Fastest, cheapest dog or toddler toy ever!

It took me longer to make the tutorial for this than it took to make the actual toy! So gather some supplies & entertain someone smaller than you!
I originally made this tutorial not too long after Easter, but I was having problems with photos & Blogger, so I put it off. So maybe you don't have any easter basket celophane sitting around. You can buy this stuff, too, if need be. Other things that work: the rinsed out and dried bags from cereal boxes and chips. Go see what you can find.

(I apparently am still having difficulties with Blogger and photos. But since I'm not winning any blogging awards anyway, I guess done is better than perfect, and I present to you my humble work.

Story Telling Blocks

aka. one long time wished for project completed - in 15 minutes!

I've wanted some of these story telling blocks for a long time now. There are some beautiful ones out there. But as you know by now, I'm cheap. Plus, I wanted to "do it myself." (gee, where do my kids get it from?) One evening a couple weeks ago, I was purusing OnePrettyThing while the kiddos were eating dinner & found Teach Besides Me's tutorial for making these things. What was best was that she listed all the phrases she used, so I didn't have to use any brain power trying to think of clever words. One of the things that has stopped me from making these in the past has been buying the blocks. I either forget when I'm at the craft store, or they are way more expensive than I thought they would be, so I planned to come back with a coupon. Looking at Karyn's blocks, they seemed to be smallish...just the size of the cubes inside the blocks that my kids happened to have spread all over the floor that very minute! So I grabbed nine and a sharpie. While my girlies were munching, I scribbled away. They were so interested, they couldn't wait for me to be done and take a picture. Since the blocks' creation, they've been played with by my children and several others we've had over. I'd say they're a hit AND something crossed off my "someday" list! Crafting win!

(P/S - I realize the photo is upside down. I have been having such difficulty with this shifting of photographs with Blogger lately. (Fine on my computer, upside-down or sideways on the blog...) It has been hampering my bloging actually. SO in the interest of having an imperfect post up vs. not ever getting any post up, no matter how perfect, I'm leaving this upside-down-yet-understandable photo up. Thank you for your understanding!)

Summer Calendar

Today is the first day of summer break for us! Yea! I forgot to turn off my alarm, so guess who was up at 6:50am anyway? That's right, me. Actually I was up anyway, due to a very loud bird who has moved into the backyard. He announces from a very early time that he is up and doing all the bird things he needs to do.

My kids have a hard time with transitions. We need to explain what is happening when and give them lots of time to process. They are not good with surprises. Even though summer is more laid back, there are still days we need to be places on time (doctor's appointments, play dates, etc.). The calendar also lets them know if they even need to get dressed on a particular day!

I made my calendar in MS Publisher. It is three pages. The first page is just about the day: Monday, June 6th. The second page is titled "What We Are Doing". I thought of the activities that we will commonly be doing, like Pajama Day, Water Day, Field Trip, and listed these, with space to put the particulars, like which park we're going to. There is also an "other" field, of course. The last page is titled, "What You Can Do To Help". I'm really trying to encourage cooperation. Sometimes it takes so long to get out of the house, I'm exhausted by the time the fun activity has begun. So the "help" page lists some common getting ready activities, like "pack for a road trip: DS, drawing, DVDs", or "pack bathing suit, towel, and sunscreen". Then these pages are slid into Avery page protectors (I love these things - they work perfect for white board markers!) and taped onto the wall with painter's tape. I know the painter's tape is not beautiful, but we rent and it comes off easily without leaving residue.

Keep in mind that my kids are readers already. If you have pre-readers, choose some clip art to describe the activities. I'm really happy to share what I've made, but I encourage you to make your own, so you can add all your family's favorite activities. If you'd like me to email you what I have, leave a comment!

Happy Vacationing!

No Sew Emergency Belt

Twin B has the tinest hiney you ever did see. Everything falls off her hips. Even leggings. One morning, she had her sights on a particular pair of jeans, which mysteriously were missing the button elastic. Would my child accept a different pair of jeans on this already rushed morning? No, ma'am, she would not. This left a frazzled mama scrambling for a quick solution. I almost braided some yarn for her to tie around her waist, but remembered I had long strips of fabric ready for a certain project. Those would do it! The belt "buckle" was something picked up at SCRAP several years ago by same child. I luckily remembered seeing it in the dress-up drawers & prayed it still was where I saw it last. Add a rubber band & a quilting safety pin & we're good to go.

Who says motherhood makes your brain go to mush?

Happy Scrappy Bathmat

Oooh! I'm so happy! I've had the idea for this in my head for awhile. I started sewing it several weeks ago & it had to be put aside. I was itching to finish.

