ToddAhToddAh

May
31

DIY Mason Jar Favors

Mason jar crafts have become so popular lately, and I just love seeing all the fun things being done with them.  With our big girl’s birthday just around the corner, it’s the perfect time for me to give one a try!

Micah’s birthday party will be farm themed, and I just loved all the little animal mason jars I saw on Pinterest.  After finding this Mason Jar Tutorial from Three Little Monkeys Studio, I figured I could probably do this.  Yes, I can do this.  And I did!  Believe me, this one is easy-peasy:).  I did do a couple of things differently and took some pictures along the way – here’s how I did it:

What you’ll need:

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– mason jars (I got 24 for $15 at my local Target.  You can also find them on Amazon.)
– tiny animals (I got these farm animals for $8 at my local Target – other fun options here and here!)
– spray paint (I used some I already had, but I highly recommend using Rustoleum Professional spray paint – they have lots of colors and it rarely needs a second coat!)
E6000 (or other strong glue – I recommend E6000, because it has enough grit to make the metal and tiny animal feet stay stuck!)

Step 1:

– Glue the lid pieces together.  Just squeeze a little of your glue around the circle inside and place the disc inside.  Push it down a little and let it dry.

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Step 2:

– Glue your animals to your lids!  I just put dabs of the E6000 on each foot and pressed it onto the lid gently.  Your animal should be able to stand on its own to dry.  Allow to dry.

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Step 3:

– Spray paint.  Place your animal lids animal side up on a trash bag and spray paint all of them at the same time.  Make sure you get them all covered and let dry.  Apply a second coat if needed.

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Step 4:

– Fill your jars with something fun and put those cute lids on!  Be proud of your very cute and incredibly frugal party favors!

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I hope you enjoyed this quick little tutorial – I’d love to see pics if you decide to make some!  Be sure to like us on Facebook and subscribe to our blog to keep up with all of our tutorials coming up!

This post contains affiliate links, but only those I use and endorse personally :).

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May
12

Toddler Artwork

Here’s a quick little tutorial post for a simple and memorable gift. We just did this for mother’s day and it turned out great! I can’t wait to hang it on our wall.

what you’ll need:

  • Canvas or Illustration board
  • Masking Tape
  • Finger Paint
  • Sealant (Optional)

The Paint:
Use whatever paint you want. At first I looked up a bunch of recipes online for finger paint that were very baby friendly and I think I’ll still try those some time for a fun weekend, but it looked like a lot of those faded in color or just didn’t stick to the board and I wanted this to be a bright and fun piece that would last so I opted to buy non toxic finger paint for toddlers online. It’s safe for kids ages 18M+ and it worked great! The brand we got was “Alex Jr” in case your are interested.

Time to get to work!

Step 1: Tape off the sections you want to stay white. This could be anything you want. Some things to start of with could be the initial of your kid’s name or your last name, a heart, a peace sign, a simple word. I taped off the word “LOVE” inside a heart on ours. Keep in mind curves can be a little more difficult but I found tearing the tape off in to little pieces worked really well. Make sure there are no air pockets or wrinkles in the tape to let in paint.

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Step 2: Tape the edges of the canvas or board. This will help give it a clean finished look when it’s done

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Step 3: Layout a plastic tarp and place the paint and canvas on it then have your little ones completely cover the top of canvas. Try to get them to cover all the white spaces.

This is obviously the fun part. We let Micah do most of the work on this and then since Wren is still a little young for finger paint we just dipped her feet in it and then had her kick around on the board that way they both could make their marks.

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Step 4: Once it’s completely dry remove the tape. and clean it up if necessary. Since I used a pencil to layout everything before I taped it there was still a little bit of pencil lines on the white section so I cleaned it with some white paint.

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Step 5: Spray it with a sealant so that it lasts. And Tada! you have artwork worthy of hanging in an art gallery.

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Mar
26

Operation Hot Mama – Fit It In!

Hello and welcome to our new blog category – Health and Fitness!

