As you probably know, we recently moved to another state. The house came together pretty quickly. Sure we still need some art in a few places, but overall it’s not bad. The kids rooms are still in progress. The oldest only needs a rug, but lately I’ve been in the process of decorating the toddler’s room.

Since she has always slept with us, it is really important for me to make sure this is a room she LOVES. That way, she’ll get more excited about transitioning to her own space. Her favorite colors are orange and turquoise. This has been the basis of the room. I found a cheap toddler bed on Craigslist – last weekend we sanded and painted it turquoise. I still need to add a little art and a rug, some curtains and a quilt.

Once it is done I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. Until then, I’d love for you to share your toddler rooms by emailing or commenting with a link. I can’t wait to see them!

Hubs sanding down the Craigslist toddler bed

Cute new bed after several coats of turquoise

I was so excited when Sara from KittyBabyLove offered to do a guest post here on Hurried Homemaker! If you haven’t already fallen in love with her adorable kitty egg crayons, you will now. Anyway, as I was saying …

Sara was kind enough to do a step-by-step picture and word origami tutorial. School is about to be out and I know that my oldest and I will be spending some time together doing this fun activity. Enjoy!

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Need some fun? Try out this tutorial for an origami waterball garland. Not
only is it simple enough to do with the little ones, but a fun way to pass
some time. All you need is some paper cut into squares, some string
(embroidery floss used in the image), and a needle. Get creative with your
color choices, types of paper you use, and additions you decide to make to
the garland.

1. Start with a square paper. In the example shown I used a 3″x3″ square,
which yielded a ball slightly under 1″. Larger squares will be easier for
little hands to work with.

2. Fold in half, corner to corner.

3. Fold in half again, matching the corners of the triangle together.

4. Unfold.

5. Fold in half, this time straight edge to straight edge.

6. Fold in half again- straight edge to straight edge

7. Unfold. You will use these prefolded lines as a guide for the next step.
Arrange the paper so that a flat edge is facing you. Notice where my thumbs
are in the picture. You will be bringing in these edges toward the bottom
center fold.

8. Notice the triangle it makes on the bottom.

9. Place your finger in the center and notice how the prefolds create a
triangle on the top side. Flatten this shape.

10. Viola!

11. On one side of the triangle, fold the bottom corner up to the top corner

12. Repeat on the other leg of the triangle. Flip over to the backside.

13. Repeat steps 11 & 12 on this side. This will give you a diamond
shape.

14. Make sure the top of your diamond looks like this. Keep this side up
when working on the next step

15. Fold a side corner on one side of your diamond in toward the center

16. Repeat on the other side

17. Flip your diamond over and repeat steps 15 & 16 on the other side

18. Fold the top part of one “leg” downwards as shown

19. Repeat on all sides

20. Tuck the leg you just folded downward into the pocket you made in steps
15 & 16

21. It will look like this

22. Repeat this on all sides

23. Fold the bottom of the entire origami piece back and forth a little. You
don’t want to actually make any creases; the idea is to loosen the paper so
that it will blow into a ball more easily…

24. Do this also on the top part of the entire origami piece

25. Now time to inflate the ball! Grab opposite sides of the ball and try to
gently stretch it open as much as you can…

26. Find this side of the ball. See that hole? Blow into it to get the ball
to inflate the rest of the way..

27. Viola! One puffed up origami waterball. Make as many as you want.

28. When you are ready, grab your needle and thread and get ready to thread
your garland together. A sharp point needle is recommended to pierce through
paper. Thread going in from this side (where you blew into the ball); poking
through the other side first may make your ball crinkle and deflate.

29. You can use the intersection of the fold lines as a guide for center
when poking your needle through the other side.

30. Thread as many together as you like. I used embroidery floss so the
balls dont slide around as much. You can get creative and add other things,
like beads or knots, into your garland strand. The knots, beads, etc will
act as spacers to hold the balls in their place on the garland.

31. And before you know it, viola! You are done!! You are done!

Turning one is a special occassion that requires a special gift. A little one in the family will be turning one soon. I decided to make a book of animals for her. It was simple, but time consuming with canvas pages, felt animals, embroidered details, and iron-on words. This was my first attempt at something like this. It has inspired me to make a series of books when I find the time. I want to do Barnyard Animals, Animals that Swim, Jungle Animals, and Things that Fly. I think it will be lots of fun!

Here is the result:

I am sentimental when it comes to cards. I save almost all of them. I really don’t know why. I have boxes of old cards just waiting for me to do something with them. I could recycle them – that has been hubby’s suggestion for quite some time now. But I haven’t been able to part with them.

Amidst one of my many nocturnal stirs last night, it dawned on me (pun intended)! I am going to use the cards for scrapbooks! I thought it would be great to incorporate some of the Valentine’s Day hearts, Christmas angels, anniversary couples, new baby card rattles, and all those beautiful flowers (that adorn most cards) into my scrapbook page designs. I have stuff from my childhood and the early years of my oldest daughter, the baby is beginning to get a collection as well. And I’ve saved a bunch of stuff from when hubby and I were dating (and beyond, obviously).

The best part about it? Besides the fact I get to use the cards for something sentimental, I get to reuse/repurpose those old cards! So I’m being green while being creative!

Who knows when I will actually complete one of these, but I like to think they’re ongoing as long as we’re all alive. Here are some fantastic scrapbooks for inspiration:

All the above images are original scrapbook layouts from scrapbook.com‘s gallery.

Do you scrapbook? Or have a useful way to repurpose old greeting/holiday cards? If so, please share a link or comment below!

I was looking for something different and creative to do for the oldest’s Valentine Day cards for the oldest’s class at school. I wasn’t in a creative mood, and realized I needed to get it together and fast if I was going to get it all done on time. So, I of course headed to MarthaStewart.com for ideas. I found this great idea for a Valentine fortune cookies:

They were a breeze to make! I used a Tupperware dish for the circle template – super simple. I did not use ribbon over the floral wire, though – I used more felt (fewer supplies to buy and it used more of the felt up). So, here is a quick photo step-by-step of these little felt lovlies:

Like I said, these were super-easy to make! Get the exact directions from Martha’s How-to.

Then I made this little barrette from leftover felt and some embroidery thread as practice for an upcoming gift project:

What are you crafting for Valentine’s Day?