Art Tiles

The other day at church they had the great idea for the kids to draw on tiles with Sharpies...and the grown ups wrote inspiring words on ours :-)  They were regular old bathroom/floor tiles you can find for a few cents at the hardware store. And any permanent marker would work!

The girls' awesome tiles

I discovered that the Sharpie wiped off easily with fingers, so when we got home we sprayed them with clear spray paint to keep the colors/designs in place.

I had a few other tiles the girls had made at the paint-your-own-pottery place, so I glued them above my closet door for decoration. You could also put them into a frame for a wall hanging :-)

Nature Journals

We were inspired today by a Homemade Simple blog post and a cool children's book about Jane Goodall ("Me...Jane" by Patrick McDonnell). We took a few bucks to the dollar store yesterday for notebooks, pens, tape, butterfly nets, and a cheapo pair of binoculars.

We put everything into a bag with a picnic lunch, water bottles, sunscreen, and our trusty bird field guide and we were good to go!

It was a little toasty but we stayed in the shade. The girls had a blast collecting samples, drawing pictures, and observing all the cool stuff - from the big to the small. They collected everything into their notebooks, which they can build upon in the future! It was a blast!!

Sadie's lizard

Anna's samples

Writing practice

Random Acts of Kindness

I'm grouping this with my Television OFF/Creativity ON campaign because what's better than wasting time with TV than practicing Random Acts of Kindness?

I recently experienced an extreme "RAK" that blew me away. According to the person who did it, it was someone I knew, but they preferred to remain anonymous, so I don't know exactly who it was. Anyways, it really blew me away and inspired me to practice at least one RAK every day. And I'm going to involve my kids as much as possible - what a better way to make the world a better place than teaching kids to be kind?!

I also found this amazing concept called "The Birthday Project," in which a woman spent her birthday doing RAK's - one for every year she was alive (so 38 in total). Having been recently inspired, I'm planning on doing 36 RAK's next week for my own birthday. You can bet yer bottom doller I'm gonna bring my kiddos along for the fun :-)  Her list had a lot of great ideas, although several involved spending more money than I have to spare (giving restaurant-goers gift cards, etc). So I'm going to add to my list a few different ones. Any ideas you readers might have are welcome!! AND, since I'm getting old and my kids (and I) have limited energy supplies, we will most likely take two days to complete the list.

Here's my list so far:
1. Bake (the day before) and deliver homemade cookies to the fire station up the street.
2. Repeat for the police station.
3. Load groceries into cars for shoppers at the local grocery.
4. Purchase the coffee for the person behind me in line.
5. Deliver a homemade lemonade to the kid returning all the carts at the grocery (a particularly rough job here in Tucson AZ in summer).
6. Bring some old clothes/toys to the local children's shelter.
7. Bring homemade pictures to the nursing home up the street.
8. Deliver "Eegee's" fruit slushees (a local favorite) to our favorite nurses (my husband is one and, although he won't be working that day, we have lots of other fabulous nurse friends!)
9. Do chores for our friend who is undergoing chemotherapy.
10. Feed parking meters.
11. Tuck notes (or bookmarks!) saying "Have a Wonderful Day!" in windshield wipers.
12. Write/mail handwritten (ok for me, maybe typed - my handwriting is AWFUL) letters to people we love telling them how much they mean to us
13. Light a candle at church in honor of some family members that passed.
14. Let my kids have "double" (or triple!) books at bedtime (normally they each get two).
15. Make a lemonade stand in the front yard but don't accept any money.
16. Pick up trash in our neighborhood
17. Make a delivery to Goodwill of no-longer-needed items.
18. Plant something.
19. Bring stuffed balloons to the children's floor of a hospital
20. Tape change to a vending machine.
21. Bring cookies to neighbors
22. Cookies/thank you note to mailman.
23. Bring old books/magazines to local used bookstore and give someone the trade credit.
24. Write inspiring words on the sidewalk for walkers to read.
25. Take the dog for an extra long walk.
26. Give everyone in my family a few extra hugs.
27. Pull the weeds in my neighbor's yard.
28. Bring bubbles to the park with my kids and make sure we have extra to share.
29. Tell my friends that in lieu of gifts, I'd prefer a donation be made to a charitable cause.
30. Pass out waterbottles to thirsty walkers/runners on the local activity path.
31. Be generous with compliments to those around me (especially strangers), and smile a lot.
32. Let the person behind you go in front of you in line.
33. Give blood.
34. Open doors for anyone.
35. Bring $10 to the library to pay someone else's late fees.
36. Tell my children why I love them.

