Monday, March 26, 2012

In March, I continued on my Twelve journey and got several more pages done.  Of the twelve categories I finished 7 of them and was happy with my progress.  Here are the pages I finished in March.

Things

Everyday Life

Holidays

Rituals

Places

People

Personalities

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Travel Mug Cozies

Yesterday I was feeling kinda crafty but not in the mood to scrapbook so I decided to pull out my felt, buttons, velcro and hot glue gun and make a couple of easy projects I've been wanting to do since seeing them at FamilyFun.com.

I made a Mickey Mouse and a Kermit the Frog Travel Mug Cozies.  So cute!  Since they velcro on it is easy to wash the mug and I can switch them out depending on my mood.  As I'm typing I just got an idea for a couple of others.  I'll keep you posted.


Friday, March 23, 2012

Mudroom Closet

Back in January I was reading my Better Homes and Garden magazine and I came to the last page of the issue.  it was a woman who had turned a small closet into a mini mudroom for her kids for less than $100.

I loved the idea and immediately started thinking about how I could do it in our house.  I realized that I hated our coat closet that was near the front door.  The doors always came off of the runners and it was mostly just packed with junk, while our shoes, bags, etc. were out in the family room near the garage door.

I had a vision and I was on a mission.  I would transform our average coat closet into a cute little mini mudroom.

The first thing to do was to empty the closet and figure out where to hang the out of season coats.  I found a closet in the basement that was perfect.  Then I had to remove the old wire upper shelf.  No problem.  Next was patching holes from the shelf and painting the trim and walls to match the hallway.

Once the paint was dry I needed to figure out how to make a bench.  I searched for plans on line and found a few that were pretty simple and I figure I could build it myself.  The problem was two-fold...I've never built anything from scratch before and none of the plans worked for our space and had to be modified.

I started to think about other alternatives to building a bench and realized that one was staring me right in the face.  Target has the wonderful ClosetMaid Cubeicals that hold the fabric bins.  We have several of these throughout our home.  After some measuring I knew that the 8 cube shelf when placed on it's side was a perfect bench with cubbies.

Once I figured out the bench the rest was easy.

I headed to Target and purchased the 8 cube shelf.  I also found three adorable white bins with chalkboard fronts that would be great as decor.  Then I bought a small rug (to cover the holes in the floor left by the closet door brackets) and an indoor/outdoor shoe mat that I planned to cut to fit the cubes for shoe storage.

Home Depot was my next stop.  I bought a piece of White Melamine for the upper shelf and some really cool Silver Celtic Step Brackets to hold it in place.  I then got 6 silver 3-pronged hooks for coats, bags etc., 4 Martha Stewart fabric bins for the cubbies and a piece of plywood for my bench seat.

Joann's and Michael's were the final stops for the project.  At Joann's I purchased a 47-1/2" x 16" piece of 2 inch foam for the bench seat and some fabric.  I planned to take the foam, place it on top of the plywood and wrap both with the fabric and then use a staple gun to attach the fabric to the plywood and just set the whole thing on top of the shelf.

At Michael's I found 2 really cute frames and some potted daisies (fake) for decoration.

I started the project on a Saturday morning.  Prince Charming had taken Bug-A-Boo to her French class and then was taking her to the zoo.  I figured this would be the perfect time to get this project done.  I started by hanging the upper shelf.  I knew that this would involve a lot of swearing, cursing and throwing of materials and it was probably best if I did it while Bug-A-Boo was gone.

Finally, after about an hour or so the upper shelf was hung and I was ready to put together the shelf/bench.  This took all of 15 minutes and I was cutting the rug and getting things organized.

Due to some traumatic disasters while putting up the upper shelf I waited for Prince Charming to come home and I asked him if he would hang the coat hooks.  He was happy to and then it was just about putting the finishing touches on and getting things put away.

I was able to finish the entire project in one weekend and I did it all for around $295.00.

I love how it turned out!

Completed mini mudroom

I had Bug-A-Boo write her own name on her bin.  So cute!

Tom had the idea for each of us to write our own names.  I loved it!

Cute little frames hang by a ribbon from the brackets.

My shelf/bench with cubbies.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Goin' Wild Kratts!

Bug-A-Boo is an animal lover.  In her short time on this planet she has loved learning about animals.  After Disney World her favorite place is the zoo.  The big cats are her absolute favorite.  It's funny because during our bed time routine each night she tells us 5 different jobs that she would want to do when she grows up.  They are as follows:  Zoologist, Zookeeper, Marine Biologist, Park Ranger and Veterinarian.