Isn't it cute? & I love looking at all the scraps, remembering what I originally sewed with the fabric. & it's comfy on my feet.

Want to make one too? Here's what you need:
ugly old terrycloth bathmat

scrap fabric, cut into 3" widths*

sewing machine and thread**

* Obviously, you can cut the strips into whatever widths you'd like.
** Yes, you can do this with needle and thread, but it goes so much faster with machinery. :)

Sew scraps into lengths. I made this with piecing and without. I think long-term, the pieced lengths will be better, but if you need a quick fix craft project, you can skip this step.

I think I've mentioned this before, but I am a fast & lazy kind of sewer. At this point, you could serge the long edges of your strips, but I didn't. I like the frayed edges...and I'm lazy.

Then, due to my laziness, I did NOT measure / draw lines on my bath mat. NOR did I run a running stitch down the center of each length of scraps. I recommend both of these steps if you are a more meticulous sewer than I. I matched the edge of the fabric with the edge of the bathmat, centered my needle over the scrap & started sewing. I backstitched the beginning and ending of each line, but not when switching fabrics in the middle of a length. Instead of sewing the running stitch, I pushed the fabric lengths under the needle as I sewed, creating the gathering. I'm unsure if this actually saved time in the end, as I had to sew slower to do this.

When I was ready to start the next row / column, I laid the next strip alongside the first, but then pushed it nearer the first stitched line, so there would be density to the rows. Make sense? In math terms, my sewing lines should have been 3" apart, but I made them more like 2 1/2", so the strips would overlap when laying flat.

Finish across the mat. When you get a few rows in, roll up your mat & use a hair clip to keep it rolled.

Enjoy the new beautiful out of old ugly!

pretty trash bucket

I transformed a costco laundry detergent bucket into a pretty trash can for the twins' room. It was easy peasy!

Supplies: ugly bucket, mod podge or white glue, scrapbook paper (or wrapping paper, children's artwork, see what you can find), a scrap of sandpaper, foam brush.



Measure the top and bottom circumfrence of your bucket. My bucket was slightly tapered, being larger at the top than the bottom. It ended up not being a big deal because of the papers I had available to me. However, if you are planning vertical stripes or a pattern, you will need elongated rhumbus shaped pieces, not just straight strips, if you have a tapered bucket.

Roughen up the surface of the bucket with the sandpaper. This will give more ridges for the glue to adhese to.



Cut your papers, or tear for a decoupauged look. I found a few pages that my kids had made and then abandoned, so I used those. After all, this was for their room. :)

Protect your work surface, and then paint the bucket with a layer of mod poge or some slightly thinned white glue. Lay your papers, smoothing from one end to the other, to push any bubbles and wrinkles out. If you don't like what you've made, you can pull off the papers gently while the glue / podge is still wet and reposition.


When you've covered your bucket, go back over the scrapbook papers with a good coating of mod podge / glue. If you have a lot of cut / overlapping edges, this is a good time to press the edges down and add mod podge.



Let cure. After drying, trim the papers that are hanging off the edge of the bucket. If any edges have lifted, or if you'd like a shinier surface, add another layer of mod podge / glue and let dry again.

Then enjoy your beautification!



You can see ours has a lot of depth, because I was using already "made" artwork. That accounts for a lot of the wrinkles I ended up with - the paper was already stiff with glue. I was worried that the dimension would lift or be foder for little fingers to pull, but it's held up so far through the 6-7 months we've been using it like this. (Just one tiny tear.) It's a waste basket in a bedroom - it's not like it's getting wet or kicked around. Have fun with it!

Saving my ears

Twin A & B working hard at crafting. Just the ticket for quieting the screaming happening just a few moments earlier. They are making dolls for the new thrifted doll house I brought home this morning. Twin A said she needed dolls that can sit, so we came up with these with what we had in the house:



You see I was too eager to capture it - the white glue has not dried on my girl's dress.

Craftiness & Garden Goodness

The craft I set up last week? Here we are doing it:


Here's the finished product:


I combined a few tutorials out there for making planters out of 2 liter bottles. Using my fabric scraps was fun, but I'm not so sure they will hold up to the weather. Next time I'll splurge for some acrylic paints, as I'm not giving the girls access to spray paints!

My garden is growing! I started a small container garden this spring. I don't know if we will be moving or not & I can't dig up any of the landscaping in my rented digs, so I tried container gardening. I wasn't positive it would work, so I spent as little as I could manage on the venture. Recycled containers, some from the $ Tree store & only 1 bag of soil purchased, the rest scored on craigslist's free section. Still, I didn't know if my labors would pay off - container gardens don't get weeds, but they don't get the option of getting a lot of minerals from the soil either. But here is proof of my potential success: