A Groovy Kind Of Love

If there is one thing my little girl loves it is art! Last week I took Teagan to the best little studio where she got to go to five toddler friendly stations and create Valentine themed art to her little heart's content! Here she is painting with shaving cream. I recently saw a Pinterest post on this where the mom added food coloring to the shaving cream to make it a bath-friendly medium. How cool is that?


Teagan also got to paint a large wooden heart and then paint and glue on smaller hearts.


Next she beaded pipe cleaners attached to her wooden hearts, turning it into a cool ornament that now graces our refrigerator.


This was my favorite station. She painted a heart shaped doily and topped it with various pieces of fun fabric, yarn, glitter and more making a very groovy Valentine for Daddy!

My little Jackson Pollock! We moved from station to station according to Teagan's whims and she had the best time while still getting everything in!


She decorated a fun Valentine's mailbox with more paint and glitter...


And wrapped up the session with a trip to the play dough table followed by the whale collage table. Love it!

I got a bunch of great ideas and can't wait to make my own little craft stations with her at home. If you have toddlers, what are some of your favorite crafts and art projects? I'd love ideas so be sure to link them up this Tuesday on our Destination: Inspiration Linky Party!Happy Sunday! Stay warm everyone!

Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

Happy Saturday friends! We had a sweet time yesterday with our toddler buddies with a Valentine's party! First we made a craft Valentine's mailbox. Next we delivered Valentine's cards to each other, had pink lemonaide and other goodies. We wrapped it up with a pink lesson on how to decorate mini cupcakes with frosting and festive sprinkles! The picture above is my favorite picture from the day of sweet Alexa Kate decorating her cupcakes! When 11:30 rolled around it was time for lunch and naptime! An exhausted but happy Teagan, Isla and mommy took a three hour nap!

Teagan so excited and waiting for friends to arrive!

I just love little Landon's cute Valentine's outfit! Mama Leah looks amazing too! On of my favorite photos from the day.

Buddies Kaden and Carson! Aren't they cute? Carson asked if she could take her daddy a cupcake and that just made my heart melt!

Check out Alexa Kate's cuuteeeeeeee skirt!

Kaden's brother Grayson always makes me smile!

My happy baby. She stayed in her carseat most of the party, content to just watch the festivities. I just love this picture of her two little teeth.

I am SO excited Blair and Lauren got to join us!! Isn't Blair so pretty? Love this!

Speaking of pretty! Wendy and Alexa Kate added some sparkletastic to the party!

We were delighted that Natasha's dad Ivan could join us! He's visiting from Russia. Doesn't he have the kindest eyes? Is so see my beloved friend in her Daddy's face! And Lera loves her grandpa!

I adore the bows in Lera's hair. Isn't that precious?

Ha! Landon seems to be thinking, "What have we done giving all these kids sugar???"

Looks like baby Isla is just as mesmerized as mommy by all the pinkalicious goodies here!

Shanna and baby Liam get a snuggle in!

Hi sleepy boy!

Happy Valentine's! I still have so many fun kid crafts to share and pictures from Teagan's Valentine's art class last week! Hope to see you tomorrow for more. Plus, we had a GREAT turnout this week for our first Tuesday Destination: Inspiration Linky Party. Be sure to come back if you submitted to see if you were featured. And if it is your first time, join in the fun!

Valentine's Decor Wrap Up

I can't believe Valentine's is next week! Today I want to recap some of our Valentine's projects and add in my no sew banner and a final look at the completed fireplace mantle decor. It was so much fun to put this together with Teagan and super easy!

My no sew Valentine's banner.

To make the no sew banner we painted bare wooden mini clothes pins a fun pink. Then Teagan, my toddler daughter went crazy with glitter on these adorable felt hearts!

We punched out flower circles using coordinating scrap book paper and added two holes at the top so we could thread them. The string we used is a bright pink cord from Hobby Lobby for about $2. Finally, I had extra tulle hanging about so we added bits of it to fill the banner in and add a bit of girly fun! I love the way it turned out and it took just a few minutes!

Here's the felt wreath I posted earlier. This year I was so into pinks instead of reds! Check out the tutorial here.

My fun cupcake liner wreath! I'd love to try one of these in white. Here's the tutorial for making this.

I used scrapbook paper to cover a few books and add more color. In the future I would recommend wrapping paper as it would fit better. I just discovered Mod Podge and had a fun time making these scrapbook paper frames for the girls. Here's the post on how I did it!

