just Lu

The Mama Mother, and Batik-Style Watercolor Card for Kids

2013-05-03T21:01:00.000-06:00

Today is my last day of paying homage to the amazing moms of all kinds who have shaped my "mama schema" (read the post to understand what in the world that means :) and sharing simple handmade cards to deliver to these women who have been so influential in my life. Check out the final card tutorial at the bottom of the post: a batik-style watercolor card.

The Mama Mother

The mama, the one who gave birth to me, raised me, and otherwise nurtured me in my childhood and allowed me to live to adulthood, even after I cut up the dresses she sewed for me AND her wedding pictures.

If that isn't love, I don't know what is.

My mother is amazing. She claims she wasn't a perfect mother, but we (all 8 of us kids) are grateful that she was just perfect enough for us and our imperfections, and now she can be the perfect grandmother.

See, Debra -- my camera-face is genetic!

I credit my love of creating and learning to my mother. She claims I was always creative, but as a child -- and now as an adult -- few things thrill me more than showing a creation to my mother and having her gush excitement and praise my work. My mother isn't the gushy type, but she has always encouraged me in whatever endeavors I have taken up, whether it was basketball or rocket science or poetry.

My mother loves learning, and always has. She was a teacher and a librarian, and she was always reading and sharing what she'd read -- a new novel, a new fact, a new joke from Reader's Digest. She would often wake me up to come see the meteor shower or watch a space shuttle launch, or enlist me in testing the experiment she'd read about how to keep flies out of the house or make a fun gadget from household items.

In addition to my amazing mother, I have an amazing mother-in-law. She was one of my biggest believers when I was a teenager, and I learn from her example every day. She is a wonderful example of how to be Christlike and still have a wicked sense of humor. ;)

Most women say that they wouldn't be as happy as I am living within blocks of both my mother and my mother-in-law, but I thank my lucky stars every day for the support and examples of my two moms.

Happy Mother's Day to each of you -- be sure to give a mama a hug and tell her that she's important to you :) and then go make her a card...

Batik-Style Watercolor Card for Kids

All you need is white paper/cardstock, a white crayon, and watercolors.

Use the white crayon to draw a design or write on the cardstock.

And then set your child loose with the watercolors. Well, not completely loose. I gave mine strict instructions that he was NOT to use the black or brown. :)

Once the entire page is watercolored, let it dry and then cut it in half (hamburger style) and fold it to make a card.

Since the watercolors (and my child's preference toward the water part of the equation) made the paper curl, I folded another card and stuck it inside using double-stick tape to stabilize and straighten the curved corners.

I love this art style! We use it to help my children write thank-you notes, and even my 10-year-old niece likes it, and keeps asking me what the trick is :)

A very happy Mother's Day to you and yours -- you have a week, so make sure that you take advantage of this (over-commercialized) holiday to give the mothers in your life a little extra love!

-Lorene

The Village Mother, and a Kids-Can-Do Peekaboo Card

2013-05-02T16:45:00.000-06:00

I'm still paying homage to the amazing moms of all kinds who have shaped my "mama schema" (read the post to understand what in the world that means :) and sharing simple handmade cards to deliver to these women who have been so influential in my life. Check out today's easy but awesome card tutorial at the bottom of the post: kids-can-do peekaboo art card.

The Village Mother

A Village Mother is a woman who watches out for my kids, just because. Sometimes when I'm not able to be present (such as when my children go to their classes at church) and other times they take and entertain my children and save my sanity (so grateful for amazing aunts and cousins!)

sorry, Di, this was the only picture I had!

Village mothers take the form of teachers, friends, aunts, cousins, nieces, neighbors, and sisters. (In case you can't tell, I sure love my sisters an awful lot :) You find them at school, at church, around your neighborhood, pretty much anywhere. While my children are ultimately my responsibility, I am sure grateful for the village of support I have!

a few of my amazing nieces

These village mothers love my kids like I do -- they are the second mothers that my children will be remembering and appreciating when they are grown and have kids of their own (but hopefully before then, too).

Most importantly to me, the biggest village mothers in my life play and play and plaaaaay with my children -- reminding me that, in spite of whatever phase they are going through -- my kids are fun.

the best babysitters, er, I mean, sister-in-laws a girl could hope for :)

One of the greatest joys I have discovered since my son was born 3 1/2 years ago is the pure delight that comes from seeing someone else fall in love with my child. Seeing someone else enjoy my child reminds me how much I DO enjoy them, and how I should not just love but also enjoy my child.

So, here's to you, my village mothers! Your adoring fans have made you some awesome (if I do say so myself) cards...

Kids Can Do Peekaboo Cards

The Second Mother, and A Mixed Media Mother's Day Bouquet Card

2013-05-01T20:32:00.000-06:00

As I introduced earlier, this week I'm paying homage to the amazing moms of all kinds who have shaped my "mama schema" (read the post to understand what in the world that means :) and sharing simple handmade cards to deliver to these women who have been so influential in my life. Check out today's easy but awesome card tutorial at the bottom of the post: mixed media mother's day bouquet.

The Second Mother

A Second Mother is one of those women who takes you under her wing, who tells you that you matter, who cheers you on -- even though she has no biological or legal responsibility to do so.

Rusti, my second mom throughout high school, the one who didn't get mad when we had a frosting fight in her house. :)

Second mothers love you like you belong to them, whether that means adding you to their brood or making you their honorary first child.

Second mothers, much like all mothers, give you the advice that you need, even when you don't want it.

Miranda, my manager when I waited tables in high school.

When I was younger, my second mothers filled the gap between my own mother and my teenage brain -- telling me just what my mother had told me, but making it sound reasonable instead of unfair :)

Now that I'm "grown" (ha!), I am still finding second mothers who are watching out for me and allowing me (and my family) to become part of their families.

Yes, this is my best friend, Debra, and her mom, Sonja. Best family ever! :)

And, how lucky am I? One of my most influential second mothers later became my mother-in-law! (I think she is even as happy about the arrangement as I am ;)

My amazing mother--in-law and father-in-law

For the second mothers in your life, whip up a mixed media card... that looks like it took more time than it did :)

Mixed Media Mother's Day Bouquet Card

Just use what you have on hand... here's what I used:

blank card (mine is just a piece of standard sized cardstock cut in half, hamburger-style, and then folded in half again)
fabric scraps
buttons
washi tape
textured scrapbook paper
ribbon
black and yellow chenille stems (pipe cleaners)
glue -- I used a regular glue stick and a hot glue gun

Then, just start cutting and gluing...

Draw your flower shapes on the back of the fabric and cut them out.
Stick on washi tape stems.
Fold a small (1-2 inch) piece of ribbon and stick the cut ends under the washi tape to form leaves.
Glue down the flowers.
Cut grass out of textured paper and glue it on.
Glue on buttons.

And then, if you feel like something is missing, grab the pipe cleaners and create a tiny fuzzy bumblebee friend, by wrapping them around the tip of pencil:

And then adding another tiny piece of black pipe cleaner for antennae. Look at all that fuzzy goodness!

Glue it on, and you're done! (Once you write a nice note inside, of course!)

And now you can present your mother with a beautiful hand-picked bouquet that won't make her sneeze (or was I the only one who perpetually picked my mother bouquets of weeds she was allergic to? :)

-Lorene

The Grand Mother and Washi Tape Stripes Card

2013-04-30T23:01:00.000-06:00

As I introduced earlier, this week I'm paying homage to the amazing moms of all kinds who have shaped my "mama schema" (read the post to understand what in the world that means :) and sharing simple handmade cards to deliver to these women who have been so influential in my life. Don't miss today's simple card tutorial at the end of the post: the easiest-ever washi tape card.

(I had a different type of mother planned for today, but my husband's grandmother passed away last week and we attended her funeral today. And I knew I needed to make sure to recognize that there is just something special about the grandmothers. :)

The Grandest of Mothers

While my mother's mother lost her battle with breast cancer when my mother was only 16, I was blessed to have a very close relationship with my paternal grandmother, Grandma Ruth, and I married into two amazing grandmothers. All three women were examples of faith and charity, of sticking with it even when times were tough. Two were widowed for many years, and one was plagued with health problems, but throughout everything, they each loved their families and found opportunities to serve and bless many lives. I treasure the memories and family heritage from each of these women, all of whom have passed on.

