Rub Some Dirt On It

Melted Crayon Hearts

2012-02-12T01:44:12Z

I’ve been inspired by Pinterest yet again! I think Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to get on board over there–there are so many simple and sweet ways to express your love for those who matter to you! I particularly liked this craft that I found here and thought it would be a great way to send love to Jax and Em’s cousins (and have a very informal science experiment as well). And I must say, it surprised me how easy it was!

So collect all those broken crayons and preheat your oven. It’s time to get cooking!

Ingredients: crayons, silicone heart-shaped tray, knife, construction paper, marker, glue

Directions:

Collect your old crayons and strip the wrappers off. Using a knife to make a slit first is hugely helpful.

Chop them up into small pieces. Feel free to enlist your amazing husband if your knife skills are questionable.

Stir and pour into a silicone heart tray (ice cube tray?). I got mine at IKEA for $2.

Then cook them in your oven for about 15 minutes at 250 degrees. When they came out, mine were pretty watery, so don’t be alarmed if yours are, too. Then I left them to cool overnight, popped ‘em out of the tray with a knife, and added a construction paper circle with a sweet saying.

Then I’ll send them on their way to our niece and nephews with love from their cousins! Crayons that will melt their heart!

Happiness Is…{naked newborns}

2012-02-10T13:07:35Z

This past weekend I had the pleasure of photographing not one, but TWO beautiful newborn babies! It was an absolute pleasure. I’ll share my favorites once I have finished editing, but for now, enjoy two of the ones I’ve shared with their parents so far.

So I’ve been editing like crazy since the weekend–except for mourning the Patriots’ Super Bowl loss, but I’ve already moved on mentally to baseball season–and didn’t even have time to check out last week’s blog hop posts. So no favorite from last week, but I look forward to popping around to share all your happiness this week!

If you’re interested in seeing more of my photography, or are considering contacting me about a photo shoot, click here to learn more!

The Happiness Is… blog hop is simply a place to come, link up a post (not your homepage!) that made you happy recently (anything but a giveaway or review) and share it with the rest of us! Photos, recipes, crafts, stories, moments, and anecdotes are all welcome! Come peruse other amazing posts and meet fantastic new people in the blogosphere! The only rule is to please grab my button (right sidebar) and link back to me in some way, otherwise you won’t be able to link up. That way more people will come and learn about this uplifting way to promote your blog!

So, are you ready? On your mark, get set, hop!

Button, Button, Who’s Got The Button?

2012-02-12T01:45:41Z

Ah, didn’t you all just love that poem yesterday? It’s been running through my head for days, and when e.e. cummings is occupying your mind, that’s a good thing. As for the button heart, here’s how to share the love.

Materials: card stock, multicolored buttons, tacky glue, scissors

Directions:

Cut a heart out of card stock in the color of your choice. Spread Tacky Glue on it in the pattern of your choice. Pretty easy so far, huh?

Then give your kid an array of buttons and off you go!

My only wish is that I had bought buttons in different sizes. These were all roughly the same size and I think overall it would have been a cooler look if they had been a bit different. But now I have a new love–pretty, shiny buttons. I think that you will be seeing more button crafts where this came from, if only to have an excuse to hoard them.

Moving on.

Jax loved this craft. I can’t stress that enough. He was like a living, breathing thesaurus, using every synonym for “pretty” he could think of or had ever heard in his life, with lots of emphasis. ”Mom, I LOVE this craft! This is so bea-YOU-ti-ful! These buttons are LOVELY! Do YOU love this craft, Mom? I think it is coming along NICE-ly!”

He was so meticulous and thoughtful, giving the proper consideration to every button as to their proper placement and color coordination. Unlike somebody else I know, who woke up from her nap in time to join the fun.

At first she tried to do as her brother did, using the handful of buttons Jax begrudgingly doled out to her like a little miser. God forbid she got a cup of her own! She tried to pick them up and place them accordingly like he was doing, until she got a little tactile defensive–

and decided getting glue on her fingers was for the birds. Then she just dumped the lot of them on her heart and called it a day. Hey, it was effective! I helped fill in the blanks.

So even though they both had different methods, they both produced beautiful button Valentines that I am thrilled to have adorning my mantle.

I’ll consider them my Valentine’s present ~~to myself~~ from the kids. And since my sister said she wanted one and now I refuse to part with either of them, we made her a button lovebug instead.

Here’s the tutorial: card stock + buttons = bug. Let your imagination do the rest.

I heart Valentine’s Day, my kids, and now I heart buttons. This craft made my heart happy.

I Carry Your Heart With Me

2012-02-12T01:45:48Z

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

~e.e. cummings

I’ll tell you how to make these hearts tomorrow. Until then, read that poem one more time.

Here’s Hoping!

2012-02-02T23:52:49Z

It’s February in Vermont. Do you know what that means? Snowmen and sleigh rides and sledding! Do you know how many times we have done those things? None, none, and once. Why? Because there just isn’t enough snow!

We have had one storm lately that was significant enough to warrant getting the kids getting all dressed up and outside to help Daddy shovel.

