DIY Advent Calendar

Every year I watch as my friends post cool and crafty advent calendars they’ve made for their kids. And every year I vow that “ next year” I will make one, too. Next year rolls around, and I forget until I see those photos from my friends.

This year I made one! I thought of multiple different ways to make the calendar. My issue was the cost to make three calendars, one for each kid. It’s no secret: I’m frugal.

Finally, this is what I came up with –

I also had to consider space for three separate calendars, so I chose one sock for each day. The socks are large enough that I can slip three different treats in each one. It’s simple, cost-efficient, and eco-friendly because the kids get to wear the socks when the calendar is complete!

What I did…

I decided to go to the dollar store and buy four packs of holiday socks and then two 3-pack of white socks. My total cost was $6.00. I had two pairs of socks at home that I planned on using, so in all, I had twenty-four single socks.

I took two sheets of red card stock and made 24 tags, and added numbers on each tag using stickers. Everything I used to make the tags came from my craft collection.

I cut a long piece of ribbon and strung it from one side of my mantel to the other. I hung each sock & tag with a clothes pin (bought a large pack at the dollar store)

My total cost for the advent calendar was $7.00!

DIY: Nest Depots

My daughter’s second grade class spent their last few weeks of school learning about habitats. A representative from Olympia's Hands On Children’s Museum came to her school to talk about different animal homes and gave each child two Nest Depots.

Nest Depots are similar to birdhouses, but instead of being full of bird food they contain supplies birds can use to build their nests. The Nest Depots my daughter received look almost like square canvas frames for cross stitching. They included scraps of yarn, ribbon, and colorful craft feathers.

We have many neighborhood birds who hang out near our home so we hung up the Nest Depots on our back patio. We are keeping a list of the materials we used in the depots so we can track what the birds are taking and finding useful. We love helping out our local birds!

Bella watching the birds outside.

DIY Popsicles: Chocolate Banana

Although the warm weather has yet to arrive in Olympia, the homemade popsicle making has begun. Plus, we had two bananas that were nearing the end so I decided on chocolate banana popsicles.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
• ½ cup coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 bananas

Simply toss all the ingredients into the blender and blend! Pour the mix into the popsicle mold and freeze for at least 3 hours.

Some extra mix was leftover, and I hate wasting food so I poured the remainder into small shape molds and froze them for an hour. This allowed the chocolate banana mix to solidify before adding the popsicle stick, plastic fork, and coffee stirrer.

Here comes the semi-sad part: I couldn’t get the popsicles out of the molds! The DIY popsicles came out perfectly, but the others did not. I scooped out the popsicles and served them in a bowl.

DIY: Edible Plant Cell Project

Day 14 of What’s the Word June

Word of the day: cumulonimbus

On Monday night my daughter told me that she had to create an edible model of a plant cell for a school project Then she casually said,”Oh yeah, it is due on Thursday.”

No biggie, ha! So, I had two days to help plan the plant cell and make sure it was edible. After tossing around a few ideas we decided a pancake was the way to go. It is large, soft, round, and yummy. She made labels with the cell information and then I glued them onto toothpicks.

First thing is first, make a pancake.

Carefully add on each food item.

Stick the toothpick flags into the correct areas.

Great job, Emily!

Here is the list of food items we used:

Pancake – cytoplasm

Green licorice – cell wall

Raisins – cell membrane

Peanut butter cracker – nucleus

Jellybean– mitochondria

Banana chip - chloroplast

Nutella - vacuoles

Thankfully it is a rain free morning in Olympia (no cumulonimbus clouds in sight) so she was able to safely carry her edible project to the school bus stop. 

Let's hope the plant cell made it to class in one piece.

DIY Kids: Mini Fairy Garden

Day 2 of What’s the Word June

Word of the day: mushroom

Creating a miniature fairy garden is a fun, and creative activity you can do with your kids. Most of the materials for this craft can be found in your yard!

Materials

• Bottom of a planter (plastic, decorative or terracotta) 

• Potting soil
• Rocks/Gemstones 

• Acorns 

• Glass beads 

• Garden fairy *tutorial below
• Mini animals or bird eggs

Directions

Fill the bottom of the planter with potting soil. The bottoms of planters are shallow, so you don't need to add too much potting soil. Leave a tiny space between the trim and the potting soil. Next, your child can arrange all the items that they collected from their nature hunt in the planter. Along with nature items, you may also want to add a small flowering plant in the fairy garden.

Extra tips:

- Using acrylic paints, choose vibrant colors and paint the rocks prior to adding them to the fairy garden.

- You can create a pond by pushing a small plastic lid, like the top of a yogurt container, into the soil, and adding a little bit of water.

- Make a fairy house out of bark and other pieces of scrap wood! Simply collect small pieces of wood and build a mini house formation, securing the sections into place with your glue gun.

