Wall Collage

After we got Micah's canvas up in his room I knew I had some other photos that I wanted to hang as well. I had a 12x16 that was already hanging on the wall and it looked lonely. I knew that I wanted to do a wall collage with different sized frames and photos. I was blog surfing one day and came across this great idea for hanging a wall collage easily. I'm sorry that I didn't keep track of which blog it was from but please know this is not my original idea. If I come across it again I will link it here.
Anyway, the way I did this was to trace the frame onto a piece of paper and then with a crayon I marked where the hanger was. It was easier on some than others. Then I taped those pieces of paper on my wall where I wanted them hung. Then I just drove my nail through that piece of paper right where the hanger on the back of the frame was. Then I took the papers down and hung up my frames. And they were all in the correct place. Simple as that.

I have since added the photo in the 8x10 frame.
My little helper watches on in delight as I make his room even more fun!


Next project for Micah's room...the t-shirt quilt.

Card Table Tent

I have been dreaming about the card table playhouse for my kids for a while now. And I finally did something about it. I made the dream a reality in my own way. We got the card table out last week and threw some blankets over it. The blankets were dark and hot. So, I decided it would probably be better with some sheets. I knew that I had some thrift store sheets just waiting to be used for something so I got those out and threw them over the table. The kids loved it.

I decided to take things one step further. I wanted to make a tent that actually fit on the table and something that could be easily put away. I thought up the design in my head and took some measurements and two nights later I had this card table tent all ready for the kids to play with.

It is by NO means perfect.

The sides aren't all the same length.

The patterns don't exactly match.

But, my kids and I could care less.

They LOVE playing in their new tent and ask for it to be set up everyday (because I like to have my living room back in the evening).

How did I make it? Well, I measured the length and width of the sides and cut two pieces of old sheets for each side. I sewed them right sides together with a ribbon at 10 and 20 inches on both sides. Then I turned them right side out. (I was thinking about top stitching all the sides but didn't feel it was really necessary and I didn't want this project to take me forever.) For the top I used a whole twin sheet. It worked out perfectly to fold the two edges to the middle and sew those down. Then I cut the sheet where it was ending on the table. I sewed a hem in the cut edges and the rest was already finished off because it's a sheet so that made it simple. Then I sewed the three sides onto the top/front piece and I was good to go. Usually when people make these things they make it so the stitching is down but I like it on top and if I really wanted to I could turn it over...it's sorta reversible. I left a big chunk of fabric in the front because we like to put it on chairs and it makes the tent even bigger. It's sorta like an awning!

So, for a huge fraction of the cost of a felt card table playhouse I made my very own. My kids love it and I'm proud that I could make something with just ideas in my head and turn it into a reality. Plus, I can easily wash this and it cost me about 5 dollars to make! Yay! Now, go make your own!

New chairs

Our dinning room chairs were hand-me-downs from one of my college roommates aunt and uncle. They are nice chairs but the white fabric was pretty dirty and worn. So, I decided it was about time to recover the chairs. Since Greg had bought a staple gun to hang the Christmas lights I thought this would be a great tool to use and I wouldn't have to go buy anything. So, I bought some black fabric with a little bit of a pattern on it and recovered the chair. Yes, the CHAIR. I only have one done so far but it shouldn't take me too long to cover the other five.

Before:After:

Circles

I found a great homeschooling website...in fact, I've found a few that I really like. I was very excited because on these websites are calendars of things to do with your kids and ideas for different projects. That means, I didn't have to do all the work with coming up with a curriculm for N to follow. This was a huge lifesaver and lifted a lot of stress off my back because I've been wanting to be more intentional with her play time lately!

The first thing that we did was glue a bunch of circles onto a piece of cardboard. I think this was the first time that N used a glue bottle. She has used glue sticks before but this was something new. She really loved to squeeze out A LOT of glue and so I had to spread it out over many circles. I had to resist the urge to tell her where to place the circles at some points. But I really just let her be creative and put them wherever she wanted to, and I really like what she came up with. We talked about the colors of the circles and the shape but I don't she really gets those concepts yet. When I asked her what shape it was she said blue. But, that will come. For now, she learned how to glue, I learned how to let her do it all by herself and we both learned how fun it is to do projects together!

Today we took daddy's poker chips and sorted them by color. It took her a minute to understand what she was supposed to do but once she got it she sorted the chips pretty quickly!

Playdough

I bought this book at Barnes and Noble the other day and today we decided to make playdough. There are many varieties in this book but I thought we'd make the easiest one and the one I had all the ingredients for! Makes sense right?!

1 cup cold water
1 cup salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
tempera paint or food coloring
3 cups flour (I only needed 2.5 cups)
2 tablespoons corn starch (I added this before the flour)

In bowl, mix water, salt, oil, and enough tempera paint or food coloring to make a bright color. Gradually add flour and cornstarch until the mixture reaches the consistency of bread dough. Store covered.N wanted to make yellow playdough so we did. She fell in LOVE with Frosty the snowman this year so she had me make lots of snowmen. She also rolled out some snakes, and just had fun squishing the playdough in her hands. I put it in foil so I hope it's not dried out by tomorrow.Note to self: I need to find a new vinyl tablecloth, those pumpkins are driving me nuts!