Halloween Bat and Ghost Clothes Pegs

As a Brownie Guider I’m always on the look-out for cheap crafts for children which don’t take much preparation. Unfortunately, I keep having to revert to having a good old nose in the Baker Ross catalogue (because who has time to cut out all the parts for a group of 20 girls), but every now and again I get my act together and do a proper craft, like these Halloween Bat and Ghost clothes pegs which I adapted from Martha Stewart.

I forgot to take any pictures of the finished crafts (or rather I forgot to take my camera with me to Brownies) so I can’t show you any pictures (Sorry!).

In total the craft cost £3.35, or 17p per girl for a unit of 20. This assumes that you have scissors, glue sticks and colouring pencils/pens already in the cupboard.

What you need (for a group of 20):

• 40 wooden clothes pegs (77p from Wilkinsons)
• 10 sheets black card (£1.29 for a pack from Yorkshire Trading)
• 10 sheets of white card (but can be done with less) (£1.29 for a pack from Yorkshire Trading)
• Glue sticks
• Colour pencils/pens
• Scissors

Preparation:

Using the following images (bat and ghost - the ghost is from here), make 2 cardboard templates of each per six.

Note: the ghost will need resized - I used the depth of the bat as a approximate guide.

How To:

1. Draw round and cut out one of each shape (a black bat and a white ghost)
2.  Decorate
3. Put plenty of glue on one side of a peg. Stick this to the back of the bat (the top of the peg should be level with the top of the bat’s head – this will leave ‘feet’ at the bottom of the bat).
4. Glue one side of the second peg. Stick this to the back of the ghost (the bottom of the peg should about level with the bottom of the ghost).
5. Allow to dry and then decorate the house!

You could easily make a pumpkin (with orange card) or a black cat as well. And the activity can be extended for older children by getting them to draw their own ghosts and bats.

V x

Baby Shrug

I've just wrapped up and sent my first knitted item for a baby! My cousin has just had a baby girl so I took it as opportunity to knit something really cute. I decided on this little shrug as it wouldn't take much wool and I thought it'd be a lovely easy pattern.

I bought some lovely wool from The Knit Studio in Newcastle - my cousin doesn't knit (as far as a know) so I had to weigh up ease of washing, price (as well as having turned into a bit of a wool snob and now hating acrylic).  It really nice to use and hopefully it'll great for the baby.

Rather than adding the embroidery that the Ravelry photos have (embroidery is not my forte), I left it plain but fastened it using a cute little plastic flower button. 

The original pattern was sized for 12-18 months but I knitted it up on smaller needles (which just happened to be the same size as the ball band) and did a couple less increases before the arms. I have no idea when it'll fit her but since it's a shrug, it should be fine :)

V x

Brambling

Despite being at university and only 20, I swear that I get more middle aged every day.  Today I went brambling!

There's a really lovely little wood near to where I live. It's right in the centre of the city, but completely secluded - you can barely tell that you're surrounded by houses (unless it's lunch time at the local secondary school). Last spring/early summer, I went on walks around the wood everyday as a break from the stress of revision. It kept me sane! One day I even went out and sat in the wood during torrential rain. 

When I came back up to University during the summer (for a placement), I decided to show one of my best friends around it - imagine my delight when I found bramble bushes dripping with unripe brambles which I estimated would be ready when term started. Lo and behold, most of them are now wonderfully ripe.  Today on my walk, I managed to collect two boxes full within an hour, and that's with tons of completely unripe brambles left on the bushes. I think that a weekly brambling trip'll be required!

I'm planning on making plenty of bramble pies and bramble & apple crumbles for my house mates (lucky them). Though it'll be on the condition that they accept that, up here in the north, we call them brambles, not blackberries.  I'm also hoping to try out Smitten Kitchen's recipe for Blackberry Gin Fizz, because everything can be made even more awesome by gin. To quote by best friend: 'I'm not an alcoholic, I just like gin'.

V x