Easter Sensory Bin

Little O really loves sensory bins. We made one for Easter last week. I dyed rice in four different colors. It's really easy to dye your own rice or noodles for sensory play. I found directions over at Play, Create, Explore.

After making the rice, I added plastic Easter eggs (two different sizes) and some plastic serving spoons. I got both the eggs and the spoons at the Dollar Tree.

Little O just loved playing with this sensory bin. She scooped the rice with spoons and filled some of the eggs. We closed the eggs and shook them to hear the rice rattle around.

Because this is a messy sensory bin (the rice has a tendency to exit the bin) I placed a sheet under the bin. It caught most of the rice, and when she was done playing I just used the sheet to pour the rice back into the bin for later.

I know it's over, but this colored rice could be used for so much more than just Easter. I hope everyone had a nice Easter. We sure did!

Easter

We had a really nice, low-key Easter here. The day before... not so much.

On Saturday we went to our town's Easter egg hunt. We've never been before. It was a madhouse. Never again. A friend described it as Hunger Games Preschool Training Camp. Picture 200 under 2-year-olds running amok trying to gather as many plastic eggs as possible. And the candy inside: Jolly Ranchers. Yes. My 2-year-old just loves to choke on those. Little O found about 4 or 5 eggs, but some of the younger toddlers didn't get any. I'm pretty sure that 4-foot-tall kid isn't 2. Oh well. Live and learn.

 At least she looked cute, right? It was pretty chilly and windy, so she had to wear long sleeves and tights under her Easter dress. This is one of two dresses she had for Easter. Her Nana and Yaya each bought her one.

You really can't tell from our pictures how crowded it was. This is after the hunt was over, and everyone was leaving the field.

Saturday night we dyed eggs with Little O. She enjoyed placing the eggs gently dropping the eggs into the dye and watching it splash all over herself and the kitchen counter. She did not enjoy waiting 5 minutes to see the eggs when they were finished.

On Sunday Nana and Yaya came over for Easter brunch. We had fresh fruit, mimosas, and Monte Cristo Waffle-wiches. Yum-O.

After brunch we went outside for our own Easter egg hunt. Here's where things got a bit dicey for a moment. At this point Little O has had two egg hunts this year: one at school and the one we went to on Saturday. Both used plastic eggs filled with candy. We used our dyed eggs. They also contain something inside. A hard-boiled egg! Little O was a little disappointed when she discovered our eggs didn't open and there wasn't candy inside. Because she's two, things could have gone downhill quickly from here. But luckily, they didn't. She decided that collecting the eggs in her little basket was a lot of fun. And she enjoyed wandering around the yard finding where the Easter Bunny hid them all.

The week leading up to Easter, we read a bunch of books from the library about the Easter Bunny and egg hunts. And the teachers at school did some Easter crafts. I also created an Easter sensory bin, which Little O loved.

I wanted to make some really cute felt Easter bunnies. I started them, but they will remain unfinished until next year.

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend with your families. I'd love to hear how your egg hunts and Easter crafts turned out. Anyone else have unfinished Easter projects that will just have to wait until next year?

Bunny Bunting

I had seen some cute bunny bunting on Pinterest lately, here and here. So I knew I wanted to make one of my own. Plus, Little O is completely obsessed with bunnies right now (goats are still her number one favorite, but bunnies are a close second).

I didn't want to spend a fortune on a Spring mantel. With Easter being so early this year, we won't get to enjoy it for too long. So I sifted through my stash of scrapbook papers to find any that represented Spring and Easter.

I also checked out my Cricut cartridges for a cute bunny silhouette. This one came from the Noah's ABC Animals cartridge. I cut each bunny out at 5.5 inches (the largest my Cricut cuts). For the width of my mantel, I needed 21 bunnies. After cutting them out, I laid them out on the floor of my craft room to decide the order in which to place them on the ribbon.

Once I had them placed the way I wanted them, I hot glued them to the ribbon and attached little white pom poms to the tails. I had these on-hand from a toddler busy box I created for Little O.

I originally planned to drape the bunny bunting on the mantel, but it just didn't look right. Instead I used Tacky adhesive to attach the ribbon flush along the edge of my mantel.

I'm really pleased with how my bunny bunting turned out, but it made me realize that the rest of my mantel looked so naked! I decided I needed to do something about that.

Check out what the finished Spring mantel looks like here.

Spring Mantel

After finishing my Bunny Bunting, I realized just how naked the rest of my mantel looked. I knew I had to do something to make it look finished, but I didn't want to spend a ton of money. The bunny bunting didn't cost me a penny. I had everything I needed to make it on hand already. Score!

So I scoured my craft room for other bits and bobs that I could use to complete my Spring mantel.

I found a really cute Spring Subway Art printable that you can customize by Janet over at Today's Fabulous Finds. I chose Olive and printed it out, but I needed a frame to put it in. I found one I really liked over at Hobby Lobby. It wasn't on sale, but I had a 40% off coupon, so it cost me $11. This is the only thing I purchased for this mantel.

In one of my random craft supply boxes, I found some fake flowers leftover from last year. The pink ones were from Little O's first birthday portraits and the white ones I used on a gift basket for a friend's birthday. I also found small Styrofoam balls from way back when I was in grad school. They've been in that box for five or six years. Time to use them up! I stuck the flowers around the Styrofoam ball to make two pretty pompanders. I used hot glue on a few of the flowers that wouldn't stay put. Then I placed them onto two candle holders I found in my basement. They used to be black, but I spray painted them with some yellow spray paint I had.

The other two things on the mantel are a purple floral bunny my mother-in-law bought for us last Easter and a pink and white tea set I usually keep in my craft room.

And here is the finished product. I'll post a little bit more about the Bunny Bunting on Monday, so check back!

