Traveling Project #3 - Quiet Book

This is the third in our Traveling Project series. Be sure to check out the other posts in this series. Links are at the bottom!
While the thought of making a quiet book strikes fear into the hearts of many mothers, rest assured that you need not fear. There are so many tutorials and patterns available that you really don't have to have much creativity in order to create an awesome, well-loved quiet book. Also know that this post is just an overview of the quiet book I made for Andyroo. I'll be posting some more information and tutorials on the specific pages over the next couple weeks. In the meantime, if you have any questions about specific pages that you'd like me to address, please feel free to ask them now so I can make sure I answer them when I post the tutorials.

On to the quiet book!

Page 1: Matching Shapes/Colors



The shapes snap on with little snaps - also helps with fine motor skills!


Page 2: Barnyard Finger Puppets

All the animals tuck away safely in the barn

Big enough to fit mom's fingers, but small enough to fit Andyroo's fingers too!

Page 3: Alphabet/Letters/Spelling

Don't mind the missing "I" - I think it's in my son's room and it's naptime, so I'm not going in and searching for it!

The missing "I" came in handy! Each letter has an outline on the page and sticks with velcro.

On the bottom of the 2nd page, there's a blank space so that as Andyroo gets older, he can start to spell simple words.

Page 4:  Numbers/Counting

Cute little flaps with objects to count

Page 5: Notebook and Pencil

There's a slot for a small notebook on the right and a pen/pencil/crayon/etc on the left. There's a flap over the top to keep them in when they're not being used.

Okay, okay, the notebook and pencil aren't really in there. But I didn't want to track them down again.

Page 6: Train Tracks

The trains and boat are attached with embroidery floss to the middle ring.

Cover: Back and Front

Each page has 3 grommets and is bound with 3 book rings (the ones that open and close)

There are a few other pages that aren't complete yet - a Shoe for lacing and tying, Flowers for buttoning (I need to figure out the buttonholing feature on my sewing machine first), and a couploe other pages for cars and such.

Hopefully this inspired you to make your own quiet book. Be sure to stay tuned for some tutorials and more information about the specific pages!

Be sure to check out our other articles and projects to help prepare for your vacations:


Traveling Project #1 - Neck Pillow
Traveling Project #2 - Car Mat
Traveling on a Plane with Small Children
Road Trips with Small Children

Traveling On A Plane With Small Children

Just the title of this post might make some of you cringe, feel lightheaded, or maybe even a little nauseous. I recently took a six hour flight with my 3 and 5 year old and it went very well. I thought I would share some of the things that I did for our plane ride.


First of all the most important thing to do is....breathe. Flying alone or only with adults can be stressful in and of itself, but when you add small children to the mix things go up a couple of levels in some anxiety. Kids are sensitive to everything you are feeling and will know if you are having heightened stress levels and will react on how you are acting. Try to act as least stressed out as possible especially if you cannot get rid of inner stress....at least be a good actor with your kids in mind. If you have bad flight anxiety there are forums and websites online with lots of support, tips on making it, and even classes to help with your flight.



Second, come prepared! Just as Miranda pointed out for traveling in the car it makes the trip so much more enjoyable for your child AND you when you're prepared with lots of entertainment. Be sure to pack at least one of your carry on luggage pieces for this purpose solely. Fill up your bag full of anything that you know is a comfort item for your child first. With my boys I let them pick out a favorite stuffed animal. Your child might need a story that always comforts them, blanket, or we all know that sometimes for the littlest children a binky will be the only cure for any kind of a melt down. I also let my boys pick out the toys they wanted to bring. I let them know what size could fit in our bag and they had a hay day with "helping mom pack". Along with a blanket a pillow also. Most planes do have blankets and pillows to give to flyers but they can be small and uncomfortable. The smell of their own pillow and/or blanket will help comfort them and can make it easier for them to sleep on longer flights.

