Custom Dream Catchers

As told by Wikipedia, to paraphrase the article, the Dream Catcher is a handmade object based on a willow hoop and is decorated with sacred items such as beads and feathers." The Ojibwe believe that a Dreamcatcher changes a person's dreams. According to Konrad J. Kaweczynski, "Only good dreams would be allowed to filter through… Bad dreams would stay in the net, disappearing with the light of day." Good dreams would pass through and slide down the feathers to the sleeper."

While searching for decorating ideas on Pinterest for Baby Squishy,  I came across this really pretty Dreamcatcher and recalled being taught how to make these in elementary school and wondered do I still remember!  Well it turns out I do remember something from school and once I began, the memories flooded back in!

I have now begun making these dream catchers for friends and family, and would love to make one for you! I have them in different sizes and can customize them to your nursery colors or whatever tickles your fancy! If you are interested in having one made for yourself, or your child.. please send drop me a line at fulltimemommydearest@gmail.com

Prices as follows:

10 inch Custom Dream Catcher: $30.00
7 inch Custom Dream Catcher: $20.00
5 inch Custom Dream Catcher: $15.00

I can do any colors for yarn/string choices, bead choices, and feathers.  If there is a specific color or design, please let me know! I'd be happy to come up with something special just for you!


Here are some examples of the ones I've already made:



Top Two are 10inch and bottom two are 5 inch.

Good-Bye DayCare..Hello Kindergarten!

Today marks a momentous day for Miss Ava. Today, we say Good-Bye to daycare. While this adventure is ending, another is about to start...Kindergarten

I'm so proud of the little girl she has become because of the amazing care the ladies at this daycare have given to her day after day for almost 2 years. They have kissed her boo-boo's when I couldn't be there, they've held her when she was sad, and made her laugh. They've helped her become this amazing little girl who will be the most kind and caring big sister.

I started reflecting on her time with Children's World Daycare and how influential they have been in our family. I really wanted to say thank you for taking such wonderful care of our daughter, teaching her so many wonderful things and just being these selfless human beings that have one of the hardest most rewarding jobs and don't get acknowledged or thanked nearly enough! I wanted to say thank you for helping her grow!

I got onto Google to look up different ideas on how to truly say thank you andI stumbled across this idea of a flower pot that says, "Thank you for helping me Grow!" with flowers planted inside.  Well we all know that flowers die, so I wanted to put something in the pot that would never go away just as the gratitude we feel will never go away.

I started to create these flowers out of hearts that I cut out using construction paper and had Ava sit down with me and reflect on her time at Children's World.  I asked her several questions to get her thinking.


Her thinking face!

 Together we created a list of answers she had, to questions I asked;

•  "What will you miss most?"
•  "What are you most thankful for?"
•  "What do you love about them most?"
• " What do you think you are better at because of them?"

It was an amazing experience to sit and listen to her talk about others in such a kind way and to hear her talk about the things she thinks she is good at because they've helped her.  I stared at this litter girl and I fell in love even more! I've been falling in love with her as a baby for the last 5 years.  She's done many things in the year or so to show me that she is not a baby anymore but doing this project with her just made me begin to fall in love with her as a child.. my little girl isn't a baby anymore!

 

In doing on all of this, I realized, this is the first big moment in her life where one thing will completely end and another will begin. I think this time is so crucial in her development in teaching her about good things coming to an end, being ok with moving on and allowing her to own her emotions and express them in appropriate ways when she needs to.

So many times as an adult, I know I will get overwhelmed, sad or mad and not display my emotions correctly.  We get agitated or quick to snap and we take things out on people that don't deserve it. I want to be sure to take this time to really connect with her and teach her about emotions and feelings and what is appropriate and what is not appropriate. 

I'm going to be writing down some of her reactions to discuss later on in hopes to maybe help another mom or even someone else struggling with emotions, which I can admit, I have many times. In the meantime, please comment below if you have any tips or suggestions on how to help cope with what might be some hidden signs that she is having a hard time.

Thank you Children's World Daycare one final time from the bottom of our hearts and Congratulations Miss Ava, Kindergarten welcomes you, though I'm not sure I'm ready for that just yet! Thank goodness I have a summer to wrap my head around it!

No mommy I can do it myself!

Last week, my husband went to Las Vegas for 5 days to attend a work conference, so while the husband is away the housewife will...Organize?

In my rather large kitchen, we have a Billy Bookshelf from Ikea which was very poorly organized, much like my entire kitchen really. This week really opened my eyes as to how much I had  previously focused on my "career" rather than my home and family. So I began to basically take everything out of the cupboards, clean and re-organize, this made space on 3 shelves of the bookshelf, which are perfectly at my daughter's height!

What do you do with this space? As I stood there, staring at my bookshelf attempting to figure out what to do with it, I began to hear my daughter," No Mommy, I can do it myself", "I'm a big girl mommy, I can do it" then I could hear myself cursing every time I tripped over that step stool that would allow her some independence to reach things in the cupboards above the counter.

 

That is what I came up with,  still missing a few baskets but this is the idea around the baskets for her.

 

The 1st baskets contain, plates, bowls and cups. She now gets herself something to drink and can make her own breakfast every single morning. Aside from a few cleanups, the joy in her face accomplishing this task has been a joy to this mama who really loves to sleep in!

 

The second one is the snack basket, I don't know how many times, I've asked Ava what she would like for a snack and I always get the same response, " I don't know, what do we have?" Now, I don't have to go through the list any longer, she can see it.  I also told her that since it's at her level, I will fill it once a week but if she eats it all really fast, she doesn't get anything else until the weekly fill up date. Once Kindergarten starts in September, she will be responsible for helping pack her lunch by choosing her snacks. This gives her a bit of responsibility and helps me out a bit!

 

The 3rd basket contains all her crayons, markers, and pencil crayons, that are constantly all over my house, they are now contained and always in the same spot. From this she is learning about cleaning up after herself more, routine and organization.

 

We've since added a few more baskets from Dollarama, they were $1.25 each and we are still trying to think of what else to fill them with but we will get there. It's only been a week but so far, it's been such a blessing for me and she has been so happy with doing these small things for herself.

 

Feel free to pass this along to any moms wanting an inexpensive blessing to help with the "no mommy I can do it myself"