I may be letting the cat out of the bag, but I’m sure no one here on the Internet will tell, right?
Ian has, with a little help, rooted, transplanted, and cared for cuttings from one of our houseplants as holiday gifts for his teachers.
It’s a perfect project for him- he’s learned about propagation, he got to play with dirt, and he can give his teachers something alive and feel proud of what he’s accomplished. And he got some quality parent time along the way, too!
We’re planning to do some crafts with friends tomorrow, so Ian and I are doing a dry run to make sure it all works. I am amazed at how good his fine motor skills have gotten. He successfully assembled quite small pieces and handled a glue dot runner quite deftly. He wouldn’t let me take pix if his project in progress. He held his hands in front and shouted, “NOT UNTIL I’M FINISHED!”
Ian and I have been making bird seed ornaments…
Look what Ian made at church- his very own chalice!
Nothing to see here. Just a little after-school play-doh time. And evidence that I need to teach Ian the word “cyclops.”
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| The artist at work |
I’m sure by now if you travel in crafty circles, you’ve seen one of your Facebook friends or a blogger you enjoy pledge to send something handmade to the first five people to comment on their post and to make the same offer on their own facebook page or blog. If you haven’t, well, YOU HAVE NOW.
Welcome to my Pay It Forward… for Babies post. I’m sure you remember (and if you don’t, there are plenty of links in the sidebar where you can check it out) that last year I pledged to donate money for every mile I walked to save babies. This year, of course, healthy babies are more on my mind than ever. One is banging away on my bladder faster than I bang away on the keys, after all, so it would be hard to forget it.
This year, my due date and the March for Babies date come awfully close to being the same darn date- so I can promise you I’ll be at “The March” only in spirit. Ian and I will definitely make our own trek for babies again, just like last year, but January’s weather has not been kind to us. More on that later.
So, right now, I’ll be paying it forward this way. You make a pledge on my March for Babies page, and Ian and I will make something for you. (Some of his friends may help, too! And he has a lot of friends.) Then, you post a photo of that item on your facebook page or blog, or send it in an email, or host a reveal party (kidding) and let folks know that the first person to make a donation on my March for Babies page and say you sent them will ALSO get something made by me and Ian. We’ll surprise you, depending on where you live, and how much time you give us before this baby shows up, with something we sincerely hope you’ll LOVE.
(See, the original “Pay it Forward” had YOU making things for the next person to respond. Notice how Ian and I do the work… all you do is enjoy your Thank You gift and share the news with friends, while spreading the word that we are trying to help the March of Dimes save some babies. That seems like a good deal to me.)
If you’ve got a blog, hustle on over to join our team, whether you’ll be walking on March Day or not, regardless of where you live- you can change your personal walk location once you join- and make a post just like this one. Then link to your post from this page by clicking the link and following the instructions below. You can post the Linky List of other Pay It Forward posts in your post, too, so you can join the party. Just use the “get the code” link.
Help us make the world a more beautiful place… for you, for babies, for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and, lest we forget, Big Brothers everywhere.
I am blessed with a serious surfeit of alphabet blocks. As in, once I culled an entire set for my kid, I still had an small shipping carton full. Yeah, thrift stores have been good to us. And I have a lot of thrifty friends who know I Like That Sort of Thing, so they pass them along. Although I’ll never approach the heights of elaborate holiday preparation I’m seeing on some of the blogs I read, I still thought I’d get a little creative and have some fun.
Here are some of the letters in their natural state:
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Since I want red for my end result, I spray-primed all the ones that weren’t red to start with:
Next, I gave everything a coat of red metalllic paint. The ones I’d primed, I gave two coats:
Have you figured out where I’m going yet? No?
Does that help?
I did a very slap-dash job on these, but that’s okay, because if you have looked at a lot of alphabet blocks (heh) you notice that they have varying quality paint jobs and that, over time, some of them get worn and dinged. So even a lacksadaisical job looks pretty authentic, when you’re done. I considered gluing the blocks together so that little hands can’t disarrange and lose them, but then I thought… seeing what else we can spell will be part of the fun in coming years and… you know I’ll need to add another initial next year. Have fun!
Just for fun, I’m trying something new that I’ve seen elsewhere. You can add a link to your own Valentine’s Day blog posts by clicking the link below. Try it out! (Please link to a specific post, not your whole blog, or the list won’t make any sense!)
There are holidays which are not Christmas and are still fun.
This is a garland I made using the heart pattern from my Valentine’s Day Heart Locket. ({filelink=4}) I made a dozen hearts, wove in the ends, and chain stitched them together, attaching a heart every 20 chain stitches or so. For extra fun I am considering doing some white ones with picot edging… This was a good “purse project” for a couple weeks, I used up leftover yarn, and the little dude loves it.