Paper Owl Mobile from Made by Joel

I came across this blog called "Made by Joel" and he has a free template available for a neat paper owl mobile that I wanted to try.

The original template is for an (approximately) 8"x10" mobile and since I wanted mine to be bigger than that, I brought the template over to Photoshop and quadrupled it. I broke the original template into 4 8"x10" parts and then taped them back together again to make one big bird. I printed mine on card stock so it would be more durable. While the white looks very cool and kind of modern (I could see something like this hanging in my parents house) I wanted mine to look more "childish" and decided to cover it in sheets of scrapbook paper that I had purchased a few months back from the dollar section at Target.

If you decide to make one of these yourself I suggest using double sided tape and not glue to adhere the paper to the card stock. The first Owl body I made I used glue and since the scrapbook paper I was using was thin, that much glue just caused it to bubble and wrinkle and look downright terrible. The tape worked MUCH better. One note about this though is that I used thread to hang it (as directed in the original post) and because of the amount of tape used and the extra pieces of paper it's already fallen down (I hung it this afternoon) so I'm going to have to rethink how to adhere the thread to the owl since the small piece of double sided tape I used didn't cut it.

While I think it turned out cute, in the end, I would rather hang the super cute mobile my sis-in-law showed me in a magazine she has (to go along with the blue birds one that is hanging in the playroom - pictures to come, I promise). It's been a while but I want to say it was a either a cloud or an umbrella with raindrops and a maybe a rainbow and/or sun. I know it's vague but I bet she'll remember what I'm talking about and hopefully pick up this not so subtle hint I'm dropping ;)  The funniest part of the whole project is that Kface calls the owl Wall-E and you know what, she's right. It does kind of look like Wall-E. Lol!

Here are the pictures of the Wall-E Owl and of K herself because she's just too cute not to share.

The white card stock version

Here it is covered in the scrapbook paper and hung in K's room.

Here is another view of it. It was hard to keep it from spinning.

I *think* this is sorta, kinda, similar to the one S-I-L showed me, but crocheted of course.

She was wearing the foam protectors from the sides of the portable DVD player like shoes.

Took this picture today as we were heading out to the book store to play with the Thomas trains. She'll be getting her table soon... She's pooped on the potty twice now and is telling us much more frequently when she needs to go. Her potty chart is really starting to fill up and she's still excited to use it so that's a plus.

What a kid can do in 5 minutes and Trick or Treating

Yesterday was one of those days...

A was being super awesome and hanging curtain rods in the Bear's room and playroom and had a question about length or some such thing so I left her downstairs watching Toy Story 2 for about 10 minutes max. When I came back downstairs to check on her she had gotten the red PERMANENT marker that we used on the pumpkins off of the table and proceeded to draw on EVERYTHING - the TV screen, changing table, TV trays, her trampoline, sippy cup, not to mention Lilly and herself. She didn't miss one inch on both of her hands. They were completely red on both sides as was the area above and under her lips. My mouth dropped in horror as I yelled, "Oh my gosh!" A. came running down the stairs to see what happened, thinking the worst of course. And while this wasn't "the worst" it felt pretty darn close to it. Thankfully she wasn't hurt and hadn't gotten a hold of a knife or scissors or something but I was just like "K, what did you do?!?" to which she answered, "Sorry Mommy, sorry." and gave me a kiss. I could see the tears start welling up in her eyes. I mean, really how can I be too mad at that? Hearing her say "sorry" just about breaks my heart every time. Thank goodness A. acted fast and was able to get the marker off of almost everything. Baby wipes are a wonderful invention! The only things that still show evidence of the marker massacre are poor Lilly and the underside of the shelves from the changing table (it was in pieces from having been moved).

Then, to top off that excitement, our Buddy Pal came over to play and fell down the first half of our stairs. The poor kid was already having a bad day from his flu shot and then to fall down the stairs was just the kicker. We had the gate up but I took it down to bring K's Halloween costume upstairs and just forgot to put it back up. I swear, I think I was having the worst Mommy day ever!

We ended the day going trick or treating. We went with our other friends and their two kids so that was nice to hang out with them. Unfortunately K was scared of the animated decorations and wanted to be carried the whole time after house #2 and let me tell you, she is no spring chicken. As A. commented, she is like a sack of concrete. Both of our backs and shoulders were hurting by the end of the night but she looked adorable so it was all worth it. What a kid!

Our Buddy Pal as Yoda, before taking a header down our stairs.

Minnie Mouse trick or treating with Daddy

Minnie Mouse

Our Buddy as Buzz Lightyear (K loved his costume)

Our Baby Pal as a cute kitty

Trick or treating. She preferred taking the candy in her hand and then put it in her basket herself.

It was a beautiful sunset.

Kisses for Buzz at the end of the night.

Pumpkins and some things I made

We carved pumpkins a few nights back and I forgot to post pictures of it. We let K draw on them first with (gasp!) permanent markers and she did REALLY good. We were very proud of her. I don't have any pictures of the completed pumpkins but believe me when I say, they are very crazy looking. They have black and red scribbles all over them and the face on A's has already caved in making it look a bit prune-y and mine is a cat that only really looks like a cat when the lights are off and there is a candle inside. Anyway, enough lead up, here are the pictures.

Coloring on the second pumpkin.

Proud Daddy looking on as she colors.

Mommy was there to supervise.

