Natural Dying for Kids

We have recently had the most amazing time learning all about Natural Dying! The lovey Anita took us through all the processes to make our own unique garments!

She showed us some of the wonderful things she had dyed and what type of fabric works best. Wool is the SUPREME for dying but silk works just as well and even cotton can take some colour depending on what you have used!

 

 

We all got to collect some of our own natural goodies and then went to work on placing them on pieces of cloth (mostly found at the Op Shop) ready to be wrapped and boiled!

 

 

 

We were all soooo keen to un-roll them but were advised by Anita to wait a week and see.....
Smiles The Torrents'

Yarn Along - Weaving Wall hanging

One of the things I like best in our homeschooling day is our Read-a-loud time! It makes me soo happy to see all the children gathered around attentively listening and, when finishing a chapter, shouting "MORE, MORE!"This is one of Esther's favourite reads! Who doesn't love Noddy!! We found a few Noddy books at the Op-shop, Esther is ALWAYS on the look out for more!

I've also been working on some Wall hangings with my new fav craft WEAVING!! I received a mini loom for my birthday and I'm having the best time creating different ART with it!!
I'm pretty excited to share this with you and the other clever crafty people at the Yarn Along, which the lovely Ginny heads up (well at least that is the only place I've seen it!) Her knitting is totally amazing and her wonderful family make her blog a MUST to follow!! I wonder if weaving is ok to join in on??? Hmmmmm...
at least it works with yarn!! That after all is the name of the linking fun!
Hope you are having a great week, filled with reading and craft and laughter with your treasures!
Smiles The Torrents'

Corn crafts for kids - Husk Doll

 

With Autumn well and truly here we have been busy with some seasonal crafts together with the Poatina Homeschooling group.
The very sweet Mabel and her lovely Mummy (Mrs Heather Copper from RockSalt Arts) 
talked us through making a Corn Husk doll! It was really quite tricky for some but with much determination, and a few melt downs we all ended up with a doll. During the "corn" talk we found out HEAPS of fun facts about corn!
Did you know
*each corn silk (that's the hairy bits on the top of the corn) is connected to each kernel! If it isn't pollinated then it wont grow the yummy corn to eat!
* You can drink corn silk tea!
* The male part of the flower is at the top of the corn stalk and the female is the corn silks!
*  Corn will always have an even number of rows on each cob
*  Corn is a cereal crop that is part of the grass family

 

  

 

 

 Every bodies wonderful Corn Doll creations!

 

 

 Looking forward to our next activity together!! Yay for Homeschooling group!
Smiles The Torrents'
 

Snugglepot and Cuddlepie craft for kids

 

 Sophia's little gumnut baby

With our recent move it has meant that we are now part of a homeschooling group again! Just gotta say how much I am enjoying it and our dear children are as well!! It's such a blessing to be part of a greater community and learning and laughing and crying together!
I hosted the first group activity with a Snugglepot and Cuddlepie theme! I've been reading the books to Esther and Sapphire each morning and with the stunning yellow and pink gum out in flower is was a prime time to get creative!!!

 

 To kick start I showed some of the many books written by May Gibbs (author of the Snugglepot and Cuddlepie series) and then I read Snugglepot and Cuddlepie on board the Snag which is an old book from the Young Australia Series (see here) It includes banksia men, Mrs Snake and of course their dear friend Mr Lizard. The lovely Hannah Cooper had been given a Blue Tongue lizard skin which was shown to the children and my Hannah then showed the snake skin to help tie in the whole story too!! It was wonderful to have these amazing items of nature to show!!

Next was craft time and painting inspired from May Gibbs illustrations! I made this look-a-like Ragged Blossom as the inspiration and the children ran like wildflower to create their own, wonderful, amazing, fabulous gum babies!!!!

 

 

By the end we even had a Banksia Man made by Mable and each little gum baby wasn't so scared of her at all!!

 

 

 

 

 

 YAY for Homeschooling fun together in Poatina!!
Smiles The Torrents'

Valentine's Day Craft - getting back into the new school year!

 

Hello there!! WOW what a new year! Happy Valentine's Day to you all celebrating LOVE and relationships and closeness. We had a lovely day yesterday, making it a family affair with me cooking every one's FAV meal - Roast Chicken with Apple Crumble. YUM!! Then my hubbie and I watched a romantic comedy movie and called it a night! Leading up to Valentine's Day the children and I put together a cute door wreath! I found the idea HERE and with the girls help it was made in just an hour-ish.

 (This photo was taken by Sapphire! She was VERY excited!

 Note my fun, bright necklace, handmade by Sapphire earlier in the day during Maths!

Also note that my son looks like he is in "PHONE" land..... mmmmm)

Sophia got busy covering our "X" in washi tape (Zeke cut out the hug and kiss for us) and Esther, Sapphire and I covered the "O" in crumbled up cardstock that we had spilt to make it thinner! (we couldn't get any tissue paper at our local shop and time was ticking to get it done!! Always a good idea to make do with what you have!!)

We stuck the letters to some ribbon and hung it up!

 

 

 LOVE IT!!!

So with hugs and kisses being sent from our front door (soooo excited that I actually have a front door I can hang stuff off!) we shared the love. Looking forward to sharing more with you all soon, until then
Smiles The Torrents'

Circus Fun {book making}

One of the blogs I follow HERE, is by the very talented, arty Gail!! The ideas she comes up with are totally awesome!!! This particular arty activity is to make a Circus book and a few weeks ago the children and I invited some friends to join us and have some Big Top Fun! The instructions are super easy to follow from that artist woman and the extra pictures we found from HERE!

 Sophia decorating her envelope to hold her extra pieces!

 Zeke getting busy drawing his trapeze artist!

 Zeke's finished tent, complete with Lion Tammer, 

he made the jump hoop and whip!!

A clever seal balancing a ball!

Mr strong man!! Ready to lift....

YAY, he did it!!

(check out that six pack!!)

My finished Tent I made for Esther!

I went with two clowns, one being the puppet and then also 

added the acrobatic to the background of my trapeze guy!

Sophia went with an all white tent...

She designed the lady trapeze artist from the original picture!

It was soo much fun putting these together, can't wait to do some more book fun with the children in the future!
Smiles The Torrents'