Little Elephants: Kids Crafts and Fun Activities

Pine-cone creatures

Today Maggie and I spent a lovely (quiet) time making creatures out of pine-cones and random bits found outside. This is a project we do every once in a while, and first read about in Nature's Art Box, a wonderful book Tomas and I found on Amazon a several years back. I wish we'd taken pictures of our past creations, as there have been some wonderful ones -- birds, crocodiles, hedge-hogs, and reindeer.

All you need is a dinner/craft table strewn with bits and pieces dropped from trees, and some glue -- we opt for the hot glue guns, though they do require a bit more adult supervision than our typical projects.

This has got to be one of the most satisfying art projects out there.

Happy belated!

With all the goodness of these past few days, I completely fell off the blog-wagon! It's been a cozy time of mass food consumption, bread baking (and eating), games of Set, and lovely naps.

Here's wishing you all a Happy (if belated) Thanksgiving!

Down and dirty tips & tricks for battling blogger's block

Sorry to veer off a wee bit from the usual kid-stuff, but I just sent this list off to another blogger I know and it struck me that others might find it helpful. Especially those of you who are still in the running for all the excellent prizes on Nablopomo (I'm not).

1. Set up Google news alerts for relevant keywords (only do this for highly relevant keywords or your mailbox will be full of crap)

2. Keep a small notebook handy to jot down post ideas -- I have them all the time & it always mucks me up when I forget to make a note of it.

3. Keep a list of *evergreen* posts. Items that aren't time sensitive.

4. Keep track of holidays and major events. You can outline and schedule posts in advance that will be timely.

5. Make use of the theme days if you contribute to collaborative blog (what we're reading, weekend projects, photo-booth Friday, etc.)

6. Identify blogs that post on your topics. Subscribe to them and bring attention to especially insightful posts, or write when you notice running themes across blogs.

Remember, people aren't expecting feature-length posts on a blog (unless the blogger has established him/herself that way), but rather quick snippets of content that are relevant, interesting, or fun. So relax, and have fun with it.

Hope this is helpful -- please make good use of that nice comment space below and share your tips and tricks as well!

How to make a snow globe

Can it really be that time of year again? With Halloween just gone by, and Thanksgiving around the corner, I'm noticing more and more people finding my little blog when looking up how to make a snow globe.

So, for all you creative types, I figured I'd bring this old post up front and center.

Click here to learn how to make your own snow globes at home.

Alls I got is this photo

Some days I'm just overwhelmed by how incredibly lucky I am. This photo of Maggie today pretty much sums it all up for me. I'm thinking my real job in life is to make sure that bright light keeps its spark, right?

Tomas is blogging, too!

My dear hubby has started a blog -- won't you head on over to welcome him? He's not sure exactly what he's going to write about, but knowing him it will be a good read :-)

Here's the link: http://surfeit.com/wordpress

Missed a post!

I am so bummed with myself! Yesterday was my last day on the job and I completely forgot to post for Nablopomo! So now I'm out of the running for the prizes -- no free goodies for Vero :-(

(& in case you're the sort to notice timestamps ... I've just discovered Typepad lets you back-date your posts, pretty sneaky)

Can you hear me now?!

On Sunday afternoon Maggie was at an extended sleep-over, Tor was napping, and Bjørn was B*O*R*E*D, bored.

This mama did what and self-preserving soul would, and hauled out two plastic cups, a skewer, and ten feet of kitchen string. Voila! We have a telephone system.

It killed me how easy this was: I just poked one hole in the bottom of each cup with the skewer, threaded the kitchen string through and knotted it on the inside of the cups. You'll want to pull (very) taught and have one person listen while the other speaks. I promise you and your kid will be amazed at how incredibly well this works.

Bjørn and I spent a good bit of time telling each other silly secrets that Dad couldn't hear :-)

The good, the bad, and the not-so-good.

Yesterday was like my computer was a popcorn popper with birthday greetings spitting out from every corner of the internet. I had tweets -- POP! I had emails and IMs -- POP! POP! I had Facebook messages, presents, and wall posts -- POP! POP! POP! And, of course, I had lovely messages here and over on Maya's Mom.

Wow. I was thoroughly overwhelmed and feeling rather the lucky girl for the day :-)

Today has been a slow one and with much less joy and excitement...

First, my dear friend (my best friend from high-school) emailed to let me know her husband died in a motorcycle accident last week. I can't tell you all how hard that hit me. I can't for even a nano-second imagine what she must be going through (I can't). I do know that I'll hold Tomas and the kids a bit closer, and I'll be thinking of my friend and her children.

Second, I took Tor in for a speech assessment today and was informed that he has severe speech delays. I have no idea what that means, and I'll have to wait two weeks for the formal report and recommendations. I will tell you I was left full of Mama-guilt, fretting that I hadn't taken his delays more seriously.

Finally, I'll be leaving my latest project at the end of the week and I'm shockingly sad and disappointed that it didn't go the way I'd planned. I am also incredibly proud of the wonderful blog experience I've helped create, and hope you'll visit my new blog-friends often to show your support as they are a wickedly talented lot over there :-)

So, here I've stuck with my blog post a day, and probably should have stuck with a craft today ... but ya know? Sometimes you've just got to share. The good, the bad, and the not-so-good.

Happy Birthday to Me!

~ November 13th, 1967 ~