Pinterest Moms

After working on Darrow and Ione's Halloween costumes and Trunk or Treat decorations, Cameron told me "You know, you can't post that online. Your Pinstrosity people will hate you. You can't be one of the Pinterest Moms" And I got a little offended by his comment. But I knew it wasn't meant harshly, and it wasn't worth getting worked up, so I brushed it off. Then last night after laughing over the results of Darrow's birthday cake (he requested a black cake) he said, "You can show this one!" I wasn't offended this time, but it did make me stop short. 

Can we talk about "that Pinterest Mom" for just a minute? 

You know her. The woman who just blew up your feed with the pictures of her perfectly executed themed birthday party fit for a rock star. Or she's the woman who is always posting pictures of the cute and educational things she is doing with her children. Or she's the woman who is posting about her kids quietly playing in their room while she does her hour of yoga and meditation. Or she's the woman who always looks on point and gorgeous. Or she's the woman who always has the cutest date night pictures of her and her "bae" (really...where did that come from?!) and their cute and perfect relationship. See, you do know her. 

We all know her. Or a few "hers". And for some reason so many of us feel threatened by her. Enough so that "Pinterest Mom" is becoming a derogatory term.

Now I know that there are some exceptions, but really for the most part, I don't think these "Pinterest Moms" are out there doing their thing to make any of us feel bad. That's not their point at all.

And you know what...none of them have it all 100% together. I know I don't. I know that none of the amazing women that I know have it all together. Some have it more together than others, but none of us are spotless and we all are hot messes in various aspects in our lives. But we compare our hot messes with our other's shining successes all too often. Of course there is going to be a disparity in that comparison! 

We have to stop it. Stop the comparison. Stop the "Pinterest Mom" shaming. Her success is not my failure. Say it with me. Her success is not my failure. We each have strengths. Every single one of us. We also all have thing we're not so good at. 

I make a mean cardboard Mater, but can't make a pretty cake. I take my family out on day trips, but I really dislike sitting and reading stories to my kids. I love making bouquets and wall hangings, but I can't keep my house clean ever.  Would I like my weak points to be stronger? Of course! But just because I am a crappy housewife, doesn't mean that now I can't buoy up and cheer on those that are fabulous at that. 

"Real" is such a buzzword right now. I love the movement of showing real life and not putting up a fake front, but don't get so enamored with real that you forget that talents are real too. It's okay to be a Pinterest Mom. It's okay to not be a Pinterest Mom. We all have our differing abilities!

So here's your Pinstrosity homework: 

If you find yourself putting anyone down for something they did well...stop. Stop immediately, and find a sincere compliment you can give. Even if you were just putting them down in your head, stop, and tell your Facebook friend that you love how happy her kid looks at her party, or how beautiful the quilling was on the card she just made, or how fun the sign is that she holding at her child's game, or that you are so glad they get to go on date nights. Be sincere. And soon you'll find that your outlook will change, your mindset will morph, and you will be happier! 

We can do this! We can lift each other up instead of tearing each other (and ourselves) down! 

The thing I realized my toddler craved: Control

Facebook showed me a memory from 2 years ago yesterday. It went like this: "Darrow may look like Cameron, but I'm pretty sure that just now when I pulled him off the bookshelf for the 10th time in a row in a series of 2 minutes and yelled, turned his back to me, banged his head on the floor, and then gave me a dirty look as he crawled back to the bookshelf, that it was 110% me. Neat."

And that statement has been proven true time and time again over the last 2 years. But, I realized something about a month ago that is making a huge difference. And I feel like a dork that it took me nearly 2 years of butting heads with a toddler to realize. 

It's all about the control, ('bout control, 'bout control -just channeling my inner Meghan Trainor there).

See, I like when I have everything under control in my sphere and with things relating to me. I like to plan my own day, have my space the way I want it, and things going the way I planned. It took me 2 years, but I realized that if Darrow is like me (and he's proven that over and over again), then it only makes sense that he's feeling the same way! He wants control. He doesn't want to be directed. He needs to feel like he's in charge of his sphere.

That light bulb was huge for me. I don't know why, but it was. You'd think that'd be an easy one, but it wasn't.

