Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!

We didn't have any big plans for the day...no day at the beach, no barbecue or picnic, and definitely trying to avoid the fireworks {especially since the wonderful people in my neighborhood have felt it necessary to put on a show for the last 3 days}. I'm starting to sound like a grouchy old lady. 

Bubba and I celebrated in our own way. We went bowling and swimming. 

Made this festive sensory bin.

Attempted to make our own firework art,

which didn't work out quite how Better Homes and Gardens said it would. {Note: to make diluted glue use 2 parts glue to 1 part water}

And Bubba worked on his 4th of July Preschool Unit from 2 Teaching Mommies.

Hope ya'll had a great 4th! 

-Karla

Egg Decorating

We had some friends over to decorate Easter eggs. 

I used my trusty chalkboard spray paint, to transform plastic eggs into a canvas for the kiddos to create beautiful works of chalk art. 

I got up extra early to make natural dye for Bubba, and boil 2 dozen eggs. 

I don't know what I did wrong, but the homemade dye didn't work too well. But he still seemed to enjoy it. 

We used a dye kit that I picked up at the dollar store for the rest of the kids, and they had a blast. 

They also got to decorate foam eggs with fun Easter stickers. 

I think my favorite was the chalk eggs. 

Have you decorated eggs yet?

Easter Egg Tree

I love those little Easter egg trees. But they are just so tiny, and just so breakable when Bubba's little hands come in contact with them. 

So I made a larger version

Using a few of the million plastic eggs I'm trying to get rid of, baker's twine, and the branches from our Resolution Tree.

I added a bit of crinkle paper for grass. 

Now, every time I look at the tree, I think of that song that goes "and the green grass grew all around, all around, and the green grass grew all around." It may also have something to do with listening to the For Our Children: the concert CD {yea, another throw back to my youth} with Bubba and hearing that song over and over. 

Thursday Things

(1) I realized that I never posted a Thursday Things last week. I'm such a slacker.

(2) I know I'm skipping ahead a holiday, but I love this Mother's Day printable.

(3) I'm a little late on talking about this, but Pinterest has recently updated their terms of use, most likely due to all the chatter about copyright infringement. The Paper Mama wrote a great post about how to pin responsibly. {And she provides a few buttons to place on your own site to show if you are pinterest friendly or not - so sweet of her!}.

(4) Trying to find time to make Resurrection Eggs for Bubba. Good ideas here and here. Both include printables for the bible verses. 

(5) A few articles on raising confident, well-rounded boys at Huffington Post, Momformation Blog (from Baby Center), and Baby Center's 10 tips for raising a well-rounded boy.

(6) I could not express my concerns about raising a future adult male better than the article on Momformation. I know that this is a task I cannot undertake on my own - I pray everyday for the Lord's help to raise Bubba to be a responsible, respectful man. With Him I have no worries that Bubba will have a bright, and successful future. 

(7) One of my favorite Etsy shops, CREATE STUDIO, is offering free domestic shipping this week to make room for her next line. 

(7.5) Go check out her adorable, handcrafted products! I absolutely LOVE my cell phone case. I use it everyday - I keep my ID, credit card that I use the most, and phone in it at all times in my bag, that way I can just grab it out when I don't want to carry my purse. 

(8) While browsing Etsy for learning kits for Bubba, I came across a crocheted sex ed kit. I laughed hysterically at first. Then, thought that one day I think it would come in handy. 

 The weekend is almost here!

Happy Thursday!

St. Patrick's Day Decor: Lucky Clover Bunting

 I figured it was high time for me to jump on the bunting making band wagon. And what better way to start than with an insanely easy St. Patrick's Day clover bunting. 

I used this template for the clover, and traced it on to a paper grocery bag. 

I got 8 out of 1 bag. 

 Bubba help paint the 4-leaf clovers sparkly green.

I painted on the word "LUCKY." {after the green paint dried}

Then taped the clovers to twine.

 BOOM. Done. 

How easy was that? 

Now, I have something pretty to see whenever I look over at our dead television.

 Sweet.

{Oh and a quick note - after the green paint dries, the paper began to curl at the edges. Too keep them flat, I placed them under heavy books}

Last Minute Valentine Projects

I found a pile of wood boards up in my attic, and wanted to make something out of them. I started making a sign last month for Gasparilla, but just didn't have a chance to finish; so I decided to turn it into a sign for Valentine's day.

