Mother's Day: Toddler Friendly DIY

This Mother's Day project is simple, quick, and toddler friendly. Sydney and I made these to give to both of her Grandma's and I think they will love it.

Supplies Needed:

Construction paper and tissue paper

Scissors

Mod Podge and/or any medium gel

Pencil

Paintbrush

Hole puncher and ribbon/string

Glass vase (we got ours a Wal-Mart)

Pipe cleaners (we used green)

Stapler

Cardstock & printed poem

Dull knife or letter opener

 First we traced Sydney's hand-print on 4 different colors of construction paper.

 I then folded them in half and cut them out so that I got 2 prints from each color.

 We then took our polka dot tissue paper and tore it into little strips.

 We then covered the vase with mod podge using a paintbrush. (This was Syd's favorite part.)

 We then adhered the pieces of tissue paper to the vase and then mod podged over it again when we were done. (The vase needs to dry overnight.)

 Here is the poem that I tied to the vase using a piece of purple raffia. (I got the poem from one of the teachers at my school.)

 Then you fold each hand-print around a green pipe cleaner and staple it into place at the bottom.

 Then take a dull knife or letter opener and curl the edges down to give the fingers a petal effect. (I used a butter knife.)

 When you're done, your Mom or Grandma will have a wonderful, thoughtful gift that they can keep forever. Easy Peasey!

DIY: PVC Sprinkler for the Kiddos

Inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest, we decided to construct Sydney her own PVC Sprinkler/Waterfall to play in on the hot summer days we have here in Florida. This was a super easy project and very inexpensive. I think it took us maybe an hour and cost around $10.

We designed the sprinkler to be 5 feet tall by 4 feet wide. 

Here are the materials we used:

(3) 3/4" PVC pipes that we 10 feet long each.

8 oz. pack of purple primer & solvent cement (glue) 

(2) 90 degree 3/4" PVC elbows

(2) 3/4" PVC tees

(3) 3/4" PVC caps

(1) threaded hose connector

Drill with 3/16" drill bit

PVC pipe cutter

Measuring tape & pencil

Time to cut:

2 sections at 5' (just cut the 10' in half) - sides

1 section at 4' - top

4 sections at 18" - legs

Assembly:

Start with the legs on the bottom. 

Put the primer/glue on each end of the 18 inch sections and connect one side to each PVC tee. 

Then prime/glue the caps onto the 3 ends of the tee'd sections. Be sure to leave one end open for the hose connector.

 Prime/glue the threaded hose connector onto the last open end of the tee'd section.

Then prime/glue in each side 5' foot section as below.

 Prime/glue on one 3/4" elbow to each side section.

 Prime/glue the top 4' foot section to connect the two side panels together.

Then you can drill in the holes however far apart you want them. We did one every inch or so directly underneath and then we added some to each side.

 Have fun!

Dreaming of Fall

Happy Weekend!
I just love fall, the colors are gorgeous, the weather is perfect and there are usually amazing smells to go along with it. I love for my house to smell like cinnamon in the fall, there's just something comforting and warm about it to me. Now if only the weather in Florida would get the hint and not be so flippin hot and muggy!

Another great thing about fall is all of the super cute crafts! Sydney and her Grandma started their first fall craft last weekend, painting ceramic pumpkins. Sydney was pretty impressive, she was concentrating so hard and was really meticulous in her brushstrokes. I love seeing her focus so much on something, she gets this determined look on her face that is adorable.

Look at her little hand gripping that brush.

Crazy face!

Pure focus and concentration.

Tweet Me & Something

So I gave in and joined Twitter like a few hours ago and I'm already obsessing about it. I knew this would happen! So if you wanna be twitter buddies, follow me (see the flag on the sidebar). I promise to follow you back because I know you are all awesome.

I am actually home sick today so I thought I'd take the chance to blog something since I haven't in like over a week. So here's something:

Such concentration.

This is how Syd rolls, an apron and a diaper.
What more do you need?

Love these books, paint with water over and over again.

Printing with leaves we found at the park.

She destroyed it two seconds later. See above.

Little Pisces....

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. When I was little my Mom always handmade all of my costumes and it's really important to me to make all of Sydney's too. This is her costume from last year. Obviously, she's a mermaid! I have a slight obsession with mermaids and since she is a Pisces, I thought it would be perfect for her 1st Halloween.

The top is a onesie that I cut purple shells out of felt and hand stitched them on.

For the tail, I cut a template out of a large piece of dark green felt. I then hand cut out all of the tiny scallops from various shades of blue, green and white felt. I used a heavier sparkly green felt for the bottom of the tail. I then glued all of the scallops on the template in a varying pattern. Instead of making the tail go all the way around (since she couldn't walk then), I just used a strip of Velcro to attach the tail to a pair of green shorts. (I had to use shorts since it was still in the 90's in October last year!) That way she could still move her legs around and it was easy to get on and off.

Lastly, I cut a star out of white and purple felt and glued them to a hair-clip.

I am in the process of making her costume for this year. It's from one of my favorite movies (that was a book first) and I was enamored with this character all of my childhood. I'll give you a few hints: braids, gingham, ruby red.