Crayon Stained Glass Hearts

Inspired by: Crayon Hearts

Valentine's Day is around the corner and I was looking for a fun and inexpensive way to decorate.  I found an idea on Pintrest, but it suggested ironing crayon shavings, and that made me nervous.  I remember melting crayons on a hot plate when I was young and was wondering if there was a similar way to do it.  We don't own a hot plate, but we have a flat pan, so I wanted to see if it would work.

I laid a piece of wax paper over the the pan.  

Then pealed the crayons.  If you can find crayons that don't need to be pealed....Highly recommended. Pealing crayons = sucks!

I started by melting the first crayon.  I put the stove on "warm" and rubbed the crayon over the wax paper.  I started on a higher temp, but I kept burning myself.  Warm worked just fine.  I recommend only using half of the crayon because using too much crayon doesn't give it the stained glass effect and it caused the hearts to curl.

Took another crayon and shard it by cutting the tip of the crayon with scissors.  Again using half of the crayon.  The shards shot everywhere, but they landed where they wanted.  I covered the melted crayons with another piece of wax paper and pressed down with a fork to work out some of the bubbles.

When it cooled, I drew the hearts on the wax paper.

And cut them out.

Another suggestion may be to cut up the crayon and sprinkle it on the wax paper to have more control of where they land.  Just an idea.

It was a fun craft to do.  I look forward to the day where my children will be old enough to do this with me. But, my 17 month old was very surprised when he woke up from his nap.

Happy Crafting!

Bringing Back The Fanny Pack

I was at the indoor play area at the local mall, following my son around and tried to keep an eye on my purse which was quite a distance away from me. All I could think was, 'if someone was to take off with my purse, what would I do?  Leave my 16 month old to chase a mugger down?'

I was at the local library awhile ago.  I had my entire purse sprawled out while I was checking out books. My son crawled off.  Do I leave my purse and wallet completely open, to go get my son?  Luckily a nice lady picked him up and brought him back to me.

I have a friend who's diaper bag was robbed while her daughter was in the stroller.  How scary is that?  Moms are such an easy target.  I get anxiety about it because I can't figure out how to get around it.  My entire life I've been told to protect my purse under all circumstances and when I became a mom, how am I suppose to?
 
I'm tired of juggling a diaper bag, a purse, and carrying a toddler on my hip. I want everything on me so I don't have to worry about my wallet, but I also want to be able to pick up my son when I need to without a diaper bag getting in the way.

So I told Zach I ordered a fanny pack. He gave me a looked of a man who's worried his wife exchanged her sex appeal for the stereotype of a frumpy mom.  The fanny pack is all black and I would wear it like this...

And not like the 80's version, like this....

So the 80's destroyed the fanny pack. This one does not compare to my hot pink fanny pack with neon yellow pockets and neon orange buttons, which I sported back in the day.  (I was in Elementary School.)  I bought this one on Amazon for $18.08.  It's small, discrete, it gives me piece of mind, and I can keep the diaper bag in the car in case I need it. 

And, I will actually wear it on my fanny.  (Hence the name.)

I've started noticing that some of my mommy friends have turned in their diaper bags too.  Some have gone the backpack route.  It's important for us to be as functional as possible.  To be safe and prepared.  I figure if I've got my cell, my wallet, my keys on me, that's all I need.  I've streamlined quite a bit.  I may not be a fashionista with my fanny pack, but it allows me to keep my mind on my son and not on my wallet. 

Bob's Last Chance Workout

I know if I don't workout in the morning, I won't get my butt to the gym.  I was suppose to go to the gym this morning, but what did I do?  I took my son to Gymboree instead.  And, yet again, I promised myself I would go to the gym after Alex's nap.

After Alex had lunch, I looked at the clock and it was 3pm.  I had the time to get to the gym.  But I looked at my son's face and just wanted to play with him instead.  So, I got a brilliant idea.  If I workout from home I would also have the time to play with my son.

A couple nights ago I was watching "The Biggest Loser" and Bob had his team do their last chance workout in the snack room from hell.  They were locked in there for 4 1/2 hours a day for a week.  Bob pulled out a deck of cards and said they were going to do their last chance workout in that room.  When he started explaining how they were going to do it, I pulled out a pen and paper.  They were in a room without workout equipment and I need ideas on how to workout from home.

