Watermelon

All summer I have been wondering if Gianna would like watermelon......Her Daddy tried to show her what to do.... She did a little experimenting... She started to get the hang of it...
Got a little support from Daddy...And, from the looks of that juicy little grin...
....I don't believe I'll be wondering any longer.

Summer Math....

Not to worry......no actual math was performed in the writing of this post.

After a little bit of a blogging break, I afforded myself some time to get a few mundane projects completed that have been hanging over my head.

Once I completeled those projects, I felt like I had the freedom to do some of the creative things that I've been postponing until the important stuff was done.

What I learned was that I really need to be plugged in to my creativity. It energizes me, inspires me and gives me the umph I need to take care of the mundane crummy things I need to do. I guess it's just all about balance.
So, here are some of the more fun tasks that I've been able to complete lately in the form of a few simple math equations:

Equation #1:
Grandmother's victorian-style pitcher that doesn't really go with my decor...

PLUS
Craft Paper & Mod Podge I already had

EQUALS:

Nice little watering pitcher for my sunroom.

Equation #2:

Receiving blankets that have great use with newborns for the first 2 weeks of their lives...

PLUS
a pair of scissors or pinking shears....

EQUALS:
Tons of awesome, soft little everyday clothes to wipe messy mouths at the table, use when baby has diaper rash so as not to add chemicals to their soar bottoms, throw in your diaper bag for messes on the go, or to stash in your car for invariable messes. What I love is that you can just throw them away if you don't want to have to deal with the super-yucky messes and not feel guilty about wasting money.
I keep mine in a fancy shmancy crystal napkin holder that I rarely use.

Equation #3:

A pair of scissors or pinking shearsPLUS

four yards of tulle (I used pink and white)

EQUALS:

A TuTu for my sweet little ballerina.

Here's the Tu Tu Tutorial I used that I found on You Tube.

And just in case you missed my TuTu post and want to see 48 pictures of my sweet baby girl in her TuTu....HERE'S THE LINK.

Equation #4

Silver 'Plated' Tea set that started chipping and I got tired of polishing:

PLUS

Craft Paper & Mod Podge (one of my favorite combinations lately!)

EQUALS:

Cutesy new little shabby chic tea set - whose purpose I've yet to discover.

Equation #5:

Old faded sand box that I've had for years.

PLUS

A can of special FUSION spray paint for plastic (less than $5 at Wal-mart)

Equals:

Brand spankin' new (looking) sand box

Equation #6:

Cheap little wooden frame from Michael's (on sale)Plus craft paint and ribbon I already had:
Equals:

sweet little frame for almost nothing

Equation #7:

A few bags of balls you can get at most superstores. (I used 3 bags for $8 each.)

Plus:

An old play pen I had in the attic. Equals:

A ball pit for my very busy little munchkin as well as a sanity preserver for her mommy.

Original Ball Pit post is HERE:

Equation #8 (a little more on the practical side):
The following ingredients (less than $10 for the whole lot)

PLUS:

A big ol' pot and water & a five gallon bucket.

Equals:

Laundry soap that will last for MONTHS and only took 30 minutes to make (it comes out to about a penny a load).

There are tons of tutorials in blogland. I used THIS ONE. ***

*** I have to say I was a little bit tentative about trying this, but I am delightfully surprised by the results. It doesn't suds up like regular detergent and once you've mixed it, it has a gelatnous consistency (which my husband and I think is pretty cool.) They suggest you add essential oils to scent it, but I gagged in the health food store smelling them all. I didn't add anything and it smells super-clean. I also have $1 containers of the Oxyclean knock-off brand from Dollar Tree to add to loads with a little extra mess.

Now, this is the kind of math that I don't get tired of!

Don't mess with my TuTu

A few weeks ago I made Gianna a sweet little tutu with some tulle that I've been saving. I found a "tutu tutorial" online and it only took about 30 minutes. Not bad.

I finally put her in it this week to take some pictures.

This might be the result if you mess with her TuTu.....

This one's my favorite, by far. Kinda reminds me of one of the munchkins from the Lollipop Guild of 'Wizard of Oz' fame.

Here's a slide show of the rest of the pictures, just in case you haven't gotten quite enough of my little ballerina. You can thank me later. :)

Havin' a ball...

Wanna know why this monkey is smiling?

It might be because she has a very clever mommy - on those occasions when her brain cells aren't in rapid decline due to FMM (frazzled mommy moments - it's a medical condition...you can look it up.)

My sweet little girl is BUSY. She's is also FAST. And she happens to be very very CURIOUS. (A combination that ought to afford her mother weekly trips to the spa. We'll shoot for yearly.)

This child can redecorate a room in 30 seconds. Now that she's walking/running, she's able to redecorate multiple rooms in 30 seconds. I'm sure I'm not unlike many moms who feel a tinge of guilt putting busy babies in the Pack-n-Play, Jumperoo, Walker etc. at this stage in the game.

Well, this mom was getting a little desperate, so I tried to come up with a win-win for both of us.

I took an old Play Pen that I had when my godquads used to spend the night with me (one at a time).I found bags of balls (the kind you see in the ball pits at Playlands everywhere.)

I hit a sale and bought 3 bags (300 balls in all.)

Pretty, huh?
And, VOILA, we ended up with our very own ball pit for Lewisland.

That made for one happy busy baby. (You can tell by how deep the dimple is!)

Now I don't feel near as guilty when I put her in her ball pit. I can actually get a few things done on occasion. I hide all kinds of little treasure in the balls for her to discover and enjoy.

The only drawback:
my munchkin seems to have two EXCELLENT pitching arms.


All in all ~ a small price to pay for a happy little monkey.

Happy little busy babies......sure Works for Me! For more ideas head over to We Are That family.