Pirates, Playing, and Pinterest:Finding Imagination and Adventure

 

 

I live with a bunch of pirates. My house is often turned into a treasure-hunting island in the middle of the sea and my couch's cushions are flung off making it a rugged sea worthy pirate ship. It is always an adventure.

 

 

I am not always a fan of my couch cushions being strewn about haphazardly or of the swashbuckling of swords barely missing my lamps. However, if there is one thing I am a fan of it is carefree imaginative play in my children.

 

All children should be able to let their imagination rule the day and enjoy daily adventures.

 

Sometimes as a mom I get so bogged down with the day to day stuff that I don't provide my sweet little Pirates with enough opportunities to have adventures.

 

I love that there are so many resources for providing both adventures and the ideas for them. 

 

I have gathered a few of my favorite Pinterest Boards for great ideas for encouraging play and adventure. The boards showcase anything from great play spaces to fun DIY costumes. Since I live with Pirates, I am also sharing some of my favorite pirate ideas from these boards.

 

One great board for fun pirate ideas is Disney's The Pirate Fairy Board. The board celebrates all things pirate with a fun addition to fairies too all in celebration of Disney's "The Pirate Fairy", which just happens to be an all new Tinker Bell movie now available on Blu-ray and Digital HD.

 

Available HERE

 

Here is one of my favorite Pirate themed projects from this Board. How cute is this pirate paper bag puppet?

 

 via Spoonful

 

Another board I LUHVE is Pottery Barn Kids Play Spaces Board. A good play space can come in many shape and sizes. There are quite a few swoon worthy play spaces on this board. There are also some really cute and easy to remake ideas.

 

This pirate boat is killing me. How cute would that be full of stuffed animals. Ooh or balls! So much fun!

via Apartment Therapy

Another great way to encourage imaginative play is through costumes. This DIY Costumes For Kids Board from Handmade Charlotte has SO many great costume ideas. There were several really cute pirate costume ideas.

My boys would love making themselves a hook to go with their pirate sword.

via Make and Takes

Did you know Etsy has Pin Boards? They do. They are marvelous. I love their Etsy Kids Board. There are so many ideas from projects and activities you can do to fun toys that will spark their imagination.

This Carrots of the Carribean toy is perfect for the baby pirates in your life. Could you die?

via Etsy

The last board I want to share with you is from one of my favorite party idea girls. The lovely Kara from Kara's Party Ideas has awesome Pin Boards. She just happens to have a whole board dedicated to Pirate Parties.

I have thrown a pirate party. I really loved it, but man oh man I wish I had this board to help out with some of the details.

So CUTE. I love the jute wrapped around the drink container.

 via Kara's Party Ideas

 

 

If you don't already follow these boards, go check them out and spend a few minutes...er uh...hours...hehehe...pouring over all the great ideas in these boards.

Happy Pinteresting everyone!

A Pinteresting Wednesday: Fold Over Clutch

Welcome to A Pinteresting Wednesday.

Um...I love this clutch.

Love.

Love.

Love.

When I saw this tutorial on Flamingo Toes, I knew I needed to make this and make it soon. I pinned it to my Projects To Do board.

Then I came across some left over fabric from these Tote Bags  I made for our teachers at the end of school. Right by that was some left over faux leather...known more affectionately as puh-leather.

The clutch was practically begging to be made.

This bag could really be made in one afternoon if you have everything on hand and as long as you are not tackled by wild couch climbing monkeys...aka my Little Men...

Since I was occasionally accosted by crazy couch climbers and I was short a zipper, this project took me two days total.

Once I had all the supplies gathered and a quite afternoon thanks to Cub Scout Day Camp, this clutch was made. Oh how glorious.

I love the fold over feature. It makes the bag super trendy. The corner details are quite lovely as well. That is where I used my puh-leather (ps I do know it should be pleather...just clarifying).

I used home fabric and duck cloth to make this bag. Since I used these materials that are heavier than cotton, I was able to forgo the interfacing that she calls for in her tutorial.

This clutch is perfect for a date night with The Hubby or girls night out. My wallet, phone and lip gloss (you know the essentials) fit snuggly inside.

Zip it closed, fold it over and bam, I am ready for a fun and fashionable evening on the town.

