Every boy needs a Pokemon house

To you and me it looks like a dog house but to this 10 year old it's a extra special Pokemon getaway. In just an hour and a big handful of boxes, my son and I made this cute little house. I wish I could show you the inside, it's covered with pictures of his favorite Pokemon characters.

He's read, played games and watched TV while in this thing for weeks. My only question is, how long will this be in my living room? Good thing I am not a neat freak or a design Nazi or this would really bother me! ; ) 

The last big building structure, the kitty tower, was in my living room for months!! At least Aidan uses this one, the kitten was tired of it after a matter of days.

scary snackin'

Yesterday I knew that Dear Son needed some mommy time so I offered to carve another watermelon with/for him. The tools are not kid friendly so I let him art direct me. First thing we did was to head over to Watermelon.org for inspiration. Since I bought a personal sized melon he opted for the Jack-O-Melon. I really think this would be a great snack for play date and pot lucks! Fun and healthy!

I started by cutting the melon like I would a pumpkin. I used the fun and very sharp v-shaped knife thing-a-ma-bop, no clue why I have that but hey I am glad about it now!

Then DS hollowed it out and we ate our snack while we worked!

DS used a dry erase marker to draw the eyes on.

Then I cut them out using a simple stake knife.

Then we drilled a hole and used the eye piece as ears.

I did some extra carving on the ears with the lemon zester.

Again with the lemon zester I created eyebrows and scared up nose!

Lastly, we loaded up the melon monster/dragon and lit her up!

The kids really enjoyed the smoke that poured out his eyes and mouth

after the candle were blown out.

Hmm... what if we filled it up with dry ice? Interesting!

Total time 20 minutes!

kid stuff

kid stuff, originally uploaded by ModernJune.

Already tired of a yard full of useful junk, I knew we needed a system, a home everything. Now everyone (not me) can put all that fun stuff away!

Since I know my kids well, I know that if this stuff is going to get used, it needs to be out for them to see.  So, what to do with all that brightly colored plastic? Use all that left over garden pots and baskets of course!

I placed the pretty pile right out side the kitchen, now I can easily see if the kids have put it all back.  Plus, with it on the covered porch it will stay out of the weather and last longer.

Think it will work? Wish me luck!

It's all about the cheeky chicken around here this week! The other day Maddie and I made our cute little chickens while Aidan was playing a computer game in which chickens were falling from the sky! We were all giggles. You have to understand that when Aidan plays video games he is not sitting calmly in a chair with quite focus. NO, he is out of the chair and bouncing and yelping along with the game. It is a form of exercise that I didn't know existed until his gaming days came along.

I have to say that my decorative paper selections is shameful, that must be remedied---asap! What I did have was some Anna Griffin Paper, I thought that was fitting since we were doing a Heather Bailey project, I see them similarly, Crafty Fabric Goddesses! I am hoping to find Heather Bailey papers when I go shopping, but I am not sure they are out yet. They are based on her fabric line, Freshcut by Free Spirit. Pretty stuff! I have noticed there are a lot of apron makers out there using her line, the line makes a beautiful apron.

Since we were low on paper we opted for the suit case fabric. I love my suitcase that I got at Miss Rancke's estate sale. It hold all my fabric that has the heat bond backing. It is my cupcake fabric stash. Along with the fabric we also used the paper from the instructions that we had printed out. The PDF is bordered with lovely floral designs. They went along beautifully with the color scheme.

Another thing we did not have were fabulous vintage baby blocks so some quick thinking we used the glass jars that were holding the craft supplies that were laying out in front of us. Use what you have, right?

Design wise I love the one is facing the opposite direction, a happy accident that was also a lesson for Maddie. She is not a spatially gifted as Aidan so this was a great learning moment for her.