Guest Blogger Bitter Princess' Pennant Craft

Today I have a very special guest blogger here to share a fun craft for the kids.  Bitter Princess is a fashion blogger, and happens to be my daughter.  When she was assigned the task of creating an online tutorial for making a decorative pennant banner for her pre-algebra class, she decided Simply The Good Life was the place to share it.


So, without further ado...The Bitter Princess.


As a fashion blogger, I don't usually do posts about crafts. However, fashion doesn't have to only mean your clothes. You can express your style in the way you decorate your home, or even a party. This pennant banner craft is a perfect opportunity to express yourself in your house!

Right Triangle Pennant Banner

Choose a space for your banner to be placed. Next, measure the distance across that space. I chose a window that is five feet across. Now choose your paper. If you want to color or draw on it, now is the time. Your paper should be square. If it is not square, or not the size you want, cut it to the proper size. I used construction paper that was 8 15/16 x 11 15/16. I folded one corner over to make a square, and cut off the extra bit. This also gives you a diagonal line to cut to make two right triangles.

Once you have your first pair of triangles, you can determine how many triangles you will need. The first step to figuring out how many triangles you need is knowing how long the hypotenuse of your triangle is. Remember, the hypotenuse of a right triangle is the longest side. The quick way to figure this out is to simply measure the hypotenuse. If you are using this craft as a way to get your kids to do some math, now is your chance! 

Pythagorean's Theorem states that a² + b² = c². Since you start with a square, instead of a rectangle, you can use special version of Pythagorean's Theorem; 2a² = c². This is because both legs of the triangle are the same length. As you can see in the picture above, my hypotenuse measured approximately 12 5/8 in. I say approximately because it's actually measured 12 10.24/16 in, but that doesn't make a very nice fraction. If the length of the hypotenuse you measured and the length of the hypotenuse you calculated don't quite match, you may not have cut exactly at the diagonal.

Now that you know the length of your hypotenuses, you can figure out how many triangles you need for the length of your space. Remember that my window if five feet, which is sixty inches. Simply divide the length of your space by the length of your hypotenuse to determine how many triangles will fit in your space. As you can see in the picture above, it will take approximately 4.746 triangles. I can round that up to five triangles because I want my banner to hang down, not straight across. You can choose how you want yours to hang.

Once you have all of your triangles cut out, lay them out end to end and put glue along the edge of each hypotenuse. Take a piece of string a little bigger than all of your triangles, and put it in the glue.

After the glue dries, hang up your banner!

-BitterPrincess









Mid-week Morsel: Wish Lists for the 21st Century

As usual, right after Christmas, the kids start finding things they wish they would have put on their Christmas lists, or bought with their Christmas money.  And as usual, I tell them to ask for the items for their birthdays.  The only problem is that none of their birthdays are for a few months, and no on can ever seem to remember those really cool, I've gotta have it right now, items when the birthdays start rolling around.

This year, I decided to seek out a more modern way to keep track of all those must-haves.  A quick Google search showed that there are several free online wish list services available including, AddWish, WishListr, Giftster, and WantsThis.  I did a little more searching and found some reviews.  Using the information I found, I was able to narrow my list of possible sites down to two, WishListr & WantsThis.

Since they are both free, I decided to set up accounts on both sites so I could truly compare them side by side.  Both were easy to use, and visually appealing.  Both had nifty bookmarklet options to make adding items to the list convenient.  Both also allowed visitors to mark items as purchased so as to prevent duplicates, however, there was one feature on WantsThis that I really liked; the rest of the family doesn't have to sign up for an account in order to view the kids' lists.  The reason for that just happened to be one of my daughter's favorite features on WantsThis.  Each user is given his/her own url.  It works like this; if I were to set up a wish list with the username Simply The Good Life, my url would be SimplyTheGoodLife.WantsThis.com.  My daughter thought is was really cool that the website's url stated that [she] wants this.  When it comes time to share their lists with family members, all we have to do is send one mass email with the each child's url, and everyone can keep up with their ever-changing wishes.  Hooray!

