Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair

 

 Do you remember the dress I made for Little Miss H(4) for her birthday?  Well you can check it out here.  In that post I mentioned the rapunzel hair, well I finally found some yellow wool.

I checked out the post I had saved for this on the Weekend Homemaker. Found here. And decided to do it a bit differently. It's not as long, and doesn't use pantihose but I found it super easy to make.

After first cellotaping one long end, I wrapped it round the length of the coffee table again and again and again until I had only a short amount left. 

I used the length I had cellotaped to the table to wrap the wool and tie off the top section. Then slipped it off the table.

Now by hanging it from the tied off section I could measure the approximate head area, I tied another piece around what is the neck part of the wig.  Then plaited the rest, remembering to trim off the ends for a tidy finish.

 The finished length came to her knees and she loved it so much she wore it to bed that night.  One sucessful project, now to make another one for the dress up box.

Jen

School Holidays are over

 

For me anyway.  No more kids for me this week.  They are a handful and quite frankly exhaust me, but when they leave I miss them. They just seem to fill the house with life, laughter and of course fighting.  I remember fighting with my brother when I was a kid, sometimes with real intent to wound but it's different looking at it from the otherside.  I tend to let them work things out themselves most of the time, but yesterday I had to turn the xbox off midgame and separate them before it came to serious blows.  Keeping them busy and being organised seems to be the key, so with this in mind I prepared a project for yesterday, they of course got bored with the time it was taking but more than happy to share credit when their Dad showed up.

I would have posted these last night but my camera batteries needed recharging.

I started with a dozen toilet rolls.

 Which we started painting red.

 Left to dry under the heatpump, they didn't take long before the second coat.

 Cut into two cm slices, I painted the insides (notice I said I not we).

I tried a few different patterns and we (back to we again) decided on the following. And proceeded to glue them together with a mix of glue and red paint, so that any paint showing blended in.

For what I want it needs to be bigger, but this is a great start and gives a good idea of what the finished look will be.  The boys thought it was awesome considering it started out as toilet rolls and yes they looked at me like I was crazy when I asked them to paint them.  Now I just need to start saving up more toilet rolls. With just two of us in the house, this could take a while so don't hold your breath waiting for pictures of the finished product on our bedroom wall.

Jen

Hat's off to Parents of School Age Children

 

We are into our second week of school holidays here in New Zealand.  It's not something that I have had to struggle through before, I usually had the school holidays as a holiday myself.  But these holidays I have been looking after a friend's children, Master I (12) and Master E (9) and man are they exhausting me.  Today is their last day with me as they are spending the rest of the week with their Grandmother.  So, today I am putting them to work for me on a project for the bedroom, I'll update later with the results.
And to all the parents out there -

Jen

Friday's Finds

 

Now todays find was from a clean out at my Mother's house, I have no idea how long they had been up in the cupboard, but they were at the back of the top lounge cupboard, the room that used to be Annie's room. So probably for quite awhile.

It started out as this rough looking parcel

 But upon closer inspection or Once I got the string undone, I found these.

 Old Music Booklets.  Seven different types,  Amount of copies varied from one to fourteen.

 Plus one random writing book, never used. This has to be my favourite.

 Most of these types of books you see nowadays have very simple lettering, but check out these pages.

And there are heaps more pages, I might try to learn some of the less complicated writing for my wedding invites, placecards etc.


Jen

Budget Boutique

Today was my day at the shop.  I love going in and searching through the box's and get almost giddy when someone comes in and asks if we take donations.  I love that you just never know what is going to come out of that next bag or box.  My Mum loves to chat to the customers and do the sales, I tend to either hide out the back hanging things or looking through the shop.  I swear most people think I'm just another customer the amount of time I spend looking at the racks. 

And every now and again you find something like this!!

?????????

Now can anyone tell me what this is?



Jen

AWOL

I've been struggling to post since I finished the Made by Me May, I think it's a little to do with winter and my yearly hybernation and a lot to do with my lack of motivation at the moment.  I've still been doing some crafting but not alot.  I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by this whole idea of exposing myself to the world at large, and how I may react to any criticism, especially now people are starting to read my blog.

I have been impressed by the fantastic example a close friend of mine is exibiting in her own recently started blog about her struggle with depression and raising her daughter.  I have my own struggle with Depression, which I have not mentioned up until now.  I have lived with this my whole life and kept it to myself most of the time up until recently, I love my friends and family but have a hard time communicating and staying attached to them as I feel I am constantly disappointing them and so tend to distance myself.  Knowing that I am not alone in this is helping me so much.  I've also been spending some time with the kids in my life, they always bring me back down to earth while lifting my spirits at the same time. I am going to live by her example and remain true to who I am and be open and honest in all my posts.  I am who I am and I don't think that's such a bad thing.

Now the good news is that I'm back and I have some great projects in mind. Keep posted for tomorrow's Friday's Findings plus a new refashion.


Jen

Friday's Finds

I love patterns, not that I always use them, but the shop had a great selection of kids patterns in, so I had to grab them.

Plus these gorgeous womans patterns

As well as some cute pillowcases to add to my ever expanding selection.

Jen