This one's for the birds

Once again our library came up with a super fun craft for the kids to do after story time.  The theme was "friends" so we made a little feathery friend at the end.



Here are the supplies that you will need to make your own feathery friend:

small styrofoam balls

craft glue

paint

feathers

googly eyes

yellow craft foam

20-gauge wire (found in the jewelry section of your craft store)

The first thing you'll want to do is paint your styrofoam balls in whatever color you choose.  This was done before we got to the library but just a few tips... I read somewhere not to use spray paint on styrofoam--it eats away at it.  Not good.  Another tip?  I saw that the ladies at the library had put each ball on a skewer (not all the way through) so they could paint the entire ball without having to wait for the paint to dry to get that last little bit at the bottom.  They then stood the skewers up in a vase or cup. So smart!

Once your paint is dry you get to make your bird!  Pick out 3 feathers (or more if you want!) and just push them right into the styrofoam.  Glue on your eyes.  Cut out a small yellow triangle from the craft foam and glue it on as a beak.

Last come the feet.  Again, these were already pre-made for us at the library so I don't have exact measurements for you.  I did ask what they made them from and she told me it was 20-gauge wire from the jewelry section.  They then swirled them around, leaving an inch or so of wire straight to push into the ball.

Pretty simple but so much fun!  My little boys loved their little feathery friends!

Letter Parties

Around September or October (it's been so long now I don't remember) my daughter and I started having a letter party every Friday. I have wanted to do this for a while but put it off until last fall when the weather started to turn cold.

This is how they work:

My daughter is the planner of each party. She gets to decide how we are going to celebrate each letter--although I sometimes offer suggestions.

We have a little notebook where we list what we are going to do for each party. She decided that she wanted to go in alphabetical order so we started with the letter A.

For our A party we:
(remember these are all her own ideas)
Watched the movie Aristocats
Made mini caramel Apples
Played pin the tail on the Alligator

We keep each party simple so that they are doable each week and we don't get burned out. I'm proud to say that we've been consistent at having a party each week since we started except for during the holidays.

We take a moment each Monday to plan our party so when I'm out and about during the week running errands I can pick up everything, if anything, that we need for our party.

It's fun to have a party to look forward to at the end of each week. We have our parties each Friday afternoon while my son is napping. They usually involve a movie--because my daughter is the planner. This is also one of the reasons I waited until winter to start our letter parties. Sometimes curling up and watching a movie is the best way to spend a cold winter afternoon.


Some parties are more elaborate than others.
For example, for the letter P we:
Wore Pink
Had Pizza and Pears for lunch
Watched the movie Peter Pan and ate Popcorn
Played in the Playroom
Practiced writing her last name (since it starts with the letter P)

And then others have been ultra simple. For the letter N, my daughter's friend (whose name starts with the letter N) was coming over to play that day so I suggested that maybe playing with her friend could count as our N party. She agreed.


My favorite party was the letter F.  For this one we:
Read all our Fancy Nancy books
Dressed up Fancy and had a tea party
Went to Wendy's and had Frosties


My daughter says her favorite party was the letter S (probably because it's one of the most recent letters we've celebrated and it's fresh in her mind).  To celebrate S we:
Made Strawberry jam (this one I threw in since I needed to get this done before all my strawberries went bad)
Used Scissors to cut Shapes
Made Snickerdoodles (Dad's favorite) for an after lunch Snack
Watched the movie Stewart Little

These parties have been a great learning experience--although they weren't necessarily meant to be so. I simply thought they would be something fun to do during the cold winter months, but it has kept my daughter constantly thinking about words and the letters they start with.  I've been impressed with the things she's come up with to celebrate each letter and she has so much fun being in charge of planning her party each week.  And if she ever thinks of something she wants to do for a letter that is weeks away we simply write it down in our little notebook so we wouldn't forget.

We are now on the letter V and we should finish up the alphabet right around the time spring hits and we're ready to start playing outside (it doesn't happen until May around here). Once we finish our letter parties my daughter wants to have a letter celebration. I think it's a great idea . . . as long as she's willing to plan it.

Marshmallow Pops

I saw that my friend had made marshmallow pops with her daughter and thought, "I'm going to remember this! What a great, easy idea!"

