November Goal

I haven't shared my November goal with you as of yet, because I have changed it four times already! Let me explain, I originally made all my goals last February and due to money and well life in general some of them has been switched around. Novembers goal originally was to take a dance class, I miss dance and you can't beat the exercise. Financially it won't allow it, so onto the next goal of taking a sewing class...again money and time became a problem. Finally, I settled on trying to accomplish a few items from my bucket list, I picked items that I could do with the kiddos this way, I didn't have to worry about finding a babysitter.

The entire idea was to enjoy what I was doing and also feel like I was actually using my list. I have crossed off a few items, I have 235 of them at the moment. Some of the ones, I have crossed off:

#2 Become a mommy:




Peanut as a newborn

 

Pumpkin as a newborn

#72 Pick berries at a local farm

picking berries in New York

# 123 Hold a Koala and #127 Visit Australia

#8 Get a tattoo

This month I accomplished partial goals, of paying down my debt. #10 is to be debt free,
# 200 Renovate a house, starting looking to new places to purchase and renovate.


This month one of the goals I accomplished was standing in be in two places at once!

All and all, I would say it is a great month and another 30 year goal accomplished!

What are some of the items on your bucket list?

Tooth Fairy Visit

I love being able to do special things for the kiddos to make events (no matter how big or small) in their lives memorable! Peanut has been nursing this loose tooth for weeks now. I have been trying to get it out but to no such luck he didn't allow me, so I had to have patience (not my strong suit at all) and wait for it to fall out! FINALLY it is gone. I was laying Pumpkin down for a nap and I hear "Mama, Mama, it's gone! I twisted it out!" Let me tell you what a blessing it is to have that tooth out of his mouth. He was refusing to eat and asking for everything to be made soft. Awhile back, I saw this tooth fairy door concept and decided that I had to do it. About a month ago, when we first noticed Peanut's tooth loose we went and bought the materials to make a door.


To help make the visit from the tooth fairy that much better, Peanut made his version of the door to allow her to come into his room.

Finished outside view

We bought a door at Hobby Lobby with a coupon and paid $3.00 for it. The handle was an additional $2.00 and the fabric $1.00.

before

doorknob and keys

Peanut was allowed to pick the color of his door and he choose red (no big surprise, it is his favorite), we also added glitter to make it a little more special and fairy like.

paint and sparkle paint

We painted the door with three coats of paint, you can't imagine how many tiny nooks are in those things.

after one coat

Once the door was finally covered, we painted the door with the glitter paint. The glitter paint took, two coats to make sure it was completely covered.

three coats of red and one coat of sparkle

Using another piece of fabric (out of my scrap bin) we made a back to the door, this helped to glue the pocket too and also to help attach it to the wall. It gives it that little bit of pizazz for a special touch, Peanut called it a portal. Love that he gets so into my ideas!

measuring the felt backing

cut along the line

view from the back

Using the door, I traced the shape onto the fabric, cut and glued it to the door with a bead of hot glue.

Inside the door, we created a little pocket for the tooth to sit in and eventually the money! To create the pocket, we cut the fabric Peanut chose in a 1.5" square and glued it together, we don't want a tooth falling out! Using tiny clothespins, I had around from card making, we used them to hold the pocket in place.  I glued the clothespins but not the pocket, this way the tooth fairy has an easier time removing the tooth.

finished inside view

To hold the door to the wall, I used mounting tape, so far it has been on the wall for a little over a month and we have had no problems keeping it up!

view with money from the tooth fairy

Since, I am a teacher at heart, I love to keep records of things and loosing teeth were no different. I kept searching for a way to keep my kiddos teeth and help them remember the different events that happened when they lost their teeth. I came across a Tooth Fairy Kit, the kit retails for $26.00. In this kit is a certificate, and a bag to put the certificate in. I love the idea but no way I am spending that kind of money and that is only for one certificate. So I created my own, with a slight twist. I included a place to put a picture, plus the information about the story behind losing the teeth, a diagram to mark which tooth it was. I LOVE the way it turned out and the best part, I can use the certificates over again. I have thought about maybe making a shutterfly book out of them.

the certificate I created :) I love how it turned out, check out my Etsy store and you can have one as well!

Lastly, I ordered a tooth holder to keep all the teeth safe. I love assisting the tooth fairy!

What traditions do you and your family have to celebrate the tooth fairy?

