Category Archives: crafts

Mary Poppins Party Activities

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In order to celebrate my daughter’s 3rd birthday – Mary Poppins style – we came up with a few related activities that 3 year olds would enjoy.

First up, drawing on cardboard with chalk (relates to Bert and him drawing chalk pictures in the movie).

Next up, a Mary Poppins bean bag toss. We have used these boards for many many parties. We just take off the old pictures or glue right over them with the new themed pictures.

Third, racing around with stick horses (relates to the carousel horses and when they race in the movie).

These were a huge hit. I’m putting together a tutorial on how I made these.

Next, pin the bow tie on the penguin (come on, do I really need to tell you what part of the story this is from?)

Lastly and the biggest hit of the party, chimney play! (these are supposed to be the chimneys that the chimney sweeps pop in and out of when they sing “Chim Chimney Cha-roo.”)

We bought five large cardboard boxes and two small boxes for about $6.00. My husband then connected them all and cut holes on the top in order to give the small boxes a place to sit. In order to make the entire thing stable, he screwed 3 pieces of wood together in the shape of a “C,” and then put it at the beginning of the box and then another one at the end. The 3 pieces of wood touched three sides of the structure – the bottom space where the kids crawled through didn’t have a piece of wood. 

Traffic jam

Even the big kids got in on the action.

Caroline had a good time popping through the top of the structure yelling, “Cha-roo!”

So those were our Mary Poppins party activities – I also bought sugar cubes in hopes of doing a relay race with a “spoonful of sugar,” but decided against it at the last moment. Another activity we didn’t use a bunch of musical instruments I had gathered. I thought the kids could play in a band like the one that plays while Mary Poppins receives her prize for winning the horse race.

Altogether I spent about $60 on the entire party. I would have spent about $40 had I planned ahead and used coupons to purchase many of the items. Oh well, I like to think I do my best work at the last moment.

Soon I’ll share her cake and the decorations.

For Mary Poppins hat instruction go here.

Mary Poppins Hat

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I’m pretty sure everyone guessed from this clue that we had a Mary Poppins 3rd birthday party.

And if you have a Mary Poppins party, you have to have a Mary Poppins hat.

1 – Go to Target and buy a $1 bin Easter hat.

2- Do nothing with the hat for days since your daughter insists on doing her best Minnie Pearl impression.

3 – Confiscate the hat when she’s not looking

4 – Deny you have any knowledge of the hats whereabouts

5 – Take off pink ribbon

6 – Spray paint it black

7 – Glue on some fake cherries and flowers from the dollar store

8 – Find the hat and present to your Mary Poppins obsessed daughter.

9 – Delight in her joy of wearing the hat and singing,”Let’s Go Fly a Kite.”

I apologize ahead of time for the fact that you will now sing this all day long 🙂

Go here to see the Mary Poppins party activities

Free Downloads that I LOVE

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Wanted to let everyone know about an amazing free download going on right now over at q.a.design.

Jenna is sharing her state/country prints which she normally sells on etsy.

Kentucky

Michigan

 Illinois

I have actually not so secretly coveted these prints for a long time.

I made some copy cat ones (since she didn’t have Ontario) using canvas and paints for our office/playroom over a year ago and still love them.

From left to right the pictures are 1) of Ontario, CAN where my husband was born 2) where we live now and (3) the state I was born in.

Click here to go to the free downloadable prints from q.a. designs

 Do you see any prints for your house or to give as gifts?

Art Project with Andrew

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My six year old has been asking for months to create a piece of wall art similar to this one.

source

I have stalled and stalled on it because 1) it would take a good amount of time to complete and 2) I couldn’t quite decide what the best way to make a frame for it would be.

But the since this project was on the list I was forced to make a decision and begin.

We looked around the garage and found this old Halloween decoration which was broken.

My husband add the ears which were previously the mummy arms while old metal coat hangers became the base for the antlers and the nose.

Using a mix of half Elmer’s glue and half water, Andrew and I paper mached strips of newspaper onto the structure.

Over the course of a week we put on four separate layers.

After a trip to the craft store to choose his colors, Andrew painted his gazelle with a combination of orange, coral, black, white, and blue colors.

There was a minor debate about where this piece of art should hang. Andrew suggested my bedroom which I quickly thanked him for but declined. My thought was for it to go in his bedroom room. He quickly declined that offer. We finally settled on an area in our playroom above a doorway.

