Colourful, decorated plates do not cost much to make and can add a personalised touch to the Christmas dinner table.  It is a fun activity for kids this holiday season and the plates can be used again and again, creating a lifetime memory. 

What you will need:
- Porcelain, ceramic or glass plates with a smooth surface. 
- Paint pens, which you can buy at any art store.

Instructions:
Wipe each plate with rubbing alcohol and allow to dry before painting.

Kids can paint anything they can imagine on the plates, from Christmas trees to golden stars or even the gifts they would like to receive from Santa. 

Allow the painted plates to air dry for 24 hours. 

Place the painted plates in the oven.  

Do not stack the plates on top of each other.  

Turn the oven on to 150ºC and bake for 35 minutes.  This will set the paint and make the plates suitable for food.

There is no need to stop at plates.  For added fun also decorate cups, saucers and dessert plates.
　

How to make a string puppet

You will need:
- Hardboard 
- Glue (Pritt and wood glue)
- Scissors
- String  - nylon
- String  - thin
- Wrapping paper
- Pods and seeds
- An old feather duster
- Two blocks of wood
- Fishing line
- The handle of an old feather duster
-  Permanent marker

Saw the handle of the feather duster into two pieces.  One longer than the other. 

Make grooves in the handle so that the two pieces can fit into each other, making a cross.  Use wood glue to stick the two pieces together.  When the glue has dried you can also use a nail or a screw.

Make grooves into the wooden handle’s four ends, about 1 cm from the end.  This is to tie the fishing line around so that it won’t move around.

Cut four oval shapes out of hardboard.  Two for the body and two smaller ones for the head.

Cover one side of the four ovals with wrapping paper of your choice.

Glue the two bigger ovals together with the ends of the wrapping paper on the insides.  Put some of the feathers from the feather duster in between the two ovals before gluing it together.  Also glue together the two smaller ovals in the same way. 

Leave the glue to dry and make two holes in the bigger oval for the string to go through.  One hole will be for the neck and the other for the feet.

Make a hole in the smaller oval for the neck and another hole at the top of the head for the fishing line to go through.

Use the wood glue to attach the pods for the feathers to the bigger oval in which ever way you want to arrange it.  Do it on one side first and allow to dry before starting on the other side.

Take two pods for the beak and glue it to the head and allow to dry.

Measure how long you want the legs to be and cut one piece of string for that.  Put it through the one hole in the bigger oval and make a knot tight against the oval.  Two equally long pieces of string will be hanging down for the two legs.  Make holes in the wooden blocks and put the ends of the string through the holes in the blocks.  Make knots on the other ends, so the wooden blocks are secured as the feet. 

Cut a piece of string for the neck and put one end through the bigger oval and tie a knot on the other side.  Put the other end of the string through the hole in the smaller oval and make a knot.

Use the thin string to tie feathers to the rope for the legs, in bunches.  Make a bunch every 2cm on the rope so the feathers overlap and cover the whole leg.

Glue some feathers to the bigger oval to cover the hole where the string for the legs go in.

Draw two eyes on the smaller oval with a permanent marker.

Make another hole in the top of the head and attach fishing line to it.  Tie the other end of the fishing line to the top of the wooden cross, made out of the feather duster handle.

Attach a piece of fishing line to the one foot and tie the other end of the fishing line to the one side of the wooden cross.  Do the same with the other leg.

Attach a piece of fishing line to the body and the other end to the bottom of the wooden cross.

Make sure the pieces of fishing line are long enough so the string puppet is standing up straight.

And voila!!!!!  Your string puppet is finished.

Worms can do wonders for the garden: they aerate the soil and their castings are an excellent fertilizer. To get a constant supply of this worm fertilizer as well as extra worms for the garden, why not start a worm farm and at the same time get rid of all your kitchen scraps.

Worm farms are simple structures that you can make yourself. They consist of three or four stackable containers made plastic, or any other lightweight, waterproof material. We suggest that you use three to four plastic containers which fight tightly into each other. Drill holes into the bottoms of all the containers, except for one.  The worms live in the bins and simply wriggle their way up from the lowest bin into the one above, where they can smell fresh food, fruit, vegetable and other scraps that might otherwise go to waste. These scraps are turned into the castings that make such good fertilizer.

The base bin has a solid floor to catch liquid run-off that percolates down from the upper bins, and preferably a tap near the base. A plastic tap can be bought at a hardware store.  Drill a few holes, close to each other,  into the base bin where you want to insert the tap.  After doing that you should be able to push a hole into the base bin and just insert the tap.  By tipping the stack, liquid waste can be drained away through the tap without having to remove the upper bins.

The 'holey' upper bins lock into each other and must be deep enough to leave enough room for the worms to move about without being squashed.

To create congenial living conditions for the worms, you need newspaper and soil to start the farm and a continuing supply of suitable food scraps.

On top of the base bin fit an upper (holey) bin #1 that has been lined with a few sheets of shredded newspaper and a couple of handfuls of soil. Spray lightly with fresh water. Add the worms along with a small amount of food scraps. Exclude light from the upper bin and keep it moist by covering it with newspaper or another upside down bin.  Drill holes through the rims of both the base bin and the upside down bin and fasten them together with cable ties on the one side, so you are still able to open it. Allow the farm to settle in for a couple of weeks before lifting the cover and putting in more food scraps. Check on the bin's progress and add more food scraps as the worms grow and multiply. Make sure that your worms have enough food, but don't overfeed them as uneaten food will simply rot, resulting in a smelly farm and unhappy worms.

When holey bin #1 is about half full of worms and worm castings, remove the newspaper or the other bin and place holey bin #2 on top. Put food scraps in bin #2 and, again, exclude light and keep the contents moist. In about a week the worms from bin #1 will have moved up into the fresh food in bin #2, leaving behind worm castings that can be spread on the garden

Worms usually live underground so they thrive in an environment that is cool, dark and moist.  A light spray of fresh water when the worm farm is first constructed will generally provide sufficient moisture for the farm. Once the farm is settled in you should not need to add extra water. If you add too much extra water or allow rainwater to get into the bins, the worms may drown.

Worms are voracious eaters. Once the worms are settled in and growing, give them a good supply of suitable food.

Worms like most vegetable and fruit scraps (except onions and citrus), but as worms do not have teeth, scraps should be cut into small pieces: waste from a vegetable juicer is ideal.

Worms also like:
• soaked and ripped pizza boxes
• shredded and soaked cardboard
• paper
• fruit and vegetable (except onions and citrus)
• leaves
• dirt
• hair
• egg shells.

Worms will eat meat but it can lead to smells and maggots in the worm farm.

Plants from the onion family (including garlic and shallots) and citrus fruits contain volatile oils. If any of these are included in the food scraps the worms will climb out of their bin to get away from the smell.

If this happens to your worm farm, place another bin with a fresh food supply on top of the contaminated bin. Once the worms have climbed out of the contaminated bin (about a week) remove it and use the castings for normal compost - the uneaten onion and citrus won't hurt the garden.

Castings can go straight onto the garden or pot plants. If they are covered with mulch their moisture and nutrient content will be conserved.

An excellent liquid fertilizer can be made from the castings by adding water until the mixture looks like weak tea. African violets and other plants that like being fed from the roots, just love this mixture.

Moisture drained from the worm farm's bottom crate is also a good liquid fertilizer, but it too should be diluted.
Excess worms can be put in the compost heap where they will help speed up the composting process.

Source: Wikipedia