So I've been working to make some changes around here, and guys...it is hard! Giving him some control means me giving up some control. But isn't that what Motherhood is about, giving up what we want because what your child needs is more important?

Now, we're not just giving him carte blanche around here. There are things that are non-negotiable, such as staying in the yard, not playing with the oven, no throwing toys at Ione, not running away when we call him, etc. But I've found areas where if I give up some of my control over the situation, he can then exert his control. And it has made a world of difference! This is a much happier boy lately.

The first big one was bedtime and naps. Darrow is a night owl through and through (also a trait he got from me). Bedtime was often a huge fight. We'd put him to bed, he'd get out. We put him back in bed, he'd get out. We tried all different methods over the 2 years from various articles. Silently putting him to bed with no eye contact, calmly explaining why he needed to stay in bed, spanking, lying by him and wrapping our arms around him so he couldn't get off the bed until he cried himself to sleep, sitting down the hall and getting after him every time he got off the bed, and the list goes on. Nothing worked. Naptime was the same. He needed a nap, but it was a huge fight. 

So no instead of bedtime and naptime he has afternoon quiet time and bedtime quiet time. The rules are he stays in his room (in the afternoon it's a designated 2 hours-which is how long he usually naps). That's it. At night we get him in his jammies and do his nighttime routine (brush teeth, read a book, sing a song, prayers, kisses, milk, water, you know covering the excuse bases), and then he goes in his room for nighttime quiet time. During quiet time he gets to choose what he does and it's fine as long as he's in his room. The first 2-3 days he didn't nap, he just played in the afternoon, and at night he stayed up playing until 10 or midnight. But then the novelty wore off. 

Now for afternoon quiet time he plays for a little bit and then probably 4 times out of the week he'll climb in his bed and take a nap. At night he goes in and plays and probably 4 nights a week he is asleep by 8:30 or 9, with the others being up playing until 10-11. And then he sleeps later! Hallelujah! We moved Ione out of the room (she's an early riser and would wake him up before he's ready), and that's made it all even better. 

Everything we read said that kids needed a firm bedtime and a firm routine and having that nighttime schedule was important. So we tried to get that in place for 2 years and it just never worked. Darrow needed to feel that control. That one change has made the biggest difference out of everything lately. 

Beyond that I try to remember to let him choose things as much as possible. Are we playing in the front yard or backyard. What he eats for breakfast (I decide dinner and half the time lunch, but he gets to choose what he eats for breakfast). Which way we go when we take walks. Stuff like that. And it is enough that he feels more in control of his surroundings. 

On my end it means a lot of biting my tongue to keep from getting after him for things that are minor or trivial. Like smashing his sandwich flat before eating it (wiping up the bit of mess is easy, I can do that), or dumping all his toys out in his room just after we put them away, or flipping the curtains around, or carrying our shoes all over the house. I'd rather he didn't do those, but he's not being bad, he's not being destructive, and it's something I can just relax on and not be so uptight. 

So that's it, that's been the magic trick to a much happier, more well behaved, and much more rested Darrow: me giving up complete control so that he could have some control of his own!

Simple DIY Luau Decorations

Not too long ago I was helping come up with the decorations for another youth stake dance (this seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life, but I sure love it!). This time, the theme was a summer luau. Pulling ideas from Pinterst, past dances, the store, and the closet of old decorations that was passed down from previous youth leaders, we had more decorations than we had time to put up. 

Time. Now there was an interesting part to all of this. 

I was excited for this and headed into town to do my errands, pick up final supplies, and head to the church cultural hall to start decorating. I got all the way to Walmart (because that's our choice around here), 20ish miles away, and discovered that I didn't have a cent on me. My wallet was back at home. 

I couldn't really do anything without it, so back home I went and got the wallet. That was nearly an hour wasted. 

But finally I got the last supplies, got to the church and began unloading my car and searching the closet for any luau supplies (which there were buckets full...literally buckets). About half an hour after I got to the church, our President arrived and I went out to help unload her car, only to discover that I'd let the door close behind us, locking us out. See, being the only one at the church for just a little bit I'd only unlocked the one door long enough to get in and then closed it behind me. We were locked outside with no keys to get back in. Along with the church keys were our car keys and our cell phones. There was no way to get in touch with anyone who could help! 

