Miniature Blue Canning Jars

 Hello friends!!  Sometimes an idea hits me in a strange place.  This morning, whilst in the tub, I thought to myself... so what if I used school glue with liquid food color and painted jars with it?  School glue dries clear and the food color might tint it just enough to make the jars a different color.  And guess what??!!  It worked!!  So now I am sharing it with you!!

Simply mix a drop or two of white school glue and a very tiny amount of liquid food coloring and apply it to your store bought, teeny, tiny glass jars.  They are so beautiful!!  I even tried to use my glue gun to write Ball on the jars.  From a distance it looks legit.  But we know different wink, wink!

On a side note... if they dry and you don't like the color just run them under hot water and the glue will dissolve.  Then you can try it again!!!  Magic!!!

So pretty and soooooo easy!  

If you enjoyed this tutorial or any of my other posts, please share to Pinterest for me!!

Love ya, mean it!!  XOXO Laurie

image inspiration

 

 

 

 

I found this post that included not only an Autumn woods walk with kids but stringing found acorns.  I immediately thought of two places to go to that usually have an abundance of acorns in a couple of different sizes.  If the deer haven't eaten them or the red squirrels haven't snatched them already.  We can totally walk there in a good fifteen minutes and gather up what we need.  The drilling holes part would be more up to me and the older kids.  I will have to hit up Shaun for his tiniest drill bit because I know for sure I broke mine.  They're so delicate.  I love these!!!  Oh and the one picture in her home that shows antlers, feathers and books OH MY!  I love to see her son with the hatchet.  Makes me want to turn the boys here loose with one but scares me too.  They would love it.

 

Found on www.soulemama.com or click the pic for a direct link to the post.

 

 

Totally sold with the glitter... who doesn't know that about me?

 

A tip from her blog post....

(*A note about acorn crafting. I prefer to bake the acorns for an hour at 180 in the oven, to kill the grubs inside, rather than having them fall out as the acorns age. And we use a small drill bit to make holes in them, easy for stringing.)

 

 

 

Why oh why have I never done this or even thought of it??? When on walks or in the playground the kids and I spot mushrooms.  I seldom know what they are.  I generally advise the kids not to touch them and just leave them alone.  I'm funny about what they do with nature... even when they catch things that are alive I am adamant about them not harming them.  This post is from the same blog www.soulemama.com .  I have already looked up her books and have them coming from the library.  But this shows her with her children and a mushroom guide book which I know my library possesses.  The kids and I are for sure doing this.  We will go for a walk and learn by collecting mushrooms and trying to identify them using a guide.  How much fun!!! I mean seriously... look at that purple one they found! 

 

 

 

And I want to... have to... do this at the day care next year.  A pumpkin/gourd tunnel.  Even a small one... no a walk through one, where the fruits of your labor idly hang down in the center underneath for easy picking.  Bonus! You can mow underneath it... I think.  I would love one.

 

Yep... same blog www.soulemama.com I love finding a new to me blog and staying on it the entire naptime at the day care.  One that is filled with inspiration that fills my head with ideas of all sorts.

 

 

 

I must stop the madness of sharing this wonderful blog with you and all of the Image Inspiration.  Go see for yourself.  Her photography is wonderful and her life seems precious and nurturing. 



Image Inspiration

 This little segment of my series called Image Inspiration is done in DC style.  DC meaning day care!  I love to fish around the internet for ideas for the kids and I whether it pertains to simple crafts to take home or decorate the day care or art that goes along with books that we are reading.  I think the book crafts help the kids to remember what the books are about.  one of my preschool kids told me that in his new pre-k class that have books we've read here but not the crafts that we've done.  Made me smile. 

I get emails from a website called Nurture Store each week that has games, crafts and sensory play ideas for kids.  These first two are from the email that I got last week.  I already have the shells for the first one and the second fish craft is from household items so... done and done! 

 

 

 

 

 

One Duck Stuck is a book that we have checked out from the library right now.  The craft that we will be done differs a little bit from the one to match the book below but it is the image that my inspiration came from.

And I love this candy corn garland found on lovetosew.com.
I've already made some and it's hanging in the day care.  Ofcourse I probably don't have to tell you that mine has gold, orange and white glitter since I am a total glitter freakazoid!




