click on

Posted on February 3, 2012 by BeSquirrely

First things first, our paperwhites are in full bloom!

Have any fun plans for the weekend, lovelies? I’m hoping for a crafty one with Wren (with Phoebe tucked in one arm). Valentine’s Day is coming up! Anyone else flip the calendar to February this week and think, “hey wait a minute, how did THAT happen?” Yikes. Hey, 2012, slow down already. If you’ve got some time to lazily click around ye old Internet this weekend, start with these click-worthy corners of Cyberspace. Enjoy!

Yes, I just took our porch Christmas lights down (!) and things are looking especially bare around here. Some crafty heart window bling might be in order to obscure the melting yuck outside.
a Mondrian-inspired sandwich and other low-commitment projects. Yes! First spotted on You Are My Fave.
a photo of potted crocus has me thinking spring via Posie Gets Cozy.
free, printable Valentine’s Card Creatures. Cool, funky ones. Really.
more V-day fun. Decorate a plate with edible paint. Yum.
Last year I said I would make this ice garland. Well, THIS is the year! If winter comes back…
We made fox cookies last year for Valentine’s Day and we’ll probably have some fun with butter this weekend too. Any fun cookie ideas you can send my way?

Happy weekend!

frozen flying fish

Posted on January 28, 2012 by BeSquirrely

Have about two minutes and want to create something fun? Of course you do! I saw this tutorial on making easy paper flying fish over at Mini eco and had to do it right away. It was even more fun to take the school of fish outside and let them fly off the top of the playhouse. Into the snow!

Happy weekend, lovelies.

p.s. our paperwhites are about to burst!

Gak!

Posted on January 26, 2012 by BeSquirrely

We have been spending a lot of time this winter with Wren’s creative pursuits: coloring, drawing, painting and equal time “fixing” puzzles, but I thought it would be fun to delve into an easy science experiment as we while away these dark winter days in a meaningful way. And I’m not talking about the accidental science experiments in my kitchen like the cranberry Jello from Thanksgiving (!) that I cleaned out yesterday. Who knew that it could even go bad? Yikes. Ahem. No, we’re talking intentional science here, lovelies.

Enter Gak!

I saw Gak mentioned on several other blogs recently and thought we’d try our hand at making some too. Making Gak is a simple experiment in the creation of a polymer. This is a great one to do with little ones (and big ones alike) because it only take a few minutes to make and provides endless fun. In fact, we got it out again today and it was even more fun than when we made it the other day.

All you need is a bottle of Elmer’s glue, liquid starch and if you like, some food coloring. There are other recipes that involve Borax, but we opted for the liquid starch.

Simply pour an 8 oz bottle of Elmer’s glue into a bowl.

If you want to color your Gak, drop a tiny bit of food coloring into the glue. This was a fun part because it reiterated some color mixing that we’ve been working on with our paints. I am a proud Mama of a two year old that knows red and blue make purple!

Then pour 8 oz (1/2 cup) of liquid starch into the glue, a bit at a time, stirring as you go. A real lesson in patience and pouring skills! Pour a bit, stir a bit, pour a bit, stir a bit… My overzealous little birdie poured too much in at the end, but it worked out fine anyway. It will begin to come together right away – some crazy stuff! You can also knead it with your fingers and this is fun for the little ones too. I wasn’t sure what Wren would think of it, but she thought it was yucky and wonderful at the same time. Now that’s my kind of girl!

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 4, 2012 by BeSquirrely

I was going to post a traditional “Wordless Wednesday” message with this photo, but then I realized I hadn’t really officially wished you a happy new year. So… happy new year to you and yours! May your 2012 be full of squirrely love. Isn’t this a great ornament? My friend, Melissa, from Wool & Honey made it for us. Although it was probably intended as a Christmas ornament, I’m going to keep it up all year. It’s perfect.

made by little hands

Posted on December 15, 2011 by BeSquirrely

We had a lot of fun last weekend making these pretty little tissue paper candle holders that we spotted over at The Artful Parent. It was a good project for chubby little hands and a fairly short attention span. And a very limited gift budget! Unlike a lot of toddler-made gifts, these are actually useful and beautiful. And not just beautiful in that awww, Wren made this so it’s beautiful kind of way. But really, truly lovely as the light flows through them during the day and filled with candlelight at night too.

Bonus: you’ve probably got (almost) everything you need to make these. I bought candle holders at the dollar store, but baby food jars or jelly jars would be great too. Tissue paper? Check. Mod Podge? Check. Supposedly watered-down Elmer’s glue would work too, but I love Mod Podge. It dries clear and is water-proof. Glitter? Check. Foam brushes? Check. Go!

