Handwarmer Tutorial

This Mom-Of-Four thing is killin' me.
And I mean that figuratively,
of course.

My craft time is close to extinct these days
but my mamatime is through the roof.
Through. The. Roof. I tell ya.

So hang tight.
I'm planning on a homemade Christmas.
I've got the materials
now I need the time.

Here are some handwarmers
that I whipped up
out of necessity
during One's soccer season.


Cut four pieces of fabric (mine are 4x5)
I did two cotton and two something-fuzzy



Put front and back pieces right sides together
and stitch around all four sides
leaving a hole for turning



Turn inside out and stitch around outside again
still leaving the hole open (this time for filling)



Fill (I filled mine with rice) and sew opening shut.

(I will probably fill with something bigger than rice next time.
Maybe lentils? I'm hoping they might hold the heat longer.)

That's it!
I used scrap fabric.
It took about 10 minutes.
Super easy and would make a great gift
for teachers or any number of other people.

Just microwave and enjoy!

What's for lunch?

Whatever you're taking for lunch,
why not take it in a cute
reusable snack/lunch bag?


You'll need:
fabric
clear vinyl
sew-on velcro

To make this sandwich bag
I cut my fabric approx 7 inches x 14 inches
and also some clear vinyl the same size.

1 - Sew fabric and vinyl together
right sides together
leaving a hole for turning

2 - Turn inside out

3 - Sew on velcro -
fuzzy velcro on vinyl side of one end
scratchy velcro on fabric side of the other end


I opted for the fuzzy side to be on top
and the scratchy side to be on the lower outside piece
(look at the picture above)
so it wouldn't scratch any hands
reaching into the bag.
That's also why I chose to do
a fold-over type bag
as opposed to a ziploc style.

So now that I've completely confused you...


4 - Sew up the sides of the bag

5 - Pack your lunch and enjoy
all the nice comments you'll receive!

To make a snack size bag,
cut your fabric approx 7 inches x 10 inches

Room to Sew

Can you guess what's in here?

Surprise!

(The fishbowl behind my machine is where I put my scraps.)

I love it!

There's no craft room for me.
And that's okay.
But I did need some designated space
because fabric was ending up everywhere!
In the hall closet,
in a box in my bedroom,
on the bookshelf next to my sewing machine....

I saw this tv hutch at goodwill
and knew it would be perfect
for a "sewing room".

And once I organized everything,
it looked so clean
I wanted to sit right down
and sew something!

Of course I didn't,
because at that point
it was 1am
and I have a baby
that tends to get up at 4am to eat
so that would have been crazy
but still...

In the bottom left cabinet
there are clear boxes for storage
designated for:
1) notions,
2 ) fabric already designated for projects,
3 ) huge batting scraps,
a basket of fat quarters,
and a basket of patterns:



The bottom right cabinet has the foot pedal
and a trash bag for scraps.

There's even a shelf where I can store
stacks of fabric for easy viewing:

(It kinda looks like there's room for more fabric!)
(ps, I should do a post on how I fold my fabric. Is that nerdy?)


And when I'm done,
I can close the doors up,
and there you go!


Hurray!

Not your mama's salad dressing!

I am doing what I can to raise
independent children.
I don't want my sons' wives
to complain that they didn't learn
to cook or clean up or do laundry...
(like I do....ahem....moving on)

Have I even mentioned that One
is an early bird?
Like 6am and he's ready to go?
Even on the weekends?

Well, I try to tell all my children
that they are my favorite,
but at 6am?
If you wake me up at 6am on a Saturday,
you are definitely not my favorite.

So we've gotten into the habit
of turning to PBS before we go to bed
so that One can turn on the TV in the morning
to something I don't have to worry about.
And now that he can -and loves- to read,
the early mornings can be filled
without any help from mama.

Until he gets this crazy notion
that he's hungry.

What's up with that?

Enter this little miracle:


It's not salad dressing gone bad...
it's an empty salad dressing bottle
filled with milk!!!

So now we store the cereal
down below the cabinets,
and even a few bowls too,
so that One can make
his own cereal in the morning.

