Pinterest Friday

We had a busy week this week!  Yoga on Monday, Library on Tuesday, visiting with sister-in-law on Wednesday, Library again on Thursday, walking with my mommy group on Friday.  Okay, okay, I know it doesn't sound busy for everyone, but it was for us!  After Olive goes to bed is my Pinterest time, so here's some of the fun things I pinned this week (as well as pictures of the ones we did!).

Click on the captions of the pictures of the pins to link to the original Pinterest pin.

Original Pin:  Painting a fence with water

Here's how it went for us:

Wash on, wash off!

"I wonder if the water at the bottom of the bucket is different than the water at the top?  Hmmmm?" 

Watching the water drip from the brushes.  

"I'm pretty sure Dada's bike needs painting."

Of course, we HAVE to put it in our mouth!


Here are some of the other awesome things I pinned from Pinterest this week.  Remember, just click on the captions if you want to pin them yourselves!

DIY Number Rings

 Funny Baby Quotes

Felt Christmas Tree

See-through bird feeder / nest

Tin Can Xylophone


That's all for this week.  I hope everyone has a pinteresting weekend!  Happy Veterans Day! :)

Sensory Play - The Cheap Way

As a teacher in my pre-mommy life, I became an expert out of making a lot out of a little.  With budget cuts and oversized classrooms, it became a challenge to do everything I wanted to do in the classroom without dipping too far into my personal bank account.  Like most teachers, I became a hoarder of things that, "Hmmmm, that looks interesting, I think I could find a way to use that later".  And you know what, I always did!  When free and super inexpensive things came along, you took them first and thought about how you'd use them later.
Now that I'm a full time mom, I still have that "teacher-hoarder" in me and honestly, I'm not ashamed to admit it!  I am starting to do a lot more sensory play with my 17 month old and I'm really working hard to keep everything cheap, cheap, cheap.  One way I do that is by shopping at my local Creative Reuse Depot.  Essentially, it's a store that has a bunch of leftovers, scraps, misprints, bits and pieces, and anything else that might otherwise be considered trash, but not to this frugal mom!  Here's what I bought on my last shopping trip where I spent a total of $9.50:

Most people might look at this and see trash, but I see sensory gold!  Old pill containers? Poke holes in the top, stick smelly things inside for a smelly fun experience.  Protein powder scoops? Scoopers for rice and water buckets.  Green and black tubes?  Screw to a piece of plywood and you have a fun water tube board.  Balloons ($0.02 a piece, by the way!)?  Fill with different liquids and foods and you have a touchy-feely texture experience.  Carpet and tile samples?  Well, those are just fun for a 17 month old to feel.   I haven't decided how I'm going to use the shower rod rings yet, but I'm thinking!

The best part about sensory play is that most people already have the items they need at home.  I went out and bought these items, but I bet most people would already have many of them.  All you have to do is spend a little time collecting.  My family members are starting to get in on the program, too.  When they go to throw something out, they'll usually come up to me first and ask, "Can you use this?"  (I'll usually say yes, even if I haven't really thought of a way to use it, because I know I will later!)

Are you interested in doing sensory play, the cheap way, too?  Here's a list of items that you might think twice about throwing away next time (or course, make sure you clean everything really well):

• Styrofoam trays (the kind with meat on them) - great to hold paint
• glass jars (like from applesauce, olives, etc.)
• plastic bottles
• old face makeup compacts with mirrors
• old blush brushes
• empty diaper boxes
• tin cans
• toilet paper and paper towel rolls
• plastic lidded lunch meat containers
• extra buttons that come with new clothes
• the baggies that those extra buttons come in
• egg cartons
• old magazines
• wine bottle corks
• yogurt/sour cream containers
• empty cleaning product spray bottles
• empty vitamin bottles
• empty oatmeal canister
• paint chip samples (free from hardware store)
• infant Tylenol/ibuprofen bottles with eyedroppers
• plastic diaper wipe containers with snap shut lid
• I'll expand this list as I think of more....If you have any ideas, leave a comment and I'll add it! :)

Trolling the Internet and some of my favorite blogs, I've found some great ideas to do sensory play REALLY inexpensively, using things you probably already have at home.  Click on the picture captions to take you to the original blog, post, or site!

Homemade Lightbox 

Smelling Cards

Tin Can Xylophone

Homemade Playdough

Clean Mud

Water Balloon Bathtime

Cave of Stars

If you find any other great, cheap sensory ideas, let me know!  And I'll be sure to add to this list as I find more ideas.  Have a sensorific day!

Let's All Go to the...Library!...

