4th of July Headband Craft

I wanted to make something with my little one that she could wear to get ready for the 4th of July - I found this on the Parents Magazine website - it was perfect and easy, and best of all, she could help me with it!!!

What You Need:

• Blue Felt
• White (Sticker-Backed) Felt
• 2 Buttons
• Headband
• Glue gun

What to do:

• Make a template using thin cardboard (I used this explanation to get the star just right)
• Pin the template to blue felt and cut out two stars
• Trim the template down slightly (about 1/8") and then pin to white felt and cut out two (smaller) stars
• Remove sticker backing from white felt and stick to blue felt
• Using a glue gun, glue stars onto headband (in any way that you like)
• Glue-gun on buttons to the middle of the stars
• Let dry
• Celebrate!!!

If you make this, please leave me a comment and let me know - - I would love to see it!!
And check here to see places where I generally link up!!!
Cheers!
More later (:

Heart Shaped Crayons for Valentine's Day

Still looking for a cute Valentine's Day gift for your kids or your kid's class?  ...I know....it's nearly down to the last minute and you still don't know what to do, but now you don't have a lot of time, and you don't want to spend a mint trying to get it all together - and you don't want it to take up your whole Sunday (or Monday night!). What to do? What to do?

Today, Miss No-No and I made these great Valentine's Day gifts for her class!! The crayons cost me 47 cents a box (we needed three boxes to make 24 crayons). It's perfect and it doesn't take long!!

I originally found this idea on Pinterest (of course, where else? lol). But, it was perfect, easy, and it's something that I know that the kids will love, use, and be able to use up!!! <~ Something I always want in my house!!!

To make 24 crayons you will need:

• 3 Boxes of 24-count crayons
• A heart shaped muffin pan (I used a silicone "pan", but a regular one sprayed with vegetable oil would work)
• An oven  ;)

1. Unwrap all crayons








2. Break each crayon into at least 4 pieces

3. Put approximately 15 crayon pieces into each heart shaped muffin cup

4. Bake at 230F for approximately 14 minutes

5. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 15 minutes (or until no longer warm to the touch)





6. Waa-laaaa - "instant" DIY gift perfect for toddlers!!!

What are you making for your little one's class for Valentine's Day?

More later!! (:

Halloween Crafts

I found this idea on Pinterest, but loved it instantly:

It's so awesome and great for little ones. The skeleton's body is made out of Qtips (some cut and some whole) and then I drew the face and Miss No-No glued it on. We hung it up in a window next to our front door so that anyone coming to visit will see it on their way in!

It took about as long to do as it took to get all the supplies, but my little one loved it anyways!!

Here's what you need:

• 19 Qtips
• Black construction paper or card stock
• Glue
• White paper (to draw the skeleton's head)

Here's a great set of directions that you can use (if you need them)! Their skeleton looks better than ours, but I doubt they have a 4 year old doing their crafts!!

What fun things have you made?

More later! :)

A Week of Menus

I took Miss No-No and my 3yo cousin to see Cars2 last weekend! They loved it! :) To get them "ready", I made these goodie bags for them:

I also added snacks and candy braclets, silly bands, and the key chains that I told them went to Lightning McQueen's car :) I made each thunderbolt out of construction paper and then tied an old key to each one. For the bags, I printed out the picture (from Family Fun Magazine) and then cut it out and put it on the front of each (lunch-sized) paper bag. I put their names on both the key chains and the bags.

I thought that the keys were a great idea - - unfortunately, my little ones didn't understand why they were getting the key to the car and they kept wanting to know where the car was!!! But, they liked everything else in the bags!!!

I really am over-run with zucchini! I think that when my mom planted her zucchini plants, she didn't realize how MUCH zucchini she was going to end up with... And, secretly (shhhhh!), I think that she is pawning it off on me because she doesn't have anyone else who will take it...

Thanks to all your comments last week about what YOU do with extra zucchini! :)

This is what we are eating this week:

Monday
Zuke Boats
Spinach Salad
Brown Rice (or Couscous)

Tuesday
Baked Tofu
Zucchini "pasta"
Garlic Bread

Wednesday
Cuke Rounds with "Tuna" salad topping
Couscous

Thursday
Garden Burgers
Zucchini Slaw

Friday
Left over Bonanza
Make-your-own Salad

Saturday
Out for dinner

Sunday
Pasta Dinner
Salad
Rosemary Foccacia

Notes:

1. Zucchini (Zuke) Boats were something that I was going to make last week, but never got around to....So we will be having it this week! I pre-cooked the zuke shells / boats and the filling. When it's time to make dinner, I will pull everything out of the fridge, stuff the shells, put breadcrumbs on top and toast in the oven for about 10 mins, take out add (vegan) cheese and cook for another 5 - 10 minutes - and - waalaaa! dinner's done!

