just chic

DIY bird watching kit for kids

2015-03-19T21:42:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted anything in a very long because, well, frankly ....I haven't sewn anything ...but also because I focused on my other blog: Non Toy Gifts. I don't seem to be able to handle more than one blog at a time. Thank you for not giving up on Just Chic and still following it. I'm grateful for your interest.

I started Non Toy Gifts as a local blog but just opened it to everybody, that is everybody who is interested in gifting more than toys to their kids. The blog's purpose is to make your life easier when it comes to looking for gifts for kids. Finding gifts for kids made easy - that's the logo. Interested? Then, please stop by, take a look and spread the word if you like what you see.

I post about toy alternative gift ideas, creators of such gifts and DIY gifts you can create on your own. My last project was a bird watching kit I put together for a 6 year old boy.

Baby's month-by-month photos

2014-12-10T14:13:00.001-06:00

When my oldest was a baby we used to send a photo of him to grandparents every month and I would also add a copy to his journal (I started a journal the day I found out I was pregnant and continued writing after the baby was born. )
I wanted to do the same for my youngest but just a bit different so decided to follow many examples seen online and take the pictures at the same place each month. I created 12 felt numbers for the baby's age and tried to match their colors with Eric's outfits. The last 4 photos of the series were really hard to take as Eric is very energetic and moves a lot. I would place him on the armchair and by the time I took a step back he was already down on the floor.
The blanket in the photos was given to him by his godparents so we thought it would make a nice memory to include it.

Once my oldest started being interested in numbers, I could reuse the felt stuffed numbers while trying to teach him to count.

Birthday gift: reading nook under the staircase

2014-12-05T22:43:00.002-06:00

"Victor is a great reader!" My mom was intrigued by my statement. How can her grandson be a great reader when he recently turned only 3? Ok, he may not be able to read on his own yet but this doesn't make him less of a reader (for his age): he loves being read to, enjoys spending time looking through his books and checking them out at the library -this may be mainly because he likes passing all the materials under the scanner. There was one time when he didn't want to return one book at the library and I had to take him to the store and replace it. (It was "Green eggs and ham" by Dr. Seuss).

Considering all these, my hubby and I decided to make a reading nook for Victor as his birthday gift. We even had the perfect place for it: the basement, under the staircase. We started planning, sewing (I sewed the cushion and pillows myself) and buying all the necessary things (lights, book shelves aka IKEA spice rakes, magnetic boards and letters, photo frames) weeks before his birthday but couldn't put everything together until the night before.

Now that it's cold outside the kids spend more time in the basement and would have seen that there was something going on. We didn't want to spoil the surprise.

After he came from pre-school that morning we were able to show it to him and boy, was he surprised! The books are either received as gifts from his friends (we asked his birthday party guests to bring books) or bought by me from the Half Price Book sale.

Victor loves his place under the staircase, he goes there either to read his books and magazines or play with the light (turning it on and off seems like a big entertainment for both my boys these days).

You can find here a list of 60+ non-toy gifts for kids.

Non-Toy Gifts for Kids

2014-11-03T10:59:00.001-06:00

My friend Marv and I are the authors of a new blog created for the parents and kids of the Twin Cities, MN. Just like me, Marv is a stay-at-home mom of 2 little kids: a little boy who just turned one, and his 4-year old sister.

During our play dates we get to chit chat about all sorts of aspects of our everyday lives, just like any other moms do. We share tips and tricks about potty training and making our kids eat more veggies, talk about our oldest's pre-schools, complain about the huge number of toys our kids have and how they both still want to play with the exact same toy at the same time, etc.

The idea of the blog NON-TOY GIFTS came once we started thinking of toy-alternative gifts for our children. When we had this impressive list of 60 non-toy presents, we thought it was a good idea to share it with other parents living in the Twin Cities. Although some are local gifts, like Family Theater Membership to the Stepping Stone Theater, Train Rides in Duluth or books from the Red Balloon in St Paul or Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis, parents from anywhere can check out the blog to find interesting ideas.

We also made available a list of 25+ local freebies and activitiesfor children: gifts they can receive for free on their birthday, treats to enjoy year round and events and activities the kids can attend for free.