(Yes, I know I skipped around with tenses...oh well ;-)

"Screen Free" ideas

While on the subject of less TV...here's a list of fun, mostly free activities to do in lieu of watching the "boob tube," published by The Nurture Store. They sound FUN!!!!

Television OFF, Creativity ON (Part 3)

One evil word: Advertising.

When we first started letting our first daughter watch TV, we let her watch PBS shows because we didn't have cable. As she started getting a little older, she started showing interest in "other" shows so, having fond memories of Saturday Morning TV as kids, we let her watch a few at that time. There was an immediate shift. Kids can't tell the difference between the show and the commercial - and she started begging/asking for stuff she otherwise wouldn't have known existed otherwise. You know how it works - corporations pay big bucks to advertisers to make you feel like you "HAVE" to have a certain product...or convince you that THEIR brand of whatever is the best. I been trying to be aware of my own reactions to advertising and they are able to get to me too. 

On a recent car ride, my 5-year-old asked something about commercials. I wish I could remember what started the conversation, but I had the opportunity to explain how advertisers work really hard to make you feel like you need something. She started to understand! Now, whenever she sees a commercial and her first response is "We should get that!," I just say, "Really, why is that?" and she yells  "Oooh, I've been ADVERTISED!".

As I've said before, I'm not advocating turning your TV into a fishbowl...BUT less means MORE "quality" time, time for cooking, talking, reading, letting them play by themselves...and LESS opportunities to be brainwashed by advertising.

(I promise to get back to the crafts soon ;-)

Television OFF, Creativity ON (Part 2)

After I wrote my "mission statement" yesterday promoting less TV, I attended my church's Wednesday evening service. It was all about self compassion and connecting with yourself and your "higher power" (or whatever you happen to call it - if you believe in that sort of thing). When I got home I was inspired to crack open an old meditation/mindfulness book I'd read years ago called "Peace Is Every Step," written by the amazing Buddhist monk Thich Naht Hanh (published 1991, Bantom Books). If you haven't read it, I'd highly recommend it. It consists of little mini-essays on how to feel more connected to the present moment.

Anyways, one of the paragraphs really hit home. It came from the section entitled "Nourishing Awareness in Each Moment" (page 13):

Watching a bad TV program, we become the TV program. We are what we feel and perceive. If we are angry, we are the anger. If we are in love, we are love. If we look at a snow-covered mountain peak, we are the mountain. We can be anything we want, so why do we open our windows to bad TV programs made by sensationalist producers in search of easy money, programs that make our hearts pound, our fists tighten, and leave us exhausted? Who allows such TV programs to be made and seen by even the very young? We do! We are too undemanding, too ready to watch whatever is on the screen, to lonely, lazy, or bored to create our own lives. We turn on the TV and leave it on, allowing someone else to guide us, shape us, and destroy us. Losing ourselves in this way is leaving our fate in the hands of others who may not be acting responsibly. We must be aware of which programs do harm to our nervous systems, minds, and hearts, and which programs benefit us.

Wow. Can't write much to follow up - he summed it up so absolutely perfectly. This inspires me to work hard to continue keeping the amount of "screen time" in my house to a minimum.

Turn OFF the Television, Turn ON the Creativity!

This past weekend my husband and I realized our family was watching way too much tv than we were comfortable with. It's funny, when we first had kids we envisioned a (mostly) tv-free family. We slowly allowed a "Teletubbies" here, a "Sesame Street" there...it was soooo easy to just turn something on for "quiet time" (which was more for us, rather than them) or to give us some uniterupted time to cook supper or pay bills. Slowly the TV was on more and more. Well, it's time to STOP!! We're not at the point yet that we want to give it up completely, we all enjoy movies (we ditched cable years ago - Netflix is our preferred method of viewing these days) and the occasional well-done series. The kids are each allowed to choose ONE show per day (so a total of two) - we're clear these are NOT movie-length programs. We will have family movie night once a week with popcorn and all that fun stuff.

Since we did this, we have gotten more exercise, cooked more homemade meals, colored, read, played outside...you know, the FUN stuff. I haven't missed the TV at all. During those times when I used to feel I "needed" it on - I've been encouraging the kids to do something they can do safely and quietly at the kitchen table or living room (reading, coloring, playing with Legos...). And a few times they have told me they're, God forbid, BORED! In the past when this feeling occurred, they simply turned on the TV. The new rule is providing them with the opportunity to be creative with their time just like I'm trying to be. I try to give as few suggestions as possible - offering them only when/if they are completely at a loss (usually means it's time for rest and books!).

