Posts Tagged ‘kids’

FREEBIE: Penelope’s Tea Party

July 28th, 2015
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At the beginning of the summer, I scored a precious set of cups and dishes perfect for a tea party. I told Penelope she needed to gather her friends for a tea party at some point and use them. She squealed.

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It wasn’t until a few days later that she came up to me asking to get everything out for the tea party. After explaining to her that she needed to give her friends some kind of advanced warning if she wanted them to show up, her finger in the air as she enthusiastically said, “I need you to make me invitations!”

Well OKAY, my dear! The cutest little art director hovered over my shoulder to make sure all the details were correct. She needed gold bits on the invitations (see the little foil dots in the above pic?). And she needed them sealed with glitter washi tape to deliver to her friends.

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I was thrilled to have a little peace and quiet while she walked the neighborhood, dropping them in the neighbor’s mail boxes. Since it was a Monday and she was inviting her friends to a party on Tuesday, I made sure to text each mom to double-check invitations were received. All but 2 girls showed up. We had a full house of giggly girls with their pinkies high as they sipped “tea”.

I served honey chocolate toasts, mint oreos (at Penelope’s request) and raspberry lemonade. They thought it was the best tea ever.

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(taken from an entirely different party, but I love this pic of her)

Penelope was the most gracious host exclaiming, “Welcome!! I’m so glad you could make it!” while I sat there, hands over my mouth, trying not to squeal and giggle at the same time. She is incredibly more socially astute at her age than I was in college. The girl knows how to throw a party.

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Sewing with Kids: Felix’s Rockstar Tee

June 15th, 2015
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I gave Penelope my hand-me-down Bernina Record 830 (she has NO IDEA what she has – those things go for A LOT on ebay). She knows how to do a straight line, but that’s about it.

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At some point I’ll teach her the foundations of sewing with patterns, using the back-stitch, finishing seams and what-not. Until then, I’m loving every minute of her free spirit made manifest through clothing. This girl’s creativity just rocks my world. And Felix’s patience for her creativity is unmatched.

I think the dot of green marker on his left earlobe completes the look, don’t you?

Sponsored: Crafting with Penelope

November 14th, 2012
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This post is sponsored by KiwiCrate.com. Fun and engaging art and science projects in a box for kids aged 3-7, delivered monthly!

Connect with Kiwi Crate via Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for new products, great ideas and exclusive deals.

We moved this summer, and we got to our new place too late to register Penelope for most of the local preschools.  There were a few options; one of them being a preschool that was 30 minutes away and charged $250 a month. Around Utah, that’s a LOT of money for preschool—when we lived in the SF area, $250 was unheard of everything started at $300+—and it would have been 2 hours of commuting for the kids and me.  I decided that it was better to spend that tuition money on a babysitter so I can keep up with the house/blog/craftwork a few days a week and focus on schooling and being present for Penelope and Felix on off-days.

Kate from The Red Kitchen gave me a few resources and we’ve been loosely following her preschool plan. It’s been great; however, I often don’t have the motivation to get creative with Penelope’s activities. Anything creative that I would do with Nelly is usually too much of a mess or would take more time to set up than I can spare. Penelope and I recently received a nice surprise from Kiwi Crate that lets customers sign up for monthly kids craft deliveries.  They sent me one of their seasonal crates, and it has been, as Finn the Human would say, Mathematical! The crate came packed with monotype supplies for decorating the included gifts and notecards.

Moments like these make me wonder why I don’t bust out more creative projects with Penelope. We need to take more advantage of her unbridled creativity.

Penelope made this present for Chris, and she’s super excited to give it to him for Christmas.  In keeping with our family’s recent Adventure Time fixation, she says that her print is a depiction of Jake the Dog. I think it’s amazing.

We had plenty of left over supplies, so we made a print transfer onto fabric and I embellished one of her shirts with it. Another very simple project, but she won’t take this shirt off. She knows how to make this mama proud.

Sponsorship aside, I’ve been incredibly impressed with Kiwi Crates. The quality of the materials are fantastic – they include real art supplies. They encourage real creativity without a dependency on licensed characters (Disney, Sesame Street, Etc). And no preparation is required: Penelope and I were projecting within seconds of the crate arriving on our doorstep. With pre-schooling Penelope and the inevitable long winter ahead, we’ll be using Kiwi Crate in the future.

Girly Boy Clothes

October 9th, 2012
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I found this adorable linen jumper at a garage sale a while back. It was originally a boy’s outfit, but I just added lace to the collar. It’s a simple project that took me about 10 minutes to do.

How come it’s so easy to girl-ify boy’s clothes and impossible to boy-ify girl’s clothes?

On the other hand I totally buy girl’s jeans for Felix. Target and Walmart don’t really carry skinny jeans for boys, but they do for girls!

Thrifty & Chic: I love H&M

April 5th, 2010
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Utah does NOT have an H&M. It totally bugs. If Salt Lake were to ever get a Trader Joe’s and an H&M, I think I’d be in big trouble, but super happy. Does anyone want to help me petition to H&M to open a Salt Lake store? I’m serious about this.

While in Arizona, I made it a point to go to H&M at least once. I probably could’ve gone two or three times, but I’m not sure Chris or my bank account would’ve really appreciated that. I was a good girl, though. I managed to get a bunch of awesome clothes for Penelope and a few must-haves for me & Chris without spending over $100.

H&M has the best kid’s clothes. In fact, their kids clothes are so awesome, my 18 year old sis-in-law and I both found some pretty sweet items for us in the tween department. I found so many sweet little things for Penelope, but this dress (above) was a must-have Easter dress. My jaw just dropped when I saw it in the store, it’s so precious! It was only $17, too! Score. I had planned on making matching outfits for Easter (like last year), but I don’t think I would’ve thrown together anything nearly this cute at the last minute. So, I had to have it.

I also found two awesome dress shirts for Chris for $12.50 each! The yellow shirt (above) is one of them. You can’t tell from the pic, but it’s a yellow and white pin stripe pattern. It looks really sharp in person. Chris likes his new shirts, but I think I might like them more. H&M makes fitted dress shirts. I can see Chris’s muscles better. I like.

Don’t they look so cute together!?

So, who’s with me on petitioning for a H&M in the Salt Lake area?  Shall we get started?! Contact H&M and let them know you want one. I did. Hope you had a great Easter weekend!

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