{Mom & Big Sis Spring Tops}

Made by Rae posted a great Spring Top tutorial on Sew Mama Sew! Very easy. Very fun. Very comfortable.





Check out Made by Rae all week-she's featuring a different spring top to make each day, along with readers' creations! Look for Belle & me-and let me know if you try one!


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Are you the Mom who's always taking pictures and look back only to realize you aren't IN any of them? Do your kids look through photo albums and ask "Where were you Mommy?" Well, Carin over at Forever in Blue Jeans decided to change all that and challenges any one who's interested to do the same. So hand over the camera, or at least figure out the self-timer and get on the other side of the lens more often. Post your photos of you enjoying time with your family every Thursday and share the link with other Mom's by posting it on Carin's blog. You can start any time with week 1 of 52, don't worry about being "behind" just jump on in.

I Can't Hear You!

Boo and I played a little game this weekend. It goes like this:

Me: (mouthing) I love you.
Boo: I can't hear you.
Me: (barely audible) I love you.
Boo: I can't hear you!
Me: (whispering) I love you!
Boo: I can't hear you!
Me: (now audible) I love you!
Boo: I can't hear you!
Me: (shouting) I LOVE YOU!!!!
Boo: Oh, okay. (giggling)

After about our third round of this, I realized this wasn't just a game we were playing.

A few weeks ago, he asked me if I loved him. I cringe as I admit this, but my smiling, but sarcastic response was,

"What do you think? I make your breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday and make sure your bed has clean sheets each Monday morning." and I did not say, but meant, "so obbbbb-viously, I love you, right?"

But a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to a hungry child does not scream, I LOVE YOU. This is barely audible love, if not at times, simply mouthing love.

What my son needs from his mother right now, and every day is, kissing, cuddling, and silly, conversations that scream I LOVE YOU!



So from our little weekend game, I am motivated this week to shout my love to my boy, and my other boy, and my girl. I pray they hear and giggle with me.

{Creatively Frugal Craft Space Organization}

Been Spring Cleaning...I don't have a Craft Room, but I take up my share of real estate for sewing/crafting in our game room. So in giving my space a little more organization, I've been searching for FREE ways to organize all my loot. Here are a few of my favorite ideas:

~The Peanut Butter Jars I mentioned Wednesday:


~Urns for brushes, baby food jars for buttons


~Cereal Boxes for magazines, clipped ideas, sewing patterns

Photos:Craftzine

~A Pocket Organizer for tools, spools, supplies
Photo:Burda

~Repurposed, repainted & stenciled Hat/Gift Boxes

Photo:Domestic Diva

~Tiered Wire Basket, Hanging Fruit Baskets

Photo:Country Living

~New Life for Old Furniture

Photo:Quaint Handmade

~An Old Ladder for fabric

Photo:A Day in the Life of Ramona

I'm totally hooked on frugal friday ideas! For more check out Julia's Hooked on Houses Linky Party and Wendy's Shabby Nest Frugal Friday Party! Have a great weekend,

{What We're Doing Today}

For more Wordless Wednesdays stop by 5 Minutes for Mom. On Thursday, check out the linky party for 52 Weeks.

{Tissue Boxes and Toilet Paper Rolls}

Some weeks ago, a friend was over and saw my bottlecap and cork collection in a kitchen cabinet. When she asked what I was saving them for, I told her that you never know when you'll wish you'd been saving things to make something else. What I didn't tell her was that I was also collecting toilet paper rolls for the same reason. And tissue boxes. And peanut butter jars.

You see, I live with an obsessive crafter. Okay, she's five, but she needs supplies.

And since we had a few rainy days last week and a few days of mommy's-sick-and-not-going-anywhere-days, this is what eight toilet paper rolls and a tissue box makes:

Although, while I was saving tissue boxes, and toilet paper rolls, I had to find places to store them, or use them in the meantime. And I found some real uses for them:


Toilet paper and paper towel rolls make great craft room organizers! I:

*Roll loose ribbon around;

*Use them like napkin rings to keep fat quarters and remnant fabric pieces stored in baskets.



Tissue boxes can be found in my:

*bathrooms, under the sinks to keep grocery bags for when I empty the wastebaskets;

*laundry room, to stick dryer lint. If I keep this til winter, I'll have free fire starter!

