Summer.

Should be arriving any day here. Really. Given the truly tragic weather that is hitting most of the country it is hard to be upset by some rain and cooler than normal temperatures. My tomatoes, though, would like to register their complaints.

Doodle has loved those magnetic fishing games for a long time and we needed a project to keep us busy indoors last week. So, tada! A felt fishing pond was born

We made a half sheet pan sized piece of felt. We layered out what looked like enough wool.......sprinkled it with water and soap and...

then we smacked it around for a while. Lots of smacking, turn smack, turn again, smack. Very satisfying.

While it was still wet we sprinkled it with with kool-aid. MMM fruity!

Pretty kool-aid colours! Also pretty splotchy because someone doesn't "sprinkle" very well yet.

After an overnight stay in the oven ( I told you it was really damp around here ) It looked like this. See those holes? Not enough wool!

While we waited for the felt to dry we made the pond and the fishing rod. The fishing rod is just a length of bamboo from the yard. I cut a circle of felt to hold the magnet and stitched the little bundle to a piece of yarn. The pond is a rough circle ( remember, the three year old is doing the cutting) cut with pinking shears and stitched around the perimeter with yarn and a darning needle. Yes, he is holding the needle, he just needed a little guidance as to were to poke. He did a great job! When the drawstring is pulled it makes a neat bundle for carrying the fish. When it's all unfurled it makes a great place for fishy play and fishing with the bamboo rod.

Once the felt was dry I cut out some fishy shapes and a large special request coral. I sewed small magnets to them and backed them with some blue felt. It took us nearly all week, but was really pretty easy. The fish ( and seastar) get a good workout everyday

I'm glad I resisted to urge to buy the painted wood fishing set in the Dollar Spot at Target. This was much more fun.

**No actual fishies were harmed. A few poked fingers and some great kool-aid stains aside.