Last Friday, my dear friend Paige hosted the coolest thing ever: a maker night! The guest was Anne Weil, author of Knitting Without Needles: A Stylish Introduction to Finger and Arm Knitting. Anne is utterly delightful and an excellent teacher -- she was unphased wrangling our chatty group of ladies! It was so fun to learn a new craft and I made this gorgeous cowl in 30 minutes! The yarn was so delicious and I want to sleep in a big fluffy pile of it every night.Last Friday, my dear friend Paige hosted the coolest thing ever: a maker night! The guest was Anne Weil, author of Knitting Without Needles: A Stylish Introduction to Finger and Arm Knitting. Anne is utterly delightful and an excellent teacher -- she was unphased wrangling our chatty group of ladies! It was so fun to learn a new craft and I made this gorgeous cowl in 30 minutes! The yarn was so delicious and I want to sleep in a big fluffy pile of it every night.
Tops on my birthday list were these watercolor brush pens + spiral bound watercolor journal, which I gratefully received from my in-laws. Laurel and Violet immediately pounced on them upon opening, so it wasn't until last weekend that I finally had a chance to sit down and experiment. Here's my first picture; I think I'll stave off the winter doldrums by painting pretty flowers! It was so fun to get lost in color -- I highly recommend you try it!
Today, Rene shares a roundup of 11 easy craft projects for kids, perfect for National Crafts Month!
Whether you're stuck inside on a rainy or snowy day, or are just looking for a fun project at home, get little hands busy with cute and simple craft projects that will entertain and engage them. These 11 projects are easy for kids to tackle with minimal parental involvement, so enjoy another cup of coffee while your kids channel their inner mini Martha's!
My sweet Laurel is a maker and around the holidays, she's always asking me about projects ideas. The Minimalist Parenting community loved this post on 14 kid-crafted gifts, so I figured -- what with the weekend coming up -- it would be fun to share 10 more ideas. And given my deep passion for clutter-free gifts, I've rounded up a collection of ideas that are CLUTTER-FREE. YAY! These items would be adorable for family, friend, and teacher gifts.
Today's Friday Find is actually one of Jon's discoveries and it's a great find for any age and gender: parachute cord crafts. Jon bought Laurel a bracelet kit for Christmas and they had so much experimenting with knot and braid techniques that we've purchased separate cord + accessories (Laurel wears her bracelets constantly and has a whistle on one of them). You can make everything from compass bracelets to dog collars; I'm thinking about picking up this paracord project book for Laurel and Jon soon!
Holidays (national or somewhat arbitrary) offer fun inspiration for projects and lessons for kids. Yesterday was Penguin Awareness Day (though I'm happy to celebrate penguins any day of the year!) and I wanted to take this opportunity to shine a light on this fine bird with project, book, and design inspiration. If you have other ideas to share, feel free to do so in the comments below!
Has the duct tape craze hit your house? It's been sticky craft madness around here ever since Laurel discovered it! We've got duct tape flowers, wallets, bookmarks, coasters, and more around the house. The other day when Laurel asked about ideas for a new project I -- ever the proponent of usable items -- suggested we make some cute belts. It's such an easy and cute project and I wanted to share the DIY with you today.
As I mentioned yesterday, I have a few posts I want to share related to simplifying birthday parties for kids. If I can manage, I'll bust everything out this week while things are top of mind. First, I want to share the 3 easy (and delightfully rainbow-tastic!) party activities I planned for Laurel's party. You can do these any time, really, and I recommend doing the chalk paint ASAP while the weather is good. So easy and fun. Enjoy!
I love necklaces. Except when they're clumped and tangled, as most of my collection has been for some time now. I was planning on buying a cork board to make sense of the mess, and then this past weekend, as I stared disdainfully at furniture packaging that needed to be broken down for recycling, I had a light bulb moment: turn the large Styrofoam sheets into jewelry boards! It would save the effort of breaking down the material to fit into our recycling bin, and save me the cost of cork boards! Here's the how-to for this ridiculously easy and awesome project:
Today, Debbie (also of Two Adopt Two) shares six ideas for outdoor fun:
Particularly now, as we're all buried under huge piles of snow, recovering from shoveling induced aches and pains, and the novelty of snow days has worn off, you're probably dreaming of beaches, sandals, and umbrella-laden drinks. Your kids are even tired of electronics and you've already built an army of snowmen. Now what? If lift tickets are beyond your budget, fear not. Here are six ideas for outdoor fun for next to nothing.
Today, Jane (also of see jane blog) shares a great way to repurpose wine corks for craft:
Given that my four kids and I love crafting, I collect things that look like they might be useful later: jars, pine cones, cool sticks, wine corks, etc. I recently decided to be more proactive in my collection of wine corks by sourcing local. I printed my contact information on two reusable bags and took the bags to two local restaurants and explained to the bar managers that I wanted to collect wine corks for crafting with my kids -- both restaurants were happy to help! About six weeks later, the restaurants called to say the bags were full: presto, free recycled crafting supplies!
Today, Miriam (also of Other Pieces of Me) shares thoughts and resources for those considering home sandboxes:
A few months ago, I decided I was tired of having to redirect our almost three-year-old son from my (then dormant, but soon to be planted) raised garden beds. He was overwhelmingly attracted to the 8' x 4' plot of dirt to the point that the area became replete with sand toys and multiple baths were required each day.
Today, Kate shares an art center I'm itching to try with Laurel:
My daughter has always loved art. From her early daycare days of finger-painting and messing around with sand, through coloring and cutting, and now up to learning how to sew and knit and make complex collages, she is drawn to create using color and materials and shapes. And while she always makes a beeline for the art table at school and we have collected boxes full of art supplies at home, there are still limits on what we're able to do ourselves. For this reason, I was thrilled to discover Maud Morgan Arts, a wonderful art center and school discreetly hidden on Sacramento Street in Cambridge.