Our family Tree . . . wall!

So I was lying in bed a couple weeks ago trying to decide what to do with the hallway. We had just painted it (we paint a lot) and, in our neverending effort to gain more space in our not to terribly huge house, we hung a really cool shelf thing on one wall to hold all our herbs that we pick and dry.  I had a dry erase board for the kids on the other wall, on the bottom half, but I wanted to do family pictures above that.  

So while lying in bed this picture popped into my head of a tree with branches entertwining around family pictures.  This is what I came up with.

It was really very easy.  I taped some paper to the wall where I thought I may like pictures.  Then I took some chalk and outlined a tree.  Then I got some black wall paint (yes, we have some black walls in the house too) and I just kind of freehanded the tree using the chalk outline as a guide.  It didn't take long at all.  Maybe a couple hours.  Of the whole project though taking the pictures, printing them out and getting them in frames (some of which I had to spray black too) was by far the hardest and most time consuming part.

My Paper "pictures" and chalk outline

I put a picture of Charlie and I at the top.  Around that I put pictures of us holding each of the kids as babies, then on the bottom I did recent a picture of each kid, that I can switch out as they grow.  If I had more room (or used smaller pictures) I would have loved to do pregnancy pictures too.  I'll have to reassess the layout if (Lord willing when) we have more kids! 

A view from the other side (yes, that is Piper holding a chicken, Lele)

 I could have made the tree trunk go down lower, but my original intent was to have a bunch of roots down there spreading out across the wall.  Then after I painted it on I thought roots (and more branches, which I had also intended to do) may be too 'busy'.

This is a view down the hall (dry erase board on the bottom left, herb storage right)

This is our cool dry herb storage!  We haven't put all the herbs in there yet but it holds our recycled jars nicely!

Halloween Crafts to do with the kids

We have been super busy around here lately (I know, what's new right?).  In the last month we have finished tiling our bathroom and shower upstairs (that used to be a closet) and we put in wood floors for the whole upstairs and hosted a birthday party and Brunswick stew for 60 people!! Sooo, I haven't been feeling too crafty lately (though I do plan to do at least 1 craft with the kids before Halloween).

I did want to share 2 cool crafts that we did last year for anyone looking for last minute ideas, something that is sturdy, long lasting and can be brought back out year after year.

Halloween Jars

Our Halloween lighted jars as I displayed them this year.  I only used a strand of 50 clear lights, though with this number of jars I realized that a strand of 100 would have worked better.

At the beginning of the month I pulled out our Halloween jars again.  We made them last year and I LOVE these things!!  I love how festive they are, I love how cozy they make the house feel and the amount of light they put out is perfect . . . they are just fun to have around.  Here is the post from last year where I talk about how we make them.  Lighted Halloween Jars

 Skeleton Door Man

I call him that because he sits at our front door to greet people

We also made a PVC pipe skeleton man last year.  He sits on the front porch.  I got this idea from Family Fun General Bone E Part    What I like about this craft is that you can take it apart, throw it in a bag, and put it back together next year.  Also though definitely not anatomically correct, you can use it to teach a little about bones and joints as the kids work it like a puzzle to put it together.  It is a bit more involved than the jars, well, meaning that you have to buy the pipe, pieces, and then figure out cutting and assembly (and we didn't follow the directions exactly, because we never do, LOL) but it was easy considering the result, and super easy to put away and pull back out for this year.

Now I leave you with a view of autumn at the Mason household

3 boys jumping on a wet trampoline, covered in wet leaves, in their bathing suites . . . I will not share how hard it is to remove crushed wet leaves from hair, clothes, carpet etc ;0)

Low Water Immersion dying (tie-dye look) with Dylon

 I posted a few weeks ago HERE about how I was taking all my stained baby clothes and dying them.  Duh, I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before (especially considering that my brain functions so well most days).  I did the baby onsies, t-shirts, and then the kids tees and some prefolds too.

So as promised, I am sharing how I did it.  It was super easy really.  The look is that of tie dye, but it isn't technically I don't think.  It is called low water immersion dying or LWI (detailed instructions below).

Those of you who are reading and dye clothes often (or even to sell) know that Dharma and other fiber reactive dyes you get online are superior to anything you can find in the store.  But I was looking for something that I could just run out to the store to buy. Actually I was trying to keep from having to spend too much money all at once, and I could pick up a few colors here and there as needed.

I used Dylon.  You can get it at craft stores like JoAnns (that is where I got mine).  Stay away from Rit, it is a different type of dye and will bleed with every washing . . . no good.  After a couple washes Dylon doesn't bleed and so far the colors have held up and still look great after several washings! 

