Serendipitous Friday

Today was one of those days that I happened to have a camera in my bag and a lot of photo-worthy things happened to occur.  Simply serendipity.

A game of I-Spy on the bus back from swimming lessons.  

Czech Preschool Lunch: Yeast Soup and Rice with Beef and Pickle Sauce

The soup is vegetable broth with finely-diced carrots and cauliflower with chopped onions and broccoli... and yes, yeast.  Not nutritional yeast, active yeast.  Bits of cake yeast that you could bake bread with.  It tastes a bit sweet and sour.

The main course is chopped beef, slow cooked in universal brown sauce with chopped up pickles in it.

Somehow, I have learnt to love both of these things.  I'll miss Czech food.

Dress-Up-the-Teacher is one of my favorite games as long as I am not the one under the hat.

My boss brought her guitar to work today and had a sing-along with the few kids who were in "quiet time" on a Friday afternoon.  I was in nap-time and decided to take my three bed-bouncing non-sleepers to join in.  I did not expect how well this would go over.  "We did sing in our pajamas!" 

A mid-day storm  was followed by an afternoon recess with lots of puddle-dancing and mud-slinging.

We really wanted to go to Kozlovna for dinner, but it was full.  The goat disapproved.

"Prehistoric Restaurant"--We stumbled upon this during our search for dinner.

Primeval Feasts?

Oh goodness.  We did not get dinner there.

Then we found a M.A.S.H.-themed shop which we did not go in either.

Nor did we eat at this restaurant, a timeless homage to Olympics that did not take place here.

In the end, we ate dinner at a Czech chain restaurant then went to Tesco for pudding mix and wine coolers.  Sometimes, you need to end a long work week with pudding and wine coolers.  

Here's hoping that your Friday was full of games, dancing, and adventures!

-Colleen

On the Eve of May Day

Tonight, we are going to a huge bonfire in celebration of the eve of May Day.  The lore behind the tradition gets murky and could lead to an uncomfortable conversation about religion; suffice it to say that on the final evening of April, bonfires are lit to burn away the last vestiges of bitter winter before spring is rung in the following day.  Tomorrow, if we were to follow Czech tradition, we would have to go kiss under a blooming tree.

I am really excited because May is one of my favorite months.  To start with, May Day is my favorite holiday to celebrate at nursery school.  Christmas and Easter are great for older children, but they come with complex backstories that are too much for the young child to grasp.  Halloween is fun for some but terrifies others.  Equinoxes and solstices celebrate the start of seasons which children love watching the changes of.  However, the start of the season does not necessarily coincide with what children associate with that season (it does not always snow before the 21st of December and it is often still summery in late September).  

May Day is very obvious to children.  Spring weather is in full swing, the flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping, and we should celebrate by being outside.  There is no tale to remember or lesson to learn; it is simply about enjoying what you experience.  

The rest of May brings some of my favorite things:

The Prague Beer Festival!

Brunches on Patios

The birthdays of two of our nearest and dearest friends:

Lucy!

Matthew!

Afternoons in the Park

Field Trips with My Little Ones

May this year also means a weekend trip to Olomouc, Amy completing her Master's, and hopefully a few trips to the farmer's market.  We look forward to a busy month with plenty of blog posts.

Tiny Tulip Basket Tutorial

Tiny Tulip Baskets

How to Make a Spring or Easter Craft

Today, I have another tutorial!  I learnt to wet-felt when I was in university but I don't do it much anymore.  I had an idea for a tulip-shaped basket and wanted to give it a go in miniature because of my new love of all things tiny.  It would be cute for a doll on Easter or to fill with a small treasure for a child.  

For the basket, you will need:

- wool (two colors for the flower looks best, in my opinion)

 -a plastic ball (a small rubber ball would work but as I do not have one in my house, I made a ball out of a plastic bag)

-hot soapy water in a squeeze bottle or dispenser

-a bowl

-a towel

-some green felt

First, take a piece of wool of your inside color and pull it into a thin strip.  

