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Having a space that is truly theirs is a luxury that every child wants. No matter what your budget might be, you will be able to create a fun place for your child to relax in during their down-time. Here are some of our top tips for decorating, to make it a truly unique space.

Keep Things Neutral

By choosing neutral furniture, you will be able to swap smaller things like bedclothes and décor out as they age. Though a racing car bed is cute for a toddler, they might not appreciate sleeping in it when they become teenagers. One bed made from a neutral wood or metal will be more appropriate and can stay with them as they age.

This also allows you to potentially spend a little more when you initially buy it if you have the budget to do so. Try to make a good investment that you know will last for years. The furniture could even potentially leave home with them when they get their first adult home too.

Make Storage a Priority

No matter how old your child is, you need to make sure that their room has plenty of storage. A young child is going to have a lot of toys to put away, while an older one may have interests like an instrument or art that needs storage space.

If you don’t have enough room within your home, you might want to consider renting some storage spaces nearby. Not only will you be able to keep your children’s items there, but you should be able to store other items around the house. You may have questions like “how much does storage cost?” or ‘how long will I need a rental space?’. However, you may find that it can fit into your monthly budget much easier than other items like expensive gym memberships that you hardly use. This could give you the chance to expand on your home’s storage capabilities, and leave room for some other things that might be needed a lot more.

Take Their Thoughts on Board

Whether your child is a toddler or a teenager, they will probably have some ideas on how they want their room to look. They will require a little more guidance as a toddler, and some of their ideas might need a few creative interpretations, but they can definitely still provide you with some ideas about what they would like to see in their room.

The older your child is, the more likely it is they might be able to help out with some of the choices around the room. For example, a smaller child could pick out their paint and help with the decorating. Meanwhile, a teenager could be given a complete budget and asked to handle the full renovation themselves if they are responsible enough to do so. There are many ways to get your children to help you out with a renovation, so think carefully about their capabilities before you get stuck in.

Ideally, you want to create a functional and relaxing space that is an extension of your child’s personality. You also need to make sure that you are creating a space that will last them for several years. Changing rooms for them every few years can be incredibly expensive, and just simply isn’t worth it. Take the time to speak to them and work with your children to create a room that they are going to love spending time in. From the colour of the walls to the choice of bedspread, there are tons of little things that could make a difference.

Baking and cooking with your kids is a great way to bond with them and have fun together. Kids just love getting messy in the kitchen, and they love the responsibility you give them even more.

By baking and cooking with kids, you can teach them the value of food and the skills required to support themselves when they’re older. If your kids love making potions in the bathroom, show them how they can make a potion in the kitchen that turns into something edible!

Almost all children love chocolate and some of the easiest things to bake with kids contain chocolate. Anything with melted chocolate is double the fun because it creates a gooey mess. But don’t forget you can teach your kids how to be clean and tidy in the kitchen too.

Try making some of these delicious chocolate treats that just about anyone can make whether they’re 5 or 85.

Just a word of caution. When you’re baking with the kids, make sure they’re supervised with anything hot or sharp. Also ensure all your kitchen appliances are in good working condition. Baking should be fun, not cause for a trip to the ER.

Chocolate Nests

All you need is chocolate and cereal, and maybe some treats to decorate. Pick whichever cereal you like, but since you’re mixing it with chocolate, don’t go too sweet. You can use Rice Krispies, corn flakes or even bran flakes.Just melt the chocolate (it’s best to do it in a bowl over another bowl or saucepan of hot water), mix it into the cereal and spoon it into cupcake cases. Add some decorations (chocolate eggs are great for Easter) and put them in the fridge to set.These chocolate treats are so easy any adult or child can make them. If you want to get the kids into the kitchen, but you’re not very confident with your skills, these are simple enough for anyone to do.

Fun Chocolate Treats You Can Make with Your Kids

Chocolate Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes are also easy enough for the kids to help out. They’ll need a bit of a helping hand with measuring, breaking eggs and handling anything hot, but they can do a lot of the tasks involved.

Have the kids mix, measure and pour, and they’ll feel so proud of themselves for helping in the kitchen. Once the cupcakes are out of the oven and have cooled down, let the kids have fun with decorating.

They may not be the prettiest cupcakes ever, but they’ll be a great achievement for your children.

