Owl Handprint Flower Pot

I've been happily busy for the past week or so.  Busy with work (yay!), family (yay!), trying to sell my crochet patterns (http://www.ravelry.com/designers/amanda-jaeger), and dreaming up big plans for a new potentially huge project for myself!

In all this busy-ness,  my husband gently pointed out that our flowers on the front porch were dying.  I am many things (mother, daughter, wife, writer, crafter, friend....) but I am no gardener.  Earlier this summer, we found our hands on some free flowers from the berry farm close by.  I gladly scooped them up and planted them in the biggest flower pot we have.  Turns out, an indoor pot that collects water at the bottom to store in case you forget to water it doesn't really work well outdoors... especially with thunderstorms.  Our poor flowers were drowning and desperately needed a new home.

So we went to Lowes and grabbed ourselves the cheapest (as I am always trying to save money) terracotta pot we could find.  My husband suggested that I could take some paint to it and pretty it up some.  What a great idea!

I'm a sucker for hand print art, so I decided to use my little girl's hand and make some cute owls.
Here's how you can make your own:

First, start with a plain terracotta pot.  Use a pencil to draw in your branches.  I added a couple "X" marks so that I knew where to place my owls.

From there, dab your hand (or kid's hand) with the color paint of your choice and carefully place hand on the flower pot where you'd like your owls to be.  I decided to use purple, teal, and pink, but any color combination would work. =o)

Let it sit to dry for a little bit and then paint your branches.  Let it dry before you move on.  I also took this time to draw the details on the owls.

Paint the whites of the eyes first.  Let those dry.  And then....

Paint the rest of the details!  I used my thumb dipped into green paint to do the leaves.  I put leaves everywhere, too, because I just thought it looked too plain without it!

Then... I made a terrible terrible mistake...

I add this in as a teachable moment for you.  DO NOT do what I did.  DO NOT take this varnish out thinking the paint NEEDS to be covered in it for protection.  

INSTEAD:  Buy something like Krylon clear coat and use that carefully instead.

This was the stuff that I had lying around.  I figured it would do.  After all, it was clearly good enough for whatever project I bought it for in the first place. (For the life of me, I cannot figure out what that was).  And it probably was good enough for whatever I originally bought it for.  But I'm pretty sure it's not meant for outdoor use.  I turned my adorable flower pot into something really sad.

This is the end result.  This Laytex varnish is bubbling and peeling the paint off.  So now the adorable parts are hiding underneath this yucky stuff.  Sigh.  I will find a way to fix this.  I'm just not sure how.  Any ideas?  So sad.

I refuse to let you leave on this note.  So instead, be reminded of how cute your flower pot can be and enjoy these pictures of the good parts!

American Flag Coloring Page

I don't know about your kid, but mine loves to color.  The second she figured out what crayons do, she would grab one in each hand and study the lines that they make.  I love it.  A few weeks ago, I decided that since she loves to color and draw, I would buy her a little art journal to keep around.  I pull it out once or twice a week, and she goes crazy with coloring and stickers.  She would go at it for hours if I let her.

So I thought maybe for July 4th, I'd pull out a page of her journal to dedicate to something a little more themed.  I remember seeing a project on Pintrest using a canvas, paint, and some masking tape.  The idea is that if you "draw" a picture on the canvas using the tape, your toddler can finger paint all over the canvas.  When it dries, you peel off the tape and ta da!  You get beautiful artwork made by your child.

Using the same concept, I blocked off the top left corner of a plain piece of drawing paper.  Then, I added stripes.  I didn't have any small star stickers (though that would have been perfect), so I just created one big star in the upper corner. Here's what it looks like at this point:

*Note* You may want to rub the tape to your jeans or similar fabric before you lay it down on your paper.  It would make it easier to peel off later.  I didn't do this, and ended up ripping off part of the paper!

Once you have the tape on the paper the way you want it, pull out your choice of coloring utensils in red and blue.  My girl loves crayons, and we collect them from restaurants, so we have plenty on hand without even spending a dime on them!

Also, Penelope likes to have a few to choose from, so I made sure there were multiple crayons in each color.  This also opened up an opportunity to talk about colors and the words "same" and "different."  It's amazing to see how she responds when I tell her she has two of the same crayons.  She looks at both hands, drops one, and picks up one of a different color.  =o)

So once you have your coloring utensils out, it's time to pick a comfortable spot, plop down with your kiddo, and color!

