Kool Aid Dyed Playsilks

 My children love playsilks. We have had a few over the years, and it came to my attention that we were down to a single, ratty, faded yellow play silk. The sad looking silk had been a cape, a doll sling, a blanket, a net, a tent, a skirt, and so many other things in its dear little life.  It has been a while since I went playsilk shopping, or dying, so finding the price of $14 (or more) plus shipping per silk was more than I could afford.

In steps Pinterest and every one's favorite childhood beverage: KoolAid. I found this blog post with an amazing color chart for dying silks with KoolAid.  I did all the dying in the microwave, in ziplock bags, thanks to a tip from my friend Regina.  Basically that means no mess.  Basically pour 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of vinegar, 3-4 packs of KoolAid into a ziplock freezer bag and heat for 3 minutes, let sit for 3 minutes and rinse. Then hang to dry (or throw in the dryer for 5 minutes if your children are begging for them). THATS IT! :)

I think the colors are so beautiful and vibrant.  You can make a forest green, dark blue, maroon red, and clayish orange by adding 1/2 packet of grape koolaid to 3 packs of the solid color. It makes them a little darker. Also, if you do yellow, do like 5 packs and let it sit for as long as you can stand. I love the bright, summery colors and you have to know the kids have been playing non-stop with them.  The rainbow silk I made (above) was done by tieing off sections with rubber bands in ziplock bags. I actually may re-do some of the colors that needed to be more saturated.  You can also do this on the stove which I intend to try with the hope of getting some more saturated yellow, green, blue and orange.  It was really hard with the zip locks to tie it off and make sure the silk was completely in the water... if that makes any sense at all!

I bought the silks from dharma trading post for $5.35 each I think. Even with shipping and KoolAid they were still around $6 total.  Much better than $14. I must have purchased 50 packs of Kool Aid in all the primary colors! I went several places and Wal-Mart had the best selection. They had all the colors I needed and then some! I didn't have enough silk left to make some pink.  Maybe for Christmas?

We have been really into Mermaids lately, and the silks have really added a lot of color to our Mermaid world!  :)

Can you guess who Anastasia is pretending to be?  I really enjoyed this project because it was quick, easy and super rewarding.  All the Kool Aid brought me back to my own sugar-induced childhood.  I think I drank gallons of that stuff.  The scary thing is, my hands are still green and blue from yesterday's dying adventure. All I can think is what all that color does to one's insides?? Yikes! I am so glad I can pass on the beauty of Kool Aid to my children in another way. :) hehe.

Now go buy some silk and add some color and creativity to your life!

Car Seat Cuteness!

This is what I did yesterday:

It took all day but I have wanted car seat covers that are easy to remove and clean. If anyone has a baby who spits up a lot or a toddler who eats in the car, you know how nasty car seat covers get! And you also know what a pain in the but it is to take the original covers off. I basically have to take apart the whole car seat to get the darn thing off! So now I made a little slip cover that velcro's around the straps so it comes on and off pretty easily. Our infant seat had a bit of mildew which cleaned mostly off but left some nasty stains... so all problems solved! I was so happy to find more of this Apple and Pear fabric by Alexander Henry at the Joann's in Fairfax last week!

And because Anastasia believes all photo sessions should revolve around her I took this picture too. I put the little apple and pear appliques on her shirt and picked up the matching 70's looking flower pants at goodwill for $1. So the entire set up cost less than $2! And it matches her new car seat cover! Can't beat that.

No baby yet but I don't think she will take too much longer. *crosses fingers* I have a Dr. appointment tomorrow so we will see if there is any new developments in the pregnancy saga.

Unplugged Project: My first Garden

I am finally getting around to posting another Unplugged project. Yesterday I really wanted to fill Anastasia's little blow-up pool for her enjoyment. Unfortunately it stormed on and off all day. So during her nap I set up a little garden project on the porch in light of the Unplugged theme this week. I bought a bowl at the dollar store, had some leftover gravel from my bamboo for drainage on the bottom, I found some dirt and plants in the yard, and some rocks and frog figures for the top.

I gathered the items and set them up and Anastasia added the rocks (one by one) into the container. She enjoyed playing with the dirt and plants, so I helped with that part. Then she put in more rocks and dumped the four frog figures in a pile. I helped make it a little less hurricane-like and Anastasia sort-of watered it. We set it in our kitchen window with the bamboo plants for as long as it will last!

I also drew flowers with crayons on some paper and let Anastasia paint with watercolors over the crayon. I thought she would enjoy the wax resistance... but she really enjoyed mixing colors in the glass of water and drinking it. Thats why Crayola makes things non-toxic I suppose!

I also had to post my Rainbow Chard... or 5-colored Silverbeet that I picked up at the farmer's market on Saturday:

Isn't it just beautiful? Or am I just a crazy, farm-fresh-food-obsessed pregnant woman? I sauteed it in butter with lemon juice and salt... and yum!

And lastly, Anastasia's new apron. I made it without a pattern for her so she can help me with baking or cooking or just looking really cute while I bake and cook. It also coordinates with my apron and is reversable! Its a little big, with lots of room to grow!

(Left: the sweet, country girl side, Right: the chic, summer hostess side)

First Paint

I wanted to share pictures of Anastasia's first experience with paint. This was our first time doing an Unplugged project and I was really happy with the fun we had! Not only was Anastasia inspired by our fine art reading... I finally finished painting all her little peg people as inspired by the Crafty Crow and Colorfool. These are so reminiscent of the Fisher Price Little People I had as a kid. Anastasia has played with them non-stop since I finished them. I put a layer of decoupage paste over top of them to protect them from dents and dings. You know what was weird too? Nick's dad found a real Fisher Price little person under the water heater this weekend!
Anastasia did really well with her first time painting. She really just liked squishing it in her hands and playing with the sponges.
She took more care with the water colors as I tried to teach her the routine: water, paint, paper. I was really impressed at how well her first water color painting turned out: