Pink Swim Robe

I made a swim robe for Lena. I went back to Walmart for beach towels and discovered the price was 3 times what I paid when I bought Zack's! I couldn't believe they had raised the price that much in just a few weeks. I made a trip to JoAnn's to look at terry cloth, finding that they had some cute patterns but it was only terry cloth on one side. Does that make sense to anyone else? I ended up picking up some regular bath towels at Target. It's nice and soft. I'm pretty sure I want one for me. Just a nice, soft, plushy robe.

Sarah and I made a quick and easy craft yesterday, but I'm not posting pictures because I am going to make a few as Christmas gifts and I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Update

on the matter of my Pottery Barn Knock Off Mirror, it was too hot when I put on the last coat of lacquer finish and it crackled. Now I have to sand it all down and begin the painting over. Again. I may just wait until the fall for some consistent temperatures, even though I really want to have this project finished before moving into a new house.

on the matter of the Kaleidoscope QAL, I started sewing my blocks together. I ran into problems and I knew I was going to run into problems because I didn't have enough float on my piecing to make the blocks fit together nicely. Still, I crossed my fingers and plugged away anyhow. Now I must unpick and/or decide if I should start over or if there is anything salvageable from the wreckage.

I did, however, finish crocheting this bag:

It's actually huge. I didn't read the pattern to notice that it was going to be 44 inches circumference at its largest point. It was a stash buster project, so it worked out just fine. I wish I had placed the stripe a bit higher, but I was deviating from the pattern (which had no stripe) on that point. I have no idea what to use it for. I suppose toting swimming items seems the most likely.

Sponge Bombs

Yet another item that has been making an appearance just about everywhere in blog land-- Sponge Bombs. These took me about 10 minutes to make and the kids are loving them. They're inexpensive, too. I originally found them by Whipperberry but featured on A Little Tipsy.

Lena wasn't sure that she wanted to be throwing them at Zack or have them thrown at her. The kids were tried to find the bombs that had the same color combinations to make matches and they had fun splashing them in the pool. Until Rich joined in the fun and showed the kids how the throwing was done. After that, it's been a completely fun game of water bomb tag.

These were definitely worth making! They are less time than filling up water balloons and I didn't have to get wet like when I fill up the balloons. Not to mention they don't have the scare factor of a popping balloon for little kids, such as Phoebe. She can carry them around and have fun, too.

Swim Robe

Swim/beach robes are very popular right now. I first found them on Made and when I decided that I would make one for Zack, I went there to purchase her pattern, only to find that the largest size was a 4 and I figured Zack would need a 5. I looked through patterns at JoAnn's and found a McCall's pattern (M4643) that was similar and McCall's patterns happened to be on sale for $.99 each. Score! I let Zack choose a beach towel at Walmart (carefully steering him away from ones featuring large pictures such as Transformers or Spiderman. . .), bought 2 for $3.84 a piece, then went to work cutting them up. The pattern ended up only going as large as a 4, so I added to the pattern to what I guessed would be a 5.

He's loving his new "suit" and has worn it all day. Not too bad for my $10 investment, especially considering I've seen other blogs talk about creating them because store-bought versions are running as much as $70. I love that I can put it on him when he gets out of the pool and it will stay on him.
It ended up being a bit big, but that's fine because it will hopefully work for this year and next that way. I'm glad to know he'll have something that will be easy to put on and take off, something to keep him warm when the wind picks up and he comes out of the cold water at Bear Lake next month.

Tic-Tac-Toe!

The other day I came across this post for making a tic-tac-toe board. I thought it was adorable and the idea of having a game to take to the beach or out on the grass or even camping was appealing to me. This is easy to throw in the wash if it gets dirty and it eliminates the need for a writing implement, which is always a good thing for Lena since her implement tends to stray to objects other than paper-- in particular, her little sister. I am always on the lookout for something I can make for Zack, since he tends to be at the bottom of my "to sew for" list-- not because I don't want to, but there's so little to sew for a boy. I made a few changes to my version, mostly dealing with the pocket and how I made the lines (I used ribbon instead of fabric).

I picked up a twin sized flat sheet at Walmart for $5, some felt for about $2, and some gross grain ribbon. So, for under $10 we have a new game that I hope will last for a long time. I let Zack choose all of the colors and he coordinated very well. I know it looks patriotic, but that's a complete coincidence with the time frame. Without further ado, here is my version of tic-tac-toe.

Zack's favorite letter is "X" because of the sound it makes. We are learning phonics currently. His favorite color is also red, so it there's no question which letter he wants to "be."

He loves playing the game and wants to play it with everyone. Tricia played a few games with him today.

Is it any surprise that X wins a lot around here?

Here is the change I made to the pocket: rather than sewing a pocket onto the sheet, I folded up the bottom edge and created 3 pockets. One pocket to store the x's in, one for the o's and the other so that I can fold up the entire game like a quillow. The X and O that are on the pocket haven't been confusing to him as far as playing the game and getting 3 in a row, but I could see how they might be.

Here it is folded up and ready to be put away. The one thing I wish I had done was to put felt letters on this pocket to say "Tic-tac-toe." Especially since I am now having visions of creating more games in this manner. I may still add them on, but I can't use my machine to stitch them down now, so it will have to be hand stitching or fabric glue.

This is one project that I feel was definitely worth the time to make (it probably took me 3 hours to make). So, if you're looking for an easy project for the kids around your house, try this one out. It's been a huge hit here.