New Card

I stopped going to my cardswap while i was working, but I am able to go again.

I really enjoy going to cardswap, and here is the card I made for last month- I made twenty of these:

I got the idea from T-shirt Diaries

Twin Sheets

My two older kids (age 4 and 2) are sharing a room now.

I decided to make them sheets to sort of match each other- but still be different.

I went with the kids favorite characters:

Winnie the Pooh for my two year old girl, and Thomas the Train for my 4 year old boy.

 I did red along the outside of both for two reasons:

1. I didn't have to hunt down fabric that was big enough to cover a twin bed, I just gt regular 44"

2. The red matched both Pooh and Thomas, so it tied them together so they coordinated a little bit

Pooh Fitted Sheet

I had enough leftover fabric for piilows

Thomas Fitted Sheet

With a pillow

My kids were super excited to sleep on their new sheets, and together in the same room.

Easy "Stamping"

The other day we did an easy 'stamping' activity.

Instead of using my stamps I pulled out the cookie cutters (which we usually use for play-doh) and stamped with them. 

I just put some pink paint on paper plates and the kids dipped the cookie cutters (heart shaped cutters for Valentine's day) into the paint and stamped it onto their papers. 

Box Coloring

We love to play with boxes. 

Most often they are made into cars and trains, or used to stash a big pile of toys and given to mommy or daddy as a 'present'!

We got an extra big box one day and kept it around.

It was prefect for hide and seek, but they also loved when I puled out the crayons, markers and pencils and let them go to it.

An easy (and FREE!) activity that re purposes something that could otherwise just be trash. 

Plus I love art activities that are a little outside the box (no pun intended)... why just color on paper when you can color on a big box?

Wind Lesson

I'm planning on homeschooling my kids.

but since my oldest is four, we're only in preschool, so we're still pretty relaxed about it.

We were learning about wind one day so I blew up a couple of balloons and pulled out a portable fan.

My son watched it blow away. And we talked a little about wind and storms, and then just played with balloons.

Hiding in Boxes

Whenever we get our hands on a good sized box we keep it around for a day or two.

I got a large box from an order off of amazon and the kids had fun.

They pretended it was a train for a little bit, but then used ti to hide in for round after round after round of hide and seek.

Shaving Cream Bath

One of the favorite bath activities in our house is shaving cream.

That's it.

It's that simple--- just shaving cream.

I get the barbasol cans of shaving cream for 97c at Walmart and then just squirt in onto my kids hands during bath time. They LOVE it one can lasts for about 4 baths so it's cheap as well as easy

Plus clean-up is a snap!

My two year old prefers to smear it on herself

Or her baby sister, lol 

While big brother (4 years) prefers to paint on the walls and the tub.

Sometimes for him, I'll just squirt a big pile of shaving cream onto the side of the tub, so he can grab it as needed.

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure it would be super fun with just a few drops of food dye also!

Recipes!

I love to eat and cook, but sadly I tend to lack imagination in the kitchen.
So I LOVE that I have the internet right here at my fingertips to help me in the kitchen.
Since I don't have too many of my own unique recipes, I though I would review a few I've tried online, so here goes.

I made this super simple Pico de Gallo and it was fabulous

And this Butternut Squash Soup (Vegan)

This soup was a little spicy, maybe too heavy with the pepper? But we still loved it. My husband and I kept taking bites ans saying how spicy it was, but we couldn't stop eating it!

And I found a recipe that claims to be the best falafel recipe ever!

It was very, very good. Maybe not quite as good as trader Joe's amazing falafel, but still very, very yummy! Plus, aside from the fact that you need to plan ahead and soak the chickpeas, it was really very easy.

So there you go... three relatively healthy recipes that have been tried and tested and found worthy. Enjoy!

Ch-ch-ch-ch Changes!

So My poor neglected little blog here is going to see some changes- It's going to be more of what I love.

Right now I'm behind on crafting- so almost the only things I've made lately are a few things for my etsy shop. So that's All I've had to post- I felt like I was running an online billboard rather than a blog-

Soooooo I'm going to include other things that keep me busy and make me happy-

Which include but are not limited to:

Playing with my kids

Teaching my kids

Healthy Eating

Cleaning

Cooking/Baking

Reading

and as always....Crafts!

Houndstooth for Christmas

I love hounds tooth clothing/accessories- who doesn't?

Well I have some Christmas colored houndstooth scrapbook paper, so I decided to make some cute stuff with it.

First I made a box that I had wanted to make for a long time. It was modeled after a box that my mom had sitting around. She had purchased a Swarovski Christmas ornament and she let me steal the box it came in. 

So I tried to remake the box and did it in red and white hounds tooth paper.

Here's the result

Then I saw an idea somewhere online for these little 'baskets' made from 12x12 sheets, so I pulled out some more hounds tooth; this time in green as well as red

 Green and White Houndstooth Basket

 Full of flowers:

 Red and White Basket with ribbon:

With some pretty yellow flowers: 

The box is for sale here in mt etsy shop.

The baskets, I'm not sure about- I might list them on etsy, Or I might just keep them for myself- I haven't decided!

And you wouldn't believe what I found- Houndstooth stamps! How fun is that?!?

Greeting Cards

So I like to do crafts and I'm on a budget.
With Christmas around the corner you all know that means it's time to start hand making some Christmas gifts.
I've only just begun, but I plan on making  a big pile of greeting cards for my mom and my mother-in-law. They have previously received these for Christmas and loved them.

I want to do a few intricate cards and a bunch of cards that are a little simpler. I started with simple. I've made two or three copies of 4 different cards so far.

 Many Thanks:

Then I used the circle I cut out of that paper, cut it in half and made

Congratulations!:

 A simple

Thank You:

Again I used the cut out for another card, this time,

Happy Birthday: 

I'm planning on making more cards, as well as making lots of other gifts this year, so stay posted- hopefully I'll have lots to share!

Christmas Boxes

One day i was sitting around, about to make another exploding box, but I decided this paper wasn't right for it.

So then I thought- What if I make a simple box that has 4 flaps on the top that fold over each other the way a standard moving box does?

I had never tried one before or seen how to make one but it was really very simple.

I made 8!

4 red and 4 green.

Each color has two each of a 4"x4"x4" and 3"x3"x3" box

Here are the finished products:

For sale in my etsy shop: JLynneCreationshttp://www.etsy.com/shop/JLynneCreations