Craft Room

    I recently converted our junk room into a craft room. I needed a space to sew and scrapbook. I started by painting the old paneling a light green color. I reused some old kitchen cabinets by using as base of my new counter space. I took a sheet of plywood and cut down the middle. I stacked them on top of each other with some old boards as buffers. The space between is great for storing things. I painted all the wood pink. I purchased some outdoor fabric on sale and turned into drapes and valance. I then accessorized the space. The other end of the room is open for the kids to use.

Outer Space Bedroom

    My son is currently into all things space. He loves star wars. He wanted a room to reflect his love for space. We started out by painting the walls a gray color that he chose. His furniture is black metal. The best feature is his space wall.

    I painted the upper half of his wall a glossy black in the shape of a windshield. He chose some pictures from a book of stars, planets, and galaxies that he liked. I made color copies and cut them out. I then decoupaged them to the wall. We used glow in the dark paint to make some stars. I simply used a fat marker and dipped the end in the paint and dotted the space area and his ceiling. It looks really fun in the dark.

    We bought a remote operated moon nightlight that hangs in space. He can change the phase of the moon by remote and it has a sleep function for night. It's educational and fun.

   He later added Star Wars wall clings, which makes it a bit cartoony but being his room, it's his choice.

   Lastly, what astronaut doesn't have a control panel? I had 2 steering wheels meant for outdoor play equipment. We attached them to a simple wood frame to make a dashboard. My son then painted and added buttons. We found a speedometer sign in a decor shop that works as a perfect accent piece. The seat is from a footstool destined for the dump. I bought new foam and covered it in spacey material and it is a soft place for him to sit.

Click Here to see Star Wars Villains Visit

Missing Socks...Solution!

    I hate that I always seem to have missing socks. Where do they go? I usually throw the singles into a basket in hopes of finding them a mate, only to watch the basket grow and never truly sort through it. It's disheartening and I truly do not want to spend money on more socks.

     The solution? I am a very visual person. I like to see things a a glance. I have photographic memory but if things are in piles it doesn't do me much good. I found a curtain cafe rod that I wasn't using and mounted to wall above washer and dryer. I slid on some curtain clips, about 24. Now as socks come out of the dryer, the singles are clipped to the rod. I can see at a glance whether I have a match for a sock or not. It has worked very well.

Repurposing an Ironing Board

    As you can probably tell from this blog, I love repurposing things. It lets me be creative and thrifty at the same time. My laundry room had become overwhelmed with odds and ends. It was clutter I needed but wasn't sure where to put it. My solution was a homemade peg board.

    I buy wrinkle free clothes and never iron. My ironing board was taking up space and collecting dust. So I took some screws and hung it on the wall. I went to store and invested in some "S" hooks, baskets, and hangers that were designed for peg boards.

    I now have a place to hang scissors, tape, dog grooming supplies, ties, etc. As it is metal, magnets would also work on this. I love that it adds some whimsy and charm to the laundry room. A regular wooden peg board could not pull that off. It's very convenient and useful.

Recycled Cabinet

    I have been recycling and reusing things a lot lately. We recently took out an upper cabinet from our kitchen to open the space. I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I have been tripping on it for quite some time. At the same time I have been trying to rearrange and organize things around the house. Then I found the perfect marriage. I have a cubby from Target that has been used to store shoes in my room but I hate seeing the shoes, so I focused on that.

    The cabinet I took down is 3 ft long and 1 ft deep. I measured the cubby and got the same measurements. Yay! A winner! I decided to stack them. It works out wonderfully. I can now keep the shoes hidden behind doors in the cabinet, and use the cubbies for storage and display. Some of the squares are open in the back so I taped a piece of scrapbook paper that looks like tile to the back. Later I will paint or stain all to match.

Snow Day Activities

   The following is a list of fun things you can do with your kids on a snow day.