So I went to a nearby house where I knew a church member lived hoping they'd have keys. And they were gone. We were getting ready to start canvasing the neighborhood when out of the corner of my eye I saw the missionaries leaving a back door of the church. We'd had no idea they were even in there! We dashed over there like crazy ladies (which we might have been getting close to at that point), and they let us in the door so we could get back in and decorate. More time lost. 

So in the end I didn't end up making the palm tree, or the palm leafy backdrop, or a few other things. But you know what...the kids had a great time, they ate almost all the refreshments, and it was a positive activity, so it's okay! 

I did get a few decorations made though! I want to share two of them with you because they are super easy and super cute! 

The first was our tiki pole.

I found this idea on Pinterest, linking back to the Design Sprinkles blog. Not wanting to ruin the paper bags, I used masking tape in a loop on the back of each face part to attach them to the bag. Beign in a hurry, I didn't make all the cool different shapes you see on the original bags, but these did the job well!

I had the idea to drop battery operated lights in them to make it a glowing tiki pole. Great idea, but it didn't work. The bags were too thick. I think next time instead of doing a tiki pole, I'll do tiki heads, luminary style with lunch bags so that they can glow all around the room. How cool would that look?!

We also found that if you stacked more than 4 of these up, it fell. So we ended up with 2 small stacks rather than one large one.

The other quick decoration I want to show you are our mini tiki torch lanterns.

These were a mini version of the lanterns found on the Design Sprinkles blog. I had a stack of 5" squares of scrapbook paper that I used for this. I followed the original instructions (folding in half to get a crease, and then cutting strips evenly around the paper, leaving a margin on top and bottom). Next I wrapped one margin end of the paper around a battery operated tea light and taped it in place. I couldn't find our scotch tape and didn't want a chunk of masking tape visible, so I stapled the tops closed. Not the smoothest look, but it sure did the job fast to use the stapler. These looked really cool out on the tables and glowed nicely!

After the dance we threw away the face parts of the tiki pole, but were able to keep all 6 of the bags for future gift giving, and the paper from all the tiki lanterns. It was all easy to put together and quick clean up!

Show and Tell Saturday: A is for...

Today I have all of the "A is for..." January challenge projects! Food, art, and fun!

We'll start with the first one sent to us!

Kate tried her hand at making Alfredo Sauce from scratch for the firs time:

"I've never, ever made alfredo from scratch for some reason, so the January "A" Challenge was perfect when I decided the other day that I was craving some alfredo sauce at home. This "Chicken Alfredo Baked Ziti" pin made it sound easy and had great photos too.  My kiddos pitched in with the preparation and it turned out pretty great.  We omitted the parsley flakes, and used rotini instead of ziti... and we may have been a little overzealous with the amount of noodles we added, because it was a little dry if you like your noodles saucy. (This was likely from too many noodles cooked up by my almost-4-year-old-helper.)  The alfredo sauce itself was creamy with a good flavor.  Night one was a success!  For leftover night, we added some alfredo-from-a-jar upon reheating in order to make it saucier, which helped a lot. We will save this pin and try again with extra sauce on the first night. Happy "A" challenges! -Kate"

Joanne decided this challenge was perfect for trying out various Alcohol Ink projects she'd seen over time on Pinterest (you can see more of her story and photos on her blog):

Carolyn tried out a new Apple Pie recipe in her birthday present pie pan. You can read her story and how she decided on this scrumptious pie (I know it's super yummy because I happened to be at her house the day after she made it and inexplicably there were still leftovers!), and where to find the recipe, on her blog:

Eilonwy put her sewing skills to the test for some Aqua Apparel (get her full story and the inspiring pins on her blog):

Diedre decided to take the "A is for" theme literally and recreate a pinterest pin of a whole learning experience for her 3 year old son about the letter A. She explains the sensory bin and how she put it together on her blog. 

Marquette: And then finally I have my project to share with you. My A is for project is Appliance Art. Like Carolyn, I decided to combine the January Pinstrosity challenge with the Iron Craft challenge. I have seen pins on Pinterest about painting your fridge, but we're in a rental and our fridge isn't ours to paint. So I went to an often ugly part of our kitchen...the microwave. My microwave went from this: 

To this:

You can see more of my process on my blog as well.


