Soot Sprites

  I'm a sucker for animation and the girls have inherited this trait. Somehow we introduced them to The Secret World of Arietty, which led to  Ponyo, which led to My Neighbor Totoro, which led to Spirited Away. If you haven't seem them, I highly recommend a trip to the library to check some of these out. 

There are these little fuzzy creatures, called Soot Sprites, in Totoro and Spirited Away, that crack my kids up. They scurry around on spindly legs and have large, saucer-like eyes. Basically, like spiders but much cuddlier. I found a tutorial and decided we needed to have some of our own.

They're insanely easy and cute. I'd bought some stuffing, fuzzy black fabric, black cording, white felt and black beads but didn't get around to making them until one day when we all had a bit of a cold and I thought the girls needed a bit of cheering up. 

I highly recommend dipping the ends of the cording in glue, modge podge or clear nail polish to keep them from fraying. I had to do some emergency amputations of two soot sprites after quiet time that day.

This has been one of my most re-pinned Pinterest entries, and it makes me very happy to think of all these little guys hanging out around the world.

Rock Candy Experiment

The egg shell geodes were such a big hit, the girls wanted to make them again, only bigger. I got the idea to make rock candy--in other words, geodes they could eat!

I raided out cabinets for glasses that were narrow and tall enough for the string to be covered in enough sugar syrup. Three champagne flutes and a glass mug worked perfectly.

It was difficult to keep the girls from wanting to eat the candy until it was ready. Patience doesn't come easily to four- and five-year olds. After about five days, though, there were enough crystals to see and eat and there was much sugar-fueled rejoicing.

It was a fun experiment and next time, if there is a next time, I'd try wooden sticks or try to find a way to keep the string straight instead of curling up. It did take longer for the first crystals to show up and I wonder if that's because the cups were near the air vent in the kitchen and it was a bit more humid with the AC on.

Now, what to do next...

Eggshell Geodes

  Summer has sapped my will to write. It seems more important to sit on the porch playing a hidden object game or take the girls to the pool. I have been crafty, but just don't have the willpower to write about it.

Anyway, the girls love geodes. Their granpa gave them a big, purple one and they have to see all the "shiny rocks" when we go to the science museum. I found a homemade eggshell geode activity in my Pinterest list and decided the girls would love it.  They did; infact, they loved it so much we did it 2 weeks in a row.

I found a recipe on The Happy Scientist that uses epsom salts instead of borax or alum. The first time we did this, I used 6 eggshells. They worked really well, but don't hold up well in little hands. The second time, I raided our stash of plastic easter eggs, sticking some duck tape on the bottom to seal up the holes.

It was a lot of fun and the girls were incredibly excited to see how everything turned out. I think I didn't get the water hot enough the first time as the crystals didn't turn out all that well. The second try was much better. And now, I have lots of epsom salts for a relaxing bath. It's a win-win!

Fairy Houses

  Summer vacation is here which means lots of playing outside, no schedules and tons of free hours to fill. This summer, I'm going to try to do one fun art/craft/science activity each week. A.K.A.: Time to see what things on Pinterest really work.

The first week was fairy houses. The Bean had been ally into making a hiding spot for fairies in our front shrubbery so I thought she'd like to decorate an actual structure. I loaded up on coupons from JoAnn's and we picked up a few wooden bird houses, paint, shiny rocks and other fun, pretty decor. I let the girls paint the outside however they wanted before we had fun with the glue gun. I set the glue gun on low, put a good glop where it was needed and let the girls place what they wanted there.

I love the feathers and grassy puff balls and the shiny rocks are beautiful. I don't know if any fairies have set up shop, but they add fun to our front yard.

My Little Pony Costumes

For some reason, I really wanted the girls to be characters from My Little Pony this year for Halloween. I was stuck, however, on the whole mane and crown thing. Do I get a wig and dye it? Do I buy a bunch of yarn?  I wanted something cute and easy but not insanely expensive. I was stuck.

I did some web searches and found lots of cool cosplay outfits. One, in particular, fit exactly what I wanted. It was a fleece hoody vest with fleece mane, wings, horn and crown. It's perfect for Colorado Halloweens, where it can be sunny or snowing. And the whole thing was pretty easy.

Supplies

• Hoodie sweatshirt with matching pants (I got mine at WalMart and Hanes.com)
• Fleece, 1/4 to 1/2 yard per color, depending how how many colors you need. Princess Celestia has 4 colors, Princess Luna has 2
• Regular felt for crown, necklace, horn and cutie mark
• Stiff felt for the wings
• Glitter paint for fabric
• Velcro
• Tracing paper
• Craft/fabric glue
• Needle, thread

The first step is to sketch the pattern for the mane and tail. I traced around the hood and then drew my pattern pieces on that.

