Christmas countdown 20 -- Christmas tree elf ornament, USB tree

I couldn't resist this darling ornament published at Buzzmills. It was fun to make and quick to pull together. It took Starboy a while to find, and he thinks it's a hedgehog, despite knowing that it's supposed to be a porcupine like Sylvia likes.

Starboy's still under the weather, and it's been a quiet day after a longish night. He is enthused to re-discover a little fiberoptic USB tree we were given last year, that changes colors in the dark. He waited for hours to be able to turn it on. And he's enthralled.

Starboy has been excited to hear about snow, snow, snow, and made a sled so his stuffed animals could go sledding on a hill made out of a chair with a fleece blanket and a layer of white netting over it. So today we read "White Snow, Bright Snow," a classic by Alvin Tresselt.

Mouse House

Starboy has been talking about dollhouses and has had an interest in them—even adding some to his wish book. He's really into mice lately; they drive the cars and trucks, and they also offer gifts and nice things while he sleeps, somehow. ("The mice must have left that for me!")

I think this is a combination of reading about Mistress Mouse from the Richard Scarry books, as well as the team of lovely mice that are featured regularly in the Junkyard Tales he loves listening to.

Well, Starboy asked me to make a mouse house for him out of felt. Apparently the gorgeous wooden castle his grandparents gave him for Christmas is a bit too roomy for the mice. Poor mice, and their first world problems. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

So I did some research and found some beautiful, beautiful natural dollhouse choices online. Pinterest and Etsy are such time sucks: Warning! Warning! My collection of tiny house inspiration is here.

I would love to make him a sturdy house like this, but I don't really have the time to haul out the power tools, and anyway I. HATE. SANDING., so we added it to his wishlist for Grandpop. The levels can separate into individual units. It's also familiar: Miss Molly uses a house like this in some of her storytelling. Seems so easy to make, if you're handy with a jigsaw, and have access.

This one by Melissa and Doug I've been looking at for a long time. It's only about $40 for the set and super cute—Mary Jane has one. It's a bit bulky to store but low profile as far as most childrens' toys go. But, it would make a great garage (or barn) when opened. And it's very portable. I love this dollhouse. If I had remembered this during the initial stages of the search, I probably would have just bought him this one, rather than spending half a day making the felt one we ended up with. But I'm not upset with the way things turned out.

I really wanted something woodsy for him, to keep his imagination expanding. Like the drawings of Elsa Beskow, Beatrix Potter and Thornton Burgess. And portable, so he could move it around, or take it with him somewhere.

This one is so charming, but spendy. And I'm not sure how long he'll retain the sweetness to appreciate it, what with school coming up and all of those new television-fed friends to give him ideas. I'm looking for shapes that would be versatile: Could also be a garage, a barn, and so on.

Here's another great house from Etsy: when the child outgrows it, it can hold books. Genius. You could make a whole city and organize your kid for middle school at the same time. Which offers another reminder: Any ole bookshelf could be a dollhouse, too. You don't have to build things from scratch to be crafty.

This pattern via Pinterest is cute for felt, but not as interactive as I was looking for. It's more of a lidded box than a playhouse.

And I considered the design of our previous gnome homes, made from tissue boxes. Which were a huge (and quick and cheap) success. Shoeboxes....gift boxes....etc. Wasn't part of my mojo that day.

But this was the one that really caught my eye for inspiration: Simple, open-ended, natural, and possibly easy to create. I can't afford the $199 price tag that Etsy seller Shroompers charges, but after investing four or five hours in the one I made, I can understand the hefty price—especially with lovely wool felt and stuffing.

What I ended up with is a riff on the previous gnome house and Shroomper's woodland hut. With a few marked improvements. In my humble opinion.

I loved the round windows and doors that we used on our first gnome houses, and the greenery on the roof and base of Shroomper's house. Both offer a more natural, woodland feel; a break from city life. I stuffed my two layers of felt, like Shroompers did, but I used only cotton quilt batting, not wool fluff. So the effect was very plain and flat. To offset that, I did some free-quilting to create "leaves" and "grass" on the roof and base/ground. 

The ground is one pieces, and the roof is three separate pieces tacked together into one piece.

The felt walls were made by sandwiching some plastic canvas between two pieces of felt. I made my own sketch as a pattern, keeping in mind the size of the creatures who would live there (gnomes, mice, Schleich and Safari Ltd. animals). The two walls were stitched together on the two ends, so when you push them together like a coin purse, the house opens up with living space. But it folds flat for storage.

This also is why I ended up not sewing the roof onto the house. Not only does it make it easier for play, but it's also much easier to store when it can be separated. This is a big deal in Los Angeles, especially in an old house like ours with only two closets.

I tried to embellish the house and the roof like Shroompers did, to give it dimension: varying greens to give depth in the leaves, patterning and shrubs on the walls...but it all looked super hokey so the pieces are in my scrap bin. I plan to hand embroider some of the openings to offer definition, but there hasn't been time so far.

 I forgot to leave room on the roof for the chimney, and then Starboy flipped out that there was no fireplace. So the mice have a chiminea that will work indoors or out. True California living. The flames are all stitched together in one blob.

