A bow, arrows, and a quiver

Dear Emily,

Sniff, sniff. Seeing how cute Mikey looks in Sam's old shirt makes me want one. The baby, not the romper. Gabe has slept in the bottom bunk instead of his crib the last three nights and I am kinda sad about it. It has been a long time since we haven't had a baby in a crib. But, we can do lots of big boy stuff now.

Like bowling...

and horse back riding.

(of which going to the potty isn't one of them yet but we are working on it.)

Anthony has been begging for a bow and arrow for a while now. About the same time he started asking for one, I saw this tutorial and pinned it on my Pinterest board. He must be a mind reader or something. I finally got around to making the bow and arrows one day last week. Super easy and super cheap. Though I do think I am lucky I didn't slice my hand cutting the notches on the arrows. Don't tell Paul.

 Of course, since he is so in to details, Anthony needed "one of those things you wear on your back and pull the arrows out of." A quiver. 

 The super easy bow and arrows became a little more complicated. I had used bamboo garden stakes I just happened to have for the arrows. They were 36 inches long so I cut a long 27" x 6"rectangle of brown felt I just happened to have . 

 I also just happened to have some Indian ribbon so I trimmed the top and bottom with this. 

I sewed it up the long edge and added a felt circle to the bottom.* Then, I ripped some of the seam out because I forgot about the strap. Back to the cutting board to cut a strip about 30" x 4". Felt is easy for something quick like this because the edges do not need to be finished because they will not unravel. I tucked one end of the strap in the seam about a third of the way from the bottom, restitched the seam I had ripped out, and turned the quiver right side out. Though not necessary with felt, I did make a small hem at the top. I wanted to give it a little reinforcement to help the opening hold its shape with all the arrows being pulled out and put back. Assuming the bow and arrow worked and Anthony used it a lot.

Boy did it work! Definately a great Pinterest pin, unlike the eggs.

It worked so well, arrows got stuck in one of the pines on the left and the neighbors pine over the fence on the right.

Not to be left out, Caroline got one, too. She just isn't quite strong enough to pull the arrow back in the bow.     Paul was impressed. He is the one that shot the arrows into the trees, never expecting the bow to work that well. 

Your boys would love one!

XOXO

Monica

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