I'm not in any way trying to be preachy or "holier than thou". We really WERE watching too much and I really want to see this change in my family. It's only been a week, but I'm determined to make it work. I'll probably falter sometimes in moments of exhaustion or weakness...but I'm going to make a real effort. Why don't we all try to do it together and share our experiences (and creative ideas!) I promise to keep the BCM ideas flowing!!

Try it - even for a little while - to see how your life and family can be changed. Let's make more time tuned in to each other rather than being tuned in to mind-numbing shows (that we probably won't remember within hours anyways). Remember, the little things end up being the big things that we remember down the road.

Chore Magnets

Ahhh, chores. Everyone's least favorite subject. We've tried a bunch of ideas - flat allowance for doing their list of chores every week (I wound up being queen nag reminding them to do them, they huffed and puffed, and everyone was crabby)...tried little inexpensive "treats" for helpful behavior (waste of money)...and earning "stars" in exchange for an item (meh - the excitement wore off long before said item was earned).

I recently came up with this new idea (an alteration from an idea on Pinterest) and, lo and behold, it WORKS GREAT! I don't have to nag, my kids ASK to do chores (and do them with happiness), and nobody fights!!! And they really, truly help out.

Here's what we do:
There's a list of things they're expected to do during the week because they are part of a household. These things include keeping their rooms clean, making their beds, putting towels away after bath, bringing dishes to sink after dinner, putting toys away, and bringing hamper to washing machine when asked.

If (and only if) those things are done with little to no reminding, they can do other things to earn money. They earn money on a chore-by-chore basis. I keep a running tally on the fridge. Every Friday is payday (just like Mommy and Daddy). I originally made little magnets with the name of each individual chore on them with the amount of money the chore is worth (between 25 cents and 75 cents).

But then I realized their abilities were way greater than I'd originally given them credit for (and they can't read yet) - so now I offer chores as they become available, or sometimes they ask.

Here's some of the ones we do:

-Helping empty the dishwasher

-Helping folding laundry (and getting to play with it a little)...

-Helping weed the garden

-Cleaning toilets (yes, you read that right) - we use non-toxic vinegar and baking soda. Pour some vinegar in (about 10 oz) then sprinkle in about 6 oz of baking soda and it fizzes up and cleans it! We scrub the concotion around a bit and it's done. The kids love doing it and call it a "toilet volcano". Of course they have to wash their hands super good afterwards. Once a month or so I pull out the heavy artillery and clean the toilets with bleach but the natural stuff works good for the regular cleanings.

-Doing laundry - someone mentioned to me that the had their 5-year-old doing laundry and I was shocked. But I gave it a try. I showed my 5-year-old how to use the machine and wrote "Push" and "Pull" on the knobs as appropriate. I used a sharpie to mark which settings to use and which direction to turn the dial. If I'm washing something special I just do it myself, but most of the time we wash large loads in cold water. It's easy to measure the soap using the lid. Same with the dryer - move dial to correct spot, taught her how to remove the lint trap, and she can identify the word "Push". AND best of all, she LIKES doing it!

-Take out recycle bin

-Dust (everything within their arm's reach)

-Sweep floor (needed to get a mini-sized broom for this)

-Help clean chicken coop

-Run lint roller over furniture

-Wipe down walls (an unexpected favorite)

If they don't do any chores in a given week, that's fine, they just don't earn any allowance. I never nag or get mad - they're chores that are usually MINE, so I'm fully prepared to do them anyways. The only stipulation is that they try their best (I don't expect perfection from preschoolers) and that they do the job to completion. Everyone is happy!

So far they've earned enough money to start the "Penny Saver" accounts at our Credit Union!!!

I made the magnets by printing out the list of chores on my printer, cutting them out, then gluing them to little wooden disks (from Michaels). Then I hot-glued the disks to little magnets (also from Michaels). I need to re-do them with super glue, the disks keep popping off the magnets when the kids pull them on/off the fridge.

Cheap & Easy Lego Table

Ok, it's no secret - most every kid LOOOOVES Legos - girls & boys, young & old...etc. Heck, most of us grown-ups love 'em too. Those little cute Lego tables are expensive - I made one for less than 20 bucks. (and my apologies to the Lego corporation for using their brand name...please don't sue me, I'm poor).

