Keep calm, craft on

Written by Kara Fleck, Simple Kids editor and Rockin’ Granola mama.

The January days have suddenly turned quite cold, proving that Winter means business.  The temperatures have been too frigid for playing outdoors for about a week, and I have a winter cold that just won’t let me go, so we’ve been keeping ourselves occupied indoors with some crafty fun.

There’s a warm-up on the way, and I imagine the kids and I will be venturing outdoors again soon.  In the meantime, here are a few of the things we have been doing during these frozen January days.

Drawing, painting, and knitting

The four and six year old have been loving last month’s Kiwi Crate, including the penguin bowling game.  Max and Lucy worked together to color and create the penguin “bowling pins” and they have been setting it up in the kitchen and taking turns.

I love the different characters they came up with when they were decorating their penguins and that they are sharing so nicely (not always an easy thing for either of them) is an extra nice bonus.

Jillian, my eleven year old, has been spending quite a bit of time working on this paint by number kit that she received for Christmas.  She works on it in the afternoons, while the baby naps so she can paint undisturbed, and it is coming along nicely.

It is impressive to me that she has the patience for the tiny details.

As for me?  I finished knitting a pair of socks that I was working on and then promptly turned right around and started another pair.  I knit my socks on mini-circular needles (you can read a bit more about the method behind my madness over here at Rockin’ Granola if you’re curious as to the how and why anyone would use those itty bitty needles).

I’ve also started working on a little Valentine’s project, something that I hope will be a sweet surprise for the kids ... more details to come.

Sources:

• Penguin bowling and other arctic activities from last month’s Kiwi Crate
• Paint by number kit from Target
• Heart knitting pattern is from Closely Knit by Hannah Fettig
• Yarn is Lion Brand Wool-Ease in “cranberry”

This post will be linked to Keep Calm, Craft On at Frontier Dreams, Head over there to join in the fun! I hope to join in the crafty fun every week.