Handmade See Saw-Made by Me!

Guess what. 

I've been doing a little wood working...

and I'm totally digging it..

like a whole lot!

S.R. asked the hubs to build her a see saw the other day. 

I found the plans on Ana White's website, and after looking them over, I decided that I could make it....all by myself.

The hubs has been so hard at work on the half bath, I thought it would be one less thing for him to worry over, and I could try my hand at construction.

He cut all of the wood for me because pressure treated wood is so heavy. I needed his muscles to straighten the base a bit (the wood was warped) and to attach the see part of the saw(is that right??;o)), but other than that, I did it by myself. 

S.R. kept asking me if I was sure I knew what I was doing...I did because the instructions were so easy to follow. I plan on staining the wood to match the play set soon.

The kids LOVE their new toy. The neighbor kids LOVE the new toy. I LOVE that I made something that everyone LOVES! Now I'm ready to find something else to build...any suggestions?;o)

On a side note, I thought I would share the beautiful rainbow we had in our backyard the other day...I love moments like these when we can take a second to appreciate God's promises. 

I hope you all are having a great day. Try to stay cool in this heat!

LEGO Table

I have been in major build mode this week. I have stepped away from the sewing machine, and have been trying my hand at power tools. I have had so much fun, and I LOVE that my husband keeps a well stocked garage:o)

I have had this table in the attic for about two years. I purchased it from a local yard sale page for $5. It was an awkward sort of table and very dated, but when inexpensive furniture presents itself to me, I buy immediately and ask questions later...it's not always the best approach, but my approach, nonetheless;o)

A couple of nights ago, we were all in the playroom building LEGO scenes, and that's when the idea struck me that E needed a LEGO table. 

And, so it was.

This was the before..a very dated, very drab piece of furniture.

 I used a jig saw to cut out the top....very LOUD, I might add...and, no I was not wearing any ear protection.

It was a hot and humid day, so the red spray paint didn't want to dry. I had to spray a coat, and then bring it inside between coats. My house smelled delightful...NOT! If you follow along on Facebook, you got to see what red over spray will do to blonde hair. I'm happy to report that Dawn dish washing liquid stripped the paint right out of my hair, thankfully!!

I found the LEGO plate at Target for $14.99.  The plate was attached to the base of the table with liquid nails, and trimmed out with quarter round.

I'm so happy with the end result, and so is E.

 Now it's the perfect little end table.

And if you're wondering...those are marker lines on the side of the couch...it's a playroom..anything goes, or so it would seem:o)

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Mr. Sock Bunny

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Ours was a bit uneventful. Both of the kids had kind of a down weekend. E had a fever all day Saturday..have no idea why. And S.R. has had a bad cough and runny nose. We just hung out at the house all day while they tried to feel better. 

So while they were recovering, I needed something to do with my hands. 

I grabbed a pair of socks that were too big for S.R. and transformed them into a little bunny.

 An arm-less bunny, but he's still a bunny. E saw his little tail and said, "aw look, he's got a powder puff." Too cute;o)

I'm hoping to make a few more of these as soon as I find some more socks;o)...and they will have arms!!!

Happy Monday to you all!!

Little Dusters

Yesterday I stayed home from services because S.R. was sick with a cold. We had our own little Bible class and discussed this week's  memory verse. I printed out one of the coloring sheets that I linked back to, and then I decided we also needed a craft.

I read her the story of Dorcas, found in Acts 9.  We talked about how Dorcas was a helper and what it means for us to be helpers. 

For our "helper" craft, I made these little dusting mitts out of felt, and let her decorate them with googly eyes and yarn. 

I had her lay her hand on a folded sheet of felt. I used her hand as the template and just traced around it. I cut around the lines, and then stitched the two pieces together, leaving the hole at the bottom. We made one for E as well, so he wouldn't feel left out:o)

E decided he wanted to be a helper this morning, and dusted a little for me. Isn't he a sweetie?

This was a super simple and fast craft for the kids and they have really enjoyed using their dusting mitts...and I have enjoyed them as well...makes for a cleaner house;o)

If you would like to make these, and don't have a sewing machine, using tacky glue or fabric glue should do the trick as well.

Quiet Book

I finally did it! After a year and a half of wanting to make S.R. her very own quiet book, I finally made it:o) I was not coming to bed last night until the last stitch had been sewn. I was exhausted. My back ached from hunching over my machine, but I feel that it was well worth the effort! 

(the highlighter is there to cover S.R. full name...we like to keep just a tad bit of privacy;o))

This project took about 3 days from start to finish. Of course it wasn't 3 Full days, but it does take time and thought to put one of these books together.

I tried to think of S.R.'s favorite things. These pages tell you a little bit about my sweet little girl. She LOVES shoes. Every morning when she wakes up, she tracks down the first pair of shoes she sees and puts them on, whether it be her heels, or a pair of E's flip flops. When she makes her grand entrance every morning, she models her shoes. It's hysterical:o)

This spread is a representation of her bedroom. Now, the color scheme is wrong because I had ZERO pink felt:o( I wanted to do this for FREE, so I used what I had:o) To see S.R.'s room, go here.