See more Works For Me Wednesdays at We Are That Family
See more Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom
See more Kid Friendly Fridays at I Blame My Mother

{Out Sick}

Be back soon.

{Getting in the Picture}

Have you heard about 52 Weeks?

Besides being the number of weeks in a year, in Blogland, it's a year long challenge for Moms to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We're always the ones behind the camera. And Carin from Forever in Blue Jeans is challenging moms to get out from behind the camera and get in the photos WITH our family.

Jump into the challenge whenever you can, and visit Carin's blog every Thursdays for a Mr. Linky party!


And since Carey's has been doing it, and Amanda's been doing a year-long photo challenge, I'm jumping in this week:



and to show I'm not playing faves...here's one of Baby from the same day...


How do you capture everyday moments for the sake of making memories?

{Here's How I Do Giveaways-Bjorn Slip Cover #2}

Last week, after I posted my Baby Bjorn Slip Cover,

care said...
How much are you selling them for? Can I place an order?

I don't plan giveaways, but I {LOVE LOVE LOVE} comments. And if my project was cheap enough and easy enough, and you liked it enough to comment, you just may find something in your mailbox sometime later...



...it also doesn't hurt to be my cousin who just had bouncing baby boy number 3.

{Wrapping Up The World of Little House}

or Little House Lesson Plans for Weeks 4-10,
but that makes me look like I dropped the ball or something...

Week 4- We read Winter Days in the Big Woods, made "Thimble pictures" (drew in salt in a pie plate with a thimble on our fingers), tasted warm rolls and played "Hide the Thimble."


Week 5- We read Dance at Gramdpa's, strung beads on hemp twine for necklaces. Then we feasted on winter prairie party foods- sour pickles, beet pickles, dried fruit, hot apple cider and cookies. I asked the students, knowing the time of year Grandpa hosted the party, why was all the food preserved, pickled or dried? Next semester, I may try to teach them a waltz...


Week 6 - We read A Little House Birthday, painted wooden toys and discussed the differences in the gifts we received for our fifth birthdays and the gifts prairie children likely received.


Week 7- We read Prairie Day, made covered wagon models ($1.99 from craft stores) and "packed our wagons" according to the weights from this site. This was a fun, full class. Typical westbound wagons could carry 2000 pounds on the average 4 month journey. I had students work in groups to determine what supplies they would need without going over the weight budget.

Week 8- We read A Little Prairie House, made a scrapbook paper quilt and lincoln log pioneer town. I used this site's information to discuss what typical buildings were in pioneer towns. Amazon and other online stores have 700 piece sets for under $20 (search Yukon Express or follow that link). This was our kids Christmas gift last year!


Week 9-We read Summertime in the Big Woods and cross-stitched projects to be entered into our Class County Fair next week.

Week 10- We read County Fair. This was such a fun book to end the semester. We made ribbons to award ourselves! Some of the girls brought treats for us to "judge." One brought an apple pie-quite impressive for 2nd grade, I must say! We also tasted jams, jellies, preserves (which I now know the differences in, thankyouverymuch, good teacher that I am). Then we took the fair outside to run some three-legged races and potato sack races.

{Spring Art:: Rubber-band Prints}

This morning, after a record breaking whirl of schoolwork, the kids and I made rubber-band prints.



We each drew a simple picture on a piece of heavy cardboard. Then "drew" over the picture with a glue stick. When our picture is good and sticky, we used bits and pieces of rubber-bands to outline the image.



I'm thinking of doing this again with Boo with letters as our images. He's quite into letters at the moment...he sees them in everything!



Once the glued band pieces dried, we painted over our stamps with tempera and stamped them onto card-stock.



One thing occurred to me while cleaning up after this little project. I wonder why I have the hardest time getting into sceince projects for my kids. To me, science is too messy. This project was no cleaner than any science we've ever had to do, yet I hardly noticed all the paint-covered fingers. And seriously, I was freaking out about the water splashing all over the floor when we did the Sink or Float experiment. Yet if the water is to wash our brushes, BRING IT ON! I guess that is reason #216 that we are part of a co-op, with other moms who are science-bent!