There are 6 basic steps

1. Wet your fabric (or if it is new wash and leave damp)
2. Scrunch in a small container
3. Mix up dye/salt etc.
4. Pour on dye
5. Wait
6. Rinse/wash

What is Low Water Immersion Dying?

It's easy . . .basically you are dying your fabric using much less water than instructions call for and the fabric doesn't free flow in the dye bath, rather you pour it straight on the clothes in a more concentrated form.  In order to get the contrast in colors/shades with LWI dying you take your fabric and scrunch it up and stuff it into a small container, something that leaves little room for the fabric to move around.  Then when you pour on your dye it soaks into fabric at different intensities since it is all bunched up.  Some fabric will get a direct hit with full strength dye, the crevices and folds will just get a hint of the dye and will be much less intense.  If you use 2 colors poured on separately they will blend where they touch each other making wonderful variations in color and contrast. And best of all . . . did I say it was easy?

Choosing colors

With LWI you can use just 1 color if you like.  If you choose 1 color you will get the same look, with a lot of contrast and swirly patterns, but with, well,  just 1 color (so you will have lighter and darker shades of the same color). I have done it with wonderful results, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it (it was a gift for my sister).  If you choose 2 or even 3 colors you will get beautiful contrast and mixing of colors where they meet each other.  You want to choose colors that will complement each other.  For example the first one I did was red and blue.  In the areas where the colors combine they will mix together, so my final product looked like it had 3 colors . . . red, blue and purple. I have also done 2 of the same color (light and dark blue) which was Ever's idea and I loved it!  And some combos (pink and green) didn't turn out that hot.

Some examples 
(click any picture to view it larger)

Red and blue

blue and yellow

prefolds, one with green and pink (not so hot together) the other 2 shades of blue (much better)

When doing black with any color remember that the black is so dark that it will completely cover any other color you add.  I used the same amount of the black and red (1 cup each).  Some of the shirts turned out great, with great contrast, but others in that batch were mostly black.  It just depends on how much of the black got to them.  So next time I'll probably use more color and about 1/2 the amount of black.

Black and Red

But enough of my blabbing on about it lets get to the specifics 
Lets Go Step by Step 

(so you won't have any excuses not to try it, because it is SO easy!!)

1. Wet or wash your fabric

Follow the directions on the back of your Dylon dye packet (as to washing and the type of fabrics recommended).  I mostly used old/used shirts so I didn't need to wash them, they were clean and had been washed MANY times.  I just wet them and rang them out.

2. Scrunch your fabric into a small container.

The idea is to get the fabric as scrunched as possible, so considering what you are dying, try to choose a container where the fabric, when scrunched, takes up the whole bottom surface.  If you are doing just 1 small shirt then you may be able to use a small bowl or even a cup for a baby shirt.  I was doing several small shirts/onsies etc. so I used glass baking dishes.

wet fabric, scrunched into a baking dish and ready to dye, this is several baby t's and onsies

3. Mix up your dye
(First, be mindful that if you spill any of this on your clothes, it will dye them)

This is where it gets a bit tricky (though I have done all calculations, so it should be easier for you).  1 pack of Dylon is supposed to do 1/2 lb (8oz) of fabric.  Yes, I do have a postage scale, no I am not taking the time to weigh all my fabric.  They say that 1 adult T-shirt is approx 1/2 lb, and I figure that what I am dying in this batch (onsies, kids t's etc.) probably equals 1/2 of an adult shirt, so I am going to want to use approx 1/2 a pack of dye.  I am winging it here (no worries, they turned out great).

I want to mix 2 colors so I am going to use 1/4 pack of dye for each color.  The instructions say to mix 1 pack of dye with 4 T. salt and 4 cups of water.  I measured the dye and each packet has approx 4 T. of dye.  So that means that when dying with Dylon, per packet, you will have 4T. of dye, per 4T. of salt, per 4 cups of water.   So you decide how much of each color you want to use. 

Not to get too crazy, but since there are 3t. in 1T if you were doing something smaller, like just 1-2 onsies, and you wanted to use 2-3 colors . . . you could go as small as 1t. dye, 1t. salt per 1/3 cup of water (you get the way it works).  You'd also probably be using a much smaller bowl or a cup even to scrunch them in.

So when doing LWI with Dylon, for the amount of clothes I am dying in these pictures (approx 1/4 lb, give or take) I am using 1 cup of dye per color (each cup containing 1T dye and 1T salt).  That is pretty much the formula I use.  If you are doing more than I am here, and want to use 2 colors, you may want to do 1/2 packet per color (2 cups per color, each containing 2T dye and 2T salt).  So, is that as clear as mud?