I already showed you the shots of Em last week, but I couldn’t resist sharing these of my growing boy who wants so much to be like his Dad, working hard in the yard. I mean who knows? This may be the biggest snow of this year at this rate!

Handsome little devil.

I never thought I’d say this but Come on, snow! If we’re going to live through winter in Vermont, can’t we at least have all the wonderful outdoor adventures that go with it? Or at least have the anticipation of a big nor’easter with all the unnecessary hype that goes along with that? Here’s hoping.

(Did I really just say that? I think I’ve lived here too long.)

Because I’m Not Afraid To Admit I Suck

2012-02-12T01:45:56Z

Sometimes I try to craft and sometimes I rock at it. Sometimes my kids impress me or I even impress myself. Most of the times I am somewhere in the mediocre department, but every now and then even I have to admit, I suck at it.

I was going for something more like this…

…but all I got was this.

Unimpressed impression not included.

But since all of you are presumably not as craft-disabled as I am, I will share the details of how to make your own paper heart garland and hopefully you will have more luck than I did!

Materials: construction paper, scissors, staples

Directions:

Cut the paper into strips 1″ wide x 4 and 1/4″ long. You will all be proud to know that I actually measured this time! Granted it was with Jax’s toy measuring tape and I did measure it wrong to start with, but I highly recommend you measuring from the beginning. Correctly.

Then you staple the tops together and fold them down into a heart shape. Then before you staple the bottom, attach two new strips to the bottom of the heart you’re working on to create the one below.

Then keep going for as long as you’d like!

Now to be honest, my hearts were coming along just fine until I certainly twosome decided that this should be a child-friendly craft, not just a mommy craft. Since it was Sunday morning and JDubbs was sleeping in, I thought it would be a fun way to get into the holiday spirit. Sadly, other than some squished hearts and some crinkled construction paper, not much good came of their “help” other than this photo:

But there will be more Valentine’s ideas coming, and they will be and have proven to be better than the first, I promise! So please learn from my mistakes and take a few minutes to make a festive Valentine decoration. You won’t be disappointed. Unless you’re me.

Teamwork

2012-02-02T23:54:46Z

I was just looking back at blog posts from 2010 and I was surprised how I had forgotten the animosity that existed between Jax and Em when she was a baby. Well, from Jax toward Em. He really didn’t like her for a long time; I mean, she was cool as long as she wasn’t in his way, but it wasn’t until she started giving back that he started to enjoy her company. I came across a post that talked about the first time they found a common ground–when she was three months old, under his old playmat, then hers.

And look at them now. Buddies.

“Come on, Em. Let’s do this as a teamwork.”

And just as my mommy heart starts going pitter-pat and I am reveling in my mama bear glory, he kicks her to the curb.

Just kidding. Get out of here.

I guess old habits can be hard to break.

Happiness Is…{an amazing husband}

2012-02-02T18:29:33Z

What an amazing husband I have.

Doesn’t hurt when he’s pretty darn good-looking, too!

JDubbs has been busting his butt this month for a deadline on January 31st, and I am so happy to have our schedules back to normal and have him home as usual. We are lucky enough that he works a mile and a half from home, so he’s pretty much home by 5:05 every night. He is usually the one to get Em out of bed in the morning and he helps put them to bed every night. He is the one solely responsible for bathtime and he often meets us for lunch. Plus he does all the cooking and more than his share of cleaning. And did I mention he’s pretty darn good-looking, too?

And he’s an unbelievable dad. I couldn’t ask for more.

We love you, JDubbs! Thanks for being the man of the house, the man our kids look up to and love, and the best husband a girl could ask for.

So, with a life like this, who wouldn’t be happy? Who can blame me for celebrating it every week?

Also, I will try to link back to my favorite post of the week on Twitter and Facebook every Monday after the link closes. It could be you! And don’t forget to peruse past favorite links in my Happiness Is Blog Hop tab above. If you’re featured, your link will be up there forever! I have been pretty lax about making the time to hop around to everyone, and I’m sorry you can’t depend on seeing my comment every week. It’s a lot of time and honestly, we had so much fun this weekend I didn’t want to take time away to get on the computer. I can’t promise it’ll happen every week, but I appreciate all of you taking the time to be here. I hope several of you made the time to pop around and enjoy each other’s posts–it’s no fun if you link and run!

So, are you ready? On your mark, get set, hop!

Start Your Engines!

2012-01-28T01:56:19Z

Anyone else feeling a little winter stir-crazy? Man, there’s only so many tents a girl can make and rounds of Hi Ho Cherry-O a girl can take! I had to come up with something that would entertain Jax on his own for more than five minutes at a time.

Oh, yeah.

We made a racetrack for Jax in the center of his bedroom, for his racing and driving pleasure. And it’s pretty damn awesome. Wanna know how?

