Felt Fun!! {felt board and figures}

My kids love their felt board, so I just had to share.

Felt boards are incredibly easy and inexpensive to create. This particular one is a cork board that I rescued from my church dumpster when they were doing some spring cleaning. The frame is metal, so I removed it and spray painted it. Then I sprayed the cork board with spray adhesive, laid the felt down, stapled down the back and replaced the frame. This usually stays in their play room, but we're doing a little work  in there right now, so I brought it downstairs for them to play with.

Now that my daughter is old enough to tell familiar stories (5 Little Monkeys, 3 Little Pigs, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, etc...) and make stories up this has become especially fun for her. We also plan to use this as a teaching tool for homeschooling this fall. We use it for our Family Home Evening lessons as well.

First, here are the sites that I frequent to print out more stories and pieces:

Preschool Printables -- they have 5 very familiar stories
DLTK -- LOVE these...they have several stories, plus family pieces, farm pieces and others that can be adapted to more open-ended play
Childcare Land- No printables here, but some great ideas of activities that you can cut straight from felt.
Chocolate on My Cranium -- This is where I get all of my scriptural figures. Shes got the figures and the stories that go with them.

How do I make the figures?? For the scripture stories I print them directly onto transfer paper and then iron them to felt. This works wonders because most of the scripture stories print out on just one sheet of paper. But the other stories usually take several piece of paper to print them out and transfer paper can get expensive. So, I print them out on card stock and laminate them. Then I put a little piece of the hook side of Velcro on the back and voila! Super easy and super durable.

It took me a long time to figure out a good way to store them and I am finally pleased with our system. First, all the different sets are filed in regular manila file folders that I have taped along the sides to create pockets. Then I have them all on our office counter in a canvas file box (from W*Mart, about $13??. I also store all of their file folder games in there as well.

This is actually a counter on one random end of our eat-in kitchen where we do lots of art projects and where we will be doing homeschool this fall, so it has turned into a bit of an office space for us.

Anyway, I hope you find some useful links or tips in here. Flannel board stories and activities can keep my children occupied for a while and they can also be such a great learning tool. And when its so easy and inexpensive to put together, its a breeze to incorporate into their playthings. Have fun with it!!

Do you use a flannel board for your children?? Do you have any other sites that have great printable stories and activities?? I'd love to hear about them!!

Closet Organization {Before and After}

       This closet was a mess. Unless a closet is built for little ones, it is so hard NOT to waste a whole bunch of space. And with the prospect of the little guy moving into that room in the next couple of months, that space became prime real estate. I KNEW I could use it better.

So, with my design, and my husband's know-how, we created a perfectly use-able, organized space, with places for shoes, clothes, blankets, out-of-season clothes, the whole bit. Let me show you around.

My favorite thing is these bins. They are canvas and have a sturdy wire frame AND a handy little vinyl pocket to put a label so my kids (and my husband) know where everything goes. (Found them at The Container Store)

I simply took a picture of a few of the items that belong in that particular basket, re-sized them to the pocket size in Photoshop, added text with picnik.com and printed them on card stock.

The main goal here was to manage BOTH kids clothes in ONE closet. That was simply not happening with the way it was before. but this way, Kai has his own bar and a shelf (or two) for his shoes and maybe some clothes or toys. This arrangement added so much space that we actually can't even fill it all up yet! But I'm sure that will change.

See those baskets on the top shelf? This was a system I started years ago when Emmie was only a wee little thing. she kept getting hand-me-downs from friends and family, which was GREAT, but most of them were a size bigger or a season later, so I needed to figure out a way to manage the influx of clothes. Not to mention, I needed an easy place to put all of the clothes that she was so quickly growing out of as well. So I bought her two baskets: one for clothes that she had grown out of and one for clothes that were the next size or season up. When the first basket gets full, I take it up to the attic and put it in it's appropriate Rubbermaid tub (we're...uh...obviously not done having kids yet, so I save ALL of their clothes...). When I find a great deal on end of season clothes, I buy a size bigger for the next year and stick it in the second basket. This is a fool-proof way to keep the clutter off the clothes racks and dresser.

