When life gives you lemons…
Put up a reminder to be thankful. Even if it takes all day to make it.
And make construction paper hand print turkeys with your kids.
- kid crafts
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November18th
4 Commentsthankful day 3 :: lemons
Posted in: home sweet home, kid crafts
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July3rd
5 Commentsdon’t eat the play doh
Posted in: in my kitchen, kid crafts
Happy Friday friends!
I can’t tell you how many times in a day, when the kids are playing with play doh, that I yell ‘don’t eat the play doh.’ The play doh makers say that play doh is non-toxic, but come on… you really don’t want your kid eating it do you? I didn’t think so.
While perusing the blogs over my daily cup of caffeine, I came across this post that shows you how to make your own play doh. Now at least I know what they are eating. We quickly pulled out the only cookie cutters we have, of the Christmas variety, and went to work. Then we moved on to beach shapes. Palm trees. Crabs. Fish. Boats. ‘Tis the season.
And speaking of homemade goodness, on our trip to Costco this week. I *heart* Costco. I really do. We purchased this savvy piece of machinery. Our own, ready in 20 minutes, ice cream maker. And that was $50 well spent. Run, go now to Costco and get this machine before ice cream season ends. You will not regret it.
Earlier this week I made the Ghiradelli brownies (from Costco), so we made brownie ice cream. With huge chunks of brownie. Mmmmm….
I buy my vanilla from El Mercado in San Antonio. If you can find a Mexican market in your area, you can get a big bottle like this for around $6.
Then, get this, last night I was eating some Blue Bell Ice Cream, a southern favorite, when I bit into something hard. I kid you not. It was a piece of metal. No lie. About one inch long skiny piece of metal. Ick.
From now on I’m sticking to the homemade variety.
Have a lovely Fourth of July weekend! A truly homemade fourth.
**Friends, what do I do with the metal? Send them a lovely email/letter? What would you do?
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May27th
4 Commentsnesting
Posted in: babes in toyland, home sweet home, kid crafts, mama life
Just like a mama bird I am quickly building my nest.
Peonies in the entryway.
Fresh fruit on the kitchen table within the kids reach.
Fresh herbs in the kitchen window, along with the newest members of our family, two beta fish.
Watching my budding artiste draw flowers she picked from the yard.
And really loving this fabric combination for the crib bedding.
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February3rd
2 Commentsartist trading card swap
Posted in: babes in toyland, books, kid crafts
As Makena is getting older, it’s fun to watch her drawing skills develop. Her people are now getting clothes, glasses and shoes. She’s beginning to draw pictures of animals she sees in a book. And she can easily whip up a field of flowers. Always noticing the tiny details that I might forget.
We have yet to move past the Crayola section of art supplies since they are washable. On a recent outing, I picked up a wooden set of nesting dolls that weren’t painted.
I brought out her Russian matryoshka dolls to use as an example and let her go to town. Creating her own work of art.
I’ve been drooling over this kids art book for a while now written by Eric Carle, Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art.
Since she’s getting older and wanting to do more, I signed her up to participate in a Kid’s Artist Trading Card Swap by Wise Craft and House on Hill Road. She’s very excited! It’s for kids 4 and up. She’ll create five very small artist trading cards and send them out to her swap partners around the world. And as much as she likes to check the mailbox and receive a letter, she’ll really love the art. It will be fun to look at the globe and see where the art is from. The deadline to sign up is this Friday, so head on over there and sign up your budding artiste!
I think it’s time to improve upon her art supplies. Anyone have suggestions on what pencils and paints are good for kids?
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January23rd
12 Commentslittle hands
Posted in: babes in toyland, kid crafts
I know it may seem a little late to still be talking about Christmas but I wanted to show you an art project the kids did. Going along with the handmade holidays, I had the kids do their own handmade gift for their daddy.
We bought these small square canvases, just big enough for their little hands. I applied acrylic paint to their hands with a sponge paintbrush and carefully pressed their hands onto the canvas. The kids really enjoyed this part. Once their handprints were dry, they used watercolors and painted the rest of the white space. With my help, they put their initial in the bottom corner.
Of course, the pride they showed Christmas morning when their gifts were opened was better than any store bought gift. The I made that look in their eyes.
Now onto thinking about Valentines.
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January21st
4 Commentspainting the day away
Posted in: kid crafts
While surfing the blogs the other day I came across this site which gave me some new ideas for art projects for the kids. Specifically this one.
My little Makena is always asking to ‘do art.’ So art we shall do.
And I really want to go here. Hint. Hint. Nudge. Nudge.
All of this artsy crafty goodness has got my mind swirling about the direction of my blog and my etsy shop. I’ve got a few things up my sleeve that I’ve been working on. Hopefully I can put some things together and show it to you soon.
We made our weekly trip to the library and found some new great children’s books. And one for mama. I don’t always refer to myself in the third person but it seemed appropriate.
