Gardening – First Harvest

It hasn’t been a great year so far for our produce but we decided to try digging up one of our early potato plants.  This year Luath has been very involved in the process.
Preparing the ground.

Planting, watering (her favourite part) and gathering some grass to help “earth” up the potato beds.

She was very excited to dig up the plant and wanted to do it herself.

A small harvest but a proud little gardener.

She went straight inside to help daddy scrub, cook and make potato salad for lunch.
   
The potatoes were delicious.
(Luath is 30 months)
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Craft – Gruffalo Natural Art Scavenger Hunt and Picture

The Gruffalo is a big favourite in our house.  We haven’t read the book in a while but we talk about it often, quoting parts of the book and acting it out.  At the weekend Luath saw a pile of logs and immediately said “a log pile house”.  I planned for us to make a Gruffalo so I brought out the book to read.  Next we looked out the colours that makes the Gruffalo. Luath knows her colours so we really didn’t need to do this stage but I thought it was good matching practise. 

Later we went on a natural scavenger hunt for these colours.  I had planned to go to the woods but we ended up doing the hunt in our garden.  We struggled to find bright orange as I was trying to avoid Luath picking our flowers.

I drew the Gruffalo’s outline (sorry doesn't show well in photo) onto thick paper from the inside of a banana box.

We then covered the picture with glue – Luath loved this part.  We then added the leaves, petals, bark to the appropriate parts.

Once it was drier I drew the outline in thick marker pen.  I was quite surprised how well our image turned out.  If you had an older child and more time you could get a stunning picture.
 
(Luath is 30 months)
Shared with Tuesday Tots and Eco kids.

A home for a toad

Yesterday Luath and I went to uncover one of our raised beds.  I had placed some cardboard and boards over it to keep the weeds down. As we lifted one of the wooden boards we discovered a toad ( a common toad).
       
We don’t have a pond and neither do any of our neighbours.  There are a few wee lochs in the area but still a fair distance for a toad to travel.  It seemed very happy and we could see a few beasties roaming about that I am sure it was snacking on.  However we needed our raised bed.  We replaced the board and I checked online for advice on a DIY toad home.  I found information on the bbc breathing places site here, which includes a  poster on a toad abode.  There is a slightly different style at eco kids here.  You can also purchase a ready made home.

We have a small wildlife corner, where the grass has been left to grow, along with some nettles and other plants. We have already added some logs, stones and a bug house.  Today Luath and I gathered the supplies required for toads new home – a terracotta pot (diameter more than 20cm), a cover for the pot (for a bit more protection from the elements), moist foliage, branches.  I dug a hole to rest the pot in on it’s side.

We lined it with some damp long grass and some leaves.  Covered the pot with an old bird table top and used some cut branches to cover the entrance (the entrance cover needs improved but it was the best I could do meantime).
 
Close to the home we placed a plant pot dish level with the ground.  We added a stone (so the toad can sit on it) and then filled it with water.
 
I carefully moved the toad, managing to transfer it on some of the cardboard into the pot.  NB Don’t touch toads with your bare hands, I had gloves on too.  I am not sure how long the toad will stay but it is very welcome to feast on any slugs and snails that are heading for our veggies.

 
Shared with Eco Kids via Organic Aspirations and Tuesday tots via Rainy Day Mum
(Luath is 28 months)

Our beach combed/ beach clean up scarecrow

We live by a sea loch and quite often things are washed up along the shoreline.  We frequently pick things up and either bin, recycle or reuse.  Luath understands that we do this to help keep the wildlife safe and to tidy up.  I decided a little while ago we would see if we could make a scarecrow out of things that we found on the beach. It has been a fun activity to do together and has helped Luath walk a little further on the days she decides that she wants home almost as soon as we are out of the garden gate.  The scarecrow has been made for about a month but he has fallen to pieces a few times so Luath and I tried to make him a bit more solid.

He is put together with two sticks and some rope.  Luath and I added some nails to secure the wood together.

His head is a football and he has a plant pot hat.  We nailed the hat onto the wood and also partly nailed the football onto the wood (with great care using the air pump hole).

He initially had a white hat over the black one but as we are hoping to give him some flower hair, we have stuck with the open based black pot.  We have found some objects for his face but we are having trouble attaching them to the ball.  He now sits with a good view of the garden and awaits any new additions we find.
     
