Little bees buzzing - it's the English Mothers Day! We've got wellies at school, at the boot of my Land Rover, at the tractor shed - and now also on the table filled with flowers. We not live in the countryside and seem to be getting suitable-for-the-theme presents. The same way at the school parking lot it's not the Jimmy Choos that take the centrepiece, but wellies. Mud and puddles, boys playing rugby and girls hockey wellies are essential. Yes, I live in the wellies world!

And therefore, I guess it is obvious that mom got wellies on her day too. I think I'll continue with the theme and ask for a boot rack for the house entrance as my birthday present for all the wellies we got...So all the Mother's in England - I hope you had a great Mothers Day and also got fabulous DIY presents from your little ones like I did!

I have complained before about the bad air of Beijing, but never has it been this bad: this evening the level hit 755! For the sake of comparison at the same time London air was nice 15 and in Finland below 10... At 300 the children cannot go out at school breaks and reading above 110 is already impacting those with asthma. 

So we were literally prisoners of our home today, and what better than little crafting projects on days like that! My girls were making some arts with their hand and feet and seaside-inspired stamps. And the outcome will of course go on the wall. Next time thought I think we first use a rolled and give the background a light blue tint or something. Live and learn is what I say! 

Finished piece d'art: hadnprints, footprints, seaside themes...and lots of fun in creating it!

This is how it starts - little artist working 

Here we go!

...and then stamping 

I love this idea! It's simply fabulous, and oh so environmental with those recycled materials: half of an old wine barrel and a bunch of empry wine bottle. Add some led cable - and the outcome is this unique ceiling light. J'adore - need I say more? 

Next year I am voting for a simpler Christmas, more home-made presents, ecological wrappings, customised cards. Stamped brown paper for presents, snowflakes in every window, paper chains, jolly bunting maybe, simple red and white instead of all the blingy silver and gold we've had the past years for other decoration (and this year too since the kids are in charge are everything goes!). I like the English Not on the High Street-store and it's the source of my inspiration for this lovely look!

I love this idea of a personalised Christmas tree decal 

Personalised stamps for cards and gift tags - or party invites 

Snowflakes for every window

Paper chain nostalgy

Old-fasghioned bunting

Handmade felt decorations

decorated brown paper figt wrappings and gift tags 

Personalised printed gft sacks 

Beautiful idea... 

Fillable Christmas cones

All so pretty! I am looking for inspiration for home-made Christmas calendars and have come across so many beautiful ideas from creative people. Some might recall that last year I crafted with miss A. a little bucket garland that ran down the stairs of our home - and our kids loved it (and even the husband commented that it looked nice...). Let's see if we manage to choose and make something else this year!

Looking at these calendars one realises that simple ones can be really pretty too, and that many objects at home - starting from clothespins - can be used for quirky, cute calendars. It is so hard to choose from them...what would be your favourite and have you made a calendar of your own at some point?

By Shethanie Lynn guides how to create a cute Pottery Barn -inpisred ornament calendar 

Carnets Parisien has a cute Japanese paper star calendar (just use your Google translator if French doesn't work for you)

Stylizimos sleek and simple DIY guide for chothes pin surpirse calendar 

Hanging and wall calendar inspiration from Sheralyn

Bumblebee and Sophie share their tutorial on how to create a wall tree similar to this Pottery Barn model 

Fab modern calendar ideas from Curbly 

50 fun ideas for calendars from Shelterness

Cone calendar - 25 DIY calendar ideas from Babble 

My bucket calendar from 2011 (see the old posting here)

Step-by-step tutorial from Paper and Cake via Cricut 

Crafting, painting, cooking, swimming, musicals - this dark season is the time for all artistic and indoor-sy expressions. We've certainly started strongly for over the weekend we've been painting canvases (as the resident artist never seemed to have time to put those canvases into good use), created Christmas decorations of all sorts and practised Christmas songs in various languages/ We've a;sp learned to make mini pizza faces as master Hugo borrowed a kids cook book from the school library and insisted on the pizza faces- and finally today we've seen the school musical called Ocean Commotion where Miss A. was a shiny little herring. So much fun, but also tiring as this little herring fell asleep in record time of under two minutes!