At the schools here we are only allowed one "sweet treat" per class party. I never get signed up soon enough to get the sweet treat and usually bring apple slices or cheese. Boring. But I finally got to do a sweet treat! You could really do this for any occasion but we were making them for a Valentine's party so we used appropriate colors (otherwise I never could have convinced my 6-year-old to use pink!)

If you would like to you make your own marshmallow pops here is what you will need:

Lollipop sticks

Chocolate chips

Marshmallows (we used the strawberry marshmallows in addition to the white because they were pink and it was Valentine's)

Sprinkles

Cookie sheet lined with parchment paper

This was so easy! First we stuck all of our marshmallows with lollipop sticks. Then we melted our chocolate at low heat over the stove so as not to burn it (burnt chocolate = yuck!) Next we dipped the tops of our marshmallows in the melted chocolate and then into our sprinkles. Finally, we set them on the parchment paper for the chocolate to harden.

When they are all dry you have these cute little marshmallow pops!

What did I tell you? Super easy! And let me tell you . . . they were a hit at the class party! Every kid loved them! Because with marshmallows and chocolate, what's not to love?

A Pocket for Corduroy

My two year old loves his teddy bear.
Teddy can be found at home wherever my son is. He comes with us in the car too--but has to stay in the car when we reach our destination. These two are best buddies.

I love when my kids turn two and we can move past the board books to bigger and better books. Books with a real story line. My son loves to read all the Corduroy books--since it has his very favorite thing in it, a teddy bear! Lately he has started calling his Teddy, Corduroy. The other night after my husband finished reading A Pocket for Corduroy to my son, he wanted a pocket for his bear with a card.

I wasn't really up to sewing overalls with a pocket for his teddy bear (although it would have been cute), but one day while my kids and I were sitting at the table cutting and gluing I decided to make a Corduroy bear for my son.



And we added a pocket along with a card with Corduroy's name on it.

My son loves his paper Corduroy bear. It was fun to see him smile and love his bear, and it gave me something to do while I was spending time at the table with my kids.

Perfect to go along with his favorite book.

Do you have a teddy bear lover too?  I've provided my templates below if you're wanting to make you own.

(To print templates: Click on picture and then copy and save to your computer.  Open in a document and reduce your margins to zero.  Expand to 100% and print.)

Linking to these parties.

Tutorial: Accent Pillow with Cording

A little something for the mom's today . . .

And a little something green.

Not because it's St. Patrick's day, but just because it happens to be, well, green.

Back in December my husband and I ran into a couch and love seat set that we instantly fell in love with--and they were at an incredible price. We justified that we could buy them if they were our only Christmas present combined, and went for it.

And we love them.

But I wasn't lovin' the accent pillows that came with the couches. Too dark. And not really my style.

I decided I wanted the room to go in the direction of neutral browns with green accents. I looked every where for green damask pillows (and I mean everywhere) but couldn't find anything I liked. Once I concluded I would just have to make the pillows I had a really hard time finding a green damask fabric, but finally found exactly what I wanted at Joann.com. Thank goodness.

I had bought my pillow forms at Joanns for 50% off and was really pleased with what I had paid.

But then . . . then . . . I was Ikea. If you need pillow forms go to Ikea! 20x20 inch batting filled pillows cost only $3! I went for the nice duck feather ones for only $6 each. What a steal! Ikea never lets me down.

Making an envelope pillow is so, so easy. It's a great project for beginning sewers because all the lines are straight.

I started out by making a 20x20 inch pattern out of tissue paper (actually . . . I use that paper that covers the exam table at the doctors office. That's what we used in my clothing design class in college to make our patterns. It works great! A roll lasts forever, so I still have some.) When I measured the pillow it was actually 19 inches. I added a half inch seam allowance to each side making my pattern 20x20. Then I cut out my pillow fronts.

I wanted to fancy my pillows up a bit by adding some cording to the edge. I use to be afraid of cording but since I have figured out how to do it I love to use it when I can. I pinned the cording on the right side of my fabric 1/2 inch from the edge. When you get to the corner give it a little snip to help you turn it, but don't cut past the stitching.

