Absolutely anyone can make a stunning hanging wall vase and it costs almost nothing. It’s like having a 3D masterpiece on the wall, and there is something exhilarating about having something so real, bright and wonderful, looking you in the eye and smiling. Before I show you how to make the vase, I want to tell a small story…

I feel a slight pang of jealousy sometimes when I visit other people’s homes.   It’s not that I want what they have — no — it’s more about grieving what I don’t have, and I wonder if I’m creating enough of a home for my kids.

Ever since my husband and I became parents, we’ve moved.  10 times in the last 12 years is the last count.  We’ve rented one place after the other so I’m restricted in what I can do to make each house, a home. It’s not only that though: people who have moved a few times will understand just how stressful shifting a lot of stuff can be.  You see, I don’t unpack all the special nick nack things. I don’t unpack all the family photos. I don’t unpack all the pictures for the walls. Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a house and my home is sitting in dark dusty boxes, deep in the corner of the garage.

Is that my home? That stuff, sitting, ever so quietly in the boxes? The family photos; the glass bowl that belonged to my great-grandmother; the wedding album: Is that what makes a house, a home? If you asked me that very question 10 years ago, I probably would have said yes. Yes, that is what makes a house a home: surrounding your family with memories, comfort and beauty.

See the print in the photo below? It’s a print of ‘Flowers’ by David Hart. I gave the picture to my mum for Mother’s Day 14 years ago. My Dad recently gave it to me for Christmas, now mum has gone. It’s one of the very few pictures that grace the walls of our house.

The photo shows very much the evolution of my definition of home, and how I’ve moved from relying on stable things to comfort me, to accepting the beauty in change.  I love the flower print on the wall but I don’t need it to remember my mum. I carry her in my head with memories. I carry her in my heart with love. What I have is now, and I’ve learned to use the now to create beauty and wonder in the home.

The sunflower, standing tall right now, will die. Yes. But it will be enjoyed fully in it’s time.  When it is gone, I’ll look for something else, new and wonderful to take it’s place. Perhaps some bright red seeds I pick up on one of my walks. Maybe a selection of shells the kids collected on our last visit to the beach. What about fallen petals that still have something to say? I’ve learned to decorate my home with nature, creativity and artwork from my kids.  It’s always changing, but it’s always real and there’s a lot of truth in it.

My family is my home.  And as a family, we aim to be amazing in the moments we have and to delight in all the wonders that are in them. Our home represents our ability to adapt, to be.

Yes, I still feel a little jealous of lovely homes with school photographs lined up on the wall, hooks for rain coats, shelves for books and nooks for moneyboxes — that may happen for me one day — but right now, I’ve embraced the truth that as a family, we can live almost anywhere and still create magic around us.

DIY: Wall Vase

I’ve experienced much joy from filling the wall vases with things we come across as we live life.  If you want to make one too, this is what you’ll need:

Materials

Empty 200 ml glass juice bottle (enjoy some juice and save the jar!)

30 cm Length of rope (I purchased natural coloured rope from Crazy Clarks for about $1)

Flower Wall Vase

Use as a vase for flowers, outside or inside.

Shells

Fill with shells and use as a hanging feature inside, or outside the home. A row of these would look gorgeous! Perfect for the beach house.

 Petals in a Vase

Fallen petals, from a failing bunch of flowers or changing tree can be used in the bottle vase as a feature. It’s sure to brighten up the wall!

More Than One

A few of these wall vases in a row look gorgeous.

How to make

The only trick to this DIY project is to learn how to make a bottle knot. That’s it. It’s very easy and I’ll show you how in the video below. The knot is very sturdy and the bottle won’t fall out, as Dr Seuss said in Oh, the places you’ll go! It’s “99 and 3/4 percent guaranteed”.

Other Floral Posts

Make a Wild Flower Head Wreath

Simple Things, Small Joys

Putting Colour into A Grey Day

There are many different items my kids use in the bath for play, other than the traditional bath toys like the rubber duck. And bath time doesn’t just happen at night; my son often has a bath during the day as an activity.  We have found many items around the house that are fun to play with in the bath.

1. Empty Plastic Bottles

Clean, empty soft drink bottles act like boats in the water.  The lid can be left on so the bottle floats, or removed and filled with water, and poured out again.

