An Easy DIY Winter Wreath

Want to make a fun winter wreath to adorn your door? 

This one was made the exact same way as My Easy Burlap Wreath Tutorial, but using a couple fancy ribbons instead of burlap. My mom and I stocked up on silver sparkly ribbons after Christmas at Hobby Lobby last year, and found the fancy blue flowers then too. Afterwards I added the sparkly R. 

New DIY Bible Covers!

Check out these super cute bible covers, made my my readers!

Here's one from Linda who made a bible cover for her daughter...

Paint Bucket Storage Idea

We've painted almost every wall and ceiling throughout our house, which means we have a LOT of paint cans. They're best stored at room temperature, but I don't like looking at them, so this is what I came up with...

I store them on top of a high cabinet in the laundry room. At first they were kind of obvious up there so to make them less noticeable (ugly), I pulled the paint can labels off. Now they're just a bunch of matching black cans. When I stand on the washer/dryer to get them, then I can see the labels...

Mommy Memory Book

I found a way to organize my sweet notes, drawings and cards from the kids. I bound them into a Mommy Memory Book....

If you're wondering where I got that fabulous cover art, a friend of mine drew it for me!! :D

Inside the book I made card stock dividers for each year and taped on a pocket to each one to hold loose little notes and cards... 

Behind the year dividers I have the drawings or notes that were more bindable (most of which I laminated)...

I also have some yearly kid surveys and all the funny "kids quotes" I wrote down. Since the pro-click binder spines zip and unzip, it's no big deal to add to the book each year. 

I love it! What do you do with your keepsake notes and pictures? 

New Project Pictures from Featured Readers

I love getting pictures back from my readers showing me the projects they've created using my tutorials. Here are a couple I'd like to share...

Kristen from Illinois made a fitted sheet for her toddler bed using this tutorial...

And Krysten from New York made this cute Yoda Ear Flap Hat using this tutorial...

Thanks for sharing gals! :D

RSS Healing Butter & RSS Zinc Butter Recipes

In honor of Independence Day, today I'll share a recipe with you that we used along the road to gaining independence from topical steroids for my son's eczema! 

As you know, he went through the brutal process of topical steroid withdrawal. After using topical steroids (over-the-counter hydrocortisone cream) on his eczema as directed by his doctor, he developed a worse condition known as Red Skin Syndrome. You can see my posts about it here, but today what I want to share is the natural body butter recipe I formulated to help him through TSW. 

DIY: Turn Any Blanket into a Carseat Canopy

Today's post is a quick fix to turn any baby blanket into a carseat canopy by sewing on two little loops. 

What you'll need:

• One baby blanket that's a good size to drape over your infant carrier
• two scraps of fabric, 6" x 10" each
• two big buttons
• velcro

Easy DIY Infinity Scarf / Nursing Cover

Today I'll show you how you can turn one yard of fabric into an infinity scarf. If you happen to have a baby, it can double as a nursing cover. 

All you need is a yard of fabric (plus yarn and preferably a sewing machine). I chose a t-shirt type knit material which doesn't fray. This is fabulous since I don't have to hem the edges, and it's light and breathable. 

DIY Laundry Sorter Baskets

We recently changed up our laundry sorting system, and this is what we ended up with... 

The baskets were each $1 from Dollar General, and we mounted them with these double hooks from Home Depot which were $3 each...

Our New Workboxes Made With 12x12 Sterilite Drawers

After having an adorable workbox system for Kindergarten and First Grade, this year I changed it up a bit. The drawers weren't quite big enough to hold all of our stuff, and I've tweaked how we use them as well. Now we use Sterilite drawers, which I can stack for multiple kids. Here they are:

Never Ever Ever Bind Anything at Staples!!!!!

I managed to complete the most wonderful, annoying project this month! It's wonderful because I love it, it was annoying because "professionals" were involved who botched it up so it was a headache to get it finished properly.

I sorted and organized all of our keepsake school papers so I could bind them into books, one book per school year per kid. Nice idea right? Well, it would have been if Staples wasn't involved. I prefer to do my own binding with the Pro-Click, but unfortunately spines are only available up to 5/8" (110 page capacity). I needed about a 2" spine, so I had to have Staples do it for me. Sadly for me they did exactly what I feared, which was to botch my order! They mis-cut pages, had a few of them hanging outside the spine and even left a page out of the middle of my book! Check out their "professional" binding job...

(the pages aren't even IN the binding!)

They also used spines that were entirely too small...

The Weapon Wall

For any moms of little boys out there... nerf guns are probably in your house or in your future. So with that in mind, I present to you our weapon wall!

