Happy spotty Easter.

Quick Easter wishes. We are in the midst of living a chicken pox nightmare. All Easter plans have gone out of the window, little sketched chicks lay abandoned and Easter egg jars lay unfinished. 

Chicks:

Chirp chirp:

Instead we shall mostly be applying calamine lotion and giving lots of cuddles to one spotty little, pickled in pox chappy. And once I get the chance my short little legs will be running like the wind, in search of any form of Easter egg left on the shelves of the local supermarket... If it is indeed even open. Nothing like leaving things to the last minute. Rubbish.

My little lady made the daffodil art at school, and she is insisting she does not want any chocolate eggs, just a pony will be fine. A blue pony. Now I am guessing I won't be able to get one of those at Sainsburys.
Happy Easter, I hope yours are happy, relaxed and spot free.

Ps I am posting this for the first time from my phone. If it looks wonky/ misspelt/ a mess/ unreadable... Deepest, deepest apologies.

Jars:

Illustration: Christmas cards in March.

Recently I spent a week drawing up a set of Christmas cards. It's March, not at all strange. I was contacted by a company, so got my festiveness on, popped on some Christmas tunes and whipped these up for them over 6 days (I won't even attempt to work out how many nap time hours). I have lots more ideas but figured best to leave it there, fingers crossed they like them.

Christmas dinner.

This is my favourite out of the five, but oh how it made me hungry. I had to keep sneaking downstairs to gather food. And I really, really want to eat some pigs in blankets now, not the sprouts so much.

Pucker up.

Jingle jangle.

Pudding.

Snow globe.

So which one is your favourite?

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

Royal play: Indoor snow action.

It is snowing again. It is March and generally it is just not on. So whilst we brace ourselves for another day indoors, I will share with you some photos from the last snow. OK, I am being a bit dramatic, today's flurry is not even settling, but I want the sun and I am English and moaning about weather is what we do. So anyways we had thick, bouncy proper snow a few weeks back. Proper snow is good, (prior to March that is) but alas little chap who always gets poorly, was not in the remotest chance going out in it. I am not cruel I was thinking of his health, so what did we do? As you will have guessed we brought the snow into us. In the lovely warmth and comfort of our home, we are so clever. King Kwak collected the snow in two large noodle bowls, naturally, and we had some indoor snow action, it was great fun. First we made this little fella above, our ickle, mini snowman, he was about 12cm, and ever so cute, note the very cool hat, its all in the details. He is called Alice, everything my daughter names is called Alice. He has a carrot nose, peppercorn eyes and buttons and skewer arms.

Proud as punch:

So happy, but so devastated when he had vanished the next morning, just a mini hat left on the fire grate, boo.

Let me out there:

Not on your nelly. (As my Mum would say)

Indoor snow balls:

Next we set up a little indoor snowball target practice... that is the posh term for chucking snow at the wood burner with a plastic bag in front and it was not on obviously. They Loved that, particularly the little chap. Please excuse his clothing, particularly the fetching vest under hang, he likes undressing, and if he could he would be naked at all times, bless my little nudist.

Escaped:

And when the cat (little chap) was away (nap) the mouse (little lady) certainly did play. She LOVED it. And any time, any where she could drop you a snow angel.

He's behind you:

Those snowman sat outside staring in for a full week, it was sad watching them go.

Spring:

And here is a little glimpse of spring, lets hope it makes an appearance soon.

So do you have any snowman photos you wish to share? particularly mini little ones and can anyone tell me if they have spotted spring? Anyone? Happy weekend.

DIY: Play vet kit.

My daughter has an abundance of stuffed animals, lots and lots and lots of them. She is rather fond of caring for them, so I figured what better to make her than her very own play vet kit. Here is what I whipped up for her, I feel it has all the essentials any young vet may require, and it only took a couple of days nap times to put together.  

Vet kit essentials:
Vet-esque tabbard. (With vet badge, red cross logo and pocket). 
Vet head wear. (Mirrored/ light thingy... OK I admit I have no idea what it really is).
Pet bed. (For poorly sick animals to rest).
Clipboard, medical notes and pen. (Ever so important).
Stethoscope.
Thermometer.
Pills.
Syringe.
Bandage.
Water bowl. (Integral again)
Fish and bone. (Animal food to make them strong).