We blog about a lot of things –  new products and ideas, apps we love, tutorials, thrift scores, freebies, and the list goes on.  Now, we’ve decided to get a little more personal with you.  You are my friends after all, right?!

As a family of four now, our lives are quite hectic.  Having completed our family, I really want to start focusing more on my own health and fitness, so I figured I might as well bring you along!  I will be transparent, sharing my strengths and weaknesses, victories and failures.  I will share with you any tips and tricks I find helpful along the way.  I will share my favorite recipes (and I’ll leave out my not so favorite:).  And, of course, I will share progress stats and photos!

For my first post, I wanted to talk about scheduling and how the heck to fit in time to get fit.  I am currently doing Jamie Eason’s Livefit Trainer, which is a FREE 12 week program focused on eating clean and lifting weights.  Don’t worry – I will have more posts later on the program itself, promise:)

Now, time to get real with you.  I am currently on maternity leave, staying home with my two beautiful girls and will return to work in April.  My incredible and amazing mother-in-law will be watching both of my kiddos and their adorable cousin full time!  I initially started my program like February 1st.  Then I pretty much restarted March 9th for a variety of reasons (sickness, family in town, baby waking in the night, etc).  I am currently on week 3 and so far so good this round!  I am following the workouts provided, but the eating 5-6 “clean” meals a day is about 50/50 at the moment.  Maybe it’s better than that, but let’s be honest – it gets hard!  I will say I definitely do WAY better when I take time to meal prep (which means cooking a bunch of food one day to have it ready-to-go in the fridge – more on that in a later post:).  The food is a work in progress – my hope is to ease into that and do better in each phase.

Here’s what small change looks like so far:

Tab 2 weeksI know it doesn’t look like much, but hey, this is the real world and change takes time.  My tiny baby muscles will continue to grow, and I’m hoping I will be able to see some definition after a few more weeks!

Now Mamas, let me tell you – it is hard to take time to commit to a 12 week program, especially when it involves going to a gym.  After trying a couple of different things, I landed on really the only thing that worked for my schedule with a baby and a toddler – getting up at 5 AM.  UGGGGGGGH.  That sucks.  But, it works.  That way, I can work out and get back home before they wake up.  Another thing that’s hard to do that you may not realize?  Eat 5-6 meals a day.  Clean meals, of course.  Who knew eating could be so hard?!  I manage to do the first few pretty well – it’s the afternoon that gets me!  I thought I would share with you both my current maternity leave schedule, as well as my back to work schedule, which will begin on April 3rd:

My Stay at Home Mom Schedule:

5:00 – Wake up, eat quick breakfast, head to the gym
5:30-6:15 – Work out (drink protein shake on my way home)
6:30-7:15 – Get ready and/or say hello to my hubby (sometimes I feel extra productive and make something for him to take for lunch:)
7:15-7:35 – Wake up Wren, change and feed her
7:35-8:00 – Wake up Micah, change her, get her breakfast ready and make my second breakfast!8:30 – Wren down for nap
8:30-10:30 – Play time with Micah
10:30-11:00 – Wake up Wren, change and feed her
11:00-11:30 – Lunch time!
11:30 – Wren down for nap
12:00-1:30 – Movie time for Micah and me!  This is when I usually will try to do the dishes from the morning, do some blogging here and there, or just cuddle my sweet girl:)
1:30-2:00 – Micah down for nap, wake up Wren and change/feed her
2:30 – Wren down for nap
2:30-3:30 – My free time!  Not gonna lie, I usually use this time to catch some Zs, shower, or if I’m feeling motivated, pick up or do a little laundry.  Mostly, it’s the lazier options:)  Oh, I also try to fit in another “meal” here.  Sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn’t.  But, it should…
3:30-4:30 – Wake up Micah for a snack and play time
4:30-5:00 – Wake up Wren, change and feed her
5:00-5:30 – Make some attempt to start some sort of dinner
5:30 – Dada’s home!  We finish up dinner and play until bed time
7:00-7:30 – Bed time for both girls!
7:30-10:00 – Cuddle up with Brandon, work on personal or Toddah projects, watch our favorite shows of the moment, etc.  Oh, and I have to pump at some point in there, too:)
10:00 – Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..