So here it is:

There are four suits:

Spades - Thrusters - squatting and then lifting a folding chair over your head and bring down.

Hearts - Burpies - (I hear this is the best overall workout exercise that can be done) - touch toes, shoot legs out to a pushup position, bring legs back in, and jump up.

Diamonds - Squats

Clubs - Pushups

You flip over a card.  The number is how many you do and the suit tells you which exercise to do.
Facecards = 10
Aces = 11

I was in no need for a last chance workout, so I wasn't going to do all 52 cards.  I figured 10-20 cards would suit me.

Of course the first 5 cards were all facecards.

I did a set of 10 cards, had some water, then did another 10 cards.

The thrusters and squats were easy.... the burpies and pushups were the hard part.

After the first 10 I was winded, the next 10 I was sweating!  I wish I kept an eye on the clock to see how long it took, but it didn't take very long.

Toward the last couple cards my son started imitating the squats and he crawled under me mid-burpie, which made me laugh, but he let me do it all.  

Once I hit the 20th card I was tired.  But the prize was getting to play with this face.

We'll see if someday I can work up to the 52 cards.

But with how tired I was after not even finishing half of the workout.  I feel really bad for those contestants.  Last Chance Workout are no joke.  But, I'd definitely do these exercises again.

Playing in the New Year

I found a pin on pinterest which gives monthly activity play to play with your children.   With it being January 21, I'm already behind.  So all the more playing to be had!  We'll see what I can get done.  I'm posting so my fellow friends can get inspired and play with their kids as well.

January

Make Sparkly Snow Paint.
1/2 cup of four, salt, and water
Apply to heavy paper or cardboard with a spoon.  Will sparkle as it dries.

Collect Rain through the month.

Blow cotton balls with a straw

Upside Down Drawing.  Tape paper under the table and draw with crayons.

Build an indoor obstacle course with pillows chirs, couch cushions, laundry baskets and other household items.

Freeze Dance with your favorite song.

A jumpstart on February activities...

Make a structure with toothpicks and marshmellows

Paint some cardstock and make postcards and send notes to friends and family with it.

Do a sink and float experiment.

Have a living room picnic

Bat a balloon around.  Use head, elbow, knees, or nose.  Use a bat or a fly squatter.

How tall of of a block tower can you build?

Time to get playing!!

Miracles in Baby Sign Language

Last May I met up with some of my fellow moms for a sensory pool party for the kids.

One of the kids had a plastic rake and he bopped another child on the top of the head.  He didn't know he was going to hurt the other child and my dear friend Amy, looked her son in the eye and said, "Not cool!  Say you're sorry." 

Thomas was about one and a half at the time, he looked very embarrassed, and signed in sign language to the other child, "sorry."

I almost fell over.  I was so impressed!!  Amy never ceases to amaze me.  If Thomas, who is a very active kid, can focus enough to learn sign language and learn the importance of, "Please, Thank you, and Sorry,"... then this is something I have to teach Alex.

I hear the terrible twos are so terrible because children don't have the ability to express what they want.  So they throw tantrums which drives their parents nuts.  Amy lent me the second dvd in the series.  Alex was 10 months at the time.  We watched it so often, I knew all the songs and all the signs.  The songs would get stuck in my head.... all.... day..... long.  So we got the other three dvds.

I took a baby sign language class when Alex was 4 months old.  The teacher said to begin with sign language at 6-10 months.  So I thought we were late in the game when we started.  After the first couple months, not a single sign came from Alex.  I was starting to wonder if we were wasting our time?  Was he not understanding it?  Until he hit about 13-14 months.  Then Alex could sign the theme song.  He knew if he signed "Baby", "Sign", "Time", he could watch it.

Alex is now almost 17 months old.  In the last 2 weeks he's starting to sign more and I am getting sooo excited!!  It started with "all done", which he can sign and say verbally.  Now he can sign, "please", "thank you", "bubbles", "more", "food", "hot", and "apple".

The dvds are awesome.  They show the word,  the spelling, how to do the sign, and the object of the sign. It also shows kids doing the sign (so you know what to expect from a child signing) and it shows your child, other children doing it.

