Our Lil Potion Bottles

K and I love making little potion bottles.





Some we write by hand. Kids like them best.





We purchased a gagillian little bottles from American Science and Surplus last summer.




They are quite wee.




They are just the right scale for our little Skele - Gro bottle.




We have made little necklaces with all sorts of little bottles.




I like these best.




You can find the instructions here, or you can purchase one from my new etsy shop.

Things I have learned since I broke myself: #1

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My gluteus maximus is unaccustomed to persistent compression.

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Happy again.

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She won't come out till the last branch comes down.

Would you believe...

One week, to the day, after K got her cast off...

Yup. Closed metatarsal fracture. No walking for 3 weeks, no driving for 6 week. You should see the bruise on my tush. It could have been a whole lot worse.

Cast Off!

Well, the cast came off yesturday, one week early. K walked around way too much this past weekend and her heal started hurting something fierce. Not what her doctor wanted to hear, so off it came. It's just a bruise, so she's on cruches for a week and then we'll see what happens.

K was exhausted after the trip to the doctor and fell asleep under the new blanket her best friend/big buddy's grandma and grandpa made her. Needless to say, she loves it.

Baby Hedwig

The other day I saw the cutest little Owl posted on the Harry Potter Crafts Yahoo Group. K and I were inspired. Our first attempt came out kinda cute.

White and black pompoms, with white pipe cleaner feet and fun foam and felt eyes and beak.

Gravel playground + Leg cast = Not a good thing Martha.

K went was back at school 30 minutes after she got her cast put on. I said she could go home, the doctor said she could go home, the school nurse/secretary/angel among us said she could go home, her teacher said she could go home. Nope, the Thanksgiving feast was that afternoon and she wanted to be there. They were singing. She could not miss the singing.

So she went at school, and the class went out for recess. The playground is covered with tiny little stones, she loves to swing, need I say more.

I spent quite a bit of time this weekend making cast covers in varying materials and designs. Here's her favorite.

The fleece is a bit hot, but stays up without elastic and feels nice and soft.

She's signed up for soccer in the spring. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Stuck in a cast... Make something!

K is doing great! The pain is mostly gone, the itching is survivable and she's sleeping just fine. She spent most of the long weekend lying on the couch with her foot up. And what have we been doing to keep ourselves occupied...

Too much time on Club Penguin...

And of course, Potter Puppet Pals are our favorite subjects. Bit orange. We're working on that.

We've been making window clings for years. After a while, the clings are nearly impossible to remove, in one piece. We're just going to take the windows with us if we ever move.

What do you get when you put Harry Potter and Veggie Tales into a particle accelerator? Yup, Hermione Carrot!

Life is never boring!

K's latest adventure

Bad sprain, maybe a small fracture. Off in three weeks.

Advent wreath

My Goddaughter is a little sweetheart. I try to write her as often as I can, send her pictures and little things. K writes to her Godsister every couple of weeks and really enjoys drawing pictures for her and telling her about her life and times.

For Christmas we wanted to send her an advent wreath kit. K made one from Oriental Trading company last year and we all loved it, especially our cat.

So we got out the fun foam and dowel rods and came up with a reasonable facsimile. I'll send it tomorrow so she can make it next weekend.

Hope, Love, Joy and Peace. And a nap in the sun. What more could you want.

Soccer coach gifts

K's soccer coaches this year were three wonderful women! They made every child on that team feel like they were absolutlely fabulous. And, more importantly, they made a group of fabulous kids into a great team.

Two of the coaches are young moms, one with a baby boy and one with a slightly older baby girl. Hubby and I helped take care of them during some of the games and they were the sweetest, most patient little people. We wanted to make them something to let their Moms know how much we appreciated all the time that they spent with our children, and not their own. So I got out the fun foam and polymer clay and made each baby a set of little shin guards. Each set is about 5 inches long with elastic straps and cloth ankle pad.

We plan to give them to the coaches at the school awards ceremony. I'm guessing the babies will wear them for 5 minutes and then tear them to bits. I'll have my camera ready.

Wands, Wands, Wands.

We've made quite a few wands in our time. This is K's first: 1/4 inch dowel rod covered with polymer clay.

K made this felt wand at Harry Potter camp at Sci Quest. (K had a blast at the camp. She was sorted into Gryffindor, who won the house cup, and she was called Hermione by the other kids. She loved Every Day!) It is a nice wand to give little boys who come over to play.

This is our first attempt at Ginny's wand from Order of the Phoenix.

And this was my first attempt at a semi turned wand. Basically, I clamped an oak dowel in a vice and used a few files to shape the wood. I kinda liked the effect.

I bought hubby a small tabletop wood lathe for our anniversary. More fun on the way.

Our little scarecrow.

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Last Sunday we all went out for breakfast and while waiting in line, K started to amuse herself by looking through the local attractions advertisements. We all squeeed when we saw our little Princess Leaf prominently displayed on the Botanical Gardens Scarecrow Trail leaflet.

She didn't win a prize, but they sure liked her.

"You've got red on you."

Hubby wore a short sleeve white shirt, red tie, and this badge to work.


Couldn't find a cricket bat.

Best Halloween ever!!!!

Tough Ginny was a huge hit! Her hair turned out very red!

Hubby and I wore these tags:

(Hint: ADA = Australian Dental Association.)

Little Skele- Gro anyone?

Poor Harry, off to the hospital wing again...

"Oh No!"

When I say little...

Yes, The head is removable.

Remember, Skele-gro, "Bone-fide results everytime."





Oh Kitty, you do not want to play with that!

Our Tin Dog.

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Last Halloween, K wanted to be Sara Jane Smith, one of Doctor Who's companions. If you don't know who Doctor Who could possibly be, and you live in the U.S., it's not surprising. A quick stop by the official BBC Doctor Who site, http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/, should do the trick.

