waldorf playmat | summerplayshouse

I’ve been busy in my craft room. After a tough couple days of resting from oral surgery last week, I jumped right back in to the craft room, eager to start making again.

I finished a whole bunch of machine-made travel felt mats for some fabulous mama friends.

And I sent off these lovely Little Women to a book loving friend.

And I finished and fell in love with this darling custom order for a “Farm” play mat and farmer peg doll.

It was so much fun dressing the mat up with Ellie’s wooden toys while she napped. I think if she would have seen the set up, the play mats would never reach their intended owners.

Everything was completely handsewn on this mat. I had to figure out how to make the vegetable garden piece by piece. I think it turned out pretty cute.

I loved how the farm mat turned out so much, I ended up making Ellie one for her birthday.

I’m still working on making a bee hive (in the back there). I bought those bees awhile back after falling in love with them on Etsy and now I have a mat to add them to.

And last but not least, the latest mat I finished for a friend…
A superhero mat!
When a friend asked if I could make her son a few super hero peg dolls, she also thought it would be fun to have some type of play mat to go with them. I wanted to make something simple and very open-ended. Something fun and bright, like the dolls themselves and something you could add other toys too to create a full playscape. This was surprisingly (since I’m more the “farm play mat” type), a lot of fun to come up with and I’m hoping will be perfect for an active little boy to play with. Heck, Ellie saw a little bit of the mat and was pawing at it herself. I may be making a little superhero mat for her as well. 😉

It’s been so much fun making these custom mats and peg doll sets as well as putting together the felt boards (even though my machine stitching skills are in need of a lot of work versus my hand stitching skills). I love having this kind of creative outlet. Plus, it makes me happy to create things for children, especially my own.

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve really blogged. I fear I’m in a blogging lull as well as having a hard time these days fitting any kind of blogging in. My very busy toddler who dislikes sleep is part of the blogging lull culprit. Wanting to create and paint and read and play is the other culprit. I finally got my act together this week to take a few photos of what I’ve been making in the home and I thought I’d share (and hopefully I’ll be back to regular blogging soon).

I’ve been working on new felt characters for Ellie’s felt board. Like any young child, she is enjoying Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. And I thought it very appropriate for spring-time to make her, her very own felt board set to go along with the book. It’s a bit slow going (as you can see I’ve only made it half way through the fruits) but I’m hoping in a week or so I can finish them up for her.

I have also been debating how to set up a “spring table” for Ellie. I love the concepts and philosophy of Waldorf and when I taught preschool even incorporated some Waldorf philosophy into my classroom. One such thing was the nature table. I always try to have a basket of nature items Ellie has collected on her walks for her to explore at her leisure but I really loved the whimsical nature of having a playspace for spring time. Something that helps a child understand the colors and the development and the magic of the season. Since Ellie is still so young, I wanted to keep it simple. She’s very much enjoying periods of independent play with the little Ostheimer animals we got her for Christmas and so I bought some bunnies and a goose for her Easter basket (for this photo shoot, I brought out the bunnies and goose but shhh! Ellie won’t see them till Easter). So with those wooden animals in mind, I went to work on a fabric playscape for her table. Something she can move around if need be. I used wool felt and batik fabrics and created a lake, grass, a little bunny cave and some stepping-stones. It was a joy to make and she is using it now with the animals she has already. I think I’m going to have to make one for each season!