ABC Book

As planned, I have finally finished my ABC book (months and months long past due!), but it isn't just any ABC book, it is also a family picture pocket book. I painted the letters for each page and then made clear pockets to slide pictures into it of family members that start with that letter of the Alphabet. I also backed the pictures with old cereal boxes cardboard for extra support and then contact papered them, so if my little girl so chooses to pull the pictures out of the pockets and chew on them (because at her stage EVERYTHING goes to the mouth), they will hopefully still stay mostly in tack!

This book will be a fun and multi-tasking sort of book for my girl to be familiar with the alphabet and different words that relate to certain words along with being familiar with our family members, especially since we live far away from most of them. I hoping it will help her not be totally in the dark at how many mounds of family she has and how wonderful they all are. So with this little intro, now to show you the final works, drum roll. . . . .

 For the blocks on the front cover, I printed these pictures onto regular material with my regular old printer, in the same way I printed words onto my quilted storage boxes in THIS venture. Then I sewed the cloth onto the book. I also put some extra quilting batter and cardboard from old cereal boxes in the cover to give it some nice firmness and the likes.

 For the buttons I cut them from an old pair of jeans

 Along with this pocket. I put the pocket on the back to store the extra pictures that wouldn't fit in all the picture pockets at the same time (cuz let me tell you, there are TONS of pictures, because we got TONs of family! :)

 See how they fit in there so nicely :) I also sewed on some Velcro to close it nicely and keep pictures from falling out.

 Then I made the pages, Red, Yellow, and Blue (yep the lovely primary colors, so she can work on colors too! This is a very multi tasker book!) I painted the letters with a stencil I made in the same way I made the wording on my lovely hubby's Father's day tie in THIS venture. And the pockets I glued on with liquid stick (because I tried to sew them on, it was a pain, because my machine's foot kept getting caught on the plastic, ugh. So yeah for easy liquid stick!)

 For my family's own privacy I am only showing examples from just our smaller family and . . .

 letters that don't have family members names for them. I am not sure what kind of name you could get with an "X", but I really wouldn't be surprised that there are many names that start with an X, just not in my family, so we get to use the Xylophone! :)

 Then for "Y" I put a little mirror, for "YOU!" isn't that cleaver!?

 And last but not least, I had to show pictures of my little girl enjoying the book. . .

She LOVES books, so she better love this one, because I put a TON of time into it! (the ironic thing with this picture is she is actually crying, she was ready for a nap when I tried to get these pictures, and she just wasn't in the mood to "enjoy" her new book, but she better enjoy it sometime, or else. . . . I will be very sad :(

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to come join me again next week for another fun post! It is amazing how much more time I have on my hands now that I am not posting near as much, so I have been working on lots of goodies. Next weeks post will be on these lovely storage boxes I put together for my girl's toys, and they are a little different than the quilted boxes, so come by and see how they all turned out!

Until next time!. . . .

Kid Career Exploration and Recap!

So, much apologies for not posting sooner this week. The festivities of the beginning of the week really threw off my normal schedule and I just haven't been able to get around again until now, so here I am, back again for more sharing fun and I should be back to a more normal routine next week!

Since I am finally now posting this lovely Friday, for this week, I am gonna kinda forgo the normal "fun find" and share what I have planned today, and it will be more of a reflection day and just recapping, and then I still plan on coming back on tomorrow for a lovely "Sun up Saturday" especially since I didn't get one in last month. Again apologies for being inconsistent, I am trying to get better at this, we'll see. . . .
First off I thought I would do a little catch up of how some of these most recent sort of posts/ventures went and then share a little kid career fun, some things you could do with the little kiddos (or big kiddos too) if you are looking for some time fillers this lovely summer.

Remember my Father's Day post? More specifically, the puzzle I got my hubby? well we finally found the time and finished it, here is how it turned out :

I am a little annoyed that after spending $20 on this thing there are two pieces of the puzzle that absolutely do not belong, the two spots that need pieces are lighter looking and the only two left are pretty much black looking. . . so ya, they really don't fit- Yeah walmart, mehh

At least we still enjoyed it, I think my little girl likes it too, what do you think?

Then as promised, here is our little fam, wearing our matchy matchy fourth of July festive shirts

 Silly me, I am blocking both my shirt and my little girls shirt, oops! :0)

 Aren't they just precious!?

