As always, last weekend flew by in a mass of family, friends and birthday celebrations. But I found that it was also full of unexpected blogging inspiration.
Last weekend gone, my brother visited from the even colder/more wintery North with my adorable nephews two. Although one is still too young to really understand calmness and sitting (being only 3), the older of the two astounded me with his ability to sit patiently and draw/colour/design and make.
When I arrived home on the Saturday, expecting chaos, noise and many footballs in my face, I found, much to my surprise, that I spent some quality time with the oldest nephew making and doing.
Firstly, we made paper airplanes. Pretending I didn’t know how, I allowed him to teach me the ways of the plane and we made one airplane after another, one for each member of the family. Babcia (my mother) graciously provided us with coloured paper and so we had an airplane for every colour of the rainbow:-
After hours of testing our airplanes (Arthur obviously winning many of the races conducted) we moved on to the next crafty challenge. BOATS. Starting from the design of paper hat making, I used an online resource to quickly learn how to make a paper boat and I then taught my eager nephew in turn. This process proceeded to make 4 large boats and 2 small boats, which (obviously) we turned into a race:-
- Make your paper boat(s);
- Fill a large box/paddling pool/bath with water;
- Line your boat(s) at one end;
- Using a straw, see who can blow their boat to the other side fastest.
Needless to say, I lost this many times too.
And, if you didn’t think that this was enough quiet/calm time for the little `un – we then helped Babcia (my mum) bake a cake!
After all this, my siblings and I went out for a lovely meal to celebrate my brother’s girlfriend’s birthday and, to my surprise, we were encouraged to draw/colour at the dinner table!
Tummies restaurant in Cippenham invites its diners to draw/colour while they wait for their meal. What I can only imagine started as simple encouragement to keep children quiet, is now offered to all diners – age no object.
The ceiling of the restaurant is plastered with drawings that diners have designed, but only the best are framed on the wall. Following on from my crafty afternoon, I simply could not resist!
I was so impressed with my nephew and I so enjoyed the time we had spent together, I well and truly caught the craft bug. We made so many interesting things – one after the other – that I was truly inspired.
The next morning (when I again found colouring pens/crayons on table) I decided to up the anti. For one of my best friend’s Hen party last year, I made some tissue paper flowers which now live on my windowsill and brighten up my morning 🙂 As they were relatively straight forward, but didn’t look EXACTLY like flowers, I set out to find another type. Scanning through Pinterest (one of my new favourite discoveries/obsessions) I found a design that I thought fairly simple. Following the video steps, I managed to create what you see below:-
Although this task was a little too delicate for my young nephew, 
my inspiration for creating came from him and the enjoyable hours we had spent the day before crafting and playing.
And what I came to realise was:
Craft is simply child’s play
🙂
(I found the following online resources very instructive when making my paper boat/tissue paper flowers:- http://m.howcast.com/videos/346220-How-to-Make-a-Paper-Boat / http://papelisimo.es/como-hacer-flor-de-papel-con-papel-de-seda-o-crespon/. Also – If you are ever in the Cippeham area, check out Tummies restaurant at http://www.tummies.net)
Seams & Sounds 