Playdough Fun!

Playdough is not only a fun activity for toddlers but it also beneficial in developing their motor skills. I made several colors of play dough for Ellie using this recipe from Art Nest. I may just be out of the loop but I only recently discovered playdough mats. I found an entire packet that you can download over at Planet of the Apels. Eventually I need to have them laminated but for now I just stuck them in plastic page protectors.

Enjoy!

Preparing a cherry pie

Cooking eggs in a frying pan

Penguin Hat

During our family Bible time, Ellie decided that we needed to make a penguin hat. What?! To appeal to her penguin interest, we talked about how God makes penguins and what penguins eat and so on. Recently, I posted about the different hats Ellie and I have made, including the most recent being an elephant hat. We have still been a little under the weather (I know, enough already!) but I asked Chase to bring me a glue stick, scissors and some construction paper. I was able to throw this together in just a couple minutes.

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A little inspiration * bear rabbit bear *Bubbly Nature Creations 
French Country Cottage * House of Hepworths * I can teach my child
It's Overflowing * Oopsey Daisy * Ruby Jean * Six Sisters Stuff * Tatertots and Jello  
The Girl Creative * The Grant Life * The Southern Institute * Whipperberry

The return of the car track

This week will wrap up the last of our Christmas celebrations. Now that the boy cousins have opened their gifts,  I thought I would share how I packaged and wrapped the car track I made a couple months back.

I used a crystal light container, fabric, ribbon and mod podge. I measured the fabric and adhered it to the crystal light container with mod podge. Once it dried, I put the lid back on, topped it with a toy car and tied it up with a ribbon. I love the red and white ribbon against the blue and white fabric.

Sharing this with...
A little inspiration * bear rabbit bear *Bubbly Nature Creations 
French Country Cottage * House of Hepworths * I can teach my child
It's Overflowing * Oopsey Daisy * Ruby Jean * Six Sisters Stuff * Tatertots and Jello  
The Girl Creative * The Grant Life * The Southern Institute * Whipperberry

Year in Review 2011

This year has been a whirlwind! I'm so thankful for the many blessings we've received including our sweet addition Hannah Rose, our new home and, of course, all my new bloggy friends :) I've learned a ton about blogging in the past eight months - mainly all trial and error! I hope to improve in the coming year, but you know, we are all a work in progress. Most importantly I hope to become more like the description in Titus 2:3-5.

 Here are some snippets of my top posts for my year in review:


Homemade laundry soap. I love this stuff! This is the supply I prepared before Hannah Rose was born.

Putting together a super hero fort kit was a lot of fun:

And here is the girl version - a princess fort kit :)

DIY glass pebble necklace using letters from a magazine:

Easy to make felt Christmas tree:

These little snow globes were my absolute favorite Christmas decoration, hands down. I just love the simplicity of it. Cost me a total of $1 for the two of them! 

Ellie still wears her Rapunzel wig:

My Ikea Ektorp sofa review:

This is one of my personal favorites. Lamp makeover:

Can you tell I was really into this blue color this year?! Key art and vase:

This garland was oh-so-easy to make and looked lovely during the fall months. 

 Thank you all for your encouragement in this personal endeavor. I love all your sweet comments and I look forward to seeing what the year to come will bring.



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Hats for every occasion

I've been trying to prepare some sort of craft or activity to go along with the books and movies Ellie has been watching lately. Do you remember the rapunzel wig we made? She still enjoys wearing her "rapunzel hair" when she watches Tangled.

After reading One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims by Barbara Hennessy and learning about the Wampanoag Native Americans, we made this hat to wear on Thanksgiving.

A few weeks ago after watching Rudolph, I whipped up a reindeer hat for Ellie. I forgot to take a picture of it but it was similar to this one I pinned on Pinterest.

Source: google.nl via Kristen on Pinterest

Then last week we watched Aladdin. When we got to the part where Genie turns Abu (the monkey) into an elephant, Ellie looked at me and said "Mommy, make me an elephant hat please!" Before I had a chance to respond, she went to find my craft supplies. After looking around she pensively put a finger to her mouth and said "Hmm...let's see...." This was a proud mommy moment for me.
Two reasons:
1. Ellie didn't ask me to buy  her an elephant hat but, rather, make one.
2. She is learning that if we can imagine it, we can make it. It makes my heart happy how confident she is that I can make whatever she dreams up.

So...here is the elephant hat. I was a little unsure how to go about this craft. I actually checked Pinterest but I couldn't find any elephant hat crafts. It is nothing fancy and I threw this together in less than 5 minutes. I used a gray foam paper sheet that I happened to have in my craft box. First I cut two strips and stapled them together to fit the width of her head. Then I drew a trunk and two ears, cut them out and stapled them to the hat. I can't draw. Like at all. But I have a daughter that believes in me and she loved her hat so that is all that matters :)

As I write this, Ellie asked me to make her some feather wings. Hmmm...

Bath time shapes

Happy November! It has been a whirlwind around here with all the Halloween and fall festivities but I wanted to share a fun idea with y'all before I forget. Ellie and I frequent story time at our local library and recently received these foam shapes for her to use in the bathtub. Ellie has really enjoyed playing with them in and out of the tub; plus, they are great for practicing shapes. These would be easy and inexpensive gifts for young ones since the foam can be bought at any craft store or even Walmart. The foam sticks really well to the side of tub and when she is done playing, they don't take up much space to store until next time. Sometimes it's the simple things :)

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Snow White, Cinderella and Belle - Oh my!

Ellie and I were VERY excited to go see Disney Live! performing three of Ellie's favorite princess fairy tales this past weekend. We were invited by one of her really good friends so I decided to make some goody bags for them to enjoy on this special day.

I've been eyeing tulle pom-pom tutorials all over Pinterest so I decided to give them a chance. I used this tutorial and I thought they turned out okay. There are more complicated tutorials that I might try next time but for a toddler fairy wand these were fine. 

I picked three thin ribbons to tie the center of my pom-poms and left the ends long - part of the "look" I wanted for these. 

Next I painted two unsharpened pencils with leftover paint from this project. 

I previously mentioned that I like Valspar brand spray paint better because it goes on thicker and more evenly. However, it does take a little longer to dry. I let the pencils dry overnight and then hot glued the pom-poms to them the next day.

I bought a few other goodies for the girls and put them all together for the trip. We had tiaras, glow sticks, and candy. Needless to say, we had a blast! The girls held their wands the. entire. time. 

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Another Fort Kit...

One of Ellie's friends recently had a Princess themed birthday party so I modified this super hero fort kit for a "princess fort kit." I included a Disney princess activity pack and made some pink glittery clothespins. The clothespins are my favorite part.

They turned out so cute and would be fun to use for other gifts as well. However, the glitter does seem to find its way onto everything - sorry mother of the birthday girl! ;-)

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