My Weekend Project

The kids and I will be studying Medieval Times soon, so when I saw this Card Table Castle Fort Pattern on Etsy I just knew I had to make it for the kids! This etsy shop has a ton of very adorable ideas to spark tons of imagination in your kids play.

I will say that overall the pattern and idea were great, but the directions were very hard to follow. For someone who does not have much experience with sewing, I think it might be very confusing. There were a lot of areas where I had to "make it work" so to speak!

Sorry for the poor pictures of this. I could not keep the kids away from it to take any at all. They were running around and hoping in and out as fast as I was snapping pictures!

Front with Drawbridge

Side-These windows are the most adorable thing I have ever seen! The bugs were not included in the pattern, I had some fabric I cut those from and added them myself.

Back with a scary dragon in a cave! I added a nose, a bottom jaw, and the tongue to him which was not included in the pattern.

Other side!

Bar Stools.....

I haven't forgot to post the final pictures of the bar stools I was going to make! I decided to wait until hubby was home just in case there was a mishap with my first time using a saw. Fortunately there was not! I had a small problem with the circular saw at first, but cruised along with the miter saw!

Here is the dilemma I now face...I LOVE the stools. I also LOVE the cushions I made. However, I do NOT love the cushions on the bar stools. I am so disappointed and at a loss for what to do. The fabric choice for the cushions is just way more formal than the actual bar stool itself is. I am frustrated with the money I spent on the fabric and hate to purchase something else, but at the same time I don't really want to leave them the way they are now. What I think I am going to do first it cut down the size of the seat (right now it hangs off the edges about 1". I am hoping that if the seats are much smaller the cushions will not stand out so much? I don't know....suggestions anyone????

Workboxes

I have jumped on the workbox bandwagon and could not be happier! I am loving the organization of it all as well as the excitement in the kids!

Here's how I make it work:

I liked the idea of using drawers. First reason why is because I have 2 little people running around, and second because we do school in our dining room and I wanted it to look at least ok with our decor! I bought these 10 Drawer units from SamsClub for around $33 each. The one here doesn't even look as good as mine, same unit but mine is in bronze to match our decor.

Next, I got out my laminator and got busy making numbers for the drawers. I used numbers from Confessions of a Homeschooler, which is an awesome homeschool blog if you haven't ever visited it before! I used the Transformer numbers for Little Man and the Princess numbers for my princess of course ;) I printed, laminated, cut out, and used sticky velcro on the backs and then onto each drawer.

What is in our Workboxes?

We first have group time that consists of Bible reading, Prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, Days of the Week Song, Months of the Year Song, and our Readers. Our Readers come from Sonlight Curriculum.

Then they work on their boxes. Here is an example of things I include:

• Little Man's Spelling words for the week. He writes and reads these each day and then we take a spelling test on Fridays.
• Explode the Code

• Handwriting Without Tears 

• Little Man will have a book to read to me.
• Horizons Math

• Geoboards

• Boggle Jr 

• Assorted Arts and Crafts: Modeling Clay, Painting, Markers, Letter of the Week craft for Princess, etc.
• Draw Right Now 

• Zoologic



Obviously all of these things are not done every day, and this is far from everything I might include. I find myself giving the kids things to do during the day that they thoroughly enjoy, but I might not have thought of pulling out before. I also might include a fun snack in one box which they love to open up and see.

Brag Post!

Ok, so I forget a lot of the time to check my comments. Mainly, becuase it amazes me that my meager little blog would draw any readers. I really want to be better at blogging. I have so many projects to share! How do you all take the time to do it? Really? I need suggestions!

SO...I was going through comments today and discovered that I was featured on CraftGossip! Can you believe it! They did a post on Cool Photo Display Ideas and my Inexpensive Wall Art post was pictured!

This inspired me greatly to take more time to post my ideas and projects. I am SO inspired by all of your ideas and even if one person is inspired by mine-well that makes it all worth it!