Remember when Linkys were all the rage in blogging? They were a great way to find and get to know other bloggers before social media and Pinterest became mainstream. It didn't hurt that they brought a ton of traffic to your site too. Lindsi and I started our Fun Stuff Fridays linky back in 2011. We kept it going for 20 weeks before it fizzled out (or we got sick of doing it, I'm not sure which happened). It is now soon to be 2017 and at lot of the links in those linkies no longer exist. Plus, I've let my link up subscription lapse so you can't get to them anyway. Instead of deleting the Fun Stuff Fridays posts, however, I have decided to clean them up and make sure our featured links are still valid. After all, on a rare occasion I get traffic from one of these old posts. The linky may be gone but the featured posts are still valid as of December 2016... ---------- Welcome to Fun Stuff Fridays. Last week on our very first linky we had over 100 links! We'd love to have the … [Read more...]
Archives for 2011
Decorating your staircase for the holidays
Blah! Look at that icky, blah, boring staircase. I kept thinking good golly (yes, I say good golly) that is one sad looking staircase. I pulled together some of the tips I had learned about decorating from my mom and a few that I came up with too and got straight to work. Alright, looking a little better, right? The pretty greens add some much needed color. I found these at Michael's Craft Store for $4.99. (They wanted $24.99 for the ones with colors, decor, and bulbs on them). These were plain old green garland bunches. Nothing snazzy at all. I walked through the store and found a package of red glittery balls in the dollar area. Yup, an additional dollar and a hot glue gun later and I have pretty red and green garland for my stair case. Now, you may be asking- I thought this blog was about fun things to do with your kid. It is- hold your horses! My 5 year old son helped me decorate the greens. I pulled out my LOW temp glue gun and let him slobber the glittery balls up … [Read more...]
Christmas Tree Handprints
This is one of my all time favorite projects I have done with my kids. It just so happens to be an all time favorite Christmas present too! It's really easy and turns out just adorably! Here is what you will need: 1 piece of white paper (large) (or a canvas-which is what I used- you can get them for pretty cheap) Green, yellow and brown paint 1 kid willing to get ooey and gooey Paint your child's hand with the green paint- make one row of 4 hand prints Next paint your child's hand again and make a row of 3 hand prints Then make a row of 2 hand prints on top of that Lastly, 1 hand print on the very top Use the brown paint to make a stump and the yellow to make a star on the top. (Have your child autograph the tree with the year to mark the date) These make GREAT presents and they are always adored by grandparents. While making the tree I thought to myself....hmmm, what if I traced a circle really lightly in pencil and did the same thing? Ta-da! A pretty and … [Read more...]
Make your own rock candy
When I was little my mom used to do a lot of science projects with me and my sister. One of my favorites was growing my own crystal candy (or rock candy). I couldn't wait to wake up in the mornings and see how much my crystals had grown. Then I couldn't wait to eat them after I thought they had grown enough! I was shocked to find out that when I talked about doing a rock candy tutorial for our blog, both Lindsi and my husband had never heard of rock candy, let alone made their own! Seriously, who's never heard of rock candy?? (*Lindsi edit- butting in...I have heard of rock candy before...just never heard of making your own) Here's what you'll need to make your own rock candy (FYI--I doubled the recipe to make 2--one for each of my girls): 1 cup of water 3-4 cups of table sugar clear glass jars wooden skewers (cut the pointy tip off) clothes pins or something similar food coloring (optional) 1) Boil the water. 2) Slowly add sugar small bits at a … [Read more...]
Festive pillows
I loved this idea so much that I had to share with our faithful Toys In The Dryer readers too (It was originally posted on my personal website). Yup! My crafty itch has been bad this year. Maybe I'm trying to drown myself in projects? Who knows? Want to know how I turned three BORING blah-zay pillows into cute Christmas pillows? Here is how! Step one: Take any blah pillow you have around the house, or go to the store and buy the ugliest one you can (believe me the uglier the cuter they turn out) I added the red zig zag stitching to each of my blah pillows for a little added flare. Next I made three rectangle swatches to attach to the pillows (notice I added the same red zig zag stitch to these to pull it all together) Then I dug through my Christmas cookie cutters to find three that I liked best and taped them using painters tape to each swatch...like sew (ha ha ha pardon the pun). I let my son pick them out. He helped attach the tape too! Easy peasy, right? Then … [Read more...]
Andrew Shue and Mom.com
*Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday there will be no Fun Stuff Friday linky today we will see you next Friday!* On Tuesday, November 15th, Jamie had the opportunity to meet the actor Andrew Shue (Billy Campbell from Melrose Place) at the Minneapolis Suburbs Mom.com Premier Party. Unfortunately, Lindsi was unable to attend the party due to a death in her family. She missed a really fun and informative time! Ok, so what is Mom.com, why were they having a premier party, how is Andrew Shue involved, and why were we invited?? Lets start with Mom.com and Andrew Shue... Years ago, Andrew quit acting to spend more time with his family and pursue other adventures. He eventually co-founded Cafemom, one of the largest social networking sites for moms in the US. Cafemom is now off-shooting into another site called Mom.com... If you go to the Mom.com website now, it looks like your average daily deals site. However, the deals on the site have actual local moms acquiring them, standing … [Read more...]
