Christmas advent bunting

Well I've finally finished it..my pocket advent bunting all ready for Christmas! If you follow my mousehouse page on Facebook you'll have seen a few pics already of the process, and some details of where I got the numbers and fabric but I'll share again on here for any of you that haven't seen my FB posts.

I got the idea to make advent bunting after seeing this gorgeous bunting on pinterest made by the very clever Jooles of Sew Sweet Violet. I'd already bought the screenprinted numbers over a year ago from Maze and Vale  (which you just cut out and applique on to your chosen fabric) but I was still thinking of how I was going to make the calendar- there are a lot of great ideas out there! Once I saw the pocket bunting idea though I knew it would be a great project as I love bunting and it wouldn't take too long to make compared to some of the beautiful but more time consuming pocket quilt style advent calendars I've seen.

For the white fabric I used 'cotton duck' in off white- I love this fabric and used it for the christmas stockings I made a few years ago (here and here) as well- it's quite a heavy fabric, has a linen look and also looks quite 'vintagy' so works really well for lots of projects. (I buy it from Bernina here in Tauranga- I think it is about $14 a metre). For the back of the pockets I used fabrics from the Riley Blake 'Santa's Workshop' collection- I bought them from Bernina and Sew Pretty  plus the aqua spot fabric from Spotlight. You can also find the range on Etsy. I used bias binding to join all the pockets together. I'm really happy with how it's turned out, especially the colours of all the fabrics together- it looks Christmassy but still bright and fun as well which suits our summer Christmas here in NZ.

I think I'm going to do something similar to what Vanessa wrote on my Facebook page about her advent calendar last year...she put notes in each pocket with things like "tomorrow we can bake gingerbread cookies" or "we will go and see the Christmas lights tomorrow night" or "you can stay up an hour later tonight to watch a Santa DVD" and then put a chocolate Santa or a candy cane every third day or so. Lots of great idea thanks Vanessa- I like the idea of mixing activities with treats! Here are some more ideas below…

here

I also loved Claire's idea on my FB page- she put notes in some of her advent pockets saying things like "Look in the washing basket" or she wrote clues to put in the pockets and they had to guess where she hid the treats!

Here is my list of Christmassy things I would like to do most years (time and energy willing!!) They are in no particular order and I doubt I'll get them all done but it'll be good to have a list here for ideas...

1. Unwrap some new summer PJ's- one year I might actually make these but for now I'll be buying them

2. Read a Christmas story (every year I want to buy a new Christmas book for each kiddo- this year I bought Mog's Christmas for Amelie, The Lighthouse Keeper's Christmas for Jack (both $11 on Fishpond with free delivery FYI) and Dora's Starry Christmas  for Stella my little Dora fan :)

3. Go to the Christmas tree farm and pick out a Christmas tree www.christmastreefarm.co.nz

4. Hang the Christmas wreath and stockings and other decorations around the house

5. Decorate the Christmas tree

6. In one pocket I'll put 3 Christmas decorations with a note to hang them on the tree (I like the idea of making or buying a special Christmas decoration each year so they'll have a nice little collection by the time they have their own tree's!)

http://domesticblissnz.blogspot.co.nz/2010/12/felt-gingerbread-houses.html

7. Go berry picking- list of places in NZ here...http://good.net.nz/blog/rebekah-white/pick-your-own

8. Write a letter to Santa

9. Watch Santa's message on http://www.portablenorthpole.com/home  

10. Make/write Christmas cards

11. Do some Christmas baking (gingerbread, shortbread...lots of ideas on pinterest)

12. Do some Christmas drawing and crafting ( a few years ago I made a little craft kit with stickers, red and green card, crayons and some other bits and pieces from Dollar value so will try and do this again for Amelie and Stella). 

There are also lots of christmas activity books like this one from Book Depository or FishPond so I might get one of them ...

or I'll find some Christmas colouring in pages and other simple kids craft ideas online  (like this one I made a few years ago with Stella http://domesticblissnz.blogspot.co.nz/2010/12/diy-kids-art-for-christmas.html

13. Take a parcel of food to the local Foodbank and donate some old toys to an Op Shop

14. Go for a drive to see the Christmas lights-luckily there were quite a few houses that got into it last year in our neighbourhood! 

15. Decorate a gingerbread house- I like the look of this one from Ezibuy as I can't imagine ever making my own gingerbread pieces!

