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Mother’s Day Project & San Diego MNO!

Posted by Nat on Apr 24, 2012 | 15 comments

Are you ready to clean up your Pinterest Boards?  Thursday is Clean Up Your Pinterest Boards Day!  Join us and make sure your pins are legit!  Can’t wait!

Are you ready for Mother’s Day?  I am!  I love having a day to celebrate the fact that I’m a MOM!  I can’t believe I’m 36 and have three beautiful kids.  Before I get into the details of my post, I want to share an event I’ll be attending and am SO EXCITED about!    I’m also on the committee promoting it because I am so thrilled that this group exists for the sole purpose of giving MOMS a NIGHT OFF!  Woot!

If you are a San Diego mom, you should come to San Diego Mom’s Night Out Mother’s Day Event!  Don’t worry, it’s not on the “real” Mother’s Day- it’s Thursday, May 10th.   National Mom’s Nite Out is the first nationally organized celebration of motherhood intended to bring together today’s moms, physically and virtually.  National Mom’s Nite Out unites hundreds of social media groups, companies, local playgroups, mommy bloggers and mother social networks in giving moms a well deserved night off. National Mom’s Night Out consists of local events held across the country including ours!

San Diego Mom’s Night Out Mother’s Day Event is going to be at Bliss 101 in Encinitas.  I live in El Cajon, and let me tell you- the drive will be worth it!  Just a few of the fun things planned: wine, food, skinny shots, massages, and swag bags!  Need I say more?  Go get your ticket, gals!   For reals- it’s going to be so nice!

Now, onto my tutorial- I am so pleased with how these turned out!

First things first:  CREDIT.  I first saw this project on Pinterest, which sent me to Mandy Douglass’ blog, It Will Change Your Life. At the bottom of this post I saw the cutest thing I’ve ever seen for Mother’s Day, and thought to myself, “I HAVE to make this!”  I emailed Mandy, and she so graciously agreed to let me post this tutorial.  Thank you, Mandy!

{Operation Organization} Meal Planning: A Free Printable

Posted by Nat on Apr 19, 2012 | Comments Off on {Operation Organization} Meal Planning: A Free Printable

Just a reminder to check out my post from Monday about Clean Up Your Pinterest Boards Day on April 26th!  Hope you can join us!

I have a love-hate relationship with meal planning.  When I do plan our meals, things go so much smoother during the week.  I don’t have to think when 4:30 rolls around and it’s time to start putting something together.  I can go into autopilot mode because I already know what’s happening in that department.  However, the process of picking what to make for the week can be tiresome, challenging, and sometimes annoying.

To that end, I decided to spruce up my menu planner.  My old one wasn’t working.  It was an old green frame (you’ll see it soon in an upcoming post), too small to write on, didn’t stay on the wall because the hanger on the back wasn’t that great- it needed to go.

I was at Michael’s Crafts getting a few things and saw a simple, flat glass frame and I knew it was what I needed.  It’s super cheap, too- only about $5.  I played around in Photoshop and came up with this.

(Clearly I have not mastered my new camera yet.  More about that later.)

Jack’s Party: Scavenger Hunt!

Posted by Nat on Mar 29, 2012 | 5 comments

I wanted something easy for the kids to do during the party, and since I was hopeful that it wouldn’t rain and we have a pretty big yard, I wanted to keep them outside for at least part of the time.  I started by searching on Pinterest for “boy parties” and such, and happened across a scavenger hunt.  The only problem was that it wasn’t suited for our environment- I think it was a beach hunt.  After a bit more searching I realized I just needed to spend some time in Photoshop.  It really didn’t take long to make.

Each bag had a little magnifying glass tied to the handle (purchased from Oriental Trading), and I also stuck a pencil in each bag.  Then they could use their pencil to mark things off (or their parent could), they could collect a lemon from our lemon tree, and whatever else they wanted to keep.  Recognize the wagon? 🙂

When they were done, I let them choose between one of these or these as a prize.  I didn’t “enforce” too much- but lots of them were so proud of finding everything on the page.  It was super cute!

