Pinterest Thursday - The Clean Car Edition

It's been a summer of awesome road trips, exciting adventures and spontaneous fun. While the girls and I have had the best time, my car has suffered. This past weekend, I told Scott that I needed a few hours to clean out my car. Armed with a great cleaner from Pinterest, I got to work.

I gathered my supplies, vacuum and carpet cleaner. I prepared myself and pulled out the car seats. Once I had the covers in the wash, I surveyed the car and made a plan. I vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed.

My car was seriously gross. I'm a bit embarrassed by the photo above. I vacuumed for so long that a neighbor said he was worried about me since he had left, run some errands and came back to find me still hard at work. After vacuuming, I sprayed the cleaner from Pinterest on the seats. While it sat for a bit (the site said to let it sit for at least 3 minutes), I wiped down the doors and washed the windows. Then I got out my carpet cleaner and started sucking up all the dirt. I was amazed at the difference the cleaner made after just a few swipes with my machine. 

Seriously the car looked so good! There was a bit of a vinegar smell for a few days but that is way better than the sour milk funk that invaded the car before. I re-installed the car seats and won't let the kids eat in the car for a few days. When I put the seats back in, I decided to turn Maggie around to face forward. It was a bittersweet moment. She's getting so big. It's official, we don't have any babies in this house.

Pinterest Thursday - Birthday Present

My Mom's 61st Birthday was this past weekend. My brother and I went round and round on gift ideas for her until I found the perfect gift on Pinterest! 

Since the loss of my Dad, my Mom has been feeling a wee bit unloved. This was the perfect gift for her! It reminds her daily of all the things we love about her. I emailed the whole family and asked them to send me all the reasons they love her. I added in a few of my own and created a love document with canva. 

This gift was a hit and so easy to create. We loved making it for my Mama-a-Sun and especially loved giving it to her during her birthday celebration.

Pinterest Thursday - Teacher's Gifts

Waaaaaaaayyyyy back in June, I made these simple gifts for Molly's teacher and my parent educator. I wanted to do something for these two special people who really helped us (ok, mainly me) through a rough year. My parent educator was a godsend. She gave me advice and grace for dealing with my Father's death and more importantly gave me direction on how to talk to my children about his death. I was really at a loss and she guided me through it so knowledgeably.

I unfortunately waited until the last minute to get their gifts together and I didn't want to fall back on a Starbucks gift card (though if you give one to me, they are VERY appreciated because I always need more caffeine). I spotted some beautiful succulents at the grocery store and quickly snatched them up. Once I got home though, I couldn't figure out how I was going to present them. Off to Pinterest I went!

Once there, I found these awesome printable tags which I quickly printed up and glued onto the front of some cards that I had. Inside I wrote a heartfelt note and then tied them around the succulents with some string. Molly's teacher and my parent educator loved the plants which made us very happy.

Pinterest Thursday - Glitter Jars

This week has been Spring (No) Break for us so I've been busy thinking of fun craft activities that we can do. While searching Pinterest, I found this fun Glitter Jar activity and I luckily had everything on hand! I found an old salsa jar and decided to spray paint the lid to dress things up. Molly loved watching me spray the paint and really wanted to get involved. I was a bit apprehensive about giving a can of spray paint to my 3 year old though. 

The kids love shaking the jar and watching the glitter settle. I had Molly select the figurine for the inside. She has a ton of small toys. The first two she tried were too big though but we finally settled on this funny looking dog. I then glued the dog to the lid and had Molly had glitter to the jar. We poured in water and glued the lid onto the jar. It was a very easy process and would have taken less than 10 minutes if I hadn't spray painted the lid. 

Here are the directions from Whimsical Wonderland Weddings. They have a ton of fun DIY projects. 

Photo Credit: Whimsical Wonderland Weddings

Pinterest Thursday: How to Make a Kid-Friendly Terrarium

It's been forever since I've done a Pinterest Thursday but I had to share today's find with everyone. A few times a month at Molly's preschool, I'm charged with coming up with a small group activity. There are four kids in our group and after snack, we do an activity to teach them about something. I've done animal yoga, stencil cards and today we made terrariums! 

