fridge magnet christmas tree.

i'm back in the land of the living! first trimester is over and i'm pretty much functioning like a normal person again :-) SUCH a good feeling! for anyone interested, the accupuncture and magnesium pills saved me - for anyone that deals with Hyperemesis Gravidarum {aka extreme, extreme "morning" sickness}, i beg you to try these 2 things out! i was better several weeks sooner this time than last time!

ok, now onto my reason for posting!

i'm having a blast making emery a part of christmas this year - she's been having so much fun with all the decorating and DiY projects going on at our house right now! this fridge magnet christmas tree is right up her toddler alley...

if you missed it, the tutorial is pretty much the same as the fall magnet tree. 

• i taped green paper on the fridge, free-handed the tree shape, and cut it out. 
• printed off ornament and star clipart on cardstock and cut them out.
• and laminated it all for 25 cents a foot at Mardel. easy peasy.

{while i was sick on the couch,
emery developed an obsession with being naked.
i hear this is normal, but i don't how she
isn't freezing!}

this is perfect for her to play with while i'm cooking dinner or cleaning the kitchen, especially because the ornaments on our real tree are no-nos :-)

what are some fun ways you make christmas decor kid-friendly??


love and happy toddlers,
amber.

fridge tree with magnet leaves.

i'm practically giddy thinking about september 22nd. it begins the seasonal wonderfulness that i look forward to every year and i'm so ready for emery to be a part of it!

i absolutely refuse to decorate for fall 1 day before fall actually begins. that being said, i couldn't help but start this project for emery so i could get it ready in time! if you're looking for seasonal fun for your little one, read on!

incase you want to get into my brain, here's how this project evolved. i was looking through my preschool curriculum, writing down anything that would be age appropriate for my 15 month old. when i got to the Fall curriculum, i remembered i had taped a tree to a cookie sheet for the kids and made magnet leaves for them to place on the tree. i immediately wanted to make one for emery and wrote it down on my list.

a few minutes later, i remembered this 

that i found on pinterest from solandrachel.com a few months ago and thought was super cute. i loved the idea of making it huge and decided to do it on the fridge. it would save a cookie sheet from being held hostage for a few months, and a bigger tree equals more fun.

being the project-obsessed girl that i am, i immediately got started. {i'm the kind of person that has to start right when i think of it, or it will never get done} 

i taped construction paper to the fridge and then sat on the floor and stared at it in fear for a few minutes. flashbacks of a highschool self portrait came to mind when i tried to draw myself climbing a tree. my eraser was my best friend that semester. 

 after a good 5 minutes, i finally got on pinterest and found this

thank you, thank you, to whoever made this. my branches don't look as ridiculous now. {i always want to draw trees with the trunk being one massive arrow with awkward branches coming off the side, rather than splitting it halfway up into a few different branches. this gave me a good visual on how to split them.}

i used clear tape and secured each place on the paper where a part of the tree overlapped from one page to the next.

then i got to work, cutting the tree out while it was still on the fridge. i didn't like the idea of wrestling with it and spinning it around as i cut each branch at a different angle. i'm lazy like that.

hmmm. it should be a little taller up top
{i've never seen a flat-top tree in real life}, but overall, i'm satisfied.

i took it off the fridge and tucked it away to keep it safe from curious hands until i could get it laminated. and then i cleaned the gobs of brown paper off the floor so my husband wouldn't know our kitchen had been a disaster.

next, i found clipart for leaves at this link. i printed them off {you should use cardstock. i didnt. it was harder.} and traced them on red, orange, and yellow construction paper. i used markers to highlight them and make them more interesting.

{i did 45 leaves.}

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: mardel will let you laminate stuff for 25 cents a foot. true story. i went and got these bad boys and a christmas tree version with ornaments laminated for $2.44. i walked out of the store one happy mamma.

see that fairly innocent bowl of chocolate chips?
i most definitely forgot they were there after emery woke up.
i went to clean the kitchen and came back to this:

good thing you're cute...

 the magnets i had on hand were really thin and i was nervous they weren't going to hold, so i went ahead and broke my "don't decorate early rule" put it all up just to make sure. it was a hit!

we are now sporting a diaper because her
chocolate drenched clothes are soaking
in oxyclean. does chocolate stain?
i dont know, but i keep ruining her clothes
so i wanted to play it safe.

love and leaves,

amber.

tree branch jewelry holder.

good thing i'm not one of those bloggers that maps out her blogging goals for the next year, planning to post on a regular basis about predetermined topics, cause i'd get an F. 


this blog is strictly about what i'm already doing. i will never make up a project just to do a blog post. my daily projects lately have consisted of packing, moving, deep cleaning, unpacking, and rearranging. not blog worthy, therefore, no posts in the last 3 months. {i'm pretty sure the 5 people that maybe read this blog don't care at all anyways.} but, along the way there have been a few projects...unfortunately in my rush to get them done, i didn't take step by step photos, but here are the end results and the tutorial :-D

{yes, i know, 
this thing is a beast.}

creative idea # 6: tree branch jewelry holder
idea sparked by: PrettyHandyGirl
     {first, let me just start all this by saying, go look at this girl's tutorial, please. I will never ever tell you my version is cooler than her's. ever. in my need for speed to complete all the projects i've had since we moved, i was looking for something quicker than the amazing quality job she did on her's. if you're looking for a quick fix, aren't super handy, and/or have already written a thousand page honey-do list for your husband, try out my quick version}

tools:

• sticks {with as many branches as you can find. we found huge ones in our new yard from our neighbor's trimmed tree. (i kinda wish we had to go hunt in the woods for them though. free date night!) i cut them to size and trimmed the branches shorter to make the jewelry more easily accessible}
• super glue
• flower pot
• river rocks {$1 at the dollar store}
• chip clip

directions:

• arrange the sticks in your hand like you would hold a flower bouquet. make sure they're pointing in different directions to make it more visually appealing.
• still keeping them in place, set them in your flower pot and fill pot half way with river rocks. let go. {yes, they are going to move, but i wanted them to be in the general area they would be in the end so i wouldn't have to poke them into the rocks over and over before deciding where they should go.}
• the way you tackle this next step will depend on how thick your sticks are at the base. Mine were thick, so i chose 2 of them, super glued them together right above the rocks, and used the chip clip to hold them together. An hour or so later i came back and glued the next one on and clipped it together again. If your sticks are thinner, you could maybe do them all at once. {just  be careful not to glue the chip clip to the branches. no, this didn't almost happen to me...}
• after the glue is dried, remove the clip and fill the pot the rest of the way with the rocks. 
• hang jewelry. be happy. maybe blog about it. enjoy the fact that your jewelry is no longer tangled and completely taking up the entire top of your dresser. {i did all of the above.}

love and tree branches, 

amber.