A couple of years ago I made my son a King costume for Purim (a Jewish holiday where we dress up and eat a lot of candy – kind of like Halloween only with a “they tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat” back story). Both kids have been using the costume for “Warrior King and Queen to protect the children from the terrible monsters” role playing, but it’s not easy when there’s only one cape & crown. My daughter has been bugging me for a while to make her a set, but I just haven’t got around to it (sound familiar?).

One day this week, we came home and she insisted I make her a crown and cape RIGHT NOW! And I said: OK! OK! I know I promised, but can I at least have a cup of coffee first?! I’m glad to say she went away for a few minutes and let me have my coffee in peace.

She chose the fabric (I’m not sure I would have gone for ALL PINK), and the whole thing was done in a couple of hours, so it could easily be a nap time project or done in one evening.

At least there are two swords, so I didn’t have to figure out how to DIY those… By the way, both swords are made of thick foam, and I recommend them very much for this kind of play – they are firm enough for fighting, but can’t really cause a serious injury (no pointy edges). They hurt when they hit you, though.

I don’t know about you, but everytime I see a beautiful  wood play kitchen for kids I think: “Wow! That’s incredible!” And right after that: “But where will I put one of those?”

So, if you’re like me and have already told all your friends and relatives you have run out of room for toys and only bring gifts if they are two dimensional please, this tutorial is for you: A play kitchen in a box. The fabric covered box is the stove and oven, and all the accessories are kept inside. Cook, play and put it away! And – when it gets a bit dusty and musty, take the fabric cover off and wash it! What could be better…

Somehow we’ve managed to dodge the bullet until now. But when we acquired a tablet, my kids discovered Angry Birds, and now they can often be found with their heads stuck in a small (that’s my phone) or medium (that’s the tablet) screen, playing until I’ve had enough-and-go-do-something-constructive-now-please.

We’ve got all the free and paid versions, and my son fell in love with the Ice Angry Bird in Angry Birds Space. So, being the drive for much of my craftiness, he asked for me to make him one. And, of course, I agreed.

Wahoooooo! Here we go!

I sometimes think that having a crafty mom makes children spoiled. They can imagine pretty much anything, and I can make it happen, even if it can’t be bought. On the other hand, being able to see the process and the effort which goes into making something might have a counteracting positive effect. I do feel that they appreciate hand made gifts more than store bought items. But that might just be wishful thinking. What do you think?

I’m never sure when we can officially declare “summer is here”. Even though I’ve been carelessly sunburned twice already (I should really be more careful), there have been many days when it was quite cloudy, or even worse – sand stormy (yuck!). Given that the weather hasn’t stabilized yet on “hot, humid and unbearable”, I have to check what the weather will be every day, so I can decide if it’s long pants or shorts for the kids. And there it was that inspiration struck me and I HAD to make a partly cloudy set of pillows.

As usual, I started with no specific recipient in mind, and my children took them over as soon as they possibly could. So I guess we’ll have another set of pillows to fill the kids’ beds (as if we don’t have enough junk dolls in there already).

In order to make the partly cloudy set you will need basic crochet-in-a-circle skills, so while making all the pieces might take a while, it shouldn’t be very difficult.

I made this doll house a while ago with a pattern from one yard wonders. Later, I found the same pattern in a free online tutorial, so – you can enjoy it without buying the book (though I am a fan). Personally, I would modify the pattern not to include so much hand sewing, but otherwise, it’s an excellent idea and the result is really sweet.

I had big plans for the interior – dolls and furniture and more, but I never got around to it, You know how it is… Finally, I decided that the doll house must be put into use one way or another, and started to think about what would be the easiest way for me to make dolls. I decided on finding a cute doll design and printing on fabric. The first part turned out to be much harder than I thought, whereas the second part much easier…

I made these drawing kits to-go for the kids yesterday. I’m not sharing the pattern, well, because I’m planning to sell them. And the pattern. Coming soon!

Each kit is a padded suit case with hook-and-loop (Velcro) closure. There is a pocket on each side of the inside cover for paper, stickers etc. In the middle there is a zippered pocket for colors, scissors and any other equipment your child might need.

These are for younger children, sized to fit A5 size paper (or A4 folded in half). For older kids there will be larger size, to fit A4/letter paper.

Boy & girl versions:

After I made my daughter a rubber crochet ducky, my son got jealous and requested a monster. We’ve been playing Super Mario on our Wii, so I was inspired by the mushrooms when I designed this monster.

Well, as usual, I’m happy to share. So here goes:

Do I really need to explain why I wanted to crochet a duck? They’re so cute, and my daughter loves them. I knew that she would love it, and I was right! She absolutely insisted to take it to day care and won’t let it go long enough for me to get a good picture. See?

This pattern took a little “figuring out”, because I wasn’t sure how I was going to get the curvy tail shape, and I really wanted to make it one continuous piece instead of making separate body and head pieces and sewing them together. Well, here goes: