Kiwi Crate contacted me a few weeks ago and asked me if I’d like to review one of their crates. How could I say no? Kiwi Crate is a company that delivers a box full of crafts to your door! Could there anything better than that? My kids were so excited when the little green box arrived, I couldn’t even get a photo before they started tearing into it!

Each box contains the makings for two projects and some extra treats as well. We received the Nature Explorer crate, which is part of their Summer Discovery Series.  The crate had the makings for a nature box and a lantern. In addition to all the supplies for those two crafts, there was also a deck of cards, little kiwi birds to cut out and color, and a lovely little book about constellations.

I have three kids and there is only one of each project. You might be thinking we just got a big fight delivered in the mail, but not to worry Kiwi Crate has thought of everything! They have an option to tack on extra supplies for each sibling, which not only makes for less fighting but more fun in the end.

I decided to see how my kids would do with just one. And they did great! Even though projects are simple, there are lots of different parts. So everyone gets a turn doing bit of the project. My kids picked the nature box to work on first. They put the box together, colored the stickers, and decorated the outside of the box.

Then they added one of the many different scavenger hunt boards to go in the bottom of the box. The one above is a for color scavenger hunt, but there is one for shapes and one for actual things (leaf, twig, etc) too. Best of all, there is a blank one to make up your own scavenger hunt.  Every project in the Kiwi Crate has an activity that goes along with it. Not only do you get to spend a lovely morning with your kids making things, but then they can go off and play a game for the rest of the afternoon! I wasn’t kidding when I said they thought of everything!

After a few backyard scavenger hunts, the lantern making project was up next. This kit came with a super fun (and very sturdy) star punch and my three year old went crazy for it! Many loud karate chops later we had a table full of colorful stars. And not too long after a working lantern!

The activity suggested for the lantern was to build a dark fort and take it inside. My children ran upstairs, intent on making the darkest fort in the world! There they created not only a fort, but a whole world.

Kiwi Crate makes projects that are simple and beautiful, spark the imagination, inspire you to learn and play and make more! Not only that, but they are delivered right to you door. I knew I was going to like getting a project kit in the mail, but I didn’t expect such a thoughtfully designed experience to be waiting for me and my children.

Fall is fading fast here. We had an rainy and sometimes humid autumn, but there were beautiful, cool and crisp days too. There are precious few days of fall left. Here are a few projects from the archives to soak them up:

1. make a leaf crown
2. dip fall leaves in wax and put up on the wall with washi tape
3. why not cross stitch on a pumpkin?
4. fill your house with the beautiful aroma of brown butter bars

I’m nursing a pretty brutal cold that seems to be going around (and around and around), so I’m doing some quiet crocheting while the baby naps. I started this project for Erin’s pillow week, but even though I was (and still am) very excited about the idea I got bored with the actual making of it.  I may be getting ahead of myself–seeing as I’m not even done yet–but I’d like to make up a pattern for the pillow. But again, I have to finish first and then felt it and then see if it even turns out and probably test it again. So don’t hold your breath.

1. linen snowflake (ravelry link) 2. acorn shrug (login required, here’s a finished project) 3. jam jar cozies 4. granny basket

These patterns, on the other hand, are finished and free for the taking. They are all crochet and all dead easy. It seems I only start crocheting in earnest when the weather turns cold (last year I went crochet crazy) and today it feels a little like winter outside. Anyway I think all these projects would make pretty gifts (to yourself even) and would quickly satisfy the need to work with yarn. It becomes strangely addictive that yarn.

I know I talked up my advent calendar the other day–which I have to dig out of the basement this weekend–but I rediscovered Sarah’s very simple and infinitely adaptable blank advent calendar she so posted a few years ago. I think I may make a photo version for the grandmas.  Not that I don’t have a thousand other things to do! I’m working on some handmade ornament tutorials and patterns for next week. There will be 4 for sure and maybe if I kick this cold 5! So stay tuned and have a happy thanksgiving!

These are a couple of placemats I made for one of my sisters (and if my mom can hold off telling everyone she know about this blog–hi mom–she won’t know she’s getting them for christmas).   You would think placemats would be easy, hell even my husband said so, but you really do have to pay attention.  You can’t watch crappy tv while cutting them out with your dull ass rotary cutter on your cutting mat that is way to small, or none will be the same size.  This set is saved by the pretty fabric, but I made another set (for another sister) and everything went wrong: they are too big,  I used plaid fabric so you can see every flub,  I tried to make them pretty with a decorative stitch, but it make them look old fashioned, so I made some matching napkins (I never want to hem anything again) and they look ridiculously small next to the huge placemats, oh and I had to patch some fabric together because I didn’t have enough. There is always at least one project that goes like this, where everything goes wrong no matter what you try. My mom used to call these days “E.I triple T. S.” days: everything I touch turns to shit.  So here’s something nobody can screw up:

pomanders.  I did this with my daughter and her friend last week: just push cloves into oranges or clementines; for small people cut a tiny slit in the orange so the clove goes in more easily. You can tie a pretty ribbon around them and hang them on your tree or in your closet–they smell lovely.  I was going to make letters with the cloves and spell out something festive (noel was the shortest christmas sentiment I could think of) but we started eating the oranges…

Here is something you can do if you want to eat them and another if you don’t have any cloves.