Toddler Activities

Seriously, I loved this game as a kid. And I'd forgotten about it until just the other day at Tarjay, I saw it! It was on sale for $4.99. I couldn't pass it up.

So I took it home and Emily and I have been playing it ever since! It's super easy for her to grasp the idea of one bean at a time and we take turns. At first when it would spill out she would be all bummed and pout for a second. But now she gets it, and she even tilts the bucket when I'm not looking to make them spill on my side. Little stinker!

I've really enjoyed finding all these cute little games that she and I can play together.

Here are some other cool games for the 2-3 year olds:

This fun little game I got for $3.50 at Kid2Kid. (It's a little re-sale shop, but it has nicer stuff cause they buy it off of you. They don't just work off of donations) The bummer thing was that it was missing one wand and a ton of the little butterflies. So I just sewed some ribbon in the same shape and it works great!

I got this at Tarjay as well. I don't remember how much it cost but it defiantly was worth it. I have to edit out a lot of the cards for her, otherwise she can't really play. First we started with 3-4 matches, and now we are up to 6-8. She loves it and asks to play all the time!

Pinterest Advent Calendar - Inspirations

So now that I've got an Advent Calendar for EmJ, the one I made last year (found here)
I've decided that I want one of my own. I'm all for the cheesy cheese of holiday prints and festive greens and reds, but I also really love the updated versions. And who says you can't have 2 Advent Calendars in your home!!???!! I'd like to meet that person and give them a piece of my Christmas! (Ok I'll calm down)

So here is some Pinterest inspiration for my next Advent Calendar!

{via} also on my Pinterest Board

I love this one, there are so many possibilities and it still looks so clean and pretty! I might do shells or metallics or all my favorite ornaments I have from my childhood. See!!??!?!? The possibilities ARE endless!

{via} also on my Pinterest Board

Another simple yet stunning advent calendar! And this could use up more of my stash of clothespins!!
 

{via} also on my Pinterest Board

This one is a little more cutsie, more for kids, but I love that it's an updated version. And seems easy enough to tie up the presents and pull them off.

{via} also on my Pinterest Board

I like this one, mostly because I'm obsessed with those little tins from Ikea. Also because it's super easy! And I could just hide the date inside to be posted on the outside. Oh who am I kidding!? I'll hide candy in there too! You wouldn't want the numbers to be lonely would you???!!!

Well this has been fun. We'll see which one I decide to copy be inspired by.

Thanks for stopping in!

Tinker bell shoes update.

So her shoes that I made for Halloween... Post found here

Are holding up pretty well! There are a few spots near the heel and toe where the glitter has worn off. But other than that the glitter is holding up very well! I might just re-apply the glitter treatment for future occasions. As of right now she wears them too often for me to do that! I love that she loves them and that everyone at the mall/grocery store/gas station has to ask about them! I can't resist her requests to wear them EVERYWHERE! Even church. I just adore her and the fact that she loves girly stuff!

Advent Calendar DIY

Advent Calendar

Stamping out the tree

Sooo last year I made an Advent Calendar for myself and my sister in law....

As you can see I used my daughters hand and foot prints as my stamps for a Christmas tree.

#1 I bought about a yard of plain muslin, and 2 yards of the christmas fabric.
#2 Purchased the little ornaments that are meant for the pint sized mini-trees. 25 of em.
#3 Lots and LOTS of iron tape. (I don't sew!! I wish I could)
#4 Green yarn
#5 Two different colors of Green, and 1 brown.
#6 The little clasp fasteners "Hook and Eyes"
#7 Some green-ish thread for stitching on the previous item.
#8 Green felt - for the top star.
#9 Wooden Dowel and round ends.
#10 Ribbon that I already had to hang the calendar onto the dowel.

This took me forever and since I made two I did each one a little different.
First I made the one for my sister in law

I took this picture only so that she'd see how it was meant to work. (I mailed this to India, where she was living and working, with the paints included for her to stamp her sons hands and feet with. So that's why the tree is blank.)

On mine I went ahead and puffy painted the numbers on. It was MUCH faster and easier to read.

Here is how I did it:


A) Iron tape the green and blue pieces together (these would be your festive fabrics) all around the edges.  Be sure to place your loops of ribbon in that sticky iron on tape too! This will hold onto the dowel at the end for easier hanging later.

B) Iron tape the three rectangles to the lower portion of your Advent Calendar. Only iron tape the two sides and the bottom. You want to leave to top open for your ornaments later.

C) Take Your Muslin fabric (which will become the triangle) and stamp your child's hands and feet in the shape of a Christmas tree. I put cardboard under mine so that the paint didn't ruin my floors!

D) Carefully cut around their tree leaving about an inch of extra muslin.

E) Stitch on the tree to your Advent Calendar using the green yarn. Also sew "pockets" for separation of your ornaments and days. 

