A good reminder

At my last MOPS meeting a prayer was said that I felt was really touching and meant a lot to me as a mother. I wanted to share it here in hopes that it will touch another mother or father. I have heard a christian family that I highly respect say that as parents we should praise our children 10 times more than we correct them. They also say that when the praise is done in front of others it is even more powerful. You can multiply the power by how many people are in the room that hear the praise. This is something I try to follow everyday. It resonates with me and I believe it is a true and good practice as a parent. Being raised as a young child in a family that was deeply divided on this topic, my father was a believer in strong corrections and ruling with an iron fist, my mother was on the opposite spectrum, I find that the pain that remains from the harsh cristicsm I received as a child only hinders me as a person and makes me self doubt any good decisions I make. In our personal life positive reinforcement works very well for my husband and I. The joy in my sons face when we praise him is so much more powerful than the times we lose our patience and correct a little too harshly. This prayer provides a good reminder to me of how I should be treating my child and it helps me to know that I am not alone in this journey.

A Parent’s Prayer

O Heavenly Father, make me a better parent.
Teach me to understand my children, to listen patiently to what they have to say and to answer all their questions kindly.
Keep me from interrupting them or contradicting them.
Make me as courteous to them as I would have them be to me.
Forbid that I should ever laugh at their mistakes or resort to shame or ridicule when they displease me.
May I never punish them for my own selfish satisfaction or to show my power.
Let me not tempt my child to lie or steal.
Guide me hour by hour that I may demonstrate by all I say and do that honesty produces happiness.
Reduce the meanness in me and when I am out of sorts help me, O Lord, to hold my tongue.
May I ever be mindful that my children are children and I should not expect of them the judgment of adults.
Let me not rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves and to make decisions.
Bless me with the bigness to grant them all their reasonable requests and the courage to deny them privileges I know will do them harm.
Make me fair and just and kind.
Fit me to be loved, respected and imitated by my children.

(unknown author)

Times, they are a changin'

My life just underwent some major change. My family and I moved from a western mountain town to the deep deep south. It was probably the biggest move in my life, even trumping the first time I moved away from home to attend college. That's because so much more was at stake. We have a child, a house, pets, and not to mention all the things that go in a house. It was exciting and scary and time consuming. Which is precisely the reason the last post I made was Day 2 Instructions of a quilt I was making for my son, over 4 months ago. Now that quilt is boxed away in our new home wondering if it will ever be finished. It will so don't worry if you are making one too and waiting for those instructions. They will come, eventually.

Moving to the deep south from a liberal western city was quite monumental for many reasons. For one I had no idea what changes I may be about to face. I wondered about the cultural differences, the schools, making friends, finding a playgroup, the weather, etc, etc. I was moving further away from my side of the family and even further away from my husbands side. We were truly going into unknown, at least to us, territory. My husband was opening a new office in a new city on his own. No transfer with a big company that provides moving help. We were literally on our own. SCARY! Not to mention that we know this move most likely will be temporary. Which of course means we will get to do it all over again in no time at all. Yay. (slight sarcasm inserted here)

Well we survived the move. Which wasn't easy, but we have been here for about 45 days and we seem to be settling in just fine. We both miss our old city and friends but we are diving in head first. With hope that it will help ease the transition. We definitely have encountered differences but we are trying to roll with it. We know that every place has something to offer you just have to follow the saying "When in Rome".

I am sure there will be plenty of experiences here to learn from and hopefully grow from. The hope is I will be up and crafting and sewing again in no time, with plenty of fun crafts to share with all of my old friends far away, and my new friends right here.

Quilting time Day 2....a strip is a stripe is a strip

After finding my inspiration I have begun the construction of my quilt. I decided to do stripes because I am going for simple. I should have way more done than I do but I must secretly strive on deadlines, or at least I'm trying to make myself since every project I have going on gets pushed together at the very last minute. Hmmm, could this be a problem? Or just some amazing time management secret. haha. A girl can dream.

Back to the project at hand, er machine. I purchased my fabric according to how many strips I would need to make the finished twin quilt size with the help of my lovely lady friends down at Harriet's Treadle Arts. They are so sweet and helpful. Thanks Ladies!