I hope you get some fun ideas from these, or can share other great ideas with us as there certainly are plenty of cold and dark days to come and new ideas would be highly appreciated...

Our sparkly herring in the Ocean Commotion - musical 

Guess who loves gluing...

Creating felt tree decorations and learning to stitch 

His and hers traditional Finnish Christmas decorations - angels, elves and Christmas tree ornaments 

Making yummy and fun pizza faces 

What is Christmas without red hearts. We heart Xmas...

Guess the favourite colour of this little 'Picasso"...

Happy flowers for the girls!

So things don't always go as planned, or rather things often don't go as planned - at least in our household (but that doesn't have to be a bad thing). This week I had volunteered to build with the kids an Angry Birds game for the school's international day - representing this time from our collection of nationalities and home countries my birth place, that arctic Northern place called Finland - now better known as the birth place of some very angry birds also... 

Before I tried cutting any cardboard I had a beautiful vision of a game-like multi-level structure built out of boxes, but the reality was that my over-sized super-strong scissors still barely were able to cut these boxes and a saw would have been more appropriate. Of course for the house move they were the perfect item, but this did not pan out for my bird dream. So a few holes later we had one over-sized wardrobe-box plastered with bunch of bird pictures and flags (and by the way, if you didn't know yet what the flag of Finland looks like I challenge you to guess which one(s) I am talking about). 

All in kids kids loved cutting, colouring and glueing, this mom didn't quite enjoy her taping and hole-tearing and the outcome in at best "interesting", but it works (kid tested and gave a lot of joy and laughter). I was a bit hasty to snap a picture before the currently sleeping beauty Miss A. finished her last flag (South Africa), so yes, we not we are still missing some black colour there... We'll see how the other kids at school like this, but I'd recoomend it as a home party fun - and the added benefit on this particular version was that they kids got to know a few new flags too (but maybe use a less sturdy box unless you want the game to last for a year or two!).

This DIY Halloween cake stand from Paper & Cake accompanied by bloody red velvet cakes is just gorgeous. It's raining here and just perfect weather for little crafting, so we'll trying something to the tune of this. I have already crafted kids flags for their international day and we are working today with an Angry Birds game structure out of cardboard boxes to represent Finland in the school's display area - I hope it comes out decent.

Normally I'd deem a project like this too challenging for me, but Paper & Cake site has a step-by-step guide for this creation, and as it gives me a more confident feeling we are certainly going to try it out. next I guess I need to try my very first velvet cake recipe for...So happy crafting if you decide the same - it would be for sure an eye-catching centrepiece at the Halloween table! 

Lately everyone seems to be creating their own customised lamps and other accessories, and here's one pretty eclectic one - and it seems to indicate also about the likes of the owner... perfect accessory for the man cave maybe - and a way to get males of the family to get excited about DIY accessories... 

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Miss A. is so full of energy and wanting to learn things, so I am collecting fun ideas to choose from for the cold, rainy winter days. This step-by-step tutorial for a cool hanging storage is definitely going to our top-ten list.

The instructions are in Finnish, but luckily Google translate can give you pretty accurate instructions if the pictures are not enough to guide you through (instructions here from Pikku Pihlaja). If you end up crafting one of these I'd love to see your fabric choices!

If you got lots of old Apples in the garage here's fantastic idea about how to reuse those keyboards: as an unique tabletop - either using random or arranged patterns. Or if you dont have that many keyboards to use why not create a smaller keyboard-themed tray with some fun hidden messages inside?

