Thanksgiving Trees

This past Wednesday I went to Spencer's school to make Thanksgiving trees with some of the kids in his grade. For those who don't know, a Thanksgiving tree is where you record the things you're thankful for and hang them on the tree. They loved it. And it was relatively easy to put together.

My supplies:



-- A branch tree that Reg and I put together. [see below]
-- Paper circles that I cut out of metallic card stock with a circle punch and then punched holes in with a hole punch.
-- White pens. Very exciting.
-- Twine, which we didn't end up using a lot of -- the holes in the circles slipped right on most of the branches.
-- Jingle bells, to give the trees a little bling. They all loved this, by the way. Not only are they shiny, but their trees jingle. Good stuff.



To make the branch trees, Reg sawed a larger branch from a tree that had fallen in our yard into little bases. He drilled a hole in the middle, and -- this is where things get exciting -- I glue-gunned the smaller branches into them. I love any excuse to get my glue gun out.



They love looking at their little tags and talking about what they wrote. Spencer really likes his one that says "Toy 100% luve."



The good news is that Mom got luve 100% too.



So did Dad.



And a personal favorite of mine from Henry's tree:



Me. Too.

Trick-or-Treat in Paper

I love this Made by Joel Halloween project! So clever and cute. I'm definitely going to try and make one of these with my boys. I think they'll love it too. And probably add some "interesting" characters to the mix. Check out the full tutorial with download here.

Dear Photograph

Take a picture of a picture from the past in the present.
That's what Dear Photograph is all about.
Here are some that caught my eye:









Submit your own -- it would be a fun project to try and create!

Hoppy

Howdy, and Happy Friday. We've got a weekend full of soccer games and Easter celebrations. My kids asked me if the Easter Bunny was going to come to our house, and I pulled the "Oh, um, I'm not sure, but I'm super busy washing dishes right now" parenting technique. We've never celebrated Easter that way before, and it's too hard for me to pretend that a giant bunny hops over and brings gifts. Plus, that's not really what I want the focus to be. But if I tell them there isn't an Easter bunny, then what do I say about Santa and the Tooth Fairy and Leprechauns? Would the gig be up?

Anyway, on to less conflicting matters. How great are these paper puppets by Ferzechan?





They are $10 each and would make an excellent little puppet troupe.

Comments for the giveaway are now closed! I loved reading what you guys listen to on the road. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner, that lucky duck...

All that Glitters

This is not going to be a cutting edge craft post, but recently, I happened upon some sequin confetti, and thought "where has confetti been all my life?" You guys, it's the best. It's so easy and uncomplicated to enjoy, and adds the perfect little embellishment to drawings. We don't do a ton of art projects around here that involve more than paper, markers and colored pencils...and the occasional stamps, but only when M isn't around. Why, you ask? Because of more than one traumatic kid-crafting experience that ended with all of us nearly in tears.

But this. This is an easy, surefire way to make all involved happy. We grabbed some construction paper, crayons and glue, and went for it. I like to cover my tabletops with Kraft paper whenever glue is involved. Spending my evening scraping up glue bits is not my idea of a good time. I'd rather be watching Swamp People, you know?



Can we please just take a moment to observe the state of our crayons:



No matter how many new boxes I buy, the majority are reduced to pieces in no time. This would have driven me batty when I was little.



S is almost always the first one to jump into anything art related.



I love the open-mouth concentration look.



And I love how these little feet don't touch the ground.



At first, H didn't want to fool with the sequins, but I finally convinced him that there are few things scarier than a dragon with sequin eyes.



So in conclusion, it's all about the little things -- especially sparkly little things. And projects that don't lead to tears. And yelling. And locking myself in the bathroom.

Have a great weekend, and be sure to check in next week for a big giveaway! I know, a giveaway? Yes! And it's going to be huge...

Rain and Branches

Hello! How was your weekend? Ours was good -- dreary, but good. We've had a lot LOT of rain lately. Think about all the snow everyone has been getting and just translate that to rain down here. We went to the library on Saturday. M "entertained" everyone by doing sprints around the stacks and squealing. The librarians love it when we show up. I checked out Valley of the Dolls. Thought it might be good in that Real Housewives kind of way: a little dark and twisted mixed up in absurd dysfunction. I decided to balance it out with a Rascal Flatts CD.

Anyway, I've recently discovered this website called Made by Joel. It's a blog by one decidedly creative dad who creates things for his kids. One of my favorites is this post on branch trees:



A perfect way to bring the outdoors in when the weather is...how shall I say it nicely...crummy. See all his clever creations here!

A-gift-wrapping I will go...

The next two days are going to be filled with gift-wrapping for me, and I'm actually looking forward to it as long as it involves these 3 things: a little Love Actually, a glass of wine and kids in bed. When it comes to the actual trimmings, I usually operate under the Sound of Music philosophy: brown paper packages tied up with string. And then I top it off with the all-important tag!



I can't seem to get enough of large manila shipping tags. You can buy a 100 pack of these babies at Office Depot for about $6. I had thought about using double sided tape to stick the business card size enclosures I made to the tags, but then I remembered this little machine I've had sitting in the corner collecting dust. About 3 years ago, Reginald D. bought me a Xyron sticker machine, and I have yet to get the thing out of it's box. I think the "machine" part of the name intimidates me. If it just said "Xyron double sided tape dispenser" it probably would've been out of the box a while ago. But last week, I finally got the thing out:



Can I just tell you how addictive it is? It's so easy, and the adhesive is incredibly strong. Before you know it, everything in my house is going to be Xyron-ed!

Some other fantastic tag ideas I've seen around lately:



[left, The Haystack Needle Japanese Tape Tags; right, Sweet Paul]



[left, Eat Drink Chic downloadable tags; right, Ruffled -- These wooden discs would look great if you drilled a hole in them and strung some twine through it]

And a fun article in LMNOP:



How about you? Do you like to wrap gifts or would you rather pay someone to do it? Are you a wrapping paper junkie? Tag junkie? Ribbon junkie? All of the above junkie?

Book Art for Kids

A while back, I saw this book [above] on Two Straight Lines, and was so inspired. I know my boys would love something like this, especially with all the Lego figures they create. It's just the whole time thing, you know? As in, when in the world am I supposed to get this done?? The boys are out of school for the next two weeks, and I'm thinking it may be the perfect time to try this out. It also just so happens that the latest issue of LMNOP has a perfectly timed tutorial on making books with your kids:





You can download the full issue here. These could also make fun grandparent gifts. Have any of you ever tried something like this? Any tips?

I'll be sure to post pictures when/if we get out act together. It may be just too much fun to laze about the next two weeks!

A Sand Table for M

We got the idea for this table from some of our creative friends [thanks, Elisabeth and Jim!]. Ben had all the wood laying around his shop and bought the cement bin at Lowe's. All-in, this bad boy cost about $20 [including the sand], and took about one morning to build.





I, personally, did not have anything to do with the actual building part -- it probably would've taken me much longer to do it, and then I've no doubt it would've been wobbly. That's why it's so great that Reggie D lives with me. I bring him ideas, and he makes it happen. He's cool like that.

We are going to get another tub for water, so we can switch the sand out. It was my experience with the boys that whenever the sand and the water were there side-by-side, the sand and the water ended up mixed together in both bins. Then it got grody. What can I say except that my kids were not born rule followers; not the kids who are concerned about things going in their places.

And yes, sadly, it is still warm enough here for sunsuits.

Chance It

Check out this fun installation by Cheree Berry Paper for Kate Spade // The store's entryway is lined with envelopes containing cards printed with a spirited chance, as they say, such as "smile at a stranger" or "crash a party." I like interactive installations, and this one in particular because it has a fortune cookie-like fun to it. One of my favorite parts? The one envelope outside the grid labeled "extra risky." Ooh-la-la!



[See more pictures and read the full description Behind the Kate Spade Curtain]

Heart Love Note

I stumbled upon this creative tutorial the other day on Eat/Drink/Chic, and thought I'd share. It reminded me a little of the cootie catchers. I love seeing what can be created and intimated through one little sheet of paper. Isn't paper magical?

P.S. - How's the letter writing going??!

Moomah

I've been savoring the last issue of Cookie, so just came across the article about Moomah, the creative space for kids in NYC. It looks like such an inspiring place...



I love the white, blue, gray and wood tones in the decor.





Here's a snippet from their website on what they are about:



And for those of us who don't live nearby, there are a couple ways to get a taste of Moomah -- Do-It-Together kits for sale and an interactive part of their website where you can create collages...



Have any of you ever been there?

A Letter a Day in May + a Giveaway

I wish that I could motivate myself to write a letter a day, and I'm thinking that maybe if I write about it here and you join me that we can encourage one another along.



You see, there was a time when I actually did write a letter just about every day. Back in the dating days, Ben [aka Reggie D.] was in London. I was in Atlanta. We were in love and he was pretty much all I could think about. So we wrote letters. Lots of them. And did I mention that he is a writer? I was in awe and slightly intimidated by his letters at the beginning. Here's a sample sentence from his first letter to me [and it was hard to pick one sentence out of the letter because his letters are written like stories]:

Dear Alston,

I have made it back to England, where, at first glance, men and women walk feverishly down the city streets with their heads down as if counting all their steps and carry bags with valuable valuable valuable accounts of the days' gettings and spendings and dispose a look that believes perhaps tomorrow will be the reward for today's labor; at first glance, men and women sit and stand on top of one another in the underground train as the fluorescent lights flicker to illuminate the first beads of sweat on the forehead of a balding man and the white knuckles of a young man rubbing his eyes, the train jolting and weaving beneath the city; at first glance, the man next to you on the bus is scribbling revisions on a proposal surely due in twenty minutes time, while outside the window bicycles and motorcycles and taxis weave in and out like the workings of a great concrete and metal loom...