And there you have it! Those were all the "A is for..." projects we were sent. Fun, huh?! I love seeing creativity and courage come together with trying out these pins you find! Way to go everyone! 

Throwback Thursday- Sensory Fail

Em here,
Fall is drawing closer and with it comes the end of summer and its fabulous weather. I am sure that more than a few of our readers have kiddos who aren't in school and are still itchin' to be out playing while the sunshine lasts. Here is a pin with some inspiration and advice for an activity to do when the weather cooperates, and when the kiddos (may or may not) cooperate.
Happy Thursday all!

Sensory FAIL

My nephew is incredibly active and curious. Toys and gadgets don't keep him entertained for long. He wants to be exploring, dismantling, jumping, and moving. The two things he'll sit still for are Elmo music videos and videos of himself. While this really is cute and funny, I know it wears my sister out. She is a trooper though and has worked hard to find activities for him to do that will help keep his attention, focus his curiosity, and let him explore things. She's found things that work well...she's found things that don't work (she's kept a log of the various toddler/baby activities, which you can find here). Anytime I see something cool on Pinterest for her to try out with her boy I tag her in it. She probably gets tired of her obnoxious childless (okay...technically I do have a child right now, but I'm not really raising him yet...just growing him) older sister sending her activities and links...but what is an older sister for but to annoy and meddle? Two traits I found I mastered in my life (I'm typing up my old journals from when I was a kid...if I weren't already pregnant that'd serve as a pretty good prevention technique). Today's post has an activity I would have definitely tagged and sent to her on Pinterest. It looks like a blast. Sarah thought it looked like a great idea as well. Bubble Wrap and shaving cream combined into a fun kid's activity? What could go wrong?! 

The Original Pin

http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/2012/05/play-with-bubble-wrap-and-shaving-cream.html

Look how happy she is! It makes me want to play in shaving cream and bubble wrap. Ultimate slip and slide?! 

Sarah says, "I was trying to get creative with sensory activities for my boys. Enter, Pinterest's "The Bubble Wrap Sensory Slide". The picture of the adorable little girl looking thoroughly pleased and shrieking with joy as she played in the bubble wrap and shaving cream had me sold...Shame on me for thinking this seemingly effortless activity would turn out like it was supposed to AND that my kids would actually enjoy it.  I recruited my mom to bring us bubble wrap from work, went to the dollar store and stocked up on shaving cream and planned the showdown with the ever-fickle game of perfectly timing organized activities with nap time, meal time, potty time, daddy-comes-home time, bed time, etc. I put a notable amount of energy into making this deceptively uncomplicated project into a three-minute reality for my family."

"It is important to note that my children are familiar with both shaving cream and bubble wrap. This is how it played out:"

The Pinstrosity

I'll just give you Sarah's play by play in her own words:

• Laying out the bubble wrap on the grass really just involved me chasing it around the yard as it blew in the wind."
• It took more than five 12-oz cans of shaving cream for "desired effect".
• The kids wanted *nothing* to do with that strange mess mommy made on the ground.

• After I enthusiastically demonstrated what they were supposed to do by jumping up and down, popping bubble wrap with my feet and using my best supportive and overdone, over-zealous mom voice to encourage their participation (and realizing it is way harder than it looks to stand on slippery plastic covered in shaving cream), I picked up each boy and set them right on top of the bubble wrap and made them try it.
• My 16-month-old sprung right up and off the bubble wrap like a wind-up toy the second I set him down. I'm pretty sure he levitated; irate baby #1.

• My almost-3-year-old stood up and fell down and stood up again then tried to walk but the bubble wrap stuck to his feet as he tried to walk away and it "followed him" - you can feel the passion in his fury in these pictures. 

• The worst part of the bubble wrap sensory slide was every time you lifted your foot to walk or take a step, the bubble wrap would stick to your feet; it stuck to everything.
• It was over in three minutes.
• Side note: Food coloring plus children is a stupid idea.
• Thank you Pinterest, for underhandedly bringing me an experience of foolishness I never knew existed, in front of my children, husband and on-looking neighbors. Not cool, Pinterest...not cool.