On the other hand, if you don't have any extra keyboards to use for crafting but love the idea you can buy these cute ready-made tables from Italian Vigolo Paglia Corta. Isn't this such a great (and geeky) present idea? 

I adore this detailed DIY tutorials from Restless Oasis- blog on how to make this fabulous planter shelf; it seems pretty cheap and simple to make, although it might end up being somewhat time consuming. But the end result is definitely worth it. Such a great idea!

I have never been on holiday in Finland without grabbing the paint brush - and the tradition continues. Last year I painted this little wood storage building, and this year, among other things the old yellow windmill got a new life in a lighter, creamier shade. It is really supposed to be a two-toned  one, so if I manage to locate some leftover white paint, I'll do it properly. 

We also relocated the home-made birdhouse from an old, wonky tree that was cut down and look forward to seeing little chicks there next year again. So this is how I relax on holiday, not forgetting the gardening and fighting againts super-fast weeds, but more project updates in the future. I hope you all have as much fun as we do on our holidays. (and for those who wonder, this house is located a street away of the city's main street, so it's not really deep in the middle of nowhere, that's just Finland for you...)

Now I like this idea I saw at a school in California - the kids had created flower planters using plastic bottles and hung them planter style with strings. If one refines the idea it a bit, and it could be a really beautiful way to display flowers (not that this isn't pretty, I certainly think it looks great). And using some green thinking this is a great way to recycle plastic bottles also... Kids have the greatest ideas!

I love this cute idea! Kids tent creating using the frame of an existing tent and for cutting the fabric the ols tent was cut into pieces. So much prettier than the standard orange tent -the stripy fabric is so pretty, and so are the inside decor of a mattress and cushions in other, sweet pastel patterns.

A romatic and fun kiddie spot in the garden!

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I have just come across a fab site called Ginger & George. Cute and amazing stuff and her little guides make it look like an easy ride - made your own stamps, cards, wall art - you name it... This framed pictures especially made my day today - so pretty with such a special message!

Beautiful creation and an inspirational message

I loved the tutorial on how to make your stamp and this framed card with it

Now this must be a novelty, but then again, better use something than throw away because it expired: so my kids found in the cupboard a gingerbread house package (the one I lost around Christmas) and of course they wanted to decorate it. So we agreed that it would be an Easter house for the little chicks.

This certainly is not an award-winning masterpiece, but it is 100% made by my kids, and poor little kids had a mom who gave the icing that wasn't strong enough to hold jellybeans, which ended up sliding down the roof and chimney and went straight to hungry little mouths..

Anyway, let me proudly present: the making of Easter gingerbread house for the pink and blue chicks:

First it become fashionable to dip clothes, then hair, and finally furniture and accessories in different tones. Now one can admire these paint-dipped pieces all over the place.

Looks pretty simple, so it might be worth trying it out as the pieces get an instant uplift from the paint...

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If your fingers are itching to start a new project and you always dreamed of designing yor own rugs, then this might be your first step to the right direction. Fun Flor rug-tiles let you "stitch" your rug together using square rug tiles. Not quite like using the loom and tying the knots of the threads for months, but at least you have some fun choosing what colours and patterns to use and how best position the tiles!

My favourite? Naturally the Union Jack tile, which also comes in a fashionable faded and black and white shades. Any other takers for nicely priced (Union Jack is $15.99 a tile/ or $5.95 per sq ft), quirky Union Jack rug?

I love the globes from ImagineNation. They are handmade, fun and pretty unique - especially if you get the family tree one! If you are feeling the crafting bug, you can always make one yourself too as this company has kits featuring travel, pets and genealogy. A great idea I think!

This weekend we just had the most fun (and probably the longest) birthday party ever, where most of the parents chose to participate in the fun too - doing ice skating. As the venue had multiple parties at the same time we crafted these fun name tags, which also became keepsakes of the party.

