DIY – The Indigo Hen Homestead

DIY Ikea toddler bedframe

Posted on June 29, 2017June 29, 2017 by the.indigo.hen in DIY

Well the long awaited post about how we (the Mr.) made bed frames is here!! I could not be more excited to show off the beautiful work! These were an adaptation of a bed we saw on Pinterest and just about 3 years of design and deliberation 😉
But they are beautiful and well worth the wait.
So we went to Home Depot to pick out a wood- we settled on birch plywood 3/4″ thick, it came in sheets of – 50×45- but we had them cut it in half.

From there the exact shape was cut with a routerthen sanded….and sanded some more
The frame was affixed with dowels and wood glue. Using a router bit all edges of the frame were rounded… nothing is worse than a kiddo with sharp edged furniture… two supports were placed for the mattress slats with glue and screws with one cross beam. 4 dowels were placed facing up to hold to slats taught on the frame.
In hindsight we should have known to make these supports a bit more beefy A & B jumping on these busted one about 6 months- I would suggest a thicker piece of wood over excess plywood like we used.

much of this we did with the tools we had so other tools my work better but ….

you get the idea

25 days of Christmas crafts

Posted on November 27, 2014November 28, 2014 by the.indigo.hen in Activities, daily life, DIY, Eco Friendly Parenting

As promised, Christmas crafting, toddler style! Some of these are my “brain child” others are cool ones I’ve “googled”…. annnd some are feasible with toddlers others would be a project you could do for them. Happy Christmas crafting!!
1) Popsicle Stick Snowflakes
-toddler approved activity
2) Burlap Stockings
-ok, take 5 min on Pinterest and you will see endless ideas, find me on Pinterest if you want to see my inspiration.
-we went with two “bones” one for each dog, one “fish” for the cat and 4 regular stocking shapes. In total that took just shy of 4 yards of burlap. I lined them with scrap fabric/ old pillow cases. Used ribbon, a few rosettes and handmade bows to add some accents and that was it. You may notice a trend with the burlap here, and yes, I themed all decor around these two teddies, the boys first Christmas ornaments –>
– tip, use a large safety pin to hang the stockings onto command wall hooks- those things are handy!

divas pretty stocking complete with kitten tootsies;)

3) Mason Jars
– again. Pinterest. Just find what suits your style, from painted to ribbon wrapped or even snow globed the possibilities with mason jars are endless.
4) Paint with Seasonal Cookie Cutters
-pretty straight forward:)
5) Lined Sweatshirt
-I used this pattern though I am not a very gifted seamstress and every time I end up heavily adapting it. (My first attempt at them have not become our art smocks) Use the ” warm and natural” batting and it’s perfect for indoor play clothing.
6) String popcorn, cranberries or cotton puffs or marshmallows
– this is a great motor development type activity that (if they don’t scarf all the food items like my littles did) can double as awesomely cute decor.
7) Sun Catchers
-ok, this one I kinda cheated on, the dollar section at most stores have the tiny craft bin and sometimes they are perfect for breaking up a boring afternoon.

8) Painting Ornaments
-with one of the littles presents came foam sheets. So, we repurposed and cut snowflakes out of them! Similar foam sheets can be found at most craft stores add swirls of puffy paint for dimension:)
9) Sleeping Bag
-this is actually a rather detailed project, I had a great time with it and as it adapted into its current form I learned more and more about sewing. Plus, I love how it turned out….win/win! Basically this sucker is a very warm padded toddler sleeping mat that rolls into its self; making it nicely portable for those family trips this holiday!
-I used eco felt as the outter layer, “warm and natural” batting as the 2nd inner layer, batting off the bolt from joann fabrics (the second one I went to though, because the first one had such terrible service that we walked out without purchasing anything from our full cart) and the inner layer being grey minky dot fabric. I made the “hood” so that it can flip under the head pillow, adding extra puff, but also wrap around the body off the sleeping bag to roll it up!
10) Hand Painted Wrapping Paper
-you can often find “blank wrapping paper” we went for a basic brown and let the boys splatter paint the whole roll, gave it a gloss spray top coat to make sure the paint didn’t just flake off, let it dry and rolled it back up to await gift wrapping in the next few weeks.
11) Marshmallow Fondant
– ok, this really goes with the cookies so maybe I’m cheating a bit here by using it as two activities…BUT….you would likely have to do this two separate days. If you hadn’t noticed those seasonal cookie cutters come in handy again here 😉
12) Paper Garland
– I used extra seasonal scrap paper I had to make the garland. Guiding the boys to “cut” strips and “glue the loops” we actually had a lot of fun with this one.
13) Toilet Paper Roll Wreath
– sounds weird but it’s actually pretty darn cute
14) PVC Snowman
– this was mainly because I built a pvc house for our garage play space and we had it left over. So, find something that you have around your house that is junk but could be a repurposed “craft” for the kiddos.
15) Family Cards
– let the littles finger paint individual cards for family members
16)Cookies
-any kind really will do for this holiday but two tips that have become a must when cookie making in our house; always brown the butter first and used molasses & sugar rather than brown sugar. These two things really add the “wow factor” to the flavor of any cookie!

