Nature Play At Home

If you love kids, nature, and gardens, then you will love this wonderful free publication developed by the National Wildlife Federation and the (NC-based) Natural Learning Initiative.  Nature Play At Home, A Guide for Boosting Children's Healthy Development and Creativity is a free, downloadable, printable PDF booklet.

In Nature Play at Home, parents and caregivers will learn how (and why) to create wonderful Nature Play Spaces TM  for children. 

Projects--which are ranked by difficulty according to the number of  "shovels"--include creating a sensory garden, an edible garden, a vine teepee, a water garden, balancing logs, grass mazes, dedicated play spaces for sand, water, mud, and acoustic play, and a miniature fairy village, among others.

Click here to download the booklet (you will be asked to provide your first and last name, email address, and zip code).  Here in NC we are expecting warm weather tomorrow; why not take advantage of this opportunity to spend some time outside with your kids?

Please note: I have used the vine teepee photograph with permission from the Natural Learning Initiative.  Please do not repost or reproduce this photograph without their permission.

How To Save Marigold Seeds

  

In my post last year about Almost Free Gardening, I mentioned how easy it is to save marigold seeds to plant in the spring.  Looking back at that post, I realized that more detailed instructions would be helpful.  Today I'll share some photos to illustrate exactly what I look for when I'm collecting seeds to save.  I know that there are other methods of marigold seed-saving (eg: collecting and drying the whole flower), but I prefer the foolproof route that I'll outline here. 

First, here's a picture of a flower bud--definitely not ready for harvesting!

This guy is also not ready--still too green:

 

These are nice and dry and getting closer, but they're still upright, so ideally I'll wait a little longer:

I like to wait until the little flower heads are completely dry and bending over--ready to aim their seeds at the ground.  When you see them bent over like this, (whether they are open at the end like those in the photo below or closed so that they look like tiny beige ears of corn) they are ready to be snapped off.

If you gently roll the dry flower head between your thumb and finger, the shell will come off revealing...seeds!!! 

Now all you have to do is wait until spring to plant them!  I recommend saving the seeds in an envelope rather than a jar; I've learned the hard way that jars can seal in moisture and cause mold to grow.  All of the marigolds that you see in these photos (including the three foot wide bush in the photo at the beginning of this post) grew from seeds that I collected last year (which grew from seeds collected the previous year).  Happy gardening! 

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Styrofoam Tray Printing

My preschool-aged daughter and I have recently started experimenting with foam tray printing.  Have you tried it?  If you haven't tried this fun, easy, and inexpensive art form, I urge you to give it a try!  It's a great "kid art" project that has "grown-up" card-making, gift-giving, and home decor applications as well.  Plus, even in our high tech age, there's something pretty darned cool and magical about creating your own little DIY printing press.

I first read about foam tray printing on the Chocolate Muffin Tree--a great resource for anyone who likes to make art with young kids.

Materials:
Foam Trays--We used veggie trays from store bought tomatoes, but styrofoam take-out boxes would work as well.
Scissors
Blank Paper
Pencils--You will need one dull pencil and one sharp one
Acrylic Craft Paint
Paintbrushes

Instructions:
1. Cut the edges off of your foam tray so that you have a flat piece of foam on which to work.  This picture is an overly-dramatic, crime-scene-like illustration of this step!

2. Draw your image on a piece of blank white paper. If you incorporate any words or symbols, remember that your end product print will be reversed.

3. Place your drawing on top of the foam, and use a dull pencil (or similar object) to trace your design, pressing into the foam to create an indentation as you draw.

4. Remove your drawing paper from the foam.

5. Using long paintbrush strokes, brush paint onto your foam.  You may need to experiment to find the optimal amount of paint to use.

6. Gently place your foam, paint side down, on your paper, and use your palm and fingers to press all over the surface of the foam.  You can also use a rolling pin or something similar.

7. Carefully lift your foam off of the paper and admire your design!

Once you master the basic technique, the sky is the limit!

Here are some of our prints.  My daughter created this design by drawing with the dull pencil directly on the foam to create the template.  She absolutely loves to draw "heart butterflies".  Most of her butterflies have long, flowing antennae, but she found it harder to draw on foam than on paper.  We made these printed greeting cards for her friends.  Each print is unique.  This process is not about perfection.

