Lego Emergency!

I promised you one more busy bag-like project.  And here it is!

I was cruising Pinterest, looking for any packing/moving/road trip with kids tips I hadn't seen before, and lo and behold, this is the only thing I came up with.  Wow. 

But it is awesome!  I thought I was done making stuff, but I had to jump up and make one of these immediately (instead of washing the dishes like I really should have been doing). 

The idea comes from here.  They call it a "mini lego playset", but come on now.  That really doesn't do it justice.  So I'm going to call it a "Lego Emergency!"  (With the exclamation point. I'm taking my cues from the Oklahoma state legislature.)

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Side story: Last year when we were moving, 'round about the third day of driving, Lucy was whining from the back seat that she was sooo hungry, even though we'd just eaten not that long ago.  She said she wanted some peanut butter.  She was being so dramatic about it that we asked her if she was having a peanut butter emergency.  Then somehow that turned into a kid's show theme song called "Peanut Butter Emergency Robot!" Don't think about it too hard. Road trip logic. So now we call the snack known to most people as "peanut butter and crackers" a "peanut butter emergency."
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Anyway, I made one and it looks like this.

 [I used a Sucrets box instead of an Altoids tin.]

I had a small stash of boring Legos that I had found in a dumpster.  I was saving them for crafting, but I never craft with them. Except for right now.  Then I asked Norman if I could raid his stash from when he was a kid for some more interesting pieces (minifigs, steering wheels, etc, etc). 

I glued the flat pieces to the top using E-6000 as the link suggests. It seems like it's going to hold really well!

I think I'll save this one for my purse for special circumstances (restaurants, weddings, etc).

[Rubber band so I don't have a real Lego Emergency all over my purse.]

Busy Bags: Miscellany

This summer to coincide with our (definitely one, possibly two) epic road trip(s), I am making busy bags for Lucy.  See the others by clicking here.
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The following are not proper busy bags, and they didn't take that much effort to make (or I didn't actually make them at all), so I thought I'd lump them all into one post.  The Post of Other Stuff to Keep Lucy Busy in a Car.

1.) Marble maze.  I found this idea through Pinterest along with the others.  Here is a link.

There's a marble in there.  The object is to moosh it around the seam lines from one side to the other.  Kinda fun.  Actually it sounds really fun for a really tired person.

Amazingly enough, I did not have a marble in my stash.  I am still slightly flabbergasted by this fact.  Nor could I find any whilst out at thrift stores and garage sales.  I couldn't even find a game of Chinese checkers with real marbles.  Nor did I have any large, round beads!  It was crazy.  So the thing that's in there is actually a round plastic pearl button with the loop broken off.  It works, but it would be better with something weightier, I think.  (On the plus side, if I ever find a marble, it will be easy enough to rip out part of the seam and replace it.)

2.) Notebook, markers, and stickers.

Lucy is, of course, enamored with little spiral-bound notebooks that flip open (like the ones on Blue's Clues).  She's gone through two from Target, and she picked out a new one at the Dollar Tree for our trips.  (The new one has Mr. Potato Head on it. ::shrug::) So I'll put that, some new markers, and a bunch of stickers in another pencil pouch.

The stickers are from my own stash.  I used to collect stickers in high school (but not in one of those little books -- on their sheets).  I'm soooooooooo glad I saved them all.  They're like magic.  Anytime I need to pacify Lucy, I just pull out another sheet of stickers.  And I have hundreds of sheets.  I always bring a new sheet when we eat out at a restaurant.  For the trips, I'm thinking I probably shouldn't put all the sheets in the pencil pouch at once, given her penchant for pulling all the stickers off the sheet and sticking them in a pile on one piece of paper.  She enjoys this, but it means she goes through stickers really fast.  I think I'll hold back a stash for emergencies.

3.) Digital voice recorder.  (Kinda like this.)

I found this in a free pile in our neighborhood the other day.  It's just a little, beat-up voice recorder.  All it needed was 2 AAA batteries, and it works great!  I was so glad to find it, as I was reminiscing recently about my tape recorder I had when I was little.  Hours of fun!  Lucy already knows how to operate it, and she thinks it's hysterical.  So that's definitely going in the car!

4.) Glow sticks.