When I start back to work, my schedule will change.  I will have to work out after work, before I pick up the girls.  That will honestly feel a bit simpler, I think, and I’m looking forward to that:)  I also think it will be easier to fit in meals throughout the day (I plan to set a timer on my phone), not having the kiddos around.  The major challenge will be meal prep.  I am really going to have to get serious about prepping meals for an entire week that I can just grab and head out the door with.  Here’s what my working schedule will look like:

My Workin’ Mama Schedule:

5:30 AM – wake up, get ready for the day (yay, I’ll get to sleep in an extra 30 minutes)!
6:00-6:30 – Wake up Wren, change/feed her
6:30-6:45 – Wake up Micah, help get her dressed and ready (Brandon takes the girls to his mom’s house for me:)
6:50 – Leave for work
7:15-3:00 – WORK (I’m a school counselor – I love my job)!
3:00-4:00 – Gym time!  Thankfully, my gym is right there at our district office – just a short walk from my school!
4:30-5:00 – Pick up girls, take them home
5:00-5:30 – Get dinner ready
5:30-7:00 – Eat, play, be merry!
7:00-7:30 – Bed time for girls
7:30-8:00 – SHOWER!  Yep, I’m just going to be stinky for a few hours every day:)
8:00-10:00 – R&R with the hubs
And you know what happens at 10:00 – LIGHTS OUT!

So, what do you think?  This is do-able, right?  Easy, no. But do-able, yes.  I just realized that for me, I really need to get out of the house to get fit.  I simply am not motivated enough and find way too many excuses if I work out at home.  For you it may be different – what works for you??  If you’ve got any tips and tricks, I’d love to hear them!

Be sure to like us on Facebook and subscribe to our blog to keep up with all the upcoming posts about my progress, ups and downs, tips and tricks, and favorite recipes along the way!  This will be a long journey for me, and I’m so glad to be sharing it with you!

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Mar
16

Dusting Off the Screen Printer

We have a craft show coming up in a couple months so that means the screen printer had to get dusted off. I haven’t started screen printing anything that we need to for the craft show yet though. Instead we decided to make some fun new shirts for our two kiddos. We are super happy with how they turned out and will probably put some in our etsy shop once we get a few more shirts. Anyway here are the results of our little screen printing warm up.

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CrazyHair

For more updates on our shop and and other ToddAh goodies be sure to like us on Facebook and subscribe to our newsletter in the sidebar.

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Feb
19

Giveaway – Free Printable Nursery Art!

Well, hello again! It’s been a little while since we’ve posted, you know, with having a new baby and all:). To welcome you back, we want to give you a little something! If you’ve been keeping up with us on Facebook, you may have seen that we’ve ventured into something new – printables! We’ve made posters in the past, and we’ve decided to design some simple, fun posters that you can print or have printed to pack a punch in your kids’ rooms. They’re also great, because you can print them as gifts again and again!

LittleLove_Frame

We have quite a few printables already on sale in our etsy shop. But, we have made a special one just to share with you for FREE!  So, here you go – CLICK THIS LINK to download your very own 8X10 Little Love print and we hope you enjoy!

Be sure to like us on Facebook and subscribe to our blog to keep up with more freebies and tutorials!

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Nov
22

2014 Nativity Wallpaper and Poster

The Holiday season is here! It’s an exciting time of year. And as our little ones get older I’ve been getting more excited about the holidays. The past couple years I’ve made a Nativity illustration and I’ve really enjoyed doing it so I made another one this year.  I just put the poster up for sale on Esty too. If you are interested you can click HERE, but for now I’m offering to you for free to put on your iPhone or iPad. Hope this gets you in the mood for the holidays.

ipad_Nativity2014iPad     iPhone     iPhone5    iPhone6

Be sure to like us on Facebook and subscribe to our mailing on the sidebar so that you never miss out on our giveaways and freebies.

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Nov
20

Mommy and Me Giveaway!

Alright – time for another giveaway!  This time, we’re giving away a Mommy and Me scarf set for you and your little!

