We have been using this tip for a few years now and it works GREAT!
Sparklers are known to be great fun for kids during the summer and especially during the 4th of July celebrations this time of year. However, they do come with some risks of burns. Keep your kids hands from getting sparked with this tip. Also great so their little fingers don't get too close to the hot end the sparks travel down.
First, sorry about the ugly coloring. Maybe if we would get more sunny and non rainy days here in the midwest this summer, I'd get some decent lighting regularly. Instead, we will just have to deal with the ugly CFL lighting in this video.
The mantel is much too cute not to share though, so bad lighting or not, I hope it inspires you!
My husband is a volunteer fire fighter in our small little village. He takes great pride in it and also takes it very seriously. Anything fire fighter he sees for our kid's is bound to get.
I thought it would be fun to create a fun play space for our kids this year in the backyard and create a fire fighter theme.
I have done videos/tutorial on each of the elements from this space, which I will link down at the bottom of this post, but this is a complete "before and after" tour of the whole space and how it works together.
This was another custom order from a client. She saw this beautiful piece on Shanty 2 Chic's website. I was in for the challenge. It wasn't quite as simple and straight forward as I thought, but we got there!
I made one for quart size jars and one that I custom designed the specs for pint size jars.
They both turned out beautiful and i really love them. They would be just darling for an indoor herb garden, used as vases for fresh flowers, or used to add silverware as an entertaining piece.
Here's a short video with all the details for this build.
I found a beautiful black iron candle chandelier at a yard sale at least 3 years ago. I took it apart and put it in the basement (with other yard sale finds that I just had to have, but hadn't gotten around to recreating yet). There is sat... until this spring when I got around the decorating our front porch.
It was super simple to transform this from candle chandelier to solar light chandelier. See the video tutorial below of how I finally made this piece come to life!
It's held up just fine for 3 months now in the HOT midwest temps, over a week of heavy rains, and even some cold days where we received frost in the later part of May. Gotta love midwest weather, right?
We are adding some new fun activities to the backyard for the kids in a fireman theme. I scored this mini exercise trampoline off a swap site for $10.00!!!
We don't have a big backyard for a giant trampoline and I like that this little guy can be picked up and moved if need be.
Both my 9 year old and 2 year old LOVE this trampoline! They have been using it as part of an obstacle course and it's so cute to see them both playing on it.
You can see how I transformed this from mini trampoline in the video below.
Outside is the place to be for my little boy. This was a new addition to his outside activities - outside building blocks! Ours have fire silhouette's on them because our backyard is being transformed into a fireman theme'd play area.
My idea for these was to not only be able to build with them, but to be able to set them up and have the kids "put the fire out" with water guns and knock them over. I'm sure there are more creative ideas the kids will come up with too!
To see the steps it took to create these block click the video below.
This was our daughter's 9th birthday gift from us. I'm not sure why, but this year it was a little more difficult then years before as far as choosing a gift. She's pretty easy to buy for, but we try to find things that are meaningful and relevant to her life at whatever age she is at. She is getting into the electronics and money phase, but I'm just not ready for all that yet!
We were wondering through Hobby Lobby one day when she sort of got lost in the fairy garden area day dreaming away. I made a mental note that this could be the special gift we were looking for!
She turned 9 on May 24th and she was so excited when she opened her gift of all the tiny little fairy accessories.
It became a mother/daughter project one afternoon as we set up her very own fairy garden in the our backyard. She has gone out each day to check on it and adjust things. It's almost like her own little house that she can tend to and redecorate. It is just very cute.
You can see all the details of her fairy garden in the video below.
I have made many signs, even signs I'd had pieced together with scrap wood, but this was a true - tear a pallet apart and use the wood - kind of sign! It was exciting!
Can I say, what a pain it was though!? Ha! I could get the nails or staples out so I pulled out the jigsaw and just cut pieces off. It seemed to work just fine, unless you are wanting longer pieces for bigger signs.
I wanted a sign for my porch so I stenciled "Life is better on the porch" onto the wood and it turned out just darling! I have more wood and need to make some more sign!
