Duo Pie Carrier

This year I offered to make pumpkin pies for our family gathering at my uncle's house. With delicate crusts and "wet" fillings, I was afraid that transportation might be a problem. Luckily, my husband came up with a fabulous idea for carrying both pies in a giant cake carrier (the only carrier I have). Here is the order from the bottom up:

1. carrier bottom

2. nonslip pad

3. pie

4. microwave food cover

5. nonslip pad

6. pie

7. top of carrier

It worked PERFECTLY!!!

Hair Clips For Cutie

Say, "Cheese!"

One of my niece's favorite words is "owl", so of course I searched my fabric stash for something cute to make her.

I made a super simple hair clip out of the following:

* owl fabric

* hair clips

* felt

* fray block (prevents fabric from coming apart)

* liquid stitch (fabric glue)

I cut an area around the owl and applied fray block. After it dried, I trimmed around the edges then used liquid stitch to fasten it to a felt background. After that dried, I glued it to a hair clip.

Just in time for the holidays....

Reusable Gift Bags

These holiday gift bags come in handy to wrap last minute gifts.

Holiday Display

This year I decided to display holiday cards by hanging them with removable hooks, curling ribbon and a jingle bell at the bottom.

Kid's Favorite Shirt...

...kid's favorite pillow.

Apple Fruit bowl

I started packing half an apple in my son's lunches; whole ones always came back home uneaten. I found that using a table spoon to scoop out the core was a lot easier, and safer, than a knife.

I added fruit and raisins to spice it up a bit.

Picture Frame Directory

Sometimes, for me, simple is better; especially when it comes to phone numbers. Our home phone has a memory feature, but it always takes me a long time to scroll to the correct number.

To help, I made a directory of important phone numbers in a frame to keep by the phone. I also included our home address and phone number, handy for visitors in case of emergencies.

Happy Day-After Halloween

More Halloween Decorations

Dollar Store Skeleton Lights

I got this decoration idea from the Dollar Store Craft Website. It was so amazingly easy to make out of straw decorations a string of Xmas lights. I used fishing line to attach the legs to the bodies.

Baby Food Jar Bats

My son and I made these cute bats out of baby food jars and templates from the Family Fun Website. We painted the bottles black and put a battery operated light inside to make it flicker.

Have a happy, and safe, Halloween!

Halloween Decorations - Tabletop Haunt

My son wanted to put up Halloween decorations this year, so we did a little research on DIY projects. We found this haunted house (from the Disney Family Fun website) made from cardboard boxes and craft paint. For the ghosts, I crumpled up a plastic grocery bag and wrapped it with Kleenex.

I put a single bulb light fixture, from the dollar store, inside the box to light up the windows.

Another project coming tomorrow...

More Bead Storage

I found a great spice rack at a nearby garage sale that I use to store seed beads. I love this repurpose. Glass make it easy to see color and quantity in each bottle and the tops have a sprinkle or pour feature.

Unmounted Rubber Stamps

Long ago, I used to collect rubber stamps. Typically, it was cheaper to purchase unmounted rubber images then permanently mount the rubber to a piece of wood on your own. Problem is, storing all the wood blocks take up a lot of space.

My auntie recently introduced me to a way to organize stamps by mounting them with a sticky back foam. Stamps can be kept on sheet protectors and transferred to an acrylic block when in use, then transferred back to the plastic sheet for storage. I use small drawer knobs to use for smaller stamps. Instead of two big boxes of mounted stamps, I have one 1/2 inch binder (stamps organized by size) and a little bag of knobs/blocks.

Stamp credit: Curtis Uyeda Collection

Bead Storage

I recently purchased a set of small beads. The case it came in was cute, but not very functional. Every time I opened it, beads would spill into neighboring compartments or flip out of the container. I was also afraid that I might knock it over and hundreds of beads would scatter madly across the tiled floor.