17) Felt Snowmen/Reindeer/Santa
– felt is kinda a staple crafting item that we have around so it seemed only natural to do a felt ornament with the boys. We had them decorate a tree….it got a bit messy :0
-glitter, shapes, textures, etc etc etc. this was a great sensory play activity!
18) Splatter Wall Art (red/white/green/gold/silver)
– best to save this messy one for a bath day 😉
19) Dress up day/Pictures
– strings of lights, Santa hat & play time
– pretty self explanatory activity that you can have fun with! We always have random strings of lights and the boys find them entertaining but throw some dress up clothes in there and the whole day can be filled.
20) Scarves
-pretty simple infinity scarf for toddlers. I paired a heavy eco-felt and a soft plaid reindeer flannel. And cut based on the littles shoulder width and noggin dimensions.
– make sure you can loop it round the head twice

21) Pine Cone Hunt
-Well, we had to have at least one activity outside….we live in a well wooded area so no driving needed just step outside and we were off to “match pine comes”
22) Santa Beard
-so, originally I was thinking something like this…..then I saw this….the jury is still out on which we will be making this season.
23) Jammie Pants
– you can find free patterns at just about every online sewing resource. Line them in minky fabric like I did for that extra cozy warm appeal this winter.
24) Gingerbread House
– this one means a special shopping trip as most of the tradition ginger bread house making stuff we don’t even keep in the house anymore. But easy alternative…use the cardboard boxes that all of your holiday presents will be shipping in and build a paper/cardboard house. Or many craft stores not have “kits”
25) Burlap Santa Sack
This project I loved, even though I ended up keeping it super simple it was fun to look at everyone’s ideas. I got the actual sack from amazon for $6.50 for a 40in by 24in bag. And then hand painted it with fabric paints. Using decor ribbon to “tie”. Yay for no more wrapping oddly shaped gifts!

DIY: Wall mounted TV cabinet

Posted on September 2, 2014June 29, 2017 by the.indigo.hen in DIY

Oh yeah it’s DONE!!!

We couldn’t be happier to unveil this project, on top of it being super easy it was also super cheap. Like I said we’ve been dying to mount the tv since the littles became mobile 2 years ago. Well, we found the right style for what we wanted and I think it turned out amazing. So we planned and designed based on our tvs specific size and shape AS WELL AS the wall it would be mounted on – and you should too.

Our TV is 44.5in width that meant four 12x36in canvases (plus space for hinges) would cover the face of the tv. You can either order photocanvases from nations photolab directly or make them like I did since this was our “trial run.” Making them is really very simple (literally just stick printed photographs onto canvas from painting section at michaels crafts) looks pretty nice and you can change out photographs every few years. We had the 15$ lumber cut to size at Home Depot- yes, into 3 pieces to form a U shape- no need for a “top” this way the tv doesn’t over heat

Again this is based on the size of your specific tv and how much storage space you want for a DVD player etc etc. We added 8 inches to the length of the tv for length of the wood and that was ample space for router and modem, 2 laptops, a DVD player and a few DVDs….along with all the cords…yeah lots of those.