Since I can't today or on Mother's Day, if you can, give your grandma a hug from me. (Only maybe don't tell her it's from me since that might be weird.)

And then, round up some washi tape and go make the world's easiest diy greeting card.

Washi Tape Stripes Card

Seriously, cards do not get much easier than this.

Start with your blank card -- mine is a piece of cardstock cut in half (hamburger style) and then folded in half. Select 5 or so rolls of washi tape in coordinating colors/patterns.

Starting a few inches up from the edge of the card, line up a strip of tape with the other edge and press it firmly on the front of the card. Leave a tail (long or short - variety is up to you!) and fold it around to the inside of the card. We are decorating both the front and the inside of the card -- go us! :)

With the other colors/patterns of washi tape, continue placing strips of tape at varied heights and of varied lengths along the edge of the card, matching up the edges of the strips but not overlapping them. Depending on the width of your tape, you may have a small gap at the end. I chose to match up the pattern and have that last stripe be a little bit wider, and then trim the excess tape.

If your original card is a darker color like mine, cut a rectangle of lighter color cardstock just smaller than the size of the card and stick it in the card with double stick tape, so that you can easily see your hand-written note.

See, SO EASY!! And it's adorable on the inside, too (just like yesterday's card :)

Have a happy day,

Lorene

The Sister-Mother and an Easy Hand-Stitched Card

2013-04-29T22:45:00.000-06:00

As I introduced yesterday, this week I'm paying homage to the amazing moms of all kinds who have shaped my "mama schema" (read the post to understand what in the world that means :) and sharing simple handmade cards to deliver to these women who have been so influential in my life. Don't miss today's simple card tutorial at the end of the post: a hand-stitched baker's twine card.

The Sister-Mother

Sister-mothers are the amazing women who are able to act both as mothers -- walking the path before me and teaching me the ropes of womanhood and motherhood -- and as sisters, empathizing and laughing with me when those very same ropes tangled me up and saw me landing flat on my face.

I have the wonderful privilege of having a wonderful community of sister-mothers, both those who are actually genetic sisters and those who have adopted me into their sisterhood.

These women have taught me what true friendship is,

what true bravery and faith looks like (and that it has a great sense of humor as well!)

what patience and pressing forward mean,

and what it truly means to enjoy life, regardless of circumstances.

I hope you each are blessed with wonderful sister-mothers in your life, although mine will always be the best -- not just everyone can be The Sisterhood of the Traveling Sweaty Pants, you know!

And now, the card for today:

Easy Hand-Stitched Baker's Twine Card

A very simple and easy hand-stitched baker's twine card -- start to finish in 15 minutes!

Gather your supplies:

plain note card (mine is just a half sheet of white cardstock, folded in half to form a card)
paper and pencil
baker's twine
needle with an eye large enough to fit the baker's twine

Start by deciding what simple shape you want to stitch. I chose a heart. You can draw it right on the front of the card or, if you are a nervous drawer like I am, use the good old graphite-transfer... Draw the shape on a separate piece of paper, and then flip the paper over and fill in the whole area with pencil. Flip the paper back over (so your drawing is now facing you) and place it on top of the card and then, trace firmly over the shape to transfer a very thin outline to the front of the card.

Then you'll use a sharp needle to poke "pilot holes" for your stitching. Be sure that your card is OPEN and placed on a firm surface that the needle can poke into -- I used my rug, but I usually use a magazine. Poke an EVEN number of holes around the outline of the shape, spaced equally.

Then thread your needle with an arm's length of baker's twine -- you may need more if you are dong a larger shape with more stitches. The only needle I could find that would accommodate my baker's twine was a darning needle, so I used the smaller, sharper needle on the right to poke the holes and then the darning needle for the stitching.

Carefully and gently push the needle through the first hole at the top of the heart, leaving a 4-5 inch tail so that you can tie the bow when you are finished.

Place your hand on the back side of where you are stitching to help add strength to the card so that your stitching won't bend or wrinkle the card.

Gently push the needle back up through the next hole, and then down through the next, making a dashed-style stitched line, until you have completed the circle. If you counted correctly (or just guessed well :), your last stitch will come up close to your first stitch.

Tie a bow and trim the tails to your desired length.

My favorite thing about this card (aside from just how easy it is!) is that it looks just as cute on the inside as the outside:

Thanks for reading,
Lorene

A Mama Schema, or An Homage to Moms of All Kinds

2013-04-28T22:00:00.000-06:00

Mrs. Rosenlof (yes, we called her Raisin Loaf...), my 7th grade English teacher, spent the first few weeks of the semester teaching us about schema. She would get this wild, excited look in her eyes and tell us to explore our individual schema: the unique experiences, people, and objects that make us who we are, the collective framework that shapes our thoughts and actions.

At the time, I was just irritated because the discussion kept going on and on, and I just couldn't get why this older woman was so excited about a crazy, abstract thing like schema.

But now I get it. Schema is important because it is the key to our individual identity. Schema means that no two people will handle a situation in an identical manner, no matter how many shared experiences and qualities the two have.

Since Mother's Day is fast approaching, I've been taking some time to think about my mothering style and the history of its development: my mama schema, so to speak. (I just couldn't resist the alliteration. Forgive me :)

When I am at a mom crossroads (most often mean mom vs. calm mom...) and contemplating my next step, I have a hundred voices, with a hundred faces, in my head, contributing to my decision.

Talk about parenting paralysis :)

Thankfully, most of those voices and faces are of kind, confident, and supportive women (and men, but they'll get their spotlight later). But, while so many of these women have been so influential in my life, how many of them actually know how much I appreciate their contribution to my schema, to my life?

Almost none of them.

And if there's anything I've learned in my nearly-four short years as a mother, it is that every mother -- every woman! -- needs to know that she has an impact on someone, somewhere, at sometime. Because motherhood is rewarding, but the dividends don't always pay out regularly.

So, for Mother's Day this year, I've decided to give the most heartfelt gifts I can, to each of the women who has been influential: a hand-written note telling them specifically thanks for their impact on my life. And, because I like being crafty (and because I dislike paying $5+ for a generic card at the store), I'm going the extra mile and hand-crafting the note cards, too.

For the next week, I'll be sharing a simple-to-make card and paying homage to the different types of mothers in my life -- because it takes all kinds of mothers to make the world go round, and giving birth is not a prerequisite to mothering.

I'd love for you to join me, and I'm sure there are a few mothers in your life who would love a quick note telling them how much you value their contribution to your life. And, you know, it's a good exercise to think about that schema thing. :)

Have a happy day,

Lorene

DIY Washi Tape Switchplates {tutorial}

2013-04-24T07:00:00.000-06:00

If you've been around the crafty blog world much, you've seen washi tape.

More accurately, you've seen ROLLS of washi tape. Full-on collections of beautiful colors and patterns, carefully curated by an adoring crafter.

Because, even more so than with potato chips, you can't have just one roll of washi tape. It's unnatural.

Debra bought me my first few rolls and I've been obsessing and collecting ever since (with a big thanks to Pick Your Plum for making it even more affordable -- and you can also find it at Michael's and Target. It's also called "decorative paper tape" in some stores.)

UPDATE: It's a great day for washi, apparently -- Pick Your Plum has washi tape again this morning! $1.50 a roll and $2.95 shipping in the US (or just a bit more if you're outside the US). This deal always goes quickly, so if you want some, go fast!

Thankfully, washi tape is a totally publicly acceptable, and even budget-friendly, obsession.

I even gave out rolls of washi tape at a favorites party I hosted for my sisters back in February (of which I will post details eventually). As I gushed about how amazing it was, I got one question back from every recipient:

But what do you DO with it?

And my nonchalant answer was:

You stick it on stuff.

Anything.

Just stick it on whatever and it will be cute.

And that is totally true, but...

[big confession]

I had never actually used washi tape on anything!

{hang head in shame}

So, a few weeks later, when we painted our stairway and upstairs hallway, I took the opportunity to put my washi tape on display by letting it work its magic on the switchplates and plug covers before I put them back on, like these I had seen on Crab & Fish. It started out simple:

and then developed into a bit, er, more...