Here's what you need:

Old end-table (from a thrift store...or in my case, my sister-in-law - thanks Bobbie!)

Several of the big 12x12 inch Lego tiles

Hot glue gun

A bin of Legos of course!



Here's what you do:
1. Measure out the size of your table and determine how many tiles you need. Purchase - I found them on Amazon and the Lego website - Lego site is cheaper - about 5 bucks each (we needed four but had a few already).

2. Glue the suckers onto the table.

3. That's about it! Easy peasy! We had a little shelf under the table that's the perfect size/shape to store 'em when they're not being played with :-)

4. My kids adore this and have played with it every day for the past month since I made it :-)

Thank-You Ornaments

It's that time of year again - Mother's Day, Father's Day, end of the school year...Here's a cute, easy, inexpensive "thanks for all you do" gift that you and your kids can do together.

Here's what you need:

The basic salt dough recipe from Christmas (in case you forgot: http://www.busycraftymom.com/2011/12/dough-ornaments.html)

Cookie cutters (or glass to make circles)

Toothpick

Cookie Sheets

Rolling pin

Silver spray paint

Wuire

Ribbon

Sharpie



Here's what you do:

1. Mix up a batch of the dough and roll it out.



2. Cut into desired shapes and add little holes for hanging.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for about a half hour.

4. Paint with silver spray paint to make them all shiney and metallic. Works best to do it outside - put them on some alluminum foil so you don't make a mess. This is an adult ONLY job and you need to do it outdoors - or you'll get a headache :-p

 5. Let them dry OUTSIDE for at least 6 hours. You may want to apply a second coat.

\6. Write your message onto the disk/shape!

7. Put wire through hole to make a loop and string some wire through (sorry, were so excited about finishing them, we forgot to take pics!)

8. Gift away! We made ones for our mothers, fathers, grandparents, godparents, and teachers :-) 

DIY Maracas (My First Guest Post!

It's with great pride and joy I present my first guest post - from my daughter Anna. She can't write very well yet, so I'm transcribing for her:

Take one of your Mom's Diet Coke cans when she's done with it. Or get it out of the recycle bin.

Pull off the little tab thing.

Put the tab in the can.

Put tape over the opening.

Play music on your maraca!

Happy Gardens

Forgot to take pics of this project in the "Before" stage - so here's a quick pic of the finished product:

All we did was paint cute happy faces onto cheapo terra cotta pots with acrylic paint. Then spray painted them with clear spray paint (otherwise the paint will run/disapper when you water the plants). Fill the painted pots with dirt and sprinkle generously with grass seeds. Water, water, and water some more...and a few weeks later your cute little happy faces have cute spiked hairdos! I think I need to make one of them into a mohawk.

Water Bottle Holder

I DETEST bottled water. All those nasty single-use bottles that more often than not wind up in the trash rather than recycle bin. And the water itself winds up being exponentially more money than the same amount of water costs from the tap. I won't go all soap-boxey on you, because then I'll just sound like a hypocrite. In "emergency" situations we pick up a bottle of water if we've happened to forget the reusable ones at home. The other day at Trader Joe's was an example. The water fountain was out of service and my little ones (and me) were THIRSTY. So we picked up a bottle to share. What to do with the damn thing later? Of course we'll reuse it - but maybe make it BETTER. Better, Faster, Stronger (I'm on a 6 Million Dollar Man kick lately).

So we added a cute little strap to make it easier for the kids to carry around (keeps their hands free to hold more important things like dolls and legos and books).

Here's what you need:
Empty water bottle
Duck Tape
Scissors
Scotch tape

Here's whatcha do:
1. Pull out a long strip of duct tape - about 2 or 2.5 feet long, depending on how long you want your strap to be.

2. Fold the tape over on itself so there's no sticky spots left.

3. Put the ends of the "strap" on either side of the bottle, about halfway up. Hold it there temporarily with scotch tape.

4. Take another strip of duct tape - about 8 inches long and wrap it around the middle of the bottle - covering up the ends of the strap (and label if you want).

5. Go for a walk and have your hands free to walk your dog! Or whatever. Enjoy!

Chicken Coop Update

As promised, I said I'd keep you posted on the backyard chicken experiment (see - http://www.busycraftymom.com/2012/03/backyard-chicken-experiment.html )

We still love them! We actually wound up getting three more - so we have a total of 6. This seems to be our max - don't want to have to clean up after any more.

BUT, the little coop our friends gave us was way too small. It wouldn't have worked for the original three in the first place - we couldn't let the chickens run around the backyard when we weren't there (lotsa hawks in this neck of the woods), so they would've had to stay in the teeney weeney coop when we were in the house. Soooo, I built this amazingly beautiful big ass coop for them to live and run around in. I'm quite proud. It took about 5 times as long as I'd anticipated, but I did it 85% singlehandedly.

Basically, I made a big wooden cube with a little door and covered the whole damn thing with chicken wire. It was surprisingly harder than it sounds. And chicken wire is a bitch to work with. But I DID it :-)

Random Awesome Things

Okey dokey. My first post in forever...where to start! I know, random things that make my life a little easier.

Here goes:
1. Cookin' in the kitchen with meat/oil/dough that you don't want stuck in your rings? Don't have a fancy little ring holder? Turn a funnel upside-down and VOILA!

2. Speaking of cooking...have a little wine at the bottom of the bottle that you don't want to waste (I know, I know, hard to imagine) - throw it into some ice cube trays and you'll be all set the next time you need a splash or two of wine for a recipe.

AND you can do the same with fresh herbs! We all love the fresh stuff so much more than dried - but it's so freaking expensive (unless you grow it yourself - but here in the desert where I live herb gardens are hard to come by in July). So buy fresh herbs in bulk (or grow) when they're in season and cheap and eay to come by. Then chop them up into tiny little pieces, throw in a little water, and put THEM into ice cube trays too! Make sure they're the silicone ones or they may be tough to pop out later.

3. Stinky shoes? Uhhhh...sometimes. I know, gross topic. My husband's a nurse on his feet 13+ hours a day and I run marathons - we've got our share of grossness at the bottom of our closet. The simple, cheap solution?! Dryer sheets! Pop those little suckers into your shoes and they'll smell as fresh as a spring morning. Well, maybe that's pushing it, but they'll smell WAY better than they did before and stay nice smelling longer than that weird odor eaters crap.

4. Gotta spread seeds or fertilizer over a small area? Take an empty parmesan cheese container, wash it out, and use it to sprinkle!

I'm Back!!!

BCM is back in action!!! Having had a super-duper insanely crappy last few weeks - things are looking up! I never stopped crafting...just didn't have much time (or energy) to write. Watch out for the impending deluge of posts!!!

Yikes...

I'm remiss in my blogging duties! More to come soon...Promise! Keep on crafting :-)

Garden Stones

Spring is in full swing here in the Southwest and we've got our garden started. We wanted to add some fun, inexpensive decorations to the garden. So we made some beautiful garden stones!

Old box lids make great paint trays

Here's what you need:

Large river cobbles and/or old bricks

Bricks

Acrylic paint (the cheap stuff that you can buy for like 75 cents a bottle works fine)

Paintbrushes of various sizes

Clear spray paint (or shellac - but the clear spray paint works just as well and is about half the price)

Here's what you do:

1. Wash and dry the cobbles/bricks.

2. Paint fun designs or words on them.

3. Let them dry.

4. Apply a few coats of clear spray paint (otherwise the paint will wash away relatively quickly when you water your garden or it rains). This is a job for an adult. Oh, and make sure to do it OUTDOORS when it's NOT windy, or you'll get a headache and your house will smell like nasty paint fumes.

Easy Hair Bows

My girls are all about fun hair stuff. Cute bows and barettes can get expensive. Here's a quick and easy way to make lots of them for little money...you can make enough to match all their favorite outfits! They're especially fun to match with bandana dresses :-)

Here's what you need:
Plain hair clips
Satin or grossgrain ribbon (1/2" - 7/8" in width)
Hot glue gun
Scissors

Here's what you do:
1. Cut approximately 4-6 inches of ribbon.

2. Turn ribbon over so non-printed side is facing up.

3. Place a small dab of glue in center of ribbon and place one end of ribbon on glue.

4. Place another small dab of glue in center again - on top of first glued-down end.

5. From the side, it should look like this:

6. Cut a small, approximately 1.5-2" length of ribbon.

7. Place a small dab of glue on top of already glued ends - glue down one end of small piece of ribbon.

8. Put two small lines of glue on top of already glued area (yep, AGAIN) - and glue down the top of the barrette.

9. Open barrette, wrap other end of the small piece of ribbon around the front of the bow, and glue the other end of the small piece of ribbon to underside of open barrette.

10. Enjoy!