posted by Cara
For Tom's birthday I wanted to make him something related to what he's interested in right now. Basically, that's Tintin and Star Wars Lego. Since, his party was Tintin themed and Helen had that covered, I went with Lego. I bought a plain box at the craft store, painted each side a different colour and raided my boys' lego stash to write his name. It won't hold very many legos, however, so maybe he can keep some other treasures in there. :)
photo from moarpowah.com
Well we couldn't choose any other date to relaunch ourselves and our boys into the blog-osphere, could we?! So hop into your x-wing and join us for a quick reconnaissance mission to find our where we're at nearly twelve months older if not wiser...
Helen and boys
Well Joe is currently eating peas without grace, having been dragged in from making mud pies in the garden, so I guess he's well and truly attained little boy status ;-) his current obsessions are hay balers, puddles and octonauts.
Tom is nearly six and can now ride his bike and tie his shoelaces, although not at the same time! Life revolves around computers, c'est pas sorcier and tintin. But there's still time to make stuff :-)
Cara and boys
Jacques is in his element when he's outside. Just yesterday, I heard him yell 'I love nature' when we were walking in the forest. He loves science, computer games, reading fantasy and sci-fi novels and talking non-stop about any of the above ;)
Anthony is a huge Sidney Crosby fan and is happiest when on the ice (or in front of a computer screen). He has improved his hockey skills so much in the last few months, you'd never know he only started in September.
Philippe, like most younger brothers, loves doing whatever the big boys are doing. If they aren't around, he still has an incredible passion for all things horses and rides every week and loves to do anything artsy.
Hector, our group's littlest boy at almost 2, is our little clown, he loves to make his brothers laugh with such boyish antics as sticking his finger up his nose. Other interests include climbing (the higher the better) and stomping in puddles.
Just a note about our only non-boy... Juliet, has become much more girly this year with all her little friends at school, but that didn't stop her from watching Star Wars 3 times in as many days, completely glued to it! That's my girl :D
posted by Helen and Cara
Yay, we made it! 75 posts, 6076 page views and 362 comments later and we're still bursting full of ideas to share with you. Thank you all for looking :o)
So to celebrate in style, here are some Star Wars themed projects (it is May the Fourth, afterall...) to get the next twelve months off to a flying start...
Helen's X-wing party set:
This was a 30 minute make, (although I did have to wait a little longer for the paint to dry...) and could be easily adapted to include you own (hmm, your kids own ;o)) Star Wars character or vehicle.
I splatter painted a sheet of A4 card, used half for a birthday card, then one quarter for a place name and two eighths for gift tags (nothing if not thrifty me) I made a template for the fighter then used some recycled card to make the shapes and labels with pen details to finish. (Backdrop provided by Tom who as usual didn't want to miss out on the fun.)
... is out of this world
Cara's Woolly Wookie:
With Anthony's birthday coming up on Saturday, I wanted to make him a gift. With most of my craft supplies packed away because of our renovations, my choices were limited. I had an idea for a needle felted Chewbacca and I knew that my wool and needles were in a box that wasn't too hard to get to ;)
I made him up in a couple of nights while watching TV after packing and sorting all day, it was quite relaxing ;) Philippe and Juliet even helped at the end with the face and his bag thingy. Philippe insisted that I hide it right away even though Anthony is at his grandmother's until Friday ;) The metal bits are foil leafing and the bag is just a bit of fabric.
Here is is with the Yoda that Helen made for Jacques last year, just because I thought they looked cute.
MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU !
Cara's version
Helen and I are big Harry fans. We read the books at the same time, limiting ourselves to 2 chapters a day so we could discuss what was going on and we have gone to every Harry Potter movie together. One time, Matthieu begged to come with us. That was a mistake, we ended up explaining things to him that were left out of the movie the whole way home, instead of discussing the movie. Pretty much every other time it's gone like this... Helen picks me up, we drive the half hour or so to the theatre in Luxembourg so we can watch it in English, buy treats, all the while getting way too excited, watch the movie, practically run to the bathroom afterwards, then and only then can we start the non-stop discussion. We are usually in agreement of what we liked and didn't like, about what they shouldn't have left out and what they shouldn't have added in.
This time was no different, I fed the baby, gave Matthieu a long list of instructions (not that he followed them) and off we went, just us, no kids, no diaper bags, no toys... it took all of 3 minutes to get out the door. It took quite a bit longer to get there than expected. Good thing we are die hard fans and left with plenty of time to spare. There's no way closed gas pumps, a detour, a wrong turn and a maze of a parking garage was going to make us miss even a minute of the movie.
The movie did not disappoint, with 2 and a half hours to tell only half the book there were lots of time for all the little details that usually get cut from the movies. It's hard to say much more about it without giving things away, but I was happy to see my favourite supporting characters like Neville and the Weasley twins, if even for a moment. I love how humour still plays a part even if this was more of a dark and scary chapter in Harry's story. Oh and for the record, I want Hermione's bag!!!!
