{printable} 14 days of Valentines

If you've been around here for a while you'll remember Valentines last year here on the blog. I shared a lot of our little crafts and fun things and you can see them all here.

I also designed these 14 Days of Valentines cards with Jade for her lovely readers. 

They were available for purchase last year for $7.95 but this year Jade has so beautifully offered that I make them available here on a little delightful - and we are offering them to all of you for free :o} 

Here is a list from Jade's post last year for some ways to use these cards:

*Posting them to a different loved one each day for 14 days.

*Using the cards as a countdown to Valentine’s Day

*Send your child a card each day to arrive for the 14 days of February

*Package them up in a small plastic container and gift them to a friend to do as an activity with her children.

*Use the cards as an actvity countdown (similar to Christmas) with love related crafts, cooking and activities for the 14 days.

This year I will do the same as I did last year and write up a card each day for my sweet family. You could use them just for your partner, or you could do them for your kiddos too. Totally up to you :o} I love the idea of using them as a Valentines 'advent' calendar as Jade suggested above and I think I will incorporate that idea into what I am doing also.

We show each other love and appreciation every day. But Valentines is just a bit of extra fun for us. I get to put red and pink everywhere and we do lots of Valentine's related activities. I give the kids a little token something {like a book and some chocolate etc} but hubby and I don't do gifts for each other. Last year we wrote each other a message each day on these cards and enjoyed a take out candlelit dinner once the kiddos were in bed. Bliss.

Download the 14 Days of Valentines pack here. Best printed onto white cardstock :o} You can mount them onto card as Jade did {see the link above to her post to see how lovely that looks} or leave them as they are and just cut them out.

So go forth and spread love amongst your beautiful family this Valentines :o}  

xx

As always, these printables are free for personal and classroom use only. Please do not use for commercial purposes.

They are © 2012 - a little delightful.

No derivatives of this printable are permitted. Please do not alter these and share them as your own.

Freebie printables are offered 'as is' and cannot be changed without incurring a personalisation charge.

Please contact me with any queries regarding this {or other} printables.

I am more than happy for you to share these, but please link to my original post {this one} and not to the direct download file. Thank you.

contact paper fish

A very easy and simple craft we have been enjoying lately involves contact paper! 

During Halloween we made a contact paper pumpkin, and since then we've been making all sorts of contact paper crafts. For our ocean theme we thought it would be great to make a fish. For something like this, I found it easiest to cut out the shape we wanted the end product to be first.

We used a mix of green and navy blue tissue paper squares as well as some aluminium foil squares for a bit of fishy shine!

Then, sticky side up, Noah placed a small black circle for the eye and then added the tissue paper scales. 

 Once the fish was happily covered in scales...

I put a rectangle piece of contact paper sticky side down on top of the fish.
Here it is flipped over. Now I can cut around the fish outline and trim the excess contact paper off. 

And here is our shiny fish hanging on the wall. Loving the foil here, nice little addition. :o}

If you want to see some hearts for Valentines done this way head on over to Bizzy Dayz. We will be doing these too. As I said above, we are huge fans of this kind of craft - because sometimes you really don't want to get the glue out! :o}

"0" years old iron on transfers

A lovely reader asked me if I would be willing to make an iron on transfer with a "0" on it.
I had already made these for a friend who wanted to give her friend a onesie with a "0" for their new baby, so I thought I'd share them with all of you, too. 

The picture above is an example of what the iron on transfers look like :o} Just obviously with a 0 instead. :o}

To download the "0" in pink go here

To download the "0" in blue go here

To download iron on transfers number 1 to 4 in pink or blue - see this post :o}

x

As always, these printables are free for personal and classroom use only. Please do not use for commercial purposes.

They are © 2012 - a little delightful.

No derivatives of this printable are permitted. Please do not alter these and share them as your own.

Freebie printables are offered 'as is' and cannot be changed without incurring a personalisation charge.

Please contact me with any queries regarding this {or other} printables.

I am more than happy for you to share these, but please link to my original post {this one} and not to the direct download file. Thank you.

my desk

The other week I finally tidied up my desk and made room for Project Life.

