Tea Dying

I recently learned that apparently people will pay big bucks to have someone tea dye items for them. This surprised me, as I have tea dyed several different things over the years and found it to be a very simple process! All you do is make some tea....you can even use tea that is already made up, although I wouldn't want to use tea that already had sugar added...too sticky!! Then you submerge the item you want to dye in the tea until it is as dark as you want. You can use tea dying on paper to make an authentic looking treasure map (especially if you burn the edges). You can use it to turn a white fabric to a light tan/khaki color (which comes in handy if you accidentally stain a favorite shirt), or you can use it to make a brand new doily look like an antique, which is what I did!

Before

After

Stay tuned to see what I do next with this doily!

Christmas on $20: Stocking Stuffers

I have been busy working on creating (and purchasing a few) items for the kids for Christmas! I am having a great time creating their Christmas, and I think they are really going to like it!! Looks like we are also still on track to spend about $20 on John and Jessica for Christmas.

Recently I purchased 3 Care Bear figures for Jessica on ebay for $6.50 (which is a great deal if you haven't been watching the price of Care Bear figures on ebay)! Jessica loves taking a bag of figures with her when we go places. We already have: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sesame Street, Cars, and Thomas the Tank Engine.


I also made John a "taggie blankie" out of some scrap fabric and ribbon! Most babies seem to love playing with tags!


I think these will be perfect stocking stuffers along with some food items!

Christmas on $20: Part 1

Christmas is a mostly homemade affair at our house: 1) to save money but 2) we enjoy it! The real trick is in the planning. If I give myself enough time to plan and create our children's gifts, then (I think) their Christmas looks every bit as good as those of their friends (except much cheaper)! This year it looks like our total cost for Jessica and John will be $20 (maybe a bit more if David needs more wood).

First up: Jessica's American Girl-Styled Doll for $10. Jessica has been fascinated with dolls that have hair (all of hers are bald). I wanted to get her a doll about the size of the American Girl Dolls because they are so easy to find clothes patterns for, but I did NOT want to spend $95! The Springfield Doll carried by Michaels was perfect at the 50% off price of $10! It is not nearly the quality of the American Girl Doll, but it will be perfect for an almost 3 year old! If at some point we want a better quality doll, we might consider the My Generation Doll carried by Target. It retails for $35 and is supposedly a little better quality than the Springfield Doll.


Next up: John's Shakable Containers for $0. A friend of mine made some similar to these when her little girl was about 6 months old. Both her daughter and Jessica loved them! I used empty cranberry juice bottles and...


things I found in the kitchen: rock salt, oatmeal, beans, and rice,...


things I found in the craft closet: bells, sand, and star and moon confetti,...


colored water with beads, confetti, sequins, etc,...


and oil and oil & colored water!


See? It kind of looks like the surface of a lake!


Since some of these items are choking hazards, I used my husband's epoxy to secure the lids. There is no way the kids can get in those containers, unless they get access to a knife!! My friend suggested coming up with a container to keep them in. What do you think? Do you think I need a container? If so what kind of container would you suggest? I do not plan to leave these out around the house....just in case Jessica finds a knife and manages to open the containers.....it shouldn't be possible, but you can never let your guard down with Jessica around!

Rice Dying Tutorial

As promised, here is the tutorial on how I chose to dye my rice for our sand/water table. There are several different tutorials out there, but this method suited my purposes (and my quantities) just perfectly! And just being I am so pleased with the end result....another picture of the sand/water table!


First I put about 4-5 pounds of rice in a large bowl. Then I added about 1 cup of water and couple tablespoons of vinegar. Finally, I drizzled food coloring over the bowl of rice and stirred. If you are using "Easter colors," then I recommend starting with about 30 drops of food coloring. Last I dipped the rice out onto baking pans and baked them in the oven on 200 degrees Fahrenheit for a couple hours stirring once in the middle. It worked out perfectly!


Today we turned it from a rice table into a water table (because Jessica kept pouring all of the rice onto the floor...)! Still absolutely darling!


By the way, I added a bit of vinegar to the water to help keep the water from getting gross (as I can't empty it by myself right now in my very pregnant state). I am trying to make sure that everything that goes into the sand/water table is safe for consumption....as you never know what my child is going to try next!! Sorry I did not get a picture of Jessica playing in the water table; however, as I am sure you can imagine, she was completely soaked!!! We are going to have a lot of fun this summer!!

"His Name Is John."

This is a picture of part of Jessica's room shortly before she was born.


Once John is on a good sleeping schedule, he will be sharing that room with Jessica. Since the room was already appropriate for a boy or a girl, baby or young child, there has been very little to do to get that room ready for a second occupant! However, I am adding a few small touches to make it seem like the room belongs to more than just Jessica. I changed the pink changing pad out with the blue one, set out a stuffed bear specifically for John, and got Jessica situated in her toddler bed (well....actually it appears that she has decided on her own to move to the bottom bunk).


Last night I made plaque with John's name in Hebrew and English with the meaning and Bible verses it comes from to match everyone else's.


I only have one more thing left to do to their room, and then I will be completely done with that portion of the preparations!

Cute T-Shirts!

Well, after the success of last night's iron-on transfers onesies, I decided to make more tonight using some t-shirts! The first one is for me using one of my maternity shirts! It says, "I'm so crafty, I make people!" How cute is that?


These next two are kimono-styled shirts Jessica wore in the hospital that I dressed up with some Veggie Tales pocket logos!


Finally, I started working on Jessica's Big Sister t-shirt. I definitely plan to do a little embellishing later...so check back later to see the final product! It says "Don't let this shirt fool you... I'm a... dirt digging, truck pushing, furniture climbing, rough and tumble playing Big Sister." I think it suits her just perfectly!!

Cute Onesies!

Well, our family has fallen into a better rhythm in which to function over the next week or so while my back is still out of commission, and I am truly thankful that I have only had one case of stage one melanoma and 3 pre-cancerous spots. While it does come with its frustrations, it could be much worse! Over the weekend, I was finally able to finish personalizing some newborn onesies for John with iron-on transfers! I love to sew and do other crafty things because it is one of the few things I do during the day that is not quickly undone!! Below are some pictures of the onesies I made for John.


You will notice that all of these shirts have non-sexual themes. (Apparently, sexual themes are very popular on baby boy shirts: Chick Magnet, Stud Muffin, Boob Man, etc.) I also tried to select neutral themes. They were very easy to make using a word processing program and clip art I found on the internet. The onesies were Jessica's when she was a baby; however, I bought a 0-3 months package of 5 white onesies at JoAnn's the other day for $5 using a 50% off coupon!! That is a little over $1 a shirt. You really can't beat that unless you made them yourself from an old t-shirt! Stay tuned! There are more fun projects to come, hopefully later this week!