Island Dwellers - Around the Homestead

The little garden - garlic, peas, celery, spinach, lemon balm, kale, figs. Thanks to Nana's expertise.

A tractor for the little farmers, also thanks to Nana.

Our Little farmhouse dining room.

Our little hallway of preschool art.

Island made soaps.

Beach hats with extras for guests.

Local goodies.

For Al Fresco dining.

Our little backyard guest cabin.

The essential Farmers Market bolga basket, also thanks to Nana.

So it's been a billion years since I've tended to this blog. Somehow, this amazing little island brings out the blogger in me. We've moved back to our homestead, the tiny gulf island we call home. This place is paradise. It encompasses every thing that I hold dear, nature, family (Nana, Papa, Aunties, Uncles and cousins!) and good wholesome fun. We moved into a lovely little house on my parents property, it's 800 square feet and just right for our little family of 4. We've been spending our time walking in forests, digging our toes into sandy beaches and barbecuing with our amazing family. All of the summer fun has begun; hammock naps, warm mornings at the farmers market, afternoons making sand castles and cloudy days in our back yard forest. Directly behind our little house is a trail that leads all over the island. It's everything a little gulf island forest should be, birch trees, cedar, ferns, and a gorgeous moss covered floor. Wondrous wildlife peeks out every once in a while, so far we've seen; racoons, frogs, slugs, owls, vultures, eagles, sea lions, crabs, starfish and deer! We are desperately trying to live in the moment and enjoy just being here and now.

Homemade Toddler Advent Calendar: A No Sew Project

pretty scrapbook paper in Christmas colours

supplies

Now what to put in it? Cookie cutters, a stamp set, bouncy balls!

Natural options; a wool roving ornament, a wooden car, a hand dyed play silk

the finished product, it hangs over a door!

I decided that since Lily is almost two that we should start some Christmas traditions. I knew that I wanted to make an advent calendar for her that we could use for years to come. My main problems with making an advent calendar was that for firstly, I don’t have a sewing machine and secondly, I don’t know how to sew. I tried looking on Pinterest for ideas but I just couldn’t find something that fit. I knew I wanted it to be big enough to put enough things for two kids in the future and also be something that would last year to year. After a few nights of searching I came up with the idea to use a shoe organizer with 24 slots. I didn’t even know if those existed but as I started searching, I saw other people had done the same thing and there were lots of bloggers who had made them. Perfect! I went out and got one that day, as well as all of the other supplies. Not including what I had on hand, I think this project cost around $30. 

Here’s what you need:

• a shoe organizer with 24 spots
• some pretty paper, I used scrapbook paper
• craft paper
• some ribbon
• clothes pegs
• a hot glue gun
• a glue stick
• scissors
• a marker/pen
• items for the 24 days of advent!

Here’s what I did; I cut the paper the correct size to fit over each pouch on the shoe organizer. Then I cut circles in coordinating paper and smaller circles out of craft paper, I then wrote out each number on the craft paper. i did this by hand but you could print them or use stamps. Glue them all together and use the clothes peg to attach each number card to the pouches. I prettied the clothes pegs up a bit by hot glueing some ribbon to each. Then find some fun toddler items to put in! You could do all natural toys, conventional toys, dollar store items, treats, or write an activity for each day. We did a combination of all of those. 

Here’s a few things we had in ours:

Activities:

• make hot chocolate with marshmallows
• go look at the Christmas lights
• go visit Santa
• make Christmas cookies with mom

Items:

• bouncy ball
• stickers
• farm animals
• stamp set
• Christmas ornaments
• play food
• Christmas cookie cutters
• play dough
• Christmas PJ’s (this will be for X-mas eve!)

You could do anything really, it doesn’t have to be expensive or cost anything at all. The fun of it is the excitement and involving your toddler in the magic of Christmas. I can’t wait to see what happens next year when there are two little girls to participate in advent!

Nap Time Crafts: Toddler Felt Christmas Tree

Green felt; my piece is 36x36in, different coloured felt sheets, painters tape and scissors

Fold the greet felt in half and draw one half of a tree (I used my daughters Crayola Markers)

Tape to your wall with painters tape

I used washable markers and a mug to make some ornaments out of the red felt.

Tape the star to the top and place the ornaments on the tree, now your toddler can rearrange as they wish!

Okay... So it's been a while since I've posted anything. I now have TWO daughters and things have been a little busy. More on baby #2 coming.

This post is about a craft I saw on Pinterest that I HAD to do for my daughter Lily. She will be 2 in January (WOW!) and this is the perfect Christmas activity for her.

 Here's how it works, you get a big piece of green felt; cut it into a tree shape or just a triangle if you want and tape it to your wall with painters tape. Then you cut out a bunch of "ornaments" for the tree out of different coloured pieces of felt. The felt ornaments stick to the felt tree so the toddler can rearrange the ornaments as they wish.

Here's what you will need:

• A big piece of green felt (mine is 36x36 inches)
• a few different sheets of coloured felt 
• some painters tape
• scissors

The whole project cost me $10.50 (I had the painters tape and the scissors). 

This is not my idea, I got the idea from this blog, original post below

http://johnnyinadress.blogspot.ca/2011/12/play-felt-tree-ornaments.html