Anyhow, we sanded the wood down and had planned on painting it but realized that the wood was quite knotty and we wouldn’t get a smooth surface. But, with a little poly finish it looks more natural and “fits” the house. We also notched out a piece from the back that was against the wall to allow cords to be pulled in when the tv is off. This was actually quite easy with a drill bit and hand saw…oh and the dremmel to finish it.

As you can see we placed hinges on the inside as we wanted them to be “invisible” while closed. We then placed a clasp on top to secure closed. However, I think we will be moving all panels to the right with the hasp moving to the left side. We bought cheap hinges and already lost a pin from one live and learn right?

OK frame ready!

We knew we wouldn’t be able to “center” the cabinet on the wall because we wanted to mount the tv into a stud, leaving everything a bit off center. But, that’s ok since I’d rather not see our flat screen come crashing to the floor and I wanted this type of mount. Why? Because it was 25$ for a full motion mount -so I can see it while I cook in the kitchen!

Last weekend the cabinet was ready….more like Mr. was finally home and we didn’t have other plans 😉 The moment of truth came and we put it up THREE, yes, you read that right THREE times. Twice it came off the wall! Once because we forgot the notch for the cords and once because of somebody’s **cough** miss measure. To mount I’d suggest directly into studs with braces, if you can’t, use wall anchors and disperse the weight. But, third time was a charm and it’s now happily holding our tv safely out of the reach of little hands. It’s a decor friendly way to hide it all at a moments notice!

eventually we may DIY a storage system for under it, but that’s not even close to the next project on the list 😉

DIY toddler friendly playroom

Posted on August 13, 2014August 13, 2014 by the.indigo.hen in Activities, daily life, DIY

ladies and gents it’s finally done. This project moved RE.DIC.u.lous.LY SLLLLOOW!! But we’ve finally finished and are unveiling!!!

The magnetic chalkboard

It originally was to be a PVC desk hinged to the wall to flip down with an acrylic top…hard to picture I know think this just turned 180 degrees with an acrylic top. Sadly, we didn’t have the correct tools and it probably would have been way more expensive than we would really want to attempt for a kids desk….needless to say the project has evolved many times. But our end result was not only SUPER cheap but also SUPER cool. Take a peek….. I painted the acrylic with 3 layers of magnetic paint (which was on clearance for 3$ each, score!) leveled it as best I could and then topped with 3 coats of chalk board spray paint. The frame was cut from cheap menards 1x3s to fit the acrylic 48×24-rectangle shape. I pre-drilled holes through the acrylic and wood to secure together- I did crack the acrylic in a spot or two from drilling the screw in too far-so be careful with that step. I then divided out the frame to fit craft items we had inside. We then hinged it to the wall and secured with a pad lock – chyeah we have twin toddlers-note that fabric strip tying the toy box closed also 😉 I made a plastic “pocket” with hot glue and some extra crafting plastic sheeting I had.

huge plus, it fits just about ALL of the littles crafting items! P.s. I used some trim from the book shelves to create a “lip” on the bottom of the chalk board to set chalk markers or brushes on.
DIY wall book shelves-supersaver edition

They are literally just painted 1x4s with pre-painted trim wood glued or nailed on to create a “lip”. I secured them to wall studs with small corner braces (one on each shelf end). Voila!! I’m super happy with how these little reading nooks turned out. OHHHH and the Bonus project? The pouf!! Perfect toddler seating but, that was yet another project gone awry…it started out as a seat cover for the stroller when the boys were infants. But they NEVER napped in stores and hated being covered 😦 boo!! But I easily repurposed the “hood” shape to make complete circles and left a zipper hole to fill it with old blankets and plushies!
aaaaand.DONE

Vinegar and it’s many uses

Posted on June 22, 2014June 23, 2014 by the.indigo.hen in daily life, DIY, Eco Friendly Parenting

This cheap addition to your cleaning products is pretty easy (we use it regularly) but I am always amazed but the amount of uses it really has.
Here are a few that we’ve found really handy!

Fruits bath: to rinse fruits after you bring them home from the store I dilute one cup of vinegar to a sink full of water. I’ve found this helps keep fruits just a bit longer.

Floor cleaner: especially for woods it’s a great natural cleaner. I use the cleaner I make but I do have to be sure to dilute it (50/50) otherwise it leaves the floor a bit sticky/tacky.

