Sock Stick Horse - Tutorial

Just in time for the holidays! This is a really easy, fast, inexpensive, very cute stick horse. If you are even a part-time crafter, you probably have all of the stuff needed to make it in your house without heading to the store. An old broom handle can be the stick, fabric scraps can replace the batting. You can do without the rick-rack and accent with fake flowers or more buttons.

You'll need:
Adult sock (woman's cotton size 6 worked better for me than larger or stretchier socks)
Thread and needle
Ribbon
Rick-rack
Felt
Two pieces of fabric
1/2 inch wide, 3 foot long dowel
2 buttons for eyes
Batting
Hot glue gun & glue sticks

Get out the sock and the batting. This little sock will stretch much further than you'd think possible.


Stuff the sock with the batting. Get it really firm.


Cut one 34-35 inch piece of ribbon for the reins. Cut two more pieces of ribbon, measured around the sock at the intervals shown by the measuring tape below. If you're using rick-rack or a contrasting ribbon as an accent, cut those now too. These will be your bridle ribbons. I can't tell you how long to cut them since the size varies for each sock.


On the two short ribbons, hot glue the accent to the ribbon. Ignore my very well-used ironing board, please.


Now we'll attach the reins to the horse's head. Hot glue one end of the rein ribbon in two places on the head, where the glue spots will be covered by your bridle ribbons. Hannah wanted to know why I was saying "I love you" to the horse.

Repeat with the other end of the ribbon on the other side of the horse's head. Make sure you don't twist the reins - I've done that.


Now hot glue the bridle ribbons on, being sure to cover the spots where you glued the reins on and be sure you put the ends of the ribbon under the horse's chin.


Glue the button eyes on.


Freehand cut two felt ears. With pinking shears, cut a smaller ear shape for the inside of each ear. I always pick one of the fabrics that I'm using for the mane. Hot glue the back and the front together for each ear.


Now glue the ears onto the horse's head.


This is the closest I've ever glued them - these ears were a tad bigger than my usual horse ears. Usually, the ears are at least a 1/2 inch apart at the top.


Now, using pinking shears (so the fabric won't fray over time), cut ten pieces out of each piece of fabric that you've chosen for the mane. The pieces should be 3 inches wide and 5 inches long. Match all of the pieces of fabric up so that you have one of each with wrong sides together.


Twist the fabric pieces like a candy wrapper.


Now hot glue these on the horse's head. A few will go in front of the ears, but not past the top bridle ribbon.

This can be tricky. You have to hold the pieces where you need them and sometimes do some additional gluing to get them to stay where you want them to stay.




Here's the finished mane. Now "poof" the mane out by separating the fabric pieces. This will give your mane more body and hide any of the sock that's showing through the mane.


Voila! Two finished horse heads.




Here are some more finished heads to give you an idea of the different looks you can get using different fabrics. I always just use scrap fabric I have on hand. If you like quilting fabrics, you could use quilting block packages to create some really darling manes using more than two types of fabrics.





Now you need to attach the head to the stick. To do this, hand sew around the cuff of the sock. Keep both ends of your doubled thread long.


Cut through the batting with some scissors to get a place for your dowel. Put the dowel in. It should go all the way to the first bridle ribbon. Trust me. I've done it lower and it doesn't look right - the horse's head bobs and hangs.


Now pull the thread tight enough to get the cuff close to the dowel. Put hot glue around the inside of the cuff and tighten the thread up quickly. Hold until the glue is dry. Knot the thread and trim.


And you have a stick horse!

My younger daughter has a horse that I made with 40 inch reins. Much, much too long. My older daughter is riding her horse that she's had for almost three years. These are much loved toys.





All of the horses above have homes, except for these two, so I'm giving them away! If you would like one of these horses for your child for the holiday this year, leave a comment telling me your favorite December tradition (I need ideas) and whether you'd prefer Daisy or Rainbow. I won't be hurt if you rename them.

