Capes for Milo's Preschool

A couple of years ago, Huck was invited to join a preschool group at Autism Partnership as a Peer Helper. Since Huck isn't autistic, his role was (and continues to be) to be a behavior model and to help the kids there develop their social skills. Now that Milo is almost four, he has also been invited to join the program as a Peer Helper, and he has started going twice a week to a school-preparation Social Skills group. I am beyond thrilled because this is probably one of the best preschool programs in the county. The teachers are incredible, highly-trained professionals, and even though I have "typical" kids, this program teaches them how to get along with other kids, communicate their needs and make good choices. All for free for my little "volunteers."
As a "thank-you" back in 2010, I gifted Huck's class with a bunch of capes that I thought would be used occasionally for dress-up play, but ended up being used every day for when a child reached "Super Kid" status. The staff asked me if I could make a new set of capes for the kids this year. I was more than happy to do so, and I finally finished a set of ten capes and delivered them today.

I went for a gender-neutral color pallete of primary colors and mixed bold stripes, stars, circles and solids together with a simple star applique on the back of each. Last time I made the capes from shiny materials, but I found that a bit difficult to work with. I also wanted to make sure the new capes would be really durable and washable for regular use over time. I'm very happy with the way they turned out, and it was fun to pick Milo up from school today and see all of the little Super Kids in the new capes!

Teacher Appreciation Day Door

This year I volunteered (or, rather, was volunteered :) to decorate the door of Huck's classroom for Teacher Appreciation Day. Since the classroom theme is a beachy/Hawaiian/surf thing, I decided to keep that theme for the door decoration:

Mahalo means"thank you" in Hawaiian. I have to give full credit to my husband for the lettering. He has a great eye for typography and he did this very much off-the-cuff and totally freehand. 

Here is a low-angle shot so you can see some of the 3D elements of the door. (Apologies for the photo quality-I forgot to bring my real camera and had to take these with my phone.) I used tissue paper for the teacher's lei and the ocean, and those are little drink umbrellas dotted along the sign.
Happy Teacher Appreciation Day to all of you incredible educators out there!

Teepee!

I got this idea that the boys needed a teepee. Kind of silly, really, considering that we live in an overstuffed 1000sq ft. apartment with no back yard. (And I'm probably exaggerating a little when I say 1000 sq ft.) But, Pinterest! You know? Yeah. You know.

So I found a nice teepee tutorial and gathered a bunch of sticks, and drilled some holes and wrapped with yarn and Viola! I had a teepee shell.

And I spent a day or two looking at it before finally jumping into my stash and grabbing a bunch of old dress shirts that didn't fit Steve anymore and mixed in more fabric scraps and started sewing it all together until I had a slapdash patchwork sheet that fit over the shell.

My favorite part is the closure. I sewed up the fronts of two dress shirts, one on top of the other, and the buttons of the shirt fronts make the door. Then I patted myself on the back for being so darn clever.

And now I have this amazing teepee that doesn't fit anywhere in my apartment! We set it up in the boys room and they "camped" for a couple of nights, but most likely it is destined for the garage. Maybe I can use it as a beach shelter this summer, but I think I'll have to add stakes to the bottom because it was pretty windy today and it got knocked over. Or maybe I'll move so I can set this up permanently somewhere!

S'MOreos!

Every once in awhile I have a have a moment of genius. A few days ago, I started digging around in my pantry for a healthy snack, and this is what I ended up with:

That's right. It's a S'MOreo! Marshmallow toasted over a gas burner and smooshed between the two halves of an Oreo cookie with Nutella slathered on one side. (What? I said I was looking for a healthy snack, didn't I ;)
So, I thought this was my Million Dollar Idea, but if you Google "smoreos" it turns out that tons of people have been geniuses before me. But, still! S'MOreos!

LEGO Bracelet Kid's Craft Tutorial!

As promised, here is a tutorial for a cute Lego bracelet a child can make him or herself. With a little bit of pre-preparation, this would be a fun activity for a Lego themed birthday party where a child could make his or her own favor. I used a 4x6 bump plate, but I think a smaller 4x4 or even a 2x4 plate would make a nice sized bracelet. If you don't want to take pieces from your sets, and you're not lucky enough to have Lego store near you with a Pick-A-Brick wall, you can always buy individual bricks from lego.com's Pick-A-Brick section.

The Fine Print: Please remember that all tutorials, patterns and projects on Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! are for personal use only and may not be distributed commercially without my permission. Make them for yourself, make them for your friends, hand them out at your kid’s birthday party, but please don’t sell them without my permission. Making objects from my patterns for charitable donations is also okay, as long as you do not exceed 25 pieces for that purpose. If you want to make larger quantities or sell objects made from this pattern, please contact me for licensing information at sadsilver@gmail.com. For independent handmade sellers, I ask for a nominal fee ($5-$10/year) and a design credit. Thanks!

Materials

4x6 LEGO plate

2x4 LEGO plate

5mm elastic beading cord

Perler or pony beads

Superglue

Tools Drill and 3/16” drill bit Piece of felt or washcloth Tape Scissors

Using a 3/16” drill bit, carefully drill holes into the sides of a 4x6 bump Lego plate. You want two holes on each of the long sides, directly below the two center rows of bumps. Cut two lengths of 5mm elastic beading cord, each long enough to wrap around the child's wrist plus a few inches so that you can comfortably tie it off after the beads are strung.

Flip the 4x6 plate over and string 5mm elastic beading cord through the holes,going in one side and coming out of the other side.

Adjust your beading cord so that it is even on each side and snap the 2x4 Lego plate to the 4x6 plate on top of the beading cord. The 2x4 plate is temporary and is there to keep your beading cord from slipping out as you work.

Cover the child's workspace with a piece of felt or a washcloth to prevent beads from rolling and bouncing. String beads onto one of the cords until there are enough beads to reach halfway around the wrist.

After each cord is strung with beads, use a piece of tape to keep the beads from slipping off and continue to string the rest of the cords.

Check the bracelet size on the child's wrist and adjust to fit. (For reference, my 3 and 5-year-olds needed 9 or 10 Perler beads on each of the four cords).

Tie the elastic cord with a square knot. Very important: Have an adult add a drop of superglue to the knot and then pull it tightly closed.

When the glue is dry, slip the ends under the beads and then cut off the remaining elastic cord. Remove the 2x4 plate from the back.

Enjoy your new Lego bracelet!