Crafty Mama!

Hello my friends,

I don't know what happened to me but I decided out of nowhere to be crafty, lol! Yes, I am that crazy ;) Maybe what inspired me is that I re-arranged/organized/cleaned my home and decided to add a simple but magical touch to it. Decor in Egypt is way expensive whether it is ready-made or the materials needed for it so I thought about doing my personalized cheap and classy version of crafts (using some of the materials I had on hand from before). Thank you Pinterest for the inspiration. 

First, let's see some before/after or just after pictures of my cleaned rooms:

before (kitchen)

After (kitchen)

kids room

In the bathroom, I made this heart frame using pebbles, my mirror was frame-less and ugly. I used sea shells and pebbles to frame it and what a huge difference. A flower here and there made a huge difference.

Bathroom

Yes, I glittered these glasses (God, I love them)

Mod podge + glitter 

I also made 2 wreaths, one for the girls room and one for our door. I couldn't believe how easy and simple they were and also, cheap. This is what I used:

and this is how they turned out to be:

Needles to mention that the girls love them and my husband is proud of me :)

Thank you for visiting.

Love,

Baby's Treasure Box & Project in Progress!

Hi,
I have to admit, I got inspired by the link you gave me, Allison. If you want to visit the original post link that got me inspired, it is here and it is awesome. So, I wanted to do my own :) This box is Farida's, I know Sarah will be interested in it too (at least for a while) and I'll let her explore it until she gets bored of it ;)

Here is what is inside:

• a safe mirror.
• pom pom
• a plastic spoon
• a soft brush
• a gem
• a stone
• a rattle
• a foam number"2"
• Infantino Lil Toot Toot baby Toy
• a juice plastic bottle with colored rice instead
• a burp cloth
• Infantino Twist & Match Rattle baby Toy 
• a ribbon
• a felt piece
• a rubber duck
• a scrubber sponge

I intend to add some stacking blocks, felt books & a sorting box in the future. I'm so excited to introduce it to Farida.

Now, my project! Well, it is not really a project but it is DIY. I wanted to do a geoboard and I didn't want to pay that much amount for it. I saw it on pinterest, I repinned it (you can check on my pinterest) and started doing it. So far, I paid nothing ;)

A kitchen wood carving board, it was an extra one.

Painted with black acrylic colors.

The outlines.

Now, all I need is to find some safe long nails. I need exactly 30 and I have only 22 at home so I need to go and buy some and this will be the only cost :) I will show you a picture once our geoboard is finished.

Thank you.

Love,

All in one post!

Hi all,

How are you doing? Everyday, Sarah wakes up half an hour earlier than the day before.  Today, Sarah woke me up at 6:45 a.m. Knowing that I go to bed at 1 or 2 am, wake up 2 or 3 times to nurse my baby, I'm tired, I need some decent sleep. This was random talk. Anyway, after breakfast and Farida's bath, we headed to the dollartree store. I bought chalk board, colored sand (I'm so optimistic with this one), some miniature items, dice and musical instruments (2 flutes and 2 harmonicas, 1 for each girl). Well, unfortunately the flutes are no better than whistles and the harmonica are too much work. I'm not so sure harmonicas are that hard but these require a lot of heavy blowing so to me, this was an error and a waste of $4 which I don't like :( Then, we headed to the supermarket and bought Cream of Tartar and reasonable-priced salt (You might have guessed what was on my mind).

We returned back home and continued on our rainbow fun. I saw this idea somewhere but unfortunately, I don't remember where (I'm so sorry). Simply, you paint a sponge with the different colors of rainbows and you get brilliant rainbow colors.

Then, we colored hands and feet. Sarah wasn't so excited especially that she wanted to continue coloring with the sponge but it ran out of color and became dry but once, I started doing Farida's feet, she got too excited :)

Sarah's foot!

Farida's foot, if you look at the following picture,

you'll know what she did with the colors :)

I found this magnificent site that adds effects to pictures like the one you sees above. It is as easy as 1, 2 & 3 and FREE. Here are another random pictures to show you how beautiful the effects are:

Hehehe, wouldn't it be nice if people held her picture!

