A book cake (+ crochet bombing a birthday chair)

11 years old. A book cake.

          

This girl is amazing. She is full of constant ideas and inspiration. She can find something fun to do in ANY situation and she usually drags her brother and sister into having fun too. She loves life and being with people. She is soft hearted and her imagination is endless. She values things that are important and at eleven is careful what she watches and reads. Her favourite books are mostly the Classics...

thus the Wizard of Oz Book Cake. :) 

Those little red 'fish' are suppose to be red shoes...

ya know the click your heels together shoes. 

Oh well :) 

We had a few girls over before we celebrated as a family

 and they made 'High Heel Cupcakes'. :) Seriously this was super easy and 

cute.  I was able to use the cake batter to make just enough for every girl to have one high heel shoe. 

I could post more pics, but I won't. Lots and lots of inspiration on pinterest if you are interested in making cupcake heels. I just used what I could find here in Turkey to duplicate it. 

Here are a few pics of some Yarn Bombing of our Birthday chair. :)

   Autumn and Lydia are learning to crochet thanks to Jenny (our fabulous Homeschool helper who is living with us for the school year). So we had a lot of crocheted yarn chains hanging about our house that Jenny used to bomb the Birthday chair. :)

Ok so maybe our yarn bombing is not quite up to standards. This is amazing isn't it. 

Love the idea of splashing color in the most unusual places. :) 

source

Grateful. 

In my west corner, 

Becky

Homemade Valentine ideas and an Audio story

Ok so Valentines day is today and in our house it is always simple but sweet. This year we are making homemade Valentines for our family.  Here are a few of my favourites for ideas that I found! Also here is a link for a 5 minute audio by:
Story Nory on the true story of valentines day.

Parents.com

Seriously this is my favourite of all time I think!!! Clever clever. :)

sweetandlavelycrafts.blogspot.com

Great to make for the kiddos, our little love bugs!

:)

Spoonful.com

This would be a fun Grandparent valentines card! 

Too bad I didn't get to it this year. ;(

Paper chain hearts: how to  @ first palette.com

We made lots of these paper chain hearts today!!! It was fun to help the girls figure how to make these on their own. We now have hearts and paper heart chains taped and hanging from the doorways! 

Also one more thing that we have done so far today is read 1 Cor. 13 :1-7 and John 15:13.

We will read the verses again at lunch and dinner and discuss what love truly is and how 

Christ is our perfect example. 

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Jn. 15:13

In our west corner enjoying each other. and that crazy little googly eye love you card!

Becky

Candy bar valentines 2012

Valentines for the cousins 2011

Poems and Puppet Theatre only 2 days away! (HS J& J)

Here is a sneak peak of what will be seen at the 

Poem and Puppet Theatre

(...located down the hall and into the living room) 

in just a few days. 
(what a geek I spelled theatre WRONG...will correct soon)

A few poems that will be performed are:

Today I saw a Little Worm- by: Spike Millgen

Boa Constrictor - by: Shel Silver stein

and 

What are you?- by: unknown

*also there will be a few EXTRAS :).

(that I had to limit as they are more made up and full of fun goofiness)

Autty put together signs for each poem 

and by whom it was written. :)

Practicing alone and then for a sweet little audience of one. :) 

We decided that we needed curtains for the puppet stage 

and since Lydia is in charge of the puppet stage she sewed the little curtains. 

We then ran a thin rope thru the fabric we had sewn over and attached the two ends of the rope to  clothes pin we had clipped on top of the puppet stage. (I can show of pic of this next time)

We have a few last minute details to complete...the monkey puppet was my responsibility along with the sign for the puppet theatre. :)  So I am working on those today. :) Tomorrow will be practice day and putting it all together. It was really fun today to see each of the girls take total responsibility for their parts in this 'production'.  

So only two more days before the 'big' production and I think this rather large cardboard puppet stage will be in our living room until at least then if not a few days after. :)

 Be on the look out for the Poems and Puppet Theatre review next week...there may even be a clip or two. 

Part 1 of Poems and Puppets. The cardboard stage.
Part 2 of Poems and Puppets. Felt puppets.

In my west corner of Turkey ~ 

Becky

DIY Felt stick puppets for the Puppet Show (HS Journey & Journal #3)

Poems and Puppets will be our theme. 

We have picked out three poems from this lovely book; Poems for the Very Young, it is full of lots of sing songy poems that are super engaging. 

We are using felt, a glue gun and some doul sticks to make the puppets. 

I first had the kids draw out there puppets on a regular sheet of paper. 

They then cut out the picture and used it as their pattern on the felt.

I am trying to let the kids take the lead on this. 

They picked the poems and had to think through how many puppets per poem. 

I have placed Autty in charge of all things 'puppets' and Lydia in charge of the stage. 

Here they are testing out there first stick puppets. :) 

My remain nameless child who balked at this idea is warming up just fine and enjoying herself thoroughly. 

As of now we have 2 puppets down and 5 more to go, plus

memorisation and the completion of the stage. 

So far we work on this idea 2 times a week for the last 30 to 45 minutes of our morning...clipping right along. 

Poems and Puppets part #3....soon to follow. ;)

In our little west corner- creating puppets and memories. 

Becky 

You can check out how we made our stage here:  Part #1- Creating a Puppet Theatre

Bits and bobs I have been working on

Just wanted to say Hi and show you a little face lift to my 'idea book'.

This is where I write lists or sketch ideas of art pieces to be or not to be. 

