The easiest way to make your own felt board

So, you may remember that I made Bella a felt board last winter. It has spent countless hours in use and is still one of her favorite play things. It's one of those toys that can grow with the child simply by creating new felt pieces. Right now we have a set of multi-colored felt letters and some felt weather. Soon we'll be adding felt people with interchangeable clothes. You can create all sorts of scenes!

I only had a quick window of time to put it together, so I didn't take any pictures during the process, but here goes the explanation:

Homemade Felt Board

-18x24 wood frame cork board (don't spend too much here!)
-half a yard of thin felt (most felt from joann's is pretty thin)
-scissors
-four sewing pins
-butter knife


(wow, we're practically done - it's that easy!)

Lay the cork board on the fabric and cut around it leaving twice as much width as the wood frame. You'll be covering the wood frame and tucking fabric beneath it, but you won't want any excess.

Make sure your board is centered on the fabric and start tucking in the middle of the long edges. Use the butter knife to push the fabric between the board and the frame in little increments. When you finish one edge, stretch the fabric nice and tight and do the opposite edge. Then do the short edges, stretching the fabric so that it is taught on the finished side.

When you have done all the ends, it is time for the corners! Just like folding the corner of a bed, make a pleat and tuck in as much as possible. Gather the rest and insert a pin in the corner, being careful to catch all the fabric so nothing goes loose.

Tah dah! It's done. Oh my gosh, it really was that simple. If you have extra fabric hanging off the back that annoys you, try trimming it with an x-acto knife. I'm just not that picky.

I have found that 3-4 inch letters do best. Have fun making your own additions! Enjoy :O)

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helper

Bella helping with dishes. Please note how well she rinses.

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Some days

Some days just end up like this and I pretend it wasn't me who made the mess, even though it most certainly was.

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Possibilities

So we probably won't do much for Halloween since Lillia won't care and Bella will panic on every doorstep. But if we did, Bella could go as creepy Hoodie Jedi, or Stealth Ballerina. All in a day's work.

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Dolls

Dolls in the morning light. You can tell this was last week because we haven't had any sun since then.

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togetherness

Togetherness is happiness. Actually, Bella is just doing her best to pretend to be Lillia here. She reverts to babyhood on a regular basis.

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Watching

Now that she sits, watching is her new favorite pastime. Bella does her best to pretend she's not there, but sometimes the giggles get the best of them.

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a little something

Just a little something to tide you over until I get the girls' letters finished.

Bella calls this singing, which is fairly accurate since she can't do anything without singing along, especially play the piano.

Lia of course is content to do whatever Bella does.

(Until Bella decided that she ought to use the mallet to see if Lia knew how to sing, too.)

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Secret Hideaway

Lillia's playmat, turned on its side with a towel over top. The best secret tent ever. And chair, apparently, though that is up for debate since it took part in her gashing her mouth open this week. She still seems to like it.

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reading

She likes to have us read to her while she reads an entirely different book to herself. Sometimes she listens and sometimes she chats through the whole thing which frustrates me to no end. Of course, then I have to pretend not to be insulted when she interrupts to tell me about her book.

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she's a trooper!

Ah, picking blackberries in the sunset. What else is new? That's September in the PNW for you.
Everyone does it, see?

I didn't know it could get so entertaining, though. Bella was running and skipping and frolicked head long into a ditch full of blackberries. I kid you not. Call me a bad mom, but I'm laughing out loud just thinking about it.

Head first. Like, head on the ground, feet in the air kicking between muffled cries. Oh yes, it was terrible! My heart stopped as I tried to figure out how badly she was hurt and how to get her out of the thorns in one piece. In the end, I just had to grab hold of her legs and yank. I don't even know how she did it. Tripped on a root, I think. A professional diver could not have gone so swiftly into the briers.

She cried for maybe a minute. But she looks like she lost a boxing match with a cat. She's a trooper, that one.

(click on the photo if you want a story about how she now looks like she gets beaten regularly)

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pete and repeat

skyping engineer style. we were goofing off to see how many times we could put a screen in a screen. oh my brain hurts.

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fun and games

unless you're playing with my family!



and then competition ends in ... competition!

(there is no croquet game too small.)

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because we can

today we blew bubbles inside. oh yes, we did. they were floating in through the window anyhow. delinquent little things sticking to the wall and taunting us on the sides of furniture. and then dave got out a fan and blew them all around. i have video to prove we're not sticks in the mud. it's great to be the grown up some times.

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family day

today was the last day of the heat. and family day, just because that's how it turned out. in the afternoon we made banana ice cream, watched the sword in the stone, ate sloppy joes, and bella stole the bottle that lillia refused to take (again). now it's 88 inside and that's 4 degrees better than yesterday. :O)

ps lia has been grumpy and hiding from the heat (usually entails hot snuggles but as you can see below sometimes she just forgets and falls asleep in the middle of playtime). today is her 2month bday and she's chubbed in just over 13lb. guess we'll keep her.

pps it was a very exciting naptime today when we thought the house exploded. alas, it was just a sonic boom from some fighter jets trying to save the president from a big bad clueless float plane.

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floating

today was the first day of our heat wave. nothing like last year when we were in the 100s, but a good reason to hop in the pool and laze about all morning. this was bella's first experience in a pool this summer.

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savoring - our book nook

Welcome to the special book nook we set up for Bella before Lillia was born - a sweet little corner to retreat and take in a bit of story time and TLC. It's what I'm savoring right now.

This girl, grumpy and groggy waking up from a long nap to get over her cold.


Feet, cozy and relaxed.


Those long, curly lashes snuggled up alseep.


Chubby hands resting on my cavernous belly button.


That wild giddy look, which I love.


And the new thing, which I don't love as much, but this too shall pass. No! Wa mines. Mines hands. Don't even think about asking to touch her hands or take something away from her. She sits on them now.


A different perspective, from guess where.


And now Bella has not only begun to read to herself, but to read out loud from memory. It's a treat.

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one more

since i bothered to put on the wide angle for this shot, i figured i ought to post it. :O)

and because i took a ton of photos today for a savoring post, but am currently trapped under a sleep-nurser.

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crash

In an attempt to get her stompies out, we marched around playing Follow the Leader. Every time we went through the kitchen, Bella made us lie on the floor. It just so happens that it is a perfect place to cuddle and a perfect place to find a new perspective on life.

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daily interactions

Lillia has been lavishing us in smiles during all her awake time today. What a treat! She has my gummy smile already.

There's the happy smile:



And the giggle smile - the one that explodes across newborns' faces and disappears as they learn to laugh instead:



And Bella, I've been able to wear her down for naps. She's a happy little kid during the days again and is getting a bit more sleep at night. As her language grows, listening to her imaginative play is delightful. She repeats what we say, sure (Liiiiia, whadyoudoiiiinlia?) but what captivates me are the words that I don't remember teaching her, especially when she applies them in new ways.



Fug eyes boken (froggie's eyes are broken).

Oh really? What happened?

Wa wipe off! (they got wiped off!) Fug ah sad.

What are you going to do?
Bella hug.



And so it goes. She played with those little guys for a half hour and it was bliss.

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