She definitely enjoyed coloring with markers.

She even did some carving with those 'safe' pumpkin cutting tools.

So I've had a bit of time these last two days to make/alter a few things around the house. I love having a calendar hanging somewhere conspicuous to remind me of important dates, appointments, etc. but this house didn't really seem to have that exact right spot to hang a paper calendar so I decided to make a dry erase one based off of one I had seen on the Target website.

This was my inspiration.

This is what I already had. I was using it as a hanging jewelry organizer but decided I'd rather have a place to hang my keys, store mail, and keep track of important dates.

And this is how it turned out. I may end up using my handy-dandy label maker for the days of the week since my handwriting got kind of messy at the top there.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and it seems to be doing the job. I'll still keep a small paper calendar somewhere so I can use it to transfer the info from year to year but for the day to day, this seems to work out quite nicely. However, you may be wondering what I did with my jewelry now that I no longer have an organizer for it all? Never fear, I came up with a solution for that as well!

New jewelry box from Target.

For my necklaces, which is what I have the most of, I got these brushed nickel robe hooks.

Two of these

and two of these.

The other thing I made is a Potty Chart for K. I've been telling her that when she goes pee pee and poopies in the potty all of the time and no more in her diapers then she'll get a Thomas Train Table. She does a really great job going at night before bed but I think she (and I) have a harder time remembering to try during the day while we're playing or out and about. This potty thing is as much on my shoulders as it is hers since I need to remind her and so far, I'm not doing such a great job at that. I know it will be easier and cheaper when she no longer needs diapers but I just don't have the super motivation that I need to be on top of it yet. I figure this chart (and the fact that she is now wearing Pull-Ups) might help remind me to ask her. Currently I have it hanging in her bathroom but I think I will move it and bring it with us to whichever room we are in to remind the both of us to try more often. And in case you are wondering, no, I'm not really going to get her an actual Thomas the Train table because those are incredibly expensive. I just call it that because she associates all trains with Thomas because of the Thomas table they have at the Barnes and Noble out here.

She will put a sticker (either a star or Toy Story) in each space whenever she goes on the potty. I found some cool Thomas stickers in the scrapbook section at Michael's. The Toy Story stickers came in the box of Pull Ups. I buy the "boy" version of Pull Ups because they are Toy Story and she is CRAZY about Buzz and Woody.

Before and (Almost) Afters

Well we're in the new place and so far, we love it! It's so nice and big and like Mom said, everything about it is a step up from our last place, and that place was nice too.

Here are the before and afters with the painting:

K's Bedroom. See her taping handiwork by the closet?

K's Bedroom

K's Bedroom after

K's Bedroom after; I LOVE this yellow!

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom (with new carpet)

Master Bedroom after

Play Room (before new carpet)

Play Room (before paint but after new carpet)

Play Room after (and during moving)

Play Room after (with Nana and K during moving)

The unpacking is going sssslllloooowwwww but it's going. Hopefully I'll be able to post some real After pictures soon.

Paint colors

Today we went and looked at our new apartment and can I just say, I'M SO EXCITED!!! The place is so awesome! As far as I can tell at this point (without doing a super thorough inspection), the only two things that stink is we can't remove any of the blinds (mini or vertical) and we can't install overhead lights in the bedrooms. I seriously don't understand why people don't have ceiling lights... maybe to cut down on cost? It just baffles me. There aren't any in the living room either so between the three bedrooms and the living room, we'll have to get some additional lighting. I think I may have just found a solution at Target though so I'll have to check it out.


Here are the paint colors we're going with for the three bedrooms:

Master bedroom (Arabian Sands)

K's bedroom (Winter Wheat)

Playroom (Pale Moss Green)

Some pictures

I haven't posted any photos in a bit so I thought I'd put a few recent ones up.

Daddy and K on (well, actually in front of) the Dirk and Guide Swordsmen stage watching the Queen's Parade at the OH Renaissance Faire.

K and Mommy riding on Barney the camel. She loved it!

I think this might have been her favorite part of the Ren Faire, hanging from the tree branches.

Eating with a spoon, all by herself! (and doing a really good job)

Buzz, Woody, Jesse and Bullseye watching TV with her. She made sure each one was sitting and facing the TV. It was way too cute.

 

I'm not quite sure what she was doing here but her ponytail looked cute so I used this picture. Here she has all of the Lego Toy Story guys standing on the trampoline with their arms up in jumping position. She loves those guys.

Rockin' Out

Tonight was so much fun! A and I were singing alternate lyrics of songs to K while she was brushing her teeth and trying to go potty and she was just rocking out, singing along and dancing up a storm. It was awesome. She just amazes me. Today she set up all of her Toy Story Lego characters on the trampoline and each one *had* to be standing and they all had to have their arms up, maybe to simulate jumping (I wasn't sure about that one) but it was so darn cute and it just amazes me to see what she thinks and imagines and to hear her reading and acting out little games. Everyday I think to myself, "she is becoming more and more a kid, and less and less a baby." It's not just the fact that she's mega tall (although that certainly helps) or even the fact that she is saying so many words, it's just the stuff she's able to do now, physically. She can climb the ladders at the playground, she can go up the stairs without holding on to anything, she can jump multiple times in a row (on the ground) all by herself. The list goes on and on. It's just amazing. I'm so proud of her but at the same time it's kind of sad to realize that she's growing up already. I love her so much.