Sewing Play Date: Car Seat Organizer

We are officially moved in to our new place! I cannot tell you how happy and relieved I am. We turned in our keys to our old place so now we can start settling in to our new one!

Last week I took a much needed break from moving and attended a sewing play date (meaning while the moms sew the kids run wild). It was hosted by my friend Amanda from Patchwork in Paradise through the Honolulu Mommies group. The project was a car seat organizer. Amanda sent out the details about the project and I figured it was simple enough that I probably had enough time to make two of them - one for each of my kids.

Did I have enough time to make two? Maybe. One? Absolutely. But I didn't. Reason being? It was SO MUCH fun to sew with a group of ladies! I ended up talking and laughing more than sewing. I ended up taking the project home and here is how it turned out:

With stuff in it:

And here's a close-up of the print. Very Tokidoki-looking but it's not. Still quite fabulous!

Thanks to Amanda for a fun project and fun day! :)

I-Spy Bottle with Beautiful Rainbow Rice

Yesterday I hosted a craft playdate with the Honolulu Mommies. What a great group of gals! We had about 10 kiddos come and we made some I-Spy bottles! 

Prior to the playdate I made some rainbow rice:

The process is simple and only takes a few minutes! I'll tell you how at the bottom of this post!

Here are the bottles of prepped rice. Aren't the colors beautiful?  It would've been easier to have mixed the colors at home but I thought the kids might like to see all the different colors:

Here is the rice all mixed up. (Thanks to my hand model, Michelle!)

Everyone was asked to bring trinkets to share. We had pom-poms, buttons, pennies, BBs, stickers, marbles, bells, ribbon, foam cut-outs, pieces of felt, crayons, paper clips, alphabet beads, etc. etc.! After we got home we found some other things to add such as sea glass, shells, Lego pieces, erasers tops, and pieces of straw. I'm sure we'll find more things to add!

Funnels worked great to pour the rice into the bottles. However, paper funnels (roll the papers into a tube and tape) worked just as well!

And here are two of the completed bottles:

While I would have preferred that each bottle have only one of each trinket the kiddos seemed to really enjoy stuffing their bottles with whatever they could get hands on! They couldn't even wait for the stickers to be individually cut. Oh well!

Now....how to make the rainbow rice!

ll you need is rice, food coloring, rubbing alcohol, a baggie to mix the rice in, wax paper and some table space to let the color dry/set.

Obviously you can increase or decrease the amount of rice you are going to use but this is how I did it:

For each color:

• 
  
  pour 1 and 1/2 cups of rice into a baggie
• 
  
  add 1/2 tsp of rubbing alcohol
• 
  
  add a few squirts of food coloring
• 
  
  seal the bag and shake it up
• 
  
  when you have the desired color pour the rice out onto a flat surface covered with wax paper
• 
  
  let the rice dry - it only takes about 15 minutes!
• 
  
  repeat for each of the other colors

That's it!

To make the I-Spy bottle pour the rice into your bottle. For a 16.9 oz. bottle you need about 1 and 1/2 cups of rice. Don't fill the rice to the top or else you won't have room for your trinkets! Add your trinkets, seal it (I recommend using super glue or a hot glue gun to hold the seal) and shake it up!

Just an FYI - we were expecting about 10 kids to attend the playdate. Worried that others may show up unexpectedly or bottles of rice were going to spill I prepped 16 bottles and it was more than enough. A few of the kids happily ended up making more than one bottle! :)

*Thanks to Pink and Green Mama (one of my new favorite blogs for crafts!) for the inspiration and instructions on making rainbow rice! Only later did I notice that she also made I-Spy bottles with her rainbow rice! She had some GREAT trinkets. Go check her out!

The Letter B....

Two weeks ago the Honolulu Mommies started a series of play dates called, "ABC & Me." The intention of these play dates is to introduce a letter of the alphabet to our preschool kids (ages 1-4ish) via crafts, games, story time, etc. This is something I've been wanting to do with Momo but have kept it on the backburner for awhile now. I jumped at the opportunity to participate.

At our first get together we started with the obvious, letter "A." It was fun and the kids really enjoyed it. I went ahead and volunteered to do "B." Scary. It's been awhile since I did any kind of teaching but everything went fine. (And when I did start to stress I just reminded myself that these were preschoolers - they are truly not going to notice if I make a mistake or forget something!)

After a quick review of "A" I introduced "B" and it's sound. I brought a box full of items that start with the letter "B" such as a bunny, basket, ball, bubbles, blanket, etc. and then read (actually had my 7-year old helper read) "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See." After each "....what do you see?" the kids repeated the line. It was really cute. We then followed up with a related craft.

I had already made some bears on craft sticks so all the kids had to do was repeat what I said and then glue/stick the corresponding item onto the bear. Such as:

"Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see.....":

• I see a bow stuck on me...
• I see a band-aid on my knee...
• I see buttons stuck on me....
• I see a butterfly flying next to me....
• and then finally, I see the letter "B" on me....

Momo hard at work. (Thanks to Stephanie for the picture!)

No...the pictures is not backwards. The "B" is. ;)

The end result was really cute! I have to thank Katie from Katie's Nesting Spot for the great idea! Can't wait to see what "C" Brings!

From Stephanie, Amanda, Dawn and Stephanie....

As I mentioned before we spent a little over a week in Virginia saying our final goodbyes to family and friends. While there my BFF Stephanie loaded up my van with bags and bags of stuff to give to the Barium Springs Home for Children!


Then another friend of mine, Dawn, who I know from the Peninsula Mommies and a local baby wearing group gave me two blankets that she had made. These blankets are AMAZING. Just as amazing as the baby slings that she makes! (I am the proud owner of one of her slings! Okay, two? No actually three!)

From Dawn - Hampton, Virginia

Then, when I arrived home there were two packages waiting for me.....

Another one of my BFF's, Stephanie (yes, I have two BFF's named Stephanie!) from A Pocket Full of Buttons and Sew Fierce donated 12 bibs that she had made! YES! TWELVE! They are unbelievably soft and well made! How cute is the little pocket she puts on the front?

Bibs from Stephanie - San Diego, California

Thank you Stephanie! I knew I could count on you to send me something fabulous! :)

The second package came all the way from Hawaii! Amanda from Patchwork in Paradise sent three precious handmade receiving blankets! Amanda and I have been chatting online via the Honolulu Mommies and our blogs - we have yet to meet in person but I am so looking forward to it!

From Amanda - Ewa Beach, Hawaii

Thank you Amanda! I am so happy to have received something from my home state! See you (meet you) soon! :)

So what is next? The deadline has come and gone (although if you are nearby and want to still donate something you can!) I actually have a couple of bibs to finish up myself and will post a picture when I am done. Tomorrow (Friday) I am expecting a confirmation call of what day next week our movers are coming. Once I know the day I can schedule a time to drop off all the wonderful goodies to Barium Springs. I will keep everyone posted!

Thank you SOOOOOO MUCH to everyone that has helped out!