Marie from Make and Takes has a great feature where she invites guests to post a fun idea for a craft or treat they have made with their kids--and she calls us Guest Make and Takers. I'm proud to have that name for today.
I discovered her blog some weeks ago when she was the guest mom for the week on Design Mom, (another blog I have on my google reader) and was instantly hooked to her fun ideas for kids crafts, activities and treats. Each post is a tutorial with such great pictures that you feel like you're in her house participating in the fun. Her kids are lucky to have such a fun mom, and readers of her blog feel equally lucky. Thanks Marie!
One of my favorite tutorials from her blog is how to recycle your old, broken crayons into these:
This is a terrible version I found on YouTube, but perhaps you've seen the real version when you accidentally forgot to fast forward the commercials in your nightly DVR catching-up session (that's how I saw it).
So the message I get out of this is spend more time with your family by using paper plates at every meal. Like your children are really going to suffer in that 10 minutes you spent away from them loading the dishwasher. Whatever happened to teaching your kids how to do their own dishes?
Now, don't read me wrong here. I am not anti-paper products. I do believe that some situations warrant the use of disposable dishes and utensils--although one of the things I hate most is to see a garbage can full of used paper plates and cups. I do use them, though, when necessary.
I mean, I hate doing dishes like the rest of the world, but I think that this is very irresponsible advertising.
Emilee, my other sister who is always discovering fun things on the web, sent me a link to this book, written by Karen Farmer. I have been thinking of making a child-size canvas shopping tote for some time now, and this is a great inspiration to make it happen.
Perhaps when our young children are adults, the question of "paper or plastic?" will be a thing of the past. Perhaps if they forget their shopping totes, they will just be out of luck at the grocery store. Probably not.
But many of them, having grown up watching their own parents carry their reusable shopping totes, will not even think it strange to carry on this ritual. And if we get them started young, with their own canvas tote, even better.
So, be on the lookout in the next few weeks for a new line of totes, inspired by My Bag and Me.
Oh, and P.S.--Make sure you go check out my new shop banner created by my awesome, talented sister, Alisa. THANKS Lis!
Posts