(WARNING: Doctor Who is highly addictive and really entertaining, especially if you are either 8 years old or in graduate school (not much difference really.) Watching Doctor Who, especially the Pertwee years, could result in odd desires to speak with lispy british accents and wear velvet dinner jackets with frilly collars. The Baker years can induce irrational knitting urges and mild nausea, respectively. More recent episodes can generate loud squeeeeing noises from little girls who now think big ears and a british accents are just the bomb.)

We warned K that she would cause confusion and vacant stares wherever she went, but she was determined. She designed and put together her entire costume. Per instructions, I made her the cutest pair of navy blue culottes using the instructions on Vintagesewing.info, http://vintagesewing.info/, 1940 Modern Pattern Design, chapter 9. They turned out so well, I was amazed. And she looked just like Sarah Jane, right down to the boots.

Now all she needed was her mechanical friend, K9. I wasn't quite sure how we were going to put him together, but, it turns out that a bit of cardboard, paper mache, wire, PVC pipe, wood, roller skate wheels, 50 ld test fishing line, spray paint, bike reflectors, hose and an old portable phone make a rather cute little K9. I love the cat collar, K's idea, so cute. We rigged K9 to be pulled by a bit of fishing line, so it looked like he was following her around. Very good effect.

And she was a hit. Everywhere she went, K had a pack of boys following her around. Turns out even very basic renditions of mechanical dogs are downright awesome. Buttons, it's all about the buttons. The dozen or so people we met during all of Halloween, who knew who she was, recognized her immediately and were so thrilled it was funny. A very, nice, and normally very quiet librarian we had seen many times, almost climbed over her desk to get a better look. For weeks after she smiled and waved every time she saw us.

This year K wants to be Ginny Weasley. Better get to work.

Harry Potter Pumpkin!

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K entered a pumpkin carving contest at school yesterday. She designed and carved her pumpkin herself. She didn't win, but she had a lot of fun and she received two free games at the local Pin Palace.

If you can't quite make it out, Harry's glasses are above the Hp and that's his wand on the bottom right. One of a kind.

Sally and Zero

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A few years ago, K was really into Nightmare Before Christmas. So, of course, she wanted to be Sally. This was a really fun costume to make. I made her a long red yarn wig, with a bit pulled back at the ears. so she could see. Her dress was pieced together, roughly following Sally's dress in the movie, but with a bit brighter colors. Her arms and legs were covered with cotton tights, dyed blue and then cut and stitched like she was sewn together. She wore her black Mary Jane's and I made her black and white striped baggy socks.

To top the whole thing off, I made her a fleece Zero to cuddle while she was out trick or treating. Basically Zero was a soft fleece blankee with a stuffed Zero head attached.

Most people just though she was an odd Raggedy Ann with a puppy blanket. Everyone thought she was the cutest lil' thing.

Hogwarts Kitties.

Have I mentioned K LOVES Harry Potter? Oh yeah. Her teacher, Ms. N. who was and is fabulous, gave her HP and the Sorcerers Stone on the first day of second grade. She had it read in a month. Chamber of Secrets took about three weeks. Prisoner of Azkaban took less than two. We made her take a break, Goblet of Fire was a bit intense for second grade, but it took her less than a week when she was ready. This past summer she read the last three. And cried like a baby, and giggled maniacally, and wept with joy. So did I.

This past summer, K wanted to make a friend of hers a HP gift. So she combined her love of kitties and her obsession with HP and made Hogwarts Kitties. She started with three little kitty finger puppets we found at Target. We made them all capes out of black and yellow fleece with a bit of red stitching and snaps. Turned out very nicely. Hermione, that's her on the left, has her book bag filled with little books, made from brown felt, green thread and fun foam, very cute. Harry, in the middle, has glasses made of pipe cleaners, a stitched on scar and Hedwig, made from white pompoms and glue. Last, but not least, Ron, on the right, has Pig, hand crocheted by K. That's Pig on Ron's head,... where else. K did most of the stitching and all the designing. Her little friend Squeed with delight.

K is working on another set to sell on Etsy. Did I mention K is an entrepreneur? Oh yeah.

Day off!

K had a day off from school today. It's was a wonderful, cool, rainy day, so we decided to stay home and relax. Thinking ahead, we purchased all the materials to make K a new bag for her recorder last week, perfect timing, so we were all ready to start.

K's favorite color at the moment is green, so we used some light green peach skin we found on the remnants table, some matching green cord, and a green flower applique. K helped figure out where and how to cut, hand stitched on most of the flower, and machine stitched most of the seams. She SQUEEED when she turned it inside out and saw the finished bag.

Sew a recorder bag for a child and she will be the envy of all her friends. Teach her how to sew her own recorder bag, and she will help you use up all that material you've purchased over the years!

Just an experiment.

Just a little something I'm trying at the moment. I saw something similar in an issue of Better Homes and Gardens this summer. Haven't quite worked out the process yet, but I can tell that the starting picture makes all the difference.

What does your cat do for fun?

Have I mentioned we like Quilling?

Oh yes, we like quilling. We've made some fun cards over the years. The first was a Mermaid birthday card we made when K was in Kindergarten. She did most of the shaping and glueing and I did the rolling. It was hard to part with the finished card, but we managed with just a few sniffles. Me that is, K was fine after I scanned it.

K made this lovely aquarium card a few years ago for her art teacher. I helped with the jelly fish, but K did most everything else.

My favorite has got to be the Owl and Cat K made for her second grade teacher. Her teacher had given her the Harry Potter book on the first day of school. K read the first three that year. Hasn't been the same since.

Yup, a little paper, the right tools and a bit of patience and even a six year old can make something wonderful.