Wordless Wednesday: Autumn Flower Edition

Easy Superhero Cape

My little girl has been on a superhero kick lately, and she's been taking my nursing cover and tying it around her neck and running around the house, just to let the cover flap behind her as she runs, pretending to be a superhero.  Needless to say, I didn't relish the thought of my precious 2 year-old wrapping long fabric ties around her neck, so I thought I'd make her a superhero cape of her very own!

Review: Alphabet Zoo

Well this is the first children's book that I've like well enough to write a review about.  Alphabet Zoo is a lovely book that has amazing illustrations of all kinds of things that start with each letter!

We love this book for lots of reasons!

• It's a board book, so it's very sturdy!  Also, it's MUCH larger than the other board books that we have, it's about 10 inches tall, making it a good book to share together.
• The illustrations are so very colorful.  There is so much to look at on each page, and so many things that start with each letter!  We can just sit forever asking, "what do you see?", "can you find the ___?"
• The letters themselves are really big.  This is one of my pet peeves about alphabet books - so many of them don't emphasize the individual letters themselves very well, so it's hard for a letter-learner to pick them out.  With this book, there's no confusion about what letter you're talking about!
• Did I mention the pictures???  So colorful!  So varied!  So many silly things to look at!

We got this book at our local thrift store, but you can find it on Amazon, too. The ISBN for it is: 0752598880 and the title and author is Alphabet Zoo by Stephen Holmes.

-The Messy Mommy

Organizing Sheets

Keeping our sheet sets organized and together is a challenge when you have two children in twin beds and the hubs and I in our queen, and no linen closet in the house!  So I devised this way to combat the problem of keeping sheet sets from getting scattered in a kid's room, and as a bonus, my method also prevents the pillowcases from sliding off of the pillow in the night!

Finger Drawing Sensory Pad

Make a Sensory Pad to practice making shapes!

Homeschool Beginnings

"Begin at the beginning,", the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop."  -Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

So we are lucky enough to be able to start homeschooling our younger two kids at the beginning of their learning "career".  I can't express to you just how excited I am to have the chance to help my daughters become life-long learners, rather than just a memorizer of information, to pass a standardized test.

Right now, we are learning our letters and numbers.  At 2.5, she "knows" them all, but only by rote.  So in an effort to get her ready for phonics, we will be doing a kind-of relaxed "Alpha-Boot Camp" to get her familiar with each letter and learn to recognize them, and to grasp the concept that the numbers stand for something.

Our Last Foray (for now)

It's the last Space Shuttle launch tomorrow, so I'm posting this video to remind us all of an era of majesty, coming to a close.  I hope that soon, we will return to space.

(A saddened) Messy Mommy

Ginger-Rose Lemonade Concentrate

This is quickly becoming a summer family favorite of ours.  It's spicy and refreshing and different!  I love the subtle floral flavor, it makes me feel like I'm at a spa.  Plus it's easy to make up a head of time, and store until you want to mix some up.  Great for picnics and social functions - we bring our big drink dispenser and mix up a gallon or two at parties for something different than plain old iced tea and soda.

clayirving/Flickr via Creative Commons

I got the inspiration for this drink at a food festival where they were selling Nimbu Paani at an Indian food stall.  Traditionally, ginger and lemon are supposed to be cooling, and good the the digestion.  Here's to your health!

Shopping List:
1 large ginger root
Rosewater (can be found at Middle Eastern groceries or health food stores.  Make sure that it's food grade, rosewater is also used in cosmetics.  I paid $6 for a bottle, but it goes a long way.)



From the Pantry:
sugar
lemon juice


Here's the recipe:

Pretty Jewelry Catch Tray

A pretty place to put your jewelry!

Knock-down Tier Stand

So my husband says to me the other day, "Have you updated your blog lately?" and to tell you the truth, I've been so busy juggling my 2 year old and my dear, darling newborn infant that I really haven't had any opportunity to create anything much except a bunch of clean laundry!  But the bug to create bit me again this week, and I've made myself a super frugal and super customizable tier stand!

Heraldic pillow

click to embiggen

So I'm making a pillow with my SCA heraldry on it for camping!  I'm using the faux batik process that I saw on That Artist Woman.  It works great!  For details on how to, click the link.  I'll just be sharing what I learned.

I bought a multi-pack of brushes, but only used the biggest and the smallest.  They kept shedding little hairs that I had to pick off the brush.  I just used regular old acrylic paint that you would use to paint ceramic figurines.  The fabric is plain 36" cotton muslin, pre-washed and dried in the dryer to make sure it's shrunk and all the sizing is gone.

