Chore Chart

Last summer was proving to be a chore to get the kids to do their chores.  I came across this great idea using some cheap $1 cookie sheets from Walmart.  I spray painted them and my husband drilled holes in the top to hang later.

I used wood chips from Michael's and cut chore pictures from clip art the size of the wood chips.  The pictures were adhered with mod-podge. Then I  bought some heavy duty magnets and hot glued them to the backs of the wood chips.  To personalize the charts I used my cricut and mod-podged their names to the cookie sheet.  I found some great knobs to hang them from at Hobby Lobby.  Each boy also has their very own dust mitt and mini dust broom for those after meal floor cleanups.  I wish I could say it wasn't difficult to get them to do chores anymore, but at least we have a system now.  Are there any charts or methods you use to motivate your kids when it comes to chores?  I'd love to hear your ideas.

How Do You Record Memories?

Are you a blogger?  An old school journaler?  A photographer?  An avid recorder of videos?  If we've heard it once, we've heard it 427, 822, 001 times:  It all goes so quickly.  So.  How do you record the memories of your children, the activities that you do, the funny things they say, and those ordinary everyday moments?

Every time I told a funny story of something my kids said or did, an older and wiser friend would tell me that I should write that down.  I'm not much of a writer and so I started a blog and I do my best to record my life over at The Blue Tulip.  But before I started blogging, I made a little day journal that I could jot down random life happenings.  I used scrapbook paper and made monthly dividers.

I made it way back in 2012 and have since stopped using it and actually forgotten about it.  But while deep cleaning my kitchen, I came across my little box journal and the notes that I jotted down on the daily notecards made me smile.

June 26th:  Alex and Ben fell and scraped their knees = Trauma Drama!

July 1st:  Uncle Harold's 80th birthday party

August 1st:  Ben's last library day (He started kindergarten that fall...waaaah!)

I have my little box still sitting in the kitchen.  Maybe I'll occasionally jot some memories down.  Even if I only do it once a month...or once a year, I think they will still bring a smile to my face.  

You could make yourself a box journal or take it easy on  yourself and go buy a notebook from the store.  Or start a blog!  I also make a photo book for each of my children once a year of all of those random pictures.  It is important to get those off of the computer! 

So tell me, what is your go-to method of preserving your family's memories?

Disaster of a Blanket

In the last weeks of my pregnancy, when I was starting to get a little impatient waiting on the little one's arrival I took my daughter to a fabric store.  As I was looking for material to make a baby carrier/wrap my daughter found some very bright orange minky material in the discounted section.  

She put on the puppy dog eyes and said, 'Mama we could make a silky blanket for the boy with this. It is so soft just like my blanket.  It can be a special gift I sew for the boy.'  

Yep, she knows her mother well.  A sewing project thought up by my little girl?  Yes, please.

So, we walked through the store and she chose the color silk she thought looked best.  She went with a bright, bold color palate, that I would have never even considered.   

I have never sewn minky before.  I assumed it would be about the same as silk, so we cut the silk to be the same width as the minky, placed the right sides together, and threw a handful of pins on the material.  

The little lady sat on my non-existent lap, and held the material up at the machine, and I controlled the foot pedal.

Hmmm, that did not work at all.  Time to pull out the seam ripper.  Since 5 year olds (at least mine) have short attention spans, I gave her ribbon to cut to put on the blanket to make it a taggie blanket.

Attempt #2.

I laid out the material again.  We lined up everything and added the ribbons.  I added a few more pins.  Daughter hops back up on my lap, and we begin sewing again, with the exact same results.

Ok, what is happening here?  I send my daughter off to play and head over to the computer to search for tips on Pinterest.  20 minutes later I have ripped out the seems again, lengthen the stitch length on my machine, added about a hundred extra pins, and am finally ready to sew again.  The daughter has since lost interest in this project, and asks to just draw a picture for her little brother.

Attempt #3

Success.  Sort of.

