New additions

Yesterday, while Lo got reacquainted with her bike with training wheels, I finally spent some time on the scroll saw making the chicks I had hoped to make for her Spring basket. It was a sunny day-Spring peeking in and making itself known!-so I pulled the car out of the garage and left the garage door up so Lo could ride around in circles while I worked the saw. I also worked on this cute polar bear that I had drawn up awhile ago. He was just waiting to come alive and I was quite happy with the results! I wish I had been able to get some chicks done before our Spring celebration-they came out so cute!

I still have aspirations to start an Etsy store. I figure now that it's getting warm enough to work in the garage with the door up I can get some more stuff done. We don't have proper ventilation for woodworking so I haven't been inclined to use the saw since last fall. I have a sketchbook with drawings of many ideas for toys that I've come up with over the past year and I would like start turning those ideas into reality. I think these two are a good start! There's a lot of fine tuning and testing for quality that I'll need to do before putting things up for sale. I made several of the chicks and I'm going to play with cutting and sanding techniques on each to see which one I like the best. Two of yesterday's chicks inadvertently became crash test dummies when Lo played with them and broke the legs off of one and chipped the "toes" off of the other. Apparently the pine is too soft and I'll have to find a heartier wood to use that the saw can handle. The idea of using some natural tree fall from the property is really ecologically appealing so I'll give that a go!

I've made a variety of toys in the last couple years-some were a drag to make despite the results and some where a joy from conception to tangible. The "joyful" toys are the ones I hope to set up shop with: Puzzles, Doll houses(I have a plan for a really whimsical fairy home!), wood animals, hobby horses and naturally dyed silks to name a few.

On another note, Lo and I tried out this wonderfully tactile project found on Deep Space Sparkle: Chalk pastel flowers, where kids can create the forms of flowers by drawing with white glue. Once dried, they go to work with the pastels, blending the colors in any way they like. Instead of "drawing" with the glue bottle, I had Lo just stand up and pour the glue onto her paper. Originally meant for way older kids, I found that Lo had fun with it but did get frustrated and needed help with guiding the flow of glue to create an actual flower. It was a bit hard to do from a standing position!

We both also made an additional picture by just letting the glue drip and pour randomly on the paper and that she loved doing! Cat #1 was quite intrigued as well. She was quite pleased with the effect of being able to blend, soften and spread the colors with her fingers. Dea joined in later, having had some experience with chalk in her art class and the 2 sisters sat on the floor together for while creating more pictures sans glue.

(snail)

It was a pleasantly artful weekend! Chalkwork, animals and a new batch of homemade ice cream-Peppermint Patty! Perfect for poor Huz's soar throat. Lo is all better after 10 days of sickness-5 with a fever. Last week it was Huz's turn. I really hope I'm not next. We're going to see SPAMALOT next Friday and I would hate to miss it!