Materials: electric tape, masking tape, black sharpie, green construction paper

Directions:

Originally I delegated this craft to JDubbs. Finally! A craft you can do! But we’re not big NASCAR people around here, so other than making a large oval out of electric tape, JDubbs was about as useful as Em in the realistic details department (Sorry, babe. It’s true). Jax would have been completely happy with a giant tape oval, but I had grand imaginings of an actual racetrack, so, as our buddy SuperWhy says, we had a super big problem. And when we have a question, we look–

–in a book! Or two, as the case may be!

Anyone else have a zillion of these $4 I Can Read! books laying around? I just recently found a great way to store those slippery suckers (which I will be sharing soon), but besides how cheap they are, who knew they’d be good as reference books? When Jax and I were trying to determine where the grass infield is on a racetrack, we had to look no farther than his own books two feet away. And when we were unsure about the details of a finish line? Got that covered, too. The English teacher in me loves looking for the answer in a book rather than online! I’m glad that we were able to solve those problems so easily.

So now that we knew what we were missing, we just used some materials we had handy to add the details. We created a pit in the center using more electric tape. We added a green infield stripe with construction paper as well.

Our pit crew was ready to rock and roll. For those of you who are familiar with Cars, do you like the attention to detail? We even have the Doc with the headset (no thanks to me–glad my sister saved all my nephew’s cars for the past 5 years!). The books were great for those details, too. Good thing we have, like, 15 of them.

Then I gave the track itself a bit more life using masking tape to create a “road” and Sharpie to make a checkered finish line.

It took about ten minutes and it has paid off in dividends! The time he spends getting his cars organized and playing there gives us extra peace in the morning and me some quiet in the afternoon. All with stuff we had around the house! Plus, when you’re done with it, all you have to do is rip it up, and something tells me Jax will love doing that bit of demolition, too.

So, start your engines! This activity is perfect for the little crew chief in your life!

Fine Motor Skills, Clothespin Style

2012-01-30T21:30:28Z

Confession: I haven’t put a whole lot of effort into developing my kids’ fine motor skills. I figure, they can eat, they can play, they can tickle, that’s good, right? I mean, I never remember consciously working on my fine motor skills and I’m pretty dexterous. So what if Jax can’t put his clothes on or pull them off? I guess we probably should work on that a bit. Thus when I came across this post at Hands On As We Grow, a favorite creative site of mine, I found myself pinning away at the activities for fine motor skill development and was intrigued enough to do one that very day.

It was a link to The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking (my kind of blog!) and a cool activity that combined literacy with fine motor development. I thought it was so awesome Jax and I embarked on it as soon as Em was down for her nap. Using clothespins to reinforce letters and spelling!

Here’s what you need:

index cards, clothespins, marker

That’s it! Now of course, you can always make it as elaborate as you’d like. You could laminate the cards or decorate them as need be. We actually hung our cards up on the wall with tape and ribbon, so you could do that as well, or you can store them in a box like we wound up doing in the end. Before you act, think about what you want to get out of this activity. It has potential for so many hours of fun!

Directions:

Write words clearly and well-spaced-out on index cards. Jax and I chose common words that he already knows how to spell to begin with, and then I got the idea that I’d like to decorate them with stickers. So I rummaged through our sticker bin and picked out fifteen or so that are common words, like fish, car, dog. Then I wrote the alphabet on 26 clothespins.

Note: Think about how you want your pins to go, underneath or above, before you write the letters on the flashcard and on the index card. I knew I wanted them underneath and so I wrote my words (and added stickers) accordingly, leaving proper space.

Then I began taping the cards to ribbon I hung on the wall. After a few I realized, why am I doing this when I am surrounded by clothespins? So Jax and I hung them like laundry on the ribbons, which I think looked really cute.

The difficult part was that once Jax began adding clothespins to the cards, they became rather heavy and started falling off the ribbon. So after a while we took them down, but if you can reinforce them properly (and don’t have younger children who would destroy them), it would be a fun way to display your work and then they could work like sight words.

The goal is for your child to take his alphabet clothespins and clip them beneath the letters on the cards, reinforcing the spelling of the words while working on fine motor skills! It was really fun and he enjoyed searching for the proper clothespin, then planning out the spacing on the cards. He even reminded me that we couldn’t use the word “ball” because we didn’t have two “L” s. And he had to think about whether he could spell two “B” words at once because the “B” was being used on another card at that moment. Lots of abstract thinking!

I’ve wanted to make a word wall since I saw this cool one over at Momnivore’s Dilemma over the holidays, and now I think I have something similar, with my own twist. JDubbs was less than thrilled about the idea of having yet another crafty thing taking up wall space, so I was loath to do it, but instead, I’ll just change out the index cards every few weeks so that they are seasonally appropriate and we can talk about what they mean. I may do one for each letter, too; I’ll let you know how that goes. But what you really need to know is it took us 45 minutes to make our cards and clothespins, then he played with them for another half hour or so before Em got up. She promptly started destroying our precious clothespins, so she’s off-limits for a while, but overall I’d say you can’t go wrong with this activity that is so awesome on so many different levels! Try it and let me know how it goes!

Linking this up at Life Made Lovely and many other wonderful link ups that you can check out here!