I brought these the last time we moved, but I was a little unorganized on the Lucy entertainment front, so they didn't really get used.  But if we're out at night, I think these will be fun.

5.) Finger puppets, Jasmine, and Mulan. (Except that it's the Mulan dressed up like Ping, which apparently is pretty rare, and here we are dragging her around the house running her into things. Yep.)

I made her those finger puppets for Easter, and she plays with them some.  But what she really loves are her Jasmine and Mulan action figures that we found in a box of clothes and toys from Freecycle.  Oh my goodness -- she just runs around with them all day having them talk to each other.  So I think I'll stick the finger puppets and the gals in another pencil pouch.

(In other news, based on the search for a photo of the Jasmine figure, it appears that all the figures of Jasmine manufactured after 1992 were not "action figures" so much as they were "stand around and look sassy figures".  Fitting, I suppose.)

6.) Colorforms (essentially).

I found these on Amazon while looking for paper dolls.  Everyone loves Melissa & Doug, right?  Well, they sell these pads of backgrounds and "stickers", which are really just window clings/Colorforms.  There's a set with stuff around the house, and a set with animals and habitats.  Honestly, I bought both because I couldn't get over how fabulous it will be when Lucy decides there should be dinosaurs in the bathtub, or a grandfather clock in the jungle, etc, etc. 

In a moment of brilliant insight, I decided to remove the white from around all the clings before handing them to Lucy in the car.  I had a sudden vision of Lucy whining and screaming from the back seat because she couldn't peel the clings off, and decided to nip that in the bud.

7.) Pipe cleaners.

I just stuffed a bunch of different colored pipe cleaners into -- you guessed it -- a pencil pouch. Who knows what she'll come up with to do with them!

8.) Bubble wands.

These are for the rest stops.  It's a good way to get up and move around at a stop without the hazards of losing a ball or frisbee in traffic.

9.) Travel tray.

And to top it all off, we bought her one of these.  It's soft, so it won't be a crash hazard, it's got little walls to keep the stuff on it, and it has side pockets!  Lucy is so tall and our back seat is situated such that she can put her feet on the seat that her car seat is on, and when she does her knees are up a little bit higher than her lap, so this should work perfectly!  The only complaints from reviewers seemed to be that because the tray is soft, kids can't draw on it.  But that's what the cookie sheet is for!

So there you have it.  Geez, now I feel like I have too much time on my hands or something.

There's one more project coming, but it's not really a proper busy bag. More like an emergency purse toy....


BONUS TIP!
I realized I should add this one, as it's summer movie season.  We realized (quite by accident) that when we take Lucy to the movies, we should bring a sheet of bubble wrap.  It keeps her quiet and occupied, and it can be a nice stress relief if the movie gets a little intense.  And the movies are always so loud that no one notices the popping noise.  I'd bring some on the road trips, but I think we've got plenty going on...

Jessie Lyman's Journals, Part 22

I previously introduced you to my great-great grandmother, Jessie Lyman Eckert.  You can read the first post here, and subsequent post are filed under

Jessie Lyman was born January 2, 1878.  She graduated from Westport High School (Westport, MO, now part of Kansas City) in 1897 at the head of her class.  From what I have read of her diaries so far, it appears she went on to teach school for a couple years one year in Columbia, MO.  She married Herman Eckert in June of 1899.  On July 26, 1900, she died giving birth to twins Conrad and Cornelia at the age of 22.  Conrad is my mother's mother's father. 
 

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Sat, Mar. 19.

Mamma and I washed about half of the washing today. It will ease up next week's wash.

Sun, Mar. 20.

I stayed at home today as Mamma was not feeling very well. My dinner was very good.
I had to lead at C.E. this evening. It was a temperence [sic] and missionary topic. We had a good sermon at its close.
Herman came in and spent the evening with me.

Mon, Mar. 21.

I joined the Ovid class this morning. I like it very much.
Ella and I went to town and got trimming for my silk waist. We got green silk. It will be very pretty I think. The silk yoke will be covered with embroidered white chifonne [sic]. There will be frills of muslin chifonne [sic] too.

Tues, Mar. 22.

I began a quilt today. The weather was murky and cold.

Wed, Mar. 23.