I added a few mini paper flowers as vase fillers, some flowers and a pink candle. Finally, I topped it with a pink iron Eiffel Tower from Hobby Lobby that is normally in Teagan's room...and voila! Our mantel for 2012! We went from zero Valentine's decorations to these fun items this year. I can't wait to add more...but next up is the "greeeeeeeeeeeeen" holiday, Teagan's favorite from Daddy's country of Ireland. So stay tuned for all kinds of lucky fun!

Valentine DIY: $1 Wooden Frames

We are so into the Valentines spirit this year! This week I'll post my no-sew fireplace banner and mantel decor. In the meantime, I wanted to share my Super Bowl Sunday craftiness that kept me busy whilst watching the game (as if entertaining three wee ones wasn't crazy enough)! Brian and I had a great night together with Teagan, Isla and Kade. I still need to finish Kade's frame but with Valentine's Day hot on my heels I thought I'd better get this posted!

Also, please join us tomorrow for my very first linky party!! I am beyond excited as I've wanted to host one of these for ages. It's Destination: Inspiration Tuesday DIY Linky Party. Everything goes including crafts, recipes, household tips and Etsy stores! As long as you make it and it is family friendly we'd love to be inspired by it!

For now, back to my frames. I love the way they turned out and want this to become a tradition!

I've listed my materials above. First, I painted the back of the $1 Michael's frames and the stand a bright red keeping the front unfinished so the paper would lie flat. Next, I Modge Podged the front of the frame using a foam paintbrush to secure my scrapbook paper. These brushes were on sale at Michael's 14 for $1, what a score!


I put a second coat of the adhesive on, making certain the first layer was completely dry. The I used the knife to cut around the edges of the frame and inside the heart. I cut out a sweet photo of my girls and embellished from there. For Teagan's picture I highlighted the year with a few sparkles.


I love this picture of baby Isla that my friend Jennifer took in our backyard! Her nursery is an owl theme so this was a fun, whimsical version of the frame. I love the rickrack trim and the sparkly baubles! I have a HUGE bucket of these jewel tones from Hobby Lobby and I used them on everything!

That's my crafty project in a nutshell. Altogether I think it cost $2-3 per frame. I so hope you will try this and I'd love to see them! We might just give this a whirl again for our St. Patrick's Day mantel! Have a great night and see you for the linky party this Tuesday, February 7th!

Project Run-a-Way

Oh it is just never a dull moment around here! Kade spent the weekend with us and I had visions of Valentine fun in the form of kids crafts. When I was a girl I always looked forward to making salt dough Christmas tree ornaments. It is a tradition I've wanted to start with my girls but so far the holiday seasons have proven to be so full that we've not had time to make them before the new year arrives.

Then last week I decided to start a Valentine's tradition with these ornaments. My thought was to make pink salt dough, get handprints from the kids and stamp in the year in an ever-so-cute heart shaped valentine. I pictured them sweet and all perfect, adorning my kitchen or fireplace for years to come where we'd add more in a progression of growing handprints. To our visitors I would say, "We started that tradition with Isla's first Valentine's Day." How sweet, right?

Fast forward to the kitchen and dining room floors I scrubbed by hand just one day before covered in floured footprints. And also picture flour on every imaginable surface in the kitchen. Add in a sink full of floury mixing bowls, cups and spoons. And don't forget the kid's play kitchen sink full of a flour-water mix they found super funny. There was flour all over the dining room table and chairs. Flour on three pairs of pjs, in our hair, on the walls. And at the same time picture two small children giggling (as I beg to no avail, I might add) of them not to eat salt dough for surely they will begin to throw up and my real troubles will begin.

Looking back I can't even begin to determine where this little kid craft went wrong??? It just did and it seemed to do so  in a New York minute. I hastily abandoned all plans for handprints, let them go to town with jewels they had pulled from my craft basket and quickly called for reinforcements. In a flash my astonished husband swooped in for the rescue! He cleaned downstairs while Kade, Teagan and I all had to have baths and wash our hair. It was not even 10:00 am. Go Mom.

But I think it's safe to say the kids had fun and I love what they made. Teagan's of course had to have green and only green jewels. Kade's was a mix of heart shaped glitter and all kinds of colors. He went for a more is better feel.

That afternoon we had a great trip to the park where I caught this picture of my sweet baby girl! I can't believe she is going to be three years old in April!

We wrapped up the day by breaking in our Just Dance 3 and having popcorn and movie night. Toy Story 3 was a hit though it took three nights to watch it with bedtime sneaking up on us each time. 

That's all from us tonight but we wanna say a big

Happy Birthday

to Teagan and Isla's Auntie Joyce in Australia!

We love you and are thinking of you today!