Merry Christmas!

I haven't been very present on my blog these last weeks, sorry about that! I was pretty busy with all sorts of things: presents, viruses and bacterias, sorting out details for my youngest going to the Kindergarten in the new year etc.

But now it's Christmas and I am sending you all my best wishes. 

Whereever you are I hope you will celebrate this wonderful time of year in peace and with the love of your families and friends.

The SC & more n°302: La Vie en Rose

Isabelle wants us to see Life in Pink with week. It is my favourite colour! I am quite busy these days, getting everything sorted for Christmas (23 days to go before Christmas Eve!!) so I only made something really small:

 This macaroon is about 3 to 4 cm wide :) It will soon go and colour up a little girl's play kitchen.

And because I really cannot say "La Vie en Rose" without humming this song, I am sharing it with you:

Check out the other participations in the museum.

The SC & more n°300: Notebook

This week is the 300's edition of the SC & more, isn't that a great number? Isabelle is taking part in a Creativity Fair and asked us to prepare blank notebooks to make notes and drawings on our visit. Unfortunately I am nowhere near Paris and cannot visit this amazing looking fair. I also don't need a notebook as I have several already.

Christmas time is coming soon though, so I thought of making my children a notebook each for Mass on Sundays.

The drawing on the right is from Tante Menoue

A blank notebook would not make sense for my almost 3yo and my 4yo, they have one each already, a second one would be useless. Instead I alternated coloring pages with blanks pages. I found the drawings online, the very last one is from Tante Menoue who does amazing religious drawings and objects.

In our family Christmas isn't just about the presents, and there is no Santa coming. We celebrate the birth of Jesus and I am rather keen on presenting the children with religious images and stories. That does not mean we avoid non-religious stories, far from it! We have books about Santa, but for the children they remain stories.

I hope you like my little booklets. Go and have a look at the others' creations, there are some really nice ones!

Christmas Markets and online sales

Hi everybody!

Temperatures are finally slowly going down here in the east of Germany : 14°C instead of the almost 20°C we had last week. We are going to have a shock on the weekend though when it gets to almost 0°C and when the first snow flakes will start falling down!

We are supposed to get our very first snow on Sunday, just when I will be participating in my first Christmas Market of the year! Yeah! I'd better dress really warmly in order to survive the almost 8 hours out there!

That said, I want to share a few links with you today:

First, a link to a new page on this blog: my products catalogue. I have tried using DaWanda, but I don't really like it so much. So I am giving a go to online sales via my blog:
http://frederiqueandfriends.blogspot.de/p/the-giraffe-elephant-catalog.html

Second, a link to my Facebook public page. I believe one can have a look at it without being registered on FB, is that a correct assumption?

https://www.facebook.com/thegiraffeandtheelephant/

In any case, I hope you will like what you'll find there. Do not hesitate to spread the word and share!

Wishing you a good day

The SC & more n°299 : Kawaii

 This week Nathalie wants us to "aaaaawwwww" her with sweet things. Her chosen them is "Kawaii" which apparently means "cute". I'll take her word for it :)

I am currently very busy preparing for two Christmas markets (on the 22nd of November and 5th of December) and I decided to try something new which I find super cute: Christmas tree decorations for the knitters.

I present you my mini-knitting kits! Aren't they really sweet? Totally "Kawaii" or not ?

For the Museum

Knitting needles: about 2,5 cm big!

 I like them so much that I hardly want to sell them. I am very much hoping a few will be left over, if not then I'll have to make a few more ;)

Let's see on Friday what Isabelle will ask us to make. I missed last week's Panda challenge, I hope I won't miss another one!

Ribbons

I got three presents today for my birthday (last week), great DIY books and a creative year planner for 2016. I loved them! They were prettily wrapped in colourful papers and beautiful white ribbons. 

I have a thing for ribbons, my sisters, mother and mother-in-law could vouch for that. My son seems to have the same thing ;) he tried to steal them from me. So I decided to let him have one. That's generous of me, isn't it?

Here is what I used before giving the ribbon to him: 

- a glue pistol

- three ribbons

- three small sticks

 and tadaaaaaa! Three pretty ribbons to play with, one for N., one for T. and one for A. - N.'s best friend.

 I will give them away this afternoon and I am looking forward to making pictures of the three children dancing with the ribbons flying around them.

My Grandmother had made something like this for my sister M. and I. In blue. How we played and loved them! I just hope my children will love them as much as we did ours.

The SC & more n°297: Boo!

Jessica wants us to scare everybody this week :) So here we go: Boo! Bouh! Buh! pick your favourite spelling! I chose the german one for our door:

Four layers of felt sewn together and then cut following the seams. Add a small spider and here we are. How do you like it? Did I scare you?

For the Museum

 Let's meet again tomorrow on Isabelle's blog to see what the next theme will be.

The SC & more n°296: Apple

This week's theme is apple. It fits the season perfectly! This time again, it is my children's turn to participate to the challenge instead of me and here is what they made with their grandmother for my birthday:

Check out the Museum for the other apples, there are some very appetizing fruits around :) and don't forget to visit Isabelle's blog tomorrow at 8h for the next theme!

Un mot, des titres - session 35 : Fleur

Ce mois-ci Calypso nous a proposé le mot "Fleur" pour notre lecture. J'étais en train de lire des ouvrages de Louisa May Alcott, quand je me suis rendue compte qu'elle a écrit des fables sur les fleurs. C'est même son premier livre écrit en 1848.

Fables de Fleurs

Dans ce livre nous sommes transportés à la cour des Fées, où la reine des fées demande à ses sujets de lui raconter une histoire chacun. Histoires pour divertir aussi bien que pour enseigner.

