Rice Bin

I'm the kind of crafter that sees ideas and copies them. Sure I have my fair share of things I think of on my own but with the huge wide world of blogging available now - most ideas I get from someone else - and I love it!!! So many fun things to see and try :)

After watching my girl's spend a good hour at my friend Julia's from Sweet Serendipity playing in her rice bin I knew this was something I must try in our own house. She changes hers for the holiday/seasons so I started with Easter and so far...so good.

Ingredients:

- Rice (I used about 8 cups)

- Rubbing Alcohol

- Food coloring

- Trinkets/Play things
(measuring cups, tongs, etc.)

-Storage Bin

-Cardboard/Newspaper

Directions:

1. Take 2 cups of rice and add 1 tsp of rubbing alcohol and 10 drops of food coloring.

2. Mix till the color is evenly on all of the rice.


3. Spread out on something to dry (about 1/2 hour).


4. Add it to the bin and play away!

* I added a cheap vinyl tablecloth underneath my bin to help 'catch' any rice that made it's way out (which was A LOT - I have a 2 yr. old...) But overall the mess that resulted from this activity was WELL worth the time they spent happily playing away.

The trick for me was to place the bin in a room we don't go in very often (and has hardwood floors). That way throughout the day it wasn't really in my way at all and I didn't really care about the mess. When we were through playing it got picked up, the lid placed on top, the bin put away unto a very high shelf, and the extra rice got swept away.

It's already made it's way out for us to play with several times in the past couple of weeks!

Have fun!

Bird's Nests

When I saw these over at
Crafting Chicks I thought they were absolutely adorable! I thought they would be the cutest little treats to make for Easter and then I realized I had almost everything on hand and couldn't wait another month to try them out! So I gathered what I had on hand and ended up being able to make four of them.

Ingredients:
- around 2 cups of Fiber One cereal (I just used what was left in my bag)
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- around 1 1/2 cups of mini marshmallows (I just used what was left in my bag)
- easter egg candy (Reese's are our favorite!)
- Peeps

Directions:

1. Melt the butter on low heat and then add the marshmallows like you're making rice krispie treats.

2. Once the marshmallows are melted remove from heat and add in the cereal.

3. Spray your hands with cooking spray (very important - these are SUPER sticky) and mold the cereal into nests once they aren't so hot.

4. Wait a few minutes while the nests firm up a bit and then add your eggs and Peep.

Even the kiddos were pretty good at helping and had lots of fun - making them AND eating them of course!!!

A super cute little treat to add to a bag with some ribbon and Crafting Chicks tags!

Have Fun!

Chocolate-Marshmallow Bunnies

I am a sucker for marshmallows. I really don't know why because I'm not one who will sit and eat them plain - but add a little something and I'll gobble them up. They're SO cheap and nowadays they have so many fun ones to try - caramel, chocolate, etc. The other day I even say some flat square ones perfect for s'mores - except I'm not really sure how good they'll actually hold up on a campfire!

So when I saw these cute little holiday bunny marshmallows I knew I had to snag them up. Even if we didn't do anything with these cuties I knew my girl's who devour them. I passed by the egg shaped ones several times over the past month but when I finally went to buy some they were all out :(

I have memories of my grandma getting the Russel Stover marshmallows covered in chocolate and since I knew the Easter Bunny wasn't bringing any of those to our house this year we decided to make some of our own. We took these cute little colored ones and poked them with some fondue sticks and covered them in some yummy melted chocolate. Then my girls had a hayday covering them in LOTS of sprinkles - their favorite part!

I took a few sans sprinkles and added them to a little bag with a note. They'd be perfect for teachers, classmates, friends, visiting teachers, etc.

Yummy - I'm sure they will all get gobbled up for Easter at our house!

Have fun!

Ruffle Shower Curtain

The kid's/guest bathroom in our house was one of the first things I chose to decorate when we moved in. It looked like this. Well...it's coming up on 4 years next month and I was definitely ready for a change in there.