Karissa

Mid-week Morsel: Where NOT to Trick-or-Treat

Halloween is almost here.  It's the time of year when we are gearing up for the holiday season, and thinking warm fuzzy thoughts.  Most of us do not take the time to think about each and every house we let our little ones walk up to as they parade around town in their costumes, but we should.  We all like to believe that our neighborhoods are safe.  Take a moment to be sure.  The U.S. Department of Justice's National Sex Offender Public Website allows you to search your area for registered sex offenders.   Several states and counties hold Halloween events that specifically require offenders to attend so that they aren't out with trick-or-treaters, but it is always best to know if any offenders live or work nearby.  Point those houses and businesses out to your children and let them know not to interact with anyone there.   Knowledge is a very powerful tool.  Educate yourself and your children, and have a happy and safe Halloween.

Karissa

Halloween Costume Update: Round Eared Cap

I've finally completed  my daughter's Colonial American girl costume.  Here is the completed outfit.  One piece was particularly difficult to make; the round eared cap.  It's not that the actual project was difficult, just figuring out how to make it.  Overall, I'm happy with the end result.  Although, there were some hiccups along the way.  It's not quite as historically accurate as I'd like it to be, but this was a faster, more cost effective version.

Historically, women and girls wore these caps from the 1740's through the 1820's.  They were made of white linen, and obviously hand sewn.  There are historical patterns available, but I didn't want to spend the money on a pattern.  I looked at some pictures of finished caps, and a wonderfully helpful website with general instructions for making historical caps.

Mine, on the other hand, is made from an old white cotton pillow case.  It is mostly hand sewn.  I did use the machine to sew the draw strings.  I also machine sewed the casing for the draw strings, however my stitches were too close to the raw edge and it pulled out.  So, I ended up hand sewing that part, too.

I didn't follow any particular pattern.  I just took a few measurements of my daughter's head and cut pieces out of paper to try on her.  If I make another one in the future, I will definitely make it bigger.  What I thought would be the right size, ended up a little too small for her.  It would probably fit a 4-5 year old much better (she's 9).  

Here is my paper pattern with a 12 inch ruler for scale.  From top to bottom the pieces are the crown, ruffle, then band.  I cut two pieces of the ruffle.  If your fabric has a finished edge (selvedge), use that edge for the front edge of your ruffle. That eliminates the need to hem it.  I did not make a pattern for my drawstrings.  I simply cut two strips of fabric about 1/2 inch wide and 8-10 inches long.

Fold your drawstring pieces in half, lengthwise.  Stitch them shut.  Because they are so narrow, it is very difficult to turn them inside out.  My quick fix solution was to trim the raw edges, and seal them with clear nail polish.  I'm not sure how effective a solution this is for the long term, but it will at least get us through Halloween.

On to the crown...Because I didn't allow for extra room for a hem, I machine sewed my hem much too close to the raw edge and ended up having to hand sew it after it unraveled on me.  You can choose to either add an extra 1/4 inch or so to the bottom of your crown and machine sew the hem (or casing), or leave it as is and hand stitch it.  

Next, cut a small slit at the center of the casing.  Use needle & thread to wrap the hole like a button hole.  Use a safety pin to feed the drawstrings through the casing, letting the extra length hang out of the center hole.  

For the top of the crown, hand sew a running stitch for your gather.  I cut a piece of thread the same length as the length of the band.  That made it easy to fit the two pieces together.  Evenly distribute the gather and pin the two pieces together.  Be sure to include the drawstrings.  Whipstitch the crown and the band together using very small, close stitches.  After you have attached the two pieces, remove your gather thread.

Now for the ruffle...As I stated before, if you have a nice finished edge that you can use for the front of your ruffle, do it!  Since I made my cap out of a pillowcase, I had no nice edge.  I did not want to hem the front of the ruffle, so I again used clear nail polish to seal my freshly cut edge.  Attach the two ruffle pieces, end to end, with a couple of small stitches.  Next, cut another length of thread the same length as your band and gather the back edge of your ruffle.  Again, pin the two pieces together and use a small, close whipstitch to attach the ruffle to the band, removing the gather thread when you are done.