If you're looking for a place to celebrate your kids' birthday, all you have to do is go through our list of 40+ party venues. There are so many in the Twin Cities and we try to put them all together in one place.

We created Non-Toy Gifts for all the parents in the Minneapolis and Saint Paul area, one place to go to when it comes to celebrating our kids and finding new ways in building them wonderful childhood memories. We hope that Minnesotan parents will find it resourceful and share their own ideas on non-toy gifts and experiences about the party venues they have used for their kids.

All the links we provide on the blog are purely for information purpose. We have no intention in promoting any businesses or services. We wished useful information like we've gathered, consolidated and put in one place, was available to us when we first became parents and that's the whole idea about this blog - to share this information with the Minnesotan parents like us.

Curious George and The Man With The Yellow Hat pumpinks

2014-10-21T23:22:00.000-05:00

Curious George is one of my boys' favorite characters. My 16-month old baby (we still refer to him as a baby) can say up to 20 words and George is one of them - this is to get you an idea how much George is part of our lives. We watch the TV series and read books about the little curious monkey.

So when pumpkin painting time came (to continue the tradition I started last year with the Minion pumpkins), it was a no-brainer: Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat. This is in fact the Halloween theme for this year: pumpkins and costumes.

The day I finished painting the pumpkins and took them outside, it was such a windy day and I was afraid the Man with the Yellow Hat would loose his hat. I had glued it to his head and managed to do a pretty good job as it stuck to the pumpkin despite the wind. Little had I worried about the real enemies: kids can be more destructive than nature. When my boys came out of the house, first thing Victor did was to pull out the hat.

men's shirt into boy pants

2014-09-23T22:54:00.000-05:00

When he last came to visit us, my dad left behind a shirt. (He didn't forget it, just decided not to take it back) The shirt became immediately part of my refashion stash, waiting its turn for a second chance.

I used the comfy pants pattern in "Sewing for boys" book (same as in the blue pants ) to make this new pair of pants for Victor. Easy to sew and my little guy seems very comfortable in them - what else to ask for?

The shirt pocket, which I decided to place in front of the pants and not the back, proved to be a great hit for my little rock collector. The rocks he finds and decides to keep vary in size from pretty small to rather big and they all fit in. Besides, when you have a little brother, you want to make sure he doesn't lay hands on your belongings and what better place to keep them than a nice big pocket?

old jeans skirt reinvented

2014-08-06T23:35:00.000-05:00

When I got tired of my old jeans skirt I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. The inspiration came from this bohemian jeans skirt found on etsy.

Though I felt very much tempted by the floor length I also wanted a knee skirt. With just a bit more than a yard of fabric I managed to transformed my old skirt into this neat skirt.

Curious about what I used to make the blue pattern at the bottom of the skirt? If you read this blog it means that you also like sewing and that you handle it quite often: thread spool.

The blue elephant shirt aka dr Seuss shirt

2014-07-15T14:33:00.001-05:00

Our first mini-vacation as a family of four was a weekend spent at a goat farm. I was nervous about the sleeping arrangements, which proved indeed to be a bit of a problem, as the boys only wanted to sleep with me (so I ended up sleeping with both of them while Dan had the other bed to himself. Not fair!) and they kept each other up until late at night, but apart from that, we had a great time enjoying the calm and quiet country side and the playful goats. Victor couldn't get enough of feeding the goats and had a hard time leaving. We promised him we'd see more goats at the ZOO so the minute we pulled the car into the garage he asked to go to the ZOO.

We did go to the ZOO, though not that very day, and he was excited to see the animals (and the mountain goat) but not as much as pushing around his stroller. I'm not sure what it is about pushing around toys or strollers or anything that can roll but it tops any other activity. He showed an interest in the seal but didn't even glance at the zebra or elephant. Had the elephant been blue (like the ones on his new shirt) he might have stood a chance of being noticed.

Once I was done sewing this shirt, I hung it in Victor's closet, among his other clothes. He noticed it right away and wanted to wear it the same day. -what better compliment! :)

Toddler activity: felt numbers

2014-07-01T14:13:00.000-05:00

These felt numbers were of great help to Victor a few months back, when he started showing interest in counting. It was a 2-in-1 challenge: identifying numbers and colors.

They are pretty large and stuffed, different from the felt letters.

Victor's counting went thru different stages: English counting was a favorite at the beginning (though he would always pronounce 7 in Romanian) but now he can easily switch from one language to another while counting and he even amazed me one day when I heard him say: "uno dos tres cuatro" (he learns Spanish at daycare).

I rotate the toys and although I try to do it on a regular basis, that's the last thing on my mind, so Victor hasn't played with the numbers in a very long time. I wonder if he would still show an interest in them.

If not, they will get their second chance once Eric is old enough.

Toddler activity : felt letters

2014-04-30T16:28:00.000-05:00

My 2-year old son is into colors, numbers and letters and we look for any opportunity to help him develop his new recognition abilities. We try to make it fun through games, foam letters and numbers for bath time and felt letters and numbers made by myself.

Growing up in a bilingual environment can be challenging for a little guy. We speak Romanian at home but he's equally exposed to English through all the books we read to him, visits at the library and our international friends.

There are things, like the alphabet, that we prefer to teach him in English so it won't get too confusing. The Romanian alphabet has the same letters as the English one but some are pronounced differently.

This is how it originally looked like but as his little brother kept pulling the letters down I decided to place them out of the baby's reach.

Both the board and letters are made from felt as felt sticks to felt. As for how to attach the board to the wall, I used Command Strips but you can also try pins. (I wanted not to damage the wall in any way)

I haven't put out all the letters yet, just the ones that Victor can identify so far. (enough to be able to spell his name)

Easter Egg Hunt Bag and Tee

2014-04-19T23:34:00.000-05:00

We went egg hunting today for the first time ever. We don't have this tradition in Romania, where Dan and I grew up, so we haven't experienced it as kids but, hey, we get to live it now through our boys. It was such a nice day to be outside and spend time with friends while our children were tracing down the eggs and bunnies. It wasn't a typical egg hunt, we had to look for numbered wooden eggs and bunnies and get a prize after finding them all.

The nature center where the egg hunt took place put together several kid activities and had also a small petting zoo. Victor got to touch a snake and frog (yuck!) and pet a few rabbits (his favorites).

I wanted to buy Victor an egg hunt bag , many nice bags to choose from if you have a girl...but not so many for boys...So I decided to make one myself.

I also made a tee to go with the bag. I used the same pattern as for raglan tee but went for a long sleeve version this time.

Happy Easter!

Toddler activity: color painting on snow

2014-04-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

It may be spring where you live but here, in Minnesota, we're still covered in snow. Today is April 4th and we're expecting up to 10" by noon. Spring has shown its signs for the last couple of weeks and got everybody excited but now: boom! The only one who doesn't mind it is my son as I introduced him to color painting on snow.

When my oldest woke up from his nap last Saturday these three bottles were waiting for him to play with. I had filled them up with water and food colors: red, blue and green.

Painting on snow got my toddler sucked into immediately and I must say it was fun even for me. Our neighbor's kid also joined us and Victor didn't mind at all. (He's at that age when if someone else toys with his stuff a tantrum may be on its way).

Trying to stay positive: more snow means more canvas for our art. (though I would gladly give it up for chalk drawing)

sewing for boys

2014-03-12T14:19:00.002-05:00

Sewing for boys never crossed my mind when I started this hobby of mine. It's true that at the time I didn't have my two little trouble makers. Nevertheless I have selfishly sewn almost exclusively for myself until the beginning of this year when I made PJs for my hubby . Next on the list: boy clothes.

If you feel intimidated by sewing for boys, like I was, I would recommend getting this book:

The book contains 24 projects for beginners to advanced. Most patterns are for sizes 2 through 7 but there are some for 0-18 months as well.

I started with these comfy pants:

Buying pants for my tall and thin Victor is usually a challenge. The 2T's are a good waist fit but too short while the 3T's are loose but the right length. Adjustable pants do the trick. Making some myself seemed like another good solution.

I made the pants in size 2-3 but longer as in size 4-5 so Victor can wear them for a long while.

Next project: short sleeve raglan tee

The instructions are for a seam-on-the-outside, raw-edged tee but I prefer a finished look.

This book makes sewing for boys seem so easy and I will definitely try some other patterns.

Sisal rope covered storage box

2014-02-01T13:54:00.001-06:00

Toys. Lots of toys. The older kids grow, the more toys they own. Big and small. Noisy or not.

