Kindergarten drive-in...

End of the year means end of the year projects. Which means a whole lot of time going into those projects. The entire kindergarten makes cardboard cars and takes them to the Drive-in movie at school. We did the same project for Hallie and I was kicking myself for not keeping it and having Hunter repaint it.

My next thought was to build a car out of wood so I can use it for the next kids - but I couldn't figure out how to make it light enough that he could carry it on his own.

Hunter and I went to Home Depot to pick up some supplies. It was a Saturday and I was wondering how I was going to fit everything in. When I got home Steve was willing and ready to go. I've become so accustomed to doing everything without him, so to have him home on a Saturday and having the time to help was totally foreign. I let those two go at it and I'm so glad I did. I often get to help with school projects but Steve doesn't and he actually quite enjoys it.

They decided on a rocket as opposed to a car. Rockets go faster and they have more buttons than cars do.


Hunter painted the whole thing by himself, including the USA on the top.


He was pretty proud of the control panel. He explained what each button did - he really thought it through!

DIY Fabric Wall Mural...

A while back I came across a world map mural that I loved and I knew exactly where to hang it - in Cannon's room. I didn't pull the trigger for almost three weeks and by the time I was ready it was gone. I called the company and begged for them to find one in a warehouse somewhere, but they had nothing for me.

I was convinced that I wanted a large mural map to sit on the wall behind the crib.

I searched high and low and I couldn't find anything I liked as well as the one that slipped from my hands. So I improvised.

I decided to iron fabric to my walls. Yes, you read that right...iron. I've used pellon before in craft projects and it worked like a breeze. I was hopeful that I could get it to stick to my orange peel texture walls and it worked just like I had hoped.

I started out by laying out the wall to scale on my computer. (Anyone that reads this blog long enough will know that I always draw everything to scale on the computer first!) When I knew how large I wanted to make it, I carefully laid the countries in their final size out on a banner to be printed at staples.


I took some time and cut out each country. I picked out my fabric for each country, attached the pellon and then traced the country on to the pellon and cut out. It's a little monotonous to cut out the detail of every country twice - but it seemed like the best route at the time. Now that I own a projector, I would probably just trace it using the projector which would save at least one session of cutting out countries!


Once the countries are cut out, pull back the pellon and tape them to the wall for placement.


With a warm iron, slowly run the iron over the fabric and make sure to get all the edges.

The pellon attaches nicely to the wall and can just as easily be removed. I did learn this the hard way as my son's crib was next to the wall and while he was in his crib he liked to pull the edges on one of the countries. The good news is I found out it doesn't leave a residue!

It was apparent I needed to move the crib and we haven't had any problems since. I love the statement that it makes and it was a fraction of the cost of the original map mural I had my eye on.

Easter Decor...

With Easter just two weeks away, we're a little behind in pulling out our Easter decor but it's a high priority for the weekend!

Hallie and I were at the store this week and I found myself putting several Easter decorations in the cart only to realize I couldn't remember what we already had...so I committed to get everything out before buying yet another moss covered bunny.

Here are some fun decorations we made last year that we're excited to pull out again.

Easter Bunny Frame


Easter egg salt dough garland


Painted Easter Eggs

DIY Foil Prints...

I know gold is totally in right now: Gold hardware, gold frames, gold jewelry, gold dipped ___ (fill in the blank). And yet, I don't have gold anything. It's one of those finishes that I like when I see it in other people's homes, but I can't commit to it in my own home. But one thing I can commit to: Gold foil prints. They're all over Etsy and I love the punch they add to a bookshelf. Let me tell you: these are as easy as they are cheap.

Here's my post from HowDoesshe.com this month:
Gold foil prints are in and they are easier to create than I could have imagined. You only need three things to complete this simple project: A laser print, toner reactive foil and a laminator.

First, create your black and white graphic (get the shamrock here) and print on a laser printer (which uses toner). We have an ink jet printer so I sent the file to my local print shop (Kinkos, Staples) and spent 14¢ to have it printed on card stock. Little tip – save yourself another trip and print 2 or 3 just in case you mess up!


Make sure your print is free from any dust or fibers (it will make it so the foil doesn’t stick in those areas.) Carefully roll out your toner reactive foil (find gold at amazon or purchase a variety of colors by the yard here) to completely cover your black and white image, gold side up.


Place a piece of plain printer paper over the top and carefully send it through your laminator. In order for this to work properly, the foil must get hot enough to bind to the black toner. I originally sent it through the laminator with card stock over the top and it didn’t work. My laminator also came with a laminating envelope which was too thick as well for the foil to get hot enough.


Once it comes out of the laminator and cools, you’ll see how the gold is stuck to the toner.


The only thing left to do is slowly pull the gold foil back and you’re done.



Quotes, holiday prints, cards…go crazy. Gold foil everything. You know you want to try it!

DIY Construction Paper Organizer...