He goes on to talk about what you see at second glance, but you get the idea. And it wasn't all so serious either -- I got to hear later about the "hot dog dog" at the park that bit his ankles while he was running.

My response was something like "Dear Ben, Weather is good. I am fine. How are you?" Hopefully it was better than that, but nothing close to what he had going on! He did make me a better letter writer, though.

I also discovered how therapeutic it is to sit and write someone. Even when they are far away, it's as if you are having a heartfelt conversation with them. And there's something about a letter that captures that moment in time. Linsey wrote an awesome post on letter writing last week, and one part that particularly resonated with me was when she mentioned the power of even just seeing the handwriting of someone. That's so true for me; it's almost like you get to keep a piece of them forever after they are gone.

So, I've decided that for the entire month of May I'm going to write a letter every weekday. Will you join me? It doesn't have to be long -- even just a postcard to say "hello." And I'm not going to be strict -- if you have to go out of town or something you can write more on another day. The point is to connect with people in a way that shows you took the time to sit down and write to them. I've already got a list going!



*AND AS BONUS INCENTIVE, if you leave a comment and let me know you're in, you'll be entered to win a set of custom address labels [one of the three designs pictured above; you choose whatever colors you want!], enough to get you through the month! I'll choose a commenter at random this Friday.

Sweets for my Sweets

How fun is Valentine's? I know for some it's not fun at all, but when you have kids it becomes this whole new holiday that isn't about romance so much, but friends and an excuse to eat sweets! We've been busy over here getting ready for school parties...

[Strawberry cupcakes topped with vanilla frosting and sprinkles/Nerds candy; I tried to sneak and top all the cupcakes with sprinkles, but the boys caught me and protested "I don't like those kind!" so we compromised]

[Pretzels dipped in white chocolate with sprinkles -- we just melted white chocolate morsels and dipped the pretzels in. Very fun for the kids to make, especially the sprinkles part, and they are delish. I used the paper dividers from the foil cupcake liners to separate them into different portions]

[Ring Pop Valentine's -- bought the rings 3 for $1 at Target and then taped the little Valentine message on the top. Super easy and what kid doesn't love a ring pop?!]

That's all for now -- hope your weekend is a fun one!

We Partied Hard!

This weekend we went all out for our pajama wearing, Star Wars loving little man...

We didn't decide on the "theme" for this party until I was designing the invitations. That's kind of how things work in my head [and how things roll at our house!]-- get started on something and see where it goes. The picture for the invitations was from Halloween, and then I did a little googling to find out Star Wars lore [I grew up in a house with all girls, and I still haven't seen a Star Wars movie in its entirety].

Once the invitations were sent, I had to come up with something to do at the party! Thankfully, there are tons of great ideas out there for Star Wars themed parties. Plus, we are dealing with 4-yr-olds, who mercifully aren't that picky as long as you provide something fun. I've learned from past parties that it's good to have a little activity for when the kids trickle in -- otherwise they get restless and "things" start happening. We filled our kiddie pool with sand and hid marbles in it [sidenote: it's kind of hard to find marbles! whoda thought? I bought the last packs from Toys "r" Us]. The kids loved this activity. It's got all the right themes going for it: digging in the sand, discovering bright and shiny little treasures. I highly recommend it -- they did this for a good 20 minutes at the beginning and then we rehid the marbles later on.

Then we had a light saber hunt...

They found them and started beating each other with them...which is why we went with FOAM sabers! They are actually pool noddles cut in half. They loved these too.

We turned on the bubble machine and they whacked bubbles [how cute is princess Leia?!]...

Next up -- cupcakes topped with light sabers [pretzel sticks dipped in melted white chocolate and rolled in red sprinkles -- mmmmm!]

And Yoda Soda [I think one mother was appalled surprised that I was serving soda. What can I say except that it was green and didn't have caffeine and it goes with the theme! I brought her kid some water.]

And just in case they didn't get enough hitting, we had a pinata...the death star. It's actually a soccer ball upon which I added silver tissue paper. It looked a little like a disco ball, but they didn't seem to mind.

Along with their sabers, they all left with a goodie bag filled with Star Wars Pez [I found some at Toys "R" Us and on ebay], M&Ms [has nothing to do with Star Wars -- boxes of 25 bags were BOGO at Publix] and a Star Wars yoyo.

When I asked him that night what his favorite part of the party was he said "Opening the presents." Oh well!