Valentine's Advent Calendar for Toddlers

Last year I made my husband a Valentine's Day Advent Calendar to count down the days to Valentine's Day. I decorated 14 white craft bags with paper, stickers, stamps, and other crafting supplies. Inside each bag, I included a note about why I love him and some candy. It was great. He thought I was really romantic, and it gave him two whole weeks to come up with something awesome for me!

I saved the bags because I really love how they turned out, and I'd love a chance to reuse them. This year, I'm going to give them to sweet Little O. I won't set them all out at once because at almost two, she isn't old enough to understand waiting to open one each day. I'll just give her a new one every day. And instead of candy, although I think a piece here or there is ok, I'll fill them books about Valentine's Day, supplies for small Valentine's crafts, and other Valentine's Day related activities we can do together as a family.

I will have to make three new bags, as #1, #10, and #14 are definitely geared toward a husband.

Once I get them filled, I'll post what I put in each one and what the new #1, #10, and #14 bags look like.

Have you made any

Christmas Wreath

I took my sewing machine in for some maintenance this week. That means NO SEWING for a week and a half! What is a girl to do? Well, look at Pinterest of course and tackle some projects I'd been saving for later. I saw this wreath, and knew I had to make one like it for my door this Christmas. I made it today during Little O's nap time.

I bought most of my supplies at Hobby Lobby. Some of the ribbon is from last year in my stash, and the peppermint ornaments were donated by my mom (not sure where they came from).

First, I painted the letter white. After it dried I added the red and green dots using craft paint. When it was totally dry, I sprayed it with clear acrylic to keep it nice and make it a little bit glossy.

I made bows out of wired ribbon. I learned how to do this when I was a gift wrapper at a department store in grad school. I can't tell you how, but I could SHOW you... (note to self: create ribbon bow demo video).

I used floral wire to attach the bows and the ornaments to the wreath. And then I used hot glue to secure them and keep them from wiggling. I stuck the ornamental sprays in through the back of the wreath, and adjusted them until I liked how they looked. (They are on floral wire and are pretty flexible).

To attach the T to the other side of the wreath, I used floral wire and hot glue. First I put a dob of glue on the back of the top part of the T and pressed the wire into it. I held it until it dried. Most boring part of the whole project. Then I repeated that step on the back of the bottom of the T. I attached the wire to the wreath and secured the T to the wreath with hot glue anywhere it was touching.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. And now I have all these visions in my head of creating wreaths for EVERY holiday. Who knew making a wreath could be so much fun!

I was featured!:

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Felt Christmas Tree

Earlier this week I found a really cute felt Christmas tree on Pinterest. And I knew I just HAD to make it for Little O. I thought it would be a great way to allow Olivia to play with ornaments and leave our real tree alone. Speaking of which, we put up our real tree today!

I went to Hobby Lobby and bought everything I needed to make Little O her very own felt tree. I bought green felt off the bolt, and several colors of felt squares from the crafting section. I also bought some trim (ric rack, sequins, and glitter glue) to make it fancy.

Here's how it turned out.

She's been playing with it nonstop since she got up from her nap. She has barely even looked at the real tree. I'd call that success!!

Note: I hung it on the wall using that gummy adhesive that teachers use to hang posters. It stuck to the wall, but it didn't stick to the felt. So I hot glued some green card stock to the back of the tree in various places (the top, the bottom, and several of the branches). That did the trick. The gummy adhesive is sticking great now.

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It's a Pinterest Christmas

So today Little O went to school for her Thanksgiving class party. It's Tuesday. I know! Bonus! (She usually only goes to school on Thursday). I was supposed to spend the morning finishing the quilt top for my cousin's baby (who will probably be in college by the time I get it finished). But instead I started researching teacher gift ideas on Pinterest. Little O's teachers are awesome! They work really hard (change lots of nasty diapers too!). And they deserve a little something special for Christmas.

Well, I got distracted. I was on Pinterest after all. Although I think I have some ideas for them as well. But I saw THIS gem, and I just knew I had to make it for Little O. It's so CUTE!

So, I think I'm going to spend the rest of the morning at the craft store getting the supplies I need for this. I think I'll also pick up a bin to keep all the felt pieces in.

I'll post pictures after it's done.

Update: Here's our version of the Felt Christmas Tree.

Valentine's Day Advent Calendar

I created this Valentine's Day Advent Calendar for my husband. I thought it was a very clever way to say I Love You to him on the days leading up to Valentine's Day.

I got the idea from a fellow blogger in blog land. Here's where I found it.

First I went "shopping" in my craft room. I had tons of scrapbook paper, stickers, ribbon, and embellishments. All I needed were the bags, some more glue (all my glue sticks were dry!!), and a few other odds and ends. I found everything else I needed at Hobby Lobby. Google eyes, heart-shaped sequins, Valentine's Day cards (for the love notes), stamps, and the white craft bags.

I spent several hours playing with my Cricut while the baby was sleeping. And while she was awake too. She loves playing with paper scraps in my craft room.

I decorated each bag in a different way, including a number that corresponded to the date. Each day, he was allowed to open on bag. Inside he found a little love note that told him one reason why I love him. He also got a sweet treat. I put a few yummy candies in each bag.

I put the calendar up after he went to bed on January 31. And I left him this note on the kitchen counter.

This was such a fun project, and so easy. My husband really loved it.

Next year, I'll probably make one for baby O too.

One added benefit, aside from telling my hubby how much I love him, he now has 14 days to come up with a really awesome Valentine's Day gift for me! Thanks to my best buddy for pointing that one out. I swear it didn't occur to me!

I'm thinking I've caught Advent Calendar fever. I might make these for other holidays too. I'm thinking Easter, Halloween, and of course Christmas.

Jessica