I applied the same heart image to some dish towels.  You can buy special additives to make acrylic paint permanent on fabric, but in my experience,  --and when I say "experience", I'm referring to a ridiculously-geeky, hand-painted Wonder Woman Halloween costume that I made in my early twenties--acrylic paint never washes out of fabric.  Ever.

Foam printing would work on a t-shirt as well (place cardboard inside the shirt so the paint won't bleed through to the back).  You can also use this method on fabric to make unique throw pillows.

When I created the owl design below,  I was aiming for a cute, baby nursery owl,  but I ended up with this kind of stern, eerie Halloweeny guy.  This template with black paint on orange paper would make a fun DIY Halloween greeting card. The black one on white paper pictured below could look cute framed in a Halloween display with other black and orange items.  Note how the image is reversed on the foam.

A friend is decorating her baby boy's nursery around a frog nightlight.  I had her in mind when I played with this design, which is inspired by a nightlight that I found via Google.  Note how different paint colors and paint application styles change the result.  This image is not very crisp due to a crease in the foam (see foam template lower L).

I love learning a new technique like this one, because it opens up so many fun new possibilities--from birthday cards to home decor items.

As an added bonus, it's a great way to repurpose styrofoam, which many municipalities will not--or cannot--recycle.  Once you have the foam templates, you can reuse them indefinitely to create more art!

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Artist Susan Dahlin


SweeTea- T-shirts featuring great Southern sayings

DIY "Ransom Note" Magnets

Back in 2009, I posted a tutorial about how to create a set of DIY meal planning magnets using the magnets that arrive in your home cloaked in junk mail or affixed to the back of a phone book with a giant rubber cement blob.

Just in case you've been yearning for another excuse to hoard junk mail magnets, I wanted to share a second project that I made using junk mail magnets.  I call these fun alphabet magnets "Ransom Note Magnets" though I do not endorse the use of real ransom notes--magnetic or paper--by real live villains!

Creating and arranging these magnets is:

Note to self: must make magnetic commas!

To make your own magnets, you will need:

• Junk mail magnets (any flat magnets will do: pizza delivery, dentists' offices, credit card solicitations, etc.)
• Magazines (or glossy junk mail fliers)
• Scissors
• Clear packing tape

Hunt through magazines for letters, and cut them out, leaving a square of "background color" around them.  Then use the same method that I described in this post to "laminate" them with packing tape.

If you opt to create only capital letters, and you want to make at least one of each alphabet letter, you will find that the Scrabble point values of letters are actually a very good predictor of the difficulty you'll have finding each letter in capital form in a magazine.  In other words, "J" and "Q" will be tougher to find than "E" and "A".  On the upside, the letter hunt is fun and educational for kids, and it can be an ongoing project if you build your letter collection over time.

My preschool-aged daughter loves to play with these magnets to make words, names, and even consonant-heavy nonsense words, which I attempt to sound out for her.

Have a stainless fridge?  Your kiddo might enjoy playing with these on the side of the dishwasher, the side of the washer/dryer, or even on a cookie sheet.

Create a Closet Craft Space from a Hollow Core Door--No Power Tools Required!

In my last post, I shared how I transformed a closet into an office space.  Today I'll explain how I created the tandem craft space that you see above using a $5 hollow core door from Habitat for Humanity...and NO power tools!

I started by measuring the interior of my closet to determine the dimensions of my future desktop.  When measuring, be sure to take into account the dimensions of your closet door casing (the decorative wood around the edge of your closet opening), which may impact your measurements.  Another consideration is the height of your existing closet shelves--you will need to be able to angle the hollow door desktop up as you maneuver it into place in the closet.

I knew that I wanted to use a hollow core door to create my desk surface.  Hollow core doors are smooth, lightweight (ie: easy to transport and cut), and affordable.  As I browsed the door aisle at my local Habitat for Humanity Restore, I came across a beauty for just $5.  This door was brand new and already primed on one side.  Best of all, it was a "no-bore" door!  Yes, this door was the life of every party!  Just kidding; "no-bore" means "no holes (bores)". 
 