We have two little boys (8 and 27 months) and our place is already packed with toys! Some we buy but most we receive from family and friends. After all toys are the go-to gift when it comes to Christmas and birthdays.

They invade our world (There was one time when Victor pulled his rocking horse to our master bathroom as it rocked better on tile than on the carpet in his own room) and we fight back, we do our best to keep the situation under control: rotate the toys, buy more storage furniture, get more baskets. In the end it's just an illusion as there are still as many toys as before but tucked away in several places.

I made this basket to store some of the the baby's stuff: bibs, a change of clothes (to have at hand ) and toys. Can you tell it's made from a diaper box? Lined with fabric and covered in rope it looks stylish enough to make it the the family room.

You can use this fancy looking box for any sort of storage:

or you can even let your kid have some fun playing with it :

If you're looking for creative ideas on how to use sisal rope, please take a look at these wonderful 10 projects. Some even have tutorials (just click on the numbers to go to the original posts).

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

DIY World Map Shirt - with tutorial

2014-01-18T16:07:00.002-06:00

When my hubby was genuinely impressed with the Urban Outfitter inspired t-shirt and asked for a similar one I knew right away what to make for him: a world map shirt. He likes globes and maps and part of his office decoration consist of a world map and a nice 6 (and counting) globe collection.

His t-shirt was part of my handmade Xmas present series but didn't include it in my previous post as I wanted to put together a little tutorial for this one.

All you need to create your own world map tee is: freezer paper, craft knife and puffy fabric paint.

Start by printing out a world map photo on regular print paper. I wanted my image to be big enough to cover the whole front size of the tee and if you want the same you'll have to tile your photo using two sheets.

I'm not sure if the image can be printed directly on freezer paper - I'll have to give it a try next time!

Place the freezer paper on top of your printed image (shiny side of the freezer paper down) and trace the image onto your freezer paper. Keep it as simple (only the continents) or as detailed (continents and islands) as you wish. It helps if you staple the two sheets together.

Place the freezer paper on cardboard and cut the image using a craft knife but don't take the pieces out! Iron the entire freezer paper sheet onto your tee (shiny side of the freezer paper down) and afterwards peel off the paper leaving on the t-shirt all the pieces you've previously cut .

This way you make sure all the continents and islands are in place and at the right distance from one another.

If you plan on a simplified version of the world, you can also choose to cut out the continents and iron them one by one onto the shirt.

Trace a fine line along your stencil using puffy fabric pain. Don't draw your line too close to the stencil but leave a small break between the two.

I did half of the painting and let it dry before starting on the other half.

Once the paint is dry you can peel the freezer paper off and enjoy your elaborate work.

The Top 100 Crafts of 2013

2014-01-06T21:00:00.003-06:00

What a nice way to start the new year!

I got an email from one of the editors of Favecraft letting me know that my Funky Jeans Bag had been included in the roundup of the top 100 crafts for 2013!

The top is made based on readers interest in the crafts on Favecraft: everything from recycling and jewelry making to knitting and crocheting.

Recycled Crafts Ideas

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.

DIY Jewelry Ideas

12.13.14.15.

Christmas Craft Ideas

16.17.18.

DIY Home Decor Crafts

19.20.21.22.23.24.25.

Easy Crochet Patterns

26.27.28.29.30.31.32.33.34.35.36.37.38.39.
40.41.42.43.44.45.46.47.48.49.50.51.52.53.54.55.56.57.58.59.60.61.
62.63.64.65.66.67.68.69.70.71.72.73.74.75.76.

Easy Knitting Patterns

77.78.79.80.81.82.83.84.85.86.87.88.89.90.91.92.93.94.95.96.97.98.

How to Tie Dye

99.100.

Have a creative new year!

Memory making with Xmas presents

2013-12-31T15:55:00.000-06:00

Now that Christmas is behind us and our parents have already opened their presents I can share the handmade presents with you without the fear of spoiling anyone's surprise.
When you live in a country so far away from your home country as we do (Dan and I are both from Romania but live in Minnesota now) creating a grandkid - grandparent bond is a pretty challenging task. The boys get to see their grandparents every weekend on Skype but this doesn't substitute a live contact. My parents came to visit us twice, for the birth of the boys and Dan's mom saw the boys for the first time at the end of this year. How do we replicate the bond Dan and me had with our grandparents?