...and rent ourselves a book! :)

We have about 10 great libraries in our city and up until today, I haven't taken my 17 month old to one of them yet.  In fact, before today, it's been about 4 years since I've visited the library, which is pretty sad.  My daughter loves to look at books and have them read to her.  We have about 30 books and although she's not bored with them, I'm starting to get a little tired of the same ol', same ol'.  I can't afford to buy much right now, books included, so the library is going to become our new favorite place.
But we all know you can check out books at the library.  The really fun part is...We went to our city's main library today and...Olive was able to get her OWN library card!  That's right, a 17 month old can have a library card under their own name.  Olive didn't get it, but I was super excited!

She thinks that it's something to chew on.  How original, Olive... :)

Or perhaps it's a toejam remover?

Our experience at the library today went as follows: Olive running around pulling books off the shelf.  Mama running after putting the books back on the shelf.  Mama trying to look at the books and pick out some good ones.  Olive pulling out more books and running away.

Okay, so she's still too little to "get it", but I'm so glad we went.  I'm planning on going once a week with her.  At our libraries, we can check out 25 books and keep them for 3 weeks.  Pretty awesome, huh?  The first day you can only check out 2 books, though.  Here's what we got:

She pulled the cat book off the shelf and said, "Ti tat! Ti tat", so we had to get it.  I picked the other book because it was one we just saw at the science museum we went to this past weekend.  (By the way, "Desser the Best Ever Cat" is the cutest book!  Check it out!)

I'm loved our trip to the library today.  It makes me feel good as a mom to expose my child to an awesome, educational, and free resource in our community.  Until next time, we'll see you at the library! :)

Water Play

Winter is fast approaching.  Even though I live in an area that doesn't experience true seasons, the number of warm sunny days will be starting to lessen.  I want to take advantage of those sunny, warm days before they are few and far between!  We had one of those such days recently and I had the idea to do some water play.  It's such a simple activity and I'm certainly not the first one to have thought of it.  But, we had such fun, I thought I'd share it with you!

Materials you need:  Large plastic bin, things from the kitchen - sponges, funnels, cups, watering cans, etc., and water.

Olive especially loved the sponges.  Here she is "picking up" water and letting it drip out of the sponges.

As always, she had to taste it.  I swear, it's as though she has no other senses sometimes and the only way to get to know something is by putting it in her mouth!  Let's just say she got her day's worth of liquid during this activity! :)

Pouring water into a cup.

Splash, splash, splash!  I like how the kitty watering can is looking at me like, "This is fun!   I like playing with the human child!"

My daughter (17 months) was definitely most interested in the sponges.  I think that for the next sunny day, I throw in some more sponges.  We also spent a little time "bathing" the kitty.  Olive thought it would be funny to bathe Mama, too.  :)  She entertained herself for at least 30 minutes, which I'm pretty sure is some kind of record.  I think next time I'll add some fabric pieces, tubes, and maybe some water balloons.  Looking forward to the next sunny day!

Pinterest Friday

Well, I haven't really had access to my computer all week because our power cord stopped working.  We had to order a new one and just got it in the mail today, so now I'm good to go!  What did that mean for me?  I realized how amazingly obsessed I am with the computer.  I found myself having withdrawals - that can't be good!
Computer issues aside, here's what I did from Pinterest this week.  Click on the picture caption to link to the original pin.
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Original Pin: Homemade Laundry Soap

I love this laundry soap!  It's amazing.  It's better for the environment, uses way less material, and is much, much cheaper than store-bought laundry soap.  I've made it two times now - just made my second batch tonight.  (I use it with my homemade dryer sheets!) I don't have any pictures of me making it because the blogger who did it originally did a great job of explaining and taking pictures.  Here's the link to her blog so you can have the recipe, too!  (It doesn't look like her blog is being updated anymore, but I want to make sure she gets credit.)

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Original Pin: Sensory Balloons

This idea came from the blog Play at Home Mom, a blog that I absolutely LOVE and gets tons of ideas from.  The moms who post on the blog are amazing and deserve all the credit.  Okay, all praise aside, I did this with my 17 month old today and she really enjoyed it.  Play at Home Mom did this with a 3 year old and has some great ideas for that age (I love how this activity can span many ages).  Working with a 17 month old is a little different.  Here's how it turned out for us:

Our balloon fillings -->
Top Row: avocado pieces, garbanzo beans, ketchup, couscous
Bottom Row: candy fruit belts, dry wagon wheel pasta, syrup, grapes
A note about the fillings..... The avocado and garbanzo beans had both gone bad and were going to get thrown away.    I say, why waste?  If you can't eat it, put it in a balloon and squeeze it! :)

Picking up the first balloon.  "Ooooohhh".

She had to feel all the balloons at least once and then went back twice to the ones she really liked.

It wouldn't be a normal activity in our house if it didn't go in her mouth.  Of course, she had to bite it.  

The ketchup and syrup were both cold from the fridge and she liked feeling the coldness on her head.

Squishing it down...Oh geez, please don't pop!

Listening to the sound of the wagon wheel pasta balloon.  