Essentials:

So how I made it... The tabbard and basket were both made from various coloured felts and the black and white fabric is cotton (from Ikea). I sewed it using embroidery thread. The basket base is stuffed with fleece. (The animals need comfort of course). The head wear comprises a disc of felts attached onto a loop of thick elastic. The fish and bone are felt and embroidery thread, stuffed with cardboard, and a googly eye glued on. The bowl is a used food container (nato bean soup if you wanted to know) covered in washi tape with a felt cross. The pills, syringe and bandage are from my medicine box. The stethoscope and thermometer are from a nurses costume (she has another doctors kit so I put this aside) and the clipboard is roughly an a5 piece of hardboard, sanded. A wooden clothes peg was glued on, with washi tape on top of that. The medical notes I drew, then popped into photoshop to add the text. I can keep printing these out as she uses it. She's learning to write at the moment so she loves filling out these. Naturally I have made it all colour match, as I like a bit of colour matching and it is all based around the stethoscope and thermometer which I had first.

Basket and contents:

The kit has found a home in this lovely basket from a play tea set, contents of which have been a long time AWOL. I popped a felt red cross of the front with fabric glue and bonus... it colour coordinates too, perfecto. The whole kit didn't cost me a bean as it was all from bits and bobs I amassed from around the house, but if you wished to make one yourself, I think it would not cost much at all. I have seen stethoscope/ thermometer sets in Pound land.

Clipboard with note detail:

Here is the clipboard which the little lady has filled out one patients details. Poor thing having that condition EEEOEOO, sounds dreadful. ha ha. She is into repeating letters.

Waiting room:

The little lady has made a permanent waiting room in one corner of her room. and note the arrival of the pet carrier, which we have since picked up in a charity shop for £2, bargain and perfect vet accessory. 

Recuperating:

Poorly animals, lucky they have such delicious looking food to make them better.

Uncreased:

and I have included this last photo just to show the tabbard prior to it becoming ever so creased. This was a work in progress shot, I actually took so many photos of this set up until now but each time I missed one item out and then had to redo it. Typical. My next goal is to get an actual photo of the little lady playing with the kit, I can assure you she does, little chap too, and it is greatly enjoyed, but can I get a photo? No. She is so not into photos at the moment. So anyhow once I do I will add it onto the post. I wouldn't hold your breath.

Cost: Free.

Supplies: Felts, cotton, embroidery threads and elastic to make all the fabric items, using relevant tools. All else from rummages through toy boxes and medical box.

Time taken: 2 x morning nap times= 5 hours.

So I hope you like it, if you have any comments or suggestions for the kit please feel free to share. And if you would like a detailed instruction of any items I would be happy to share. 

Illustration: Cupcake card.

Here is a little birthday cupcake card. 

And here is an ever so pink real life cupcake the little lady and myself whipped up the other day. Made to her strict specifications of "pink, pink and lots of pink Mummy". Yum. She really does like pink, lots.

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

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Royal Play: DIY Market.

Rainy day in London, that would make a change, so for today's stuck indoors fun we made ourselves a little DIY market stall. The idea was conceived after the little lady received a stunning shiny new basket full of miniature Bird's Eye food stuffs. AMAZING. Turkey dinner anyone? Particular special thanks have to go out to wise Aunty Jacky for that one. So within ten minutes we had gathered said basket, another basket of plastic fruit and vegetables (every child seems to own a bit of plastic food), some play cakes, bowls, a till with play money, some green fabric (leftover from the play tent) and I whipped up a sign and some labels.... bish bash bosh, market stall made. The costume consists of an apron I had previously made little lady and a hat donated by my dad, from Turkey, made from paper.

Five for a pound?

Cream card, pens and some lollipop sticks taped to the back, five minutes max.

Signage.

Although she doesn't look it, the little lady had a lot of fun, she is just not too hot at having her photo taken at the moment. The little chap however was having none of it, not interested at all. Well except for coming over and knocking the food over the floor. I decided best not to photo that part.

Lots and lots of lovely colour.

Money, money, money.

We learnt about coins and buying items.

Scaley. 

Then we got the scales out and she learnt how to weigh her produce. We made shopping lists and then had some tea and cakes and pretended to eat all our purchases, then I became the shopkeeper and little lady bought her shopping.

Not bad for a rainy days and ten minutes prep. So have you made a shop and what produce do you sell? and does anyone have any miniature food that beats this mini bird's Eye fair? Still amazing.

Illustration: Seoul.

For my boy, whose heart will always be in Seoul. That says Seoul by the way...  LOVE google translate.

The text is in relief.

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.