Wordless Wednesday: Cramming in some craft

With our kids now in daycare 2 days per week and Miss 3 at preschool a 3rd day, our craft time seems to have been seriously depleted of late! So, when we got out some materials recently, we went all out - painting, printing, cutting, pasting... and lovely, lovely mess-making...

Seems that black was the colour of the day.

... and Matt was responsible for scrubbing the paint off at bath-time!

Linking up with Aussie Wordless Wednesday.

 

In which I finally do some sewing

Those who are not long-term readers of this blog may be surprised to see sewing get a mention. I am not the best sew-er in the world. Although I don't mind doing it (I actually quite enjoy it once I get going), it is not something I tend to prioritise. Since my days of Textiles and Design at school, I have sewn about 3 items (and mostly with help).

But, I do have a space to sew:

And, I did have a project I have been procrastinating on:

We bought these large cushions about 5-6 years ago. The covers on these suited the decor in our old lounge room (green, as below)

We no longer need the cushions in our lounge room, so I thought I'd add them to our bed. I love the look of a cosy bed with lots of cushions. (Unfortunately my husband doesn't share my love of multiple cushions on the bed). This is the kind of look I love (below) - a bit country, a bit pretty, a bit kitsch, but not too cluttered:

Finally today, I decided to procrastinate no more

This is what I ended up with. It is a very basic sewing job - straight seams down two sides and a hem at the top.

Please excuse the hasty positioning of the cushions - I could have made it look more artistic!

The experts' verdict was "nice and comfy". (Please excuse Mr 2's underpants. I took three photos and this was the best one!)

There is just one problem. I have to finish them off. What would you do here; buttons or ties? I can do ties without help. Buttons I know in theory, but I haven't done them recently...

 

Your advice?

Christmas Craftiness (for mummy)

As one friend suggested, last November/ December I think I was experiencing the crafty version of "nesting" prior to the birth of Miss 1. Last year I made a significant percentage of our Christmas presents including some button fridge magnets, fabric covered noticeboards and fabric book covers. These are all fairly easy projects. As long as you have some nice looking fabric, even the most amateur sew-er/ craft-er can make these look effective.

I had big plans this year to make most of our Christmas presents. Unfortunately, not being pregnant this time around, the crafting instinct hasn't quite kicked in. I still haven't used the sewing machine that is poised on my desk.

Here are a couple of simple ideas I have managed to follow-through with:

1) Salt-dough Christmas decorations

These seem to be all the rage this year. Lisa shared the recipe for salt-dough on Life on a Hill awhile ago. We made a couple of batches of decorations to give as presents for the ladies who look after the kids during Wednesday Bible study. (I finished them with a poly-urethene gloss varnish to help them last longer)

I kept some of the rejects (the ones with big cracks or the "puffy" ones). I love the way they look on this small branch.

2) Hand Print Christmas Trees

This is what they were supposed to look like:

By the time we had all our hand prints on paper, they did not resemble a tree AT ALL. I decided to cut the hand prints out in the shape of a tree and glue on to some Christmas paper. The result:

These will make nice presents for our grandmothers/ kids' great-grandmothers.


3) Christmas Biscuits

I posted our favourite Christmas biscuit recipe last week. We had no lemon juice when making the second 2 batches, so I substituted with orange juice for the glaze icing. Obviously a little sweeter, but still yummy.

We added our family Christmas card on the front and gave these to our neighbours and a few other people who have cared for our kids at church etc throughout the year. (I made the card using www.picnik.com for free and had each card printed for the cost of a normal photo - this was after discovering it would cost $1.40+ per card to make cards through www.snapfish.com. Snapfish have beautiful cards, but I couldn't justify paying that much!)

Have you been getting crafty this Christmas? Do you have actual crafty skills?

They said it better... #10 Advent Calendars

I have officially over-committed myself this week, and am already behind with our advent calendar (not to mention with housework, Christmas present making/ shopping etc etc). 