The lines above are not exact. And as you can see from my pics, neither one was the same. 

F) Stitch on the "hook and eyes" to the calendar and the ornaments you've purchased. I sewed the "Eye" portion onto my tree and the "Hook" portions onto my ornaments. Some were sewn into the ornaments, hot glued, and even knotted onto them. Depending on which method worked the best. 

G) Puffy paint on your numbers.

H) Insert Dowel (and hot glue the round ends on if you want to) and Hang up! 

Tada! 2010 Christmas.

My little girl loves this Calendar! And when she's all grown up we'll marvel at how tiny her hands used to be! 

Time, stop going so fast!

 I love you EmJ, you are the light of my life. 

Thanks for stopping in!

Love,

Bri

Making Glitter Shoes Tutorial

Hey Hey Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Halloween is just around the corner and I finished the final touches of my daughters costume last night! I'm super excited. 

I love all holidays, even the made up ones like Valentines day! I don't care, I just love to celebrate! And don't go telling me that holidays are evil.... yadda yadda yadda... I don't care! I think it's about your heart and my heart is to have fun on this night! 

 So my little girl is going to be Tinkerbell! And my dad's girlfriend bought her the Tink outfit (THANKS!!!) but I needed to get all the little extras to make her look the part! So I found a petticoat at a resale shop and these silver shoes at Old Navy (on sale for $6!!!)

Then I grabbed my 40% coupon for Michael's and bought some lime green glitter! (I already had all the other supplies.) i.e. Mod Podge, two white pom pom's, and a foamy brush.

Then I poured out some Mod Podge on a paper plate, mixed in some of the glitter for good measure and started to paint the glue/glitter mixture on half of the shoe. (This way I could still hold part of the shoe for the next step.)

Once I had the entire portion covered I started to pour on the glitter (on a new paper plate so that I could re-use all the glitter the fell off of the shoe). Just before knocking off any excess glitter I pressed down onto the shoe with the glitter to ensure that all the glitter would stick to the Mod Podge glue/glitter mixture. Then I gently tapped off the excess glitter and gave the finished section a little spray with some aerosol hairspray.

Then repeat that over on the other parts of your shoes until they are perfectly glittered!. Let these sit overnight before trying them on! I even waited to hot glue the little pom pom's on until the next morning.

These are my Tinkerbell masterpieces!

And here's Tinkerbell herself! Wahooooo lets go get some candy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for checking in!!! 

-Bri

Furniture Redo

So I got this nightstand at the Goodwill for $4.99!!!! It looks like someone tried to paint it and didn't do well. So I fixed it!!!! One mans trash is another woman's treasure!

The paint was scratching off supper easily which tells me that it was never primed..... And all the yellow paint came off soooooooo quick!

I just used my little mouse sander and a medium sand paper. I didn't want to dig too far into the fake wood. ;)

{via}

I painted one coat of KILZ primer. I don't always prime, but since this was a fake wood piece and the wood grain was a sticker..... I wanted to make sure my coats of paint didn't scratch off!

Then I added some of this awesome stuff to my latex paint. (I used some left over BEHR paint, swiss coffee color)

{via}

This makes your brush strokes lay flat. I love this stuff. I use it for painting doors, nightstands and all sorts of little projects. (just follow the instructions on the bottle for adding this to your paint)

I painted two coats of paint and added some cute hardware that I got from Home Depot for $7.00. I think it's hilarious that my hardware costed more than the nightstand itself. 

And here are my results!

I couldn't be happier. It was a simple project and it looks so bright and clean now. Thank you Goodwill fairies!!!!!

Here it is again:

That's my fun re-do! I'd love to see yours!

Love ya! 

Bri

Uses for Clothespins

Ok so the dentist wasn't all that bad, I survived!! And I've decided to share some of the projects I've done around the house over the past few months.

Problem: I had TONS of extra clothespins lying around from a Christmas project forgotten. I was going to use them on all my Christmas gift tags last year, sounded awesome, but I never got around to it. So there they were taking up space in my laundry room closet. So I decided to use as many as I could! Here are some of the things I did!

So here is my jar of clothespins... this is the same jar that my husband picks up once a month and says, "Why the heck are you keeping all these?". Well honey... I've made a substantial dent in my collection. Your welcome!

That's some laundry line  rope up on top there

#1: 

I wrapped all of my ribbon scraps around the clothes pins.  I used the end that usually holds the clothes on the line, to pinch the end of the ribbon so that it wouldn't unwind. And now the cute little jar is holding all my ribbon supplies nice and neat!

#2:

I hung the laundry line rope from the hardware that holds up the hammock and started to pin up all of Emily's stuffed animals. And there are tons! She still has more on her bed. Girls are crazy! 

Oh and when Emily saw this, she cried out "Oh, my TOYS???!!!! But I can't get them!" 