Poor Sarah! All that hard work and excited anticipation for a let down. Magdelyn and Stephanie I'm sure could say, "I know how you feel!". Even though I don't have kids yet, I feel like I can commiserate as I do with with the teenage girls at church (I love them, but sometimes I feel like I'm beating my head against a wall). Having a highly anticipated activity flop is so disheartening. But kids' fickleness does have a plus...in a year, this activity could be the coolest thing those to boys can imagine. Or it could be a repeat trauma for all involved. I'd give out advice on how to help a kid like an activity like this or on how to try this activity again and making it a positive experience...but I'm pretty much a zero on the experience meter here. Oh I could make something up and still give out ideas and advice...but I don't imagine that'd be all that helpful, lol. Mom's out there...any suggestions?  

Flashback Friday: Redneck Waterbed

Why is today Flashback Friday? I'll tell you. It's because I have a Pinstrosity to share with you today, inspired from a pin that "fathered" two previous Pinstrosity posts. 

Behold, Pinstrosity #1:

Rachael found that if your land isn't completely flat, you run into trouble.  Rolling blog anyone?

Pinstrosity #2:

Magdelyn found out that ironing plastic isn't very fun, and that plastic is prone to holes when jumped upon by young yahoos. 

And then finally today I give you Pinstrosity #3:

Rowan followed the instructions at this site, but learned that this was a lot of work for only 10 minutes of playtime. "This photo is taken after only ten minutes of play. My nephews loved it but It quickly got bunched up and sprung leaks. Thankfully I did not add the food-colouring that the post suggests because otherwise I would have ended up with coloured children. In the end we just ended up with a wet tarp.... Really not as fun as advertised."

So, three ladies have found this isn't as easy or as satisfying as it looks at first. But for those 10 minutes it does work, is sounds like fun! Visit the previous two redneck waterbed posts (click on the names of the two previous submitters) for the various tips submitted with these Pinstrosities! 

Throwback Thursday- Back to School Supply Cake

This Throwback Thursday post is by Marquette from the end of last summer. I think it applies as school is just starting and what is more school-ish than school supplies?? Check it out! Happy Thursday!
-Em

Welp. We're nearing the end. It's been a good run, but all things must come to and end sometime unfortunately. The clouds here today reminded me of winter clouds and I had a mini panic attack. I'm just not ready for summer to be winding down, but sadly it is. School is just around the corner (a few school districts start up next week! I think that's insane!). Luckily we still have another month before school starts back up here, unless you're taking summer courses...poor unfortunate souls (please tell me at least a few of you thought of Ursula). A while back we were sent in  a great idea for a supply "cake" that you can give as a gift. Know a recent high school graduate heading off to college? A teacher you just really love? A new teacher jumping into the pool of public education? This could be a really fun idea to do for them to help them jump start their semester. Or...give this project a pin spin, as our submitter did, and adapt it to any occasion. I have a friend who will be leaving with the Peace Corps and this may be really fun to do for her!

The Original Pin:

"Pack up a shower caddy with tools and essentials for surviving freshman year in college – all the little things they might forget. A small sewing kit, shower flip flops, laundry instructions, ear plugs, and a screwdriver." http://www.studentadvisor.com/articles/12-cheap-and-diy-graduation-gifts-that-youll-actually-use

Fun stuff, no? I love it. Bri took this idea and morphed it into what worked for her and her sister. Here's her story:

