Leaf & Book Page Banner

In addition to planning Oliver's party I've also been trying to get the house ready for fall by incorporating little bits of autumn decor throughout the house. One of the main reasons I love this time of year is that it gives me an excuse to decorate. 
I've got mums on the porch, fall flowers on the mantle, and pumpkins all over the place. Today I wanted to share a little craft you can make in less than thirty minutes for about $10. I was hunting Pinterest for ideas for my mantle when I came across a cute fall banner on Sondra Lyn At Home which inspired me to make my own. 
I bought all of my supplies from Joann's except for the book. I used an old book of fairy tales and pulled out the pages for the stories I didn't care far. 

Leaf & Book Page Banner

What you'll need:

Twine

Clothes pins

Faux leaves 

Ribbon

Book pages

Serrated scissors

Hang your string onto the mantle. Cut out your leaves from the book pages using some of the smaller and a few of the larger leaves as templates. Clip together a book leaf to a faux leaf and arrange on the string. Once all the leaves were hung, I added in the gingham ribbon. I'm really loving gingham this fall so I thought it added a nice touch. 

That's it! So easy and so cute. If you've got any of the ribbon left, you can add it around the room to a vase or wreath to tie everything together.

I echoed the gingham from the ribbon in my centerpiece. I also plan on making a throw pillow for the sofa in this same pattern. 

Happy Fall! Have lovely day.

Weekend Fun

Since I've been too busy to post lately I thought I'd get back into it by sharing a little of what the fam and I did this past weekend. As always, the weekends are busy and exhausting mostly because the boys are full of energy and need/want constant interaction... whew, I'm still recovering.

I try to find activities for the kids on the weekends. I've heard other people talking about hunting for painted rocks and it sounded right up my alley. With a little research I was able to find several groups in the Charleston area. Search #charlestonrocks on instagram and Facebook to find local groups and locations for where to hunt.
So what's with the rocks?
1. find rocks
2. paint rocks
3. post rocks with hints on where to hunt for them
4. hide rocks
5. find other people's rocks which you can either keep or re-hide

I told Emmett about it and, like I expected, he was totally up for so we went to our local park to look for hidden painted rocks and find rocks we could paint.

dress // sunglasses

Searching for rocks and getting in some play time at the park.

Clean the rocks you find before painting. Let dry.

Both boys love to paint and although Ollie mainly painted the plate, we all had fun.

Mine, Emmett, and Oliver's creations. Add a clear protective coating and they're ready to be hidden.

On Sunday the weather was absolutely gorgeous so we spent most of the day outside beginning at Waterfront Park in Mt Pleasant. They have a great playground, plus it was a good spot to hide a few of our newly painted rocks. 

shirt (similar) // shorts // shoes

Have you heard about the painted rocks? If so, where are the best place to hide and find them? Good luck and happy hunting. If you happen to find one of ours, please let me know. I'd love to know where they wind up. 

On a side note... how cute is this purse I snagged this weekend as an early birthday present to myself. Love it!! 

Is it wrong to look forward to Monday? At least I know I can get some quiet time at work ;-)

Crafting with the Kids- Slime Time

I have always loved crafting and now that I have children it gives me a reason to try out new crafts with my playful little assistants. It seems like diy slime is the must-do thing this summer. Every craft store has a stand with slime making materials and if you search in on Pinterest your likely to get a multitude of recipes all claiming to be the best and easiest slime.
When I searched I had a few things that I was looking for in a recipe. 1st- simple household ingredients. 2nd- I wanted slime that stayed together and wasn't overly sticky. I don't want to have to be cleaning slime off of furniture, clothes, or children. I came across two recipes that met my requirements and I figured we could make both and see which we decided was the "best."

The first recipe we tried was for Fluffy Slime. I followed the recipe and instructions posted here from Schooling A Monkey.

Fluffy Slime

Ingredients:

1 cup of Barbasol white shaving cream
1 cup of glue (we used 2 bottles of standard white glue)
1/2 cup of Sta-Flo laundry starch
food coloring (optional)

1. Add glue to a large mixing bowl

2. Add food coloring to the glue, stir

3. Mix in the liquid starch

It will start to get stringy almost immediately. Continue to stir with either a spoon or you can mix with you hands. You will want to stir for several minutes until the mixture becomes less stringy and more like a mass. For mine, there was still a considerable amount of starch in the bowl but the slime was fluffy. I removed it from the liquid and squeezed it to try to remove any additional liquid. I also patted it off with a paper towel which worked well to remove the excess liquid and did not get stuck to the slime. 

4. Play 

It's was just that easy. Slime can be stored in an airtight container or ziplock bag.

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The second slime recipe we tried was a more standard, oozy slime. I found the recipe for this slime here from Preschool Inspirations. 

Oozy Slime

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of glue (we used almost 2 bottles of standard white glue)

1 cup hot water

1/2 teaspoon of Borax

food coloring (optional)

glitter (optional)

1. In a large bowl add 1/2 tsp of Borax to 1 cup of hot water. Stir until dissolved. Let cool.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together 3/4 cup of glue with 1/2 cup of cool water. Add food coloring. We added glitter but you can't tell if you use white glue. If you want to add glitter, add it at this point, but realize you won't really be able to see it unless you use clear glue.

3. Pour the glue mixture into the cooled water/Borax mixture

4. The mixture will start to get stringy almost immediately. Stir for several minutes using either a spoon or your hands. Once it feels like it is less stringy and starting to form a mass, remove from the liquid and knead. Try to squeeze out any excess liquid. 

I would not recommend blotting this slime with a paper towel. It is sticky and the towel will stick to it. 

5. Play

I don't have as much in this photo because I tried to dry it off with a towel which immediately got stuck to it, so I threw that part away.

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So which was our favorite? Both slime were easy to make with simple ingredients, so the deciding factor was how the slime played. 

The fluffy slime wasn't sticky, very squishy, not too oozy, and broke apart fairly cleanly without leaving little pieces everywhere. 

The oozy slime was a bit stickier, left behind more pieces when "broken", and was stringier/oozy.

The winner is... 

... Fluffy Slime!!!

This stuff is seriously awesome. The way is felt was weird but also kind of addictive. I found myself just holding it and working it in my hands when I was talking or bored. Emmett loved it too. This was by far the favorite of everyone who played with the two. So give it a try. Once you buy the shaving cream and liquid starch, you'll have plenty of ingredients to make tons more. I know we'll be making another batch very soon.

FYI: from what I've read, if the slime gets in hair or on clothes, use vinegar to dissolve it away.