One more look:

Hope you enjoyed the tour! Feeling inspired?? Motivated?? Go conquer a closet!! It feels marvelous! :)

Sharing the love at some of the following:
Monday:
Making the World Cuter Mondays
Keeping it Simple-- Motivate Me Mondays
Skip to my Lou-- Made by You Mondays
Sew Can Do-- Craftastic Monday 
C.R.A.F.T-- Making Monday Marvelous
Tuesday:
Sugar Bee-- Take a Look Tuesday
Today's Creative Blog-- Get Your Craft On!
Creative Itch-- Sew Cute Tuesday
Tip Junkie-- Tip Me Tuesday
Wednesday:
Sew Much Ado-- We Did It Wednesday!
Blue Cricket Designs-- Show and Tell
Someday Crafts -- Whatever Goes Wednesday
Show off Your Stuff -- Fireflies and Jellybeans
Friday: 
Simply Designing
Kojo Friday Fun Finds 
Fingerprints on the Fridge-- Feature Yourself Friday 
Tatertots and Jello-- Weekend Wrap-up
Weekend:
The Girl Creative-- Just Something I Whipped Up
Under the Table and Dreaming-- Sunday Showcase 

Spontaneous Art

I am all about setting up an environment for my children where they can feel free to create something beautiful on a whim. This came naturally for my daughter and she spends hours (yes, hours) a day creating things. My son, however, is just coming out of the "eating the crayons" stage and more into the "Look mama!!! Papa's airplane!!" stage (that's his favorite thing to draw). Well, months ago (as in, back in March) I bought an easel at a flea market for only $3.00. It had good bones, it just needed a little spicing up. So I took it home and finally got around to making it look like new again. It is just so hard to do a big project like this without the kids seeing it.

Here's what it looked like before:

And with a fresh new coat of paint, some new boards (my husband found and cut dry erase boards at Home Depot! We used the backside of one to spray the chalkboard paint on) and some tightened bolts we now have a beautiful new easel.

You'll notice that the new boards are larger than the originals. I didn't think it would hurt to have MORE space for creating.

We'll be adding accessories to this as time goes on: a tray to set cups of paint in, perhaps a dowel across the top to hold a roll of paper, and some clips to hold down the paper. For now, though it is getting a lot of use and a lot of love from the little ones in my life.

Cost:
     easel: $3.00
     spray paint: $6.00 (with some to spare)
     hardware: $3.00
     dry erase board: $12.00
        
               Total: $24.00

Not bad when compared to what they retail for! And I love that there are no plastic pieces that can break and are then very difficult to replace.


Sharing the love at some of the following:
Monday:
Keeping it Simple-- Motivate Me Mondays
Skip to my Lou-- Made by You Mondays
Sew Can Do-- Craftastic Monday 
C.R.A.F.T-- Making Monday Marvelous
Tuesday:
Today's Creative Blog-- Get Your Craft On!
Creative Itch-- Sew Cute Tuesday
Tip Junkie-- Tip Me Tuesday
Wednesday:
Sew Much Ado-- We Did It Wednesday!
Blue Cricket Designs-- Show and Tell
Friday: 
Simply Designing
Kojo Friday Fun Finds 
Fingerprints on the Fridge-- Feature Yourself Friday 
Tatertots and Jello-- Weekend Wrap-up
Weekend:
The Girl Creative-- Just Something I Whipped Up
Under the Table and Dreaming-- Sunday Showcase

Adding Length to a Skirt {tutorial}

So my girl has this skirt. A skirt that she has loved and loved, but alas, this sweet little girl just keeps getting bigger, but her love for that skirt has not diminished one bit. So, it needed to be bigger, and longer.

The skirt has an elastic waist, so my first step was to make a small opening in the elastic casing and remove the elastic. Then I placed the edge of the skirt along the edge of the new fabric to figure out how much of the new fabirc I would need. Keep in mind that the fabric that is adding the length will be sewn in about an inch below the top of the skirt, so be sure to account for that approximate inch at the top of your new fabric or it may turn out longer than intended.

