FunkyMama Drama

Here Kitty Kitty Treat Bag

2010-10-02T09:03:00.001-07:00

Something about Fall makes me want to craft. Colder weather? More holidays? The fact that my eldest son is in school 1/2 days 4 days a week?

Anyhow...this little kitty is one of my latest creations. Halloween crafts are super fun and many of them are pretty easy to do too. This one I made in a few hours. Super easy but a little tedious.

Basic components are:

Felt-brown/black, green, purple, and orange

Embroidery floss-white (I actually used fake sinew for mine because I had some lying around)

Basic directions:

1. Cut out a cat head shape twice

Cut out eyes, including pupil components

Cut out nose and mouth

Cut out two strap pieces

2. Begin the tedious job of blanket stiching the face on one of the cat heads, I also added whiskers by looping string through and tying a knot at the point where it comes out of the felt. Then I cut the end of the loop and untwist the floss to give whiskers.

3. Next stitch the bag straps to each cat head

4. Last but not least blanket stitch both cat heads to each other

Eventually I will fill the little bag with Halloween treats and give it to a friend. Next I'm going to try a pumpkin head!

BTW I am loving the new hair color. Not sure if the bangs were a good move though. :o)

To Dye or not to dye

2010-09-30T22:53:00.000-07:00

So I decided that I am bored with the hair as of late. It's long, it's brown, it's BORING! What do I do?

Apparently I buy the cheapest hair dye there is-pick an even darker brown color and wait until 10 pm to color it. Oh, and I cut my bangs too. :o)

I thought that maybe at 10 p.m. I would be able to do this without kiddos coming onto the scene. However, a few minutes ago I heard the unmistakable tip tap of feet in the hall. Kieran decided to wake up and want some snuggles. I had to wake up Sleeping Beauty and have him take Kie to our room. Not so good at snuggling with dye dripping in my hair.

I wonder if I will regret the decision to dye and cut tomorrow am?

Robots Attack!

2010-09-29T00:05:00.000-07:00

Okay even though my son's birthday isn't until December I have been working with him on a theme. We've rocked the dinosaurs for 2 years now and I am so not into it for year #3! I think I have finally convinced him to do ROBOTS!!!!

So I have been googling like crazy for robot related stuff. And I have found some cool stuff.

Which as the next few months unfold I will probably post here.

My first exciting endeavor is to make a robot out of cloth. Luckily I have stockpiles of fabric in my garage. I let Kieran pick out some acceptable patterns-he chose a star print and grey swirls.

I have this great book of patterns for stuffed animals and I just modified one of the dolls into a robot.

Anyhow, the end result is 2 pretty lame robots but not bad for a first attempt.

Wish me luck on the next try.

Autumn Leaves

2010-09-28T23:45:00.000-07:00

So every fall I try to do a few leaf related crafts. This one is super easy. It just takes some contac paper, some squares of tissue paper, and construction paper.

Basically you cut a leaf shape out of the construction paper. I am lazy and didn't want to find a leaf shape online, print out, etc. so I just free handed a couple. Anyhow, once you have a leaf shape you then cut out the interior and leave just a leaf outline.

Next you cut a piece of Contac paper that is just a little bit bigger than your leaf outline. Remove the backing and then press the leaf outline down.

Then put the squares of tissue paper on the contac paper. They stick really easily and you can do some overlapping.

Last but not least you then cut around the leaf shape and hang the finished product in a window. In my picture the laziness factor got the best of me and I didn't cut around the leaf-although the extra contac paper proved a useful way to hang the leaf up on my sliding glass door.

BTW my 2 yr old rocked this one. Super easy for him to put the tissue paper squares on the leaf and feel like he really did the project. His is the 1st leaf.

Here we go again

2010-09-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

So I always think that I am going to keep up with my blogging. Doesn't happen though. I think part of the problem is that I have been self censoring in the past. This go round I have decided to bare it all. Happy, sad, crafty, lazy. It'll be here if I'm feeling it. Wish me luck...

Lately I have been feeling guilty. My oldest had my undivided attention when he was younger. We read books, did crafts, learned our letters, etc. If he wasn't sleeping I was with him trying to engage.

