Martha Monday--Mother's Day

Mother's Day is May 13, and I'm sure you've already lovingly made your dear mother a beautiful card, a darling scrapbook of your fondest memories and have a wide array of flowers (that you've grown from seed, obviously) ready to be picked on Sunday morning so they are at their absolutely freshest.

You did this, right?

You didn't?

HOW COULD YOU FORGET YOUR MOTHER LIKE THAT?!? AFTER ALL SHE'S DONE FOR YOU?

Just kidding.  As a mom, I'm a firm believer that while having a special day is nice, there's really no need to make a special fuss on Mother's Day.

I demand recognition of my hard work, sacrifice and dedication on a daily basis.  Just kidding! Sort of. Mostly. 95% kidding, okay?

Anyways, if you are in the mood to do something different from the usual card/flowers routine for your Mom this year, Martha has some great ideas. 

Is your Mom into movies and Hollywood glamour? This ticket stub sentiment would be perfect for her:

Better yet, have a family movie night in honor of Mom and be sure to let her pick the movie:

Is your Mom the crafty type? Give her a package with everything she needs to complete a craft.  Then, and this might be the most important part of the package, give her the TIME to do the craft. Seriously, go mow the lawn or do some laundry. Maybe clean the house.  Just sayin'.

But whatever you do, do not give your mother this:

Unless she specifically asked for a Big Ball necklace.  Seriously, Martha has a TON of great crafts on her site, but I just cannot get behind this.

In summary: for Mother's Day, a movie night or craft package is great.  Big Ball necklace? Not so much.

At least, not for this mom!  Happy Mother's Day!

Martha Monday--Easter time!

Easter is quickly approaching.  On Saturday I took the kids to an Easter egg hunt, and this Saturday we'll have breakfast with the Bunny.  Fun!

I'm not hosting Easter this year.  Instead, we'll do an egg hunt at home with the kids, and then it's off to the grandparents' houses for dinner and family fun.  What are you doing for Easter?

If you are in need of inspiration, be sure to check out Martha's Easter menus, decorations, and crafts.

If I were hosting Easter dinner, then I might have tried my hand at this table-scape: 



Maybe if I get it started now, I can have it ready in time for next year's Easter celebration. 

Happy Monday!

Cards and kids

I've been on a craft kick lately, and I'm trying to get my kids into the act.  Fortunately, they are happy to color, paint and draw, which makes for some fun art projects. 

We did some hand print cards for Valentine's Day:

The thumbs, fingers and sides of the palms are supposed to form the shape of a heart. We didn't quite get there, but that's okay because my kids had a lot of fun making these cards, and that's really all that matters.

Notice the entire roll of paper towels in the background. Just in case!

I like to buy plain white 5x7 cards/envelopes in 25- and 50-packs from JoAnn's and Michael's.  They make perfect canvasses for send-able artwork.

Here, Little Miss made a birthday card for the Big Guy:

I'd like to emphasize at this time that Crayola Washable markers are, in fact, truly washable.

The Little Guy used Crayola watercolors for his card for the Big Guy.  Also totally washable.

The kids really enjoy their craft projects, and I like being able to send their fun pictures to friends and family.  Plus, I'll never need to buy another birthday card again! 

Need a rainy day (or any day!) craft project for your kids? Pick up some plain white cards/envelopes at the craft store and let them do their thing!

Crafty driving babies

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to find time to craft and I finally did. Which is good, because January is almost over and if I can't get to a resolution in the first month, then I might as well forget it!

I made a fun card for a baptism. The images and message have nothing to do with being baptized, but everything to do with babies and parenthood.

Here's the outside of the envelope:

Here's the front of the card:

The cars were made with a Martha Stewart paper punch.

Finally, here's the inside of the card:

What do you think? Do I have a future at Hallmark?  I should, because let's be honest...that is just good advice.  And you're getting it here for free, people! For FREE! 

Happy crafting, everyone! 

PS. Don't let your babies drive cars.  For real.

Mag-neato!

Here's yet another great thing I saw on Pinterest and replicated: an oil drip pan magnet board for the kiddos.

Like most households with small children, we have a ridiculous amount of fun magnets.  My kids play with these a decent amount, but for some reason they played the most with the magnets just as I was starting to make dinner every night.  As you can imagine, having two small children parked in front of the refrigerator during meal preparation time was not convenient.  Especially when I am rushing to get a meal in the oven before those two small children turn into ravenous wolves.

