What's up Chuck?

Hi everyone!  Happy Monday!

This weekend we ventured out to Hoboken to enjoy the lovely, sunny weather.  It felt so nice to get out, stretch our toes, and take in the last couple weeks of summer.  

We're pet-sitting.  Isn't Henry cute?

Sun-worshippers enjoying the day in Hoboken

Heart-attack on a plate....but wow... what a delicious way to go...

Have some bacon, mom!

Bicycle riding with daddy

Even Pink Pig got a chance to enjoy the day.  Can you spot her?

Hope you had a good weekend too!

Make Spin Art using Tupperware (Method 1)

One of my clearest childhood memories was attending a birthday party and getting to make spin art t-shirts.  I remember carefully dripping beads of paint onto my shirt and then watching my artwork spin around and around.  Once the spinning stopped, voila!  All my beads of paint spread out and made a lovely sun burst design.

It was magical.

For some reason this particular memory popped into my head this past weekend  I felt inspired to try making our own spin art with Chuck too.

But how would we do it?  We didn't have a spin art machine, or a salad spinner, or a lazy susan. 
I was stumped.  Luckily, clever hubby came up with two ideas to make spin art using materials that we already had at home.   

Materials:
- Tempera paint
- Tupperware
- Paper cut to fit the bottom of your Tupperware
- Yarn
- Packing tape
- Masking tape (optional)

Directions:
1.  Cut a piece of yarn.  Tie it together to make a loop.

2.  Use packing tape to attach the loop to your Tupperware.  Congratulations! You now have a human powered spin art machine.

3.  Place drops of paint into your Tupperware.  (Optional:  You could also tape your piece of paper down into the Tupperware first and then place your drops of paint inside.)

4.  Close the lid and spin your Tupperware around and around. 

 5.  Open your Tupperware to reveal your spin art design.  (We placed a piece of paper over the design to capture the paint.  Alternatively, you could have also just put the paper inside first and then add the paint.)

Really, really easy, right?  The only problem was that our design wasn't really sunburst looking. So clever hubby got to thinking and came up with another solution....

which you'll have to read about tomorrow!
(Can you guess what it is?)

Happy toddler crafting!

What's up, Chuck?

How was your weekend?  Ours flew by way too quickly. A college friend came up from Maryland to visit us.  We hung out at home on Friday and Sunday, but on Saturday I put on my non-mommy clothes and explored Manhattan with her.

Ooh la la.  I felt like I was in college again.  It was so nice having her around....
 and I miss her a whole bunch already. 

Here are some photos from our weekend:

Chuck and I attended a friend's birthday party.  As you can see, he kept the party going as we walked home.

My friend's a pretty good storyteller....

and artistic to boot.  (Can you believe that she doodled this shirt freehand with fabric markers? Whoa.)

We tried Xi'an Famous Foods' hand-pulled noodles... Yummy oxtail...

and watched a Broadway show...

 and toured Soho (which, by the way, is really just way too glamorous for me....)

I also found out that Topshop teamed up with Project CANVAS to raise funds for art programs in the city.  If you're interested in supporting art programs (and getting a pair of one-of-a-kind kicks), visit Topshop's Soho store.  Local artists will personally decorate your purchased shoes until 8/8.

Happy Monday!

Make a hockey stick hobby horse and dragon

Did I make a hobby horse from a hockey stick?

Yup.

And why stop there?  Why not make a hobby dragon too?

Rawr.

What's up Chuck?

You know that line from Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times?"

Well, this past week kind of felt like that.

We worked to fight computer failure.  But it's now official, the computer is dead.

We battled illness.  (Chuck had a cold.  Then I caught his cold... and then I caught some sort of tummy bug.  Ick. I'll spare you the details.)

And throughout the week Chuck and I engaged in some pretty epic battles of wills.  (His new favorite word is "No.")

But amidst all these tough spots, we've also shared some wonderfully sweet moments.  As Chuck gets older, he's also becoming more aware of the things and people around him.   One of his favorite things to do is copy others.   

He copies the older kids at the sprinklers

He noticed that I wore a ring, so he wanted to wear one too

He and daddy wore matching outfits to church

He saw some kangaroos on tv and wanted to have a baby kangaroo in his own "pouch" too

Pretending to be a kangaroo from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.


Life is tough, but there are also such beautifully sweet moments sprinkled throughout. 

Have a good weekend, friends.  Stay cool and we'll see you next week!

Paint a rainbow fan

So I don't know about you, but this DIY rainbow fan has been stuck in my mind.  What?  You can see primary colors mixing in front of your very eyes?  Amazing!  I felt so inspired that  I made my own version.  Here's my DIY rainbow fan:

DIY Rainbow Fan

(This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support.)

