Frozen Winter Sparkle Hair Clips

For any girl who loves the movie, Frozen, these sparkling blue hair clips are sure to bring a smile of delight.  We made these as part of a Frozen-themed birthday party gift for a friend.  I can't wait to see her reaction to this homemade gift!

These Frozen Winter Sparkle Hair Clips would make great stocking stuffers for girls too!

Materials Needed:

• Metal Hair Barrettes
• Silver Stretch Cording
• Blue Sparkle Ribbon
• Hot Glue

Directions:

1.  Cut sparkle ribbon long enough to cover the metal barrettes, with enough extra to wrap under each end.
2. Lay the ribbon on the barrette and wrap the silver cording around both the ribbon and the barrette.  Make sure the clip is open and the cording does not interfere with the clasp mechanism.
3. Tie the ends of the cording and trim.  Hot glue the ends of the ribbon over the tied cording, which should be hidden on the underside.

I'm sharing this project at Savoring Saturdays this week.

Homemade String Art Kit: A Great Stocking Stuffer or Last-Minute Gift

Doing it all just can't be done.  That is a lesson I continue to learn this year.  The women I admire most already recognize that and focus on top priorities, letting others go.  So it has been a while since I've done much crafting, much less posted about any.  But for the sake of friends and family, some crafting inspiration returned this month.

A new friend of mine had a baby this fall, and I was able to visit her in the hospital and meet her sweet newborn daughter back in November.  I didn't prepare a gift ahead of time, so I baked some goodies and picked up some helium balloons for her other girls.  However, I still wanted to send a baby gift, so this week I finally got a package together.

But what could I tuck in for the older children this time?  A craft kit made perfect sense (and it was one of the ideas in this article about gifts for kids). Friendship bracelets seemed a tad complicated, so I decided to print out instructions for string art stars.  To wrap it up, I notched the ends of a cardboard tube.  Here was the result:

These simple kits would work well for so many occasions!  I only wish I had thought of it before we bought gifts for the class Christmas parties at school this week.  Since I had some embroidery floss and cardboard tubes on hand already, I did not have to buy a thing!  String art kits would also make great stocking stuffers.  Or you could bring these along as gifts to open and enjoy on any holiday car or plane trips coming up (but make sure you bring along some notched cardboard discs).  Would any kids you know enjoy a kit like this?

Materials Used:

• Cardboard paper towel tube
• Scissors
• Embroidery floss or colored string
• Printed instructions* for string art 

         *I used these instructions by Creative Jewish Mom.

Directions:

1. Wrap the printed instructions for string art around the tube.  Trim the tube so that it is slightly longer than the paper for the instructions.
2. Optional: Cut notches in the ends of the tubes and wrap extra string around the tube so that the paper is tied onto the cardboad tube with decorative string art.
3. Tuck skeins of embroidery floss or string inside the tube.  Give with a smile.

Homemade Baby Mitts

My newborn children have all excelled at scratching their faces with their tiny fingernails.  As a result, we have tried to keep their hands covered with mittens for the first few months.  In Asia, such mitts were ridiculously cheap, which makes sense because they don't require much material to sew.  Here in America, infant scratch mitts cost more and seem to run small.  So I decided to try sewing some mitts for my daughter at home, using my grandmother's sewing machine.

To my surprise, my 8-year-old insisted on getting involved when she saw what I was doing.  She helped cut out the material from one of her old stained T-shirts (using the unstained portions).  Then we took turns stitching the seams on the sewing machine.  I didn't actually plug in the machine, but opted to turn the wheel by hand so as to have better control around the curves.  The pre-finished hem of the T-shirt served as a casing for the elastic; then I closed the remaining openings by hand-stitching.

My eldest now wants to embroider her sister's name onto the mitts we made.  Very sweet idea, eh?

The materials we used were:

• An old T-shirt
• Scissors
• Thread
• Needle
• Elastic

Some of my technical inspiration came from this scratch mitten tutorial, though our mitts did not have a lining.

Have your babies ever worn scratch mitts?

Join us this week at Try New Adventures Thursday.

Book Recommendation: What the World Eats

What the World Eats is a book worth reading, owning, and giving.  I stumbled across it at the library, on a display shelf today.  Within a few hours of bringing it home, I had devoured every page.  The photos by Peter Menzel and words from Faith D'Aluisio captured two passions of mine: 1) the food that people eat in their daily lives, and 2) the many cultures of the world.

Exploring the pages of this book was more illuminating than circling the globe as a tourist, because I got to enter into the homes of families from 21 different countries.  The contrast between a weeks worth of food in "developing" countries and more prosperous nations made me drop my jaw more than once.  Yet as the author pointed out, the porridge that a 12-year-old in Africa eats for breakfast may well be more nutritious than the ultra-processed foods that American families serve from a box (Pop Tarts, anyone?).

I was awestruck at how much more food families in some countries eat than others.  Yet all survive.  And the possibilities of what to do with that realization are vast.  I can eat less.  Give more.  Be thankful.  Find a way to support organizations who are working toward more sustainable food supplies.  Pray for the world. Learn to be content with less.  Teach my children the difference between wants and needs.  Show them what other families eat in places like Greenland, Bhutan and China.  (Ever heard of a narwhal?  A family in one of those countries eats it on a weekly basis.)

Furthermore, I can envision so many ways to use this book:

• To expand the understanding a family has of the world.  
• To sample different foods and learn geography.  
• To go along with sponsoring a child whose daily needs might not be met otherwise.  
• To give as a gift to another family.  

Taking in the photos and insights from around the world would benefit anyone and everyone.  Glimpsing the realities of what families eat in other parts of the world and how they live might have a greater impact than even a short-term trip abroad.   And unlike an international plane ticket, this resource can be accessed for free, with just a simple library card.

Despite the fact that I have lived abroad for several years, What the World Eats helped summon me out of my complacency--with what we buy and eat, and how little thought and prayer extends beyond our borders.  Read it and see where opened eyes and an open heart might take you.


Dec. 2010 Update:  This post is linked to WFMW.


Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, but I am recommending it of my own accord.  The opinions stated are all mine.  I simply picked up this book up at the library and really enjoyed it.