Rainy Day Fishing

We've been experiencing some spring rain around these parts. I don't mind it a single bit, except that my little ones are kind of already in outdoor mode. Our neighborhood walks and backyard play times are officially back into the daily routine. When it rains, we need something to fill those slots in the lineup. 

I made this fishing set for my oldest little babe on a whim one day, and it is the perfect little activity to break up the play time norm. I keep it stored out of sight, so he kind of forgets about it, and thus gets excited when I bring it out on rare occasion. 

I don't have tutorial pics, but it was the easiest project on the planet. You know those foam sheets they sell at the craft store in a myriad of colors for, like, 40 cents a piece? Pick up a bunch of those, a couple wooden dowels, some paper clips, round magnets, string, and hot glue, and you're half way there. 

 Cut fish shapes out of the foam sheets and stick a paper clip through each (or safety pin, or whatever metal doodad you have that would work). Say you want to go above and beyond, and want to make this educational. Use a sharpie to write numbers on each fish. Now you can ask your child the color and number of each fish caught. You can have them line up their fish numerically. To each numbered fish, you can assign prizes, or tasks to complete, or songs to sing. What an over-achiever you are!

For the fishing pole, cut a piece of string to the desired length. Hot glue one end of the string to the end of your dowel, and hot glue the other end to your magnet. If you try and get fancy with thumb tacks or something you will regret it. Stick with the hot glue. We have a sunken family room, and so my son likes to fish from above, on the other side of the railing. You know, it gives that legit dock feeling.

My personal favorite part of the whole fishing set (and the least important, that my son could care less about) is the little draw string bag I store all the fishies in. This will take a little longer to explain, so maybe one of these days I'll whip up a tutorial for them. In the mean time, there are dozens of how-tos on Pinterest. Just search, "fabric drawstring bags." They are super easy.

Do you have a go-to rainy day activity? I'd love to hear about it!

All Photos by Leslie Leavitt Photography

13.1

On May 4th I completed my second ever half marathon! I made a goal after my first son was born to run a half marathon before each of my babies' 1st birthday. So far, I am 2 for 2! To commemorate another 13.1 miles down, I thought I would compile a little list-- 13 THINGS EVERY HALF MARATHONER SHOULD DO from my race and training. To go along with the list are some epic/cringeworthy photos from race day--courtesy of my supportive and talented friend, Suzy Holman. 

At my expense, enjoy.

1. Bust out your very best running form as you cross the finish line. This is where the most pictures are taken, so you definitely don't want to look stupid.

2. Have a victory song playing on your ipod.

3. Group hug.

4. Strut your stuff. You just ran 13.1 freaking miles.

5. High-five your babies. Nothing better THE ENTIRE day than seeing those sweet faces on the side lines cheering you on.

6. Have no shame in taking each and every treat they hand out at the finish line. You just burned about a bajillion calories, right?

7. Wear neon team uniforms.

8. Capture the details.

9. Share the joy (and treats) with your fans. I LOVE these people and couldn't have run a single step without them.

10. Find the world's greatest group of bffs in dental school to motivate you to sign up, train in the pouring rain, wake up at 4:30 on race day, and make it to the finish line.

11. Wear matching headbands.

12. Have another AMAZING friend who is also an amazing photographer surprise you all at the finish line.

13. Celebrate together. One of my favorite things about race day is running alongside so many different people. The ones you knew before, and the strangers alike all feel like friends. There's such a great energy around when so many people are working to achieve a goal. As you're running, think about all the obstacles people may have had to overcome to be there that day. Think about how hard you've worked. Think about what a wonderful gift your body is.

All Photos by Simply Suzy Photography

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

 I have a button now! Neat. See it over there in the sidebar and take one if you'd like.

I'm definitely not the techiest lady on the planet, so I have to do a little subtle fist-pumping when something like this goes my way. If you need a good tutorial on creating a little button for your blog, I HIGHLY recommend this one. This Code it Pretty lady has smarts and style to boot.

Grant's Room

There are a few funny things I've realized about myself and getting my rooms photographed. One, I never can quite claim the room is "complete." And two, even after all the work and projects I have completed, I step back and it still feels so EMPTY. So what I'm saying is, if you feel like you are seeing the same three things over and over again in these pictures, fear not that you are going crazy. That's all there is to see here! 

I love me a good collage wall. For this one I give credit to my sister and the sea. I think the mix of  frames, and the mix of photos and objects strikes a nice balance.

Since we have a play room where most of the toys are kept, all that's really left to the bedrooms besides beds, are books. Seriously. I even took the dresser out because I found it being used as a prop during nap-time adventures. I'm lucky I got it out before my crazy kid got squashed flat as a pancake. Now all his clothes are hung or in a small, lightweight cubby unit inside the closet. Anyway, it's just books now, and we store them in these rain gutter book shelves.

Gotta love a handmade mobile. Click here for instructions on how this one was made. 

 Back to the other corner of the room. 

Although there isn't much substance to this room (less to make a mess with, right?), I wanted their to be plenty for my son to look at. In the corner above his bed there is a little hanging seagull (a once colorful, cardboard one I just painted white), and some vinyl cutouts I made on my Cricut. I honestly don't think the silhouette bird shape would be hard to mimic by hand, though. 

Maybe my favorite thing in the whole room (we'll call it the crown jewel), is the headboard. It was so simple to make that it makes me love it that much more. When we moved into this house, there was a dilapidated little wood shed in the backyard we tore down immediately. But rest assured its spirit lives on in the form of many, many projects in my home. I LOVE reclaimed wood. 

To make it, I painted the boards with watered down paint. A little sanding here and a little sanding there. My husband then sawed the boards to my annoyingly specified lengths (it takes work to achieve that truly random look, as you know.) He then drilled them onto two 2x4s that run perpendicular--just like a fence. AND . . .  it was finished. We stuck that little beachy fence behind my son's IKEA toddler bed, and wedged between it and the wall it doesn't budge a bit.

 The orange and brown striped pillow I made (for his nursery long ago) by using iron on adhesive on the back of satin ribbon and ironing it on the pillow case. The pretty blue one I bought at IKEA. The quilt was his baby quilt made by my mother-in-law.

And there you have the sparse, but beachy toddler room. Surf's up!

All Photos by Leslie Leavitt Photography

Mother's Day Silhouette Gift Ideas

I am slightly obsessed with silhouettes lately. And I'm even slightly more obsessed with my wee babes. Within the past few months their sweet little profiles have appeared all over my house, my neck, and in gifts to their grandparents (who are the only others who may rival my obsession with these cute boys). 

I thought I'd share these projects with you as a little Mother's Day gift inspiration. I realize this is a little late coming, but keep in mind these projects are super simple, and really fast. Or you can just tuck these ideas away for another day.

Before I talk about the individual projects, let me talk about actually creating the silhouette image. There are great professional resources for creating these images, but I like FREE, so I made mine myself. Here's how: 

1. I sat my sons sideways in front of a white curtain where lots of light was shining through and took their picture on my camera with NO flash.

2. The image was already pretty defined and dark, but with a "contrast" setting on my camera phone, I increased the contrast between my son's face and the white curtain. Since every phone is different you will have to play around with this part.

3. I uploaded the photo to Microsoft Word and used the image contrast feature there to make it totally solid black and white. I cropped it so only the head and bust remained, and copied and pasted it multiple times on the document in various sizes. Now I have a bunch of templates in various sizes to use for a myriad of projects.

After creating my silhouette images, I basically copied this tutorial for the pendants. I love how mine turned out and wear this necklace ALL the time.

These framed images were my first project. I cut out a printed silhouette from Microsoft Word in the exact size I wanted. I traced it onto black paper, and cut again. Then I made the mats from scrapbook paper, glued the silhouettes on, and framed them. 

A few months later I took my oldest son's framed silhouette down, removed it, traced it onto fabric, and then filled it in with black paint. Then I sewed that little painted piece of fabric right onto a little pillow for his little chair. He was so excited about "sitting on his face."

If you have kids, think how much your mother or mother-in-law would love a little silhouette of her grandbabies. They look so cute all framed together. Or if you're thinking you'd like your own necklace this Mother's Day, send a link to this post over to your husband. I'm sure there's nothing in the world he'd love better than to make this!

Thanks for reading.

photos by Leslie Leavitt Photography

Mother's Day Cards

Happy Monday! I had such a wonderful weekend--the highlight being my half marathon, which I will cover later in the week. I hope you enjoyed your weekend, too. We are in the final days before Mother's Day, and I am scrambling (as usual) to get my Mother's Day project completed. If you are in the same procrastinators boat as me, you may find today's post useful. I asked my sweet sister-in-law to help me out with this one.

Lauren LOVES to make cards. She always makes a special one for each family member on their birthday or special day. Today she is going to show us how to whip up a couple cute Mother's Day cards. Take it away, Lauren!

Home Is Where Your Mom Is

I found this saying on pinterest and thought it perfect for my own mother who has recently moved into a home. Although it's beautiful, I have often complained that it wasn't "home" because I didn't grow up there or what not. Anyway, home is so much more than that and I wanted to use the saying as a basis for a card.

I started with color choices - I'm on a gray/turquoise kick right now and wanted a little splash of bright color. I chose yellow because it looked good and my parent's new house has a yellow door.

I chose a base layer paper and paper colors for the "house". 

I sewed on a yellow ribbon with a sewing machine, but you can do it by hand too.

 

Place the house paper where you want it and glue. Then lay out the letters. You could do anything with the fonts - stickers, print, cut outs or manually. I used stickers for "home" and  "mom" and did free-hand cursive. 

#1 Mom Card

I always start with an envelope. I pick the size and color first. Then I make my card from card stock and a simple measurement so it fits the envelope. 

For this card, it's all about layers. 

I have one base layer, a strip of brown cut to look like a banner, and a strip of grey below. I wanted to keep the background colors simple so that the blue ribbon would stand out. 

To make the ribbon, take a small piece of paper in a rectangular shape and scored it. Then you'll fold it into an accordion style piece of paper, pinch in the center and make the sides meet each other. When gluing the sides together, you'll have to hold it for a minute while it dries. 

I glued the ribbon strips down first (after all the paper was attached to the card) and then placed the accordion "ribbon" on top. Then I topped it with a small circle that reads "#1 Mom"

So, so, simple and could be used for any occasion really (father's day, graduation, birthday etc)

Thanks, Lauren!! These are so fun and cute. If you want to see more of Lauren's cute cards, she posts pictures on her blog. Please go take a peak!

Sneak Peak: Grant's Room

This is a picture of a bunch of pictures. And my sister took them all. (okay, minus the one with the van--I will have to search for that source.) This fun gallery is in my little guy's beachy room, and I LOVE it. My sister took these photos while her husband was doing summer sales in Hawaii and they were living there (sounds rough, doesn't it?). Do you have fun or meaningful photos you could use as art in your home? It's one of my favorite things to do.

Tune in next week for photos of the rest of the room, and a recap of my HALF MARATHON which I run with my girls tomorrow!! Whoop, whoop.

Photo by Leslie Leavitt Photography