Oooh.  Circular rainbow!  I just think it's so cool that the blades are painted different combinations of red, yellow, or blue.  Yon can only see the rainbow when the fan is turned on.  Whoa, right?

Let's get crafting.

Make Grass Egg Heads and Grass Stocking Heads

This post brought to you by Miracle-Gro. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have a black thumb.

This past year I've already killed four plants.  Sad, right?  Apparently plants come to our apartment healthy and alive, and leave in garbage bags.

That's why I had basically given up on the idea of having any plant life in our apartment.   But when I heard about Miracle-Gro's The Gro Project, I felt inspired to pick up my trowel and try again.



Here are my  two small planting projects:  Grass Egg Heads and Grass Stocking Heads (which remind me of Chia pets)

Materials:
- Miracle-Gro's Moisture Control Potting Mix
- Grass seeds
- Eggs
- Knife
- Safety Pin
- Googly eyes
- Permanent marker
- Glue
- Nude stockings
- Scissors
- Spoon
- Cup

Directions for making grass egg heads:
1.  Using a safety pin, I poked a couple of holes (spaced far apart) in the bottom of my egg head.  (I'm hoping these holes will allow excess water to drain out.)  Using a knife, I gently tapped the egg where I wanted it to crack open.  (This gave me a neater break.) Then, I poured out the egg's insides.

2.  I rinsed out the eggs and set them to dry.

3.  Once they dried, I glued on googly eyes and used permanent marker to draw a smile.  (Permanent markers won't wash away with water.)

4.  Chuck and I filled the egg heads with grass seeds and soil.  Then, we watered the eggs and set them out near a sunny window.


Directions for making grass stocking heads:
1.  I wrapped a stocking around a small cup to make it easier to fill.

2.  Chuck scooped a bunch of grass seeds into the stocking.  Then, we piled on the dirt.

3.  Once the stocking was stuffed to our liking, I tied it closed and trimmed the excess material.

4.  I glued on googly eyes and drew on a mouth using permanent marker.

5.  Chuck watered the grass stocking head and we also placed it on a sunny windowsill.

Cross your fingers for us, ok? The potting soil that we chose is supposed to protect our seeds from over watering and under watering.  I'm really hoping that we'll see lots of grass sprouting so we can give them hair cuts.  (Hrrm.. a mowhawk perhaps?)


**Update-  Guess what?  They grew!  We just spritzed the little egg heads and thoroughly soaked the stocking heads in water daily.  Here's what they looked like after 2 weeks.

If you're interested in turning your thumb a bit greener, you can check out Miracle-Gro's Pinterest page for more fun garden projects.

((Many thanks to Miracle-Gro for sponsoring this post.  It's my first sponsored post and I'm really thankful for this new opportunity.))

Making a bouncy ball

Sometimes when Chuck naps (and the dishes are washed, and dinner is cooking on the stove), I get the urge to make stuff.  Yesterday I pulled out a whole bunch of strange ingredients and made this blue bouncy ball.

In case you didn't know, Chuck has now moved on from bubbles. Bubbles are  out.  Bouncy balls are in.  It's so cute, he sometimes even requests to sleep with a ball (or two) at night.  Hrmm.. I wonder what he dreams about.

To make this homemade bouncy ball, I simply combined glue, food coloring, Borax, corn starch, and warm water according to these directions.  Then, voila, a bouncy ball emerged within minutes.  (With my unkempt hair and nails, I felt very much like a mad-scientist while stirring the ingredients together... muah ha ha ha)

It wasn't quite as bouncy as the store bought ones and tended to lose its shape over time.  (But no problem, we just remolded it back into a sphere.)  Here's a video proving that it did indeed bounce:


P6125854.AVI from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.


Chuck bounced it around for a couple minutes, until... uh-oh, he went all Hulk on it and tore the poor thing it two.


P6125863 from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.

RIP bouncy ball.  (Have you tried making your own bouncy ball?  It seems like a fun activity for older kids to do.)

Kiwi Crate Review + GIVEAWAY-closed! (Yay! Free Stuff!)

Way back in April, a company called Kiwi Crate contacted me about trying out one of their crates and writing about our experience on the blog.  Of course,  I was super excited by the opportunity and jumped on it.  (Free kids' stuff?  Sure, send it my way!)  Within a couple of days, this box of goodies arrived in our mail:

Each Kiwi Crate box is filled with all the materials needed to complete 2-3 super fun, hands-on projects. The projects in each crate usually center around a certain theme (e.g., music, bugs, pirates, etc...)  Our box's theme was bugs.  It contained all the materials and detailed instructionos needed to make two bug related crafts.

