Watercolor Art

A while ago I wanted to pick up a new hobby that I could do with the kids. My husband has always loved watercolor painting! He likes to paint scenery and I wanted to do more graphic pop art. I also thought it would be a fun family activity. My oldest Daughter has always loved art, so I knew she would take to it right away and sure enough both my girls were loving watercolor painting. Now that we have experimented with it a bit we realize that it's something we all love and a great way for us to connect as a family and get our creative juices flowing. We pulled out the watercolors just the other day to create some fun Valentine's Day decor. We love our finished products! Here are my tips for getting started with watercolors.

1. You don't need expensive paints. Honestly for kids the crayola watercolors are great.  

2. Brushes and Paper are more important. HobbyLobby has some pretty good options and DickBlick has some amazing products if you are really loving this hobby and can spend a little more money. 

3. You need two jars of water. I like to use Mason jars. One is your clean water to use for activating the watercolors and the second is your cleaning water for when you want to clean and switch colors. 

4. Use warm to hot water in your jars, it will keep your brushes nice. 

5. Get a large plastic palette to mix colors in. 

Have fun and experiment a lot, let colors run together, use more water or less, use white to mix with to get those pretty pastels, and don't forget you can let paint on your palette dry and re activate it with water, that way you don't lose all that hard work it took to mix those perfect colors. Also try to mix colors you know you will love. You will be so much happier with the finished product! 

Happy Painting! Tag me on instagram if you try this!

- The Mommy 

Felt Garland Fun

My love of these little felt balls started a few months ago. I started to follow Hellomaypole on Instagram and fell in love with her beautiful, colorful, little felt balls. The are the perfect accessory for any Holiday or Child's room decor. After Christmas I purchased some on sale here for my girls shared room. Then I found some locally that were perfect for a Valentine's Day garland. If you haven't made felt ball garlands before and want to try this darling trend for your next party, holiday, or simple decoration I am going to share a few tips.

You will need a few supplies

1. Twine or String - I prefer twine it's cuter! 

2. Sewing needle

3. Most importantly and the secret to it all, a small pair of needle nose pliers. 

Once you have your supplies it's pretty simple. Thread the twine through your sewing needle, then push the needle through the felt balls and onto the twine. This is where you are really going to need those pliers. Once you push the needle through one side of the felt ball and through the the other side you will need the pliers to pull it all the way through. It's a bit time consuming but the finished product is too cute! It's the perfect Valentine's Day decor! 

We plan on having lots of fun with this cute trend this year!

- The Mommy 

BabyLit Books

Over Christmas time I started to see these darling books all over Instagram. Then my cousin text me telling me how much I would love these books. Then I knew I had to get my hands on some BabyLit books. They are your favorite classic stories turned into baby and toddler books. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Alice in Wonderland, Wuthering Heights, Wizard of Oz and so many many more. They have numbers, colors and other great sensory features. My 18 mo old absolutely loves these books. She likes them read to her but she also likes to flip through the darling colorful pages herself. I have to admit these perfect little books are a little bit for me too. Sense and Sensibility is one of my all time favorites not to mention that the colors photograph beautifully! Get your hands on these little beauties as soon as you can! Also included in these photos are the crazy popular FreshlyPicked Moccs. Can you even have a baby or toddler anymore without owning a pair or two of these? I don't think so! Really though I have to talk about the baby leggings. My darling friend made these and they are seriously the cutest! The different fabric on each leg makes them so unique. Her Etsy shop Lily'sCloset has even more unique gems, so check it out!

Thank you for stopping by!

- The Mommy