By Starlight

I remember as a teen I bought some glow in the dark plastic stars. My cousin and I then preceded to cover my entire ceiling with them. Jumping up off the bed to stick them, moving chairs, supporting and balancing each other as we accomplished our task. We possibly had a little too much fun and wrote the name of my high school crush in the stars. Possibly. I loved falling asleep under them watching them slowly fade into the darkness of my bedroom while I dreamed by the starlight they left, so very briefly.

I moved out of my back bedroom that had been converted from my dad's old shop room. Making way for my brother who took over the room, but still the stars stayed. He made room for my husband and I to be able to land for a bit, and I was able to show my high school sweet heart proof of my crazy crush. We moved out of that little bedroom and my next brother took hold of it, and the stars remain.

Not for any sentimental reason, mainly because it was time consuming to place them up there, and it will be just as time consuming to remove them. So the stars will keep their nightly watch in the back bedroom and the sister next inline will be able to fall asleep by starlight. 

My son has develop a fond love of "stars" it's the first shape he can recognize and he gets very excited when he finds this shape. I borrowed a metal desk from my parents, to set a fish tank, and inside the drawer was one of the glow in the dark stars. Our boy was over joyed to find that little star. My sister was gracious to give me some of her old stars that she had taken off her ceiling, maybe those stars in the back bedroom won't be there much longer after all.

I rent. I will not take the time to stick a bunch of stars up to only remove in too short a time period, no matter how few they may be. But my son needs to sleep by star light! That's when I came up with this very simple but fun idea. 

All you need is some paper lanterns, above, and some glow in the dark stars, below. Along with a hot glue gun, also below.  

First thing I did was divide the stars up evenly so that I won't end up with one of those awkward looking 30 stars on this one, and 5 on that one. And the last thing I wanted to do was try and peel the stars off, that would lead to ripped lanterns, of which I do not wanna have to pay to replace them. These lanterns were a yard sale find, I paid one buck for three.

I focused mainly on the bottom with a few on the sides and none on the top of the lanterns. They hang above the crib so you don't see the top.

I now have the best of both worlds. Glow in the dark stars to watch at night AND they will not be a huge time steal-er project to take down- nice little plus hot glue sticks a lot better then the weird gummy stuff they give you.

I know it's hard to see the stars, turns out white on white is a tricky thing to see. But I stepped into the closet with the lanterns and my son to show him what they do. The stars looked lovely in their glow-y-ness, but I'm pretty sure the kid had no idea what I was doing. "Crazy women in the closet..."

How do we measure up?

I can not wait to get a house! To have a yard for my kids to play in, not to mention to be able to get a dog- that I can send to the back yard when it's stepped on my last nerve-and to paint what ever crazy colors I want. But one thing that I really look forward to is to have a  piece door trim to mark the every changing growth of my precious children. So that the day they go to kindergarten, graduate from highschool, get married, have children- will be forever recorded. But the list of debts we have (although shrinking surprisingly fast) still stands between myself and that dream of having a house. What to do what to do, and like always Pinterest to the rescue!

I found via pinterest; Six Sisters' Stuff have a diy lovely large ruler. They have made their's very classic and clean looking. New wood and using paint for the numbers and marks. I choose to use some old barn wood- from the farm I grew up on, along with my fantastic wood burner that I bought a few months ago and am always trying to use for things.
The first thing to do when you want to make one of these (other then getting wood and figuring out how you would like to do the marks paint vs. wood burning it's your choice) is to get your hands on a normal size ruler. I used my ruler to make 1in marks that were about 1in in length. With the foot marks about 2in length wise. Use pencil first you know what they say "mesure twice, burn once."

 Then using my tool I started to bun the wood. The straight marks are pretty easy, once you add curves to the mix it becomes a little harder to keep smooth lines, tricky but not impossible.

 Below is the finished product, I was so supper excited that I wanted to go wake up my first born and have him stand to measure him... But I decided that it would be better to let sleeping children lie. Must learn patience. I do have a great family night activity now, so that's good, bad thing is we will have to wait a few more days.

To finish the project I'll simply attach a picture hanger to the back so that I can hang it on the wall, and then take it off to do the marking.
I would still love to have the house of my dreams in bright crayon box colors, but at least I now have a wonderful piece of art to track the growth of my children, no matter where we go. Bonus, I won't have to pry off door jams to take the records with me!