Other ideas for entertainment are coloring books, puzzles, games, new toys they haven't seen that you bought beforehand, laptop for movies...etc. Some planes have small tv's for each flyer to pick their own movie, tv show, or game. They give out little ear pieces on these flights but they usually are hard for small children to keep in their ears so I recommend bringing headphones that you know are comfortable and can easily fit on your child's head and ears. Snacks are a must but be sure to check with your airline to see what restrictions they have.

Don't forget to put in your carry on: diapers and/or pull-ups, wipes, small first aid kit (just in case), children's tylenol and pepto if they get sick, extra clothes, hand sanitizer, and if your child is old enough some gum for his/her ears to help with the altitude changes. If you are traveling out of the country or moving it's important to keep all important documents with you on the plane such as birth certificates, passports, or some form of ID for your child (and you).

Last I wanted to focus on preparing your child emotionally for the flight. It is very important to let your child know about where you are going and how you're going to get there because children are very routine minded. Breaking the routine is going to be hard on them so prepare them as much in advance as you can and remind them often as it gets closer about what's coming up. Make sure to act excited and happy about the trip so your child will be excited for it as well. Besides talking about it one thing that I did for my boys was write a small story about riding on a plane. I made them the lead characters and it was a hit! I also prepared them for where we were going with a story so that landing in a new environment wasn't scary or unsettling. If you like this idea and are not up to the challenge of illustrating your own story you can ask a friend who is good at art to do it for you or simple stick figures will do. It doesn't have to be fancy....your little story books will go down in history with them and surely be kept to look back on in the future.

I also looked up pictures of airplanes (the outside and inside) to show my boys so it was familiar to them before getting on the plane. I found a video on YouTube that showed a "first flight" experience for some small children. The video was exciting and fun to watch. Don't forget to preview videos first to make sure they are G rated for little one's eyes and ears ;).

All of these tips helped make our latest 6 hour flight very smooth. My boys were well prepared beforehand and very entertained on the plane. We even got lucky and they fell asleep! Now that is a successful plane ride with small children!

Watch for up coming posts on Flying With Infants, which we have also done successfully, and Flying With Anxiety. Please share your tips and tricks on flying with children that worked for you and any questions you may have. Happy flying!

Be sure to check out our other articles and projects to help prepare for your vacations:


Traveling Project #1 - Neck Pillow
Traveling Project #2 - Car Mat
Traveling Project #3 - Quiet Book
Traveling on a Plane with Small Children
Road Trips with Small Children

Traveling Project #2 - Car Mat

This is the second in our Traveling Project series. Be sure to check out the other posts in this series. And stay tuned for a post from Heather about traveling on an air plane with small kiddos!

My mom found this awesome Cars material about a year ago and said she wanted to make Andyroo a play mat for his cars. This was before Thomas the Train - even before Toy Story! We've gone through a few character phases since then, but he still loves driving his cars around.

Close up of the top material

I found this awesome vinyl material in the remnants at Joann's and instantly knew how I could use it!

Can you see the texture on the vinyl? It looks kind of weird. I've actually looks and looked through all the fabric at Joann's and haven't been able to find it anywhere. I had enough for the project, but I was just interested in finding out more about the material. Anyone know anything about this material?

Anyway, I used this for the back of the mat, black side out. I like that it gives the mat a little bit of grip and strength, but is still easy enough to fold and store.

Luckily, this project just involved straight lines because, at the time, my sewing machine was sewing only in reverse. Yeah. It didn't make the project any easier and resulted in a LOT of pin pokes. I was pretty desperate to get it done before our trip to Arizona, which is why I put up with the whole reverse thing. It didn't effect the project very much until I put the binding on. Binding is hard enough to do without having to reverse everything you would normally be doing. Up close, the binding looks pretty wrinkly and horrible. See? 

It's a good thing I made it for a two year old who doesn't really care if the binding is straight or not.