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January4th
8 Commentstheir own space
Posted in: babes in toyland, books, home sweet home, kid crafts
With the cold front, that blew the summer-like temperatures out of here this morning, came the need to nest and stay at home. So the Christmas decorations came down as quick as they went up. The pine needles were swept away and a new space was made for the kids.
Their very own art space. In the living room.
As soon as the art supplies were arranged, the kids were drawn to them like magnets. They dropped everything they were doing and hurried over to their new space. To create.
We’ve been fascinated with this new book checked out from the library. A lot of the kid’s art is ish. Tree-ish. Flower-ish. House-ish. People-ish. Car-ish. Takes the pressure off of making it perfect. One personality trait that keeps their mama from trying many new things in the crafting world herself.
As Keegan was drawing circles as fast as he could, he screamed ‘baseball.’ Baseball-ish.
Now that the kids are getting older and library visits are less-stressful, I’ll update this space when we find new books that we love.
These happen to be our current favorites:
Little Hoot :: Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Little Pea :: Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Do You Have a Hat :: Eileen Spinelli
I *heart* the illustrations and sweet story lines. Jen Corace is the illustrator for Little Hoot and Little Pea. Incredibly talented she is. What children’s books are you loving right now?
Oh my grace, I almost forgot to mention… As I was scrolling through the ohdeedoh website, I found Makena’s room featured as a Most Popular Nursery Tour :: July, 2008! I was thrilled when I came across her room!!! Quite an honor. Thanks ohdeedoh!
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May8th
14 CommentsHappy Mothers Day
Posted in: babes in toyland, kid crafts
Sorry that I’ve been missing in blog-land this week. The big Disney trip has got me scrambling. We had Mother’s Day gifts for the grandmas to make and get into the mail.
Keegan and Makena painted place mats for the grandmas, from Amanda’s book. A very sweet little kids craft.
I’ve got several ongoing lists of things to pack and do. There are piles of stuff all around the house, waiting to be packed. The kids are spending most days this week actually wearing things I’m trying to pack, because it’s out and they think they have to wear it. Take, for example, Keegan’s life jacket and Makena’s floaties. I spent the afternoon in the garage, creating yet another pile of not to forget items. The pile consisted of beach toys for the possibility that we take a day off and go to the beach. Floaties, life jackets, Crocs, a cooler and other things that we probably don’t need. One minute I’m creating my pile, the next the kids are deconstructing my pile and wearing everything from the pile. The beach toys are now in the yard, the kids were wearing their life saving devices and the dog had taken off with a Croc. Go figure.
This is why I have been amiss. I’m making piles, then I take apart the piles and try to determine what we actually need. It’s not like we are going to a third world country and they don’t have these things. We are going to Disney World. They have everything.
We are leaving on Saturday and will be gone until the following Saturday. That’s seven days at Disney World if you are counting. AAAAAAHHHHH! I think my head is going to explode. For those of you brave souls who have been there, I would love some advice. Particularly on what to pack. And what we must see, because it’s going to be overwhelming. The understatement of the year.
So all of this to say, Happy Mothers Day my friends. I hope you treat yourself as good as you treat everyone else in your lives. You are all incredibly inspiring women and I’m truly grateful for your friendship.
I probably won’t be around next week. Maybe I’ll try to pop in and post some pictures, like a virtual post card for you. Have a great Mothers Day and enjoy your week. I’ll miss you all.
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March12th
7 CommentsColored Eggs
Posted in: celebrations, kid crafts
Do you remember playing the game Colored Eggs when you were little? I remember many parties, play dates and recesses spent outside playing Colored Eggs.
One person is the “wolf”. The other people line up next to each other, with the wolf facing them. Everyone in line picks a color in their mind. The wolf then says…”knock-knock”, the line answers “who’s there?”. Wolf replies “a big bad wolf with (curly or some other variation) hair”.
The line says..”what do you want?” Wolf answers “colored eggs”. The line yells “what color?”. The wolf then says a color. Whoever had “picked” that color then runs around a selected area (to the far oak tree in the yard and back to the line, for example), with the wolf giving chase.
If the wolf catches the “egg”, then that person becomes the wolf with the game starting over. If not, and all eggs make it back to line successfully, the wolf then calls out the next color, etc.
With all of the colored eggs around this season, it has reminded me to teach my kids some of my favorite childhood games. What are some of yours?
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February8th
5 CommentsBe My Valentine
Posted in: celebrations, home sweet home, kid crafts
Today we woke up thinking about Valentines Day. As a family, we have always made handmade valentines. Even before we had kids, Miles and I would get out the construction paper and scissors to create a Valentine. Now that we have kids that can do some crafting, it’s time to get them involved.
I signed up for the Valentine’s Exchange over at Sarah’s site so we need to get busy making our Valentines to send to Pensacola. I’m thinking about some finger paint. This will be a first for Keegan so I’m sure it will be extremely messy.
While Keegan was napping, Makena and I decided to do some Valentine crafting thanks to some ideas from Martha Stewart. These crayon hearts are just what I needed for my kitchen window.Now to figure out what to make for everyone. You know, I’m thinking about something for our garden. But don’t tell my Valentines!
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