you've got mail!: craft kits for kids

I admit it: I'm a craft supply hoarder. One entire corner (okay, more than a corner) of our basement is currently filled with all of the materials I had to leave behind for our move down south, and I still managed to bring three rather large tubs of supplies in the precious little space we had in our rented U-Haul trailer.

To be fair, though, a lot of those supplies are for kids. When the weather is great, I try to keep the girls outside as much as possible, but when it's too cold - or, now that we're in NOLA, too hot, humid, or rainy - I rely on fun, crafty activities to get us through the long afternoons and witching hours before parenting backup arrives home.

I wanted to share two awesome kid-craft resources with you just in case you haven't tried them out - these are both definitely kid-tested and mother-approved. Bonus: they both get delivered right to your door, so you don't even have to drag any whiny toddlers or preschoolers to the store to gather supplies! Win!


KIWI CRATE

You've probably gotten a sponsored ad in your Facebook feed for these little green boxes at least a few times. We've been lucky enough to get a gift subscription to Kiwi Crate for the past few years - Lorelei was perhaps a little bit young for them when we first started (though they now offer Koala Crate for even younger crafters, and options for older children are available too), but she absolutely loves them and Phoebe is now old enough to start enjoying the fun, too. Here's a recent crafternoon we had together with an activity that came several months ago I saved for a rainy day:

Each box comes with two themed/related crafts (this one was about baking) as well as a booklet of extension activities to try with your kiddos. The directions are simple and most require only some parental supervision, so long as you're okay with slightly wonky end products (I definitely am!). I extended the "lesson" by rereading a favorite story with them - Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells (if you haven't yet read this hilarious book about Max trying desperately to buy red hot marshmallow squirters from the local grocery store, you need to find a copy!).

These are not just for girls - Jason had a blast recently constructing a catapult and playing miniature golf alongside our two kids, and I find the activities and crafts to fit a wide variety of interests from robots to camping and everything in between.


KISS NATURALS

An online friend of mine reached out a while back to ask if I'd be interested in trying out some products from a company she works for and I was totally thrilled to be a guinea pig! Kiss Naturals, a Canada-based company focused on all-natural DIY craft kits, sent us two projects to try: their Bath Fizzies and their Glycerine Soap.

Lorelei and I had so much fun with these - over and over again! The directions were very simple and Lorelei could do almost all of it herself besides the use of the microwave. We made at least three different batches of the soaps and still had enough left over that I brought the kit to New Orleans with us so we can make more. The girls have been using the soaps in their shared bathroom and love the colors (pink and teal) and the yummy scents, too. Our attempt to make the fizzies was a little less successful, though that was probably due to user error (ahem, four year-old), and that kit was a one-time use, though I saved the silicone mold that came with it so we can use it again for other projects. Lorelei has been begging me to order the lip balm kit, and I'm thinking it might be fun for her to make them as holiday gifts this year! I'd definitely recommend giving them a try if you are looking for a Girls' Night In activity - birthday party idea, perhaps - and with two sizes and Canadian prices, it's a complete "steal of a deal," as my crafty mom would say!

Let me know if you end up trying out either of these craft kits - or if you have others to recommend!

a Frog and Toad birthday party.

Lorelei turned three a few weeks ago, and for a month or two before the actual big day she kept telling us she wanted a "Frog and Toad party" in honor of her favorite book series. Pinterest informed me that, sadly, this is not a very common party theme for the toddler set - so I was on my own to come up with the details.

This was Lorelei's first-ever kid party, and even though we were keeping it fairly small, I decided that having it somewhere other than our house was the best plan - and where better than a pool, since one of the best Frog and Toad stories is all about going for a swim in your funny-looking bathing suit? We're lucky enough to have an amazing kids-only pool in our community, so once we reserved our day and time, I drafted up the invites, using an old copy of one of the books for the illustrations and border.

Lorelei at first requested a Frog and Toad cake, but I'm not anybody's idea of a cake boss, and after rejecting several local bakeries that are known for their Crisco-laden frosting or boxed mixes, I started to worry that I was going to have to break the bad news to her that a cake like this one was never going to happen. Luckily, she changed her mind - and once she started asking for chocolate cupcakes instead, I knew I'd have no trouble making and decorating those myself. Twenty minutes, a box of toothpicks, double-sided tape, and some craft punches were all I needed to turn the rest of that worn-out copy of the stories into cupcake toppers. (I snagged the polka-dot cupcake liners and the oversized white sprinkles on Amazon.)

For the party itself, most of the time was spent in the pool so I had very little to prepare - perfect! We went with green decorations (with a few rainbow touches thrown in for good, girly measure) and I served ice cream in paper drink cups alongside the cupcakes - a trick that seemed to really help contain the mess.

