People Magnets

I'm a level 2 craft hoarder.

What this means is that I keep things I could reuse or "recycle" to make something new, and I tell myself that I'm saving the environment by doing so. Things I have hoarded with intent to craft later on: glass jars (homemade soy candles?), magazines (photo collages! Which I actually did use in my classroom once), pillow stuffing (for new throw pillows, duh), and those magnets that you get in the mail with your local pizza place's phone number.

What separates me from a level 1 craft hoarder is that I NEVER save cardboard tubes from toilet paper or paper towels.

I just had a thought that if I died, what would happen to all my closet of craft supplies? Let this blog post act as an official legal document stating that in the event of my death, I hereby leave my craft estate to a local art teacher.

Poor Kennedy. Even in my death, he can't throw out my hoarded craft supplies.

GOOD NEWS! I found something to do with all those pizza magnets I've been saving for years ( I can't believe they survived the move), as well as this year's Christmas cards that I can't seem to throw away.

PEOPLE MAGNETS

(DIY personalized magnets)

This project was FREE TO ME! I used some of that spray adhesive and mod podge left over from my Super Cheap DIY Pop Art project.

I gathered Christmas cards from family members that Campbell knows. He's obsessed with faces lately. Not in a Silence of the Lambs kind of way, but I mean he likes looking at people's faces. Quit associating my sweet baby boy with a serial killer.

Christmas cards

Here's my magnet stash!

I cut out the pictures from the Christmas cards and also cut out a matching magnet piece for each picture. Then I laid them all out (pictures are face down, magnets face up) and gave them a light spray with my spray adhesive.

Side note: Is it still important to keep magnets away from computers and electronic devices? I'm not super-vigilant about it, but am I the only one who is still a little worried that all my data will get erased if my phone is next to a magnet?

Stick the picture to the magnet and give the picture side a coat of mod podge.

Put the magnets up in an aesthetically pleasing and visually balanced arrangement.

What will you make with your hoarded pizza magnets? If your picture is up on my dishwasher, you best be leavin' a comment.

Super Cheap DIY Pop Art

Our office is a wreck, and it's time to give it some attention! So this weekend, I whipped up a cheap art project (totaling about $25.00) to fill one huge wall. The possibilities are endless with this project! Enjoy!

SUPER CHEAP DIY OFFICE ART

Materials:

• 1 Large sheet of insulation foam (Can be found at Lowe's or Home Depot)
• Mod Podge
• Spray adhesive (optional)
• Acrylic paint and paint brushes
• Engineering prints from Staples (or other printing center)

Pre-step:

You're going to want a background of some sort for your art. Thanks to Pinterest for the idea of making large (cheap) B&W prints at Staples! I uploaded 3 images to their print center website and placed my order. They emailed me when they were ready and I picked them up/paid in-store.

The images I used were 2 scanned pages from a Spanish-English dictionary and a scanned page from a 1993 Wall Street Journal. (Why do we have a Wall Street Journal from 1993, you ask? BECAUSE I WAS ON THE COVER, that's why. But I used the business section because it was more office-y.)

I saved them as PDF and sized them in photoshop to be 24 inches x 36 inches (the size of print I was ordering.) 

1. Cut your insulation foam to size.

I got an 8ft x 4ft sheet of insulating foam from Lowe's. It was about 1 inch thick. My options at this particular Lowe's were limited, but I know I've seen insulating foam at Home Depot that wasn't as thick (and therefore cheaper.) My sheet was $13.00, but I only used half of it.

The other cool thing is they cut it for me at Lowe's on their giant saw. It made the cuts really smooth, and I could fit it in the car. But I did have to cut it more when I got home, so I just used a T-ruler (is that the technical name?) and a non-serrated steak knife.

This is the hardest step, because you want to get the cut as straight as possible. The foam could break in a weird way, and then your edges aren't as smooth. So I scored the foam several times and got about half-way through the thickness of the foam, then applied pressure along the score line using the edge of our kitchen table.

2. Use spray adhesive or Mod Podge to attach the print to the insulating foam. I made sure the printed side of the foam was face down, just in case the print wasn't thick enough to hide a big blue "LOWE'S" logo.

Velociraptor hand

Cons of using spray adhesive: Aerosol sprays tend to make the foam disintegrate. There were a couple of little divots in my foam, but I side-stepped this by making sure I kept my spray adhesive about a foot away from the foam. It was also very fume-y, but didn't work as well outside because it was cold. So, Mod Podge might be the way to go.

Cons of using Mod Podge to attach the print: Your print will wrinkle up a little when you use the Mod Podge, but if you're careful, you can just smooth it out.

A couple of the prints after mounting. My prints were slightly larger than the foam, so I had to trim it off. You could also wrap it around the edges of the foam, which would make a nice canvas look. I just didn't have enough width to do that.

3. Sketch your art out with a pencil, then fill in with acrylic paint.

4. Finish the art off by applying a layer of Mod Podge all over the top and sides.

To hang, I used 3M command strips. This art is like less than 1 lb each, so they're pretty secure up there!

So I basically got 3 2ft x 3ft pieces of art for under $25.00. Total time spent making it was maybe 2 hours. MAYBE.

