Felt animal mask tutorial

So here is another felt tutorial, but it is a bit of a break from the food I have been making. The inspiration for this project started from a conversation I had with Mia before she went to daycare yesterday.

"Mum can you please make me a Pepa Pig mask today?" (Mia)


"I guess so" (Me) "Yes I am sure that I can" (as I realised that this could potentially be quite a fun project!)

Pretending to be an animal is big with Mia at the moment. We have Whiskers the cat, Wuffy the dog and most recently the whole family has to pretend to be Pepa Pig's family. This latest role play was inspired by her being plonked in front of youtube watching Pepa Pig clips while Nathan "babysat" while the All Blacks were playing. Nathan thinks Daddy Pig is hilarious (he is actually, completely clueless as many father cartoon figures are) so plays along with it. Ellie has to be her little brother George and pretend to be obsessed with dinosaurs (as much as a 7 month old can pretend) and I have to be Mummy Pig who sorts out all Daddy Pig's mistakes (quite like real life really!)

So while Mia was at daycare and Ellie asleep I decided to make each of these 3 characters a mask.

Pig mask

You will need: Pink felt, elastic, pink thread, black felt

These are the pieces you will need to cut out: Front and back mask panels, nose and 2 ears (from pink) and 2 black nostrils

Sew nostrils to the nose. Sew the ears onto the front of the back mask panel.

Cut elastic to fit around the child's head. Sew ends of elastic to front of back mask panel.

Top stitch the 2 mask panels together around the edges. Top stitch the nose onto the mask. You can also top stitch around the edges of the ears if you like.

Here's Pepa:

Cat mask

You will need: Black felt, pink felt, elastic, black thread

Cut out: 2 mask panels and 2 ears from black felt, a pink nose.

Follow exactly the same process as you did with the pig mask.

Dog Mask

You will need: Brown felt, elastic, brown thread, black felt

Cut out: 2 mask panels, 2 ears from brown felt. Black nose.

Follow exactly the same process as you did with the pig mask.

Wuffy the dog:

Discovery Box

I have read a couple of times on peoples blogs recently about how they have given their newly sitting up 6 or 7 month olds a discovery box and how it has kept them busy for ages. Ellie is 7 months and (unsteadily) sitting so I quickly (read: In about 1 minute!) chucked several things in an icecream container for her and set it in front of here. If I was a better and more organised mother there probably wouldn't be any plastic in there and I would have trolled the environment for natural things, but I haven't yet. Will get round to that some day!

Ellie loved exploring everything with her hands and her mouth, and it also made me ponder the differences between our two precious girls.

At first I thought to myself "why didn't I think of this with Mia!", but I guess I actually did in a way as I gave her household items to play with all the time, just not in a box! And then I thought "To be honest I don't think Miss Mia would have sat there for over half an hour playing with things and not wanting to move!". Mia came into the world wanting to do the next thing. She reached all her milestones early and then promptly worked on getting to the next one. She was also quick to tell you if she was annoyed and still is! But she is so smart and so like me in personality that it is scarey. She has the patience of a, well a 3 year old, and wants constant attention and playmates (as many firstborns do I think!).

Ellie arrived into the world calmly (and quickly!) with her unworldly big blue eyes calmly taking in the surroundings. She is content just to watch the world go by, and idolises her big sister. It is actually difficult to bore her, hence the discovery box being perfect for her! Having said that she has also had her challenges. Her big sister was quick to sleep for hours at night, Miss Ellie not so much! She was also refluxy and uncomfortable at feeding early on but that has long passed.

So each of my girls are so different from each other, and its wonderful that they already have different strengths and personalities. I look at them both in awe and cannot imagine having anything different (sorry mothers of boys I would love them just as much if I had them!). They are also so lovely to each other at the moment, and I am hoping that lasts for as long as possible!

Breadmaker

My cousin Holly blogged a while back about making sourdough bread. Here at our house I am a little lazier than that, but still like to make our own bread (I would like to try the sourdough though some time!). Although making bread probably doesn't work out any cheaper than cheap bread, by making it I get to control what goes into it, and it tastes much better and actually goes stale if you don't eat it quickly because it doesn't have additives in it. I use our breadmaker A LOT!

My most commonly used and favourite recipe follows. If you have a breadmaker add the ingredients in the order listed and cook on the white bread cycle.

1 1/4 c warm water
2 t sugar
1 t salt
3 t surebake yeast
2 T oil
2 T milk powder
3 c flour (I use half wholemeal and half high grade flour)
1/4c each linseeds, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds (Pumpkin seeds are also good as are poppy seeds)

Keep an eye on it early in the mixing to ensure you don't need to add extra water or flour to get the right dough consistency. Wait 3 or so hours for it to knead and rise and cook and yum!