I purchased enough fabric to make stripes using 8 colorways. I made the strips different widths which in hindsight may or may not be a good idea since it then left me with uneven strips (meaning I had more strips in some color than others).

Since I tend to have large amounts of time between when I get to work on a project I always need some way of remembering pertinent information. I decided this time to lay out the stripes in the pattern I wanted and take a picture. This way I can see what color needs to be sewn next.

The picture will give you an idea of how many strips it takes to make a twin size quilt. Always measure and ask your local quilt store if you are unsure. They are there to help!

Standard quilt sizes are as follows:

Type******Mattress Size****Quilt Size

Crib ******28"x52" *********50"x53"

Twin *****39"x75" *********65"x88"

Double****54"x75" *********80"x88"

Queen ****60"x80"*********86"x93"

King*******76"x80"********104"x93"

Cali King***72"x84"********100"x97"

Tip 1* To save money you can use a sheet for the back of the quilt. Just be sure to either use the same material or prewash the quilt fabric so that the top doesn't shrink and the sheet stays the same (if it is a blend of poly then they are not going to shrink like cotton would)

Tip 2* Instead of cutting each strip of fabric tear it. It will always be a perfect straight line (if the fabric is 100% cotton) and it saves you time. I don't mind the frayed edges though so consider that before ripping away :)

If you are looking for fun, fresh and contemporary fabrics check out pink chalk fabrics online at www.pinkchalkfabrics.com !!

Shout out

I am excited because I just signed on as the Hospitality coordinator at my MOPS group which means I get to come up with all sorts of fun decorating ideas and share them with all of you! My post is titled shout out because i wanted to pass along some creative decorating ideas i recently got from two of my best girl friends. One gave me the idea to use our next year MOPS theme, "Momology; the art and science of mothering" and make the centerpieces using test tubes and single strands of beautiful flowers with microscope slides featuring written words that describe the awesome gift of being a mother. I also thought I could use classic art that features mothers and incorporate that into the final piece. The design is still in the idea phase but once I figure out how to make it work I can post a picture of the final creation!

Another great friend of mine told me how I can decorate a space using paper banners. She has them up at her house and they are super cute! Here is her blog, check em out!

http://www.andthenshesaved.com/home/hooked-on-banners.html

Quilting Time

It has been exactly one year since my last quilt (it was also my first quilt). I made it for my mother for her 60Th birthday and for a first quilt it was a great learning experience. I did an applique, which means stitching shapes onto the top of the finished quilt before quilting the entire top. My aunt helped me with the finishing touches, I made the top of the quilt and all the appliques. She and her friends did the back, binding and quilting design. It turned out good.

Since it is time to decorate my sons big boy room I wanted to make a quilt for his bed that he could keep forever, rather than a store bought comforter that would end up being sold at a garage sale. This time I am doing the entire thing. I started with inspiration from a magazine, it is very simple so hopefully will be quick. The first steps in making a quilt for me is:

1. Find inspiration, look through books and magazines.

2. Decide on color scheme (this always changes a bit when you go to pick out fabric)

3. Formulate your plan (the ladies at my quilt shop help immensely in this, you might also want to consider purchasing a quilting book)

That will help get your feet off the ground. I will post the steps as I go. Keep checking back for more tips.

Balancing Act

Starting this blog I had all sorts of ambitious goals in mind. I wanted to share a bountiful amount of crafts/cooking etc and thought I could post daily or at least weekly. Well, one thing I have come to realize is that life is very much a continual balancing act. After busy schedules and bouts of Internet drama (my Internet likes to work about 2 days a month) I realized that my blogging has taken a back seat.

Sorry fellow crafters/readers if you have been hanging on the edge of your seats waiting for the next craft....i hope you haven't been waiting with bated breath. But I am presently entrenched in home remodeling. Nothing grand scale, just re crafting my space to give new life. Spring renewal, I am calling it. Since our house is 110 years old, I wonder how many spring renewals it has been given. I bet a few.

Hopefully I can find some time to blog about the fun ways I have been rearranging the abode. So far not much money has been spent except in the master bedroom a new set of curtains and bedsheets,(it's amazing what new sheets can do for a bedroom) and in the guest bathroom, we put up fresh paint and a new mirror and towel rack. Not a lot of moolah but a nice improvement. We are planning on gutting it in the next year, using the newly purchased items as well as adding more. It was a refreshing change to get us through.

