My new favorite art

I love having something a little different in picture frames, instead of all family photos all the time. I have my fair share of those, of course (I do love looking at my family's faces, after all), but it's always kind of a fun surprise having something different in a frame. Prints are great, but they add up, so finding cheap and large art that's not a photo can be tricky sometimes.

Without further ado, here's my new favorite art:

It's a book jacket! I hate book jackets (especially on kid's books) but I also hate throwing them away. This was totally a light bulb kind of moment and I still kind of feel like a genius. My daughter LOVES Fancy Nancy (it's been a Fancy Nancy for her bedtime book for months now) and this is, of course, in her room. She thought it was a pretty great idea, too.

Here's the 'tails (if you don't know what I mean by 'tails, you need to watch more Parks and Rec) :
 *I didn't cut the back of the book jacket off, I just creased it flat.
*Since the book had that cute little border on it, I attached it to the front of the mat instead of behind it.

Road tripped

Well, our little vacation is over. We actually got back about a month ago. I LOVE the Oregon coast. The whole Pacific Northwest, really. Just so beautiful. So green. Foxgloves as prolific as weeds. Sigh. I do love it here (UT), though. Just not a whole lot during the summer. Too hot. It was an especially nasty shock coming back from 60-70 degree weather to the hottest week Utah's had so far, the high over 100 for several days straight. I must sound like such a whiner to all the people who live in New Mexico and Arizona. Whelp, sounding like a whiner isn't going to stop this train.

Anyway, before we left for our 15 hour drive, I finished a few other things. One was this:

Magnetic paper dolls! I saw them HERE and just loved it. So much so that I got the exact same paper doll book (that was just coincidence, really- it's at Hobby Lobby if you were wondering). I wanted a big set with lots of options, so I used two 1'x 2' magnetic sheet rolls. Also from Hobby Lobby. I also got all this stuff in 3 different trips to the HobLob (oh yeah. I just slanged it) so I could use the 40% off coupon all times. Because of that, my total was less than $15.

Here are my doll clothes, all popped out of the book and crowded as closely as I could manage onto the sticky side of the magnet roll.

I seriously love playing with these. So does my daughter, of course. And all her little girl cousins (it was such a crowd pleaser- all the girls from age 3 to 10 crowded around the cookie sheet at the beach house).

It wasn't as great of a car toy as I had envisioned- there were two many little bits and not enough room to spread them all out. Great kitchen table toy, though.

As it turned out, we weren't really hurting for car entertainment. My girls were both little troopers for 95% of the drive, which was SO much better than I had dared hope. I think I deserve some credit, too. I was prepared out my ear balls with stuff for both of them, and I want to share. So, without further ado, here's my

TOP TODDLER ROAD TRIP TRICKS!

1. MAGNA DOODLE. Get the giant one. 

2. Straws and pipecleaners. Mim made bracelets, rings, swords, people...I handed them back a few at a time.

3.  A blank notebook. Maybe this wouldn't work as well for some kids, but Mim loves just drawing. We did secret messages for awhile, too.

4. Stickers. I spent like 15 bucks on stickers at the dollar store. Probably more. I let her put them on herself, on her car seat (she can only reach fabric parts, where they were easy enough to peel off), in her notebook, where ever. I also made matching games with them for her to do.

5. Water bottles filled with glitter and water. After you have glitter and water in them, GLUE THE LIDS SHUT.  These were for my little 10 month old. She was pretty fascinated by them.

6. Don't give them something to do until they ask. After every stop, I made sure I didn't just automatically hand something back. Sometimes Mim would go for close to an hour just looking out the window or talking before she wanted something else to do.

7. Snacks. Of course. I did things like fruit leather, popcorn, grapes, carrots, string cheese, nuts, and Pringles. And water. No juice for us. Mim will drink 10x more juice than she will water, which would have meant a LOT more potty stops.

So that's what worked for us. I've seen a ton more lists out there, some with 100+ activities and ideas, but Mim has a pretty long attention span for one so little, so we didn't need that many more things. Not that I'll ever, EVER assume that for road trips in the future. 

Hope your vacations have been awesome! Thanks for reading.

Road trippin'

Well, we're not driving yet. We leave for Oregon next week (it'll be about a 15 hour or so drive for us- we're going all the way to the coast) and I've been busy getting things ready that will keep my 3 year old busy.

I have a few things done and thought I'd share this one today:

 But what is it, you ask? Well, it's a cookie sheet with a bunch of animals and things on it. There's something special about these animals and things, though.

 

Ta-da! They have a magnet on the back and will stick to the cookie sheet, which (in my opinion) will make them ideal car toys.

So really, the only "making" I did was taking a pile of these little wood animals:

{I got mine at Hobby Lobby for I think 50cents apiece.}

 And using this to attach magnets:

{I didn't use hot glue because I was worried about it getting soft in a hot car.}

 And voila!

Incredibly simple, but I think she'll have a lot of fun with it. I'm sure I would have when I was a kid.