Are you enjoying a hand-made Christmas? I had grand plans for a hand-made Christmas, but we’ve just dipped our toes in that proverbial water this season with a few small projects and lots of edibles. But with a long winter stretching out ahead of us, we’ve got ambitions for lots of creative pursuits. I would like to make some art of my own too. Someone asked Wren recently if she watches me paint and she said, “no, Mama doesn’t paint.” Boo hoo! It reminded me that I haven’t painted in way too long and it saddened me that she didn’t see me in my own creative work. Just washing the dishes, which she is proud to declare. Sigh. So there’s a good resolution for the coming year: make time for my own creative work. And a helluva lot more fun than the standard “lose thirty pounds! Work out every day! Stop eating sugar!”

What about you, parents. How do you find time for your own creative work? Is it important to you that your children see you creating as well?

the tree

Posted on December 12, 2011 by BeSquirrely

For most of the past seven years of marriage, Chris and I have decorated our Norfolk Island pine tree with origami balloon-covered Christmas lights. Chris has been making origami balloon-covered lights for (at least) several decades. So yeah, it’s somewhat of a tradition. This is not one of those new, hipster, DIY projects. This is old school, baby! And now we’ve passed the tradition on to our little birdies. Wren has enjoyed “starting up Merry Christmas!!!” by replacing the balloons that get too smashed in the box and those that are necessitated by a growing tree and a new strand of lights.

Take a look at this Harrisburg tree service that really helped us that evening with the tree, we couldn’t do it without them and the right tools.

Fun fact: apparently having a Norfolk Island pine tree as your Christmas tree is considered “green,” as seen in several magazines lately, but for us, it’s mostly just practical and cheap. Where would we even put a Christmas tree with such a huge tree already living in the house? A couple years when we decided to cut down a $10 Charlie Brown-esque Christmas tree outside of Empire, I swear Norfolk (as we call him) was depressed about it. What’s wrong with me, he wilted. Sniff, sniff. So here’s Norfolk, proud in all his Christmas splendour! Isn’t he handsome?

Christmas Countdown!

Posted on December 1, 2011 by BeSquirrely

Happy December, lovelies! Although it’s just gray and wet outside (no snow yet!), it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our nest. A certain toddler is VERY excited about all things Christmas and Chris and I are both getting into the spirit of it as well. It’s hard not to with Wren’s infectious enthusiasm for Santa, the reindeer, Christmas cookies, decorating the tree, candy canes, stockings and just “getting started with Merry Christmas!” Yesterday I was upstairs with Phoebe and Wren was downstairs doing who-knows-what when I heard her yelling up to me. I couldn’t understand her so I came to the top of the stairs and yelled for her to come closer and tell me what she was trying to say from across the house. She said, “I SAID, Mama, Merry Christmas!!!!!!”

The problem is that a toddler’s sense of time is so vague (yesternight, lasterday) and she thinks that Santa will come and bring presents–to good boys and girls–tomorrow. Whatever tomorrow means. So I thought it would help her to understand that we’ve got a little while to wait in a fun, visual way. I made a quick trip to the dollar store (thanks, China!) today and grabbed a bunch of these tiny stockings and strung them out while she was at school. We put little numbers in them and voila! A Christmas countdown calendar. I told her that if she took a good nap, Santa would come and leave a tiny present for her in the first stocking. It worked! Let’s just see how long this will work…

too early?

Posted on November 16, 2011 by BeSquirrely

This past weekend my Mom was here for a visit and she brought a gingerbread house kit to do with Wren. At first I thought it was a bit too early to start with the Christmas rush, rush, rush, but did you know that Thanksgiving is next week already?! Yes, of course you did, but I’m still trying to get the Halloween costumes put away. The gingerbread house was a huge hit, and continues to be although many of the candies have been removed and consumed by a certain toddler…

I’m looking forward to some very low-key holiday celebrations this year. A new baby is a great excuse to keep things extra simple, isn’t it? This will force us into celebrating the basics of gratitude, love, family and friends. There will not be mountains of stuff or decorations to cloud the meaning of this time of year and for this I’m thankful. Although I do really need some new socks so I’m hoping that Santa brings some stuff, ha!

How do you keep things simple in your nest, lovelies? Any tips?

{this moment} origami

Posted on August 5, 2011 by BeSquirrely

{this moment} Origami with Papa.

A Friday ritual, capturing a recent moment in time, inspired by Soule Mama. Happy weekend, lovelies!

sunhat AND a bib!

Posted on August 2, 2011 by BeSquirrely

Lovelies, you’ve got to check this out. I wrote about Roen Design earlier this summer in regards to their Leelanau Peninsula kids clothing and Roen Design just released their newest product: a sunhat and bib in one! Not only is it pure genius, it’s a-door-bell too, isn’t it? I told Forest of Roen Design that I am not usually a bib-using Mom, especially when we’re out-and-about, but if it were built in to something else, then I would be more likely to use one (instead of relying on my stain stick…). Would you? Have you ever seen anything like this?

You can get your hat/bib combo right here.

Be Squirrely

creating a nest worth sharing

Category Archives: craft