I found this great pin from Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds on Pinterest and got so excited about doing this with our group. I sent out an email to the other parents asking them to bring in a glass jar and then gathered supplies with Molly. We had to go to a few different stores to get all the supplies. The hardest item to find was the activated charcoal, which I located at Petco in the fish department. 

The kids were so excited and loved scooping all the different parts into their jars. They were especially excited about the marine animal figurines I brought for their terrariums. 

This was such a hit that Molly and I came home and made three more terrariums. I've stashed the supplies and hope to bring them out this summer when the days get a bit longer and we have more unscheduled time.

PS I wrote a story about Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs for Seattle Refined. Go check it out! 

Valentine's for Kids

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Literally. Valentine's Day is on Saturday and I'll admit to being in a bit of a panic since I've made zero, zilch plans to celebrate with Scott. I have, however, made some awesome Valentine's for Molly's Co-Op class. 

I'm pretty obsessed with making the perfect Valentine's Day card for Molly. It can't contain candy and it's got to be amusing. I've found quite a few contenders on my Pinterest Board. Molly is currently obsessed with flashlights so when I found this Pin, I knew this was the one for 2015.  

I spent an hour tying yarn around the name tags and flashlights and I'm super excited for Molly to hand these out in class today. Now I just need to get on those plans for Saturday. 

Pinterest Thursday - Growing Green Onions from Green Onions

I thought it would be fun to try out this Pin on Pinterest with Molly. Supposedly you can grow some foods from certain table scraps. With this in mind, I grabbed the ends of some scallions after dinner one night and told Molly about my plan. We put a bit of water in a jar and plopped three green onions inside. They weren't anything special. In fact, I'm not even sure if they were organic scallions.

Then we waited a few weeks. I changed out the water daily (ok sorta daily) and carefully watched for results. 

It took awhile and we had a failure rate of 2 out of 3 but we got one green onion to grow! It was a fun experiment but if you really need some scallions for dinner, I'd suggest visiting the grocery store for faster results. Also my green onion got a little moldy. I'm going to plant it outside to see if it keeps on growing. 

Pinterest Thursday - Valentine's Day Crayon Hearts

Rebecca Mongrain's pin on Pinterest.

I found this pin and variations of it all over Pinterest this past year. I pinned all of them and made grandiose plans in my head. I wasn't sure that I was going to actually make these Valentine's this year because heart crayons are difficult to mail. Then Molly's Co-Op Preschool said that we would be exchanging Valentine's Day Cards and I knew I had to make these. One of Molly's favorite things to do is to color and I thought this would be a great way to share her love with a heart crayon. 

This project was super easy to do and I look forward to making many more heart crayons in the coming years. The hardest part was peeling the paper off the crayons though I later heard that you can dip the crayons in cold water which supposedly makes the paper easier to remove. I'll have to try it next time I make these. 

My only advice on making these is to overfill the compartments a bit. When the crayons melt, all the empty spaces fill in and the crayons can end up shallower than you may have planned. 

I also suggest that once the crayons are melted that you allow them to cool overnight (or for at least 12 hours) before fiddling with them. I ruined a few by getting too excited and trying to mess with them when they weren't cooled enough yet. 

Pinterest Thursday - Silhouette Framed Art

As I was redecorating Molly and Chicken Nugget's room, I found this awesome pin with a delightful idea! I decided to recreate it on my own.

I started by googling animal silhouettes. I found a few that I liked and then had Scott narrow down my selections to three animals for the three frames I had picked up at IKEA.

I then picked up some scrapbook paper from the craft store for the actual silhouettes and used construction paper for the background.

I used tape to place the pictures on the construction paper and then put them into frames. You could secure them more with glue but I was feeling too lazy to find the glue to do so.

This was such a fun and simple project to do and adds a cute element to any kid's room.

Pinterest Thursday - Activity Boxes

With the new baby on her way, I thought I'd make up some activity boxes for Molly so she'd have something to play with while I'm tending to the Nugget. 

