Macaroni Necklaces (B)

The macaroni necklace- a childhood cliché if one ever did exist. I know why now- they are fun to make and freaking adorable! I did this last summer with HJ and again over the winter; it was a hit both times.

I used Rigatoni because of the wide opening. They also come in regular and short lengths; so it makes for a more exciting string of "beads" than if they were all uniform. You can color the pasta using alcohol, but I went with white wine vinegar. The big difference is using vinegar means they're safe for digestion; so if my sister's little Pickle joins us there's no worries. I was especially glad about my choice after the dog ate an entire necklace... 

I've read that dying the pasta in jars or Tupperware works well , but I did it in Ziploc freezer bags and everything went great. I put in just enough vinegar to cover the pasta and then added quite a few drops of liquid coloring. I have gels that I use when coloring icing (and they might have worked better), but they are not cheap, and I feel good old fashioned liquid worked fine. I smooshed the bags around to evenly distribute the coloring and then left them to stew.

You can see the noodles soaking up the color right away. I let mine sit for two hours, but that might have been too long- they started disintegrating! I used my regular pasta strainer to separate the pastas out from the liquid, then dumped it onto a baking sheet lined with paper towels. Once dry, sort and enjoy. The smelly vinegar fragrance stays with them for awhile, but it didn't transfer to us. Or was my nose too numb to notice at that point??



We strung them, while Optimus Prime supervised, onto some inexpensive yarn that I had from when I decided to learn how to crotchet (work in progress, don't ask). HJ was completely engaged and did not notice at all that this is a fine motor skill developing activity! You can see in the picture on the left above that I tied a knot around one of the small pieces at the end; this acted as an anchor to keep the pieces from sliding off the far end once strung (trial and error taught me this lesson...).

Once a necklace was done, I looped the remaining yarn through the anchor piece and tied it off.  I think I'll love that necklace forever. The first time we did this, we sent one of the extra necklaces with HJ to give to his mom, and he put the rest in his treasure chest (that's how the crazy dog got ahold of one!). The second time we saved the necklaces so he can give them to his grandmothers and his GG on Mother's Day.  



Bedroom Art, Fit for a Kid (B)

I got sidetracked by the snow, but since I mentioned the Disney shadowbox that hangs in Hubby Jr.'s room during my Valentine post, I thought I would post about all of the art he has in there. 

I found this first project on Pinterest; someone had pinned it from an adorable blog: attackofthetwins. It seemed easy enough- lay down mat (I'm partial to felt backed vinyl table clothes from the dollar store), tape off name, lay out the colors, and let Hubby Jr. go to town. And let me tell you, it was just that easy! I love this project. Here we are getting down to business:

You may have noticed that HJ's nickname in real life is not far off from his Blogger nickname! Anyway, here we are all done, before and after tape (I used Frog Tape- because, as usual, that's what I had on hand):

The primary colors in the standard Crayola Finger Paint went fantastically with Hubby Jr.'s Disney themed room (a mix of Mickey & Lightning McQueen). It did get a bit muddy in the middle, but you can really see his little finger prints; I just love that. I waited for the local craft store to have a sale on framing, and then it was all up to Hubby. I think both of my fellas did a great job:

This next project, the shadowbox (and I didn't even get the idea from Pinterest, ha), I did on my own. After we took him to the Magic Kingdom last spring, making something to commemorate the trip (his first ever) seemed perfectly appropriate:

I used the 2013 t-shirt we got down there as the background and pinned it to the backer so that the size 3T, inside the Castle graphic, would be visible. I wasn't sure if I should "lock up" the mouse ears at first, but they were already on the snug side when we got them, and hopefully we'll be going back again this year anyway! His "Key to the World," a family photo from our Photo Pass, the welcome postcard "from" Mickey, and his "First Visit" button rounded everything out.

These aren't projects so much as cuteness. The pirate flag came with his personalized treasure chest, but that frame is really something special- it has a secret compartment that opens on a hinge so you can store and swap out art! We love it. Daycare is always sending cute things home (many of which go on the fridge), but this is another fun place where he can display his handy work! We rotate it depending on the aspect.

It isn't exactly art, but his ceiling is covered in glow in the dark stars- including the constellations of Orion, Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and Cassiopeia (I know- I have a problem). We also have some large family and baby HJ photos hanging on his walls.

I really love how his room came out. Hubby did so much painting to bring my design to life! I helped too, but wet paint aggravates my allergies something fierce. Lately though, I feel like the room is constantly evolving. In December we had to rearrange to fit the Train Table he got for Christmas (his big gift from Daddy and me). The very next month he moved up from Toddler Bed to Big Boy Bed, and we had to redo the whole thing, again! I'll save all that for next week...