More fun with pipe cleaners - animals, Christmas ornaments, leis and more

Other than cleaning a pipe, poking into play dough and coiling like a spring, what can you do with pipe cleaners?

Here's some awesome animal tutorials from Thoughts from the Beaver Pond.

Flower Leis at All Free Holiday Crafts - theirs are 4th July ones but they'd work well for spring celebrations, Hawaiian themed parties or fairy costumes.

Christmas tree star toppers from 2crafts.com which could be adapted into wands or incorporated into space themed activities.

4 Crazy Kings made pipe cleaner shamrocks for St Patrick's Day - will definitely give this a try next March.

Or try some beaded Christmas Tree ornaments like the ones at Make and Takes - they look even better with clear or faceted beads.

Boy's Easter 'Bonnet'

I just stumbled across photos my mother in law took at Geekling's daycare Easter Parade, so I'm making a very late Easter post - or very early for next year?

We needed to make an 'Easter Bonnet' at home to bring in for their parade.  Which got me thinking - what exactly do you make for a young man?  Most bonnets I've seen are fairly pink, frilly, lacey or otherwise rather feminine.  While I'm not usually one to follow gender sterotypes too closely, I couldn't bring myself to make such a hat for Geekling and was determined to think of something more manly.

I almost made him this one from Sewn Together out of scraps, and almost wish I had as it would have gone into our growing dress up box collection.  But in the end I wound up making a very cheap and simple one from cardboard left over from our wedding invitations (4 years ago!) and some foam letters from our sensory box filling collection.

Let's explore outer space!

Geekling has been loving stars and the moon for a while now, so I put up some of those old style Glow-Zone glow in the dark star stickers and a set of planets in his room.  I bought them second hand (but in unopened packets) ages ago and had planned to wait til Geekling was older and we could plot out constellations together, but I just felt in my heart it was suddenly the right time - and I'm so glad I put them up!  Geekling is enthralled by them!  I made sure to put the solar system up in the right order and put up a few of my favourite constellations so we will hopefully have fun finding them a few years down the track.

Since the stickers went up he's requested "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and a lullaby book of his talking about catching stars, so I think I'll nip down to the library in my lunch break tomorrow and borrow some kids books featuring stories about space and maybe a couple of simple reference books.

So the next question is - what other space-themed activities should I gather up to feed my son's new obsession?

Counting Coconuts did a whole month's theme on it and have some amazing ideas - matching planets, a space sensory box, practical life activities pouring star-shaped pasta and sweeping star sequins, counting with star stickers, punching stars with a small punch... a fantastic resource!

Fairy Dust Teaching has a gorgeous looking Galaxy Playdoh - I must hunt down some black food colouring to make some!

First Schools has some printables and activities in a space theme.

Now... is it too soon to introduce him to Star Wars & Star Trek?

Stay tuned for our space adventures!

Hubby's birthday cake

My husband is a bit of a quirky guy, and one of his most obvious eccentricities is his penchant for Hawaiian shirts.  To be fair, in our climate they are nice and cool in summer and as they're button up and collared they are technically suitable for a wide range of occasions.

So Geekling and I made his 32nd birthday cake in the shape of a Hawaiian shirt!  We baked a square cake then cut a slice off to cut up as sleeves.

I wish I'd gotten a picture before it was pincushioned, but this will have to do.

Happy birthday, hubby!

Rainbow rice!

I had to pick Geekling up from daycare a couple of weeks ago as he wasn't well.  While he was napping, I made up a batch of rainbow rice for him to play with in the afternoon and he was positively thrilled with it!

I used 2 x 1kg bags of jasmine rice.  They were on special for $1 each.  I divided into the number of colours I wanted (5) and then put each portion in a ziplock bag with a couple of squirts of hand sanitising alcohol and quite a few drops of food colouring.  Then I shook until it was evenly coloured and lay it on baking paper to dry.  You can substitute hand sanitiser for white spirits like vodka but it will take longer to dry.

Here it is before Geekling got to it:

Its become a permanent addition to our sensory box fillers.  I initially gave him some different sized cups, scoops and spoons (including slotted ones that the rice slowly sifts through).  I've since used it with rainbow foam letters buried in it as an alphabet find-the-letter activity, and today with plastic easter eggs to fill and shake.  It still looks great even all mixed up and when we're done I tip it into a large ziplock bag and put away for next time.

After shot coming soon!

Aromatherapy shower discs for colds & flu

First off, apologies for neglecting this blog.  I contracted Ross River Fever at the end of February and its been a long fight but I'm finally coming good now.

I came across this post for home made aromatherapy shower discs on Pinterest and it reminded me that here in the Southern hemisphere cold and flu season is about to start.  I was thrilled to note that I have all the ingredients for these, though we often buy a blended oil here called "Breathe Easier" because hubby has so many allergies and Geekling is athsmatic, and it smells very much like Vicks so I might use 45 (!!) drops of it instead of the blend, even though I have those oils. I had to stop myself whipping a batch up right now - only I think that they'd be best made fresh.  Rest assured at the first sniffle or sneeze, I'll turn out a set and give them a try.

I think they'd make a great get well gift too!