Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor soldiers who fought in war, is just around the corner. Parents can take this opportunity to lead their children in a flower pot craft that will remind them of the sacrifices made by the soldiers.
You will need the following items to make your Memorial Day craft:
If you want to start de-stashing, or even just to keep an informal inventory of your yarn, eventually you run into the question of how to count it. It's more complicated than you might think! 
I absolutely hate throwing away all of the Christmas cards I receive once the holiday has passed. I decided to come up with a few creative ways to use the cards, so that I didn't feel like I was wasting them.
First, I cut out any poems that were located on the inside of the card. I set them in a special box to be used in my scrapbooks. In some cases I wrote the name of the individual who sent me the card on the back of the poem. Then when I was creating a scrapbook page with their photo, I could just paste the poem on the same page.
I'm always on the look out for crafts that I can tie in with my daughter's lesson plans. This week I was on the search for a log cabin craft to demonstrate the type of home Abraham Lincoln grew up in. I found a pretty neat one, and then add my own personal touches to it.
The first thing you need to do is locate a small shoe box that you no longer need. This is the base of your log cabin. Next, you need to cut out a door and a few windows with a box cutter. If your children are older, you can supervise them doing this. It is too dangerous for younger children, however.
The next task is to send the kids outside with a bucket. Have them collect plenty of twigs from the ground. If you don't have trees in your yard, you'll have to head to a nearby park.
Cover your kitchen or dining room table with newspaper sheets and set your twigs and shoebox on top. You will also need plenty of glue. I like to have the kids cover one side of the shoebox with glue and then press the twigs on to the glue, but you could cover each twig with glue and then press it on the box. Both ways will work just fine. The trick is to find twigs that fit the space, although we found that we could simply snap the twigs to the size we needed. After you cover all four sides, its time to work on the roof.
I'm currently working on a knitting project (Wingspan) which is built almost entirely out of short rows. You would think this would be maddening, but luckily the pattern is designed to make it simple. You set a traveling marker, knit to that marker, pull it out, turn your knitting, work three stitches, put the marker back, and then continue knitting your row. It's even easier than that description makes it sound!
Slate's Seth Stevenson has a delightful fashion article about super ritzy socks. Socks that cost upwards of $50 or $60 a pair. But even after trying them, he was dissatisfied with many of the world's best socks. They didn't fit quite right, or weren't opaque (no one wants to see your leg hair in a $60 sock), or weren't made of wool (which Stevenson prides for its wicking quality).
I think every knitter goes through a spell of "knitting doldrums" once in a while. It's hard to say how it happens: maybe you get burned out by a deadline, or by knitting too many similar objects in a row, or by forcing yourself to finish a project you hate. Maybe it's just seasonal, or you're too stressed out at work, or it's the barometric pressure. (You can blame just about anything on barometric pressure.) 
Mother's Day is quickly approaching. Most children have a desire to show their mothers just how much they love them. Of course, they are too young to go out and purchase a gift. Fortunately, magnets are easy enough to create that even the smaller children can get in on it. As a mom, I know that we appreciate homemade gifts even more than store-bought ones.
You will need the following items to make your Mother's Day magnet craft:
Every time my kids see a Chia Pet in a grocery or department store, they declare their desire for one. Personally, I can't see spending $20 for one, so I decided to see if we could make our very own Chia Pets. Honestly, I think my kids like making their own crafts anyway.
You will need the following items to make your Chia Pet:
Ever since my kids were little, they have had a love of sand art. The trouble was that the sand art booths at our local carnivals and 4th of July festivals charged an arm and a leg to make just a small bottle of sand art. That's when I got the idea to make my own colored sand so that the girls could create endless sand art crafts.
First, you'll need to determine how many different colors of sand you need for your project. For example, if your child is designing a rainbow, he would need seven different colors. Take out one disposable bowl for each color. I use the small dessert bowls instead of the larger styrofoam bowls.