And now the only bare switchplate in my house is the outlet cover behind my couch. (Okay, the ones in the basement are bare, too, but just until I get down there without forgetting my screwdriver.)

I loved the way the pretty switchplates looked on my neutral tan walls upstairs, but I wasn't sure I would like the patterned covers on my pretty blue walls in my kitchen (Belize by Sherwin-Williams). But I love them even more! Love love LOVE them. I squeeed as I installed each and every one -- my husband can confirm. (And even he admits that he likes them -- and everyone who comes to my house comments on my cute light switches!)

It's super easy. A craft for non-crafters, with a minimal time and money investment. If you want them all to match, one roll of washi tape ($2-4) will do a bunch. I did the first 5 in around an hour, and the next set of 12 took me about 3 episodes of Burn Notice (or just over 2 hours).

Read more > >

The Color Run: Happiest 5K on the Planet (and save $5 on registration)

2013-04-22T07:00:00.001-06:00

Disclosure: The Color Run provided me with a promo code for my readers and a free race entry in exchange for sharing this information with you. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I am a fair-weather runner, so my running season is just getting started for this year. I love running races -- there is just something about the energy at a race, big or small, that is exciting and just so FUN! But, as the penny-pincher I am, I am always looking for a deal: either an inexpensive race or one with what I call "added value" -- great swag (the free stuff you get to take home - shirt, etc), amazing party at the finish line, and/or a super fun experience.

So I am triple thrilled that The Color Run is coming to Salt Lake City on August 24: it has all of the "added value" I look for in a race, plus a completely reasonable entry fee (only $25 if you register as a team using the promo code below before May 1 -- more registration info below).

The Color Run isn't your ordinary 5K. Instead of finishing the race just sweatier than you started, you finish more colorful than you've ever been! Participants are doused from head to toe in different colors at each kilometer, so you start with a white shirt and end up with a one-of-a-kind colored shirt -- and face! (Check out the videos from past events here.)

If you are new to running or concerned about your pace -- don't worry! The Color Run is untimed, and less about your average mile time and more about having a good time! The color fun continues with a big colorful party at the finish line.

All participants are welcome -- young, old, fast, slow, runner, walker, and everything in between. The Color Run only has two simple rules:

Wear white at the starting line.
Finish completely plastered in color.

So, get registered!

Registration is limited, so sign up now because you won't want to miss it! Use the code COLORJUSTLU to save $5 on your registration until August 21. You can save another $5 by registering as part of a team (4+ people), so grab some friends and sign up for only $25 each (until April 30). If you miss the early registration or would rather be solo, the pricing is only a little bit different:

The Color Run™ Salt Lake City Pricing & Deadlines
SOLO Runner/Walker
35.00 Early Registration
40.00 starting May 1st, 2013
45.00 starting July 1st, 2013

4+ PERSON COLOR TEAM Runners & Walkers
30.00 per person Early Registration
35.00 per person starting May 1st, 2013
40.00 per person starting July 1st, 2013

Hope to see you there!

-Lorene

Cookie Sheet Letter and Number Matching

2013-04-17T07:30:00.000-06:00

The "at-home preschool" idea is something that I am trying to work into our daily routine. Ha, routine! I crack myself up!

Okay, we have no real routine, so we're working on a routine, and we're working on making sure this routine has time included for specific learning activities, a proactive time set aside with my preschooler (age 3 1/2) to tackle some of the "get ready for school" type skills.

My son knows all of his letters and all of the letter sounds. This is 100% due to Starfall and not me.

Okay, I am the one who introduced him to Starfall and I'm pretty awesome at reinforcing the things he is learning, so I'll take 10% of the credit and leave Starfall 90%. Does this make me a terrible parent? Probably, but my kid and I are both very happy, so that lessens the terrible by at least 25 points. Which, since I'm also awesome at math, means I win. Moving on...

If you haven't heard of Starfall, and you have a pre-reader who loves technology, go now. You will love it. Did I mention that it's free? Seriously, GO check it out now. I'll be right here waiting when you get back. And this is not a paid advertisement, just true love.

....

Awesome, right? (Thanks for coming back :)

My son would spend all day "playing letters" if I let him, but I do have enough parent goodness to know that unlimited screen time makes my boy craaaaanky. So he is allowed to play Starfall while I prep/make dinner (and sometimes lunch), but that is it. Except for when I need to mop the floor. Or make an important phone call. Because it entertains his sister (18 months) as much as it entertains him, so Starfall time is happy time at our house.

But, when we are unplugged, my son still loves to play with letters. He's fairly letter-obsessed, so we're going with it and riding the wave of enthusiasm.

Last fall, I picked up two packages of magnetic letters and a package of magnetic numbers at Dollar Tree, intending on painting them cute colors and patterns like Creative Carissa. That hasn't happened yet, but when I found this awesome letter matching idea from We Can Do All Things, I knew it would be a hit with my little guy. (She also gives you other awesome ideas for using cookie sheets for travel learning games, so go check them out!)

It's the easiest learning game ever, and I love that my son can do it on his own, too. I just grabbed a yucky old cookie sheet (which I will spray paint some day), saved just for occasions like this, and wrote the alphabet and the numbers 0 through 9 right on the cookie sheet using a dry erase marker.

Then I handed my son the box full of letters and set him loose.

Paul had such a great time matching the letters! As he matched them, he would tell me what each letter's name was and what sound it made, and we would talk about what words had that sound in them. Seriously SO easy. And it's teaching so many skills at once: matching, letter recognition, alphabetical/numerical order, fine motor skills, etc. Easy activities like this greatly increase the odds that we can make a routine and learning time happen regularly!

What kind of "learning time" activities do you do with your kiddos? I love hearing ideas! (You can see more ideas I'm trying over on my "learning time" Pinterest board.)

Have a happy day,

Lorene

"Tangled" Envy

2013-04-12T07:30:00.000-06:00

Are you familiar with Rapunzel, from Disney's Tangled? Because, I confess, I've got Tangled envy, and it's not for the reason that you think.

image via

It's not for her amazing hair, even though it does look great both long/blonde AND pixie-short/brown. Oh, and the whole magical powers thing. But that's not it.

It's not for her skills with a frying pan.

It's not for her super cool chameleon buddy.

It's not even for the fact that she has an adorable love story that makes me get a little choked up. Every time. (My husband has a pretty good smolder of his own, sorry Flynn.)

Nope, my Tangled jealousy is purely based upon all of the time she has to devote to her hobbies! Just listen to her telling of it:

I can't be the only one who thinks, "Gee, it can't be all that bad in that tower... away from all the people... with all that time to devote to awesome talents..." I mean, c'mon -- ventriloquy, chess, and paper-mache, all in the same day, and all after all the housework is done. Yeah, there's a lot of wondering and brushing... but also guitar! pottery! painting!

I think rather than asking when will my life begin, I'd be shouting from the rooftops that this is the life!

Sign me up for my time in the tower! Just think of all the sewing I could get done! and how much better I could become at quilling! and oh, all the HTML and CSS and other coding goodness I could learn with a few uninterrupted hours...

Now, before you judge me too much, I know, hobbies are not all there is to life. And I know that I'd miss my husband and kids (eventually...) if I had a chance at the tower.

Because while varied hobbies and creative endeavors are definitely the spice of my life, they aren't actually LIFE.

So, that's where I've been this week. Smack dab in the middle of this wonderful and crazy life. Which reads a little bit more like this:

and looks like this:

But, at the end of the day (every day), this is my life, and it is glorious and I am so grateful for it. Grateful that I can to share a bit of it with you, my bloggy friends. And grateful that I have a chance to do it all again tomorrow, and hopefully better than I did today. And maybe with a little more paper-mache. ;)

If you had your chance at time in a tower, what hobby would you take up or improve?
I'm pretty sure I'd love to figure out Google+....

-Lorene

Traveling with Young Children, Part 2: In The Car [free printable pack]

2013-04-04T07:30:00.000-06:00

Earlier this week I gave you my worked-for-me tips on packing for traveling with young children. Next: suggestions for keeping them busy while on the road (and don't miss the free printable pack!)

