Here is the little plant:

It’s a little pot that comes with a growing medium and seeds. The basic instructions are on the inside of the label. You basically grow the soil, then add the sides then place it in a sunny spot and water daily. Once the plants get about three inches tall you transfer the plant to a bigger pot.

Growing the soil. In my opinion the best part of the project. You get this little disc sized pod and then add three tablespoons of water and it grows into soil before your eyes…science at work!

I then let A scoop the soil into the pot and then we patted the little seeds in on top.

I let A set the plant on a chair in the kitchen for awhile then we moved it to the window above our kitchen sink to keep it from being knocked over. A loved this simple activity and is already anticipating yummy strawberries…let’s hope they grow!!

The rocking nook. Something we did not have with A and I said I would definitely have with the next baby. The chair is borrowed from my sister, the ottoman was a 25 dollar find from Marshalls. The ottoman is actually a cream color, I found this fabric (it’s Pottery Barn cotton) at a local shop and my Mom slip covered the ottoman for me. The blanket I made with this guide from Pinterest, and the pillow I made with matching minky dot on one side and the matching fabric to the blanket on the other.

For some reason the shelf looks crooked in the picture, but I assure you it is not in real life! The shelf is borrowed from my parents. The little pink bunny and music boxes were mine from when I was a baby, the drum is from plan toy (I love the sound it makes!), letter J tree, mushroom, owl, baby book, and little wood frame are from Anthropologie, the bird is from Target, and the letter J plaque is from Hobby Lobby. And of course Sophie the Giraffe.

I made these from washcloths purchased on etsy from Little Things Boutique, with a quilting hoop, and ribbon. I am going to get a fancier hook for the top hook, but haven’t done so yet.

The shelf above the crib. I had to be very careful with my choices and to make sure everything was secure because my husband and I debated for a long time about the shelf being above the crib. I am still moving some things around on it, but this is what I have so far.

That’s all for this week! I will post a completed picture of the whole nursery soon!

The inspiration:

A canvas idea I found on Pinterest.

The creation:

The changes I made: I used buttons instead of decoupaged leaves and I kept the background white instead of antiquing it to match J’s room. I free form traced the tree with a pencil first, then painted it a deep brown. I then had my husband seal the canvas with a matte finish, and then I glued the buttons on with a clear finish sewing bonding glue.

Materials:

Pink construction paper

White cardstock

Red paint

Glitter

Glue

Safety scissors

Details:

I traced hearts out of the card stock and A helped me cut them with safety scissors. Then we dipped his hands in paint and pressed them on the card stock. We let the paint dry and the next day we glued the hearts to the pink paper, traced the hearts with glue and sprinkled glitter all over the tracing. Craft complete.

Ah…to be three. Sometimes I get a good picture. And sometimes I do not.

Hints and Tips:

While I was tracing the hearts I had A color the pink construction paper so he was not just sitting there watching me. You could do the tracing in advance, but I rarely think of things like this in advance.

I also use a foil wrapped higher sided cookie tray when we use glitter, glue, etc. Easy mess clean-up.

You can use doilies like the linked example I have and you also can cut a larger heart around the white card stock heart with zig zag scissors which would be really cute.

Who needs emoticons when your child provides you with unlimited “winky faces”?

This year has been tougher to get A to do crafts then last year. I suppose it’s an age thing. When he was really little of course crafting was not his thing. Then around 1-2 and 2-3 he was really into doing crafts and we did a lot. Now, it depends on his mood if he will actually participate, or just make me regret that I came up with an idea that involves any glue/paint/glitter.

However, my sister told me about a few craft ornament ideas on pinterest and from that became these:

These are glass ornaments. Which means if your child tends to try to crush things in their hands like a grown man crushes a soda can, this type of ornament is not for you. I was more worried A would be of the cling-on variety (not the characters from Star Trek, mind you), aka not let go. However my fellow blogger and friend’s post on Tales of a Peanut was super helpful. She did this craft as well and recommended showing them how to hold the ornament before you get paint all over their hands. Yes. Smart.

All you need is acrylic white paint and a paint brush for this. Just keep baby wipes handy and you need to stay with the child. Acrylic paint is permanent. Not like the fun washable kind that won’t come out of a pair of A’s old pajamas.

Anyway….

Here are the finished products!

We did snowmen handprints (Tales of a Peanut) reindeer thumbprints (Little Bit Funky), and light bulb strand finger prints (Meet the Dubiens). A was really into this craft so I just ran with it and we did lots of different things. I added the links in parenthesis above for each to get more complete instructions than what I have provided here!

Materials Needed:

8×11 or larger cardstock (one green, one orange)

One large sheet of white paper (I used a 16×20 piece of finger painting paper that I had)

One small sheet of white paper

Tape

Glue

Kids paint (I used red, yellow, orange for the orange piece of paper, and then the different greens I had for the green piece of paper)

Step 1:

Let your kiddo finger paint, or paint with brushes the orange and green piece of cardstock and coordinate the colors (red, yellow, orange with the orange piece of cardstock) (green with the green piece of cardstock). Then let dry. This will usually take a couple of hours. As I said before we didn’t finish it until a few weeks later.

