Jeggings to shorts recycle

My daughter has about 6 pairs of jeggings that she used almost the entire autumn and winter for school last year. They still fit her but the knees are worn through on most of them (some of them got patched for school).  I don't know how long we will have warmer weather for here in Minnesota* but to stretch her wardrobe for a bit longer I thought a bit of scissor action is all we needed.  I just cut the first leg and then folded the jeggings over to follow that cutting line on the other leg.  Then I used the cut off piece as a guide for the rest.

Now she has 6 pairs of long denim shorts.  Yay for recycling (upcycling?)!  She wouldn't even consider me hemming them so this is about one of the easiest clothing refashions you will ever do.  I will just have to snip off threads as they come loose over time I guess.  Now I just need to find another 6 pairs of jeggings in the next size up to last this coming winter...

(* since I wrote this, it has been feeling all autumn like here the last two days...  we missed a month of summer and don't feel ready for autumn yet!  please wait mother nature!)

Rulers rule

Miss E's rulers are getting a little makeover for school.... (and, yes, I specifically bought wooden ones so I could do this - cue Miss E's eye roll).

Birthday party for Miss E

This is a catch up post for Miss E's birthday party which we held before we went back to Australia for our holiday.  Miss E has not had a proper birthday party for 4 years (due to moving twice right around her birthday and other factors) so I decided to put a bit of effort in this year!  E wanted a sleepover party (ugh - not my favourite thing) so she was allowed to invite 5 friends over and I stuck with a very simple party plan.  I did quite a big party for her 5th birthday and I actually made notes of things I liked about it and what I would do differently.  Here is a list of my basic party planning rules (from my vast experience of like two proper parties..lol):

1. Keep it SIMPLE.  Children really just want to run around and play most of the time anyway.
2. Have only one or two scheduled activities.
3. Don't have a heap of food and make it simple too.  The children are too excited to eat much generally (although maybe this rule will not be as important as they get older).

I had six girls in all coming for dinner, party, sleepover and breakfast and it was actually pretty easy to pull off (although I did have the help of a wonderful friend to help get it all done on time - thanks Dawn!!).

The girls arrived before dinner and I had platters of fruit, vegies and dip plus some potato chips out for them.  Yep, I am one of those Mum's that doesn't like to sugar up the kids (especially when I know they have to go to sleep at my house!).  I remember my sister doing a party for my nephew once and, amongst the fun foods (ie. lollies - aka candy - etc.) she had a platter of fruit kebobs.  The kids descended on them in a frenzy and it always stayed with me (this was well before I had my kids).

After the girls had played for awhile I got them organised with a craft activity.  I have been buying up embroidery hoops whenever I can from thrift stores and had just the right number in this size for the girls to whip up a little bunny outline (I printed a shape off the internet and traced over it to get the outline).  You can still see the blue water soluble marker in this shot.  I forgot to take a photo after they had rinsed them out.  My favourite part of this craft was my idea to provide mini pompoms for them to add as the bunny tail!  I think it worked out so cute.  They all did a great job after a very quick lesson on how to do a basic back stitch.

Dinner was easy - I figured panini type toasted sandwiches would be easy and the girls could customise their fillings.  I have a super hot panini press which toasts them very fast so that helped too.

Dessert was the cake plus orange cupcakes and lemonade (there is enough sugar there for them I figure).  Now, I seem to be missing the decorated cake gene.  I like to try most things and I love to bake and decorate at times but for some reason the whole themed party cake motivation has eluded me.  For E's cake I made a favourite family chocolate fudge cake recipe.  I cut it to make a layer cake and filled it with fresh whipped cream and strawberries then poured chocolate icing over the top.  My lame attempt at decorating was sitting a few of her favourite Schleich animal figurines on top to which I added some miniature bunting which took me just a couple of minutes to make.  I cut out tiny triangles of paper, used a sewing needle and cotton to thread them on and then tied the cotton to two short skewers.  I loved the bunting and I thought the cake looked quite festive (crappy photo aside).  Anyway, despite it not being very elaborate, it tasted marvellous!

I also made cupcake picks using cute little animal photos I got from the internet.  I didn't get a decent photo of those though so another blurry photo will have to do!  Ugh, I didn't have time to check my photos during this.

After that, the girl's watched a movie, went to bed (and to sleep - finally!) and, in the morning, I put out a breakfast of mini croissants, cereals, fruit and juice boxes.  The girls were even brave enough to try a little piece of toast with vegemite on it (most of them did not like it - I guess you have to grow up with it).  It has been a surprising offshoot of our expat lifestyle, this being a vegemite ambassador...

Now, I may have lucked out on the decorated cake gene but I really love to make the goody bag something special (and useful).  I have actually thought about opening an Etsy shop for goodie bags I think about it that much.  I am just not a big fan of the little plastic bag full of candy (no offence to those of you who are happy with them - to each his own!).  For each of the girls I made up these lined calico bags that are big enough to use as library bags.  Now, one note about these.  I got a little ambitious and put a little more time into them than I would normally for goodie bags but just couldn't stop myself once I got started.  So, anyway, they ended up with these cute bags with their initials appliqued on the front.  I used a combination of fabrics that I had in my stash and some I had found at thrift stores in remnant bins.  A quick note about thrift store fabric finds - always WASH THEM WELL.  I am not germ phobic at all but, really, you have no idea where those fabrics have been so wash, wash, wash them.

