PS I did NOT dress up as a Dodgers player like the boys... I am sporting an authentic Braves jersey. I grew up in Atlanta. Go Braves!
Archives for October 2010
Sweetest Jack-o-Lantern Ever!
October 30, 2010 1 Comment
I think I am so funny sometimes!! As part of our Mommy School this week, I had Little Man become a jack-o-lantern. I had spray painted an embroidery hoop orange and tied on a green bow for leaves. Then we framed our faces making different jack-o-lantern faces. We are learning about what different emotions look like--angry, sad, happy, etc.
We also sang this song:
Once I Had a Pumpkin
(Tune: Did You Ever See a Lassie?)
Oh, once I had a pumpkin
A pumpkin, a pumpkin
Oh, once I had a pumpkin
With no face at all.
With no eyes and no nose
And no mouth and no teeth.
Oh, once I had a pumpkin
With no face at all.
So I made a jack-o-lantern
Jack-o-lantern, jack-o-lantern.
So I made a jack-o-lantern
With a big funny face.
With big eyes and big nose
And big mouth and big teeth.
So I made a jack-o-lantern
With a big funny face.
I photoshopped this picture so you couldn't see the rest of Little Man--just his sweet little face! I must say I am pretty partial to this lil' face!
Enjoy your own little jack-o-lanterns today!
Happy Halloween!
PS Just FYI--I will probably be taking a break from Mommy School while we are moving the next 2 weeks. We will probably do some review when we can squeeze it in. I am hoping to have a "T is for Thanksgiving/Turkey" packet prepared in 2 weeks, though!
Gratitude Tree Advent Calendar {With download}
October 29, 2010 36 Comments
I often feel that Thanksgiving is not given its own due credit. I am often guilty of jumping straight from Halloween into Christmas. The last year or two, I've been trying to make Thanksgiving more meaningful for our family.
I saw this Halloween advent calendar at Heartland Paper, and I was completely inspired! My idea is using this magnet board gratitude tree as a sort of advent calendar. At the start of the month, we will begin with a blank tree. Each day, we will take turns as a family mentioning something we are grateful for. As we do this, we will add a leaf onto the tree!
You can make your own gratitude tree for your family, too! Come along with me and I'll show you how!
I already had a magnet board collecting dust, so I got to work creating the tree. I sketched a tree outline on the back of a piece of brown scrapbook paper. I am NOT an artist so I looked at a tree picture while I did this.
I cut out my tree and cut out several layers of "leaves" to fit the tree. There was definitely no exact science to this. I just cut out layers of scrapbook paper and overlapped them to create the shape of foliage. I mod podged the leaves and tree onto the magnet board. I also painted a layer of mod podge over the top to protect the whole tree!
Next, I created these leaves in Photoshop and cut them out. I created 30 leaves so we could add a leaf to the tree every day during November.
I am excited to tell you that I made my first Etsy purchase! Now I know why I stayed away from Etsy for so long... it is addicting! I purchased 100 resin glaze drops along with 100 bottle caps at Sun and Moon craft kits. (You definitely don't need to buy these to make your own, though. You could use clear glass pebbles to make these, too!) Now I attached the leaves to the resin glaze drops.
Now, I used E-6000 to attached the resin drops to the tops of the bottle caps and the magnets to the bottom of the bottle caps. Again, remember that you could use clear glass pebbles to create magnets in the same way! It's much cheaper! 🙂
Aren't those bottle cap leaf magnets lovely?!
I hung my magnet board with green ribbon. Now I can stand back and admire it!
But for now, we're starting with a bare tree at the beginning of November.... can I just add the first leaf to tell you how grateful I am for YOU?! I so appreciate your kind comments and thoughts. They really make my day!
If you wish, you can download your own set of leaves here. I would love to see pictures if you make your own gratitude tree advent calendar! You could even make a tree on your refrigerator and add leaf magnets every day during November. **These leaves were made to fit my bottle caps, so you may have to resize these just a smidge smaller to fit clear glass pebbles. Or just trim them up a bit!**
Enjoy your weekend!
UCreate with Kids
October 29, 2010 3 Comments
I am so excited about UCreate with Kids. I just have to spread the word! Elizabeth, the mastermind behind this new UCreate spinoff, is incredibly sweet and savvy! You are going to love all of the kids' projects she rounds up! Head on over and check it out because....
Today I am sharing my tutorial for finger "painted" leaves! Little Man and his cousin had a little craft club during our leaves unit, and I love how these leaves turned out.
Go check it out!
PS Stay tuned for a fun fall project with download later today!
