100 Days of School!

I know we're on the cusp if not day of for those who celebrate it but check out this awesome project that my good friend, the A-boy did. It was so cool that we had to do another one with Miss Za. As you can see, Miss Za did a most awesome job herself! 100 squares of color! The A-boy did his on a large piece of matte board while Miss Za did hers on the backside of holiday craft-paper gift wrap. Looks awesome either way and I think I need to do this one myself! Thank you to the A-boy and his parents for letting me "steal" this project.

No instructions save for the pictures. Happy 100 Days of School (and did ya know, it's my birthday today! I'm not yet quite 100 years old)! For a list of nifty school, teacher and 100 Days books, click here!

love bots on parade

Why stick to paper for your Valentine lurve? Why not make something a little extra...

valentine fun: stuck on you

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, why not have your kidlets make a valentine that is quirky, fun AND useful? Simply "repackage" your everyday gluestick with a bit of happy colorful paper.

junk mail garland

gotta love your value pack...i'm not sure how regional this is but here in l.a. we get a blue envie full of coupons every month. i have never ever used these coupons and it has been impossible to get my name off the delivery list. this time around, rather than toss them into the recycle bin, i turned them into a nifty garland that you and your kidlets can easily duplicate. just paint, punch, decorate and attach to a ribbon. i stitched mine up but a glue stick will work just as well. have fun!

confession, lurve & smiley smiles {cuz i really do love you all}

have i told you all how much i love this darn blog? love it. absolutely love it. working with children in all things creative makes my heart sing louder and higher than a duet with ethel merman and annette funicello. the sad part is that i spent so much time finishing up my degree, i fell out of the working public and stopped working with kids. boy did i miss it. BIG TIME.

i have finally finished (and with a specialization in PLAY [for reals!])! whoo-hoo! but before i go off and reenter the real working world again, mr. a-go-go and i are taking a great and grand road trip across the good old united states of america. we'll be traveling for at least two months and along the way we hope we'll figure out where it is in this big country we are supposed to be. where, what and when, it's all about the adventure and discovering. but don't worry, before we head out you'll still have two months or so of crafty ideas, book recommendations and recipes. i can't stop. i simply can't. there are too many ideas in my head. in fact, just recently one of my friends reprimanded me for "giving away" all my ideas and the thing is, she may be right but this is just who i am. and here is where i get to my confession. while i love this blog and adore my crazy posting and ideas, i often wonder if there is any point to it all. does anyone really enjoy it, learn from it, create from it? am i helping you see how awesome your tots are? am i enabling you to bond over gluesticks and homemade clay? sometimes i wonder and i worry and then i feel like the uncool kid in class, the one who wears mismatched socks and talks to her imaginery ostrich (though in my opinion, that would be THE coolest kid) and i think maybe i should just stop and of course, when that happens, i inevitably end up receiving an awesome email or letter from one of my readers who sends me happy thoughts and stuff like this...
this is mielye and she has an unwavering lurve for a wee boy named jacky. she lurves him so much that she decided to make him three whopping valentine'd day presents and one of them came from this little blog. this is the reason why i do this and this is what makes my heart sing. read more about mielye's lurve story at The City Peach. and now here is where i beg, plead and grovel...if you ever dilly-do anything, i would love to post about here...seriously, it warms my anxious-ostrich-loving-mismatched-sock-wearing-heart.

valentine's day: straw crazy!

With a few supplies, you kidlet can whip up a series of necklaces or garlands, their choice!

Materials:

*twine or yarn
*scissors
*straws (save your straws!)
*glue stick
*paper punch
*scrap paper

scrumdilly-do it!

Hand your wee one a pair of kid friendly scissors and let them go to town cutting up a handful of straws. This is a great project for recycling them straws you've collected out and about! If your wee one is really wee, cut each straw into two or three pieces so that they can lace them safely (with supervision).

Start your tot off by either tying one of of the string to a piece of straw or anchoring a loop between two punched shapes (tape off the end if it is too floopy to easily thread through the straw beads). If you tie off, make sure to leave extra room at the other end so you can knot up the finished fancy-pants piece!

For the punched shapes, make sure the twine is sandwiched between the two with a healthy does of glue stick.

For the lacing, let them go to town. You can talk all sorts of math and science during this as your kidlet creates seriation and patterns in their stringing. Alternate if you like between the shapes and the straw beads.

Package them up in small tins, stitched bags, plastic bags, half a cardboard tube decorated and capped off. there's all sorts of fun ways your wee one can gift these to friend, family & teachers!

ikea hack: valentine's day scarves

Check this out! One Polarvide throw can make 15 scarves for your wee one to give to his or her classmates! Simply fold in half, pin and cut.





You can leave them as they are with a sweet note or cut extra hearts out of the ends. If your tot is handy with a needle and thread, they can embroider a small heart or stitch on a monster face to make love monster scarves. Oh the possibilities!
At $3.49 I think this may be the best deal ever, plus it's useful and the throw also comes in a super nifty green!

**this is what Za is giving to her classmates. We kinda wished we had a class full of Valentines to give them to as well!

lace a little love

here is a quick and easy project for and/or your kidlets to whip up when boredom strikes. hop on over to scrumdillydilly for the how to.

how's about a warm cuppa sweetness?

Super quick, super nifty and actually quite tasty. For reals! All you need is your milk beverage of choice, 2 oz of pink juice (I used ruby red pomegranate), a dash and a sprinkle of cinnamon and a spoonful of sugar.**

Heat your milk up (not too hot but make it warm enough to dissolve the spice), add your sugar & spice, then yer juice, froth it up and add smattering of sprinkles and watch yer kidlets smile!**

**You can use any sweetener of your choosing. I used confectioners sugar in the picture but when I made it, I heated my milk too hot and everything got a bit wonky. After remaking it with good old granulated sugar and a little less heat it was gulped down lickety split. Oh so good!

valentine lurve: sugar buns

While I don't usually recommend always going to prepackaged something-or-others to satisfy the crafty-bakey-I'm-bored need, this quick fix it kinda too pretty and too yummy, not to. Plus, it is super duper easy. My five (and a half) year old assistant did all the prep-work. On her own.

You will need:
*2 oz cream cheese
*powdered sugar
*food color (optional)
*1 pack of crescent ROUNDS (breadstick dough would probably work as well)
*chocolate chips
*bowl, spoon, froster/dull knife
*baking sheet
*oven

scrumdilly-do it:

Wash hands! Plop 2 oz of cream cheese into a bowl and set to soften. Add a tablespoon or two powdered sugar and a drop of food color and stir.

Crack open your tin of dough and separate the pieces. Unwind one roll and let yer kidlet go to work.

Spread a layer of the cream cheese mixture on top of the dough.

Dot with chocolate chips. The more the merrier.

Reroll it up all purdy-like

Place on cookie sheet, repeat.

Bake according to package directions (lick the spoon).

Allow to cool and serve up with a cuppa tea, or milky beverage of choice. Don't fergit to lick them fingers. These sweet buns are the BESTEST!

After we finished chowing down, Miss Za had begun planning her next batch of sweet buns. She's thinking maybe some strawberry jam and happy edible flowers might a good combo. I think we have a new adventure ahead of us! How do you roll?