In addition to battling the kids to stop playing with magnets long enough for me to get in and out of the fridge, the magnets themselves were tearing up my walls when the fridge door was completely open. Not cool.

Tee hee.  I said "cool" while talking about my refrigerator. See what I did there?!

Enter one oil drip pan. I bought this at my local Super-Walmart for $9.96--it was in the automotive section.  It had an oily coating (no doubt to make it easier to get actual oil off) but that came off easily with a de-greasing cleanser. 

Big Guy secured the drip pan to the wall with screws, and it is located under our huge cork board communication center. The kids can still play with their magnets in the kitchen, but now they are not directly underfoot.  Score!

This magnet board was an easy and inexpensive solution to a small but vexing problem.  And now that the kids' magnets are gone, my refrigerator front looks so much more organized and clean! 

Right?! Well, maybe not...the stuff that's left is mostly mine.  I'm working on it, okay?

Christmas card books

I love Christmas cards, both sending and receiving.  They are on display the moment they arrive at my house, and they are usually the last bit of Christmas decorations that come down. 

For the past few years, I've been saving the cards rather than throwing them out. I'd bundle them up with a rubber band, slap on a post-it denoting the year, and tuck them into a small storage tote.  But those days are over. 

I found a better way to store them on Pinterest:  punch holes in the cards and secure them with clasping rings to make a fun Christmas card book.  This idea is from Michelle Allen at Close to My Art, and it's a brilliant one! 

I took it a step further and made a front cover for my Christmas card book.  The snowflakes were made using a Martha Stewart Crafts punch, and the year is stamped on.  So crafty!

The clasping rings I got for this project are too big, but I'll swap them out for some smaller ones before I tackle this year's cards.

Using two hole punches was sufficient for the cards.  Now I have all the cards, pictures and even Christmas letters secure for next year. 

To include the Christmas letters, I folded them in half with the writing on the outside. This way I can turn the page and not have to undo the clasping rings to read the whole letter.

I am really happy with how this project turned out. It was really easy to do, and the clasping rings only cost about $0.50 each at my local Ace Hardware.  This is going to make a great coffee table book for next year!

Puppet Masterpiece Theater

A year ago, Handy Freddy and Big Guy brought home a huge TV left on the street by a neighbor.  It didn't work very well, so it sat in our basement for quite some time.  My idea was to have Handy Freddy gut it and turn it into a puppet theater for the kids.

Fast forward to November: Little Guy was sick and laying on the couch and said to me, "Mom, do you know what would be cool? A television that I could climb inside and do puppet shows."

Jaw. Hit. The. Floor. "Wow, what a great idea! That would be really cool!"

Little Guy has actually been inside a huge television doing a puppet show before.  It was last November, when the Jim Henson exhibit came to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.  The exhibit included a huge television that could fit a dozen or so kids, plenty of puppets, backgrounds and costumes, and small television monitors inside the larger stage television so the kids could see their production as the audience saw it.  It was an awesome exhibit and a fun experience. Little Guy talked about it for days.

Now, in all fairness, I might have mentioned the possibility of turning the broken television into a puppet theater once to the Little Guy over the summer.  I truly don't remember.  It could be that he remembered the Jim Henson exhibit and wanted to recreate the experience--after all, Little Guy is very into puppets and play acting.  I do know that I decided that this should be the big Santa gift sometime in the fall, and it certainly wasn't discussed with the kids past that. 

So whether Little Guy came up with the idea on his own, or remembered that I said something about it months ago, this gift is obviously going to be a hit.  He even asked the Blackberry Farm Santa for a "television he could climb inside and do a puppet show in."  Score!

Handy Freddy gutted the television last month, and I spray painted the inside over the past few weeks. It took several coats of white primer and a few coats of color to get it smooth and even.  MOM2 made cushions and curtains for the theater in coordinating fabrics.

The above picture shows the fabric, but the curtains aren't in yet. They'll be held up by a tension rod just inside the frame of the television. Everything will be fully assembled tonight. 

Little Guy has also been asking for elf and reindeer puppets.  Done and done!

The elf puppets are from the Fiesta Toy Company.  I looked all over for handmade elf puppets, but had no luck.  Luckily, I found some adorable reindeer puppets on Etsy.  These are from Val's Various Creations, and she did an amazing job with them.  Lovely Val even sent a nice note with the puppets, saying she hoped my kids enjoy them.  I am sure they will, Val!