2. Baked Tofu: easy recipe! I cooked the tofu right after I took the zukes out of the oven and let them go for about 45 minutes (while I got the dinner we were eating last night served up and eaten), so that's ready for dinner on Tuesday. When I am ready to make dinner, I will pull that out of the fridge, put it under the broiler on low to heat up while I make the couscous. For the zuke pasta: I will use a spiralizer (or you could use a mandolin or veggie peeler) to make long pasta-like shapes and will put that on a baking sheet in the oven (with the tofu) to dry it out a little bit. You can top with (vegan) butter and some salt and pepper and maybe a little (vegan) cheese - or you can hide the "noodles" with tomato sauce. After the pasta dries out in the oven, it has more of a chewy, pasta-like consistency.

3. Cuke Rounds are like little appetizers at a fancy party. Cut the cukes into slices about 1/4" - 1/2" thick and using a sharp knife, take out a little section around the seeds (just pull out a little to make a depression - or you could cut all the way through, but leave the round intact - it's like a plate for the "tuna" salad). For the "tuna" salad: Take garbanzo beans (if canned, remove from can and rinse), put beans in a microwave safe bowl, cover with water and heat on 70% power for approximately 90 seconds. The beans should be very soft. Using either a knife or food processor, finely chop beans until they resemble tuna flakes. Add in some diced celery, some (vegan) mayo, a little bit of mustard, some salt and pepper to taste, a pinch or two of dried dill, and (optional) some kelp or dulse flakes (sold at Whole Foods or another health food store; this will give the "tuna" a more fishy taste). Mix to desired consistency and, using a teaspoon, mound a bit on top of each cuke round. It's perfect finger food for little ones!!

Thanks to everyone who left comments last week about what they do with extra zucchini!! I had been thinking about using the zukes to make "fake apple" muffins (subbing in zukes for apples), however two people suggested that I use extra zucchini to make chocolate brownies or zucchini chocolate cake!!! What?!?!??! I never thought of that, but you know now I.have.to.try.it!!! It sounds like a delicious, HEALTHY indulgence. And, for the sake of my readers, I will happily be your guinea pig and try it out and let you know how it is. It will be hard for me to suffer through baking and TASTING chocolate muffins and chocolate cake, but I will do it for you all. :) Overall, this makes me glad that I didn't use a lot of the zukes this weekend to make zucchini bread - which was my original intention but I ran out of time to make them last night.
Someone else suggested grilling the zukes - which I ended up doing on Friday night and putting over salad. MMMMMmmmmmm.

Thanks guys for your comments, keep 'em coming!!

I am hoping to link up to some of these parties this week :)

Happy Eating!

More later! :)

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Last Minute Easter Craft

One great last minute Easter craft: My little one was bored today so to occupy her for awhile we did the Easter Bunny Shoe Topper craft from Family Fun Magazine. So simple, so easy, and I didn't even have to leave the house for supplies! Yay!

Take one piece of craft felt and cut out two 3 x 5 inch rectangles. Using pinking shears, cut out a bunny face 'profile' to use as your base. Using another color of felt, cut out shapes to make the inside of the ears. Use craft glue and glue on googly eyes; Cut two slits (horizontally, about 1/2" long and about 1/2" apart) to make the nose; Pull a piece of ribbon through the slits (with the excess ribbon coming out of the back of the bunny face) to create the nose; Glue on two small pom-poms for the bunny cheeks; Add the smile and whiskers with a black sharpie.

Tie on to shoelaces or shoes (Velcro straps in our case!). And let your little one emulate the Easter Bunny's hopping. :)

Happy Easter!!! :)

More later!  :)

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Up-Cycled T-Shirt Dress

We decided to clean out our closets for the Goodwill. Mr. NoNo was doing a great job and he got rid of a lot of old t-shirts and sweaters that he doesn't wear anymore. Unfortunately, Miss NoNo got very upset that he was getting rid of his Hawaii t-shirt (that he has had since our honeymoon!). She was nearly crying (!) and she told him that he needed to keep it because she thought it was her favorite shirt. But, since he really didn't want it anymore, I told her that I would make it into something that SHE could wear. That way, SHE would be able to keep her favorite t-shirt!! :)

And...we made the "Up-Cycled T-Shirt Dress".

Lay the t-shirt out and use a dress (or nightgown!) that fits a little bit loose for your "pattern". Fold the pattern in half and lay it right against the middle of the XL t-shirt. If you have a design on the front of the "old" t-shirt that you want to be centered, now is the time to make sure that the design is on the center of your fold.

