how to wrap a book like a pro (or not)

Sadness.

Confession 1: I am a horrible gift-wrapper. 

Confession 2: I am okay with it.

I always look forward to the holiday season when bloggers like to bust out their fanciest ways of wrapping packages and gifts like a pro.  You've seen them. Their gift-wraps are works of art.

Maybe you even possess the gift-wrapping talent gene.

I don't.

But I love looking at it. I even have a pinboard where I collect beautiful gift wrapping ideas--in the hopes that maybe I will be inspired to pretty up my packages.

I even made some map-feather gift-toppers and wrapped a fake present all fancy-like for a blog post, just to see if that would push me into it.

But it didn't.

When it came down to the task of wrapping real presents, I just do what I always do.

Grab whatever is closest, slap on some tape, and use a sharpie to write the recipient's name on it.

That's all.

Totally pin-worthy.

A lot of times, the tape doesn't really stick. So I just sort of turn it over and smash it down and hope it stays shut...

Also, I don't bother with making the folded edges pretty. Nope.

Just fold and smash, tape, and hope for the best.

That's right. The woman who spent several hours carefully affixing tiny white office labels to the back of a cardboard box in order to create the perfect backsplash tile effect in her daughter's dollhouse cannot take two seconds to make sure gift wrap is folded down neatly.

I have no explanation.

Just thought you should know.

cloud dough recipe

I found a recipe for cloud dough on pinterest and tried it out with the girls the other day.

Easy.

Fun.

Just right for little Lucia hands and big-girl Juliet hands.

It is very messy--so we took it outside in the backyard.

The girls were inspired to bring in some pine needles and magnolias leaves and make wintery nature arrangements.

We also had measuring cups and tiny plastic animals running through the white dough.

It was really fun. Your kids would love it. I found the cloud dough recipe at Tinkerlab.



The Cloud Collector's Handbook is on my list of books to get my hands on. I think the girls and I could have a lot of fun with it this spring.

kids craft spaces

Without a dedicated craft room or space in our home, our kitchen table generally looks something like this.

Most projects take us several days to complete from start to finish--even the very simplest ones. Phase one usually involves me cutting out shapes and gathering supplies. Phase two involves the girls working with the materials, and phase three involves the drying process.

All of these processes require the use of our kitchen table.

So, most of the time, there is some sort of craft material inhabiting our table space in one of the three phases, unless we have company coming over at which point I hastily throw all the stuff into the garage or our kitchen pantry.

You can see left over lunch items, paper hearts, scissors, scraps, wipes, tea mugs, and piles of books.

It drives Ben crazy, but we don't really have any other options.

What about you? How do you deal with craft messes in your home? Is it everywhere or do you have a nice and neat space for it? 

how to keep toddlers from drawing on the wall

Behold. Lucia's latest artistic endeavor. On our wall. (chalk)

She was caught in the act and promptly reprimanded by Ben. At which point, Juliet ran gleefully into the room with this in her hands:

She then proceeded to point out to Lucia the "no-no" behavior and reinforced the "yes-yes" one. All she really got was a blank stare, but so far, no more art explosions on the wall, so maybe, just maybe this worked.

I've always loved No No Yes Yes by Leslie Patricelli. She has a wonderful series of board books for toddlers.

Have your kids ever used your walls for their own artistic purposes?

thar she blows! vintage whale book goodness

I'm a big Robert McCloskey fan (who isn't?), but I had no idea about Burt Dow, Deep-Water Man until a few weeks ago. (Shameful, I know. And I call myself a book blogger...)

Have you read it? The story is wonderful, but again, it's the pictures that really get me. Here are some for your viewing pleasure. (Our whale project yesterday reminded me of this book.)

This poor whale gets his tale caught on Burt's hook.

Burt fixes it with a band-aid!

Not just any band-aid--a peppermint striped one.

Which only makes all the other whales jealous--you can't blame them--I kind of want a peppermint striped band-aid now, too.

These photos were taken as we were reading the book one afternoon--so I had a little helper with me. :)

Have you seen this book? The colors are so beautiful. I hope your library has a copy.

Have a wonderful weekend!

whale valentines day craft

You've seen the book My Heart Is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall. It has inspired many a valentines day project. A few years ago, we made a heart fish for our cat. (Yes, count us in the group of crazies who make valentines for their pets.)

Christianne made adorable animal valentines for her daughter's class based on the book and just recently,  Whitney shared her kids' heart project (you have to see the mosquito).

We needed something easy and fun to do, so I cut out some hearts in various sizes one afternoon--just old school style by folding the paper in half and cutting half a heart shape. I wish I had a heart paper punch, but I don't.

We got out the mod podge and made some heart animals. These are whales--the big heart cut in half. I wish I had a picture of the giraffe Juliet made, but we sent it to her sponsored kid and I forgot to take a picture. It was crazy cute, though.

Lucia (15 months) even got in on the action. (Because it's never to early to start them on mod podge.) She had a lot of fun pounding the foam brush onto the paper.

I will say--she got the stuff all over her, so make sure your kids aren't wearing their sunday best. And don't be afraid to use an old cup lid as a glue holder.

The unpictured giraffe was 100% Juliet's idea, but the whales we saw in this vintage craft book. This is where people got their ideas before there were blogs. How very quaint. :)

What heart-y things are you up to this week? 

kids flower costumes

Source: zulily.com via Vanessa on Pinterest

I saw these flower costumes on Zulilly today and they reminded me of a beautiful book by Elsa Beskow:

Around the Year

Juliet really liked the flower people.

I think the Iris costume is my favorite, but this stargazer lily is pretty cute, too!

Source: zulily.com via Vanessa on Pinterest

What flower/plant would your kids want to be? (There are some pretty funny and feisty weeds in that book!)