The door was perfect, but it was too deep for my closet.  At first I felt discouraged, as I didn't want to resort to using power tools to "rip" (handyman term) the door down to the proper size.  Then, in an unprecedented moment of Math Competence, I did a little mental Tetris and realized that the door might work if I cut off the corners and allowed the desktop to protrude beyond the interior of the closet.  (See the diagram below--click to enlarge.)

 

Eschewing any lifting help from the kind Habitat volunteers (remember, these doors are light as a feather), I carried the door to the register.  I probably even lifted it over my head in a noticeably-uncool display of mock brute strength.  I paid my $5 and, thanks to a little more mental Tetris and some string, fit the thing into the back of our old Honda Accord (the rear seats fold down to reveal an opening to the trunk).

Cutting the hollow core door proved to be fast and simple.  The hardest part was getting through the solid wood at the edges--after that, the door was, well, hollow!  As I sawed away at the door, the thin wood reminded me of the Wasa-type crackers that I used to eat as a kid (my dad is Scandinavian).  In fact, I think the crackers would have been harder to cut with a saw than the door was.  If you've ever eaten those crackers, you know what I mean.  They could make doors out of Wasa.

 

Being a recycling-minded person, I realized that the rectangles that I had cut from the door corners would make nice, sturdy art canvases.  My daughter painted on them, and then I finished the edges with cardboard and ribbon and we gave them to her two grandmothers as Mother's Day gifts. Guess I got my money's worth out of that Habitat door, eh?!

This is what the door looked like when I had finished cutting it.  The longest edge is the side that went against the back of the interior of the closet--the chairs sit next to the shorter of the two long sides.  I could have painted it, but instead I opted to top it with some white contact paper, which is very forgiving of all of our rubber stamp smudges and glitter glue blobs.

 

Now, I suppose you're wondering how I supported this light-as-a-feather desktop without using any power tools?  Well, here you go:  I laid each end of the desktop on top of a (filled) cardboard bankers box topped by a wooden crate.  Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done and provides a little additional storage space.  This has held up beautifully for us so far.  Note that the crates support the front edge of the desktop more than the back, as we tend to put more weight on the front when we are working.

To finish the space, I brought in two wrought iron garden chairs so that my daughter and I can work side by side.  I spray painted them with Krylon outdoor paint in a color called "Lime". I plan to add cushions at some point.  A small lamp adds extra task lighting; its power cord is plugged in via an extension cord which, now that I see the photo, could probably be a little more discreetly placed.

The sides of the desktop, tucked as they are into niches in the wall at each end of the desk, offer a great place for easily-accessible craft supply storage.  The mini drawers that you see below tuck in nicely and corral rubber stamps, paper punches, and smaller sheets of scrapbook paper.  Drawers can be removed and placed on our work surface when we need access to a whole drawer's worth of supplies for a project.

I chose to leave some of the art supplies out in the open on the desktop; to me, there's something very inviting about a table with art materials all laid out and ready to be used, so I tucked the pens, pencils, and crayons into clear plastic cups.  I love how accessible they are and how the cups reveal all of that colorful potential. 

So there you have it, a craft desk (which my three year old generously calls "The Art Room") from a $5 hollow core door.  Happy crafting!

Closet Office / Craft Space (Part 1)

When my daughter was born, she claimed not only our hearts, but also my former office/craft space.  This meant that I needed to find a creative way to fit a queen sized (guest) bed and all of my office furniture and craft supplies into a 10' x 10' room.  My solution?  A closet office...which later morphed into a closet craft space.

In today's post, I'll share details about the quick and easy DIY closet office that I created using freestanding furniture (photo below).  In my next post, I'll share how I reinvented the closet office into the tandem craft space that you see above, using a $5 hollow core door and no power tools!

To transform my regular closet into a closet office, I:
1. Removed the closet doors and replaced them with curtains.
2. Painted the interior of the closet.
3. Moved in some furniture!

Here's what my closet office looked like at that point:

Was this my "dream" workspace?  Well, considering that my dream space would involve enormous windows, a long range view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and a time-locked Oreo cookie dispenser, I'll have to answer, "No."  Did it function well for me?  Sure.  For the most part, I used what I already had on hand.