  

I drew my pieces on tracing paper individually, then cut them out of the fleece.

Then, I pinned the pieces to the sweatshirt and sewed them. I decided the mane looked a little anemic with only one layer, so I cut and sewed a couple more layers.

For the wings, I drew patterns on tracing paper, then cut them out of extra-stiff felt.  The horn was cut out of a piece of regular felt and glued shut.  To give them a little more shine, I added some detail with glitter fabric paint.

The next step was to attach the wings and horn. Since this is a kid's costume, I want to be able to wash it. The extra-stiff felt isn't washable, I didn't want to permanently attach the wings. I decided to sew the hook side of a velcro strip to the back of the sweatshirt. The felt will stick easily to it, but if you wanted, you could glue the matching loop side to the back of the wings.  I hand-sewed the horn to the top of the mane, after sewing down the top of the mane so nothing would flop around.

Next, I cut out and glued the "cutie mark" to the bottom left of the hoodie.

I cut the crown and necklace out of regular felt and added a glitter fabric paint jewel.

I hand-stitched the crown to the hoodie, behind the horn. Since the hoodie's have a zip front, I sewed two pieces of velcro on the shoulder seams so the necklace can be taken on and off easily.

And that's it! I think they look so cute and unique. With coupons at JoAnns and getting the sweatsuits at a good price, I don't think cost more than a store-bought outfit. 

The Bean loves hers, just look at that face!

The Belly decided she didn't want to be Princess Luna but wanted to be a ladybug again. Since I still have her costume from last year, I didn't really mind. Here's what the Luna costume looks like, minus a model.

That's it! Happy Halloween!

Tie-Dye Shirts with Sharpies

I've been trying to be better about sitting down with the girls and doing some kind of project together, especially since it's summer.  Somehow, playing in the pool, playing in the backyard, playing with the dog and eating and sleeping seem to take up most of our days.  Not that those things are bad, but the hours just get away from me, even with my best intentions.

Yesterday I finally got my act together and the girls made tie-dyed shirts with Sharpies.  This project is so easy and so mcuh fun.  Both girls got to color with whatever colors they wanted and they loved watching the colors spread together when we put the rubbing alcohol on them.

At the end, we didn't use the cups and the results were just as nice.  I made sure to cut pieces of cardboard to put inside to keep the colors from bleeding through.

The Bean's shirt looks a bit more 80's grafitti style:

From Minus Minions

While The Belly's is a little more hippy and summer like:

From Minus Minions

Plane Activity Kit

The holidays are here, which often means travelling. We've tried to get everything down to a science when going on plane trips with the girls. Snacks, DVDs, games on the iPad, the usual suspects. For our trip to visit my parents in Florida for Thanksgiving, I took an idea from something I found on Pinterest, and made activity boxes with all sorts of fun things in them.

I got plain, clear plastic craft storage boxes to hold everything. I personalized each box with the girls' names and some fun travel images. Inside, I had beads (in little, plastic pill-type boxes), string, pipe cleaners, crayons, stickers and lots of different kinds of paper. The scrapbook section of the craft store has tons of paper with different textures, which I thought might make coloring more fun.

The boxes were a big hit. My oldest spent a good 30 minutes making a bead necklace and bracelet for grandma, and the little one had fun with some lacing cards and strings I'd packed for her. I was even able to read a few pages of my book while the girls were busy. I don't know the last time I was able to do that while on a plane with them!

An Inspired Use of Appliques

As any parent knows, potty training is a process of hits and misses (figurative and literal), trying to find ways to get the toddler to want to use the potty. For the Bean, chocolate is the perfect reward (fyi, despite their claims, M&Ms do melt in your hand). The big hurdle was getting her to want to wear underwear.

I bought some pink absorbant underwEar from Target, but she didn't like it as much as the regular underwear that had fun characters on it. Then I got a brilliant idea: fun, iron-on appliques, so I could personalize her underwear to give her something special. It worked like a charm -- she loves them.

The fabric-based appliques worked best. I couldn't get the paint/plasticey ones to work, and the beaded flowers came off after one wash. So if you want to try this, get a few types and experiment to see what works best for you. My friend S also suggested fabric paints.

It's made a huge difference in the process and I'm starting to see the light at the end of the diaper-free tunnel.