We didn’t find any books on Dominica in the children’s section of the library, so we did all of our research on the “Nature Island” online.

Dominica - The Nature Island

I have to admit, looking at pictures of this gorgeous Caribbean island made me want to schedule a vacation RIGHT NOW!  The things that most impressed the kids about Dominica is that fact that it has 16 active volcanoes, a boiling lake, and is surrounded by beautiful marine-life. And, as Jon pointed out, there is amazing kayaking to be found.

In the spirit of Dominica, we decided to create our own volcanic island in our backyard.  As luck would have it, I left the top off the sandbox right before a rainstorm, so we had a large box of sand and water right at our finger tips.  We made a mountain out of the sand, surrounded by our ‘ocean’.   The core of our  volcano was a bottle (Pilsner Urquell left of from Czech week!), and we used paprika to make our lava appear red.  Then, we just added some baking soda, poured in some vinegar, and voila!  A volcanic island!  Yes, I did spend the next 45 minutes bailing out the sandbox so that we did not end up with 0ur own ecological disaster.

Building our volcano

Pouring the vinegar

Kaboom! Lava flow!

After looking at pictures of tropical fish, turtles and other sea life, we decided to do an ocean-themed craft.  We actually combined the concept of traditional basket weaving and marine life to make these cute woven-paper fish.  They were fun to make, and Deirdre was able to do most of the cutting on her own, although she needed some help with the weaving.  Jonah decorated his fish like a ‘robot fish’.  I’ve included some instructions to make your own.

A School of Fish

Cut 2 Rectangles

Cut into strips, leaving about 1/2 uncut at the edge

Use basket weave technique to weave together your 2 pieces

Alternate weave until all pieces are woven together

Fold edges over and glue down

Cut fins along lines as shown

Give your fishy a happy face!

Next stop — Egypt!

What’s not to love about a country with the highest per capita consumption of beer in the world  AND boasts a 99% literacy rate?   As they say in Czech “Kde se pivo vari, tam se dobre dari” (Where beer is brewed, they have it good!).  I was looking forward to exploring the Czech Republic for a couple of reasons — 1) my cousin Jennifer and I visited Prague about 8 years ago, and I absolutely loved it, and 2) my husband is of Czech decent on his mother’s side of the family, so this falls under the “family heritage clause” of this project.

We started off by reading through a pretty decent library book on Czech history and culture, and, of course, the kids were fascinated by the fact that the Czech Republic is teeming with castles.  They have added this to their list of places that they definitely want to visit.  We also found a website with Czech fairy tales so we read through a few of those.  I had forgotten that fairy tales do tend a little bit toward the macabre.  We also found a site with audio of common Czech phrases , and we had fun wishing each other “dobry den” in the morning.

Since the Czech Republic is known for their crystal beads (I really wish I had bought more of these beads when I visited Prague), we pretended to be jewelry makers and used Deirdre’s pop-beads for our necklaces.  I also remembered the amazing marionette shops and was hoping we could put on a puppet show, but, unfortunately, we didn’t seem to make the time for it.  The kids really enjoyed watching videos of Czech folk dancing, and they loved dancing around the kitchen to the music.  Deirdre REALLY wanted to me to make her an authentic folk dancing costume, but that was just way beyond my realm of capabilities right now.  Maybe sometime…

Finally, we dabbled in Czech cooking.  We found this recipe for Palacinky (Czech pancakes) in one of our books, and the kids loved them so much, we ended up making them every morning for a week and a half.  There is now a “No Czech Pancake” rule in my house.

Czech Pancakes for Breakfast

Palacinky (Czech Pancakes) – 4 servings

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp suger
2 tbsp melted butter
1/4 tsp salt

Directions
Mix eggs with milk. Add salt, butter, sugar, vanilla, and flour, mix until smoother. Heat and lightly grease griddle or frying pan. Make thin, crepe-like pancakes by filling a pan about half full in center and tilting pan so batter spreads quickly over bottom to edges.  Heat until batter is dry, then tun over and cook the other side.  Spread jam on pancake and roll up.  Sprinkle powered sugar on top.

We also had Czech food one night and made Chicken Paprika and Cabbage Poached in Vingear.  Pretty tasty, and the cabbage recipe gave me the chance to finally open the caraway seeds that came with my spice set!  And, of course, we had a Pilsner Urqell!

Next week – Dominica

I learned a few things myself this week during our ‘journey’ to Bangladesh.  I had always thought of it as a ‘tiny’ country over by India.  I really had no idea that it is one of the most populous nations in the world (7th largest population).

