Homemade playdough

We've had a few random afternoon rain days here recently. I've been searching for fun things to do that would entertain the kiddo that didn't involve a tv or us getting wet out in the rain. 

Homemade playdough. Why not?

I have been pinning toddler activities and storing up ideas for just these kind of days. Of course, I didn't have all the ingredients that I really needed to make traditional playdough, so we had to do some major googling to find a recipe that was doable. I found a very basic, not fantastic but not horrible recipe that ended up working out just fine for us. Cheyanne didn't mind one bit that it wasn't the most elastic-y playdough. She enjoyed helping more than anything. By helping, I mean playing with the food color bottles, which helped… :)

These colors Mom! (Ignore the crazy wild hair. Its untamable right now).

Note to self: find a better way to stir dough with food coloring. Bare hands are not the solution.

Then we just played and had a great time with our new dough. She was so gentle with it until I showed her how she could smash and twist it into shapes. We rolled and patted and shaped dough into all kinds of fun shapes.

Oh, and of course a fork had to be used to stab our dough too. That was about when things got out of control. There wasn't much time for pictures after this point as I was too busy catching flying dough balls.

Oh Chey Chey. What are we going to do with you? I can't wait until our next rainy pinterest day. We'll see what fun thing we come up with next.

Sometimes you just need a little color

The front of our house definitely did after this long and confusing winter. My plants don't have a clue anymore what to do. Is it cold? Is it hot? Is it supposed to be cloudy outside or should I start greasing up for my tan? Who knows!

I'm hoping Mother Nature will notice the new pretty flowers that bloomed on my front door and follow suit. Fingers crossed she takes note before the Giant gets home (which is very, very soon)!

Wreaths are important for a home. They are sometimes the first thing visitors see when coming to your front door. They can be formal. They can be loud and fun. They can reflect your own personal style or reflect the mood of a home. I love making our wreaths myself. Its something easy that allows me to have full creativity and I take a little pride in it. Its something that I watched my mother do every season growing up, and I loved helping her with it. Maybe one day Cheyanne will do the same thing.

I decided that we needed something bright right off the bat. And since I'm in love with creating felt flowers for Cheyanne's hair bows right now, I thought I'd incorporate them elsewhere.

With a dollar store twig wreath, a skein of cheap chunky white yarn (you know the big ones you see in the $1 bins), and a few sheets of pretty colored felt, I think mission accomplished at creating a bright and cheery front door.

This was an easy project that cost me almost nothing-literally only the price of the wreath ($1). Everything else I already had on hand just sitting in the craft closet waiting to be used. The only difficult part of this project was the amount of time it took to sit and wrap the dang thing. One good movie and I had the wreath completely covered in two layers of yarn. If I had more patience, I probably could have done a third. Eh. Coulda woulda.

 

Next I (with the help of a friend who came over for a different movie night- yes we watch a lot of movies while our husbands are away) made a handful of assorted felt flowers. They ranged in size, color, and design. This is not a science people. Like I said. This was easy.

A little hot glue and a last minute made "Welcome" burlap bunting…. and as Cheyanne would say with arms spread wide… TaaDaa!

I pretty much Luhve it! It makes me happy to walk in my front door and that's all that really matters, right? Just fyi- the pictures make it look more neon than it actually is. Its not radioactive like it appears I promise.

Of course this post wouldn't be complete without a little Chey sighting, though. She just makes any picture better.

What does your front door wreath look like? If you share it, link back to this post so I can see! I'd love to see what creativity you have out there.

Closet Cleanup

of maybe I should call this the "Closet clean out."

With a month left of the Giant's deployment, my butt is in high gear of cleaning up around here. While the big projects are much easier to turn my attention to, its the small ones that i'm really making sure get done. For instance, I have now cleaned out and de-cluttered a junk drawer and two closets in the last few weeks. Projects that usually would have been kicked to the sidelines if I had the Giant home, but without him here to have a say, things need to find good homes around here. I'm ridding us of cardboard boxes. I'm tired of looking at them for the last 6 months. Outta here!