Two has started doing it too.
She feels so grown up
getting to pour her own milk!

It's been such a great thing!
I can sleep past 6am,
One can be my favorite again,
Two feels independent...

Everybody wins!

Money Math

We made money jars back at this post.
The only problem was
none of us ever knew how much money they had
and let's face it,
Mom's not the best at remembering
to give them their allowance.



So we counted up the money,
-it made a great math lesson-



and created a ledger for them to keep track
of the balance:

(Yes, I paid One to wash our windows. 25 cents a window...what a bargain!)


I love that it was:
1) fun
2) math
3) life skills
all in one!

Morning News

So on the morning news today
I heard that today is the
100 yr birthday of the modern bra.

Random.

But speaking of bras,
I did take my favorite one
and turn it into a nursing bra.

It's been the best thing!
Here's the tutorial I used.

You just might want to try it!

Curly Hair Secret

Buy socks!

Or use your son's socks
that you bought a size too big
because you were in a hurry
and not paying enough attention...

I saw the idea here.
She has four daughters.
You know it's going to work.


Look at Two's hair the next morning!

(I used 5 socks.)

She loved it!
Said it was so bouncy!
And the curls stayed all day....
so much better than curling-iron curls!
And so much easier too!

Shuf-fle Step!

Two's dance class starts back up tomorrow.
It's a tap and ballet combo class.
Ballet is first,
then they change into their tap shoes
for the rest of the class.


Here are Two's tap shoes,
the generic tap shoes from Payless:

Notice a problem?
Most 4 yr olds can't tie their shoes.
It takes a long time for one teacher
to tie 12 pairs of tap shoes.
I want my moneys worth from the class....
I do not want to pay for 10 min of shoe tying
every week!

So I bought this:

Looped it through the holes of Two's tap shoes
to figure out the length I needed
for it to fit on Two's foot
and overlap just enough to stitch together:

See? Three little stitches:

Then I tied the original ribbon in a cute and even bow
(yes, it took me a few tries)
and tacked the bow onto the top layer only (very important!)
of the elastic loop I just made.

Aren't they so cute?!?
And yes, I will be bringing my elastic to class tomorrow
to offer to do this for the other kids' shoes.....

just like I did last year! :o)


Hey, a $1 investment in exchange for "extra" class time?
You just can't beat it!

Laundry Excitement!

In an attempt to be both frugal and green,
I made my own laundry detergent!
*gasp*
We were using liquid store brand detergent
which was running us about $15 a month.
I haven't broken down my exact cost but from researching others,
this homemade version will cost about $12 a YEAR!

Yes people, a Y-E-A-R!!!

Interested?
Here are my ingredients:
1 bar Fels Naptha soap
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Baking Soda
1 cup Oxy Clean

First, I grated my bar soap on the teeny-hole side of my grater:

I left it to dry out (took a few hours) and then blended it to dust.
I just used our magic bullet.

Combined all the ingredients:

That was it!!!
2 Tbs/load

So here's the important part....the first load....

I washed a sheet,
DaddyMan's running gear,
and some bath towels.

Pretty mega duty stuff, right?

It was awesome! DaddyMan is training for a marathon. He's not just running around the block, he's running 8-12 miles, so his running gear is gross! Now, in full discloser, I admit to not smelling the dirty laundry (sorry, not going to happen!). But the clean laundry was totally clean and fresh smelling and looking!

Here's what I learned from looking at other laundry detergent recipes:
*If you can't find the Fels Naptha, others have used Ivory.
*In my area, I could only find the Fels Naptha and Washing Soda at Fred Meyer (Kroger). It's on the same aisle with the laundry detergent. I think others have also been able to find them at Walmart.
*Some recipes called for Borax, but considering one comment said it was optional and also "great at killing roaches" I left it out.
*Since Borax is apparently a great cleaning agent, I opted to use the OxyClean instead.

Another resource w/ 10 detergent recipes including liquid detergents here.

Let me know if you try it!