 

There you have it, a genuine fake Colonial America era historical-ish round eared cap!  I hope your hands and eyes don't hurt from all those whipstitches as much as mine do.  More importantly, I hope this tutorial helps make your project a little easier.

Karissa

Mid-week Morsel: So Much To Do...

 

You know the old saying..."So much to do; so little time."  That pretty well sums up how I feel these days.  We are up to our eyeballs with school.  There are projects to complete, lessons to do, and tests to take.  Many days we've found ourselves doing school up until time to start dinner.  After dinner is the battle of the shower.  Then, once I get the kids in bed, it's my time.  

Normally, I work on setting up the next day's lessons, and writing my posts.  However, right now I'm making a Halloween costume.  My daughter has decided to be a Colonial American girl.  After many hours searching the internet for patterns or even images of historical colonial fashion, I'm now making my own pattern based off of a couple of pictures of good reproductions.  There are a few historical patterns out there, but they cost more than I am willing to pay.

It's coming along nicely (after a couple of tries).  I'll post about it more once I get it complete, although I keep forgetting to take pictures as I finish each stage.  I'll start you off with a picture of my inspiration.  This is the best photo I've found of the type of outfit my daughter had in mind.  What do you think?  What will your kids be for Halloween?  Are you making or buying costumes?

Karissa

Mid-week Morsel: Talk Like a Pirate Day, It Be Me Hearties!

Shiver me timbers! Tomorrow is talk like a pirate day.  It's a great day to act silly and have some fun.  It's also a great day to sneak in a little history and science...along with the fun.  I've found the motherload of pirate resources for your little lads and lasses.

Before you can be a pirate, you need to learn about pirates.  Older pirates will get a real feel for the life of a pirate by watching any of the pirate documentaries a available on YouTube.  After that, let them learn which flags various pirates flew and what those images meant.

Younger pirates will get a thrill out of learning to talk like a pirate, and generating their own pirate names.  Disney has an entire subsite dedicated to pirate crafts & activities for younger children.

To be a pirate, you need pirate gear.  Younger pirates will enjoy this adorable yet simple duct tape sword.  This homemade compass is a great science lesson on magnetism.  Every pirate needs a telescope to see far off treasure.  I've found one tutorial that looks more like a pirate spyglass, but does not have lenses, and one less traditional looking telescope that gives a great explanation of how the lenses work to magnify distant objects.  Finally, pirates must love the water, and your little pirate will absolutely love making his own ocean in a bottle.

So smartly get yerself ready to be a pirate, or the youngsters may send you to Davy Jones' Locker!

Karissa
(Sal "One-Legged" Curnow)

Grandparents Day is Tomorrow!

Grandma & Grandpa, Mamaw & Papaw, Nana & Pawpaw, Mimi & Pop Pop...no matter what your kids call them, grandparents are special.  Did you know that tomorrow, September 8th, is National Grandparents Day?  There's no need to panic, though, I have already done the searching for you and found some great last-minute ideas for showing your children's grandparents how special they are...even if you did forget about Grandparents Day.  I know that when it comes to last minute gifts, money can be an obstacle, so I've put together a list of DIY gifts you and your children can make together at home.

Before you break out the construction paper and glue, check out this list of activities from Huffington Post that show Grandma & Grandpa how much they mean to you.

About.com recently updated their annual list of handmade gifts for Grandparents Day including this adorable Goofy Grandkids photo book.

If you are looking for gifts the kids can make that their grandparents will actually like, then these 9 ideas from Mom.me are for you.  From pill boxes to ice cream, these moms know what grandparents want.

Sometimes, all grandparents need is a kind word to remind them that they are loved, and a picture is worth a thousand words.  The Babycenter blog lists 9 gift ideas, many of which include pictures of your little ones.

One thing that long distance grandparents miss more than anything else is hugging their grandkids.  Grandparents all around the world will love receiving this paper hug in the mail.