Also because I'd really like to avoid any more instances of this kind of activity. 

I visited Fred Meyer and bought some plastic shoe boxes along with some toys. I also visited the dollar bin at JoAnn's for some cheap activities. Then I came home and printed out the stickers from this pin onto label paper. I stuck the labels on the boxes and got to work placing toys and activities in each box. 

I put stickers, coloring books, small toys, pom poms and sorting containers along with some foam ABC letters and masks in each box. Next I cleaned out our TV cabinet and put the boxes in there. Molly loves to retrieve the boxes from their home and play with them. 

This is also providing us with an opportunity to teach her to clean up. I ask her to clean up the box she is playing with before dragging out another box. We currently only have a 50% success rate but I feel that is better than 0%. 

I plan to add some more stuff to these boxes as I had left over favors from her birthday party which seem perfect for activity boxes. I didn't spend a ton to make these boxes either. I used some things that we already had at home. Then I spent about $15  on the plastic boxes and fun activities to put inside of them. 

I look forward to changing the contents of these boxes up and making them as interactive as possible. I also really hope these keep her occupied when I'm nursing the Nugget as I suspect keeping Molly occupied will be a BIG challenge for us. 

Pinterest Thursday - Rice Foot Warmer

A friend of mine had a baby a few weeks ago and when I delivered food to her house, I decided to include a small gift just for her! This was a fun and easy gift to make. I'm already plotting additional gifts for these! 

I started by making the muslin bag but I didn't have any muslin so I used some plain cotton in yellow. I cut and sewed the edges before filling it with rice. I did overfill the bag because I didn't have a bag that was the exact measurement as the pin suggested. I think this would be a great place to add some essential oil too. I didn't this time but plan to the next time I make these. 

After filling the inner bag, I got to work on the outside, more decorative bag. I found some pretty cotton fabric that reminded me of my friend. I also think fleece fabric would be a wonderful and cozy fabric for this project.

Cutting and sewing the outer pieces took me literally minutes. I think one could do a bunch of these in no time at all if they were organized and had the appropriate space. 

This project took me about 30 minutes from start to finish, mainly because I didn't have anything set up. Next time I suspect I'll be able to get these done faster! 

Pinterest Thursday - Birthday Party Decorations

I'm in the final throes of Birthday Party preparation over here. I've assembled the favor bags, I printed the Pin the Tail on the Giraffe game, planned the party food and now it's crunch time! But I almost forgot about the party decorations! I was thrilled to find the two pins above because they gave me so many ideas!

I bought CHEAP zoo plates and cups at Target which thrilled me to no end. Molly loved them so much that she hugged them as we went through the store. She is going to be so excited to actually eat of them on Sunday. 

I bought this cute cupcake set and banner for a more decorative vibe!

And I'm busy making a Happy Birthday Door Banner along with some food place cards. 

OK I feel ready now except I still need to make the food and clean my house but hey I have a few days! 

Pinterest Thursday - Pin the Tail on the Giraffe!

I've been trying to come up with some fun games for Molly's birthday party. Most of the kids will be 2 or younger so the games can't be complicated in the least. While pursuing Pinterest, I found a great (and free printable) game, Pin the Tail on the Giraffe!

I downloaded the free printable and initially I looked into having this printed at Kinko's but they wanted to charge me $22 which seemed like a lot for a one time use. The blogger in this pin mentioned that they got their giraffe printed at Costco for around $7 so I decided to look into that option. I sent the picture off and it was printed that same day. My only complaint is that Costco does not do any quality checking so the top of the giraffe's head was cut off. I didn't have time to make the 60 min round trip again before Molly's party so I decided to print out the head and tape it onto the sheet. The kids will never know!

For the tails, I decided to make them out of ribbon. I tied the top of the ribbon and then cut them all to the same length. I made about 15 of these. To attach the tails to the giraffe, I decided to use double-sided tape to prevent any injuries to the littles. 

I'm excited to watch the little ones play this game. I'm pretty sure that they won't understand where to "pin" the tails but I do know that they will have a lot of fun with this activity.