DIY: Creating a Box of Sunshine

Last month, I was visiting with a family member when I learned that a special young lady in our lives was having a bumpy go of it. I felt led to let her know in some way that we were thinking of her, praying for her, and just overall loving her from our neck of the woods.

So hubs and I headed to Target to fill up a Box of Sunshine for this sweet little gal. If you've never made a box of sunshine, they're a real treat to put together. I was inspired by some pins on Pinterest and kept most items in the "yellow" sushiney theme.

We found a cute "Apple of my Eye" plastic box, candy like Starburst and Butterfinger, some mini Oreos, mini M&Ms, Easter candy, lemonade MIO, marigold seeds to plant, yellow glow bracelets, yellow flower suckers, a yellow light up jelly ring, some stickers, chevron patterned tissue, hair bands, a glass jar of lemonade, glow stars, lemonheads, note cards, and I even made a yellow crochet cuff.

It was fun choosing items we thought she would love. We carefully wrapped everything up in yellow tissue paper. Hubs even put in a ziploc full of potting soil :)

(I found some free printables all over pinterest and I feel super bad for not being able to remember the sources. Sorry!)

We heard the box was well received and it made my day knowing we made her day.

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Crochet Rose Chain Bracelet.

My mother in law's birthday was yesterday. Knowing she wears bracelets quite often, I decided to crochet a simple chain bracelet with a rose accent. I didn't follow a pattern for the bracelet, but it was quite easy, really.

Although you could alter the bracelet and use whichever yarn and hook you desire, here's what I did:

Materials
Lion Brand Bonbons Yarn
Aunt Lydia's Size 10 Crochet Thread (for the rose)
US Sz F hook
1.65mm steel hook (for the rose)

Create a chain the length you want the bracelet to be (I chained 15). Then single crochet into your first chain to create the bracelet. Chain another 15 or 16 chains and slip stitch into the single crochet. Chain another 15 or so chains and slip stitch again in the single crochet. Chain another 15 chains and single crochet in the first single crochet. This gives a total of four rings. Fasten off. I wanted a twisty look so I weaved one of the chains before securing.

I then used Aunt Lydia's size 10 thread and a 1.65 mm steel hook to create the rose. I followed instructions for the rose at I'm Topsy Turvy. I sewed the rose on and voila!

I adore how it turned out! I think she loved it too. :)

Note: If you're not a crochet-er and love the look and want your own, I will be opening an Etsy store next month, details to follow.

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Review: February Kiwi Crate "Around the World" Part Two

I had to break our Kiwi Crate Review into two posts because we spent too much time on the second project, I forgot to take pictures of the kids playing with it! It's not that the second activity took so long because it was hard or difficult, it was because the kids kept playing the game over and over and over. They LOVED it.

If you didn't see my first Kiwi Crate review post, I'll give you a little refresher

We opened the box and it came with two activities. We did the World Flags first and you can read the review of that post here.

The second activity was the World Map game. It came with a deck of cards and playing pieces. First Bear (with a little help from Mr Sunshine) punched out all the world landmarks and then added a piece of sticky foam and placed them on the map. Next he put together the game pieces and punched out the red circles. The game came with a bingo style card. The object was to use the deck of cards to visit the different continents and landmarks. It was quite fun! The map is now hanging on the boys' wall and they can play whenever the mood strikes.

Our overall grade for Kiwi Crate is: A+

Bear is a hard kid to impress and he has asked to continue receiving crates. I am an excited mom because I love spending time with him but I also love that he can do these crafts almost entirely on his own, it helps him to feel capable and independent.

If you're interested in trying Kiwi Crate, you can use my referral link and get $10 off your first box.

*note - we were not compensated for our review of Kiwi Crate. We're just a family exploring our crafting options

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Crochet Nesting Bowls - (Link to Free Pattern Included)

Last year, I discovered my love for yarn.

I had initially tried knitting, and while soothing, my patience runs a little thin especially since I am not yet adept to knowing how to fix a dropped stitch. When I was six years old, my grandmother taught me how to crochet, a skill that was lost on me as I got older. Now, twenty five years later, I've taught myself how to crochet using books and YouTube videos. For the last six months or so I've been hoarding yarn and using free patterns to "make things," as Bear calls it. I am currently in the midst of a few projects but I carve out time for some quick in-betweens.

Mr Sunshine, waiting patiently for me to finish

Yesterday I whipped up some nesting bowls. In my case it might be a Pinterest fail because my middle bowl ended up being very close in size to my small bowl. Who knows, I might have been distracted (I have three kids!) and missed a couple double crochets. I still love this set and Mr Sunshine has been filling them with his button collection.

I found the pattern at The Purple Chair Crochet and the instructions were very easy to read. I will most likely crochet another set to see if I can correct my sizing error on the middle bowl. I love the scalloped edge of the larger bowl and the design made by the treble crochet on the small bowl.

If you want to make your own set, head over to Jessica's site at The Purple Chair Crochet, or check out my Fiber Arts Pinterest board for more inspiration.

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Review: February Kiwi Crate "Around the World," Part One

Remember those box subscriptions I told you about?

Well Bear's box for the month of February was Kiwi Crate (affiliate link). 