Both the floor and the big comfy chair are great places to color!

This part took the longest.  As you probably know, a toddler's attention span doesn't necessarily last super long.  A couple minutes of this, and she was ready to move onto something else.  She came back to it every now and then, but it took a couple days of coloring here and there to get it really colored.

The result should look something like this:

Of course, the more color there is, the better!   

I just couldn't get any more coloring out of her on this!

She did some great coloring, didn't she?

Once it's as colored as it's going to get, you get to do the fun part of tearing off that tape.  If you did the "stick to the jeans first" trick, you should have an easier time doing this than I did.  When it's all off... ta-da! You have a great red and blue flag your little one has created!  Perfect for hanging on the refrigerator! 

Fourth of July Toddler/Mommy Necklace

I hope everyone had a happy Fourth! We sure did.  It was complete with crafts, baking, fun at the park, and family dinner.  Penelope didn't even go to bed until 9:30, which is the equivalent to me staying up until 4:00am (which is closer to my wake up time than my bed time).  It just didn't make sense!  She must have been too excited to sleep.

My little girl LOVES being girly.  Seriously, she doesn't like to leave the house without wearing some kind of jewelry, a bow in her hair, and sometimes two pairs of shoes.  Yup, two.  So I figured she would probably appreciate making (or helping make) a red, white, and blue necklace to wear.  Okay, so she didn't help much other than running around the house playing with the beads.  But whatever, she enjoyed herself!

 Here's what you need:

- Thin(ish) ribbon in white or sheer white

- Red, white, and blue beads (Or just red and blue) 

*Make sure the beads have fairly large holes*

-Yarn needle

Many toddler necklaces out there are made with elastic bands or wire.  I wanted to make one that wouldn't break easily (Penelope can stretch and break elastic bands...) and one that didn't require any crimping beads.

1) First, thread your ribbon on the yarn needle.  You don't really need to cut the ribbon yet. 

2) Choose which color bead you would like to start your pattern with.  Use the needle to guide the bead onto your ribbon.  Go ahead and push it pretty far down the ribbon.  This will give you plenty of room to figure out how long you want your necklace to be.

Here's where I messed up.  I really wanted those little white beads to fit between the red and blue beads, but the holes were too small to fit on the yarn needle.  So instead of putting white beads between, I created my own "bead" by knotting the ribbon where the white beads would be.  So if you messed up like me OR if you just prefer the knotted look:

3) Make a knot right next to your first bead.  You might even want to make a few knots on top of each other.  I found that three knots in a bunch worked best for me.

4) Slip on the next bead and make a knot after that one.  Continue this pattern until you either get the length of necklace you desire or have exhausted the amount of beads you have (which is what happened to me.)

When you're done stringing the beads and making knots, cut  your ribbon so that there is extra length on both sides of your beaded pattern.  After cutting, make sure there are knots after each of the beads on the end.  This will secure your beads in place.  Decide how long you'd like for your necklace to be.  I wanted to make mine long.  A longer necklace is easier for my daughter to play with (take on and off) and share.  She gets mad if she tries to put jewelry on me and it doesn't fit, so I wanted to make sure it fits me, too.  An extra bonus is that if she's wearing it out and gets tired of it, I can wear it without having to find a pocket or bag to throw it in.  Easy to wear is easy to carry!

Note that this is a good opportunity to talk about colors with your toddler.  Or, if they're a little older, patterns!

When you've figured out the exact length you'd like it to be, make a knot to tie the two ends together.  I went ahead and made a few knots on top of each other. 

See how there's some "extra" ribbon after the knot?  I cut that sucker off, and then realized how quickly that knot would undo itself and unravel.  My go-to fix for this is to burn it. Simply use a lighter to burn the ends just a bit.  Depending on the kind of ribbon you have, it might leave a little burn mark, but it'll keep it in place!

And there you have it -- A super easy, patriotic necklace that both toddler and mom can wear!

She was pretty happy with it, and I was pleasantly surprised how well it looked with my red shirt and blue jeans when she was tired of wearing it! 

Compact Sensory Box

On rainy days like today, it's sometimes tough to keep a toddler entertained.  Penelope (my 14 month old) can only play with her toys so much before she gets bored and cranky.  When that happens, I've found it's really good for us to take out the sensory box to play with.  It's a great way to get a little messy during play!

