We’d been talking for a while that we needed to do some cleaning before Christmas. Specifically in Eli’s room so there’s actually room to bring in some new stuff.
So to show him how Mom and Dad can clean up their stuff too, Stephen started pulling books off of bookshelves and chunking them in a [...]
We were full of the busy yesterday and I managed to get photos of big chunks of it.
First thing was playing with the doll house:
Click the photo to see more pictures.
In the afternoon we were off to hang out with our friends at Hallie and Remy’s house. I made all the girls t-shirts that [...]
We were outside at the playset one afternoon this past week and Eli requested I tell him a story. He’s always making up stories so I guess he decided he needed a break from all the work and wanted to hear someone else’s made up stuff.
I might be crafty with a glue gun and paper [...]
Eli loves a set of nesting dolls that Stephen’s mom has. So when I saw a set of Dharma Dolls in Japan, I knew it was the right gift to bring home for Eli.
As Eli was playing with them one day, he began telling me of his adventures in Arkansas. While he was staying with [...]
I was making Liza’s butterfly when I found this bird pattern on one of my craft blogs. I knew I wanted to make it and combine it with this quote:
Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those who sang best.
–Henry Van Dyke
I’ve been working on them [...]
I loved paper dolls when I was a kid. I know it’s rooted in my obsession with paper, so it’s not really a surprise that any craft that involves cutting, folding and gluing paper is going to rock my paper socks.
Back in the day, paper dolls were hard to come by. When you could [...]
From one of my craft blogs, I found a pattern on this page of a robot. I decided that it was cute and that I could certainly make it for Eli.
Eli picked out the colors from a stack of felt that I had. Purple and green are always favorites, but the orange in the mix [...]
What the hell, people? Who went and told all of the toy companies that the nation’s kids were clamoring for security-themed toys? Misty just showed me the Playmobil Security Check Point.
I think this is even creepier than Scan-It because it’s Playmobil. Look at everyone’s blankly happy faces. I guess to make this more realistic you’ll [...]
Here at the Granade household, we’re down with the educational toys. If our kids happen to learn things while playing, that’s all fine and dandy. Still, I’m not sure I want them playing with a Scan-It, from OPERATION CHECKPOINT: Jr. Airport Security Education Center.
It’s a toy airport x-ray machine! As the ad copy tells us, [...]
Yesterday, in one of my brief respites from feeling terrible, I came across a mathematical analysis of Candy Land. He does an analytic analysis which assumes independent draws (i.e. you draw a card and then put it back in and reshuffle the deck) and a Monte Carlo analysis that’s much more realistic. According to Lou [...]