To see the steps I used to make this sign see the video below.
Decorating my mantel is one of my all time favorite updates to the look of my home.
I love that you can change a few things around and create a whole new look. Using things from around the house and maybe adding a new thing here and there.
I think the turquoise and white is a beautiful blend for the summer season. I hope you can draw inspiration from my mantel design.
See a walking tour of all the details in the video below.
I am proud to say that not only did I go to the hardware store to buy the wood on my own, but me and my 9 year old daughter built this all by ourselves!
If we can do it, anyone can!
The real prize for this project is finally planting the seeds and plants!
To see the whole process of how we built the garden box in the photo above, click the video below!
I'm a little frugal when it comes to grocery shopping.
I've learned over the years what the best prices are on different food products and chicken is one that I always wait till it hits under $2.00 a pound before I buy. The rock bottom price around our area is $1.77/ lb.
Here are more tips for buying chicken and cooking chicken to save you money!
This was definitely a Pinterest love at first sight DIY project.
I ended up just kind of making up the directions as I went along, which you'll see all of that in the video below. It's a fairly simple design and can be decorated in lots of different ways to fit your home's decor. Would also make a wonderful gift! (This was my Mother's Day gift to my mom this year!)
Teaching through play is the way to go with toddlers. With a now two year old, these opportunities are often right there you just have to take the time to teach.
The three things in my toddlers life that make him happy right now are Popsicle, bubbles, and play dough. He's happy happy happy if he has any one of those things. I often use play dough to teach things such as colors, counting, and in the video below - using his fine motor skills.
I hope this quick little, very informal video, inspires some of you!
It seems like most of my DIY projects lately involve paint. Mainly basic acrylic paint. However, I think this tip would be a great help to those that have any kind of messy DIY project (to a certain degree).
I have used this tip for a long time and thought it was time to share with all of you!
Check out the video below for all the details! (Sorry the video is rough, but thought the tip was worth still posting!)
My daughter chose to have her ice skating themed party the moment she went with Girl Scouts in January! Her birthday is May 24th and I decided to just book it right then and there since May 24th fell on Memorial Day weekend. I didn't want to chance it being booked closer to time.
So this party has been set in stone for months now!
She could NOT wait.
I bought a printable party package off Etsy and used many many of the included items such as:
-Favor tags
-Welcome signs
-Water bottle wraps
-Tent signs
- Banners
-Centerpiece circles
-Mini candy bar wraps
-Straw flags
- and MORE!
I just printed what I wanted and needed from the set and pieced it all together.
So even though we've had this party planned for a long time, the prep didn't start till about a week ahead of time. WE ARE BUSY. It was a rush rush type thing.
We had rules with the venue that we weren't able to put anything on the walls, so I had to find a way around that (which you'll see in the video). We also only had 30 minutes to set up! I KNOW!!! That's insane! I like to take a whole day to adjust and readjust... I was sad about this. But it make me keep things simple, quick, and easy too - which, for once, was nice!
Even though we kept it fairly simple, we added plenty of special details to make sure it was personalized for our ice princess.
So even though this post is about the decor from our ice skating themed party, I also need to add how much FUN it was! From little ones, to the girls, to the adults, we ALL had a total blast! We laughed, and fell, and cheered each other on, and smiled and smiled. I highly recommend ice skating parties!
So now, onto the party details in video form! Enjoy!
I wanted something... different for my daughter's ice skating birthday party for favors. Something, useful.
I made sure I told everyone to remember to dress warm and to bring their socks - but figured most wouldn't bundle up for winter with it being 85 degree outside.
So I came up with the great idea to provide a scarf to each guest! Not only cute but useful. Perfect!
What was even more perfect - they only cost me $.63 each! Not even kidding!
It cost $7.50 for the fleece to make 12 scarves. And I over bought the pink fleece for the flowers, so it really could have been even cheaper! Crazy right!?
All the girls loved them and wore them. Success!
I've included a video tutorial below of how I made the scarves and the twisted fleece flowers that I embellished the fronts with.