My youngest, as is the case with most 2nd children I'm guessing, is not getting that undivided attention. Yes, when his big brother is at school I read with him. We talk and play and go on trips together. But I know he is NOT getting enough of me. I spend time cleaning, doing laundry, and sometimes just vegging out. I am tired. Almost 5 years of hardcore mommying is tough. Not that I mean to complain. I want to be a stay at home mom. I love the time I get to spend with them. I feel lucky that my hubby has a job that allows me to be here. But sometimes I get burnt out. And unfortunately for my youngest he is much more easy going than the oldest and he gets the shaft mommywise.

So along with trying to keep up with my blog, and making time to workout (been trying to go to Zumba 3x a week) I need to add in that I should be a more attentive mom to my youngest. I know that it will pay off in the long run.

tree time

2009-10-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

We have this great oak tree in our back yard. I love this time of year because the leaves start to turn these amazing colors. Reds, oranges, yellows. The boys and I often go out there and look at the leaves, well I look at them and they rip them off the tree and tear them to pieces. Anyway we picked quite a few leaves and brought them inside. We each picked a backround piece of construction paper and then cut out our trees from brown construction paper. Next we used glue dots to stick our leaves onto the tree and on the ground.

Little Monsters

2009-10-07T22:27:00.000-07:00

Big man's class sent home a calendar with ideas for each day to improve literacy. One idea was to turn a paper plate upside down and create a face. We opted for monsters. With googly eyes of course. I love me some googly eyes. I went with the classic big head little body monster. Big man, on the other hand, went for a swirly purple body, 3 eyes, and a cool pumkin tie. Super easy and super fun.

Going Batty

2009-10-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

So we decided that we wanted to make some bats for invites for a little playdate/party. I cut out the bat outline and a few funky design ovals, white triangles, and an orange mouth. We got out the googly eyes and some dots adhesive and went to town. And here they are...bats!

School House Rockin'

2009-09-22T22:42:00.000-07:00

Just a quick one here. I took the shape idea from my school busses and had the big guy make school houses. He decided that he would draw people outside his school too. His people are pretty funky-all long legs, arms, and crazy flat heads but he was having fun. They turned out pretty cool.

Bat Pinata

2009-09-22T21:41:00.000-07:00

Okay so I posted a pic of this to my FB account and had 2 requests to give the details on how to make it. I will preface this by saying I haven't really figured out how to make it into a working pinata. I figure I have a few weeks to get that part taken care of. :o)

That being said I made the pinata in a couple of days and the bigger little guy helped me.

Supplies:

Newspaper ripped up into strips

School Glue

Water

A balloon

2 containers-one for the glue water mixture needs to be on the shallow side

one to set the balloon in to dry

Colored tissue paper (we used blue and purple but traditionally bats are black :o])

Colored card stock to match the body

String

a stick

a knife

How I did it:

1. Blow up the balloon to the size you want. Make sure to use a round balloon instead of one of those long ones. Set it in your container with the knot on the bottom

2. In the shallow container add some water...start with about a cup...then squeeze the school glue in until it makes the water milky. If you are a purist you could use papier mache paste but I am lazy so I didn't use it this time. Here's a good recipe if you want to go that route http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/cutpaste/feature/famf0702_feat_pinata/famf0702_feat_pinata2.html

3. Begin dipping the newspaper strips in the mixture. This part is pretty messy so you want to make sure you are doing it outside or on a floor that is easy to clean up. Add strips in a criss cross fashion until you've covered all but the very bottom of the balloon. Then add another layer. Keep adding strips until you've covered the balloon 3-4 times.

4. Let this dry for a few hours or overnight.

5. Rip up strips of the colored tissue. It is much messier when you dip it in the glue solution. It gets pretty tacky and will probably stick to your hands but do your best to cover the balloon. Do as many layers as it takes to hide the newspaper. Lighter colors will take more layers.

6. Let this dry for a few hours or overnight.

7. Pop the balloon and pull the remains out.

8. Take your cardstock and cut out ears and wings. I wish I could give you a template but I can't. I just sort of figure out how big to make things. The main thing is you need to cut them with a tab. Because you are going to put the tab into a whole in the bat body. So for the ears cut out a triangle with a small rectangle attached to the bottom. Does that make sense? And for the wings...well it's kind of like a big triangle with three sweepy cut ins at the bottom and a tab on the side that isn't pointy. Oh why don't I have my tablet set up with this computer so I could just draw you a picture. Anyhow I hope you get it.

9. Take your knife and cut two small slits the size of your tabs on the top of body. Stick the tabs into the slot and bend the ears slightly. You may want to tape or glue them into the slit.

10. Now take the knife and cut two slits the size of the tabs of your wings on the side of the body. Stick the tabs in and once again you may want to glue or tape them in.

11. Next take the knife and cut a small hole on top of the body between the ears. Push the string down through the hole and all the way to the hole at the bottom of body where the balloon was. Tie the string around a small stick and then pull the string back out the top hole. Hopefully this will help keep the pinata up even when the kids are whacking it.

12. Last but not least give your pinata eyes and a mouth.

When I figure out how to turn it into a pinata that kids can actually get the good stuff out of I'll let you know. For now it's a pretty cool decoration although at 2 am when I walk into the living room to get a drink of water it is probably going to FREAK ME OUT!

If you have questions let me know. And if you end up making one post it so I can see how yours turned out.

Fabric pumpkins

2009-09-22T21:28:00.001-07:00

Okay I stole this idea from Family Fun Magazine. They had it in their latest issue. http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=12252

I didn't have any great, fun fabric just some simple orange lying around. So mine aren't quite as cute as theirs but it was just a test run to see if I liked the final product.

Supplies:

1 8 inch circle of orange fabric per pumpkin

dental floss

a needle

1-2 plastic garbage bags per pumpkin

a stick or green felt/fleece to make a stem

How I did it:

1. I took the circle of fabric and threaded the dental floss about a 1/4 inch from the edge all the way around.

2. I started to pull the dental floss together so that the pumpkin began to take shape.

3. When it was a little bag I shoved in a plastic garbage bag and then pulled both ends of the dental floss until the pumpkin formed.

4. I decided to use some leftover green fleece as my stem. I doubled over a strip of felt about 1/2 in wide and shoved it into the hole in the pumpkin. Then I took the dental floss and wrapped it around the stem until the pumpkin was tight and the hole was closed.

5. My little punkins found the little pumpkins the next day and both of them carried them around the house the first day so I may be making more for the little guys to play with.

I sure do love Halloween decorating!

The Dino Game

2009-09-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

So my kiddo decided that he wanted to make a new game the other day. He got these Ice Age 3 Action Figures from McDonald's-Rudy, Mama Trex, and Buck. They spend most meals at the table with us. Recently they have become friends with Mr. Potato Head and Tigger.

Anyway back to the game. He had this idea that he would make these holes and have the dinos guard them and then throw a toy golf ball through the holes. So I found a big half a cardboard box in the garage (see I knew that recycling was the wrong thing to do :o) and put some holes in it. Then the big man and the little man and I colored the box with markers. Last but not least we put the dinos on with some duct tape. And the game began...

School Bus Shapes

2009-09-10T22:07:00.000-07:00

Many of my quick crafts with my kiddo require a little bit of prep the night before so I am good to go when I finally get my squirming ball of energy to sit down with me.

This project is no exception. Some quick turns with the scissors and you're good to go. If your child is a bit more adept at the scissor use you could have them cut out the shapes. Or if you have more patience than me...anyhow...

You need:

4 small black construction paper rectangles

2 small black construction paper circles

1 large yellow construction paper rectangle

1 medium yellow construction paper rectangle with 2 rounded edges

1 small yellow construction paper rectangle with on edge folded 1/8 inch

1 piece of construction paper (blue sky or green or white)

glue

I told my kiddo since school was starting we'd be making some busses out of shapes. I took out the shapes and had him sort them into piles based on the shape. I also could have had him sort them by color but since there were only 2 colors here didn't seem like it was needed.

Once we talked about the different shapes we talked about what busses look like. He has ridden on the city bus and once got to ride on a school bus at the zoo (which at the time was the thrill of his life). After discussing the general shape of the bus we set to work to create our own.

Big yellow rectangle body glued down first.
Followed by medium yellow rectangle hood.

Followed by black circle tires.
Followed by black windows.

Followed by carefully gluing just the 1/8 inch fold down on the yellow rectangle to make a door that opened.

Ta dah...we have a bus. Well actually we made 2!

Oh and he wanted me to write school bus on them in case you didn't know just by looking at them. Silly boy.