I have also been moving things from room to room. I have seen stagers do this and though our house is not on the market I thought I'd give the idea a try. You know, it actually works. It's amazing how a piece of furniture looks totally transformed by just moving it to another room!

We have had this nook at the top of our stairs that has literally perplexed me for years, years! But I had an epiphany the other day to make it a computer nook. My husband was not so sure, but after it was completed he said "he couldn't imagine it anywhere else"! How is that for an accomplishment :)

Next on the list is a somewhat bigger endeavor. My sons big boy room! I am excited about this one. It is going to be a decorating undertaking, but I am looking forward to it. If fact I am sort of obsessing about it. I have a lot of ideas in mind and honestly he is not even ready to be out of his crib. Ha. I will keep you all posted on things I learn along the way.

Quick Party Tips

I like to host parties. I love it when I have a chance to decorate and entertain. I especially love using quick and easy ideas that really make a big difference in your food displays. I thought I could share a few of my quick tips to make even the most last minute party really pop.

Lemon wedges make everything prettier.

• Slice them thin and place them on the inside of a clear glass pitcher filled with ice water or any beverage. If you are limited on funds and can't have a lot of fancy drinks just spruce up the look of inexpensive drinks like water, tea and lemonade.



• Slice lemon wedges and place them in your vase filled with fresh flowers that match the theme or holiday. Flowers can be a cheap add on that makes your display so much prettier. Buy the bulk flowers from your local grocery, give them a fresh angled cut and slide in the lemon wedges for that little extra. The lemon wedges also help kill bacteria in the water so it has multiple functions.

Serve Drinks in a decorative bin.

• Buy a bag or two of ice and serve your beers, sodas or sparkling water in a metal or plastic bin filled with ice. You can get really cost effective bins at your local discount stores and they are reusable so it is a smart investment. Especially if you entertain a lot. Fill the bin half full with ice, place your drinks in a pleasing display and pour ice over rest. Voila, looks like a million bucks

Think about placement and unique ways to present necessities.

• Such as plastic silver ware. Try tying them (loosely) with twine in separate bunches and hot gluing a charm that matches your party to the twine. Example, a beach party; hot glue a sea shell to the twine and it can really tie the whole theme together. Very quick and cheap but makes even plastic silver ware more special.

Hopefully you can give these cheap quick tips a try at your next soiree! Happy planning!

Angel Food Cake with a Strawberry Cream Center

My childhood friend and her family were coming to visit a couple of weeks ago and her oldest son was turning nine. Which is difficult to believe but its true. It feels like it was just yesterday that his mom and I met. We met we were 12! Its so cliche to say time flies, but it does, it really does!!

Anyway, I digress. So they were going to be traveling on his birthday and arriving into town just in time to go out for a birthday dinner. She had said her son wanted strawberry shortcake so I offered to make one for him. I wanted to do a different take on it though, which could be going out on a limb. You never know with kids if they will be thrilled or disappointed that they didn't get exactly what they asked for. The one thing you do know is that they will probably tell you precisely what they are thinking about it, so I knew in a few short hours that I would find out if it was a hit or a miss.

I had looked through some recipes to get an idea. I liked a few concepts but needed to change a few things. I came up with one that worked well and was pretty simple. So if you are in the mood for a twist on a classic try this.

By the way, the birthday boy said "it was not what he was wanting, but it was better"! Whoo, saved my the second comment. :)

Ingredients:

1 Angel Food Cake (store bought works great)

6 ounces of cream cheese

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/4 tsp almond extract

Red food coloring

2 cups sliced strawberries (divided-1 cup filling, 1 cup for decorating)

1 (12 ounce) carton of whipping cream

gelatin (read packet for stabilizing amt and instructions)

Instructions:

• Cut a 1 inch slice off top of the cake; set aside. Make a tunnel by carefully hollowing out the bottom leaving a 1 inch shell all around. Cut or tear the removed cake into small cubes.


• Be cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in milk and lemon juice until smooth. Stir in extract and food coloring to desired pinkness. Stir in cake cubes and strawberries. Refrigerate.