Needless to say, I am so excited for this Christmas, maybe even more so than my kids!  Little Guy is going to get exactly what he asked for from Santa, and I am so happy that I can give it to him.  I realized this does leave Little Miss out a bit, though she loves playing with puppets just as much as Little Guy does.  Little Miss is still too young to understand everything, and since she is still mostly babbling she hasn't made any specific Christmas requests.  I hope that they both love this puppet theater, and maybe next year when Little Miss is speaking clearly I can make a wish come true for her as well.

And I owe a huge thanks to Handy Freddy and MOM2 for helping me make this very special request become a reality. Thank you! 

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyful Kwanzaa, Happy Holidays to all.  Whatever you celebrate, I hope all of your dreams and wishes come true.  Have a wonderful holiday!

Good deed garland

To focus on the more meaningful side to Christmas, we've started a good deed garland at our house.  Remember those construction paper chains made in grade school to celebrate accomplishments or to count down to an important event?  It's just like that! 

Each time something good happens at the house, one of the adults writes it down on the strips of paper and links it to the chain.  At least, this is what is supposed to happen. We've been so busy lately that our chain is not as long as it should be--great things are happening, but we're on to the next thing before we have a chance to write the good deed down. I'm sure as the kids get older they will be sure to either remind us, or start writing it down on their own!

Above: Little Miss is surly because she knows I am not capturing all the good behaviors in our house on paper.  She knows, and she is really pissed off about it.

This garland would also be fun for other purposes...you can link (see what I did there!?) it to any event, milestone, or skill you want your kids to master no matter the season.  A certain number of links can lead to a fun treat or reward.  For example, this technique could be used to motivate reluctant readers to tackle more books.  For each book a kid reads, they get a link (be sure to note the title of the book!).  When they've earned 10 or 20 links, reward them with a fun treat. 

There's still some time before Christmas...if you are looking to encourage or recognize good behaviors in your house, then this garland could be a fun way to get the whole family excited and on board.  Good luck!

Martha Monday--Oooo, sparkly!

Inspired by Pinterest, I decided to get my holiday craft on with Martha Stewart's glitter and some old Christmas light bulbs to make a fun, festive, and frugal centerpiece.

I bought the glitter (on clearance!) and the glittering glue (with a coupon!) at Michael's. I'd never really glittered anything, save for grade school art projects, so I bought the smallest bottles of glitter in case the whole thing turned out to be a big, sparkly disaster. I will say this to the good people at MS Crafts: Glitter is intimidating!  Put some directions on these things!

Fortunately, I got an astonishing number of those huge Christmas light bulbs from a coworker for free.  Most were dead by the time I received them so they were perfect for the project. 

The glittering glue comes with a brush inside the container. I simply brushed a coat of the glue on...

And then covered the thing with glitter.  I did this over sheets of waxed paper so when I was done with a color I could pour the excess glitter back into the jar. Less waste!

Not that I have a lot of experience with glitter, but I have to say the texture and colors of MS Craft glitter is amazing.  I doubt my pictures do it justice, but trust me when I say these colors are incredible!

I made 12 bulbs with each color, and that only took up half the jar.  My estimate is that you could do 22-24 large bulbs with one small vial of glitter.  A little bit goes a long way.

Once the bulbs were glittered, I began preparing the vessel. The outer vase is from Wal-Mart and cost less than $5.00. The tall glass candle in the middle is from The Dollar Tree. 

I waited a few hours for the glue to dry before putting the bulbs in the vase. Once I started moving them around, I realized that I should have waited overnight to give the glue more time to dry.  Again: some directions on the products would have been handy here. 

Because of my haste, there is some smearing and smudges on some of the bulbs which is unnoticeable unless you are right on top of the display.  I had plenty of glittered bulbs for the main centerpiece, and I put the remaining bulbs on another glass tray with another white candle to complete the scene. The glittered bulb display is on the mantle now, but it will be on my dining room table in time for Christmas dinner. 

Overall this was a very simple and frugal centerpiece project.  I estimate the entire project cost under $17.00, and I still have plenty of glitter and glue left over to tackle another project.   Which is great, since a few more projects are needed to take me from glittering newbie to sparkling expert.  I hope.

Have you glittered anything lately? Or ever?  I'd love to hear about it!