We did a tremendous washing today. We took down all the curtains to wash them. We didn't finish until about 4 P.M.
Herman spent the evening with me.  How I enjoy these evenings with Herman, knowing that there is no objection to him. He is so good and thinks so much of me.

Thurs, Mar. 24.

I attended my class as usual today, and took a note to Mrs. Dr. Parker. I stopped to chat with the old people a while.
We did all the ironing. It took us all day. I am very tired this evening.

Fri, Mar. 25.

We swept the house all over today and put up the curtains. It looks very nice.

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Two thoughts:

1.) I am a lazy bum. I always put off washing my curtains, and all I have to do is pop them in the washing machine and then pop them in the dryer and then put them back up.

2.) Get married already!!! It will cut down on Herman's travel time.

Busy Bag #6: Mailbox!

This summer to coincide with our (definitely one, possibly two) epic road trip(s), I am making busy bags for Lucy.  See the others by clicking here.
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Yes, this busy bag gets an exclamation point!  This is the best-looking one in my opinion, if not the most fun.  I really turned out perfectly, just as I'd imagined it.

Ingredients (all from my stash):
felt
rick rack
buttons
velcro
embroidery thread
glue gun

I also had enormous help from this lady, who makes the most beautiful, elaborate busy book pages you will ever see, and then gives away the pattern PDFs.  My mailbox's body and flag are taken almost completely from her pattern, and my letters are loosely based on hers.

[The scene. It pretty much always looks something like this when I'm improvising.] 

In case you're not up to speed on children's television programming from the late 1990's and early 2000's, this is Mailbox from Blue's Clues, Lucy favorite TV show (measured by hours watched).

[Here's the mail, it never fails, it makes me wanna wag my tail, when it comes, I wanna wail....]

I hot glued the eyes and mouth on, because I didn't want a bunch of stitching ruining the effect.

[Maaaaaaail!!!]

["Heeere's ya lettah!"]

I did the stamp embroidery freehand, so it kinda got away from me sometimes. (Like where the paw print really should have four toes...)

These are quite scaled up from the pattern, because I wanted them to hold decent-sized pieces of paper.

They also open all the way up, like the letters on Blue's Clues.

I cut a whole bunch of pieces of paper to fit in them, so Lucy can write whatever she wants on them.

And it all fits neatly in this (I believe) former bed sheet packaging.

Also I found this while I was looking for the "mail time" song. So great!

Busy Bag #5: Hardware

This summer to coincide with our (definitely one, possibly two) epic road trip(s), I am making busy bags for Lucy.  See the others by clicking here.
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I don't really know what else to call this one!  It's actually more like a busy book page than it is like a busy bag.  Well... just look!

Ingredients:

grosgrain ribbon (stash)
felt (stash)
zipper (stash)
buckle, carabiner (thrift store)
lock & key, LED flashlight key chain (Dollar Tree)

See? Flashlight! She'll love that. The little LED part on the end actually detaches from the rest of the plastic, tethered with a string that snaps it back into place.

And the lock & key. It's kind of tricky. Hopefully that will inspire persistence, not whining. Time will tell.

I chose a zipper from my stash that has 1.) a large pull, and 2.) stoppers at the top as well as the bottom. These things could have been fixed with some tinkering, but why take the time when I can just pick a better zipper?

The carabiner and the buckle were both on promotional-type lanyards at the thrift store.  I just cut the old lanyards off and replaced them with fun ribbon.

I sewed everything to a piece of felt, then sewed that piece of felt to another piece of felt.  It kind of folds up like a book, but the lock is so heavy that it's very floppy.  So of course I just put it into another pencil pouch!

Jessie Lyman's Journals, Part 21

I previously introduced you to my great-great grandmother, Jessie Lyman Eckert.  You can read the first post here, and subsequent post are filed under

Jessie Lyman was born January 2, 1878.  She graduated from Westport High School (Westport, MO, now part of Kansas City) in 1897 at the head of her class.  From what I have read of her diaries so far, it appears she went on to teach school for a couple years one year in Columbia, MO.  She married Herman Eckert in June of 1899.  On July 26, 1900, she died giving birth to twins Conrad and Cornelia at the age of 22.  Conrad is my mother's mother's father. 
 

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Sat, Mar. 12th.