• Whip your fresh cream adding the gelatin for stability ( I use electric hand beaters to whip fresh cream, just be careful that you don't overwhip. Once firm peaks begin to form, you can stop).


• Fold 1 cup of whipped cream into strawberry cream mixture.


• Fill tunnel with mixture, replace top.
  
• Spread remaining whipped topping over top and sides of cake.


• Decorate sides and top of cake with remaining sliced strawberries.


• Refrigerate overnight if possible or at least 4 hours.

Enjoy!

Pine Cone Bird Feeder

To feed wild birds in your yard try making an easy pine cone bird feeder. A fun project that makes bird watching extra fun.











What you'll need:

• Pine cone



• Twine



• Peanut Butter



• Bird Seed

Instructions:

1. Tie a knot around bottom half of pine cone or hot glue an edge to bottom area of the pine cone




2. Wrap twine around the pine cone and leave enough to hang from a branch




3. Smear pine cone in peanut butter




4. Roll in birdseed




5. Hang on a branch for birds to enjoy

Watch for birds as a family. Take the opportunity to talk about the birds that you see!

Long time, no blog

I have been m.i.a for a couple of weeks now and I have missed blogging. We had house guests for two weeks straight, which was great but busy and I finally got the time (I use that word loosely) to connect to the Internet and to my dismay it was not working.

This is a trend with our Internet connection. The phone company always says everything is fine and so we usually get no where after an hour long phone call to the repair center. This time was different, obviously, since you are reading my blog :). But not only was it different, it was pretty amusing. At least it is amusing as long as you have the ability to laugh at yourself. Which for me means not only laughing at myself but also acknowledging that I may not be very tech savvy.....surprise surprise......again laughing.

It turns out that my Internet worked just fine but for some very strange reason our home page had been switched to a page cannot be displayed error page. Odd. If this was some hackers idea of a joke to make a nice lady crazy, congrats! You did it! But now it is fixed and we can all have a good laugh....at my expense.

My point to telling you all this is to say, I'm back! I hope to have lots of fun ideas to blog about in the next few days. I have lots of recipes to share, going back to the house guests. So stay tuned.....

Refreshed and Focused

It has been a week since my last post. Last week I posted about feeling a little overwhelmed. Hey, it can happen to the best of us. I had just come home from hearing a speaker talk about organizing and though it was great to hear, it sent me into a panic! So I gave myself a week to sort through my emotions and figure out what was causing all that anxiety (could it be the stuffed to the gills closet with no idea what's inside???).

I realized that I needed a system, but a system that would not make me feel like screaming and burning my house down to avoid dealing with the hidden clutter. Some systems out there are obviously made by an extremely organized person and therefore can be suffocating to a semi organized person, like myself. My house is very clean, but it takes work! And all that cleaning leaves very little time for the word of the day....ORGANIZING.

After hearing the speaker I sought my husbands advice, which he so happily gave me if it meant he could divert my attention elsewhere so I didn't obsess on my distress. Apparently I do this?! Anyway he said simply, "take from it what you can and if you can't take anything from it, oh well. Let it go". My hubby is pretty genius when it comes to simplifying the otherwise bewildering predicaments I find myself in. That could also be because I have a rare talent of complicating the otherwise lucid situations.

So following his sound words I decided to think about the things that were said during the presentation and apply what really would work for me. I did channel a few organizing bursts and took advantage of the energy that came from them. Which made for a very productive day I must say.

Then I logged on to the organizing/cleaning mecca, marthastewart.com and found some pre-made checklists for cleaning and organizing. God bless that woman, that's all I have to say about her. So I printed out the checklists. Laminated them so that I can use a dry erase to check off what I've done. Hung them on my bulletin board. I am ready to rock! At least I have something to guide me since there are days where I feel like I have cleaned the same room (toy room/living room) about a dozen times. Oh wait....I have!

But I am excited to keep the energy up and to tackle what I can and when I can. All of this definitely comes second to playing with my son, of course. So I know it will be a learning process and might be a life changing process as well. I figure if I can at least feel like I know whats in my closet/cellar/under the bed, then that's progress. Right?!.... Right!!