Now, before this blog post becomes a novel, the last thing I did was add a few little personalised items to the bags.  I put in a little bag of candy which I personalised with a tag with a cute animal photo and a message from E.  I bought some cheap little items from the Target dollar section as well.  There was a little matchbox style notebook and pretty decorated pencil along with these bubble bottles that I personalised by replacing the label with a personalised one I whipped up on the computer.  You get a bag of four of those mini bubbles for $1 and the same for the notebooks and pencils (2 for notebook and 8 for pencils) so it is very cost effective as party favours.

I will do another post about how to personalise those little candy/lolly bags and the bubble bottles.  They were really quick and easy and looked great.

Have a great weekend!

'Familiar' book (with activities)

As you know, we are moving this week from Uruguay to the USA.  My children (ages 7 and 4) are not the super relaxed types who don't really care about such things (neither are we so surprise, surprise) so, to help ease the transition, I made each of them these little 'familiar' books.

I had this stack of plastic envelopes (they are approx. 20cm x 16cm) that we had DVD's in.  The kids have 15 sleeves each that I have connected with small rings.  I think they might be curtain rings - they open with a hinge - I can't even remember where I got them.  I designed the front cover and printed out the pattern in the middle of the page (this neatly wrapped around a thick piece of cardboard for stability).

For the first half of the book I added photos (and simple words for reading practice for Lord A) of themselves, family members and familiar items like their beds, toys, etc.  All of the toys and items pictured are things they won't see for 2 months so they love to look at them and anticipate their return.  I did the page layout in Powerpoint.

For the last half of the book, I copied images of mazes and connect the dots off the internet.  In the second photo you can see a small face washer (face cloth, face towel - whatever you call them) inside the front cover.  I had these teeny little face washer's left over from when the kids were babies.  They are much smaller than normal but are the perfect size to use as an eraser with dry erase markers.  This way the kids can do the puzzles over and over if they want.  I have a little drawstring bag full of dry erase markers in different colours for each of the kids to have with their book.

The back cover is the same as the front without the title.  I used a really nice thick cardboard for the covers so they will be sturdy enough to hold and write on if they don't have a table handy.

I am really happy with how these turned out.  Sporty Girl has seen hers and has been carrying it around already but I am waiting to surprise Lord A for a moment when he really needs it (or when I really need him to be occupied! - hello, Customs lines anyone?).  Anyway, my quick break hiding away from the packers is over so I had better get back to it!

Conversation with Lord A

Conversation with Lord A while snuggling before falling asleep last night:

A - How do you fix a tree?

M – What is wrong with it?

A – It is broken

M – You can’t fix it I don’t think if it is split down the middle or something

*pause*

A – Yes, you can fix it.  The tree fixer can do it.  He uses a squilar.  A squilar fixes it and a tiemotor.  Then, another tree fixer comes along and he has squares.  He gives squares to the first tree fixer and they fix it together.

M – Hmm, I see.

*pause*

A – and then they put a jacket on it.  They put a jacket on it so it doesn’t get dirty from shirts.

M – Yes, well, that would be important, wouldn’t it?

*pause while Mummy runs out of room to write conversation down before it carries on and she knows she won’t remember it all*

Darn it, he fell asleep before I could get back and listen for further developments in the story….

Ric rac dahlia hairclips

I saw these absolutely GORGEOUS ric rac dahlia's over at my blogosphere friend, LoLo's, blog awhile ago and have been dying to try it out.  Problem is, all I have is one teeny little bit of ric rac (less than 1m).  So, I decided to make life difficult for myself and make teeny little dahlia's for hairclips.  Honestly, they weren't too bad but I am sure bigger ones wouldn't be so fiddly.  Also, I am pretty sure my ric rac is poly cotton and not as nice and soft as 100% cotton so that made it a bit trickier too.  Anyway, despite that, I am really happy with how these turned out!  It was hard to get a staggered effect so I kind of lost the actual 'dahlia' effect a bit but all in all it still worked fine.  I love the effect of using a patterned ric rac too.  I will be making a large one for a brooch for myself as soon as I get access to some more.

Here is the back.  I added a felt circle that I cut slits into, put onto my hairclips and then glued and stitched onto the back of the ric rac dahlia.

Also, I just noticed that I have made my century in followers (cricketing reference for people who know anything about cricket) so, to celebrate and say thanks, I think I will hold a giveaway in the next couple of days.  Stay tuned!

Felt, bead and button hair clip

There is really no limit to what you can put on these hairclips is there?  Well, ok, for you clarifiers out there (you know who you are!), you couldn't put a horse on there..... (a little horsey button though.....)

This is a really simple little clip and I always love things that are simple in style and I love them even more when they are simple to do as well.  So, you will need, a couple of circles of felt, a fun beady thing (or just a larger button or another circle of felt) and a button.  Oh, and a needle and thread, a hair clip and some glue.