Fresh Okra

The book that we selected from the library was a little bit too dense for the kids, but we had fun scanning through the pictures and talking about what life might be like in a small village or large city in Bangladesh.  There was one chapter that talked about children growing up in poverty, and it mentioned that although kids didn’t have many playthings, they enjoyed playing games like hide-and-seek.  For some reason this really resonated with my kids — a common bond over one of their favorite games!  And, of course the wanted to talk about Bengal tigers (as luck would have it, we saw one at the zoo while we were on vacation a few weeks ago).

We also found a website that translated the letters of your name, or any word for that matter, into Devanagari, one of the forms of script used in Bangladesh. We printed out the kids’ names in really large font, and they decorated them to look like calligraphy painintngs.

Our two biggest projects were pottery and cooking Bengali food.  We learned that throwing pottery is a traditional trade in a number of villages.  I don’t have a pottery wheel, but we did manage to have fun doing some hand-building.   And, I’m pretty sure the villagers in Bangladesh focus more on  throwing bowl and pots, rather than animal-shaped Christmas tree ornaments.  Hopefully, we will be able to have these fired soon (thanks, Laurent!)

Our Own Pottery Workshop

Finally, I decided to try my hand at a homemade Chapati (flat bread),  Dhedosh (Okra) and Masoor Daal (lentils) The chapati was surprisingly easy and satisfying to make.  It was definitely a recipe that lent itself to having a 5-year old sous-chef.  Deirdre loved making balls with the dough and rolling them out flat.  And, I was thrilled to make the okra since we actually grew it in our garden this summer.  Yes, the picture at the top of this post is okra straight from the garden!  whoo hooo!  I had to leave out a couple of the more exotic spices since I didn’t have them in stock, but the meal was actually very tasty.  I’ll definitely cook my okra this way for the rest of the season.

Attempting the Cuisine - Lentils, Okra and Chapati

Next week, Czech Republic…

Welcome to Australia!  When the kids chose Australia as our first place to visit, I was a little unsure of where to start, since I hadn’t really thought through the “lesson plan” of the project.

Aborigine-inspired Dot Painting

I decided the easiest thing to do would be give the kids a basic overview of the country and see what interested them most.  We could take it from there.   Since I decided that we would not be using the internet as our sole source of info, we hopped in the car and headed over to the library.  This, in itself, was actually a great educational experience since it was the first time we actually had to use the dewey decimal system to find specific books. (usually, we just browse the shelves for kid’s stories).  We found a great book on Australia which highlighted all the basics like geography, resources, industry, population, etc.  As it turned out, they were most interested in aborigine lifestyle, local animals, and food.  I guess imports/exports, industry and geography just don’t cut it with the preschool set these days.

Honestly, they were fascinated by anything to do with the aborigines’ culture.  We checked out kids’ crafts for an Aboriginal Mask and Aboriginal Snake Painting, but in the end, we decided to do an art project inspired by the aboriginal dot paintings.  This ended up being one of the coolest projects we’ve done, and I’ve outlined the instructions below.  We talked about how the paintings represented something in nature or told a story in lieu of written books.  I like Deirdre painting the best — she said it is a mother snake with eggs and newly hatched baby snakes.  Jonah make Tuck the Turtle from the Wonderpets (basically, everything he does these days involved Tuck or Diego).

Then we listened to some didgeridoo music, and they managed to find some pretty funky Didgeridoo Trance/Beatbox which, although not traditional, was totally fun.  We tried making cardboard tube didgeridoos, but then Jon made some out of PVC pipe which sounded a hell of a lot better!

As for the wildlife, we read a book on marsupials, another book on snakes, and watched some you-tube video of sharks.  As luck would have it, I found a movie on-demand about a boy who rescued a joey, which fit in perfectly with our theme.

Yummy Meat Pie!

On Thursday we decided to cook an Australian inspired meal. (no, we did NOT go to Outback Steakhouse).  Jon found a website with recipes from around the world, and we decided to make Australian meat pie and apple/carrot salad.  We topped of the meal with cookies shaped like kangaroos (once again, not traditional, but the kids thought up the idea by themselves).

All and all, a good start!  Next…Bangladesh.

———

Directions for Dot Paintings

Materials

1. Cardboard or wood
2. Acrylic paint
3. Q-tips (at least one for each color)

The Artists Hard At Work

Process

• decide what you would like to paint, such as a scene from nature, abstract design, or story image
• dip Q-tip in a darker color and outline the image you would like to paint.  Use a straight up and down motion to get a round dot
• dip Q-tip in a different color and fill in your object with dots
• use your dots to create different designs in the background
• when the paint has dried, you can go back with a different color and add features (eyes, mouth) to your images or more details to your abstract designs

Where Shall We Visit?

