Perfect Hairbow Storage

Now that Meg's finally allowing me to style her hair, and she's rapidly acquiring a large collection of mama-made hair pretties, we needed to do something about the hairbow storage sitch. I've tried a number of things in the past, but nothing was quite right. I wanted to be able to display all the bows visually, by color, and have the flexibility to easily alter things as her collection changed. Oh, and I wanted it to be free, because I live in happy rainbow unicorn land. So this is what I ended up with:

I had an extra curtain rod and clip rings stored in a closet. Our previous house had a lot more windows than this one does. I simply grabbed a few ribbon scraps in a rainbow of colors, clipped them onto the rings, and hung them on the rod.

Excuse the blur. I was taking these pictures while holding Mr. Wiggles.

For the headbands, I clipped a narrow ribbon on top of a wider one and poked brads through them both at intervals. This formed loops that I could slide the headbands through.

*A note on ribbon choice for the hairbow-holding strands: I found grosgrain ribbon in 3/8"-3/4" to be the perfect ribbon for our clips. The grosgrain provides good grip. The thinner ribbons didn't have enough surface area to hold the alligator clips, and the wider ribbons were too wide to hold the pinchy clips.

We've been using this holder for a few weeks now, and I really love it! I think we've finally stumbled upon our perfect storage solution here.

Simple Flower Clippies

My three year old has become very enamored with having "Fancy Nancy hair" lately. We've been going through hairstyle blogs and trying out tons of new styles. She's been a brush-and-go kinda girl for so long, I realized we have very few hair lovelies. A quick trip to Michael's and a nice, long nap from the baby remedied that.

I found some scrapbooking embellishment flowers in the bargain area of Michael's. $2/12 flowers. I'm not sure what they're made of. They're sturdier than typical paper flowers, but I don't think they're made of fabric. I gathered 1 3/4" single prong alligator clips (purchased in bulk years ago from an Etsy seller who is no longer in business, it appears), 3/8" grosgrain ribbon, scissors, and my hot glue gun.

Everyone seems to have their own manner of attaching the ribbon to the clips, but here's the way I've always liked to do it:

1. Cut a piece of ribbon about 1-1.5" longer than the top of your clip.
2. Put a dab of hot glue on the top prong that you pinch to open the clip and attach the ribbon, leaving 1/2 - 3/4" hanging off the end.
3. Wrap that excess underneath the prong and attach with another dab of hot glue.
4. Smooth the ribbon down the length of the clip. Pinch the clip open, wrap the ribbon underneath, and secure with a dab of hot glue. You can either hold the clip open while the glue dries or prop it open with a pencil.
5. Attach your decoration to the top of the clip. I put the flowers right near the open end of the clip on these ones.
Done!

My cooperative little buddy woke up just as I was finishing the last of 36 clips.

And where was my little miss during all this, you ask? Right by my side, working hard on some secret project of her own at her desk. She declined my invitation to make a few clips herself, insisting, "I just really need to get some work done, Sweetheart." :D

In 2012, we...

were artists,

played,

and celebrated.

And we did it all with so much style.

Thank you for sharing in the fun with is. We look forward to seeing what this next year holds for our little family.

Winter Play-Based Preschool Invitations

It was our turn again to host for our play-based preschool co-op this week, and, despite the sunshine, we decided to get chilly.

gift bows, glitter glue tubes, stickers, paper strips, old Christmas picture books, toy catalogues, white glue, curly ribbon, spangles, gems, and pony beads

We started by making holiday cards for our families, using similar materials to our Freeform Festive Art Explorations from last week. I don't like to tell the children what to make when we're creating. I generally offer up new and interesting art materials and let them interpret them how they desire. However, these just-started cards were sent along by last week's hosting parent, and it's in the nature of a co-op that no single parent teacher rules the roost. It ends up being really beneficial to the kids, because they're exposed to so many different things than they would be with just one teacher. Making these cards was the highlight of the kids' day, so I was so glad I was gently nudged outside my comfort zone.

The kids worked on these cards for a good 45 minutes.

1. "a scary spider web for spiders to sit on" 2. "a rainbow" 3. (Meg's) "the Christmas baby"

We spent our outdoor time:

Painting with gift bows (inspired by Teach Preschool)

One of the boys found a bunch of craft sticks stashed inside an outdoor toy, and the kids decided to incorporate them in their painting.

Drying in our holiday canopy

Mixing up a batch of "fluffy stuff" (inspired by many preschool blogs currently playing with this fun stuff - I wish I knew who to credit it to). We mixed one box of corn starch with half a can of shaving foam. Once mixed, the fluff could be formed into "snowballs" and "snowmen," and then crumbled in our hands to start over.

Playing in our "junk toys pool" (inspired by Teacher Tom). This is always a favorite.

Practicing scissor skills at the cutting table with holiday kids' clothing catalogues. We had a tub of confetti by the time the kids were finished.

During circle time, we read The Snowy Day, sang "Once There Was a Snowman"* and "Snow is Falling,"+ and danced to classical music, pretending to be snowflakes. On Thursday, we will repeat all the activities we did today and also make some cookies to share at snack time. We will also read The Snowman.



*Once There Was a Snowman
Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman
Once there was a snowman - tall, tall, tall [stand up on tippy toes]
In the sun he melted, melted, melted
In the sun he melted - small, small, small [scrunch down to ground]

+Snow is Falling
Snow is falling all around
On the housetops, on the ground
Snow is falling on my nose
On my head and hands and toes

Freeform Festive Art Explorations - A Way to Reset a Rough Day

I had a hard day with my kids today. We've spent the past couple weeks taking turns passing around a bad stomach virus, the kids have been having a number of sleep regressions, and just general the responsibilities of managing a household during the holidays all ended up piling together and made for a very trying Tuesday. I lost my temper. Multiple times. Both kids went down for naps with tears, and I dropped a few of my own on the couch while I caught my breath. And then I decided, you know what? I'm the only one here who really has the power to turn this day around.

So I set the scene for a calm and pleasant afternoon to greet the kids when they got up from their naps (hopefully) rested and cheerier. I tidied up the kitchen - 'cause Mama doesn't function well in chaos, set a pot of good smelling things to simmer on the stove, turned on some Christmas music, put out some snacks, and then went hunting in my craft room.

My only direction in mind for this afternoon activity was "festive." I gathered some baskets, raided the gift wrap center, then finished up with a few supplies from Meg's craft shelves. (Please forgive the poor lighting. It's that time of year where the days are shorter, nights are cooler, and lighting is artificial.)

The spread.

Papers - dollar store holiday cards that have been languishing in my closet for years, pages from a ruined holiday picture book, construction paper halves, toy catalogue

gift bows and ribbons

white glue, glitter glues, and scissors

"Strings 'n Things" bin - bits of yarn, ribbon, elastic, etc.

As with most art explorations in this house, Meg decided to take things her own direction when she awoke. She pulled out a number of papers and asked to use my scrapbooking paper cutter. I pulled it out, reminded her which part was sharp and how to use it safely, and she went to town, cutting everything in her path into strips. She even attempted cutting one of the gift bows and found out on her own what was and wasn't possible to cut with the tool.

Her first try.

So proud!

I'd like to say this turned the whole day around and there were no more tears and tantrums and sharp words. But that isn't true. We're all human and this has been an exhausting and trying time. But those 3 happy, giggly, singing, creating, wonderful hours were enough to get us through the rest of the day. And tomorrow we'll all try to do better.