Since I was in the backseat of my parent's car with both of the kids, we didn't have the same type of room as we have on past road trips. I took a tote with a few of their favorite and most entertaining books (such as look and find type books), and some art supplies, both dry-erase activity books and traditional crayons and coloring books... and some printed pages I whipped up the night before and stuck in plastic sheet protectors. Because I love you all (yes, even you!), I will share them. :)

I am too cheap to print with color ink in my home printer, so I printed these in black and white and just used markers to color them in. But because I love you (yes, especially you!), I tossed in some color to make it even faster for you to get these printed and get on the road! If anyone out there is cheap like me, I also have the black and white versions available for download :)

download the black and white version (pdf) here

download the color version (pdf) here

The printable pack has three sheets: find the letters of the alphabet, find each color, and find a vehicle of each color. I handed my son the page (in a plastic sheet protector) and a dry erase marker, and he happily called out colors and letters for a large portion of the trip. I'll be honest... these were good for me, too, to give me something to do during the drive!

We also took our kid-tough camera (we have this one, thanks to grandma) and my son had a blast just taking pictures of anything and everything. I had jotted down a list of things to have him watch for to take pictures of (cows, windmills, different types of trucks, things of different colors, etc), but he was entertained without me giving him any tasks. I planned to make a fun photo book for him... until he deleted all the pictures. Stinker.

Technology to the rescue!

No matter how many fun things I could have packed, none of them are space-efficient or effective at holding my young kids' attention as technology. I loaded my Kindle Fire full of free books, apps, and a couple of short shows, and put a couple of games and short videos on my phone. (My smart phone is still very new and I don't love the kids playing on it, so it was to be a dire emergencies backup for our ancient iPod... which of course died 30 minutes into the trip and refused to hold a charge. The best laid plans...)

Everything I put on my Kindle was FREE! which makes it even better. There are loads of free (mostly "lite" versions) games, apps, and e-books available for every platform. These are the ones that my kids loved -- all on Amazon, and all free as of today:

Learn Along with Sesame Street and Sesame Street from Around the World are not your typical Sesame Street seasons, but they are free and my kids don't mind that some of them are odd topics, such as "Lead Away" where "Oscar, Elmo, and Rosita learn how to protect themselves from the dangers of lead." Our favorites are Music Works Wonders, Math is Everywhere, and The Get Healthy Now Show.

Car Coloring Racer. This is a super simple app, but it kept my vehicle-obsessed 3 year old boy entertained for at least an hour, and begging for more. He loved the music that went along with it, and there were plenty of "coloring pages" to keep him busy, and enough that he didn't even notice or care when he repeated them. He just used the free play mode, but older kids would enjoy the challenge of racing the clock to color the car, I'm sure.

Bubble Pop Game for Toddlers. I thought my 18 month old daughter would love this app. She didn't, but my son did. Again, super simple -- touch (and drag) to form bubbles, touch again to pop them.

Cars, Trucks, and Community Vehicles -- Puzzles for Kids. Again, my vehicle-obsessed 3 year old boy loved this app. It didn't hold his attention for a super long time, but he was happy to redo the puzzles again another time after a break.

Subway Surfers. This game is really popular on every mobile device platform, it seems, and BOTH of my kids love it, even if they are always smashing into trains and having to start over. It's not particularly age-appropriate, but this was one of two games that actually held my daughter's attention for more than a couple of minutes, and I think she might actually be more skilled at it than my son is...

Barnyard Games for Kids (Free). This is the app that literally saved my sanity on the last few hours of the trip home. It is awesome and perfect for toddlers like mine, especially for my daughter who was so hard to find digital entertainment for. It is designed specifically for *little* littles, so they can't easily exit the game or do anything crazy. When we start traveling for famil reunions this summer, I will definitely be paying the $2 to get the full version with 9 games instead of just the 3 that come with the free version.

Another big tip: for those of you with Apple devices, learn how to use Guided Access! It is awesome and would have saved me from listening to Cookie Monster's "Share It Maybe" over and over after my daughter deleted the other videos I had loaded on my phone (by using KeepVid). I had read this article/tutorial explaining Guided Access, but I completely forgot about it until after we got home [facepalm].

With summer coming, are you planning any fun trips with your littles? What tricks work to keep your kids happy in the car?

Happy traveling,

Lorene

Traveling with Young Children, Part 1: Packing

2013-04-02T07:30:00.000-06:00

We spent last week visiting my sister in Oregon, a mostly-beautiful but long drive from our home in Utah. It was just me and my two littles (ages 18 months and 3.5 years)... and my parents.

We are so grateful that they invited us to go with them (thanks, Mom and Dad!), but I won't lie... traveling with the grandparents made me a little nervous. My dad doesn't love traveling and he keeps his cars clean and tidy, so the thought of my kids trashing his car and screaming during the 12-hour drive had me worried.

Historically, my kids have been really good travelers, but we don't travel a ton and we have never made a trip longer than 4-5 hours with my daughter, plus she is at that age and of the temperament where if she decides she is not happy, there is very little that can be done to make her happy. And being restrained for the better part of two days is not really on her happy list.

So, I racked my brain and scoured Pinterest for some ideas to help make traveling easier on my two young children (and, uh, easier on me, too). Hopefully my experiences and tips here can help someone, because tear-free traveling is a goal we can all live with, right? :)

First up: packing.
(head over to this post to see what I did for in-car entertainment, including a free toddler travel game printable pack!)

Clothes and toiletries
Since we were traveling with my parents and staying with my sister, I didn't want to over-pack and I knew that it would be really easy to do laundry in the middle of our stay. So, I only packed clothes for about half as many days as we would be traveling, with 1-2 extra changes of clothes just in case.

Tip 1: Daily clothes/accessories bags
I used this tip from All Things Simple and packed each day's clothes in a zipper bag, and it was seriously a lifesaver! It kept me from over-packing (I always pack way more shirts than we need and never enough underwear, anyone else?) and it made it so easy for someone else to be able to help get my kids dressed. And when I did laundry, I folded the clothes into outfits and put them, along with socks and underwear, right back in the bags.

Tip 2: Corraling laundry
I packed a basic mesh laundry bag to put all of our dirty clothes in each night, so it was easy to do laundry. If you aren't doing laundry, stuff the dirty clothes back in the zippered bag they came out of! Next time, I will pack a mesh lingerie bag for the socks -- I use them at home to keep track of the tiny (or not so tiny) socks -- just zip it and toss it right in the wash! -- and we lost a couple in my sister's washer.

Tip 3: Pack for your itinerary
I packed two bags: a smaller wheeled luggage case with our clothes, and then a backpack with all the other stuff -- toiletry/bathroom bags, extra diapers/wipes, medicine (just in case!), etc. Since I knew we were going to be staying at a hotel one night on the way there and then on the way back, I also put one pair of pajamas and one zippered bag of clothes for each child in the backpack, plus pajamas and next-day clothes for myself. This made it so much easier at the hotel, to only have to open one bag to get our stuff. Less stuff strewn around the hotel and potentially forgotten (and, if you have a vehicle that allows it to stay safely out of sight, one more thing you can leave in the car instead of hauling into the hotel room!).

Snacks
I will be the first one to admit that I waaaay over-packed on snacks. But traveling with young kids, you never know when they are going to be super snacky or not, so I erred on the side of caution.

Tip 4: Individual packages
Everything I packed I either bought individually packaged or I portioned out into snack bags myself. This meant no fighting over a larger bag/package and easy dishing out of snacks in the car. I packed...

trail mix
Goldfish crackers
graham crackers
fruit snacks
string cheese
apple slices
pretzels
granola bars

I soaked the apples in diluted lemon juice as suggested by The Yummy Life to keep them from browning, and it worked great. They were still looking fresh even on the second day of our trip.

Tip 5: Pack something special

Most of these snacks are normal food at our house, but snacks that my kids always love. Fruit snacks, however, are a rarity, and are ONLY for road trips, so they were my big magic trick to keep kids happy when they were ready to be done driving! I even let them each choose their own character fruit snacks to increase the "special" element.