At the end of the party, each child went home with a Frog and Toad-themed gift bag. If I were a better blogger, I'd have taken pictures of all of the contents - instead, you can barely see them in the background in this shot:

I'm just as overwhelmed with stuff as the next parent, so I wanted to make something for the party guests that wouldn't just add to everyone's household clutter. I thought it'd be fun for each of the kids to have a set of activities to do connected to some of our favorite Frog and Toad stories, so I burned a CD for each child with an audio recording of Arnold Lobel reading "The List," "The Garden," "Cookies," and "The Letter." Then, in addition to the CD, each bag held the following (edited to add: I found most of the supplies in bulk at the dollar store or used what we had here at home, so each bag was less than $2.50 per kiddo):

* a small green notepad (for making their own lists)
* a pot and a small packet of wildflower seeds
* a half-pint Mason jar filled with the ingredients for making a toddler-sized batch of cookies
* a blank white card in an envelope, complete with a stamp (for best friend letter-writing)
* 6 markers to go with the list and card

The bags were decorated with a classic Frog and Toad image and had an explanation of the contents so parents could help kids with the activities once they got home.

All in all, a pretty simple little party - but I think the birthday girl and her 6 buddies had a great time!

#52weeks52projects

If you follow me on Pinterest or Instagram, you might have noticed a new board or a few pictures recently labeled #52weeks52projects. I have been on a pinning hiatus recently because I felt guilty for pinning tons of things that I never actually got around to making, and it seemed silly to hoard ideas. But the new intentional me decided that, instead of abandoning ship, I should just make them, already! I'm aiming for about one new DIY a week - maybe slightly more/less depending on how difficult the tutorial turns out to be. Here are my first two attempts:

1/52: bobble-frame purse [things I learned: don't start with such a hard-to-match-up fabric the first time, take your time with the embroidery thread part or it will look super messy; sewing a curved line on a sewing machine is way harder than I thought it would be]

2/52: yo yos [things I learned: I can't sew even stitches to save my life, apparently. Thank goodness the Joann's in town sells yo yo makers so I could just do this the cheater way.]

Next up: a skirt for Lorelei. Wish me luck!

store-bought costumes are for the birds // DIY family Halloween costumes

For the two of you who read this blog who aren't related to me, an old college friend, or in my moms' group, and therefore haven't already seen these pictures, I now present you with our 2013 Family Halloween Costumes.

Yep, we're a bunch of bird brains around here.

For two years in a row, my husband has come up with a "theme" idea for Halloween and I've had to figure out a way to make it happen. I'm not a pro with the sewing machine, by any means, and I don't want to spend a bunch of money on something we'll wear for such a limited time, so our costumes are mostly thrifted, upcycled, and thrown together with a lot of hot glue, staples, safety pins, and maybe a handsewn stitch or two. (Here's last year's costumes for reference.)

This year, Jason said he wanted to go as birds. That seemed a little...weird, so during a very rare date night when my parents were visiting, we sat together over cappuccinos and brainstormed how to make it come together.

Here's how I ended up doing it:

Since I was going to have to wear Phoebe in a carrier, I decided that it would be cute if she could be a little bird in a nest and I could be the tree she was nesting in. She already had a brown and white striped beanie, so I attached a fake nest and a package of plastic robin's eggs from Joann Fabrics with some hot glue and brown embroidery thread.

For my tree apparel, I bought a garland of ivy at Michael's and wrapped it around the sleeves of a green sweatshirt, then pinned it at the shoulders and wrists. I already owned a green Moby and a pair of striped brown pants. Done.

Do I have any makeup on? Had I even showered? Nope and nope - 

but when you promise your toddler you will go trick-or-treating, you go, end of story.

Lorelei's costume wasn't too hard - I found a Carter's duck costume (albeit in an 18-month size - it's a little tight, but you go with what you can find on the cheap!) and bought a sheet of posterboard and a bag of craft feathers, then went crazy with a gluestick one afternoon during naptime. A yellow shirt from Goodwill plus black leggings and yellow rainboots that we already owned helped to finish things off. It's not going to win any awards, but it gets the job done.

And Jason's was the easiest: a birdwatcher! He is one, so everything he's wearing is his own. There's even a bird guide tucked into the pocket of his vest.

Peeking out of his other pocket? A burpcloth, naturally. 

And Lorelei had never eaten candy before, so please excuse all the shots of her digging around in her little bucket.

We already have our idea for next year all mapped out...and we hope to keep up the family themed costumes for many years to come!

p.s. Phoebe is sad you couldn't see her face in any of the photos above, so here you go:

handmade ornament exchange

Too soon?