When I first discovered the House of Smith's blog I fell in love. One of the things I loved most was her girl's bathroom. It was absolutely adorable with her little accents of pink throughout. Having two little girlies in our house right now I thought that adding some hints of pink would be perfect to our already green bathroom (I'm just too lazy to want to paint it right now).

I searched everywhere for a shower curtain and the only one I even slightly liked was over $30!!! For a shower curtain? Really? That was way more than I really wanted to spend.

So when I saw this shower curtain extension tutorial it sparked my interest to make my own curtain using this ruffle tutorial.

Items needed:

- Basic Shower Curtain (I got a basic white one for 12 bucks at Walmart)

- 1/2 yard fabric (I got a basic light pink with white polka dots for about $1 at JoAnn's)

- Sewing Machine

Directions:

1. Cut your fabric into 4 inch wide strips. (It made 4 but I only needed to use three to make it all the way across the shower curtain).

2. Fold over the edges and iron them down. (I didn't measure or pin - I'm kind of not really a perfectionist).


3. Sew the edges down.

4. Sew a seam right down the middle.


5. Take a string from the edge and gently pull to make a ruffle. (If I tried to do the entire section at once my string would break. I would suggest sewing about 8-12 inches at a time, ruffling those, and then repeating until the entire strip of fabric is ruffled.)


6. When all three sections are ruffled place wherever you'd like on the shower curtain and sew those cute babies on.

Ta-da! I'm in love - and I have to say I'm quite proud because that is BY FAR the most sewing I've even done in my ENTIRE life - and I only had to have the hubby help me with the machine twice throughout the entire thing ;)

Have fun!

flower pillow

I used to have these brown pillows on our couch - they made it through our college years and a few after but they'd gotten so bad they were recently downgraded to our wicker furniture in our sunroom.

Last week here in the Mid-West we had a little warm up and it got me itching for spring and wanting to spend time outside. Our sunroom has got a navy blue/white/brown color scheming going on so I decided to spice these pillows up with a little leftover fabric I had from another project.


I had seen the oh so cute felt flower pillows all over the internet but once I began cutting my fabric I realized I wasn't going to have enough fabric to make one. I was too cheap to go buy more fabric since this was a 'free' project for me so I decided to improvise and make my own flower.


I cut out all the petals I could using all the fabric I had - and I used no template. I laid down one layer and hot glued them on.

Then I took the rest of the petals and put a dab of hot glue in the center and folded it together to give the petals a little volume.


Then I just arranged all the petals and began hot gluing like crazy. And here's what I ended up with -

A nice little touch to somewhat boring pillows!

Have Fun!

Vinyl

My best buddy Kierste over at Brown Paper Packages surprised me for my birthday last month with this oh so lovely - exactly what I'd been wanting and dreaming of - vinyl for my living room.

I literally had been wanting it for a really long time and she finagled a way with the hubby to get me - and guess what? I think it looks absolutely perfect.

Check out Writings on the Wall for any and all your vinyl needs - it's perfect for anywhere and everywhere :)

ABC Writing Book

I used to be a second grade school teacher in what seems like way 'back in the day' - but in all actuality it was only a few years ago. It makes my heart pitter patter when my little one is finally getting to an age where we can do lots of things together that I used to do in my classroom.


One of those things is handwriting...I love it and am so excited to see my little girlie trying her hand at attempting to perfectly write all of the letters. So when I happened to fall upon this large bundle of handwriting paper at a local dollar store I snatched it up.


I want my kiddos to want and enjoy learning and so we try to make it as fun as possible around here. The desire to start trying to write on her own was peeking out so I thought I'd try and encourage that without being pushy.

We decided to make a book together. I wrote each of the letters on a page, made an example for her to trace, and then stapled it all together with a cover page made of cardstock. Now she has her own little writing book where she is able to practice and keep a record of her progress.


She's loving it and so am I!


Have Fun!