DIY : Christmas headband

Last year I made this super simple, eye catching headband for Mima, she was too young to enjoy it but this Christmas it is number one on her outfit list. All you need is:
tinsel
headband
hot glue gun
Glue the tinsel on to the headband.
Voila!

DIY : masking tape christmas tree

Our super simple and virtually free Christmas Tree.


You'll need:
Green painters masking tape / or Washi tape
Washi or Blu-tack to attach decorations.

This year we won't be at home for Christmas so I didn't want to buy a tradition tree and have all the needles fall out all over the carpet while we are away. Also it's really difficult to get rid of a christmas tree when you live in the city. 

Moo decorated with existing decorations plus some cute mini christmas present decorations.
Which we made from empty raisin boxes and some curling ribbon. Moo loved these! 






























Click here to see how to make the little paper stars, 3D paper stars and paper butterflies.

DIY : salt dough star decorations

Over the past week Mima and I have made some decorations for the Christmas tree and gifts. One is salt dough stars. I used the recipe in 'Recipes For Play', full of loads of great ideas, but there are recipes for salt dough on the internet.
Basically you make a dough from flour, salt, oil, lemon juice and warm water. Knead it and let it rest then get creating.
I rolled the dough out and we cut shapes with a star cookie cutter. I used a chopstick to put holes in the stars for the twine. I then placed them on a lined baking tray and baked them on low for 4 hours or you can leave it to dry for 48 hours.

Mima painted them and I added bakers twine for hanging to finish.

DIY : peg santa

A few months ago I received a lovely email requesting detailed instructions for the peg Santa I posted an image of last Christmas.
I have tweaked him a little but here are instructions for everyone.
You will need:
the template - print at A4
a wooden peg
paint - red, black for his boots and blue for eyes
paintbrush
felt - red, white, black and grey
a loop of bakers twine for hanging
a hot glue gun
a large glass to sit them on while you work
1. Print template and cut out all the felt pieces.
2. Sit the pegs around the top of your glass. I always make more than one at a time.
3. Paint the red areas - body, legs and top of his head.
4. Paint the boots black.
5. Glue on his red felt cone shaped body. I place a dot of glue at the top front of his body then down one felt edge at the back, then overlay the other edge of the felt. I have noted where to put the glue on the template in red.
6. Add the white felt beard, hat and boot trims. When gluing the hat trim place the two ends of the bakers twine loop under the felt at the back of his head.
7. Glue on the black belt so the ends meet at the front of his belly.
8. Cover this join by gluing on the grey felt rectangle, his buckle.
9. Glue the white arm trim to the short flat edge of his arm, glue front then fold and glue in place to cover the back as well. Then place a dash of glue at the top curved end of the arm and attach to Santa's body.
10. Lastly add to dots of blue for the eyes.

sky tower

From our bedroom window we have clear view of the Sky Tower. For the passed couple of months Mima has been building "Sky Towers" out of anything. Here are a few.

fifth birthday : princess invitation

So Moo is turning 5 in just a few days now!

Moo had decided she wanted a Princess party. So we made Princess castle invites, suitable for all the princes and princesses being invited. 

You'll need:
Kraft Card / or what ever colour you chose for the castle (I use Kraft card cause it's cheap and you need to use quite a lot.)
Coloured card - for the turrets, doors and windows
Glue stick
Star sticker to close invite
Pens and glitter to decorate.
Invite insert to paste inside or hand write the info.
Templates- use my template or create your own.


Trace templates on to card and cut. Fold castle along fold line. Trace and cut out the turrets in coloured and glue. Decorate!


I really can't believe this has come around so quickly. I still love watching Moo sleep peacefully like she did as a newborn and I love the crazy beautiful little girl she's turned into.


Templates print out on A4 pages.




seedlings

A few weeks ago we started to get our courtyard garden ready for summer. We are big fans of growing our own vegetables so this was our main focus. We brought a few seedlings and planted a few seeds, this will mean we will have vegetables ready at different times. Being slightly lazy I like to just use seeds that you can plant straight in the ground (parsley, greens etc), but this year Mima's Dad wanted to try some chilli and other seeds which need to be raised in pots. So I found a video for making newspaper seedling pots on you tube and got busy. 
While she recommends not using tape or staples to secure the origami pot, I found I needed to use a small piece of tape, I will remove this when I plant the seedling, pot and all!
I made eight pots which we then filled with soil, made holes and added the seeds, then labeled with popsicle sticks.

