Cute Little Hairbow Holder

After making all the hairbows for my daughter during the blizzard, I decided I better find somewhere to keep them.  I wanted to keep them so that I could easily tell what bows she had,  but I also wanted it to be cute.  I decided to make this cute little face; its just like one I had as a kid.

So, I took a piece of cardboard, traced a bowl to make a circle, and cut it out.  I covered the circle with stuffing (because I was out of batting).  I then took an old pillowcase and covered the circle, flipped it over, and hot-glued it to the cardboard.  I glued a piece of ribbon on the back to hang it from.

To make the hair, I took yarn and made 3 sections with 10 pieces each.  I tied them at the end and then braided them together (to keep it tight, I actually tied it to the cabinet while braiding).  I then glued the braid around the face and added some bangs.

To make the face, I cut eyes and a mouth out of felt and glued them on. 

 
There ya have it, a cute little face with cute little braids to hang all your hairbows on!

From the Mouth of Russ...

I just wanted to share a few Russ-isms.  He always keeps us laughing!!

Me:  "Don't put that up your nose?"  Russ:  "Ok, I'll put it up your nose".

Grandpa Jim:  "How are your chickens?"  Russ:  "Dead, they froze". (They didn't freeze, they were fine).

Me:  "What do you want for breakfast"?     Russ:  "Lobster and waffles".

Russ (from the bathroom):  "Hey momma, my poop really stinks".

Daddy:  "I drilled a tiny hole in the bottom of the angel so you can put it on top the tree".  Russ:  "Yea Mommy, its a heiny hole".

Russ (from the bathroom):  "Hey momma, my poop is blue and theres two of them".

Russ at 4:30am:  "I've never seen these cartoons before".  Me:  "Thats because you are never up this early". 
Russ: "Oh, well, I'm going to start getting up early so I can watch them".  Me:  "I don't hardly think soon".

After Russ ran and jumped head first over his Grandmother, landed on his head, and did a flip, I asked him:  "What was that"?  Russ replied, "Touchdown".

I dropped something and said, "Oh my".  Russ: "No Mommy, say D*mn it".

After throwing up, Russ wiped his mouth and said, "Tasty".

Tie Dying for Two Year Olds

I don't know about you, but I LOVE to tie dye.  And because I love it, well, I figured my son would, too.  The problem was how do you give a two year old bottles of permanent dye and let him go crazy in the house??  So, I had to get a little creative (and cross my fingers hoping it would work the way I wanted).  I have painted on paper this way, but never tried this on clothing.  Well, it worked and so now I'm going to share it with you!!

*Mix up your dye using the instructions provided with the package.  When the dye is mixed and ready to go, put the colors in an ice cube tray.  Obviously, you will use a different ice cube hole for each color.  Be sure to not overfill so the colors do not mix. 
*Put the tray in the freezer.  Wait a few minutes and check the cubes.  When they start to get a little bit of freezing on the top, stick toothpicks in each color.  If you add the toothpicks before the cubes start to freeze, they will not stand up straight (and if you do it too late you can't get them in).  After the toothpicks are added, carefully put the tray back in the freezer until the cubes are frozen solid.
*Prepare your area.  I just put a trashbag on the table and put the shirt on top of it. 
*When the cubes are frozen solid, remove them from the tray.  I arranged them on a plate and put them on the trashbag next to the shirt.   

Now your little one can use the cubes (holding them by the toothpicks) to paint the shirt.  Russ had his own little method that he came up with.  He would take each cube and place them on the shirt one by one.  Then, he would take them all off one by one.  He did this multiple times.  The longer the cubes were on the shirt, the more they melted leaving more color. 

We flipped the shirt and he did the other side.  When he had had enough, I had him place what was left of the cubes on the shirt, and I just folded it up inside the trashbag and let it set until the cubes were melted.  About 30 minutes later, we opened the shirt and IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! 

Be sure to check the instructions that came with the dye to see how to rinse and wash the shirt.

Hairbows for my Hairless Child

 My friends and I visit a discount ribbon outlet occasionally, and because prices are soooo cheap, we buy far to much ribbon.  Since we've been stuck in the house for what seems like forever because of this blizzard, I pulled out my ribbon stash.  See, Russ likes to take my ribbon and toss it around and has it all tied up in a knotty mess.  So, my original goal was to sort it all out and roll it all so that its nice and pretty and organized, but that seemed a little boring.  So, instead I started making hair bows. 

