Friday, February 20, 2009

Free downloads

I am a fan of free things.

And there are plenty of free things out there - if you know where to look!

I found this website last night that has some great free downloads. Take a peek, but beware that you might lose track of time as you explore her website!



I also put a button on my sidebar, so you can click it whenever you want to see if there are any fun new additions.

I have already starting thinking about Tanner's birthday party this summer, and she has some great ideas for a Super Hero party with lots of great downloads. I think my little man would love that party!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Recycled Magazine Holder

I stumbled across this fantastic idea yesterday and wanted to share it. Turn a priority box into a magazine holder...how clever is that?



You can find the tutorial at Pink and Polka Dot.

I think I may have to try this soon! I am a self-proclaimed magazine junkie. I love them...and have a hard time throwing them away.

Maybe I will feel better about the piles of magazines if they have cute holders!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Quiet-time church bag

When children turn 4 at our church, they start going to children's church.

This means you no longer drop them off in the nursery as you come in. Instead, they sit with you during worship and are dismissed after the offering. Since this translates into at least 45 minutes of sitting in church, it can present some unique challenges for a 4 year old!

I have been looking for ideas of church activities to help Tanner make this transition, and found this great tutorial for a crayon roll-up.

I made one at Christmas for my niece and she loves it!





I used a cord stop to keep it closed per the instructions. However, I must admit I felt like it really lowered the cuteness factor! It may be practical - but I like cute.

So...we had a birthday party today for a little girl who was turning 4. I thought I would try another one and make a matching tote bag for her to carry it in. Here is the finished product...



The tote is reversible with the striped fabric inside (forgot to take a picture of that!). This was my first time making a little bag - and I couldn't believe how easy it was!

I put a notebook and the crayon roll-up inside. Now, she has her church quiet-time bag.





I used a wide grosgrain ribbon this time instead of the cord stop - and it definitely completed it. MUCH cuter I thought! Of course, mommy might not appreciate having to tie it all the time. But sometimes you have to sacrifice for style!

My project this week is to make a boy version for Tanner. I have some cowboy fabric for the crayon roll-up, I just have to figure out how to make a bag that will pass the "boy" test (and Chris test!).

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Valentine Cookies

We had a Valentine cookie decorating party today with Tanner's cousin, Lena, and some friends from church.





I tried a new sugar cookie recipe. And they were DIVINE!! The icing recipe came from allrecipes.com.



I made the cookies in advance, mainly because I wanted to test the recipe first. But it turned out so much easier to have the cookies done and just have the kids decorate them.

We used little paintbrushes and they iced them and then used LOTS of sprinkles.





Happy Valentines! Enjoy the ones you love this week!!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The dilemma of preschool art

Sometimes I feel like a horrible mom - sneaking a few of what seems like hundreds of crayon scribbled pictures into the trash. I even find myself hiding them under other trash, just in case the little man spots them.

Since I'm not inclined to wallpaper every room in my house with Tanner's pictures, I knew that we needed some kind of art solution.

Behold, the rotating art gallery...



I have quite a stash of old window frames that my husband has been carting around for me for the last five years. I think he is more eager than me to see them go to good use. So one day when we were talking about what we were going to do with the constant stream of artwork, he had this brilliant idea! "Why don't you use one of your old windows?" he said.

Why didn't I think of that???

I found some cute magnet clips at Office Max and glued them to ribbon loops. I then used my handy staple gun to attach them to the window frame. And Voila!



Now it is hanging on the kitchen wall - with room for 8 masterpieces at a time. When Tanner creates a new one, he gets to choose which one comes off so a new one can go up. This just went up 2 days ago, so we haven't actually had to deal with the switch-a-roo yet - I am just hoping it pans out as well in reality as it does in my head!

At least now, I feel like we are giving them proper attention before they get stuffed under a milk carton in the trash.



Of course, there will always be those treasures that need to be saved for the scrapbook. Like this one Tanner gave me as he proudly announced "Mommy, look - I drew you!".

All I can say is that I am looking mighty fine these days!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Get rewards for searching the internet

There is a new search engine in town...and you can win free rewards!! And if you know me, you know that I love FREE!

I discovered swagbucks a few weeks ago and I love it!!

I simply made it my home page instead of google, and now when I do an internet search I am earning points. I can get a $5 Amazon gift card for every 45 points I earn. Since I buy quite a few gifts from Amazon through the year, any little bit helps! After about 3 weeks, I have 27 points.

This is definitely not going to make me rich but since it is something I do anyway I figured why not earn some rewards at the same time?

And even better, once you sign up you can refer your friends and you earn points when they do. Even better!!

So click on the banner below and check it out for yourself.


Search & Win

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The Love Month

I.love.Target.

Especially the dollar section...the allure of all those items priced at only $1 pulls at me every time!

Last year, I picked up some of their cute little mailboxes around Valentines. They have been sitting in my craft hutch, just waiting for the perfect project.


The mailboxes are back this year, and I have seen several blogs discussing these mailboxes and ideas for them. So, I decided to pull out my stash and do something with them.

So here is our February family activity...love mailboxes!




Tanner is so excited about the whole thing, and keeps finding things to put in Daddy and Mommy's mailbox so he can put the flag up!