Draw LIGHTLY, especially in areas that will be light colored.  Extra pencil lines do show in your finished project, and even the white eraser doesn't get rid of them all.  Make sure that you leave enough space for a seam allowance if you will be sewing this into something!

Happy Mother's Day

My darling daughter picked me this daffodil this week.  She's 2, and habitually picks me flowers with tiny stems.  Luckily, I have a tiny vase to put them in!  I put them next to our Buddha.  Doesn't he look so happy?

So Happy Mother's Day, to all you Moms out there (and Happy Buddha's Birthday to everyone else!)

Compact Grocery Bag Carrier for the Purse

I'm a mom, and since I have young kids, I use plastic grocery bags for everything, including emergency dirty/wet clothes carriers and something to put in the carseat under a wet bum when the diaper that you thought would make it home doesn't.  I like to have them in my car, in the diaper bag, in my purse.  But I HATE the thought of a loose bag in any of those places.  So I made a little compact carrier out of some scrap fabric for them.  It fits 2 bags comfortably, or 3 if you squeeze them in.  Here's how!

Family message center

Just showing off our new FAMILY MESSAGE CENTER!

Total Cost: under $4

click the picture to see it bigger!

I wanted a place to gather all the info that my family needs: phone numbers, appointments, menu plans and such.  But I think those organizers at the store are so boring and ugly!  So I decided to make one for myself.  I wish I could remember what blog I saw this idea on, I would link it.  (14 May 2001: I saw it on Redheads Craft More Fun)

This one is nice and WAY cheaper than the store bought ones - I made it with some scrap fabric from the attic and a garage sale frame.  If you go out looking for a used frame to do this with, make SURE that its made of SMOOTH GLASS and not plexiglas or that textured no-glare stuff.  Those NEVER come clean!

I took the old (UGLY) art out of the frame and covered the backer board with fabric.  I just pulled it taut and taped it on the back, so that if I ever want to change the background I can.  I'm TOTALLY looking forward to being able to change it for the holidays or the seasons! 

The parts that you write over are just plain typing paper that I drew a calendar on and a 7-space "list" on, and cut a bit of construction paper a little bigger than to make it stand out a bit better.  I added the phone list at the top and the notes oval at the bottom and cut a fancy design in the black frame of the oval.  I glued the typing paper to their respective frames, but the paper is only tacked to the fabric with a little dab of glue stick, just to keep them from sliding.

Being that this is glass sheet in a frame, I can use BOTH dry erase markers and wet erase markers on it, which makes it easy to change the stuff that I want to change frequently (like the weekly planner there on the bottom left, or a honey-do list) and keep the stuff that I don't want to change semi-permanent (like the calendar or the phone number for my obstetrician!)

Stuff that's permanent (the school attendance line, our cell phone numbers and the squares for the blank calendar) I put UNDER the glass on the typing paper.  If that stuff ever changes, I can open the frame up pretty easily and swap the paper out for an updated one!

Super easy, this project took about 2 hours total (and that's because I spent a lot of time cutting the fancy shapes in black paper and hand-drawing the calendar blank) and super frugal since I used scrap fabric from the attic and a $3 garage sale frame!

I would LOVE to see if anyone else makes one for themselves!  If you do, post a link in my comments!

-The Messy (but a little more organized) Mommy

Fabric flowers!

Like the internet needs another fabric flower tutorial, right?  Right.  On to the pictures!

A size comparison of the original circles and the finished flowers.

A detailed tutorial is below for the interested...

Leaky Chicken Pot Pie

Today for Food Friday I'm going to give you a recipe for a new twist on a comfort food favorite - Pot Pie!

My family loved this unconventional pot pie recipe that I adapted from Under the High Chair.  It's an easy one to make and only takes about an hour!  It's a good use of leftover chicken, too, if you're the sort to clean a chicken roast and freeze the leftovers.

Shopping List:
1 lemon
3 leeks
small carton of heavy cream or whipping cream
ground chicken (or you can use leftover shredded chicken from a roast!)

From the Pantry:
garlic
butter
chicken stock
tarragon or other dried herbs
frozen peas and carrots
salt and pepper
pie crust

Here's the recipe!  Enjoy!

Morning Daffodils!

First Post!

Well, I've finally started a blog.  Here I will be posting show-and-tell, neat links that I see, recipes, products that I enjoy using and can't wait to share with you all, and tutorials on how to make the stuff that I've made.

I hope you all enjoy it!

The Messy Mommy