The material isn't puckered but it is not exactly straight either.  

I finish up the other three sides, going slower than a snail.  This project became a test of patience and will power.  I do not ever sew slow.  It is pedal to the floor typically.  

It took me two hours to pin the blanket, and sew carefully around making sure the ribbons stayed in place.  I also had a huge seam allowance.  It was 1 1/2 inches on the last side I sewed because no matter what I did the material just kept shifting.  Ugh!  The material was 28 inches and square when I began, and the finished project ended up being 25X26 inches, and not exactly squared to perfection.

I gleefully snipped the corners, and turned the blanket right side out, happy to be basically done with it.  I wanted to topstitch around the right side to make it look finished.  Then baby brain kicked in.  I walked over to my very hot iron and placed the iron on the silk.

As soon as I did it, I knew the mess I just made.  Ugh!  This project couldn't get worse!  What on earth was I thinking?  I would like to think that my normal non-pregnant/crazy hormonal self would know better, but the girl making this blanket lost her mind a few months back.

Now, to decide if I just toss the mess of a project or try to fix it.  

I ended up sewing ribbon over the corner, skipped the topstitching, and said 'good enough'.

My daughter thinks it's just perfect, and since technically it is from her I will chill out with my perfectionist ways, and be happy she thinks it looks good.

And really, now how closely will a baby be looking?  :)

Barometer

 I can't take any credit for this project.  My wonderful husband thought of this idea for a project to do with his cub scout den.  We will be making a homemade barometer.   Before starting here is a website you can go to that explains barometric pressure to kids.  The materials are very simple:

First cut the neck off the balloon and stretch the remainder around the mouth of the jar. Second, cut the straw so the bendy part is removed, you won't need it.  Third, tape the straw to the top of the jar.  Now you can tape the toothpick to the end of the straw if you wish to give you a better point to mark from.  This is what it looks like (I didn't use the toothpick).

Tape a piece of paper to a wall and set the jar in front of it with the long end of the straw facing the paper.  Each day the pressure will change in the jar and the straw will either move up or down.  Have your child mark where the straw is every day that week. Below my son recorded what the weather was like for the day on a separate paper.
When there is a big jump between lines that means the weather is most likely going to change. If you would like to check the accuracy of your chart you can go to this link which has a graph of the barometric pressure in the Fort Wayne, IN  area.  Spring is coming people! 




 

 

DIY Art

I have a picture of my three children that I've been meaning to hang on my walls for quite some time now.  It is kind of an odd shape and doesn't look right hanging by itself no matter where I've tried to put it.  So I decided to hang it with a picture of myself and my husband but I needed another piece to hang with them (because I like to hang items on the walls in odds...don't question it, just nod and smile).

I decided to make my own little piece of artwork and share with you my process.  I am no Van Gogh, but I'm still happy with the results.

I grabbed a piece of cardstock, a pencil, some sharpies and a piece of material.

I then searched for a couple of fonts that I liked and used them as inspiration for what I wanted to write.  I found these two fonts here and here.

I used my pencil to sketch out a little saying.

Next, I filled it in with the colored sharpies and cut a piece of material to go around it.

Finally, I stitched the piece of cardstock to the material using a fun stitch and navy thread.

And here it is with the the canvas of my children and the photo of my husband and me.  I really love how it turned out.  And now I need to find a place on the wall.  I think I may need to take some old baby pictures of Ben and Alex down.

Sometimes art can be super simple.  Do you like to hang personalized art around your home?  Leave us a comment or post a picture to our facebook page.  We would love to be inspired by you!

Diaper Bag Organizer

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a little on the obsessive side with organization.  I want a place for everything, and everything in its place.  Our little boy's diaper bag is no exception. 

 

For our daughter, I purchased this bag.

It came with 2 bags, and a thermal lined pouch.  All the reviews for it are horrible, but I really liked the outside brown bag.  It was perfect for us, once we separated the two bags.  I thought it was a good size that kept us from bringing too much stuff everywhere we went.