We used red leis as starting point, then cut a hole in a foam star (butterflies for the three birthday girls, as this was a combined party for three classmates), and then we glued a picture of the birthday girls to the foam figure. One could also write the guests names in the shapes if the party has a lot of kids who do not know each other.

Since we were already in crafting mood, miss A. made birthday cards using these same foam figures (from Michaels), coloured glitter glue and little foam heart stickers. She also did the shopping of the birthday presents - within the given budget and guidelines of really thinking what her friends would like to receive. A great experience for all - kids get to learn about the value of money and put some thought into the process of giving, rather than just mom going and getting everything ready for them. This time we mostly skipped the party bag, and each child got an ice-skating themed book as a thank you present.

My kids love baking, but in the absence of time from parents I came up with the "training" program for our little artists: first we'll practise with play-dough and then with the real thing. Miss Celeste still has some way to go, but Miss Anaïs certainly graduated from the play-dough academy 101 to baking the Finnish plum treats already.

Next course, the traditional rice and potato pies on play-dough...happy curious Friday!

little baker working

Miss A. has been practising - playdough...

...vs. the real thing

Miss A got a set for French knitting as a Christmas present from her friend. She finally asked if she could try it, where my response was positive with the caveat that she should read the instructions and try it herself. But after about a minute she was already crying for help, and I for sure am not a master of all things using yarn, especially with needles and stuff. At school I did knit the mandatory wool socks, hat and even one sweater, but it was a slow process for sure!

After a white we were able to produce the right kinds of stuff and miss A. was getting excited, but I still find the French knitting dolly harder than the real thing (oh, and how did I manage to change the style of my knitting half-way through with this little tool??). Luckily we already have in store kids knitting set, so my plan is to have her try that in a week or two and compare the two methods. Maybe my daughter is a bit more talented than I am in the art of knitting!

That is such an exciting though that I might just get a mini sewing-machine as they frankly are so cheap (found this pretty well-rated one for under $47, and if you got Amazon Prime service (which I love) it'll be (like all these other items below) on your doorstep in two days with no shipping change) - I can picture my daughter patching her own clothes, and maybe some of the rest of the family's too...

Anyway, the conclusion for miss A. - French knitting is fun, but we are yet to discover all the things we can do with the dolly, so I have consulting my French friend for expert advive. All pretty-looking end-results will be proudly presented in future blog posts!

Hello cute set of French Knitting

Read the 1-pager and learning the basics

Something is actually forming up!

She likes!

The grip might be a bit stiff still but she's on her second colour so this product definitely is a winner for miss A!

Out cute set was sent from England, but a little tour in the gigantic Amazon store revealed several similar products, and what seems like absolute bargains for little sewing machines:

Make it Fun! French Knitting Dolly Set - Amazon $6.34

French Knitter - Amazon $5.49

Alex Chunky and Funky Scarf Beginner's Knitting Kit in Box - Amazon $12.31

Michley LSS-505 Lil' Sew & Sew Multi-Purpose Sewing Machine with Built-In Stitches - Amazon $46.58

Going to visit a friend or to an impromptu meal but have no present for the hostess? Here's a cute and tasty idea that is easy to put together even in a rush - ingredients for a batch of cookies with the instructions in a cute bow-wrapped jar where the ingredients are nicely layered. I have bought a stock of these quart-size jars, and they only cost around a dollar fifty or so. But some pasta sauce jars and other household jars look really cute too - just spray-paint the lid or cover it with cute piece of fabric or decorative paper.

Then just add the ingredients in the jar for two dozen cookies, write the instructions and you are set to go. The recipient will need to add some butter, an egg and water, mix the dough and get baking so it's easy for everyone!

Here's the recipe we used (in the order I put them in, and this is more for aesthetics than anything else as you want to have a clear layers of ingredients) with Miss A, but one can easily modify it depending on the kind of cookies the recipient might prefer...

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup plain all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and baking powder
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries or tart cherries
• 1/2 cup rolled oats (not instant ones)
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels