Wooden Peg Dolls and House

I'm going to try to play some quick catch up. I made this in August for my daughters birthday and I posted it on my family blog, but I thought I would include it here as well. The house is a CD tower that was purchased at JoAnns as well as all of the wooden pieces that I used to make the furniture. I really would have liked to have done more with this, but I ran out of time. If I were to do another one of these I think I would use spray paint on some of the items to save on time and I would use paint pens for the smaller details. Overall a really fun project. Inspiration and some guidlines here and here.

XO

Maren

Picnic Table

This is my first wood project ever. Actually, it's really the first time I've ever wielded a saw or a drill. So while it's not perfect, it's not a half bad attempt at teaching myself basic carpentry with the fabulous instructions by Anna at Knock off Wood.

The process:
I didn't buy the super cheap wood. It all looked warped to begin with, so I bought the whiteboard. I figured I needed all the help I could since I've never made anything before. All together, screws and everything, I think I spent $30.

I didn't have access to a good electric saw. Well, I guess I could have paid a neighbor do it for me, but I kind of wanted to "own" this first project, cutting and all. I did all of this with a hand saw and a miter box and/or a make shift "miter box imitation" for the boards that didn't fit. I don't suggest doing either of these things. It was virtually impossible to get a square, level cut. At first glance it all seemed to be just dandy, but when I started putting everything together, it was not fantastic. I had to do quite a bit of sanding to make up for my less than perfect cuts to get the legs to sit level on the ground.

I did have fun with my 2 year old.
He enjoyed watching and "helping" me make it.
I love that he knows that mommy made it and not daddy.

When I got to the last two seat boards, I forgot to pre-drill the hole. I hit a knot and busted the support. I was SO angry. So very, very angry. I cried, and yelled. Maybe even cursed. I ended up having to unscrew and pry off the support board and re-do that side. It worked out in the end, but what a pain.

Here's the complete table with the first coat of paint (goblin green...my husband used it for a Warhammer table top, and there was a lot left over, so I figured, why not?). I will do a second coat when it cools off a smidgen. I only did the first coat so I could put it outside and reclaim my kitchen (It was in there for over a month). 107* with 50% humidity is just not ideal for working outside! It's been above 90* at night, so I don't even want to do it then. Blech. This is the time I hate living in TX.






And here are a few videos of my 1 year old enjoying the table.

July Challenges

Seasonal: 4th of July

Yes, yes. It's a bit late to do anything too intricately crafty for the 4th, but it will be here archived for next year if you're interested.

Lots of fun and easy 4th of July crafts to do with kids by No Time for Flashcards



Wooden Liberty Wall art by Knock-off Wood


Self/House: Chore & Routine Charts
Lots of ideas at Tip Junkie and even more ideas from Tip Junkie
Morning routine chart by Living Locurto
And though it's summertime, I wanted to include the after school routine chart to have it in the same place...


Kids: Road trip survival

Kid's travel pillow by Maya Made



Neck pillow by Make it and Love it



Travel bag with car games and item list for an enjoyable road trip by Prepared NOT Scared!




Recipe Recommendation: The Best Buttermilk Banana Bread by Mel's Kitchen Cafe


This stuff is seriously yummy. I've done it with wheat flour, half wheat flour, reduced sugar, and with some applesauce subbing for some of the banana when I only had one brown one, and all of the variations have turned out delicious.

If you want it to be extra yummy, instead of flouring the pan, dust it with sugar. Matt said it made it way better and I agree!

Works in progress.

I have all the wood cut for the picnic table. I've done everything myself so far with my one little miter box and hand saw. I feel good about what I've done. Now I just have to sand and assemble. I had to get a little creative on the larger pieces that didn't fit in the miter box as well as the angles it didn't have. I essentially made my own miter box with scrap wood. I think I'm on track, but we'll see how it all comes together. I did the majority of the cutting at night after the boys were asleep, but I just wasn't getting it done as quickly as I'd like, so I did a little cutting that past Saturday day. Of course that meant a very cute little helper. It was very hot this week here in TX, so I tried to get everything done while I had a little shade! (I was still in my pjs!)




I'm also currently working on a spring ruffle shirt from a Sew Mama Sew tutorial done by Made by Rae. I want to turn it into a dress with a belt, but I don't know if it will work. I'll either have to modify the sleeves or just wear an undershirt. I'm leaning toward the latter, but we'll see how it looks once I have it pinned up.

I've also been doing some Letters of the Week with Dean. So far we've done:
a is for apple (he enjoyed making seeds with his black marker as well as coloring on the paper plate. He thought that was a great idea since it wasn't his normal paper)
A is for alligator
O is for octopus we used gift ribbon for the legs and I thought it looked nicer than the tissue paper
P is for popcorn
J is for jelly bean he totally didn't get the whole "j is for jelly bean" on this. He was way too busy eating. When I said, "J is for ...?" he kept saying "Jungle" (hence, the J is for Jungle craft) and "then I'd say, no, what do we have on the paper?" and he'd say "Beans!" Oh well. Whatever.
J is for jungle
i is for ice cream (i turned it into a lowercase. thought it worked better that way.)

