Kiwi Crate!

The good people at Kiwi Crate saw my post where I mentioned that I've been trying to come up with fun craft activities for my girls now that school's out. They have the coolest product (seriously, it's award-winning - all you design-loving moms will totally approve!) - once a month a box arrives at your doorstep, beautifully packaged with 2-3 kid-focused activities. (Here are the most popular past crates.) Subscriptions start at $16.99 and additional boxes for siblings are only $9.99. Shipping is always free.

They also send a copy of their adorable Explore! Magazine.

The Kiwi Crate we got this week was called Farm Fun and it had a little planter box where you can plant real seeds, and this felt finger puppet project inside.

The bookshelves were finished this week, so I loved that I could sort of let the girls loose on their projects on the floor of the library while I was putting away books. Each project comes with very clear picture instructions, so even my Evie could make the puppets on her own.

It ended up being hours of quiet play time, which have been few and far between around here lately. Two thumbs up from this tired and busy mom! :)

PS!! Get 25% off your first month's subscription to Kiwi Crate with the code LGN25. The summer crates will all be about exploring the great outdoors! :)

Kids Crafts and Cook Smarts

Summer break started for us about a week ago. It's a whole different ball game here in Arizona with 100+ degree weather and indoor activities are a absolute must with the girls! I sat down with them and made a list of crafts we could do together over the next two months. Things that are easy, inexpensive and fun. I've been wanting to paint plain canvas tote bags to use as reusable shopping bags for a while (because my old ones are just about finished, and truly, they're not the cutest), and the girls were super down. I think what they came up with was prettier than anything I could have created by myself. :)

I watered down basic acrylic craft paint with one part paint to three parts water. It goes on smoother, dries quicker, and makes for a way easier clean up. It also ended up being a fun lesson in abstract painting. We walked around the house first and pointed out the art and patterns that looked more abstract and they looked closely and the paintings and made notes about how to get the look. 

So cute, right? These new bags are making grocery trips so much more appealing lately, and I've desperately needed a bit of a kick in that department! If I have a menu for the week and a written out list, things are great. But life gets in the way and sometimes I end up at the store stocking up on the basics and come home feeling like I have nothing to make a complete meal. I came back from the store a last week and Heather pulled a jar of peanut butter out of the bag and said "Um, we have like three jars of peanut butter in the pantry already!" Oops. 

It took only a few minutes of poking around on Cook Smarts to fall in love with the concept after they reached out to me. The first thing that jumped out was the shopping lists. Cook Smarts sends you four recipes on Friday for the following week (you can use their set menu plan or customize your own) and a shopping list of everything you need for the meals. It's broken up into categories like "produce" and "spices". You can print the list or email it to yourself, which is a huge selling point for me because then I always have my list with me on my phone. Their site is super easy to use and beautifully photographed and organized- which always helps. 

I decided to jump right into the week Cook Smarts was currently on and make the Three Tomato Spaghetti with Kale and Apple Salad. I'm so, so impressed with how easy and simple the recipe was. Not only did it take exactly how long they said it would (35 minutes) to cook, but it was insanely simple and most importantly- delicious! Like really, really good. The dressing on the salad was perfection and the whole family ate it up! I can't wait to try more recipes. Two other meals this week are Batterless Chile Rellenos and Chicken Fajita Bowls- I'm so in. 

There are also the cutest little videos on every recipe with some cooking tips- like how to dice a shallot or the best way to slice cabbage. When you sign up, you can choose to try a starter account and then you can try out three meal plans for free, and starting at about $6 each month, you can have access to an absolute mountain of delicious and easy recipes.

I texted a few of my friends about Cook Smarts after discovering how customizable the meals are. Every single recipe has a gluten-free, paleo, and vegetarian option - seriously so convenient for families with food restrictions! My sister's family has gluten allergies and we cook a lot of meals together, so this feature has been coming in handy for me lately!

Cook Smarts is generously sponsoring today's give away of a $250 gift certificate to Whole Foods and an adorable reusable grocery tote. To enter, just sign up for a FREE Cook Smarts account and leave a comment here with which recipe is calling your name!

Contest ends next Friday at midnight.

