Category Archives: Organizing

Food

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

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One of our favorite additions to Ada’s play kitchen are these colorful wool felt balls.  They have been served as everything from blueberries to soup to tea.  It is also easy to make your own felt balls if you would like a simple project.  You can find beautiful felting wool here.

The dishes are a lovely ceramic children’s set from Ikea.  (I much prefer living with a few broken pretty dishes than ugly sturdy ones). The fabric “pancankes” are pieces of vintage prints that Ada requested from the sewing box.  We found them long ago at a flea market and they were meant to become a quilt.  A few stitches and stuffing made them into food.  I love watching kids invent from beautiful, ambiguous materials.

Toy Kitchen Jars

28 Tuesday Feb 2012

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These play food jars are easy to make and the contents look and sound like real spices and dry goods, without the mess.  They are one of Ada’s favorite additions to her play kitchen.  You will need:

*Small recycled jars

*Dry popcorn, beans, beads, pompoms, etc.  (We used glass beads and pearls from an old necklace for good sound effects and pompoms for fun color).

*Glue (Craft or hot glue will work).

*Fabric scraps to cover the tops

1. Fill jars.

2. Trace lid onto fabric and cut out.

3. Put a line of glue along the threading inside the jar lid and screw on tightly.  Wipe off any excess glue.  Be careful not to shake the jar until the glue is dry or your beads will stick to any drips inside the lid.

4. Glue the fabric on top of the lids and allow to dry.

5. Hand over to your Julia or Jacques and wait for your souffle.

Shell Necklace

27 Monday Feb 2012

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We love to take winter walks on the beach.  It is lovely to have a beach all to ourselves and the shell hunting is the best in the off-season.  The amazing amount of shells is both a blessing and a curse when you take a three-year-old with pockets.  In order to avoid the meltdown when we tell her stinky crab legs and giant driftwood are not coming home with us we started searching for necklace shells.  These small, clean shells with existing holes generally fit in pockets and are an easy project when tied onto string at home.

Flight Pack

24 Friday Feb 2012

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We have yet to try flying with both kids.  An upcoming visit to the West coast has me excited and a bit worried about how to entertain two on the road.  So I filled up Ada’s dog backpack with activities and fun stuff for the flight.  (Top secret to her until takeoff).

*Little Packrats bags are adorable and made in the USA.

*Maurice Sendak’s Nutshell Library– four tiny, poetic stories with detailed illustrations.  We traded their cardboard for a softer pouch.

*Organic fruit snacks from Target.  A rubber band keeps them under control in the bag.

*Sticker and magnet books.  Small enough to fit in a child’s backpack.

*Wild Animal Baby Magazine from the National Wildlife Federation.  Ada gets as excited about a new issue in the mail as I do about my magazines.  This one is small enough for little hands.

*A pristine blank book to fill up with drawings, paintings and stickers.

*Clementine art supplies.  They are non-toxic and come in sweet little packages.

*Pipe Cleaners in Brown Bear Colors.

*A Rabbit and a Mouse.

This should get us through the flight with minimal IPod time.

Super Magnets!

23 Thursday Feb 2012

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These Imaginets are one of those perfect toys:

1. They are super fun for kids.  (Ada plays with them for hours at a time).  The cards provide patterns or kids can come up with their own ideas.

2. They are made of wood and painted bright colors.  The magnetic shapes are smooth and substantial and thoughtfully designed.

3.The sturdy case contains all the cards and magnets and has a handle to carry.  When the case is closed, (which can be accomplished easily by a three-year-old), the whole thing fits nicely on a book shelf.

4. The magnetic surface can also be used as a dry-erase board so kids can add habitats for their magnet animals.

Happy kids, happy parents.

Clean

22 Wednesday Feb 2012

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Dr. Bronner may have been a bit nutty, but his liquid soap smells lovely and is the best for getting fresh stains out of clothes.  The colors and graphic appearance of label rantings look great on the shelf and give me something amazing to read if I ever find myself alone in the bathtub.  The soaps have been made using socially and environmentally responsible practices since 1948.

Squirt some undiluted liquid soap on a food spills and throw clothes into hamper.  The soap won’t bleach out colors and the whole hamper will smell nice until laundry day.

Ladder

17 Friday Feb 2012

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The ladder to our roof skylight.  The realtor billed it as a way to “escape to our private roof deck some day for a glass of wine”.  Ha ha.  It is way down on the list of home improvements now, but a nice idea.  Good for drying laundry at the moment while thinking about the future.

Stamps

16 Thursday Feb 2012

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I love a beautiful stamp.  It completes an invitation or thank you note and stamps are little works of art. I am still amazed that a letter can get all the way across the country in a matter of days for such a small price.  Unfortunately, my over-worked post office staff seems less enthusiastic with the quest for stamp beauty.  (The boring American flag sheets do not count as interesting in my book).

I discovered you can buy stamps online directly from the USPS site (duh).  There are a ton of stamp options that have never seen the inside of a Brooklyn PO and they deliver them for free!  You can even coordinate custom stamps to match your events.  Aah, the beauty of technology and old-school together on an envelope.

Sales!

13 Monday Feb 2012

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Hooray for End of Season Sales!  We recently got our Crewcuts order.  These red shoes are making me smile.  Both the former girl and shoe designer in me are in love with them.  This order won’t fit Ada for another year, but I love to stock up when the prices are good.  We store clothes in clear plastic bins, organized and labeled by size.  It is like having a full pantry.  Very satisfying.

Organize

09 Thursday Feb 2012

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The supplies in the art room were getting out of hand, so we made a trip to Ikea.  Lucky for me, we took a wrong turn into the kitchen section and discovered these wooden silverware caddies.

I like that two small trays can stack the width of the large tray.  Supplies for a specific project can be grouped and carried to another room.  They would also be perfect for small tools and house projects.  Ikea’s site is notorious for not allowing you to buy directly, so you will need to make a trip.  (You can also find them here, but they are more expensive).  Clear zippered pouches keep small supplies visible but contained.

We keep a square of floral oil cloth under Ada’s easel.  It wipes off with a sponge and the retro patterns are always so cheery.  Now I don’t spend so much of my precious time in the studio cleaning up after the kids.