill Fair where we met up with good friends and enjoyed pony rides.

 I will sign off with a little Canadiana trivia, I had not realized that Dennis Lee wrote a poem about the Summerhill Fair. I grew up learning Dennis Lee poems by memory (Alligator Pie was first published when I was two (!) and when I had Lily, I rediscovered Dennis Lee all over again).

The Summerhill Fair

I found a balloon and it went up a tree

I learned how to ride on a pony for free

And I looked at a girl and she knew it was me

When I went to the Summerhill Fair.

The fishpond was fine, they had monsters and toads

And Dad got a plant and it broke in the road

And I think I remember which pony she rode

When I went to the Summerhill Fair.

Next year there's a fair at the very same place

I hope I run frontwards and win in the race

And I'll recognize her by the dirt on her face

When I go to the Summerhill Fair.

Dennis Lee

Have a lovely week,
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