Family Drawing

I decided to kill some time a few months ago at my favorite thrift store. I found a super cute frame for only $1.50.

After I got home it sat empty in my closet because I didn't know what to put in it. I found the cutest idea on the U-Create website. They suggested having one of your kids draw a picture of all the people in the family. If your kids are anything like mine they do this all the time anyway. I don't know why I never thought to frame them instead of hanging them on the fridge.

My oldest is big into drawing right now. I let her be the one to draw the picture of our family for the frame. I love this little picture. Even my hubby thinks this is one of the best photos of our family we have. I highly suggest letting your kids, niece/nephew, grand kids whoever it might be do the same. It will bring a smile to your face every time you look at it!

Little SMacs dresser

When I was still baking my ginormous bun in the oven prego with the little dude. We scored BIG time on a dresser. A guy that Old Mac works with was clearing out some old furniture and didn't want a dresser anymore. They gave it to us for free!! This family not only gave us their dresser for free but they also gave us a wooden swing set for free too. I know talk about luck!! (I'll post pictures of the swing set when it warms up) The dresser was in great shape it just needed a bit of a paint job and knobs. Due to the fact that I was ginormous 38 weeks prego, this was a job for Old Mac. He painted the dresser for me and did a fantastic job! He realized after it was painted that we forgot to take a before picture. We picked out the wood knobs from Lowe's intending to paint them the same white as the dresser. Once we got them home I liked the contrasting look and decided we should keep them the way they were. When little SMac was still a wee babe, we had a changing pad on the top of the dresser to change his little bum. I love love his dresser!! My favorite part is the little door that opens on the side. Too cute!!

Barbie's Crib 2

The finishing touches are being done to Barbie's crib! I had all the things purchased back when we started this little project a few months ago. Due to lack of time I had to put it on hold.

I purchased a wash cloth for the dollar store for the bathroom. I cut a strip and put it in the towel ring. I also sewed a rug and hooded towel for Barbie.

Not much happened in the bedroom but I finished sewing a comforter and a few more pillows.

In the kitchen I sewed a long rug and table cloth. I also sewed a little curtain and need to hang that above the window. Santa came through with a fridge for Christmas per MnM's request.

There are a few more things that I need to do before it is "finished". I'm really happy with the progress though and so is MnM!

At Home Drive-In and Paper Bag Puppets

Since it still is a bit chilly in our neck of the woods I thought I'd share a few more fun kids crafts. I found a really fun idea at Tip Junkie to make a drive-in theater at home. I took 4 boxes and hot glued them together. I also cut the box down so it wasn't so tall. I did one car to fit both kiddos. Once their car was built they went to town on the decorating. They each got their own sides to decorate with markers and scrapbook paper. Paper plates came in handy for the wheels on the car and a personal steering wheel for both of them. After the car was complete it got filled with pillows and blankets to make it more cozy for movie watching. We will FOR SURE be doing this again. The kids both LOVED it!!

Another simple activity for rainy and cold days is take brown lunch bags and make hand puppets. We took the bags and made our own Goldilocks and the three bears puppets. MnM had so much fun with this craft. She actually did most of the cutting, decorating, and gluing. Once the bags were done I set up TV trays and put a sheet over the top of them for our own little puppet stage. The kids went behind the TV trays and I read the story while they held up the puppets. They were so excited to put on their play for Daddy when he got home from work.

The best thing about both of these activities was there was no cost involved! I used things for both that I already had on hand. There are tons of fun things to do when the weather is crappy with a little imagination!

Barbie's Crib

I came across a genius idea for a barbie house on A girl and a glue gun (another one of my favorite blogs.) C Mac and I decided it would be an awesome gift for our little girls Birthday. My Dad gave us the bookcase that already had the dividers for the rooms. We started by looking at our local thrift stores for furniture and anything that was barbie sized. We scored big time with a folding house that was marked down to $10. The structure was falling apart so we C Mac took apart the house for parts we wanted to use. We also scored because it had electronic parts that light up and make noises and the best part worked.

We used scrapbook paper and spray adhesive for the walls. I took paint swatches from our nearest hardware store and made a  tile wall for the bathroom. We had leftover carpet that we nailed to the floor. The tiles in the kitchen and bathroom were from a stack of  tiles that we scored for $5. C Mac cut them down so they looked like real tiles and we hot glued them on. I found Barbie socks at the dollar store. I cut them up and made them into throw pillows for the bed.

This house is still a work in progress. I have to finish sewing the bedspread. I have curtains that I need to hang in the kitchen. I also need to sew pillows for the couch in the family room. Another fun thing Kim did was had Barbie pictures hanging throughout the house. I found some cute Barbie books and I'm going to cut out the pictures for the walls. I have also since seen a really cool one at All Things Thrifty.

This was such a cheap alternative to the ones they sell in the stores. It was a fun project for me and Old Mac to do together. MnM was ecstatic when she found out what her present was. I think she was also thrilled  with her other present from us, because no Barbie house would be complete without a dog, cat, and Ken. LOL

Tooth Bag



The boringish before




The way more better after

 About a year ago MnM's teeth started to get super loose. I decided to start looking on the web for a pillow or bag, something that she could put her teeth in for the tooth fairy. I found the perfect thing at The Purl Bee. The bag looked super easy to make but was all hand sewn. Since I don't know how to sew, let alone hand sew, I went to the Make It and Love It website. Sure enough there was hand sewing tips on there that helped with my dilemma. When I had the bag finished MnM said, "Mom that is way to boringish". Off to the craft tote we went and found some buttons and puff paints to make it "non boringish". The bag was finished just in time for the tooth fairy to make her first visit.

Fish Fingers and Penguins

I did some fun theme weeks with the kiddos this summer. One week that we had was fish week. We had fun doing different crafts throughout the week. We made fish finger puppets. I got some of the ideas for the bodies on etsy. I took felt and cut out shapes of fish and then sewed them together. Aunt Miss came over and helped MnM with the puff paints. I think they turned out adorable if I do say so myself.

We also made the look and see bags found on Make It and Love It. Those bags have been awesome for little SMac at church. I found a bead kit at Michael's that had lots of fun things that were perfect colors for boys and girls. I also picked up some erasers toppers that worked perfect in the bags too. My only complaint about the ones I did was I used sand instead of the filler the Make It and Love It ones had. The sand was harder to work with when sewing. It has also changed colors since I sewed them this summer. It was one of those "use what you got" moments. The kids love them so I guess that's all that counts.

I also found another fun craft idea at Family Fun. If you haven't found this site yet and have children it's a MUST. They have awesome crafts and ideas that are easy, inexpensive and designed just for kids. We made the pipe cleaner penguins. The instructions were super easy and before you know it we had a penguin family. MnM liked doing the craft and little SMac liked destroying playing with them.

Stop (collaborate and listen)

Little SMac had a car themed nursery. I was on a hunt for some inexpensive street signs for his room. I had no such luck. I saw some darling vinyls at RC Willey but they wanted an outrageous amount. I decided to turn on my thinking cap and called in the help of my Daddy. My Dad is an amazingly talented man who gets it from his amazingly talented Dad (aka Gramps). Dad went to his stack of scrap papers and had just what I was looking for. He found some super thick scraps of board, kinda like foam board only not as thick. I had him make me some street signs and they turned out better than I pictured!! They are even better than the ones from RC Willey. We have since put little SMac into a Toy Story big boy bed but I couldn't take down the street signs. I think he will have to have them in his room FOREVVVER (said in best Sandlot voice).  Lots of thanks to my Dad who saved the day!!