She recently got to meet Jack Hanna at the Columbus Zoo and was pretty excited about it, although she was to scared to get her picture with him.


I asked her if she would have been afraid to meet and get her picture if she could meet the Kratt brothers?  She said, "NO!  I love them."  Sorry Jack.

Bug-A-Boo is obsessed with the Kratt brothers and their PBS Kids show "Wild Kratts".  It is amazing to me the things that she is learning (and teaching us) about.

In case you haven't heard of the Wild Kratts here is synopsis by PBS Kids:
  
Join the adventures of Chris and Martin Kratt as they encounter incredible wild animals, combining science education with fun and adventure, while traveling to animal habitats around the globe. Each adventure explores an age-appropriate science concept central to an animal’s life and showcases a never-before-seen wildlife moment. It’s all wrapped up in engaging stories of adventure, mystery, rescue, and the Kratt brothers’ brand of laugh-out-loud-comedy that kids love.
The real-life Chris and Martin introduce each Wild Kratts episode with a live action segment that imagines what it would be like to experience a never- before-seen wildlife moment, and asks, “What if...?” The Kratt brothers transition into animation and the adventure begins, bringing early-elementary school children into the secret lives of extraordinary creatures, many of which have never been animated before – including proboscis monkeys, draco lizards and caracals!
Aided by the brilliant hi-tech inventor and scientist Aviva Corcovado and her team, the adventuring brothers can activate their Creature Power Suits to fly with peregrine falcons, tag along remora-style with a great white shark, or dive to the bottom of the sea with whales and colossal squid!
From meeting a young elephant who uses the physics of suction to bring water into her trunk, to poison arrow frogs who use chemistry as their defense, to peregrine falcons who harness the force of gravity to fly so fast, the brothers and viewers learn that animals can take you anywhere in science!
Martin Kratt, Aviva and Chris Kratt

Bug-A-Boo is such a fan of this show that she has asked for a Wild Kratt birthday party (her birthday is 6 months away).  She also has devised a game that she plays with Prince Charming almost every night.  It is so much fun watching them run around the house rescuing animals and developing Creature Powers to help them accomplish their missions.  The first time Bug-A-Boo looked at Prince Charming and said, "come on Bro, let's rescue that cheetah.   CHEETAH POWER!"  I thought I was going to pee my pants I laughed so hard.

I knew then that I needed to make her a Creature Power suit so I took to the internet for inspiration and found a lot of other kids who were obsessed too.  Using ideas from several different creative women I designed a Creature Power suit for my little Wild Kratt Kid!

front of vest

For the vest of the Creature Power suit I used black fleece and green felt (because Chris wears green and Chris is her favorite).  I cut the fleece to fit her and used a sewing machine to sew on the felt.  The black dot in the center is a piece of velcro to hold the Creature Power discs on.

back of vest

Not the straightest but Bug-A-Boo doesn't seem to care.


Creature Power suit accessories:  communicator, gloves, pouch and Creature Power discs.


For the pouch I just took a piece of fleece and made a loop to put the belt material through and bought a clip at Joann.  I found the Creature Power discs online and had them laminated and put the opposing piece of velcro on the back.


The gloves are just a pair of black gloves found in the Target Dollar Spot with hand sewn green felt.

The communicator was a little difficult to make.  First I cut an extremely thick piece of chip board.  Then I printed out the picture of Aviva, Koki and Jimmy.  I used adhesive to attach it and then covered it with a piece of transparency to make it look like a screen.  I made a pouch for the chip board out of black felt and cut a hole in the felt for the screen.  I hand sew'd the "buttons" on and then sew'd a piece of elastic so it can go around her wrist.


The finished product.  One happy Kratt Kid.


I'll keep you posted on the birthday party.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Second Month of TWELVE. (February)

In February I really got into the storytelling and scrapbooking for my class TWELVE.  Of the twelve categories I finished 9 of them and was so happy with the stories I told.  Here are the pages I finished in February.

Places

Me
Me


Seasons

Holidays

Things

Things




Everyday Life


People
People


Rituals

Fun

In addition to completing these 9 pages for the class I also finished my theme album from our California vacation in 2009 and an 8x8 album about our dearly departed furry baby, Kady.