Heart Felt

Kereru Counting

Forest and Bird launched a nationwide Kereru count on the 19th February.  It runs until the 27th so we have been on the look out for kereru in our area.

 

 We see them quite often in our town.  They like to sit on the power lines and gorge themselves on the flowering and fruiting trees.  

One flew over our backyard a couple of days ago, we heard it flying before we actually saw it.  They fly quite low with a heavy beating of wings.  So we have recorded our siting.

If you see one ~ this is what you do.  Go to this website and log your siting ~ easy!  The information gathered will help in learning about the Kereru's distribution around New Zealand and what they are eating.

Happy Kereru spotting!

 

Clothes Peg Dolls

There's been lots of craftiness going on these holidays in the Heart Felt household.

Today Sadie and I made clothes peg dolls using traditional wooden clothes pegs.  

First Sadie drew their faces on with pens.

 

She then chose scraps of fabric for their dresses which I tied on with a piece of wool.  

For the man doll I wrapped wool around each leg for his trousers.

 

Then we wrapped wool around the top half for the doll's shirts and secured the loose end with PVA glue.

 

For the hair I wrapped wool around my fingers and tied the middle with another strand of wool and glued into place.  

 

Add little details such as hair bows, belts, buttons and ties to give each doll their own character.

 

She played with them in the garden this afternoon.

 She wants to make more to complete her family.

 

We used the same process to make wooden spoon dolls.

Here Sadie painted the face and also made paper crowns.

 Inspired from the book  'Green Crafts for Children' by Emma Hardy

 

A New Years Eve tale

"The wood sprites and the little lost nest"

By Sadie

One day there lived a girl wood sprite and a baby wood sprite.

One windy day the baby wood sprite found a little lost nest.

He gave the lost nest to the girl wood sprite because it was a magic nest.

The sun was going down and the girl wood sprite wondered what to do.

"I know!" she said, "I should put it back into the tree".

And she gently carefully put the little nest back.

She hid in the bushes and waited for mother bird to come back.

The mother bird was so happy she turned the wood sprites into a real children.

The End

xx

Today we....

made French Toast for breakfast....

 

 went to Cafe Medici for coffee...

 

I started reading this amazing book....

 

visited the toy library...(life saver on a rainy day)

 

and watched this beautiful DVD...

hope you had a lovely Sunday together. xx

Thrifty finds

A few thrifty lovelies to share with you.  I have some beautiful retro dresses waiting for Sadie to model for me and lots of beautiful vintage picture books to share with you soon.

 

Gorgeous handmade vintage dress for me, I adore the color.

 

Useful retro suitcases to store fabric in

 

A beautiful wooden farmyard set

This is just a small portion of the set.  It also includes farmers, tractors, little chickens with eggs and a grizzly bear.

 

From my sister in-laws garage, wooden children's deck chairs that fold down

 

Red leather children's shoes

which are sadly too small for Sadie but will fit Oscar nicely next winter.

 

Dated 1972 ~ Little Golden Book cardboard domino game which still has all it's pieces

 

Sadie is collecting little vintage woodland animals for her dolls house.

These little lambs are actually salt and pepper shakers (but she doesn't know that)

Tiny porcelain mouse with a piece of cheese and a frog with an umbrella

Porcelain fawn

 and a wooden squirrel

 

Small English thermos

 

Retro kitchen canister

 

Small New Zealand made mugs for little hands, perfect for warm drinks in the morning.

 

An old hand coloured framed photograph of 'The Bay' at Cushendun.

I liked it instantly because it reminded my of Cornwall in the UK where Ian and lived briefly many years ago before children.  

With further research this is actually in Ireland but the founder of the village wanted it to remind him of a Cornish village.  Job successful I say!

Stuffies

School holidays + rain + a little dusting of snow  = stuffies

Stuffies is a little sewing project for kids from this book.

I didn't follow strictly to the book, so this is our version.

I cut an A4 size piece of linen for each child and they drew a picture of their choice.

Charlie drew a dinosaur and Sadie a turtle.

Using crayons they coloured in their picture.  At one point they started using felt tip pens as well, but it still worked fine.

Ironing their picture using a piece of grease proof paper on top melted the crayons into the fabric.

They then chose another piece of fabric to use as a backing, I helped them pin the two pieces together and cut around their shape.  