It meant I had to stick my printer up the top of my desk {this is an Ikea Expedit desk which used to be hubby's and now I use it since he doesn't need a large desk anymore}. Not my favourite option, but needed so I have plenty of work space on my desk, even when the lap top is on there.

On the top shelf I have the cute wooden divided box I bought when holidaying in Albany {WA}. I am not sure what it was originally designed for but it was used for pens and pencils on my desk prior to being filled with Project Life stuff. 

My 2012 Project Life album is also up here - keeping everything in easy reach. The little tin bucket behind the photo of my kiddos and I has the corner rounder punch in it, and behind that is an empty Project Life core kit box where I put photos that I have printed but have not yet placed in the album.

Here is a close up of the box. Nice and labelled. The compartment at the end holds all the stickers and the date stamp and ink pad, keeping everything in one place - nice and easy.

 This is one side of the lower shelf. The tin bucket holds bits and bobs - my to do list and menu planner clip boards and a note pad. I have a container for pens and pencils and I also keep my diary and my Kikki-K 2012 planner here so it is within easy reach. The tin bucket at the back is for receipts! I just dump them in there and go through them when I do my filing - file away any that need to be kept for warranties etc {photocopy them first as they will fade over time!} and the others get chucked out. 

This side of the lower shelf houses my external hard drive as well as a tin bucket with ruler and calculator. I like having these things at hand all the time as I use them both most days. The mocha coloured box contains my camera cable, iPhone cable and my camera battery chargers as these get used on a daily basis I felt they needed a tidy spot for keeping. The little dish houses my phone, hair ties and earrings that I often take off at my desk so they don't get lost. It also stops my MacBook charger from sliding off my desk when I move my laptop. :o}

Underneath the desk there are 4 more cubes. I keep Noah and Chloe's albums here so they are easy to reach. Noah's school album is down here too and a spare Project Life album. The basket on the top shelf to the left, right above the albums, is where I put all the things that need to be put into the kids' albums. Art work, certificates etc, all get placed in here for safe keeping until I get the whole basket out when I work on their albums. The other {mismatched} baskets and boxes are currently empty.

 Don't worry, my desk does not look like this all of the time! Right now I have 2 different piles of paper on here, some books and my laminator. :o}

Our office + theatre room are the same room - so it can get a little cramped in here. But when our desks are tidy, it is actually a peaceful room :o}

See that in the corner? That used to be my desk. Yep - way too small haha! So glad hubby swapped with me :o}

aussie bush ocean creatures

After making our aussie bush garland we also made some ocean creatures - which is why we started collecting the gumnuts, jacaranda pods and leaves in the first place. 

On one of our walks we noticed that the jacaranda pods looked like stingrays. We then decided to hunt for more things that could resemble an ocean creature {since that is our theme at the moment} and worked out that leaves could look like eels or sea snakes and gumnuts could look like jellyfish or octopus. 

We just glued googly eyes onto the jacaranda pods and the leaves. 

The octopus / jellyfish are a little more difficult, involving flooding the inside with glue...

and placing cut up twine in the glue and allowing it to dry {preferably upright, so the glue doesn't run out of the gumnut}. And then afterwards, glueing some googly eyes on. 

Noah had a lot of fun with cutting up the twine himself, and then stuffing the gumnut full of glue. 

All the while Chloe just made a mess with the googly eyes. 

We then made a little tissue paper ocean for them, complete with seaweed {cut up green felt strips} and a paper rock to hide under.

Do you see any aussie bush ocean creatures in your future? 

x

aussie bush garland

We have been collecting little bits and pieces from the aussie 'bush' - well, we don't live in the bush but you know what I mean!

We live in such a gorgeous and unique country. I thought it would be nice, in honour of Australia Day, to make a garland to display in our home, making use of gumnuts, leaves and jacaranda seed pods.

So here is our collection, we gathered these bits and pieces over 2 lovely family walks. 

And then I tied them onto some plain cotton twine. I found it easiest to make the loop first, then place the gumnut or leaf etc into the loop and tighten. 