Aren't these beautiful? Click the picture for MakeCreateNYC's etsy listing!

I don't usually start thinking about Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but Leah at Crunchy Farm Baby is hosting a handmade ornament exchange this year and I thought it'd be fun to get in the holiday spirit and participate! The deadline for signing up is November 10th, so if you want to start your ho-ho-holiday planning and crafting a little early, head over to her blog. (Please let her know I sent you when you fill out the form -- she's having a contest for most referrals!)

And no more Christmas stuff until late November, I promise!

a corny family | DIY upcycled, repurposed family halloween costumes

In case you were ever in doubt, we're a very corny family.

Since we live in the heart of corn country, Jason had the idea to have Lorelei go as "corn on the cob" for Halloween this year. We decided to make it a family affair -- and we had a blast at the community downtown "trick or treating" event yesterday afternoon! It's harder to tell from this picture, but I went as the farmer for my two corn cobs -- I have on a Monsanto hat, twine suspenders, and long rolled-up blue jeans along with my flannel shirt. Jason was a good sport, wasn't he? :)

I'm pretty excited to have made all of our costumes -- and especially excited about being able to do it on the cheap with repurposed items. There weren't many corn costumes online to use as a guideline, so here are my tips if you decide to do it:

one green sweatshirt (I found lots at our local Goodwill -- you can always turn them inside out if they have a weird pattern that might show)
a few feet of bubble wrap (I save it from online purchases and had plenty to repurpose)
a yard* of green felt ($2.99 at Jo-Ann Fabric)
twine, brown yarn, or raffia (I used a ball of twine we keep in the garage for tying up sticks and yard waste)
yellow spray paint (I bought a very small can for a few dollars at Jo-Ann)
green thread and a needle [or tape/glue, if you can't sew]
optional: yellow or green tights
*I used one yard of felt for both Lorelei and Jason's costumes, just FYI

Spray paint the bubble wrap on one side and let it dry.

Meanwhile, cut the felt into "leaves" that are just slightly longer than the sweatshirt. I cut them into different widths for visual interest. Cut the top of each "leaf" into a rounded point. Then use your hands to pull on the leaves a bit to make them look a bit more natural.

Once the leaves look good and the bubble wrap is dry, go ahead and sew it onto the sweatshirt. I just used a running stitch at the shoulders and bottom hem of the sweatshirt and it worked perfectly (sewing the bubble wrap under the leaves seemed to keep it in place, and didn't hurt the appearance at all). If you can't even handle doing a running stitch, I bet you could tape or glue it in place.

I ended up putting the corn kernels + leaves on both sides (front and back) of the sweatshirt. If you're pressed for time, you could always just do the front.

For the hat, I used some leftover felt curled into a circle and then stitched up the side (again, you could staple or glue/tape here). I cut about 15 short pieces of twine, put them inside the top of the felt cylinder so they stuck out to look like tassels, and then cinched it all together with a brown hair tie to hold the twine in place. Then I cut the felt above the hair tie into leaves and pulled on them (same as on the sweatshirt) to help them stand out a bit.

And that's it! I thought about wearing overalls for my costume, but decided not to spring for new ones, since I couldn't find any at Goodwill. The Monsanto hat was a good find (and an easy get around here in the midst of farmland -- it might be harder if you're in a big city!) and helped to pull my "look" together.

Can't wait to get her into this costume again next week to go around our neighborhood (Lorelei will be bringing treats to give out to our neighbors rather than getting candy, since she doesn't eat it!). Share your costume ideas and links to pictures below, please!

I shared this post at:
Project Run and Play
Fine Craft Guild
Momnivore's Dilemma
Naptime Crafters
Someday Crafts

makin' it.

As I already mentioned this week, I've been cooking, baking, and crafting up a storm lately. I don't know if it's the whole back-to-school thing, or the chill in the air that makes me want to crank up the oven, or just a general need to get my hands dirty, but every spare minute has been spent creating something new. Here's what I've been working on:

I got the idea to make a necklace version of my book bracelets -- this is my first attempt. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of chain works best to hang these beads from, but for now I'm excited about what I came up with!

I used two tutorials I found on Pinterest to make a baby shower gift for a friend who just had a beautiful home birth this past week: a book page canvas and burp cloths. I'm most excited about the canvas and wish I had pictures to show you, but I made it during my no-camera period: it's green and the book pages I used were from the sorting hat chapter of the first Harry Potter. Perfect for a new baby's room, right?