When I originally decided to create a sensory box for Penelope, I did a quick search to get an idea of where to start.  I thought I would just find suggestions on what kind of material to fill a box with (sand, rice, grains...) but boy was I in for a surprise!  That's just the start!  There are boxes filled with food, water, or shaving cream.  Boxes with pieces to build tall towers, boxes that serve as an "Eye Spy" or "Treasure Hunt" game.  There are boxes that mimic the beach or the forest... boxes with themes for every season or holiday.  The possibilities are endless!

One day when I have the space to store a million boxes, I would love to create one for every month.  I'd love to have themed boxes with objects to help her learn to color sort or count.  But until then, I only have a small space under the kitchen sink to store something like this.

I introduce to you: The compact sensory box!

Most sensory boxes I've seen are build in large storage containers.  I simply don't have the room for that.  So instead, I found a larger food saver container from the dollar tree.  It's big enough to hold about one bag of rice and a few objects to play with the rice.

I started out with plain white rice, but thought it looked too bland.  I found this this
tutorial on how to create rainbow rice.  (All you need is some food coloring, rubbing alcohol, and some ziplock bags). And really, who doesn't love making things of all colors of the rainbow?  Things are just happier that way!

So after coloring my rice, I set out to the Dollar Tree again (Isn't that just the perfect place to go for small stuff??).  I found some small square containers for scooping, cupcake stencils for sifting, and bracelets because every little girl needs bracelets, right?

She loves it.  Every time I pull this out, she loves it.  She scoops, scatters, and stomps in it until she can't keep her eyes open!  And even when I start to put it away so I can lay her down for a nap, she asks for "more."

If you choose to go the route of colored rice, I do have a few suggestions for you.  First, make sure that you color the rice in a place that can easily be cleaned, preferably outside.  I only say this because I decided to color my rice on the dining table.  One or two rice grains were left behind, and when I went to clean the table after dinner, I kept seeing red on the cloth I was using.  It totally freaked me out for a while, thinking that someone was cut!  So these rice piece will bleed a little if they're wet.

I also suggest to find an easy to clean place to place.  Luckily, the kitchen in my little apartment has a door to it.  I can shut the door, and the rice stays on the kitchen floor.  There's also a door that leads outside from the kitchen, so when we're done, it just takes a couple sweeps out the door for clean up!  Of course, that means eventually, I'll need to add more rice... which means I'll have to color more rice... but that just means more colorful fun later with my girl!

Becoming a SAHM crafter

Ah, the mighty blog.  I'm only... what... 10 years behind?  I don't know, that sounds about right.

It's been a while since I've really written anything (a paper, a letter, a post-it note) but I feel like I need it in my life now.  I left the "working world" over a year ago and became a stay-at-home mommy.  And yes, "working world" is in quotes.  As anyone who has spent an ample amount of time with a child knows, it's a lot of work to keep that kid happy (and alive, too!)

Anyway, I've found that as a SAHM, I need more to my identity than just Mom.  Yes, that's a big part of my life now, but I need outlets that will allow me to be me.  I picked up a job as a technical writer where I'm able to work from home during nap time or after bed time.  It's really quite nice!  But my life also shouldn't just be about work (as in taking care of a toddler) and work (as in technical writing).  I need other things too.

I'm a crafter.  I have always been a crafter, and I will probably always be a crafter.  A few years ago, I created an esty account and sold crochet projects online and at craft shows.  I really enjoyed it!  But let's face it: the world is not dying for more yarn stuffed animals, and even if it was, there's no way I could do that anymore.  It's way too time consuming!

For the first year of my sweet girl's life, I dropped crafting all together.  I didn't feel like I had the time to do anything recreational. (And really, I didn't).  But now that she's a little older, I'm able balance my time a little more as she learns how to create her own schedules.  I've been looking at other moms' blogs and at friends' play spaces, and I am in awe at what they can create.  I'm also pretty green with envy that they're able to be super mom and totally seem like they've got it together.  I would love to be able to fill my daughter's room of handmade toys she can use to expand her imagination and learn with.  I want her to experience making things with her mommy.  I want her to grow up having her favorite toys not as something that lights up and requires us to go bankrupt on buying batteries every 2 weeks, but as something mommy made.  I want her to grow up having an appreciation of art and whimsy.  I want her to be able to explore her own creativity.  I want all of that!

So this is my journey on being creative with my daughter.

I'd like to share things that I'm making for and with my daughter with other moms, or dads, or anyone else who might be in the same boat.