One thing I should have packed? More treats. I was so focused on NOT packing my kids full of sugar (or melting chocolate all over the car interior) that I completely neglected the major truth that my kids will do just about anything (including sit quietly in the car) for a treat. Thankfully my dad had M&Ms that got us through a few rough patches :)

Tip 6: Space-friendly and accessible snack and drink containers

I wanted the snacks very easily accessible, since I was sitting in the smallish backseat with my kids and there wouldn't be a ton of extra room to pack things or to move around to rummage through a bag. So I removed the store-bought snacks from their boxes and tossed all the individual servings of snacks into these awesome (recycled!) containers to keep them together and unsquished.

The oatmeal canister was the perfect height for tucking in my snack bag so that I could easily grab the snack that was on top. The Laffy Taffy container actually held more than the oatmeal canister, but it was harder to reach since it was shorter and had a lid on it.

Theoretically, one container was snacks for the trip there and the other for the trip back (because I'm over-prepared like that), but we only went through about half of the snacks, except for the "special" fruit snacks.

I tucked a couple water bottles, plus some snacks for me (Corn Nuts and whole apples) into the larger catch-all snack bag with the containers. I used these take n' toss cups with straws for my kids, so I could refill them from the water bottles as we drove or from wherever were stopped.

Tip 7: Keep it cold!

There are always a few things you want to keep chilled, but even a small cooler takes up a lot of space. I put the string cheese and apple slices in one of those collapsible silver keep-cold bags (like this), with a couple frozen/cold water bottles. The bag keeps things nice and cool, plus it can expand to hold as much or as little as you have and it folds neatly and compactly when not in use.

Do you have any great tips for road-tripping with young kids? Stay tuned later this week for my in-car entertainment recommendations (including a set of free printables!) Update: head here to read my recommendations and get the free printable pack!

-Lorene

Pin Test: Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Bars

2013-03-28T07:35:00.000-06:00

I am not a great cook. Not an accomplished baker. (My butchering and candlestick making skills also leave something to be desired. No rub-a-dub-dubbing here.) So when I'm looking to try out a recipe, I don't take on anything too risky. No uncommon ingredients, no fancy techniques.

And yet somehow, even with the simplest recipes, I manage to foul something up. It's a special talent I have.

These Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Bars from Tried and Tried Again are simple enough. I even followed the directions exactly. (Crazy substitutions and "winging it" are my prime methods of fouling things up.)

But somehow, my chocolate frosting... was not chocolatey. Just sugary. I am blaming the fact that my cocoa was older than my marriage (6 years... that's how much I bake from scratch...). Thankfully, however, the lack of chocolatey goodness was quickly remedied by a quick layer of melted chocolate chips on top. And, for the first time EVER, I did not burn the chocolate as I melted it! Baby steps. :)

Even with this peculiar double-frosting layer, these peanut butter bars were ah-MAH-zing. Every bit like every wonderful grade school memory, minus the sweet lunch lady in the hairnet and the helping of mushy green beans.

Reading through the comments on the recipe, no one else seems to have had the same frosting trouble. So, chalk it up to my special set of culinary skills, and head on over to Tried and Tried Again for the recipe.

Have a happy day,

Lorene

Kid's Sewing Kit, version 2.0

2013-03-25T07:43:00.000-06:00

Just over a year ago, I made the original Kid's Sewing Kit for one of my nieces. Since then, her younger sister has asked me at least twice a month if I would make one for her. I love when they love what I make for them! So, for her 9th birthday earlier this month, I finally put it together.

The major improvement in Version 2.0 is a sample of each project for which supplies are included in the kit. Rather than the pre-cut shapes (flowers, hearts, etc) that most store-bought kits have, I just included large pieces of felt in many colors so she can use her own creativity to decide what shapes and colors she wants for which projects. I love seeing what my creative nieces come up with!

I included three simple and skill-appropriate projects:

an interchangeable slider shamrock headband
a felt and ribbon bracelet with button closure (like this one at Holiday Crafts and Creations)
a paper clip bookmark (like this one at Holiday Crafts and Creations)

To make the slider headband, I just stitched a small strip of felt on to the back of the shamrock as I stitched the circle on to the front. Easy peasy, slides right on for a holiday and right back off when the holiday is over.

I picked up another snap n stack organizer from JoAnn's ($4, on sale) and put all the supplies inside:

darning needles in a felt needle book (on-hand)
embroidery floss (on hand)
two small spools of ribbon (clearance $1 for both)
a small assortment of buttons, in a tiny dollar store container (on hand)
paperclips for the bookmarks (on hand)
additional headbands ($1)
pre-cut felt strips for bracelets (on hand)
large scraps of felt in many colors (on hand)

I would recommend a pair of scissors ($1-2) as well, but I forgot until ten minutes before the party. Oops!

So, my total was $6, but even if you need to buy more of the supplies, you're still looking at an awesome diy gift for the young girl in your life for around $10.

A few days after I gave this to my delighted niece, her sister attended a "Sew 7" birthday party where each guest had a sewing machine provided to sew a cute little gift bag and a couple other projects. A mini version of this kit would be a fun party favor for a sewing birthday party!

I grew up sewing and learned most everything I know from my mom, who sewed everything -- including my oldest sister's jeans! -- back when handmade was a necessity and not en vogue. I treasure my basic sewing skills and I love passing the sewing/creating bug on to the next generation.

Did you grow up sewing or learn as an adult? or are you still a non-sewist?

(It's okay, I won't judge :)

-Lorene

Toffee Apple Dip

2013-03-21T07:08:00.000-06:00

Warning: even though you eat it with apples (or strawberries or other fruit)... this dip is not good for you. It is fats and sugars working together to reach the pinnacle of simple deliciousness.

But all warnings aside... this dip is totally worth it! You can use fat free/reduced fat cream cheese and reduce the amount of sugar to help lower the calorie content, without affecting the taste or texture. This is my go-to party dip because it is quick to put together and it's popular enough that I never end up bringing any home :)

In a medium bowl, mix

1 - 8 oz block of (softened) cream cheese
1/4 to 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 to 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Once the cream cheese and sugars are mixed well, stir in half a bag of toffee bits (approximately 1 cup -- I use Heath bits, found by the chocolate chips on the baking aisle).

I love to serve this dip with a variety of sweet and tart apples for variety, but Debra loves it with strawberries. I'm pretty sure it makes every fruit better :) To keep the cut fruit from going brown before I serve it or throughout the party, I put a little bit of lemon juice on them. This does make the fruit taste a little lemony (which I don't mind at all) but for the next party, I'm going to try one of these four ideas from The Yummy Life to preserve them without messing with the flavor.

-Lorene

Bathroom Organization, Pinterest Style

2013-03-19T15:34:00.000-06:00

I don't love cleaning (how many people really do?) and I am a bit of a hoarder, so spring cleaning at our house always starts first with spring organizing. I love making the different areas of our home work for us and our stuff and our habits, which means allowing for a little bit of laziness for my husband, our two young kids, and me... mostly me. If it is too much work, none of us will do it. So, rather than making new and totally different habits, I prefer to just slightly alter existing (lazy) habits so that the odds of the new habit "sticking" are greatly improved.

Case in point: my bathroom counter. This is our shared family bathroom, so everyone's stuff is here. Most of it is mine. And I am a habitual leaver-outer. If there is something I use every day, I am very unlikely to put it away if it takes more than half a second. Combine this with my 18-month-old daughter who is a habitual drawer-emptier (thus making drawer storage undesirable), and our bathroom counter was a disaster every day.

I should be more embarrassed about this photo than I am. It is staged but not exaggerated. In reality, there would have been a couple more items on the counter and the counter would have been waaaay dirtier because you can't wipe it down very well with all your stuff all over it, right? ;)

I loved this user-uploaded idea on Pinterest, and I love IKEA. (Not sponsored, just true and honest love.) For around $10 and 10 minutes installation time, I made a great countertop transformation:

All of these items are part of the Bygel organization series.

Love it! The rail gives me a place to hang the squirt bottle I use to do my daughters hair and my glasses, and I can clip smaller things like tweezers and nail clippers right on the side of the bins. I can slide my smaller mirror down between the rail and the bin (safe from my my narcissist children who have broken 2 mirrors in the past year. so much bad luck!).