Drain Cleaner: pretty basic ingredients that are more gentle on your plumbing than drano. And much better for our septic system. We tried it today and it went pretty well! Our drains were moving a little slow and it did the trick.

Weed killer: ok, everyone has probably seen this natural weed killer floating around Facebook. Well, since the end of our driveway is covered in em we thought we’d give it a shot. Works perfect! We bought a 7$ handheld pressure sprayer from Menards. Mixed 1/4c of dawn dishsoap, 1/2c Epsom salt, and 1/2 gallon of vinegar….of course the recipe if relatively flexible and can easily be doubled or cut in half depending on your needs. I hate measuring so this is a plus for me 😉

In other news Scott and I rang in the first Saturday of summer doing grill-out with some kid less friends…..while, it was great to get out and everyone was amazing with the kiddos. I think we left more exhausted from chasing the littles all afternoon and quickly remembered why we normally just have family watch them for us to get out. I give major props to the families that go for this scenario because next time we’ll be sticking to the sitter.

Fathers Day 2014

Posted on June 10, 2014 by the.indigo.hen in daily life, DIY

Well- plans in our house are CONSTANTLY changing and this weekends plans were no different….with trying to cram sooo much into one weekend we ended up bumping Scotts fathers day celebrations to Monday. Which means I can safely announce our gifts with no fear of ruining the surprise! We got Daddy a shaker bottle for his whey shakes or whatever they are ;0 and some special chocolate!
but here was our main gift!!

We decorated the inside of a toolbox for daddy! He needed a tool box since we’ve been using a plastic bathroom garbage can, so, it was the perfect daddy gift. I found a basic one at Menards with a flat inner bottom I had each of the boys do a hand print for the “heart” shape and used letter stencils puff painted on for the words. I think well be adding a gloss layer to seal it all in otherwise tools on top will scrape it off the plastic.

what you’ll need:
taping the stencils down made it a lot easier to trace 🙂

annnd we had to do a grandpa gift too(but shhh since he wont see it till Sunday)

we call this splatter art…..ie don’t leave your twin two year olds alone with a large bottle of black puff paint. like. ever. pretty cool looking though, so, we designed around their modern-art-explosion.
parenting hack* tape the back of your kiddos hand for that perfect print

DIY Bug Balm

Posted on June 8, 2014June 10, 2014 by the.indigo.hen in DIY, Eco Friendly Parenting

Ok, I love summer, tons!! BUT these BUGS are REDICULOUS. Between the ticks and the Mosquitos I’ve had enough but then we also have flies and gnats….not.cool. Obviously, we don’t want to spray the yard with round up or something crazy like that. But if we couldn’t even enjoy our yard this summer I would be pretty disappointed. So, I pulled out an oldie but goodie-bug balm recipe, I didn’t quite have everything I needed. Here is my 2014 modified bug balm:) I like this update mainly because it has added tick control!
What you’ll need:
*1oz beeswax (we got ours at the locals farmers market!!)
*1/2c coconut oil
*1/2oz Shea or Cocoa butter
*Cheesecloth(or in my case diaper cloth)
*Double boiler
*4oz mason jar
*Rosemary and cinnamon sticks dried
*Essential oils- I used rose geranium for ticks, citronella for mosquitoes, and a touch of lavender and lemongrass ❤ I would suggest looking at mountain rose herbs they are not only organic but also non GMO.
You of course can put different things in to suite your needs 10-15 drops total should suffice.

Mix oils and dried herbs and put in double boiler until completely melted let warm for 30min.

Strain out herbs through cheese cloth.

Add beeswax to the melted oil with whatever essential oils and double boil until melted.

Pour back into your jar and let cool. Voila…bug balm!

