Tag: crafting

That Mom Life

Posted on by Mery

Fingerprint Animals

Earlier this year, I bought washable ink pads for a church project and we recently put them to work in a really fun craft! I’ve always been a big fan of handprint, footprint, and fingerprint crafts, but after a few challenging attempts with Little Gal when she was much younger, I haven’t been up for attempting them recently. I finally decided to brave up and Little Gal and I sat down and made fingerprint animals (like these) on greeting cards. Little Gal LOVED the project and it wasn’t as messy and challenging as I thought it might be. The end results were super adorable and I’m looking forward to doing this craft with her again soon!

Penn and Teller’s Fool Us

We have pretty much “cut the cord”, so to speak, and almost everything we watch is streaming through our Roku. One of the things we’ve missed from our cable days is Penn and Teller’s Fool Us. My hubby loves magic, especially Penn and Teller’s magic, so we have been watching this show for years. I was so happy to find out from my father-in-law that you can watch the show for free on the CW Seed Roku app. We’re having such fun catching up on the show. I even figured out one trick that neither my hubby or Penn and Teller knew how was done!

Andrea Mills

I’ll caution you that the next little bit will include some sad talk about death and loss. Feel free to skip if you don’t feel that this would be good for you to read right now.

I was so deeply saddened to hear about illness and death of Andrea Mills and her unborn son. I began watching Andrea Mills’ videos several years ago. While I live a very different life from her in many ways, I still found inspiration from her faith, kindness, and motherly care of her large family. She was an amazingly organized and accomplished woman who took such good care of her family. She touched so many through her channel and willingness to share about her life with the world. She will be missed. Please pray for her family as they navigate through this loss and adjustment of life. 

Lift and Find Toddler Game – Pin It or Forget It?

Posted on by Mery

This toddler lift and find game offers a way to recycle wipes containers while providing a fun and educational game for your little one.  The only real challenge with this project is peeling off the wipes lids, but once that effort is over the rest is easy peasy. I used one of the free printables of shapes for this game, but I love that I can create my own games as well based on what we learning. I’m looking forward to using this game and having it grow with us! 

Pin: Toddler Lift and Find Game
Project Time: 20 minutes
Project Cost: Less than $1
Pin it or forget it? Pin it!

Pinspired: Ikea Bookshelves

Posted on by Mery

I’ve always been a huge reader (thanks Dad and Mom for reading to me so much as kid and supplying my book habit!) and I feel like my love of reading helped me in so many ways throughout my life. It’s important to me that books an essential part of Little One’s upbringing and I want to make sure she always has books at her fingertips (or at Mommy and Daddy’s fingertips until she’s old enough to enjoy them on her own).  Our small rooms don’t accommodate large bookshelves easily, so when I saw this pin, I thought it was a brilliant idea!
 
Project Time: 1 hour or so
Project Cost: approx $5/shelf
Pin it or forget it? Pin it!
 
One of Little One’s aunties (who also purchased the spice racks for us on an Ikea trip) redid my former dresser and chest as her baby shower gift, so we didn’t want to mount the bookshelves directly to the beautiful piece. We decided to make a corner of her room for her books, near the glider where we will likely sit and read to her.
 
We found some great little paint samples at Lowe’s and picked one up in a bright green to compliment her room colors. I can’t take an credit for the implementation of this project, Hubby did it all from painting, putting them together, and mounting them to the wall. We did have issues mounting them to the wall due to the type of hanging areas on the back of the spice rack, but otherwise I’m really happy with how they turned out! The hold her books well and add a nice little pop of color to the corner area. There’s no way we would have had room for a bookcase right now, so this was a wonderful solution.

Pinspired: Baby Blanket Ladder

Posted on by Mery


 

 

 

Little One was blessed to receive many blankets in preparation for her arrival, including some beautiful handmade pieces. My mom mentioned an idea like this and I said that I knew I had seen it somewhere before. Funny enough, a few weeks later I was perusing my boards (what, you don’t browse your boards for fun?) and found that I had pinned it at least a year earlier! I explained my idea to the Hubby and thankfully he agreed to make it for Little One’s room.
 
Project Time: 2-3 hours
Project Cost: approx $20
Pin it or forget it? Pin it*
 
*I will say the Hubby handled this project completely from start to finish and at the end, he wasn’t thrilled how it came out (although I was). So please consider that when deciding to take on the project.
 
The Hubby made this with two pieces of wood (I’m not sure on the specifics of sizes) and dowel rods. We decided on a nice cream color to paint the sides, since we thought that a color might draw attention away from the beautiful blankets. The rods didn’t need painted since they would be covered. 
 
I love how her blanket ladder turned out! It is one of my favorite pieces in our house. It’s a great display for some of her blankets, adds decoration to her room, and doesn’t take a lot of space. If we had more room, I’d ask the Hubby for another for our blankets… but even 6+ months later I’m not sure he has recovered from making it. 

DIY No Mess Easter Grass

Posted on by Mery

Update: 

I can’t even decide what the best part of this no-mess Easter grass is!

First, it’s no-mess. No more plasticy strands clinging to everything in sight and showing up weeks after the basket is put away.

While I totally love this lime green color, it can be customized to match the little one’s basket!

It’s reusable! No more spending each year on something that’s just going to go in the trash.

It’s even washable! Have an unexpected melty chocolate in your basket? Throw this grass in a laundry bag and wash it up for next year.