I often advocate using furniture "placeholders" to test how well a space will function. An example of this would be placing a folding chair in a corner where you're considering placing a new upholstered chair.

If you're considering a closet office, start with freestanding furniture (even a card table and a folding chair) for a "test run" before you invest in new furniture or built-ins.  There are definite feng shui drawbacks to working in a space like this. The word "closet" comes from the Latin "clausum", meaning "closed space". Think of the symbolism alone--can you think "outside the box" while you're...in...a box? Can you overcome writer's block when a literal block (wall) is several inches from the tip of your nose?  These are things to consider before you dive into the closet.  Now, back to the "how-to":

Curtains

The "curtains" were a no-sew project: I simply hung twin-sized, white, flat sheets from a curtain rod using clip rings.  Fold these at the top unless you like a "puddled" look at the bottom.  Similar twin sheets can be found for about $5 each at Walmart.  

 

I saved the closet doors and hinges in our attic.  If we ever put our home on the market, the first thing I'll do is replace the closet doors and turn this space back into an ordinary closet.  Why?  Nothing screams, "Small House" to a prospective buyer louder than a closet office! 

Paint

I painted the interior of the closet using a $5 "Color to Go" sample sized jug of paint from Sherwin Williams.  The paint store color-matched Behr's "Corn Husk Green" paint color for me.  Yes, I am well aware that sample paint is not intended to be a topcoat, but the paint police haven't tracked me down yet.  I like how the different paint color defines the closet space as a "mini room".  The walls in the rest of the room are "Lighthouse" by Benjamin Moore.  "Lighthouse" is a nice, soft yellow that infuses rooms with the feeling of gentle sunlight--it's great for nurseries and bedrooms (these photos aren't true to the color).

The framed prints are "Wild Roses" and "Begonias" by Kim Parker.   I framed them in simple, inexpensive Format frames.  The beauty of decorating the inside of a closet is that nothing has to be perfect because, hey, it's just a closet!

 I had enough sample paint left over to paint this little wooden stool. This chameleon stool keeps changing colors because it only takes 5 minutes to paint it.  I added ball fringe for fun.  I used regular Elmer's glue to attach the ball fringe, as I wasn't in the mood to break out the glue gun.  It's held up for a few years now with no major ball-fringe-related incidents to report.

Storage & Accessories 

I left the closet rod in place for guests to use for hanging clothes when they visit. Again, for resale, a bedroom by definition needs a closet, so I didn't want to alter this space too much.

You may remember other posts in which I've sung the praises of cardboard, economy weight banker's boxes for home organizing.  Here they are again, storing fabric on the top shelf of the closet office.

To make the chalkboard labels, I painted chalkboard paint on a thin, plastic-coated paint sample board, cut the board into label-sized pieces, and glued the labels onto the boxes.  Chalkboard contact paper would have made this even easier. 

I was inspired to make this little cloche accessory when I saw some baby photo pixies on The Shabby Nest.   The "cloche" is actually a vase from the Dollar Tree which I placed upside down on top of a saucer.  These photo fairies are simple and fun to make; I even used regular printer paper and our home printer to print the photo, since I was too impatient to go to the photo store.  (Are you detecting a theme of impatience here?)  They can be customized for different holidays--for example, you can add a Santa hat to make a Christmas cloche.

In my next post, I'll share details about how I made a craft desk using a $5 hollow core door and no power tools!

This post has been linked to The Open House Party at No Minimalist Here.

Organizing Tip: "Perma-notes" & Post-Its

There was a time when I had a pretty reliable brain--a brain that could remember things, a brain that even produced enough decent thoughts to earn a couple of medals and awards for me back in my undergraduate days.  Then, I became a mom.  If you're a mom, you know what I mean.  When you become a mom, your heart grows... and your brain shrinks.  You start to forget things.  You wait for your old brain to return.  You wait and you wait, but friend, it's gone.  Then you realize that you need either a) a new brain or b) better systems.  Here are a few simple systems that have worked for me:

 

My Laundry "Perma-note"

Our washer and dryer sit behind bi-fold doors in our kitchen.  To cut down on noise and visual clutter, I close the bi-fold doors while the washer and dryer are running.  The problem, of course, is that as soon as the bi-fold doors close, my shrunken brain thinks, "Laundry?  What laundry?  And, by the way, how long has this piece of toast been sitting in the toaster?" [Answer: 12 hours.]