I had heard wonderful things about Kiwi Crate from my blogger friend, Daisy and June. The recommended ages are three to seven and since Bear is five, I thought it would be a perfect match. I was hesitant about all the different kinds of paper crafts because Bear's eyes sort of glaze over if there's not enough "action." Together, we googled other reviews of Kiwi Crate and Bear was getting revved up about the different kinds of activities in past crates. By the time the green box showed up at the door, he was stoked. I wish I had a picture of how bright his eyes lit up when I opened the crate.

How cute is that Kiwi? I love how the little green slider at the bottom of the instruction cards tells you how much parent involvement is needed. Bear wanted to start with the World Flags so we opened up that side of the box and left the World Map materials in the crate.

Another bonus surprise was the inclusion of a pair of kid friendly scissors to use with each subsequent project! Good on ya, Kiwi Crate.

Immediately, Bear began looking at the instructions. They have words as well as pictures so even though he can't yet read, he could follow the steps easily. I just sat back and watched him go to town. He had enough materials to create five flags. He decided to make the four flags shown in the instructions, Japan, France, China, and Brazil. For the fifth flag, he created his own design.

The only thing I helped him with was to make sure he had the flags in the right direction before adding the sticky felt. He did all of the cutting and threading himself

 (Oh hey look! In the picture above you can see the instruction card with the picture directions, isn't that perfect for little kiddos?)

He was very proud of his finished project. Little brother Mr. Sunshine even lent a hand. 

I will post the completion and review of the second half of the crate within the next week. So far, we are LOVING Kiwi Crate. If you want to make the plunge, you can sign up using my affiliate link here, you'll get $10 toward your first box! Kiwi Crate subscriptions start at $19.95/mo. 

If you already subscribe to Kiwi Crate, which box theme has been your favorite?

*note - we were not compensated for our review of Kiwi Crate. We're just a family exploring our crafting options

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Review: PLEYGO - The Netflix Like Subscription for LEGOs

Box subscriptions are my kryptonite. I wish I could have boxes of goodies showing up all month long. I'd be all, "Surprise!" another present just for me!

But I can't BUY ALL THE THINGS because I live in the real world where bills have to be paid and kids gotta eat.

Yet for funsies, we're doing an experiment for the next month where our family is each trying out a subscription box of choice. My husband's arrived first.

Dan decided to give Pleygo a whirl. Pleygo is a Netflix like rental service for Legos. You pay a once monthly price and get unlimited rentals. First you have to decide the level of membership - They have Fan ($15/mo), Super Fan ($25/mo), and Mega Fan ($39), with each level dictating the size of set you have access to.

Dan, my sweet skeptic, the yin to my yang, signed up for the one month free trial which gave him Super Fan membership without paying the $25 first. He built his queue from the eighty three available sets at this level. The first kit was shipped on a Friday and we received it three days later on Monday. Score one for Pleygo.

Pleygo says that every set is cleaned with an eco & kid friendly sterilizing solution. It was clearly evident these were clean legos, upon opening the bag we could smell the "clean" and it was not an overpowering or chemical smell. Score two for Pleygo.

Next Dan got right to building. He chose a three-in-one set so I thought I'd get a good hour of uninterrupted time to watch The Blacklist while he lego-ed away. Not five minutes into my show I hear, "Uh-oh."

I held my breath and stayed still, like prey in the wild, hoping he would forget I was there, all the while keeping one eye on James Spader.

"There's a piece missing."

ALREADY!?!

Sighhhhhh.

He was missing a blue 2x2 brick.

"Okay hon," I said, "let me pull up the site and see where to go from there." So I get on the site and relay the info, "Pleygo says they won't charge you for any piece that's missing upon receipt of the set. It says to check your 'Spare Parts Bag' for an extra piece."

Silence.

He calls back, "Uhhhh..what spare parts bag?"

Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I called back to him, "Alright, it says we can report the missing bricks and they will send them out. So let's inventory what you have so we make sure there aren't any others missing."

30 minutes and almost the rest of The Blacklist later: We were missing a total of two pieces. There were also four pieces that while they did belong in the kit, were not on the inventory list online.

"Alright, I'll fill out the order form," I told my husband. Thirty seconds later Pleygo tells me it will take seven-ten days to receive the pieces and did I want to continue ordering them or did I just want to sub in my own Legos for playtime instead and also thanks for letting them know they're missing the pieces so they could note in for their records.

Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Dan decided to just build and play. After finishing the model, he also realized that he received two "lefts" of a piece instead of a left and right.

Overall, this isn't looking good for Pleygo. While we appreciate the cleanliness of the kit we weren't impressed by the incompleteness and the inconvenience of waiting for pieces.

And now this Momma's going to have to On Demand her show for the two thirds she missed.

However, we are all about second chances so we'll ship this set back and hope for the best on the next kit that comes. An update will definitely follow. I would love for this to work out since I hate buying new Legos for a kit to be built one time and then banished to a storage bucket (or buried in the carpet all over the house - my poor feet!)

Have you used Pleygo? Was your experience better?


*note: I was not compensated for this review. I am just a regular consumer using the free trial offered by Pleygo


UPDATE 03/11/2014 - Pleygo has since changed their name to Pley and has changed their website to Pley.com

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