I love it. It is just a nice subtle touch for Australia Day :o} This is ours hanging from the shelf we used as a mantle at Christmastime.

It is flooding in QLD and we are suffering a heat wave here in WA. Such a contrast. Please keep safe everyone, wherever you are. 

I hope you have a fun filled Australia day tomorrow, with all the things that make this country a great one. xo

ocean sensory tubs

We have been having so much fun with our ocean theme lately, and there is really a lot to do that revolves around this theme. We have also been tying some of our activities or crafts with our Australia Day fun, learning about ocean life, our beaches and of course enjoying that it is Summer here. 

So many of our crafts and activities, while still fun and engaging for Chloe, are more geared towards Noah's age {4/5 years old} than hers {not yet 2}. So one of the activities I wanted to make sure we did was an ocean sensory tub. 

Of course that involved water. And plastic fish. :o}

Simple. Easy. Engaging.

The kids had a ball!

But I also wanted something they could do inside. It's seriously hot around here some days and just way too hot to be outside a lot of the time. And then I remembered an awesome idea friends of ours used at their kiddo's recent birthday party - they wanted a lucky dip sort of game at their Safari themed party but the thought of the kids sticking their hands in a bucket of mud to find a small safari animal wasn't exactly the kind of mess they wanted to clean up! And so they bought a heap of water beads and filled a tub with them. They worked perfectly for the lucky dip - and no mess! Perfect! So when we were out at the markets I bought 2 small packets from a stall.

How seriously cool do these look!?

They come looking like tapioca pearl {slightly bigger}. I followed the directions on the packet and soaked them in bucket with a lot of water for about 8 hours. They get a lot bigger as they absorb A LOT of water. When they were ready, I drained them of the excess water and placed them in a tub. {this is the shallowest of the Ikea trofast tubs}. I bought a pack of blue water beads and a pack of clear water beads and mixed them.

I popped in some ocean related things {their plastic fish and sharks etc, a resin starfish, and some real sea shells} and the kids really had a ball with this. 

I also removed all the things from the water beads just so the kids could play with them freely. It really is a fun sensory experience. They are cold and a little wet to the touch. Slippery and smooth. Kind of hard to describe.

I intended to let the kids play with these for a few weeks {they last up to 6 weeks without needing to be re-soaked} and then dehydrate them by just leaving them to dry and not adding more water so that we can re-use them another time ... but they are a little delicate and do break easily into bits and pieces. So I am not sure there is going to be a lot to save at the end of it, which is ok. The water beads set me back $10 for the two packets, and I think for all the fun they're having day in and day out with them, it's ok if I don't get to re-use them another time.

* I forgot to mention that these water beads are non-toxic and also biodegradable! :o}

All in all I think these two tubs have been quite a success over here for both the kids. 

:o} We just migrate the fish outside to the water tub when it's not too hot to be out there, and migrate them back in to the water beads when we come back inside. The fish also make it into the bath and the shower and have been swimming in the rainbow rice, too. Such busy fish!!

x

australia day trifle

Ok, so things don't always turn out the way they are 'supposed to' in the delightful house.

I had this grand vision of a beautiful and elegant looking trifle in a sundae glass BUT - all dressed up for Australia Day.

Yep - Green and Gold {lime jelly and custard} and flag coloured Red, White and Blue {strawberry jelly and blue coloured custard}. AND to use lamingtons instead of plain ol' sponge cake. Yep. That's pretty Aussie.

And so totally cute with my Australia Day Toppers popped on top, no?

{I made these for last year but you can download them from this new link here}

Can you envision this trifle? In your mind does it look fabulous?

Something awesome to serve up on Australia Day?

Yes?



Does it look like this?

Or this?

Hahaha. I bet not! I bet it looked heaps better in your head. Because it looked heaps heaps better in my head. Oh well.

The kiddos don't love Jelly and Noah is just not into such a texture explosion in his mouth so I made these for Hubby and I to enjoy. Well, I don't really love jelly either so hubby enjoyed them. Both. Before I got the toppers into them. Impatient. Oh well.

