Snow Printing and Drawing

More snow today-of the wet, soft and slushy variety. It had made a thin layer on everything and was very slippery. I set up outside this morning, and while doing so couldn't resist a little play myself. The snow was just the right consistency and thickness to show the tarmac perfectly and to cling to whatever object was being used. Unfortunately, by the time the children got in, it was not this way anymore, but was still good for some snow castles and some slushy snowballs which stuck to the fence well.

Tyger, Tyger and Other Things

I quoted Blake at the children covering the tiger this morning, only slightly wrongly. Nothing immortal about this one's creators though! They did a great job covering him in papier maché bandages, and were largely left  alone to do it-with not too much glue anywhere other than where it should be, and hardly any arguments! Love them! We are going to give him a base coat of paint on Monday, and then hand him over to the other class to put his stripes on and make his face.  

 Our small world table for today. I love small world play-even the name is perfect! 

 Daffodil hair-the new look for Spring!

Sketching Pretty Ladies

I bought this 1950s sewing book for the cover. I just love the colours and the pretty mother and daughter scene. My Mum is a very good seamstress and used to make a lot of clothes. The scene with her teaching me to sew never quite ran this smoothly, as I was such a moody girl with zero patience for a tangled sewing machine. I amaze myself with my patience these days, though the odd outburst of temper still occurs. I was reading another old sewing book at the weekend, which is full of helpful advice (as is this one actually) and it says not to continue with your sewing when you are tired as the time you think you are saving will be wasted in unpicking the mistakes you are likely to make. 

News on the Tiger-we got the neck and head attached to the body, and the legs made and attached. It almost stands up unaided. It was around the corner in the afternoon as there was no chance to work on it. One of the children was ill and had an unfortunate pooing incident. I sent her home as she was not at all well. After work I was proudly showing off the tiger when I noticed some poo on it! Luckily it was on the shiny part of the cardboard body, and my lovely TA cleaned it up for me while I ineffectually went on about it. I later taped over the area with plastic packing tape so the tiger is ready to go again. Phew! Papier maché on the body tomorrow then everyone can add their own stripes.

Playing

Playing with small cats and chairs. 

 And a couple of rabbits. 

 Today we started to make a large tiger model from recycled rubbish. I worked with a smallish group of children, and together we solved the problems that arise when you are trying to make cardboard look tigerish. I love to do this kind of thing and get really excited as we make progress. I will take pictures to show. I also tidied out a cupboard with the help of my year group partner,  where some art stuff was basically dumped at the start of our occupation and then left. It is a sink too, and now the lunchtime children can use it to wash their hands and faces after their lunch. Doesn't sound much but means I won't be teaching chocolate covered children until I find them a babywipe.

 So a little play with small things is my reward. Followed by some magazine and old sewing book reading. And food. And bed. Then off to make that tiger.

January Makes and Cats

The last couple of weeks have not involved much making anything as I have been ill with one thing after another and have had no energy. But I realize I have made quite a few things over the last month or so but not shared any of them. Again the energy problem! So I thought I would put some here today. I have one other group of things to share but two of them are not quite finished so I will wait until they are. Oh-and also a terrible pair of things I finished today-one of those things where I had such high hopes and clear vision but that did not turn out quite as expected! Usable but not much else!

 This little doll was the result of not wanting to get my sewing machine out, and wanting something easier than my recent dolls. I have this lovely felt from a shop in Greenwich. They have a good range of colours including dark natural type tones, usable skin tones and lovely blues and greens, and it has wool content so is much nicer to the touch than the synthetic felt sheets. I used beads to weight her down so she will kind of balance on the edge of something.

 This is crocheted Sadie. I tried to shape the body as she looks in photos I have. It turned out to be slightly too long I would say. I used the teddy bear arm attachment method for her legs, so she is a little pose-able but wobbly. I had to order some wool tops for her ears and tail as the yarn I was using just didn't have the right look. I am looking forward to showing my Dad!

 I found out how to make small and simple crocheted hearts so made a garland of them to brighten my date board at school.

 This little reading lady will probably be a bookmark when she is finished.

 A crocheted rose for a friend's daughter at work. Another new thing I found out how to make. I bit slower than the flowers I usually make but I like how it turned out.

 Lily in the sunshine by the hyacinths. She seems to have a natural ability to put herself in places that make her look more beautiful.

 A drawing of a tall doll. I have not done much in the way of drawing recently and enjoyed colouring this one in!

 Cassie in the sun on top of a blanket on top of my wool box. I like the way her ears are echoed by the butterfly shape on the cushion. She seems to have something wrong with her leg today. She is moving strangely and does not seem comfortable bending it when she sits or standing on it. She has hidden in the drawer at the moment as the man to fix the internet came round and she is scared of people coming round. I hope she is ok though.

I have not done much blog visiting or commenting recently but hope to get back to it this week. January just takes it out of me I think. It is all I can do to keep up with work and housework and everything else has been too hard. Hopefully February will be better!
One last thing. If you are feeling slightly ill and fed up do not watch 'One Day'. If you have seen it you will know what I mean. Why does it have to end that way? What a miserable film! However, do watch a programme about a man called Brolga,  in Australia who has devoted his life to rescuing orphan kangaroos and raising them as if he was their mother, on his sanctuary somewhere in the outback. He is amazing! I realize I knew next to nothing about kangaroo biology but now know quite a lot. Amazing creatures! The programme is called 'Kangaroo Dundee' and is on i-player for a while longer I think.

Another Experiment

Lily and hyacinth.
My experiments are not the exciting kind. I was trying to do a post from my phone as I am now ( using the blogger app) because our Internet is not working but it said I had reached my photo limit. I haven't according to blogger elsewhere. Then I had to get the google plus app. Then I had to upload my photos. Then work out how it worked. Then it told me my browser was unsupported ( ooh er!) so I downloaded google chrome, then tried again on there in the normal blogger post writer instead of this one. It had by that time uploaded the last two photos I took ( of a face on a local church) and actually worked. Boring isn't it? So now I am trying again with one photo in the blogger app. If the photo of Lily doesn't appear then it didn't work. Here goes! It didn't. So that is the end of the blogger app as it doesn't work or doesn't seem to know what the rest of blogger is up to.

Experiment

Sunny but problem filled day. This is an experimental post to see if anything is actually working.