I am cheap so I wanted to use as little dye as possible, and though I am pretty sure I used less than recommended for the weight of the fabric they still had vibrant color, I think in part because I was just pouring it straight on.

I mixed my salt directly in my water, and I use HOT water. Once the salt is mixed I added the dye.  MIX WELL, sometimes the dye doesn't dissolve well and if that happens and you pour it on your clothes it will leave speckles (ask me how I know ;0)

Note . . .the packet says to add your cup of dye to a basin of water, but just skip that part, we are pouring the dye directly on the clothes we do NOT want to dilute it further because we are not dying the whole article 1 even color (and that is what the instructions on the packet are for).

So to recap this step
(since I am so long winded above and probably confusing you)

• Choose your colors and how much dye you think you need for the fabric you are dying
  
• Depending on the amount of fabric you are dying and number of colors you want to use, mix 1T dye and 1T salt per 1cup of hot water

See, simple when you put it in just a few words ;0)

dyed baby tee and prefold

4. Pour on your dye

If you are doing only 1 color cover all the fabric, if you are doing 2 or 3 colors you want to pour them on 1 at a time, leaving some white areas for the next color (so that each color hits the fabric directly, and they can then blend where they overlap).  

When doing 2 colors, I do the lighter color first, then the dark.

Red dye first

then I added the blue

Yellow dye

yellow with blue added

For the batch above I did more shirts, so I used a larger container and 3 cups of dye, a different color each (1T of dye and 1T of salt per 1 cup of water for each color).  I used 2 blues and a green.

You want to make sure the fabric is completely covered with dye, and no white showing. There should be plenty of excess dye water surrounding the fabric (it won't soak up all the dye, it should be mostly submerged in it).  I liked using glass because I could look underneath to make sure the dye got all the way to the bottom and that the fabric soaked it up well.  If you feel that you haven't used enough dye to completely soak into all the fabric, then you can either add more dye or add a little water to mix with the existing dye in there and get your fabric submerged a bit more (I have done both and they worked just fine).

Most people recommend not moving the fabric much at all, so that the colors don't mix too much and you get more contrast.  However, I noticed that some of my fabric had white spots where the dye didn't reach it at all, and I didn't want that.  So now I will poke the fabric down into the dye and even maybe lift it up just a tad and drop it back down, to help the dye get into the folds a bit better.  This is something you have to just experiment with.  You have no guarantee how it will come out, you just have to wait and see.

Which brings us to our next step . . .

5.  Wait

When leaving the dye to sit in the dye water, I put a weight over the fabric to submerge it, most anything that fits inside your container will work. I used a pie plate that fit inside the baking dishes and then I put something heavy on it.  That pushed the fabric down in the dye more.  I think it would still work fine if you didn't do this, but a lot of people recommend it. 

My fabric being weighed down, and that is a jar of kefir brewing on top ;0)

 I like to let it sit like 4-6 hrs.  I have not experimented much with the time and the results but I figure longer won't hurt. If I couldn't leave it as long I would probably microwave it in like 30 sec increments for a couple minutes, just to make sure that the dye took well.  I did it for one batch that I did before bed so it only sat for an hour or so, and the results were fine. I figure it can't hurt.  Well actually it could hurt if your fabric was dry.  Make sure to only microwave WET fabric!!

6. Rinse

After you let it sit for the length of time you decide, it is time to see the final results!!  Just follow the directions on the Dylon package.  Rinse, rinse, rinse . . . wash and voila! A tie dye look that only took a few minutes to do (seriously, I am long winded when typing but once you get down to doing it, it is super quick and easy)

The results from the above pictures

My first batch, red and dark blue, just rinsed

The blue and yellow

After washing and drying

Washed and dried

So, to recap . . Wet, Scrunch, Mix, Pour, Wait, Rinse

And your done!! 

And you have now saved all those stained t-shirts that would have otherwise been thrown away (or used as rags) and THAT saves money!!  OR you can dye your diapers, cloth napkins, slings or carriers, curtains, sheets or pillowcases. Let the kids design their own clothes (if they are like mine they are particular about the colors they want) or do matching shirts for the kids or family.  We like to wear the same color shirts when going to like an amusement park, to help us keep up with each other, and I try to dress the kids in bright colors at the park so I can find them amongst all the kids easier.

If you end up trying this out, feel free to send me the pictures (spiraldane@yahoo.com) and I'll post them here!!

Some random kids . . . no clue what their deal is but they look like trouble to me!!

