biome in a bottle

try your green thumb at growing plants by making your very own mini greenhouse. this is a great science activity for kids as well as a great use for old, empty 2 liter bottles. teach them about the water cycle, ecosystems/biomes and how the earth is a closed system.

watch your little plant grow by only watering once and then sealing it shut and setting it a sunny locale. no, it's not magic--it's the water cycle in action!





click HERE for some great instructions, complete with a lab journal.

{all you will really need is an empty plastic bottle with a lid, some dirt (potted soil would work the best, since it's nutrient rich), a packet of seeds (choose seeds that grow quickly and easily for best results), small rocks + pebbles, scissors or a sharp knife, heavy duty tape, and water.}

melted wax crayons

let's be honest, we all hating using broken stubby crayons. unfortunately, kids love to break crayons. solution: recycle those old crayon bits into big fun shapes of swirly color fun! you can make them into any size, shape, color combo you want with the right supplies. the bigger shapes will be easier for those cute toddler paws to handle and older kids will love the new shapes + colors just as much.

get creative. experiment with color combinations. it's easy + fun. do it with the children in your life today!


01. arrange broken crayon bits into your baking tin of choice {if you do not have a cute tin, melt the wax in something else suitable for baking and then pour melted wax in soap or candy molds. heavy weighted cookie cutters on a baking sheet will also work.}
02. bake at 300 degrees for about ten minutes
03. remove from oven and let cool to touch
04. flip the tin upside down and {hopefully} remove the crayon
05. color to your heart's content

thankful book

I like what emily falconbridge has done with the gratitude journal idea. what a fun way to use up random scraps of paper while giving thanks in your day-to-day life.


check out the step by step directions (found in TodaysMama) and start giving thanks today!

images courtesy of emily f.

the button shirt toddler dress

here is a great way to use hubby's (or brother's, or friend's, or random stranger's) old button-down collared shirt to clothe your child. with a few easy steps + alterations she'll have herself the cutest little dress on the block.
check out the tutorial and make your own today!

{prologue} beginning in the middle

sometimes I feel I was born for another time. my need to save and reuse has been somewhat overwhelming. you'd think I had grown up through the great depression. or was a housewife during the world war. but I wasn't. I am living in the here + now where consumption and consumerism is at an all-time high and we are living under the one-time-use paradigm of our throw-away society.

I want to simplify. I want more from less.

maybe I get it from my mother. though a self proclaimed muddler through life, she is actually a creative genius with the keen ability to make crafty solutions to life's day-to-day problems. {making a desk into both a child-proof gate + functional food storage space is proof enough.} she uses what she has to get by. she makes using less work.

I've been trying to do this for years. maybe it's my inherent need to reduce + reuse + recycle. maybe I'm just cheap. maybe I'm just lazy. whatever the reason, I want to create without using more. buying more stuff. wasting more of our natural resources. I'll reuse the things around me and recreate them into something else. I will reconstruct: life + the way we approach crafting/creating.

{re}CONSTRUCTED:
a weblog devoted to the diy of every day life using every day things in a new + creative way