Um, I’m sorry. Wasn’t it just Christmas?
How exactly do we find ourselves in February?
(Incidentally, today I finished the very last of the “Christmas chocolates.” Hurrah!)
January was a whirlwind.
Here are the perfectly imperfect creative adventures that happened here in the first month of 2016.

In January, I celebrated #26daysofaussiepicturebooks. Each day on the Instagram machine, I showcased a different picture book by an Aussie author and/or illustrator.
Each week, I created a craft inspired by one of the Aussie books we’d enjoyed.
We made a Felt Landscape Small World.
Australian animal finger puppets.
Some button flowers.
A Railway Small World (in a suitcase.)

I was over at Red Ted Art showing you how to smash some hearts this Valentine’s Day.
(Only of the piñata variety, of course.)
For Australia Day, we made some floral crowns with native flowers.
All you need is floristry wire and tape, scissors and flowers of your choice.
Using the wire, measure the circumference of your head.
We then wound the wire around a few times to create a sturdier crown.
Cover the wire with the floristry tape.
Place your green elements around your crown first. Secure in place with floristry tape.
Add the flowers and secure with floristry tape.

Fat Mum Slim used one of my floral crown photos in this post.
Upon discovery of this, I may have let out a squeal. (Okay, it was more of an excited yelp.)

For some unknown reason, I’ve been hoarding lids.
So we created our version of story stones. Story stones are story-telling aides and are fabulous for creative and imaginative play.
We cut out some landscape scenes from old travel magazines.
We used Mod Podge to stick them onto the lids.
The stickers are from the fantastic “Greetings From Australia” from the Jacky Winter group.
We then applied another layer of Mod Podge.
Voila! Ready to be used to create all kinds of weird and wonderful stories!

How was your start to 2016?
Are you eating Hot Cross Buns yet? (I AM!)