Craftin' with Kids: DIY coasters

I have a fairly high tolerance for messes when it comes to crafting. Messes involving toothpaste tubes left uncapped or Barbie clothes strewn everywhere? I'll pass. But crafting I do encourage with my children, especially when making gifts for someone else.

A recent craft I've been dreaming up was to make custom coasters using tiles and felt. I'd not done it but it seemed like I could do it cheaply enough to make a test-drive worthwhile.

Serendipity occurred upon my virgin voyage to the Southeastern Salvage which is a large emporium of a store here in the Southeast--think Home Depot meets Homegoods. I found mini-tiles for...wait for it...a nickel a piece. Bonanza!

Here's what we did.

1.) First, I cut up a garbage bag and laid it down on our tiled playroom floor so that the kids could get paint on everywhere BUT the garbage bag, including the rainbow rug and the door and themselves. Again, I am very tolerant of crafting messes. And my children enjoy the dog house where they are now sleep.

2.) The kiddies painted each mini tile with assorted acrylic paints which are a total pain to get out of their clothes, hence my son is not wearing any.

3.) After the tiles dried in the sun, I sprayed Krylon crystal clear acrylic in Satin on the tiles (to lock in the paint and keep it from chipping).

This is the moment when the cheerful hosts of Sesame Street would tell you to go get a grown-up to help you with this next part.

4.) I busted out the hot glue to seal the four mini-tiles together to form one coaster. I hot glued square pieces of felt onto the backs of each coaster to prevent scratching tables.

We gave ours to Eunis and Jeff, our bestest buddies and Tybee Island vacation pals. The coasters may or may not have gotten deep-sixed based on how flimsy and ugly they were, but we had fun making them regardless.

And that's the thing about anything worth doing. If you love the process, the outcome (sorta) doesn't matter.

[showmyads]

Kiddie Birthday Parties: Can we be real here?

I know, I know. Don't pee in the pool ya swim in. I'm taking a risk here, sharing my true feelings about children's birthday parties. My children are still quite young. They stand a fighting chance of getting invited to another birthday party in their lives. So why does their cranky mama have to go all Birthday Scrooge right now, on the internets? Well if any of our friends are reading this, nota bene: I am not talking about your party. I'm speaking globally about a few things that have been making me itch.

Thing the First about the Children's Birthday: Please don't make me RSVP by calling your phone number. Please make provision on the invitation for us awkward types to either send you a text message or respondez s'il vous plait by e-mail. Your child is in my kid's class. We have only met briefly, when I was trying to catch up on Suri Cruise's fashion forecast in the grocery aisle and you were trying to use a coupon and our kids were trying to introduce us, but c'mon. Suri Cruise. Coupons for Mr. Clean. Priorities.

Thing the Second: If your invitation includes a gift registry, I will totally comply but the whole time I will be thinking, "B-b-b-but, what will our children have to look forward to when they get married???" They will be all jaded and won't experience the thrill of saying, Do we go for the Lenox pie slicer or is OXO going to cut it (literally) for us? What the hay! Someone else is buying! Let's go top shelf! Scan!

[showmyads]

Thing the Third: If the venue of your child's birthday party involves any manner of inflatable jumping apparatus or fuzzy characters that walk around and throw tickets? I am totally sending my husband to chaperone. If I have to go, I might have to hide in the corner and bite my sleeve while whimpering something about how I almost drowned in the ball jump in McDonald's playland in 1984 and maybe that's what happened to Grimace and the Fry Burgler, too. Has anyone checked on them?

Thing the Fourth: If you invite the whole class as well as your neighborhood, extended family and the stepfather of the dog of your pilates instructor's mail carrier, you are just going to have to accept that your kid is going to cry at his/her own party. Maybe not even because he/she wants to. Because that crowd would overwhelm a politician.

Thing the Fifth: It is always helpful when invitations state whether food will be served at the party. For example, if you will be serving gummi worms, cupcakes, doughnuts, ice cream, and Girl Scout cookies with a Yoohoo chaser, followed by a pinata full of Jolly Ranchers and a send-off with the s'mores and choco-dipped goodie bags, I just like to know so I can be prepared for the diabetic coma into which my children will slip later that night. Know before you go, and all that.

I guess that about covers it. I know these are all First World requests and that every birthday celebration is a sweet one, marking the passing of another year of the life of a child who is healthy enough to celebrate.

Healthy enough to celebrate and eat a Ring Pop and open lotsa gifts.

Just be careful if you go near that ball jump, kids.

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5 things you need to know about the author Rachele Alpine

1. Rachele Alpine spent part of her senior year of high school living with an Amish family. This is the kind of life Rachele has been leading since we shared Latin class with the original dreamboat Mr. Wilson.

2. Rachele Alpine has a younger sister named Amanda who is delightful. She also has a dog named Radley. Look at this guy!

3. Rachele Alpine and I have the following in common: - We both attended writing nerd camps at Kenyon College - We both heart Boston something wicked fierce - We are both wild about Curtis Sittenfeld - We both used the same wedding photographer - We are both teachers

4. Rachele Alpine wrote a young adult novel called CANARY that is going to break some ground. Might even shatter it. It has been described as:

"Bittersweet and poignant, it shares a glimpse of what it's like to grow up, live, love, learn, understand, fumble, fall and eventually rise again in a modern high school setting marked by false friendships, betrayals and cruelty."

5. You must watch the trailer, then add this book to your Goodreads.

If this trailer moved you and you love a good YA read, consider pre-ordering on Amazon. I know I am.