Knitting Zeal

Upcycle Challenge from Chick-fil-a

The only fast food restaurant our family enjoys is Chick-fil-a.  My son loves their chicken and it's the one quick meal spot that is our go-to and most requested by him.  They have a great mobile app, chick-fil-a one,  that makes ordering ahead very easy. I love their soup and salads as a healthier fast food option.  My husband loves their chicken wraps.  A seasonal option in the winter is the Chicken Tortilla Soup and it is amazing:  full of thick broth, lots of beans and slices of spicy chicken.  It's one of my favorite options to get there and I wish it was served year round.

 I am a member of the Chick-fil-a moms panel this year and have had fun giving feedback to the company and taste testing menu items.  Most recently I was given a coupon to taste test the Chicken Tortilla Soup and challenged to create something from the container in an upcycle challenge.   This was a fun challenge and I had lots of ideas.  I decided to create a container out of the soup bowl that would be beneficial to me in packing lunches...I made a lunch box joke container!  Almost everyday I pack a joke, riddle or rebus puzzle for my son's lunch box(third grader!)  I know the lunch ladies at his school and they love trying to solve them along with his classmates.  I usually keep a little stack of jokes that I either print and cut into squares or I hand write out a bunch of jokes on a square notepad.  The problem is where to keep them...and somehow the fruit basket really isn't the best place for them.  

Behold:  the lunch box joke container....

What started as a simple plastic container with a clear lid was easily transformed with some colorful washi tape and a sticker as a label into a fun storage container.  I plan to add a magnet on the inside and stick it to the side of my refrigerator so it's easy to grab when I'm packing his lunch box at night.  I taped one edge shut to create a hinged lid for easy of opening.  

This was a fun upcycle challenge! (#chickfilamomsDIY)  It reuses an item that I'd normally throw out and serves a great purpose in my kitchen.  Plus it helps add a laugh to my son's school lunch!

What would you make out of a plastic soup container?  

 

Disclosure:  I received a sample of the chicken tortilla soup for the purposes of the upcycle challenge.  Ideas and opinions shared here are my own!

Summer of fun activites, crafts and science projects for kids

So while I shared my Summer Bucket List of places to go and things to do out and about, here is a list of things to do at home using imagination, physical activity and creativity.  Most of these activities require items most people have at home already.  My son loves crafting and science projects.  I found most of these ideas on Pinterest and one of my new favorite blogs: Tinkerlab.  

Crafts and Science projects for kids

1. Elephant toothpaste 
2. Quill pen (writing or painting)  Tie this project in with a trip to Independence Hall, Ben Franklin's home and the Liberty Bell.
3. Magic scented foaming paint (for outdoor use!!) 
4. Bubble wrapped tree 
5. Homemade paint recipes 
6. Invisible ink/painting with citrus 
7. Rainbow flowers 
8. Magic Potion Spoons 
9. Salt and ice painting 
10. Soap making experiment 
11. Homemade paint
12. Plaster casting in sand This can be done in a sandbox or at the beach!
13. Make GAK!  (or slime!)

I also have picked up a few craft kits over the past year when I saw them on sale at the craft store or Target.  We have kits for:

1. Make a pop up book
2. Make bouncy balls
3. Make a hand impression in stone
4. Create a stepping stone
5. Sand art

Go outside!

And then there are activities to do outdoors that are just plain fun:

1. Have a water balloon fight with friends
2. Use water squirters with friends
3. Make "soup" in a pail with garden finds and water
4. Bury treasure in the sand box and go digging
5. Collect lightning bugs in a jar (and then let them go)
6. Have a relay race in the yard with friends
7. "Paint" with water...the house, the driveway, the playhouse
8. Chalk up the driveway with pictures
9. Blow bubbles
10. Play in the kiddie pool or with the sprinkler
11. Freeze small toys in a container.  Release frozen cube of ice into the pool.
12. Pull weeds!
13. Ride a bike or scooter
14. Practice the hula hoop
15. Play hopscotch
16. Set up the soccer goal net and practice those kicks
17. Go for a run
18. Walk around the neighborhood
19. Fly a kite! 

I'm sure we'll come up with many other activites too, but these lists give us a start on ideas to prevent boredom!

Tomorrow I'll have a post on a kid-friendly summer reading list!