Stack everything up and stitch through the whole lot securing the button.

Stitch a running stitch around the smaller piece of felt to hold it together and to add a nice little detail.

When you are finished, glue them to your hairclips.  Too easy.

Then borrow someone's adorable curly haired daughter to model them on (when own daughter downright refuses - the cheek!)!

Montessori style button snake

 

 

I saw this idea on a number of blogs awhile ago (can't remember which - sorry) and finally got around to making it myself yesterday.  Lord A was happily putting all the felt squares on while I was cutting the slit in the middle (and trying to keep ahead of him).  This was so simple to make.  Just stitch two large buttons onto either end of a length of ribbon (which doesn't need to be very long - mine is about 15cm) and cut out a bunch of felt squares.  I folded them in half to cut the slit in the middle but be careful as it is very easy to cut the slit way too long doing it that way.  One note though, even though Lord A happily did this activity as I was making it, he did it that once and then declared it 'boring'.  I think he is a little too old for it at 4 but this would be a great activity for younger kids still.

Play watch for kids

Here are the instructions for how to make a cute little play watch.  The first photo is the one I have done for the tutorial and the second one is the original I made for my daughter many moons ago.  For the original I just used a liquid paper pen to add the 'watch face' if  you can call it that.  It has nearly worn away now but it has lasted well considering I made it at least 5 yrs ago as a quick problem solver for a toddler desperate for a watch like Mummy's and has been worn a lot.  Lord A (nearly 4 yrs old) now tries to get it as well.

All you need is some wide elastic, a large'ish button with a flat side, needle and thread and a permanent marker of some sort.

Then I couldn't resist adding in a cute little felt flower just to girlie it up a bit.

Measure around your child's wrist and allow a little for overlap.

Stitch through the overlap securely.  You could use a sewing machine if you want but I did it by hand and it is very fast.

Use your marker to draw in your clock face.  I decided to add numbers to this one.  I also used the wrong side of the button because it gave me a flatter surface.

Layer the button and flower over the join in the elastic and stitch through all thicknesses to secure.  I used the green sharpie to colour over the white thread too.  As a safety note, I used a double thread and stitched the button on very securely.  Definitely do this if you are making this for a toddler.

Party favours

Just a quick post today. Princess E had her party with her school friends yesterday so I made some little party favours (the full on party bag thing doesn't happen here - yay!). This is a very simple one obviously. I had some of these little cellophane bags (they are really cheap to buy in bulk and come in handy for so many things - the size here is 100 x 190 mm). I put in three homemade chocolate chip cookies, turned the top of the bag over and secured it with a little piece of tape and added the folded scrapbooking paper at the top. For the paper top, I measured the right width and cut them all out using my rotary guillotine (thank you Sandra) then folded them, trimmed the edges with scalloped edge scissors, placed it over the cellophane and stapled them on. I would have normally punched two holes and threaded ribbon through for a prettier effect (instead of staples) but I don't have any ribbon and haven't been able to find an easy supply here. Then I printed off some labels with the little message and stuck them on the front. Easy peasy! The kids really loved them too.

Well, in keeping with my less than prolific posting lately, we are heading off to visit an 'estancia' (like what we would call a farm stay in Australia) over the weekend so I won't be back until after that. We should all have sore butt's next week from horseriding! Yee ha!

Magnets and crayon rocks

Hmm, these two topics aren't related in any way except I just happened to do both these things yesterday. One successfully, one not so much.....

I saw this cute idea for coin magnets in the latest Better Homes & Gardens magazine so made some straight away. So easy and I have been wondering what to do with the bits of foreign currency we have lying around the house. I used very strong magnets that I picked up at a hardware store and some of the coins were attracted to the magnets so I didn't glue those ones. I would suggest using a very strong glue for these. It makes for a fun reminder of your travels! Could be a cute idea for my homemade Christmas present idea list too. Of course, now I have lots of ideas for other things to stick to my magnets....let me know yours!

I have been coveting these crayon rocks (for the kids of course) for awhile now. I just love them. Love their shape and how they make me want to grab them and draw. Sooooo, being the somewhat crafty person that I am, I think to myself 'well, I could probably make those'. You know, just melt some crayons, wait until they have cooled off a bit and mold them with my hands into pebbly type shapes. Sounds easy doesn't it? Well, it sounded easy in my mind when I first thought about it but in reality, the melting in your muffin tin is easy but waiting for them to cool off to the right temperature and consistency is extremely tricky. Then there is the molding part. Not so easy either I found out! A lot of normal, sane people are saying 'well, d'uh' right about now but I am hard to put off when I get an idea in my head. Anyway, here is my one lonely successfully molded attempt. Too lumpy for me and waaaaaay too much effort (again I can hear the 'well, d'uh' comments!). I think I will admit defeat and just buy the darn things....

p.s. Yes, I did notice that it is rather unfortunate that the surviving crayon happens to be THAT colour and the final result looks somewhat like something left in the backyard......lol (c'mon kids, it IS a crayon, really....).