After doing the housework, Ella and I sewed till noon. Then Ella got the headache. I sewed as long as there was anything I could do to the dress, then I practised [sic] till supper time on Mr. Hall's guitar.
We studied in the evening.

Sun, Mar. 13.

We went to S.S. this morning. I didn't see anything of Herman, but thought he would be at church. But he did not come, and Mr. Baity announced the funeral of his father to take place tomorrow. Poor boy! I wish I could see him.
I don't think I will go to C.E. this evening.

Mon, Mar. 14.

I went to town this morning and bought a copy of Ovid. I will enter the class next week.
This afternoon I went to the funeral. I felt so sorry for Herman. He looked so bad.  I wanted to get there in time to speak to him, but the house was crowded when we went in.

Tues, Mar. 15.

I have been thinking of Herman all day and hoping yet doubting that he would come this evening, but he did come. I am so sorry for him and so glad that I can sympathize with him and try to comfort him. I think he felt a little better when he left.

Wed, Mar. 16.

We ironed today. There was a good deal of it to do. I washed my white silk and pressed it.
Mamma and Papa went to K.C. Kas. to see about a farm. We concluded that it would not do.

Thurs, Mar. 17.

We spent the day in sewing. It has been gloomy and rainy.

Fri, Mar. 18.

It just poured down today. I was afraid it would be so bad that Herman could not get over this evening. He came however. I really thought he would come if it was near possible. It poured down again before he left and he must have had a sorry time getting back home.

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Sigh.  "I am so sorry for him and so glad that I can sympathize with him and try to comfort him. I think he felt a little better when he left." = love

Busy Bag #4: Button Snake

This summer to coincide with our (definitely one, possibly two) epic road trip(s), I am making busy bags for Lucy.  See the others by clicking here.
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This idea is fairly simple.  I found it a lot when I was searching Pinterest for busy bag ideas.  It's actually the most "close-ended" (?? -- as opposed to open-ended) activity I've got lined up for Lucy.  But she does need practice buttoning things. :-)

Ingredients:

*squares of felt
*grosgrain ribbon
*2 large buttons
*thread
(all from my stash)

I started by sewing a button to each end of the length of ribbon.  I folded the ribbon over and did a lot of stitching to make sure it's sturdy.

 

Then I made the felt shapes.  You can cut out the felt into all different shapes (I even saw a fall leaves themed one!), but I decided to go the easiest and quickest route and just cut out a bunch of squares.   Then I cut a slit in the middle of each felt piece by folding them in half and cutting the slit with scissors.  (I did only one first to make sure the slit was the right size for the buttons.)

Then it's up to the kid to slide each piece of felt over the button and onto the ribbon.  I suppose if you wanted to be all fancy you could have the kid do color patterns or whatever.

And all the pieces fit in a little mesh cosmetics bag I found at a garage sale.

Busy Bag #3: Felt Food

This summer to coincide with our (definitely one, possibly two) epic road trip(s), I am making busy bags for Lucy.  See the others by clicking here.
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Background info: Lucy eats the same thing for lunch pretty much every day.  Lunch meat, a slice of cheese, cucumber slices, carrots, a spoonful of sour cream, and some fruit.  Every. day.  It makes life easier for both of us.  She likes eating the occasional peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but that's snack food as far as she's concerned.

[And sometimes when Daddy gets involved it looks like a face.]

Enter busy bag #3 -- felt food play set!

Ingredients:

*felt (I have a stash of felt, and I supplemented it for these projects by buying a grab bag of felt on Etsy.)
*embroidery thread
*aforementioned cookie sheet that goes with everything
*aforementioned pencil pouch in which everything goes

Place mat, plate, napkin (looks like the cloth napkins she uses), fork and spoon (pink like her plastic ones), turkey, cheese, grapes, strawberries, cucumbers (or kiwi, I suppose), carrots, a blob of sour cream, two slices of bread, butter, peanut butter, and jelly.  (Whoa the colors are really off... that last blob that goes with the bread is purple.)

 

And it all folds up into another pencil pouch!

I decided to forgo embroidering a large, intricate portrait of Hercules on the felt plate.  I have a very specific line between worth-the-effort and not-worth-the-effort.  Only I know where it is, but it's there.  Oh, it's there.

