[learn] jellyfish and jewels

We had lots of ideas for the Letter J.  There are a lot of important people in our lives that name starts with J: Jack, JuJu and June to mention a few!  But in the end, we went with something a little easier to craft around, jellyfish and jewels.

Our materials for this time around:

All the worksheets can be found on education.com and the idea sources on the Twinbop pinboard.  Now to start on the Letter J.

[make] heart warming

Pinterest strikes again.  So how cute are these hearts by Brett Bara from Design Sponge?  So cute, I pinned my own pin.

The pattern is super simple and easy to use. I followed Brett's tutorial except for two tiny changes.  I didn't do the stitching at the top of the pocket fold, just ironed - lazy wins again.

Since lazy had its say, let's let cheap, uh... thrifty come into play.  My husband enlisted me for corn hole bags at Christmas and we just happen to have 46 pounds of the 50 pounds of deer corn left. Polyfil can get expensive, the corn was free.

The happy result is that you can heat these little babies up.  Twenty seconds in the microwave and these sweet hearts become warm and perfect for putting in your pockets on a cold day.  They fit right in the palm of your hand. Oh and I went kind of crazy making them, after all I had plenty of corn.

Packaged up two by two with a clever little saying and ready for warm Valentine treats.  What's that saying about the mother of invention?

[live] mud corner

We live in a 1960's brick ranch with split floor plan which can be challenging.  Imagine a long rectangle split down the middle, living spaces on one side of stairs leading down to an unfinished basement, bedrooms on the other.  The entrance we use is our "side door" that leads directly into a narrow galley style kitchen from the carport.  Naturally everything, purses, book bags, keys, coats, laptops, end up on the kitchen counter.  We are constantly looking for keys, cell phones, homework assignments.

My previous solutions of hooks on the backs of doors, folders in cabinets, the idea of actually walking it into a bedroom, have been ignored by my family.  My dreams of a mud room are just that, dreams.  We just don't have the space.

Then I moved my husbands great grandmother's glass pie cabinet into the living room and presto, a corner.  A mud corner.

Before, a corner of sorts between the bathroom and our bedroom on one end of the hallway. Now, a handy dandy area that we need to be a tad bit more organized.

I started with an Expedit Shelving Unit in black ($39.99).  I love the cubbie style and that it's super sturdy.  Then I added two Nasum Baskets ($14.99 each) for our "shoe boxes".  I installed two hook racks ($1.99 each) that I picked up a few years back. Then for a little fun added a framed Malma Mirror ($2.99).  All from Ikea for a grand total of $76.94 not including tax.

The kids have always kicked off their shoes as soon as they come in the door (if they don't do it in the car).  Now they have shoe boxes.  The twins have one and Jack has the other.  This kids are GREAT at putting their shoes in there and now in the mornings, we know exactly where we can find their school shoes. I have a place to hang my purse, my keys and a shelf for my laptop and tote bag. Stephen uses his side for his brief case and laptop.  Of course during Christmas, it got hijacked with poinsettias, pine cones, and soft fuzzy throws.

All in all, it is working perfectly and although I still dream of a mud room, a mud corner is a great start.