 I just wrapped a part of the stuffed animals ear, arm or leg around the rope and pinned it on. Emily is still little enough that she cant reach this to tear it down.... once she grows I'll have to re-evaluate this. But if she grows like me, then I have at least 20 more years!

#3:
When Dave and I were first married I found these great ABC flashcards at Michaels for $2.50!!! And I have finally hung them up in our kids room! This was a craft 8 years in the making! (I did this in January or February when we first moved into our apartment.

I used some felt flowers (not pictured), leftover buttons and hemp twine that I had left over from other crafts.

I hot glued a felt flower onto the clothespin ant the top (where you would pinch it to make it open) and then in the center of the flower I glued a button. Easy Peasy! 

And then some of the clothespins I just painted. Once it was all dry I hung up the twine and pinned on my cards! I used a staple gun to hold the twine on the wall. This way there are only a few small spots to patch when we move!

#4:
I used the rest as magnets! I already had the magnets from another left over craft. I got out my low-heat glue gun (thank you geniuses that created this!!! No more blisters for this girl!) and started to glue magnets onto the center of the clothespin.

Then I stuck it on the fridge with a picture! Super easy!

So I kept myself busy for an evening and organized my life a bit!

Now what to do with the left overs???!!!
I still have about 50 or so! Here's some inspiration from Pinterest
I think I'll need a little more time before I get to this level of craftsmanship.

This light fixture is pretty sweet!

{source}

This is a sweet little mirror/wreath.

{Source}

Alright that's enough from me! Happy Crafting!

Love ya!!!
Bridgette

Emily's Best Friend

We are currently living in Phoenix, Arizona. We have lived here before (around 5 years ago) and we made friends with a few other couples. None of us had children then and now we all have children that are about 6-8 months apart. It's funny how the timing all worked out. 

Emily has grown very close to one little girl. She will jump for a minute straight if I say we are going to visit her. It's really very sweet. 

Just last week this sweet family welcomed another baby girl into their family, so we went to visit and give them a little break by taking the big girls to the pool! Here's a couple pics of best-friend-ness. The cuteness is too much to handle. 

Best Friends

 Oh and on a separate note.... I've framed the little art project that Emily and I worked on this month. You can check it out here if you didn't already see it.

 I bought 2 frames from IKEA and hung them in my hallway... I'm happy with them! And The whole project only cost me $3.00! (that's the cost of the frames. I already had all of the other supplies!!!) Awesome!

"As Seen on..."

So I want to start a new thang....
I always see these super cool things online that I really want to try. And in the days before Pinterest, all these amazing things that I saw all over the web would be forgotten about in all of 15 minutes. So now that I have Pinterest I am able to remember all those cool things I wanted to try. But ya know what.... I'm still not trying anything! Uggh!

Why is it that I don't do the things that I love???? I should be trying to do these things that bring me inspiration! Instead who knows where my creative time is being spent!  I watch tv. (a little more honest) ;)

So I'm going to change this! Every month I'm going to attempt something I've seen on the world wide web! I figure that once a month is a good start for me, and if I find that I want to add more, then bigolly I will! So here it goes!!!!!!!!!

The first ever "As Seen On..."                (I'm so excited! EEkkkk)

So the other night I saw this adorable little piece of artwork

{via}, also on my DIY board on Pinterest

I loved it so much that I wrote "I'm doing this tonight!!!"

And you know what???? I DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooorayyyy!

Sho here's how it went down:

I grabbed my pumpkin princess and we went to town! Well, we went to the dinning room, that's close enough to town right????!!!!

So here's my little tutorial:

My cast of characters

I cut out a good shape and then put the paper side up. It's awesome because the back of the freezer paper is plastic like, and this acts as a barrier for your paint too!!!

Grab your paints and pour them into your plates. (I didn't use actual finger paints, but you totally could. I just used regular craft paint that I already had, along with some puff paint for some glitter.)

Then I started getting her little feet dirty!!! It was super fun!

Then I washed up those feetsies and let her shake out some more glitter on her butterflies!!

Once all of this has a chance to dry, take a permanent marker and draw in the butterflies body, face and antennae... 

You know what the best part of this whole thing is??? My little munchkin kept saying "I want to paint wit Momma! Thank you Momma, {insert kisses here, kisses to my face, arms, hands, and anything else within her reach!!!}"

 I had so much fun with my little girl! It was a real bonding moment! Thank you Project Balancing Act for bringing me and my daughter together! And with such a cute little piece of art to hang in my daughters room! And what a fun thing for her to look back on and see just how little her feet were! 

This little project also lead to this:

After I was done with her feet butterflies, my munchkin still wanted to paint!!! So I set her up in her high chair and let her go to town.... 

What do you think I turned it into? I'll show you later in the week! 

I'd love to see your creations!