PS - for 30% off your first meal plan, use the code LGNCOOKS. (Code expires on June 12)

DIY Holiday Gifts

Christmas is a week from today! Are you ready? I have a few little projects left to finish before the shipping deadline on Thursday. I know - right under the wire! I was determined to be totally prepared for the holiday season this year, but it snuck up on me again. If you're scrambling for some last minute gift ideas that have a little personality, here are some easy (and usually inexpensive) DIY ideas from LGN days of yore.

1. Channel your inner artist and color a canvas notebook (or have your kids make them for grandparents).

2. Cover a lampshade in pretty fabric to top off a thrift store lamp. Your little sister will be in heaven.

3. Spray paint plastic animals to make custom bookends for your best girlfriend.

4. Make dozen of these leather tassel keychains in an hour for your favorite co-workers. The tassels are so easy to do and they look like a million bucks!

5. Find a vintage bench on craigslist and cover it in a fun new fabric. A super simple project that requires only a few hours and not a ton of money, but comes with a big pay-off. (I'd probably go with something a little on the smaller side, and then you can go really crazy with the fabric!)

6. Make a little match cup with the strike paper glued to the bottom.

7. Spend $4 blowing up the image of your choice in black and white (maybe your parent's wedding photo? Or a portrait of a special relative?). I mounted my print on foam core board and painted the sides bright orange.

8. I call these my ten-minute pillows. If you know how to sew a straight line, you can make a pair of pillows for your friend.

9. Decoupage a dollar-store trash bin with a pretty marbleized paper. It's too late to order the paper online now, but stationary stores carry these a lot of times (I know Paper Source has tons). If you're in a pinch, look for scrapbook or wrapping paper in a special pattern.

10. Paint an ombre effect on a pretty basket and fill it with a new throw for your mother-in-law.

11. Whip up a couple of these quick, easy-sew dolls for your kids. My girls are still sleeping with theirs and they've held up really well after all these years.

12. Monogram a coin purse using freezer paper and add a tassel (from above) while you're at it.

13. I inherited a bunch of buttons from my grandmothers so I sewed them onto a piece of linen and framed the fabric. Something like this would be great to give to moms. If you only have a few buttons, try something like this look. 

Here's hoping we all get done in time! :)

Chalkboard Kids Table

We've had a framed chalkboard in the girls' room for years (I showed the project here). They loved it a lot, but there wasn't really a good place for the frame in the new room at the brownstone, so we figured out a new way to have a chalkboard in the room.

Here's what the board and table (which I picked up at Homegoods a long time ago) used to look like in the loft. The table looked okay from the side but top was pretty trashed from years of arts and crafts. It was time for a makeover for sure. Plus, I thought the wood table on wood floor look would not be so cute.

I cleaned and hand-sanded the table down to smooth out the worst of the surface bumps.

Then I rolled out about three or four coats of chalkboard paint. The nice thing about this paint is it dries very fast - which makes it super easy to work with.

I paired the table with chairs found here and here. We keep the chalk sticks in a neon pink acrylic box I picked up at the flea market. I bought the rug at the Madeline Weinrib sample sale in the ABC clearance basement (I think they just had another sale, actually and I'm sad I missed it! Might be worth a call to see if they have any left-overs...)

We've been using the chalkboard table for a few weeks and it's actually working better than I expected even. I think part of that reason is my older girls are able to wipe it down themselves if they want a chalk-free surface. I was also a little concerned that chalk dust would get everywhere, but I haven't noticed any. Success!

PS There's another chalkboard project in my future. So, so excited!

Canvas Sketchbooks

For gifts this year, the kids made personalized journals for their teachers.

I picked up a few of these canvas sketchbooks from Blicks. I LOVE them and can't wait to get a few more to play around with. The inside pages are not lined, which I love (though nothing beats graph paper for me!). And the canvas cover can be customized with basically any medium you can come up with - markers, crayons, paints, stamps,  etc. 

We thought about using paint, but Chartpak markers seemed like a fun choice.

I taped off the paper edges to protect against stray marks.

The girls and I talked a little about what they were going to draw, we did a little sketching first and then  I let them do their thing. They drew the outlines first with fine point sharpies.

And then colored in with the Chartpak markers. The markers bled a lot outside the sharpie lines, but it was fine. Who wants a perfectly-in-the-lines coloring job anyway?