Some tips if you decide to do a scavenger hunt:

• Don’t get too specific if your crowd is younger- keep it simple.
• Don’t hand out the bags until AFTER you give directions- otherwise they will likely just take the bags and run off without really knowing what to do.
• Expect it to take just about 20 minutes or so, maybe a bit longer.
• Advise guests to wear appropriate footwear- we put it on the back of our invitation.  Our yard is not one for flip flops at this time of year.

Here’s my birthday boy and his daddy during the hunt.  My two men. (Note the gopher holes in the foreground.)

As an aside, the other thing we had that ended up not working as well was the Giga Ball.  (It cost way less wherever I got it, but can’t remember where.)  I love this thing!  It’s the best money I’ve spent for parties and gatherings/play dates.  We intended for everyone to do it as they arrived (before food consumption).  Unfortunately on this day it was so damp outside that everyone (including my husband) started getting too wet and muddy, so we had to put it aside.  Later it came out again after the sun burned off some moisture.  Some kids like being rolled down the hill.  Others…not so much.  Either way- it sure is a fun thing to have around!

Below is the hunt.    The tree with the question mark is for “Which tree is the tallest?”.  The “???” is for if they find something that’s not on the page. “Take one of each” is for our citrus trees- we have three (lemon, orange, and grapefruit) but we ended up only having them pick lemons because the other two have lots of bees right now.  The grasshopper was just an example of a bug.  You’re welcome to download it. I’d appreciate some pins or comments if you download it.  Thanks!

Up tomorrow:  Food and Wrap-Up!

Also a big thanks to my friend, Tonya, again for her lovely photos that add so much to these posts!

Pinterest Projects: Butterfly Canvas

Posted by Nat on Mar 19, 2012 | Comments Off on Pinterest Projects: Butterfly Canvas

Ever since I saw this post on Whatever, I have wanted to do this project with my sweet little Anna.  The moment I saw it I added it to my “Things I’d Like to Make” board on Pinterest.  Anna loves butterflies, paint, and crafts.  I wanted something for our craft/office/guest room over the bed.  While I’m not totally pleased with the yellow I ended up with on the canvas, I do love the effect and the bright colors it brings to the room.

Here’s our paper pre-butterfly punching.  The act of painting the colors itself was therapeutic.  I’ll let you guess which one is Anna’s.

I bought three different butterfly punches (used a coupon for each one), and all of them were Martha Stewart brand.  They all worked so nicely.

I didn’t let Anna help with the hot glue- something about 4-year-olds and hot glue doesn’t go together for me.  But the end result is lovely.  I may move it to Anna’s room when I figure something else out for this wall- it doesn’t seem quite big enough, but we’ll let it sit for now.

I would advise a few things:

• Get yourself a nice set of watercolors with lots of color options.  I did a first round with just the Crayola watercolors and the effect wasn’t as nice.
• Use  nice watercolor paper.  It’s very thick and dries better.

Happy butterfly creating!

Operation Organization: Art Station

Posted by Nat on Feb 10, 2012 | Comments Off on Operation Organization: Art Station

I realize that this is not rocket science.  It’s a simple plastic bin with labels.  But I LOVE to see how other people organize their crap, so I thought I’d share what I did in this situation.

I was going absolutely bonkers.  For reals.

As I mentioned in my recent post about Anna’s mail slot, she is a very creative little girl.  She comes up with crazy Tinker-Toy creations, she builds amazing things with blocks (engineer, architect perhaps?), and loves, loves, loves to draw.  She loves art so much that I have to throw things away on the sly, lest our house become a fire hazard of paper.   I’m still working on a system to determine what stays and what goes, but what was more pressing was how to contain her supplies and her completed work.

I mention in my “About Nat” page that I am a practical crafter.  While I LOVE looking at DIY art stations with cute, color coordinated tubs, repurposed antique holders and such, that is not me.  If I put a lot of energy into something that is likely to get used, abused and tired, it will make me mad/frustrated/annoyed if it doesn’t hold up, stay perfect and pristine.  So with something like this, I like to go with easy, plastic bins from Wal-Mart.

I think this thing cost about $17.  I may get another when Jack gets more into art, but right now I’m lucky if I can keep up with the sticker trail he leaves all over our house.  He has one coloring book right now.  That’s all he needs.

