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Nov 12

Create Something Saturday: Thankful Doorknob Hanger

Every year at Thanksgiving dinner, my family goes around from person to person and lists what they are thankful for. I’m not trying to sound cliché, but when it comes to me, I have a hard time pinning down just one reply. My mother raised me to be thankful for everything in our lives and to never take things for granted. That is truly the meaning of Thanksgiving to me.

Here is a cute craft that you can make with the kids to teach them to be thankful for something every day!

Supplies

  • Paint
  • Non-Finished Wood Door Hanger (You can pick this up at any craft store)
  • Post-It Notes
  • Pencil
  • Glue
  • Raffia

Directions

  • Paint the wood doorknob hanger yellow.
  • Allow the hanger to dry and using the eraser end of a pencil, create various colors of dots on the hanger by dipping it into paint and applying to the hanger to make it look like an ear of corn.
  • Once the dots have dried, glue a Post-It Note pad on the hanger and a paper that says: “Today I am thankful for…”
  • Tie the raffia around the top of the hanger for decoration (you can also attach a pencil to the raffia)
  • Have your little one write what they are thankful for each day on the post-it note pad.

You can take the ones already written on and hang them on the fridge or wherever you’d like!

You can also gather all of these notes come Thanksgiving dinnertime to share with family and friends.

From the 8th Continent Soymilk Family to yours: Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Make sure to fan us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for more Thanksgiving recipes, crafts and tips!

Crafts

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Oct 8

Create Something Saturday- Mini Monsters

This is my niece’s first Halloween so I wanted to make her a little cute monster to play with and keep around as she grows up. Being as young as she is I certainly didn’t want to make them too spooky. So I worked on sewing the Cutest Little Mini Monsters you could imagine.

Materials:

  • Colored felt sheets
  • Sewing thread and needle
  • Stuffing
  • Buttons

Fold your felt sheet in half and cut an outline of your mini monster making sure you have the top fold intact.

Decide what you want the face of your Mini monster to look like and sew that on. As you can see, I used thick thread for the mouth of the green Mini monster and the eye of the Orange Mini Monster. You can also used buttons and other cut out pieces of felt to form the face.

Take two pieces of the felt sheet left over from cutting out the body of your Mini monster to make arms.

Fold those two pieces of felt in half and sew each side. Once sewn, turn them inside out to make your arms and set these aside.

Once you have given your Mini Monster a face, then turn it inside out and sew from the top of the monster down.

I sewed hand and needle style because I liked the way the stitching appears.

When you have sewn to about half way down your Mini Monster, you tuck the arms in, with the open end of the arms laying outside your inside out Monster and continue sewing to keep into place.

Once you have reached the bottom portion of your Mini Monster, you will flip it inside out.

The only part left to sew should be the feet. Before you sew them together, insert stuffing and push around with an object such as a pencil to fill your horns or other smaller areas.

Last but not least, sew the bottom section of your Mini Monster and enjoy!

Extra Tip-

I also made one of my Mini Monsters into a car freshener. I simply put a scented tree inside along with the stuffing before sewing the little guy up and he is now hanging from my rear view mirror.

Also insert some autumn inspired potpourri into your Mini Monster along with the stuffing to create an adorable decoration that will also make your house smell awesome!

Want more tips, crafts, and ideas for Halloween? Make sure to follow along on our Twitter and Facebook!

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May 14

My First Mother’s Day

Megan Stremmick and Charlie

My First Mother’s Day
Post by Megan Stremmick

When you’re a mom, newbie or veteran, and the opportunity to have an adult weekend away presents it self and all of the logistics work out in your favor it’s hard to turn down. About a month or so ago that’s exactly what happened…

Opportunity:

*Napa–

My mom is available to watch the baby

Sharing a cottage on a vineyard with friends (shared cost fits our budget)

Friends are driving so we don’t have to pay for airfare

My husband and I can indulge in food and wine and more food and more wine

I check the calendar for the weekend that we are invited to go and while I see the bold words Mother’s Day written in the box on that Sunday of May 9th it does not even occur to me that this will be my first Mother’s Day and if we go I will not be spending it with my 11 month old, Charlie. I just keep asking my mom if she’s sure that it will be okay with her and assuring her we will be home in time to celebrate at dinner, after all she is the most important mom since she is the oldest (don’t tell her I said that or she’ll kill me).

So when the time came we set the GPS for Napa and off we went. We had a blast with our friends—two of which used to live in that area so it was like having a private tour since the rest of us had never been. We stopped at Joseph Phellps, Frog’s Leap, Keenan, (a couple of others that I admittedly don’t remember the names of) and we stayed at the Anderson Con Valley winery. We were nestled amongst the vineyards with our own bocce ball court, wood burning pizza oven, yard of wild flowers, and of course plenty of wine. My husband and I woke up Saturday morning and went for an hour long jog on windy roads with nothing but grapevines surrounding us on all sides and the weather was picture perfect.

