grow mom a window herb garden

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We moms cook a lot. We are the ones who are responsible for putting a hot meal on the table most nights. The more I cook, the more adventurous I've become in selecting recipes. A lot of the recipes I choose to make call for fresh herbs, and I was constantly paying high prices for these at the grocery store. I really wanted to get into making my own window herb garden for my kitchen window, and I thought that would be a perfect project for my kiddos to make for me! Kirsten mostly helped with this one. She wrote out labels for the herbs, she helped plant the seeds, and she's been making sure they have enough sunlight and water. Every day when she gets off the school bus, the first thing she does is check on her little garden. It's become quite exciting for her to see the seeds sprout into plants. We used clear plastic cups and she loves seeing the roots through the cups. We started the whole process a couple weeks ago and I just snapped a picture of them this past weekend. In just 2 short weeks all 5 of the herbs have at least sprouted, and 2 of them have really taken off. The picture would have looked better had all 5 of them been well grown, but I wanted to post this before Mother's day! What a great little Mother's day gift for me from my kiddos. I look forward to using these herbs. Here's how we made it:

What you'll need:

5 plastic cups - you could of course use 5 nice plant pots, but I just used what we already had on hand
soil
seeds
white sticker paper
black marker
scissors

Directions:

1. pick out 5 varieties of seeds that you would like to grow.



2. fill all 5 cups with soil.





3. give your kiddo the seed packets with the names on them, and have them write out the names of the seeds/plants on the white sticker paper.

4. cut out the names from the sticker paper, peel off the back and stick on each of your 5 cups.



5. make a small well in the soil and sprinkle a few seeds in the centre. Repeat for all 5.





6. water your seeds and place in a window that gets lots of sunlight.



7. give your seeds sunshine, water and love and you'll have your very own little herb garden in no time at all!





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Giveaway from Lisa Leonard Designs for Mother's Day

Pin It I know, another giveaway! I don't usually do giveaways on my blog, but I was so excited when Lisa Leonard contacted me to do this giveaway, that I couldn't say no. Seeing as almost all of my blog readers are either mothers or grandmothers, or have a mother or grandmother, I was really excited to bring you this giveaway from Lisa Leonard Designs just in time for Mother's Day. Lisa's store is filled with gorgeous necklaces, earrings and bracelets that any woman would love. If you're not really into jewelry, she also carries gorgeous key rings, home decor, as well as wedding keepsakes, jewelry and decor too. There really is something for everyone at Lisa's store. Lisa is generously offering my readers (2) $50 gift certificates to her store. This will be a short-running giveaway, ending Monday April 30th. Orders must be placed by May 2nd to be eligible for Mother's Day delivery, so I wanted to squeeze this in so you guys could meet the deadline for delivery. Lisa has also generously offered my readers a 20% off coupon to her store until May 2nd. Enter the code dubien20 at checkout to receive your discount. This offer is for absolutely anything in her store. Visit Lisa's store to start shopping here

Need some inspiration? Here are some of my favourite pieces from Lisa's store (click on the pictures to bring you to Lisa's website):

Jewelry - aren't these necklaces absolutely gorgeous?!?! I think any mother/grandmother would be thrilled to receive any one of these.


Isn't this ring just awesome!! You could put your kiddos names on it - or even you and your hubby's too. Gorgeous.

How about these amazing cupcake toppers!! I adore these.

Now these are just a few examples of some of my favourite things. Lisa's store is filled with many, many more options, so make sure you check it out.

Are you excited?!?! Do you want a chance to win?? Lisa has generously offered (2) $50 gift certificates, so there will be (2) winners to this giveaway.

Here's what you have to do:

1. Leave a comment telling me who you would love to win this giveaway for.

Want to earn additional entries? Please leave a separate comment for each additional entry you complete. If you already do these items, please leave a comment indicating so.

2. Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect in the sidebar.

3. "Like" Meet the Dubiens on Facebook here

4. "Like" Lisa Leonard Designs on Facebook here

5. Sign up for Lisa Leonard's newsletter on her website here

6. Share this giveaway on either your blog and/or facebook page

7. Tweet this giveaway

Wow!! You can have a total of up to eight entries!!

This giveaway will close Monday April 30th in the evening. 2 winners will be drawn that evening and posted here. Please make sure you either leave me your email address in your comment, or ensure that your name links to your email address.


DON'T FORGET - orders must be placed by May 2nd to be eligible for delivery by Mother's Day. Also, don't forget the 20% off coupon code that is good until May 2nd - dubien20 at checkout.

Good luck and have fun shopping! Thanks again to Lisa Leonard Designs for hosting this awesome giveaway!


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thumbprint heart rings

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I'm back with our second mother's day jewelry craft. It is the exact same concept as the necklaces below, but we just turned them into rings. Again, these were super easy and the kids had fun making them. Kirsten liked the rings so much she wanted to make some for herself too, so we did. They're pretty cute. Again, I love the look the nail polish gave instead of using paint. It gives it just a hint of shimmer that really is beautiful. I'm sure any mom would love to get one of these rings for mother's day. Here's how to make them:

What you'll need:

white crayola model magic
rolling pin
circle cutter (oops, not pictured again!)
nail polish - whatever colours you wish
glue
adjustable rings



Directions:

1. roll out your model magic so it's about 1/2 inch thick
2. using your circle cutter, cut circles for how many rings you'll be making
3. have your kiddos stamp their thumbs in a heart shape on the circle
4. allow to dry over night
5. using whatever shades of nail polish you wish, paint the heart and allow to dry - you may need to do multiple coats to get the desired colour/shade
6. glue an adjustable ring on the back and allow to dry







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thumbprint heart necklace

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Good morning everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Since Mother's Day is this coming weekend, the kiddos and I made me some jewelry. Mother's (or at least me, lol) just seem to love anything that involves their little ones handprints, thumbprints or footprints. They make great keepsakes and are so precious. I decided the littles could make me some keepsake jewelry this year for Mother's Day (with my help, of course). These necklaces were so simple to make, and although I probably wouldn't wear them somewhere fancy, they turned out really cute and would make great everyday jewelry. I painted the inside with sparkly nail polish to give it that little extra that paint wouldn't have given. The nail polish was brilliant because the inside is a gorgeous colour with just a hint of shimmer. We also made some rings which I will share another day this week. Here's how we made them:

What you'll need:

white crayola model magic
rolling pin
small circle cutter (not pictured)
bamboo skewer
nail polish - in whatever colours you wish
necklace



Apparently I'm pretty terrible at photographing supplies! I ALWAYS leave one or more items out and don't realize it till I'm writing the blog post. Oops!

Directions:

1. roll out your white model magic so it's about 1/2 inch thick
2. using your circle cutter, cut out however many circles you want depending on how many necklaces you are making
3. get your kiddos to press their little thumbprints in a heart shape on mid bottom of the circles
4. slightly pinch the top of the circle and push a bamboo skewer through to make holes on each side. Take out the necklace you'll be using and make sure the holes are big enough for your necklace to go through.
5. allow to dry overnight
6. pick out your favourite shades of nail polish and paint the heart shape - you may have to do a few coats to get your desired colour - I think I did 3 coats each - allow to dry
7. thread your favourite necklace through the holes (I just picked one out of my jewellery box) and wear your little keepsakes with pride.

Kirsten's is the pink one and Cam's is the red one.





Me modelling my children's creations:



Come back this week to check out the rings we made too! Have a great day!





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