It’s easy – just scroll below and see all the ways to enter to win!  Winner will be announced on Tuesday.

Mommy Scarf is a 65″ loop, 20″ wide, and made from a soft viscose with an aztec owl print.  Mini Scarf is approximately half the size, with no wrapping required.  Fits toddlers and kiddos of all sizes!

Be sure to like us on Facebook and subscribe to our blog to keep up with all our giveaways!

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Nov
14

Wren’s Room

Wren is here and we finished her room just in time. Tabitha and I have been having a lot of fun putting together her room. Here’s a pretty complete list of all the elements we have right now.

Vinyl Decals

We actually bought these before Micah was born and thought we were going to put them up in her room but in the end there really wasn’t a place for it so we held off. Then we realized the room right next door would be perfect for the decals. Just search for “birch decals” on etsy.com and you’ll get a bunch of results

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Personal Screen Print

I wanted to make a special print for Wren. I loved the idea of using an acorn to show all the potential they have. We just happened to have this sliced tree trunk and thought it would be perfect to print on. I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Extras

Art Print by Teagan White we got this from Society 6:

Cloud Mobile

This was a gift from some great friends of ours. I know it was done by a local artist but have had a hard time finding them online. If I ever find it I will be sure to update the post with their info.

Honeycomb Wall

Custom HoneyComb Shelves by Haase Handcraft. We were able to pick the stain and have it match our futon perfectly and pick the inside paint color for these.

Honeycomb 1

Squirrel Statue by Mahzer and Vee: Our friends at Mahzer and Vee sent this to us as a gift for Wren and we LOVE it. We also have a moose head from them in our basement. If you are ever looking to add some fun to a room just get something from their shop on etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mahzerandvee

The wood statue is by noferin. I’ve had this for a while and thought it’d look great in Wren’s room.

Honeycomb 3

The yellow cat we bought from a Local Kansas City company called Lets Be Friends

The Owl was a gift from another good friend and is from DuLuLuHoneycomb 2

 

The doll was a gift from my mom and is by Be Mary By Hand who we met at a craft show and are super nice.

And the bird whistle we got from an antique shop.

Orla Kiely Colors Book

Quilt

Finally we had this quilt made for Wren as an early christmas present. It also features some fabric with Teagan White’s Illustrations. We knew someone locally who made amazing quilts so we asked her to put it together for us and it turned out amazing check her out at JessToyeQuilts.wordpress.com

That was a lot. I meant to break this up into two posts but I was worried I’d forget and leave something out. Anyway, hope you liked it and that it gives you some inspiration for your own rooms. Be sure to like us on Facebook and subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss out on the latest from ToddAh!

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Nov
12

Robot Giveaway!

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Time for another giveaway!  This week, we’re giving away one of our faves – a Robot onesie or t shirt!  If you’re the lucky winner, we’ll email you to find out what size and color you’d like – available in pink or turquoise in sizes Newborn – 4T.  Just scroll down below and enter to win – winner will be announced on Monday!

Oh, and be sure to subscribe to our blog and like us on Facebook to keep up with all our giveaways!

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Nov
5

Giveaway – Coffee Bag Pillow!

November is upon us, which means the season of thankfulness and giving is here!  Not to say we shouldn’t feel thankful and giving all the time, but something about the holiday season makes everyone a little more inclined for such happy feelings, right?!

Well, we have a lot to be thankful for around here.  We just reached 300 likes on Facebook – hooray!  We have beautiful family and friends, and we are on the verge of welcoming a new baby girl into our lives.

With that being said, we have decided to do some giveaways!  This is the first of several to come through the holiday season, so be on the lookout!  We’re starting with this super fun coffee bag pillow!

Coffee Pillow

This little guy was handmade by yours truly from a coffee bag my in-laws got for us while vacationing in Hawaii.  I just love the rustic burlap look, and it can easily be yours!  All you have to do is scroll down below and enter to win!
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Be sure to subscribe to our blog and like us on Facebook to keep up with our holiday giveaways!

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