Toddler Busy Bag

I have an 18 year old nephew who is a senior in High School, so we've been going to a lot of wrestling meets lately.  With a 1 year old and 2.5 year old, it can be quite exhausting sitting there for hours upon hours in bleachers.  So...with the State Tournament coming up, I decided I had to find some new things to keep them entertained.  Here's what my toy bag consists of so far:

• Packing bubbles to 'pop'.  I had these at the last wrestling meet and they also entertained my 4 & 6 year old niece and nephew.
• Suckers (they can keep my kids sitting nicely for quite some time!) This is one my daughter begged me to buy her but mostly I just have dum dums :)
• Travel Magna-doodle (I picked the travel MagnaDoodle because although there was a smaller size different brand, I liked that this had the shape magnets which I think my 2.5 year old will love)
• Duplo Blocks with book.  It takes a little more room than I'd like but I THINK it will entertain both of the kids.
• Stickers and book to put them in
• Small doodle pad with washable crayons in a soap container
• Magic Ink pads - I got the Melissa & Doug from Target for $5.99 (couldn't find them online but you can buy them here) and the Princess one off Zulily.  The princess one has water in it, so it can be reused over and over and over again!
• Shapes printed out on cardstock with pipe cleaners to form into the different shapes (idea from See Vanessa Craft)  I printed mine in different colors and had coordinating pipe cleaners so even though my 2.5 year old couldn't quite form the shapes, she still had fun matching the colors to each other
• Lacing Cards (hand me downs from a cousin, similar ones here)
• Wiffle ball golf balls with pipe cleaners to weave back and forth (idea also found at See Vanessa Craft) I used bright orange balls because I thought it would help me keep track of them and also just be more fun for the kids.
• A small kaleidoscope for both kids bought at ShopKo
• A grated parmesan cheese container filled with pipe cleaners that I cut up.  I had this at the last meet and it WELL entertained my BUSY BUSY BUSY 1 year old boy and my 2 year old nephew and 2.5 year old daughter.  So although I was thinking I should get a smaller container, I won't because he did it until every.single.one. was in there! 
• Light saber spinny toy from either target or walmart
• And small books - like this Highlights Baby magazine
• I think I'm also going to put in: some masking tape to stick and peel up & a container to put pom poms into.  My family will also have some other great activities that I'll try to post in a future entry!

Of course we also have a Leap Pad, Ipad with games & movies and snacks/candy for emergencies.  Hopefully we'll be set!  Thankfully we can always get up and let them run around for awhile between sessions. 

If you have any questions on how I made these or have other ideas or tips for me, PLEASE share them in the comments below.

Thanks for visiting!

DIY Nursing tank

If you're a nursing mom, I'm sure you've tried those nursing tanks with the built in bra & hooks that detach to nurse. I found that those don't work very well for me because I'm bigger busted than around in my waist (after a few weeks postpartum) so the tanks are baggy on me and look silly under most shirts. SO I did a little research and found a great solution!  I saw the idea on Pinterest (from this blog I believe) but figured out how to do it myself. (Not that it was hard!).

Here's my step by step:

What you need:

Thread
Needle
Scissors
Spaghetti strap tank-tight fitting (without a built in bra). I think the one size camis work great!
Pins

First put your tank on its front & cut the straps off at the back where they're attached to the body (you could also probably use a seam ripper & detach but I didn't see the point in taking the extra time for that!)

Turn your tank around front facing you & measure about 1.5-2" up the straps from the body of the cami. Make this into a loop & pin. (DON'T CUT YET!!!)

Carefully try the tank on over your most used nursing bra & see if the loops will fit thru your bra clasp. I did mine about 1.5" long because I prefer it not to slide down so that if I need a little cleavage coverage with a shirt I'm wearing, this could assist.

Adjust as needed then cut strap & sew. (I'm sure you could also sew than cut if you wanted to be extra sure your length was correct.)

Done!  Took about 5-10 mins huh? Your next one will take even less time!  Now go cuddle that baby & Happy nursing!!

Curtain tiebacks

I was trying to find some tiebacks other than either the ropes with tassels or the metal u-hooks that are commonly used today as neither of those styles really fit our house decor. I had purchased some jute ribbon for another project so thought I'd play with it a bit and see what I could come up with.