And for that same friend, tonight I'm whipping up some vegan chili, an apple pie cake, and this delicious dip (maybe with some olive oil crackers if I have time) because I remember all too well how hard it is to find time to cook in those first crazy weeks.

What have you created lately?

house hunting blues.

Once upon a time, there was a really cute house. It had five bedrooms, a heated sunroom with walls of windows, hardwood floors and a bay window, an eat-in kitchen where kids could play while I made dinner, a finished basement with built-in bookshelves perfect for a home office, and located right across the street from a great elementary school. Oh, and it was listed at an unbelievable price because it needed some super easy cosmetic updates and it's the end of the season here. And did I mention the playhouse in the backyard?

And then someone bought it before we got our act together. So I've been in a funk the past three days about it.

Okay, pity party over -- time to start working on all of the home projects we've been meaning to do here! Up next: getting rid of the hideous wallpaper in the kitchen and finishing our bathroom remodel (paint and a bit of tiling). What DIY projects are you working on right now?

a literary bridal shower {DIY/how-to post}

My shop has been totally neglected, I've been skipping my regular posting schedule, and sleep has been minimal -- but my almost-sister-in-law's bridal shower was a smashing success!

My brother and his beautiful fiancee are getting married this July (remember them?) and their wedding will be all-things-book-related -- Meredith is an elementary school teacher who is working on a degree in literacy, Ross is an aspiring filmmaker who could never turn down a good mystery or Heinlein novel, and it will definitely be totally "them." My co-host and I wanted to make sure the party was in keeping with their wedding vibe, so we jumped on the book bandwagon and drove that sucker home. :)

A few more pictures from the event -- and then click on the jump for all the how-to details!

DIY: easy gift from parent and child for grandpa

Save this for Father's Day next year!

Lorelei and I made a gift for her grandfather for Father's Day but that could easily be for a birthday, Christmas, or other gift-giving holiday. Here's what you need:

potholder or oven mitt
fabric paint
fabric marker(s)
another adult (seriously -- do this with a partner!)

I poured some fabric paint onto a paper plate, then put Lorelei's hand in it to get it coated. With a little cajoling, my mom and I managed to get her to open her fingers wide, and then we pressed her hand onto the potholder. Once her handprint was dry, I traced my own hand around hers and put the date underneath.

On the backside, I wrote this message: for a Dad and Papa [or grandpa, etc.] who has always done just the right amount of handholding.

Super easy -- and a sweet, sentimental gift!

Friday faves round up.

A few things I'm into this week:

Lorelei's adorably chubby legs. I will be so, so sad when she's walking and these slim down!

These cupcakes over at bonbon mini -- can't wait to try them.
I have this problem and am so excited to have a solution, finally!
Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the sweetest daddy-daughter picture ever.
PJ's new blog design -- and awesome giveaway!
And speaking of giveaways, don't forget to leave a comment on yesterday's post for your chance to win one of our favorite bedtime stories!

Happy weekend :)

inept DIYer: entryway {before}

Memorial Day Weekend: time for grilling, enjoying the great outdoors, and home improvement projects. As I've mentioned before, the hubs and I have no abilities whatsoever with home DIY anything. I drool over Apartment Therapy and Design*Sponge, wishing that I could replicate what I see there -- and knowing it will never, ever happen unless I hire somebody.

I went to Lowe's on Saturday morning to get some ideas for DIY projects I'm sorta kinda considering and ended up abandoning my cart (full of items) in the middle of an aisle and walking out. It reminded me of this article, which makes me laugh even just thinking about it...

There's a list a mile long of things I'd like to do to our house, but since we're thinking about moving, it's difficult to know what to take on and what to let go. But here's something we have to do, since first impressions are so key in the real estate market: fix our entryway.

What is that thing, you ask? Oh, the 1960s half-wall entryway -- so classy. Ours is made even classier by having a cut-out in the center with a large metal pan in it. Originally, it housed a very dusty collection of fake plants. I threw those out the minute we moved in and filled it with glass beads instead.

Clearly, this was not a long-term fix.

I'm loving the idea of doing something like this instead:

(image -- super inspiring blog about home improvement you should check out!)

Do you think it could be as easy as ordering a granite slab and attaching it with silicone caulk (as recommended by the owner of the original image)? And where do I go about acquiring such a slab?

And speaking of home improvement projects, we're also in the process of having our bathrooms redone. I'll be doing a big post about that soon, too -- expect to be truly terrified by the "before" pictures (quick preview: there used to be carpet. EWWWWW!).

Any master DIYers out there tackle something amazing this Memorial Day weekend? I'd love to marvel over your handiwork and bemoan my lack of DIY talent! Share links to any projects you've posted about in the comments below...