Chocolate Brownies

You can have all kinds of fun with brownies too – they don’t have to be just plain chocolate. Try adding popping

Fun Chocolate Treats You Can Make with Your Kids

candy for a giggly time. You can use nuts, caramel, marshmallow, and peanut butter. There’s no limit to the different flavors you can add to your brownies. You can even try blondies – brownies with white chocolate. Brownies are another easy thing to put together with the kids. You can buy a ready-made brownie mix, or you can be a bit more daring and start from scratch. For extremely sumptuous brownies, use a good quality dark Italian chocolate, instead of just cocoa powder.

Who remembers going to their local sweet shop, picking up a little white paper bag and filling it with delicious penny sweets? I certainly do! It was the highlight of my day!

Here is just ten of my childhood favorites, which I’m happy to say you can buy online from retailers like A Quarter Of.

1. Barratts Shrimps

10 Sweets From Your Childhood That Will Make You Feel Nostalgic

Just looking at these deliciously sweet, pink shrimps takes me back to the mid-1970s. They were soft, sugary and well… delicious!

2. Double Dips

10 Sweets From Your Childhood That Will Make You Feel Nostalgic
I remember these Double-Dips fondly;  walking home from school, dipping away!  These days, you can even get cherry, orange and cola flavor fizz dips.

3. Parma Violets

10 Sweets From Your Childhood That Will Make You Feel Nostalgic
I can actually taste and smell these Parma Violets just by looking at this picture.

4. Anglo Bubbly

10 Sweets From Your Childhood That Will Make You Feel Nostalgic
What a classic! So many of us kids thought we were cool and grown up if we were allowed a Bubbly!

5. Milk Teeth

10 Sweets From Your Childhood That Will Make You Feel Nostalgic
Admit it… did you also pretend you had a pair of false teeth every time you bought these old fashioned milk teeth? I can taste them now, they had a very light coating of sugar on the outside too. Scrumptious!

6. Barratt’s Fruit Salad Chew Bars

10 Sweets From Your Childhood That Will Make You Feel Nostalgic
Does your mouth just ooze saliva when you think back to how great these fruit salad bars tasted? They were raspberry and pineapple flavored, and when you were a small child, they looked massive!

7. Mr. Tabs Mini Candy Bricks

10 Sweets From Your Childhood That Will Make You Feel Nostalgic
Mr. Tabs Mini Candy Bricks looked like mini colorful bricks that were packed with delicious fruity flavors and wrapped in a delicate little wrapper.

8. Candy Watches

10 Sweets From Your Childhood That Will Make You Feel Nostalgic
Who remembers nibbling these candy watches? They came on a little piece of white elastic which you placed on your wrist whilst so you could eat and play at the same time! If I recall correctly, they also made a candy necklace.

9. Matlows Refreshers Chew

10 Sweets From Your Childhood That Will Make You Feel Nostalgic
These classic chews will certainly bring memories flooding back. The chew was yellow in color and right in the center you’d find a wonderful fizz. I remember these tasty chews being a wonderful lemony flavor.

10. Flying Saucers

10 Sweets From Your Childhood That Will Make You Feel Nostalgic
How could I not include sherbet flying saucers? These were a must when you were a young child, they came in various colors and consisted of fruit flavor sherbet in a wafer shell. No visit to the sweet shop was complete unless you had a couple of these.

Well, there you have it, ten wonderful, sugary, fizzing and tasty sweets to bring back your childhood memories.

I’m pleased to say that all of the above can now still be bought online from this amazing online shop called ‘A Quarter Of‘. Believe me, you’ll certainly be amazed by the huge collection they have and the best thing of all is that they are still so cheap to buy.

Happy memories one and all.

Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece from THRIVE

So, it’s almost Easter. And you’re making omelets. Or cookies. Or anything with eggs.

Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece from THRIVE

No biggie.

Just crack open those white shells and toss the whole thing, right?

Wait! Don’t toss that!

Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece from THRIVE

With two seconds of prep and some wheat from your food storage, those shells and carton can double as cute, FREE centerpiece for Easter brunch.

Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece from THRIVE

These come together in nothing flat—so easy.

* Gently crack your egg shells on the narrow end, remove the egg yolk and white, and make something delicious.

* Rinse shells in hot, soapy water and dry. Dye with natural or store-bought dyes as you would for traditional hard-boiled eggs.

* Add a tablespoon-ish of potting soil to each egg …

Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece from THRIVE

… and cover with sprouted wheat. *

Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece from THRIVE

Cover with plastic wrap and make sure soil stays moist, but not soggy.

Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece from THRIVE

Wheat will start to sprout in a day or two, with 4-6 inches of growth about a week later.

Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece from THRIVE

If the grass gets too tall or shaggy, just grab your scissors and even it out.

Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece from THRIVE

The carton doubles as a display tray by trimming down the sides with your nicest dollar store scissors.

Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece from THRIVE

And you can change up the look depending on how many eggs you use:

FULL DOZEN

Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece from THRIVE

HALF DOZEN

Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece from THRIVE

SINGLE PLACE CARD

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(name written on egg)

Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece from THRIVE

(name on egg carton)

And when you’re done, EVERYTHING gets composted or recycled so there’s nothing wasted.

So …

Egg shells and carton?

March 2013 BLOG

It’s What Not To Toss this weekend!

* – Spouting wheat is easy and simply involves soaking and rinsing whole wheat kernels in water so that they start to germinate. There’s a great video of process HERE.

(This is part 3 of Thrive’s DECORATE series. Click here for the previous posts of our Christmas tree – Gangnam Style and tree skirt from a girls dress.)

Kids Christmas Refrigerator Advent - choose-to-thrive.com

How many of you grew up with Christmas advent calendars?

I did. This was mine.

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My mom made this when I was little and it is such a special part of my Christmas memories. After 30+ years it’s starting to show it’s age, though, so my sister has started extensive felt renovations. 🙂 When my kids saw the pictures of her progress, my kids immediately wanted one of their own. Sewing something like this isn’t hard—in fact my dear friend Becky just made the cutest one for her kiddos here.

But I’m waist deep in other sewing projects … and I already had the Silhouette out … and I just happened to have some scrap vinyl laying around … so we compromised.

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It only took a few minutes to cut out a mix of designs from the Silhouette store and tracings from my mom’s calendar.

(I love that my Silhouette can trace any shape! And no, this isn’t a sponsored post.)

And then my kids went nuts putting up “stickers” all over the frig marking out the way to Bethlehem.

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All the shapes were applied straight to the frig, but I wanted Mary and Joseph to be moveable.

I ended up cutting two different shapes: one for the journey and one for the manger.

Kids Christmas Refrigerator Advent - choose-to-thrive.com

I applied them to some white craft foam, but cardstock would work fine, too.

Add some dollar store magnetic strips and voila! …

Kids Christmas Refrigerator Advent - choose-to-thrive.com

… Mary, Joseph and the donkey to move along the path each day …

Kids Christmas Refrigerator Advent - choose-to-thrive.com

… and the holy family for the manger.

Kids Christmas Refrigerator Advent - choose-to-thrive.com

No Silhouette machine?

No problem!

You could easily make something like this using contact paper, cardstock, whatever. Just add some magnets and go to town. Rock what ya got!

So …

Give it a shot – you’re kids will love this!

And if you make one, I’d love to see it! Shoot me an email, leave a comment below, tag me on Facebook or share it on twitter.

We’re off to move our Mary & Joseph out of Nazareth and on the road to Bethlehem … good night!

SONY DSC

Remember that girls’ tights tutorial from last year?

tights

Well I’ve had several questions from viewers about trying variations of this project and had a chance to film a video how-to with Megan from Brassy Apple over at MyCraftChannel.com.

I hope you’ll stop by and check out the video version as well as the other great episodes on MyCraftChannel.com.

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If you like this project, please take a minute and share it on Facebook, twitter and Pinterest! Thank you!

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Anyone else have one of these in their linen closet?

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A special pillow case made by a grandma/aunt/mother/friend/neighbor that you can’t bear to part with even years after it’s stopped being used?  Or what about regular ‘ol pillow cases with fun designs that are rarely used?

My girl is way too tall for one of those popular pillow case halter dresses for toddlers that are all over Pinterest, so it must be time to put that pink and purple number in the donate bin after all, right?

Wait! Don’t Toss That!


Ten minutes of superdee quick refashioning will yield an easy skirt project, perfect for older girls.

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I just measured from my daughter’s waist to knee and added 1.5” to make a casing for a simple elastic waist. Then I sewed the casing and added some reclaimed elastic from an old pair of underwear  just like I did here in the Captain Underpants elastic waist twirl skirt.

See?

Feb 2011 BLOG

Start to finish was less than ten minutes since the side and bottom hems were already finished – love that.

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Now my crazy-tall girl has a breezy summer skirt that’s actually long enough to wear, yet lightweight for hot days.

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Perfect for grand adventures or lazy walks.

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So glad I pulled that sweet pillow case out of the donate pile.

Plus, I think her grandma will appreciate seeing her handiwork being loved again.

Win, win.

Old pillow case?

June 2012 FAM-1

It’s What Not To Toss This Weekend!

If you liked this post, I’d love it if you’d please share it on Facebook, twitter or Pinterest. Thank you!

Confession: I’m not that big into decorating for Valentine’s Day.

I like the holiday, but have never been the sort to break out the red and pink around the house. The front door is about as much as I’ll ever do like I did hereherehere and here. And the whole no-hearts thing has been even more true the last five years since we welcomed our 5th kid on Valentine’s Day night during what should have been our special dinner. Now you’re more likely to see balloons and streamers on the 14th  instead of hearts and flowers.

But oh my word.

My kids think I’m the meanest mom ever for not decorating our house like their bulletin boards at school. So I caved and threw together a quick, free Valentine’s project that the kids were able to help me with.

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Ta-da. My kids are now speaking to me again.


This came together super fast using an old window frame in my living room that had been sitting bare since Christmas.

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(A large picture frame would work, t00.)

A quick wrap with some twine  …

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… some printouts of family pictures and conversation heart-esque names on cardstock …

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… and some left over dollar store clothes bins that got a quick coat of craft paint.

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Assembly took all of three minutes and could be swapped out easily for any season or holiday using the same materials.

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And while I won’t admit this to my kids, I actually love seeing all the wedding and anniversary pictures from the great love stories in our family:

siblings and parents …

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… grandparents and great-grandparents …

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… even me and Mr. Thrive.

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Hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

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We’ll be celebrating five awesome years with our best Valentine’s Day present ever.

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Finding Christmas outfits for my girls continues.

Having several yards of brand new, adorable, FREE fabric was so much fun to play with, but reality has set back in and we’re in full Rock-What-Ya-Got mode again. And since I’ve been doing a lot of sewing, I was hoping to find some existing outfits to just tweak a bit for the holidays.

Guess what I had to work with?

Yup.

November 2011 BLOG1-11

Hand-me-down EASTER dresses.

Welcome to Pastel City. Population: 2


But if the picked-over isles at Walmart can teach us anything, it’s that every color is a Christmas color.

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And that means with a little work, every solid colored dress can pull double duty as a Christmas special.

What?!

Even those pastel numbers?

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Especially those pastel numbers. See?

And all I had to work with was ric-rac and a bunch of old poinsettia blooms. But it was enough. Those of you with more stash stuff and Christmas decorations could really go nuts.

I started on Kid #3’s pink dress and twisted some red and white ric-rac together to make my own Candy Cane trim.

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You can twist any colors together to make lots of fun looks. Make sure your iron it really well after you twist it together to help it lay flat.

And I went the total cheaters route and simply hot glued my candy cane ric-rac right along the bottom hem. If you wanted a temporary fix, just stitch in place with clear thread.

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(And yes, you can totally wash clothing with hot glued trim in cold water on the delicate cycle with a cool dryer. Works fine.)

To dress up the collar I removed the bow and glued my trim over the existing pink stuff, then pinned on a single poinsettia using a few safety pins.

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Five minutes later I had a completely different look.

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 Done and done.

Kid #6’s dress was even easier to dress up … as in I spent three minutes on hers instead of five.

The worn out bow came off with a quick snip …

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… and the flower I pulled off the fake poinsettia plant got safety pinned in place.

Add some sparkle shoes, another bloom for the hair and an already-in-the-closet sweater and voila!

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Baby Girl just decked the halls.

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So take a look in your girls’ closet.

And pull out those boxed-up spring and summer clothes.

Go dig through your ornaments, ribbons and bows.

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 Bet you have the makings of a little Christmas outfit magic, too.

Happy Easter Merry Christmas!

Linking up to:

Skip To My LouCraft-O-ManiacC.R.A.F.T. *  Stories of AtoZ, Tip JunkieSugar BeeToday’s Creative BlogSassy SitesMy Uncommon Slice of Suburbia * Someday CraftsLil LunaWe Are That FamilyBlue Cricket DesignsThe Thrifty Home, * House of Hepworths, *Tidy MomWhipperberryKojo DesignsChic On A Shoestring, Momma’s Kinda Crafty, *Tatertots & Jello, Be Different Act Normal * I Heart NaptimeUnder The Table and Dreaming

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

I scored some ridiculously cute Riley Blake fabric and have been busy sewing for Christmas. Come check out what I whipped up for my girls.

100_6230 Cutting Corners November 2011 BLOG2-1

And I’ll be back tomorrow to show you two more Christmas dresses that I made for my girls for flat out free … from Easter dresses.

Really.

See you tomorrow and hope you come stop by Cutting Corners today to say hi!