Sunday morning crept up sooner than we were all hoping it would and it was time to go home. As we were making coffee and packing our things my husband handed me a card, I opened it and it read Happy Mother’s Day on the front. I started to tear up and it hit me then that this was my first Mother’s Day and I wasn’t with my little Charlie. I had been missing him all weekend since this was the longest we had been away from him but at that moment I missed him even more. Next thing everyone noticed was me heaving all the bags into the car, tossing all of their coffees into the sink and honking the horn to hurry them up so we could start our journey home. They were all surprisingly understanding considering none of them have any children.

The seven hours it took to get home seemed like an eternity but we passed the time with childish games and conversation that left everyone knowing a bit too much about each other. We arrived home, said our goodbyes to our fellow winos and got our selves ready to go to my parent’s house for dinner. We arrive at my folks place and race up the walkway, fly through the door and spot Charlie in the family room sitting with a couple of his cousins watching a nature show on TV.

“Charlie, momma and dada are home”! He turns his head to see us, gives a big smile and turns right back around to keep watching his show.

“Charlie, we missed you so much”! I say as I pick him up and hug him tight. He keeps smiling but now he’s bobbing and weaving his head to keep his eyes on the lions and tigers and bears on the TV. While I admit it took the wind out of my sails just a tad that he did not squeal in delight and come running toward me with open arms (even though he’s not even walking yet) it felt so good just to hold him. This is what home feels like, I thought to myself, no matter where we live, home is with my husband and my son.

The evening celebration of Mother’s Day gave me a chance to take it all in. We all had a gift for our mom and she gave each of us moms tank tops with a picture of a wine glass on it that read “Mommy’s Sippy Cup”, perfect, just perfect. At dinner we gave a toast to ourselves as moms and to all of the moms out there doing it on their own—may they receive the strength, energy, and love they need everyday to be the best moms they can…and a weekend getaway to Napa doesn’t hurt either.

How was your Mother’s Day? Share your stories on Facebook or let us know on Twitter!

Family Megan Stremick

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Feb 8

Cupid’s 8th Continent 12 Days of Valentines- Day 6

I have been teaming up with Cupid to count down the days until Valentine’s Day and provide you with great gift ideas, recipes, playlists and all! But so far I haven’t discussed my favorite thing to do on Valentine’s Day. I know you are all thinking the same thing- isn’t it obvious what two people do when they are alone, in love, and want to share something with each other? Forget the material things, the things you can eat and purchase. The most romantic thing to do on Valentine’s Day is share an experience. Here are a few ideas that will ensure this will be the most romantic Valentine’s Day that neither you or your significant other will forget!

  • Make a playlist that includes songs that remind you of a time you spent together and explain each one. Cuddle up and let the bands or singer/songwriters do the talking for you! A great site to use for this is Grooveshark. You can find just about any song on there and save your playlist- and it’s free!
  • Go get a couple’s massage together. This is a perfect way to relax. And afterward I can assure you will be in that light-headed romantic refreshed mood!
  • Read your Horoscopes for that day and do something based on each person’s fortune.
  • Do a photo shoot! There is no need to have a professional photographer when you have each other. Capture some artsy shots of your hands intertwined, or of that smile that has left you intoxicated for the other person. Or take a picture of that cute freckle she has on her shoulder blade. Or a picture of that scar he got on his knee from when you two went hiking together. Sometimes we forget to appreciate the small special things that truly matter. This is a great way to let the other person know you do not take them for granted and you appreciate them and your experiences you have shared together.
  • If you are where there is tons of snow- play King/Queen of the mountain! The snow plows have officially cleared the streets and there are bound to be piles near you. Let yourselves be kids again and have a cute competition on who can get to the top first, or who makes the best snow angels. After that you can make a wonderful cup of hot chocolate and giggle away reflecting on how silly you both just were.
  • Spend a couple hours together writing romantic ideas on separate slips of paper. After you get a total of 100 romantic ideas on 100 pieces of paper, then fill a jar with them. Every Sunday, from this day on, alternate who picks one and has to implement it by the following Sunday — at which point the other partner will pick a new romantic idea and have a week to follow through with it. (courtesy of The Fun Times Guide)
  • Cuddle. It is simple, cost efficient, and couples don’t do it enough.

Have any more ideas that I have missed? Make sure to include them in the comments section!

And if none of the above suit you, no worries! You can take a look at some of the posts I have already put up, or you can come back here in the following days because I will be continuing the romantic countdown to Valentine’s Day!

Day 12- Make a pop-up Valentine’s Day card!

Day 11- Make a heart-shaped Vegan Chocolate Cake!

Day 10- A DIY project to make “U Complete Me” Pillow set!

Day 9- My music picks- both a pro-love and anti-love playlist!

Day 8- The Perfect Valentine’s Day presents from Etsy!

Day 7- Perfect Vegan recipe for Penna alla Vodka!

Have any ideas for future posts and gifts for Valentine’s Day? Help a chica out! Hit me up on Facebook or Twitter and let me know. In other words, spread the love. :-)

Sara Lopez

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