Today’s “Freebie Friday” was found on Yamaha’s website of all places. These elaborate paper folding crafts may be the perfect summer project for the older kiddos. Not only do they have instructions for animals (don’t you love the panda!), but also lots of motorcycles and other fun things. Check it out!

Hope you had a great week! Ours was full with VBS (thirteen 3-year-olds in my class!) and Daddy being out of town. We sure look forward to the weekend.

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It’s Freebie Friday! If you are a sewing guru (especially children’s clothing), this one is for you! I love Ottobre Designs which produces a magazine -style line of stylish children’s clothing patterns. The magazines display numerous photos of the clothing items and includes ALL of the patterns to make them. Though they are more expensive then a pattern you might buy at the local fabric store, they include so many more designs that it is well worth the price. I highly recommend trying them! I especially like the boys pant patterns.

As a nice bonus, the Ottobre website features a nice handful of sewing patterns that you can download for free. Yes free!! I especially love this little mouse. And I may have to try this bag pattern too. There are a good bunch more so check them all out.

Happy Sewing!

Hope all the Dad’s out there had a wonderful Father’s Day! Yesterday was truly the most relaxing ever at our house. After church we had a movie marathon and ended the day with ice cream cones and a walk on the greenway. Ahhh. Our only caveat was Blockbuster not having Swiss Family Robinson (wierd, eh?). We’ve been reading the book to the kids and had wanted to watch the movie yesterday. We’ll have to be on the lookout for it.

The final outcome of the kids’ gift to Jeff (first mentioned here):

And to show just how many photos I have to take to get a handful of great ones. Here are the “get-the-silly-out” shots:

The first few weeks of summer break have been wonderful. We’ve enjoyed the pool, started tennis lessons, had sleepovers, weeded gardens and more. I’m anticipating there will be some weeks when “I’m bored-itis” will hit though. I wonder if Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has a cure for “I’m bored-itis”.

Side note: if your little one hasn’t read some of the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series or watched some of the shows (they are on hulu!), that is a cure in itself!

In my arsenal to beat boredom this summer: a simple recipe for homemade sidewalk chalk paint.
We’ve done it the last couple summers and it is a sure-fire way to keep the kids busy for the afternoon.

You’ll need:
cornstarch
water
food coloring
foam brushes (ours came 4 to 5 in a bag at the dollar tree)
plastic containers (we found yogurt containers to be a nice size)
old T-shirts for art smocks

Put about 1/4 cup cornstarch and a few drops of food coloring in each container. Slowly add water while you stir. It doesn’t take much water. About 1/4 cup. You want the consistency of cheap paint.

The colors will be brighter in the container (and when wet on the pavement) but will turn chalky and very pale once dry. So add food coloring if you’d like them to be a little more colorful when dry.

See that look of sheer concentration? I told you it will keep them busy for the afternoon!

In our experience, this paint does not stain concrete. The first time, we let the rain wash it away within a couple days. And the second time we did it on the garage floor and never had a chance to even hose it down. There’s no trace of it left even though we never bothered to clean it up.

Your turn: Any easy ideas for “I’m bored-itis”? I’d love to hear! We are hoping to fill our summer days with fun things at home…making lots of memories without it being a big production. Except in the eyes of the child of course!

Now that we live closer to the coast we have hopes of a beach vacation each summer. We just made reservations for this summer’s trip and in anticipation I’ve been browsing for crafting ideas using shells. We are sure to come home with a few handfuls to add to our growing collection! Some shell projects get a little too busy for my simple tastes but here are a few ideas that we might try:

This tealight holder is classy though I think I’d scale it down by a few layers. Full instructions here.

Ok, now this next one is right up my alley. These hanging garlands from Country Living are so simple and airy! No instructions were listed though it seems self explanatory.

And leave it to Martha to have a great little idea for some of the bigger bowl-shaped shells. I think these simple candles would be lovely at a beach wedding. Instructions here.

I couldn’t leave out a couple kid-friendly shell projects and this one is perfect. These little guys by Martha (of course) would be fun.

And yet another by Martha, a beachy mobile. So cute.

Finally, we’ll for sure contain the leftovers in large glass vase. This would contain a large collection yet keep the look streamlined.

How about you? Any beach vacations planned this summer? And what will you do with the shells you collect?

Disclaimer: We already know that the beach we are going to allows us to collect shells but it’s always best to make sure!

Need a low-cost yet special gift for Dad? I’ve got an idea for you!

This is what the kids and I have done most years. Photos of the kids spelling “DAD” which we place in a simple frame. Jeff has always had room to display items around his desk at work and this fits the bill perfectly!

What you’ll need:

- camera and printer (or send out to walgreens for printing)

- a wood “D” and a wood “A” (you’ll just need one D unless you want to have them hold three letters in one photo!) Our letters are nothing special. I left them natural though they’d look great in bright white or a fun color as well. All sorts of typefaces are available these days (see below for fun options)!

Super easy! Just have your kids play around with holding the letters. Take loads of photos so that you can move them around and see which ones work best in your DAD arrangement. I have found that trying to keep the letter about the same size in each photo helps to make DAD more readable but sometimes you just have to work with what you’ve got. Some years go better than others depending on the age of your children.

If you have three children, have them each hold one. Two children can do like I did…an individual shot of each and one with both children. More than that? How about doing a shot of the girls with the D, all with the A, and boys with the D? No matter how many children you have, there are ways to work it out nicely.

We simply print standard 4 x 6 prints and use the same frame year after year. Replacing the previous years photos. I suppose the downfall of this gift is that Jeff knows what he’s getting each year and has to bring the frame home prior to Father’s Day but he loves it no matter. Our frame had a precut mat with three openings. It’s perfect and seems to be a standard frame at most discount and craft stores. I believe I got ours at Hobby Lobby.

Another option would be to create a single 8 x 10 inch collage (like my graphics in this blog post). Open an 8 x 10 document in your photo editing software (or other standard frame size). Arrange your three photos side by side and type “Happy Father’s Day” below it if you like. Print out and frame!

I browsed around the internet for some letter options. Though I think I’ll continue to use the ones we started with, all these fun ones make me wonder if I should mix it up this year for Father’s Day!

Wire wall letters from Pottery Barn could serve a dual purpose! You’d need to dress your kids in white to make the wire show up I think, but could be cool!

Love the simple lines of these rustic wood letters. Currently out of stock, but would be easy for a do-it-yourselfer to make something similar.

From one of my favorite stores, these zinc letters from Anthropologie would be classy!

And I was looking for Anthropologie’s bright fabric letters but it looks like they are discontinuing them. Here are some similar letters by Etsy seller domesticdelight. These would be make some fun vibrant photos!

Hope your men have wonderful Father’s Day! Hmmm, I better get to work on our DAD photos for this year!

Isn’t this sweater vest adorable?  You could make one too! The tutorial at Dana-Made-It is very thorough! And I noticed she has lots of fun ideas throughout her site.

Goodness knows I have a gazillion sweaters around here so I’m very tempted to whip up one of these vests for my little guy today.