Creative times with and for my children

This morning while Andrew and Elijah were with Greg at soccer practice, Lavella and Jonah had some happy playdough time.

 
When the children are so peaceful and happy together, I scarcely want to breathe, lest I disturb the charmed moments...

 
Once Jonah was bored he suddenly started roaring at Lavella and seemed to mistake her arm for a snack.  Ah well.  The teeth marks won't last as long as these photos will.

These are some paper dolls the children and I made this afternoon out of some brown bags:

 
Andrew made a little girl doll (not shown) for his Best Friend Girl at school with her eye and hair color and a pink dress ("her favorite color!")  It was very sweet.  I gave him a pretty note card to write a note on, and another paper craft to tuck in besides. 

Andrew was headed out to a birthday party for another school friend, and said he would bring the paper doll with him because he thought she might be there.  Then, thinking out loud, he said "Well maybe I'll wait to give it to her at school...and then maybe my teacher will give me a Good Worker Board."  Oh, dear Andrew, already learning to work the system.

A few weeks ago I was suddenly inspired to make some little box bags for my children -- they call them Treasure Bags, and they're perfect for carrying small things safely around in their backpacks (I've lost count of the number of times Andrew and Elijah have searched around frantically through their entire backpack for one precious small rock or tiny bead...)

 

Lavella's got one too, but I can't find it at the moment.  It's purple, of course.

The insides of the bags are in each of their favorite colors (OK, so I'm guessing at Jonah's preference here, but he can't seem to speak English yet.)

 

I made them following the box-bag tutorial at Drago(knit)fly.

I also made one for Rachel's 12th birthday, which was at the end of March (happy birthday, Rachel!!), along with carding her up two spinning batts -- she has a spinning wheel, and is becoming quite the accomplished spinner.

 

Speaking of spinning, there's been quite a bit of that going on around here lately:

 

...and speaking of carding batts of wool...well, call me crazy (and I know you all do), but...I opened a little shop online to sell my carded batts: Purldrop Studio.

 

OK, I know most of you don't spin, but aren't they pretty?  I sort of don't want to sell any of them, because I just want to arrange them in different ways and look at them.  Or decorate my house with them.

 
(And yes, I realize my color wheel is a little skewed here -- but whatever, I seriously need to stop playing with them.)

I opened it yesterday, and so far have sold three batts.  A solid little start, I think.

Last night though, instead of spinning, knitting, or carding wool, I started an embroidery project.

 

Because apparently, I don't have enough creative outlets.  Apparently.  (Redwork image printed out from PatternBee.)