Step 2:

Cut petals out of the orange piece of cardstock. Cut a stem and leaves out of the green piece of cardstock. Then let your child tape and glue stick at will. I let A tape the stem and leaves with little help and then helped him more with the petals. After we taped on the petals we glued a circle of white paper on top and then I let A finish up by coloring the middle circle and the paper around the flower. And voila!

Read the book then make the craft!

Our first craft was painting a wooden spider and pumpkin that I had purchased at Hobby Lobby. All you need is paint, the two wooden forms, and newspaper to cover your table to save it from the paint!

Then I was inspired by this fall board that I found on pinterest. I decided to take the idea and use it for a craft with A.

You need fall colored construction paper, scissors, fall related stickers (some with words, some without), glue, and markers.

I cut out the stump of a tree and we put our fall word stickers on there. Then I cut out the top of the tree and A colored it and added leaf stickers. We glued the two together and voila!

A simple fall craft perfect to do with your toddler!

And now here is his new big boy room…

My husband is dying to purchase these super mario wall decals to put in the space between the animal canvases and the bed. I have to say it would be pretty funny.

I also have to note that on the curtain rod the finials are sports themed. A picked them out.

Is any room in our house complete without a space themed wall? Those who know us, know of our LARGE aeronautical themed framed picture in our foyer.

I was really pleased with how the bulletin board came together with some of the other elements moved from his other room. I wanted his room to be updated in his new space, but also incorporate a lot of his original decor, so he would still feel like it was his stuff in his room.

Last the closet, I love a good organized closet. The wall to the left is going to include two two foot long shelves, which my dad is going to make for me and then I am going to paint white. I’ll post a picture when they are completed!

And just a little first pic of baby 2′s space…

It is a really neutral green. It will translate well boy or girl, and I needed a neutral after A picked out the bright blue for his room. Oh and in case you are interested in the paint colors, they are both Behr and the green is white willow and the blue is horizon haze.

We recently had A’s room and the baby room painted, which I am so happy with (and happy that we hired someone to do it!). So stay tuned for a blog post about the transition to the new room and its set-up. To make a long road to my actual post, the guest bedroom does not have blackout blinds. The drapes in A’s old room were from IKEA and I love them and wanted to keep them, however, they are pretty shear. So I decided to turn them into blackout drapes. This was actually really easy, the only problem I encountered is that the blackout fabric is heavy and I ran out of bobbin without noticing for one part and had to re-do it.

Materials Needed:

Sewing machine

Appropriately matching thread (I used white)

For two 63 inch panels, I needed 4 yards of drapery blackout fabric (2 yards per panel).

What I Did:

So with the IKEA drapes it was actually pretty easy. The drapes themselves have a threading that is visible in a rectangle along the whole inner perimeter of the drape. I used this as a pattern. I pinned each piece of blackout fabric to the back of the drape and then sewed following along the thread outline. Then I trimmed the edges close to the thread line and cut all the hanging off threads.

Can you spot the threading line on the drapes? That was my rectangle pattern block I followed.

The completed drapes!

How it turned out:

I was really pleased with the results overall. It’s not always that I have an idea and it actually completes the way I want. It also makes the drapes hang better, and serves the purpose that I wanted to block out the light in A’s room. I do have one part that I am going to re-do because as I said before, the bobbin ran-out and I didn’t notice, so I have a bit of gap in the spot I had to re-do with the new bobbin thread.

My overall thoughts:

I would definitely recommend trying it if you have a simple drape pattern to follow (and you enjoy diving into craft projects that you aren’t sure of the results, HA!). The blackout fabric is super heavy and in order to not get it to pucker you really have to pull it tight all the way through the sewing process so the drape doesn’t have weird puckering issues.

Fly Through Our Window’s Sweet Crunchy Dills

I love this recipe. My sister and her husband made them last year and I made them this year (they provided the cucumbers from a family friend). They remind me of the cucumbers and vinegar dish my Grampie used to make when I was little. So yummy!

The Pioneer Woman’s Simple Perfect Enchiladas

I liked this recipe because it is a slightly different take on the beef enchiladas my family makes. I used flour tortillas instead of corn because for some reason corn tortillas did not sound appetizing in my pregnancy brain. Who knows! Which means I did not dip them in the sauce I just ladled a tiny bit of sauce in the center of each tortilla. This took a couple of tries to get it not to spill, but worked really well.

Okay on to crafts. I have not done that many crafts this summer, I am still trying to get around to sealing a painting project I started back in April. However check out some of these terrific craft projects I have seen lately:

Tales of a Peanut’s Bow Holder

Such a cute idea! As a former owner of many, many bows (many of which my Mom made for my sister and I), I love this.

Under the Sycamore’s Paper Bird Painting

I actually use this as an example in my class of showing steps throw visual aids if you don’t have time to do the steps in front of the class. I don’t think I’ve ever posted it, but I have talked about it so many times I think I’m actually going to make it this fall.

Finally a little of Super A for the fam:

Working on his bike riding skills.

Super A had his first orientation for preschool today. I can hardly believe that he is beginning a whole new adventure of preschool, and while I’m not sure if he will like me leaving him at first, I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for him to learn all new things! One of the most important things Super A learned this summer was potty training. We have successfully accomplished potty training this summer, and I was one proud Mama to tell his teacher that he did not have to work on potty training! It was a long road, but one weekend everything seemed to click, and A has done great. That’s all for now!