Here is my handmade for the holiday project for the day. I am heading to my daughter's school to teach her and a couple of friends how to make these chain stitch wreaths for the holidays. I'll post photos tomorrow of our results. For a photo tutorial on how to make these wreaths click here .

These little people are easy to make and you can make a wide variety of characters to entertain the kids for hours. Little People Finger Puppets Abbreviations: sc- single crochet inc- increase or single crochet twice into one stitch sc2tog- single crochet two together sl st- slip stitch ch- chain Material: Scrap yarn in 3 different colors and a hook that works best for you with that weight to make tight stitches. I used an Egyptian yarn that doesn't specify color but I would guess it was sport weight. I used an E hook with the lighter weight yarn. When using worsted weight I used an F hook. Bits of thread or yarn for face. Round 1: Using hair color single crochet 6 into a magic ring. Round 2: (sc, inc) around to make 9 sc Round 3: (sc, sc, inc) around to make 12 sc Round 4: sc around changing to skin color in the last stitch (12) Rounds 5-8: sc around in skin color until the last stitch in round 8. Change to shirt color. (12) Rounds 9-...

I love to knit and crochet... but I've always been a bit challenged in the braid department. I decided that since my little one is so in to the princess thing I was going to learn to do hair as part of some mother daughter quality time. As I write these words she is tapping on my shoulder armed with the braid book we got at the library... she's ready for more... So here are some cute photos of our first attempt at girl style... Now I'm off to braid some more.

I started teaching my 6 year old daughter how to crochet this weekend. She had a bit of trouble with the needle so we started by making finger crochet chains and turning them into friendship bracelets. Once she has mastered this I guess we will try working with the needle again and then on to the single crochet stitch. Anyone have any fun beginner projects for kids that they can finish quickly??? She is already thinking big and I need to find things that will help her stay interested while she is learning the basics. Jenn

We had a wonderful Halloween weekend. We spent the holiday with friends at their "cabin by the lake"...The girls decorated the cabin and then carved Jack-O-lanterns by the water. We made Mummy pizzas and pumpkin pancakes and had a Halloween-good-time! For our second night at the lake we had a camp out and made some really cool and simple Halloween shadow puppets to use in the tent. The girls made up their own stories and put on a wonderful show. In addition to the simple one part puppets in the previous link we also made a cool spider puppet as well. The legs on this one use joints to connect them to the body so you can make your spider look like it's crawling up the side of the tent. We returned from our camp out on Halloween day and went trick or treating in our neighborhood. M and I put together a pirate Halloween costume by making her a hat, eye patch and jolly roger flag . All we had to buy for her costume was the hook. L was a bit more difficult. She decided at t...

Today I made something for my kids called a No-More-Boredom box... or a crazy can. All you do is cut a bunch of index cards in half... and on each card write an activity. Get your kids to decorate the box while you write up some cards. I found it helpful to list the supplies they would need to do the project right on the card... that is unless it is self explanatory. You can list toys and games they already play with, crafts, science experiments, pretend prompts... whatever you come up with. You can even put small toys or craft projects right in the box. The Busy Books series by Kuffner has some really great ideas.... they even have a list in the back called Crazy Can Activities that you can pick from. Any rainy day or activity book would work, however, or just use your own ideas. Here are just a few of the long list of activities I put in the box: Sock/beanbag basketball Doll and baby play Hand art (trace hand and decorate) Indoor tent Musical instruments Funny face (cut out noses, ey...