After looking at various ways to organize nerf guns and the like I decided to try peg board. I like it b/c several of these toys are too big to fit in a drawer or toy bin, not to mention that the boys think having a weapon wall is the coolest thing ever. Since I know more nerf guns are probably in our future, the board has room to spare so we can easily hang these toys closer together, making room for more. 

The cool thing about this project is that it cost me nothing. We already had some peg board and pegs, and I had an array of spare green and yellow paint due to my indecision when choosing wall colors a year ago. 

Since the peg board had been sitting in the garage and had some visible water staining on it, I went ahead and sprayed it thoroughly with mold control spray. Then I painted the peg board with camo. Here it is in progress...

My son helped me paint some of the camo, which was fun. But mostly he just likes hanging his weapons on the finished product! 

Oh and in case you're wondering, the tin lunch box is full of nerf bullets. 

Gear up and get to battling! :)

My New & Improved Home Education Planner (With Downloadable Cover Art)

As we're wrapping up this school year and I plan for the next one, one step is making my planner to track our school days. You may remember My DIY-Planner from last year. It worked out really well for me so I used much of the same format when printing one for this coming school year, BUT I got a major upgrade for the cover! I love the artwork, complete with a couple Charlotte Mason quotes.

Isn't it lovely? The artist is Ally, a fellow home school mom in the Simply Charlotte Mason Facebook group. She shared it with the group saying that she thought a few other ladies might like to use it, and was kind enough to give me permission to post it on my site as a free download as well. I just love it! Thank you so much for sharing Ally!!!

To view or download Ally's Home Education 

Planner Cover, click the links below...

Some Sewn Cuteness From My Featured Readers!

I love receiving pictures back from readers who make projects using my tutorials! (Although it may take me a while to finally post them!) Here are a few new ones... 

Mary G in North Carolina used my Custom Bible Cover tutorial to make this pretty case for her bible... 

After corresponding with a few people making their bible cases, I also updated my post with a few new tips and FAQ. 

Kristie H from Baltimore Maryland shared her little one's frog costume, which she made using my Hoppy Halloween Tutorial. (This tutorial includes instructions for making both frog and tadpole costumes)...

Melissa used my Pack & Play Sheet tutorial to make this cute sheet for her future foster kids...

Jennifer, from St. Louis Missouri used my ear flap hat pattern to make this hat for her son...

 

And Beth, from Iowa, used my dishtowel bib tutorial to sew her first dishtowel bib... 

Thank you ladies for sharing your pictures! :D 

You Can Make a Burlap Wreath

Check it out, I made my first wreath!

I have seen some cute burlap wreaths lately and wondered how big of a deal they are to make. Surprisingly, they're pretty easy. And once you have the hang of it, you can make all sorts of different looks to suit your tastes. Take these for example...  

Easiest DIY Batman Cape

Check out this happy little Bat Man!!!

I made the cape using my husband's too-small, 20-year-old Bat Man shirt. I never understood why he didn't get rid of it, since it's too small. But apparently it was meant for the greatness of a certain four-year-old Bat Man fan! 

Glass Etching

Have you ever tried glass etching? It's a super easy way to add a touch of cuteness to any glass or mirror, and it's a great way to personalize cheap, plain glass. Think drinking glasses, vases, serving bowls, candle holders, mirrors, even pyrex dishes! 

Here's a candles & mirror set I made my mom:

My Marvelous Map Box!!!!!

I love when something nice to look at doubles as a smart solution of some sort, like hidden storage or dual-purpose use. You know, like most everything at Ikea. Well, today I'm going to show you what I consider the most exciting addition to our home school room that I can possibly think of.

Drum roll please................

I present to you, our window cornice....

Oh but wait, you haven't seen the best part!!

This isn't an ordinary window treatment my friends..... for inside this cheery yellow chevron covered box you'll find THIS.....

Only the BEST set of pull-down maps EVER made! (Notice my enthusiastic map pointers!)

The Cutest Little Baby Food I Ever Saw!!!

After making my own fresh baby food purees for three babies, I think I may have it figured out.  Just as I'm about finished... isn't that how it usually goes?

The Organic Bug Killer

Today's post is the result of my finding a scorpion... In my closet! 

And then two more in the hall, one in our school room closet, one in the kitchen, one more on the front door, and another in the garage. NOT. COOL. And did I mention that we had multiple run-ins with brown recluse and black widow spiders as well? NO MORE! 

Day ONE after finding the first scorpion I did some online research and concluded that I needed two things: diatomaceous earth (which I'd never heard of before) and lavender (which apparently spiders and scorpions hate). 

Day two I had no less than 14 new lavender plants in my garden, 10 lbs of DE (diatomaceous earth) on its way, along with this book telling me how to use it. 

Fast forward ONE YEAR...  We are scorpion free! *knock on wood* And we've only seen a few house spiders when we're long over-due for a re-application outside.