We also made a shape house

I've decided that doing anything with snacks or treats really stresses me out. He couldn't care less about gluing treats or snacks on a paper if he can eat them by the handful. I anticipated him eating some, but he was digging in like he doesn't get treats very often! Oh, wait. He doesn't. Plus, you can't really save them. I like the ones I can save and/or make into a book later.

We've mainly used elmer's glue, markers, and construction paper because I don't have a whole lot of supplies. I really need to remedy that. He's really enjoyed the craft time together. I usually do it during Walter's morning nap so we have some fun alone time.

May Challenges

Seasonal: Mother's Day

See April's challenge for links and ideas for presents.
Free customizable Mother's Day card print outs


Self: Reduce Recipe Clutter
Recipe cheat sheet (another found here)
Essentially puts the ingredients of your "go-to" recipes on one sheet

30 Meal Plan
Step by step directions to finding 30 meals your family loves and getting them all in one place for easier shopping, menu planning, and pantry stocking

Everyday Meals
(you have to register and enter in your recipes online, but once you do that you can easily create menus and it will calculate and create grocery lists for you)

Kid: Prepping for pre-school
Basically the challenge is to find, print out, and organize activities for your preschool aged children. Here are some sites you might find helpful.
Letter of the week
File folder games
ABCTeach
Learning Page
Kidzone
If you're feeling really ambitious, you can build a Kid's Picnic Table or a Bigger Kid's Picnic Table

Recipe Recommendation: Dough-ntcha wanna try some?
Tried and true: Vanilla Pudding Cinnamon Rolls

These are divine. I've made tons of recipes of cinnamon rolls, but this is the best I've made yet. I've also used this recipe for orange rolls and used lemon pudding (since I didn't have vanilla pudding in my cupboard).

Something old: Wheat Bread (good enough for sandwiches)

Something new: Ezekiel Bread
What is Ezekiel Bread? According to info barrel, "The bread itself was said to be a recipe given to Ezekiel from god while his people were under siege and he was forced to live in the desert for two years. The bread is said to be nutritionally complete, containing more protein

than your standard wheat bread."

Their recipe is found here.

This recipe from Urban Simplicity looks superior, but it's more involved and takes longer than the other recipe.

Wooden Fridge

This is one of those projects that took me longer than I would have liked - only becaue I kept messing up. It has been done for awhile and the kids have been enjoying it.

What I learned - I am not that great of a painter. I am by no means a perfectionist and this project shows that. I got the cupboard at Michaels and painted it all white. Then I used painters tape to outline where I wanted the chalkboard to go, but after I sprayed the chalkboard paint and removed the tape, the tape had pulled off some of the white paint. So I decided to do the green outline around the chalkboard. Then because I was so excited to test out the chalkboard I let the kids use some sidewalk chalk. Pink sidewalk chalk. And despite my telling them to draw only on the chalkboard, there was pink chalk everywhere. I thought it would be easy to clean up. Wrong. It very easily came off the chalkboard but my nice white paint was tinted pink. So I did another coat of white and did some touchups. I wanted to add more detail, but at that point I was just ready to be done with the project.

So it is not perfect. Not even close. But, it serves the purpose and I saved beaucoup bucks. It is the perfect size and it goes very nicely with the rest of the Pottery Barn kitchen. And I have to say, I love the chalkboard feature. I went out and found some white chalk. Much better. I really would love to just do a whole wall in chalkboard paint. Just kidding. well, only partly;)

Now if I can just get Bella to keep her food inside the fridge and not scattered all over the floor!




XO
Maren

Wood Peg Dolls

I thought I would get a head start on Bella's birthday gift since I figured it would take me forever (her birthday isn't until August). I was planning on just starting these dolls yesterday, but it turns out that the paint drys pretty quickly and I was able to work on all the dolls at the same time. I think they turned out okay. Although, since I made them I see all the flaws. After I finished them and they were mostly dry the kids got up on the counter where I had put them and started playing with them so some of them need touchups. I think I am going to add some rosy cheeks and am still debating on whether or not to add mouths. I am also going to spray paint them with a glossy finish. I discovered after buying mine online that Michael's sells 2 sizes of boys and I heard that JoAnn's sells the girl version although I haven't looked myself to see if my store carried them. Also, I bought a 3" mom and dad but after putting them in my small house thought they were too big. I used the next size (2 3/4" ?) for parents. I got my doll house at Michael's (my local one didn't carry them)it is a two shelf CD tower/doll house. I can't wait to work on that. I have little wood pieces to make into beds, tables, fridges etc. I had so much fun working on the dolls and am very excited to get started on the house. I don't know if I can wait until Bella's birthday!

XO
Maren