Once I had it all pinned, I basted it on, stitching right on top of the stitching that is already on the cording. I used my zipper foot when sewing on cording. See how the cord fits right in the gap? It works perfectly.

I then cut out my pillow back pieces. I cut two 20x16 inch pieces. I wanted to make sure there was plenty of overlap.



On one of the pieces I cut off an extra two inches, but saved it to help me finish the edge with some cording.



One of the back pieces I finished by doing a simple hem. On the other I finished it with cording.

I then laid the back side with the cording on top of my front, right sides together.

Next I placed my other backside on top and pinned all three pieces together.

When I sewed them together I stitched right on top of my basting stitching so I was sure to be accurate. I then cut the corners, finished the raw edges with a zig-zag stitch, turned it right side out and pressed it.

I stuffed my fluffy duck feather pillow inside and was so happy with the results.

A lovely envelope pillow with a nicely finished back side.

The smaller green pillow I made using the instructions over at Just Another Hang Up. When I saw Suzanne's pillow featured on Ucreate last year I knew that I would have to make it. Visit her blog for a great tutorial.

I'm just loving my new living room!

I'm linking to these parties this week.

St. Patty's Day Fun

This year St. Patrick's Day falls during our spring break!  Here are a few fun things we will be doing around our house this week!

Bloom posted this idea to have a scavenger hunt.  We will definitely be using this!

My long-time friend makes these cupcakes with her boys every year.  We have adopted the tradition... because they are good.  You just have to try them!

I thought about having Lucky Charms for breakfast like Amy does . . . but then I remembered that I banned them (even though they are one of my faves).  My boys only eat the marshmallows and leave the rest of the cereal in the bowl.  So instead we'll be having Froot Loops--because they are rainbow colored.

And, of course, we'll have our traditional all green dinner!

Are you doing anything fun with your family this week?

Giveaway Winner

Are you ready to find out who the winner is for the CSN giveaway?

Me too!

Random.org will pick our winner.
And it is . . .

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

21

Timestamp: 2011-03-10 01:24:04 UTC

Who is number 21???

Julie said...Would love to win! They have tons of neat things.

Congratulations Julie!

I'll be contacting you shortly with the details.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and a big thank you to CSN stores for sponsoring this giveaway.

Pot of Gold

Are you getting ready for St. Patrick's Day?


St. Patrick's Day is one of those low key holidays but so much fun for the kiddo's. We usually keep it pretty simple--mostly we just wear green and have Lucky Charms for breakfast.


Way back in what must have been November I spied these little witches cauldrons on clearance for 50 cents. I snatch them up, knowing exactly what I was going to do with them.

And after all those months I finally get to use these little guys to make the perfect pot of gold.

I filled them up with a little Easter grass and they were ready to be piled high with gold.

But wait . . .

Every pot of gold needs a rainbow.

A few pipe cleaners did the trick.

And I made some on a smaller scale . . .

Just perfect for wrapping up--

and for a sneaky little leprechaun to hide on March 17th.

What do you do to make St. Patrick's Day fun for your kids?

I'm linking to these parties this week.

Mix and Match Robot

It's been an unusual week. My daughter has been really sick. Stay in your bed for two whole days kind of sick--which is a first for her. While she was in bed for two days my two year old decided that he didn't need to nap. It was a change to spend my afternoons with my son instead of my daughter, but fun to have some one on one time together.

Last week my son informed me that he LOVES dinosaurs, pirates, and robots. I was a little surprised at his confession. I didn't know he knew much about pirates and robots, but then why wouldn't he? He's a boy. When I saw this earlier this week I thought it would be the perfect thing to make with my son during our quiet afternoon together.





First I drew out the shapes on some thin cardboard and cut them out. My son was fascinated with the whole idea of making a robot and was more than happy to sit and watch me work.

Then we painted. I got brave and let my two year old do most of it. He was SUPER excited that HE got to paint.

Once the pieces were dry we added the details with a marker.

We then put on our velcro dots.

And then our robot was ready to be put together.

This way:

Or this way:

Or even silly like this:

This project was a definite hit. And my daughter was oh-so-jealous when she woke up and saw her brothers awesome robot. I guess I know what we'll be making together once she is better.