Car Play Mat!

Everybody loves a car play mat!  Personalizing it makes it even more fun!

A couple of people have asked me about my play mat, so I thought I would post a mini-tutorial!

Supplies:

Graph Paper

Ruler

A toy car

Pencil

Acrylic Paints

Clear Coat

Sharpie - 2 sizes

Sewing Machine and Thread

Dam Canvas (Be sure you are at the right store before you call it that.  I bought mine from a Farm supply store, Smithfield Implement in Utah.  Dam canvas is used for irrigation, it is nice and thick and comes very wide.  You can also buy canvas at most fabric stores.)

1.  Decide how big you want your mat.  Mine is about 60"X31".  Add 2" to the raw edges, before I hemmed the raw edges my mat measured 60"x33".

2.  you need to hem the raw edges of you canvas.  Press to the wrong side 1/2" and then again.  Stitch it down.

3.  Now that you know how big your mat is, you need to start the lay out of you "city".  I grabbed a toy car and measured it.  Doubled it and that determined the width of my roads.  I used graph paper and drew a layout to scale, I erased tons and changed things around.  I decided that my "city" needed to have: Grammy's house, Grandma's house, airport, gas station, grocery, post office, fire station, police station, church, school, playground, lake, consturction site, playground, and a roundabout!

4.  After you have your mini version figured out, cut out to scale the outlines of your buildings and place them on your canvas (tape them if you need to).  Using a pencil, ruler, and whatever else you need - sketch your "city" on to the canvas.  The reason you use paper outlines of your buildings is to help in the transfer of your design from paper to canvas, and then you can make adjustments if you need to.

5.  Now you are ready to paint.  Place the mat on either a protected suface or a surface you don't care about.  The paint  might bleed through!

6.  Start painting your creation.  I am  no artist, all my buildings are plain brick and boring, it was a first try!  Be creative, your kids are going to love it no matter what!  Add trees, flowers, parking lines, etc...

7.  For cleaning up lines I used a sharpie, for fine detail a fine sharpie.

8.  When you are satisfied and it is dry take it outside.  Spary a coat or two of clear coat to help protect the mat.  Let it dry and you are ready to play!

I also used this same method to create a Hopscotch Mat for indoor play!

Monday Morning!

This is what I did Monday morning.  It took less than 1 hour (well until I started fussing with it)!!  No pattern is necessary.  This is the Lazy Day Skirt from Oliver and S. 

I changed it up a little bit.  I like slips, so I built it right in.  I just treated the two fabrics as one at the top, and of course hemmed them seperately.  I still thought it looked a little homemade, so I added a ruffled ribbon to the blue layer. 

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympians T-Shirt!

A month before Jayce's Birthday he came and asked me to make him a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. 

Did you hear me, my little BOY asked me to MAKE him something.  I was excited and how could I say no.  I have forced my homemade creations on my boys from time to time, but never have any of them asked for anything!!

Jayce loves the Percy Jackson and the Last Olympians series.  He would be done with all 4 books, except books are our best bargaining chip.  He is already planning to re-read them!

So I set about trying to figure out what to do on the shirt.  From the movie I don't remember any of the campers at Camp Half-Blood wearing the camp T-shirt described in the books.  I looked online for movie pics nothing.  I looked for shirts already made - I found one adult version.  ADULT!!! 

When we bought the entire series of books it came with a few collector cards, 1 showed Percy Jackson in his T-shirt and 1 showed Annabeth in hers.  I copied this shirt. 

He wore it for 3 days before I could talk him to wearing something else!!

The Loot, The Dinner, and The Cake!

We made Jayce wait until the night after his Birthday to open presents and eat his dinner and cake.  We were waiting for Jason to  be home.
The Loot included:  Money, clothes, Percy Jackson and the Last Olympians figurines, The Didj, Didj games, Nerf Gun, Harmonica lesson book, and a Ripstick.

Based on the facial expressions - I don't think he was too disappointed!!

We sent him on an errand to our room and that is when he found the Ripstick!  I think he was surpirsed.