I filled floral water tubes (similar to this) with beads. Now I can easily choose from a rainbow of colors without having to break out the vacuum cleaner.

Organizing Homework

Hi, today I'm over at About Multiples, the official blog of Gemini Crickets Parents of Multiples Club of Silicon Valley, with some advice on organizing school paperwork.

When my son was in Kindergarten, homework was easy to manage. Most of the week's assignments fit on one page. To prepare for first grade, I decided to use an accordion folder to organize his paperwork... (read more about managing homework for multiples, here).

Word Of The Day

In Kindergarten, my son's teacher would have the kids say, write and read a "word of the day". I took that one step further and made a "word of the day" dictionary with an appendix at the end with common phrases, family and friends names and numbers.

Last year, my son would chose a word and turn to the letter page where I wrote the word. This year, he does it all.

Lite Peg Storage

LiteBrite was a popular toy when I was growing up. Basically, it was a light box that colored pegs were pushed into that lit up to expose a design.

Unfortunately, they don't make the original LiteBrite set anymore, but there are plenty of knock-offs. I found a travel set for my son to play with in the car (it's battery operated). This set came with 500 pegs, but only 10 of each color fit into the provided compartments. I found a small plastic craft box that worked perfectly for storing the spare pegs. Too bad the pegs don't light up on the car floor - to make them easier to find.

DIY - Halloween Costume

This year my son asked me to make him a very special Halloween costume - a Lego brick. I was totally up for this challenge!

I made a Lego logo template to cut out sticky back foam letters.








I stuck the letters on plastic container tops and taped the tops to a large cardboard box. I had to use primer on the box to cover the writing and used several coats of red spray paint to cover the entire box, but we were both very excited with the results.

Paper Towel Holder

I was looking for a way to store paper towels in my craft room without taking up valuable counter space. I hung a roll on the side of my work table using two removable picture hangers and rope that I crocheted out of spare yarn.

No More Lost Keys

I hung an organizer near the garage to manage our keys. I haven't misplaced any keys since.

Handwarmers - Repurposed

I had a little trouble rushing to complete a sewing project last weekend. Normally, I would pin a pattern down with a ton of pins, but since I was in a hurry I only used two pins so the fabric kept slipping around while I was cutting.

Remember the rice hand warmers I blogged about last week? I used them to weigh down the area I was cutting. It was the perfect solution in a pinch. Bonus: It could also be used as a pin cushion.

Managing Batteries

A friend presented me with a question that many families with children encounter, "are these batteries charged?" In her house, batteries are a staple; using a lot of reusable, and some disposable, for toys and handheld electronics. To help her answer the question, I came up with a solution that would be compact enough to fit on the corner of a desk.

I covered empty plastic containers with craft paper and a glue stick. Labeling them: use me (fully charged and ready to go), charge me (requires charging), and dispose of me (for the used disposables). I cut holes in the lids large enough to drop a battery inside.

I threw a screw driver, for tiny toy screws, in the "use me" container to minimize the next expected question, "where's that little screw driver?"

Rice Hand Warmers

To teach my son measuring concepts we "played" with rice and measuring cups: four 1/4 cups go into one full cup, two 1/2 cups into one full cup, etc... It was educational for the first five minutes, but quickly turned into a big mess all over the table and floor.

Instead of throwing the rice away, I scooped it all up and made these rice hand warmers. I microwave them for a minute to keep my hands toasty while we walk to school on cold mornings.

Table Cloth Apron

One night after dinner, my son suggested that I wear a swim shirt next time I wash the dishes because my shirts always get so wet (this still makes me smile when I think about it). His comment was the inspiration for creating a vinyl table cloth apron.

Luckily, I already had a cute apron to use as a template. I used vinyl for the main part of the apron and cotton for the ruffle and straps. The cotton absorbs any water that might drip down, and I can also use it to dry my hands.

