Making goo!

We have had a lot of indoor days lately. I have to say it is kind of fun to just play and not go anywhere.

On our last trip to the library I found this great book. I know there are a lot of books out there on science for kids , but this one is simple and I have almost all the ingredients in the the house. 

Of all the experiments we have done so far this one is my favorite!

Making goo out of corn starch. It is truly amazing!

The book : I'm a scientist, Kitchen by Lisa Burke
She also has a backyard book that looks interesting for summer.

You start off by measuring two cups of corn starch in a bowl and slowly adding one cup of water.
It is pretty hard to mix as you can see !

Then add food coloring of your choice and keep mixing!

It is really interesting how my kids played so differently with the same goo.
My son got his hands in at once , but my daughter wanted more spoons and things to prod it with and would not put her hands in!

It was amazing to see how long they kept going. Making balls and watching the goo go from solid to liquid and back to solid. If you push your hand down on it the goo is a solid , but if you scoop with a spoon it becomes a liquid.

FUN!

Placemats and napkins

January only has one thing going for it. My son's school has a silent auction fundraiser.
This is a big event for the school and everyone is very excited!

For the event I am donating six placemats and matching napkins with a carry bag.

These look so very summery to me with the red and white oil cloth . The placemats have cotton fabric as a backing. I finished them with a double fold wide bias binding.

This is how I sew the napkins:

I  fold the napkin seams over twice in stead of using the Serger and then sewing the seam. When I get to the end of a seam I stop the machine in the needle down position, lift the foot and roll the seam under the machine foot. Now lower the foot onto the seam.

Then I sew forward one stitch , stop again with the needle in the down position , lift the foot of the machine, turn the fabric, lower the foot and sew backwards to secure the corner. Now you are ready to sew another side.

A little decorating for the new year.

Every new year bring new looks and a lot of re-decorating in my house. 

Nothing, nothing gets me through this time of the year like moving furniture and a little decorating, oh and washing the curtains and scrubbing those spots I never get around  to!

I started with the kids room.  Having a boy and girl share a room keeps it pretty neutral.  I did want to room to look more unified  and found these great duvet covers from Ikea. They have similar prints but different colors. It really pulls the room together.

I have lately been hanging a lot of fabric on the walls and the kids got this great wall piece I have had for maybe the last 10 years and I have never found the right spot for it. It works really well with the covers because of the similar, bright colors.

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I changed the curtains to plain white ones I found in my box of curtains to use later  and they make things light and bright. I also made a garland from vintage handkerchiefs. I used a double fold bias binding easy and quick and I like the way it came out!

We have needed a book space for a while in there and I found this great piece also from Ikea. I have two wicker baskets that has been around for a while .The one we use for library books and the other for the Tin Tin and Asterix books.

I finally took out the rocking chair from the room. It was such a nice chair and I spent so much time in that chair, but it is very big and bulky. This green chair works really well in the corner and I bought this one from Savers for $35 years ago.

 I will show you  more later in the week!

Happy New Year

Wow , what a busy season and so nice to be just home with the kids. Hanging out, playing in the snow, doing lots of drawing, painting and building Lego .
Now this week I have to clean up the studio, put away, dare I say everything from the last show and get to work.
My one BIG new years resolution is going to be to sew more , for myself and others. Here is hoping it will be a really great year to be creative and wishing you the same!

Here are a few photos of our holiday season.

The kids still love watercolor painting. We combine the crayons and paints for a better picture with more detail.

Then one morning we woke up to this. It was such good timing, school was closed and we could just enjoy it.

This photo tells our Christmas story, before you could turn around it was over!

Blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

I did manage to sew two stockings for them on the 24th. So it was a FAST project. I traced their hands in felted wool and used a great red polka dot wool for the stocking. I really wanted to add some embroidery on the hands and around the top, add a pom pom, but I already packed these away....maybe I will get around to this next year.