Classroom Class

I've been getting my room ready and thanks to Pinterest I'm well on my way there.

First off is just a poster about revision and editing. I see these all over on Pinterest as anchor charts.  I laminated mine to keep up all year. It's a nice addition to my new writing program.

And secondly, with a little help from Claire, I made a sign for my door. I found this on Pinterest as well.  I used burlap and paint, as I deduced from the picture. I cut my burlap into 10x3 strips and folded them in half to be 5x3.  I had claire paint my paper pieces white, and after they dried I added the lines with sharpies and a light hand.  

Then I painted on the letters.  The pencil I cut the bottom to be a triangle and filled in the tip with a sharpie. We painted the body with yellow. I didn't opt for erasers, way too much work for a three year old.

The last step was threading through some white yarn to hang my banner. I glued the pieces in half with hot glue with this in mind and left the top bend unglued to form a whole for the yarn.

I hope these additions make for a fun and educational year!

Tales from the Gnome Home

Claire and I have been at no loss for adventures this summer. We spend our weeks doing various outdoor activities, working on our handwriting and letters, and of course crafts!

This craft project took several days to complete, but I think it turned out nicely. I saw several of these concepts on Pinterest, with links to buy your kits but we thought to just make our own.

I took charge of the glue gun and glued together the door and window frames and shutters using craft popsicle sticks and hot glue.  Claire did all the painting. I originally thought to make curtains but loved the way this yellow fabric made the windows look like they were glowing so I just glued it on the back.

I sealed the projects with multiple coats of Mod Podge then sprayed everything with a sealant including the gnomes.

Claire helped me search for flat rocks, sticks, and bark for our finishing touches. She even found these cute split acorn shells I put by the door.  We really want to add pinecones,  but our searches have been fruitless. Or pineconeless,  if you will.

I hot glued all the things to the tree.  I couldn't find one good website to describe how to attach these things and I wasn't keen on drilling or putting nails into the tree.

Looks pretty good now! Don't know how long it will last, but it sure was fun and Claire loved finding all the parts. Now we have a whimsical addition to our front yard! The gnomes sure seem thrilled!

China Rebellion

My very favorite thing in my kitchen is my fancy china. Everyone needs some. I got a cabinet to display it properly, but it just isn't the prettiest...

I saw a cool and easy project on Pinterest that required no altering of the cabinet itself. Sure painting furniture sounds fun (no... it doesn't ) but I don't want to hurt the cabinet. So here is what I did!

I used removable double sided tape for scrapbooking and simple wrapping paper. If I had it to do again, maybe I would have invested in something like wallpaper, but that's not nearly so cheap.

Then I added the china and some flowers for accent. What do you think?  I think it looks a lot more sharp and makes the china look happy

Doors shut, apologies for glare.

Head on view, doors open. Also the light is making the paper look a little crinkled. It's barely noticeable with the doors shut. Darn this camera phone. 

What do you think? Was it an improvement?

The Dishwasher Disaster

So my dishwasher has looked hideous for about a year. Since we realized we were stuck with a monkey. A monkey? You ask. Yes.

Have you ever seen those cute magnetic pictures they sell at the dollar store? Well it's my mom's favorite place to find stuff for Claire and she got this Valentines Day monkey for her. Claire had a lot of fun sticking it together. She stuck it to the white, magnetic expanse of the dishwasher and we thought nothing of it. Until we tried to take it off. It melted onto the dishwasher! I panicked and thought it could just stay. Except it wasn't put together so it was a disembodied monkey. So we tried everything to get it off and save the surface, giving up before it scratched the surface.

Today I'd had enough. I wanted to get it off, so I scratched it off, along with the pretty white surface.

I saw a pin on Pinterest about putting stuff over the dishwasher. I decided chalkboard vinyl would allow claire to still play while covering my disaster. I saw other ideas with bead board and metal tiles, but nothing truly matched our kitchen. So chalkboard it is!

Overall I like the look. Anything is better than the monkey. Unfortunately it's not the best writing surface, but it's still fun to play with. If I did it again I don't know if I'd buy this particular product. I got this decal from Target. It was smaller than promised online and seems really delicate for something that is intended to be removable. Still... anything is better than that monkey... and for that I'm thankful!

Hello There...

I have taken nearly a year off from blogging. I'm not sure 100% why other than life got in the way and I didn't feel much like celebrating life or projects or general nonsense. 

So have I done anything at all this whole year?  Well, I made a quilt:

This is for Claire's bed. I made it larger than a twin size so it could upgrade to a larger size some day but also right now cover the fact I'm too lazy to make a bed skirt. 

I made a Halloween costume for Claire, too:

I made a full black dress out of jersey fabric. It was just a self done pattern based on a shirt of hers that I studied. But of course, for Claire, we still have to keep all the tulle makers in business so I made an over skirt of black and purple tulle. I also sewed tulle to her sleeves and her hat. I didn't make the hat, I just made it better. 

So those are my two severely crafty items that I can think of that you missed. I didn't use patterns or anything to share. Just my brain and a calculator. So that's not real exciting if you want to do it too, unless you're willing to hang out with me and borrow my brain for awhile.

 I plan on getting back into the blogging mode soon. I'm testing the waters. I miss writing. I do. I just don't know yet about celebration. That's what this was all about and right now I'm still hesitant to feel thrilled about the everyday. I'm trying though. This is my first step.