Fold the original t-shirt in half (both your pattern and the t-shirt should be folded vertically in half with the folds of each laying together). Cut around the pattern, leaving some space between the pattern and your cut for a seam allowance - I used 1/2". Make sure to omit the sleeves at this point - your pieces should look like parts of a tank dress.

You should now have two pieces that, when unfolded, are the back and the front halves of the new dress. Lay down the dress pieces against one of the remaining t-shirt pieces to cut the sleeves out. (To do this, I laid the newly cut pieces down and traced where the "sleeve" ended; then I put the pattern over all of that, lining up the cut "sleeve" and the pattern; I traced around the sleeve on the pattern - my pattern was ruffled on the edge, so I added a little bit extra to make up for the ruffled portion; cut it out, leaving room for a seam allowance.) You should have four sleeve pieces. Line them up to make sure that all pieces are about the same size (so that the sleeves look even once you sew them on).

Pin the front and back pieces together along the sides and along the shoulders. Cut out the neck more - you should need to do this to make sure it fits over your daughter's head (trust me - - I didn't check and I had to cut the neck once, then re-cut again (!) to get it right...you want to only have to sew the neckline hem ONE time - lol). Pin around the neckline hem (I used about 1/4" hem).

Sew along the shoulder hems, the side hems and the neckline hem. Next, pin two sleeve pieces together and then sew to make a sleeve (open at both ends). Do the same to the other sleeve and then pin the sleeve pieces on to the dress body. Sew the sleeves onto the dress body - you want to put the sleeves inside of the arm holes - with the dress turned inside out. Once you sew the seam, you will flip the dress right side out and pull the sleeves out and your hem is perfectly hidden. (FYI - my sleeves did not fit perfectly flush to the dress body. Fortunately, since the pieces were the same size, I was able to fold the sleeves (like little pleats) in the same areas on both sides of the dress - - adding a little extra omph! that wouldn't have been there otherwise...so don't worry if it's not a perfect fit, it will still come out good!). Trim the bottom hemline so that it is the same length in the front and the back.

At this point, I decided to not hem the sleeves or the bottom of the new dress. Since it was t-shirt material, I pulled the "hems" taut until they started to curl up. To do that: I just grabbed two parts of the hem a couple of inches apart, pulled and pulled again (but not so hard that you rip the shirt) - the material will start to curl up around the cut edge.

There was a large paint splatter on one part of the new dress (from an old painting job that Mr. NoNo did). Since I couldn't cut that part out without ruining the dress - or making it waaaaay too short, I decided to make a little flower with an extra strip of fabric and just sew that over the paint stain.

Here is Miss NoNo in her dress to check the fit (before I "finished" the hems). Obviously, she loves it!!
What do you think?? If you try it out, let me know - - I would love to see how everyone works their old tees into new, comfy dresses for the little ones! :)

More later!! :)

Ribbon Bows!

I recently bought this outfit for Miss NoNo that I thought she would love - - it's matching shorts and a shirt. The shirt has matching buttons and a ruffle down the middle and the shorts have a tuxedo pant-like strip down the sides that is sparkly. I really did think that she would like it - and it's her favorite color. HOWEVER, she pretty much refused to wear it...I brought it out every.single.day one week and every.single.time she said that she didn't like it and she wanted to wear something else.
...Enter the pink ribbon bows....


I got this ribbon and the buttons from JoAnn Fabrics. I had Miss NoNo help pick out the ribbon colors and the buttons and then we went home and got started! We bought a lot so that we could make a bunch and get her excited about putting the ribbon bows (flowers) on all of her clothes, if we needed to!!

I cut the ribbon to about 17 or 18 inches to make the bows. Then I took it out about one inch and folded it back in on itself. Where it comes together (in between my thumb and fingers) will be the center of the bow.

Make another loop on the other side - the same way as the first - take it out about one inch and then fold it back to join the 'center'.

Continue creating loops, alternating sides, until you have the desired numbers of 'petals' for your flowers. I did four loops per side for eight loops total.

Pinch all the loops together and check the distance of each loop. The individual loops should all be about even.

Insert a threaded needle through the 'center' of your flower.

Before pushing the needle all the way through the first time, fan out the 'petals' until they are about equal distance from each other (once you start sewing, you won't be able to adjust the placement).

Using the needle, pull the thread through a couple of times in each direction to secure your new 'flower'. At this point, you could trim the extra piece of ribbon (the remnant) just to clean it up, but I left as is.