We left them in the bathroom (warm and humid), watering them regularly and now we have some seedlings to add to the garden.

cardboard box : car

Moo loves pretending to drive her dad's car so I decided to make her own cardboard car to have in the garage with keys, dashboard, working streering wheel and all.

YOU WILL NEED:
1 small cardboard box 
1 large cardboard box
several coloured bottle top lids
1 5cm long screw
2 washers
toilet roll
glue gun
spare keyring
paper tape
paints and pens to decorate
1. Firstly turn boxes inside out if you are recycling old boxes like I am. The small box is you bonnet, the large box your main part of the car. Join the 2 boxes together, using the flap to create an angled windshield down on to your bonnet. Cut the sides to fit the shape and tape up all your joins.

2. Cut out a rectangle for your windshield and the top of the box for where you want to sit, and doors. Mark out with a ruler if you want nice straight lines.

3. To make the dashboard - using a spare piece of the cardboard cut a piece the width of your car. Cut out your steering wheel shape, make a hole in the centre of you steering wheel with a sharp pencil. Mark the place on the dashboard you want attach this, make hole with pencil. Cut a 3cm length from your toilet roll for your steering column. Glue to the underside of your steering wheel. Place one washer on your screw and push through the hole on your steering wheel and through the dashboard hole, attach 2nd washer and glue in place on back of dashboard. Your steering wheels should turn. Glue a bottle lid on your steering for horn and to cover screw end. Glue more bottle lids for buttons and decorations onto your dashboard. Tape the dash board into your car so it sits below the windshield, and so there is room your little ones legs to fit underneath.

4. Cut out different key shapes for your house and car and attach to the keyring.

5. Cut 4 equals circles for your wheels, decorate and stick to sides of the car using glue gun. Cut strips for front grill and circles for you headlights and glue in place.


6. Paint and decorate your car.... VROOM VROOM!





how to be 2

The other day I found this video of Flora June. June likes cows, her teddy and hot cocoa, but dislikes her carseat. The video is a totally adorable account of a two year old's morning.  Mima also a two year old girl, LOVES it. It is amazing how their lives are so different and yet exactly the same!

The video was made by Olive Us, a family living in the French countryside, their website is full of sweet videos featuring family's six the children.

what Mima read : Halloween special


Mima's favourite story book heroine at the moment is Meg the witch. So with Halloween this week I thought it was perfect timing to share some of Mima's favourite pages, usually the result of one of Meg's haphazard spells.

DIY Bat Wings

It's one week until Halloween and as always I'm endeavoring to make Moo a cool homemade costume. Step one is the Bat wings. 

What you'll need: 
1/2m black felt
1/2 black stiff fusing (optional but makes wings nice and firm)
1/2m satin lining
1m x 20mm black elastic
2 balloon sticks on boning would do
tailors chalk 

Method:
Measure child's arm-span to wrist, this will be how wide your wings will be. Fuse Felt if you are choosing do so. Fold felt in half and draw a quarter circle. Now draw your desired wing shape like pictured and cut out.
Fold satin in same method, but cut 2cm smaller around edge. Using your two sticks place at longest wing point. Stitch a 1.5cm tunnel (two rows of stitching 1.5cm apart) insert sticks and trim if needed.
Stitch the two layers together around edge with zigzag stitch.
Using your elastic make two straps that cross over the body mine were 44cm long. stitch in place above shoulders and either side of waist. Make two wrist straps 7cm long stitch in place. 

Fly little bat.

The rest will be reveled next week. 

flying fox


We have had a few inside days over the holidays so I have had to come up with ideas to entertain Mima. One successful creation that was used all day was this flying fox. It was from a childhood memory of a cable car I made as a child and loved.
It is so simple, you need:
a matchbox
twine
safety pin
scissors
tape (I used a small amount of tape to reinforce the holes where the twine threads through the box)

From the start of the journey to their destination make sure the twine is one a steep incline and nice and tight. Hours of fun, whoosh!

what mima wore

Mima's current favorite friend is Kermit the Frog, a puppet which was mine when I was little. Mima loves dressing him up in her clothes, a lot of layering and quite a random selection. We think it is hilarious! 
So I decided to get Kermit to model a few of Mima's current outfits.