Jessie Lyman's Journals, Part 20

I previously introduced you to my great-great grandmother, Jessie Lyman Eckert.  You can read the first post here, and subsequent post are filed under

Jessie Lyman was born January 2, 1878.  She graduated from Westport High School (Westport, MO, now part of Kansas City) in 1897 at the head of her class.  From what I have read of her diaries so far, it appears she went on to teach school for a couple years one year in Columbia, MO.  She married Herman Eckert in June of 1899.  On July 26, 1900, she died giving birth to twins Conrad and Cornelia at the age of 22.  Conrad is my mother's mother's father. 
 

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Sat, Mar. 5th.

I just did some mending this evening. I helped about the house all day.

Sun, Mar. 6th.

I went to church this morning. Mr. Peace preached a fine sermon.
We went to church and C.E. this evening too. Mr. Peace preached again. Mr. Baity is taking some much needed rest.
Herman came in after church and we had a pleasant little visit.

Mon, Mar. 7th.

Ella had the headache today so we couldn't wash. The wind blew very hard today.

Tues, Mar. 8th.

We washed today. I was quite tired when we had finished.
This is "lodge night."

Wed, Mar. 9th.

We ironed today, and this evening Herman and I went to prayer meeting.

Thurs, Mar. 10th.

I visited the high school today. I delivered that picture "with appropriate remarks" and gave Miss Wilder a Corean [sic] and Chinese shoe. She seemed very much pleased with them.
I got caught in the rain and after various  trials and tribulations, finally reached my paternal domicile looking rather the worse for rain and mud. Such is life on "Goose Hill."

Fri, Mar. 11.

Herman, Ella and I went to a party at Mr. Forester's and had a very pleasant time. It was twelve o'clock when we got home. I was rather tired.

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I have absolutely no idea what happened during the first part of March 10th. What in heaven's name?

C.E. = "Christian Education" = Sunday School for grown ups.

Also, can we all just take a minute to thank God for washing machines?  Yes.

Busy Bag #2: Magnetic Pompoms

This summer to coincide with our (definitely one, possibly two) epic road trip(s), I am making busy bags for Lucy.  See the others by clicking here.
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Next up, magnetic pompoms!  (I think that should technically be "pompons", but do I look like I care? I have a linguistics degree! Down with prescriptivism!)

Ingredients:

cookie sheet -- Dollar Tree (see Busy Bag #1)
cosmetics case -- garage sale
three packages of pompoms -- Dollar Tree
cheapo thin craft magnets -- my stash (that's crafting stash, not mustache)
hot glue and gun -- my second desk drawer down on the right

[In progress]

I had all these random strips of thin cheapo craft magnet.  I toyed with the idea of buying tiny little rare earth magnets, but they're kind of expensive, and it just seemed like overkill for this project.  Since there's nothing between the magnet and the cookie sheet, this works just fine. 

So -- cut up the magnets into little pieces with the crappiest scissors you have.  (No sense ruining good ones!)  Heat up the glue gun and go to town!

[Carrying case]

I bought three packages of pompoms because those were the three different sets of colors (basic, neon, and pastel). I only used about half of them.

And the end result.  See, you can make little pictures or patterns with them, and they stay where you put them!

I got the idea here. (Notice that I am not including any of the printouts. Open-ended is the name of the game here!)

There's also a non-zero probability that these will end up being thrown around the car at people's heads.  Oh well.

Busy Bag #1: Chalkboard

Last summer, as you probably know, my husband, our two-year-old, and I made the long drive from Oklahoma to northern California to relocate.  Well, this summer we'll be making the same drive, in the opposite direction, with a three-year-old. With possibly a week-long road trip vacation up the coast thrown in for good measure.  That is a lot of driving.

I was pretty organized for it last year: I packed Lucy's favorite books, got a car charger for my laptop so we could watch movies, brought some post-it notes and a few toys she hadn't seen before.  But there was still way too much whining and even some crying.  Yuck.  But she was two.

Now she's three.  Her attention span has increased exponentially in the last year.  She can draw, she can manipulate things a lot better, and perhaps most importantly, she finally got big enough that we had to turn her car seat to face forward.  She seems to enjoy car rides a lot more now (and incidentally, now that she can see what we're doing, has taken a keen interest in all things driving and car related).

