Questions from the Tooth Fairy

K lost her first tooth last night in her sleep (is she really that grown up?), and with her sharp little six-year-old eyes managed to find it nestled in her white chenille bedspread (thank goodness!) -- leaving us with an important task:  Finishing the Tooth Fairy Pillow today so that it will be ready for tonight's hijinks and hullabaloo.  Originally we had cut the pieces out of wool felt with the idea that K would sew the pillow herself, but she assured me that she would not be offended if I assembled the thing while she was at school, so I set to work.

I tried to keep the stitching neat and sturdy but still childlike, as though K had had a hand in it -- not hard since my hand-sewing skills leave a bit to be desired.  I wanted to stuff it with wool batting but chose K's favorite bamboo since she's the one who has to sleep on it.  I do hope she likes it.

Now.  Questions. 

1. What is the going rate for baby teeth these days?  K said something like "maybe a dollar?" but my fairy is just not sure.
2. Would a little present be appropriate along with the small amount of money the fairy is likely to leave?  Like a new toothbrush, perhaps?
3. How on Earth does my fairy get the teensy little tooth out of the pocket without waking the excited child?

No-Sew Fleece Blanket

As K's contribution to the Blankets for Haiti project, we picked a No-Sew Fleece Blanket. Of the many instructions we found on the web for this type of blanket, we thought these were clearest and made the nicest-looking finished product. A friend and I cut the two layers of fleece to size and snipped the fringe, and then the three of us got to work on the knotting.

The result was a cozy throw that K is proud to donate to a Haitian child in need. And "maybe could we make one for me, too?"

The loving house

How did it take me so long to think of this? K's easel has been sitting in the great room being an eyesore for years now, and I've been afraid to slip it out the back door and down the highway to the Goodwill lest I incur her wrath, but now it is a thing of beauty and purpose.

What has changed? Well, that big remnant of white polyester felt that I bought against my better judgement some months ago has finally come into service. I clipped it to the top of the easel and voila! Flannel board! Way cooler than writing on a white board that's been stained with permanent marker, or a black board that's been marred with waxy crayons. K and I (well, mostly I) immediately began cutting shapes out of scrap felt to put up on the board.

The story on the flannel board at the moment is that there is a"loving house" -- because Valentine's Day is coming up, and anyway the scraps are pink and red -- that is guarded by two knights (they look like upended fish to me, but whatever.) I'm not certain what comes next, but that's part of the fun. I will try to find the time to cut out some "surprise" shapes for K when she's not looking today.

Isn't it amazing -- the beautiful dollhouse she got for Christmas, with the fancy expensive dolls and furniture and even tiny clay food, and she wants to play with felt scraps. I'm not saying this in an ironic or bitter way, I'm honestly fascinated at the way children gravitate toward the simplest toys. Even the day after Christmas, she was sailing in a cardboard box boat. Amazing.

Chugging along

Continuing to produce at high volume, but with love. Finished all of the rice bags I am going to do, at least for now -- there are more than 20 small ones and a number of large ones, so I think I'm good to go. I saw some for sale at the fancy-crafts-store when K and I stopped after school yesterday, but I neglected to note the price, and I am curious. I may have to go back and check, and possibly pick up the child-sized broom with which K became enamored while we were browsing.

We were in the store to pick up some more wool roving, so we could felt some more rocks. What are felted rocks, you ask? They are rocks that have been covered with wool roving (that's the candy-floss fluffy stuff you see in the picture below) and agitated with soap solution ("felted") until they are literally covered in felt.
I found the idea for making them in my favorite sewing book and immediately had to try it -- they just looked like so much fun to hold and play with. And they're functional, too -- as both paperweights and pincushions. I'm not sure who I'll give them to, besides K (who thinks they're as cool as I do,) but they sure are fun to make.
K finished the first of her two picture frames, with a little support from Mama. I think it's awfully cute! I tried to get her to draw a holiday-themed picture to put inside, but she doesn't do art-on-demand so it'll have to be her school picture. We took this project from Christmas Crafting With Kids by Catherine Woram.
This morning I spent a delightfully short time making a truly adorable and amazingly simple and sturdy tote bag for K. More on this when I finish sewing in the lining.

Sick day

D stayed home today to take care of K while I slept off what I can only conclude was the tail-end of the flu. I'd been up all night coughing and doing other unpleasant things, and spent most of the day sleeping or staring into space.

I did manage to spend a few hours experimenting with doing some patchwork on the covers of some Moleskine cahier notebooks, ruining four of them and producing one "giftable" one, with another in the works. The idea for these came from Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson and Anna Williams, which has been providing me with creative fodder for the last month or two. It's so satisfying to work with scrap fabric, both for it's "green" appeal and for the pleasure of rooting through the past and visiting old, beloved projects and the people I made them for.

In the middle of finishing up the first notebook, K came home from school and wanted something to do. Having had no responsibilities all day, I was feeling pretty benevolent, so I sat her down with a book of Christmas crafts and suggested she come up with some ideas.

"But I might need help!" she complained.

"But you might have some," I suggested.

She thought about this and started turning pages. She got pretty grandiose about it, and I had to gently redirect her to things we could reasonably do right now. We ended up making pomanders out of clementines and cloves -- which is exactly what I had intended for us to do when I handed her the book. She thoroughly enjoyed herself for about a quarter of a clementine, declaring that this could be our "Mom-and-kid" Christmas tradition. My heart swelled. Of course, about a minute later, she was done. I've saved out the materials so we can work on it again after school today though; I think as long as I'm sitting with her she'll enjoy fiddling with it for fifteen minutes or so.

Not bad for a so-called "day off."