Playroom

You're probably thinking, "oh girl, you're updating another room when you still have the spare bedroom to finish?! Could you just finish a project already?" 

Oh. Wait. What's that? 

That isn't what your thinking? 

That was only the voice in my own head that I just heard?

Got it. Thanks.

I've shut the door to the junk room {aka spare bedroom/office}, and started going over my list of updates to the play area: 

- book storage

- better/more toy storage

- wall art

- paint table/chairs

- shelves 

- storage 

- shelves

- storage

You get the idea...  

I started by making these little shelves.

I found the pieces of wood up in the attic (score!); so all I had to do was paint them.

Then I used something similar to these shelf brackets that I picked up at Ace Hardware {my new favorite home improvement store...such a helpful place}.

With a little help from JJ, these babies were hung in no time. 

Prayers that I complete this project sooner rather than later are greatly appreciated. =)

Thursday Things

(1) Have you ever gotten a toy airplane stuck in your hair? Yea, me neither. 

(2) Making this Skateboard Swing, as soon as I find a skateboard at a yard sale/thrift store. If you see one, puh-lease pick it up for me....

(3) Obsessed with this chocolate right now. So much so, that I may even hide it from Bubba when we get home from the store so that he forgets we bought it, then secretly eat it while he's sleeping. Doesn't everyone do that?

(4) Sponge Water Bombs. Yea. That's happening this summer.

(5) I chuckled when I noticed this billboard today...Note: if you have to make it clear that the girls are not for rent, then "Rent Us!" is probably not the best wording to put on your billboard next to 2 barely dressed girls. Just a thought. P.S. I prefer Rent the Runway. 

Happy Thursday!

Rainbow Fish CD Suncatcher

Continuing our "under the sea" theme, we did a little up-cycled fish craft. Here's what you need to make one of your own...

Supplies:

CD

Googly eyes

Scrapbook paper

Tape or Glue

Scissors

String/Hole Punch (optional)

Draw and cut out the pieces of the fish on scrapbook paper.

Tape/glue all of the pieces, except the side fin, on to the front of the CD...which will now be the back. 

Secure the side fin with tape/glue over the hole in the center of the CD, on the shiny side...which is now the front of your fish. 

Add the googly eye, and punch a hole in the top fin for the string. 

Ocean in a Bag

After our recent field trip to the Aquarium, we put together our own ocean in a bag. 

It was fun, easy, and could be {mostly} done unassisted by a 2.5 year old. 

Supplies:

Hair Gel {blue; or clear and use blue food coloring}

Sea creatures

Shells

Plastic bags

All items {minus the shells, of course} can be found at the dollar store. If your dollar store, like mine, doesn't have blue hair gel, use the clear gel with just a drop of two or food coloring. Also, if you can't find the little plastic sea creatures, you can use colored foam sheets to cut out the shapes of the animals. 

Bubba liked squishing the gel, and I liked seeing the light reflect through. 

Pin-tested, Toddler Approved: Colored Vinegar and Baking Soda

Bubs and I tested out a fun activity for toddlers using colored vinegar and backing soda, that I found on Pinterest. Of course, I can't find the original source, but I googled "colored vinegar and baking soda toddler activity," and found many matches. Here is just 1 of the 219,000 that Google came up with.  

You don't need much for this, and it will keep your little one entertained for at least an hour. At least that's how long it held Bubba's attention. 

All you need is baking soda, vinegar and food coloring, a medicine dropper, and a plate or rimmed baking sheet. The plates we used are from Ikea, and were just perfect. They come in a set of 4. 

He had so much fun watching the baking soda fizz every time he dropped the vinegar on it. I had fun getting some laundry folded while he was busy doing this. 

I think we'll try this baking soda and vinegar activity next. 

Dot Sticker Art

We watched 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure recently. And by recently, I mean, when we did this project we had just watched it for the 4th time, and since I've been a slacker with posting, we have since watched it, 10 more times. 

I don't know if you can tell by that picture, but a lot of the movie revolves around this artist painting black dots {which reminds Cruella de Ville of the puppies, of course}.

Since we were working on the letter D, and I had found these black dot stickers at a yard sale, we naturally decided to make some dot art inspired by the dalmatians. 

He actually, surprisingly, really enjoyed doing this project. And it was simple, and mess free, so a BIG plus in my book {not that I don't enjoy getting messy with the little guy}. 

I intended on having him just use the black dots, and really after he had finished putting on the ones above, he was kind of done. 

I thought it looked kind of dull with just the black ones, so I left all of the stickers out during the day, and he would come back to every so often and add more stickers. 

This is what we ended up with......two days later. 

Picture Frame Dry Erase To-Do List

I'm baaaaaaaaacckk! 

I hope you just read that the way I said it in my head. 

I've made it through the busiest 3 weeks of my year {so far...I have a few more busy weeks ahead}, and I have a super easy DIY project for you.  

Remember this frame I painted awhile ago when I made over that adorable tray?

Well, I turned it into a dry erase to-do list. You can use it as a message board, too. I just really wanted a place to write a weekly to-do list. Let me also note, that after I wrote the list on there when I completed this project, ::cough cough, a month ago, cough cough::, I never have updated it. Whoopsies. 

Anyway, it was super simple to through this together. 

I used a printable scrapbook paper as my background {from Karen Lewis Designz <--- so many cute and free printables!}. 

I love the old tea stained paper look!

I printed out 3 copies and taped them together to fit the frame. 

Since I was missing the back of the frame...ya know, the part that is supposed to keep the pictures, or in this case, papers stuck to the glass...I used a 1/4 piece of foam board for the back. You can pick this up at the Dollar Tree for, um, a dollar. 

Put it all together, and whatta got.....

{again I hope you said that the way I was thinking it}

an oh-so-sweet message board/to-do list.