Yeah, I was all set to shoot a lovely photo showing all the materials neatly lined up... but Chuck dove right in and wanted to start crafting

Wow.  Let's just say that I was super impressed by the quality and quantity of the materials.  They really do provide everything you need. (Our box even came with scissors for cutting!)  All of the materials felt really high end and nice. (No crapt here!)  Once we completed both projects, we even had plenty of leftover materials. (Cha-ching!  I've stashed those leftovers away into my craft hoard to use for other projects later... tee hee...)

They say that the crates are designed for 3-7 year olds.  Since, Chuck's not yet 2, we took things slow.  He only did one project at a time.  That was just fine by me because they were a great way to help pass long and rainy days (you know the ones I'm talking about... when you're cooped up in the house and both of you are bouncing off the walls.)

Here we are completing our first project in April (hence the hair):

He did not want to let this little bottle go...

Sticking a mini glow-stick into our bottle to make a firefly

And here we are finishing up our second project a couple of days ago: (Is it me, or does he look bigger?)

The crate provided us with everything- plate, paint, sponges, paper, and brush

Such concentration!

As you can see, we enjoyed all the pasting and painting.

You can sign up to get a buy one crate, or you can sign up to get a month-to-month subscription (where they'll send you a different crate every month, for $19.95 per month.)  If you're not too keen on spending the money, you should still peek at their website because they have a great DIY, kid crafts, and activities section, showcasing lots of great (and free!) ideas for projects.  I thumbed through the pages and definitely picked up a couple of good ideas there....

I'm amazed that there are companies like this out there for kids.  When I was young, I got a couple of mail magazine subscriptions and I remember being super excited whenever a new magazine would come in.  Can you imagine what a kid would feel like if a whole box of  goodies came for them every month?  Pretty neat, right?  So neat that I thought that this would be a great giveaway for you readers!

Yay!  My first craft giveaway!

**This giveaway is closed** GIVEAWAY GOODY and RULES:
I'm going to gift one reader a single Kiwi Crate box. To enter, simply visit Kiwi Crate's Single Crate page and leave a comment below telling me which Kiwi Crate you'd like to receive.  That's it.  The contest will close by midnight Friday, EST.  I'll announce the winner on Monday's blog post.

Sorry, this giveaway is open to US and Canadian readers only (since they don't provide shipping elsewhere.)



Good luck!  :) I'm excited that one of you will receive a lovely package of goodies.

(Don't have children?  Try out for the giveaway anyway.  You can always send it to a lovely, crafty kid that you know.)

Make a Cardboard Bunny Tissue Box Holder

With Easter just around the corner, bunnies, chicks, and carrots seem to be  popping up everywhere.  Since I had some practice crapting a whale tissue box holder, I thought I'd try making a bunny tissue holder for Easter.

Meet Pinky.  

This little rabbit is my newest cardboard animal creation.  

She's super girly and cute.

And bonus- her tail provides comforting tissues when you sneeze.

Chuck can't resist pulling on her tail...

Want to crapt your own?  Read on!

Materials:
- cardboard (not bent, in good condition)
- pencil
- exacto knife
- self healing cutting mat
- scissors
- packing tape
- ruler
- paint
- paint brushes
- Sharpie markers
- Mod Podge

Directions:
Step 1:  Measure and cut out your pieces from cardboard.  (See pdf below) You'll need:
a.  1 long rectangular piece (15 3/4 inches x 5 1/2 inches)
     - folded lengthwise every 5 1/4 inches
     - with two tiny, thin rectangular holes cut out from middle section (for ears)
     - with two rectangles cut out from each side (for feet)

b.  2 identical ear pieces (about 4 1/2 inches tall)
     - bent 1/2 inch from bottom
     - two tabs cut at bottom (tape tabs down to attach ears)

c.  1 bottom piece (5 1/4 inch x 5 1/2 inch)
     - sides will probably be trimmed down and corners rounded when you assemble pieces

d.  1 front and 1 back piece (5 1/4 inch x 5 1/4 inch)
     - rectangle cut out from bottom of both pieces (for feet)
     - circle (approx 1 1/2 inch in diameter) cut out from back piece (for tissue tail)

Bunny Tissue Holder Measurements

Step 2:  Bend the long piece into three equal 5 1/4 inch parts.  (I found that it helped if I first scored the cardboard with my ruler or scissors).

Step 3:  Carefully tape front piece in front of your bent piece  (It was easier to maneuver smaller pieces of packing tape.  Try your hardest to make sure that the tape sits right against the cardboard.)