They then whipped stitched around the shape with a large needle and tapestry wool, leaving an opening for the stuffing before finishing off.

Very proud of their work.

 

Leven en leren met kinderen

This book arrived in the mail yesterday.  No, I can't read German, but we were given a copy by the publishers as a 'thank-you' for letting them use this photograph in their book.  

"Live and learn with children"

Sadie was beside herself with excitement to see herself not only in the book, but also on the dust jacket.

The 'Google' translation came out as....

This was a chicken coop in her childminder childminding. Over there they had good well negotiate with those permits about hand washing and use of sanitary facilities. You make children very happy with it, and you give them the opportunity to provide somewhere for (providing chicken, egg collecting)

Gives you some idea of the subject anyway..

 

Just a note too to say that our hearts and thoughts are with those who are effected by the devastating earthquake in Christchurch.  We have family there and we were relieved to hear that they are all safe and sound, but understandably very frightened.  

We live in a country where earthquakes are part of our daily lives, but this certainly has been the most terrible and destructive one we have experienced yet. xx 

Homage to Julia Margaret Cameron

I've been a fan of the Pre-Raphaelite's art for many years.  I have collected prints and own many art books of their work.   In their pieces you often find beautiful girls holding lilies as a symbolismof purity and innocence.  This has always intrigued me.

A photographer of that time who was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was an interesting woman named Julia Margaret Cameron.  She started photography late in her life after being given a camera.  Her photography is known for her style of close cropping and some amazing portraits of people such as Alfred Lord Tennyson.   She had an art of capturing beauty.

 

 


This project has been in the back of my mind for a long time, but I never felt I had the skills or tools to pull it off.   But I have finally found the drive to give it a go and this is my personal homage to Julia Margaret Cameron.  A woman who fills me wilth inspiration.

 

Sponsor Giveaway :: Atticus Finch

I'm so excited about this sponsored giveaway from Atticus Finch.  I'm a huge fan of Shelley's work, each piece is a unique piece of art.  Shelley lives in beautiful Nelson and sells her creations at the famous Nelson Market, on Felt and on Etsy. 

Her range extends from incredible bonnets, hooded capes, dresses, vests and zip purses all made from recycled and reclaimed fabrics.  Every thing is a 'one off' which means each piece has it's own character.

I asked Shelley where the name Atticus Finch came from and what inspires her.

"The name Atticus Finch is from the Pulitzer Prize- winning  book, "To Kill a Mocking bird", by Harper Lee. Atticus is the main character, a solo dad with two children. He is a lawyer who defends a black man after a white woman accuses him of rape. It is set in small town America, down south during the depression.  You can see the movie version on DVD, It stars Gregory peck and the child actors give fantastic performances, especially the young daughter, Scout.

I'm not sure what inspires me but I love anything old; books, magazines, (MaCalls craft circa 50's are a favourite at the moment) Vogue knitting books, domestic stuff from the 40's, 50's and 60's, Kitch is good!  I like flowers, all kinds, I think dandelions and daisies are so underrated, yet they stand out the most to me when I go for walks with Angel (the dog)  Color, animals, old fabrics, anything to do with sewing from the past, vintage toys, op-shops... space and sci-fi.."

Shelley has been extremely generous and has offered three of her very popular zip purses for you to win. You have a choice of a Foxie Loxie zip purse or one of the adorable Crafty Cats.  My kids adore their animal purses, I love finding all sorts of fascinating things inside.

 

   



All you have to do to enter is leave a comment and if you mention it on your blog linking it back to here you will get three more entries.  This is open to the whole entire world because we love you all.  Three winners will be randomly chosen next Monday night ~ 7th February.  

Visit Atticus Finch on Etsy and Felt.  

Good luck! xx

Inspired by Sunflowers

The sunflowers have started to bloom.  

Left-Field Gift Gallery gives you the opportunity to walk amongst some giants and pick your own sunflowers to take home.   

2 kms north of Greytown

Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am - 4pm

Sunflowers ~ $2 a head

 

 

 

We took some pencils, paper and clip boards with us to do some sketching.

Luckily Sadie had her book on New Zealand wild flowers in her bag.

  ~ English Marigolds ~

 

Back home the children used their sketches to paint and draw some beautiful yellow sunflowers.

Charlie drew a picture for his friend Emily of a sunflower, butterfly and a caterpillar for her birthday.

 

Sadie painted some lovely watercolors.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend. xx