Pumpkin Decorating: Timmy the Turtle

Come every September, we receive a crafting pumpkin to decorate as part of our office's Annual Staff Pumpkin Decorating Contest.  Each staff member, doctors included, must decorate a pumpkin.  All of the pumpkins then get displayed at the offices for our patients to vote on during the months of October and November.  My favorite part is seeing the creativity of our staff and then trying to guess which pumpkin will be the favorite for that year!

Our first year we did the Cheeseburger {and won!}.  Two years ago we did Metal Mouth.  Last year we decided to keep it simple.  Since Benjamin loves turtles, we thought that might be something unique that no one else would create.  After slicing the pumpkin in two, we enlisted Winston's help in turning our orange pumpkin green!  We made sure he had on the proper hand protection and away he went!

Winston was properly supervised {with an empty spray can!} at all times.  Did you really think we'd let a two year old really handle a loaded can of spray paint?!  

Once satisfied with his work, we left the two halves to dry.  The next steps involved Crayola air dry modeling clay.  And quite a bit of it too!

I molded a head, fins and legs out of the modeling clay and attached it to the pumpkin.  Timmy was starting to shape up nicely, but his shell was looking a little blandish.  I busted out the paints and tried to make his shell have a little more depth. 

The last and final step for our little friend was to give him eyes!  What kind of eyes do I hear you ask?  Why, googly eyes of course!!  The only kind that exist in our house!

Timmy turned out perfectly!  Although he didn't place in the finals, he is one of my favorite pumpkins that we've made so far.  

Here are a few of my favorites from last year's contest:

Our blank pumpkin is staring at me as I type this and our ideas are swirling.  I'm excited to get started on preparing our creation for competition!  What are some of your favorite pumpkin decorating ideas?

A Thankful Heart Series: Part 2

This November, I will be participating in A Thankful Heart Series. 

one || Houston & The Great State of Texas

{Winston was 18 months here!}

I have called Houston, or a suburb of it, home the majority of my life.  I grew up here, went to college here, worked here, met and married my husband here and my son was born here.  I have been afforded many fabulous opportunities because I have been in Houston: great jobs, access to fabulous theatre, museums, sports teams, concerts, the zoo, shopping, and unique sights!  There are so many diverse parts to Houston, it is easy to find something small or big to get out and have an adventure!  

My husband and I moved to Dallas weeks after we were married and we cherish that time in our lives with fond memories.  Being less than three hours away affords us the opportunities to visit and enjoy that city as well.  San Antonio and Austin are also close driving distances each providing fun family activities for weekends away.  

Houston will continue to be our home for many years to come as we continue to set down roots with my husband's job.  I am thankful that my Dad's job moved us here over 25 years ago when I was four.  Thank you Lord for the obedience of my parent's to follow Your leading for their future.  For this is where mine will take place as well!

two || Winston's Creative Spirit

Ever since Winston was tiny, I made an effort to do crafts with him.  What started out as a way for us to create home made gifts for family members has turned into a creative spirit within him!  We built our home with an additional room for the purpose of being a craft area/wrapping area.  It has been one of the best things we did!  Almost daily, I get to hear Winston say, "Let's go to the craft room!" and his little feet patter up the stairs.  We do everything from simply coloring, cutting and gluing paper to more planned and thought out activities like canvases and paintings.   Winston knows Hobby Lobby and Michael's well.  He enjoys picking out a new pack of stickers or a fun mini craft for us to create together.  

I truly believe that we were designed after our Creator's heart with a desire to create and have fun while doing it!  In doing crafts with Winston I have learned that not everything is going to be perfect, but it is going to be amazingly special because he made it and he had fun while doing it!  Teaching Winston how to use crayons, markers, scissors and glue has allowed him to express his creativity in imaginative ways!