2. Milk Bottle Lids

The kids recently had a blast playing with Milk Bottle Lid Boats in the rain. Milk bottle lids are also a fun in the bath. They can be used with or without the sail (the sails can be a hazard so are best for older children and under supervision). The more lids, the better! Kids can blow the lids from one side of the bath to the other.

3. Cups and Bowls

Plastic cups and bowls are gold. Kids can pour water into one from the other, make them float, sink or use them any other way they think of.

4. Plastic Figurines

I have fond memories of playing with plastic animal figures in the bath. They are solid so the water can’t get in which makes them perfect for the bath.

5. Laundry Tub

The humble laundry tub can be turned into a sturdy boat or a desert island in the water.

6. Toddler Discovery Shapes

The laundry tub can also be used to hold discovery shapes for toddlers.  After a 2 minute glance around the house, I found these bright things: rubber ball, rectangle cube, plastic spoon, half a plastic egg, silicone cupcake mould, ice-cream shape.

* I know you all know this but I just have to put here that children need to be supervised with water, la-de-la, you know the drill.

Do you have any other unconventional bath toy ideas to add to the list? Share them in the comments below.

More Posts

Activities for children under 2

Activities for children 2 to 5

Activities for children 5 to 8 — coming soon

Activities for children 8-12

1. Cook diced onion in butter until translucent.

2. Break up BBQ chicken into strips and add to onion.

3. Add corn and peas and stir for 3 minutes.

4. In a bowl, add curry powder, flour, salt and chicken stock powder and mix with a little water to make a paste.

5. Pour milk over chicken mixture and allow to boil.

6. Add paste and stir until thick.

7. Sprinkle parsley on top.

8. Serve with rice, pasta or noodles.

Tips:

I tear the BBQ chicken roughly, and also add a little of the stuffing.

You can use whatever frozen vegetables you like. I used frozen peas, corn and carrot.

I use low fat milk.

Other Easy Dinner Recipes

Easy Fried Rice

Savory Mince

Spaghetti Bolognese

Meatloaf

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Zucchini Slice

I’ll say right up: this is quite a long post…because organising a family is a huge job.  I’m going to start at the beginning of last year.  You see, 2011 was the most disorganised year of our family life.  My entire year was thrown when I was caught in the Queensland Floods while trying to move from one flooded place to another. I had to rush the kids into school and never quite got it together after that; played catch up for the rest of the year.

I knew there had to be changes in the organisational department for 2012, so I thought long and hard about what systems I’ve used before, what works for our family of six, and what doesn’t.

In the past, I’ve tried many tools to organise family life with varying degrees of success; written diary, wall calendar, family calendar,  iPhone — oh and my memory — are some of the systems I’ve used. Yeah, the memory didn’t work out too well.   I’ve come to realise two things:

1. I can’t rely on just one method to organise my family, but need to use a combination of methods that work together.

2. I need a system that will work for ME…but one that the family can utilise and understand.

I asked this very question on the Be A Fun Mum facebook page and many of you use a combination of methods to organise your family too. Below is a graph of what systems are used most.

 Organising My Family

The biggest priority for me when organising my family is the ability to see ahead in the future, so I opted for a annual planner rather than a family wall calendar.  I also use my iPhone for my own schedule and to store details including addresses and phone numbers, and it’s easy to sinc this with my husband’s schedule.

The Wall Planner is next to the kitchen.

Key Colour Coding

The next issue was to find a way to put our family of six on the planner.  I use a colour coded system that would work for any written calendar or diary. I (or anyone else) can easily see what the children are doing each day, where the holidays are and the days my son is at Kindy. It’s all there in one glance.

This may seems like a lot of fuss, but once the majority of repetitive and fixed events are on the planner (which accounts for about 70% of our annual schedule), there’s not a lot left to do!

Tools:

Different colour permanent marker for each of the kids

Black permanent marker (for fixed events)

Whiteboard marker (for transient and tentative events)

Small dot stickers (different colours for other important events like when I work out of the home)

I use a designated colour for each child, and use letters in their colour to mark the days they have particular events at school, like L for Library Day. So on the day that both Cossie and Scotty have Library Day, there is a pink and green L on that day.  I also use their colour for events that are particular to them. For example, if Cossie has a birthday party on a Saturday, I will write that in pink on the annual planner, and then also write the details of where the party is on my iPhone.

I use a permanent marker for all the regular events like school holidays, birthdays and regular events, and a whiteboard marker that I can wipe off for transient or tentative events.