On the ride home we usually are racing to get it all said before we arrive at my door, but this time we discussed it all and with time to spare. I don't know if it was so close to the book that we didn't feel the need to vent and criticise as much as usual or if it's just been so long since we read the book... There's usually new characters to discuss as well, but there was no big new characters this time.
Helen here...
Actually I can't think of much more to add, only that I agree with Cara ;o) It's really difficult to say anything else without spoiling the film. But oh, it did so make me homesick. It should be sponsored by the British tourist board if there is such a thing, the location filming is just stunning.
Just to finish here are a couple of pics of my latest project - my take on Hogwarts which is designed to be used as a backdrop for Tom's HP lego (OK, so it's actually MY HP lego, but i'm a nice mummy and i let him share it!!)
Not too happy with how the castle turned out, but I love the mountains.
Long live Harry Potter, and roll on July :o))
posted by Supergirl - okay so I'm not Supergirl but she is called Kara, close enough ;)
Sinve Nov1 last year, Philippe has been asking to be Superman for Halloween this year. Since we will be in Canada this year, we will actually be able to go trick-or-treating!! YAY! Though, anyone who's ever trick-or-treated in Canada know that more often than not the costumes go over snowsuits :D Now since spandex doesn't really look good over a snowsuit (if you can get it to fit). I raided my wool jersey stash and found the perfect shade of Super blue. A little bulkier than spandex, but he'll be warm. The top is a store bought sweatshirt cut down to size (per the advice of my creative consultant ;) thanks Helen!) to fit over his winter coat. The hood really doesn't go, but he'll need it! I made the cape the same way as the capes for his party and last but not least the spanky pants! Who decided that underwear on top of tights was heroic LOL!! I just traced a pair of Jacques underwear and added a belt that I made from outdoor tablecloth fabric!
I just want a give a shout out to a 'Super' friend!! Happy Birthday Helen :D
posted by Cara
So the new season of Smallville has begun and the season premiere did not disappoint! It looks like this season Clark will soon stop being the Blur and finally put on the suit his mother gave him and become Superman, Earth's hero!! Ah, cannot wait to see Tom Welling in spandex!! Okay... wait, sorry, this is supposed to be a craft blog!! Okay, onto this week's craft.
We are all big Superman fans in this house. Though, I'm the only one who enjoys looking at Tom Welling and Christopher Reeve. ;) Jacques was actually singing the Lex Luthor theme music to the baby the other day. The Gene Hackman Lex, they are only allowed to watch the old movies. 70's and 80's violence was much calmer... Anyway, still off topic here...
For the last, oh 12 months or so... Philippe has been asking for a Superman birthday party. Saturday afternoon we had 6 little Blurs running around having a really fun time and helping Philippe celebrate. These little capes took only about 40 minutes to make all 6 and Helen and I just safety pinned them to the kids' clothes. I have a fear of tying things around kids' necks, especially kids that are not my own left in my care. We played statue, but they had to freeze in a flying position and a version of musical chairs where you had to stand an superman logo and not be the one standing on the kryptonite. (Again, off topic: do you know that spell check recognises kryptonite as a word? cool!)
Here's a photo of the cake as well. It turned out a bit too electric blue and pink, but, I only had regular food colouring because that's all that I can find here in my neck of the woods. I'll have to take a trip to Michael's when we are home in Canada.
And just because...
you're welcome ;)
posted by Helen
When I received an email from Cara entitled ' needed to show I did', I thought maybe the last months of pregnancy were taking their toll ( ;o)) until I followed the link and instantly fell in love .
As a kid growing up in the '70's and '80's (showing my age here!) Star Wars was part of everyday life. Probably being a bit of a geek helps too, but it will always have a place in my heart and this pattern was too cool not to try.
Not only did Cara's email coincide with me racking my brains for a gift for Jacques but also with her M-I-L having in clear out of some old wool. The bag of course contained THE perfect 'yoda-green' along with some light brown (i found the original a little on the dark side (hee hee)) and some cream. And the pattern was even in crochet which gets my vote over knitting every time.
So here he is, my take on the little green fellow - Happy Birthday Jacques - May the Force be with you :o)
sorry but I had to include this too - he has just the CUTEST feet ever!!
posted by Cara
Being 8, almost 9, months pregnant with my fifth child doesn't not make hosting parties easy. Anthony's birthday party was two Saturdays ago and Jacques' First Communion was this past Sunday, so I found myself looking for ways to decorate nicely, but with minimal effort on my part. Believe me I get winded very easily these days ;)
For Anthony's Transformer party, my printer was my best friend. I just googled Transformer images and printed them out. Of course the boys wanted to decorate so most of them ended up crooked ;) One very simple decoration that I love to make because it's quick and easy and looks fab are banners. Again the faces are just print outs.
For Jacques' communion dinner, it had to be a little more formal, but still look masculine. I decided on turquoise and brown, and bought little brown baskets to hold the dragées . I went to a party supply store and got table runners, napkins and some other little bits and bobs. Helen came over one day and we wrapped up the dragées. I ordered white flower bouquets to go in the bigger baskets I bought. Simple, quick and very elegant.