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Moving to Northern California means enjoying a fall season. Something we've never really experienced being native Southern Californians. Our kids are obsessed with the vibrant autumn colors emerging all around us. Evening walks, collecting leaves to press have become a favorite activity for our family.

I came up with a quick and easy leaf origami mobile made from recycled materials. We think it gives a rather bare corner of our living room a nice pop of much needed color.

To make the fall leaf mobile you'll need:

Old magazines
An interesting looking stick from outside

As rainy days begin to give way to warmer weather one can't help but feel that Spring is finally here to stay. And since the seasons are changing so must the decor. Out with the frosted glass votives, in with the daffodils in milk glass.

Yeah, Easter is great and all but what gets me is when all the hunting/egg-dying/basket-giving is over what do I do with all the egg-shaped goodies (both candy and plastic)? Sure it's fun to relive the magic by staging mock egg hunts but after the 100th time you've run out of places to hide the eggs and your still left w/dozens of egg-shaped plastic. I'm always on a look out for fun ways to reuse those plastic eggs so they don't end up as carpet bombs in my kids' rooms.

Fall is here in full force! And as the leaves cover the ground in a beautiful blanket of deliciously warm Autumn colors our leaf collection continues growing (out of control). We've been having a blast doing all sorts of fun projects with our fall treasures. However, the leaf rubbings are getting a little played out. Becky of My Kids Make offers this simple activity for making leaf connect the dots. A few fall leaves, paper and pencil. How clever is that?

Rachelle of TinkerLab has shared an alternative recipe to traditional play dough called cloud dough. All you need is flour, oil and wicked blending skills to whip up a batch of something fun for when it's cold outside.

Rachelle:

Need a last-minute Halloween craft? This tutorial for making wooden peg zombies from Jessica Wilson of Scrumdilly Do is brilliant. The tutorial includes handy tips for adding gory details (like bloody bandages...Ewwww) and making your wooden undead stand on their own.

Check out this Instructable for making Galaxy Playdough by Fairy Dust Teaching. Um, yeah that's the coolest! And here I thought there couldn't be anything better, simpler or more satisfying (ok there are other things more satisfying but go with me on this) than whipping up a fresh batch of soft, squishy, pliable homemade Playdough. Well, I stand corrected! There's nothing better than Playdough with glitter!

Family walks are a whole new level of special when Autumn rolls in to show off it's beauty. And my kids (expert leaf hunters) make sure we arrive home with a baker's dozen worth of fresh leaves on each and every outing. We count them, make crayon rubbings of them, craft crowns, masks and fans out of them. Then, they dry up and become a crunchy mess all over my floor. It's kinda sad to see their demise. Wouldn't it be nice to enjoy their beauty the entire season and beyond?

Time to start filling the ol' summer bag of tricks with a few good ideas (that is if you treasure your sanity). Here's a cool project for making a CD case fimo labyrinth contributed by Teri of Giddy Giddy on Bloesem Kids. It's the perfect go-to summer project when things get hairy with the kids.

What ever good summer needs is the perfect hideaway...A cool place to stash one's self for a while with a few good books and several stuffed pals...A haven from the heat!