Step 4:  Attach bottom piece with tape.  Before taping, make sure that your tissue box fits into your construction.  You may need to trim the edges of the bottom piece and round off some corners to make sure that it fits.  (Honestly, I wish I trimmed a bit more off my bottom piece.  It's still slightly too wide and it pushed the sides out in a funny way.  So, I ended up taping them down from the outside... which ruined the effect a bit... )

Step 5:   Place your tissue box into the cardboard container.  Then, attach the back piece with packing tape.  (First I taped the top of the back piece to the bent long piece.  This created a nice hinge effect and the back piece could open and close.  I could have left it like that, but with Chuck on the loose it was safer if I taped the feet portions together too.)

Step 5:  Paint your piece.  (Honestly, I liked the au natural look.  But, pink just felt more spring-y, so I went with it.) To protect the tissue tail, push a plastic bag into your hole.  Pull it out when you're done.  Don't forget to use Mod Podge to protect your paint job.

And there you have it- some bunny to hand you tissues when you need them.  (Har, har, har.... )

Freezer paper stencil "left" and "right" pants

Nowadays when things get stressful, I get a craftin'.  Last night I freezer paper stenciled a pair of Chuck's pants.

Who knew?  Apparently I have a thing for typography on clothes.

First I stamped "hello" on a pair of pants, then I stenciled a "lucky charm" shirt, and now... well... it just felt like a good time to make some "left" and "right" pants.

Hmm... whose left and whose right? . 

They were pretty easy to make because I used the same freezer paper stencil technique from before.  Here are some photos of the process:

Hrmm... what should I make next?

Stencil a St. Patrick's day shirt (using freezer paper)

Can I admit something to you?

I'm not Irish.  *Gasp*  I know!  How surprising!

I've never felt the need to celebrate St. Patrick's day.  But, strangely... now that I'm a mom I feel the need to celebrate this and every holiday with Chuck.  President's day? St. Patrick's day?  Passover?  Bring them all on.  I relish the thought of dressing him up in holiday themed gear.

And since St. Paddy's day is just around the corner, what better way to celebrate than dress him in green. So last night I donned my crafting hat and made this "lucky charm" shirt for Chuck to wear.

Not too shabby, right?  It was my first time trying out the freezer paper stenciling technique.  Isn't it surprising how nice and crisp the lines turned out?  Wow.  This is definitely a technique that I'll use in the future.

Make a Mosaic Bean Pendant

Hi everyone!

How was your weekend?   We had a pretty quiet Sunday, but our Saturday was full of fun activity.  I attended a bridal shower while hubby and Toddler Chuck visited family.  (I'll post up photos from the bridal shower later on this week.) I thought I'd start off the week with this crapty (and slightly crappy?) pendant that I made.

I think mosaics are lovely.  There's something quite special (and dare I say, possibly mathematical?) about laying pieces of varying shapes and/or colors together so that they fit a space and create a desired image or pattern.

Wanting to make a wearable mosaic of my own, I used some household materials to create this mosaic bean pendant:


Yeah.  I know what you're thinking.  Girl, that's a lot of look.  And my reply? Girl, I know.  But really, what does one wear with beans anyway?

Erm.... I'm not sure if I like the result, but I did have fun making it.  And who knows?  If you ever find yourself trapped at home with a couple of bored children, then perhaps you could whip these up for fun.

Materials:
- dried beans
- cereal box cardboard <--crap!
- craft paint
- paint brushes
- Tacky glue (I used Aleene's)
- String
- Felt
- Scissors

Anti-acne Honey and Cinnamon mask

Dear Acne,

Consider this mask my anti-Valentine.
Please don't be mine.



No love,
Leslie




Once again, I was inspired by beauty guru Michelle Phan. (To watch her video, click here.)  She made a warm mask made from honey and cinnamon that I had to try.  Apparently honey has antibacterial properties and cinnamon stops bacterial growth... so I thought this mask would help get rid of my stubborn acne.  (Boo bad skin!)

Ingredients:
- 3 T honey
- 1 T cinnamon

Directions:
1.  Mix honey and cinnamon together.

2.  Place mixture in the microwave for 20 seconds.  When warmed, it resembles melted chocolate.

3.  Use a pastry brush to paint it on your face.  (Or, just dab it on with your fingers.)  Wait 10 minutes.  (Watch out!  The mixture will drip.)  Rinse it off.  (Note:  Don't rub your face too much while you rinse. Otherwise the cinnamon scratches you quite a bit.)

Does it work?  Well, it's now been a week since I've tried the mask and sadly I haven't seen much improvement.   Boo!  However, I did enjoy trying the mask out.  It felt lovely and warm on my face, so I felt like I was having a spa experience right at home.

Have a great Monday!

Cowboy gear part 2: Cardboard tissue box cowboy hat

 Cardboard Tissue Box Cowboy Hat

And here's how you crapt a cowboy hat from cardboard...
(Directions modified from a video that I viewed here)