What I like about this thing is it can only hold so much, so every once in a while I go through and downsize to prevent further insanity.

I started with simple labels on the drawers.  From top to bottom they read:

• All done!
• Not done & Blank Paper
• Coloring Books & Stickers
• Art Supplies
• Activity Books

The labels however, did not stick to the plastic bins- they kept curling up.  So I sliced up a scrap of paper and stuck them to the paper.  Then I used some adhesive squares to stick them to the drawers, and now they stay nice and flat.

The art supply drawer is great:

The kids can pull out a tub (Target $1 section- they always have these) of crayons or markers, take them to the table, and then put them away easily (in theory).  Or, in reality, when it’s time for dinner, it doesn’t take me forever to get their crap out of the way. 😉

I’m sure there are cuter ways to do this- if you have one, please do show me.  If I see something too cute to resist I may do something different, but for now, plastic bins rule this particular roost.

Anna’s Mail Slot

Posted by Nat on Feb 8, 2012 | Comments Off on Anna’s Mail Slot

My daughter, Anna, loves two things:  art and mail.  She’s a very creative little soul, and she likes nothing more than the thought of sending one of her creations to someone far away, whether it’s a friend in town or her cousin, Paul, in Kansas.

We were getting to the point where I needed to have a system for her because she would give me a piece of paper and tell me it needed to be mailed to (insert name here).  I’d set it down, and then days later she’d ask if I sent the paper, and I’d have no idea which one she meant.  So I whipped up this little mail slot and stuck it on the side of her art station, which I’ll talk about more later.  I love it because it works AND it doesn’t take up a lot of space.  Would a little mailbox be cuter?  Yes.  Would it get lost, in the way, trampled and tripped on, too?  Yes.

Now, when she has something to send, she gets to stick it in her mail slot, and I can ask her who it’s supposed to go to when I get mail ready to send.  You’ll see in the photo on the right she’s stuck in a special drawing for someone. 🙂

I’d like to say this is a tutorial, but I came up with it so fast that I didn’t take totally detailed pictures.  The light is very wonky, too- it was too hot to have the kitchen shades up (in January!) so the light is very yellow.  Better to have weird lighting than no lighting at all…

You will need:

• three sheets of 12×12 scrapbook paper (ignore my four sheets there- I had one extra).  I went with traditional red, white, and blue to mimic our postal service, but you could make them whatever color you like.  (I really wanted to find some air mail paper but had no luck.)
• You could easily do this with glue or a glue stick, but I found zips adhesive strips to be super fast and less messy in this case.
• I also used adhesive squares.
• Some decorative letters are also nice, but not necessary.

Take the paper that you are going to use as the front of the slot and cut it in half diagonally as shown below.  I used a ruler to eyeball it because it won’t fit in my paper cutter.  Do NOT paste them together yet.

With your trim color, cut yourself five (not four as shown below- see?  Horrible tutorial!) 1-inch strips, and fold them in half.  Crease them so that they are folded very precisely.

If you’re using a glue stick you’ll take the diagonal edge of one of your triangles- the edge that will go where the mail will enter the slot.  This will be the covered-up edge, so you don’t need to cover the whole edge.  I would probably apply the glue to the white strip (nice and thick) and then press down. Let dry, flip it over, and glue the other side of the white strip down.

For the zips, you can see I cut a length just a bit shorter than the white and then pressed it down.  Turn over, repeat.

Either way, trim the extra off after it’s set.

This is what you end up with:

Now you can adhere the blue/front pieces together at the bottom.

Put your red/back piece behind the blue/front pieces that are now glued together.  Use your remaining white strips to trim the bottom and sides.  You will have to trim here and there to make it all flush at the corners.  This is where the zips came in super handy, but if you don’t have them, I’m sure glue will work fine.  Just be sure to use a heavy-duty glue in case your kid wants to send lots of mail. 🙂

Stick some letters on if you want/have them,  and you’re done!  Anna loves having this, and it has taken one more thing off the counter.

Do you want some fun mail?  I have about a bazillion pieces of art I could send you….

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