It was just a plain notebook I had and added some grey scrap book paper to it about a year ago. 

Tonight I looked at it and thought how drab. So hopefully the new additions will inspire new ideas, creativity and cups of hot tea. :) 

Underneath my idea book are fun little quilting squares I randomly put together the other day. 

Here is what my living room table has looked like for the past week. :) 

I am determined not to put it all away until I have created something else..something fabulous, something full of color, something grand!  (my table might be looking like this for awhile ;))

Oh and here is my little incognito sewing/art supply cabinet in my living room.

  I can turn my living room into a creative space in a flash and then close it up really tidy like. :)  

Random note: 

This morning I woke up and pulled my chair over by one of my living room windows and watched the clouds move and make way for the bits of color left over from the sunrise.  As I talked with the Lord I tried to sketch what I was seeing over the apartment buildings all around... they (the apartment buildings) could not shut out the sky, the clouds the fresh morning glow. I am convinced that beauty can be found every where God is!  

Tonight I am going to try and create some beauty. Good night to you all. 

Becky in my west corner. 

Homeschool j & j #2 - Puppet Theatre and show Part #1

Hey. So I have been thinking for some time how fun it would be for a puppet show.  I have been saving this big ole box for some time and I belive the time has come for a little theatre. a little show. a performance of sort. to happen right here in our home. So watch and be amazed as we transform boxes and felt into an amateur display of the arts. :) 

We are going to take a few hours of school each week to plan and put together a puppet stage, homemade puppets and a story or poem of some sort for the script. We are hoping to have it all ready before our wonderful and dear freinds who have lived in this city with us for the past 8 years pack up and go home. We would love to perform it for them...so two weeks is our goal.

Here is Part 1 of our Puppet theatre in pics:

Cute kid waiting.

Cutting and taping. 

Testing it out.

If you are interested in making your own puppet stage like this check out this you tube video it is perfect! (just need a big box)

Make a Cardboard Puppet Theater

You would think that both my girls would be completely delighted with this project. Well not so...nope one of them (who I will keep anonymous) is struggling that the results are slow and it takes steps and planning to make it come together, she wants it to go faster. This is going to be a great learning tool for her in follow through and how forethought and hard work pay off. 

 This idea involves thinking thru steps, math, reading and crafting to name a few. Not to mention learning to work together.  So I am feeling pretty good about taking our school time and putting this together. We shall see how it all goes...as this momma also is learning that 10 yr. olds and 7 yr. olds have lots of great ideas that are sometimes different than mine and wearing flexibility is imperative. 

So long for now. In our west corner. Using another cardboard box.

Becky

Cardboard Super hero house tour :)

Well as I shared a bit ago..(here).. that I made this super hero cardboard house for my little guy. 

I semi- promised I would show you more of it, so here it is. 

Enjoy.

The fun features are the trap door at the top and the workable jail.

I made the jail with a tea box. Also it has a secret passage on the side. :)

The beds are made out of cork board hot glued together and painted and the mattresses from foam and I sewed the bedding. The table is a lid and spool of thread. I have yet to make a few chairs for the 

super heros to rest their weary heroic bones. 

Here is the tea box and a pic to show you how I attached it.

Truth is Isaac loves that I made this for him but it is not on his list of favourite toys. It gets played with on and off. I think it would help if I made a few more pieces of furniture. However it was ALOT of fun to make and he often calls it 'special'. I love my little fellow and all the boyishness that he brings to our home!

Hope this is inspiring to someone. :) Here is the girls carboard dollhouses from years ago, (we still have one in good shape after 4 years!!) and another homemade toy from cardboard that I made for Isaac a few years ago can be found HERE.


In my west corner, Good night.
Becky

Welcome art (Hoşgeldin)

Welcome. 

A little piece of wood art. 

This is your first lesson Turkish lesson to all you none Turkish speaking readers out there. 

Hoşgeldin (hoshgeldin) = Welcome 

Still would like to add a wire so that it can hang, I also think that will make it look more complete. :) 

One fun thing about this piece is that I stained the wood with black tea, brushing it over the wood on and off for a few days and then letting it dry. 

I have a sweet friend I want to give this too. I am saving it for a Christmas gist. :) 

Off to make dinner. In my beloved west corner. 

Becky

Our fall leaf people

We are enjoying the beginning of Fall weather here in our little west corner. 

So the next obvious thing to do is make 

Fall Leaf People,  you know those little creations that come from the fallen leaves. ;) 

We used a glue stick and a hot glue gun for the larger sticks.

Isaac loved this and made his creations without much help, except the hot glue gun. 

This one was mine. The kids called it the 'fat leaf fairy'. :) 

On the day that we went and collected these things I was determined to find a place away from apartments and not one of the two parks we go to ALL the time. It is very hard to go for nature walks here and I had a moment that day to feel bad about it or ask the Lord to help me find somewhere to go. We got in the car and I prayed. I was reminded of a little walking area that is REALLY small but it has lots of trees so off we went. It really was amazing to me how much kids just love to be out, they did not notice that it was really small and had no grass just dirt. They had a riot looking for bits and bobs for our creations. My attitude and determination make such a difference in the fun of our days. Also that day I was again reminded the Lord cares about my/our daily lives and that makes my heart full.

Enjoy the beginning of this glorious fall weather. 

Tea will be abundant at my house so feel free to stop by!!!

Learning to ask the Lord to help me 'use what I have' to create and enjoy life. 

In my little west corner,

Becky