Salt Painting

My new mission is to try to get more creative time in with T, she is like a sponge and wants to be trying her hand at new experiences everyday. Developmentally she seems to be transitioning from abstract doodles to more representational drawing so when I saw this cool craft over at Family Fun magazine I thought it would be a perfect fit. I was amazing at how she was grasping the concept of following the lines and enjoying a bit of structure, actually waiting and having fun at each step in the process. To do this project at home you need only a few things that you probably already have on hand. First step is to take some stiff card stock or you can reuse cut down cardboard boxes, we used watercolor paper that I cut in half. Next squeeze or draw out with regular Elmers/craft glue a design on the paper. Tess made her first ones pretty simple but once she saw that she only painted on glue she made the next ones more elaborate. After the design is done place the paper in a shallow pan and sprinkle with course salt until the paper is covered then shake off any excess. While the glue is still wet start dabbing wet watercolor paint onto the salted design trying not to drag the brush through the glue. Like magic the wet color spreads as the salt absorbs the paint. We tried regular Mortons table salt and course kosher salt and got better results the with latter. We also found that the more wet the paint the better the leaching of the color on to the design. Make sure to document the artwork because once it dries it tends to flake off and could make for messy storage.

Materials:
Watercolor paper or Card Stock
Craft Glue
Course Salt
Shallow Pan
Watercolors
Paintbrushes

Bath Towel

Long time no post. Sorry we have just been busy around here and finding time to craft is a luxury that mommy is going without these days. So here is a quick one I was able to pull off before the kiddos even woke up on Sunday am. T was in need of a new towel and when I looked online at the prices I was amazed at what companies charge for toddler towels - highway robbery if you ask me. After looking at some of her old baby towels it didn't seem like it would be all that difficult to sew one up, basically the towel construction is only three long seams plus a little extra work to add on some fun details. I purchased a 100% cotton standard bath towel for $3.99 and a hand towel for $1.99 from Target on sale. Sorry I didn't have time to completely document the process for a tutorial but here is a link to the basic sew online http://www.makeandtakes.com/easy-hooded-bath-towel. I promise this is a super easy project well worth the time and small investment. Since I've made another one in orange that was a little chicken as a gift for my nephew Zade and plan to make one for baby Theo. This just might be my go to gift project for all of T's friends.

Baby Theo

Baby Theo arrived on Wednesday morning and Mom Dad & Tess are all still busy gushing over him. After only 6 hours of labor he made his debut weighing in at a hefty 8.7 oz. We were told by the nurses that our "little" boy was the biggest baby on the floor and I think (I might be partial) the most squishiest smoochest baby ever. We've only just gotten home and it's apparent that this little guy is as hungry as he is cute, lucky for us he is sleeping well and when he's awake he spends his time cooing and looking around at his big new world. For the last 9 months Matt and I have been anticipating his arrival wondering what Theo would be like and words cannot express how much MORE he is - even in our expectant imaginations we could not have have predicted the overflow of love and happiness we both feel. Our journey as a family just got bigger and better. Welcome to the world baby Theo.

Zoo Boo Day

In anticipation of a distracted Halloween we are taking every early opportunity to dress up and celebrate the magical season early. This past Friday Daddy took the morning off and we ventured to the zoo to partake in the annual zooboo. We originally put together this fairy costume a few months ago to attend a themed birthday party and T ended up wearing the outfit for about an hour.I wanted to get some additional wear out of it and Halloween is the perfect opportunity. It had been killing me that I didn't made a new costume for T but she was plenty excited to dress up in her fairy costume once more. My blue fairy looked like a dream walking around the reflecting pool and among the suspended pumpkin. This was our second year to zoo boo and the first time that Tess was able to pick up on the fact that other kids were dressed up as well.Oh so much fun.

Materials:
Fabric Dye
Coat Hangers for wings
Dyed Panty hose for wings
Dyed Leotard
Glitter
Elastic
Sequins
Dyed Fake flower
Satin Ribbon
Tulle

Nursery

Well... still no baby yet, however I was some what reassured today by an magazine article that said "no pregnancy has EVER gone on indefinitely". I was beginning to have my doubts. We finally got some pictures of the soon to be occupied baby nursery. Since we are about to start a major house renovation I was on the fence about putting any effort into a temporary space knowing that for the most part the little guy would be sleeping in our room for the next few months. In the end Daddy & I both decided that with just a little effort we could convert a tiny room we used for storage into a sweet space for our little guy. Long term plans were to move him into our current room once the renovation was completed since we will be getting a larger bedroom, but after seeing how charming his little room came out we may just keep him there for a wee be longer. My favorite part of the room is the Rube Goldbergeque mural on the wall I think the whole space is just perfect.

Halloween Fun

Baby is due this week and trying everything I can to keep my mind off the fact that... BABY IS DUE THIS WEEK. Despite all efforts to will him to come faster he and mother nature are taking their own sweet time and going the distance. I have been taking everyone's advice and enjoying these last precious days of being a threesome. Getting out and about is challenging but staying at home with a toddler can be enough to drive anyone crazy. Tess has tons of energy these days and we have been trying to squeeze in some seasonal fun while the weather has been so lovely and while Mommy still can. Last weekend we headed off to the pumpkin patch and picked out a few choice gourds and when we got home we were all still in the pumpkin mood so we... painted mommy's belly to look like a big ol' jack-o-lantern and took some fun family pictures.

Robot Mobile

Count down just 15 days before baby arrives and I finally got that baby mobile finished. It was a quick, easy and inexpensive project that really helped to complete our mini baby room. My nesting tendencies are in full swing but because we have a renovation gearing up I have been reluctant to tackle any house projects and it's driving me kinda crazy. To keep my mind off of the need to "fix" everything I have been working on making frozen meals to stock up the freezer and trying to sneak in a few more sewing projects. Sitting at the machine with this huge belly is getting to be a bit of a challenge so any projects tend to be quick and easy ones. The mobile was a two day project that I worked on in mini sessions. The first day I sewed and stuffed the little felt bots and the second day Matt helped me hang the fishing line to the silver painted embroidery ring and attach it to the ceiling. I really didn't get a great shot of the completed mobile the room is very small and hard to photograph but I think this weekend I will try again to get some pictures of the finished nursery. I used my bag of fabric scraps to crate this mobile so my only expense was a $3.49 embroidery ring, sure pays to keep those little scraps around.

Materials:
Felt
Fishing line
Silver spray paint
Embroidery ring