- Fairies need a colorful mushroom to hang out on! Mold a mushroom out of clay and add it to the garden.

Don’t Forget the Fairy

Materials

• Circular wooden bead 

• Oval shaped wooden bead 

• 3 craft pipe cleaners 

• Glue gun  

• Scissors 

• Colorful yarn 

• Sharpie

Directions

Start off by gluing the circular wooden bead (the fairy's head) onto the larger wooden bead, which will be the fairy's body. While you are waiting for them to dry firmly together, cut off small sections of the yarn for the fairy's hair. You may also begin bending and shaping two of the pipe cleaners for the fairy's wings. The third pipe cleaner is for the fairy's arms. You'll only need to clip two small sections from the pipe cleaner for the fairy's arms. Adhere the yarn and pipe cleaners to the body with the glue gun. You can also draw a face onto the circular bead with a sharpie. Be sure to lightly draw the face on, if pressed too hard, the lines from the sharpie will be thick and could run into each other. Your child can "dress up" their fairy with any other crafty items they have.

When the fairy garden is complete, it can be displayed outdoors or near a window indoors!

Feel like a Goddess! DIY Sugar Scrub ~ Guest Blogger, Shai Smith

Growing up, I was never much of a girly girl. I wasn’t allowed to wear make-up, didn’t buy my own clothes, and washed my hair with the family bottle of Pert shampoo. Looking or feeling beautiful was just never a priority.  Then, after learning how to make my own laundry detergent, I started scouring the internet for other cheap, homemade products to help my frugal, young family while also helping the earth, and I just happened across the wonders of homemade bath products.  Since then, I’ve become an addict.  While I’m still not really a ‘girly-girl’, the act of creating and using my own eco-friendly beauty products has brought out an inner natural goddess I never knew existed.  Every woman deserves to feel like a goddess now and then, and you can, too, when you take control of your natural beauty and tell cosmetic companies you’re kissing their chemicals goodbye.

My all-time favorite beauty product that I make at home is my sugar scrub!  Even the cheapest container of sugar scrub at the local department store is nearly $8 and full of nastiness I can’t fathom rubbing into my skin. These toxic tubs can even be as much as $30-50 a jar!  Exfoliating, though, is an important part of skin care, as it removes the dead skin cells from the top of your skin and stimulates the newer skin cells underneath. So, what’s a woman to do? Make her own, of course!

Here's my recipe:

- 1 ½ c. sugar

- ¼ c. oil - grapeseed, olive oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil all work great
- experiment and see what you like!
- natural oil extract or massage oil of your choice for scent

Just mix them in a recycled container, like a mason jar, and store it in a dry place such as your bathroom cabinet. When it comes time to exfoliate, make sure you mix the contents of the jar, as the oil likes to settle a bit. Personally, I often only use the first two ingredients. On the rare occasion I add scented oil, I use almond. I have noticed that vanilla and sugar mixed together with oil smell alot like vanilla vodka.

Shai Smith is an eco-friendly mama and the mastermind behind The Vagabond Studio. She is a full-time student, writer, artist, and nature lover. The creativity she radiates is infectious and I feel pretty lucky to call her my friend. 
Check out Shai's latest creations here.

DIY: 4-Leaf Clover Wall Hanging

Walking home from the store a few weeks ago with my daughter, we passed a large clover patch and she asked if we could stop to look for a four-leaf clover. I placed our bags on the ground and as I bent down, I saw a four-leaf clover next to my shoe. 

At first I thought I was mistaken. In 33-years, I have never come across a 4-leaf clover, to find one so easily was bizarre. I pulled it up from the ground and showed my daughter who counted the leaves to make sure I wasn't pulling her leg.

When we got home, I took a picture of it and then decided I must press the clover to keep forever.

I placed the four-leaf clover on a piece of wax paper, folded it over and stuck the paper in the middle of a heavy book. I put the book back in my bookcase and left it there for almost 3 weeks.

I decided I wanted to make a wall hanging using my clover. I enjoy inspirational quotes so I chose an Irish blessing that says:

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light,
May good luck pursue you each morning and night.

Using acrylic paint, I painted a mauve matte frame black. 

I glued a decorative piece of craft paper behind the matte frame. I dipped my finger in Mod Podge and applied a thin layer on the back of the four-leaf clover. I was afraid using a brush might tear the clover. I gently pressed the clover onto the decorative paper.

While my glue gun was warming up, I cut a few plastic beads from a bead necklace I bought at the dollar store. I hot glued a few fabric flowers onto the bottom of the frame & then added a bead in the center of each flower.

Next, I punched two holes on the top section of the frame with my one-hole punch. I threaded each hole with a piece of green yarn and knotted them in place.

My Dymo label maker came in handy for writing out the Irish blessing!

I cut the long label into sections and arranged them on the wall hanging. All done!