Life Overwhelming

Is it just me or can life sometimes get a little overwhelming. It seems just when you get one thing accomplished the universe reminds you that you should be doing more, having less, organizing better, you get the picture. I have this running list in the back of mind constantly reminding me of all the things I want to get done, eventually. This list I think for the most part is a good thing for a person to have, it keeps you on track. But at the same time this list can begin to stalk me. As if it isn't hard enough being a wife, a mom, a daughter, sister, friend, homemaker, etc., then you have this nagging in the back of your mind that somehow all that is not good enough. I begin to set these unrealistic expectations. I make comments to myself and others that I am not doing this well enough or I want to get better at this, or clean this more and so on.

I was thinking about all this today simultaneously reading to my son (miss multi tasker). I was reading a book of nursery rhymes when I happened on one called "A Wise Old Owl". I read the words, "A wise old owl lived in an oak, the more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard. Why aren't we all like that wise old bird?" Instantly it resonated with me. I realized that this list in the back of my head is nothing more than overwhelming chatter, by me to me.

I stopped instantly and said a prayer to God to help me silence these demands I put on myself and I thanked him for all that I am blessed with. Because truly all I have is all I need. Yes the daily chores of life will always be there and honestly for the most part I take joy in doing them and feel pride when I've accomplished my daily To Do list. But it is important for me to silence that self chatter about all the future things needing tended to. They will get done. All I am doing in the present by constantly reminding myself is speaking more and hearing less.

So I am making it a priority to breath deeper, and stop trying to do so much so that the things I am doing mean more.

Thank you, you wise old bird.

What my 18 month old is loving today

Super simple tip for today that provided a lot of fun for my little one. It isn't a craft but I thought it was worth mentioning. Today I bought some Easter window clings. I let my son pick between two (he loves making choices, makes him feel big) Easter sets at the dollar store. Once home I removed them from the sheet and let him go to town on our glass door. He rearranged them a dozen times and it kept him busy long enough for me to get him lunch and then later, dinner. Definitely worth the buck. Plus he picked the set I liked best so that was in my favor. :)

Handsoap Savings Tip

I have a little savings tip that I want to share. If you have empty foaming hand soap dispensers instead of tossing them you can save big bucks by reusing them. Foaming dispensers use so much less soap than regular pump dispensers so you can make a big jar of refill soap last a very very long time.

Rinse out the dispenser and fill 1/8 of the way full with your refill soap of choice. It really takes only a small amount otherwise the foaming mechanism gets clogged. Then fill the rest with water, replace lid and shake.

Voila, the same foaming action you love, a lot less moolah.

*be sure to buy the large refill soap in a fragrance you love, because you will be smelling it for a long time to come.

Snow Day Craft

Since it was a perfect snow day I felt inspired to try a fun, cold weather craft I had seen in the "Family Fun" magazine. It is an ice sun catcher. A circle of ice with swirly colors that you can hang outside your window and brighten up a wintry day. My son loved helping me put the food color into the water filled ice cube tray and it gave us a chance to practice our colors in a new way.

Anything done with a young toddler always comes with a little mess but it wasn't too bad. Just a slightly green tinted pair of tiny lips from when the food color found its way to my sons mouth. I grabbed it two seconds too late, which the green lips were evidence of. But all in all it went smoothly.

I have noticed from my years of attempting crafts from various books and websites that they always leave out a few tips that could have made the process easier or better overall. So I want to make sure that I pass all I learned on to you.

Tip 1. make sure the entire circle/cubes are completely frozen before wiggling the plastic cup. If you don't then water seeps under the cup and you wont have a clean hole any longer. I made the mistake of moving the cup too soon into the freezing. When it came time to remove the cup it would not budge so I had to run warm water over it, plus I had to break up the ice under the cup to remove it. That was not so fun since the ice ring is super cold to your poor bare phalanges. Which brings me to my second tip.

Tip 2. Wear ski gloves when handling the ice ring. It will save you some frozen limbs.....believe me!

What you will need:

1. Ice cube tray




2. Liquid food coloring (use 2 complimentary colors)




3. A round cake pan. I used a 9" round.




4. A plastic cup




5. Ribbon

Directions:

1. Fill ice cube trays with water and put a drop or two of food coloring into each tray.




2. Freeze ice cubes completely




3. Fill a round cake pan with 2/3 cup water




4. Place a plastic cup filled part way with water (for weight) into the top of the cake pan




5. Place cake pan in freezer for about 45 mins to 1 hour




6. Put ice cubes into the cake pan 'slush'




7. Freeze all together




8. Take out cup




9. Turn cake pan upside down and remove ice circle




10. Hang outside window with ribbon

Craft from "Family Fun" Magazine, February 2010 edition.