"My name is Bri and I have a story for you!! I am LDS and my sister last week got called to serve an LDS trial mission. She lives in Salt Lake City and had 5 days to get ready for the first 3 months of her mission where she will stay in Salt Lake for the time being. I currently live in Oregon so I hopped on a plane the day after we found out what was happening so I could help out. So I had ZERO crafting supplies with me. My mom decided to throw a party together and I knew that she would need "supplies" Like paper and pens and notepads etc. So I headed off to Wal-Mart. My first "failure" was going while my sister was with me... I would come back to the cart with all the things and she would be like "Your doing that Pinterest thing, aren't you!?" And she would wink her eye. However there was no way to go to Wal-mart without her. So I just brushed it off and said "Heck No! I have not crafting supplies and would I really buy stuff for a Pinterest project for you while you are here, these are for the poor people mom drives by everyday." She of course knew this was the worst excuse in the world and came back with "why would homeless people need pens and paper!?" By this point I was out of comebacks so I smiled and walked away. And every time I saw her she would ask how the homeless people would use the various thing I would find. I just went with it and I sure the people around us were laughing at my crazy stories.  Her party was on Sunday and I got the stuff Friday night. But I knew looking at the picture and not being able to find any instructions I would have to have help with it. So my friend came over and brought even MORE pens and pencils. And we got to work. I had gotten 2 beach towels to use as the center. I tried stacking them on top of one another and taping the crap out of it. But it kept toppling over. So we stood the towels next to each other on the big notebook. We then took wider items and placed them around the "bottom". I was dead set on having this thing look like the picture, but newsflash 3*5 cards when stacked together do not bend. My mom even told me to unwrap each pack and "layer" the cards into a circle! I about died. Cards would have flown everywhere. This would have been ten times worse than 52 card pickup. So I finally had to give in and make it "square", If you can call it that. So we took the next items and made a second layer. Luckily we had some smaller items that could be put in the corners and it made that layer "roundish". The top layer had a pen holder and going to Wal-Mart at 11 at night made me forget that's what I needed. So the pens, pencils, and highlighters I bought we used for the cake part. And the loose pens, pencils, and highlighters my friend brought we used as fillers. My friend also made a cute jar with thoughts and quotes to help my sister out so it was decided that would be top. However when we placed it right on top of the towels it looked sooooo stupid. Luckily my friend brought my sister some snacks. So we taped the boxes together and put those boxes on the towels and then the jar on the snacks. Now if you look very carefully you can see scotch tape around each layer. We call this our insurance plan. We tried to get the ribbon to hold onto everything (which I only bought one spool. I thought it had to be enough! Wrong I was!) So we dug through my moms black hole of a craft room and found sequins and thin green ribbon. We tied the ribbon on and decided the tape had to stay or the whole thing would collapse. When it was all done we were turning it and the jar toppled over. So ribbon went up and down it as well, as the secondary insurance plan. Over all it turned out okay."

The Pin Spin: 

"Was it what was in my head? Heck no! But she liked it. There is a picture of her holding it and after she held it the whole thing fell apart. And we hadn't even got to the party yet. So we did a quick fix. A lot of people were confused and asked if it was a tower. After a while of having to explain that it was a cake I gave up and said "sure is! I was trying to make the tower of babel!" I guess only the crafty women get it! On the GTC scale I would give it a 3. I think if I had instructions maybe it would have turned out more cake-ish!" -Bri

I've never made a supply cake, only one diaper cake and one diaper tricycle (I know...some of you think those things are hideous, just bear with us). It's easier to get a round cake with diapers because you can fold and mold them. I imagine making a bunch of square items into a round cake would be hard. I love that they just went with the and made a square tiered cake (aka, tower of Babel). Sometimes you just have to do what works! Thanks for the great idea Bri!

Messy Mess-Free Painting for Littles

Hello all! We are back from our big trips as Marquette mentioned yesterday and we are ready to get in full swing. By ready I mean that I slept till 10:30 this morning and am only now getting to blogging. That's ready right?! I started school yesterday (my last semester of college!!!!) and so I am still trying to get a new routine down. We'll get there soon enough. For today's Pinstrosity I have a sensory play goof for you!

Laura has a 2.5 year old who loves to paint and color, and Laura found this pin of a mess free painting method and thought it would be perfect for her little! Check it out!

The Original

http://hippiehousewife.blogspot.ca/2012/01/mess-free-finger-painting.html?m=1 

 

Let your little ones play with paint without making a giant mess, and you can make some fun shapes when the paint is in the taped down plastic bag! The little artists can also erase what they made, make something new without using lots of paper, and they won't paint themselves!

 

 The Pinstrosity

Here is what Laura had to say about it:
"This pin looked great! T could have some great sensory play without painting our carpet. I used a quart-sized bag and some (non toxic) acrylic paints I had lying around the house. I taped it down using duct tape, removed T's shirt (you can never be too careful), and let her play. Only, I forgot that T has another love: pulling tape off of things. Instead of playing with the paint, she immediately pulled off all the tape. Which ripped a hole in the corner of the bag, and the paint started oozing out. So much for mess free."