Morning To-Do Lists

For the first month of school, we use morning To-Do Lists for the kids. After about a month, the kids don’t need morning charts anymore. You can down this Morning Chart PDF here.

For my youngest daughter (6) with special needs, I insert clip art pictures into a document and print it out for her to use as a morning guide.

Saying No to Micro Managing

With my older children (8 and 10) the onus is on them to be organised for school, for example, remembering their books on library days and instruments for music days. I like to know what they are doing and am happy to be there to remind and encourage them. However, when it comes to going early for music or sport, my policy is if they want to be involved in those activities, they need to organise themselves.  I’m happy to support their endeavours, but I’ve learned I can’t micro manage everyone in our family. If I try, I become a massive control freak and basically go mental trying to remember everything.

I’ve also learned that my older kids are very capable of organising themselves. For my younger children (4 and 6) I still remind them of what they have on the next day.

My older girls each have their own wall calendar they use and remind me if they need to go to school early for an activity.

Our annual planner acts as a broad guide to our family life that I manage but everyone can refer to, and the iPhone stores particulars (like addresses and phone number) that I always carry with me.  This is the best system I’ve used yet for our family.

Have you found a system that works for your family?

Other Links

School Mornings: I Don’t Want to Be A Nag

Back to School Posts

Guest Post by Matthew (Mr BeAFunDad)

Space…The final frontier.

The dulcet baritone of Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek echoes in my head as I write this post. I’ve loved the stars for as long as I can remember. As a child, I was fascinated  by space travel and the probes sent out into the distant solar system. Fast forward a couple of years, and I nearly wore out a certain volume of my family’s 1990 Encyclopedia Britannica as I explored the life cycle of stars and everything else related to the universe.

At one stage, I even managed to procure a small refracting telescope.  I remember balmy Brisbane evenings, out the front of my childhood home, finding Jupiter and Venus through the telescope lens, and then  dragging my entire family out to have a look. (Unfortunately by the time they got outside, the object has usually moved, and no matter of diligent searching on my part could find it again!).

For a while, my love of the stars was drowned out in the busyness of study, work, marriage and family commitments. But no longer. I am having a renaissance, and it’s mainly thanks to my children. As the children grow, I can’t help looking at the heavens and pointing what I see to them.  Their enthusiasm sparked something inside of me, and as they become more interested in the subject, I find my passion returning.

“Their enthusiasm sparked something inside of me, and as they become more interested in the subject, I find my passion returning.”

Interestingly, I have found the topic, that I so love, has given me a opportunity share and bond with my children. I want to share with you some of the ways I share this passion with my children. Most of these have not been planned, but have sprung for my own interest in the subject and the delight my children have in sharing the experience with me. It’s been more about weaving it into our lives together.

“I have found the topic, that I so love, has given me a opportunity share and bond with my children.”

1. Make the Most of Opportunities

Some evenings, I will be outside, and fortuitously see the International Space Station streak across the sky. I call the children out to watch it with me. This is not something that is planned, it’s actually something I could just enjoy by myself, but it’s so much more fun to share it with the kids and watch their excitement. This then opens up a Pandora box of questions like, “What’s that star?” and “What’s that galaxy?”  We are usually pulled from this world of wonder by mosquito bites, and we then know it’s time to go inside again. There are many such opportune moments to capitalise on as we live life.

Tip: I use the Star Walk iPhone app which acts as a real time guide to the night sky.

Matching the night sky with a scale model.

2. Prompts

I love finding images from the great Observatories of the world (NASA, Hubble, Spitzer, Chandra, Alma) and use these as the screen saver on my computer, which happens to be in the dining room. Often during dinner, the children notice an image on the computer, which gives an easy opening to discuss more about the picture. So in a way, the screen saver becomes an interesting dinner table conversation starter.

Horse Head Nebula in the Orion Constellation

3. Media

I’m always on the look out for astronomy related news in the media to share with the children. This might be the anniversary of the landing on the moon, a lunar eclipse  or other significant astronomical event.

Neil Armstrong walks on the moon on July 20, 1969 — image credit

4. Research

Sometimes my children ask questions that are difficult to answer like “What’s in a black hole?” “Why is it dark on one side of the word and not the other?” and “How big is a star?” Together, we research videos on YouTube and books to explore the question.

Explaining how the earth goes around the sun using an orange as a prop

How big is a star?

