From T-Shirt to Self-Tying Paint Smock 2.0

From T-Shirt to Self-Tying Paint Smock 2.0

Posted on by Mama

paintsmockSince we are in the throes of Vacation Bible School prep, I decided to pull out one of my favorite VBS posts from my first days of blogging and repost it here today. I think it’s just awfully clever (yes, I say so myself) and has proven very useful. This  post was first published on August 6, 2013.

Okay, so it’s not often that I have a completely original idea, so here’s one for the books. . . or the blog, or however the saying must go in today’s electronic age. It’s not like it’s an earth shattering discovery or anything, but it sure did make last week’s VBS painting projects much less messy.

I picked up several extra large t-shirts from my Mom’s church for a buck each and planned to use them as paint smocks, but I didn’t think the children would appreciate us pulling them on and off their heads each day so I started thinking about an easy way to make them into backwards vests that somehow stayed on their little bodies. I wanted them to have ties in the back, but I just didn’t have the time or gumption to do a sewing project involving that many shirts.

Suddenly the thought occurred to me that perhaps there was a way to cut the shirts themselves so that they would be equipped with built-in ties, and that’s when this idea was born (now if I’m the last VBS craft girl on the planet to ever think of this, please tell me now so that I’ll stop being so darn pleased with myself).

Materials:

  • good pair of scissors (I keep a couple of pair just for material)
  • t-shirt

cuthereDirections:

  1. Lay the t-shit flat on a hard surface with the back facing up.
  2. Cut straight up the entire back of the shirt from hem to neckband.
  3. Flop the shirt over to the front and cut a slit just through the center of the neckband.
  4. Then cut around the neck band toward the back of the shirt on both sides, stopping about an inch and a half from cutting off the entire neck band on each side.
  5. These little flapping pieces of neckband will now be your ties.

Just have your child(ren) put on the shirt with the open slit at the back and use your two pieces of neckband to tie a loose knot at the top. That’s just how easy it is to make a mess-saving painting smock.

 

Shared at:
 Home Matters Linky Party

 

 

Pitching a Tent in the Great Indoors

Pitching a Tent in the Great Indoors

Posted on by Mama

indoortent

You might be a redneck, or just testing out new camping cots; but any rate, yes, that is a full-size tent in the middle of my living room floor.

My husband and I have been talking about camping with our four-year-old son for several months now and ventured upon an outdoor sale at the local sporting goods store that quickly resulted in a “test run” of our new sleeping arrangements. When my husband suggested we set up the tent to make sure the new cots fit, I thought he meant outside somewhere. Nope, here’s proof that we indeed camped in the great “indoors” last week. I have to say, the facilities were top notch — super clean, lots of toilet paper and hot and cold running water!

Secret Subject Swap — Mike Rowe, Come Clean My Dreamcatcher

Secret Subject Swap — Mike Rowe, Come Clean My Dreamcatcher

Posted on by Mama

Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This week, 16 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

My Secret Subject is:
Every so often a dreamcatcher must be emptied of the nightmares it catches.  Who does it and why?

It was submitted by: www.someoneelsesgenius.com

Hmm. . . this is a tough one. Mainly because I haven’t a clue when it comes to my dreamcatcher etiquette. While I am familiar with the design and basic concept of this legend, I had no idea that one said catcher ever got full or needed to be emptied. Sounds like a dirty job to me — we might want to call in Mike Rowe for this one.

The reason behind my dreamcatcher naiveness is probably that I’ve never given it much thought because I’m not a big believer in superstitions. Okay, so I eat black-eyed peas on new year’s day,  but that’s because I love those little beans and I like forcing the rest of my family to eat just one “tastes like dirt” pea (my husbands words, not mine) once a year.  

Now don’t get me wrong, I love all the stories, history and interesting ideas behind many of the superstitions, some of which are almost as old as time. I find it amusing to see how these mysterious beliefs have been handed down through the ages and how they make perfectly logical people act in silly, serious, irrational or even reverent ways. Don’t you dare spill a speck of salt in front of my husband and not expect him to toss a few grains over his shoulder. As for me, if I thought about the repercussions of every ladder I walked under, umbrella I opened indoors or black cat that crossed my path, I think I would worry myself sick.

So let’s get back to dreamcatchers. Since my knowledge of this Native American legend was so limited, I decided to do a bit of research and found an article at Lifescript.com titled “The Truth About Dreamcatchers,” so it must be accurate. Right? A dreamcatcher is made from a wooden circle and some type of “string” woven to resemble a spider’s web. Apparently there is significance in how the threads are woven, and there definitely needs to be a hole in the center of the webbing.

The legend states that if you hang a dreamcatcher over your bed while you sleep, the good dreams will go through the hole in the middle while the nightmares become ensnared in the webbing. I have no idea what happens to those so-so ones that are just epic day-in-the-life head movies that go on and on but never end. . . But I digress.

So this is where it gets really interesting. According to “The Truth About Dreamcatchers,” when the sun comes out in the morning, all the captured nightmares just evaporate. Evaporate? Well, this indeed is good news for me, because now I no longer need to employ someone to kick my nightmares to the curb (or cart them off to the recycling station) and yes, Mike Rowe, you’re off the hook.

*****

If you want to read more of the fun, here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts.  Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

 

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