For our little boy, I decided to stick with the same brown bag.  It has a few pockets on the inside, but not enough to keep everything from ending up at the bottom of the bag.

Enter an old pair of my husband's khakis and a shower curtain.  I know, I know.  My husband said only I would look at such random material and see potential for diaper bag organizers.  Hear me out.  The khaki is heavy duty, and if you cut it the right way, you get a pocket already assembled (score!), and the shower curtain is made of material that can easily be wiped down and cleaned should any food/sticky messes arise (it's a diaper bag for Pete's sake!).  I also snatched up a carabiner from our dozens of metal water bottles, and purchased 1 inch D rings and 4 matching zippers.    

Since I upcycled pants for this project the size of the pouches were determined after I carefully cut out the back pockets of the pants.  What can I say?  I like pockets, but I don't like sewing them.

My largest pouch was cut to about 10 inches by 9 1/2 inches, and I used a 9 inch zipper for it.

The other three pouches are various lengths, but all have a 7 inch zipper across the top.

I cut 4 pieces of each size (2 rectangles of shower lining for the interior of the bag, 2 rectangles of khaki for the outside).

Next, I made a 'zipper sandwich'.  I placed my khaki material face up, the the zipper face down, and finally the lining face down.  Pin in place, and sew across.

Unzip the zipper halfway, and sandwich the zipper between the lining and the exterior on the other side.

When you are finished it should look like this.

Next, I sewed up a small tube to attach the D rings.  I made two at a time, just to make things easier on myself.  I cut my material to about 4 X 3 inches, sewed up the length, turned it right side out, and then cut it in half to have 2 small pieces to attach two D rings.  

I pinned each D ring in place.

Time to sew around the perimeter.  Place the exterior fabric on the left, and the lining on the right.  On the lining side, I left a 3 inch opening to turn in right side out.  Sew around the edge.  I sewed around twice just for some extra wear and tear.  Clip the corners, and trim the extra fabric so it lays flat.  Then turn the bag right side out.  Stitch up the lining, and that's it.

The D ring is optional of course, but I think it is nice to have the bags all lined up.

All ready to filled with baby goodies :)

How do you keep your diaper bag organized?

Quick Tip Monday

How do you organize craft supplies?  I use old gift bags.  I learned this trick a couple years ago and I am amazed at how well it works and it is FREE!  Most of us have random gift bags around the house.  Find one that has a base that will fit your space well.  Then cut off the top of it so that it becomes the correct height.

Repeat with as many as you need to get that craft drawer organized!  No more digging for glue sticks in this drawer. 

What tips do you have to keep your crafts organized?

Crystals

We had made tents, watched movies, read books, made paper snowflakes, and I was  slowly running out of ideas to keep the kids busy during the mad snow storms of January.  I picked up the most recent Family Fun magazine I had lying around in hopes of finding something fantastic.  I came across the crystal clear project from the February issue (pg 40-42) and knew the boys would enjoy it.

Materials: clear container (we used mason jars), white pipe cleaners, string, borax, straws

First create the shape you want with your pipe cleaners.  We chose to do a starburst shape with 3 inch pieces of pipe cleaner, cinched them in the middle, and fanned out the arms.  Next we suspended the shape from a straw with the string making sure the shape was free from touching the bottom or sides of the jar.  Mix together a solution of 3T borax per cup of hot water until the shape is covered completely with the solution.  Let it sit untouched for 6-8 hours and watch it grow.  The kids loved periodically checking up on this chemistry project throughout the day.

When finished, drain the water.  We added a personal touch by covering the lid with fun scrapbook paper and put it on display. Other suggestions would be to put an LED light in the bottom of the jar for a night light or hot-glue an extra canning ring upside down on top of the jar to make a candle holder.  If you use a larger container to grow the crystals you could then remove it for a Christmas tree ornament or just hang in a window to watch glisten.  Oh the possibilities!