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Mad scientist and a kiwi crate

Planting a terrarium with friends

Once a week I meet up with up to two of my blogging friends to go for a power walk, usually at the local mall.  It's a great opportunity to socialize, exercise and discuss blogging things or just about anything else.  Having some supportive peers has been really beneficial to me in more than one way!  So when Hillary came up with the idea to get together to be crafty, I naturally said ok!  Her idea was to create terrariums, little indoor gardens under glass.  

Sherry knew that a local garden center, Primex, had a staff person who taught classes on terrariums, along with selling the necessary supplies.  We met there to shop and pick out potting medium, horticulture charcoal, plants and a few accessories.  It was a successful shopping trip!  Afterwards we headed back to Hillary's house to create our little gardens.  We each had brought a glass vessel. I had picked up a fancy mason jar at Homegoods a while back and decided it would make a pretty container for the plants.  We all chose to make closed terrariums, which means not only is a lid used, but the atmosphere inside the vessel is more humid and needs plants that can survive with that level of humidity.  The associate at Primex pointed out the types of plants that work well in humid climates, in particular mosses.  

We also learned that it's important to use soiless potting medium, avoiding peat.  The peat compacts too much and makes rehydration more difficult.  Adding horticultural charcoal to the medium helps retain oxygen.  While some terrariums are layered, mixing the charcoal into the potting medium is fine.  Stones do not help drainage, but can be attractive, so they are optional.  

I like the layered look, so I added a layer of gravel and stones to the bottom of my glass vessel. (photo 1.) Then the potting medium mixed with charcoal was added (Photo 2.)  We used 4 parts potting medium to one part charcoal. (Photo 3.)  My vessel was too narrow to fit all three of my plants, so I ended up only planting two. (Photo 4.)  I think that I may try to find a larger container and make a second terrarium later on with my son that may become a fairy garden.  After I was satisfied with the placement of my plants, I added some garden stones around them and misted the sides of the glass jar with a water sprayer to clean off the specks of dirt and to add moisture to the potting medium. (Photo 5.)

I found a tiny pink mushroom that I added to my terrarium.  Since it was such a tight spot, that's about all I could fit in there.  I think adding some Lego minifigs would be really cute too!

So the final results:  success!  These three crafty friends made some really pretty terrariums!  Now we  need to plan our next craft project! 

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Sunday's Bookshelf

December 2: holiday blooms

Welcome Spring craft: chalkboard flower pots

This may be the most excited I've ever been for allergy season SPRING! This winter really did me in between being stuck in the house from the Polar Vortex hell and all those snow days.  And while I realize technically it could still be cold off and on until the end of March, I am in full spring mode, ready for daffodils, tulips and flowering trees (Achoo!)

Inspired by an idea from Barb of A Life in Balance, I came up with this simple and fun spring craft.  Barbara challenged bloggers to use the tiny terra cotta flower pots in a spring craft.  

I decided to make a series of flower pots in two sizes that could be used as a centerpiece when arranged together on a tray in the middle of the table or  as a decoration in a line on the mantle or as a place marker for a spring dinner party.  I've wanted to try out chalkboard paint for a while, so this seemed like the perfect project for it.  I made chalkboard flower pots!

I purchased supplies at Michael's, Target and my basement (ok, I had a small collection of tiny flower pots already!)  I saw flower pots at Michael's and I think the dollar store might even sell them.  I was excited to find that Michael's sells small bottles of chalkboard paint for under two dollars.  I orignially had seen it by the quart at Home Depot, but didn't want that much paint.  I picked a regular acrylic paint as an accent in Robin's Egg Blue, because it just seemed very spring-like to me.  

Supplies:

• mini flower pots
• acrylic paint
• chalkboard paint
• chalk
• paint brushes or sponges
• jute twine or ribbon
• hot glue and glue gun
• small plants or soil and grass seed

How I did this craft:

I painted the flower pots first, and then added a second coat.  Since I was painting several pots, I switched my patterns with the two colors of paint for variety so the pots are not all the same.  Before using the chalkboard paint, read the instructions on the bottle for how to apply it for the best coverage and finished surface.  Using jute twine I found in the dollar bins at Target, in pink and natural brown, I added some accents to each pot. I used hot glue to secure the twine to each pot so it wouldn't slide off and simply tied the ends into a small bow.  I found a mini pinwheel at home and added that for some whimsy to one of the pots after it was planted.  I also added a little "happy Easter" sign that I had. I wrote "happy spring" on two of the pots with chalk.  