Spooky Mickey Mouse Shirt
October 28, 2010 6 Comments
Later today, we are flying to California to celebrate Halloween with my in-laws. I am looking forward to a bit of a vacation from packing up our apartment. Tomorrow, we are celebrating Halloween, Mickey style! I can't wait for Little Man to experience DisneyLand!
Of course Little Man needed a shirt for the occasion! So I created this image in Photoshop and cut out a freezer paper stencil. Luckily he already had an orange t-shirt in his closet, so I just added a little fabric paint to make this shirt:
I never ever thought I would create a skull and crossbones, but somehow the cute Mickey ears balance out the scariness! I love how this turned out and can't wait for Little Man to show it off to his cousins!
Thanks for making Oopsey Daisy part of your day!
Halloween Bash
October 27, 2010 13 Comments
Halloween is the best time of year to throw a crazy party. Are you planning a bash of your own?? Or do you just want to add a bit of spice to Halloween night?? Well, I have a few ideas for you!
Over the weekend, my entire family was in town. What better time to PAR-TAY in a spooktacular way?! We all dressed in costume and went all out with yummy food and fun games!! I can't take the credit with the evening's creativity, however. My Mother is the holiday mastermind of the family. She knows how to host one mean party!
We love food in our family. Here are some snapshots of our menu:
Vegetable skeleton
Mummy dogs
Potato ghosts
Spider web cupcakes
(Yes, we did have 2 desserts! We used these for the cake walk.)
We had so many fun games planned that we didn't even get to all of them! But they were a hit, especially with the kids! We have more Halloween games that we can play all week long!
Pumpkin Bowling
We just used food coloring to dye the water orange and hot glued the lids shut.
We used a little orange ball to knock down the pins!
Cake Walk
We walked in a circle on Halloween pictures while "Monster Mash" played.
We kept playing until everyone won a spider web cupcake!
Don't Eat Jack!
(I found this idea here at the Crafting Chicks.)
Relay races
Eyeball Relay - We balanced an "eyeball" (a pingpong ball) on a spoon walking across the room.
Ghost Waiter Relay - We balanced a white balloon (ghost) on a paper plate without letting it drop. Both of these relays were hysterical!
Pin the Nose on the Jack-o-Lantern
We just used black paper triangles as noses. This became surprisingly competitive among the adults!
So what can top THIS?! Well, this weekend, we are going to DisneyLand to get spooky with Mickey, and I can't wait for that!
Ghosts In the Graveyard
October 26, 2010 10 Comments
Are you planning a spooky Halloween dinner?! Well, this dessert is always a crowd-pleaser in our family! Every Halloween Night, we feast on the chocolate deliciousness of Ghosts in the Graveyard. This year, we celebrated early with a great big family Halloween party on Saturday night. I'll share some details of the food and games later this week, but let's start with dessert, shall we? I always like to eat desserts first--especially this one! I look forward to it all year long.
Ghosts in the Graveyard
3 1/2 c. cold milk
2 packages (4-serving size) Jello Chocolate Instant Pudding/Pie Filling
1 tub Cool Whip Whipped Topping, thawed
1 package (16 oz.) crushed chocolate sandwich cookies (We love Oreos!)
Milano cookies and candy for decorating
1. Make pudding as directed on package, using 3 1/2 cups milk. Let stand 5 minutes.
2. Stir in 3 cups of the whipped topping and half of the crushed cookies.
3. Spoon into 9x13 dish. Sprinkle with remaining crushed cookies. Refrigerate 1 hour.
4. Decorate with candy corn, Milano's (tombstones), and spoonfuls of whipped topping (ghosts).
Decorating is the fun part of this dessert! My mom is the expert here. She turns the Milano's into tombstones and makes the perfect ghosts! It's positively sinful! Enjoy!
Fall Rosette Necklace
October 25, 2010 25 Comments
One of the things I like most about fall is the colors. I love browns, oranges, and golds. I planned this necklace long ago because I needed the perfect accessory for my fall wardrobe! So I present to you my new favorite jewelry piece--this fall rosette necklace! I don't consider myself an expert at all in jewelry-making, so this is a tutorial easy enough for all of us! Come along with me, and I'll show you how to make one of your own!
For this project, you will need:
* Felt scraps
* Fall-colored fabrics (I found mine on the Red Tag clearance section at JoAnn's.)
* Necklace chain or ribbon would work too!
* Hot glue gun
* Scissors
To start out, I cut strips of fabric that were about 1 inch wide and varying lengths. Be creative. I experimented to see how long I would need to get the rosettes to be just the right size for me. To make the roesttes, you tie a knot in the end of the fabric strip. Then you start wrapping around and hot-gluing as you go. I use this House of Smith's tutorial to create my rosettes, the same one I used in my crepe paper rose wreath.