Nous pouvons alors passer d'histoire en histoire, chaque petite fée contant de belles fables. L'une d'elle nous raconte l'histoire d'une méchante fée qui est amie avec une douce et gentille fée, ils parcourent le monde ensemble et la gentille doit toujours soigner les plantes que la méchante a abîmé. Un jour la méchante fée est faite prisonnière par des esprits. Elle ne sera libérée que lorsqu'elle se sera repentie. Et même après son repenti, des épreuves l'attendent pour prouver sa conversion.
Chaque histoire a une morale, chaque histoire se termine bien et donne une impression de douceur.
En bref un petit livre bien agréable et facile à lire. Il ne faut pas perdre de vue l'époque à laquelle Alcott écrivait, sinon on pourrait croire que ce sont des histoires d'une grande naiveté et sans intérêt.

À bientôt pour une prochaine lecture.

The SC & more n°295: First frosts

Ange asked us to make something to fend off the first frosts. When she published her post last week, I could not find any idea as it wasn't that cold yet, we still had about 16°C outside! Then suddenly over the weekend, winter came around and temperatures dropped to 0°C at night. My children did not need anything so I made something for their dolls.

Both T. and N. are happy about those new pieces of clothing, but N. wasn't too happy about the colours: there is NO PINK!

N.'s doll needs some warmer clothing, this summer dress is a little thin and short ;) but I don't know yet when I will have the time.

A picture for the Museum

Thanks Ange for this theme! And we will all meet again tomorrow for the next challenge on Isabelle's blog.

The SC & more n°294 : Leaf

This week Isabelle asked us to do something with or about a leaf. I have been pretty busy and this is a last minute project. I picked up a leaf in the street today and decided to make a canvas with a method I learnt when I was in primary school: toothbrush paiting :) So much fun!

 

and as an extra, here are the lyrics to a 20th century popular song about Autumn (invented by two female scouts in 1942 according to Wikipedia) - I just love it! (listen to this version on Youtube)

Colchiques dans les prés fleurissent, fleurissent,
Colchiques dans les prés : c'est la fin de l'été.

La feuille d'automne, emportée par le vent,
En ronde monotone tombe en tourbillonnant.
Châtaignes dans les bois se fendent, se fendent,
Châtaignes dans les bois se fendent sous les pas.

La feuille d'automne, emportée par le vent,
En ronde monotone tombe en tourbillonnant. 

 Nuages dans le ciel s'étirent, s'étirent,
Nuages dans le ciel s'étirent comme une aile.

La feuille d'automne, emportée par le vent,
En ronde monotone tombe en tourbillonnant.  

Et ce chant dans mon coeur murmure, murmure,
Et ce chant dans mon coeur appelle le bonheur.

La feuille d'automne, emportée par le vent,
En ronde monotone tombe en tourbillonnant.

Wishing you all a lovely colourful Autumn! Check out the Museum to see the other leaves :)

The SC & more n°293: Nathalie's birthday

This week is Nathalie's birthday and she is hosting the SC & more!

So Nathalie, I wish you a happy birthday with many beautiful virtual presents! here are mine for you: a colourful drawing I made on the weekend, and a little plane to help you in your travels around the virtual world ;)

Visit the museum to see her other presents! and see you next week for the next challenge.

The SC & more n°292: Tin

Tins are this week's challenge! I did not have one at home, so at first I decided to crochet a tin for the children's play kitchen.

 

 But after talking with a friend about the challenge, she brought me one ^^ . So today I took out my hammer, a nail, and started hammering away. It was fun, but I was a little annoyed how the tin shaped changed. Then I added a length of lace.

 Have a look at the Museum to see what the others have made.

The SC & more n°291: The woods

This week, Madame Cerise invites us for a walk in the woods. We haven't been out in the woods for a little while but I had some reserves from last year and on Sunday we went to the Botanical Garden. I love this place! The children also took advantage of the walk to gather some treasures.

 

This afternoon after picking up N. from the Kindergarten, we started doing some DIY. At first T. watched Cinderella, but after a little while he could not manage to resist to the attraction of paint and glue ;)

What did we make? Two door-wreath and a decorative box.

 Take a paper plate and cut it in the middle. N.'s was cut all around, with mine I made a sort of small "shelf" in the centre. Do some paint job, I chose a mix of brown, orange and green to recall the colours of autumn.

 Once it is painted, wait until it dries... N. and T. desperately wanted to get on with the next step, so I spent around 10 minutes hair-drying the paint. Then I took out my glue gun and they were able to glue all sorts of pine cones, leaves, branches etc.

N. is going to take her wreath to the Kindergarten to decorate the door to her group's room. Her Kindergarten changed the group system and moved the children and educators around a bit. N. is now in the green group which is "Nature and Senses". It suits N. really well as she loves bringing small stones, flowers, and other treasures to show in the morning.

So that's our participation to the SC & more. Visit the Museum to see the rest and Isabelle's blog on Friday morning for the new challenge!

Cuddly planes

If you remember, the other day I made three mini-wheels but without telling you what they were for. 

 

 Well now I can tell you. A young E. just celebrated his fourth birthday and here is his present:

 

 I had found a pattern via Pinterest a while ago, but had not gotten round to use it until two days ago. Now, the thing is that while making it, my little boy asked very kindly (and desperately) if he could have one too. So I made him one as well and he just loves it.

I also made a small pink car for his sister, she was so happy about it! She liked it so much that she spent the night with it :)

I used a pattern from "Look at what I made". I made a few mistakes but on the whole, it was rather easy to make the mini-car.