Winston loves to help with any project we are working on together.  He likes to be in the action.  Because of this, Benjamin and I have made efforts to teach Winston how to do things.  Sometimes it makes a 10 minute project take 20 or 30 minutes but it is worth it to see him enjoy himself!  {Don't worry, there was not actually any spray paint left in that can!}

Benjamin loves woodworking and Winston loves being in the garage in the evenings with him.  He plays on his tool bench and creates towers and ramps out of wood.  With patient anticipation, I cannot wait to see what the two of them create together as Winston gets older!

And in case you missed it:
A Thankful Heart Series: Part 1 

If you'd like to be apart, click the image above and join the link up on sharing your thankfulness!

Popped Corn on the Cob Craft

Next to "Mommy, I love you!" and "Mommy, will you play with me?" my one of favorite things that Winston says is "Mommy, let's make a craft!"  It can be something as simple as cutting paper and gluing it down to making a sticker creation to something that has been pre-planned.  

This week we made corn on the cobs with popped corn!  

For this craft you will need:

Popped corn {We used kettle corn because was the less buttery option in our pantry!}

Yellow construction paper

Green construction paper

Glue

As you can see, I did not use any certain template for the corn and leaves.  One thing that doing crafts with Winston has taught me is that everything doesn't have to be perfect, just fun!  Once the leaves were glued onto the yellow blobs, they looked more corn like!

This was the perfect craft to do around snack time!  We would say, "One to eat and one to glue!  One for me and one for you!"  

If you use Elmer's glue, note that it does take a good sized blob to get the popcorn to stick.  In order to make the popcorn last a little longer, I suggest spraying it with a clear coating.  Once the corn on the cobs dried, I glued popsicle sticks to the back and put them in a vase as a decoration!  

Happy Crafting!

Paint Balloon Art!

Being that we are in the midst of summer when we planned to have some friends over for a craft + play time I envisioned us doing something with water balloons.  Water balloons filled with paint was my vision.  I knew I had seen something like this before and so I went to handy dandy Pinterest for some specifics on how to accomplish my goal!  

Supplies

Tempera Paint, a variety of colors

Push pins

Canvas {I chose a 16x20 sized canvas for the boys.}

Water Balloons

Squeeze bottles 

Prepping the Canvas

I was wondering what I would need to do to ensure that the paint balloons would pop on the canvas when I came across this video by Mr Otter Art Studio.  They suggested to poke push pins through the canvas so that when the balloons hit the surface they would pop and splatter.  I probably used 50 push pins on each individual canvas.  

Filling the Balloons
This video by Mr Otter Art Studio gives great tips on how to fill the balloons with paint.  Since I didn't have water bottles with squeeze tops, I used my Wilton Squeeze Bottles to fill the balloons.  I did a 40/60 {or some were 50/50} ratio of paint to water and then shook the bottle to mix the two.  The squeeze bottle's nozzle was the perfect size to fill the water balloon.  In total, I filled around 130 balloons for four boys.

The Instructions
We did a run through with Winston and a few balloons on a small canvas to see his reaction and if this would even work.  It was a success!  He loved it and the effect of the paint on the canvas was super fun!  You set up the canvas against a hard surface and then throw the paint balloon!!

The Clothes
I would suggest wearing swimsuits or clothes that you don't mind getting a little messy for this project.

The Fun!
After instructing the boys not to touch the canvas because they were spiky and to not throw the balloons at their friends, we set them loose to launch their paint balloons!  It was so fun to see their faces when the paint exploded against the canvas!

Clean Up
The best way to get clean after throwing paint balloons and getting splatter every where is to play in the water!!  Splashing is mandatory!

Thanks to our sweet friends for coming over to play with us and to their Moms for not freaking out when I announced we were going to be playing with paint balloons!!  {I did tell them what type of clothes to bring!}  It was a fabulously, fun day and the works of art turned out unique and beautiful!