Place the flower on whatever garment you want to attach it to. Run your thread through the center of the flower and the garment a couple of times in each direction to secure it. At this point, you don't have to worry about how the thread looks because you will be covering up the stitches with a button in the next step.

This is how the flower looks sewn on to Miss NoNo's shorts.

Place the button in the center of the flower and, using your threaded needle, run the thread through the button, through the flower, and through the garment. Do this a couple of times to secure the button to the flower.

This is the finished product. You could trim the extra piece, but I left it (as you can see!) to keep the flower full.

And this is how it looks from a distance. :)

To complete the outfit, I also added a flower to Miss NoNo's matching shirt.

This was a fast and easy project. It's amazing how quickly I was able to "upgrade" this outfit. And now, Miss NoNo WANTS to wear it! Ahhhh! 

If there is a step or two that is not clear, let me know and I will attempt to re-explain it better!!

I got inspiration for this idea from Family Fun Magazine - it's a great resource for quick crafts that keep your babies happy and entertained!!

More later! :)

T-Shirt Necklace

Hey all - this is my first tutorial...I will be learning as we go here, so hopefully, they will get better from here on out!!! :)
I found this link for a necklace up-cycle (from an old t-shirt) here. It was a really cute idea and I just happened to have an old t-shirt that was perfect for this!
The Martha Stewart link suggested using the whole shirt, but I only used four strips. It came out looking pretty cool!

Here are the steps:

Take an old t-shirt or camisole and spread it flat on a cutting surface (it has to be t-shirt style material, not anything ribbed, trust me on this one - - I already tried! lol).

Measure and cut strips (or skinny tubes) from the t-shirt. I used 1/2" strips and that came out great; but, you could use wider strips to make it more chunky.

Separate the strips and take each one and stretch it out by holding on to the seams and then pulling a bit to make it curl or roll in itself. I did the strips individually so that I could make sure that the tubes didn't come apart at the seams. The more you stretch, the more the tube curls in on itself. To make the curls tighter, I also took each tube (after pulling on it a bit) and then just separated my hands by 6 inches or so and pulled it again a little bit more.

Put all the tubes together at the seams. You should have all the tube/circles joined together and all the seams in just about the same place. Hold one side of the sets of seams with one hand and the other side with the other hand. Twist one hand around 180 degrees (one hand should be facing up and one hand facing down). This will give you a figure eight with your tubes/circles. Put both sets of seams together and pin to keep them in place. Cut one more strip from your t-shirt and use that (without stretching) to wrap around (or hide) your pinned sets of seams. (Remove the pins.) I wrapped the final piece around and around until it wouldn't go anymore, tied it as tight as possible, and then knotted it. I cut off the hanging ends and then singed it with a small torch to make sure it wouldn't fray. I don't know if that last step was actually necessary, but I did it just in case!

I also made a purple one for Miss M (out of one of her old t-shirts) that she really liked wearing!!!

In the future, I will attempt to take more pics at each actual step so that my explanations don't have to stand on their own so much.

More later!! :)

Tuesday Tag Along

I am really excited - I have finally created a tutorial (to be posted, probably, tomorrow!!) - yay! And...I found this linky group called Tuesday Tag Along!
Check out the button!!
More later! :)

One Hour Sundress

So I continued on with my weekend crafting projects on Saturday by making the One Hour Sundress from FromAnIgloo.blogspot.com - it really was simple and beautiful (and easy to make). The directions were so clear and easy to follow. Whenever I got stuck, I just refered back to the pictures or re-read the description and I was back on track. Very exciting. Miss M might just end up with a BUNCH of these sundresses - lol.
She did wear the dress for the first time yesterday and she seemed very impressed that she could put it on by herself!! :) I like that and so does she!
I have more ideas for things to make for this weekend, but I also want to start going through closest and cleaning up in general (which could take me most of the day on Friday), so we will see how much actual sewing takes place....but, I am READY, just in case I have some more free time! Hahaha!
We also went to the AOP on Sunday - - which was nice...we probably haven't been there in over a month. However, it was VERY crowded and there was a festival going on and they had crafts inside. It's not as much fun to be there when the place is wall to wall with other people. We started off with lunch in the Scuba Cafe - - I had a Minestrone soup (which, amazingly!, I have never had before). It was delicious. I think that I have my new favorite dish to eat there - - my pb&j sandwich has been replaced, I guess. hahahaha. Unfortunately, I think we went at just the wrong time for Miss M. We were probably there about 1/2 an hour when she started whining and crying and deciding that "NO" was her new favorite word! :( It wasn't until I got us back to the car that I realized that it was nap time.  :(  Next time, we will be leaving earlier and getting home earlier, and hopefully, that will make everyone happy!
More later!  :)