I would highly recommend this tutorial. Super fun and pretty easy to follow.

Another Pin down. Only...only...oh who am I kidding! There are way too many pins to count and I just keep adding to my Pin Boards every day.

Don't you just love Pinterest?

Follow along with Just Another Day in Paradise

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A Pinteresting Wednesday: Scripture Cover

The other day I gave a little sneak of this project. Yes on Instagram (follow along with me @larissa_anotherday)...my new obsession.

I busted out the sewing machine after a month and a half of not sewing a thing. Sewing was so overdue. My sewing machine was practically weeping in the corner of my sewing room. Poor baby.

Good thing I had the pieces for this Scripture Cover Tutorial from A Lemon Squeezy Home all cut out and ready to go...

I, uh, actually have had them cut out for over a month.

I pinned this tutorial on my pinboards right when she posted it.

My 9 year-old has had a set of scriptures but no way to carry them around, except with his somewhat reverent and grubby little hands.

He has been begging for his own case to carry his scriptures.

My motivation and the time available finally met up and I whipped out a Scripture Cover for Oldest's scriptures.

I grabbed some of my favorite boy fabric from my stash. I have had it on hand since Oldest's bowling themed birthday party from way back when.

The cover came together pretty easily. As easily as one can do a project in a Summer afternoon with a houseful of monkeys, that is.

Her instructions are easy to follow. What I love most is that her tutorial has a divider flap.

Easy for opening up and reading both his Bible and his Book of Mormon.

Then the set of scriptures can close up, thanks to the little velcro strap. The straps are perfect for little hands to carry them around.

I will definitely keep this tutorial on hand for future little sets of scriptures and their little owners.

Another Pinterest project done!

Follow along with Just Another Day in Paradise on Pinterest.

A Pinteresting Wednesday: Magnetic Fridge Puzzle

Between the hours of 4:30 pm and 5:30 pm in our house is a period of time I like to call the witching hour.

Does this happen in your house?

About 4:30 the natives come up and are a little restless. They are carrying pitchforks and torches...okay more like Nerf guns, but you get the picture of insanity I am painting.

In the Chaos I have to repeat the same conversation over and over and over and OV-AH again.

Middle: "Mom I am starving!"
Mom: "Great! I am making dinner right now."
Little: "I need something to eat with my teeth."
Mom: "Perfect. Making dinner."
Middle: "Mahhhhm. I am STARRRRRVING! I need food now."
While climbing through the panty Little: "I want a treat."
Mom: "Nope. Making dinner."

Repeat conversation.
Pulling my hair out.
Repeat conversation again.

So when I came across THIS PIN while searching my For The Kiddos pinboard for this weeks A Pinteresting Wednesday candidate, well let's just say there was some major celebrating. By celebrating I mean, clapping my hands ever so quietly since Bean was asleep.

So the project seemed easy enough.

Take a puzzle. Luckily we have several sitting around.

Grab some sticky back magnets. Again, lucky me I had some laying around.

You will probably want to make sure all the puzzle pieces are there. That is some kind of miracle at our house.

Cut up the magnet strips, one for each puzzle piece.

Peel the paper off the magnet pieces, adhere to puzzle pieces by pressing the sticky side of the magnet to the back side of the puzzle piece firmly.

I was prompted to take the whole project a little further when I had the sudden horrifying image of puzzle pieces scattered about and sliding under the fridge. Poor puzzle pieces. In my head they had no home to go to.

I am not sure why it became imperative for magnetic fridge puzzle pieces to have a home, but it did.

So I made them one out of their existing box.

I cut a rectangular chunk out of the top, so the picture is right side up and facing the front.

Then I took the bottom of the puzzle box and cut it in half.

I hot glued the bottom into the box top like so.

Next I rounded up some stronger little magnets.

Then I hot-glued them to the back.

Then I stuck it strategically on the fridge to snare all ravenous natives.

And what do you know?

Victory. It worked.

Food-seeking rampage averted.

One pretty fun activity completed.

The Magnetic Fridge Puzzle was a hit. The only slit bump in complete puzzle fun was that sometimes the pieces were hard to get together without the piece popping off the fridge. That is when a little Momassistance was needed.

