Our first foray into YouTube is silly, frustrating, and very mommy-relatable! Make DIY Balloon Animal Soft Toys with your kids (tugging at you) and our easy-to-follow Spoonflower designs!
We did it!! After the Party Starters videos we shot last year for food.com we had the desire to get into making our own videos. But, like everything else this last year, it’s been really hard to get done! We’ve had a hard enough time just completing our blog posts, let alone learn a whole new medium and website!
I finally had the idea to try and incorporate my kids into the videos because heaven knows that it would be near impossible not to! I also thought this would just be fun! As moms, our kids are always right around wanting our attention and to “help” with projects.
I think there is a tendency to see things online and wonder if that mom has a lot of help. Maybe the kids go to daycare? Is here a nanny? Could she be so lucky that her kids play by themselves? The truth is, those things are the case for many blogging mommies out there. I’ve heard stories of bloggers who send their kids to daycare all day, and bring them back just to pose for pictures. But that’s certainly not the case for me. While it would be so nice to have even a couple hours a day, it’s not something we’re able to do.
So my kids stick right by my side all day. Pulling out my laptop is IMPOSSIBLE when the 2 year old is awake. Scissors and hot glue guns are dangerous with all the grabbing hands. Staging gets instantly ruined. Most of the times we go to my craft room there is some kind of paint or confetti disaster.Projects for me happen whenever I have a free minute, not on a schedule. We are on-the-fly people and most the time its super chaotic. I decided long ago to just go with it! Whenever I try to really push a project, or am on a deadline, everyone gets angry and frustrated and that’s not what I want my kids to remember about their childhood. We craft when we can, a little at a time, my kids pulling at me and cutting where they’re not supposed to.
SO, since that is my life, I decided it would be fun to show it. I know there are other moms out there who can relate! And of course I think my kids are pretty cute and delightful so I thought they would make the perfect co-hosts. My daughter loves to watch youtube so I figured she’d be pretty into the idea. But she actually wasn’t at first. Since I never want my kids to feel like I’m using or exploiting them, I wanted them to be on board. So, I waited until Stella asked me to make videos with her! This finally happened about 8 months ago and I was so excited since I already had a list of videos I wanted to do with them.
I decided to make our first video a cute little sewing project in order to feature some of our new fabric line over at Spoonflower.com The collection, called Party Animals, features balloon dogs, balloon cats, frosted animal cookies, unicorns, and our first ever easy-to-follow patterns! There are small soft toys and larger plushes/pillows! The instructions are printed right on the fabric so it’s super easy! But I knew I wanted to try making them myself so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for our first video! These DIY balloon animal soft toys are ADORABLE and perfect for babies and decoration!
So, if you want some insight into my crazy life with kids (and answers to the question, “Why on earth do they almost never blog anymore?!”) then check it out!