Wrap your ball in the first color, gently pulling the wool as you do, so that the wool around the ball is very tight.  

When you can no longer see the ball at all, you are finished with this color.  You do not want to make the felt too thick. 

Repeat the process with your second color.  

When you can no longer see the inner color, your have wrapped your ball enough.

Gather your equipment for the next step.

Squirt a bit of the hot, soapy water onto the ball.  You do not want to soak it!  Just dampen it.  Too much water may make the ball fall apart and will make it unmanageable.  

Take the ball in your hands and roll it around over the bowl.  As you roll, you will feel the wool tighten. 

Lots of soap will come out.  Keep rolling it, pushing harder as the ball gets firmer.  Once it feels like nothing much is happening, wash the ball with hot water and roll some more.  Wash it again with cold water.  Repeat this process until all the soap is gone from the ball.  

It takes a while and a lot of rolling.  For really strong felt, push really hard as you roll the ball.  You may want to roll it around on a towel.  This helps the drying process as well.

Let your ball dry in a warm place.  

Once it is dry, feel around for the weakest point.  Use a large needle to poke into the ball.  Then, using the sharpest scissors you have, cut into the ball.  If you have a box cutter or an x-acto knife, that might work even better.

You are trying to cut a line that goes from the middle on one side to the middle on the other.  

It takes a lot of effort, but it will cut in the end.

Pop out the ball!

Make two cuts into the top half, dividing it into thirds.  Repeat with the bottom half.  You will have six petals. 

I made the first one with eight petals but it seemed like too many.  This is a personal choice.

Almost flowers! 

I added green to the bottom to look like the stem.  At first, I needle-felted this green on.

I felt like this did not turn out the way I had hoped.

Next, I tried using green felt  as the stem. 

I sewed it on using whip stitch and it looked much better than the needle felting, plus it was invisible on the inside. 

Finally, take a strip of green felt for your handle and sew it to the inside of the basket.  This should be pretty self-explanatory.  

I hope this tutorial was helpful!  Feel free to pin or link back with this image:  

-Colleen

Hooray for Embroidery!

Tiny Bunnies!

Last week, I posted this tutorial about my tiny bunnies with links to their pattern sources.  It was one of our most popular posts ever, so I plan to make an even better tutorial tomorrow.  I will post my own pattern for tiny birds which will require some basic embroidery skills.  The techniques I use are really easy to teach yourself.  So, my Hooray post this week is all about embroidery!

Blanket Stitch Tutorial on Wool Food Mama

Wool Food Mama's tutorial for blanket stitch is a great step-by-step guide to a very important stitch.  This can be used to finish edges but also to sew together two pieces of felt in toy-making.  It is the stitch I used for my bunnies and will use for my birds.

French Knot Tutorial on Craftinomicon

The Craftinomicon did a bunch of easy embroidery tutorials this winter.  I would suggest you check out all of them!  But, the one I find most helpful is the explanation of French knots.  These are great for making eyes.

Feather Stitch Sampler on The Smallest Forest

Once you have mastered the techniques on Craftinomicon, head over to The Smallest Forest to see some other incredible embroidery techniques.

Free Embroidered Felt Easter Egg Pattern on Shiny Happy World

If you are feeling adventurous and want to try your hand at a small, seasonal project, this egg pattern seems perfect!

Octopus Pattern at The Floss Box

Some of you may decide that you are ready to start paying for embroidery patterns, in which case I suggest The Floss Box.  It has a huge selection, including traditional style and more modern patterns.

Silver Fox on Craft

And this is just cute.

Fine Cell Work

One more embroidery related link: Fine Cell Work.  "Fine Cell Work is a social enterprise that trains prisoners in paid, skilled, creative needlework undertaken in the long hours spent in their cells to foster hope, discipline and self-esteem."  Go to the website for more details as well as to see and buy their works of art.  


Check back tomorrow for a new tutorial!
-Colleen