Dolphins and Coconuts

I painted this mural for a cute little girl that wanted an ocean in her room. We added a dolphin and because her frogs are named Coconut and Palm tree, there had to be a palm tree with a coconut in there as well.


We decided to wrap the palm tree around onto the pink wall. I think that wrapping the tree around the corner turned out well.

100 Felt Hearts

I had to get someone early from school today because she wasn't feeling well. She seems fine to me now.

In an effort to avoid public TV for a bit, we spent a couple of hours cutting out 100 felt hearts for the 100th day of school.

After cutting them out, we sewed them all together to create a garland. This will serve two purposes, 100 items for the 100th day of school and decor for the Valentine's Day party!

Here is another version of a heart garland at Made By Rae.

Jennifer Hoech

Thanking You Now

Embroidery

The girls each did a little embroidery project over the summer.

I really wasn't sure if the little one would be able to do the stitching but she loved it. She would just sit there and work on it for the longest time.

These are their own drawings that I transfered onto the fabric. I got the idea from Skip to My Lou.

The big girl even sewed her pillow together.

Self Portraits

As I was taking photos off our film card, I ran into these.







I have no idea what is on her mind.

Mermaid Islands

I read about this great Mermaid Island made of play dough.


It looked like such a great idea after about four batches of play dough were made, the girls had a blast.

They decided to make their own Islands instead of one huge one. Such fun!

Haunted House. Boo!

Freya wanted to make a haunted house. So I got some ideas from this website on how to construct ghosts and pumpkins from egg cartons and we ran with it.

We started by cutting holes for windows and a door.
Then we painted the boxes black and made them look spooky by doing a little dry brush with white.


Cut paper to fit the inside, put a few pieces on the inside of the windows and doors then decorate with your egg carton creations.

The girls made witches and pasted them to the outside of the houses. There are lots of ghosts hangin' around inside and out. And if you look into a window, you may see some eyes staring back at you or maybe the Great Pumpkin.

There is even a tombstone made from tin foil.

Jonah got into it and turned some bottle caps into pumpkins and mummies. Very clever.

Hedgehogs, Pumpkins and Turkeys, Oh My!

We finished the salt dough creations last night.

The turkeys look a bit white because they aren't completely dry in the pic but you get the idea.

I think they turned out rather well considering it was a spur-of-the-moment craft.

Jonah made this super cute hedgehog.

He is saving his money (well not really as there is always a book he HAS to have and thankfully can't seem to save the $150) for a hedgehog. He has hedgehog on the brain.

For the pumpkins, we used glitter Mod Podge. While I like the look of it, it is expensive and would have been just as easy to add glitter to regular Mod Podge. If you notice, Freya's are green. She really wanted to mix the colors and couldn't stop painting when they were orange.



I recommend just covering the counter with butcher paper or newspaper. Put the paint on the paper and use that as your pallet. This makes for an easy clean-up and lets them easily mix colors as needed.

Into the oven you go

The middle child is sick but feeling up to crafting after her drug cocktail.

So we're making salt dough crafts. The dough is very easy to make and you probably have everything you need on hand!

This recipe will make lots of little crafts and have enough for play-dough play after.

Salt Dough Recipe
(That Artist Woman)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water

Mix ingredients in bowl until combined.


Turn out on floured surface and kneed until dough consistency. I have read that you may need to add more flour but didn't need to.



Make your shapes, bake on a cookie sheet at 250 for 2.5 to 3 hours. Cool over night then paint! Mod podge for a shiny finish.


My eyes have been opened up to the many possibilities. I am thinking that ghosts with pumpkin lanterns will be the next craft.


We made these pumpkins and these turkeys. It will be a long wait until they are cooked and cooled but once they are, we will paint and I'll post those pics then

Building Blocks

Jonah and Freya are usually playing together or knocking heads against each other. They are so similar it is eerie.

In the spirit of their preschool, Jonah asked for the camera. So I handed it over. This was all done by the two of them.

They started with houses of cards.




Then they moved on to dominoes.






It is amazing to me how a 10 year old and a 4 year old can get together so well sometimes.

Other times, not so much...

Shaving Cream Fun

If you're looking for a cheap good time, go buy a can of shaving cream.

We made some fun marbled paper today:


We also made fun puffy moons a while back, that was fun. Just shaving cream, white glue, a little paint and you have puffy paint.



It's also fun to just rub your hands in and get messy. Some people do this in the tub for good reason.

Organized Craft

My friend Geni came over one day and put together an IKEA shelf for me. I could have done it but hey she offered, she says she LIKES to put IKEA crapola together. I had tons of organizing to do so I called her on it. She came over and put the darn thing together and even screwed it into the closet wall for me. I seriously owe her a few drinks or 10.

Anyway, that gave me tons of time to organize the many craft items that the kids and I have.

And now when they want to do fun things like these cool Count Down sticks to keep track of how many days until Grandpa Steve gets here, it isn't a problem.





Everything is labeled so they can't tell me it isn't to be found. And it is super easy to figure out where it belongs. Pom-poms are here, glue is here, glitter is there, coloring books are here. Little by little, this will be every closet in my house. That is if Geni is still available.

Pub Mix

I am sure you have at one point, bought the pub mix. That large bag of pretzels, mini toasts, rice crackers, sesame sticks etc.

It seems like there is always something that everyone fights over and then something that is always left cause they all hate it. For us, it's pretzels. There were so many picked over pretzels left that Jonah decided to see what he could do with them.


He and Raita had a contest to see who could build the tallest tower and there was even an attempt at Stonehenge.

One trilithon from Stonehenge:


Photos courtesy of Jonah.