Meanwhile, I planted some grass seed to grow. (If you plan to grow seeds for your decorations, I suggest starting them in soil a week or two before you need them for the decorations.)  Initially I thought I would fill each pot with bright green grass, but then I found some teeny little flowering plants at Trader Joe's so I added them to the mix.  This was the most simple craft and adds a nice spring touch to my mantle!  If I were to use them as place markers, I would write each guest's name on the chalkboard painted part of the pot.  

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

 

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December 2: holiday blooms

Valentine's crafting on a snow day

Happy Valentine's Day!  

 

We did a bit of card making on our snow day(#7.)  I have a small collection of Valentine's stickers and foam shapes that I've picked up from the $1 bins at Target over the past two years.  They also had small packs of plain red cards for a buck.  With a few heart doilies, too, we decorated them to make our own Valentines!

 

My very crafty friend Hillary of My Scraps gave me this great idea: Valentine heart messages on my son's bedroom door.  I used a cookie cutter to trace and cut out 14 red hearts out of construction paper and I wrote a different message to my son about what we love about him.  Starting on February first, I taped one heart onto his bedroom door at night (or when I remembered!) for him to see the next day.  He liked the idea so much that he asked if he could do the same thing for us!  I helped him make some hearts and he scraweled some love messages onto his hearts and has been busy taping them to our bedroom and office doors.  It is such a sweet idea!  Thanks Hillary!

Valentine's Day has become a completely differnt holiday now that I have a child.  I think it is actually more fun!  I love how decorating for the month changes our home from Christmas and snowmen to warm hearts and hugs.  These paper heart messages might become a new tradition for February for me.  I think as my son grows older it will be a good way to comunicate happy feelings to him and show him how much we love him, in this non-verbal way.  

Hope you have a fun Valentine's Day!  

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On our seventh snow day off from school....

Tooth Fairy pillow tutorial

It took almost six and a half years, but the tooth fairy finally had a reason to visit our home this week!  In preparation, I stitched up a small tooth pillow.  My son was amused by it, but said to me, "You're really excited by this!"  We discovered that his bottom tooth was loose a week and a half ago when he was talking and I noticed that he had a tooth growing behind his baby tooth.  He didn't even realize his baby tooth was loose.  I told him he could wiggle it as much as he wanted as long as it didn't hurt.  He worked on that tooth for over a week!  He came home from school on Tuesday and announced that his tooth came out at lunch!  The lunch helper gave him a teeny purple tooth treasure chest to keep it and taped it shut so he wouldn't loose it before he got home.  He found a gold dollar coin in his tooth pillow this morning, along with a receipt from the tooth fairy and a new tooth brush, paste and flossers.  

Tooth Pillow tutorial:

Materials:

• two pieces of white felt, approximately 8" by 11"
• small piece of red felt, about 3" square
• white thread (I used embroidery/crochet thread, but regular sewing thread works too)
• sewing needle and a few pins
• pinking shears
• scissors
• small amount of fiberfill fluff
• tooth pattern (see step one below)

Directions:

1.  I started by sketching out a basic molar shaped tooth on a piece of paper, cut it out and pinned it onto the white felt.  I cut out two tooth shapes from the white felt using pinking shears.
2. With the red felt, I cut out a heart shape, using a small cookie cutter to trace the shape first.
3. Using white thread, I stitched my son's first initial on the heart.  Then I sewed the bottom of the heart onto one of the felt tooth shapes, leaving the top open to act as a small pocket.
4. I then pinned the two felt tooth shapes together with the wrong sides facing each other.  I stitched the two together with white thread using a running stitch.  I loosely stuffed the "roots" of the tooth while stitching it up and before it was completely sewed together I finished adding the fluff.  

Having the pillow with the tooth in it under his pillow made it very easy for the tooth fairy to find it in the dark!

