Preschooler Busy Bags

A long, long, time ago, in a galaxy far away I was a member of this cool website called Swap Bot.  When I left my husband I completely forgot about it.  I had no access to my former email and with all the things going on, it just slipped away.  I came across it recently again and decided I'd give it another try.  I signed up for a Preschool Busy Bag swap.

Busy bags are basically ziplock bags of fun for your child, that have everything in the bag to do the activity.  Prior to the swap, I had never heard of these and had to google them. They looked like so much fun, I decided to join the swap. I go volunteer at Mr E's school and I always bring a bag of fun stuff for Miss Molly.  I thought busy bags would be extra fun for her to play with while I'm doing projects or copies for the teachers.

Our theme for the bags was "winter," but I found this wonderful little cupcake busy bag instructions at Money Saving Mom's blog.  To keep it winter, I tried to stick with "winter" colors like blues and whites and sparkly felt.

If you want to make your own, it costs little of nothing.  Hobby Lobby has felt sheets for 4 for $1, 4 is enough for one busy bag, plus raid your own pantry for a large ziplock and a couple of small ziplock bags for the sprinkles and big toppings.  I added a glue stick to each bag, but these can easily be done without glue sticks so you can use them over and over.  Then print off the instructions from the link above and create your own.

Stomach bugs and waldorf dolls

Don't those just go together? Unfortunately, I have been sick as a dog with some kind of stomach bug. It's not fun, so that's why I've been MIA for a few days. I had grand plans to get up a new tutorial on Thursday, but I just felt horrible. And, I haven't felt much better since. So the tutorials are piling up around here. I have 3 or 4 tutorials worth of pictures. I just need to feel good enough to write them up and post. They are all Waldorf doll inspired, and the first one will be up in the next few days.

I've been on a Waldorf doll kick for the past few couple weeks. I've decided to offer custom dolls available for order in my little microboutique with my mom. Hmm, "little microboutique" is rather redundant, dontcha think? :)

I made up a sample doll to place in my store and for sample pictures on Etsy. Here she is. She told me her name was Lorelei. I was going to name her after my yougest, but she informed me her name was definitely Lorelei. She's apparently has some spunkiness to her much like my darling youngest daughter, who is so sure of herself and she's not even 3 years old yet.

This is Lorelei. She has a mixture of wool yarns for her hair, mainly in fuschia. She has green eyes and a little bright pink mouth. I love her outfit, especially the colors. They just screamed at me to be her outfit. She has a layered skirt with coordinating peasant top.  She also has a wool felted messenger bag upcycled from a black sweater vest because Lorelei loves nothing more than to go thrifting and repurpose what she finds.  And lastly, she is wearing brown felted shoes that tie around her ankles with ribbon. 

See You Later Alligator - bag toppers - so cute!!

I came across this blog, Anything But Perfect, with these bag toppers a few days ago and thought they were too adorable to pass up.  I thought they would be perfect for Em, who is in middle school, to give to her friends.  So tonight, we made these bags of goodies for her friends as tomorrow is the last day of school.

Albertson's was having a a "crazy 8" sale with tons of stuff just 88 cents.  One of the things was their store brand bags of candy as well as Haribo gummi bears.  So, we used about 1/2 a bag a candy each.  These were made with regular sandwich bags.  I printed the toppers on cardstock, then folded the sandwich bags over at the top and stapled.  Em's excited about giving them out tomorrow. 


{Free Printable} End of School Year Treat Bag Toppers

FYI, if you live in the DFW area and have an Albertson's, they have all kinds of goodies for 88 cents. I got 3 containers of fresh blackberries, a few Rock Star energy drinks, and a few Honest Tea all for just 88 cents each.  The sale started today and goes through next Tuesday.

And another sneak peek of a new bag design

I was very excited at how the design of this bag has come out, that I wanted to share.  I'm not completely finished with the design, but this is the gist of it. 

I have a couple more hurtles to overcome -- mainly the strap design. But, I love these pleats with a different color popping out and the folded corners.  Years ago, I made a tote bag with folded corners and I always wanted to put that into a bag design.  


I'm not sure what I will call this one.  Something with pleats....Oh I know! If you would like to help me name it, post in the comments, and if I choose your suggestion, I'll send you a free copy of the pattern once it's complete.

Sewing Pattern Sale

I'm having a sewing pattern sale!  They are PDF downloadable, so you get instant gratification with the click of a button.  Just enter the code below in the checkout for 15% off.  All the patterns can be found here.

Use Code YTE120514010452 to get 15% off your order. Exp. 6/12