Lillypad Bath

During a recent trip to Nadi and Buppa's place Gwen was fascinated by the lilly-pond and feeding the tiny mosquito eating fish that lived beneath the big green leaves.Yesterday was really hot and full of outside messy projects so a bath seemed like a good idea. I wanted to make it a special one. I scrounged amongst the mess that is my art supply pile and found two sheets of craft foam.

The lillypads looked great floating in the water, lots of toys got to sit on them, swim under them and splash about. It didn't take long before it was discovered that they could stick to the wall. Now I just have to work out how to make the beautiful flowers.

Dinners Ready!

Food is an important part of our daily routine, and the little one seems to need lots of it all of the time. It's amazing how much she can put away and still be ravenous just an hour later. So it's not surprising that one of the first things she did when we started to collect figurines from the markets and local op shop was to role play everyone sitting down to dinner.

More recently the roleplaying has been more centered around issues of hitting, shareing and hugging or kissing things better. For example a recent interaction in the bath between the "Daddy Knight" and the "Space Spaceman" started with the Space Spaceman being poked with a sword by Daddy Knight. The conversation went something like this:

Daddy Knight: (pokes space space man with sword several times)
Space Spaceman: No. stop. I don't like it!
Daddy Knight:(continues to poke, though less vigorously)
Space Spaceman:  Stop!
Daddy Knight: Oh, sorry. um.
Sapce Spaceman: We don't hit people!
Daddy night: (Hugs Space Spaceman) Sorry.
Space Spaceman: Hug! Awwwww. Space Spaceman happy now.
Biscuit Man: Would anyone like some biscuit?
Daddy Knight & Space Spaceman: Yes please! (they take turns to eat from Biscuit Mans little tin)
Space Space Man: lets go and get some soap!
Daddy Knight: Yay!
(All three stomp around the rim of the bath to get washed at the soap dispenser.)

editors note: I have just been corrected. Space Spaceman has now changed his name to Motorbike Man 

A Hano Inspired Toy

Earlier this year I stumbled across this beautiful gorilla toy by David Weeks. I had just started a woodworking course and our first project was to create a small wooden toy.

I adored Hano and wanted to create my own, friendlier version. I've always loved orangutans so I decided to try my hand at designing one. Here's the final result:


Little did I know at the start how difficult it would be as part of the brief was to only use hand tools. I certainly learned a lot from the project, particularly how to sculpt on the small scale and some very interesting ways of creating an elastic joint that can be positioned any which way.

It was a wonderful first project and I'm looking forward to getting back into the workshop next year. In the mean time I'm slowly building up my tool collection.