My solution: I used a photo laminating sheet to create a "perma-note", or reusable note, to serve as a visual reminder to myself.  I store the note on a hook inside the laundry closet.  When I put a load of laundry in the washer, I hang the note on the outside of the left doorknob.  When I move the laundry to the dryer, I move the note to the right doorknob.  Once the dry laundry has been put away, the reminder note goes back on the hook inside the closet.  This system works because the note moves, so I am more likely to see it and notice it, as opposed to, say, popping it in the toaster.

My Dishwasher "Perma-note"
I created another laminated "perma-note" which gets placed on the kitchen counter right above the dishwasher whenever someone turns on the washer to run a load of dishes.  In my experience, notes or magnets on the front of the dishwasher get overlooked by anyone who happens to be taller than 1' 5", and the little "clean" indicator light on the dishwasher itself is utterly useless.  We store this laminated note in a drawer next to the dishwasher.  The note stays on the counter until all of the clean dishes have been unloaded and put away. This way, if we only get halfway through unloading the clean dishes for some reason, we all remember not to add more dirty dishes to the dishwasher.  Once all of the clean dishes are unloaded, the note goes back into the drawer.

Post-Its for Food Storage

Whenever I put leftovers in the fridge or I open a new jar of something perishable (like apple sauce or tomato sauce), I take a moment to date it with a tiny Post-It note.  This simple habit has helped me to waste less food overall; I can confidently eat or serve something when I know for sure that it's fresh.  Thanks to the Post-Its, I also know for sure when something is past its prime and needs to be discarded, even before it sprouts telltale green Muppet fur.  Now, I never have to rely on my brain to "just remember" how long things have been languishing in the fridge.

Do you have any systems to help compensate for "mom brain"?  Feel free to share them in the comments!

 

A Chair After My Own Heart

Today I am excited to introduce you to Red Chair Blog sponsor Dutch Design Chair.

This unique product gets an A+ grade in my book for a number of reasons:

1.It’s environmentally-friendly, as it is made from FSC-Certified corrugated cardboard.  I grew up reading decorating, design, and craft books from the 1970’s (which reflected that era’s earth-friendly ethos), so a cardboard chair sounds like a fantastic idea to me!  
 

2. It’s multi-functional.  I love stools in general for their versatility; they can serve as seating, bedside tables, footstools, end tables, coffee tables, etc.  I own one little wooden stool which has literally been painted 4 different colors over the last seven years because it has been moved around our house so many times to serve so many different purposes--it has even migrated to our covered front porch.  The Dutch Design chair takes versatility a step further by also having the capacity to stand on its head and serve as a storage cube.  It was originally designed for use at festivals--festival-goers could carry their picnic items in the box and then later use it as seating.

3. It’s lightweight, but also incredibly sturdy.  Though it weighs only 2 pounds, the Dutch Design Chair can support up to 440 pounds of weight.  This design element really impresses me.  Think about it: even ants, nature’s amazing weight-lifters, can only support up to 100 times their own weight.  This chair is stronger than ants!

4. It’s priced well--at just under 25 Euros (around 32 USD), it’s a unique piece at a sensible price.

5. As a decorator, I must point out that the chair is also neat-looking.  It’s one cool stool!  My favorites are the Tree Trunk and the Beechwood.  

I think the Tree Trunk would be a fun addition to a contemporary setting:





The Beachwood would be equally at home in a shabby chic beach cottage as it would be in an urban, brick-walled loft:

And now for the Dr. Seuss question: Where, oh where, can one buy that chair?

Well, the chair is produced in The Netherlands and has been a big seller there.  It is currently available in France, Germany, the UK, Denmark, Spain, Korea and Japan.  Unfortunately, there are currently no US sources for the chair, but it can be purchased through the Dutch Design Chair Website.  Shipping to the US is 35 Euros--about 46 USD.  Orders over $150 ship free, which may inspire some local entrepreneurs to order them in bulk!

To see more styles and learn more, please visit the Dutch Design Chair Website.