Sunday, June 19, 2011

I Spy bottles

I've seen I-Spy bottles everywhere lately.  I'm still not sure if Ezra is old enough to really get it, but I made him a couple anyway.  I surely wasn't going to spend $17.95 on one and this one is like the size of a 1 liter bottle.  Who has space for that when they're traveling?

Here's what I made:



I started looking for a small clear bottle that wasn't glass to make my own.  I didn't want wavy plastic sides like a Gatorade bottle and it had to be clear enough to see the little toys and stuff through.  Of all places, I found that the little 6 or 8 ounce milk containers from Burger King were perfect.  So the other day at the mall, I got a chocolate and a white milk - mostly for the bottles and partly because Ezra has learned the deliciousness that is chocolate milk.  We still keep it less than 1/3 chocolate milk to 2/3 white milk, but he thinks it's pretty special.  He has started learning his colors and was calling it "bloun" for about 2 days before we figured out that he meant "brown."  I know, we're smart.

Anyway, I digress.  I had found a ziploc bag of "bead soup" at Hobby Lobby in their clearance section that was filled with different shapes and sizes of beads.  And I also found Poly-Fill poly pellets at Walmart for about $5 for a huge bag.

My favorite part was digging through the bead soup for treasures to put in the bottles.  Here's what I came up with for each bottle:
"E" for Ezra, yellow boat, penny, paperclip, turtle, dolphin, buttons and assorted others

Another "E" for Ezra, a guitar pick from Daddy, a giraffe, a rhino, a lady bug and various others

I took pictures of each one so I can print them in wallet size and tape them to the sides of the bottles.  Then he'll know what to look for.  Not sure if I'll have time to do that before leaving on Wednesday for California, but that's the plan.

I put the treasures in the bottles and poured the poly pellets in - making sure not to fill it all the way up.  You have to leave some space for them to move around.  Then I put a thick line of permanent E6000 glue around the top and put the lid on tight.

Here are some close ups of the finished bottles.



Hopefully they'll be fun and entertaining and quiet for our plane ride.

-Kara

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Crib sheets

I found this wonderful tutorial for making crib sheets on Made a few months ago when I first started my blog obsession.  It seemed so easy.  So I went searching for the right fabric to give it a try... and I found these at a thrift store:


That's right - a set of sheets.  Adorable sheets.  But also, sheets for a twin bed - only a fitted and a flat.  No pillow case, which sort of bummed me out, but whatever.

Cute little fish and an octopus

 
Target organic cotton sheets (Ooo! Fancy!)

So I bought them.  For $2.99.  It was a super bargain.  I brought them home and sliced the whole fitted edge off the fitted sheet with my slick little rotary cutter and started cutting to the specifics of the patters.  Then I sewed up the corners and the edges all around, fed the elastic through and sewed it closed.

And lickety split, I was done.

Ta-da!


And there it is.  Isn't it fabulous?  And that was only the sheet I made from the fitted sheet.  I still have the whole flat sheet left.  And hopefully with a little better organization with my cuts I'll be able to make a pillow case for one of those flat little travel pillows.  And the wonderful thing about this is that a toddler bed uses a crib mattress so Ez will be able to enjoy his "feesh" sheets even longer.

-Kara