When the puzzle was done, dinner was pretty close to being done as well.

Plus Middle was so happy with finishing the puzzle by himself he didn't even notice he was STARVING anymore.

I am thinking there will be more Magnetic Fridge Puzzles in our future.

A Pinteresting Wednesday: Homemade Fabric Softener

I pretty much dislike, okay I strongly dislike doing laundry.

The only thing that keeps me doing it even in my intense dislike of the chore...

...well I dislike smelliness even more.

I think the reason that I am not a fan of laundry is because it truly is never EVER done. I can complete four loads of laundry and by the time I am done folding that load there is a whole other load.

Boo.

A new washer and dryer has helped. Delightful smelling detergent has also helped. Another thing I have started having a fondness for is fresh and lovely smelling fabric softener.

Unfortunately, the best stuff...you know the stuff that smells to.die.for...isn't always in our budget.

We ran out of softener quite awhile ago and I was just going without.

Then the other day I came across THIS post at One Good Thing. Remembering that I was fabric softener deficient, I pinned it right away on my Tips, Tricks, and Good to Know board.

I had everything on hand to make it AND it was laundry day, so I figured I would give it a go and see if Homemade Fabric Softener was worth the hype.

Her original recipe makes 1 gallon of fabric softener.

She mixes 6 cups of water, 3 cups of white vinegar, and 2 cups hair conditioner (it can be the cheap stuff). Since I was just testing it out, I actually halved my mixture and just did 3 cups water, 1 1/2 cups vinegar, and 1 cup conditioner.

I mixed the conditioner and vinegar together first.

Then I mixed in the water.

When everything was all combined, I poured it into a half gallon empty, and clean, milk container. I figured the chocolate milk residue wouldn't so much help my softener.

I poured some of it in a pretty little container. Yeah I am pretty sure I didn't need to, but sometimes I like surrounding myself with unnecessary but pretty things. I stored the rest.

To use, I just added about 1/4 cup of the softener in my fabric softener container of my HE washer and ran it like normal. In the first load, which was larger, I didn't notice the "ocean" smell as much. In smaller loads I did notice the smell. I actually washed a blanket and it was lovely and oceany fresh.

I am not sure it can really compete with the really good store-bought stuff, but it is cheap, still works, and I will be making my own fabric softener again for sure.

Happy Pinning!

A Pinteresting Wednesday: Baking Soda and White Vinegar Floor Wash

Another installment of A Pinteresting Wednesday.

I am not sharing a project from my pin boards this week. We are trying to make it through enjoy our last week of Summer, and I didn't have any time to check a project off my boards.

Also, true to my word I am trying to spend a little more time snapping pictures of Bean. More photo-taking, less project-making.

His eyes are two cups of crazy, right?

Since I am wrapping up Summer and capturing Bean in photos, today's pin is from my Tips, Tricks, and Good to Know board.

I love all of the non-toxic cleaning options out there. A lot of them include one of the three ingredients in today's floor wash. When I saw this PIN, I knew since this floor cleaner included Baking Soda, White Vinegar, and Dish Detergent it was a definite must try.

I have washed my floors with just vinegar and while it works, man talk about smelly. The boys hate when I mop with vinegar. HATE.

I was happy to find out that mixing the baking soda and detergent  in the vinegar smell was masked. Woohoo!

Simply mix 2 gallons of water, 1 cup of white vinegar, 1 cup of baking soda, and 1 Tablespoon of liquid dish detergent (I used Dawn, I have posted of it's magical cleaning qualities before HERE).

I like to heavy duty mop on my hand and knees with a rag. I think it is easier to get in there and really man handle the dirt and grime. This would also work with a mop though.

I was pleased with this cleaning mixture and will use it again. I might half it next time, especially if I were just doing one room.

So another Pin tested, another Pin successful. 

A Pinteresting Wednesday: Summer Skirt

I sewed for myself.

Woot! Woot!

I found this fabric for $2 a yard at The Mart. Yup it is true, sometimes you can still find cute fabric while shopping for milk, eggs, and bread.

Right away I knew I wanted to make a skirt from it.

I looked over my Project Pinboard and came across this skirt I had pinned.

Pin Here

I decided this skirt was just perfect for my striped material.