Apple Print Art

2009-09-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

Supplies: an apple

paint

plastic lids

paper

Since fall is almost upon us I thought a great craft for early September would be apple print art. It's super easy and fun.

1. Cut an apple in half. Take one of the halves and cut it in 1/2 again.

2. Pour out a little bit of paint into a plastic container lid. Keep each color separate.

3. Use the cut apple as a stamp. Place it cutside down into the paint and move around until the paint covers the surface.

4. Stamp the apple on the blank paper.

That's it! You can make abstract designs or try to create real objects. My kiddo lasted about 30 minutes on this craft and most of the time he just gooshed the paint between his fingers and ignored the apples. I say as long as he enjoyed himself who cares what the end product is?

First Day of School Jitters

2009-09-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of preschool for 2009 for the big guy. It was one of those mornings where I was a little worried. Not because I thought we'd be late. Not because I don't like the teachers or the school. Not because I was worried I would cry.

Let me take you back a year to the first day of preschool 2008..."I don't want to go to school. I want you to come with me. No! NO! NOOOOO!!!" This was followed by uncontrollable sobs, grabbing my body parts. Dragging himself down the hallway. He didn't want me to go. In fact he was so unhappy that they actually called me 1/2 way through to come and pick him up. It's not their normal practice but he was crying so hysterically and hyperventilating so loudly that they were worried he'd push some of those kids just teetering on the edge right over it. It took a good two months of constant reassurance "mommy always comes back" for him to finally settle into the routine and be okay.

So I was worried that today would be a repeat performance. Starting last week he reminded me that he would like me to stay with him the whole time. I reminded him that "mommy always comes back."

Last night..."I don't want to go to school. You have to stay in class with me mommy."
This morning...nothing.

No worries. No crying. No insecurity (at least none that he verbalized). Once we got to the school he saw someone from his class last year. We started talking. They walked to their room. We walked to ours. It was a little chaotic in the hallway so I asked him if he'd like to go read a book. He said sure. We read a little bit and then the classroom door open. He walked through the door didn't even say goodbye-I had to ask for a kiss and a hug. No tears. No whining.

The first day of school was a beautiful thing.

Chocolate Pudding Painting

2009-08-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

So the big guy wanted to paint but the little guy is at the stage where everything ends up in his mouth. I, in fact, started with both of them painting with kids paint but after little man had a blue green mouth I stopped that.

Next I took some sugar free chocolate pudding and gave him that. He actually painted...well...he mushed it around on his paper. Now, when big guy saw little guy eating pudding he said forget paint give me the good stuff.

So after cleaning up his hands he got to join in. He painted less and ate more. But he had fun and that's all that matters. Right?

New School Year-New Plan

2009-08-27T23:37:00.001-07:00

Okay here's the plan...this school year I am going to commit myself to crafting with my kiddos. 3x a week we will do a craft/science project/etc. And they will love it! Okay...that's a stretch. But we'll try some new things. And maybe find some new crafts we like. So stay tuned...we'll post our adventures here. And maybe it will inspire you to be crafty too!

Hyprochondriamama

2009-03-18T16:57:00.000-07:00

So my husband thinks I am a hypochondriac. He may be right. When I was in junior high school I walked around saying I had a brain tumor. Might have been migraines. Possibly just bad headaches.

ANYWAY...when you have this reputation people have a tendency to discount what you say in regards to health-physical and mental. So I have, for awhile now, had concerns about my older son. Nothing big. He is healthy. He can communicate with us. He's hitting milestones. HE CAN READ-at 3 years old! But there is just this feeling I get that something isn't quite right.

We've hung out with the same friends since he was a year old but he doesn't call them friends. Could care less about them when we play at their houses. He freaks out when kids are in the same aisle at the grocery store. He refuses to potty train. He wont feed himself. Dress himself. He can't stop moving-running around the house, jumping on the furniture, spinning. He will randomly touch people in public.

At first I thought he might have Aspergers-on the autism spectrum. Then maybe ADD/ADHD. Now I am leaning towards SPD-Sensory Processing Disorder. I would love to have him evaluated. My husband, on the other hand, thinks I am over dramatic. A hypochondriac. He says even if there is something wrong so what. He'll be fine.

