Fun in the snow

Crazy weather these days! After 70 centimeters of snow last week, now we have warm weather, yesterday the temperature was 10 Celsius degrees above zero, as it is April, not January.

Yet, such a huge amount of snow can't melt overnight, so we'll enjoy it while it lasts. As a true optimist, I see winter as an idyllic time - watching the snow from a warm room, with a cup of tea or mulled wine (as long as I do not have to drive in snowy conditions!). And when we go outside, besides making snowmen  and ice-skating or snowball fights, we can have fun on the snow in many other ways. Here are some of them.

  Snow painting

Who says you can't paint on the snow? Bottle with a narrow opening, some water and food coloring and here's a cheerful, colorful rainbow. I'd like to thank the blogging colleague for this great idea .

Children will definitely love this sort of activity, but you should be careful they don't get wet.

Feeding birds in a creative way

Let's not forget the birds. It is necessary to leave them some food, because in these conditions, they hardly find any food so many birds die of hunger. Besides classic birdhouses, which you can create even out of milk cartoon , food can be left in the snow. If you make a cheerful drawing, kids will be thrilled. We made ​​them a heart, in honor of the upcoming Valentine's Day, and be sure to take a look at this great bird mosaic .

See here for more information about feeding birds. Birds will be grateful and will come back to your garden in the summer, when they will gladly exterminate insects that are bugging you, it will be a real treat to them. Sparrows, blackbirds and titmice are regular and dear guests in our garden.

Need more ideas for fun in the snow? Look here .   
 
And how do you have fun in the snow?

P. S.: This is the blog hop I participate in: 

Patches as a way of decorating your clothes

We all know the frustrating feeling when tiny holes suddenly appear on your favorite garment, and you are not ready to throw it away yet, but the classic stitches do not give the desired result, they only make the garment look even more worn out. My secret is in the patches, which can really do wonders even out of seemingly ordinary garments and transform them into glamorous evening pieces. For example,look at these two ordinary T-shirts which have been given a whole new look with shiny patches in the shape of a flower and butterfly. And just a few minutes ago, they looked like old rags.

And I think most of you know the feeling when your child likes a cartoon character, but you can't find anything with this character in local shops (it often happens to me). That's the same situation in which patches help. For example, it is impossible to find girls' clothing with the characters from The Cars cartoon (even on e bay-o'mighty). As you already know, we had The Cars birthday party, so I added The Lightning McQueen iron-on at her dress:

Do I have to mention how the birthday girl was thrilled? It is also a much cheaper way to get clothes with the popular cartoon characters.

Patches are available in all major supermarkets, drug stores, grocery stores, or on ebay.  Majority of them are iron-on patches, but I always add a few stitches, just in case. You can sew by hand or by sewing machine, but of course it's better by sewing machine.

And that's it!

Blogging tip - liking Facebook pages with your personal profile or as your page?

We, The Bloggers, like Facebook for many reasons. One of them are our followers with all of their comments, likes, ideas and all the other things we share which make our blogs better. Of course, you have to be honest and also admit it's the thing that counts when you negotiate with a potential sponsor.

Facebook has been changing the rules for Pages very often in the past few months, sometimes it's very hard to keep the track with all the changes.

However, one thing I've learned even as a blogging newbie, is the fact that the likes count. But not in the way you would've expected. For some reason, Facebook only recognizes likes made from personal profiles. I suppose it's set that way in order to avoid false likes. It's their right to set the rules, but there is a thing we can do to boost each others' page and in that way to help each other (since blogging is all about community) - we can like the Pages with both, our personal profile, as well as with our FB pages. The procedure is very simple, and I'll show it to you in a few easy steps (the page I'm liking in the example is my own FB Page).

Don't be confused, I use FB in my mother tongue (and you'll notice some options are still in English), but the buttons are in the exact same place when you use it in English.

Find the page you wish to like, then first like it from your personal profile. Then click on the little button for options and choose "like as your Page". This even works if you have more than one Page (I do myself), because you'll be able to choose between the Pages. For example, I blog in my mother tongue and in English as well, so therefore I have separate Facebook pages.