And while shopping for a picture of candy corn garland because I couldn't remember where I originally saw it I found Christmas tree paper plate garland that I may just have to pre-make today!
Oh what fun it is!

Precious huh?!?!


Camp Arrowhead Day Four

Our fourth and last day of summer camp at the day care was sure a fun one.  I wanted to squeeze in all of the plans for other days that didn't happen but as it turns out they didn't all happen on this day either.  Things like tug-of-war, clothespin drop and a trip to the creek.  Maybe next year.  We did manage to have a pretty full day as it was.  After everyone arrived we met in the craft room and made popsicle stick picture frames.  My plan for the afternoon would incorporate these.  They are very simple and do need time to dry.  I had the kids lay out their popsicle sticks in twos and we held them together with masking tape then put a generous dab of glue at the top of two and then the bottom of the same ones and laid the other stick pairs on the glue.  We used q-tips and mod podge for the glue.  That's it really.  Now we wait for them to dry and we all headed outside for a bit of free play.

 

 

For our last picnic lunch of camp we took a vote and decided to hike up the driveway to a set of trees in the corner of the sunflower field.  I had already packed up their sack lunches of ham and cheese sandwiches, Pringles chips, green grapes and two powdered doughnuts for desert along with the last of the drink boxes.  We had a lovely lunch in the shade and afterwards the kids treasure hunted under the trees and found several things to fill their pockets.  We headed back and all settled in for our last bedding down around the campfire as I read one more scary story.  I wish I had read this one before because I had to change the ending once I got to it to something a bit less scary, or maybe less real, for them.

 

 

 

When everyone woke I had plans to make microwave s'mores that turned out to be very good but very messy!  What's wrong with gettin' a little messy?  Not a thing!  As we were finishing our snacks someone arrived to pick up a couple of my boys so we didn't get to hand out their badges. :(  I did take their pictures for their frames and promised they would be ready for them on Monday.  SO we had the badge ceremony with the other children and their faces smiling as I reminded them what they had done to earn their badges of being Good Helpers and Good Listeners during story time and Washing Hands without being asked.  They were all so proud.  I got pictures and began printing them for frames as another Mom arrived.  Sounds like I wasn't ready for camp to end! 

 

I had decided to print out labels for the frames instead of using a marker because all of my test runs had ran into the wood.  So I glued on titles for their frames and really liked how they turned out.

 

 

After everything was semi-cleaned up from snack and pictures, we headed outside to a humid afternoon and a battle of water guns for our summer camp finale!  There were just a couple of us left there but it was total fun.  I had one of the boys quoting Eastwood and stations set up to hide behind with buckets of water for ammo refills.  A very fun ending to a very fun week of camp with these kids! 

 



a makeshift clothesline

Haha!  When I looked up the word "makeshift", mainly because I wasn't sure if it was hyphenated or not, it came with some good synonyms.  Some were: temporary, make-do, ad hoc, and improvised, but my favorite was "rough and ready"!  Haha and precisely my friends!  Rough and ready is exactly what kind of business I mean when I go to set up my clothesline at the day care.  I don't need a fancy one, or more than one strand across the yard.  Just a simple means to dry during hot months when I don't want to waste electricity by running the clothes dryer inside.

I simply take a clothesline string, purchased from Walmart for just a few dollars, make a loop knot at one end and pull the rest of the wrapped up clothesline through, then stretch it across the yard, kind of high, and attach it to a nail I hammered into the deck.  Simple... rough and ready!  I used to use the plastic, one dollar clotheslines from the dollar store but they only hold up for one season.  Especially if they are left outside.  The string I have now is more of a rope type and I take it down each time I use it, wind it up and store it in my clothespin bag that I made several years back.

So now... if you don't already have a clothesline then you have no excuse now that I've shown you the simplest way to dry things outside.  Just be careful if it's low to the ground at all.  I did forget about this one while running with kids one day and it just about laid me flat!

Clotheslines are cheap and sun and wind are free!

Beautiful picture... minus the bird poo on the rail!

Note: I've not had bird poo on my clothes being dried outside... ever... yet.

Why yes... I do have "bring your laundry to work" days.  Don't you??

I also have glittered clothespins! 

I will say that I just bought these three shirts at the Ladies of Charity thrift sale on Saturday and didn't want them to shrink in the dryer before I got to wear them!  Ah... Yet another reason to dry outside!