Home Depot Score

I love when I get a super good score at a store and I just had to share this one with you. Mr. Barefoot and I were shopping for a new toilet seat, I know exciting right? Pumpkin has just been finishing up her potty training and was having a hard time with the adult potty but didn't want to use her potty seat anymore.

I had a seat that had a build in potty seat an absolutely loved it! We decided to look at them in the store and go from there. When we first got there, w spot a seat and it was $50.00, to be hones, that was way more than I wanted to spend. I was thinking more along the lines of $25.00. We decided to just scratch the combined seat and continue with what we had been doing.

Then I looked up and found a double seat on clearance for $8.93. Now, that is my kind of price! Boo, they had no more left. Insert frustrated frowny face here!  Mr. Barefoot went and got an employee to check to make sure there were no more and he said no. I asked if we could have the display one, the employee thought about it for awhile and finally said yes! Woo hoo! Score and the best part since it was a display model, we got an additional three dollars off. I was even able to use a coupon, and the final price of my double toilet came to $3.23! Can't beat that!



original price tag/sticker



toilet seat

inner potty seat!

Having worked in a daycare and trained over 25 kids on how to use the potty, I love and encourage all parents to get this style of seat. The potty chairs are great but you are adding an additional step to training, once you get them to go on the potty chair/seat you have to then train them to move to the bigger adult like seat. Make your life easier and start here. The best part is that Peanut uses it as well and it helps him to not fall in :)

Final breakdown of the toilet seat:

$34.99- original price
$8.93- clearance price
$5.93- floor model
I had a coupon for five dollars off and since the sale was $5.93 and the technical coupon said it had t be off of a $10.00 purchase and was expiring that day, they gave me an additional two dollars off. Can't complain because the coupons didn't meat the requirements.

Final price of the toilet seat $3.93! It's 90% savings!

Inspirational Sunday

Santa Book

Once Thanksgiving is over at our house, we have a month full of tradition and mini adventures! I love Christmas and love it even more after Thanksgiving :)

Thanksgiving night after all of the food has been enjoyed, the leftovers put away and before we fall asleep into the Turkey coma, we write our letters to Santa. After all, it takes awhile for a letter to make it to the North Pole and it helps to get the perfect letter written back from Santa!

writing her letter to Santa!

This is by far one of my favorite traditions, I love how excited the children get and their letters always make me smile.  Of course, I keep everything and had to find a way to organize it all and keep it hidden.

I started with one of my favorite fabrics for Christmas, I covered a 1" binder and found a bunch of old sheet protectors. I started with his first letter to Santa and slowly put them in order.

Finished binder

After his letter to Santa, I put in the letter he received back from Santa and the envelope. Then his Good List certificate, the picture of he and Santa and finally his postcard from his birthday (yes, they get one for their birthday as well). Then repeated six times. Pumpkins was so easy to do, she only had one letter, certificate and photo. I absolutely love the way it turned out! Not only was it simple, but it is a great timeline of their wishes to Santa. I almost cannot wait until they don't believe in Santa, just so I can pass on their keepsake.  Well, maybe I can wait, I love their innocence and faith in Christmas.

One of his letters to Santa

a letter from Santa

Good List certificate



 I have been thinking about taking out their letters to Santa, and using their binders as part of our Christmas decorations, but I am not for sure. Call me sentimental but I think it would be a great gift to give them when they are older, or maybe when they have their first child?

When our new letters come from Santa, we always hang them on the fridge along with a special frame that I had engraved with their names and Santa. I love our little traditions, the kiddos get so excited when they see their frames as they know it's almost time to go visit Santa!

Source: Pottery Barn:  They look so beautiful with my babies pictures with Santa!

How do you preserve your children's letters? and do you have a special tradition for how you write your letters?

Last Minute Thanksgiving Crafts

This has been a very rushed holiday for me! One day our plans are one thing and the next they are another. In the craziness of it all, I realized I didn't make any Thanksgiving crafts with the kiddos. This morning, was a crazy morning as we busted out three simple, easy household crafts from around the house. The first is a pumpkin made from toilet paper. Simple and easy. I had orange fabric in my left over fabric bin, but orange construction paper would work fine as well. Lay the fabric on a flat surface, place the toilet paper roll in the middle and begin to stuff the fabric around into the tube. Once the fabric is inside the toilet paper tube, I used scrap felt and cut a leaf. Lastly we added a stem by using little pieces of sticks from the yard.

love the simplicity of this craft

love pumpkins!