The list of objects we have found so far to use on the scarecrow:
2 bits of wood
1 rope
1 football
2 plant pots
1 welly boot
1 sack (his tunic)
1 tea towel (worn as a cape)
1 piece webbing (his belt)
1 work glove

3 rubber discs (bangles)

Not in picture but for face

half a yellow disc (for smile)

1 pink beaker (nose)

(Luath is 27 months)

 

Shared with Eco Kids via Organic Aspirations

and with Tuesday tots via Rainy Day mum

Trying homemade milk powder paint on outdoor objects

I have been planning to paint our vegetable raised beds with some colourful paint for well over a year.  Most activities I need to be able to do in small doses with Luath alongside so any proper outdoor paint is not toddler friendly.  I had seen a homemade paint recipe using milk powder paint and I was going to try it one day, then I thought why not try it outdoors.

I mixed up one batch.  The ratio is 1:1 of milk powder and water, and add food colouring.  You need to give it a good mix to get rid of the lumps.

We painted one side of a vegetable bed and it worked great.  It didn’t give a full colour but I like the distressed look.  I am sure a second coat would give a better cover.  Luath added some paint to a few other of the beds.

The next day I made up four other colours.  We have different types of food colouring.  The paste worked best, with liquid you need to reduce the amount of water and the squeeze tube didn’t work to well.  I added salt to one batch to see if it would sparkle as homemade paint with flour and salt we made does (so far it doesn’t seem to).

Luath was very keen to paint again.  She did wander around the area with a brush, dropping some and dabbing wood.  She also did some water painting (I had a tub of water to clean the brushes with).  It was relaxing to be able to let her explore freely knowing that the paint was safe for her and the wildlife – we both had on our messy play clothes. We painted one vegetable bed side and had just started to decorate the green side we had done the day before when Luath needed the toilet. 

After our break Luath wanted to stay on the patio.  I thought we could try painting some of our flower pots.  Luath did a little painting with a small brush.

I finished by painting the legs of our bird table with pink and purple. 
 
I had to move the bird table onto our table to dry as the dog started licking the paint.
   
I am not sure how well the paint will stand up outdoors especially as we get a lot of rain.  It has rained over the past few days and so far the pink colour is disappearing (made with liquid food colouring) but the other paint remains.  Even if it all washes away it was a fun activity.

(Luath is 25 months)
 
Shared with Eco Kids via Organic Aspirations and Tuesday tots via Rainy Day mum

Sewing a doll from an upcycled baby vest and some clothes from baby clothes

Make it and love it recently posted a tutorial with pattern pieces for a doll. The post has lovely pictures of the three dolls she made and her children who received them, along with a detailed tutorial. I have a waldorf doll in the make since Luath was six months old, partly as craft time has been very limited.  When I saw these dolls I thought I could make one quite quickly.

I have been going through Luath’s baby clothes and a few have seen better days – some have been through a few other babies before Luath.  I thought one of the stained long sleeved vests would make perfect material.

The full sized pattern pieces would have been too big so my pattern is slightly smaller.  I also printed two copies so I could have a complete head and body.  I decided to attach the arms to the pattern.  I cut the legs from the arms of the vest.

I made my own hair shape from felt and cut the felt at the back and sewed them onto the head.  Next I attached the legs to the body piece, which was a bit fiddly and then sewed around the doll.  I am a beginner sewer so the corners were a little tricky   I finished the doll with coloured pencil drawn eyes and mouth.
 
It is far from a perfect doll, her head/hair needs a bit of reworking and doesn’t look much like the original but I am proud that I have actually finally made Luath a doll.  I would like to make another, perhaps more like Ashley’s dolls.

I left the doll out so that Luath would find her in the morning.  She instantly was drawn to the doll (great how she didn’t notice any imperfections) and happily went to the bathroom with her in tow.  I quickly made a dress for the doll from a baby skirt.  I seam ripped, sewed two hems and added a popper set (from the vest).
 
Later I made a nappy from an old bib.

  

Pants/shorts from a pair of baby pants (once that sometimes come with a dress), we never used these as we use cloth nappies, so the pants are never big enough.  Using half of one leg hole,   I used the other half of that leg hole to make a matching skater style skirt.  Great when the elastic is already done for you.

Luath goes through fads of which of her “guys” is the favourite but today doll enjoyed a trip to the mobile library, a walk, hide and seek .and a pretend party.
     
(Luath is 25 months)
 
Shared with Eco Kids via Organic Aspirations