Hand Warmers

At Christmas time I made these really easy therapy packs.  They were a great gift and everyone has enjoyed them, especially my kids.  They love to use their small ones as boo-boo packs, and occasionally try to sneak my larger one to warm up with in bed.

Since we still have a few more weeks of chilly winter weather, I decided to use up some of my scrap fleece to make some hand warmers.  It's still pretty cold in the morning, in the van and waiting outside of school, so I thought these hand warmers would be helpful to keep tiny fingers warm.

I made them the same way I did the therapy packs, just smaller.  I used about a half cup of rice in each hand warmer (maybe a little less).  We warm them up just before we leave for school.  I put one set in the microwave for 30 seconds, take them out and shake the rice around a bit, then put them back in for another 30 seconds.  That usually does the trick.

 

Valentine Fleece Boa Scarf

I recently saw these adorable fleece boa scarves over at my friend Laura's blog, Come Together Kids.  She provided a great tutorial on how to make these, so I knew I would have to give it a try.  I decided to make one for Valentine's Day, in red and white.  My daughter wanted to use hers for dress up play. 

I started off with 3 pieces of lightweight cotton fleece, 2 red and 1 white.  Each piece was 6 inches wide and 48 inches long. 

I made two straight stitches down the middle of all three pieces.

Then, using my rotary cutter, I cut a one inch fringe on each side.

This turned out so cute and was so easy to make!  Thanks again Laura for sharing your tutorial with us!

Chalk Drawings

I am actually so happy to be stuck inside on a real snow day!  Last year, Maryland got clobbered by Snowmageddon, but so far this year we've dodge all those big storms to hit the northeast.  But today, we are actually getting a nice amount of snow.

So, I thought today would be the perfect time to pull out some of my winter and snow crafts to share with you.  Be on the lookout, because I'll probably be posting a few activities today and tomorrow.

This activity is one of my favorites and so easy to do.  To make a chalk drawing, all you need is some chalk and dark colored paper.  Tell the kids to draw a snow scene using the chalk.  White is great for the snow, but colored chalk works great as well, especially for adding details.

 

Snow Fun!

If you were like me, and were a slacker about putting away the sand toys at the end of summer, don't fret! You can use those sand toys and buckets to make some pretty cool snow castles.

My daughter actually came up with the idea when she filled just one small bucket with snow and realized she could make snow castles. We pulled out a few of our other small buckets and sand castle shapes and built in the snow for a while. I think snow packs even better than wet sand!

Sweater Vase

Remember I made that twine vase to pretty up one of my many plain glass vases?  Well, I still have a few plain glass vases and decided to pretty up another one!

This time, I used an old cable knit sweater.  This sweater of mine had been totally spent, just didn't fit well anymore (after a dryer incident), and had a lot of pilling.  But, it was too cute to just throw away, so I decided to repurpose it.

So, I cut off one of the sleeves, slipped it over the vase, and gave my vase a new look!  I used a little spray adhesive to keep the sweater in place and trimmed it up along the bottom.  This was so simple to create and this vase will add a nice textured look to my fall and winter decorations.