With the smaller items off the counter, I just had my hair stuff left. I grabbed some magazine/file holders (on-hand and ugly, but you can get cuter ones pretty much anywhere) to organize hair products and styling tools under the sink (thanks to the idea from Keeley MacGuire found via Pinterest).

I still have to overcome my laziness and take the time to put things away in their places, but they *have* places and designating places cleared up a lot of space for other things.

Another area of frustration in our bathroom was the bath toys. They were just sitting next to the tub in various bins and baskets. We had quite a few and our kids loved them all, but they almost never played with them because they couldn't reach them from in the tub and I hated the puddles of water on the floor from them tossing dripping toys back in the baskets.

Inspired by this user-uploaded pin, I grabbed an extra shower curtain rod and hit the dollar store for three baskets and a set of shower curtain rings and now we have this:

So far, it is working great. A small amount of water stays in the baskets, but it hasn't caused any problems yet. If it does, I plan to just drill a couple extra holes lower on the baskets so the water can drain better. The only concern is that our petite little girl can't reach the toys in the baskets without standing up, so we have her choose her toys first while we are there holding her hand and then she can play without standing up and risking a fall. We might move the rod lower, as well.

The only problem with the new organization is that it makes the other clutter spots in our house that much more noticeable and irritating. But little by little, we are getting used to our space and making it work for us... and our laziness... ;)

What have you been organizing lately? I love new ideas, so please share!

-Lorene

Lucky Milk Lid Specimen Art

2013-03-15T08:34:00.000-06:00

Goodness, this week has flown by! We've been organizing up a storm, and I'll have some fun projects to share next week. Today I want to share a super fast update to the milk lid specimen art from last week.

My friend Amy suggested that I paint one of the milk lids gold to make it pop and be more festive, but... paint sounded like work. And drying time. So instead I cut a four leaf clover from some brushed gold vinyl (using my Silhouette... I'm old-school SD not new Cameo :), and stuck it on one of the milk lids.

As a bonus, the vinyl will peel right off once I decide to take the art down and let my kids have their milk lids back to play with. But... let's be honest... those kids are never getting these green milk lids back. And the other colors are in danger, too, because momma is loving on how easy and cheap milk lid specimen art is! Next time, though, I think I will leave some space between the milk lids to give it more of a specimen feel. And there will be a next time. :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

-Lorene

Yardstick Photo and Decor Hanger (plus St Patrick's Day decor on the cheap)

2013-03-07T16:23:00.000-07:00

Remember my two free printables earlier this week? I had every intention of just tossing them in some frames and putting them on my mantel. But then I had a midnight-hour realization: I have no 8x10 frames in my house. Not just no empty-able frames. NO frames. So I started rummaging around and came up with a few office supplies and that turned into this:

It is not what I first envisioned, but I am totally in love with it and can't wait to use it for other holidays, too!

Want to make one of your own? You'll just need

a yardstick
washi tape (optional, if your yardstick is vintage/pretty i.e., not covered with business info)
paper clips (large are better)
string (I used baker's twine)
hot glue or tape

If your yardstick has unsightly business info all over it (not that Sunroc isn't a great business! love Sunroc :), cover it with washi tape. I was going to leave the measurement side uncovered, but I didn't love that look, so I put two strips of gray polka dot and one strip of pink stripe to jazz it up and help cover the numbers/logo better.

Now, to make the hangers. I call this the poor man's midnight photo hanging solution ;).

Slightly bend the center section of the paper clip out to form a little hook and tape it on to the yardstick, putting the tape behind the section you just bent out. Note: as I was typing this my shamrock fluttered to the ground... so I'd suggest using tape stronger than washi tape or multiple pieces. You could easily hot-glue the paper clips to the yardstick as well, but I wanted mine to be movable in case the things I want to hang next time are different sizes.

Then hot-glue a short section of string, knotted at either end to keep it from unraveling and to help hold it in the glue, to the back of the photos and/or lightweight decor that you want to hang. Be sure to glue the string down far enough on the hanging item that the paper clip won't show at the top. (I also glued my photos to poster board to keep them from bending while they're hanging.)

Having to stretch and use what I have on hand really gets my creative engine going sometimes, so I kept going with the green projects, using what I have on hand. Up there at the top of my yardstick display, I have a crepe paper shamrock.

I found a shamrock coloring page, traced it on cardboard (the lid of a donut box ;), and then cut it out and glued random spirals of squished and twisted crepe paper streamer until it was covered. Don't look too closely or you'll see the leftover hot glue strings ;)

Hanging next to the yardstick display on our weird stair wall, I just glued some yarn (freehand, in case you can't tell ;) to say lucky... and that is supposed to be a clover on the tail of the y... (The frame is one that I won a while back from Janny at Que Linda. She even gives you the tutorial here! I love it and it fits the holiday perfectly!)

I have one shelf on our front room bookshelf that I put seasonal things on:

An Easter chick masquerades as a leprechaun using the hat I made for my son when he was a baby, and it wouldn't be St. Patrick's day without a pipe cleaner rainbow and the traditional cotton ball clouds!

And then I was on to my mantel. I have only had a mantel for about 6 months and I am still getting a feel for my mantel style... but this one is my favorite yet! Simple but festive. And all from things sitting around my house. Sometimes it pays to hoard ;)

Just ignore the extra rustic feel... the mantel still needs painted :) From left to right:

Hurricane jar with coiled dollar store garland inside, on top of two dollar store bowls
Recycled mini Martinelli's bottles with dollar store flowers (whose stems are lengthened with drinking straws)
Plain candle on a candle holder, dressed up with more washi tape
Milk lid specimen art in white Ribba frame from IKEA
Clock from Deseret Book a year or so ago
My only still-living plant, in a thrifted ceramic teapot that is normally in my kitchen (propped up with a recycled orange juice concentrate container)

My favorite part? The milk lid specimen art!

So easy. I covered a piece of cardboard with burlap and then just glued the milk lids to it and popped it in the frame. It adds a great color, and I'm thinking how fun it would be with many colors of milk lids.

Oh, and I don't normally hoard milk lids. I collect them. For my kids. Really, they are great for putting in and out of a wipes container (thank you, Pinterest and Learning Through Play!) and for counting and sorting and stacking. So I put a very small amount of glue on them so my kids won't be green-deficient next time they play ;)

So, how are you decorating for St. Patrick's Day this year? Or are you skipping it since Easter is so close on its tail?

Have a happy {green} day!

-Lorene

An Irish Blessing or Two | free printables

2013-03-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

I am generally very slow about getting our holiday decorations put up and taken down. Just ask Debra -- I once had our Christmas tree up from the week before Christmas (as my husband's birthday tree) until Easter. The tree was redecorated for all the holidays in between, at least ;)

St. Patrick's Day is approaching, as I'm sure you know. But this is one of those weird years when Easter is actually in March (the 31st), so the Irish decor is going to have to come down after my kids go to bed on the 17th so my Easter decor can get as much time in as possible. I love Easter because it means SPRING!

So I'm resorting to the best of quick-and-dirty holiday decorating: printables! I love the wording of some of the Irish blessings I've seen around, so I took two of my favorites and made 8x10 printables for myself and to share with you. (If you're interested in other sizes, drop me a line.) Download the full-res images by clicking on the pictures or the download links -- your downloads do not have my logo on them. :)

Irish Blessing #1

May your troubles be less and your blessings be more and nothing but happiness come through your door
credits | font: Tork | frame shape: StarSunflower Studio | background: Elemis Freebies

download here -- yours will NOT have my logo on it

Irish Blessing #2

May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day. May songbirds serenade you every step along the way. May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue. And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.

credits | fonts: Tork and Gruenewald VA | rainbow image: OCAL on clker.com

download here -- yours will NOT have my logo on it

Feel free to pin and share these, but please share this post and not the download pages.

As with everything I share here, these are for personal use only, please.

Happy decorating! If you use these in your home, let me know -- I'd love to see how you use them! I'll be sharing what I've done with mine soon, too :)

-Lorene

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$6 Faux Wrought Iron Triple Frame

2013-03-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

Ages ago, long before the hiatus, I fell in love with toilet paper rolls. It was a match made in heaven -- something free that could be turned into something beautiful with just a little creativity, elbow grease, and spray paint.