I squeezed the avocado balloon so she could see inside a little.  I wouldn't recommend this unless you have short nails.    The balloon popped seconds later. :(

Squeezing the wagon wheel pasta balloon to show her the shape inside.

I loved this sensory activity.  More importantly, Olive loved it, too.  If you're worried about the mess that might be created if a balloon pops, fill it with things that won't make as much of a mess such as:  fuzzy craft poms, any small shell dry pasta, cotton balls, water, dried beans, etc.  Have fun finding different textures for your little one to play with!

Pinterest Friday

Yay! It's Pinterest Friday again!  I actually managed to get a bunch of things done this week that I found on Pinterest.  Then again, I forced myself to stay away from Pinterest itself!  (I usually am on Pinterest from the time Olive goes to bed until the time I go to bed, which is often entirely too late!)  I really can get a lot of stuff done when I get off the darn computer!

Click on the picture caption to link to the original Pinterest Pin:

Homemade Dryer Sheets

This is actually the second time I've done this.  I just took pictures this time!  I love this because: 1) It's economical - Disposable dryer sheets are so expensive and are, well, disposable and 2) It's eco-friendly - they can be reused forever.  Plus, they are a cinch to make.  Here's how:

Step 1: Gather your materials: fabric squares, bowl, liquid fabric softener.  

Fabric squares:  I took a couple of my daughter's old receiving blankets and cut them into squares (about washcloth size).   As you can see, it's a pretty rough cut and they are already fraying.  In retrospect, washcloths would have been a better choice and you can find packs of them pretty cheap at the Dollar Store.  Other choices could be dishcloths, cloth diapers, burp cloths, etc.

Step 2:  Put a few cloths into the bowl and pour some fabric softener inside. Squeeze the fabric to make sure that it is fully saturated.

Step 3:  Place wet, rung out fabric in a container and set aside.  Continue soaking and ringing out the rest of your fabric squares.

Step 4:  Hang your fabric squares to air dry.  

Step 5:  When your homemade dryer sheets are completely dry, fold in half and place in a lidded container.  I have two containers, one for NEW dryer sheets and one for USED dryer sheets.  As I use the dryer sheets, they get place in the USED container.

NOTE:  The dryer sheets I made last about 2 dryer loads, because they are pretty thin fabric.  If you used a thicker fabric, such as a washcloth, I would imagine it would last about 6 loads, a cloth diaper about 20 loads.  If you're not sure, just smell the dryer sheet after each use.  When it starts to lose it's fabric softener smell, it's time to put in the USED box.

When all your dryer sheets are in the used box, make them again - soak, wring, dry, ready!  This is the second time making them for me.  I plan to do it one more time and then throw them in the washing machine and dryer to refresh them a little before I remake them.  Also, I use these dryer sheets with my homemade laundry soap, which I'll post about the next time I make it!

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Unfortunately, I didn't get around to taking pictures of everything else I did this week, but here are some of the other pins that I managed to complete this week.  Click on the picture captions to link to the original pin from Pinterest.

Sensory Smelling Cards

Puff Ball Push-In

Colored Ice for Bathtime

Melting Crayons into New Shapes

I hope you have a pinteresting Friday and have fun pinning!

Mobile Craft Cart

My family is currently living with my mom and stepdad in their house for financial reasons.  That means that there are 4 adults, 1 toddler, 4 cats, and 1 dog in a 3 bedroom (plus office) home.  Needless to say, space is limited.   My dream is to have a room of my own wear I can craft in and do art activities with my daughter.  Since that's not possible right now, I'm finding ways to improvise.  Since I've become a stay-at-home-mom, my craft/art supplies have been growing with no space to put them!  I have two plastic 3-drawer thingies, but that's just not enough.  So...

My husband came home with this the other day from work.

It was $23 on clearance down from $125.  It was a deal he couldn't pass up (this is not the first "deal" he's come home with!).  He said, "I thought you could use it for your crafting."  I love him, and I loved that idea, but this cart, which looks like it was meant to be a janitorial cart, needed some sprucing up.  Here's what I did with a $5 roll of contact paper from Target.

Better, right?  I like it.  I makes me happy to look at!  I love how you can take a simple product like contact paper and really transform something.

Here's my cart loaded up:

The bottom has a mix of my stuff (sewing, spray paint, current crafts) and some of Olive's things.

The top is all Olive: fine motor skills activities in the tub, chalk, crayons, paper, etc.

I got this roll of paper at Ikea awhile back for super cheap.  I decided to use some yarn to attach it to the handle of the cart.  Now I can easily rip off a piece when Olive wants to color!

I love my new cart!  It works perfect for me.  No, it's not a plush craft/art room with bright windows and big table in the middle and shelving all along the walls.  But it will be one day!  For now, I'm going to push my cart into the living room and do some coloring with my daughter!