On the Birthday boy dinner menu:

Ribs (we finally are figuring out how to cook them, go here (scroll down a bit)).

Crunchy skinned baked potatoes

Peas

Needless to say after that feast Jason and I were very stuffed.  So we did not complain that kids were completely distracted with new toys and did not mention cake until we were tucking them in bed.  I have to agree, I think that makes us the meanest parents on the planet.  Jayce was not upset, the idea of Dirt Dessert for Breakfast kept him happy!

Happy Birthday Jayce!  We are so proud of the boy you have become.  You are smart, strong willed, and have a strong desire to make good choices and to make other happy!  We love you!

A Birthday + Friends + Museum + Dad = Best Day Ever!

During Jayce's Spring Break he turned 8.  On his special day, Jason had to "Stand Duty" = not coming home. So, in an attempt to make Jayce's day special we decided to go to Jason.  I of course talked Jayce into eating lunch at Gino's East (my favorite Chicago Style Pizza - oh yum!).  We had friends (The Hawley's) meet us for lunch and then we headed to the Kohl's Children's Museum for a few hours before dinner.  The kids had lots of fun, but they didn't burn off enough energy!!  After we were done at the museum we met the husbands at Chipotle and then took the kids to McDonalds for happy meals.  I had also made some Apple Pie Caramel Apples for the occaison.  (Do not keep the apples in a cooler with ice up until you are ready to eat them - they don't cut or eat too easily!!).  The kids were sent to their own area of McDonalds to eat, it was pretty funny and made for a nice quiet dinner for us.

Here they are at the museum at every kids favorite part - the Grocery Store!!

This is Jayce in his new Percy Jackson T-Shirt -more about that later!!

Grahm made me a Potbelly Sandwich!

The other favorite - Water!!  I didn't realize what Grahm was doing with the geysers until it was too late!

I couldn't resist a picture of the squished cheeks!!

Egg Dying and another Hunt!

Saturday night at bedtime, I finally decided we had better dye the Easter Eggs.  It is always fun to see how they want to mix the colors - Tradition and Science, two of my favorite things!

Early Easter Egg Hunt with Friends!

It seems I am always trying to catch up these days.  One day soon I hope to be back on top of things!

A few days before Easter we met up with friends at a park to let our kids play and have an Easter Egg Hunt.  It was a gorgeous day!  My kids loved this, because we hide real eggs at our house and they don't have candy in them!

Waiting for the hunt to begin and protecting our ears from a motor bike!

So much fun and yummy candy!!

Congratulations!!

My baby sister Hannah won her local Jr. Miss Competition this past weekend.  She worked very hard and it payed off.

Next stop - State Jr. Miss!!

Apple Pie Caramel Apple Update!!!

I went to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory yesterday!!  It has been almost a year since my last visit.  I knew I would be driving past on a fun family excursion and I just happened to have 9 of my Apple Pie Caramel Apples with me.  So, I stopped and grabbed one wonderful apple to compare and help perfect my version. 

While I was in there I asked the sweet little lady what it was rolled in (their's is much darker than mine!!).  She told me the secret!!

It is Brown Sugar and cinnamon!

I will update my tutorial!

Easter/Spring Decorations

I know this is a little slow getting posted - but I have good excuses!!

My friend Shalet introduced me to paper covered eggs and I couldn't resist making some for myself.  Since I made them I have seen even more of them in the blogging world.  There are several great tutorials out there.

I made my own Mossy Balls (hehe).  They are super easy and add great color and texture.

What you need:
A bag of Moss - I picked mine up at Michales, the dark green came in mats and the light green was bits of spongy fun.
Styrofoam balls
Hot Glue

For the dark green Mossy Balls, I put glue on the backside of the moss and pushed it around my foam ball.  If it overlapped, I tore it (if you trim it, you get a line that is noticeable).  Then I tore off pieces to fit in where needed until the entire thing was covered.

For the light green Mossy Balls, I put glue on the styrofoam ball and just added chunks of moss.  Since it was really fluffy - I really tried to press it flat.

Super easy and fun!!