If you would like some great Australia Day ideas check out Kaz at Living on a Latte's Australia Day Inspiration Post. :o}

I am not sure what we are doing for Australia day yet. What ever we do though I am sure it will involve RELAXING. And probably not the trifle.

As always, these printables are free for personal and classroom use only. Please do not use for commercial purposes.

They are © 2012 - a little delightful.

No derivatives of this printable are permitted. Please do not alter these and share them as your own.

Freebie printables are offered 'as is' and cannot be changed without incurring a personalisation charge.

Please contact me with any queries regarding this {or other} printables.

I am more than happy for you to share these, but please link to my original post {this one} and not to the direct download file. Thank you.

{printable} back to school - countdown + interview

It is nearly that time of year - when our kiddos start or go back to school!

We are technically starting our 3rd year of schooling but it isn't really getting any easier yet. Ok so I don't cry like I did when I first left him at his 3 year old classroom, but I still get soppy and emotional and dread the start of the new school year.

Our first year of schooling saw Noah start at a 3-year old program for 1 day a week, which we increased in the 3rd term to 2 days a week. He loved it. Me? Not so much. I missed him.

Last year he was at kindy, and went 3 days a week. Yes, 3 whole days a week. Sob.

And now he will be in pre-primary and will be away every.single.day and I'm honestly not looking forward to it.

But I am excited for him too, because so far he has really blossomed at school. My sweet boy used to wait until play equipement at the playground was empty before he'd have a play thanks to a traumatic incident that scared him away from playing with other kids at the park. He used to hide behind me all the time when we were out. And would not let anyone hold him except me or his Daddy. Now? He has truly come out of his shell. He is more confident and loves playing with other kids now. He enjoys learning about new things and always has a proud look on his face when he has a piece of work to bring home. He will always be a little shy, and I think also cautious. But that's just him. He loves school, not so much the start of it - new teacher, new classroom etc, all of that freaks him out as I am sure it does most children, but after a while, he can't wait to go. I am super proud of him. And I super miss him when he's not around.

ANYWAY. Enough of that or I'll cry.

The wonderful Jade of Super Organiser Mum and I have again made some wonderful printables for Back To School! As always, we had a ball making these together. Jade is full of the most beautiful and creative ideas and it is a pleasure working with her on printables like this. 

The first is a totally cute Back To School Countdown! :o} This is FREE to download here.

You can put it in a frame and blu-tac the numbers onto the glass as Jade did. LOVE the look of this.

Or you can laminate it all and again use blu-tac to stick the numbers on. I just stuck this on our DIY chalkboard frame.

It comes with the countdown page as seen above. As well as numbers and a small "First Day Of School" card.

The first day of school card can be used in place of the numbers on your countdown, 

or perhaps as a little photo prop :o} If your kiddo will participate that is .......

This Back To School Interview Pack is for sale in the a little delightful etsy shop. :o} 

It is a matching First Day of School Interview Pack. It contains two printable sheets to help record a little about your kiddos first day of school. 

The first page has room for all those important details, date, school, year and teacher. At the bottom there is room for 2 small photos of your child on their first day. 

The second page is a short and small interview with a space for your child to write their name. We all know that the first day of school can often be overwhelming so the questions are not difficult or lengthy - just sweet and short to gain a little snippet of how their day went and what they did. There is also a large space for perhaps a handprint or a drawing at the bottom. 

Jade and I will be using these to document the first day back at school for our boys. How much fun will it be to look back on these from year to year? To see the change in their handwritten name, and the change in the size of their handprint or the way they draw? LOVE!!! 

So are you ready for back to school? Thankfully we still have 2 weeks of holiday left. I am making the most of them. :o}

As always, these printables are free for personal and classroom use only. Please do not use for commercial purposes.

They are © 2012 - a little delightful.

No derivatives of this printable are permitted. Please do not alter these and share them as your own.

Freebie printables are offered 'as is' and cannot be changed without incurring a personalisation charge.

Please contact me with any queries regarding this {or other} printables.

I am more than happy for you to share these, but please link to my original post {this one} and not to the direct download file. Thank you.