Froggy Foot Craft

It was time for us to do a new foot craft and this time Winston chose to make a frog.  First things first, we assembled all of our supplies:

Brushes

Mod Podge

Martha Stewart Glitter: Blue Apatite

Martha Stewart Paint: Beetle Black, Chamomile, Snow Pea, Scottish Highlands, Green Curry, Green Olive

Canvases

Since it's summertime, Winston and I decided that our frogs needed to be near a pond to keep them cool during the hot summer days!  :)  Winston made the first steps of the pond with Mod Podge.  He was very methodical and specific on where he wanted them to be.

Next we covered the Mod Podged area in glitter.  Because glitter makes everything more fun!  This was our first time to really go hog wild with it and Winston did a great job making sure none of the white was showing!

We then painted Winston's foot to make the frog's body.  After that dried, I added two circles for the eyes {where they would fit!}, back and front legs.  Winston then glued on the googly eyes.  Then we decided the frogs needed some grass to sit on.  We added the grass and some yellow dots for good measure!  

Since you are making one for yourself, you might as well go ahead and make two or three more.  They make great gifts for family members and they are a frogtastically cute to sit out all summer!

Show and Tell Tuesday: Favorite Room in the House

I came across Momfessionals Show and Tell Tuesdays.  I have missed the first ones of the year but thought today would be a good time to jump in!  

Today's Show and Tell is Favorite Room in the House.  As I sit down to think about which room is my favorite, I find myself debating over this room or that.  However today I have chosen to share our craft room.  I picked this room because of the fun that I have there and the memories that are being created there!  When we built the house we chose to add this room to the floor plan.  We had accumulated quite a bit of crafting things over the years and we wanted a place where Winston and I could be creative together.  It's a long room with three windows giving it a lot of natural light.

This room is special to me because it is where Winston knows he can color, paint, play with Play-Doh and stickers, glue, imagine and create almost anything.  Last Christmas we did every single one of our Truth in the Tinsel lessons in the room.  We are doing our Lent projects in this room.  He is not only learning how to express himself through creativity but he is learning that God loves him here.  My heart loves to hear him yell, "Craft room!" as he takes off running into this space that is ours.

While the house was being built, we created a Pinterest board for the new house and started pinning like crazy!  One of the pins was a dot wall created by Oh Happy Day.  We knew that the craft room would be the perfect place for a wall like this!

Last summer we decided it was time to tackle this project.  Benjamin helped me create the dot grid and create the dot outlines.  Then the painting was left to me!

Painting the dots was the perfect activity for me to do during nap times.  It took me about 20 minutes a color.  I used a rounded brush, lots of colors and two stepping stools.  It was fun and satisfying to see the wall come together color by color!  You can read all about how we created our dot wall.

We purchased this desk for Benjamin when he was in Dental school.  It is long and wide perfect for almost any project.  In this house we have a study so it was only fitting that it found its place in our craft room!  It holds my Silhouette, our pom-poms jars and all projects that we are in the middle of working on!

My desk is not normally this clean.  In fact, most days it looks something like this...

I try to clean it off at the end of every weekend.  It helps having everything in its place at the start of the week so that we can continue to create without too much hassle of looking for this or that.

The wall just opposite of the dot wall is completely covered in cork.  We wanted a spot where Winston could display his works of art and little creations.  During one of our dreaming sessions, Benjamin said, "We could make the entire wall cork!"  And so we did!  I will tell you it took four adults and one little person to adhere the cork to the wall.  We ordered a bulk roll of cork and the glue we used is the same adhesive to lay hardwood floors.  So... there is no way that stuff is coming down.  And I'm okay with that!  

Winston enjoys making, stamping, gluing, or painting artwork to put on our board.  He will come home from school and depending what it is he has made for craft he will tell me, "On the wall!"  Up we go, we get a push pin and either he hangs it himself or points to where he wants it to stay.  We have rotated quite a bit of our artwork around to make spots for new creations.  However, he is very particular about what stays and goes!

All of our craft supplies are housed in some Elfa shelving units we purchased years ago.  Elfa never goes out of style and can always be used! We have everything from paints to pipe cleaners to sticky foam to stamps to wrapping paper accessories to blank canvases waiting to become something unique!

