I love this idea from Mother Huddle for making paint pops out of the last bits of paint using an ice cube tray and popsicle sticks. The pops are perfect for little toddler hands and give a new twist to painting for those who are bored with traditional brushes. Find the full tutorial for making these cute paint pops here.
My daughter loves to read so we set up a corner reading nook with easy access to books. First, we purchased an oversized chair from PB Teen because we figured she could grow into it, or cuddle up and read with her brother or a friend. Then, we moved her books from a bookshelf to bins with the books spines facing up and organized by category (i.e. Barbie, Pinkalicious, Eloise, Fancy Nancy) so she can just reach in and get whatever book she’d like. Our bins are from Buy Buy Baby but could be purchased anywhere like Target or Walmart. The reading nook is a welcome addition to the room of any young reader.
World’s Ugliest Dresser – AFTER
When we started furnishing my daughter’s nursery we had a room full of stuff we had to clean out, including the world’s ugliest dresser. We planned to toss it on the curb and buy a new dresser/changing table combo that matched the crib we ordered. My husband, perhaps not wanting to move said ugly dresser to the curb, made a good point: it seems silly to buy a new dresser that was literally going to get pooped on when we had this one already in the room. Now this dresser was hideous. It really was and you’ll agree with me when you see the before picture below. The dresser was the epitome of ugly 70s style. The color of the wood was dated and didn’t match anything in the room, the ornate carvings on the bottom were anything but modern (the look we were going for in the room), and the drawer pulls were dated and falling off the dresser. But, as my parents said when the told me to take it (no doubt because they wanted it out of their house – it was used to store sweaters in a large walk-in closet), it’s a sturdy piece of wooden furniture and “they don’t make them like this anymore.” I can think of a lot of reasons why they don’t make them like this anymore. But the drawers were well made and nicely lined with pink flowered drawer liners thanks to my parents so we decided to paint the dresser and see how it looked. We ended up having to take the dresser outside to do the painting (so much for my husband’s desire to not move the dresser). We wanted to give it a professional look and we didn’t have the energy to rent a paint sprayer from Home Depot for this one little project, so we bought spray paint and covered the dresser with several layers. It gave the dresser a smooth look (no brush strokes in sight), but it did take about 3 coats to cover up the ugly honey wood color for good. We bought new brushed nickel knobs and drawer pulls from Home Depot, which made a world of different in the look of the dresser. After adding a changing pad and a diaper caddy to the top, we now have a changing station and spacious dresser for hundreds less than we would have spent on a new one. Do you have an ugly dresser or piece of furniture? Before you go out and buy a new one, see if painting it and adding new hardware will make it fit in to your decor.
World’s Ugliest Dresser – BEFORE
Best of 2012 Mix
Remember mix tapes? I was a mix tape fanatic, spending countless hours in my room perfecting my latest creation. I also recall that before I was old enough to make my own mixes, my dad used to tape the radio for me. I loved pop music, and I listened to those tapes for years. My children have inherited my love of pop music. So I thought we’d recreate the magic of the mix tape in today’s format. As a Hanukkah present, we sought out the best songs of the year, purchased them on itunes, and made our “2012′s Best Songs” mix for our ipods. There were heated debates over which artists to include, which artists to omit (some family members, who will remain nameless, do not like Maroon 5, Rihanna and Chris Brown), how many songs to include, and how many songs per artist (specifically, how many Justin Bieber songs is my daughter going to put on this thing!). In the end, we picked 16 songs that everyone in our family seemed to think represented the best in pop music for 2012. It was a really fun, collaborative process, and now we have our favorite tunes to listen to at home or in the car, and to share with others. And only one Justin Bieber song made it!
Here’s a cute Thanksgiving craft project to do with your kids: Make drumstick place cards using brown paper bags, foam letters and card stock. These would be great for a kids table. This crafty idea is from Fiskars. Check out the post for a how-to.
Summer is here and it’s not too late to get outside and do some gardening with your family. This is a (long-overdue) follow-up to my previous post, with ideas and inspiration pictures for various levels of gardening enthusiasm and commitment. We decided that a medium-sized, raised bed garden was right for our family. Raised beds were necessary for us due to our very sandy soil here on the beach. We also decided that we needed to provide definition to our garden by installing a fence, since the rabbit population in our neighborhood is somewhat out of control. I created a plan with a specific layout and dimensions, but in the end we decided to work with the space that we created by linking together the 8 foot long pre-fabricated fence sections we bought at Home Depot because we didn’t want to have to cut the fence sections to fit my plan. So, in the end, our garden was a lot bigger than I had planned. And though I wasn’t crazy about the gothic style pickets and would have preferred pickets that resembled our existing fencing, this fence was the least expensive option at Home Depot and the easiest for us to install ourselves.
