My friend Rebecca gave Daphne and I a set of lights and some paper balloons for Christmas. The idea was that we would work on a project blowing up the balloons and put them on the lights. Daphne was really interested in the project. I took this video of her while she was helping me put everything together. We spent almost 2 hours having a blast doing it. Daphne now has the balloons in her room as a night light. They work so well.

I was watching Opra one day, and she had a good tip on her show.  She said that rather than keep kids art around the house taped to every surface that it could be photographed and archived as a photograph.  Let me first disclaim that I don’t watch Opra at all, almost never (in fact we don’t even have TV anymore).  However, I love the idea.  I like that I can keep the work of art forever nicely archived in a spot that I can tag, label and search for it.  I can make scrapbooks later if I choose.

Anyway, I thought I would share some artwork with you.  I left Daphne at Julie’s house one day so that I could go out for a quiet dinner.  When I got back, I found out that they had done finger painting.  These are the ones that Daphne did.

I got this high chair from someone while Daphne was little.  It is a nice all-wood high chair that is from the 1930’s.  It was a little bit beat up, so I decided to work on it a little bit.

After a nice sanding and a paint job, I got a sweet little high chair for my kiddos to use.  I am proud of my first foray into furniture restoration.

A few of my friends and I get together every other Thursday to knit and chat about life.  I’ve been making diaper covers and other things so much lately that I decided to try something a little bit different.  I decided to make my first hat!  I made a nice stripped hat for Daphne.  It goes really well with a specific outfit that I like to put her in often, and it just looks so darn cute.  Unfortunately, I can’t seem to capture photos of it on her, but here are some static photos just so you can see the creation!  Hats are lovely, and I definitely think that I will be doing more of them in the near future–in fact, I am in the middle of one for the baby right now that matches this one.  The only difference is that the hat I am making now is made out of yarn that I spun from my very own rabbit hair!

Bless Daphne, when I ask her where her hat came from she says, “You made it mommy!”

I like to make little home made gifts when it is at all possible.  It helps to stretch my creativity as well as really being a way to show someone that you care enough to extend the extra effort for them.

I recently ran into a neat little Mother’s Day gift on one of the blogs that I read.  It is a home made hand scrub to soften your hands after gardening or to take away the smell after cooking.  We had all the ingredients, so I decided that I was going to help Daphne make a little batch of it for Mother’s Day for her YaYa.

Daphne was TOTALLY into helping make it, and she did a remarkable job mixing everything up.

The recipe is super simple.  Mix together

1 1/2 cups Sugar

1/3 cup Salt

1 cup Olive Oil

3 drops Yellow Food Coloring

Zest of one Lemon

2 drops Lemon Extract

Bam!  That’s it.  It does work to take the onion/garlic smell off your hands really well.  Try mixing some up for someone special today.