Like how is she is pointing to her shirt? I don't think she is doing this on purpose, but we can pretend that she is :)

Now for the Kid Career exploration. The following pictures are of some things I put together for my internship a year ago when I worked in the children's museum. The theme for the month was careers so we put together some things that kids could come in and play with and "explore" a little in that career (I did a little recap about this on my regular family blog HERE, if you care to read about it). The main reason for sharing this is if you have kids or work with kids and you need something fun to fill your time, any or all of these would be great fun and it wouldn't take much work to throw these things together.

 This was the cook's corner, all we did was paint an old cardboard box white and then wrote on the lines with a permanent marker to make it look like a stove. Then I pulled out some old pans we don't use very often, an old apron and a hot pad, this was a big favorite section, maybe because  alot of the kids could relate to cooking from watching their parents at home. And if the kids are older, they might enjoy making/decorating the box stove themselves.

 We were able to get the fire department to let us barrow a fireman outfit. Though this part might not be as easy to do at home, the box car would be. All I did was make the box empty or hallow, put straps on for the sides and then painted it while also adding some paper plate wheels. Depending on the age level of kids you are trying to entertain, they could maybe even paint and do their own thing here too, they might appreciate it more too :-)

Here we had a postal worker section, again we got the post office to let us barrow a mail carrier hand bag and hat, but for at home you could probably do any bag or any hat and they wouldn't really care. Then the actual mailbox we made by using an old cardboard tube that had paper wrapped around it (like an old wrapping paper or even paper towel thing works, depending on how tall you want it), then made a plate form from cardboard, painted black, and the top is just construction paper that we tapped in the round looking shape. With a little different sort of creativity you could use a shoe box instead.

Here was a little construction zone. I got the orange cones from the dollar store, and found the yellow hat and toy saw at the local thrift store for really cheap. I don't know if your local thrift stores are this supplied, but every time I go I usually see one of these hats. Then the construction zone tape is just yellow streamers that I wrote "Caution" on, or "Construction Zone", or you could put whatever you'd like. We weren't able to get it going, but I wanted to bring in some lumber or building blocks, so that the kids could actually "build" in this construction zone- so if this would be something you'd do with your kids, I hope it works out better for you :-)

Here is the little Doctors section, it was really simple, we just put down a white sheet, and then pulled out some basic medical sort of tools. Again I got lucky and found the stethoscope and blood pressure gage really cheap at the thrift store, but you could use other things like the thermoniter, maybe some Popsicles sticks or something of the like (we didn't use these for this because if might have been a little unsanitary at this more public area).

Here is some police box cars, same idea as the fire truck boxes.

We also go the police department to let us barrow their hats, but this wouldn't have to be a necessary part of the set up. But we made this little "Stop/Go" paddle from a ping pong paddle

I know it isn't much, and it only covers a very few amount of careers of the millions out there, but it's a start and it can also give you chance to start thinking and getting creative if you want to do more than some of this more basic stuff. Kids love dressing up and doing dramatic play, it is a great way for them to act things out and make sense of their world and what is normal to them, so even if it isn't career related- have fun doing some kind of dress up with them, I know they'll love it, and you just might too!

Anyway, that's all today, I'll be back tomorrow and thanks for stopping by!

Have a great day!

Until next time! . . . . .

Welcome to my Backyard!

As much as I absolutely hate, despise, loath, dread, and all the above for winters here in Idaho, I absolutely LOVE the summers here, especially right now! It rarely gets above 90, but usually stays within the 70-80s and it is green and beautiful everywhere. So on this fun find Friday, I thought I would share a little in my fun, yet gorgeous backyard. One day when we own our own home and become established, I want to be gun hoe like our landlords and create a beauteous backyard like this, but until then, I will absolutely enjoy it now especially since I don't have to put in any work in whatsoever for it to look this good, I just get to enjoy.

 It is kinda hard to see in this picture, but there are just tons of different beautiful flowers everywhere along that path

 These beauties are everywhere too

 They have already come and gone, but there is a beautiful row of lilacs, I melt at the smell of these, I wish they bloomed more than once a year

 They are so pretty!