I decided to use binding because of the thickness of the vinyl. I didn't even want to try and double up the vinyl to do any kind of hem on it. Since I used a binding, I just sewed the top and bottom together with the right sides out. Sew on the binding and voila! T fun little play mat for your crazy car driver! The finished size is about a square yard. But you can easily adjust this to be the size you prefer. I chose this size because that's what I could get out of the vinyl remnant (I actually pieced together two big pieces of the vinyl to get this size).

The two pieces of vinyl pieced together. Sewn together, then I sewed the sides down to prevent an awkward lump.

We took this on our trip to Arizona instead of train tracks for Andyroo's trains. We could easily pull this out in the car while we were stopped and then fold and go when we were read. We even pulled it out while we were there and the kids loved it!

Be sure to check out our other articles and projects to help prepare for your vacations:


Traveling Project #1 - Neck Pillow
Traveling Project #3 - Quiet Books
Traveling on a Plane with Small Children
Road Trips with Small Children

Family Fun Fund

Hubs has been coming home with a lot more change and I needed a place to put it. The coin section in my wallet was already overflowing, so I can up with this:

I had borrowed some flour from my mom, which she gave to me in a #10 can - the big size metal can. I couldn't bear to throw it away, so I kept it in hopes of finding something to do with it.

I wrapped the can with some scrapbook paper, embellished with some brown satin ribbon, and cut out the words with brown vinyl. I used my Silhouette, but you could just use stickers, print something out, or paint on some words. Whatever floats your boat.

This was actually the first project I did with my Silhouette. It was pretty intimidating and took a couple tries to get it right. Don't ask.

Anyway, cut a hole in the top big enough to fit some change, put the lid on, and you're set. I love that we have a place to collect our spare change. And even better, I LOVE the fact that we're saving our change. In the three months I've had this out, we've saved about $40. Forty dollars in change. Even Andyroo gets in on the action and likes to put his pennies in the can (ones that he find or gets from grandma).

I'm not sure what our plans for the money are, but we'll eventually find something fun to do with the money.

What does your family do with all your spare change?


We're linking up with these super awesome parties:


Whatever Goes Wednesday, Idea Sharing Wednseday, What I Made Wednesday, Creative-ly U, Feature Yourself Friday, Just Something I Whipped Up, Frugal Friday, DIY Under $5, Lovely Little Linkup, Craftastic Monday, Woot Woot Wednesday, Strut Your Stuff, Our House of Joyful Noise, Get You Craft On, Wow Me Wednesday 

4th of July Blocks & Fireworks

The inspiration for this project comes from a combination of projects made by Made By Meech and Ginger Snap Crafts.

Candle Fireworks at Made By Meech

USA Blocks by Ginger Snap Crafts

I had some leftover 4x4 blocks from a Mother's Day gift last year and decided that this was just the thing to do with them. I loved the scrappy look of the fireworks, but didn't have blocks or candles that size.

The blocks are pretty easy. Not pics during the process, but I sanded and then painted the blocks red. Then I mod podged some scrapbook paper onto the blocks. The vinyl letters were cut from white vinyl with my Silhouette. Love that little magical machine!

I love these little fireworks. Any guesses on what the holders are made from? Anyone?

A Pringles can! Hubs got some cans of Pringles (or "Springles" as Andyroo calls them) for Father's Day and I couldn't let him throw the cans away. I knew I could find something to do with them, but I had no idea what. He looked at me like I was crazy when I asked him not to throw them away, but he humored me anyway. What a good guy! :)

I covered two cans with blue card stock, then embellished with a couple strips of red, white, and blue star paper and some red raffia. Easy peasy!

The fireworks were a little harder and I did some experimenting with the curling and type of paper. I used card stock for the red and blue fireworks. I liked that it didn't curl up so much and it seemed to hold it's shape a little better too. However, wrapping the card stock around the skewers was a little hard. The white firework was made with just plain white copy paper and they held a curl REALLY well, but I prefer the more relaxed curl. The copy paper was much easier to wrap though!

