Black

My little cat was not thrilled about taking pictures this afternoon. She was excited about being a cat until she got the costume on. She was ready to take it off quickly, and I don't blame her because its HOT!

White

We had to really hunt around the house to find things for our white picture. The monkey was mine when I was little and was stuffed in a bag in the top of O's closet. The dress is a 6/9 months sized dress. I can't believe how well it fit her, and she was VERY excited to wear the bonnet :)

DIY Bell Bracelet/Anklet

When I saw this jingle bracelet, my 1st thought was that O would LOVE it (take some time to browse the Nova Naturals site if you get a chance. Its a wonderful resource for beautiful, natural toys). Then I quickly realized that it would be very easy to make. It was! You need a pack of wooden beads, silver bells, and elastic string. Just thread the bells and beads onto the elastic string, cut your string, and tie it in a knot (I triple knotted mine for safety). Its super simple and fast. It was very satisfying to finish a project so quickly :) If you make this bracelet for a child under 3 make sure to supervise them at all times since it could easily break and pose a choking hazard.

Green

Here's a picture from O's green photo shoot. We were surprised by how many green things we found once we started looking. O was especially excited about taking her "big eaf" outside. I want to finish our color photo shoots next week since we'll start our marathon of vacations the week after that. Hopefully, we'll do blue, black, brown, purple, and white next week. Then who knows when I'll actually get the book made :( My goal is to finish it before O's birthday. We'll see!

Peek-A-Boo Book

To make a peek-a-boo book you need a small notebook, old magazines with interesting pictures, glue, and scissors. I bought this felt covered notebook from the dollar shelf at Jo Ann's several months ago with the intention of making this book. I cut out pictures that I knew that O would find interesting- babies, animals, trees, food, etc, and my mom glued the pictures on every other page one night while she was here. I put the book away for the night and forgot about it for about 2 months. Last night I "found" it and cut the pages between the pictures into strips of 2 or 3. I showed O how to slowly and carefully turn just one strip at a time while trying to guess what the picture was. I was afraid that she would not be interested at all, but she really enjoyed guessing what the pictures were. I wish that the pages were cardstock instead of notebook paper because I'm sure that the pages are going to tear very easily. She also had trouble turning the pages on her own since they are so thin.

We Love Felt Boards!

I have to admit it...I love felt boards! O likes her felt board, but I like it much more than she does. She has the most fun when she is destroying the pretty little scenes that I make on it. I took this picture seconds before she wiped the felt board clean :)

Homemade Mother's Day Gifts

O and I have spent the last 2 weekends making homemade Mother's Day gifts for her grandmothers, auntie, and me. We're trying to do only handmade gifts from now on, and we have really enjoyed ourselves!
O painted flower pots and then we planted basil seeds in them. She needed encouragement to keep painting, but she enjoyed the planting process. Unfortunately, I dropped and broke one of the pots. I guess the broken one will be mine :(
O and I really enjoyed making exfoliating sugar scrub. I love the fact that its all natural, and it smells great! We used Burts' Bees Apricot Oil since I didn't have any essential oils, and it smells good enough to eat (and I admit that I tasted it when O wasn't looking...not bad).
I was proud of how well O spooned the mixture from the bowl into each jar. She was really into this, and she did not want ANY help. This made it a little difficult and messy, but fun and a great learning experience for us both!

Pink

O and I are making a color book similar to the ones in this post, and today the color was pink. I'm going to try to take a few pictures a week, so hopefully we'll finish the book relatively soon. The cat in the photos showed up at our house almost 2 weeks ago, and she has decided that we are her family. She is the friendliest cat I have EVER seen. O had fun trying to get the cat to blow bubbles!

Homemade Magnetic Toy

I made these magnets for O before our long road trip when we went snow skiing. I printed out pictures of O, family, and some of her favorite things and decopauged them onto foam core board. I cut them out and put magnets on the back. O had fun playing with them on the magnetic wipe-off board.

Playsilks

My mom and I finally gave O the playsilks we dyed for her. The original plan was to give them to her for Christmas, but she already had so much that we decided to wait. We are going to have lots of fun with these!

Another Homemade Book

This is my favorite page.

I started working on this book for O about 3 months ago, but I got sidetracked by Christmas and just finished it. Its her favorite homemade book by far. I gave it to her yesterday afternoon, and we've already read it at least 15 times! Its based on a book by the same name that we checked out from the library that O absolutely loved. That book is based on the song by the same name. This is another book that we sing rather than read!

ABC Puzzle

I spent countless hours working on this puzzle for O for Christmas, but it was lots of fun. She wasn't too impressed when I gave it to her, but we had fun with it last night. I hope she'll enjoy it more as she gets older. Right now she just really wants to pull the toothbrush off! I still have to get a picture for Y. I've been looking for a good yo-yo picture, but now I think I'm going to try to get a picture of O yawning.

Homemade Puzzles

I made these photo puzzles for O using pics that were leftover from a book that I made her and parts of cardboard boxes. I decopauged the pics to the cardboard after cutting out the shapes. She had lots of fun with these puzzles, and I was glad to finally make them since I've been planning it for months!
I used the packing styrofoam from O's kitchen helper to make these shape puzzles. They were fun to do, but pretty messy and easy to break (she accidentally broke the triangle puzzle right after I took this picture). I think we'll play with these puzzles on the screened porch since we don't mind having tiny bits of styrofoam out there. After we are done with these puzzles, I plan to break them up and put them in the bottoms of my pots for my container garden in the spring.

Tree Blocks

I'm FINALLY posting about the finished tree blocks! I didn't want to post without a picture, and I didn't have the blocks since I'd left them at my mom's house after Christmas. She brought them back today (along with TONS of other stuff), and we've had lots of fun with them. I think my mom and I may like them more than O does! They were simple to make, but took more time than I expected (that seems to be the way almost all homemade things go!). It didn't take too long to cut them, but sanding was a different story. I sanded them using an electric sander, and I sanded the ends and the edges. Then I vacuumed each of them to try to get as much dust and dirt off as possible. The last step was oiling the blocks with organic flax oil. This also took a while, but my mom pitched in to help me finish in time for Christmas. I made 4 sets which was a little much to make at one time, and none of the sets are very big. I need to add some longer pieces, but I ran out of wood. I'm sending the word out to my family that next time anyone cuts any trees or limbs to save them for me!

Velcro Board

O loves her velcro board that I made last night. She says, "off, off, off" the whole time she is pulling things off of it. She needed a little help because she wasn't holding the board down with one hand while pulling an object with the other hand, so she just couldn't get the objects off. I think this is going to be a fun activity for a while (I hope).

Tree Blocks

One of my goals for Christmas is to make Tree Blocks for some of our favorite monkeys. We've gotten off to a good start, and hopefully they'll be finished in time for Christmas. I'll post the finished products in a few days (I hope!).

Playsilks

I've been admiring the beautiful playsilks that I've seen in toy catalogs and online toy stores for a while, but I wasn't willing to pay 10 to 15 dollars for one, and I really liked the idea of making my own. I was excited when I found 100% silk scarves that are perfect for playsilks at Dharma Trading Company. I bought lots and lots of several different sized scarves, and my mom and I dyed them with kool-aid. We had lots of fun dyeing them, and they've turned out great so far. We have several more colors that we are going to try next week.

Homemade Christmas Gifts

I love making homemade gifts for Christmas, and I am getting off to a good start this year. I finished a counting book for O today, and Guh-guh and I made this pouch sling for O to carry her babies. We are planning on making a matching one for Marg. I couldn't believe how easy it was to make and how good it looked! What gifts are you making this Christmas? (I'm always looking for more good ideas!)