Rainy day art activity : painting with a sponge brush : age 2

Art time at our house. Age 2

I cut a small yellow sponge into strips and wrapped the strips around a paint brush with a rubber band. 

Easy project which definitely added some fun to regular painting. I used a paper plate as a paint pallet. My son enjoyed mixing the colors on the plate more than painting on paper. 

Great activity for a rainy day.

Turning a king size down comforter to a twin size comforter

Last week, I purchased a king size down comforter for my son. My first plan was to fold it in half and stuff it in a twin size VITAMINER BIL duvet cover I purchased at ikea.

Good but bad idea. Although the fluffiness was great, the weight of it was too much. My next idea came today...cut the down comforter and place one part in the duvet cover; and the other on the mattress. Best idea I've had in a while!
Here is how to cut a down comforter should you dare to try it to. Warning: feathers are bound to fly and if it's not done right, it can lead to a huge mess and a ruined comforter.
Note: A king size down comforter is sectioned off 7 squares horizontally by 6 squares verically.
I cut 4 squares horizontally by 6 squares vertically for the duvet cover.
Leaving me  3 squares horizontally by 6 vertically to cover the mattress.

Step 1:
Hand stitch along the verical line of your down comforter with bright thread. You will need to do 2 parallel lines so you can cut in between the lines.
Note: I tried sewing this first with a double needle. Bad idea, the comforter was too big and I made huge mistakes.
Note: don't even think of just cutting it first and then just sewing the edges closed!!! Worse thing you can do !! I tried it and lost a lot of down and it was extremely hard to sew.

Picture 1: can you see my hand stitching in red thread? Two parallel lines so I can cut in between the two lines

Step 2: now you can cut between the hand stitching. Do it quickly and make sure that the entire comforter is laying down so there is less movement an less down loss.

Picture 2: cutting between the two hand stitched parallel lines.

Step 3: carefully sew the edges closed by using a zig-zag stitch all along the edge. Be careful and try to keep the down from getting out.

Picture 3: zig-zag stitching the ends.

Step 4: fold over the edge and sew a straight stitch all the way down. Hiding the edges and keeping down from ever escaping. 

Picture 4: folded over the edge and sewed a straight stitch to hide the edges.

Done !!

If you're wondering why I didn't just return the king size down comforter for a twin size comforter. It's because I paid $119 for it on sale at Macy's vs. the $480 original price. The warmth of the down is amazing! It's like you're in a comfy sleeping bag without the sleeping bag restrictions.
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Table mate children's chair and activity table

Why I like it :

Easy to store.

Don't really care if the plastic is painted or colored with crayons.

Light enough to move around easily.

Why I dislike it:

It's plastic, I don't like plastic furniture.

The chair is to big for my son.

There is no real storage space for all the art supplies we have.

The bag around the chair does not really help.

Why I'm keeping it.

It was a gift and while it might not be my first choice in desk. The plastic makes it easy to use for messy art projects. My son also loves it.

The zoo stuffed animal storage tutorial

If you have kids, there is a good chance that you have a large collection of stuffed animals. I have to admit that 90% of the stuffed animal population in our house are my own childhood toys. So, once my son's bedroom became over populated I added one more project to my husbands to-do list. 

I found it of coarse on Pinterest. Little zoo keepers is the original product site, if you would rather purchase one.

I still have to finalize a you tube video for this project. It took my husband a whole day to finish. I helped assemble it, so I can honestly say it's an easy project.
Tutorial Link

Costco find : Baby Playmat

I found this at costco and couldn't resist purchasing it. At first it was just because I liked it. Now, it has really proven to be a great item to have with a toddler.

First, it was a great mat to sit on when doing puzzles. Rather than carpet which can be uncomfortable after a while. Then, it became the place to practice gymnastics. It's soft and forgiving material so when he lands there's no rug burn or rough landing spots. It also looks adorable. I just wish it came in a larger size. If you see this somewhere and consider purchasing it for yourself or as a gift; I would really recommend it. Especially if your house has hardwood floors. And when you have a baby learning to crawl, really wish I would have had this mat then too!