How to fix those stained white baby clothes

So I was going through the baby clothes and I realized that after 5 babies that spit up a lot, I didn't really have any white onsies or t-shirts.  I LOVE those baby t's and the long sleeve shirts with newborns. White never stays white (those of you with kids KNOW this is a fact, LOL).  

Being the thrifty (downright cheap) person that I am, and refusing to just throw them away, I was thinking . . . what can I do with these things?  And this is what I came up with.

Dagyn 3 wks

4 weeks

4 weeks

It was SO easy and they turned out so well that I figured . . . why not do all the kids stained white T's (because we have plenty of them)

My crazy kids, Ever (4) Piper (8) holding Dagyn (4 wks) Arah (6) and Xian (10) holding a fussy Thrace (22mo)

I'll put up a instructions soon.  

I had to search around the internet for instructions and nothing I found fit the dye I was using so I had to experiment a bit.  But like I said, super easy!  I have been dying some prefolds too and had I known it was this easy I would have done it years ago (it has always been on my list of things to do that I never get around to).

We have gone jar crazy! Check out our Autumn jars!

I love, love, love these lighted jars.  I love the ambiance they give the room and the house.  They are a perfect accent!  So when I took down our Halloween Jars everything looked blah, and I didn't want to wait till after Thanksgiving to pull out the Christmas Jars (and we need to make more anyway because we gave some as gifts).  So I said . . . hey, lets do autumn jars!! 

I figured we could just do autumn colors and to make things simple, we would just collect leaves from the yard and decoupage them on.  Much easier for me because the kids weren't cutting, making a mess with paper etc. 

I am not going to get into the process again, but if you want to know how to make them check out my 2 previous blog posts HERE and HERE.

Finally I got a picture of all 5of them gluing their leaves on (well Thrace is just watching)

 I had them choose which color or colors they wanted for their jar out of what I had.  I only had orange and rad tissue paper so I improvised and used napkins to get yellow.  I wish I had some brown because I was curious how it would turn out, but alas, none to be found (and I was not going to the store).  They really did most of the work again, with me helping mostly the little ones.  The napkins were a bit tricky so I did do most of the mod podge on those.

Then we went out and each kid collected their own leaves! We live on a mountain in the woods so we have plenty of trees and leaves.  The leaves on the ground were too hard so we picked smaller leaves that were left on trees.  The cool thing is that they could learn about the types of leaves and trees while we were at it (Charlie knows all that stuff, I am clueless.)

 I had them just glue the leaves on with glue (some were tricky and I had to work with them to get them to curve around the jars and stick) and then we did the mod podge once they were stuck well.  I know they will turn brown (though some were brown already) but it doesn't matter, they are for the silhouette against the colored tissue paper when the jar is lit.

 I used the multicolored lights again because I couldn't get to the white lights, but I think ideally white lights would provide the best light . . . though the colored lights are softer.

You could really do anything you want that is autumn theamed, but these were easy for us!  We actually did these start to finish in 1 day (had them lit by evening) which is a record for us (usually I have a table full of scrap paper and partially decorated jars for days before we are finished).

I love these jars so much that I am thinking of how I can have them year round . . . Valentine jars, Easter jars, July 4th or summer themed . . . so many possibilities!!

Now, for an added photo . . . because hey, pumpkins are autumn themed and I didn't want to do a separate blog post with just a picture of me . . . but I did want to show y'all how I dressed up for Halloween . . . . 

21 wks

I did the same thing the only other time I had a belly on Halloween, when I was 29 wks pg with Ever . . . LOTS of fun (and lots of comments from people).

Lighted Halloween Jars . . . and other spooky stuf!!

We made these a few wks ago and I have been trying to get them up here to show y'all but I am still having a hard time finding time to blog.

I got this idea last year when I saw the lighted jars at the Not So Idle Hands blog HERE  SO CUTE!!  But alas, I was too late for Halloween, so instead I made Christmas Jars.  Some of you may remember them, I blogged about them HERE.  They turned out great and the kids had a ball making them.  In fact we are going to have to make more this year because we gave a bunch of them away as gifts last year.

I was very excited though as Halloween came around again so we could do some Halloween jars.  We made them the same way we did the Christmas jars.  They are pretty easy to make, but beware they are a tad time consuming and can be messy.  Though I was doing them with 4 kids so that will take longer.  My oldest two (10 and 8) could do much of it themselves, I helped with cutting and stuff, but the younger 2 needed some help with the Mod Podge. And since you have to do multiple layers it does take some time.  But it is worth it!!

