Want to Help with the Gulf Oil Mess too?

Craft Hope Spreading seeds of hope one stitch at a time
My heart aches every time I read or see anything about the mess of oil that has been created. It's devastating and I keep wondering what I can do to help. I love the Craft Hope projects and am so excited to get involved to help make towels to send. The towels will be used to help clean dolphins and other marine animals. The deadline to join in has been extended to the end of August!! I know my kids are excited to help too. If you would like to participate (and I hope you do!), check out the details on their blog.
It's a {Little Project} that sure means a lot!

Words

I know it's summer and that means that school is out, but that doesn't mean that learning has to stop, right? So I'll go ahead and share what we're doing with words right now.
This activity works on these skills:
WRITE
READ
CUT
SPELL
CELEBRATE!
(sorry it's sideways-I can't get it to switch!)

Jay has pretty good handwriting, but he likes uppercase better. And let's face it, worksheets are boring! So we're happy to have a place to practice and put his words: in a "Words Can" (a covered oatmeal can and a slit cut in the lid).

This is how {This Little Project} works:
1- First we choose some of his favorite words. I help by suggesting words we're using in other learning. For instance: plant names, insects, friends' names, vacation words, seasons, etc.

2-Then I write a word on each line of this paper

3- Then he copies the word next to it. Sometimes he gets to WRITE it a few times so he has extra practice.

4-Then he puts a sticker next to the words with the best handwriting to CELEBRATE what a good job he did.

5-Then he CUTS OUT the words with the best handwriting.

6-And puts those best words in the "Word Can."

7-Later, while I'm making dinner or feeding the baby, or otherwise sort-of occupied but not totally, I can take one word out at a time and ask him to SPELL it to me. If it's easy to spell he can discard the word to make room for new words to go in the Word Can. To CELEBRATE you could have the child color with his favorite colored pencil over the letters again to reinforce the writing and show that it was mastered.

8-Or I can ask him to take the words out and READ them to me to practice his reading. If it's easy to read he can discard the word to make room for new words to go in the Word Can. Again, to CELEBRATE you could have the child write with his favorite colored pencil over the letters again to reinforce the writing and show that it was mastered.

That way we get a lot of fun with words that mean something personal, which is a lot more motivating and makes a fun {Little Project}!

Tiara Time (in 10 minutes!)

My sister came to visit and to meet little Ellie. She loves dress up things and brought this darling tiara that she had made for Kay. It was such a fun {Little Project} that she said she would share it!

note: this is a quick {Little Project} and young girls would love to make one with some help from an adult!

To make {This Little Project} you need:
a roll of sheer ribbon
a headband
beads (number depends on the size of them.) You don't want to use heavy beads.
thin wire (thin enough to fit through the holes of your beads)
hot glue gun

1- Cut your ribbon into strips (the length will depend on the thickness of your headband.
2- Seal the ends of the ribbon to prevent fraying (hold near a candle-but be careful!)
3- Tie a simple knot with each piece of ribbon around the headband and arrange as you go.
4-String beads onto the wire.
5- Twist the wire so that you have three or four circles coming above-check to make sure you are centered on the headband. Twist like you would for a bag of bread so that they hold their shape (hope that makes sense!) See photo :)

6- Hot glue the string of beads along the top of the headband and let cool.
7- Dress up that little princess! Or make it a sweet gift for a little one in your life!
Thanks Mar for sharing that fun {Little Project} with us!

Friday Favorites and Freebies

Happy Friday! Here are a few Favorites and Freebies from around the web.

Our garden is growing and these tips for organic pest control are worth a try.

Need a fun way to practice geography? Try playing Tetris with countries or states-really fun! (from Julie)

I LOVE this ribbon organizing idea and it even LOOKs cute!

If you're up for a yummy recipe to try, don't miss these EASY chimichangas the sauce is awesome!

I'm always looking for an excuse to have a party. This is a list of holidays for everyday of the year-you'll find lots of excuses :)

Have a great weekend!

Easy Decorating Ideas

I have a few decorating {Little Projects}we've done lately to share with you. We've moved twice in the past 3 years and I'm excited to be able to say we plan to be here for awhile because it's made decorating a lot more fun!

It's always a challenge to combine functional with cute. These hooks for dress-up got us both in Kay and Ellie's room. They are a fun way to store and display their dress-up clothes. (I found these hooks at Hobby Lobby.)

No-Sew Curtains!
If you move often, one of the problems you have is that your curtains don't fit the next house. We got around that problem by using side hooks and one long piece of fabric as the curtain. Bonus: You don't have to sew anything!
Actually, I did hem the ends of them but I'm sure I could have used fabric glue instead :)
This window treatment has been the same in three houses even though
the windows were all very different:
My husband even put the curtains up! I will eventually get around to arranging it a little differently, but it's easy enough that he feels like even he can put it up! Just wrap the corners around the sides and let it hang. We've done the same in the master bedroom. I have two fabrics that overlap with the same idea (but much nicer fabrics :)

I painted this dresser/changing table for Jay's room 4 years ago. Now that it's in Kay and Ellie's room the knobs didn't match. One of the EASIEST decor changes you can make is to change the knobs. A trip to the store and 10 minutes got us from this:

To this:

These knobs are from Hobby Lobby ($1.50 each on sale). This dresser looks great again!
If you have some decor ideas to share, please leave a comment with a link. I'd love to see what you've done!

I'll be sharing how to make an easy and CUTE Tiara (see dress-up photo above) this coming week...see you back here in a few days!

Friday Favorites and Freebies-Father's Day Edition

Well, we're mostly unpacked and loving being homeowners for the first time! I'm coming out of the mess of packing paper and boxes to share some fun ideas for Father's Day with you from around the web. Enjoy!

This is an easy and fun way to do hand prints with your kiddos.

We all know that our men love yumminess. Here is a great recipe for frosting a cake to celebrate the big day.

Try out these sweet versions of hamburgers and fries for a fun twist!

We're doing a variation on this idea for Father's Day-a cute photo holder just for Dad!

I love this T-shirt design for Me and Mini Me. Check it out to order or make :)

Happy Friday!
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