Crafty Creations

Hermione and Nana have been very industrious over the last couple of weeks, crafty creatures that they are.

Hermione finished her teddy bear purse and is rightfully most proud of it.



My leather bag has fallen victim to a particularly squishy batch of yellow glitter home made play doh of late. Miles smeared lots on while my back was turned and by the time I discovered it it was stuck like glue. Not wanting to see me bag less, Nana rustled up this crocheted retro creation which I absolutely love. It's a great size for purse, wipes, juice and bits.



It was a friends birthday at the weekend so Hermione and Nana joined forces to make a woollen bowl for her. Nana crocheted a circle which Hermione then soaked in a sugar and water solution and placed it carefully over an upturned bowl. They then placed it on the windowsill to dry for a few days. Yes, we do have very cluttered windowsills round here what with decaying teeth, sprouting egg shells and woolly stuff!



Once it was dry they turned it out and filled it with cotton wool balls, voila! They could have put chunky pot pouri or something like pine cones in, anything not too heavy I guess.



I had hoped to make candles with Hermione in preparation for Imbolc this year but I don't have any candle making supplies, and to be honest I was a bit concerned about the hot wax issue too. I opted instead for decorating candles with wax sheets which I picked up from an online Steiner toy store. We haven't used this kind of wax before and I have to say I'm very impressed. The colours were really rich, it's easy to use and enables even small folks to make something very personal and special



We have put the candles to one side for now and will get them out and light them when we celebrate Imbolc as a family. When I bought the wax strips I also bought some modelling wax. This is something else we haven't used before. I'm going to give it to Hermione as an Imbolc gift. I know it's early days, we are still in January after all, but so far I am still very pleased with my decision to reduce the significance of Christmas and add significance to other times throughout the year which also hold special meanings for us. It's just another way I guess in which we can step off the beaten path, and find a path which takes us as a three generational household with a broad spectrum of beliefs forward, and to a place we would all like to go.



Not sure how long all this crafting will continue. As soon as the fence has been raised around the vegetable patch so as the hens can't cause havoc in there it will be time to be putting serious thought (and hard labour) into the garden!

Hermione was the very grateful recipient of a very tasty creation today. Imagine her surprise when she opened an airmail parcel and found a sizeable santa gift box full of home made Peanut Butter Balls courtesy of her Uncle Brian's mum in Canada. They are absolutely delicious. We had eaten most of the top layer by the time I thought to photgoraph them! It's not clear from the picture but each one is the size of a small clementine. They had been posted well before Christmas but only just arrived today. I know this is a disgrace but in some respects it was nice to receive them out of the blue today. Such a lovely act of kindness. She has only seen Hermione once and that was when she was a small baby.