I used a tiny dab of glue to help hold the leaf and fabric down.  Cost of craft $0.

The next craft was a plastic cup turkey
using construction paper, the kids traced their hands, they wanted to do their own tracing and cutting. Once the hands are cut out glue them to a upside down plastic cup. Using fabric or construction paper in brown stuff the inside of the cup and draw on a turkey face!

love their take on the hands!

this turkey only sees, no eating or smelling! Have to love six year olds!

The Last craft we made was Indian corn, again using toilet paper tubes, we painted them brown. Once they were dry, I had the kiddos cut craft foam in little pieces and cover the tubes in glue. We then rolled the tubes in piles of craft foam. You could put them on in a more organized fashion but I like the messiness of it! Lastly, using scrap fabric, I stuffed it through the tube and cut the top to look like the corn. you could easily use brown paper bags for the top. I didn't have any and this was craft day with what we already have. Once the tubes were dry, I tied a piece of ribbon around a cluster of three of them and hung them on the wall! I love how they turned out!

I save them from every roll, you never know when you are going to need them!

Peanut worked really hard to make sure they were perfect!

Pumpkin got distracted and decided the box needed more paint!

finished corn

love how they look on my wall!

Super easy and inexpensive crafts for Thanksgiving. Total cost of all of the crafts $0. Everything that we used we had at home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tire Rocker and See Saw Update

I am so excited to share this update with you. Little did I know how many emails and questions would I receive over the original post. You can read that here. I wanted to create a toy for Pumpkin using things I already had around the house.

Here is my finished product:

When I last posted the rocker looked like this:

I said I wanted to see how it held up before I posted more about it and it is holding up well. I did modify some things with the design to make it easier to use and nicer looking.  First I moved the L brackets to the inside of the tire so you only see the screw head.

updated L bracket

inside view of the tire

I moved the bracket because I was afraid Pumpkin would scratch her leg, it never happened but as she got older and bigger I could see it happening. This also gave the rocker a cleaner look!

The next thing I did was to round the corners a bit more, just using a sander. This again was more of a visual thing instead of a safety concern.

rounder corners and moved screws



I covered the top with foam, when I first build the rocker, I was trying to see what I wanted to do with the top, whether I just wanted to paint it or cover it. For the month and a half that we played with it until I decided, Pumpkin would tell me that her bum would hurt. I asked Peanut and he said it is hard on the butt after awhile. That was the deciding factor and we went with the foam.   I had foam pieces from some furniture that I had wrapper to keep from breaking, I just used what I had.

First, I laid the rocker on the foam and traced around it with a marker. Then using a pair or scissors cut the foam.

eyeballing the rope handle placement

I wasn't worried about the cut being perfect, because I knew it would be pulled tight with the fabric. I placed the foam on the rocker and marked where the rope handles were.  Using a utility nice, I cut a slice for the handled to poke through.

handles through the foam

close up of the handle!

Using craft bond, I sprayed the foam to the board and  then stapled the edges to just help it stay more secure.

Add caption

Lastly, I added the fabric. Using a staple gun and pulling the fabric as tight as I could while allowing the foam to still have some support, I covered the rest of the foam and board.

close up of the bottom of the tire rocker.

The fabric has held up great for the last month! Pumpkin rides her rocker everyday and giggles every time she does it! The best part of the project was that once, I made the original trip to the store, I was able to cover the tire with things I had around the house.

finished view from above

To answer some questions that I have received:

I used a newer tire with the metal bands, it took about 20 minutes to cut using a circular saw. To cut the tire, I placed it on the side, cut halfway through and then flipped it over cut it again.

The paint has held up, the only scrape in the paint, was caused by me moving the L brackets, I sprayed over the mark and you can't tell it was ever there.

Pumpkin has not fallen off at all, the tire rocks back and forth and moves slightly side to side. If you are worried about it tipping sideways, you could easily put a bar on the bottom where the tire meets the ground. It would help the tire from rocking side to side. When Mr. Barefoot tried it to see how it would work, my kiddos didn't like it and asked for it to be removed.

I love this toy and even think I am going to make this as Christmas gifts this year for some friends! You cannot beat the price and the fact that you are upcycling!