And Now The Letter...F

As we were finishing up our basement make-over (I know - still no photos but I'm being lazy), we played around with a lot of different decorations. We wanted things that were young and fun and represented us as a family. So on a trip to Joann's (I wish I could live in that store), I picked up a paper mache letter F since our last name starts with an F. It's 8" tall and costs about $2.99.

I also grabbed a bag of buttons. I went with blues and greens. I got a bag of about 130 buttons for under $3. I only ended up using one bag for this project but I had bought two, just in case. I'm pretty horrible at estimating supplies for projects. I almost ALWAYS have way too much but I guess I'd rather have too much than too little!

So all I did was starting hot gluing the buttons around the letter. I only covered the top surface but may go back and fill up the sides as well. It took me about 20 minutes to finish and I think it turned out pretty cute! Up close, you can see where I went a little overboard with the hot glue but really, from far away you can't tell.

It currently sits on one of the shelves we made from scratch (more on that later, and how they didn't turn out so great...)...my janky camera's WAY TOO BRIGHT flash makes everything look like garbage but still, it's an inexpensive, but fun way to bring a little personalized decoration to your house. :)



Kid Stuff - Making Cloud Dough

Another project I have tried from Pinterest is making Cloud Dough. I just knew that my youngest would really enjoy playing in this. I vaguely remember doing this as a child and figured it would be a fun play with texture project we could do together.

So here's what you need.

• 8 cups of plain flour
• 1 cup of baby oil (I used shea butter baby oil so that it would be scented - smelled like the beach!)
• a large container
• toys - we used inexpensive baking tools purchased at the dollar store
• AND of course 1 (or more) cute kid(s)

So basically we just dumped 8 cups of flour into our container and added the baby oil.

Then the fun part - we mashed it all together - it feels really neat!

It pretty much takes any shape. We made snowballs, cupcakes, cakes, domes, all kinds of stuff. It's simple and pretty inexpensive and it sure beats sitting in front of the TV.

Lastly, and this is the most important step. MAKE A HUGE MESS! AND HAVE FUN!!

P.S. Those curtain to the left of Boo's shoulder? - Yeah, my mom and I made those!

Have fun!