paint cut paste

since winter’s coming, we decided to help out our bird friends, once again. we’re definitely friends to the winged creatures around here — pimping their living spaces with our nesting orbs and birdhouses in the past, so this time we thought we’d help them dine on some fine holiday cuisine with a couple birdfeeders.

i’ve always been a bit wary of creating birdfeeders with my nut-allergic little one, so safety was key to this project. i found some great nut-free birdseed at the hardware store. it was still processed in a facility that has nuts, so we played it safe and donned dust masks and gloves while exposed to the seed.

the first type of birdfeeder we wanted to make is a cute sleeve feeder to put onto a tree branch a la the mofatt girls blog. all we needed was:

• birdseed
• a cardboard tube (toilet paper, paper towel roll, etc)
• nut/seed butter — we used sunbutter sunflower seed butter

N applied the sunflower seed butter to the outside of our tube.

we spilled some seed out onto a baking tray, and she rolled the sticky buttery tube through the seed to cover it (with gloves on.)

we ventured into the backyard and found a branch to slip the tube over… it’s in the same tree as three of our kid-painted bird houses. love that.

when we checked on our feeder a few hours later, we saw that we’d entertained some customers! and the next day, the birdseed was totally gone. see photos below:

the second type of feeder we aimed to make was more complex, but promised a little more aesthetic satisfaction. we followed the tutorial on mom ready for these birdfeeder ornaments. our supplies included:

• birdseed
• 2 packets of gelatine (we used knox)
• a jello/chocolate mold and/or cookie cutters
• string

first, N mixed up the gelatin concoction. we used 2 packets of knox gelatine with a half cup of cold water. (*note: this may be the wrong ratio – read on…) we put it in the fridge to wait for it to gel a bit.

after about 10 minutes in the fridge, we slowly stirred 2 cups of birdseed into the gelatine. in hindsight, i would have used less birdseed – maybe 1.5 cups – but when reading the mom ready blog, it seemed important not to have too much extra gelatine in the blend. i just think ours could have benefitted from more “glue” — thus, less seed or more gelatine.

then we used our gloves and masks while pressing the wet birdseed mix into our trusty heart mold tray (the one we usually make upcycled heart crayons in.) apparently you can also spread a layer of seed out on a cookie sheet and use cookie cutters to cut the shapes… but our loose seed blend was of no consistency to survive that.

once they were pressed into the tray, we used a pencil to poke a hole in the center (to allow for less string slippage) of each heart. we put them into the fridge for 3 hours to “gel” and then left them out for 2 days to “harden.”

after they were hard enough to pop out of the mold, we tied some baker’s twine through each hole. the ones that survived this looked pretty cute!

survivors

we trimmed a tree in our yard with these edible ornaments – waiting for a partridge, 2 turtle doves, 3 french hens, 4 calling birds, 6 geese, or 7 swans to swing on by our house. (gosh, there are a lot of birds in that christmas carol!)

yesterday we visited N’s allergist to repeat a series of tests for food and environmental allergies. we know these appointments tend to be long (2-4 hours) so, of course, we brought along art supplies.

isn't that a cute crayon roll? wish i made it, but i got it on etsy.

N is allergic to most nuts and also a legume (peanut) – she has a dangerous anaphylaxic response, as well as a contact allergy where she’ll get hives if she touches them. she also has intense allergies to oak, grass, and other environmental allergens. just to raise some food allergy awareness here, as an aside, i beg of you parents to please wash your child’s hands and lips (and yours) after they’ve eaten nuts so that kids like mine don’t look like the picture below when they touch the slide at the playground or hold hands with your child after s/he eats a PB&J. please be mindful of the severity of contact allergies. okay, that was my PSA on that. back to the art blog.

N had a skin test at age 2.5, and repeated it yesterday at 4yr 2mo.

15 minutes into the skin test

the skin test does not puncture the skin. it just exposes small areas of the skin to a liquid form of these allergens to measure the reaction. the most painful part is that it ITCHES and cannot be scratched (for about 30 minutes.) to alleviate the pain, the doctor said we could blow cool breath on her back.

N also had a stuffed animal giraffe, zoozy, at the doctor with her. we invited her to scratch his back and also to scratch our backs when she said “my fingers feel like they need to scratch something, even if it’s not my back!” N also asked to draw the entire time while we waited for the test to be complete. these are a few of the drawings she made there:

N said this is a picture of how her back was feeling at that moment.

N said the image below is: “me sitting sideways. that’s my back (left) and i have my knee up (right) where you see the scrape i got on it yesterday.” (she fell and skinned her knee the day prior.)

making art about what she was experiencing in the moment allowed N to make sense of what was happening to her and express her feelings about it. she was able to exhale these images out as a way to release the energy of the pain she was feeling. while it didn’t make the itching stop, the activity allowed a way to occupy her hands, stay present and mindful of her experience, and to visually communicate about it. this allowed her a sense of mastery over the experience, as these pieces of notepaper became safe containers to help her hold what she was holding. gosh, i could go on and on saying art therapisty things here, but i’ll just express my endless gratitude for art materials and for the inner wisdom they evoke from people of all ages.

okay, so this isn’t totally a kid-made craft like my other offerings, but little ones can certainly help with this one, and should! so, unfortunately my little peanut has a severe nut allergy (nuts, nut butters, nut extracts, nut oils.) since she’s almost three and is going to (a super-allergy-conscious) preschool these days, the chances of her being in someone else’s care without mommy and daddy around are becoming greater. so i wanted to share this little idea for a safety bracelet with you all who might have kids who need something similar.

all you need are some alphabet beads to spell whatever you want (no nuts, no shellfish, no dairy, diabetic, vegetarian, OR just do something fun like your kid’s name or a fun word instead!) then find a few other random beads from your collection at home (or cheap ones in the craft store.) i used some stretchy beading cord that i tied together (as seen at the amazon link below,) but you could also use beading wire if you wanted your bracelet to have a clasp.

then enlist the help of your child to string beads onto the cord or wire. using the letter beads can help with alphabet recognition and spelling, too – bonus! while we made ours, we talked more about N’s nut allergy, to make her more aware of it. (whenever she eats something new, she already asks everyone, including me, “does this have any nuts in it?”) i recommend making your little one fully aware of their allergy so they don’t need to rely on a bracelet, but it’s a good additional precautionary measure.

then you’ve got a little safety bracelet that your child can wear to preschool, playdates, etc. where they might have snacks out of your presence. hopefully this will signal to the adults around to be mindful of what they’re feeding your child, in the event that your child doesn’t speak up right away.