I know this is a little early since my daughter is only 6 months old and doesn't really have hair yet, but I couldn't help myself.

And this is my favorite of them all.  When we finally get to take her to Disney World for her first time, she will be ready!!

I'm not posting instructions for these bows because I really don't feel like typing them all out (I know, I'm being lazy).  But, if you want to know how to make any of them, just leave me a comment and I will email you instructions!!

No Cream Like Snow Cream

With over two feet of snow on the ground and more pouring from the sky, how can you not want to make snow ice cream??  We made some tonight and oh my, it was soo good.  Even my skeptical husband loved it (and had to go back for seconds... and thirds).

So, here is our recipe:  Mix 1 can sweetened condensed milk with about 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Gather a big bowl full of nice fresh snow (about a gallon or so).  Pour the milk mixture into the snow and mix well.  To make the best snow cream ever, you have to mix with a big icicle! 

When its mixed to your desired consistency, scoop, add chocolate syrup if you want, and eat!!

There is no better way to enjoy all this snow!!

And so you know, you can't freeze the ice cream in the bowl.  It just doesn't work very well.  But, you can take it and put it into icecube trays and stick toothpicks in them.  They make great popsicles.

Fun with Crayons

Now that Lexi is crawling I've had to spend hours picking up all the little things that Russ leaves on the floor.  I never realized how many broken crayons we have floating around here.  I couldn't stand the thought of throwing them away but didn't want to keep picking them up.  So, I decided to do a few projects with them that I used to do as a kid.

We started by sharpening the crayons down to piles of shavings, seperated by color.  Russ loved this part.  For some reason sharpening crayons is fun. 

Once we had the shavings, he arranged them on a sheet of wax paper that was on an ironing board.  After they were in place, we put another piece of wax paper on top.  Then, we placed a piece of foil on top of everything.

Take an iron and put it on low, and place it on top of the stack.  Do not slide the iron around!  Pick it up and move it from place to place, leaving it in each spot for a few seconds.  You can keep checking the crayons to see when they are the way you like.

Once finished, remove the aluminum foil and its sooo pretty!!  If you want, you can remove the top piece of wax paper, but remember that removing it will make the piece more fragile. 

We used the melted crayon art to make stained glass hearts.  We took colored paper and cut out hearts, then glued the heart on top of the artwork, attached a ribbon, and hung it from the window.  You can also fold paper into a card, cut a heart out of the front of the card, and glue the crayon art inside of the card so that it appears in the heart cut-out.  If doing the card, do not remove the top sheet of wax paper as it will break.

Our second crayon project was made using the tiny pieces of crayons that were too short to sharpen any further.  We just piled them into a muffin pan (ours was shaped like a butterfly, but any shape will work).  We put the left-over shavings in, too.  I then placed the pan in the oven at about 200 and watched for the crayons to melt, then removed it.  To get the piece out of the pan, just put the pan in the freezer for 5 minutes and it will pop out.  You can use the piece as artwork or as a new multi-colored crayon.

Oldie but a Goodie

I was sitting on the couch yesterday watching the 36 inches of snow fall from the sky, and a little birdie came and landed on my bird feeder on the porch to get a snack.  I felt  bad for the poor little thing;  with all the snow, who knows how long until it will be able to find food on the ground.  So, I decided that it was time to teach Russ how to make a pine cone bird feeder.  Luckily, we had gathered pine cones every chance we got through out the fall.  I know everyone has made these before, but I wanted to post it anyway to remind you all that we need to take care of the birds (and squirrels) in all this bad weather.

Russ loved this project.  Partly because he gets to feed the birds and partly because it got a little messy.  We had peanut butter everywhere, but oh well.  He had so much fun, that he wanted to make two pine cone feeders for the neighbors across the street. 

We made one for the chickens, too.  They really liked it!!

Its been awhile!!

I know its been awhile since I posted.  January was a rough month for us:  I had strep, Lexi was teething, trying to work in some exercise and lose some weight, Russ was being Russ :)  It felt like there was something always going on that kept me from getting stuff done.  When Russ was teething, I never knew it until the teeth broke through.  Lexi on the other hand hasn't slept since mid-December!  It has been rough.  My craftyest time of day has always been the time between kids going to bed and me going to bed, so when she isn't sleeping, well, I have no me time.

But, things are back to normal sleep wise, finally!  So, I plan on getting back into the swing of things very soon!!!