By the way, she was pretending to drive her uncle's car in Egypt in this picture.



Then, I made bath paint colors. The idea is fantastic and so much fun. I found it on pinterest but I did an error. You are supposed to put shaving foam, add some food colors and stir it with a paint brush. I never watched my husband shaving so I filled the whole muffin tin with foam not knowing that stirring it will make it foamier and more. So, again, here is a waste of a lot of shaving foam that could have been saved for later time. It wasn't a real bath as much as playing with colors and water. I can claim that this was the funniest time Sarah spent in water. She played until the water got cold. By the way, it is so easy to rub off the tiles.

Needless to say that Sarah painted her legs instead and left the walls and dipped her brush in water. She was so happy to color the water. 

Remember what we bought today from the supermarket? Did you guess? Yes, we made play-dough. Let me say that, I was never that person who home made baby food or thought a lot about the ingredients of something but what really made me think about doing it is that we had tiny bits of play dough at home. They are expensive and very hard to maneuver and not as bright as the ones I saw online. Thank you Counting Coconuts for the recipe. For those who don't want to leave this page, it is 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of salt. 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar, 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and 1 cup of water. You mix well the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients and mix well.Add contents to a large pan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until it forms a ball and the wet parts begin to look dry. Turn the dough onto your counter top and knead it until smooth.
Add food coloring and glitter after the dough has cooled. I tried the ingredients at first and it worked so I did it again but this time I did everything X4. I must have grown muscles in this process. I added rainbow colors and glitter, lots of glitter and I am so satisfied with it (maybe I just need to change the way it smells although I don't know how).

Pouring.

Mixing.

To store, put in Ziploc bags and to the fridge.

Here's one problem I faced: Sarah didn't know what to do with it. So, I was the one who suggested most of the ideas:

Using a dough cutter.

Maybe in the future, we'll use it for fractions ;)

I told her let's make a face :)

We'll have to play a lot with this play-dough until Sarah gets the hang of it. Tomorrow is another day but it is not just like any other day, IT IS MAD SCIENCE SUNDAY and you bet it is still about rainbow. See you, God willing, very soon.

Love,

S.C.I.E.N.C.E!

Hi,
Didn't you miss our Sundays? We started our day doing a meditation jar for Sarah. I still need to teach her how to calm down using it, this girl has a temper, just like mommy! Curious Farida watched for a while and then got bored! For the record, I no longer tell Sarah what to wear so that bunny Halloween costume is her choice.

Hot water (I poured it)!

Adding food color and glitter glue!

Adding glitter!

It kept falling fast so we kept adding glue glitter, glitter ,

more water to cover till the top and for some reason, I added some gel.

Final product!

Then, I introduced the solar system to Sarah using This Product. It was fun at the beginning but then turned out so boring when I couldn't hang it from the ceiling. Forgive me, I know nothing about drilling, measurements, ..etc. Sarah gave me that look as if she was telling me: You'd better find something else to entertain me because now, you've killed my enthusiasm. At least, she got to know that there are 8 planets (I still can't get over the fact that we lost Pluto), that we live on Earth and that Earth is the 3rd planet and the only one that has form of life on it because of the presence of water. Yes, she now knows all this. She can also recognize Earth. Not so bad for a sucky project. Here:

After that we planted a Basil recycled seed. We don't have soil and I wasn't in the mood to go get some from outside so we used cotton as soil instead. They did that with us in school when we were young.

Bought 3 of these pots for $1.

She expected results immediately. I told her the plant needs water and sun to grow and that we are going to water it everyday until it grows just like baby sister. After that, it hit me. WATER BEADS! Why didn't I think of this earlier to save the day? Thank you again PAHMs for your great ideas. BUT you won't believe this! Farida did not want to stop playing. Everytime, I took her away from the beads and light, she cried. In the beginning, I thought it was a coincidence but then, she made it very clear that she wants to dive in there. Sarah also didn't want to stop, she wanted to go on FOREVER.

On the light table!

Pouring!

Baby feet :)

3 feet!

Yes, you can dance over it

although I wasn't so sure it will hold her!

How about glow sticks?

Don't you love the colors?

Thank you for making it so far. Come back soon.

Love,