My husband often reminds me not to turn enjoyable things into a burden. So, I refuse to become a slave to our advent calendar! Instead, I'm showing myself some grace. We can always catch-up, and even if we don't, whatever we do manage to do will help our kids to focus on Jesus this season. (Note: this applies to you too!)

Even if you haven't started an advent calendar, you might want to try some of the ideas below (without becoming a slave to the "perfect" calendar). Someone wrote on Facebook recently that a 25 day countdown is over-rated, especially for those with little kids. You could always do a 12 day, or 10 day countdown. Here are some lovely advent ideas online. (Thanks for those who sent me these links):

Cara sent me this link with lots of advent calendar ideas.
Allison has some more ideas for the wonderfully crafty among you 
And, here is another cute idea that Allison's family are using this year. Can't wait to see how they go with it.
Erin is using a book/crafty advent calendar. It is similar-but-different to ours.
Here is Deb's calendar over at Home Life Simplified. This one involves sewing.
And, Debbie at Aspiring Mum, had a really simple advent calendar idea.
Finally, some of my Facebook friends posted these pictures of their calendars:

By Katrina

By Leah

For those who might be feeling overwhelmed by it all, I enjoyed and could relate to this post on "advent fatigue"

How is your advent going this year?

Last day to vote for your favourite blogs in Circle of Moms Top 25 Aussie Mummy Blogs. I'd love you to click on the link below, scroll down and vote for The Useful Box.

Happy Advent!

For those of you still interested in creating an advent calendar... there is still a little bit of time!

Lorien contacted me after reading one of the advent posts I shared at Life on a Hill. She has put together an easy-reference calendar and a list of advent ideas (some are ideas I have shared, and some are her own), and she has been kind enough to share those ideas with us all! (Lorien's son is 2 years old, so these are suitable for that age group).

 If you download these, you are almost all set to go. All you have to do is create some sort of pretty display (That's all!).

Lorien's advent calendar and ideas

Advent Readings (fabulous - they are all typed out for you!)

Advent activity cards

Thanks so much to Lorien for sharing these with us...

And, here is the link to our advent activity/ reading cards

Over on The Useful Box facebook page, feel free to share a picture of your advent calendar, or you can email a picture to julie@theusefulbox.com. I'd love to see what everyone is doing.

Wordless Wednesday: When you're onto a good thing...

These have been popping up around our house all over the place for the last month or so:

I try to suggest that Miss 3 might like to draw something else, but she is intent on perfecting her people at the moment.

She continued the trend at preschool orientation recently, using a different artistic medium...

My husband pointed out that it won't be long until Miss 3 reaches our (not particularly lofty) level of artistic competence.

Linking with Aussie Wordless Wednesday

The Useful Box has been nominated for the Circle of Moms' Top 25 Aussie Blogs list. If you would like to vote for The Useful Box, click below, scroll down the list until you find my blurb and click "vote". You can vote every 24 hours.

Wordless Wednesday: Paint with water

Painting without the mess and clean-up... 

A friend shared this idea with me over a year ago now, and I am so thankful for it. A jar or bucket of water and a paintbrush can can keep my big kids occupied for ages. The other day, they got busy 'painting' the cubby house. It was a very serious business.

 

Joining Aussie Wordless Wednesday

Someone lovely has nominated The Useful Box for the Circle of Moms' Top 25 Aussie Blogs list. I feel honoured to be nominated. If you would like to vote for The Useful Box, click on the button, scroll down the list until you find my blurb and click "vote". You can vote every 24 hours. I know I don't stand a chance, but it is a nice way for some new people to find their way here, and offer their insights, ideas and opinions too.

Advent Calendar 2011

Our Christmas advent calendar is ready to go!

Here is what we did:

1. We wrapped our 24 Christmas/ Jesus related books. We used newspaper, but Christmas paper or brown paper would look good. (To clarify, these are books we already own).

