Once again...

I say this every year- I can't believe my big Bug is getting so old! 5!!! She requested a special crown for preschool tomorrow so I spent my evening whipping up this "lemonade" crown for her. It was nice to get a little fun sewing done!

Short & Sweet

I have been working odd hours lately (still) and have been in a craft 'funk' because of it. I saw this great post and decided to whip one up. It was super quick & easy. Love that! I picked up some alligator clips this last week so I might be making more soon!

Moo was not horribly interested in sitting still for pictures, that girl loves to be on the move.

Spinny Speller

I came across this Spinny Speller at the thrift store and snatched it up. We are working with Bug on spelling and letter recognition and I saw this as a great tool to work with. She has been moderately interested, however Moo has loved it as a chew toy! I do love a good multipurpose item...

I did get a new camera {yeah for a wonderful hubby!} and am playing with the focus and all the fancy buttons and options. I am totally loving it.

goody bags

My big girl is turning 4! This is the first year we have done a 'friends' party for her, and she has been super excited. I kept it small, just her four joy school friends plus one other good friend from church. As a 'goody bag' I made these drawstring pouches for the kids - Bug insisted the boys get Hello Kitty on theirs too.  

I could not find any Hello Kitty fabric at any of the stores I went to, but my favorite thrift store came through for me and I found a scrub top to cut up, hence the patches.

.a.b.c.d.e.f.g.

We have been working with Bug on letter recognition and writing, so I made up these mini 'i spy' bags for her joy school friends for Christmas gifts. They measure just 3 3/4" square and have the alphabet in little colored letter beads inside, perfect size for taking out & about!

Merry Christmas, Olivia!

Bug was digging through a pile of my fabrics this last week, found a piece she loved, and declared "We can make this a baby quilt for Olivia for Christmas!" And so we did! I let her pick the fabrics, and although they are not my first choices, I am one proud mama. She also 'helped' with the entire process of sewing on my lap. I hope her baby doll loves it!

... and she was done with the photo shoot...

Gone Fishin!

Nick went fishing with his brother a last weekend and Bug has been begging to go fishin' with her Daddy ever since. I opted for an indoor version, and with a little inspiration from {Sew Like My Mom} I came up with this. Bug insisted the yellow was the pond, and carefully laid the fish out. A strong magnet on the end of a wooden spoon and we were set!

Her comment after she caught her first fish: "Isn't it a beauty?"I wanted the fish to be a little thicker than just two layers of fabric so I put a layer of purple felt in between the purple polka dot fabric. I used a pretty generic fish shape, they measure 5" from tail fins to nose. I also did one seam to sew the magnets into the 'noses' of the fish. One more rainy day game for the upcoming long Idaho winter!

Joy School

This fall, Bug is in a great little group of 5 kids for Joy School. It has been really nice to have some time with Moo while she is at school, and it was a blast to be able to teach this week! You would think I could get more crafting/sewing done with only one kid, but nope. We just play! My lesson was on the Joy of the Earth, and we had a great time making art projects, with free time play, and singing silly tree songs. It's a great program and has really worked well for what I wanted. Worth looking into!

salesgirl

The head of sales...

something new...

UPHOLSTRY FABRIC! It's fun to be working on a new project with a new texture fabric. I am making 'i spy bags'! It was just time to add something for boys at our Farmers Market stand! Of course, I can't help but make lots of girl ones as well. Bug is great at helping me sort through our treasures to fill the bags, and I am glad to have another project she can help me with as well.

'cycling' project

Bug is always attracted to the 'reuse, reduce, recycle' symbol, and asks almost daily about what we can 'cycle' (recycle) in our house. When I came across this idea again, I realized it was perfect for her. She helped break the crayons, sort by colors, and fill the muffin tin. We got this really great IKEA ice cube tray at our local thrift store, so it is reused too! This seemed to be an all-day project, which was a little bit of a bummer. I only have the one mold, and it had to cool completely between batches or the crayons would break coming out. So in one day we made a total of 6 batches, but Bug is pleased to have something to sell and I am happy to have her involved which makes it worth it.

Please forgive the poor pictures, but this is the packaging we decided to go with...complete with the recycle symbol on the back! She sold a couple sets and has put her 'earned money' in with her saving jar at our house. I am so proud of her!

tutu for frannie

Bug has just recently discovered naming her dolls/animals, and she has found a favorite bear and named her "Frannie". When I made her the dress the other day, she found the leftover tulle and insisted that her favorite baby Frannie have a tutu to match. I didn't bother with elastic, just used ribbon as a casing and sewed it up. Both Frannie and Bug seem to be pleased with it!

Kids Crafts: Week five

We welcomed this beautiful little goldfish tank into our home last weekend, and Moo has decided they are "dolphins." So adorable. She asks to see her dolphins and says "Ooh, Ooh, Cute Dolphins!" So, in honor of our new additions, we did ocean week! Painting the Ocean
Bug requested we pain the ocean, so we got our watercolors out and painted away! It was a little dark - black may have gotten mixed in with every color - so we did a little salt to break it up.
Mermaids
We downloaded this coloring page (I also bought the mermaid party kit for Bug's birthday. So cute!)
Paper bag puppets
My sister-in-law got this book for Bug on her birthday, and this is the first time we have used them. They had a great time coloring, but I tried to have them assemble onto the bag right after naps, and it didn't go over so well. Lesson learned in timing projects. See how happy both kids look?Folding Kissing fish

Bug did not like this one at first. She thought it should be a cutting project, but it was folding, and we hadn't done folding before. Maybe I need to add {this cutting book} that's like {this folding book} we have. By the time daddy got home, she was ready to show it off.
Hopping frogs

This one was so much fun we got the whole family involved. I got it at Big Lots in the Easter section for $2. They are impossible to aim, so we made them jump and Moo would tell us "yeah, mommy!" and go pick them up. Hilarious!
Ocean puzzle

Yet another thrift store find! I really am trying hard to keep Moo involved, but most of our projects are not age appropriate for 18 months. This kept both girls interest, and we worked on teamwork as we sang "What's going to work? TEAMWORK!" Thanks, Wonder Pets.

Kid Crafts: Week four

These past two weeks I seemed to do more sewing than kid crafts, so not so many, but we still had fun!

As an on going family joke, my hubby got this paint set for his birthday and Bug was super excited to use it. She had more fun putting her paintbrush from one color to the other and instructed me to do most of the painting. She got a Martha Stewart pom pom animals set for Christmas and we put together the squirrel.

Inspired by this post, I numbered hearts and wanted her to line them up in numerical order. She thought eating white chocolate chips out of the cupboard was a much better option, so there the 'school work' lies at her feet.
My sister-in-law gave Bug this awesome sticker set and she plays with it while I work out. It's really cute!Another favorite in our house is playdough, usually up on the counter for Bug so Moo won't eat it. That kid loves to eat playdough.

Kid Crafts: Week three

Between illness and travel, I didn't manage to get pictures together for the last two weeks, but we're back! A few of my favorites from the week...

a lemonade stand- Bug came up with this one on her own and insisted on giving out grape juice at her "lemonade stand" (there are pom poms in the ice cream container, and no cups in sight. I love the idea though!)

inspired by a post from Chasing Cheerios months and months ago, we finally found some bubble wrap to paint.

we did bead lacing with Moo and she really enjoyed it bug begged to make a banana craft, and this is all I could come up with, but it made her happy!