Evie made one too and it ended up being a very pretty, dreamy abstract. I think Heather is going to keep it.

The notebooks were such a hit with the teachers. The kids drew stories and pictures of what each teacher will be doing during the summer.

Claire's pre-k teacher, Al, is also a film maker (he is seriously the coolest, nicest teacher). He's making this super hip indie film this summer about a man that leaves his wallet and his phone in his office building late one night and gets locked out. He has to walk all the way home to Brooklyn with empty pockets and he has lots of adventures along the way. I can't wait to see it when Al's finished. Claire drew a picture of him filming on the streets of NYC, and she and Evie "just happen to be walking down the sidewalk" and they get filmed too (Claire's words - that kid!)

Gracie also had a really special teacher this year, Miranda, who we will love forever. It's crazy how involved these lovely people are with our kids and then, bam, one day it's over and they're done. That can be hard to digest for kids, teachers and parents alike.

Miranda is summering in Spain and Morocco, so Grace drew a picture of her teacher taking a cab to the airport (Grace is waving goodbye from our building). And on the back side, Miranda is riding a camel in Morocco by the beach.

I made one for myself and used a blender marker to add in some water marks. Looks sort of like tie dye, right? I like it. The back side (with the bright orangey red, below), is my favorite.

Anyway, I feel like the possibilities are endless with these canvas-bound sketchbooks! I'm going to try some patterns next. Maybe like a Les Touches-esque stylized leopard print? Or a faux bois... or malachite... Tortoise shell...

The Bean Jar Method (and a freezer paper DIY!)

This post is sponsored by Pine-Sol®. Clean & Disinfect with Pine-Sol: The Powerful Scent of Clean.

I've been on a bit of a cleaning post kick lately, so I thought we could talk about kids and chores. Did you get an allowance growing up? I've learned that kids need incentives in their lives (well, don't we all?). We've been using beans as an incentive/accountability tool for a couple months now and I love it.

We keep dried pinto beans in this old jar on the counter and every night the girls pull out their bean baggies and we square away our accounts.

The general idea is every bean is worth a penny. Every chore the girls do each day is worth a bean, and we also give and take away beans for their actions. Like fighting/yelling/not sharing results in the loss of a bean or two. Sometimes I'm feeling generous and will offer them 10 beans each to make the trip to the grocery store easy! It works every time. :)

The girls count their beans all the time (another bonus! Math practice!) and when they have earned a few dollars, we go to the toy store (i.e. heaven on earth). It's so fun to see that the new toys they earned and budgeted for mean more to them. I feel like they have a better understanding of and appreciation for money now.

We've been keeping their beans just in little baggies, but I'm committed to the program now, so we upgraded to these cheapie little coin purses from H&M that I personalized with their monograms.

It's a super easy DIY. I just typed their initials into Word (Futura font at 165 pxls) and lightly taped a small piece of freezer paper on to my computer screen. I also bumped up the brightness on my screen so there was lots of contrast.

I softly traced the edges of the letters and then cut the letters out on a cutting board with an Xacto knife. Here's a little tip for cutting anything out with an Xacto knife - pull, don't push the blade. You'll have much more control of your line if you're pulling down all the time, so move your project around so that you're always pulling the blade down.

Next, you just layer a dish towel on top of the freezer paper (wax side down on the purse) and iron until the freezer paper is secured on the purse.

I used a regular paint brush and some gold latex paint to dab on the letters. I did about three coats of paint with a bit of drying time between each coat. Try hard to keep the paint smooth and even, but don't push the paint down too hard. It will get in under the edges of the paper if you're too agressive.

While the third paint layer was still wet I peeled off the freezer paper.

Ta-da! Personalized bean purse! I also switched out the old zipper pull for a mini gold/black leather tassle I whipped up while the last coat of paint was drying.

The girls love our Bean Jar method - it's sort of incredible actually how well they have responded to it! - and they were extra excited when we worked on these purses together. It makes the whole idea more special to them. Claire sleeps with her bean purse under her pillow. And I think they're so cute I might actually make one for myself. Lipstick holder maybe?

Do you have a method for getting your children to happily help around the house?