I'll go over the instructions again for those interested.

Materials

• Glass Jars (I save all our peanut butter, pickle, pasta jars etc. so we never have a shortage of these)
• Tissue Paper (I chose white, orange, black, and green for Halloween, but you can also find holiday paper that you can use as well, then yo don't even really have to decorate it, just decoupage it on)
• Mod Podge or some other type of decoupage 'glue'
• A brush to brush the glue on
• Construction Paper or anything else the kids may want to decorate it with (we have used glitter, stamped paper shapes etc.)

Decorating

First you want to cut your tissue paper in strips, then cover your jar with a layer of Mod Podge.   We usually cover just a small section at a time, applying the Mod Podge then the tissue paper till the whole jar is covered.
To make the pumpkins more 'pumpkin like' we did the strips vertically but in the past we have done them horizontally too.  For some of the other jars, I just let the kids put the strips on however they wanted.

 Piper, Arah and Ever adding tissue paper to their pumpkin jars

(notice the dummy hanging from the rafters of the porch in the window behind Piper . . . 

Charlie made this with the kids just a few days before . . . he is creepy!!)

 Once you have the whole jar covered with the paper (and have trimmed off the excess on top and bottom) do another generous layer of Mod Podge over the whole thing, making sure to cover all the tissue paper with a protective layer.  It is delicate so take care (and tell your kids to be extra gentle).

Once you have done that, then decorate as you wish.  Each of the kids designed their own pumpkin face, then they got to do another jar however they  liked.

Piper and Ever putting tissue paper on their 2nd jars.

Piper (8) drew and colored some black cats (one she colored very dark black, the other she drew on black construction paper and cut out) and we put them on top of her purple jar (with black construction paper stripes on top and bottom) for a silhouette.  Xian (10) did a green Frankenstein.  He used black construction paper for the face and hair.  Arah (6) drew a lot of ghosts and things that he thought were 'scary' out of plain white paper, and then cut them out and put them on his purple/black striped jar.  And Ever (3) made a purple jar too, but he added squares of other colors of tissue paper over that along with a few cut outs.  I made the white ghost.
Make sure you do a coat of mod podge over any additions to your jars.

You can use anything to light them.  Being glass, candles will work.  You can also use battery operated tea lights (I have heard that you can get them at the dollar store 2 in a pack).  I have them all lined up so using a string of lights is easiest.  Usually I will use white but apparently those were like in the bottom of the Christmas box and not so easy for Charlie to get, so we used multicolored instead and they worked fine.

For some reason my pictures of these jars didn't turn out as good as the ones I took of the Christmas jars last year, but you get the general idea.

We had a Halloween party with our local natural families group (love those guys!!).  The kids always have a ball!  We had pinatas, crafts, games, lots of goodies (we made halloween shaped sugar cookies).  Thank goodness we have friends with large houses and generous hearts who are willing to host our bi-weekly gatherings and potlucks (which can sometimes get VERY large).

 Xian (monster) Arah (ninja) Ever (lake monster) Piper (witch) and Thrace (giraffe) 

and our homemade skeleton man (made with PVC pipes, we got info from the Family Fun website)

Hope YOU have a great Fall season!!

Decorative Tissue Boxes

 

So we decorated these tissue boxes for Valentines day, for the kids to put their valentines in.  I got the idea from the Family Fun magazine/website.  So afterwords I was left with a dilemma.  I don't typically buy tissues in boxes like this so I bought 4 boxes for the kids to decorate and I was left with a pile of tissues.  So here I am looking at the tissues trying to figure out what to do with them when I was struck . . . duh, the kids are finished with their party, why not stick the tissues back in the boxes!!

They are SO cute!!  I thought . . . what a fun idea!!  You can buy tissue boxes, take the tissues out, let the kids decorate them then pop the tissues back in!!  We have one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom and one in the office (Xian wanted to keep his in his room for all of his stuff).

 Ever painting is monster

Ever and Arah made monsters out of their boxes, and Piper made a cat!  But you could really do anything.  You could make any animal or design!  I let the kids paint them and then decorate with stickers etc. but you could use glitter, or decoupage pictures, paper, or designs, hot glue twine or sticks, leaves.  You can let the kids go wild and do whatever they want or you could do a theme to match a particular room.  The options are endless!!

 Arah painting his monster

The kids did these mostly by themselves, I only helped a little.  They loved it and they really love seeing their boxes on display and being used by the whole family!  Not only that, but I think it encourages them to actually use the tissues instead of their fingers or shirt (which really comes in handy when everyone has mild colds and snotty noses, like we do now, LOL)