Oh, well....we will never be able to do it but nevertheless we'll still do our best to create some sort of a long distance bond. And here are some of our little tricks:

creating personalized shirts for grandparents with the kids' names on them:

for my mom

for my mom-in-law

for my dad

or transferring kids' art onto kitchen towels

or transferring kid's handprint

or even better grandma's and grandkid's handprints

I wish you all a happy 2014!

felt Santa hand puppet

2013-12-18T14:18:00.000-06:00

My 2-year old son has discovered Santa this year. It started way before the season, when we checked out a Christmas book at the library. Now he sees Santa everywhere: X-mas tree decorations, malls, cards, my decorative pillow (You may say that there is no Santa on my pillows but Victor would definitely contradict you as both Santa and snowman are Santa for him. Snowman is a more difficult word to pronounce than Santa so every winter-related figure goes under the name of Santa.)

One day, while Victor was napping I made him this felt Santa hand puppet:

Here is a profile photo so you can notice his big fat belly.

Victor acknowledged Santa's presence once he woke up but that was it, he hardly played with his new toy.

easy DIY Christmas card holder

2013-12-08T14:06:00.000-06:00

In case you're looking for ideas on how to use the branches left after cutting off the bottom of your Christmas tree, here is one: card holder.

I used a few bows and colored pine cones to decorate the branch

But you can also use glass ball ornaments, ribbons, winterberries, jingle bells...the possibilities are endless.

Tie up ribbons on the branch, punch two holes at the top and two at the bottom of each card and pass the ribbons through the punches.

Done!

Despicable me party - party favor bags

2013-12-06T10:15:00.000-06:00

I must start by telling you that the title of this post is deceiving : there was no Despicable me party going on in our family. Sure I've been planing for one for weeks for our oldest son who's born on Halloween (that's why the Despicable me costumes and pumpkins) but just the night before the party the birthday boy came down with a cold. We had to cancel everything: party, food and cake.

My only comfort was that Victor was too little to realize what was going on, otherwise he would have been crushed. He spent the entire day in his PJ. I got a family size cake and we sang "Happy birthday!" several times (He preferred the Romanian version and kept asking us to sing it to him).

One of the things I created for the party is the party favor bags. Cute little bags I'd like to share with you. They have Gru's black silhouette for which I used the freezer paper stencil technique (see here a tutorial).

Here is what was inside the bags:

The rulers were ordered from VistaPrint: personalized with a minion photo and the message:

Thank you for celebrating with me!

Victor

October 2013

(With the use of a groupon I practically got them for nothing)

Victor's play kitchen

2013-11-30T23:27:00.001-06:00

If, while still living in Romania, you'd told me that I would get my son a kitchen for his second birthday I would have smiled: No way! I've been brought up in a society where chores are well defined between husband and wife and the kitchen is the woman's domain.

There are exceptions to the rule and my dad is one of them.

Throughout the last two years a couple of things managed to alter my vision: two of our friends got kitchen sets for their boys and Victor has a blast each time I take him to the Ridgedale library where he can play in the kitchen area.Besides he's always been a picky eater and having his own kitchen where he can play with food toys gives me the hope that he'll be more open to trying new foods. A mother can only hope.

We were torn between buying a play kitchen ( Step2 has such a great variety of affordable kitchens with a cool boiling sound effect) and making one ourselves. I was more towards doing it ourselves (I'm a DIY girl after all) while Dan was little inhibited by the idea that the outcome wouldn't resemble a true kitchen. I managed to talk him into undertaking his first DIY toy project and drove to Habitat For Humanity ReStore to pick up a kitchen cabinet.

Victor's kitchen was the result of 95% Dan's work and 5% my nagging Dan to finish it on time for our son's second birthday. He started by sanding the cabinet, created a kitchen base as the cabinet was a little low, built the sink area (cut a large hole to fit the bowl, drilled a small hole for the "faucet" - a soap disposer - ), converted the oven door to open downwards, changed the door handles and ended by gluing on two CDs in the range area.

The painting job was mine.