I'm a sucker for just about anything at Costco. 5lb bag of chips. Of course. 30 pairs of socks...you can never have too many. And who can't use a sharpie in every color of the rainbow? Like I said, I'm a sucker. At the beginning of the school year I was perusing the isles when I came across the largest pack of construction paper I had ever seen. My kids love crafts and we go through card stock like there's no tomorrow so this was right up our alley.

Immediately after my purchase I had buyers remorse. We didn't really need that much paper and I came to the realization that it was going to be scattered through the house. It sat on my laundry room counter for months while I went back and forth. Ultimately, Hunter had a school project that required several sheets of paper and we busted the package open and he chose his colors. I was trying to keep it neat and tidy, so it stayed on the counter. Then Hallie needed some paper and pulled out a few and before long the nice tidy stack found its way to the game/crafts closet. It didn't take long for my nice stack to turn on it's side and start to create chaos. See it there:


And no matter how many times I straightened it I couldn't get it to stay clean. In my annual beginning of the year purging and cleaning of the house I resolved to find a solution. I bought several bins and boxes and nothing worked like I needed it to. So I turned to the garage and my never ending piles of scrap wood and pulled out the table saw.

I cut two sides and a back piece of wood and cut 9 sets of grooves in each (using the table saw) and cut a top and bottom

I glued, clamped and nailed the sides to the back and attached the tops and bottoms as well.

Once dry, I was able to slide in each shelf - which is adjustable, shelves can be removed for larger stacks of paper.

I returned the stack of beautifully organized paper back to the closet. Yes, it looks like it belongs in a 1st grade classroom. But what home couldn't benefit from a little paper organization? It makes me happy. It makes me even happier to know that my kids have pulled out papers every day and it still looks like this!

The best part is I didn't even paint or stain it. I like the natural wood and it wasn't worth pulling a paintbrush out!

Homemade Christmas 2014...part two...

I usually have my homemade gifts done far before my other shopping is complete, but this year I was a little off. I thought and planned for one larger homemade gift for the all the kids. But it wasn't working out so I had to come up with some individual gifts for them. Here's how the gifts went down this year:

I made Hallie a knit pencil skirt - the same pattern she made over the summer which has become her very favorite skirt.


Hunter is in Kindergarten and is starting his fascination with writing stories and drawing pictures. This roll is large enough it will probably last for years!



Bennett loves to hear stories about when he was younger and loves to look through the blog and recognize himself. I printed off pictures - birth to present - of him. Some have his siblings a few have us or grandparents, but mostly it's him and he loves it.



Cannon has no idea Christmas even took place - but he still got a gift! He'll thank me later!



And because Blurb is my absolute favorite - Steve also received a book: 2010 Blog book. Yes I'm behind. At nearly 400 pages they take a while to layout. It's really more of a family gift as it's an account of us, but Steve gets to open them each year when I complete one. I realize at this pace I'll always be four years behind, I'm hoping to make up ground with an extra book this year!




My favorite gift I made (next to the Nativity puzzle of course) was Steve's t-shirt quilt.


I've been saving these shirts for years for this exact purpose. I hid them in our house in Milwaukee. I hid them in this house. I hid them driving up to Idaho so I could work on it last summer. I'm happy for it to come out of hiding. Each shirt means something and it tells the story of him: Shirts from high school, mission, our dating years, family trips, college, jobs (at least his first job).

He was surprised. Shirts he had long thrown away suddenly back in his hands as well as the memories. The whole reason I look forward to homemade gifts!

Homemade Christmas...part one...

Steve's mom made a nativity puzzle just like this years and years ago and it has become a favorite holiday decoration for the grandchildren. When my sister-in-law mentioned last year that she wanted the puzzle - I immediately knew I wanted to re-create it for their family this year when the family gift giving rotation had us giving to them (we won't give to them for another 8 years!)

This gift has been on my mind most the year. I figured I'd purchase a scroll saw sometime this year which would make this puzzle a breeze. But I didn't buy one. So I looked to use someone else's. I couldn't find anyone. The other problem was trying to find the pattern. The original pattern was out of print and try as I may, I couldn't find it. By October, I was starting to think of new ideas for gifts. But I couldn't let this great gift idea go.

In November, I found a laser cutting facility in the area, Phoenix Custom Lasering. They were great to work with and totally affordable. I took a picture of the puzzle and created a pattern from it using Illustrator and they cut it up for me - I figured if I was going to the trouble I might as well make two so we could enjoy one.

I've never tole painted so it was a little daunting. But I painted and painted...and painted some more.

For three whole weeks our kitchen table looked like this:

There was sheer panic when my sister-in-law was stopping by and this is how the table looked. We threw it all in a box and put it in the back room!

I finished it with 18 hours to spare! Painting it wasn't necessarily difficult - just very detailed and time consuming. If I never tole paint again...it will be okay!





Like the Lego costumes of Halloween...the puzzle was a lot of work that I won't do again - but still totally worth it.