I collected for months and then, inspired by the turquoise tp art by The How-To Gal and the faux metal filigree frame by Suzy's Artsy-Craftsy Sitcom that I stumbled upon thanks to Pinterest, I cut and glued and made my own. This hangs right by my front door, and everyone remarks on it and is completely astonished that it is made from toilet paper tubes.

Instead of having the frames sit on top of the cardboard filigree like Suzy's, I wanted to have the frames blend right in so that the whole frame looked like one continuous piece of (faux) metal. I already had two of these thin black front-loading "quick frames" kicking around, and, after much searching, I finally found a matching one at Hobby Lobby so I could have one large (11x14) frame flanked by two smaller (5x7) frames.

I followed the same basic construction steps as The How-To Gal: collect toilet paper (or paper towel) tubes, flatten them and cut them into slices, and then start gluing! I cut the slices the same depth as my frames -- just over 1/2 inch. I used white tacky glue and glued my flattened circles into flower shapes first, 4 slices coming together at the center.

Once I had a significant number of flower shapes (close to 50), I laid out my photo frames and determined how many flower shapes it would take to span the width/length of each frame, and how many to put in between the frames and above/below the largest frame. I put one row of flowers above and below the largest frame and one row in between the frames, so I ended up with a design that is 11 flower motifs wide by 6 flower motifs tall.

The 11x14 photo frame is just wider than 3 flower motifs, but the open work of the design allows for some flexibility to stretch a bit, so it's not even noticeable.

The 5x7 photo frames are 2 flowers tall but only 1.5 flowers wide, so I had to have a few partial flowers to fill in the extra halves around the outside edges of the frame.

After everything was glued and dried, I very carefully transported the frame outside for 2-3 very light coats of black spray paint. The frame is surprisingly sturdy when laying or standing, but any twisting will tear it right to pieces and put me to tears. (When we moved, this frame and my intersecting circle art were personally transported by me in the passenger seat of my car, my most prized possessions and the ones that I would have been devastated if they had been ruined!)

To mount the frame on the wall, I first hung the frames where they should be, starting with the largest frame in the middle of the wall at the height I wanted and then using the cardboard part of the frame to determine where the smaller frames should go. The frame sags a little bit, so hang the frames just a little higher than the frame determines, or have a second pair of hands help hold up the sides of the frame while you mark where the frames should go, so that it will be level on the top and bottom.

Once the 3 photo frames were hung, I just slipped the cardboard frame right over the top. It stays put nice and snug, but over time gravity took a bit of a toll and the bottom started to sag (it happens to all of us, right? darn gravity). To remedy this, I put a small support nail on the outside bottom corners of the two 5x7's and the bottom corners of the 11x14. I used a black Sharpie to color the head of the nail so that it blends in to the black frame. If I were to do something like this again, I would either use 3M mounting squares like The How-To Gal or build a thin balsa wood support frame just around the outside edges of the photo frames like Suzy did for her faux metal wall art.

Since I only had to buy the one 5x7 frame (with a coupon) and the black spray paint, my total out of pocket cost was $6! Buying all 3 frames (such as from Hobby Lobby) would only set you back $12, so even if you had to buy the spray paint and glue, you're still looking at under $20 for a great piece of statement art -- and much less if you can use coupons and catch a sale! And it didn't take too long, either -- I'd say 3-4 hours total time, plus the time for the glue and spray paint to dry.

After I made this, my husband was thrilled to not get in trouble for throwing away (in the recycling bin) toilet paper tubes. But now that we are in our new house with more wall space, I'm back to religiously saving every tube. I think my next project will be a mirror like this one by Made2Style to hang in our master bedroom:

Source: made2style.com via Lorene on Pinterest

(You can find this and more great ideas for using toilet paper tubes and other recycled materials on my reduce reuse recycle board on Pinterest.)

Thanks for reading!

-Lorene

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And that's what they call a hiatus...

2013-03-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

So... you probably didn't notice, but I've been away. I mean, not many of us notice when posts from one of the many blogs we follow just stop showing up in our readers. I usually don't.

I never intended to not be blogging. I just never actually blogged. At first I was just having a frustrating creative block. Once I got over that, I did plenty of creative things worth sharing. I thought about blogging. A lot at first, and then not so often as I merged back into the real world, that strange place where people rarely, if ever, stop every step along the way to take photos for a tutorial.

And then we bought our house (after months of waiting).

Our first real home task was dealing with a creeper.
Thankfully the "creeper" at hand was a pesky vine and not a lurking neighbor ;)

And Debra moved much closer.

I got to be Debra's guest at the opening of the new DownEast store in Tooele. So fun and such a great store!

And suddenly all my creative zeal and energy that had been missing for months was back! Now my head is swimming with more ideas than I can ever afford to bring in to reality in the 24-hour days we mortals have to function in. But it's good to be back :)

-Lorene

PS -- I redesigned this lil ol' blog, so you really should come visit and see the new look! And you can follow me on Pinterest, too, if you want.

Point of View: Pinterest | Intersecting Circle Art

2012-03-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

So, today is the Point of View reveal! Don't know what Point of View is? You're missing out! POV is a monthly themed creative collaboration between a handful of "regulars", one guest (that's me, this month!), and, if you'd like, you. Each creative blogger shares a project based on a theme, and then anyone can link up a project relating to their view of that theme. Think of it as one of those craft competitions, minus the competition. :)

I'm so excited to be part of Point of View and share with you one of my *favorite* projects EVER. Our theme this month is Pinterest. If you've made something inspired by a pin, we want to see! (Scroll down to link up.) We have some great projects to share this month:

Keep reading to get the scoop on my Pinterest-inspired project (and link up your own), and please take a minute to check out the other fantastic projects by these amazing ladies:

Jonie from Just Between Friends

Ashlee from I'm Topsy Turvy

Amy from Ameroonie Designs

Gwen from Gwenny Penny

Leanne from Organize and Decorate Everything

My project this month is this gorgeous (if I do say so myself) intersecting circle art:

In true Pinterest and knock-off fashion, this project is inspired by this paint chip intersecting circle art by Two Girls Being Crafty, which was inspired by a piece from World Market.

World Market: $129 | Two Girls $3 | just Lu $17*

*only because I inadvertently grabbed the wrong type of wood (the $15 expensive-ish type)

The tutorial was one of my first pinned projects. I started it back in October, and being a guest here for POV gave me the proper motivation to get it all finished up.

Those Two Girls have done a great job with the tutorial, I followed it closely and made two separate pieces, mounted on wood planks instead of on a canvas.

I am completely in love with the depth that the wood background gives to the pieces. I used Minwax Dark Walnut stain and it's my new favorite (I'm planning to use it for this shelf next). I bought a 3-foot 1x12 board and had them cut it in half for me at the hardware store, so each plank measures 1x12x18 inches... almost. I will never understand why wood dimensions aren't actually the same as their names.

Anyway, after pulling out my hair figuring out the common denominator of 11.5 and 18 (give or take a 1/4 inch), I used Photoshop to help me draw a circle that was exactly the crazy-right size, and I created my football-ish template from there. (This won't make any sense until you read the tutorial over at Two Girls Being Crafty :)

After hours of tracing and cutting, I adhered each piece semi-permanently to the plank using double-stick tape, so that I could reposition the pieces as needed to make sure that they were arranged how I would like and fit properly to reach the edges of the planks. Once the pieces were where I wanted them, I used a gluestick to adhere each piece permanently, and then sealed the whole shebang (or, I guess, both shebangs) with a matte spray sealant (Krylon Low Odor Clear Finish). The tutorial uses ModPodge, but I do not have a good track record with ModPodge as a sealant for paper that needs to stay flat, so spray was the way to go!

I added a sawtooth hanger to the back of each plank, and up on the wall they went! They brighten my entryway, and I'm sure it will be even better once I choose a family picture to enlarge and hang in between them like this:

one of my favorite photos ever!

or maybe like this:

our Christmas card photo... for the cards we never sent :)

Currently it actually looks like this:

that blue painter's tape is class-y, right?