She loves to dress herself. What little princess doesn't;o)

The words I hear out of her mouth are usually, "I gon do it."(long O sound;o))

The Wardrobe that holds all the little felt clothes for the little girl.

Doors opened.

Panties are a big thing around here b/c we are in the throws of potty training. It was so much easier with E:o/

One of the dresses.

This next spread is a Tea Party and Build an Ice Cream Cone 

The tea pot and cups are removable, so she can have a little tea party.

The ice cream is also removable. The Ice Cream bucket and toppings jar are pockets to slide the pieces in.

S.R. loves babies, and is always carrying around one. 

Now I realize that this baby is slightly frightening. Especially with the red hair...but remember, I am using what I have:o)

The spoon, green blanket and bottle are removable so she can pretend to feed and cover the baby up. The little red bowl is supposed to be baby food(rice cereal, maybe???)

Every quiet book has flowers that button on. Very straight forward. Thinking about spraying just a tad of perfume on them so that they smell:o) Not too much though.

The last page houses crayons and coloring pages. The pic didn't turn out so great, sorry.

S.R. is my little artist:o)

So that's it. My hard work paid off, at least I think it did;o)

I know that I normally do tutorials on Tuesdays, but I thought that if I showed you this book, that it might give you a few ideas so you could make your little one a quiet book of their own.

Happy Tuesday!

Baby Pool Converted to Sand Tub

First off, I want to congratulate Cayce again for being the winner of the ruffle wallet give away. Speaking of which, I have a few fabrics I purchased yesterday, and if you are interested in any of these prints, I will be making wallets and selling them for $20. All proceeds will be given to the American Red Cross for the Nashville, TN flood victims. Just shoot me an email if you are interested. If not, I'll sell them on Etsy.

Also, here's an interesting tidbit I read in the Lowes mag. the other day. Flies hate the smell of Basil. We live out in the country with the cows. And where there's cows, there are a ton of flies. So I purchased some basil and I'm looking forward to it growing big, and hopefully warding off those little pests. I'll let you know if it works:o)

Now for the actual post. I have been very interested in getting a sand table for the kids to play with. They aren't exactly cheap, though. I was ready to purchase one, got to Walmart, and they said I would have to order online and have it shipped to the store...fat chance. They saved me 70 bucks by not having it in the store. So then it hit me, I have a cheap-o baby pool, you know the kind you get from Babies R Us for $5? I decided to fill it with leveling sand...cuz it's cheap, and have a ready made sand tub. Total cost for this sand contraption: $3.50. The kids love it. And I really love it, since I saved so much money. I plan on buying one of those pool covers, the kind that are made of tarp and elastic, they're pretty cheap, so I can keep the elements out.

 The great thing about this is that it's so small, if it does rain before I get the pool cover, I can pull it under our covered patio without any trouble. So that's my tip for the weekend:o)

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I hope that you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Pottery Barn Kids Knock-Off Activity Table

 

I have been dying to share this project with you!!! The hubs and I put this puppy together(well, mostly the hubs). However, I did cut a few boards on the miter saw, pre-drilled some holes and screwed some screws in, so technically it was a team effort;o) I found the plans for this table here at Knock Off Wood. We went to Lowes and had the guys there cut all the wood to size for us. This made things A LOT easier. We used pine, and pine from Lowes isn't always the best, so you really have to dig around for wood that isn't warped, and I  would definitely take a tape measure with you. The wood isn't always the dimensions that the little tag says it is. 

 

We did things slightly different than the plans called for. The PBK drawers have a little cut-out at the top to make rolling out easier. The hubs is going to put some handles on the drawer fronts this evening. We needed to give the poly a little more time to dry.

  

  I had planned in the beginning to paint the surround and drawers black and stain the top. The staining looked terrible, so I painted it with some brown paint I had lying around. The plans also called for a raised lip on the edge of the table. We just left it flush with the table top, more out of laziness than anything else:o)

  

Now the kids don't have to go to the bathroom floor to play with their blocks, Lincoln Logs, and their train tracks...I know you're digging the Lincoln Log train town I set up for your viewing pleasure:o)

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Remember to enter the Giveaway here. You have 2 days left. You also have to be a follower of Fussy Monkey Business, but how hard is that?:o) Good Luck!!

All That and a Bag of Chips...

Anytime I start running out of ideas for crafts, I always call upon Martha to get the creative juices flowing again. The kids got a play kitchen from Santa this year, and they have really enjoyed playing with it. However, there just wasn't enough food for it. Luckily, ole Martha was thinking for me and had instructions on her website for a felt cherry pie. Super cute and super easy. She also included a link to another website where they make felt food and sell the patterns. I had so much fun making these, and the kids LOVE them. They especially love the sandwich. I had to keep reminding both of them that we "pretend" to eat it:o) I plan on making pizza and possibly a cake later on.