the cardboard house

When I was little I remember one particular sunny afternoon (it was always sunny in my memories, or snowy, obviously) I can't remember my age, but perhaps I was around 5 or 6. This is probably one of my clearest and fondest memories too. We (my sisters, mum and friend Alice) set out a mat in the kitchen and painted and decorated a large cardboard box. I can't remember how long it took to finish, but suddenly we were in the garden,  eager and excited. We were waiting for our turn to make a puppet show for our audience, of my sister and mum. We probably played for quite a few hours, but like all memories these details don't really matter. I just remember the red and white stripes and the handmade curtains and the joy of our very own puppet theatre. To this day I love the fact that one of my fondest memories of playing in my childhood was one that was created from a cardboard box.

So yesterday we had to wait in for the morning for some deliveries so I planned (in my head) some activities to pass the time. I wanted to do something creative that involved Theo in the making too. I little while ago I made my first cardboard house. It wasn't anything special, just a few holes cut here and there and drawn on with chalk, but Theo enjoyed making into a new place to play with his trains as well as a climbing frame..so not so much a house more of a new piece of furniture.

Luckily one of the deliveries was a new fridge, and it came early, and the box was ginormous. I had grand plans for this box and I really wanted to get Theo involved in the decorating. So with my memory clear in my mind I set to work. I made potato stamps, (a first time of trying this too) mixed up some paint, put down a mat, cut a window and away we went!

 We did some potato printing, crayon colouring, freestyle painting and hand print painting and had lots of fun! Next I decided to try and recreate the puppet theatre, so I found an old piece of fabric a cut a pair of curtains. Now if I had more time on my hands, or really cared about whether it was pinterest worthy I may have bothered to sew and hem some curtains, but no a good old cut and rip worked well for us. I then obviously very neatly attached them using some paper fasteners, added some sellotaped ties and there you have it, a perfectly well bodged jobbed wendy house/puppet theatre! I realised that the window is a little too low for a proper puppet theatre, I clearly didn't think it out as well as my mum did, but there's always a next time.

 We had fun playing hide and seek and talking with the puppets, that was until Theo found a pair of goggles and they were obvoiusly much more fun...