I cut the paper into 4-inch strips. Then I took those strips and cut along the strip every 1/4th of an inch or so down to about 1/2" from the edge. Sorry, I forgot to snap a picture! I found the best way to to do the fireworks was to precurl around the bottom (where it wraps around the skewer), but not the actual firework curls. I tried it both ways and if the fireworks are already curled, then it is harder to wrap around the skewer. Does that make any sense at all? I hope so! I did paint my skewers white before wrapping them also.

To keep the skewers in place and to give them a little more height, I poured some dry beans into the bottom of the can.

So fun! I love looking at them sitting on top of our entertainment center (we're not cool enough to have a mantle)!! Even hubby said they turned out awesome. He usually loves everything I make, but we don't have a lot of holiday decorations, so I think that's what he really liked these.

I also love how you can stack the blocks different ways. Straight across, stacked up, or in the pyramid style. So fun!

What kind of decor do you put out for the 4th of July?

P.S. Sorry for the sometimes dark pictures. We're in a basement apartment that doesn't get much light anytime, day or night. Plus, my camera is old and not so great anyway. Oh well. You can only do so much as poor college students waiting for a better job!

Traveling Project #1 - Neck Pillow

As I mentioned in the Traveling Tips post, our first long car trip with Andrew was a drive out to Iowa to see Hubby's family. Andyroo did not enjoy sleeping in the car, but I think part of that was due to the fact that he was uncomfortable. Hus poor head was flopping all over the place as he was trying to sleep. The big, full size pillows that we brought did NOT fit well behind his head. Poor kid.

Needless to say, I needed to do something about that for our next drive - Phoenix, AZ! I've seen neck pillows in the store - for $10 or $15, but knew I could do one for cheaper that would be customized to something my son likes. Something like this!

Don't you love his crazy hair!?

I searched and searched the stores and online for a cute Thomas the Train fabric. I was running out of time and didn't want to pay $5 for a yard of fabric to be shipped to me. I forgot that Hobby Lobby has fabric (it's a fairly new store around here, so it's not the first craft store that pops into my head), so I made a quick trip to scout out their fabric. I was in luck - the only place in town that carries Thomas fabric! It wasn't exceptionally cute, but it would work. It was Thomas and that's what Andyroo would care about.

The pattern was pretty simple. I just cut out a kind of closed C shape. When I was cutting, I kept thinking I was cutting out a toilet seat (the ones that aren't closed all the way). This is what I can up with. I actually think that I would have liked it to be a little more closed, but I didn't realize that until it was done and I let Andyroo try it.

Cut two. Pretty simple. Sew the two pieces together, with right sides together. Leave a small opening in the middle, either on the inside of the curve or the outside of the curve. Turn it right side out and stuff. Either hand stitch the opening or turn the edges under a little and machine stitch.

This worked really well for Andyroo! Much, much, much better than trying to maneuver a full-size pillow around in his car seat. And much cheaper than $10-!5 dollars to buy one at the store. By my estimation, based on the amount of material and stuffing I used, it cost me about $3 to make. I still have fabric and stuffing leftover for other projects!

Be sure to check out our other articles and projects to help prepare for your vacations:


Traveling Project #2 - Car Mat
Traveling Project #3 - Quiet Books
Traveling on a Plane with Small Children
Road Trips with Small Children

Motherhood Moment - Potty Training!

Andyroo and I went to Daddy's work today to eat lunch with him. They've got a new panini lunch combo that hubby's been raving about and begging me to try. No big deal. Andyroo went potty twice during lunch (curse you small bladders) but lunch was pretty uneventful.

As we were walking out, Andyroo and I were headed out the door as Hubs was headed back to work. Andyroo practically yells to Daddy (who was a mere eight feet away), "Daddy, you got peepees coming?"

The hostess, who knows who we are, looks up from her computer with this shocked look on her face. I quickly shushed Andyroo and said to the hostess, "Sorry, he's potty training. He's obsessed with asking people if they need to go potty too."

Yup, that's my little potty trainer!

What's your most embarrassing potty training moment?