Crafts:
by Susie on Apr 28th, 2011 // Decorations, mother's day, Nature Made, Parties
Mother’s Day is almost here, hard to believe right? Well, what better way to show mom your love than to create some crafts for her… straight from Mother Earth. My kids and I love to check out all our beautiful plants and flowers in the front and back yard. We have some pretty amazing succulents and cactus and decided that for Mother’s Day this year, we would recycle these plants we love and gift them to all the moms we love.
We first gathered all the clear square and rectangular vases we had. Since we had so many, we wanted to use them all. You can also use rounded bubble bowl vases too. The more space you have to reach in the vase, the better.
We then gathered all our plants and sprayed them with some water. Succulents and Cactus do not need much water, they like to be pretty dry.
In our first vase, we used these amazing colored stones we have in our front yard. They vary in size, shape and color. We placed our plant in the vase and gently poured in the stones with our shovel. If you wet the stones, they look even more interesting showing off their true colors…
The next vase, we filled with fun metallic beads and neon orange sugar glitter … I have to admit this one was the most fun!! We placed a small cactus inside the small rectangular vase. My little kid decided to add her final touch … some colored plastic jewels … Dads: please note, these jewels are not to replace any other gems or jewels you are planning to purchase for mom!! Please be extra careful while handling a cactus like this, as it is quite prickly!
Our last vase was low and square so we decided to place some succulents in this one. We used glistening aqua crystal glass rocks which really look amazing with flat colored succulents. Place the plants in and then pour in the rocks. Easy, effortless and exquisite!! Your mom or any other lucky lady will love these earthy plants. Even though my mom is a florist, I can bet you she would love to receive these three plants any day of the year!! Now for the instructions… Read more after the jump…
by Rebecca on Apr 25th, 2011 // Room Tour
Last week I had the great pleasure of meeting Peter Walsh at my office. Peter is Oprah’s organization and clutter guru and he’s definitely the inspiration for the gift of organization I gave myself this past weekend. Peter believes de-cluttering and organizing your life leads to happiness. I couldn’t agree more.
My meeting with Peter couldn’t have come at a better time, for the very next day these three guys showed up at my house to rip out all of the hardwood floors. The floors, which have been in the house since 1926, were shedding polyurethane in large unsightly chunks. Last year we did try to save them with some sanding and a new coat of poly, but it only held for a few months. When the baby started crawling, I began finding poly in her hands, on her feet and in her clothing. It was definitely time time for new floors.
Fun. Also, not so fun. I had to clear out the entire house for the floors to be installed, but my meeting with Peter had me determined to get each room in order as I began putting them back together. The new, dark wood floors came out awesome! We used pre-finished hardwood floor boards to minimize dust and maximize the amount of wear and tear they could take.
We bought new bins for the shelving unit (from Ikea), hung my kid’s lantern from his bed post for middle-of-the- night bathroom trips, and turned this metal pail into a customized Lego storage bin. We used stencils and paint from the department store to affix his name, and then let him decorate with stickers.
We hung a clothes line across the wall above his bed and used clothes pins to hang up some of his art projects. We used a few years worth for a little trip down memory lane. Read more after the jump…
by Angie on Apr 24th, 2011 // Handmade Gifts, Holiday, Just for Fun
Just in time for Mother’s Day, we have the perfect homemade kid-friendly art project idea that a grandmother (or anyone for that matter) would love to receive. And bonus for me, this meant my kid and I got to have some quality together time while she got her “great gift” together!
We started our Mommy-Daughter Day together with a giant plate of banana pancakes, a winning breakfast for my kid and just the right amount of fuel before reaching into her inner-artist.
We got to the paint-your-own pottery studio where my kid immediately selected a ceramic frame and a whole bunch of brushes and colors to add to her paper plate palette. The coolest part was my kid decided what she wanted to make her Grammy this year. She knows how much her grandparents love pictures of their grandchildren and thought a personal frame would be just the right present.
There was no discussion about what she wanted to do or design. My kid dove right in knowing she was on a rainbow mission, a true representation of her.
This was her pre-baked masterpiece which she and I both could not have been more proud of. Her Grammy is going to love it, especially with a picture of her two favorite grandchildren inside.
Now for the instructions…
Read more after the jump…
by Rebecca on Apr 22nd, 2011 // Crafty Links
It’s almost earth day. These people really know how to make recycling fun!
My kind of recycling project – magazines turned into beautiful ribbon from Every Nothing Wonderful.
Oh how I wish my kid could lay his head on this NO WHINING pillow whenever he starts. Alexandra makes them out of all recycled materials.
It doesn’t get much cuter than these shoes made from old jeans by my friends at Prudent Baby.
Wow! I’ve given a lot of old frames to good will. Never thought of masking tape to spruce them up. From our friend, Kathy, at Merriment Design.
by Corinne on Apr 21st, 2011 // Just for Fun, Nature Made, Sculptures
The first time I saw Andy Goldsworthy’s work was when a friend took me to see his movie Rivers and Tides. I was completely blown away. And totally enamored. Goldsworthy creates art with natural materials, usually in a natural setting and then lets his creations succumb to nature.
Andy Goldsworthy, Leaf River Stone, 4 October 1999
From Time by Andy Goldsworthy, 2000
He preserves his work with photography, thank goodness. He works with ice, leaves, rain, flowers, rocks, mud, you name it. He puts giant snowballs in urban settings. He lays down on a road in the rain, lets the road get wet around him and photographs his dry silhouette. He puts together chains of leaves in a rainbow of colors and sets them free down a creek. His work is stunningly beautiful and poignant. His patience and meticulousness is amazing.
Andy Goldsworthy, Straight sticks laid around river boulder, Woody Creek, Colorado, September 2006
Courtesy Haines Gallery
To spend so much time working on something only to watch it fade away is an artform in itself. I showed my kid some of his artworks and his face lit up. He was so excited to make one himself. There are some beautiful books about his work or you can check out this archive.
There is one tree we pass by on our neighborhood dog walk that drops the loveliest red petals. We collected a bunch in my littler kids push car and started grabbing whatever else we could find. We continued in our own yard. Once we had a good pile we started making pictures and patterns.
Our creations kept changing as we added leaves and twigs and petals. We tried several different patterns and my kid loved showing me all the leaves he kept finding in the yard.
I had my camera and my kid had his too and we both took pictures of what we made together. We left our art for the next day to see what happened to it. It definitely became, shall we say, disheveled but that is what the elements (and feet) do. We did pretty well with this in the spring, but can’t wait to try again in the fall when we can find more colors in the leaves. Now for the instructions…
Read more after the jump…