It's also two sided, so you have image options depending on your room decor.

Fleece headband - my first attempt

My baby is due this winter so I've been trying to figure out how to make fleece headbands ... this is my first attempt.

First lesson, fleece does not stretch as much as t-shirt material therefore you need longer pieces than a regular headband.

Second, I googled the circumference of a newborn and found. 

"The average newborn’s head circumference measures about 13 3⁄4 inches (35 cm), growing to about 15 inches (38 cm) by one month. Because boys tend to be slightly larger than girls, their heads are larger, though the average difference is less than 1⁄2 inch (1 cm)."

http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/pages/First-Month-Physical-Appearance-and-Growth.aspx

Therefore my fleece material should be cut larger than +14 inches to accommodate the first month at least.

Third, the most you can stretch fleece is 1.5-2 inches and that is by pulling the material. So, be prepared to use more material than usual.

Here are my first steps: 

This should fit a newborn.

Step 1:
Cut a piece of fleece 14 inches by 3 inches.

(Top-piece pictured is stretched out to 16 inches. It was cut 14 inches just like the bottom piece.)

Step 2:

Took the ends and sewed them together by hand. 

Step 3:

Made a bow by cutting two fleece squares. One slightly larger than the other one. Mine were 2.5" and 2.75 inch squares.

And cutting a strip of felt to tie them together.

Step 4:

Wrapped the bow around the site where I stitched the headband together. Sewed the ends to secure the bow.

That's it. This is my first fleece headband.

Ikea hack the kura bed... The beginning of this project.

The Kura bed project:

Yesterday, we went to ikea and purchased the Kura bed. We had seen this bed on our last trip to ikea and knew it had potential. Then, on one of those Pinterest nights I found our new project....

 

Over the next few weeks I will keep everyone posted on the progress of this project. I have to admit we are just going by this image for instructions. My husband will have to figure out everything as he goes. 

First, since we are out of garage space and we live in a two story house. We have decide to build the bed in my sons room and add pieces to the bed there. I have to admit building is the easy part; painting will definetly be a challenge. 

Wish us luck, we need this bed done ASAP.

We have another baby on the way who needs my son's crib :)

Baby headband tutorial

Now that my sons birthday party is completed. I'm ready to focus on the baby. My first priority is of coarse heabands. I took pictures along the way, to see what worked and didn't work. I love these projects and are worth the time and effort. Hopefully she will be born with hair like my son !

1- Elastic scraps

2- Flowers

3-Felt

4/5- Needle and thread 

6- Hot glue gun

Step 1- cut a piece of elastic 12.5 inches and sewed right sides together.

Step 2 - Embelished my flower by adding a rhinestone center (hot glued) & glued a felt circle to the bottom of the flower.

Step 3 - Glued the elastic between the felt glued to the bottom of the flower and the extra circle I cut out. 

Covering the elastic point where I sewed it together.

That easy! I made 3 headbands in an hour.

See the difference a rhinestone in the middle makes !

Teaching my son how to count - Abacus & a puppet

My son recieved an abacus and muppets for his birthday. I really loved the abacus and wanted to teach him how to use it. Of coarse, he rebelled and wanted to just push the beads back and forth. Finally, I got the idea to use his puppet to push each bead and count. Amazingly it worked !! He loves that the puppet pushes the beads, counts and then cheers hooray. It's educational entertainment. Definetly considering making a puppet theater now. 

My son is almost 2, so perfect time to get started on his math lessons. He counts from 1-3 then skips some numbers and counts 7-10 lol

Elmo Birthday Party Decorations - Sesame Street

Here as some pictures of our birthday party. I have to admit the hardest work was the balloons, we were up to 2 am and it took 100+ balloons! I'm lucky the streamers survived, my son loved to pull on them. Overall, it took a month of small projects here and there to get this done. I taped most of the projects for you tube so please check out my YouTube channel or older posts for videos.