I love this idea because it's cheap, and easily customizable. You can scan and upload ANYTHING for your prints, and then paint right over it. I'm thinking a giant B&W pic of a dog's face with a wig or sunglasses painted on it could be kind of cute...

I entered this craft in a contest! 

Making the Most of Your Kid's Toys: Phase 1

Umm, hello Rude Awakening. Nice to meet you. Thanks for coming in the form of a TOY EXPLOSION in my house.

We have a two-fold problem here.

Problem #1: We have kids books/toys/clothes EVERYWHERE. In every room. I literally have no space on my bedside table because it is full of stuff like baby socks and baby monitors and books.

We temporarily turned our dining room into a playroom for Campbell's birthday party 3 WEEKS AGO. We've been playing in there every day, but it usually looks like this now:

I'm getting a headache just looking at it.

Problem #2: Many of his toys are not getting used and are taking up space. Plus, he isn't spending any significant amount of time on one activity. I realize he's only 1, and baby-children tend to have short attention spans, but I have been doing some rogue research lately. 

I noticed that when I clean up every other toy and only put one out, he actually plays with it! Amazing discovery. Did any of you parents already know this? And you didn't tell me?

Campbell got so many great gifts at Christmas and his birthday, and I really hate for them to go to waste because I haven't taken the time to organize it for him. I also think it will be easier for him to focus on one activity at a time, and help him (and me) to not feel so overwhelmed with choices.

So today during his nap, I am implementing phase 1 of my Toy Organization Project. My end goal is to be able to easily plan semi-structured activities for him during the day so we can avoid the rut of playing in a junk room.

I had a few of these milk crates in the garage from my teaching days, and they are perfect for organizing. You can find them at Wal-mart (ugh, I know) and probably Target. Or use what you have!

Here's how I've organized the random toys I found on the main level of our house:

1. Wheels and balls (stop laughing. Get your mind out of the gutter.)

2. Music/Noise box

3. Puzzles and blocks

4: "Imagination" box - (This sounds really exciting but it's basically all the miscellaneous toys he had left over.)

5. Books

Feels so good to have these sorted! I'll keep you posted on how well it stays that way and works for a more intentional play time. 

Next phase: "Lesson" planning!

Organizing the Blog

I've decided to organize my blog.

I don't think there's much more to say on that subject, but bear with me! I'm adding a few new things to help me stay organized, which are currently empty. (i.e. A few of the new links across the top of the page.)

My hope is that the blog will be easier to navigate once I finish., but I also think this is gonna take some time. I've been blogging here since 2009! (!!!!)

Wish me luck! Or don't. The choice is yours.

Mompetition: A Mother's Prayer

Something has been on my mind for a while now, and I actually came across a couple of good blog posts on the subject that I've linked to at the bottom.

The subject is: Mom competition, or as I have decided to call it, "Mompetition." (Seriously, these things just come to me. It's a gift.)

Luckily, in the year + a couple of a weeks that I've been a mom, I haven't encountered much mompetition. But I know it's inevitable. Maybe more so when Campbell starts going to daycare or school, but I'm sure it's coming.

Campbell @ 8 months

If you're not sure what I mean, I'm referring to competitiveness between mothers who want to be the best mother in the world. These are well-meaning mothers who feel the need to constantly defend and/or brag about their parenting decisions as if it is the only way to parent.

It's easy to compare yourself to others, and completely natural. I do it all the time, but I make it a point to never feel like I'm not a good enough mom or that I don't love Campbell as much as some other mom  loves her child. It's a lie that moms tell themselves! I don't want to be a part of it. And I hope I never make another mom feel like she is 'less than' because she doesn't do what I'm doing. I DO hope that when I share the way I do something, that it is in some way helpful to someone.

It reminds me of a story that Kennedy's grandmother told a while back. I can't remember if I was still pregnant or if Campbell was a newborn, but I was so thankful to have heard it before I was too far into the mothering game. And details might be off but I think I'm telling the overall gist of it.

She said that one of her children was being particularly challenging one day. They were uncooperative, defiant and head-strong. She told us that she started to pray for her kid's attitude to change and then stopped. She said at that moment she realized that she needed to change her prayer. So she began to pray that she would be the best mother for that particular child.

It makes me want to cry. I think going into motherhood, I assumed that I would completely influence who Campbell would grow up to be. Her story made me realize that he is already who he's going to be.  My prayer should be that I could be the mother that he needs me to be.

This guy.

I share that story for two reasons: 1) It's a beautiful story. And 2) As long as you are looking out for your child's best interest, you can't be a bad mom. You will make mistakes of course, but every child is unique, and needs a mother that is THE BEST MOM for him or her. Not the best mom in the world.

What a load off!

I'm so thankful that I have amazing examples of motherhood in my life. My own mom, my grandmothers, my mother-in-law, Kennedy's grandmother, aunts, cousins, etc. And I'm excited to learn from the new moms in my life as well!

MOMS UNITE!

Further sentiments on "mompetition":

Elle Apparel Blog - "On Mommyhood"

Harper's Happenings - "Ramblings on parenting, and I do mean ramblings"