Andrew’s already talking about making a water buffalo for the living room and an elephant for his sisters’ room.

I’m thinking I’m going to have to introduce him to the idea of small sculptures.

Tuesday To Do Party

Happy Mardi Gras

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Happy Mardi Gras!

I have so many wonderful memories of Mardi Gras from growing up in New Orleans. I remember some of the costumes I wore, the ladder seats we sat in, scavenging the ground for beads, watching the St. Aug band play, and eating Popeye’s chicken.

Those memories spurred me into having our own little Mardi Gras party despite the fact that we are 600 miles from the real event.

Like most parties I host, I was planning on decorating and cleaning right up to the minute when guests walk in the front door.

This time that plan backfired on me.

Our party was set for 4:00 on a Sunday afternoon. I thought…plenty of time to cook and work on things. That’s a great plan exept that I became sick at 6:00pm the night before the party. I mean, I went down quick and was in bed by 8:15.

In came my superhero husband. He cleaned and cooked up a storm. Without him there would have been no party. I was still in bed when it was only one hour until the party and went back to bed about an hour after the party.

So, our decorations were minimal. Not my best work but it is what it is. After all, I’m pretty sure everyone was there for the crawfish pasta and king cake, anyway.

My mom sent the adorable mask along with Mardi Gras plates, napkins, and shirts for the party. The mask was placed in a flower vase filled with purple beads. I added the gold signs which read, “Let the Good Times Roll,” and the same in french,”Laissez Le Bons Temps Rouler.”

The only other decoration I put up for the party was the “Parades” sign. I actually wasn’t able to finish the sign since I got sick so the last parade, Crescent City, has a lighter coat of paint than the others.

And no I haven’t gone back to complete the sign. I got things to do.

I remember getting up early on Mardi Gras day to get to our spot on the parade route. First came Zulu and the thrill of them throwing decorated coconuts, Rex with the huge cow float, and then the truck parades, Elks and Crescent City, which each had over 120 floats in a row.

Steps in creating the sign:

1) Paint large board purple

2) Print out the names of the parades and arrange on the board.

3) Take the slip of paper with the parade name on it and turn it over. Color the letters with a white crayon (you are coloring on the back of the paper).

4) Turn the paper over so that the crayon will make contact with the board.

5) Trace the letters with a pen onto the board.

6) Lift the paper up and you will see a faint outline of the parade name.

7) Color inside the letters with paint.

Go here to see our Mardi Gras wreath.

Do you have any favorite Mardi Gras memories?

Lamp Opinions Needed…

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One of my February goals is to paint my lamps and get new lampshades for them.

This is currently how they look….

sorry for the poor pictures – still waiting to buy a good camera

The uneven lamps will be taken care of eventually with new side tables but that’s for another month.

I have 4 options for color schemes but am having trouble deciding on one.

Currently we do not have a headboard but there is one waiting to be painted in our garage. I think it will end up  black.

Here are the options:

Version 1 – green bases with white shades

(the green would be more subdued as it is in the large pillows )

Version 2 – black bases with white shades

Version 3 – white bases with burlap shades

Version 4 – black bases with burlap shades

So what do you think?

Leave me which option you think would look best in the comment section.

And PLEASE don’t tell me to get new bedding…I just made the pillows in January 🙂

Adorable Baby Items on Etsy

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I have a new nephew who was born this week.

While cruising etsy yesterday I found many adorable gift ideas for the little guy.

Have a look…

Adri’s Adorables – $6

Pepper Pony – $20

Angie Baby Gifts – $18.50

Announce it in Style – $15

Love MK Boutique – $56

Lisa Corinne Handmade -$38

Apple Blossom Print – $23

Busy Beez and Chickadeez- $15

Smc Classic Designs – $7.95

Southern Sassy Pants – $39.50

Mateo & Tobias – $15

Aren’t there some amazingly talented artists out there!

Any one of these items would make a wonderful gift.

Welcome to the world Connor Thomas!

Storybook Valentines

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While the Angry Bird Valentines I made for my boys are great, they weren’t really appropriate for my 2 year old.

So…I made Storybook Valentines.

All of her favorites characters are here.

We taped a silly band bracelet to the back of the card and called it DONE!

If you’d like a copy of these valentines,click here.

If you decide to download, please consider becoming a follower of Big D & Me.

Bedroom Pillows – It’s Love, eh

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One of my January goals was to make pillows for my bed.