Winston and I made the pom-pom letters together!  I picked a font, hubby cut them out of foam board, I spray painted them yellow and then together Winston and I glued the pom-pons on.  It was a quick and easy way to add some color to the wall.

Across from the Elfa shelving is Winston's very own desk.  We had seen the super cute drawing desk at Container Store and thought it would be perfect for him to call his own.  Then we remembered we had two small shelving units and with the purchase of some roller racks and wood we could could make our own for a fraction of the cost!

We allow Winston to keep whatever he would like in the drawers.  Currently there are tons of stickers, construction paper, markers, letter stamps and crayons.  It's a perfect space for him to create or to play with Play-Doh or even the trains make it in here every once in a while! 

I love this room because of the special times that Winston and I have together in there.  Benjamin gets in on the crafty action too from time to time, but it mostly is our little space.  We have so much fun getting messy, painting our hands, laughing and learning together.   I cherish the time we spend in there and look forward to seeing what other projects we do together as the years go by!

What is your favorite room in your house?  I'd love to know!

For other little sneak peaks around the house:

Planning Desk

Chalkboard Wall

Dinosaur Hat Rack
Kitchen Pillars

Five on Friday: 2.27

{one} I downloaded Party Girl onto my Kindle on Monday.  By Wednesday afternoon I had read that entire book, stalked Rachel Hollis' website thechicsite.com, downloaded and finished The Party Girl's First Date.  To say I enjoyed this book would be an understatement!  If you enjoy girly novels written in a clever, clean and classy style, this book is for you!  Both of the books are easy, engaging reads in which I found myself wanting to meet Landon and her friends for lunch!  Rachel has also written another book in this series called Sweet Girl that releases in May.  I may or may not have pre-ordered this book.... Okay, you got me!  I did pre-order the book!  I could go on and on about how much I like this author and these books, but I'll refrain and tell you again to get them for yourself!

{two} This week our downstairs was taken over with friends and their sweet kiddos.  A total of sixteen bodies gathered together in a cacophony of fun, toys and noise.  I loved every minute of it!!  The Mommas came in with blank canvases and left with worn out kiddos and pieces of artwork.  Winston and I had a fun time hosting our friends for the morning.  And we created our springtime canvas for the kitchen!  

{three} Little Bug's school encouraged all of the kiddos to wear their best western outfit in celebration of Go Texan Day!  Since Winston had grown out of his cowboy boots, Thomas was the footwear of choice for visiting the animals that came to the school for a visit.  The kids did a great job brushing and chasing around goats, sheep, a donkey and a tiny pig!  Winston loved brushing the pig.  I used this fact as leverage to convince Benjamin we need a teacup pig but.... he wasn't having any of it!  

{four} I wore my Skinny Shirt for the first time this week and fell in love with it!  If you are a fan of the collared shirt under the sweater look, you should probably take a look at investing in one of these shirts.  They will change your life.  

{five} I ordered Winston Little Praise Party: Taste and See for his Easter basket.  Well, it arrived this week and I just couldn't keep it until then.  I mean, Easter is still over a month away!!  I popped the DVD into the laptop while I was cooking dinner.  Winston was immediately captivated by the colorful music videos and catchy tunes of the songs.  He was bee-boppin' and clapping his hands along to the music.  Have you heard of Yancy, not Nancy?  I highly recommend checking her out.  Her songs are perfect for kiddos of any age {big and small!} with catchy songs that will have them singing Scripture and wonderful truths of God!  Plus, they are great songs to have suck in your head!  

This weekend one of the major roads out of our development is closed so we are going to have to get creative on how to get here and there!  What are you doing?  Any big plans or no plans?  :)  Wishing you a wonderful weekend whatever you are getting up to!

Linking up today with 5 on Friday: Darci, April, Christina + Natasha | Oh Hey, Friday: September Farm + The Farmer's Wife