Painted Rocks: and a new garden

 Hello, this is a fun and easy craft that works from ages 3 to 100. I know, recently I had 5 children over and here are the beautiful gems we created. I finished them with a clear coat glaze so they can be put outside in the garden. I also hot glued felt circles to the bottoms just in case they wanted to display them indoors and not scratch tables and shelves.

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 This weed patch (and future home of some of those painted rocks) has greeted guests since we moved in. This summer a young neighborhood friend has been helping me move landscaping rocks out of the bed so we could turn it into a garden. (Thank you J for all your hard work)..

Using leftover garden supplies from other garden projects this is what we came up with. Bear and I LOVE it!! The painted rocks will show up like gems in this garden. I can't wait to place them. Have a blessed day, and Have Fun!

Egg Carton Caterpillars

 I'm behind again, but I have several crafts to share in the next few days. I recently had the joy of entertaining two sweet sisters ages 3 and 5 with craft time. This is one of the crafts we did together.

First save an egg carton.

Next cut out three egg sections. This is the body of your Caterpillar.

 

 Paint the body and allow to dry.

 Poke two holes in the head and feed a pipe cleaner through and twist together to form the antennas. (we used half of a pipe cleaner folded in half).

Done! This was a simple and fast project. The girls really enjoyed watching the paint change the water different colors as they cleaned their brushes before adding another color. Have fun!

Needle/wet Felted Wool Balls

 I've been needle felting and wet felting little wool balls lately. This is my farm ball. It is painstakingly decorated and one of my favorites. On this ball there is a barn, silo, rooster, hen, two chicks, a butterfly, flowers, apple trees, a cow, a pig wallow with two pigs, and sheep all under a bright sun.

 

Here is another picture from the farm ball of tiny sheep playing in a flower dotted meadow.

 The four seasons.

 I have many others and will post them at a later date. These will be posted in my etsy store soon. If you have a ball you would like custom made for you please drop me a line at applecratetoys@gmail.com.

Thank you for looking and have a blessed day.

Waldorf Puppet: Innocence

  Recently a young neighbor of mine (age 10) was visiting and saw my Waldorf table puppets. He asked me if they were difficult to make. I told him that they were not. Then he surprised me by asking if I could help him make one.

He asked if we could make a Legolas from the Lord of the Rings.

This is what my neighbor came up with. It was such a delight to watch him work. I helped him a little with the hair and some suggestions on how to connect things, but for the most part he did this all himself. Tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth and all ;) 

Have a blessed day today and have fun!

Knitted Animals

 DONE! I keep working on my knitting skills but still have so much to learn. With this project done I will begin making a baby cardigan, bonnet, and booties.

These adorable farm animals were made from a pattern in the book 'Toymaking with Children' by Freya Jaffke. They are made with wool yarn and stuffed with sweet carded sheep's wool... I'm half tempted to wet felt them and see what happens. There are so many fun things in this book and I highly recommend it. The past few years this has been a favored book for coming up with gift ideas. Have a blessed day and have fun!

Ladybird Ladybird

(Beet and dandelion dyed ladybirds that have been wood burned and polished with homemade wood cream).

Ladybird, ladybird fly away home,

Your house is on fire and your children are gone,

All except for little Nan,

She crept under the baking pan.

Our 'Waiting Room'

Hello again. So many things have been going on in our cozy den. Today I want to share the big project that has been taking up a lot of our time. This is our biggest and most beautiful project yet. Our nursery. This has been a beautiful and frustrating journey. Hopefully our wait will not be much longer. My heart goes out to all the Mom's in waiting, wherever you may be. While we wait Bear and I have taken to sitting in our waiting room, dreaming of the day when we will hold our precious child.

 

In our quiet nursery there are built in shelves that make a perfect place to change diapers. I even found a little basket that fits into the space between the wall and the changing pad at GW for $0.49. Beneath the window there is a little white table purchased off of Craigslist for only a few dollars. It holds wooden sheep wrapped in wool yarn and the Wooden rocking horse that Bear made.

Here is a close up of the two pictures on the shelves. A favorite quote and verse. The frames were another GW purchase. They are the same mint green color, but my camera was being a little finicky. I used left over scrap paper to make simple borders. Martha Stewart would be proud.

These wonderful decals are available on Etsy from Simple Shapes. There are a lot of pieces in this decals set (over one hundred). Each leaf, twig, acorn, acorn cap is a separate decal, but don't let that discourage you. They are real easy to put up; and the end result is well worth it. You can't see it, bur there is a fox hiding behind the chair and another blue bird flying towards the one on the branch.

In the crib rests two sweet little dolls made by Acorn Pies. Their arms reach out in waiting for the wee one that will one day love them. As I wait in my rocking chair dreaming of our child and all the trials we have gone through I am reminded....

You can't make rainbows without the rain.
Thank you for visiting our quiet waiting room. Have a blessed day and be well.