2. I cut out our Bible readings/ questions/ activities (star-shaped) and added a piece of origami paper behind each star (just to brighten it up a little)

3. We lined up the parcels in order,  ready to be opened day by day during Advent(this is currently in our bedroom, but will move to the lounge room in December)

For those who have expressed interest in using a Bible-based Christmas advent calendar, I thought I would provide our readings/ questions and activities as PDF files. Feel free to download these and use them to suit your family. (They will probably need to be adapted for children over 7-ish. Children younger than 2 can probably skip a few of the activities). As I have surprisingly poor computer skills for a blogger, I couldn't figure out how to create these to share as a single document, so you will have to click all 4 links to get the full calendar. 

Advent readings/questions/activities (day 1-6)
Advent readings/ questions/ activities (day 7-12)
Advent readings/ questions/activities (day 13-18)
Advent readings/questions/activities (day 19-24)

I have also provided further information and pictures on the activities for each day below. These activities are (in almost every case) specifically related to the Bible text for the day. In our family, we will supplement these readings/ activities with some other generic Christmas crafts, activities and outings. I will post a list of extra ideas and traditions over the next couple of days.

Advent calendar activities:

Day 1, 2, 8, 10, 11, 14, 20 - Cardboard roll nativity scene

We add various figures to the scene as they appear in the Bible passages (e.g. Day 1 - angel, Day 2 - Mary etc). You need to collect at least 10 (more if you want to add animals) toilet paper/ cardboard rolls before 1st December. Wrapping paper rolls are good and can be cut into several pieces.

Image credit

Day 3, 4, 6, 7, 12, 13 - Name tag for Jesus

Create a "name-tag" for Jesus (you can pin this to a doll if you like). Add new names/ meanings to the name-tag as you read them in the Bible passages (e.g. saviour, King, Immanuel, God...)

Image Credit

Day 4 (2) - Make and decorate a crown(s)

Day 5 - Discussion about people in the Bible who listened/ didn't listen to God. (Last year, we made a book and drew pictures of people who listened to God). 

Day 9 - Make a chain of people and count them

Click here to download templates

Day 15 - Angel paper plate craft

Image Credit

Day 16 - Sing Christmas songs/ praises to God. We love Colin Buchanan's "The King of Christmas"

Day 17 - Cotton ball sheep craft

Image

  

Day 18 - Paper Chains

 Day 19 - Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients:

225g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

175mL cream

Icing sugar, to dust

Cocoa powder, sifted, to roll

Method:

Place chocolate in a large bowl. Bring cream to the boil in a saucepan. Pour (hot) cream over chocolate and stir until chocolate melts.

Set aside in fridge for 1 – 1.5 hours to set.

Use a teaspoon to spoon bite-sized pieces of chocolate. Dust hands in icing sugar, roll chocolate into balls and roll in cocoa powder.

Set in the fridge, until ready to eat (or give away).

Day 21 - Find Bethlehem on a Bible map

Day 22 - Star-shaped biscuits (with lemon glaze icing)

Ingredients:

250g cold butter

2 cups plain flour

3/4 cup caster sugar

1 egg

2 tbs lemon juice

1/2 cup icing sugar

Method:

Blend butter and flour in a food processor until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs

Add caster sugar

Add egg and mix well

Knead dough

Divide mixture in half, flatten into discs and refrigerate 30 minutes

After 30 minutes, knead again, roll onto floured surface and roll to 5 mm thick.

Cut star shapes from the dough.

Bake in moderate oven (180 degrees Celsius) for 8-10 minutes

Cool

Make lemon icing by combining icing sugar and lemon juice

Ice biscuits, set for 1 hour 

Day 23 - Wrap (some) Christmas presents together. (If your kids are like mine, they will lose interest after doing 4 or 5 presents) 

Day 24 - Visit some local Christmas light displays

Day 25 - MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ, the Lord" (Luke 2:11)

P.S - Kelly from Be a Fun Mum has a great advent calendar over at her blog too (and the first half of the readings are pretty similar to what I have used!). If you have primary-aged children, some of Kelly's activities may be more suitable for your family.