16. Go to a Carols by Candlight performance (I think Te Puna Quarry here in Tauranga had one last year but the kids were a bit young..maybe this year we will give it a go)

17. Go to a Christmas church service that tells the Christmas story so the kids learn something about the meaning/history behind Christmas

18. Watch a Christmas movie (hoping to get a Muppets Christmas movie like 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' this year to watch among others like The Polar Express, How the Grinch stole Christmas, Santa Claus, A Charlie Brown Christmas...if you have a favourite Christmas movie would love to hear! More ideas here

19. Buy some Christmas lilies.

20. Make up a lolly jar of red/ green/ christmas themed lollies.

21. Make a christmas pillowcase with pocket

22. Have a kids christmas morning tea or lunch

23. Have Christmas drinks and nibbles (Christmas eve if here)

24. Have an adults 'end of year' dinner out

25. Elf on the Shelf- buy this year

26. Buy a new candle for the mantelpiece- christmassy scent...

27. Make some reindeer food using oats and glitter + carrots- put out letter, cookies and milk for Santa (jingle bells, chewed up carrot, note from Santa next morning)

28 New toothbrushes

29. Get a new christmas outfit and take a photo underneath the Christmas tree (christmas cards)

30. Decorate the dollshouse for Christmas

31. Go to a Santa parade

Phew this has turned into a very big blog post, no wonder its taken me about a week to finish it! If you want any more advent ideas if you are wanting to make your own one check out my Christmas pinterest board or search Etsy to buy a handmade one- there are thousands of beautiful ones on there!

And a big thanks to Jooles of Sew Sweet Violet for the fab idea to make advent pocket bunting- check out her store as she makes some really lovely things. 

Please share any photo's of your DIY advent calendar or ideas on my Facebook page- would love to see them!

Megan x

PS: The winner of the edible ink pen from my Muppets blog post is comment number 4- CC of Sevendog blog. Please email me your address to megan (at) mouse house dot co dot nz and I'll send the pen out to you :)

DIY shadow puppet theatre

I saw a great idea on the Seedling Facebook page a couple of weeks ago- making a shadow puppet theatre. They were running some workshops for the school holidays and the pic showed a scene from the Gruffalo. (Here's the pic on their page. )  I thought it would be fun to make our own one so I had a go- the girls loved it and played with it for ages..always a good thing!  

Here's how I made my one...

You will need
printer/photocopier
white A4 paper
black card
scissors
wooden skewers or lollipop sticks (I bought mine from a cake supplies store a while ago with grand plans of making lollipop cookies which hasn't eventuated yet!)
cereal box
sellotape
glue stick
cake board (optional)

1. Print out these Gruffalo colouring sheets and reduce them to about 25% of their original size. Cut around each picture like above and stick onto some black card.

 2. Cut out each picture and stick onto a wooden skewer or lollipop stick

3. Take apart a cereal box so it lies flat. On the two largest rectangles of the box measure about 1.5 cms in from each side (see below) and cut out (see below 2nd pic)

4. Tape the box back together so the outside of the cereal box becomes the inside.

 

5. Now trim a piece of A4 white paper to fit inside the box. Cut a piece of black card the same size.

 

6. Cut out two trees from the black card (nice and easy because the black card is the same height as the white paper) and stick onto the white paper

 

7. Stick the white paper to the inside of the box like below

8. Cut a slit out of the bottom of the box closest to the white paper for your puppets to go.

 

9. I sellotaped the theatre to the edge of a cake board so it was easy to keep the theatre stable- make sure the slit is just over the edge of the board if you do this (see above)

10. Set up a lamp behind the theatre on a stool so it is roughly the same height as the theatre. Warn children to be careful of hot light bulbs (learnt that lesson!)

11. Have fun acting out your story!

 And here are some more pics from the Seedling workshop for more great story ideas as well as ideas for decorating your puppet theatre-  thanks for the idea Seedling and Tweet Design!

Megan x

A travel themed party

A lovely family I have got to know through my daughter's class are about to head off on a year long overseas trip, basing themselves in the UK and doing lots of travelling during the year.  Their daughter Edie has become a great friend of Amelie so I offered to help Edie's mum with a little farewell party for Edie and her brother George. I'm a big fan of simple, low cost parties, especially as most children seem happy as long as they have their friends there and there is plenty of treats and a cake! So I thought I'd share some of the things we did for the party- some of the ideas would be great for a Flight themed party as well.

 

Invitations- I made these on the computer, used a large circle punch to cut out the circle and put a jet plane lolly in a little cellophane bag and taped it onto the back of the invitation.

 

Decorations-  paper map bunting made by colour photocopying a world map, then stitching the triangles together using the sewing machine. Edie's mum also found this awesome bus and beefeater fabric at Spotlight to use as tablecloths. Some blue and green balloons were hung as well.

I made these placemats using clip art images - they were also a colouring in activity to keep them busy before and after food time.

Food- I saw these cute 'earth' cupcakes on pinterest so I had a go at making some and added some toppers using clip art images. I divided my cupcake mixture into two bowls, coloured one bowl green and one blue using the gel icing colours you can get from cake decorating shops. I then just put a tablespoon of blue in first and then a tablespoon of green but it ended up looking more layered than swirly like the ones above so next time I would add teaspoon blue, teaspoon green x 2 and swirl it a teeny bit before baking to get the look like the one above.

These 'In Flight Meal's' were my favourite thing- I came across the idea in this amazing blog post 

http://www.apartystyle.com/2010/04/around-world-party_12.html. I made one up with some ideas to show you as I didn't take any photo's at the party...

