Easter Egg Rolling Maze

We had a great time today doing {This Little Project}. We started with some cardboard rolls from our invention box.

Colored them:

Cut them in half and added magnet strips to them:

And then arranged them over and over on the side of the fridge to make the tiny plastic Easter eggs roll down just right (you can also use JELLY BEANS :)

We got an art lesson, gravity lesson, sharing lesson, and some engineering going on-all while PLAYING! It's great to be a kid!

Friday Favorites and Freebies-Easter Edition

Happy Spring and Easter to you! Enjoy these fun ideas :)

A gift for your favorite "peeps!"

A "peeps" bunny garland to make (so cute!)

A power point about the true meaning of Easter.

A fun table setting idea.

How to make a lamb pillow (darling!)

Have a great weekend!

Green Rice Treasure-Hunting Fun

My kids LOVE our rice box. It's like a sandbox for the winter. I hide treasures in it and and they scoop and fill and play with shrieks of, "Look Mom, what I found!"

I put olympic things in recently as well as some fun St. Patrick's day "gold" and other spring fun into our GREEN RICE. The color makes it even more fun!

To see the post about how to color your rice, click here. We've made rice to match many fun holidays-it's a really fun {Little Project}.

This week our science experiment is making "gold" you can check out the details for making your own pennies shiny as gold here and here.

Here's more St. Patrick's Fun from previous posts.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to YOU!

A new {LITTLE} baby Project

We have a new {Little} person at our house! It's a GIRL! What a beautiful surprise our little "Ellie" is (yes, now we're alphabetical: "Jay," "Kay," and "Ellie" :)

I may not find my way to the computer quite as often for a few weeks. Be sure to subscribe on the right side-bar so you will get an email when new {Little Projects} are posted!

Friday Favorites and Freebies-baby edition

To celebrate our new little arrival "Elle" I've collected a few free baby favorites for you to enjoy this weekend :)

Have a T-shirt? Make it into a baby shirt here!

If you have a baby boy you know what tee pee you can make here :)

Want to make your own soft baby blocks, here is a pattern.

A great tutorial for making a diaper bag.

These Bitty Booties are SEW CUTE!

Have fun spoiling a little one with these fun Little Projects!

Carseat Canopy-Upcycling Project

I love the idea of these little car seat canopies for keeping baby out of the wind and away from germs and people. I decided to make one to match our carseat out of fabric I already had on hand-which included a medium sized pair of brown pants and a men's button-up shirt-since I am LOVING upcycling lately.

I had a great time with using the design features of the shirt (buttons, pocket, cuffs) and it's a fun way to use Daddy's shirt for baby!

Here's how to make {This Little Project.} I didn't put every detail in, so if you have questions let me know :)

Start by cutting the front and the back of the shirt from the sleeves of this men's XL shirt:

And from the neck:

Then cut the back of the shirt the same way. This photo shows that after it's cut from the sleeves and neck you cut it in half and sew one half to each side of the front to make the front panel larger.

Now I have the front panel of the canopy from the shirt-now to add the border from the pants to create the right size (36"x 42"). Reusing fabric is a great way to keep the cost of materials down for your projects :)

But first...look how perfect the cuffs from the sleeves are for loops to attach it to the car seat! I love being able to use the design features of the "old" in the new Project!

Just cut them from the sleeve, add some rick rack and move the button over so they are just the perfect size. Easy!

This is what the canopy looks like with the brown border on it.

The brown fabric came from this pair of pants-yes you can use fabric AGAIN! (bad photo-taken at night after my kids were in bed, since of course that's the best time for getting some projects done :)

I used the front and back of each leg to create the 4 sides of the border.

When I was done cutting this is all that was left-it feels good to use things well :)

After sewing the border to the shirt it looks like this (not ironed of course :)

Next use a yard of a coordinating fabric to back it, sewing right sides together. Then top stitch around the outside of the brown border.

I love how the buttons from the shirt go across the middle. It's a fun design feature-especially for a boy baby. It's hard to add fun without it looking girly sometimes, but this worked well. I sewed between the buttons so they would lie flat. Then sewed the cuffs centered in so it would hang like this:

You can see the front pocket from the shirt in the bottom of the photo below. I sewed some velcro to it so it closes. Now it's an extra "hiding place" for a binkie or nursing pad :)

This was a fun and useful {Little Project} that was fun to design as I went along. Now if the baby would just come so we can use it :) 3 days and counting......