Yo, Yo-yo.

One Pretty Thing (my all time favorite website: www.oneprettything.com) featured this totally adorable bracelet a few weeks ago. It looked so fun and simple that I had to try it.

Zakka Life (http://zakkalife.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-make-fabric-yo-yo-bracelet.html) posted a fantastic tutorial for this project.

So, I looked through my scraps of fabric and found this really fun yellow banding with bright blue and red flowers. I thought that, all yo-yo'd up, it would be really fun and look nice with a lot of different outfits. Slightly harder was finding the buttons (I really need to get a stockpile of buttons. I wonder if I can find jars of old buttons at antique stores?? Hmm....I smell an antiquing trip!).

This is how it turned out!



It was suggested to make eight yo-yos to fit around the wrist. I don't know if I have tiny wrists or what, but, as you can see, it was really about two yo-yos too big.



When I finished this bracelet I knew that I had to give it to my darling Traci. She has to wear black at work all the time and this is just the thing to put some zing in an all black outfit.

Seriously, I did this in a morning...less than 2 hours worth of awesome crafting. This has so many possibilities...different buttons...fabrics...threads...so awesome.

Wiggle, little Caterpillar!

The other day we were bored. It was rainy and we needed a craft. Since I live in the middle of nowhere, I have to use what I have on hand for crafting. I didn't have much...but I did have markers, egg cartons, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes.

PERFECT FOR CATERPILLARS!



This was SO easy. I thought that this sort of craft was sort-of "standard", but the kids are showing them off to everyone and people keep saying, "Woah, that's so creative! I would have never thought of this." hm.

So I cut the top off an egg carton and then cut it in half. The kids colored their caterpillar sections and then I poked holes for them to stick in pipe cleaner legs and antenna.

Then they stuck on their googly eyes. I'm tellin' ya, these kids went nuts over this. Who would have thought? They made them crawl all over the house, they showed them to all their friends, they named them. It was awesome. And easy. You should try it!

A bit of Bubbly?

I found an awesome experiment. The thing about this experiment is that pretty much every kid in the history of kids has done this...but I never did. So it totally rocked for all participants.

PLUS, this was SUPER easy.

Here's how it's done:

Jar (baby food jars are about the perfect size)
Vinegar (enough to fill half of the jar)
1 tsp. baking soda
3-4 drops food coloring
2-3 drops liquid dish soap

I filled each jar for the kids and let them mix in the food coloring of their choice and the dish soap. Then they dumped in the baking soda and...woosh! It all came bubbling out the top. It was awesome.



And, of course, we can't just let that be good enough. We had to mix and stir and fester it all so the explosions lasted longer and got bigger.
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This was a way fun activity to do and, since each of my boys had to do three colors each, it took a good 45 minutes. Perfect for a rainy morning!

*NOTE: I had them conduct their experiments on baking trays. It made clean up a breeze with a rinse off in the sink.

I'm such a Lush

I've found it. Natural, good-for-me soaps, hair care and moisturizer. It's amazing.

Lush, which is very popular in Europe and Canada, is finally making a huge presence here in the States and there's actually a store at my local mall (I can't even tell you how amazing that is).

Everything basically smells like nature and it's so wonderful and nice. The best part, though, is that I can read and understand every ingredient used. It's so earthy and actually real. It's amazing. And they have vegan options, you know, if you swing that way.

Bonus: Lush products are also beautiful in that natural way. I can't say enough about their products. *sigh* I just smelled myself. It was amazing.

Check it out: www.lushusa.com

Delish

A couple weeks ago, my dear friend Traci and I had a dinner party with some very cool gals (and my Other). We made this amazing lasagna (which I've never made before) and cheater tiramisu cake. It was delish.

Basically all this cake consists of is a boxed cake mix (I told you...cheater cake!) soaked in super strong coffee and then layered with a mixture of cream cheese, sour cream, powder sugar and whipped cream. The recipe called for "whipped topping", but that stuff scares me. And then you grate all the chocolate you can handle and layer it up! It was SO good.

I tried to make it again for Easter, but forgot the chocolate. Woops! It was alright, but not nearly as good as the first time.

And how about those flowers? That's a super easy arrangement to make. Just get the little carnation bouquets from the grocery and a pretty bowl. Cut the stems so they will lay nice in the bowl and just pile them in! Traci still has it (2 weeks later!) and it still looks beautiful.

Next post? Probably my DUCKLINGS! Wee!!

Centerpieces

I've been asked to make centerpieces for Easter Sunday breakfast at my church. I'm really excited about it, but don't have a whole lot of money to spend. My initial thought was to do something with flowers, but that can add up quickly, even if it's just carnations. But then I found this pinwheel creation.

I like the way she's done hers and I think I can modify it to be more Easterish. I'm planning a trip to Hobby Lobby to find some double-sided springy scrapbook paper to make the pin wheel and the base with. And then I'll fill the cups with Robin Eggs (you know, those malt ball candies!).

It will probably be super cute and I'm way excited about it. I'll take pictures and post the results!

A New Home

Monty found this woolly little critter in Grandma's yard the other day and, of course, it had to be adopted as a pet. I didn't want the poor thing to die and I thought it would be pretty neat if Monty could see it transform into an Isabella Tiger Moth (I did my research!), so I decided to build a small habitat for it. I did this on Tuesday of last week and it's still alive, so I think I'm safe posting this and saying it will work.

I used an old plastic fish tank with a lid on it. It's pretty good sized, probably 12 inches by 6 inches and about 8 inches high. I found a special little spot next to the barn that had several different types of lawn weeds (clover, grass along with two other annoying plants that people spend a lot of money to get rid of...not us, though, we welcome lawn weeds!). I wanted to give Wing-o (that's the caterpillar's name) a variety of plants to much on. I dug down about three inches so the roots would have some dirt to live on. I placed the hunk of lawn in my container, gave it some water and found a couple of sticks in the yard.

Wing-o's new home is now on Monty's dresser and he's very proud of keeping him safe at night. And that, my friends, is how to create a caterpillar habitat for a 3 year old!