I thought I'd show you my easy peasy and much more useful craft closet cleanup.

Hi, my name is Molly and I'm a craftoholic.

Since nap time has become Mommy's project time, I did a craft purge the other day while Peapod slept. I pulled out every craft/project box that I could find hidden throughout the house and put everything in piles. Ribbon goes with ribbon. Paint goes with paint. Craft paper goes with craft paper. Trash in the trash pile. You get it.

With no money in the budget for storage, I took matters in my hands and made my own. Its not beautiful, but it sure is functional.

An old shoe organizer, three same size cardboard boxes and a whole lot of duct tape did the job just fine.

The end result. An organized craft closet.

A fully functional, $0 budget cheap, life simplifying solution to an addiction that had spun out of control. I now know why my husband has forbid me from going to Michael's. For now. But, I'm thrilled with how my little space turned out. For an hour of my time and zero dollars, I'm pretty proud of it.

It won't always stay this organized...

… but that's what closet doors are for. Hide the mess and/or keep the little fingers out of the crafts.

And when your little one is just dying to play with the paints, you have a finger painting day outside in the sunshine.

Or belly painting, whatever floats her boat. And hopefully, you catch a little foot print or hand print in the process to make something fun like this for her "under the water" themed room as a memory. See the footprint and handprint? Baby art.

The unexpected

With a sick little girl on my hands this week, I've found very little time to get things done during the day. There is nothing in the world better than cuddling with my little one, I just wish she felt better while doing it. I'm so far behind in house work. I've never let it get this bad. Too many projects being done at one time. Too much laundry that has gone unfolded. I can't lie- its bad. But, when given the choice of cleaning and blogging or holding my coughing baby, I'll choose her hands down. Thus the house is a wreck and the blog is empty. I'll be better soon once my little one's better too.

I do want to share this little unexpected find in my day since I can now laugh about it. I took advantage of a sunny afternoon nap time a few days ago and actually made use of myself. After cleaning the house and getting a couple craft projects finished that I've been staring at for the last two months, I still had time to tackle the broken tree that fell into my back yard from a freak storm back in November a little while ago. 

While cutting it up, I reached down to pick up branches and caught something in the corner of my eye.

Do you see it? 

GROSS!!!

Of all days for my backyard neighbors to be outside.  I might be referred to as the crazy neighbor with *&%$!* tourets now after being surprised by this guy. Oops. I hate snakes. Whether they are plastic or grossly real- they freak. me. out. I'm that girl that will walk on the other side of the room at the aquarium to avoid the snake exhibit that's in 10 inches thick glass. ::shiver:: Thank God that plastic fella didn't have a body attached or I might never venture outside again. I'm not scared of much but this little jerk got me. For a girl who grew up on a farm, I'm pretty weak with the slithers.

He might have kept me out of the backyard the rest of the afternoon, but I've had so much inside to do, I kept busy until my heart could slow down. I'll fill you in on all that later. Lots of projects. Lots of cute stuff making its way into the house. 

Want a quick sneak peak of one in particular? I found this idea and made my own version. 

Or something like that…. I hope. But, who knows?!

What an artist

We had our first art playtime this morning, and IT WAS FUN! Finger painting is our new favorite activity, and I'll show you why.

From this

To this

Look at that smile (and tongue)!!

Finally, something that she can play with and make as big of a mess as she wants! Nothing a little bath can't take care of. I definitely should have invested in a lot more paper booklets. One page really should have lasted longer.

After spending entirely too much time on Pinterest one night, I found this really cute idea for our Christmas cards. 

Source: craftrookie.blogspot.com via Molly on Pinterest

With our finger paints out, I decided to give it a try. Notice the bottom picture. It didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped because a certain little someone's toes never stop moving or uncurling. We'll try again another day.

Our first artwork is on the fridge, labeled and up to be admired!

Future Monet, anyone?