Maybe I was a little bit inspired by Julie and Julia, or, perhaps, its just the adrenalin rush preceding the first day back to school next week, but we are embarking on an “Around the World in 52 Weeks” project.   The concept is that we will “virtually visit” 52 countries in alphabetical order (looping through twice).  I figured we could learn a little about the culture and history, try out some recipes, do a few traditional crafts, listen to a little music, and (for Jon’s sake) drink a local beer.  I decided to let the kids pick what countries we focus on, the only caveat being that we will cover counties of our families’ heritage.  Of course, that means our country list will be somewhat Northern European-centric the first time through.  So, I proposed the project to the kids.  They thought it was a great idea.  In fact, they said they wanted to start with Maine, and could they please ride the horses when we get there.  Ummm… this was followed by a quick explanation of states vs. country, the concept of alpha order, and that, no, we would not actually be visiting all these places (as appealing as that would be…).  After running through a list of countries that started with the letter “A”, the kids unanimously chose Australia for our first visit.  And, for some reason, Deirdre has requested that we learn about funerary rites practiced by each culture (or, as she said, “what they do with dead people after they die”).    So, check back in next week to learn about our adventures in Australia!

Orange Tabby Kitten

Amigurumi are cute little critters crocheted in the round and then stuffed. The name comes from the Japanese words for “crochet/knit” and “stuffed doll”, and they seem to be popping up everywhere these days.   Toys, though they are, they seem to appeal even more to adults than to kids.  I started making these guys over the winter in preparation for a craft fair and just can’t seem to stop.  They are downright adorable, work up quickly, and make great gifts.  Although amigurumi can come in all sizes (I even made an 18″ Ponyo doll for my daughter), most of them tend to be pretty small, so they are a great way to use up odd stashes of yarn.  Also, they are primarily done in a single crochet, so they are easy for beginners.  Etsy has a myriad of reasonably priced patterns ranging from dolls and animals to fruits and veggies.

If you are just getting started and want to give it a try, here are links to a few of my favorite free patterns.  I have a tendency to tweak patterns as I make things, so my pictures aren’t exactly identical to the original, but should give you a pretty good idea.

Baby Triceratops

This baby triceratops was made with 100% wool yarn, and I used snap on safety eyes.  Although the pattern called for making the body and tail as two separate pieces, I crocheted them as one to reduce the number of seams.  I found the pattern through Crochet Pattern Central.

Fiona and Freda Fish

These sweet little fish were based on a cat toy pattern from Lion Brand.  I elongated the body, modified the tail by sewing it on vertically rather than horizontally, and added bows.

Winston and William the Whales

I love this little whale pattern from Bittersweet!  It is such a simple pattern, but so adorable.  I modified it slightly by crocheting fins for these guys.  Also, I embroidered eyes, rather than using safety snap on eyes.

Three Kitties Hanging Out

Last, but certainly not least, are my trio of kitties. This pattern was generously made available though By Hook, By Hand.  This pattern was the most complicated of all, and I did run into trouble figuring out the legs on the first kitty.  Also, I felted my kitties which was not part of the original pattern.  If you decide to felt them, use 100% wool yarn and stuff them before you put them in the washer.  (Be sure not to overstuff them or the stuffing will be visible between stitches.)

Many thanks to all the websites that made these patterns available!

If you could be an animal, which animal would that be?  After giving it considerable thought, I, without doubt, would be a house cat.

Catnip Kitties

Just think about it — fresh food and water always on hand, the ability to roam about in the ‘wilderness’ (or suburban neighborhood) at will, an entire house full of couches, pillows, and beds at your disposal, chase squirrels when you feel a bit feral, and then come inside for a good scratch behind the ears…  I guess I wouldn’t want to be just ANY cat; I’d want to be one of MY cats.  I know, there is a certain level of cache and adventure to being a wild animal, but do you really want to have to hunt for your food every freaking day?  Not to mention, who wants to be dodging predators when you could be napping in the sun?

Box of Catnip Kitty Toys

Anyway, in honor of being a cat, I wanted to share one of our recent craft ideas.  Using a similar technique to my wild things felt dolls, my kids and I made catnip toys for our kitties (Bacco, Max, and Petunia) and some of our other kitty friends.  These little toys were fun and easy to whip up in an afternoon.