This Pinstrosity is more of a heads up to other moms, but I had a few thoughts about how to help a situation like this. Maybe try two times to the tape?? Perhaps pulling tape off of other tape would satisfy her, (maybe not, kids are funny). The other thought I had (which may be the better option anyways) was to double bag your paint. Put your paint in one quart sized bag, fold the ziploc edge over and put it inside another bag. This way if the little pulls the tape off she isn't ripping the paint bag. Just a thought. Seeing as I haven't seen this one in action it might not be as easy as all that, however this is a good heads up to those of you who do this on the regular!

Hope everyone is having a good week!! Have any Pinstrosities from over the summer?! Send them our way!!

4th of July "Confetti Crayon" Stars

Need a last minute 4th of July craft to do with your kids (or...for you to do by yourself)? I've got just the thing for you today. Check this out.

The Original Pin

http://www.freepreschoolcrafts.com/wax-paper-crayon-star-hangings-for-4th-of-july/

All that takes is crayon shavings between wax paper, followed by ironing. Simple. You could make a ton of these and string them as a banner, turn them into ornaments (as seen above), sprinkle them on a table as decor, or use them to decorate cards or signs. 

Or can you? Are they really that simple? Kathy gave this one a go. "I saw this on Pinterest and thought it would be really cute to make a bunch with my kids for the 4th of July. First of all, it took 45 minutes to shave 3 crayons with scissors and made a huge mess. However, I had two cheap crayons and one Crayola crayon. The Crayola was much easier to work with and didn't leave as much of a waxy mess all over me. (Sorry - I didn't think to take a picture of the mess). Anyway, once I was finally done with that, I called my kids over and they sprinkled the crayon shavings over the stars. I followed the directions on how to assemble the stars exactly as written on the site. The directions don't say how warm the iron needs to be so I put it on a medium heat. I pressed the iron on the newspaper for about 4 seconds. I lifted the paper and this is what I found underneath."

The Pinstrosity

"Not exactly what I was looking for. I wasn't ready to give up yet. I tried everything again but this time I put the iron on the lowest setting."

"A little better, but still not perfect. I tried one last time but this time I only held the iron on for 2 seconds."

"Better - but still not like the picture. I did notice that this last time the white stayed chunky like in the original pin. I realized that the white crayon was the Crayola. I have a feeling that this might work if I use all Crayola crayons instead of the waxy cheap ones. That will have to be an experiment for another day because my kids lost interest a long time before I did!"

This really intrigued me, so I of course had to try it out. 

1. I got my wax paper and cut out two star shapes, and the realized that was going to be really hard to line them up and iron them, so I then decided to test out not cutting out the star shape until the ironing had been completed. So I had 2 star shapes and a rectangle. I placed them on the newspaper (as directed in the original pin). 
2. I went to work shaving the crayons. I could find a red and a blue Crayola crayon, but only a CraZ Art white crayon, so that's what I used. As I wasn't making a ton of stars, I just shaved a little of each crayon onto the wax paper. 
3. I carefully placed and lined the top star onto the bottom star, and boy it was a pain in the neck to get lined up and stay lined up. For the rectangle, I just folded one side over the other. I then laid the other sheet of newspaper over the top. That blew my top star off again and I had to painstakingly line them back up. 
4. With my iron on it's lowest setting, I made about 4 swipes over each area. I opened it up to find the stars had misaligned some (not much though) while ironing and that 4 swipes was too many.  
5. So I started fresh with a new rectangle, shaved the crayon onto it, and ironed it. This time I only made one pass with the iron, so the iron was on the star for maybe a second. I didn't hold it on, I just swiped the iron over the top from left to right (or bottom to top, I don't remember...either way it was moving). Just one swipe was enough to adhere the two wax paper sheets together and sorta melt the crayon shavings.  
6. I cut star shapes out of the two rectangles. 

Below you will see, from left to right, the star that misaligned (starting with two star shapes). The middle star had 4 swipes of the iron. The right star had one swipe of the iron. 

