Hey friends! Before I start telling you about today's adventures - I wanted to just tell you, I think y'all are the best! Thanks for the encouragement and opinions and comments on my little ramblings the other day about yarn, knitting and unfinished projects. I am proud to say, I bound off Beckett's sweater and I just need to add a couple buttons. I know, I'm surprised too! Since my ob was kind enough to treat me to a second glucose test today (YUCK), I even had a chance to start No Name #2's baby blanket. One of the nurses was kind enough to keep walking by - for the entire three hours - to ask me when I was going to be finished... wasn't she the sweetest?? Heh. I should have told her that I had other friends keeping accountable on my knitting so back off but yeah, she was sticking me with a needle every hour so I tried to be very very nice to her. But anyway, that was my day - I hope yours was better!
When I got home from the amazingly awesome ob appointment, I decided to tackle a project that I had put on the back burner for a few weeks. I had pinned an idea for a calming bottle awhile back and wanted to give it a shot. Some moms have said that the bottles work to calm hyper kids and others use them as a time out timer I don't think Macie fully understands the concept of time out (when do kids get that?) but she does get super work up over things and sometimes just needs to settle down. This bottle seemed like a great way to help her be still and it seemed easy so I thought - what the heck? Let's give it a shot. Maybe it was all the fasting or maybe the giant bottle of sugary nastiness that I had to drink this morning, but this project was anything but calming to me.
This is one of those projects that you should thank me for trying because I can save you some time and aggravation. Like I said, I pinned this awhile ago from My Crazy Blessed Life and at the time I had read a lot of the comments and went off those for supplies. Mistake #1. I should have gone back through today and read the new ones, it would have helped me. Here's the skinny on what you need to know.
~ Use HOT water. I actually ended up using almost boiling water and that worked the best.
~ Don't try to mix it in the bottle. Use a glass (yes, glass) bowl and whisk.
~ Don't buy washable glitter glue if you can help it.
Trust me on these - it will make your life easier. I am speaking from frustrating experience.
This is what you need for your project:
Clear bottle with lid (I used plastic because why would I give a two year old a glass bottle)
Clear Gel Glue (I used clear tacky glue)
Glitter Glue (Try to not use washable, but if you only can find washable - it will work)
Fine Glitter
First thing, boil some water and grab your glass bowl. Add some of the water (and no I don't have measurements, but I would go with about 3/4 of the amount that will fit in your bottle) to the bowl and then dump your bottle (small bottle) of glitter glue into the water. Whisk the glue and water together to get the glue to dissolve. This is where if you use washable glitter you will see a side effect. Bubbles. Suds. Annoyance. I whisked the glue vigorously to try to get as many of the suds up as I could and then skimmed the bubbles off the top. It was completely annoying, but did the job so I could move on. Add some of the fine glitter to the bowl and whisk again. You'll start to see that the glitter is slowly falling to the bottom of the bowl. To adjust how slow the glitter falls, add some of the clear gel glue, the more you add the slower it will go. If it is going too slow, add more water. Once you have a mix that makes you happy, grab a funnel and your clear bottle and give your mix a really good whisk so all the glitter is mixed well. Pour the mix into your bottle. If you have more suds from washable glue, squeeze the bottle so they come out the top and then add a little more water and clear glue so that the bottle is completely full. If you have too much air in the bottle the glitter won't suspend correctly. Last step, glue the mess out of the lid onto the bottle (unless you want glitter all over your house, I personally, am not a fan).
This is what the bottle looks like when it's done and all nice and settled.
I have to tell you though, once the bottle was all finished (and sealed) I gave it a good shake and sat and watched it. It does have a calming effect, even Allen was mesmerized by it. I haven't tried the bottle with Macie yet because it was finished after the little lady was heading to bed but I'll let you know if it works as well on a two year old as it did on two adults.