Homebrew

The "making stuff" bug is catching on in our house. I gave Nathan a homebrew kit for his birthday and his first batch of beer was finally ready to drink this weekend. It was only marginally cheaper than cheap bought beer, but he had fun making it and it tasted much better than cheap beer! Nathan sat down to drink the first bottle while watching the All Blacks game (and babysitting while I was at the book launch!).

It was nice to see him enjoying making something and being proud of what he had created!

Felt Strawberries

This is the second instalment of the felt food tutorials - strawberries. These were a little bit more time consuming than the sandwich was.

1. Cut a 10cm circle from red felt, then cut it in half. This will make 2 strawberries.




2. Use white cotton to sew lots of white "seeds" on the strawberry. This is the most time consuming part, you could miss this out if you weren't too fussy about what the finished product looked like.

3. Fold the long end in half, right sides together and stitch together. Turn the right way in.

4. Stuff the strawberry.



5. Run stitches around the top of the strawberry and pull the opening closed, secure with a knot.




6. Cut out a 6 pointed star shape for the top and stitch on to the strawberry.

Chocolate Cake

This blog seems to be rapidly morphing from a focus on crafts to home cooking! Hardly surprising as my love of cooking long preceeded my love of sewing! From my childhood I unleashed myself in the kitchen, producing tasty treats for the family and a huge mess!

Here is a recipe I have been cooking since I was a child. It came from a primary school fundraising cookbook we had. Every time I cook it I get comments about how moist and delicious it is, which is surprising since it doesn't contain any "flash" ingredients. It also makes an enormous oven tray size cake so you can freeze half for another day. Here is the recipe (I know it off my heart!):

250g butter
2 c sugar
3 c flour
3 T cocoa
2 t baking soda
2 c milk
1 1/2 t vanilla
3 eggs
1 T white vinegar

Soften butter and cream with sugar. (I know the next few instructions are a bit different to a "normal cake") Add the dry ingredients and milk and beat for 2 mins. Beat in the eggs one by one. Beat in the vinegar and vanilla essence. Pour into a greased and lined oven tray and bake at 180 C about 30 mins.

Book Launch and Crostini

Today my extremely talented friend Nic had her book launch for her poetry collection, Leaving my arms free to fly around you (which can be purchased here). Nic is one of those inspiring people who lives life like we all should, with passion and fulfilling her dreams. She is a dedicated environmentalist who campaigns for issues she really believes in, such as the local movement to stop a motorway being built through the middle of our community. I first met Nic 9 years ago when we first taught together, but we have since both had babies and she has moved on to a creative writing course and is the regional enviro-schools coordinator.

When I was about 18 I imagined that by the time I was 30 I would have had a book published and have travelled the world. I have kind of travelled the world, but I never did write that book. However it has made me in absolute awe of anyone who does get a book published. Living vicariously through Nic!

As part of the proceedings Nic asked myself and some other friends to come up with vegetarian finger food. I had fun coming up with some crostini recipes that I was pretty happy with. Here are the recipes if you wish to make them for yourself.

Crostini

Cut french bread in thin slices and baste with olive oil. Bake at 180 C for about 10 or 15 mins until golden.

Beetroot and Feta Dip

Roast 3 peeled beetroot (this takes quite a long time, often over an hour!). Blend in the food processor with 200g of feta and 1/2 t thyme and salt and pepper. This is yummy with anything. You may need to add olive oil to get a good consistency depending on how hard the feta is.

Spiced Lentils

Fry a finely diced onion in olive oil until soft. Add 1 t cumin and 1/2 t each turmeric and smoked paprika. Fry for a few seconds. Add 5 c water and 1 c brown lentils. Simmer until water is absorbed and lentils are tender.

Rocket and Walnut Pesto

Take 2 large handfuls of rocket and pour boiling water over them. Immediately drain. Blend in the food processor with 3/4 c walnuts, 1/2 c olive oil, 1 clove garlic and salt and pepper. Store in fridge with extra oil on top.

Pumpkin

Roast 2cm square chunks of pumpkin at 180 C for 15 mins until cooked but still firm. Toss in a dressing of juice of 2 lemons, 1/4 c olive oil, 1 large t brown sugar, 1 t mustard and salt and pepper.

To assemble:

Spread beetroot and feta dip on half of crostini and top with a spoonful of lentils. Push lentils in to ensure they don't fall off. Top the other half with rocket pesto and top with a piece or 2 of pumpkin. Yum!