Careful what you call that.....

Tonight at dinner my husband and I were taught a lesson in names, or descriptions, if you will. If you read my blog then you probably gathered that my 1 1/2 year old loves Elmo. We watch the same 'Elmo's World' on DVD practically everyday. Well apparently he is absorbing more from the DVD than we realized. Let me just give you a quick introduction to the characters in 'Elmo's World'; Elmo (of course), a talking computer, highly energized writing desk and Elmo's very important, very loved goldfish named Dorothy. Man do kids love this!

As we sat down to dinner tonight and watched our son eat his yummy halibut, we remarked out loud to one another how much he loved fish. To this our son looked down at his mostly eaten halibut and began handing pieces of it to my husband repeating, what we thought at the time to be, no dogthie, dogthie nice. So, like any incredibly perceptive parents we began trying to interact with our child by saying things like, Oh yes the doggies are outside, or yep the doggies would like to eat that but it is for you, and so on. We could not figure out why he was acting like we were eating dog!?

It wasn't until the distraught little fellow threw in "Elmo dogthie" that we realized he was saying Dorothy! To his little horror he thought we were eating Elmo's beloved goldfish Dorothy. Once we deciphered what he was actually saying was, No Dorothy, Dorothy nice, we realized the damage was done. Dinner was most definitely over for him. Plus we had to put on the Elmo DVD to prove to him that we were in fact NOT eating Dorothy, and that she was living a very happy life inside our DVD player.

So lesson learned. Do not call what your eating at night the same name as the cute little animals your child is busy learning about during the day.

Play dough puzzles

My son loves play dough. The problem is I am always running out of ideas for things to make with it and we don't have any of the fancy play dough gadgets. So i came up with this idea the other day during our play dough time. I am sure I'm not the first to make puzzles with play dough. There are probably even kits you can buy in the store for the same thing, but it was fun and easy so I thought I'd share in case someone else hadn't thought of it yet.

Play dough puzzles are very simple. I'm sure it helps develop all sorts of important skills. I just don't know what. If I had to take a gander, I would say motor skills and thinking skills. Plus, the best part is you can keep making new ones over and over, and you don't have little pieces to store. The pictures show a more intricate puzzle. I started with very simple ones for my 17mo old. For example; a heart cut in half.

Items you'll need:

• Play dough. Store bought or homemade (see recipe at bottom)



• Cookie Cutters, any size. Jumbo ones work great for the little guys



• Rolling pin
  
  

Directions:

• Roll out the play dough
  
• Cut out your shape with the cookie cutter


• Using the edge of the cookie cutter cut the shape into smaller irregular pieces
  
• Let your toddler try and put them back together


• Repeat

Homemade play dough:
3 cups flour
3 tablespoons oil
2 cups salt
1 cup water

Mix 2 cups flour with salt. Add oil and water. Mix well. Stir in remaining flour until soft and pliable.
dough recipe from "Toddler Time" by Jean Stangl

Kicking the habit......tv that is

So as reluctant as I am to admit this, here goes. My toddler watches TV. Ugh. I know, I know. I have read all the studies and know what they say, kids who watch TV are bullies, no TV before age two, lessened creativity, and so on and so on. I also may add that before I had my son I thought I would not allow TV to be watched....but here is the kicker. My husband and I both enjoy watching TV. Not to mention we have a GIGANTIC one in our 110 year old home (historic home/huge TV....a little incongruous). I am informed that a gigantic TV is necessary for the months between September and January. Football just doesn't look as good without it, apparently. So I have come to the conclusion that TV, at least in our lives is somewhat unavoidable. Unless we kick the habit ourselves, which we have no intention of doing, (come on, it's my only vice.....a girl needs something to feel guilty about!) then it is probably going to be watched from time to time by our children.