Since I bought so many little wood figures, I plan on only letting her play with them in small groups (sea creatures, farm animals, pets, etc.). That way it will seem new to her for a longer time, which will hopefully result in her being entertained for a longer period of time. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. Knock on wood.

I have more magnet-using, cookie sheet applicable toys coming up, so stay tuned.

Secret messages

I posted last year about this educational game I loved playing with my daughter. We still play it, even though she has her colors and shapes down pat now. It's just fun.

I came up with something new to do indoors last week, when it was too windy to go outside. (Anybody else from Utah wonder what is up with this wind?) Mim will color for a long time. Sometimes over an hour. She LOVES it. And asks me the whole time if I can color with her, which is sweet, but if I can't, it just makes me feel bad. So I was coloring with her the other day and came up with something that still meant we were interacting, but didn't necessitate me sitting with her the entire time.
SECRET MESSAGES!

I write letters or simple pictures in white crayon on white paper, then draw a box around it with a marker. She fills in the box with the matching marker and the letter is revealed! It's a pretty impressive trick to a 3 year old.

{The number 3, Mim's current favorite.}

{The sun.}

{A flower}

{Ha! She's started pulling faces in pictures.}

It was a nice way to keep her busy but still be involved. It was perfect for while I was doing dishes- I did a page of secret messages, then she colored them while I took care of things without the constant, guilt-inducing "Mama, will you color with me?"

Ta-Da!

So, my big project?



GESTATING!


This is only my second pregnancy, but looks like I'm not going to be much luckier with this one than I was with the first- I get hit HARD with morning sickness.

So that's why nothing much has been happening here.  I haven't been down to my sewing machine in the basement for about 2 months now.  I have done a few things with my brand new lovely Silhouette, but nothing too big.

Hello, new followers!  I was so surprised the other day when I saw that I had made some new friends.  I thought pretty much everybody would have abandoned me by now. 

So for Valentine's I did one of the most awesome/worst things ever for decorating.  My husband even commented on how much he liked it, and he never notices anything home decor related (which I'm totally cool with, by the way).

Yeah, I decorated with candy.  You can already see how it's not awesome- that hurricane on the far left had been full of peanut butter M&M's.  Like the day before.  And in this picture they're almost gone.  Nice.

I did stuff with my Silhouette, too.  My favorite was this:

Just vinyl and paper.  Heck yes.

And because the awesomeness of this picture makes me laugh and because I actually do have big project plans coming up in the spring, when I might actually feel better.

These are my Paint skillz.  We'll also be putting in a lawn (thank heavens, I can't wait to let my little bug play outside).  As you can see, I have big yard plans that I'll probably be posting pretty often about on here.  TONS of diy opportunities, that's for sure.  If you have any tips for balancing a big yard with a little house that's situated in one corner of that big yard, feel free to let me know.  Because really.

Also, please note the tree that I erased by using blue and white squiggly lines.  It's my husband's favorite part.


Well, until next time.  Maybe by then I'll have done something.  Maybe.

More paper crafting

So, if you didn't know, I'm LDS.  You know, a Mormon.  And my new calling in my ward is the primary music director.  For those of you who aren't Mormon, that means that every Sunday I teach songs to kids/try to get kids to sing.  For the very youngest group I teach I'm mostly just singing at them.

It's fun.

And a challenge.

A big part of that challenge is finding a way to teach songs that can appeal to a wide range of age groups (I teach 3 different groups separately- the nursery, which is 18 months to 3 years; the junior primary, which is 4 years to 8 years; and the senior primary, which is 9 years to 12 years), because I don't want to have to prepare 3 completely different lessons/teaching methods each week.  My sister gave me a great idea that I implemented today and thought I'd share with all of you.
Music dice!

One die has some of the songs they've been learning throughout the year, and the other has an adverb.  I get two volunteers, one to roll each die, and then we just do what they say.  Even the older kids, who I was worried wouldn't really care, always wanted to be picked.  Universal appeal.  Sweet.
And...

I just used scotch tape on the back of the white papers- I can switch out what the dice are for as needed.

To make the cubes:
a cardboard box to cut up
so much hot glue (kids are going to throw them, so you want these suckers to be sturdy)


Then I creased some scrapbook paper, cut it to length, and covered up all my messy edges, just using plain ol' Elmer's glue to hold the strips in place.


I hope somebody else out there can use this.

Old fashioned paper crafting

Not that there aren't a million contemporary paper crafts.  Using paper just felt old fashioned to me, since I haven't done anything much with it (except for the occasional card) since I really loved scrapbooking in high school. 
These are for an activity my church is having for mothers and daughters.  There are a few different crafts to work on, and we thought it would be nice to have a few free options for the people who come. 

One of those options are these little paper clip turned picture holder doo dads.  I cut paper the right size, then just glued it on, cutting little slits to allow for the holder bits to stick up.  While I was doing it, I got to thinking just how adaptable these little babies are.  I especially love the thought of them holding food labels at a party- you could just choose paper to match your theme.  Simple and cheap.  That's how I roll.