Felt Super Hero Capes

A few weeks ago, my son turned 4.  He wanted to have a Super Hero/Hulk birthday party.  His birthday is after Christmas, which usually means I am a bit out of  a slacker when it comes to planning his party.  I wanted something for the kids to be able to take home that wasn't a goodie bag full of candies and toys that will break within moments.  The capes were a perfect idea.

I checked out a few pins, but this one seemed to be the easiest, minimal sewing tutorial.

Source: quiltedturtle.blogspot.com via Kate on Pinterest

I bought felt by the yard and velcro.  After cutting all the capes, I just had to sew about an inch of velcro onto the cape.  Then I used scrap felt to make circles (I traced a small bowl to get the correct size) and I cut out the first initial of every kid who was attending.  I made extra circles so the kids had lots of colors to choose from.

Each kid go to pick their cape and circle color.  We used felt glue to glue the pieces together during the party.  I also bought a few bags of foam star stickers so the kids could decorate the capes.  I think this was a big hit!

Making A Mess With Slime

Source: ourbestbites.com via Kate on Pinterest

Sometimes I have to let go of my internal control freak and let my kids get good and messy.  My daughter has been begging me to do a science experiment, something fun and hands on, so I decided to try making slime with the kids today.  4 ingredients, easy to follow steps.

All the ingredients can be found at grocery stores, Target, Walmart... anywhere that sells laundry detergent is likely to have Borax.  If you already make your own detergents, then you've got it on hand.
I couldn't find clear glue while I was at the store, so we used the cheapest kids glue we could find (.34 cents!).

At first I thought I had a major Pinterest failure.  My "slime" was slimy alright... and soupy.  VERY soupy.  However, after many many minutes of mixing by hand, my kids were able to make it more like the solid substance that was pictured on the pinned post.  Of course, my kids had a blast no matter what it was like!

I put the slime in an airtight container and am anxious to find out how long the slime lasts before I have to make a new batch.  Regardless, the kiddos want different colored slime, so we will surely be making this again!

Chalkboard Paint

Chalkboard Paint.  You know you want to try it!! So many pins out there about chalkboard paint.  You can put it on ANYTHING! It's fun! And it is a craft for YOU, not just kids.

Source: abeautifulmess.typepad.com via Kate on Pinterest

And good news, super easy.   Warning... you only need about 1 TBSP non-sanded grout or less to make a small batch (which goes a long way).  However, the smallest box I could find was huge and will probably last me a lifetime and then some.  I will be sharing my wealth of non-sanded grout!

I saw one website, unfortunately forgot to pin, that suggested you mix the grout with a tiny bit of water before adding the paint.  I did this, and I'm glad, it wasn't clumpy at all! If you do this, just make sure to use the TINIEST amount, I can imagine using too much would make your paint too runny.

I used 2 2oz containers of paint from Joanns (89 cents each!). You can use ANY color you like, I decided to go with classic black. I wasn't feeling too adventuresome.  Within seconds, my batch was ready!  I have lots left over, so next time I will only make 1 container.  Here are my newly painted jars (counting down daddy's time away from us), and wine glasses!

So many fun things to do with your paint!

Source: etsy.com via Kate on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Kate on Pinterest

Source: inspirationforhome.blogspot.com via Kate on Pinterest

(So doing this last pin when the kids are old enough to play scrabble!)

Handmade Children's Belts

Source: handmademommy.blogspot.com via Kate on Pinterest

Sometimes the smallest things can make the outfit.  For my daughter, she loves to wear belts with her pants. She doesn't really NEED them, but she likes them and I can't say no.  I could not find belts that we liked last year, so I just bought some cheap ones that, of course, peeled paint off of and looked kind of icky after a few months. I saw a friend post pictures of some homemade belts she made for her sons and I thought, gee, I can do that!!

Since I have creative kids who find solid colors boring, I looked at this tutorial for something a little different:

Source: craftychicmommy.blogspot.com via Kate on Pinterest

I took the kids to Joann's and let them pick out their favorite ribbons.  (This could also be a great project to use up ribbons you have stashed up!)

Then, silly me, forgot to look at this tutorial when I actually sat down to MAKE the belts... so the ribbon doesn't wrap around to the other side... oops. Thankfully my kids love what I do, even with I mess up. Ah unconditional love. It's awesome!

Jello Playdough

Coco here....

