Portable Car Play Kit

9 / 24 / 1411 / 11 / 14

Have I mentioned that Grae and I love putting together homemade gifts? Because we do. We love it so much in fact, that despite the fact that we had actually already purchased a gift for today’s party, we decided we would make something instead – just yesterday afternoon! Today’s birthday boy is a car lover through and through, so we used that for our inspiration. He also {like many of our international friends} is often on the go, so we decided to make him a portable car play kit so that he has a fun and easy way to take his beloved toys with him – whether it be to a restaurant, on an airplane, or over to a friend’s house.

The Dot Inspired Art

9 / 15 / 1410 / 8 / 14

{this post contains affiliate links}

When Miss G was gifted The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds last spring, we immediately fell in love. The story is about a little girl named Vashti whose paper is blank at the end of art class. After telling her teacher that she ‘just CAN’T draw!’, the teacher uses subtle and clever encouragement to get Vashti to step out of her comfort zone. Vashti starts by just making a mark, but that one mark ends up becoming something beautiful as Vashti lets go and gains confidence. In the end, not only does Vashti become a confident artist, but she also helps others who are feeling insecure with their ability to create art. Pretty awesome storyline, right?

Family Portrait Embroidery Hoop

9 / 13 / 1410 / 8 / 14

As simple and quick as this project was, Gracen and I had so much fun with it today! It only required 5 materials and took us around 20 minutes from start to finish, but gosh I love our new family portrait embroidery hoop. I may be a little bit biased, but I think it’s just adorable and it makes for a fun way to display some of Miss G’s never-ending artwork, which I love.

Life-Sized Self-Portrait {a family project}

9 / 13 / 149 / 27 / 14

With Brad leaving the house as the sun comes up each morning and me leaving for tutoring the moment he walks in the door 4 days a week, sometimes it feels as though we don’t get enough time as a family. Luckily, this weekend we’ve done a pretty good job of making the most of our time together. After yesterday’s movie afternoon and family sleepover, this afternoon we decided to crafty with a simple life-sized self-portrait project.

Cupcake Liner Flower Crown

9 / 4 / 1410 / 8 / 14

I absolutely love all of the gorgeous flower crowns I’ve seen floating around the internet lately, but thought it would be fun to come up with a kid-friendly version that Miss G could pretty much create on her own. That’s when I remembered the pretty poppy wreath we made last year for Remembrance Day. The flowers we created out of cupcake liners turned out beautifully and Grae loved putting them together, so a cupcake liner flower crown it was.

DIY Stencilled Library Book Bag

9 / 3 / 1410 / 8 / 14

Even though Gracen isn’t officially starting school this year, the beginning of September means back into a regular routine, and hopefully back into borrowing library books on a regular basis {though it isn’t that easy here in Kuwait}. This little project – creating a stencilled library book bag – has been on our to do list for a long while and I’m so happy we finally got around to it… I think it turned out so well! It also means that whenever we go somewhere, Miss G wants to choose a few books to bring along, which in my mind, is never a bad thing!

Frozen Paint Wands

9 / 2 / 1410 / 8 / 14

While we’ve painted with frozen watercolour ice cubes many times, today we decided to try something a little bit different… Instead of freezing our usual concoction of water and food colouring, we simply froze children’s paint. And just for fun, we decided we’d create frozen paint wands instead of the usual cubes!

Harold and the Purple Crayon: A Dry Erase Activity

8 / 26 / 1410 / 8 / 14

Now that we’ve been back in Kuwait for almost a week and the worst of our jet lag seems to be over with, Miss G and I have been enjoying getting back into our regular routine. Our days have been filled with fun outings, play dates with friends, and fun activities at home – including our first instalment of our second round of our awesome little preschool book club with some of our online friends!

Easy Kid-Made Sugar Scrub

8 / 15 / 1410 / 8 / 14

Ever since attending their launch party for Fun, Miss G has absolutely loved visiting Lush, so there was no walking by when we spent a day on Robson Street a few weeks ago. The moment she got wind of the store’s signature scent, her eyes lit up and she was asking to go in {twist my rubber arm}. As always, the ladies working there were lovely and pampered us with all sorts of fun product demonstrations, our favourite of which was a luxurious lemony body scrub that left our hands feeling soft and smelling delicious.

Simple Bed Sheet Tent

8 / 11 / 148 / 23 / 14

As a girl, I adored spending time in special little forts and hideaways, and now I love creating similar spaces for Miss G to cozy up in. Though we’re huge fans of our super simple backyard teepee, this summer we decided to try something new – a simple triangular tent created using only a few things from around the house.

Mermaid Necklaces

7 / 7 / 1410 / 8 / 14

Summer vacation is officially in full swing – Brad’s home from Kuwait, we’re back in BC, and life is good. And now that we’re settled an in one place for a little while, Miss G and I have begun digging into the collection of fabulous activities in the Backyard Summer Camp eBook I co-wrote with a handful of awesome kid bloggers a couple of months back. Today, we decided on making the jewelled shell necklaces from the ocean-themed section of the book written by Amanda of The Educators’ Spin On It. Miss G loved the activity because the necklaces were just like the ones mermaids wear, and I loved it because we had all of the materials we needed on hand and it would only take a moment to pull it together {score!}

Easiest DIY Light Box Ever

6 / 15 / 146 / 22 / 14

I’ve wanted to put together a DIY light table for Miss for ages now, but as simple as it is, it’s just never happened. There are so many really easy tutorials on how to create light tables using plastic bins and portable LED lights {like this one from Teach Preschool and this one from Happy Hooligans}, but the problem is that I haven’t come across the perfect shallow plastic bin with a flat, clear top {or bottom}.

Portable Activity Kit for Little Boys

6 / 14 / 149 / 3 / 16

I feel like Miss G and I have been making homemade gifts like they’re going out of style lately {and I love it}. This most recent one is exactly like the portable activity kit we gave her little friend Evelyn on her second birthday, only this one contains slightly different activities – things we thought a busy 3 year old would enjoy. Now obviously the activities included in this kit are not just for boys {in fact, Miss G has already announced that she’d like the activity kit I’m making her to be exactly like this one} – it’s just that we gifted this particular kit to her little friend who happens to be a boy.

Build a Sandcastle Play Dough Kits

6 / 13 / 1411 / 11 / 14

It’s no secret that Miss G and I like to create and give little homemade gifts. I’ve always loved giving gifts and it’s important to me that Gracen sees that there’s just as much joy {if not more} in giving as there is in receiving, even if the gifts are tiny and made by hand. I think ‘happy summer’ gifts like these also help her prepare for significant transitions – in this case, saying goodbye to her friends and home here in Kuwait and heading back to Canada for the summer.

Portable LEGO Kit for Little Travellers

6 / 11 / 1411 / 11 / 14

Gracen’s little weekly play date buddy turned 4 today, which called for another homemade gift. Like almost all of our expat friends here in Kuwait, he and his family will be headed home for the summer shortly, so we wanted to make him something he could easily take along and hopefully use during the journey back to Canada. Since he and Miss G play with LEGO pretty much every time they’re together, we figured a portable LEGO kit would make a great gift.