I’ve really loved this Easter grass both years we have used it in our family. This year I created a video to show how to make your own Easter grass. You can see it here: 

 

 

Original Post:


 

 

 

Do you ever finish a craft project and get super excited because it turned out great? That’s how I felt with my Easter grass project. When I started making Mudpie’s Easter basket I thought “wouldn’t it be cute if I sewed in some yarn ‘grass’?” I contemplated this for awhile and since I’m trying to go with the “let’s not overly complicate something that has already been done” technique I decided to look around and found this post from Lady Behind The Curtain (http://www.ladybehindthecurtain.com/making-grass-from-yarn/) that I based my Easter grass on. I didn’t use the plan exactly but it helped having that idea to go off of. It wasn’t difficult but took much longer than I expected. I kept reminding myself that this is a project that will hopefully last through her young years at least since I get frustrated when projects take longer than expected. When I got all the grass poofs done and in the basket I was so excited. They were the last touch I needed to really love the basket it seems. I’m so happy with how it turned out!

 

Here’s how to make your own DIY No Mess Easter Grass: 

Pick your favorite color acrylic yarn. I used neon green, but I also think hot pink would be super cute. You’ll also need scissors and something to wrap the yarn around. I used a small container of labels I had but an old gift card would be perfect as well.

Hold one end of the yarn and wrap the yarn several times. I found 45 times worked great for me. Cut the end of your yarn.

Slide a piece of yarn under your yarn wraps and tie a very tight knot in the middle of your yarn. Do not cut yarn.

Carefully slide wraps off onto your hand. Slide your scissors in the middle of the wraps and cut the loops across from your knot. Hold on to the knot area while doing this if you can.

 
At your knot hold the yarn strands together and wrap the tail of the knot around the bundle around 5 times. Use the other end of the knot tail to tightly knot these threads. 
 
 
Congrats you’ve made your first Easter grass poof! Now keep going until you have enough Easter grass to cover the bottom of your basket. 
 
 
I thought that I might try to connect the grass to the bottom of the basket or connect the grass poofs together, but I ultimately opted not to. Since this Easter grass is no mess, I don’t mind if baby girl decides to throw the poofs all about when she gets older. Plus this way I can take out the grass if I need to later for any reason. 
 
What do you think of this DIY Easter grass? Does traditional Easter grass end up in odd places in your house or just mine? Let me know in the comments below! 

Mudpie’s Crochet Easter Basket

Posted on by Mery

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
While there are many beautiful Easter baskets on market these days, I knew that I wanted to crochet Mudpie’s first Easter basket for her. I loved the idea of it being her “main gift” this first Easter and something that could be used for several years as she grew. While I probably could have figured out a pattern on my own, I try to remember that it’s silly to reinvent the wheel and set out on my own Easter search. 
 
 
 
 
I found this adorable pattern by Jam made that was just the style I was looking for. I decided to use the yarn I had left over from her baby blanket as the color pallet. I had bought extra of each color to have for other items for her since I think it’s fun that many of her items coordinate. 

 
The pattern is simple and delightful to work up. I haven’t worked with two strands of yarn at the same time before, but was surprised to find that it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Working with two strands created a nice and sturdy basket. The handles are sturdy too, although I find that when lifting it from the handle the basket bends just slightly so I’m thinking about maybe adding a cardboard base next year. For this year it’s fine though. I think the size works well – small but still large enough to fill with goodies or eggs. I even added an extra element not in the pattern that really pushed this project over the edge into “Love!” land for me. I’ll share that and what is going to be in Mudpie’s basket this year a little later in the week, so stay tuned! 

Little One’s Blanket

Posted on by Mery

 
 
When I got to the stage that my friend circle began having babies, I decided I really wanted to have a standing gift that I could give to welcome all the kiddos into the world. It needed to be useful and able to be personalized for each family. And simple because, let’s face it, I don’t do well with complicated projects on a deadline and I’d prefer to give them to the mommas before the baby is born, not on their first birthday!

 

 
I decided on crocheting a small baby blanket that could be customized with the baby’s room colors. I make them in cotton or acrylic so that it can be used and washed. Typically I make them from the Tiramisu Baby Blanket pattern, which is a really beautiful pattern, but I have ventured into some different designs as well. I love that I can make the blanket special for each family and pray over that child while I’m crocheting. It makes it feel like I can stitch a little extra love for them.
 

 

When I found out I was expecting Little One, I knew she needed to have her own special blanket made by Mommy. I knew she would be getting several baby blankets (and she did get some beautiful ones from people who love her already) so I decided to make her a blanket that will fit her bed when she’s a toddler and will be big enough to wrap around her when she can toddle in to watch tv with Mommy and Daddy on the couch.
 

 

I decided on the Granny Stripe Blanket pattern, since it was a pattern that I’ve been eying for awhile. It was really a wonderful pattern and a joy to make, even at a larger size. I usually get downtrodden about halfway through big projects like blankets, but did not with this pattern. Surprisingly enough, I was even able to get this done before her baby shower!
I also took my time picking the colors. This was the first time I’ve really used Pinterest to pin color pallets and narrowing down what I wanted the feel of her room to be like. When I got word that Little One was a she, I finalized my plans and picked out the yarn at Hobby Lobby. They have beautiful colors in “I Love This Yarn” that are reasonably priced and feel nice and soft.
 
 
Overall I’m very happy with how it turned out. I’d like the edging to look a little smoother, but I can deal with that. I love the reverse crab stitch that I used on the outermost edging. The colors are bright and remind me of a fun woodland scene, which is what I was going for. Hopefully Little One will like it just as much!