Soooooo I have a couple of bored little kids today, and I thought I would try another pin I've been eyeing.

Jello Playdough!!

The link from the original pin is:

Source: playdoughrecipe.org via Kate on Pinterest

I made a few amendments, based on the comments.  By the way, tip for any sort of pin activity, ALWAYS READ THE COMMENTS!!  It will invariably save you a lot of grief...  The recipe omits to mention that you need to cook the ingredients,  and per the comments, make sure that it is on LOW heat, this stuff burns easily.  I also used a large non-stick frying pan (as suggested in the comments) and I'm glad I did, as I'm pretty sure it made clean-up a thousand times easier.  Here are the supplies I used.  (all stuff I already had lying around, which makes it about 12000 times more likely that I will actually do something):

I used Olive Oil instead of Baby Oil.  A. I already had some. B. My kids aren't inclined to eat play-dough, as a rule, but they know this one was made with Jello, and it would not surprise me if they gave it a try.

I mixed all the ingredients together, threw them in the pan, and stirred.  And stirred.  And stirred.  It took a while.  Once it balls together in the pan, plop it out onto a piece of wax paper.  Don't be an idiot, like I was, and put it on the wrong side.  *sigh*  Oh well, it was an easy enough fix...

Ok, the dough has cooled.  Be aware, you will need to add a LOT of flour to get it into non-sticky play dough consistency.  There is also a lot of kneading involved.  Much like a fairly sticky bread dough.  Here are the results:

It doesn't look like much, but the kids are currently playing with it, and seem to really like it.  The olive oil also means that my hands feel smooth and soft after all that kneading. ;)  I don't know how well it will keep, but the comments suggest that an airtight, refrigerated container will keep it pretty well.  We shall see....

Verdict:  Success!

Microwave Cleaning Made Easy

                                                                     Source: onegoodthingbyjillee.com via Kate on Pinterest

The microwave is one of my least favorite things to clean.  But thanks to the this super easy tutorial, I may actually not  mind cleaning my microwave

All I needed was 1 cup of vinegar (which I buy in bulk at Costco because it seems you can do just about anything with plain ol' vinegar!), and a cup of water. Microwave for 10 minutes. Wipe out the microwave. 

NO SCRUBBING

NO EFFORT

Could cleaning a microwave get any easier??  You can bet my microwave will be clean from now on! 

Here is a photo of my results.  

Shower Caulk Mold Removal

Hi everybody!  This is coco, and it is my first post!  When my bestest bud told me about her idea for this blog, I thought it was an awesome idea, and promised to contribute to it. Erm, three months ago.  I'm not what you might call "super on the ball" these days...  At any rate, I was mucking about on pinterest last week, pinned a few totally awesome ideas, and realized that I will never ever do them.  Ever.  Soooooooooo, I am going to try to start actually doing some of the things that I'm pinning.  *Gasp*  I know.  Quelle concept...  I figure on trying one pin a week, or thereabouts.  That should be doable, as it can be any sort of pin, including recipes, and those are easy to try. 

So.  For my first pin......  (there is a drumroll going in my head, for what it is worth)

Shower Caulk Mold Removal!!

Source: thisblessedlife.net via Kate on Pinterest

I know.  Ew.  I can't stand mold in any form, and the mold that grows on the caulk around a bathtub just makes me start to imagine huge mold colonies forming behind the tile on my bathroom wall.  ew ew ew ew ew.  It is so hard to get rid of, being constantly exposed to moist heat, i.e. mold nirvana...  Hence my excitement when I came across this pin!  The idea is: take a cotton perm coil.  Soak it in bleach.  Line the caulk on the tub with it.  Leave it overnight.  In the morning, remove it, and scrub the heck out of the tub.  Enjoy your sparkling clean, 100% mold free tub.

Let's hope it works that way....  (fingers crossed)

Here is the gross gross before:

My Supplies:

I put bleach in the pie pan, soaked the coils in them, and squeezed them out.  I didn't have them in the photo, but I wore rubber gloves...  Then I laid the cotton along the lines of caulk, and let it sit all day.  My house smelled like a swimming pool.  Was it worth it? See for yourself....

The Results:

That is a crappy picture, taken with my phone, but in person it is even more impressive.  By the way, that involved ZERO scrubbing!  I will be doing my bathtub next...........


Verdict: TOTAL SUCCESS