This is my final result and I think I'm pretty happy with it!  (Sorry the bay window picture isn't the best - hard to get a picture of the whole window because of the layout of the room)

Our bay window in the dining room

Family Room

I made 3 loops of the jute to make it a little more substantial. Mine in my family room are about 9 1/2" halved and on the bay window are closer to 8 1/2-9". Then I took the ends and tied them in a knot so that the ends would lay nice side to side & trimmed each end to about 1". And DONE! Simple as that I had new tiebacks! (after I did it 6 times for all my windows!)

Side window of bay window

Middle windows of bay window

I had to figure out how to hold the tie-back back, so I bought little bronze hooks from WalMart for about $5 for 2 I think, and they work just great!

Hook used to hold tie's back

Do you have any handy ideas you've used as tie backs? Any suggestions on improving mine?

Here are some ideas I found when I was looking on Pinterest:

• Use an old doorknob to hold the curtains back.  Or you could buy one from here.

• Rope tie backs

• Jeweled tie backs from Laura Ashley.  I think you could also use a chain necklace to get this sort of look without all the glitz.

• Use a branch!

• Use a swiveleye snap hook, key ring, and cord  

Happy Independence Day!

Tomorrow is the 4th of July and weeks ago I started a project to decorate my door.  This is the final outcome:

Of course I had a little 'Pinspiration.'  Here's where I first got the idea.  And here is a tutorial I found AFTER I had completed mine - so you can use whichever you like I guess! :)

I used:

14 inch white styrofoam wreath form

14 pieces of red felt

14 pieces of white felt

10 pieces of blue felt

lots of straight pins!

Also need:

scissors

pencil/marker - to mark stencil onto felt

3 inch circle stencil - I used a tupperware lid

I used a 14 inch white wreath form that is flat on the back.  Stenciled 3 inch circles onto my felt sheets & cut them out.  

I folded the circles in half and in half again and then pinned them onto the wreath form with straight pins at the corner.  I didn't pay a whole lot of attention or make a certain pattern, I just placed them where I thought they needed to be so that the form wouldn't show through the felt.  (This is where I kind of like the other tutorials idea of cutting them into 2x2 squares - you could just fold the felt sheet up and roughly cut and probably cut down on a lot of time!)

 I also didn't use a certain number of circles or make each section a certain size - I eyeballed it.  But you could probably make a certain pattern if you wanted to ensure that they were all equal.  This is what it looked like partly done.  Make sure when you attached your circles that you vary which direction they go so that you have a fuller looking wreath - it will also cut down on the number of circles you need to fill it up I think.  Also I went to the bottom of the wreath form and left the back blank so that it will sit nice and flat on my door (also why I got the white form with the flat back instead of the green form).

And with all of my felt squares attached!  I then attached a piece of ribbon to the back to hang it with.  I just attached it to the wreath form with a bunch of straight pins - 4 on each end - and it seems to be holding up so far.  My front door doesn't get a whole lot of use though.

I thought it needed a little something more so I removed a few of the blue circles and replaced them with white to resemble stars.  These I made more rosette looking to stand out better.  I also think I should have placed one more on the bottom inside of the blue but it hasn't happened yet...I'll try to get to that today.  :)

Hope you enjoy your Fourth of July!  I always feel a little happier once I see my pretty wreath on my door.  Wonder how long I can leave it up...?   ;)

Hair-bow wall hanging

I was at the Farmers Market a few weeks ago and I saw some cute hair-bow holders. I almost bought one but then decided that I could probably make something similar myself, so I waited until I went to the craft store. I knew I'd always get back to the farmers market so I could always buy it later. Well the other day, we made it out to Hobby Lobby, and I found all my supplies needed-plus I already had some ribbon at home that I could use. Here's my finished product!

I thought it turned out great! If you'd like one for your little girl, let me know and I'll make one for you too! This style letter also comes in sparkly light blue which I liked but thought it might clash with M's blue walls.  Of course you could also just buy a plain wooden letter, paint/glitter/stencil however you like but I got this letter 50% off so it was a lot cheaper to just buy this then all the supplies for that!

Now I'm excited to get back to the Farmers Market so I can see how mine compares. I didn't take any pictures or anything of theirs, so we'll see if I end up liking mine or theirs better. :)