Kid’s Art Pillows for Mother’s Day

custom pillow for mother's dayHey mom.  Hey Marie (mom in law).  So I’ve now just ruined Mother’s Day for you because these kid’s art pillows are your gifts.  I know you read my blog, but I really wanted to share how cute these turned out with my readers.  Happy Mother’s Day!

I love when my kid’s draw.  They come up with the greatest characters.  When my youngest son drew this guy, I knew I had to turn it in to fabric.  And since Mother’s Day was coming up, it made sense to make the fabric in to pillow covers.  If you have never made your own fabric before it is SO easy.  I used Spoonflower and all you have to do is scan in the image and then follow their prompts.  It can be pretty expensive but I think it is well worth it to be able to create one of a kind fabric (and a keepsake).  Your local craft store sells pillow forms that are pretty inexpensive and make it so you don’t have to stuff your pillow with batting.  Super easy.

kid's art pillowsOnce the fabric arrives, you just have to find someone awesome to sew up the pillow covers.  And also to take pictures of the pillows for you since you are still trying to find your plates in your moving box hell.  (Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lauren!)

Have you ever made your own fabric?

Cool Book for Kids: Make Magic! Do Good!

sharon's fave things

make magic do good by dallas claytonDallas Clayton makes the coolest books for kids.  We got Make Magic! Do Good! for my son’s birthday and we LOVE it!  If you aren’t familiar with Dallas’ work, you must browse his site.  He is this amazing character, living life to the fullest and encouraging kids to do the same.  His messages are super important for kid’s to hear yet not often found in kid’s literature.  The illustrations are colorful and whimsical and the words are touching, humorous and real.

great kids bookWhile his other books are written as one story around a theme, this book is done in poems.  We read to our kid’s every night at bed time and we read this book over about a week.  We read a few poems each night and some nights had to go back and reread our favorites.  This book is a great way to introduce kids to poetry but I got a lot out of reading them too.

Like this:

New Best Friend

“You’re my new best friend, I never met, you’re awesome, perfect swell.  We do everything together, and we get along so well.  You’re my new best friend I never met, and I love you more than you know.  You’re my new best friend, I never met, because I never said “Hello.”

Boom.  Right?!  Life lessons

And when you get the book be sure to read ‘Wake Up Your Brain,’ ‘Slumber,’ and ‘Big Time.’  And then be sure to read all the rest.

favorite kids bookFor each book, Dallas tours the United States and does readings and events.  He helps kids paint murals and embrace creativity and brings happiness to each stop.  I would love to attend a reading of his one day!  He’s a huge inspiration to me and in turn my kid’s.  It is very important to me that the end up working at something they love.  He is the true embodiment of that and such a great role model for living a colorful life rich with experience.  Seriously.  Go get this book.

See more of our love for Dallas’ books from my son’s 2nd birthday party.

You can see more of my favorite things each month over on The Trend Tribe.  See my picks for February here!

Surprise Birthday Party for Dad!

invite to b's party

My husband’s birthday is in November and I always ask my two boys what they want to get their dad.  Their ideas are usually Legos (my oldest) and toilets (it is my youngest’s go-to answer for everything right now…no idea why.)  But then, my oldest said that he wanted to throw him a surprise party.  Since I love a good party I said yes.  BUT, I told my son that he was going to do the whole thing.  Above is the invite we sent out to family (it wasn’t a HUGE party so I could relinquish control).

decoration for dad's birthday partySome of you may have seen this on Instagram.  I love it.  He picked out the colors and did all the decorating.  I purchased a couple of items to give it a little pizazz but he and his brother and cousins did all the amazing artwork.  P.S. there were bits and pieces of that small tissue garland all over the house stuck to things with washi tape.  It was amazing.

dad's surprise partyAlthough I controlled the menu and bar, he wrote some food signs including this one.  I will help translate in case you can’t read his six year old writing.  ”Make a whiskey sour or an apple cider whiskey or juice box.”  Complete with a guy holding a cocktail shaker.  He totally nailed the details.  By the way, the apple cider whiskey cocktail was delicious!  I used this one.  Do it!

surprise party for dad chocolate cake

We kept the menu simple with slow cooked bbq chicken sandwiches on King’s Hawaiian Rolls with my husband’s favorite chips and homemade apple sauce.  My son asked his aunt to bake a chocolate cake and my mother-in-law made my husband’s favorite chocolate cream pie.  We also tried out a chocolate chip panetonne which was amazing!!!  It was such a fun night.  There was an extra special energy from the kid’s excitement.  It was awesome to do an easy-going, un-fussy party for once.  And my husband absolutely loved it.  :)

New Year’s Eve Countdown Craft for Kids

New Years Countdown craftI had this idea for New Year’s Eve Countdown Surprise Bags for Kids (yup, that title IS too long).  I wanted to share it with you as New Year’s Eve will be here before you know it.  So this is what I call a “Nap Time Tutorial.”  While my kids don’t nap, I can often find bits and pieces of quiet time that I can use to shoot a tutorial.  But sometimes in the middle, things go haywire and I have to scramble to finish.  Such as the case with this craft, but you get the idea and can totally cuten it up.

The idea behind this is that you choose a time that you want to start this on New Year’s Eve and each hour you hand your kids a new bag.  Inside the bag are fun treats, activities, etc. to keep them entertained and excited until midnight.  Candy works too, but they still get cranky when they start to come off that sugar high.

New Years Eve Countdown CalendarI’ve created a few examples of things to include in the bags.  For this one, I would also include a card that tells them to get dressed up like a business man and create a character.  Then they need to pretend they have to finish up one last job before the clock strikes midnight.  I don’t know about your kids but mine are great with impressions and accents.  They will use their imagination and put on a fun little show for the whole family.  When they get bored with that, the watch (found in the favor section of Party City) is a puzzle that they have to try to get the silver balls in to the holes.  But you know Dad will end up with the mustache on and a fake French accent…

New Years Eve Countdown Calendar for kidsThis next bag would include some “party animals” and a cd of our favorite dance songs.  It would tell them to get their dance on. Then we would try to guess, if animals danced, which animal would be the best dancer.  Come on, this is good for at least 10 minutes, right?

Easy New Years activity for kidsOf course you can change this one up if your family doesn’t use the word suck.  With this bag I would say something about how waiting for midnight sucks and then we would drink root beer floats.  I get it.  Totally unclassy use of the word suck.  But its a play on words.  If I can turn it in to a teaching moment, doesn’t that trump class?

Decorate the BagsAdd a little pizzazz with some silver tassels (I made these for my son’s upcoming birthday party so they were already on hand to zhuszh these up.  Anything will work.  Get as carried away as you want.

countdown calendar for kidsSo there you have it.  A quick and easy idea to keep you family entertained on New Year’s Eve.

Tastemaker Spotlight on Axl’s Closet!

Axl’s Closet is a rad online store for the coolest kid’s clothes.  They carry a ton of action sports brands, have amazing pricing and it is a one stop shop to pick up the latest in shoes, shirts, pants and accessories.

Axl’s Closet knows I have two active little boys so they asked me to share my picks for the items that we love (and do you see those sale prices?! Awesome!).  I hope you will click over and check out what we can’t wait to wear.  Also check out my madlib-style interview they posted on their blog!  Super excited they asked me to do this!  Go check it out!

AND they are giving you a discount!  Get 20% off a purchase through October, 24, 2012.  Just use the code above.  If I were you, I might go ahead and start my Christmas shopping a little bit early.  Shop now!

Disclosure:  As a thank you, they gave me a discount on merchandise.  All opinions are mine and I love Axl’s Closet.