Once we had the fence in place we set to work installing chicken wire to prevent those bunnies from stealing our veggies. I read that to keep the rabbits from digging tunnels under the fence it helps to dig a shallow trench along the fence and bury the bottom of the chicken wire so that it makes an “L” with the fence, then staple the rest of the chicken wire along the bottom of the fence.
The shallow trench for the chicken wire
For more detailed instructions on installing the chicken wire (and other methods for keeping rabbits out of your garden) check out this post. For the gate, we obviously were not able to bury the chicken wire but we did put it along the bottom to deter critters from slipping through the slats.
Once the fence was installed, we started to lay out our raised beds. Again, to avoid unnecessary work with the saw, we tried to work with the 8 foot long pressure treated planks we picked up.
We decided that the space would be best utilized by installing three, 4 x 8 foot raised beds and one smaller 4×4 food bed. My amazing husband dug out the sod for each of the beds and created a sort of trench so that the wooden frames actually sink into the ground a bit. We then stapled the weed barrier to the interior frame of each bed.
Then came the soil. Many, many, many bags of soil ….
We used organic gardening soil with the fertilizer already mixed into it, but you can check out how to mix your own and get other raised bed building ideas here.
Once the soil was in place, we were ready for some planting action. More on that in my next and final gardening post! But first, a little note about the flower boxes I added to the fence – all supplies: plastic boxes, flowers, and hanging brackets purchased from Home Depot. I got a ton of compliments on them and I love how they made the garden look a little happier and help distract me from the gothic pickets that I hate.
In the next post I’ll show you how we ended up here, despite our constant battles with enemy bugs!
It seems silly to pay for a bottle of bubbles when you can make them yourself at home. With this simple DIY tutorial
from Hellobee you too can make a quick batch of bubbles to last all summer. It’s a great way to “upcycle” glass bottles. You can even give them as party favors, or bring them as sibling gifts when going to visit a new baby. Homemade bubbles and wands look way nicer than a chemical-filled plastic bottle from the store. Bubbles for everyone!
It’s probably too late to make a photo card or order another photo gift to give to dad on behalf of the bebe, so here are a few DIY Father’s Day gift ideas that won’t take very long (i.e. can be done while baby is napping) and will make you look like you’ve had it together all along. Happy Father’s Day to all the daddys out there!
Super Hero Snacks (free printable labels available here from the Tip Junkie)
Turn dad’s favorite snacks into super hero supplies. The DIY tutorial gives you step-by-step instructions.
Super Dad Cupcake Toppers (free printables here from Oopsey Daisey)
Customize store-bought or home-made cupcakes with these flattering “super dad” toppers. Simply print them, tape them to toothpicks and stick into each cupcake.
World’s Greatest Dad Retro Gift Labels (free printables here from Martha)
These retro-inspired labels will make any gift seem thoughtful. Simply print them and affix one to any package, box or gift bag for instant custom packaging.
Father’s Day is approaching and there are some fun, cheap ways to show Daddy – and Grandpa – some special love. My son answered this questionnaire for Daddy’s birthday, but this would be a perfect craft for Father’s Day.
I got this idea from my favorite way to waste time place to find great ideas, Pinterest, which led me to the beautiful blog daffodil design. I basically followed daffodil’s worksheet, used an inexpensive white frame, highlighted the answers to the questions in red, and made the garland out of scrap paper. I went with a superhero graphic at the top because, well, that’s basically what Daddy is around here. I googled “superman symbol” and found an image I liked, then imported it to my clip art and inserted it at the top of my document. For the garland, I cut scraps of colored paper I had from Michael’s and glued them onto thread. Head over to daffodil design for cute Father’s Day printables too!
Persnickety Prints has an adorable printable questionnaire for Dad and this one for Grandpa too!
For more great free Father’s Day printables check out how does she (collection of various printables); our seven dwarfs (links to Father’s Day subway art); Big D & Me (adorable Father’s Day worksheet).