Clockwise from top left: Peppin dress with gold leggings; Mima and Moo Mr Storm T-shirt with Pardon My French paisley leggings; Bodem cardigan with JK Kids zebra T-shirt and houndstooth leggings; Meadowlark for SPCA The Love Cats T-shirt with Molo Kids pants (avaliable in NZ here).

T-shirts

Watch this cute little video to see how our T-shirts are printed.

We have just added youth T's, baby bobysuit's and baby T's to our shop mima + moo shop so we have birth to age 12 covered,  click the link on the right to get yours now!

cake stall two

Saturday was the Ponsonby Spring Market Day and our Playcentre, Freemans Bay, held a fabulous cake stall. Below are some pictures of the yummy creations that were sold.

fast boats

Like most people in New Zealand we have been watching the America's Cup, which Mima calls the 'fast boats'. Today was rainy and with nothing else to do we made fast boats and raced them in the bath. So easy just a cork with a tooth pick mast and paper sail (which Mima decorated) and the all important keel - made from a paper clip, coin (for weight) and duct tape to attach the coin.

cake stall


Freemans Bay Playcentre would like to invite you to our cake stall at the Spring Ponsonby Market Day!
Saturday, September 21, 10am - 3pm.
159 Ponsonby Road, Outside Tatty's Designer Recycle.
I have been busy this week painting the sign and writing all the ingredients cards for the delicious baking. We will have whole cakes and other baked goods (all peanut free and some vegan) for sale, YUM, YUM!
All proceeds going towards the purchase of new equipment for our centres tamariki.

birthday cakes

Mima turned two last week. All she wanted was birthday cake and for people to sing her 'Happy Birthday'. We decided not to have a party, instead her birthday was spread out over three days, so she had cake and the 'Happy Birthday' song about six times.
I made the simple and delicious banana chocolate cake by Petite Kitchen for the first three mini parties.
There is a lovely tradition in Mima's Dad's family that Nana makes a birthday cake for each grandchild on their birthday, so she did. A fantastically friendly cat face, which Mima loved.

I remember these fabulous children's birthday cakes from my childhood. One of my favorite memories is sitting down each year to choose THE cake from the Australian Woman's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book. Flicking through the pages and editing down my choice. I love that Mima will have the same memories.

I'm not sure if you can still buy the original version, there is a new one, I have to say I prefer the nostalgic original. 
Visually amazing and so easy this is an Australasian classic and still used today.

moo's present for mima : handpainted beads

Wow Mima just turned 2!
This year Moo wanted to make something special herself for Mima. I had a bunch of really nice wooden beads, so we decided to paint them and make a necklace. Moo chose the Neon Pink acrylic paint. 

She handpainted the beads and once dry threaded them onto cord with some big buttons and some shiny wooden beads we had.
Tip: To make threading easier for little hands, wrap some tape tightly around the end. 
Happy BIrthday Mima my little friend, love from Moo x.

around my house : eight

The ultimate dollhouse.

I have recently completed a little project I have been thinking about for years, miniature interiors. I am slightly obsessed with thinking about interior spaces. As a print designer I am always thinking about patterns for fabric and walls. 
Each image has a real object (blueberries, flower, thyme, acorn) which illustrates the scale of these models. I have created and designed everything else.
At the moment they are nice prints hanging in our lounge which I love to look at, I hope you do too x

DIY : cloud mobile


Since we love clouds so much, I thought I would share the cloud mobile I made for Mima's room.
You will need:
Felt for cloud and raindrops, 2 of each (front and back)
Sewing scissors
Sewing machine
Pins
Embroidery thread for eyes and mouth
Thread to sew
Thread for hanging
Needle

Here is a template if you need it. You will need to print it A3.

1. First cut all your cloud and raindrop pieces. 


2. Use chalk to draw on the clouds face, then embroider the eyes and mouth.
3. Pin the two cloud pieces together, front and back, right sides facing out.

4. Sew and stuff.
5. Sew up the hole, I also did this using a sewing machine.

6. Repeat with each raindrop.
7. Lay out the cloud and raindrops on the floor.

8. Then connect each raindrop to the cloud using thread.
9. Hang and enjoy.