Aaaand the review……this stuff rocks! The convenience of spray is surely trumped by the fact that this stuff lasted a good majority of the day for myself and the kids with no reapplications. Daddy who mowed our jungle with this on did want to reapply after about 4hours. The waxi-ness of it means that it’s mildly waterproof and depending on what oils/butters you use it made our skin wonderfully soft. On the downside it does take a minute to apply it and it takes a bit of work to get it out of the jar….BUT I am sold….I will never buy bug repellants again:)

Green parenting Tips

Posted on June 3, 2014June 10, 2014 by the.indigo.hen in daily life, DIY, Eco Friendly Parenting

Obviously, Scott and I have worked really hard to provide a clean diet and a house relatively free from chemicals and “additives” not only for A&B but for us. We still make yogurt and cleaner, see how here, but we have slowly been adding the what we do at home vs. buying.
Bread- pretty self explanatory that you can save money and get better quality with this DIY. While this can be very time consuming we have found homemade bread freezes very nicely, allowing us to make a months worth of bread in one day! We change up recipes but generally make a milk bread(using home made butter and buttermilk).
Butter- another easy-freeze item. Butter, while less time consuming than bread, is still one of my least favorite to make. Whipping heavy cream until it separates/ gets chunky, then pouring the buttermilk into a container to save and finally rinsing the butter under ice cold water (least favorite part) to shape it into a mold. *as a side note it will slosh all over at the end so we also use siran wrap to cover the top of the mixer* We use about 4 pints of heavy whipping cream turned into butter and buttermilk in our house every month.
Ice cream-*admittedly*we are just learning about this… but, every recipe we have tried either involves cooking or is a cream-cheese-no-cook that tastes well…very cheesey (evidently Wisconsin dairy has spoiled me and I am now an ice cream snob). But, we’ll keep trying recipes and I will keep you posted!
Fruits(citrus)-I love the fruit not only because it’s tasty but we use every part of it! I use the attachment for the kitchenaid to juice them. We then use the rinds of lemons, oranges and grapefruit for the cleaner(with vinegar and cinnamon). I strain the leftover juice with diaper cloths. First, I should clarify by saying we never actually used them as diapers 😉 normal people would use cheese cloth though. I’m debating trying to grow the seeds and of course we drink the juice!

Shampoo/soaps- I know I’ve mentioned it before but soap berries are actually very handy! Recently, I attempted boiling 15 of them in water for about a half hour. The result? A pungent syrup like goop. Smelled rather earthy so I added a few drops of essential oils and viola scented soap(shampoo). The downside of this one is that it apparently needs to be stored in the fridge. I’ve resorted to freezing them in small portions, a caterpillar worth to be exact;) we’ve found that the silicone molds are VERY useful! thanks Fred’s for making fun brain and caterpillar trays!
In black and white to hide my dirty counter, the one on the far left is soap:)

DIY raised garden beds

Posted on May 10, 2014June 10, 2014 by the.indigo.hen in DIY, Eco Friendly Parenting

In my short time gardening I have found I do not have that much of a green thumb. But, Im a little too stubborn to give up on growing my own food. So, while I won’t attempt seedlings again(without a grow light)I will plant what seeds we have left in these DIY garden beds!!
After almost 2 months of planning (and changing our plans numerous times) last we set into action! A family member was nice enough to share her book on raised beds and we adapted our design to be similar.
What you’ll need to make one raised 4×4 garden bed:

Supplies
4) 2inx10inx4ft lumber (we used cedar)
4) 4inx4inx8in lumber (again cedar)
32) 3in deck screws
4) 1in dia. x5in pvc
2) 1/2in dia. x10ft pvc

Tools
Power drill
Sawzall

Placing the 4x4s inside each corner and screwing them in place from the outside of your beds
From the inside of the garden bed frame screw the PVC (1inch dia. x 5 inches long) into the 4x4s on each corner. Make sure to only screw at the bottom, leaving space to insert the 1/2 PVC for the arch.

The pvc arches over top to be able to cover the beds for critter control will most likely be a necessity in an area like ours.

As you can see we have placed the old monkey bars in the bed and are planning to bury them in for stability. And the jury’s still out on how to secure them together:)

We did transplant the grass to cover the old horse shoe pits we ripped up last weekend.

Instead of the suggested weed cloth we are trying old cardboard since we had huge chunks from the swing set boxes! We dug in just enough to remove the grass and level the beds.

After filling it with a layer of compost, vermiculite and peat moss we are ready to go!!….now I just have to dig up 2 more and fill those…..ughhh….at least it’s a work out…did I mention it was 85 degrees today :0

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