I have always loved the idea of a willow house and seeing this one mentioned recently on the crafty crow got me thinking about other outdoor living natural structures for play.

Sunflower playhouse
Sally’s living willow house a year on
A very pretty willow house about to start sprouting
We made a sweet pea teepee last year – try it will any climbing vegetable – here is how [image from here]

School holidays are soon to be upon us – or are already in some parts of the world – for me its winter and for others its summer. Whatever season though – if you have kids you will need to think of some activities to keep them occupied. Here are my top 10 activities for kids to do in the holidays. These are things that 6 year olds and up can do without a lot of supervision – although there will always be questions and chatter. And best of all these activities are bound to keep them occupied for longer than an hour.

1. Reading and drawing takes up a lot of my kids time and I like to enable this by providing interesting drawing materials – nice pencils, fancy crayons, and lovely books.

2. I love sewing and usually my kids like to have a go if they think it looks fun – my daughter especially is into making her own clothes and with my recent sewing machine acquisition I was able to pass on my old machine to her. Why not let your kids experiment with making some costumes or dressing up the family cat.

3. Felting is another fun family craft – we went through a bit of a felting craze for a while – and the kids loved it – why not let them try needle felting or making some simple felt balls even felted soap – such a lot of messy clean fun.

4. Playing shop is a major favourite activity in our house – give them some materials to really make it authentic. Collect empty food packaging, cardboard boxes – they can even make their own currency.

5. puppets, masks and other dressup / theatrical opportunities can last all day. My kids are now directing their own movies using the digital camera. Hilarious.

6. Playdough has always been popular in our house – we make it ourselves and playing with warm fresh playdough is so tactile and nice. We have graduated slightly from this and now the kids beg me to let them play with real dough so they can bake funny shaped cookies and then eat them.

7. Paper crafts are also popular – give kids some recycled paper, scissors and glue and just sit back and watch. If you want to direct them or give them some creative ideas – try making flowers, boats, paper dolls and a doll house to go with.

8. The shower curtain playmat is a great idea – we do a papier mache version – making cubby houses and pretend houses – whatever your skill level as a parent – getting your kids to use their imagination and crafty skills will keep them happily busy for hours -

9. A yarn craze has entered our house – with competitions running for the longest finger knitting. We are doing 1 finger knitting, whole hand finger knitting, French knitting and are about to move onto bigger loom knitting projects.

10. Getting outdoors – this is a must no matter what the whether. Collecting leaves, stones and bits of bark to make things with later – try rock painting, bark boats and nature collage. So many possibilities.

For US residents celebrating fourth of July – here are my picks for the best fourth of July crafts to get you in the patriotic mood.

1. patriotic pinwheels
2. fourth July picnic caddy
3. front door banner
4. confetti rockets
5. patriotic fans
6. tin can luminaries
7. little girl patriotic tutu
8. fourth July table runner
9. paper lanterns
10. Sugar fireworks

Its been a busy week in some ways – last week of the school term – lots of social stuff going on for the kids – preparing for the school holidays. But its been quiet for me at work – I took a couple of days off to work on some projects at home. Didn’t get much done – but its been nice anyway – some baking – I have been surfing the food blogs and my new favourite food blogs are joy the baker and smitten kitchen - I made the sugar cookies and the lemon cake – both turned out perfectly and we had chicken dumpling stew too – very very good.

Whipup has been busy too … We have a story on recycled and upcycled alternative yarns from etsy sellers : Thinking of making yourself some lovely swimwear this summer - here’s how (why not make your own knickers too while you are about it) : a new magazine on the scene for textile lovers : gearing up for the holidays – here are some activities to keep your kids occupied :

A bit of embroidery and paper: embroidery on paper : paper cutwork : tissue flowers : this paper flower for card making is super cute :

Doing some knitting and crochet : try this adorable froggy pattern : I love the ring tailed lemur : knitted crustacean is too cute : crochet stash basket is lovely.

For the littlies : little princess : we are gearing up for vintage baby knits blog tour – see the schedule and win a book : travel pillow for your darlings.

Have a lovely weekend wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

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there are a lot of eco yarns available these days – organic cotton, bamboo, etc but what about trying out all the upcycled / recycled and just plain alternative yarns that are currently available. While browsing the gorgeous yarn shops on etsy recently I came across so many variations. Deconstructed t-shirt yarn, unraveled sweater yarn, spun rag yarn and plarn (plastic yarn). Check out these etsy stores for some alternative eco friendly yarns.

1. Reclaimed bed linen yarn from retro revisited

2. unraveled recycled sweater yarn from RoseBloom

3. Hand-dyed recycled yarn from dyeTyarn

4. T-shirt yarn and plastic yarn from Bella Flower

5. tie-dye upcycled t-shirt yarn from DevilMakesWork

6. Plarn from copabanana

7. hand dyed recycled wool from cosymakes

8. Hand dyed, recycled, respun yarn from Soulfulhues

9. Handspun plarn from Jesspins

10. Handspun upcycled fabric yarn from Wild hare

11. Handspun upcycled newspaper yarn from mathilda’s threads

12. Handspun yarn made from all sort of stuff from inhope

thinking of making your own swimsuit this summer (for those in the north hemisphere) Burda Style has a free pattern for the Alison Swimsuit : Pattern school has lots of advice and patterns for making a range of swimsuit styles.

If you love these but have no time to make them – there are few very cute swimsuits available from etsy sellers: 1. Ladramaqueen : 2. Swimsuitlady : 3. MissBrache

A new online textile magazine, hand eye magazine, with a wide variety of topics such as sustainability, traditions and history, and well as featuring artists and exhibitions and looking at materials and processes. Promises to be a fantastic read and resource. With articles such as ‘The old language of indigo‘ and inside indigo – looking at the processes and traditions of Indigo dyeing [If you want to indigo dying at home there is an indepth article here.]

Happy Chaos – the story of Cape Town’s Mielie Studio – turning scraps from South Africa’s fashion and textile industries into hooked rugs and other homewares : African Velvets – looking at the tructure and improvisation of Central African Kuba cloth.

[thanks sknitter and ina]

Interweave Names Kathleen Cubley Editor of KnittingDaily.com

Kathleen says:

I’m addicted to all things knitting, including magazines, books, and online magazines, patterns, and blogs. I’m so excited to become part of the online knitting world, taking over the reins so deftly handled by Sandi. I look forward to becoming a big part of your community, bringing you new techniques, projects, author introductions, tips and tricks, videos, knit-a-longs, insider’s info about new products—basically, a host of information to increase your confidence and enhance the joy of knitting.

a great roundup of summer activities for kids from the long thread.

Including:
Getting kids to love reading.
making sunprints – oh how I love these
maya’s stone dolls
play hopscotch
Making kalaidoscopes
t-shirt weaving
Strawberry rhubarb jam
raspberry lemonade