My Test Results

I'm pretty proud of those star shapes! Not bad for freehanding it with scissors. Still a little wonky, but man you should see my freehand cut stars from about 2 years ago. I've worked hard on improving, lol. 

The white CraZart crayon did seem to melt faster, but with just one swipe of the iron you could still see it just fine as it didn't melt and spread too fast. So Crayola does work better, but it's not imperative that you use Crayola.

So if you want the confetti look, I suggest putting the iron on it's lowest setting and only making one pass over the area. If you want a "firecracker" look, make a couple of iron swipes over the area. Either way though, I definitely suggest cutting out the star shape after you iron. Much much easier!

Grow Your Own Geode

Need a good project to keep the kids busy this summer? This may or may not be the route to go then.

Andrea said, "I happened upon this pin a few months back and thought it might be a fun summer science project to do with my 2 boys (they have to come up with and make a science project every year)."

The Original Pin

http://www.marthastewart.com/343344/crystal-egg-geodes

"The directions looked pretty simple, but the comments below the article led me believe that this probably wouldn't work.  And I usually don't even bother trying stuff that looks like it might not work because, frankly, I don't have the time or money to waste.  I had decided that perhaps we should try something different, but my older son really wanted to try this.  I gave in, but before starting I warned him that the "geodes" probably wouldn't turn out as nice as the ones in the photo, and in fact, we might get nothing at all."

 

"We followed the instructions, but the only kind of alum powder that I was able to get was the kind sold at grocery stores.  I saw at the bottom of the website that the author insists that you have to use Potassium Aluminum Sulfate and that you have to special order it.  However, I live in Japan and that's simple not an option, so we had to make due with what was available."

 

"The directions say to leave the eggshells in the liquid solution for 12 to 15 hours for perfect geodes; however, after 15 hours nothing had happened.  After one day nothing had happened.  After 3 days nothing had happened.  We ended up leaving our eggshells in the solution for over 2 weeks, basically until all the liquid had completely dried up.  We did get crystals, but they were really small, and we only got relatively decent crystals in 3 of the 11 shells.  But 3 is enough to turn in for the science project."

The Pinstrosity

"The original article was posted on the Martha Stewart website, and as we all know, Martha is infamous for using ingredients and materials in her recipes and projects that are not readily available; it seems like something in every recipe or project requires a special order to some esoteric shop.  Her recipes are not tested so there is a huge margin for failure.  This project wasn't a total bust, but I wouldn't recommend it simply because of the potential for great disappointment, especially since this is supposed to be a project for children."

The idea of growing your own crystals captivates many kids. I know it captivated me. Want a "grow your own crystals" project that doesn't take off-the-wall ingredients? Try this one: 

You'll need:
*1 cup water
*2 cups sugar
*Flavorings and food coloring as desired
A jar (a quart canning jar works awesome)
either -A pencil and some thick thread
         -or a skewer and two pencils or clothes pins

Directions:
-Tie the thread to the center of the pencil and dangle the thread into the jar. Roll the thread up on the pencil until the thread is about a finger's width above the bottom. If you are using a skewer, stand it in the jar and use the clothespins or the two pencils to keep it standing upright in the center.
-In a saucepan, boil the water and then add the sugar. Stir until completely dissolved. Add any flavoring or food coloring at this point. Remove from heat and let it cool for just a few minutes.
-Carefully pour the sugar water into the jar.
-Place the jar somewhere where it will not be disturbed for about 2 weeks. 
-Sugar crystals should be visible on the string/stick within 24 hours (if not, pour your syrup back in a pot, add another 1/2 c. to cup of sugar and reboil. 
-Let the sugar crystals form as long as you want and now you have rock candy! Kid's will love watching the crystals grow, especially if they get to eat it in the end.

Cameron and I made rock candy for all our siblings one year for Christmas when we were super broke and we even got a kick out of watching the crystals grow. It's fun! Give it a try!


*Added note...this is basically my pancake syrup recipe, only I don't let it form crystals. 1 c. water, 2 c. sugar, 1 cap of mapeline, and 1/2-1 tsp of vanilla flavoring. This is my favorite syrup!