Cardboard stove

 Cardboard stove made from three boxes in our recycling pile in the garage.

Esme's sixth birthday is coming up, and I was thinking about toys or gifts.. and thought, hey - that doesn't need to be bought, or a birthday present.. we can whip one of those up tonight, boxes willing.

 A little paper, tape, a spool that is on the inside with the dial attached to it, and voila, one child sized cardboard stove.  The door handle I am a little proud of - it is from an airbed box that is the back part of the stove.  It was too perfect not to make use for something I was wondering how I would do!  Esme said no painting- because it takes so long to dry.    She wanted to play with it right away - no more of the waiting.  Then she made pretend tea and threw hot dogs in the oven.  *heh*.

I wrote her name and the year on top of it we will see how long it lasts as a toy.  Her Magic Theater Box from when we moved her to her room is over a year old and still in use,  played with every couple of days.  It is getting in rough shape - but I had been able to paint that one with semi-gloss so it has lived through a lot of humidity and rough play.

Further ideas:
pot holders sewn especially for her
used a 1/2 egg carton to make a muffin/cupcake pan for her - now she wants felt muffins as toys
felt birthday cake?  She loves to pretend to make cakes alerady
cheap spatula - she was trying to turn pancakes with a knife and having a hard time

We talked about finding a box the right size to make a cradle for her baby doll, with a pillow and the blanket I had made for it.  This is the first time she has really played with a baby doll for years - I think it is because she met a little girl at school who likes dolls.  It is really sweet though, especially since we mostly skipped over this stage before.  She named the doll Billy - and it is a boy or a girl as she wishes... we found a Duplo block piece in her collection that was perfect to use as a bottle and I took some scraps from my table to make a blanket for it.  She has insisted on tucking it in and feeding it for about three days in a row, and has been receptive on how to pick it up 'properly' and to learn not to mistreat it because you would not do that to a real baby etc.. she said 'oh, that's right', and carried it properly, set it down nicely and then pretended it cried a little while later for food.

She is also taking another try at learning the rules of checkers... played a decent game against me last night and I let her 'win' during the middle, so she did win at the end but I made it harder as the pieces dwindled so she had to really think.

oh my and not much done in the rain

I had the day off.. and Esme had school.  Can't say I did nothing while she was gone... but it doesn't feel like really much to take pictures and blog about.. here it is anyway, because it still feels like a kind of progress I'll be repeating, organization, small projects.   I watched some Khan Academy, perused subjects much too far above my head on Wikipedia and Google books (but liked it), listened to a whole CD of music on the computer (so rare I've done it maybe three times this year) and organized this sewing shelf.  I did not take a before shot.... but it wasn't pretty.  It probably won't stay this way for long and I could have delved into those little drawers a bit more for things to organize..but then I opened up one of the plastic bags on the shelf and found all these little strip fabric things for chandelier chains I had bought on clearance a good while back... so I put them to some experimental sewing recycling and made a mat backed with muslin, which ended up under my clock and journal on my dresser... I didn't need another pillow ;)

Why yes, that is another book box on the shelf - I painted that today, as well.. the inside (not pictured) is a scene of "multiple moons" and stars... in yellow, purple and gray.  I wanted to try that color combo and see how it looked.  The paints are in the handled tin box and the cardboard drum... two large dust-collecting cardboard boxes were thrown away and who knows how much paper that was stacked and not very useful, wrappers,bits and bobs of things I no longer had any plans for etc..

Esme is still napping.. she had a tough day today.  She said school was hard, but some was easy.  She was glad to be home where she could play all day and not 'do the learning, but for a little bit of learning, but not a lot.'  That is the 'oh my'.. third day of school and she realizes she would be rather be playing.  We saw beautiful butterflies on the road on the way home - we all stopped to look at them.  Then she got all of her school things off and did her homework sheet.  She tried to play Skyrim Dragon game and got too scared after a bit... then went for a nap.  I wonder what she will think about having to get ready for school again..

This is a 'bunny in a space helmet' and a birthday cake in some sort of glass box, too.

Esme did this yesterday in Minecraft while I was at work.

New book holders for childrens room decor out of product boxes from the store

 These boxes once held a kind of tool at my store and were left empty on the shelf.  I picked them up and was impressed by how sturdy and clean feeling they were .. they deserved a second life before they would eventually go to rubbish...  I could see Esme's lighter weight magazines and books going in them on the shelf instead of stacked as she has been want to do.  And, she loves to paint like I do.  I started to paint the blue one myself and she came in from playing outside and volunteered for the second one, with suggestions for decor on the blue one.  She decided to leave the bottom of the sides on her pink box white so they look like clouds in the sky.  That was intentional.

I'll see what she paints on hers for decoration tomorrow... it was late and I put her to bed while the pink layer dries.  We also got a large display board that she has drawn stick figures on, but I hope she will use for writing her sight words on and/or make a landscape in to use as a backdrop screen in her room.  One of my days off next week I'll ask her about it.

Note:
Last night I told Esme I still want to be a scientist when I grow up... she did the 'wait what?' look at me and started to argue I was grown up tall already I couldn't grow up anymore.. so we talked about grown ups might still learn things they want to do after they grow up tall... and she told me I needed to go learn in my books, and she would learn too and be a scientist rockstar astronaut cowboy who goes bounce on the moon with a guitar. Ok, then. Let's shoot for that.

 

All finished with hers with no help from me.  

She is really growing up :)

She is comparing the design pictures and realizing hers is different now, I have four - this has six.  

Me: Yes... but they are both awesome. 

 Esme:  They are!  They match!

We did a little homeschool before I went to work today.  I made her a checklist for what she did on the box and she read the words and checked them off.  Then we made a grocery map of our store and she helped me make a list of things she wanted, we looked at the map to find out where they were in the store and marked numbers on the map and the list so we knew which item was where.

Her list: bananas, strawberries, apples, oranges, juice, chicken soup.  Most of that is in the produce section!

Back to work

Back to work.. *sigh*...  It would be better if I could just serve my customers and not worry about political / numbers type tracking.  Esme has become a little more grown up during this week - doing more for herself, able to take herself outside and be loud instead of running around the house madcap (usually...)  I've heard her language improve quite a bit - used someone's name at work, told me that 'herbivores have flat teeth and carnivores have sharp teeth' and her theories are getting a bit more complete.  But still, she is five and it is the difficult and still 'flip floppy' line between 'play with me all the time all the time' and 'I have things to do, make them happen.'...  but it is nice to see the 'maybe I can make that happen' switchover happen sometimes... and I am giving her more room and encouragement to do those.

On the last day of vacation we put some things in order in the house, dressers in place, bulletin board on a wall -- got rid of some old clothes and cut down others for garden use..  I will try to trend in that direction more as we go.  I was impressed by the Singer Heavy Duty's being able to put seams in tshirts if I went slow.  I cut the backs down the middle of several shirts and sewed them back together with less room in the waist (as I need much less than they were offering) while keeping the shoulders wide.  I cut some of the necks down and seamed the edge over so they will be tank tops, and cut the sleeves off and seamed them over.    I have one more to cut down will try to take some pictures of the process as I do think it is fairly cool and useful!