 There are also tons of apple trees that produce lots of yummy ones in the fall, but right now they are blooming beautiful blossoms

 A little more close up of the beautiful flowers, and I love the little old fashioned wagon flower pot

 Some fun old wheels and an awesome little shed that our landlord uses for wood working sort of stuff

 The side of the shed and just above the their vegetable garden. Oh p.s., they have rhubarb growing and they said I am welcome to use any if I wanted to make a pie or something- I just might have to take them up on it one of these days

 Another shot of the shed, and a lovely cute blue chair.

Anyway, I know I didn't just "Find" this beauty, but I thought I would share since it is wonderful summer, finally!

On other notes, isn't this cute?

 I love watermelons, and I found this, isn't it adorable? It almost makes a little sad though, because I recently discovered I am allergic to watermelon- saddest day ever :(

And on other fun find notes- isn't this fun? Or more like scary, I just had to share.

And one last final touch, I finally finished our festive shirts- what do you think? I will have more pics next week of us actually wearing them :)

Anyway, hope you have a joyous holiday weekend and I prob wont post again until Tuesday, because I am gonna enjoy my lovely holiday- computer free!

What do you have planned for the fun weekend?

Anyway, thanks for stopping by, until next time!. . . . . . .

Red, White and Blue!

Yep that's right! The fourth of July, the celebration of our country's independence- the big bang fire work day is just around the corner! So for this "We-flecting" Wednesday I thought I would share in a little fun with some white and some blue, and then a little more recent venture that I am actually currently working on for the up coming big day!

I made this skirt and tie for our wedding. We wore our little matching polka dot attire for while we were at our luncheon so we wouldn't spill food or anything of the likes on our lovely wedding dress and tux. But It has the fun patriotic colors in it that could be great fun to wear for the big day (although we wont this year).

 This skirt is pretty simple to make, I simply cut out 6 panels, they start out smaller at top and get larger on the bottom and I basically just cut out enough to fit around my hips. I honestly can't remember how much material it took me to make this, and if you can't tell I had to tweak it a little anyway cuz I didn't have enough of one so I used two variations of polka dots and staggered it. I would recommend doing a zipper on the side, but I was lazy and didn't on this one, so it is a little snug and tricky to slide into over my big rump. If you want more details on how to make a skirt like this let me know and I would be glad to help and sorry for not showing it off more stylishly- if you haven't noticed I have been a lazy photographer lately- sorry! :)

 Here is my husband's lovely tie (and my toes, but don't mind them), I made him to match me. I made it the same sort of way as I made the tie for my lovely husband for his father's day present which you could read about HERE. I love to be matchy matchy, especially for special occasions- it makes me feel all giddy and happy inside.

So there is this lovely polka dot funness- and because of their blue and white nature I suppose they could always be back up matchy matchy for future patriotic holidays and then all we would have to do is throw in some red to our attire and we are set!

But since I am trying to get a little ahead on my game for our matchy matchy this year, this is what I got going up my sleeve and you are more than welcome to copy if you want to as well.

I got my little girl a regular white onesie, I am using one of my husband's old regular white t-shirts, and then I am making a little white tank top shirt to wear over another shirt, and on all of them I am gonna to paint matchy matchy "I love USA" on it. So far I have finished my little girl's and this is how it turned out.

I use this picture (I got it HERE from a google search):

as my basic format. I opened it in a word document and sized it to the dimensions I wanted them to be on our shirts. I sized it to a good 5x4.5inches and it turned out quit nicely. Then I printed it. Then I tapped the lovely freezer paper over the top of it and etched out the design as kinda seen below.

 From the brilliant idea of a good friend Lindsey, I etched out the design with the waxier side down, so that when I was ready to paint, all I had to do was iron it on to ensure a nice bleed free paint job

 I wanted to spice it up a little, so I made the heart a flag instead of just a regular red heart, now to wait for it to dry...

 And wall-ah! Here is my little girl's shirt. I am still debating how ambitious I feel, but I might make her a cute jean and red and white polka dot skirt to go with it, or I just might be lazy and use her regular jean skirt that she already has, either way I will put up pictures of our all fun matchy matchy next week after the festivities (probably on Tues though, cuz Monday I am gonna play with my family and friends ALL day!)

On other patriotic festive thoughts, I am also debating on a fun red, white, and blue sort of treat I want to make, here is what I am down to in my decission process:

 Doesn't this just look so yummy? And I love the fruit idea on top, maybe we'll make this, but still not sure.