Mid-week Morsel: 4th of July Crafts

Tomorrow is the 237th anniversary of our independence.  What a great reason to celebrate!  And children love to celebrate.  Waiting until dusk for the fireworks to start is so hard when you love to celebrate.  I've found a couple of websites that love to celebrate the 4th of July, too.  All Kids Network shares over 20 crafts kids can do to celebrate the 4th.  If you want more than crafts to help you celebrate, Enchanted Learning offers activity books, worksheets, and coloring pages in addition to crafts.  There's a whole lot of daylight between now and fireworks time, so break out your crafts supplies, warm up your printer, and get the party started.

Karissa

"Hand"made Father's Day Gifts

Father's Day is almost here, and like many Moms I find myself wondering what gift to give my husband.  He's a very practical kind of guy.  He doesn't need a lot of extras.  If he does need something, he buys it.  Naturally, my thoughts turned to handmade gifts.  Surely, there is something the kids and I can make for him.  After all, handmade gifts are always more special than anything store-bought.  After a few Google searches, and browsing a few Pinterest boards it hit me...we should make him a "hand"made gift; a gift made up of the kids' hands.  It's perfect!  The kids will only be this age and size once.  Next year they will be older and bigger.  As they continue to grow, this gift will become more and more special.  I've put together a list of ideas for budget friendly gifts created by children's hands you can make for the special father in your life.  I'll start the list off with our gift this year.   I put letter stickers on the cardstock (be careful not to press them on too hard), painted the kids' hands, and pressed them over top of the stickers.  Then I carefully peeled away the stickers to reveal the negative space letters.  Three $2.50 frames from our local dollar store, and mats made out of construction paper make this a fun and affordable gift.  (Oh, and if you don't have enough hands for each letter, consider painting a heart over the "a" instead of a third hand.)

Dad Handprint Wall Art

The Handprint Tree  

I Love You This Much Card

Handprint Wall Art

Quilted Handprints

Handprint Tie

Nested Handprint Art

Hands Down Card

What about you?  What are you giving for Father's Day this year?  Are you buying a gift or making one?  If you are making a gift, please share it with everyone in the comments below.

Karissa

Shopping Bag DIY

Earth Day is Monday.  It is one of my daughter's favorite holidays.  Her birthday is near Earth Day, and so she feels very in tune with it.  She is my little Earth Girl.  She loves projects that give her the opportunity to recycle, reuse, or reduce.  This year for our Earth Day project we re-purposed two of her favorite shirts into re-usable shopping bags.  She outgrew the shirts a couple of sizes ago, but couldn't bear to let them go, so with a few cuts and about 5 minutes worth of sewing we converted them to shopping bags she can use for years to come.  (Stains and all!)  The whole project only took about half an hour, and is simple enough for an 8-10 year old to do independently. Here is what we did...

Start with any t-shirt.  (Non-fitted shirts will give you more square bags.)
Choose old shirts from your closet or hit up your local thrift store.

Cut off the sleeves as close to the seam as you can without cutting the serged edge.
Not cutting the finished edge of the fabric will help prevent fraying.

Turn the shirt inside out and fold it in half.  Use chalk or pencil to mark where you
want to cut around the neck.  Use straight pins to hold the layers of fabric in place.

Cut along the line you drew.
Here is what it will look like at that point.

Flip the shirt inside out again, and sew a straight stitch across the bottom hem.
Here is the finished product.

What ideas do you have for recycling, reusing, and reducing?

Karissa

Mid-week Morsel: The Pi Life

The good life should always include pie, but today we are talking pi...as in ∏, or 3.14159...  This mathematical ratio is celebrated around the world on March 14 (3/14).  The day also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday, which makes it a great reason to take a break from Reading Month for a little math.  

Mid-week Morsels general focus on one resource, however there are so many activities for Pi Day that this week's morsel is a little meaty.  First, I'll start with younger children.  Unless your children are in at least 4th or 5th grade, chances are they don't know about ∏.  Layers of Learning tells how to simply explain pi to children.  If you're feeling crafty, Helping Little Hands has a Pi Day t-shirt how-to (pictured to the right), and a circle collage activity your little ones are sure to love.  For younger children, celebrating Pi Day is more about exposure and making math fun.  They can still celebrate even if they don't understand ∏ or if you don't think it's appropriate to try to explain it.