I wanted my skirt to hit high at my natural waist and I opted out of the bow, but those are the only changes I made.

This skirt was easy to sew and I did it in an afternoon.

I even put in an invisible zipper...not super well, so don't look close. BUT hey I did it now and I feel a little braver.

 

This skirt is super fun and a great addition to my Summer wardrobe. I feel super lovely and all girly while wearing it. Boy I love wearing skirts. It is pretty much the best part of Summer for me.

Once again Pinterest, I love you.

What have you pinned lately? Do tell.

I am still a pinning machine. To keep up with my oh-so-fascinating pins, follow me on Pinterest.

A Pinteresting Saturday: T-shirt Scarves

I am doing a new thing around here on the blog. I have decided to use Saturday to knock off a Pinterest project from my every growing list. Do you guys have one of those? You know the never ending list of cool things to try or to do or to make that have accumulated on your Pinterest board? Well my list is huge...if you wanna take a look just check out my Pinterest boards...heck if you wanna see how I continuously give myself more future projects just follow my boards and then you can watch my list grow.

I thought it would be fun to host a whole day every week just devoted to showing something that I have tried from one of my boards. I am calling Saturdays--A Pinteresting Saturday. On Saturdays I will either share a project I have accomplished, a tip I have used and if it really worked, maybe a review of recipe (although I share some of these on Recipe Thursdays), and anything else I accomplish from my Pinterest boards.

I am also thinking about possibly doing a linky party to go with it, so that other people can show off what they have checked off their own Pinterest list. Any interested in something like that? Let me know!

Okay, now that the introductions to A Pinteresting Saturday have been given, let's actually get this show on the road!

Today I am checking off the ever popular T-Shirt Scarf!

The original Pin

pinned from 

HelloGiggles

This is one of the easiest and fastest tutorials I have done in a long time. In one afternoon I got five made...and that was with doing some alterations which took a little more time...oh and with the occasional break for one of the Little Men. If I had stuck to the original tutorial then I would have busted out five in probably an hour.

So if you have some large men's or craft t-shirts laying around your house and want an easy peasy project, go and check out their tutorial.

I did alter their tutorial two different ways. First I, since I didn't have a bunch of t-shirts but I had a lot of t-shirt knit I altered the tutorial by using knit instead of t-shirts.

 Ultimately it is the same exact process except you start with knit.

I made sure that I folded the knit and then with the fold at the bottom I cut a rectangle about 16" wide and 21" tall, but that can totally vary up to what you like.

Then I refolded it so right sides matched and I sewed along the top edge (opposite of the folded edge). This creates a big tube of fabric.

Then I turned it right side out and put the seam at the top. I then proceeded just like the tutorial, cutting strips from the folded side up until about 1/2" from the seam.

Then I followed the rest of the tutorial to get my knit scarves.

I took a little break to spend some time with this Little Man who doesn't appreciate the fashion and cuteness of t-shirt scarves.

Next, I moved on to my next altered version of the tutorial. This time I did use a t-shirt.

I really wanted to add some braids into it...so I did!

Again, I pretty much followed the tutorial, except I made sure that a couple of my strips were a lot wider than the others.

Then I cut that strip into three and at the back I actually cut the three strips loose (so instead of being part of the big loops they were just three really long strips) so that I could braid them.

Braiding will take awhile. I kind of felt like I was braiding Rapunzel's hair...sigh love that movie!

Once I was done braiding, I tied off the end then I actually hot glued it back to the top of the fabric...basically I reattached it to where I cut it off.

Then I stretched it like in the original tutorial.

I took a strip of the bottom of the t-shirt and wrapped up the top, like in the original.

I attached a little bit of fake leather to the inside...and BAM my braided t-shirt scarf was done.

All in all I made five t-shirt scarves. I made one regular, one braided, and three from knit. Not bad for an afternoon's work.

These two are my favorite, for sure.

One Pinterest down...about a thousand to go!

What's on your boards? What have you accomplished? Do share! I think I have already picked what I am going to do for next week. Join me in picking a project from your boards to do this week.

AND don't forget, give me some feedback if you would like a linky party to accompany this post in the future.

Have a fabulous Saturday everyone!