• Give them a spray bottle with water and a few drops of food coloring. They can spray paint the snow. Just remind them not to do walkways as they will get icy. Koolaid can be substituted for dye.
• Do you have potato head pieces? They can make snowmen and push in the potato head body parts. Great fun!
• Build a fort or an igloo, show kids how to pack snow into pails and they can make snow castles.
• Play florist or farmer. Give the kids plastic or silk flowers and let them "plant" them in the snow. Can also use fruit and veggies from their play food. Give them some empty baskets to harvest the fields with.
• Snow angels are a classic.
• For older kids, let them build a fort and throw snowballs or take their Nerf guns out and play war games. Better outside than inside. Added bonus Nerf bullets wont get lost behind furniture and the bright orange color is sure to show up in the snow.
• Treasure hunt: kids can make map to find buried treasure. They can count their paces in the snow easily by looking at their footprints.
• Guess the object. Bring out a sack of items with distinct shapes. Have kids cover their eyes. Press an object in snow and then place back in bag. Can kids guess what the object was based on impression in snow?
• Polar Bears and Penguins: let kids run around and slide around like these great snow animals. Remind them that polar bears walk on all fours and that penguins waddle and slide on their bellies.
• Free play with plastic animals and dolls is also fun for kids. Getting to play in the snow is a novelty. Anything they may enjoy doing in sand, they can also try in snow.

Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow, And we, we were children once again. ~Bill Morgan, Jr.

Last Minute Christmas Craft Ideas

    Running short on gifts? Running short on cash? Here are some quickie craft ideas to finish off your gift list.

•  Have any burnt out lightbulbs? Spray paint them and turn them into snowmen, reindeer, or just plain bulbs. Attach wire to metal end and hang from tree.

• Go to your local goodwill, salvation army, or other donation center. Buy some very cheap frames. Even the one with the picture of a kitty doing ballet? Yes, that one too. Take them home and throw out any pics or painings they may have come with. Paint the frame with spray paint or left over wall paint. You can leave as a solid color or decorate by gluing on buttons or other craft items. This would also be a great project for kids to help with. Then when dry, add in a family photo or put in a nice piece of scrapbook paper with a nice printed out quote.
• Cut a posterboard into a wreath shape. Have your child dip their hand into green paint and make prints around the outside and use their fingers as the berries. Add a picture to the center and a ribbon to the top to hang it from. If possible laminate.

Cardboard City

    A fun craft project my kids have been working on is building a cardboard city. I have collected toilet paper tubes, empty food boxes, pizza boxes, cardboard circles from under pizzas, etc. I added to this construction paper, glue, stickers, and crayons. They added the imagination. This has turned into a great recycling project. Would be a great craft to work on over winter break as well. Check out the below photos.

                                       Cardboard People made from TP tubes.

                                                             Cardboard Tank

                                                     Mansion made from pizza box

Upstairs bedroom made from construction paper.

Our Charlie Brown Christmas

    We had an unusually warm day yesterday so I decided to clean up the yard and sweep the porch. The kids and I transplanted mint into planters to bring in for the winter as houseplants. Then we got the Christmas bug.

    We decided to cut a branch from an overgrown pine in the backyard and make a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. We brought it in and put in a tree stand. the kids found a blue towel to wrap around base to symbolize Linus' blanket and one solitary red ornament. It was fun to recreate and now sits in our dining room as a fun decoration.

Homemade Christmas

     This year money is tight. Rather than whine about the state of my financial situation I decided to celebrate a homemade Christmas this year. I have enough excess around the house and lots of creativity. So why not?

    I started with my dining room. It used to be used as a daycare room but was recently converted into a formal dining room. This room needs work as this is where Thanksgiving and Christmas meals will be eaten. I found some robin eggs blue paint and lightened up the dark navy blue walls. I had white curtains and cloth shower curtains that I repurposed by adding a band of yellow fabric to the bottoms. I had some old, icky frames that I gave new life by painting the colors of the walls and adding extra yellow fabric as the matting. These hang on a white wall on my stairwell. I also painted three old terra cotta pots the wall color to hold silverware. The room looks light and fresh.

    The kids will be painting toilet paper tubes white with red stripes to be used as napkin holders and a fun way to deliver Christmas letters and drawings. They also collected pine cones from a nearby park for other holiday crafts. I have been using my TV time productively by crocheting scarves for Christmas Presents.

    It has been nice recycling old things into new and teaching the kids new tricks along the way. The money saved is also invaluable.

    "Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... (he thought)...means a little bit more." The Grinch