So I have done some soul searching and decided it is all about balance. I tried to justify for awhile that it was okay because we do so many other activities with our son. I try not to be a hyper scheduler but I am borderline. So he is exposed to PLENTY outside stimulation. I also feel that the guilt I have about letting him watch a little TV drives me to do more educational things with him throughout the day. So all this has to be okay right?! Well, according to the studies...NO.

But you know what I've decided about those studies and the people that conduct them? They can say all they want to about incidences that happen in their little controlled study bubbles but then, real life happens. Sometimes when you have had a crazy day and dinner is late and your knee deep in raw chicken, you have two choices; 1.walk around the kitchen with a toddler hanging on your leg screaming MAMA or 2. turn on Elmo, get a little peace and quiet, finish your fabulous dinner or whatever it is you need to finish and hope for the best. The hope that not all the studies turn out exactly in real life like they do in the lab.

So the craft today is dedicated to all the moms out there like me. A fun little craft to do with your toddler to help you feel better about the (insert your time here) your little one just spent watching his/her favorite "educational" program.

Paper Wreath

This craft can be done during any season/holiday. The one shown here was done with leaves for fall. You can easily change the shape for whatever you please. Hearts for valentines day, four leaf clovers for St. Patricks Day, etc.

You will need:

• Construction paper in your choice of colors (depending on the holiday). The stiffer the paper the better. Card stock works nicely.
  
• Scissors (adults do the cutting).
  
• Shape of your choice. I use my computer to download printable shapes, easily found by googling what shape you are looking for. Or you can also draw by hand.


• Glue. Stick or bottle, your choice.

Directions:

1. Print or draw desired shape. Using a least three different colored papers. Doing a variety of sizes is also nice.



2. Lay out the shapes in a circle. You can use a place turned upside down if you need help with the circle, or just wing it. It is a craft for your toddler so perfection should not be expected.



3. If you feel that you need a base to follow, cut out a 2 0r 3 inch wide circle using a piece of poster board to your desired size of the wreath. Glue the shapes to one another overlapping slightly. Enough for stability but not too tightly together. Show your toddler how to do this by demonstrating with one or two to get them started.



4. Then let your child do the rest. You hold the shape and help them or let them depending on their motor skills put the glue on the shape.



5. Let your child place the shape on the wreath.



6. When your wreath is finished you can attach a ribbon to the front or back and hang anywhere you'd like. It also makes a great grandparent gift.

See pictures above.

Disclaimer:

Yes my son does have the glue in his mouth. This is a possibility.

Valentines Day crafting with my beloved one

This week has been all about the love. I have started to get in the valentine day spirit and do some lovely (play on words) decorating. Plus it gave me an opportunity to see just how ready my 17mo old and myself were for glue and glitter. Usually glitter can be my arch nemesis. I love the look of it, or should I say the idea of it, before it ruins my otherwise wonderful time consuming crafts. I have tried using glitter in all ways. Techniques handed down from master crafters before me, but to no avail. So this week i figured I would let glitter win. Why not? So my 17 mo old and I set out to make a mess, glueing and glittering everything we could. I found out a lot in the process. 17 month olds and glitter can be a lot to jump into so be warned my fellow crafters.....be warned. My dogs will have glittered paws for months to come. But with that said we both had fun and made cute cards for daddy.

To make the hanging hearts seen at top left you will need:

1. floral wire or fishing line

2. paper (your choice, cardstock or construction or even colored printer paper works fine)

3. tape

4. glue (spray adhesive works best but is a little messy, regular glue leaves the paper wrinkled)

5. Scissors

To Make

1. Place two pieces of paper together and fold in half (you need two of the same size hearts)

2. Draw half a heart shape with the center of the heart on the fold of the paper (like you did in grade school)

3. Cut out hearts

4. Place one heart underneath the floral wire centering the wire. It is best to have all hearts cut out first so that you can visualize the distance you want between them. Tape wire to paper. Be sure to leave enough wire at the top to attach to ceiling and to hang to your desired length.

5. Placing newspaper underneath the heart to catch any spray, spray the heart with the adhesive and carefully place the other cut out directly on top.

6. Continue the same steps for each heart. Make as many strings as you want.

If you are feeling fancy spray each side of the heart with spray adhesive (one side at a time) and sprinkle with pink, red or white glitter. Disclaimer: see my post about glitter first :)