A new pencil box for Kalin

How much does it take to make a child happy?
I'll tell you- a wooden box and a bunch of color pencils.
Since I woodburned Ellie's heart shaped box, Kalin has been bugging me to make him something too.
We looked and looked and looked....and looked. He couldn't decide.
Finally he said he wants a pencil box where he can store his new pencils.
After he changed his opinion on the way the box should like million times, he decided on giraffe and palm trees pattern ( beats me why the 2 together but it's what he wanted).

This is Ellie's box:




And this is Kalin's box:



I had trouble figuring out how to make it, and I was overwhelmed by the size of the box, but that's what I came up with.



The whole thing was much easier and less time consuming than I initially expected.


Kalin even draw me a picture to show me what he wants on the box :-)

How can you resist on a instruction sheet like that? :-)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I had a very hectic day yesterday. I had so much going on that I didn't even notice it was Friday 13th! On the other hand, maybe it's better I didn't know :-) Not that I am that much superstitious, but just in case you know ;-)
Anyway, yesterday we went to Michael's ( the store) and decided to pick up things for our project for Daddy. We couldn't go earlier, because Ellie had a viral rash ( again! :-( but we had something in mind. However, when we were in the store, the kids kept coming up with new ideas, and we stayed there a loong...LONG time.
So finally when we left, we have bought something totally different from what we initially planed.



We decided to make Daddy a "book"-box that he can put small stuff in while at work ( he has all kinds of books on a shelf) so I grabbed a unfinished wooden box for $2.50 and a wood burner for $16.50.



The whole project took us ( the kids helped with the painting, I burned the wood) around 1.5 go 2 hours.



This is my first time woodburning, and I didn't have time to find a stencil, so I just went...and burned whatever it came to my mind at that moment :-)



Somebody told me it reminds them of J.K Rowling's " Beedle the Bard", and since I am I huge fan, I take that as a compliment :-) The only thing I don't like about it is that I didn't have more time. I would have done a lot better if I had couple of days to finish it, to apply gloss coat etc, but the kids decided that at the last minute, what can you do.



The wood burning was much more intensive work than I expected and that's why I ran out of time with the food preparation, so the kids ( and I) made this 15 minute dessert from cappuccino soaked lady fingers, a 5 minute dark chocolate pudding, some frozen strawberries and eclairs, some white topping and coco bean chips on top.
Extremely easy ( a 5 and a 2 year old put it together for 15 min, how hard can it be?! :-) and delicious decadent dessert.



As a finish to our project the kids decided to make a book for their dad, saying how much they love him. Each page had 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 hearts and the number, and the last too pages had hand prints ( my son and daughters) and a sign " to infinity ....and beyond". You can check it out here.

For a finish we went to a Japanese restaurant, it was the kids' first time on Hibachi table and they had a blast :-)
Happy Valentine's day everyone!!!

Martenici ( Martenizi) 2009

In spite of everything that's going on right now ( 2 sick kids, one sick mom) I've found the time to grant my son's wish of making Martenicas. I've even arranged with his teacher to present the Martenicas at school and the kids there are going to make some :-) So, I've put together little packages with pom-poms and some white and red yarn, as well as some googly eyes. I hope they like it!

These Martenicas are no-sew, made from pom-poms, some pipe cleaners ( somebody asked me about the size, I've used 6"), a little glue from a hot glue gun, some buttons, googly eyes, red and white cotton yarn, and some sparkly fuzz balls that I can't remember the name of.

If you are interested to find out more about what Martenica is, the traditions connected to it, you can try here.

A martenica Bookmark ( or pendant)

Martenica Brooches

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And some bracelets:

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And some rings:

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And one decorative: