Green Crafts
Jug heads: To liven up the laundry room, mount a menagerie of plastic-jug trophy heads. Our hunting grounds yielded the makings of a pig, a warthog, and an antelope, but your recycling bin may suggest a different animal collective.
Treasure-keeper frog: What tadpole wouldn’t love to fill this case with marbles, coins, or trinkets? We’ve come up with a trick for attaching the zipper in a snap.
Soda-bottle tractor: Thanks to its jumbo rear wheels made from cardboard disks and old CDs, this green machine is surprisingly speedy. A seat cut from the corner of a soap box makes the perfect perch for toy tractor operators.
Tropical bottle fish: These bottlenose beauties make great decors indoors or out. If you plan to hang yours poolside, brush on a coat of Outdoor Mod Podge first.
Cardboard petal picture frame: This fanciful frame gets its flair from snips of painted cardboard tubes. To achieve our free-form look, we cut two petal sizes.
Easy-weave newsprint basket: You won’t be-weave how fast this basket comes together when you work around a form. We used a roll of paper towels for ours. Clear tape keeps the strips secure.
Gardening’s not just for grown-ups! Gardening Craft Projects to Inspire a Young Gardener
The Stepping Stone Path: This stepping-stone path offers a concrete method of preserving your most precious garden harvest: happy memories.
Create a Gourd Birdhouse: Gourds prove that nature has a sense of humor: their wild markings, eye-popping colors, and space-alien shapes transform the late-summer garden into a natural amusement park. If you've considered growing gourds but wondered what in the world to do with them, this project will answer your question--and please the birds in the process.
Make Your Version of the Very Hungry Caterpillar: This soddy creature makes a fun first-time gardening project while bringing a little bit of spring into your home.
Create a Garden Guardian: With her bean-vine skirt and hair that really grows, our garden guardian is proof that this summer's hot color is definitely green. Plant your seeds at the end of May (or whenever the time is right where you live), and you'll see a full skirt of foliage by mid-July. As if good looks weren't enough, Mrs. Green Beans offers the bonus of a three-month harvest.
Open a "Ladybug Inn": One way for your kids to get acquainted with the industrious ladybug is to gather a few from your garden and put them up indoors for a couple of days in a see-through ladybug inn.
Gardening Projects for Apartment Dwellers:
Create a Door Step Garden: Turn an old boot into a stylish planter.
Create a Windowsill Garden: Nothing cures a family-wide case of cabin fever--and makes a home more fun to live in--like a little gardening in the great indoors.
Create Plant Pals for the Indoor Gardener: Your indoor gardener may not get your "bad hair day" jokes, but the fun of this grassy-haired friend won't be lost on him. Like a Chia Pet, the project requires just a sprinkling of seeds, a bit of sun, and a few drops of patience.
Additional Tips:
10 Ways to Make Gardening More Fun: By maximizing the magic and minimizing the chores, our readers bring out the green thumb in their kids.
Tips for Creating Your First Garden (with your kids!): Giving your child his or her own miniature flower garden provides the right balance of big dreams and little tasks. A small garden of annual flowers is easy to take care of, and she will learn many skills as she nurtures seedlings and cuts bouquets for the kitchen table
**This post has been written and provided by Disney Family Fun Magazine. No compensation was received for this post.
We arrived in Solvang later than planned, that was partly my fault for rushing through the planning. I had wanted to stop about every two hours and spend each night in a new place - but for some reason - we had a four hour drive to Solvang from Monterey and the coast line was just so beautiful we could not help but take our time. Right after leaving Monterey was the 17 mile drive - there was a $10 entrance fee and we sat there for a moment debating weather to do it or not - we really did not have the time, but Pebble Beach was in there as well as so many other wonderful spots that they have lined out for you. Let me tell you - I am so so happy that we paid the ten dollars, this was the most beautiful, scenic drive - and the sights & history you get to see more than made up for the $10! Then of course for the kids we had to stop along the beaches to see the sea lions - it's mating season, so they are all ashore - which was fun to watch! We finally arrive in Solvang fifteen minutes til six - right on time, but not time to rest! We checked in, made a restroom run and walked to the restaurant. When I walked in I felt like I was in a really fancy place. The lights we're dim (which is why there's no pics), it was small and very intimate, and in the corner were couches & a fireplace - fancy yet comfortable. We were the only ones there with kids - which made me feel a bit uncomfortable, especially since they placed us right in the middle of the room! HA! Most the others were older, retired folks enjoying a weekend getaway - luckily we sat next to a nice older couple who missed their grandkids so loved our kids! Whew! Dinner was superb! Although I don't think I ever waited so long for food - they were soooo slow!! My husband and I both had the bacon wrapped Fillet Mignon - yummy!! For desert we had the flourless chocolate cake - wow, not what I expected at all!! I guess I was expecting a dry, crumbly piece of cake. This tasted more like a rich moose more than anything - just melted in your mouth. By the time we got out of there it was probably closing in on eight - we we're all stuffed and the town was shut down for the night - so went back to our room to get some much needed sleep!
Just from looking at it you can get an idea that the bed was going to be awesome!! This is just what we needed after a week of traveling! The kids slept on the pull out sofa, and come morning I just did not want to get out of bed, and by the end of the day was wishing I would have taken advantage of some extra sleep!! The room was perfect for the four of us, had a gas fireplace, comfortable robes, and cartoons to keep the kids entertained.
We got up early knowing that we had to make the long trip home in the morning and had a couple other stops we wanted to make. The hotel serves a complete all you can eat breakfast in the morning - and I am not just talking toast & cereal. There was muffins, eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, coffee, oj, and so much more - again we got stuffed! After breakfast we gathered our stuff together, checked out and walked the town. I had been to Solvang once when I was about 18 and remember their danish pastries - could not leave town without a box!! I wish I would have taken a pic for you all of my pastries - yum yum and so pretty too!