5. Plan a special outing

On our 2011 road trip, we made a point of visiting the Warrumbungle Observatory  in NSW. Below is one of the pictures I took with our own digital SLR camera through the telescope. I hope it’s an experience the kids will remember fondly.

The Jewel Box as taken at Warrumbungle observatory 21 July 2011

It saddens me, how much I miss of the children’s lives because of my work. However, it’s such a joy to share something I love with my children, and amazing how effortlessly it can fit into normal family life; it’s quality time.

I think this same approach would work with many subjects and I encourage any Dads out there to do the same. Share the things you’re interested in with your kids, and find ways to incorporate them into family life.

Albert Einstein said, “watch the stars, and from them learn” (who am I to argue with the great man?), and I find there’s nothing more satisfying than sharing moments under the stars with my children.

“There’s nothing more satisfying than sharing moments under the stars with my children.”

****************************

Matthew is a husband, father of 4, and has a passion for all things scientific (and is constantly amazed by God’s handiwork).  He holds a Bachelor of Science (UQ), Bachelor of Medicine (University of Newcastle) and is currently an advanced trainee in General Surgery.

Other Links

Why Is There So Much Rain?

Love this verse: “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name” — Psalm 147:4

I’m always on the look out for clever toys.  When I say clever toys, here are some of the things I look for:

• Toys that don’t require batteries
• Toys that stimulate imaginative play
• Toys made from quality materials
• Toys made from natural materials
• Toys made with an environmentally friendly focus

I find these sorts of toys last, occupy my children for logner and I hate changing batteries. HA!

Let me introduce you to Finlee & Me, a shop that sells many toys that tick many of the points above. I loved many of the products and have pulled out my three favourite to review in this post.

Dancing Silk Ribbon Ring

The Dancing Silk Ribbon Ring is made from beautiful materials, and that is what I love most about it. The wooden ring is polished with beeswax and the silk ribbons are soft to the touch. The rings jingle when moved thanks to a few bells.  The Silk Ribbon Ring is perfect for dancing, or course, and we used it in different ways too.

1. Movement

Dance, jump, sing, wave, skip, run.

2. Mobile/Hanging Decoration

I made this stunning pressed bouganvillea flower mobile to brighten up my daughter’s room.  The wood, silk and flower combination made me happy.

To use the dancing ring into a mobile, simply use laminated pressed flowers (as I have), or cut out any cardboard shapes you like. Then punch a hole in the top of each shape and tie on to a ribbon, at different lengths, allowing the remainder of the ribbon to hang behind. This way, you can easily turn it back into a dancing ring if you like.

3. Outdoor Cubby

On a fine day, hang the dancing ring on a branch in a tree to help create a magical play space outside.

Peek-A-Boo Bags

Peek-A-Boo Bags are fantastic for the pram, long drives shopping trips and at home. It’s like having a treasure hunt inside a mini bean bag! The Peek-A-Boo bags each have a snap tag with all the items you can find through the vinyl window. The bags also feel good to hold and squelch.  They come in three different types: Rough N Tough (pictured below), Sugar N Spice and Everything A to Z.

Balloon Cover

These Balloons are so clever! Simply blow up a balloon inside the cover to turn it into a ball.  This both protects the balloon so it lasts longer (and you can use it on grass), plus it’s safer for toddlers and washable. Not only is the balloon cover wonderful for home use, it’s great for travel too: pop a  balloon cover  and a few balloons in your bag and you’ll always have something up your sleeve for the kids to play with.

Perfect for travel:

Put a few balloons and the balloon cover in a zip lock bag and throw it in your handbag so you always have something up your sleeve for the kids to play with when you travel.

Cute designs

Giveaway

I’m happy to be able to giveaway 1 x Balloon Cover, 1 xPeek-A-Boo Bag and 1 x Dancing Ring on the blog today thanks to Finlee & Me.  There will be three winners, one for each product.  The winner will be able to choose whatever colour/design of the product they like.

To enter, all you need to do is like Finlee & Me on facebook (like button below) and leave a comment the space below this post about what you look for when you buy toys for your child/ren.

Finlee & Me Facebook Page

Terms: 1. Australian residents only  2. Winner will be notified by email. 3. If the winner does not respond to the email within 48 hours, the winner will be drawn. 4. Winner will be drawn via random number. 5. Giveaway will close 4 February 2012. 6. Read my disclosure policy.