With all that in mind, this seemed like a great time to stretch my creative and thrifty muscles a bit and make her some busy bags (also called "quiet bags", and closely related to "busy books" or "quiet books").  I'll be sharing them here one at a time as I get them done.

I started by searching Pinterest for "busy books".  I don't actually have a Pinterest account -- it's not something I think I need or would want to keep up with -- but I do find Pinterest very useful for finding all the best ideas in a particular category all in one place (the pinners have done all the work for me!).

I found a ton of really cute ideas.  Some were too young for Lucy, and some were too results-based.  I found myself really gravitating toward the ideas that were open-ended, not ones where the kid has to complete some task and that's all it does.  It was harder to find good ideas that fit that criterion.

All that to say.... Here is the first one!  I started out simple. :-)

I went to the Dollar Tree to find lots of stuff for this project.  One of the things I picked up was a cookie sheet.  It's going to come up a lot as I go through all the busy bags I have planned.  I'd also been keeping an eye out for pencil pouches.  They are the "bag" part of all the busy bags I'm making.  I found about half at garage sales and thrift stores, and I bought more at the Dollar Tree.

::drumroll::  It's a chalkboard!

Cookie sheet -- Dollar Tree
Colored classroom chalk -- garage sale
Pencil pouch -- garage sale
Denim fabric (erasers) -- part of an old skirt
Chalkboard contact paper (!!) -- Christmas present from my dear husband

I cut the contact paper to size and stuck it to the back of the cookie sheet.  The stuff works like a dream!  Very smooth, and wipes off easily, though that probably also has something to do with the chalk.

Should be fun for her!  A little messy, but a dry mess. And isn't that what's really important?

Totoro

Well somehow we got it in our collective heads at our house that we needed a giant bean bag chair.  But not just any giant bean bag chair.  A giant Totoro bean bag chair.  This seemed crazily unfeasible (bean bag filling is expensive!) until I found 3 large used (i.e., gross, nasty, covered in who knows what) bean bags for free on Freecycle.  Well that's the filling then, isn't it?

In searching the internet for examples of a giant Totoro bean bag chair, I came up with almost nothing.  But designing a giant Totoro myself seemed crazy.  And then I happened upon this guy, who made himself one, only his is a giant pillow (stuffed with pillow stuffing, not bean bag chair beans).  And he sells the pattern!  Now, the "pattern" is only a one-sheet PDF with all the pertinent Totoro parts measured in inches.  I will take it!  This saved me hours of work.  In fact if I hadn't had a pattern, I might not have tried it.  If you want to see his pattern, you can give him a dollar and he'll e-mail it to you. 

$50 worth of fabric later, and I was sewing.  I modified his pattern somewhat.  Gave Totoro a big smile instead of a tiny mouth, sewed his whiskers flat on his face, left off his tail, and put his arms at his sides.  I also had to go crazy on the bottom.  I needed to put in two layers of zippers since we were going to fill it with extremely messy styrofoam beans.  And I managed to do it!  I'm pretty proud of myself, actually.  I got skills.

[Cutting out the body]

["Consummate v's! Consummate!"]

[Parts and pattern]

[More parts]

[Laying him out to pin] 

 

[My sewing machine chugged right through this genuine leather like it was butter, but less messy. Old school Berninas, y'all. Seriously.]

[I finished sewing him and Norman decided he had to wear him. Creeptastic!]

[After Norman put in about 2/3 of the stuffing. Comfy, but not quite right.]

[Then I obtained another giant bean bag, and... Full!]

[Such a happy sort]

 

[And we've decided he's best right here.  Lucy can jump onto him without running into anything hard or pointy, and we can lounge on him and watch TV!]

Oh my goodness -- he is so comfortable.  You mush in and it all just molds around you.  Aaaahhh....

All told I spent about $75 on materials (including buying two used bean bags for their filling), and I-don't-even-want-to-know number of hours of work, not to mention the time Norman spent taking the filling out of the bean bags and putting it in Totoro.  This is certainly the biggest and craziest project I've ever undertaken.  I'm quite proud.  And comfy.

PS - If you come visit us, you are welcome to use Totoro as your guest bed. He is totally big and comfortable enough. But then you might not want to leave.