Crafts and Projects

The past few weeks have been full of projects and crafts and creativity.  Here are some of the highlights!

Alice is entering into an Easter contest with her drawing of some of her favorite dragons.  Her art has come such a long way and I'm super proud of how good her end product looks!  

One of the twins made a tiny envelope out of a fruit by the foot that was leftover from Emily's birthday party goody bags.

Billy designed a birdhouse that was a seven-day print!  Once he finished both pieces, Emily, Grace and Juliet spent some time decorating it.  I don't think any birds have moved in yet, but maybe the next time it warms up?

On our way to pick Avia up from the airport, we saw signs for an estate sale.  Since Emily's party was not until evening, we had time to use up.  I took Emily, Grace, and Juliet with me.  Their prices were awesome!  

We bought an entire box of assorted, hand-picked goodies for $1 and I found a rack for my basement door for $5!!  I'd been keeping an eye on a $26 one on Amazon, but the racks were not nearly so deep as this one.  Billy helped me install it, and in no time I'd moved over my baggies and rolls, found a new home for my flour mill and had one opening for a hand mixer!

I feel like we use very few new baggies, and do a decent job of reusing bags.  This was validated by the fact that we still have two boxes of bags that are from HEB.  We moved here 7 winters ago!!! = )

The very next week, I scored a hand mixer for $2!!!  It even came in this lovely case, with a change of attachments.  = )  Upon inspecting it at home, I found that the handle was very sticky, but it was no problem for some goo b gone!

Moving all of the bags and rolls over, as well as my 'random' bags and Billy's cups left so much room in the cabinet, I now have a place to store my dehydrator!!!  It's also much easier to grab the item that I need, since they are no longer in cases or stacked on top of each other. = )

A few weeks ago, I spied some squishmallow grab bags on Aldi's "Aldi Finds" aisle.  They were $10 each, and the squishmallows inside were tiny.  Obviously, I loved the idea, so I raided the squishmallows, that I've already bought, in Sarah's basement.  I found 5 that were of comparable size/area of interest.

My next step was to cut apart an Aldi grocery bag, turn it inside out, tape on the label, then tape it back together.

I printed off the picture of the 'Crocker Easter Collection' so that they could have the full blind bag experience. 

Next up was squishing the stuffie into place!

And, finally I rolled up the top and bottom, securing them with a stapler.

Each bag has a mark to indicate which child gets which one, but it might be small enough to avoid detection. = )

Grace taped some eyes on her squishy ball.

The wind made a unique pattern on the bacon grease I set outside to cool.

Emily came home with a massive tear in her jeans, but this time I had my washable marker to make the pattern look more uniform.  I think it came out really cute! I did ask that next time she bring it to me when the hole is a little smaller. = 0

Juliet's playdoh creation.

Grace wanted a 'special' cup in which to make her chocolate milk.  So, she and Juliet spent time crafting some character cups using polystyrene that they found in the recycling bin. = )

Looking at the April calendar, I'm not quite sure when we'll find the time to craft, but I'm sure we'll squeeze it in somewhere!

later days