 

I got the containers and lids from Payless Plastics (they were less than a dollar for both the lid and container). (I added a little container for the popcorn and jellybeans in the photo above but you could use cupcake cases so you don't need to buy lots of little containers too!) The mums at the party loved the idea of everyone having their own little 'lunchbox' - no need to use lots of serving platters, easy clean up and no fuss- the kids loved them too. Also probably same price or cheaper than some paper party plates and reusable too!

And we couldn't find these in NZ but I came across these 'Earth' chocolates online so thought I'd share them with you - these would be very cute for a world/travel themed party if you can get your hands on some!

Cake- Edie's mum made a delicious chocolate cake and decorated it with jet plane lollies and sprinkles- the kids loved it.

Games/Activities-we were just going to have two activities- colouring in the placemat and making and decorating paper planes (I googled paper plane instructions) but in the end they were happy with just colouring the placemats and then playing fairies so that was easy!!

We are going to really miss you guys- safe travels and we look forward to reading all about your adventures :)

Megan x

Spring flowers + a DIY

Yay Spring is here and we've actually had a few warm (ish) days lately which has been lovely after a very wet and cold winter. We don't have alot of flowers in our garden but I noticed yesterday that we actually had a quite a few flowers around the house so I thought I'd take some pics.

Daffodils from the Tauranga Farmers Market hubby and the girls went to yesterday morning.

 

Daphne - my favourite flower for its scent- I planted two plants last year so this is their first year flowering

Wild jasmine picked from the side of the road

 

Lavender and daisies from our garden

And this lovely line of trees is at a community garden just down the road from our place where people can buy lots and grow their own vegetables, herbs and flowers- a man there said one more week and these trees will be bursting with blossoms so will have to take another pic then!

 

This flower was in someone's plot- isn't it stunning- can anyone tell me the name of it?

and I made these little felt 'flowers' the other day after seeing a big vase of them in the Moochi store here in Tauranga- you just cut three hearts for each flower out of felt and stick them onto a twig- there's a tutorial on the Moochi blog I discovered via pinterest. 

And here's a couple of lovely Spring themed art works from the artist Katie Daisy- I love her work. Check out her website or Etsy store and she's on Facebook too.

'Bird Chirping Weather' print

Daisy Field print

Love this 'Wonderful World' print too, especially after seeing this youtube clip I shared on my facebook page last night

'Wonderful World' print

Happy Spring (or Autumn for you northern hemisphere readers- love that season too!)

Megan x

Family movie nights

I am loving that two of our three kids are old enough (5½ and 3½) to have family movie nights together- I have read about these on lots of blogs and always thought how fun it would be when we can finally have our own!  We've watched a few movies so far  (along with the obligatory bowls of pop corn) so I thought I'd share them with you- I asked the girls to help choose a rating for each movie. I really like old fashioned movies and movies from books so that's what we've been mostly watching so far, with a few new ones as well.

Mary Poppins 9/10- Both girls loved this and I absolutely loved that a movie made in 1964 could still captivate my girls today (can't wait to go to the musical in Auckland soon too!!)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 8/10- we watched both the original Gene Wilder version and the new version with Johnny Depp- both the girls and me enjoyed the original more- I think younger children sometimes prefer less special effects maybe??!!

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 7/10-this was a great movie with a neat story line- loved the children in the film and the whole other era of when the movie was set- the girls did follow the story and enjoyed most of it but did not like the 'child catcher' at all (there were tears) so might be better for older children!

Fantastic Mr Fox 5/10
This was one of my favourite books when I was little..however I thought the movie was a real disappointment- the style of the movie was way over the heads of my girls and neither hubby or I really enjoyed it either!

The Lorax 6/10

The girls enjoyed this movie but I wasn't that fussed on it- it felt like a pretty simple story really dragged out in movie form to me (haven't read the story though)

Toy Story 8/10-we all really enjoyed this movie- so clever and I love the characters of each toy especially the dinosaur :)

The Smurfs 7/10
We all enjoyed this movie although there are a few 'scary bits' if you have young children...

The Borrowers 7/10- this was a great family film

Bee Movie 9/10-This is nearly our favourite movie- me and the girls loved it- Jerry Seinfeld was the perfect choice for Barry Bee. Great story line and we loved the music too.

The Muppets  10/10
Our favourite so far! This is such a great movie for kids and adults to enjoy together, and the music really makes it so memorable and fun to watch. It has been so neat to see the kids getting into the muppets songs and we've been watching some of the old Muppets series on DVD which has been fun too. (Going to write a separate post about The Muppets soon!)

If you have any family movies to recommend please leave a comment as I'd love to find out about more, especially kids or family movies that have stood the test of time!
Megan x

PS: Finding the original movie posters for this post reminded me about the website 'AllPosters.com' - I used it years ago to buy the 'Amelie' movie poster that I got block mounted. I love vintage/retro movie posters so I'm thinking one of the ones above would look so cool in the girl's bedroom- although I think the one they would really love is this muppets one! A fun christmas present maybe...

Muppets movie poster at All Posters.com