One month later Victor still has a blast playing with his kitchen every day and we couldn't be happier about our project.

Halloween costumes: Despicable me family costumes

2013-11-01T23:43:00.000-05:00

I hope you had a happy Halloween with lots of fun and candies. It was Victor's first trick-or-treat (we didn't go last year) and Eric's first Halloween. We'd never truly celebrated Halloween until Victor decided to come into our lives on the day of October 31st. Sure we had been enjoying the costumes of the kids (and parents) coming to our door to trick-or-treat but nothing more. One year I tried to take it up a notch and bought a witch hat but never wore it.

And then, two years ago we had Victor on Halloween and took a 180 degree turn by starting celebrating Halloween with bells and whistles.

I'm into family costumes and this year I decided to try my hand at creating Despicable me costumes.

If you're familiar with the movie, you'll recognize Gru, Vector and 2 minions.

Here is my oldest minion enjoying his first chocolate ever! (We are one of those parents who try to limit our kids' access to sugar - don't get me wrong I bake every week. It's just that I prefer to control the amount, not eliminate it)

See also my painted Despicable me pumpkins.

Despicable me pumpkins

2013-10-18T21:45:00.000-05:00

I have a thing for painting. Dan makes fun of me as I'm always willing to refresh the look of things by changing their color. But it's the first time that I try it on pumpkins and probably not the last.

I may turn it into a tradition.

As the boys are too young to decide about their Halloween costumes, I'm the one doing it for them. I like family costumes and this year I went for Despicable me, a movie that both Dan and I love. (more about our Halloween costumes here).

I spent the last warm fall afternoon on the deck turning two pumpkins into minions. I had to hurry up and do it during the boys' nap but 2 hours was enough to finish the job.

Victor has no idea why these pumpkins look different than the rest but never the less he finds them funny looking and each time we get out of the house for a walk he pays them a little visit and tries to pull out their eyes.

personalized baby onesie

2013-10-08T21:13:00.000-05:00

My friend Marvellina is having a baby next week (the advantage of having a C-section is that you can know the exact day when you'll meet your baby). Because it's her second child and the first was a difficult baby she's more afraid than excited about becoming a mom of two.

I remember feeling the same before Eric was born. The exhaustion and sleep deprivation were still very vivid in my mind but our youngest was a big surprise to us with his good sleeping habits and almost no crying at all. It evens out in the end...

We had a play date yesterday and as it was the last time I would see her before I used this opportunity to give her a little present for the baby. I would have liked to make something similar to the big brother / little brother shirts but my friend decided to keep it a surprise and not find out if they're having a girl or a boy. So I created this day ONE onesie instead.

Perfect for a boy or a girl.

Marvellina told me she'd already bought a big sister shirt for her daughter but couldn't find anything gender neutral for the little one.

Urban Outfitter inspired boy t-shirt

2013-09-13T14:59:00.002-05:00

I originally wanted my boy mom tee to be a white and light blue combo (white words and light blue cars) but didn't pay too much attention to the fabric colors I got from the craft store. I did buy the right colors but only when I got home I noticed the existence of the word dimensional on the color tubes. I had no idea how to make use of them but still decided not to return them. I took it as a challenge.

The inspiration for my boy t-shirt came from an Urban Outfitter women's top found on Pinterest. I was looking for lines or arrows tees when I came across this one:

Pinned by Lauren Shields onto My Style board.

I added a little car on the left side to give it a more masculine/boyish look.

I started with a plain white tee (from the bunch I got when I created the big brother / little brother shirts), dyed it orange, drawn the design on the tee (using not a washable fabric pen as you may think but a 0.5 mm mechanical pencil- the reason is that being sharper, it's easier to apply a design like this on fabric) and applied the fabric paint.

When I showed it to Dan his reaction was so genuine that I know he really liked it. He usually is a big fan of my work but this time he asked for a similar tee for himself. This is a first! So stick around to see what I have in store for him. I have already an idea how I want his t-shirt to look like, I just need to find the time to work on it.

The photo shoot for this tee took place after coming back from the store, where, among other, I bought a new whisk. Victor was fascinated by it and played with his new "toy" for the rest of the day. I sometimes wonder why we spend so much money on toys when a simple kitchen tool can make our kids so happy.

Have a good weekend!