 We made this cake about a year ago, it is a Jello Cake (idea also from the same Lindsey), it is so yummy (that is if you are the kind of person that really likes super moist kind of cakes), all you do is bake the cakes like normal, when it is done, preferably more cooled off, stab it with a bunch of holes with a tooth pick, then on the side make up your jello and pour it into the holes soaking up the entire cake. Then put it in the fridge and let is set up inside the cake. It is simply a most marvelous flavor- also another delema if we should make this cake again (but decorate it more festive like though).

Or these jello cups look fun and festive too (although I probably wont go to all the extra work to make them look this fancy).

Or we might cancel these all together and make some peach cobbler (even though its not red, white and blue) with homemade ice cream (we are getting 25 lbs of peaches this Saturday, so it would be a great way to use some of them up!)

Either way I hope it gives you some ideas for this lovely holiday coming up if you are in need of ideas, and I will be wracking my brain (or more like my cravings) and see what we come up with. And I will most likely share some pictures of all the happenings.

Anyway, that's all for today on this We-flecting Wednesday. I hope you have fun preparing for the fun holiday coming up, and I would love to hear about all your plans or even fun traditions you do- this is such a great fun time of the year!

Thanks for stopping by and until next time!. . . . .

Father's Day Present

You will have to excuse my recent absence, long story short- it has just been a crazy last week with extra errands, hubby's jumbled work schedule, and my little girl getting sick and to top it all off, quit frankly, I just wasn't in the mood to  blog amongst all of that. But here I am, back and ready to roll!

Now I know that because today is Wednesday, I should be sharing a reflecting of past ventures, but with Father's Day right around the corner I thought I would share a fun Father's Day present idea that my little girl and I did in case you need any ideas, and just to share our fun! (now lets just hope my hubby doesn't look at this before Sunday! :)

Since Father's Day is on a Sunday I thought it would be fun to do something he can show off at church. So I made him a tie...

 I got one of his regular ties and laid it on top of the material that I wanted the tie to be made out of and then cut, giving myself plenty of extra, so that I could fold it over. Then I cut and sewed around, but left a little hole about the middle of the tie so that I can turn it right side out as seen below

After turning it right side out, I sewed off this hole

Then I ironed the whole thing nice and flat to get ready to fold it over

Now to fold over the sides, I ironed it nice and flat, and then hand sewed it to stay together so that you can't see the seams from the front (like a tie normally is)

Now with the lovely assistance of my 6 month old girl, we put her hand print on the tie....ya she didn't really want to help, can you tell?

I tried doing some of my own touch up so you could kinda still tell it was her hand, and then I made it look like a flower

Now for the lovely words to go on the tie, I printed off these words on a piece of paper, then I taped freezer paper over the top, just on the top and bottom to hold it in place, and then using an exacto knife I cut out these words- you could paint the words free hand if you want, and after doing all this I prob should have, I think it would have been easier, but I was nervous I wouldn't have very good free hand skills, you could also probably do iron on paper sort of stuff- but that was one more thing I didn't want to buy

Now for painting on the words...

See how it turned out!? I don't know if it was because my words were smaller or I wasn't slow and patient enough, but it still kinda bled through funny even with the stencil, thus my wondering if I should have just done free hand in the first place, oh well- you win some, you loose some! :)

The finished product! Well almost....before officially putting it away in a special box, I realized I made a little typo- see the "Daddy's", well it should actually say "Daddies"...ya something I should have looked at a little closer before painting...but when all else fails...

Paint pretty butterflies to help hide your mistakes, right?- what do you think?

Then for a fun extra $20, at Walmart online, you can upload a picture and have them transform it into a puzzle- cool huh? So this is the picture I sent in, hopefully we will get it in before this Sunday! We love doing puzzles together, so I thought it would be very fitting and fun, and matchy matchy to the tie :)

So there you have it! A fun, cheap easy present for the man! And if you feel crunched on time you wouldn't have to do all the extra tedious things like making a tie, making a stencil, and painting- I am sure there are lots of easier simpler ways of doing this, I guess this was more of a trial present- hope you can learn from it and enjoyed it! But even more so I hope my hubby enjoys it!

Anyway, sorry again for being a slacker, but thanks for stopping by! Until next time!....