My original skirt was sewn selvage to selvage, so that made it easy to figure out the width of the under-layer. I cut what I needed, sewed right sides together (selvage to selvage), hemmed the bottom and serged (but you could easily zig zag stitch it) the top.

Now, turn the original skirt inside out and place it in the underlayer, which is also inside out. Pin the serged edge of the underlayer to the bottom of the elastic casing of the original skirt.

Sew the two pieces together, being sure to leave a 1+" opening where you removed the elastic in the first step. Once you have it sewn, pin a safety pin to the end of your new elastic piece and guide it through the old casing. Sew the ends together and then sew the casing hole closed.

Flip right-side out and admire!

This is such a quick and easy transformation and super frugal, making clothes last a lot longer. Whose to say that next year we may be adding another layer, or perhaps a ruffle, to add some more length to this beloved skirt? And with the cold season upon us, be sure sure to check out my fleece-lined skirt tutorial. I think it would be fun to make the fleece a little longer than the cotton and have it peek out the bottom a bit and maybe trim it with some ricrac. hmmm...

Happy Sewing! And please let me know if anything leaves you confused!


Sharing the love at some of the following:
Monday:
Keeping it Simple-- Motivate Me Mondays
Skip to my Lou-- Made by You Mondays
Sew Can Do-- Craftastic Monday 
C.R.A.F.T-- Making Monday Marvelous
Tuesday:
Today's Creative Blog-- Get Your Craft On!
Creative Itch-- Sew Cute Tuesday
Tip Junkie-- Tip Me Tuesday
Wednesday:
Sew Much Ado-- We Did It Wednesday!
Blue Cricket Designs-- Show and Tell
Friday: 
Simply Designing
Kojo Friday Fun Finds 
Fingerprints on the Fridge-- Feature Yourself Friday 
Tatertots and Jello-- Weekend Wrap-up
Weekend:
The Girl Creative-- Just Something I Whipped Up
Under the Table and Dreaming-- Sunday Showcase

Handmade Train Table

Now don't get me wrong, I did not MAKE the table, but I did paint it. I found this table for $10 at the thrift store and decided to make it into a train/activity table for little ones in my life. And let me tell you, it has been a HIT! I debated back and forth on whether or not I should add a rim to the edge of the table to keep things from falling off, so I let the kids play with it for awhile and realized that more often than not, they created track systems that hung over the sides a bit anyway, so I decided to leave it off.

My Method:: This table was originally a very scratched, shiny ugly brown color with a wobbly leg. I got it home and immediately tightened the leg. Then I covered the whole thing with a good coat of spray primer to accomplish two things: first, make it so the top coat of paint would easily stick and second, to fill in the many scratches. Then I spray painted the whole table white, except the top, which would be painted other colors, obviously. And then I took my supply of acrylic paints and had a ball! It was my daughter's idea to make the water sparkly, I just used some of her sparkly craft paint for that. After all was painted and dried I covered the whole top of the table with a nice coat of spray enamel to keep it protected from the inevitable active play it will receive in its lifetime:)

Also, I didn't want to over decorate the table (in paint) with things like trees and houses and such because I really wanted my children to use their imaginations and create those things on their own. I just wanted this to be an open-ended table, allowing them to use for whatever they fancy.

So, next time you get discouraged looking at the pricey train tables, consider picking up an inexpensive secondhand table and doing it yourself. The project, start to finish, only took me about 4 hours (including drying time). It was easily finished in two naptimes:) And only cost me $15, for the table and spray paints.  (the acrylics I had on hand...)

I hope you feel inspired for a little DIY!

Also, I went ahead and entered this into the Crafting with the Stars competition over at Sew Dang Cute. It sounds like a lot of fun, you should go check it out!