Winter knitting: Ravellenics

I am unofficially participating in the Ravellenics over on Ravelry.  My knitting group is challenging ourselves individually, but we haven't formed an official team.  This is Baktus, a simple triangle shaped shawl/scarf.  I am using Crazy Zauberball in a the fun colorway called Blasser Schimmer, which  means pale shimmer in German.  In researching ways to knit this up using this yarn, I found a recommendation to divide the yarn ball in half by weight, then knit every two rows with alternate strands, giving this cool striped effect.  So far I love how the colorway is knitting up.  It's an easy, no think pattern.  The only thing I'm not loving is that the yarn isn't very soft.  I'm hoping a soak in some wool wash will help soften it up a bit.  This is the first time I'm knitting with Crazy Zauberball and it is fun to see what color is next, since there are no color repeats.  

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Morticia, a knitted and beaded lace shawl

Morticia, a knitted and beaded lace shawl

Back in September of 2013, one of my dear knitting friends convinced me to join her in a mystery knit along (MKAL.) The project was a lace and beaded shawl from one of her favorite knitting pattern designers, Boo-Knits.  I had knit exactly two shawls prior to this MKAL and one had been lightly beaded.  I had no idea what I agreed to do!

The goal of the mystery knit along was to knit a portion of the pattern each week as it was revealed during the month of October.  By Halloween I was to have a lovely beaded lace shawl completed.  HA!  By the end of October I had most of clue two complete.  Then I pinched a nerve in my shoulder that set off my carpal tunnel in my left had and wrist.  I had to stop knitting for over a week.  When it started feeling better, I decided to catch up on some winter knitting, like knitting a hat for me and a scarf for my son.   By the end of December, I decided to try working on the shawl again.  It took anothe three weeks or so, but I finally finished it.  It is HUGE!  I have no idea where or when I'll use it, but it is pretty.  I used Madeline Tosh lace yarn for this.  (MadTosh)

 

It takes up half of my dining room table!  The bind off was the worst part...a picot bind off of approximately 1500 stitches.  It took me about five nights of working on it for at least two hours to finish.  But, it's done and blocked and turned out better than imagined.  Details on my Ravelry page.

Mad scientist and a kiwi crate

My friend Sherry gifted my son a subscription to Kiwi Crate, a fun monthly service that sends a craft kit box monthly to our home.  Each box has two complete crafts with all needed supplies for each craft...nothing else is needed!  We started recieving the boxes just before the holidays when life was really busy, so they sat there unused for a couple of months.  Then winter hit.  What a lifesaver these crates have been!  

There is no lacking of craft supplies in this house, trust me, but these boxes have all the directions printed, step by step, in easy to understand and read for a kid!  My son loved the science kit and picked that one to do first.  It contained materials to create a mini-science lab with test tubes to see if oil and water mixed, along with some food dye for added effect.  There was even a mini bottle of vegetable oil included!  We didn't need to add anything, but we decided to add more colors than what was included in the kit, which only had blue and yellow.

 

My son liked shaking the tubes up to try to mix up the water and oil with the dye to see it emulsify.  He also liked that he can repeat this experiment again, since the test tubes are so well made and reusable.

The other craft included in this box was to make to wobbly egg shaped mad scientists.  Included with this kit was color-in stickers with magic pens---markers that were changing colors when mixed with a special "white" marker.  Also included was a super ball for the inside of one egg and moldeling clay for the other.  This led to a discussion as to which substance was more stablizing than the other.  My son had fun decorating his scientists!

My son also enjoyed a second crate that had a create-your-own theater scence in it.  He spent over an hour coloring and designing his theater set!  This is a great winter activity! We are looking forward to the next delivery of a Kiwi Crate!  Thanks Sherry!!

 

December 1: Christmas reading

Do you have a favorite Christmas or holiday book from your childhood?  I have many!  I've been collecting children's Christmas picture books forever and have amassed quite a collection that I've now passed on to my son.  Each year we pull out the books from a big box in storage to re-read favorites as well as one or two new ones that I add.  This year I am borrowing an idea from Hillary of My Scraps.  I wrapped 24 of our holiday books, one for each night leading up to Christmas.  I told my son that he gets to unwrap one book a night to read, but we can always re-read any of the opened ones throughout the month.

I purchased two rolls of wrapping paper at the dollar store and spent an evening wrapping up all the books.  I showed my son the stack tonight and explained the process. He was very excited about getting to unwrap a book each day, even though they are not new books.  Tonight he happened to pick out one of my favorites, illustrated by a favorite artist/illustrator of mine, Mary Engelbriet.

My son's only request was that we re-read this one on Christmas Eve.  Not a problem!