My biggest hurdle for this project was the fact that I knew I had to change the sewing machine needle before I started this project. Sounds easy but to someone who had never attempted to change the needle I was terrified. I didn’t even look at the manual because I just knew it would be difficult. I bought the fabric to make these pillows way back in September so that was a lot of stalling on my part.

But guess what?

It was easy. I’m talking 10 seconds easy.

So here’s the final look…

In case you don’t know, I’m married to a Canadian and there’s quite a bit of “eh” going on around here. I kept asking him, “Doesn’t it need an exclamation point or a question mark?” My husband insisted it wasn’t necessary since, “We use eh for everything.”

Here’s the run down of the pillows:

3 Large Pillows- Annie Selke Fabric – Seema/Oxford Ivory/Raspberry

(Our bedroom wall is the same light blue/gray in these pillows)

2 white pillows  – I bought two king pillowcases – I put them on our wimpy standard pillows and wrapped the remaining fabric in the back – I will need to get the proper king sized pillows for these someday.

2 Pink Swirl Pillows – Annie Selke Fabric – Scramble Raspberry

1 “Love, eh” Burlap Pillow – burlap on front, Annie Selke on the back

I first taped off a section on the burlap and drew my words on with a sharpie.

Next, I went over my letters with black fabric paint.

After humming and hawing for awhile about the next step, I took the extra tape pieces off the sides – in other words, I made a rectangle of tape but didn’t take a picture.

I now had a perfect rectangle shape to follow when I free handed a rectangle with my white embroidery thread. I double the thread so it would be thicker throughout.

Here’s a fuzzy shot of the embroidery thread.

And the final products once again.

Now onto the bedroom lamps!

January Goals Revisited

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Setting goals by the month turned out pretty well for me. While I accomplished a lot of things on and off my list, I will admit I sometimes felt stressed by the list. There were moments when I was sitting on the couch thinking, “I really need to get up and make some pillows.” While I thought this I never actually got off of the couch to work on anything but I still thought it.

Let’s review my January Goals:

*Have a Date Night with Husband – check and check! We actually got babysitters twice during the month.

*Keep downstairs clean & ready for visitors – check! – The upstairs might have looked like a bomb went off but it didn’t matter to me. My floors were vacuumed, counters straightened, and toys were off the floor. My definition of clean would probably not be what someone else’s was but the house always felt clean enough in case someone dropped by. In other words, the mad dash panicked cleaning lady did not have to make an appearance.

*Complete Valentine Bingo game for etsy – check!

*Sew pillows for my bed – check! You will see the results soon.

*Add 20 items to my 143 Acts list – check! – #1, #2, #3 – bought bags of food for homeless at store #4 – gave unopened bottle of champagne to neighbors #5 – complimented stranger on her skirt #6 – gathered carts in grocery store lot and put them away #7 – sent email to teacher I used to work with telling her we still use the baby gift she gave us nine years later  #8 – dropped off clothing at Goodwill  #9 – sent in supplies to teacher #10 – sent in teacher wish list items #11- complimented mom at Kindermusik  #12 – told mom her daughter was well behaved #13, #14, #15, #16 – waited for a moment so could hold door open for mom coming into school with stroller  #17 – shared Angry Bird Valentines I created  #18 – returned extra grocery carts #19, #20 – complimented a mom on outfit

*Try one new recipe – check and check and check! Three new recipes in one month! Who am I? Julia Child? We tried the Bacon Cornbread Muffins, a Jambalaya recipe, and these very tasty 15 Min. Sticky Buns.

*Complete bathroom redo – check, sort of – the pictures need to be hung tonight

*Knock $100 off monthly food bill – Fail! In a huge way! – completely over budget – spent entirely too much money – remember those 2 times we went out by ourselves? We ate at mighty expensive places and indulged – add 2 girls nights out for me with expensive trips to Costco and it just spelled failure for us – hopefully we’ll do better next month.

*Scrapbook 10 pages for Caroline – check – I actually completed 19 pages so this is a huge weight lifted off my back. I kept stalling on working on Caroline’s baby book but always felt guilty since the boys have several books. Now I can proudly say Caroline has a scrapbook now and she’s already 5 months old in it. Hey, if I hadn’t started she still wouldn’t have anything so I figure this is a great start.

Alright, this wraps up a pretty good month for me in terms of accomplishing goals. While I felt some mild panic set in around January 20th , I persevered and finished many projects. Did you accomplish anything your excited about this month?