Back To School - Cold Lunches

I've been looking for lunch ideas, now that I'm packing my son's "cold lunch" everyday. It's challenging to figure out what, and how, to serve. I find that small, easy to eat portions are more likely to be eaten.

To keep food cold, I started using a booboo ice pack on the bottom of the container, covered it with a wet paper towel and added fruit on top.

I found these containers with removable cooler ice (that can be frozen the night before). Unfortunately, these were too difficult for 5 year old hands to open. Just Bento, an awesome site I came across, suggests freezing a juice box the night before to use in place of an ice pack.

Some of the lunches on that site are so pretty, they've inspired me to pack a lunch to eat at home.

Back To School - Labeling Everything!

"Back To School", to me, means labeling everything.

When my son was a toddler, I began ironing on name tags with my cell phone number to all of his clothes; so that was already taken care of.

Plastic was the problem. I tried a number of different ways to label lunch ware: paper labels pealed off or got wet, permanent marker eventually washed off, my son took off the rubber bands to play with...

Packaging Tape was the solution! I wrote his name on a label then stuck it on with packaging tape. The packaging tape stuck really well to the plastic and made it very water resistant.

Threading The Needle

I found some dental floss threaders at my mom's house. They are perfect to aid in threading the very tiny eye of a bead needle. The eye of the plastic floss threader is large and flexible, so it's easy to feed thread through. It collapses as it runs through the needle eye. It's the perfect solution for tired eyes.

Maps - The Navigator

This past summer, we went to a couple of local aquariums. My son was the designated trip navigator. Not only did he get to hold the TomTom in the car (repeating all the phrases as we drove), but also mastered the maps on site.

After we got home, I fastened the maps to foam core and stuck them to his wall with adhesive putty.

Photo Wall Collage

I love a house with hallways full of family photos; seeing where they've been, what they've done, how they've changed. I've been inspired to create my own photo collage and now finally going to get to the box of cheap wooden frames that we stored in the attic when we moved, nearly four years ago.

I sanded the frames and my husband strung them on a wire for a couple of coats of spray paint. Brilliant, right?

After drying, we hot glued a few together and hung them on the wall.

I love walking by this wall and remembering where we went, what we did and how we've changed.

Wall Hanging

When covering the wall in our living room, I was looking for a solution that wasn't too permanent. I found window shade hardware at Ikea and used it to hang a Japanese dish drying cloth.

In the winter, I made hangings out of drape fabric and snowflakes that I found at the dollar store.

Bread Bag

I love the idea of reusable gift bags. I made some for Christmas last year and love to see how people reuse them.

I recently baked up yummy banana bread for a friend. I made a simple bread bag using an old sheet and ribbon.

The best thing is, it's washable.

Safety Clip - Towel

This summer my son took a lot of swimming lessons. Drying off after getting out of the pool was a problem. He'd have trouble keeping his towel on while we walked to a sunny area.

I used a safety clip to keep the towel secure.

Now, if I could figure out a way to keep his flipflops from coming off...

Pancakes!

My son and I love to eat pancakes. "Pancakes for dinner" is our special meal when dad works late.

I use an old coffee pot to mix all the ingredients together.

The handle and the spout make it easy to pour without getting drops all over the stove and glass makes clean up a breeze.

Hot Corn On The Cob

I love corn on the cob hot off the grill, but it's usually TOO hot to handle. Heavy duty kitchen gloves protect hands when husking the piping hot cobs.

Safety First

Whenever we go to an crowded event, I have my son wear bright clothes to make him easier to spot and I have his name and my cell phone number fastened inside his clothes. Most importantly, I take a photo of him on my digital camera or phone

In case we ever get separated, I have a picture of the clothes he's wearing (and fancy hair) and a memento of the occasion.

Fabric Storage

I came across this AWESOME method for storing fabric on bolts made from foam core board found at the $ store. I turned an old bookshelf on its side and cut the boards into two different sizes to maximize space. I cannot tell you how much space this mini bolt storage system saves!