Monday, April 27, 2009

Dandelion Octopus- Dandelion Virtues

We love dandelions in the perfect little vase on the windowsill; so sunny and happy yellow, a little sign of spring. However, we also love dandelion stems in a little vase on the windowsill, so curly and spirally!


This is so fun to do. Pick a dandelion, the long thick stemmed ones are the best, then pop its top. You will now have a hollow stem which you can see through. Start gently pulling down the "octopus legs." Try different widths, some thick and some thin.



Place the stems in water. Some will curl right before your eyes, some need more time (the longer they are in the water the curlier they will become). Watch them coil and spiral.....



Make ringlets...........

And go this way and that..........

Put them together to make a little spirally bouquet.

The girls also like to curl the bottoms of the popped tops, they call this little creature a dandelion octopus.


Visit Save the Dandelion for some more dandelion activities.

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13 comments:

  1. dongdongApril 27, 2009 at 9:43 PM

    that is so cool. We will try it tomorrow. I like easy to make things and on hand supplies. ;)Dandelions we do have. YEAH!

    Your elephant vase is darling.

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  2. Super Fun MamaApril 27, 2009 at 9:54 PM

    I used to do this when I was little. I hadn't thought about doing this with my daughter Zhana. We'll have to do this.

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  3. sunnymamaApril 27, 2009 at 10:12 PM

    These are lovely. So simple but a wonderful spirally effect. I don't know if spirally is a real word but it seems a pretty good description :)

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  4. LouiseApril 28, 2009 at 7:00 AM

    I didn't know dandelions could do that, we pick off the heads to feed to our blue tongue lizards, we will have to play with the stems. Your look so lovely.

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  5. TaraApril 28, 2009 at 8:33 AM

    Flashback time for me... I used to do this with dandelion stems as a kid with my sisters!!

    Owen is fiercely protective of dandelions and does not like it when lawnmowers run them over and cut them off..... luckily we don't have much of a lawn yet so they are safe here ...LOL :0)

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  6. TammyApril 28, 2009 at 9:19 AM

    These are so cute!!!! We'll have to try them this week.

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  7. AnnieApril 28, 2009 at 9:33 AM

    How pretty! I've never done that to dandelions before!

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  8. dawn klingeApril 28, 2009 at 12:48 PM

    I didn't know they would do that! Very cool. :)

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  9. UnknownApril 28, 2009 at 1:25 PM

    That is very cool!

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  10. PussnaeApril 28, 2009 at 2:25 PM

    I just love those curly dandelion stems!

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  11. ErinApril 28, 2009 at 11:35 PM

    I cannot wait to try this!! We usually make dandelion jelly at this time of year, but (oddly) I'm having a hard time finding enough dandelions to do that right now! Do you guys play the butter game? My kids love it. Just hold a dandelion under someone's chin & say "do you like butter?" If you see a yellow glow on their neck that means they do like butter!! haha!

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  12. Felt-o-ramaApril 29, 2009 at 11:26 PM

    Wow - this is an amazing dandelion trick! I can't believe I've never seen this before. I'll definitely give it a try the next time I stumble upon a patch of dandelions :)

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  13. ChelseyMay 5, 2009 at 11:36 PM

    I love that elephant pitcher! Where did you find such a great item? mybabyappleseed(at)yahoo(dot)ca

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So, what do you think?