Three days ago, Alex pointed behind me and said, "nah nah".  He followed it with the sign for "banana".  If I had not seen the sign, I probably wouldn't have figured it out.  Kids talk so much jibberish, it's hard to understand when they're actually trying to communicate.  He then ate one and a half bananas.  My little monkey...

Right now Alex says, "bah bah" for balloon, "da da" and "ma ma", "hi", "bye", "all done" and "mo mo" for Elmo.. and now "nah nah" for banana.

Sign language allows him to communicate words which are too difficult for him to say.  And right now, the words he can sign are far more important and useful than the words he is learning to say verbally.  So if anyone is wondering if sign language is a valuable tool?  I'm here to say it is.   Alex asks to watch Baby Signing Time 2-3 times a day.  It's the only tv he watches.  Half the time he plays while listening to the songs, he loves it.

And it's all thanks to Thomas.

Organizing for the Holidays

Yesterday I realized there was less than a week til Christmas.

That's when my anxiety started to hit the roof.

I looked at my to do list, it seemed so long and overwhelming.

So I sorted myself out using some techniques I used in planning my wedding and I got myself on track.

I hope this will help you to.

1. Divide list between urgent, important, and after the holidays.  Try to make the after the holidays list as long as possible.  Everything else on the list should be either urgent, which means it needs to be done asap, or important, which means it needs to be done before the holidays.

2.  Take the after the holidays list and hide it (This is most of my normal day to day to do list.  I'll pick it back up next week.)

3.  Now mark everything on the urgent and important list if can be done fast.  If it's fast and urgent? That's where you start.  If it's fast and important, it's up to you whether it should be done quickly to make your list shorter and less overwhelming.  I recommend getting as many fast things done asap.

4.  Next mark your urgent and important things: at home, on the computer, or out of the house.  That way you are working on all of your computer things together and running all your errands together.

5.  Now that your list is organized, start with your urgent list and work down through the important list.

6.  Last bit of advice is: keep a notepad.  I usually find random things come up.  I forget them, and then they keep coming up.  ie.  we are out of sponges and pepper.  I will never remember these details.  Write down normal day to day things so they can be added to your out of the house list.  We are going to need pepper and sponges before Christmas.  So don't forget your day to day life, you don't want that adding to the stress.

If you need help figuring out what to get your friends and family for Christmas read The Perfect Holiday Present.  It will help keep you from feeling embarrassed when you hand a loved one a gift.  I hope these suggestions will help ease the stress of the holiday season.  Happy Holidays!

How to find the Perfect Holiday Present....

Every year, like everyone else, I make a list of the family and friends who I want to get Christmas presents for.  I try to think of what to get them and every year, too close to Christmas (and usually after I've already gotten them a Christmas presents), I think, I should have asked them a couple questions so I know what to get them.

Here are two lists.  One where you can ask yourself some questions about the person, to see if you can figure a present out yourself, and a second list of questions to ask them, to get ideas for the perfect present.

I found a list online of questions to ask yourself.  Here is the link and here it is below:

 http://www.reindeerland.org/christmas-gift-ideas/christmas-gift-questionnaire.htm

Christmas Gift Questionnaire

Take all of the following questions into consideration to help you
select a suitable Christmas Present!