Materials:
1. Craft Felt
2. Scissors
3. Permanent Markers
4. Fiberfill or Cotton Batting
5. Catnip
6. Sewing machine or needle and thread

Step 1 (for the kids) – using the permanent marker, draw a cat face on one of the pieces of felt.  Draw eyes in a contrasting color
Step 2 (for a grown up) – cut out the cat face and eyes.  leave about 1/4 – 1/2 for seam allowance. trace the cat face onto another piece of  felt and cut it out so that you have to matching pieces (a front and a back)
Step 3 (for a grown up) – sew the eyes onto the face
Step 4 (for a grown up) – place wrong sides together of cat face front and back; sew together leaving 1 – 2″ opening at the bottom
Step 5 (for the kids) – stuff the toy with fiberfill and catnip
Step 6 (for a grown up) – sew the bottom shut
Step 7 (for the kids) – toss the cat nip toy to a kitty and see what happens!

Our cats love wrestling around with their catnip kitties!

Look What We Made!

Completely off-topic, my daughter made this creepily realistic pair of legs out of our leftover fiberfill and a pair of her tights.  I just had to post the photo.

Funky Tights - Preschool Artistic Expression!

One of My Displays – Kitties, Bags, and Hair Clips

I did it!  I survived my first large-scale craft fair this past weekend (a joint venture with my mom and cousin).

It was the Prospect Park Craft Fair in Brooklyn, and, I have to admit, it was pretty fun! I sold more than I expected, and I met so many great people — both sellers and customers.   Aside from a very small church fair that my mom and I participated in a couple of years ago, this was my first real craft fair experience as a seller.  Since I didn’t know what to expect, I reached out to some of my fellow etsians to seek their advice on what I should do to prepare.  I’m happy to say, I got loads of great info.  That said, there were lot’s of lessons I learned along the way.  Here are just a few things I’d like to pass along:

1. Beware of the Weather – since we were expecting a rainy day, we packed out canopy to keep our stuff dry.  As it turns out, the rain blew in sideways, at an angle, and totally defeated the canopy.  Now, water won’t hurt most of my things, so I wasn’t that upset.  That is, until I found out the hard way that the ink on my tags runs when wet.  (I printed them with my color laser printer at home).  There was a moment of frenzy as I ran around ripping tags of my carefully priced items to prevent the ink from staining my crocheted pieces.  Nothing was ruined, but I did end up with a number of items without price tags.   Then, once the rain ended, we had to deal with gale force winds which blew over canopies, blew over displays, and covered everything with dust and pollen (yuck!!!).  Honestly, the wind did more damage the rain ever could have.

Some More From My Stash

2.  Kids Count – One of my fellow etsians gave me a heads up to include some children’s items in my inventory.  Based on her advice, I whipped up a bunch of really cute amigurumi animals.  These ended up being really big sellers, and next time, I will be sure to have even more on hand.  What I didn’t expect was that kids would have such an impact on their parent’s purchase.  Whenever a child came over to my shop, I treated him/her just like an adult customer.  I chatted with them, told them about my items, and asked them to pick things up and touch them.  Most importantly, it’s just nice to make them feel welcome, but I realized the adults seemed to linger more if they didn’t feel like their kids were in the way.  And, the kids were definitely very vocal about making purchase recommendations to their parents.  As an example, I ended up sale a very ‘grown up’ looking celtic purse to a 7 year old girl, because she convince  her mom she really loved it.

3.  Hagglers are Not a Necessary Evil – At the small church fair my mom and I did a couple years ago, everyone haggled over our prices (which weren’t that high to begin with).  I had braced myself to face more of the same last weekend.  I was so pleasantly surprised that not one person haggled over our prices.   Its nice to know that given the right venue and right crowd, people actually appreciate the effort that goes into handmade goods.  I know there were a few people that walked away empty handed because they didn’t want to pay that much, but it was done in a very respectful manner without questioning the value of our items.

4. Get to Know You Fellow Sellers – Like I said, we met some great people.  I wanted to give a shout out to some of the other crafters we met along the way.  Please check out the 2010 Park Craft website for some pictures of the day (the little felted kittens were mine!).  Also, here are a few highlights:

Wooly Cat – this is my mom’s shop where you can find some amazing felted bags, hats and ballerina dolls.

Lyrical – this shop was our next door ‘neighbor’ at the fair.  I really admired her beautiful jewelry made with lovely, sparkling gemstones.

Born In Brooklyn - this shop was our other ‘neighbor’ at the fair.  She makes amazing handmade ceramic pendants.  I used to do pottery/ceramics myself, so I know the amount of effort that went into these gorgeous pieces.