I went a little crazy on my rosettes! I had only planned to make a few, but I just couldn't stop myself! I ended up making 8 total, but I did scrap a few that didn't fit into the scheme I had in mind. (The cotton fabrics were a bit harder for me to turn into rosettes. The gold silky fabric worked out much better! Just FYI.) I arranged the rosettes on a scrap of felt.
Now, I hot glued the rosettes onto the felt in my desired formation. Then I trimmed the felt carefully so you wouldn't be able to see it from the front. This is the ugly back side!
Now I just hot glued the chain onto the back of the felt. I also hot glued one more piece of felt over the chain to sandwich the chain snuggly in between brown felt.
I'll be honest. I am in love with this necklace! And I wear it almost every day! It works with brown, yellow, white, and even orange. Can't wait for the weather to get cold enough to bust out my fall boots and add those as the final accessory!
Enjoy your week... I am gearing up for a CRAZY time in the next few days! We are trying to pack up to move and leave for out of town this week (all without my husband!) Yikes!
H is for Halloween Packet
October 23, 2010 100 Comments
**Updated: All links are working now!**
If you're new to Oopsey Daisy, I recently decided to combine my 2 favorite roles--teacher and Mommy. Every week, I teach "Mommy School" to my 20-month-old Little Man. It's an adventure teaching a toddler, but every week, we focus on a theme, letter, number, color, and song. I absolutely LOVE Mommy School!
This week, we finished up our "L is for Leaves" unit in Mommy School. We did a whole lot, but I was not a very good photographer this week.
I am super duper excited about this upcoming week in Mommy School. Halloween was always my favorite time to teach, and Little Man is just starting to really enjoy the holiday. So the next couple of weeks are going to be FUN! I have compiled a gigantic 60-page packet this week!! And yes, it's a printable packet that you can enjoy with your little ones at home! I have gotten very little sleep this week as I compiled this packet, trying to have it done so we could enjoy it as much as possible before Halloween rolls around! So I am crossing my fingers that you'll enjoy it too!!
In this packet, you will find:
* Halloween learning games and activities
* Tons of Halloween art ideas.
* Halloween Science, Math, and literature connections
* Food Ideas
* FOUR flannel board stories with corresponding visual aids
* Book ideas
* Songs and fingerplays
* Halloween party ideas for toddlers
* Ideas for the color, number, and letter of the week.
* TONS of visual aids and learning activities ready to go.
Honestly, there is no way I could do all of these activities in even 2 weeks. However, I wanted to compile everything in one packet so I could have all the ideas in one place for years to come. So choose some of your favorites to do with your own little one this week!
Some of my favorite ideas in this packet are these Halloween movement cards:
You can use these cards with your kiddos to get out the wiggles in a "spooky" way!
Just a note: This packet took an incredible amount of time to create! I want to share this with you because I believe in teaching our little ones at home. Please review the credits on the back page of the packet so you can see where I searched for ideas! Also, I would love to hear about your learning fun if you use this packet! Then I can tell my husband that the late nights were worth it! 🙂
You can download your own H is for Halloween packet here or here on Scribd.
Just a note...
* I am forever grateful to DJ Inker's for allowing me to create fun learning tools using their products!!
* Clip art designs &/or fonts copyright Dianne J Hook. Used with permission from DJ Inkers.
Have a "spooktacular" week with your kiddos!
Blog Swap with A Little Tipsy
October 22, 2010 5 Comments
Oh me, oh my! I am excited to be hosting my blog crush today! When I first entered the world of craft blogs, I quickly learned to love A Little Tipsy. I have always been a huge fan, and can't wait to introduce you to the wonderful Michelle!!
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Hi there! I am so excited to be here on Oopsey Daisy today! Alison is adorable and I loved her recent L is for Leaves activity ideas!
Michelle, from A Little Tipsy here, taking the wheel for the day!
Nope not drunk (what a relief you will not be taking your tour with a drunk driver), I may or may not be a bit clumsy though.
A little about me, I am a SAHM with one crazy 2 1/2 year old boy, a baby boy coming in November, and a big geek for a husband (don't worry, he calls himself a geek). I love keeping busy and sharing all my projects and adventures whether they be Home decor, holiday projects, or discovering how to get permanent marker off granite counter tops.
So, enough about me...here are a few of my favorite projects.
Fall Handprint Tree
Fall Garland "I've fallen for you"
and who can't use a good Eyeball Recipe just in time for Halloween?!
Well, I guess that about wraps things up. Thanks to Alison for swappin' it up and thanks to you for letting me be your tour guide today. Watch your step on the way out and don't forget to come visit soon!
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Thanks, Michelle! You rock my world!!