For upper elementary and older children, there are a wealth of activities.  In my opinion, Education World and The Home School Mom have the best sites for activities and lessons.  More importantly, they both tell you what range of grade levels each activity or lesson is appropriate for.  TeachPi.org,  PiDay.org, and San Francisco's Exploratorium are all stock piled with information including videos, t-shirts, music, lessons, activities, events, and more.  Finally, Pam Burke is a high school math teacher who has posted activities she has done with her students on Mrs. Burke's Math Page.

Other resources I found were a video cartoon explaining Pi for older children, sodoku puzzles, a free unit study on ∏, and a Pi Day web quest.  

There are so many more resources out there for Pi Day.  If you want to do more searching on your own, here are three great Pinterest boards full of places to start:

Edutopia's Math Rules! Pinterest board

Shari Bithell's Pi Day Activities Pinterest board

Amy Gentile-Cantone's Pi Day Pinterest board

Karissa

Presidents' Day Fun and Activities

Monday is Presidents' Day (and my birthday) and most students have the day off.  All too often holidays are taken for granted as simply a day off.  We don't take the time to ponder why the day is special, let alone do anything to celebrate it.  I've done some research on our presidents recently, and the first thing I can tell you is that there is a ton of information out there.  I research a lot of topics.  I'm always looking something up.  Usually, I search through page after page of results before I find enough information to satisfy me.  This time, however, I found great resources right on the first page of my search results, and even more on the pages that followed.  So, this year, take advantage of the extra time with your little ones and spend some time exploring the lives of the our presidents.


Biographical Information
The Internet Public Library (IPL2) has links to biographies, historical documents, audio & video files, and other presidential sites are also included.

The Biography channel's website has full episodes, mini biography videos and more biographical information about all 44 presidents.

The PBS series American Experience has 33 hours of streaming documentaries on 8 20th century presidents, biographies of every U.S. President, original interviews, articles, photo galleries, timelines and extensive teacher guides.

Songs

YouTube has a couple fun versions of songs to help teach the names of the presidents in order, one set to the tune of Yankee Doodle, and the other by the Animaniacs.  Please note that these songs are a little old; the Yankee Doodle song ends with George W. Bush, and the Animaniacs' song ends with Bill Clinton.


Games
Learning Games for Kids has a collection of presidential online games including word searches and a hangman style game.

Primary Games has a few president-themed puzzle games.

Activities
Enchanted learning has a 2 pages full of crafts and printables, and historical information.

Family Education created a whole page of crafts, activities, printables, and crossword puzzles about our presidents.

Lesson Ideas
Scholastic's teacher website includes everything you need from lesson plans to activities & games to help students learn about past presidents and develop leadership skills.

The Home School Mom is offering 2 free presidential notebooking units.

Extras
Family Education has put together a 10 question quiz about presidential blooper and blunders, and slideshows about presidential pets, and first kids.

The History Channel has nearly 50 short video clips about the presidents.

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery has a mystery for kids to solve involving a portrait of George Washington.

Karissa

Valentine's Day DIY's

Well, I would love to be writing a DIY how-to post about a really creative Valentine's Day craft that I made all by myself,  but unfortunately my craft supplies are in a storage unit right now. Perhaps next year I will have a Valentine craft to share made with my own two hands.  This year, however, this list of crafts I wish I could do will have to suffice.

Cards

Heart in Hand

Pop-up Garden

Origami Heart

Valentine Scroll

Two Peas in a Pod





Gifts

Matchbox Treats

Handprint Hearts

Valentine's Pencil Toppers

Caped Cute-sader

Tissue Paper Rose

Jolly Lollies




Decorations

Valentine's Pinata

Valentine's Placemat

3D String of Hearts

Heart Cone Trees

Paper Heart Garland





I hope these ideas have inspired you to get out your crafting supplies and make something special for the ones you love.  If you have any ideas you would like to share please leave a comment or post the idea on Simply the Good Life's Facebook page.

Karissa