Treasured Tee Pee

 The most treasured Tee Pee

Multi-purpose 'Firelog' Pillows

Before Olivia was born, I saw a picture in one of our decor books of a tee pee for kids in a living room. Fortunately, I have a handy husband who was excited to take on a project together.

We searched for wood posts in Shanghai, which is no easy feat and came upon a woodworker in an alleyway, en route to our local hardware store. We managed to have 6 wooden poles, each 6 feet tall, custom cut for 200rmb (around $30.00CAN). Dada-to-be managed to carry them home 4 blocks, which was also no easy feat! Preggers carried his new drill;)

Our next step was to head to the fabric market to look for beige canvas. Instead we settled for beige linen, that cost a bit more than the poles and proves to be much softer than canvas.

A few meters of rope are thread through drilled holes halfway up the poles with knots to hold them in place. Then the pregnant lady spent a lot of time on a stool in the tee pee, cutting and placing guide stitches for the seamstress to complete on the machine (pre-sewing machine purchase).

For Olivia's nursery, I was looking up all things woodlands and found log pillows. Despite the variety at the fabric markets, I could not find material with a wood-grain pattern. We bought four 'loglike' pillows from IKEA and waited to find the right material to cover them.

On Olivia's first trip to Canada, we came across the material pictured on the pillows above. The wood-grain fabric is sewn right to the pillow cases, so it can all be un-zipped and thrown in the washing machine.

Now, not only can she build a 'fire', but has a great obstacle course for her early crawling escapades, games of peek-a-boo under the tee pee walls and quiet reading times. 

EXPAND ON TEE PEE'S
Funky Fabrics. Check out these amazing tee pee's for sale at Banana J Creations  http://www.bananajcreations.com.au/2.html

Tee Pee Decor; Bunting. Bunting is easy sewing starter project for any novice. Here we made some bunting for O's first birthday party and strung it on the tee pee. The contrast of the bold colours on the beige linen were a hit! Kids can also help make bunting and add letters to spell their name. 


Longhouse Field Trip. Expand your knowledge of Iroquois life with a field trip at Ontario's Crawford Lake. http://www.snapshotjourneys.com/iroquois-village-ontario.html