Recycle those Ornaments

Last December, one of our friends who was moving gave us a bunch of Christmas decorations that she didn't want any more. There were a lot of these Christmas bulbs and many of them were kind of scratched up. I found this great idea online somewhere (wish I could remember where so I could give credit where it's due), and decided it would be the perfect way to make those ornaments something I wanted to keep. 

So if you want to try it, here's what to do:

First, use Mod Podge and small strips of newspaper to paper mache the ornaments. The smaller the strips of paper, the less bumpy they will be. Hang them over the sink or extra newspaper to dry.

Second, paint. It may take several layers to cover the newspaper completely. You can either take off the little caps to do the paper mache and painting, or you could try putting the paper and paint right over them.

Instead of painting all of mine, I simplified the process and used some craft paper instead of newspaper. No painting required. 

It's so nice to feel like I have something new when it's actually used and I didn't even have to spend any money (except for the craft supplies, which I usually have on hand anyway).

The kids also got to have fun with it. I just gave them some of the ornaments and some paint and they were happy. Of course, we had several shattered bulb incidents throughout the process, but at least it helped keep them busy while I tried to finish these. And that's another benefit to these babies... they are a lot less breakable now.

The Transformation

Remember the post about how I was going to transform an old thrift store find into a barn for my son. Well, it worked. Hub and I sawed and nailed and painted until we got this.

Then we bought the little tractor and animals to go with it.

Grammy and Hub went out to a field near our house and got some straw that had fallen to the ground. Grammy tied them into these cute little bundles.

And I learned how to make a rope ladder. It was fun. If you want to learn how to make one, check YouTube. That's how I learned.

I haven't done the exact calculations, but I estimate the total cost of this project (not including the animals and tractor) to be about $30, including the $5 thrift store item, another $3 - $5 for the board we bought for the roof, and about $12 for the paint, and a few dollars for the saw. I already had the twine for the bails of straw and the rope ladder.

This was a fun project, but I learned a couple of things. First, having an electric saw would be nice. We just had a cheap hand saw, and I had to have Hub do the sawing because the wood was so old and hard. Second, procrastination means sleep deprivation. Of course, I already knew this, but I re-learned it anyway. I painted late into the night in order to finish this before the boy's birthday. But it was very much worth it!

Spiderwebs and Sweeties

It's been a busy week. The concert Hub and I went to was so good, and I'm sad it's over. Our house is still kind of disaster, but better now that they came to pick up the temporary furniture and we've got some of our boxes unpacked. I've also been going through our pictures from the last month or so, trying to get our family blog updated, and I couldn't help but notice a couple of beautiful things that I had in my photo collection...

The kids noticed these spiderwebs on the swing set one morning. The morning dew and the sun made them easy to see. Spiders creep me out, but that's some beautiful work there.

My girl wanted me to take a picture of her with her baby doll. What a couple of sweeties. She's had this doll since she was a brand-new baby.

ps - the story on those bangs... I totally messed up when I cut them. I cut them way too short, and as if that wasn't bad enough, they were also really crooked. But I didn't want to try to fix them because they'd just get shorter and shorter. Poor girl... her mother is totally incompetent sometimes. :) I told her she's beautiful no matter what her bangs look like, because she is. 

I'm thankful that hair grows.

Celebrate Families

Just wanted to spread the word about a celebration of families that will be taking place during the month of September. I'm really looking forward to participating. Families are definitely worth celebrating! For more details visit Latter-day Homeschooling. This is not just for home schoolers... everyone is invited to participate.

Rainy Afternoon

It has been raining here for two days straight. Well, yesterday was rainy and today is more like misty. When you walk outside it feels like you're standing next to a waterfall or like someone is spraying you with a squirt bottle, or someone is spitting on you (according to the Man). Rain, mist... whatever, it's very wet. Reminds me of our days in the Pacific Northwest. I'm not sure if summer is coming back or not, but we had to bust out the long sleeves and long pants today, and even socks for crying out loud, for a trip to the doctor. Hopefully, we can put them back in the closet soon and not get them out again for awhile longer.

On the bright side, it was a great day for a movie and some popcorn. We have 'movie night' every Friday which consists of making some popcorn, and staying up a little past bedtime to watch a movie from the library. Last Friday we watched The Sound of Music. The kids wanted to watch it again before we take it back to the library, and this afternoon turned out to be the perfect time. I've been singing Edelweiss for the last few days and now it will be stuck in my head for at least another few. I don't mind though, because I love that song. My five year old loves The Sound of Music. We watched Mary Poppins a few weeks ago and she loves that too. She's taken to speaking in a British accent lately. I'm pretty sure that if she had the chance to trade me for Julie Andrews as her mother she would do so without hesitation. I'll just keep singing Feed the Birds and Edelweiss to her before bed and maybe she'll start to think I'm almost as cool as Julie Andrews.

Another movie night recommendation is Because of Winn Dixie. That was a pretty great movie too.

Rainy afternoons are kind of nice.

The Dainty Petal is my Hair-Do Hero

I am blessed to have a wonderful little girl. This little girl was born with a lot of hair, and by the time she was about two and a half, she really had a lot of hair.

Just look at those long, gorgeous locks. This was when she was almost three.

However she has always been what I like to call a 'free spirit', and never liked to be tied down with things such as clothing or hair-ties, clips, bows, etc. She also is not a big fan of sitting still long enough for me to do her hair. 

One of the problems is I'm not really skilled in the area of doing hair, so it always takes me longer that it should. 

So when she was almost three, I decided it would be nice to see a little more of her face more often and we went to get her first haircut. It was cute, but...

...I kind of got a little sad every time I thought of those long, baby-fine, beautiful locks.

But then I would think of times like this and and the way she wouldn't leave a ponytail in her hair, and remember why it was probably better that her hair had been cut.

My little wild child is five now and her sitting-still skills have come a long way from when she was two or three. I figure it's about time that I improve my hair-doing skills as well. 

Fortunately, I have some help.

Hairstyles

My friend sent me a link to this website the other day, and it has already proven to be very useful to somebody like me. It's also helping my girl get more excited about having her hair done because she can look at the pictures or videos of the hair-do's and pick one that she wants me to try.

But I'm even more excited about another hair-do help I found out about recently.

 My cousin Stefanie opened a shop called The Dainty Petal. She creates and sells the cutest hair-clips, headbands, and earrings. All of her items are handmade by her. I showed her website to my girl, and she was so happy. She had the cutest little smile on her face while we browsed through all of Stefanie's creations. I told her she could pick some out to buy. I believe that The Dainty Petal will be my hair-do hero. Not only has the shop already helped my girl become more excited about having her hair tamed by some cute hair accessories, but those accessories will also help my sometimes successful and sometimes not-so-successful attempts at doing hair look cute no matter what.

Now I'm pretty sure only about two or three people read this blog, and I think you already know about The Dainty Petal, but if anyone else happens to read this post, make sure you go visit The Dainty Petal and share it with your friends.

And when you visit, you'll notice the website's cute design which was created by Stefanie's sister Hilary at Simply Yours. She creates the BEST custom blog designs, so make sure you check her site out too.

I was thinking it was time to go do some hair now, but I just asked my girl if she wanted to pick out a hairstyle, and she reminded me that we did her hair yesterday, and she is just going to have a hairstyle every other day... so not today, but tomorrow. Oh well... baby steps.  She's adorable with crazy hair too.