My theory is that if there is something wrong we can get him help so he can get coping mechanisms. Ways to get along better and not have the 35 minute freak out sessions because I moved a baby gate into the living room.

Maybe my hubby is right. Maybe nothing is wrong. But then I'd like a professional to tell me that-I don't trust my instincts anymore.

Playdoh Earplugs

2009-02-26T17:26:00.000-08:00

So yesterday me and the big little man (blm) were doing the playdoh thing. His friend bought him the spaghetti factory for his birthday and he LOVES it. Seriously. The boy will play for at least an hour. Everyday. It is the best.
Anyhoo...he was playing with it and I was feeding the littlest man while we all sat at the table. I looked down at little man because he wasn't latching well. Something to do with teething I think. When I look back at blm he is messing with his ear. Putting something in it? Taking something out of it? I'm not sure.
When I ask him if he's putting playdoh in his ear he says "NO" So I try to get a look at it. He screams at me. I get out the flashlight. It's a no go. I can't decide if I should be freaked out or not. I start researching on the internet. Always a bad idea for a hypocondriac like myself. I figure out that I shouldn't try to fish anything out myself. I im the big man and ask his advice. Decide the best course of action is to call the doctor.
I call the advice nurse...get a call back only 30 minutes later...and we decide that bringing him in is the best idea.
Daddy gets the honor of taking him to the doc today. I figure I've been there, done that, for most of the fun stuff so this time it's daddy's turn. Well..turns out that the ear infection I thought would clear up on its own 3 weeks ago is still hanging out. He hasn't been complaining/slowing down/feverish so I just thought he was over it. Oops.
Needless to say we start 10 days of antibiotics tonight. Gotta get healthy by the end of March's India trip.

Happy Valentine's Dayizzle...

2009-02-15T00:53:00.000-08:00

So how did I spend the most romantic day of the year? Ha!
At midnight I gave my hubby a jar of naughty coupons. He looked at them, hoped that we could use them, and then fell asleep. Yippee!
This morning my older son and I went to a birthday party. Then we came home, had lunch, went to Costco, had dinner, took baths (daddy with big boy, me with small boy) and everyone but me fell asleep.
Ahh...the romance.
I've found that since my youngest son (now 6 months) was born sex with the hubster is a little less regular. Add to that the fact that my hubster's mother has been living with us the last 5 months and the pickings have been even slimmer. Which is too bad because in the time bc (before children) we had quite a sex life. I just hope that as the little ones become bigger ones we'll be able to salvage some of that.
Anyhow...Happy vday everyone

Opening the White Door

2008-01-18T09:16:00.000-08:00

So I was woken out of my beautiful sleep this morning by my dear son. He started pulling my covers off while saying "open the white door mama." Half asleep I had no idea what the heck he was talking about. I stumbled onto the floor-making sure not to crush him- and asked "What white door?" "Come mama. Come."
I followed him out of my bedroom and into the kitchen where I discovered the infamous white door. My hubby had been up for an hour or so and was in the garage on the treadmill. Apperently when the little guy got up he heard the treadmill. It was so important for him to see what was making the noise that I got the wake up command-at 6:50 a.m.

Welcome to my little world.

2008-01-17T22:53:00.000-08:00

Hi there. I'm FunkyMama. I am a mother of a two year old, who is currently watching her 2 month old niece and has a little bun cooking in my oven. It's still early going-we haven't even done the doctor visit yet. Somedays it feels like maybe I just have this stomach bug and I imagined the 4 tests I took being positive.

Anyhow...I'm hoping to use this blog to vent...yes vent...and celebrate those times of my life that I just can't seem to get my hubby to understand. He, by the way, is a total rockstar. Gets up at 4 am when the 2 year old wakes up, does the dishes early in the morning, and even rubs that ridiculous belly butter on my ever-increasing stretch marks. But he is a man. And he goes to work. He couldn't possibly understand what it is to spend your days with a little guy and an even littler girl.

But I know that out here in the blog world there are other SAHMs who'll get it. Who understand that checking your email can lead to an hour of Elmo's World. Or how my sweet son can take 45 minutes to eat 1/2 an almond butter and jelly sandwich and some raisins. Or that the simple suggestion of going to a friends house can lead to tears and tantrums.

I love being a mama. I love the drama. So bring it world.