The drawing will close on Sunday, December 7 at noon, MST. I'll have each of my girls draw a name for one of these horses and I'll announce the winners on Sunday evening or Monday morning.

For shipping ease, I'll just be sending the head - you'll need to get a dowel and attach it. Have fun!




If you want to see one of these horses in action, check out these videos. Cutest damn cowgirl in town.

The difference between Night and Day.

We've been traveling a *lot* over the past few months. Fall's that way - we've got to get enough hay to feed our animals, enough wood to heat our house, and enough visiting before the weather locks us in. We haven't travelled far enough to put us in a new time zone, so I'm not sure where the question came from, but Hannah asked last weekend if it was daytime at Grandma and Poppa's house when it was daytime at ours.

Enter an awesome website. It's constantly updated, so you always see exactly where on earth the sun is shining.

http://www.opentopia.com/sunlightmaprect.html

In the Wild.

Have you ever been to The Wild? We went to The Wild, my children and me, last weekend. And ate snow.


Well, Ainsley ate snow. Snow's cleaner in The Wild.


And it wasn't so much The Wild as it was just off the road and up some hills in the forests of Wyoming. But to a four-year-old, that's The Wild, so that's what it was.


Their dad was cutting firewood and we were looking for a Christmas Tree. The girls found a tree for their room and a tree for the family. I found Beauty.



Lots of Beauty.


Do you ever wonder where Grayson is when you see all these pictures of the girls? Wonder no more. Here he is.


I've been showing Hannah pictures of baskets that Bee-leaf is making. She wanted to test the willows to see if they would work to make her a little basket.


"Where do you want to go now?" I ask the girls. "That way. Past the shadows - into the sun. Into The Wild again."
















What a beautiful day to be in The Wild.

Do your kids like insects?

Or hate 'em?

This website has been a surprising hit at our house. Lots and lots of laughter - especially when the 'bounce' is taken to the highest level. Lots of questions about spiders which led to talk of where I grew up and the tarantulas who live in Oklahoma, discovery of spider's favorite foods (push the spacebar and watch your spider run over and eat the bug you leave for it), and the most surreal discussion with a four year old about ratios (body to legs and skinny vs large legs - try it!).

The snake game on the bar across the top was also a surprising hit. I was not only surprised by how quickly she caught on to how to move the snake and stay away from her tail but also by the hysterical giggles when she ended up eating her own tail.

http://www.onemotion.com/flash/spider/

Family matters.

The disconnect between generations today is a tragedy. We need them and they need us.


I love watching my children interact with their great-grandparents.


We're very lucky to have them in our lives.


We do as much as we can to keep them connected.

Can you recite this?

I have a cousin who is amazing at memorizing and reciting long poems. I should send this to her and see if she can learn this one.

Try it. The challenge is to pronounce every word correctly. English is a hard language to learn.

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

-- B. Shaw

Snapshot Sunday

Our Thankful Tree

Check out Ordinary Life Magic's snapshots.

Jill has her snapshots up.

Walking in on them...

is always a revelation.

Tinkering.

If they're real tools do you have to do "real work"?





Oh, this is real work.

Because your kids will love it.

Check this blog out.

http://letsbefriends.blogspot.com/

Playing with letters.

Hannah's been playing with letters a lot lately. Wanting to know how to spell names, what words say, what sounds letters make. She's not much of a "hands on" learner, but I thought I'd get her some "manipulatives" to go along with her interest. Amazingly, I found that Ainsley was just as - or more - into playing with the "letter manipulatives" than Hannah.


I'd bought these cake decorating letters on sale a month or two ago.

Please loosely interpret Ainsley's "playing with" as "shoveling into her mouth".

Admit it - you wish you'd had these given to you when you were a kid and playing with letters.

I'm thankful for...

A kid who makes funny faces.


Especially when he's tired.


Really tired.


And gets caught halfway through a yawn.


Or all the way into a yawn.


And then asks to nurse.


That's what I'm thankful for.