Crazy Calendar

With my kids entering school,
my life is now run on the school schedule,
from summer to summer.
My Jan-Dec calendar was just not cutting it.

I would get the school schedule at the beginning of the school year and only be able to write information down through December. By the time I would get my new calendar, that school paper was long gone, or at least lost in the shuffle. So last summer I decided to switch to a calendar that ran July-July.

It has been F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!!!


I have a big wall calendar in the kitchen,
but I wanted a smaller one to keep with me.
I started with this calendar from Target:
(It was about $6.)

I certainly couldn't leave it just like that!

So I made a cover for it with some scrap fabric from this apron,
the same way I covered this journal, and even sewed on some vinyl so I could add a picture:
(How cute are my babies?! This is from One's 6th b-day pics.)

Here's the inside:

I love those black and white flowers! They were the deciding factor in picking this calendar over others!

So that's my new calendar!
What do you think?
It's crazy how full it already is!!!

:o)

Freedom of choice

Nursing shirt choices, that is. You see, I really love my nursing shirts from motherhood but haven't liked any of the choices for spring. Throw in the spendy prices of the shirts even if they did end up coming out with some I liked and there you have my dilemma. What's a mom to do? Well, I realized that I do have a double-layer nursing shirt with long sleeves that won't make the cut for spring but gave me a great idea. What if I came up with an under-layer that could go under any shirt, thus making it possible for any shirt to become a nursing shirt? Then I could buy any shirt I wanted! Genius!

I found this shirt in the target pj/workout clothing section for $5.

Then I put it on and marked with dots where I wanted the slits to start and stop and cut my slits. (That's a blue shirt on the inside so it would be easier to see.)

I don't think jersey knit ravels, but just in case I did zig-zag the raw edges. So there you go! I tried it on under a t-shirt and you can't see the edges of the slits at all. I think I'll have to make another one!

Edited March '09: Well, I've made a few of these now and after a few small changes, I have to say, my favorite shirt has the slits all the way on the sides by the side seams (still going up fairly high). It's a muscle-man shirt from the men's underwear section and it's proven to do perfect double duty as a nursing liner and layering shirt...protecting modesty from the top of the shirt to the bottom!

In other news, Three rolled over today! A pretty amazing feat considering I hardly ever lay him on the ground. He is named Three afterall. :o) Too many other little feet for me to be comfortable with it unless I am right there next to him. So, hurray Three! He's such a big boy. As Two says, "he's almost a grown-up now!" Not quite, but he does just happen to be 21 wks today!

Brightening my world

How easy do you think it is for me to find my phone in my big black-hole-of-a-purse when it's ringing and I'm in the middle of a group of people wishing I had picked a different ringtone or least not chosen to have it ring so loud that I really, really try to get to it quickly? Not easy at all! I've gone into the phone store looking for a different cover but all they have are little rubber edges (don't you love my technical lingo?) to put on it. But then it wouldn't fit in its case and oh yeah, did I mention they're like 30 bucks? What's a girl to do?

Welllllllllllll, this girl took a new look at the leftovers of the used-to-be-tights-but-are-now-legwarmers from the other day and went, ah ha! I sewed a little cozy out of one of the hips of the tights and I love it!

Who's gonna answer her phone a little bit faster from now on? Now about that ringtone....

Howdy buckaroos!

Three has had a rash for awhile from The Drool. I haven't been able to keep it under control by covering it with vaseline (my all-time favorite baby product, btw) and the bibs I have are so big, every time Three waves his arms around, he flips them up over his face. My doctor said "make your own!" Ummm, hello? Why didn't I think of this?

I cut off a piece of this cute towel to the size I wanted it and then zig-zag stitched the raw edges. This is a pretty amazing feat for me considering I only ever sew in straight lines! Then I sewed some ribbon onto some suspender clips that I had leftover from when I made these (not that Three ended up needing them -bummer!-) and voila!

I eyeballed everything and I think the ribbon's a bit too long but that can be easily fixed. I also folded the bib over in a triangle when I put it on and I think it makes it look like a bandana the cowboys wear. Super cute! One wanted in on this picture. How could I resist?