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/02/giant-kids-growth-chart-ruler.html

Rice and Beans, not even my beans

So my husband I recently found out about Dave Ramsey, and have jumped on the "be debt free" wagon. He's always saying to live on less then you make and to eat rice and beans. We have actually eaten alot of sandwiches and mac n cheese. There is only so much you can do with rice and beans. But I guess, less still with Mac and Cheese.
In our other town I bought beans, a bag of beans... do you realize the work that is required  to cook beans from a bag? It's a mess. So needless to say we did not eat said beans. And I have since decided that when I need beans, my beans will come from a can. But, back to the story,  when we moved I didn't keep that bag of beans. I didn't keep much of anything, I got rid of $800 worth of things at a yard sale. Things that I now wish I had kept. Like that bag of beans.
I also had a box of scrap fabric. And there was a need to get rid of some of the fabric in that box- it was beginning to leak out forming a mind of it's own. Would it stay closed this time? Or burst all it's fabric entrails all over?
What requires scraps of fabric and beans? Bean bags, my sudden desire for bean bags could not be quieted.
Expressing my desire for beans to my mom she say's "oh I have some" she then proceeds to produce four jars of beans. Not all full, my mom's not crazy. Well, thank you very much mother. Once again your lack of willingness to throw anything away has come to my rescue!
My project could now commence. Bean bags for my son to play with. All you need for this project is ...

Beans
Fabric Scraps
scissors
a template of some sort

Of course if you get easily frustrated w/ cutting then might I recommend
a cutting mat and rotary cutter?

 You will also find a sewing machine helpful, you can do it by hand but I find that method tediously slow and there for use a sewing machine.

Here's  the scrap fabric all cut out and ready to go. I made enough for 10 bean bags- my mom has enough beans to spare for my 10 little bags. My bags are 5x5 but really you can make any size you would like. I hijacked my sister's quilt square but if you get your hands on a ruler and some scrap cardboard. You can have any size you would like. The bigger the bag the more beans you will need, just keep that in mind.

Here is my adorable helper. He was handing me two different pieces of fabric. But he quickly became less adorable and more on the side of annoying. So I put the project on hold till his nap time. While the child's away the mother's can play.

***To do this project is really easy the hardest part for me was trying to fill the bags. But if you have a funnel with a big enough hole it's a breeze. I kept my funnel with the biggest hole, but it still failed to be big enough. If you have that problem, simply roll a piece of paper into a funnel shape. Be sure to tape it or you will quickly become frustrated and you feel that you need multiple hands to do such a simple project.
Placing wrong sides out and the pretty fabric towards each other, sew around the perimeter of the project, being sure to leave a big enough hole to shove the project back through and to also fill with beans. Or else you have a "bag" instead of a "bean bag" far easier to make but much less fun to play with.
Turn your project right sides out through the hole, and using something with a point push the corners out, so they resemble corners instead of round edges. Fill your bag with the beans. Then turning the edge of the hole inside. You can either sew this area shut by hand, or you can sew around the bean bag edge; you can see that's what I went with. It makes it stronger- this toy needs to last through all the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren I plan on having.

Here is one bean bag finished

And the whole set. You can make them match on both sides
But I have much more fun with different colors! 

You then can show your child what to do with bean bags (and you know you will have to, they won't know what to do with such primitive toys); stack them on your head for a race, toss them back and forth, throw them into a bucket...But you know they will just end up having the "Ultimate Bean Bag War" with their siblings. And you know you will join in on it.

Diy Blocks

***This is one of my old post from another blog****
Well, I live in a small town and rumor has it we use to have a recycling plant (rumor is it burnt down thanks to the local youth) anyways I hate to waste, and when the nearest place to recycle is an hour away (and I never get out of town) I try to get creative with they things that would normal go to the trash. And with a new baby in the house it opens up a whole new world of things to create!
So today I would like to share how to take those old random small boxes or cartons and make something new! Enjoy!
1) find some small boxes, I will be using a carton (for soymilk)

2) place one carton inside the other (you can add some objects, buttons, beans, bells- so they make noises)

3) Push them together

4) gather some tissue paper, the shiny kind, tape, packaging tape and scissors

 5) wrap like you would a present and viola!

6) make sure you tape the edges down so little fingers don't undue what you've done!

7) stack, build and destroy!

Easter Eggs

So every year at this time I have to go and find how to boil Easter eggs. Then you have the did they cook long enough feeling and not to mention the cracked eggs or the icky green. So when I was cruising on Pinterest and saw all the post about how to bake your hard boiled eggs, I decided to give it a whirl!
The post says to preheat your oven to 325-350 (depending on your oven) I went with 325. Using a cupcake pan, to keep them from rolling and to be able to get them out easier(another pinterest tip), place one egg per hole. Place in oven for 30 min, which was great! I didn't have to hover or keep checking, or wondering if it's working. Just place in and walk away. After 30 min simply pull them out of the oven and using some tongs, place the eggs into a bowl of nice ice cold water. To keep them from cooking more and make it so you can handle them sooner, rather then later. Then the fun part with your children happens :) found the nifty no spill cups, not no splash, but no spill. All the eggs turned out great and un-cracked (minus the one my son threw) My husband wasn't sure of this but I thought the baked eggs were much easier to peel!
Happy baking!