Finally! The Bar Stool......

These have been finished for a long while now. My life got crazy busy and I just have not had time to do any crafty projects or posting. I am ready to jump back in and get my hands dirty now!

After adding the workboxes to our dining room for homeschooling, I no longer had room for all 3 I had made, so I now have 1 unfinished bar stool in our basement. Im a little disapointed in that, but alas the kids eduction comes first!

So, I know we have been waiting FOREVER on these! Hope you like them!

My computer is being weird! So, everybody turn your head completely to the side!

I got the pattern from Ana White. I have talked about her site a while ago. It is amazing! It is full of inspiration and will make a wood worker out of anybody. I started with a doll bed for a Christmas gift and this was my second project.

Coming soon....a headboard I made from cabinet doors!

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!

Nervous?

Does someone want to come over and supervise while I use my circular saw? I know this will probably crack some of you up, but my Christmas present this year was power tools. I recieved not only a circular saw, but also a jig saw and I cant wait to use them. I have SO many projects I want to do and not enough time at all!

Right now I have the materials purchased to make a set of 3 bar stools for my kitchen counter. I decided I just can not pay over $100 a piece when I can just make them myself for much less. Well, the problem is-I have never used a saw before and frankly, as excited as I am, Im a little nervous to do it while I am home alone or even with the kids here.

So, do I wait until hubby is home, or just go for it and keep the phone close by?

Sonlight Core K Week 3

We had a great time traveling to Ancient Egypt this week. As always, we extended 1 days worth of reading into a weeks worth of fun and activities!

Books Used-both of these were used mainly for the pictures, we didnt read much of the actual content.
Cleopatra by Diane Stanley
Tutankhamens Gift by Robert Sabuda


We didnt do a "traditional" lapbook this time, I made a "book" from construction paper. I took 2 sheets of paper and stapled them together on the short end then folded each page in half toward the inside.

Activities
-PBS Special Video "Pyramids"
-History Pockets This is gearded for an older age group, but we adapted it for us and just didnt use everything. There is a lot of information in here, including this really neat description of the different layers of the mummy and the sarcophagus. The kids really enjoyed wrapping there "person" up in the gauze.






 -Paint the Nile River down a large piece of construction Paper. We discussed the importance of it and added some materials from the history pockets beside our river. Yes- I have messy painters!

-Apple Mummification Experiment This one is still "mummifing" but here is the beginning picture!

-Build a pyramid from legos. This was really great for Aiden to use problem solving and  math skills , something I did not even expect when I gave him the instruction to do it. He had to start over a couple of times until he figured out the process, and it turned out great. (The people are apparently gaurding the mummy inside-I love the imagination!)



-Egyptian Paper Dolls. I got thses from the History Pockets download, but also saw some great printables HERE, although some of the clothing in this download does not go along with what we read they actually wore. I had the kids color them and then I laminated them for playtime. (BTW- LOVE the laminator!)