And that's it! You will notice the number of likes has changed when you liked it from your personal profile, but not when you liked it as a Page.

Personally, I prefer commenting as a Page (meaning you'll notice me as The Stepford Wife). It is my way of protecting privacy on Facebook and I've noticed many other bloggers do the same.

However, I like sharing some blogging suport and I believe this definitely is one of the best ways. And of course, to get outside as a blogger. (Did I mention I am a newbie?)

What are your experiences? Do you prefer using your personal account on FB or do you use it as a Page?
What about the number of likes you are getting? Pages or personal profiles - which of the two is more like to like you?

Five ways to make a snowman

My part of the world has been covered with almost 70 centimeters of snow, which hasn't happened in the last 150 years. Since there's nothing worse than a winter without snow, go out and enjoy it, make  children happy before the snow turns into slush! Hats, scarves and waterproof gloves are all you need!

Of course, if kids are sick you can't go out. However, snowmen can be made out of other materials, and not just the snow.

1. Snowmen made of plastic bottles

All you need are markers (preferably waterproof), some cute ribbons and white empty plastic bottles, 

Just look at them, aren't they stylish?

2. A snowman made of a glass jar

Paste cotton pads on a glass jar and add paper eyes, nose and mouth. In less than 20 minutes you'll have a nice holder for different school supplies. 

3. A cotton pads snowman

 

The same pads from the previous idea, can be pasted to the carton and become a beautiful, hand-made greeting card. We used crayons for drawing a hat, a broom and the snowman's face.

4. A snowman made of plastic cups

 

Arrange the cups in the desired shape, paste them together (we used a hot glue gun) and painted his hat and face with temperas.

  

5. A cherry on the top - a snowman made of real snow

 

Hopefully the kids got better by now, so go out and do the real one! 

 Be careful with its "styling."

Need more ideas for winter activities? See here. 

How about joining a linky party?

 

DIY carnival fairy costume

The Older was very sad when we undecorated our Christams tree so I explained to her how soon there'll be a carnival and Valentine's Day and how at any time of the year we can look forward to something and make something, because decorating a Christams tree is not the only cheerful event of the year.

Of course, she wanted to make a costume immediately, just after we undecorated the tree. She has not yet decided whether she wants to be a fairy, a princess or an angel, but lucky for me, these three roles can be attributed with almost identical accessories.

And so we made the wings first, following these instructions. We bended the metal hangers from the dry cleaner's into the desired shape and connected the two wings (good tongs were very helpful by this step) and "stitch" was wrapped with some masking tape.

 

After that, we wrapped the wings with a pair of transparent stockings 

and I sprayed them with some 

gold spray:

As you can guess from the background of the last picture, spraying was performed outdoors, because the scent is quite suffocating in a closed space, and it's easier to avoid potential stains on the furniture. In the end, we decorated the wings by using textile colors. After the colors had dried, I fastened an elastic rubber band to the wings, which will serve as shoulder straps. We also made a pair for The Younger as well:

Since it was much fun to us, we made another pair. Honestly, this one reminds me more of an airplane propeller, however, its owner had no objections.

All together, it looks something like this:

 

I agree with those who say that it is not a matched color scheme, but since this is the costume for my girl, I let her to choose the colors.

I bought a skirt at this season's sales, and you probably recognize the top of the heart shaped stick, from one of my previous posts where it was an ornament for the tree. I made the wands ​​inspired by this idea .

The crown was simply made according to the template from the site Spoonful.com.

Here I have more close photos:

Now, I hope the costume will survive till Carnival, because the Older does not want to take the wings off, she's running around the house stumbling into furniture. Or should I say flying?  

At the moment as I write this, the crown has already been damaged. 

What will be your mask in a carnival? See here if you need an idea. 

 


P.S. I also recommend you to visit these great linky parties.

Beccis Domestic Bliss