I took two pieces and used Gorilla Glue to glue them together. 

The clamps we have didn't fit around the two pieces, so I used a few heavy books as weights to help them stick together. 

{Side-note: I'm glad that I have been able to find a use for my old high school year books.}

Done.

 Then I spray painted the board with a coat of white because I originally planned on wanting a white background. However, since I never finished last month, I decided to give the board a coat of red paint to use it for Valentine's decor. 

Using my Cricut, I cut out letters on white contact paper. Before I stuck them to the board, I laid them out to make sure I liked the way they were positioned. 

You can't really tell by the pictures, but I did distress the sign a little bit. I'll have to get my sander out to make it more noticeable .... I just have to get more sand paper for it first.

Sunday night I realized that I didn't have anything made to give to Bubba for Valentine's Day. Luckily, I bought a bag of miniature dinosaurs the other day at Target. I didn't know what we were going to do with them yet, so I pulled a couple out and wrapped them in red crepe paper. 

I was inspired by this peach surprise {awwww...I'm a horrible blogger. I thought I pinned this from another blog, but can't find it. If you know the original source, please let me know}. 

I used a piece of pipe cleaner for the stem, and cut a leaf out of construction paper. Super easy...and he will have lots of fun unrolling this! 

I finally finished this Mail Man bag for Bubba! 

I started working on it a couple of weeks ago, but I was procrastinating cutting out the stencil for the logo.

I had hoped I would have it complete in time for our play group's valentine exchange party, but that did not happen. However, we have another Valentine's play-date today, so he will be using it to pass out his cards to his friends this time. 


P.S. Let's ignore my horribly basic sewing skills. 

Did you have to work on any last minute Valentine's projects yesterday?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love is in the air...

Valentine's Day is just a few days away, and I am getting ready for our valentine exchange party with our play group. 

I made this heart tic tac toe game with felt bean bag hearts - inspired by Make and Takes.

Bubs helped fill the bean bags....he had little trouble though because someone didn't leave a big enough hole - whoopsies.

I have this cute "horseshoes" hearts game for the kids, as well. 

If  you're wondering how I made this, I'm going to tell you right now that I didn't. I picked it up at a thrift store last week. 

This is Bubba's Be Mine Monster shirt for the party - check out the tutorial from Make It and Love It.


Let me make one suggestion though...if you are like me - a beginning seamstress - go ahead and use the No-Sew Fabric Adhesive. It will save you a lot of time....trust me.

Each kiddo will go home with a little treat box filled with stickers, edible tattoos, stamps, a heart shaped whistle, mini activity book, and a valentine knockoff silly band. 


Oh and I almost forgot...

Bubba's valentines to his friends; of course keeping with  my our love of all things pirate. 

I wasn't all crafty, and I didn't make these. I got them from Oriental Trader when I was planning his 1st birthday party...yea, I've been holding on to them for awhile. 

Now, all I have to do is come up with a cute valentine treat to eat. 

Eh. I still have a few more days to figure it out. 

Awe, there's nothing like procrastinating.

Hands Down Valentine

Bubba and I made some super easy valentines today to send to a few of the people he loves the most {besides me, of course}.

What you need:

Cardstock

Paint

Ribbon

Hole punch

Something to write with

Bubs loves to use the hole puncher, so after I adjusted the setting, he punched the holes in the cards.

The red finger paint by itself wasn't turning out right, so I ended up mixing it with white paint. 

The first few I helped him with, then let him try painting his hand himself. The less paint on the hand, the better...but he had fun, so I am alright with a few of them looking like blobs. The basic shape of his hand is there anyway. 

Hands Down, I Love You. 

I Love You, Hands Down. 

I wrote it a few different ways because I couldn't decide which way I liked the best. 

I still can't decide.

I'm weird, I know. 

After I cut all the the cards out, I thought it would be cute on a heart. The consensus was that it did look cute ... but I didn't feel like cutting out a bunch of hearts. 

However, if you feel like it, then it will be adorable. 

Once the hand prints were dry, we flipped the card over and Bubba signed it. 

What are you doing to celebrate Valentine's Day?