THIS PAST WEEKEND WAS A BLAST!
I got to spend the whole weekend with my niece and we had some fun things to do. I had got her some air-drying clay a while back and the last time she was here we made these two cute little creatures, an eskimo pencil holder guy and I made a pot. I still don't know what I'm going to use it for.
The clay isn't too difficult to work with but I didn't manage to get any photos while we were making them because clay covered hands and cameras don't mix well. They take 24 hours to dry so it was spread over two separate visits. My niece likes the look of snails as much as I do so after I started mine, she decided to follow suit and do one too, but a lady snail. Isn't she just too cute?
We put some eyes on sticks which added the finishing touch and then when she came round this weekend it was PAINTING TIME! She decided that it would be best for us to paint each other's snails which I thought was really cute as a bonding moment.
We only have six colours at the moment as I'm still building up a stash of different paints and arts 'n craft stuff for her since I moved here, but these acrylic paints are amazing and their coverage is great.
At first we didn't know what kind of patterns we wanted or combination of colours, but my niece needs no direction when it comes to painting. I decided to paint a kind of rainbow swirl along the shell as it curved and of course this was a hit. Little miss on the other hand decided to mix her own paint colours and painted layer upon layer of different patches. I saw this was making quite a cool effect so I suggested she rub her fingers over it with some water and see what kind of effect it leaves as I knew it would become a bit mottled. It turned out so well and she was so pleased with it. Unfortunately we lost some eye stalks along the way.
We put them in the garden once dry and we came up with all kinds of adventure stories about Suzy and Ted and how they lost their eye stalks to curious magpies that were chasing them because they glint in the sunlight. They had to take cover and hide in the undergrowth of some bushes and wait for the magpie to lose interest. They waited and waited...
My niece at this point was running around the garden with her "wings" outstretched and bouncing like a bird in the grass looking here and there and calling for re-inforcements which luckily didn't arrive and the magpie finally lost interest and disappeared over the wall.
They emerged out of their hiding spot and while cautiously surveying the landscape, they embraced in a kiss (because snails can hug even less successfully than T-Rex).
They decided they wanted to get home before the magpie came back with her buddies so they made for a quick escape. Well, as quick as snails can anyway lol.
It was such fun and I loved every second of it. I can't wait for our next clay making session and the stories that we'll make up as we go along too.
All images are my own unless otherwise stated