Sharing the love at some of the following:
Monday:
Keeping it Simple-- Motivate Me Mondays
Skip to my Lou-- Made by You Mondays
Sew Can Do-- Craftastic Monday 
C.R.A.F.T-- Making Monday Marvelous
Tuesday:
Today's Creative Blog-- Get Your Craft On!
Creative Itch-- Sew Cute Tuesday
Tip Junkie-- Tip Me Tuesday
Wednesday:
Sew Much Ado-- We Did It Wednesday!
Blue Cricket Designs-- Show and Tell
Friday:Simply Designing
Kojo Friday Fun Finds 
Fingerprints on the Fridge-- Feature Yourself Friday 
Tatertots and Jello-- Weekend Wrap-up
Weekend:
The Girl Creative-- Just Something I Whipped Up
Under the Table and Dreaming-- Sunday Showcase

Hoodie Refashion

My friend gave me this sweatshirt and her only instructions to me were, "Get rid of the fur...I don't care what you do with it, just get rid of the fur."

So, I picked out the fur, which was a pain. The bane of my existence. Okay. Not that bad. But a real pain. Tthen I matched two coordinating fabrics to those that are already on the Roxy emblem on the front of the sweater. I wanted to keep with the raw edges to make the sweater feel cohesive, though still patchwork. Sewing it back together was easy except when it came to the zipper, which gave me a bit of trouble, but I made it work. Now I just hope she likes it...

I have some other fun things planned to post soon. Stay tuned!

A place for books and sunshine

I have recently discovered estate sales. I know. Recently? Yes. But I've been out of the country for 3 years, and one tends to lose touch with American life. So here I am now, obsessed with walking through someone else's house searching through their lifetime collection of things. Love it. Most recently I found a very broken chair. There were actually two of them and the color spoke to me. However, one of them only had three legs. No good. So I took the good one for $3.00 and had just the place for it. Yes, I painted over it, but that fabulous, sunny yellow is still peeking through. 

Living its new life. 

I think I may distress it a little more and let that sunshine really come through.

Sweet Little Dresses

Goose's room is a constant (and fun!!) work in progress. I love looking for new girly things to throw at her walls and her bed. So here's the latest.

This is an embroidery I worked on for Goose while we were traveling. I got the original design from A Print a Day (you can search her site for "embroidery dresses" and it'll pop up. She has six sweet little dresses, so I chose three, copied them smaller (by hand) and embroidered them onto a clothes line. I'm loving how it turned out. (sorry for the lame-o pics...this snowy, cloud-filled sky is just murdering the natural light in house...).

The embroidery is joined with the shelf my mom made me when I was youngin', along with that precious little crocheted dress that my great grandma made me when I was brand spankin' new.

And that dresser?? I've had it since I was like 4 and it used to look like this:

Before and After

We picked up this *mostly* hardwood table on Craigslist for only $75. But it definitely needed some love. The finish on it was terrible. Any speck of water would leave a permanent white stain. Should you dare scratch the table it would leave residue under your fingernails. Seriously. Bad. So we got to work. With a whole lot of crazy sanding, staining, and painting, we had a **new** beautiful table in no time...okay, in 2 days.

I do love the way the knots in the table top came out so well when we used such a light stain. Though, during the sanding step, we were surprised to find that the table top is only an oak sheet, not one solid piece of wood, so we sanded a litle too thin in places. But I really don't mind, as it adds to the charm of the table a bit. My amazing mother did most of the work, while the idea and design was mine. 

Now we're on the prowl for some fabulous chairs and a bench.

 

Thrifting

We love good find. It seriously puts (or keeps...) me in a good mood (and helps me justify to myself why it is okay to occasionally shop at Gymboree...). So I have become a bit of a thrift store/garage sale/flea market hound. Because that's where I find the good stuff.

Like this

Which started out like this

Goose needed a place to hang up her kitchen essentials. You know. Aprons. Bibs. Shopping bags. Not to mention, she's got recipes and spices to keep track of. So this "used to be" bathroom cabinet is now her perfectly fitting kitchen cabinet.

And those recipes?? Easy peasy. And Goose just loved helping me make them. Her job was to move my hand back and forth so as to make the stitching look like "real" writing. I think she giggled the whole time.

Next on her kitchen list? A new kitchen. Well, not new. But new to us. Her current kitchen is big and bulky and awkward, so I think I will have to make her one. Out of a bookcase or small entertainment center or something. Have you seen this one?? Amazing. I have no intention of making one that big, but I totally dig to fake window landscape. cute.