1. How much can you spend?
2. How old is the person that you wish to buy the gift for?
3. Is it a gift for a man or woman?
4. What does the person do during their leisure times in the evening or at weekends?
5. Do they enjoy outdoor or indoor activities?
6. What is their favorite sport?
7. What type of TV programs, movies or books would interest them? Comedies, romance, action, horror or dramas?
8. Are they a music lover?
9. Are they car crazy?
10. Are they a gadget guru?
11. Are they in to Computers or Electronics?
12. Do they like clothes? Are they fashion conscious? Are they well dressed?
13. Are they a proud parent / grandparent?
14. Do they like animals? Have they got a pet?
15. Are they into health and fitness? Do they love the gym?
16. Do they like to be pampered?
17. Are they into gossip and celebrities?
18. Do they enjoy going out to the theatre or movies?
19. Are they into Home improvements - DIY etc?
20. Do they enjoy gardening
21. Do they love plants or flowers?
22. Are they travel enthusiasts? Do they love trains, boats or planes?
23. Would they enjoy unusual experiences?
24. Are they into photography? Or treasure family photos?
25. Do they enjoy history and nostalgia?
26. Do they enjoy cards or board games?
27. Would they like some type of memorabilia? Keepsake presents?
28. Do they enjoy enjoy eating and drinking well?
29. What is their favorite food and drink?
30. What does the person do for a living? Professional? Office? Trade? Retired?
31. Do they enjoy model making or crafts? Are they artistic?
32. Would they appreciate a religious or spiritual themed
33. What has the person already got?
34. What would the person really like?
35. What type of gift would you like to buy them?
     - A Practical gift
     - A Funny Gift
     - An Unusual gift
     - A Personalized Gift
     - A gift they would not buy themselves!
     - A gift related to their business?
     - A present related to a hobby or interest?
36. Remember that whatever gift or present you choose to buy they will be even more appreciated if they are beautifully wrapped!

Still don't know what to get?  Now, I know some have the concern if they ask a family members some questions, their family members might be offended you don't know what to get them.  Every year my Mom demands a Christmas list, this year when my sister made her Christmas list on Amazon, I got an e-mail from my mom saying, "See!  Your sister did it!"  And, I'm 32 years old....

Chances are, if you don't know what to get them, they don't know what to get you.  If you visit someone often you can see what their house may be missing, or they might say they wish they had something, but I assure you, if you don't know what to get them, they are probably wondering the same for you.  If you ask a couple questions, it shows you are interested in getting them something they would like and that is a good thing!

Here is 20 questions to ask.

Pick up the phone.  Yes, that thing you text and Facebook on and forget has a dial tone... pick up the phone and call your family member.  The reason?  You can tell in their inflection as to whether or not, what you are asking, is something they are interested in receiving, and that will really help.  If you e-mail them a list of questions, chances are, they won't fill it out and return it to you, so pick up the phone.

1. For a quick meal where do you go?  On lunch break?  On weekends?
2. For a nice restaurant, where do you go?  Are there chain restaurants you like? 
3. Do you like fancy coffee to make at home or go out for coffee?  Where?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. What is your favorite color to wear?
6. Would you prefer a sweater or jacket?  Size?
7. Casual shirts or going out shirts?  Size?
8. What are you most comfortable wearing?  Size? 
9. Do you need robes, slippers, belts, socks, purse, wallet?
10. Do you need shoes or boots?  What size?  What color?
11. Do you prefer candy or chocolate?  What kind?
12. Do you prefer body wash/bubble bath or perfume?
13. Is there any jewelry you need?  Earrings?  Necklace?  Bracelet?  Watch?  What kind?  What color?
14. What do you do for fun?
15. Books?  What kind?  Romance, Comedy, Action, Horror, Drama?  Paperback or E-book?
16. Movies?  DVDs or theater?  Which theater?
17. What is your favorite drink?  Favorite drink to make at home?
18. Do you need any appliances or need anything for the kitchen?
19. Do you need anything for your home?
20. Do you need anything for work?  Clothes?  Shoes?  

Once you know what to get, try to get a couple different presents, practical, funny, and eatable.  Usually I'm not excited to receive gift cards. But, when I'm at a place I can use them, I am.  Give something they could be excited about immediately.  Or, if you are off base and got them something they don't like, if you give a couple things, you are more likely to give them something they do like.
 
Before you pick up the phone, go through the list and see which questions you actually want to ask.  All questions might not apply.  I highly recommend not asking someone who doesn't drink, what kind of drink they like.  Just a suggestion.

The good think about asking a variety of questions is, they have no idea what you are going to get them.  The good think about doing it on the phone is, they won't remember what questions you asked, and maybe, what answers they gave.

For next year, keep a list all year of gift ideas for your friends and family.  That might make the gift giving easier.  It's also a good idea to keep a list for yourself, because in the middle of February when I think, "Man, I'd really like a massage" when it hits Christmas, my birthday, or an anniversary, I can tell people what I'd like for a present and make their gift giving a little easier.

Happy Holidays!!  Have a wonderful holiday season!