AngelRox – this shop sells the coolest wrap around convertible tops/dresses/skirts/shawls.  I can’t even do them justice by trying to explain them — check out the site.  My sister-in-law bought one and spent the rest of the weekend giving us a fashion show with a new look every 15 minutes!

Regina and Rebecca (me) At Out Booth

Some More icebluberries Jewelry, Clips, and Cozies

When I first started this blog, I wanted to make sure I gave plenty of ‘air time’ to some of those people out there doing some really creative and fun things (and there are so many of you!).

Ballerinas In A Line

This post features the work of Regina Hamilton a.k.a Woolycat Designs. For those of you don’t know me personally, Regina is my mom, so I grew up with her creativity. She even showed me how to make my first mini doll quilt when I was 5 years old. In fact, I think she recently found it when my daughter was playing over at her house.

Poseable Ballerina Doll

In addition to her beautiful quilts and felted knit handbags, Regina has recently begun making a line of the sweetest little ballerina dolls. These are original designs and each doll is a little bit different. Some have flowers on their toes, others have flower necklaces, some have bangs, some have poseable arms and legs, but they are all charming!

When asked why she decided to try her hand at doll-making, Regina said that she always enjoyed playing with dolls as a child, and by making them, she can continue to enjoy them as an adult. Her favorite parts of the creative process are matching fabrics, trying to decide on hairdos, and embroidering different expressions for faces. For her, its like playing, and she loves that, every doll comes out a little different.

Pretty In Pink

She also enjoys making things for her 3 grandchildren. “It is most rewarding when I make something for one of my grandchildren, because no matter how it comes out they always love it, and it is always made with love.”

I also couldn’t resist including this lovely little doll family in my article. Take a look at the dolls and then look at the family below. (yep, my family!). My mom even used some of our old clothes to make their outfits. Talk about cool customization!

If you like these dolls, check out Regina’s other items at her shop, WoolyCatDesigns on Etsy. Her dolls aren’t yet listed for sale, but if you like them, please convo her!

"The Stockdills" Doll Family

"The Stockdills" The Real Thing

Usually, when I start a project, I have every intention to finish it.   That doesn’t mean that I don’t have a whole slew of partially finished project stashed away on the shelves.

Princess Petunia Attacks The Gown

I totally intend to finish them — someday.   However, once in a great while, I just hit a brick wall and say “no more!”.    That happened to me today.  By way of background, my family and I will be attending a charity event in memory of my cousin Karyn next week.  (check out this wonderful article about Karyn in the Billerica Green Newspaper). The theme of the event is “Prom Night”.  When I found out that all attendees were encouraged to wear real prom attire, I got really excited.  My brain was racing with great ideas — maybe an early Madonna-inspired dress with lots of tulle and long lace gloves; or perhaps something in the vein of “Pretty in Pink”.  I finally decided that I was going to make matching purple taffeta dresses for my daughter and me, and matching bow ties for my husband and son.  Who can deny the kitsch appeal?  C’mon, it would be the ultimate in prom cheese!

Spreading Out The Fabric

Well, here we are – less than a week before the event, and I realized I have committed myself to make 2 gowns and 2 bow ties in 4 days.  Not to mention, I am trying to get my act together for a craft fair for which I am totally unprepared, unpacking from an impromptu trip to NYC, and dealing with 2 very cranky, over-tired kids.  But, I was determined to give it my best shot.  I managed to get the bodice out and stitched together.  (My daughter took a photo of me laying out a burgundy dress to use as a pattern for the bodice of my purple gown).

Measuring the Gown

No sooner did I start sewing the bodice, the kids took the rest of the fabric and decided to make a tent out of it.  During the tent venture, my son managed to close the top to the storage ottoman on my daughter arm.  While dealing with arm-in-the-ottoman incident the cats decided to get into a fight in the middle of my fabric.  For the icing on the cake, my gathering thread broke on the skirt, and I was faced with starting the gathering process again.  Then, the light came on.  “Do I really need to do this?  Am I really this crazy?”  And, the answer was, no, I didn’t need to do this!  We will have just as much fun wearing something out of our closets.  So, I balled up the fabric, half-finished dress and all, put away the sewing machine, and called it a day.  It was cheap taffeta anyway, and I can always use it for a kid’s project.

It made me think a bit about how much of our day to day stress is really necessary and how much is self-induced.  Sometimes it feels really good to just say “no”.  And guess what I’ll be wearing to the event?  Yep, the same burgundy dress in the photo that I was using for a pattern.  Go figure!

Princess Petunia Sleeps on My Half-Finished Gown