Basically it's four semi-tear-dropped shape felt pieces sewn into a tube, then a square piece added to the bottom to make it a "vase."

The stools are wooden drawer knobs painted to look like mushrooms. There's a mushroom table that's actually a little treasure box.

This mouse is "Dao's mouse;" you can find the pattern here. We have two of them, and they go missing all the time. Pesky mice.

I have a collection of peg people on Pinterest that has a lot of ideas here and other felt toys and mice here.

So, the castle now officially has some peasant farmland outside the gates...or maybe it's the Royals' retreat. That probably will depend on the story of the day.

Party attire

Each year for his birthday, I make Starboy a felt badge t-shirt that he can wear for his celebration. I wanted to make him a squirrel shirt this year, but I didn't have a t-shirt with the right colors. I only had dark gray. It's hard to find plain t-shirts with a nice cut and no breast pocket. And forget organic. It's hard to find a plain t-shirt at all.

Last year I made Starboy a blimp shirt, embroidering the felt badge on by hand. It's hard to see here, sorry. I'll have to find a better shot.

This year I went with a simple toadstool, in the interest of time. I'd still like to do the squirrel shirt, if I can find the right color tee.

The blimp took me several days to make, but the mushroom came together in an evening. One movie. I use chain stitch and regular embroidery thread, and no backing (which doesn't do well in the wash; I don't really recommend it).

I love how simple it is.

Birthday wishes

I made our family birthday banner out of felt. I wanted something really beautiful and handmade, that could be passed down when Starboy has kids. If he wants. If it lasts. The letter squares are pinned to a long ribbon with straight pins, since I haven't come up with a better way to string it, yet. Hanging it up is a delicate process.

There are additional name banners for Techman and Starboy, but I'd never finished mine—until this summer!

I printed the letters on white paper then pinned them to felt and cut them out. I used a Craftsman style font, to match our old house. Then, simple sewing on the machine. I would have loved to have hand-embroidered them, but there is just way too much real estate to cover.

 I'm excited that I'll be able to add Mommy under the banner next year!

Snowy egret has a friend

 I finally finished the second snowy egret for the charter school display.

This one has an actual armature, which makes him a lot more sturdy. It was sewn into him as I added the belly piece. (Which was a bit annoying.)

The new guy (gal? on left) isn't displaying his mating plumage. Just a regular snowy egret. I used the same pattern, but tilted his tail downward, which meant I needed to create an entirely new back piece and underside piece.

Okay, so it's practically a whole new pattern. Which I hope to post at some point.

I'd hoped to make one bending down into the water, or doing something cool, but I couldn't face creating another pattern from scratch last week—too much else going on.

The feet have the same glue issue, but at least the base is sturdy. The mask is slightly better, but I didn't think the bill was as successful.

Traveling companions.

Waldorf water bird

The river scene to promote the Waldorf-inspired charter school is, in my opinion, wholly inadequate without some authentic Los Angeles River flora and fauna.

So I worked to create a snowy egret for the scene. I started with this photo from the Bolsa Chica (I would like to find the photographer, to link back properly to his site and give him credit). 

I couldn't figure out how to mathematically draw a pattern, so I built a maquette out of a printout of the photo and some structural elements cut from magazine paper.

This was a tremendous mindbender for me, and I have no idea how I can draw the final pattern and digitize it in a way that I can offer it to all of you so you can make one. Stay tuned on that.

small felted balls

I wanted to experiment making some small felted balls. This would be a trial run for making larger dryer balls for the Bounce-loving Techman, and as gifts.

I started with some roving. You have to really fluff it out to get a lot of fibers available to grab each other during the shock of felting. It is important to pull the roving apart rather than cutting it. Cutting it will cause cracks later.

I rolled the roving loosely into a ball, then filled a small, reusable leftover container with about half a drop of dish soap and a couple of teaspoons of water. After experimenting a bit, you'll see how much water works.

Shake-a, shake-a, shake-a. This is supposed to be all you need to do.

However, ALL of my balls got some sort of crack. Even when I didn't cut the roving. I found that if you stuff a small, thin layer of new roving in the crack, then wrap it around the ball using a little water as "glue," you can heal the crack pretty well.

Aaaaaand, shake.

It worked! These balls were really cute and Starboy loves to play with them. Mine turned out light and fluffy. I have seen others that are more smooth and dense. I wonder if this is because the roving initially was wound much more tightly? I will have to experiment.

If you make a number of these, you can string them together with needle and thread to make a great garland.

Crafting Binge - Gnome costume for doll

I wish I'd finished this for Halloween, but now Starboy's doll has a gnome outfit as well!

Worker vest a success

The construction worker vest is a success. Starboy is enjoying wearing it, but he doesn't seem to love it with his heart, as he does the gnome outfit. He really has a sense of pride when he is dressed as a gnome.

The hard hat is from Home Depot. We put it on the smallest setting then wrapped a bandanna around the headband to snug it up. There's an orange tee (LS) and a yellow tee (SS) to complete the outfit, but he went with the blimp tee for a playdate in the park.

Calm in the forest

Starboy Red Gnome enjoyed a break in the pretend forest after a lot of Halloween activity. He has really been excited to be a gnome this week.