A New Way To Egg

Good ol' Pintrest has done it again.

Need a new way to color Easter Eggs? Pintrest has it (duh).

No vinegar. No cups.

Just shaving cream and food coloring. Genius.

 Start by spraying shaving cream in a large baking dish or flat bowl. Whatever.

Shaving cream is pretty and very fun to play with. File that one away for a rainy day.

 Amos jumped the gun.

 Add food coloring.

Swirl.

 Then just roll your eggs around in it. I rolled mine without mixing the color in very much. I got very dark marbled eggs. The boys mixed in there colors first and they got more pastel lightly marbled eggs. Choose your own adventure.

There's an egg hidden in there. 

  

The aftermath.

Next step: send the kids to the tub.

Then let the eggs sit for a bit. Ten minutes or so. Then wipe them with a paper towel (or 100). 

Viola! Love it!

Pro-tip. That which colors eggs, colors children. Mine required two baths and are still quite rainbow-esque. Hazel napped through the whole endeavor which turned out to be a good thing.

Felt Christmas Tree for the Kiddos

Saw this gem of an idea on Pintrest.
It's my favorite kind of project. I had everything I needed already. It came together quick. The kids could and wanted to help make the pieces. And they ate it up. 

So easy. Cut a big felt Christmas tree and put it up at kiddo level. Then with their help make lots of ornaments and let them decorate.
And re-decorate.
And re-decorate. 

I think they did a mighty fine job and I can still foolishly believe that this will keep them from disassembling the three dimensional tree that will take up residence here in T minus 9 days. 

9 days!

Pop Art

Remember back when you just had one kid or even two and you had the time and attention span and forward thought enough to plan elaborate craft projects for yourself and for your kiddos and how amazing you thought you were and how all the other moms secretly hated you?

Well those days are clearly gone. Now I have mom-guilt for not engaging everybody in as many projects as I used to and now when we get into a project it's on the fly and we usually have to wing it with the wrong supplies and ingredients. 

And whereas I used to come up with all creative projects myself now I can't even remember to put on my pants unless somebody on Pintrest did it first. 

All that to say, crafts in the 3 child household happen a little differently, but they're happening, 

none the less. Ok, maybe a bit the less.

 

Exhibit A: 

Bubble painting.

Yes these were the wrong ingredients and the end result:

was cool but not amazing. But Amos love love loved the process and we all engaged in a crafty moment and that is something to celebrate.

Also something to celebrate: Hazel who has been barfing (on to me) for 24 hours is asleep and the boys are playing happily outside. The non-engaged moment is also an important part of the 3 child home. Believe it.

Election Day Fun

Time to pull these out from 2008. Good times! 

 

I wish on my resume I could put that I was the genius who came up with the idea of making paper dolls out of the most attractive family in America, then candidate Obama and his family. 

 Reeeeowwwww!

 Must make Decker-Smith family paper dolls!

Four years ago today the fella and I were canvassing door to door with baby Eli to get out the vote. And that evening I filled in the above graph and was able to celebrate the election of our first African American president. What a great thing to celebrate, whomever you're hoping will be victorious in today's election.

Happy voting!

Six Silhouettes - Inspired by Emily

My buddy Courtney and I scheduled a crafty playdate this week to work on a little project I pinned from wait a minute...

yes...from The Anderson Crew, where I'm linking this post to today for Embrace the Camera.

Man I love it when things work out like that.

So, anyway, Courtney and I had the very ambitious plan to make silhouettes of our six kiddos, whilst also watching the aforementioned children.

But hey, if Emily Anderson can do it with her six, so can we with ours.

So Courtney purchased the supplies and I showed up with starbucks.

And viola!

 Six. Count 'em six.

I really want to know what Amos is telling Elsa and how Hazel's silhouette tastes. 
Kinda easy to tell which kids belong to who. DNA is strong stuff.

Woopeee! Fun!

Thanks for the great idea Emily! And the place to show it off!

Wow. Haven't linked up in a while. It feels good. Another way Happily Home Sewn is coming out of new-baby-hibernation. Don't forget that to wake things up we're having the Welcome Fall Sale for Facebook Friends! So, go find us on facebook...become a fan (you might win a giveaway!)...and go shopping at Happily Home Sewn with the coupon code NEWFBFRIEND for 20% off your whole order!

Peek of the Week - June 9, 2012

We leave for vacation tomorrow and whadya know? I found a minute to give a Peek of the Week (next week's will include the OCEAN!).

What's Peek of the Week you ask? It's our semi-regular Friday feature where we hear all about what cool things you other crafty families and blogging types have been up to. Tell us about your projects, finished or in-progress, a funny kid moment, a personal accomplishment or just something that made you smile.

Each week I'll get the ball rolling by sharing a Peek from our week and then invite you to do the same by linking up to your own post.

So take a peek today at a little idea I got from Pintrest and how it took over our lives for a good 60 hours or so.

So simple...just cheap-o plastic beads, some baking pans and VENTILATION! These things make a deadly smell when they melt so open up the doors and windows if you try this one.

The boys took to this project like they do most things, like literal gangbusters. Beads everywhere. But that's the beauty of this project. Chaos welcome.

We baked them at 400 for 20 minutes until they melted and when they cooled they popped right out. I tried making shaped holes by using small fondant cutters but when they cool they contract, so they cutters got stuck tight. Turns out just making a hole in the beads before you melt them works fine.

Then the children went to bed and I got down to business. 

 I spent hours separating beads and filling tins and getting loopy on the fumes.

 It was totally worth it.

I even made Amos a tiny trophy and gave it to him the first morning he didn't pull all the books off his bookshelf because that is reason to celebrate!

Sweet little suncatchers. So easy. So fun.

Now you!
You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.
 

Peek of the Week April 27, 2012

What's Peek of the Week you ask? It's our semi-regular Friday feature where we hear all about what cool things you other crafty families and blogging types have been up to. Tell us about your projects, finished or in-progress, a funny kid moment, a personal accomplishment or just something that made you smile.

Each week I'll get the ball rolling by sharing a Peek from our week and then invite you to do the same by linking up to your own post.

Once again my Peek this week is inspired by Pintrest. I found this great Sidewalk Chalk Paint idea on there and it was a giant hit at our house.

 Basically you mix a cup of corn starch and a cup of water, put that in muffin tins and add food color.

 My favorite was making designs with the food coloring, which the boys promptly mixed in.

 They mixed colors too and by the end of it things were pretty psychedelic.

Thanks for another great idea Pintrest!

Now it's your turn!

You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.