cardboard box : car

Moo loves pretending to drive her dad's car so I decided to make her own cardboard car to have in the garage with keys, dashboard, working streering wheel and all.

YOU WILL NEED:

1 small cardboard box 

1 large cardboard box

several coloured bottle top lids

1 5cm long screw

2 washers

toilet roll

glue gun

spare keyring

paper tape

paints and pens to decorate

1. Firstly turn boxes inside out if you are recycling old boxes like I am. The small box is you bonnet, the large box your main part of the car. Join the 2 boxes together, using the flap to create an angled windshield down on to your bonnet. Cut the sides to fit the shape and tape up all your joins.

2. Cut out a rectangle for your windshield and the top of the box for where you want to sit, and doors. Mark out with a ruler if you want nice straight lines.

3. To make the dashboard - using a spare piece of the cardboard cut a piece the width of your car. Cut out your steering wheel shape, make a hole in the centre of you steering wheel with a sharp pencil. Mark the place on the dashboard you want attach this, make hole with pencil. Cut a 3cm length from your toilet roll for your steering column. Glue to the underside of your steering wheel. Place one washer on your screw and push through the hole on your steering wheel and through the dashboard hole, attach 2nd washer and glue in place on back of dashboard. Your steering wheels should turn. Glue a bottle lid on your steering for horn and to cover screw end. Glue more bottle lids for buttons and decorations onto your dashboard. Tape the dash board into your car so it sits below the windshield, and so there is room your little ones legs to fit underneath.

4. Cut out different key shapes for your house and car and attach to the keyring.

5. Cut 4 equals circles for your wheels, decorate and stick to sides of the car using glue gun. Cut strips for front grill and circles for you headlights and glue in place.

6. Paint and decorate your car.... VROOM VROOM!

how to be 2

The other day I found this video of Flora June. June likes cows, her teddy and hot cocoa, but dislikes her carseat. The video is a totally adorable account of a two year old's morning.  Mima also a two year old girl, LOVES it. It is amazing how their lives are so different and yet exactly the same!

The video was made by Olive Us, a family living in the French countryside, their website is full of sweet videos featuring family's six the children.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Princess Bat

what Mima read : Halloween special

Mima's favourite story book heroine at the moment is Meg the witch. So with Halloween this week I thought it was perfect timing to share some of Mima's favourite pages, usually the result of one of Meg's haphazard spells.

DIY Bat Wings

It's one week until Halloween and as always I'm endeavoring to make Moo a cool homemade costume. Step one is the Bat wings. 

What you'll need: 
1/2m black felt
1/2 black stiff fusing (optional but makes wings nice and firm)
1/2m satin lining
1m x 20mm black elastic
2 balloon sticks on boning would do
tailors chalk 

Method:
Measure child's arm-span to wrist, this will be how wide your wings will be. Fuse Felt if you are choosing do so. Fold felt in half and draw a quarter circle. Now draw your desired wing shape like pictured and cut out.
Fold satin in same method, but cut 2cm smaller around edge. Using your two sticks place at longest wing point. Stitch a 1.5cm tunnel (two rows of stitching 1.5cm apart) insert sticks and trim if needed.
Stitch the two layers together around edge with zigzag stitch.
Using your elastic make two straps that cross over the body mine were 44cm long. stitch in place above shoulders and either side of waist. Make two wrist straps 7cm long stitch in place. 

Fly little bat.

The rest will be reveled next week. 

flying fox

We have had a few inside days over the holidays so I have had to come up with ideas to entertain Mima. One successful creation that was used all day was this flying fox. It was from a childhood memory of a cable car I made as a child and loved.
It is so simple, you need:
a matchbox
twine
safety pin
scissors
tape (I used a small amount of tape to reinforce the holes where the twine threads through the box)

From the start of the journey to their destination make sure the twine is one a steep incline and nice and tight. Hours of fun, whoosh!

what mima wore

Mima's current favorite friend is Kermit the Frog, a puppet which was mine when I was little. Mima loves dressing him up in her clothes, a lot of layering and quite a random selection. We think it is hilarious! 
So I decided to get Kermit to model a few of Mima's current outfits.

Clockwise from top left: Peppin dress with gold leggings; Mima and Moo Mr Storm T-shirt with Pardon My French paisley leggings; Bodem cardigan with JK Kids zebra T-shirt and houndstooth leggings; Meadowlark for SPCA The Love Cats T-shirt with Molo Kids pants (avaliable in NZ here).