Gotta love Photoshop for its abilities to twist reality :)

Now, what have you been pinning? Come link up your Pinterest-inspired projects!

Hand-Stamped Scrunchy Tote

2012-03-16T15:25:00.000-06:00

I am so in love with my latest creation that I had to forego the normal waiting period (of waaaay too long) to share it with you right away:

My niece turned eight yesterday. Her favorite color is purple and she has been begging for a scrunchy-style bag since I made one for myself in June and another for Debra in July (neither of which I have shared yet... but I will round up some pictures to share soon).

I put off starting this project until yesterday, thinking that I had some great purple fabric in my stash. And... I didn't. Just plain ol' purple. Rather than spend the time and money to run to the store, I decided to exercise my creative muscle that has been getting soft lately. ;)

craft paint + egg carton cups + bottle caps

(plus a lid from a tub of frosting as a paint tray)

equals...

a fantastic stamped fabric that I couldn't be more pleased with.

The bottle lids were from a water bottle, a gallon of milk (which is now just sitting lidless in the fridge... small sacrifice for awesome fabric ;), and one of the small bottles of juice. I cut out three individual cups from an egg carton (already empty and in the recycling... I only rob so much from the fridge!) and hot-glued the lids on, two right side up to make the solid circles and one upside down to make the circle outline. You could do without the egg carton cups, but it was SO helpful to have a little more grip on the "stamp".

I watered the craft paint down a little bit as I stamped (maybe 5 drops per medium dollop of paint?). Once the paint was dry, I ironed the fabric to heat-set the paint (since I didn't use fabric paint -- I've never bothered and it doesn't seem to make a huge difference until it's been washed a LOT).

To make the bag, I followed the basics of this tutorial from Nae of Nae Chic. (I followed the tutorial exactly for my first scrunchy bag -- it's a great tutorial for a great bag!). My outer pieces (that I stamped) were about 13"x22", and the interior pieces ended up being 13" square. I also stamped fabric for 3 interior rectangular flat pockets, which I neglected to take a photo of. The finished bag is just the right size for the Highlights puzzle books I had picked up for her -- or another magazine, notebook, coloring book, text book, etc.

The handle is an old necktie I had in my stash. It was part of a tie skirt I made in high school that I had started to dismantle to remake in an, er, mom size (hips! who knew?) so I had already cut it down to about 16" long and undone the stitching to remove the stabilizer inside.

To make it suitable for a bag handle, I ironed in some fusible fleece (because I had a scrap that fit just right) and sewed a straight stitch down the middle to re-secure the tie in proper shape. I sewed the cut edge into the seam when I sewed the interior and exterior of the bag together, and then I attached the other end (the triangle end) by hand, using a big purple button and purple embroidery floss.

I love it, and my niece was thrilled with it! I can't wait until my own kiddos give such glowing approval of my handiwork :)

I know I've been mostly absent lately, but I am still here and doing all sorts of fun things to share with you. First and foremost, I am SO excited for next week - I am the guest for Point of View this month. The theme is Pinterest, so I finally got around to finishing one of my first Pinterest projects. I hope you'll love it! Tune back in next Friday for the reveal :)

Thanks for reading!

Photo-a-day 2012

2012-02-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends! Life is busy, as always, but I wanted to be sure to say hello, share some photos, and let you know about my most recent post over at Housewife Eclectic as part of my Wednesdays on (or off) the Web.

Item #1: Hello! Thank you all for reading :)

Item #3: Pop over to Housewife Eclectic for this week's challenge: to capture the everyday moments.

Item #4: Yes, I can count, but no, I don't care to put these in the proper numerical order...

Item #2: The photos. I've been trying to take more photos lately, inspired by the 356 (or 366, this year) photo projects I see around (like Debra's... check out her AWESOME calendar, and be sure to click on a blank day to see some nerdy goodness :). So, here are some to share:

Combine quiet time with a 2-year-old who loves Spam... the result is uncanny
(ha! I crack myself up!)

All bundled up!

After no nap, Shaun the Sheep is all it takes to put him to sleep, sitting up...
and to keep him asleep as he falls over.

This poor girl puts up with so many things being put on top of her, like a kid-sized plastic lawn chair. No injuries yet....

My sleepy cowboy :)

my first homemade tortillas! they're a little thick, but tasty :)

You know the expiration date on the pop tubes of biscuits? They need to call it an EXPLOSION date. One tube exploded in the fridge, and when I tried to open these, one exploded all over the kitchen, nearly taking my thumb with it. The other one exploded on the front porch when my husband went out to try to open it...

a very happy Valentine's day :)

Polo jammies... the newest layering trend. When you see it hit Hollywood, it started here!

"Why do they make running shoes in all these crazy colors?" he asks.
"Ooh, pretty shoes!" she says with a glint in her eyes...

Just because I am awesome

2012-02-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

... and you all need more proof ;)

Andi from Jane of All Crafts tagged me in a post asking random questions. I, like Amy (who was also tagged), am a rule breaker, so I'm just going to answer Andi's questions. If you'd like to join in and pick up my slack to move the tagging chain along, consider yourself tagged. :)

1. If you had to eat the same thing everyday for the rest of your life what would it be?

Mashed potatoes and gravy. Or the sweet pork burrito from Costa Vida. Okay, definitely the sweet pork burrito. I could eat it every day and never get sick of it. So, Costa Vida for lunch and mashed potatoes for dinner and... homemade wheat bread and strawberry jam for breakfast. Delicious!

2. If you woke up one day and were an animal, what type would you be?
If nature was judging from my current everyday activities, I'd probably be a cat -- I love to sleep and sit around all day and I think I'm pretty superior to all other creatures. ;) Also, agile and flexible... yup, that's me...

3. If you could pick any profession other then your current one, what would it be?
I would go back to being a technical writer. It's not for everyone, but I love it and still miss it often!

4. How many states have you visited?
Umm... 6? I clearly don't get out much... I'd love to visit more, and have plans to visit Montana (hopefully soon) and Maine (to prove that it exists) someday.

5. Ever been overseas? If not where do you dream of going?
Nope. I would love to! I would truly love to go just about anywhere. Tops on my list are Germany (thanks to Tera), Italy, and England, plus Russia (where my husband spent two years as an LDS missionary). Also Prague, while we're dreaming :)

6. If you had to choose, would you rather be an awesome dancer or an amazing singer?
Tough question... I'm going to say singer so that I would fit more with my husband's amazingly talented family. Seriously, they all have great voices. Also, I would love to be able to sing beautiful songs and lullabies to my kids and actually have them still sound beautiful instead of just a little (or a lot) off-key...

7. What is your favorite beverage? (alcoholic or non)
Strawberry limeade. Add that to the list in #1 because I could drink it non-stop.

8. What would your dream home look like?
Wrap-around porch. Big, amazing craft room. Big laundry room (so that I can hide it all in there ;). Big kitchen/dining/entertaining area for all the people I want to gather there. But the actual home itself can't be that big because I don't want to clean it all ;)

Wait, scratch the craft room and add the craft barn that Debra and I dream of. It has a limeade bar (see #7) and a photo studio, among other awesome features.

9. What trait about yourself do you value most?

Hmm... that is a good question. I am going to say that I have never seen something that I didn't think I could do. Not sure what you'd call that -- maybe hubris? ;) There are things in life that I don't want to do, and there are things I know that I won't do, but I don't know that I've ever encountered anything that I thought was impossible for me to do, if I really tried and made it a priority. I've always been more afraid of not being my best (of not doing my very best) than of failing altogether. Do I sound completely self-important yet? :)

10. Have you ever tasted the rainbow? ;)
Are we talking Skittles here...? Because in that case, yes.

11. Mac or PC?
Currently, PC. But I love Macs. I'm great with either so long as it has internet access ;)

Also... I have been seriously slacking and forgot to share my last few Wednesday posts over at Housewife Eclectic. So, if you feel so inclined, pop on over.

And, since you've read this far, a gratuitous picture of my adorable baby girl -- 6 months old! How time flies.

Photo by my awesome sister-in-law, Dusty, who will very soon have a website of her own that I can link you to :)

Thanks for reading!