Crafts

  • Crafts

    Painted Visor Using a Doily Stencil

    If I had to choose between Team Hat and Team Visor, there is no contest. Team Visor has all of my loyalty. There is something about my hair that just does not look right under a baseball cap. Whenever I try to wear one I have a Dirty Dancing moment. “You can’t put Baby in a corner.” Same thing with my hair…you can’t tuck it under a cap! Last week I ordered a plain navy visor on Amazon for about 7 bucks. I was actually pleasantly surprised with the quality. When I ordered the visor, I didn’t intend on doing anything but wear it while lounging by the pool. It’s a rough,…

  • Crafts,  Food,  learning

    Notebook Paper Lunchbox Notes – Free Printable

    We are in back-to-school countdown mode around these parts! I always associate the start of school with fall, but in Georgia it is still 95 degrees. Definitely not fall-like weather. Maybe in a couple of months… But whether I think it feels like the start of school or not, it’s still starting! Time to get with the program. Last year I started packing my daughter’s lunch with reusable lunchbox notes. I made these day-of-the-week notes and will keep using them this year. They’ve held up great! (There’s a free printable if you click on the link to that post.) This is my son’s first time in all-day school, so he gets to…

  • Crafts

    Tie-Dye Cleaning Rags

    Earlier this week I declared a “stay at home fun day.” This is mom-speak for “we need to stay at home and do some laundry or we will be starting a nudist colony soon.” However, my kids took my declaration literally. They expected us to have fun and for me to provide the entertainment. Luckily, my daughter had received a tie-dye kit for her birthday. I had been procrastinating saving it for such a day as this. The tie-dye kit included a tote bag to tie-dye. My daughter then asked me what a tote bag was. We were off to a great start. Thankfully, the kit also included plenty of…

  • Crafts,  holidays

    Easy DIY Necklace for Mother’s Day – Kid Craft

    My son’s preschool does a super sweet event each spring called Muffins for Mom. Or was is Muffins with Mom? Prepositions aside, the important thing is there were muffins and moms in one classroom with their kids. And all was right with the world. It’s a good thing this event is so sweet and heartfelt because I admit to having a hard time taking anything seriously when I am sitting on an itty bitty chair 12 inches off the ground. I’m just saying. Even the Leader of the Free World would feel a little ridiculous. I set my discomfort aside because after the kids sang a special song, it was…

  • Crafts

    Fairy Houses – Gift and Craft Idea

    One of my dearest friends, who is like a sister to me, was headed to a birthday party this past weekend in Oregon for a mutual friend of my daughter’s. We exchanging our 1000th text of the day, more or less, when she sent me a picture of what she and her daughter had created for the birthday girl, who loves fairies. A fairy house! Isn’t it magical? Such a clever gift idea. I can’t take credit for the idea, the creation or even the pictures! It was all my friend’s doing, but I had to share. I wish we could have done a real photoshoot on these, but the West Coast…

  • Crafts

    State Appliquéd Dish Towels

    My mother-in-law’s birthday is coming up and I wanted to get her something special. I started brainstorming and came up with…nothing. Oh boy. After that bit of anticlimactic brainstorming, I knew it was time to call in reinforcements! My friend, Laura, has an Etsy shop, One Blue Eye Birdie. I love what she creates, especially the state appliquéd pillows. I just couldn’t figure out how to work one into my current decor. Clearly, my life has huge problems. (sarcasm alert) If you are my mother-in-law, you should probably stop reading now. Birthday spoilers ahead! That’s when inspiration hit me over the head. What if I begged and pleaded asked her to make state appliquéd…

  • Crafts

    No-Sew Embellished Canvas Tote

    Do you have one of those friends that has known you longer than you’ve been with your spouse or partner? I do. She’s pretty darn special to me. We don’t talk or see each other nearly as often as I’d like, but I know she’d be there for me in a heartbeat. A few months ago she called and told me about her new job. What impressed me the most is not that she had landed a new job (she’s talented and smart), but her attitude about her new job. She, in essence, told me that she’d finally come to the realization that she needed to stop undermining her value and…

  • cleaning,  clothing and jewelry,  Crafts

    No-Sew Way to Repair a T-Shirt Hole

    June 30, 2015 Update: T-shirt repair using this method is still holding strong! This isn’t a shirt I wear everyday, but it has been washed and worn several times since this original post in February 2015. I hope you have the same results as I have had.  The other day I paused to straighten my shirt as I was running at the door and somehow one of my fingernails of steel punched a hole right through my shirt. AGH! I still have no idea how it happened. Especially since I’m not sporting particularly long or pointy fingernails at the moment. This is the shirt in question. A dressier version of…

  • Crafts,  holidays

    Magnifying Glass Valentine’s Card – Free Printable

    I’m a big fan of Valentine’s cards for kids that don’t include candy. I know, I know, I’m such a party pooper. However, I do love Valentine’s cards that include trinkets. See, I’m not a complete scrooge! This attitude works really well because at my daughter’s elementary school they do not allow us to bring in sweets for Valentine’s Day or even for birthdays. It’s a little too strict, in my opinion, but their heart is in the right place. Last month my daughter and I scoured the big ol’ world wide web looking for Valentine’s ideas. If the truth is known, I find this part of Valentine’s Day ridiculously fun.…

  • Crafts,  holidays

    Parachute Man Valentine’s Cards – Free Printable

    My son has recently started playing “Army” with his neighborhood friends. So when I saw some examples out there for a parachute man Valentine’s cards, I knew he’d get excited. That was an understatement! I don’t know who to credit for the original idea, but I was inspired by this example here. Of course, I had to do my own take on it! Here’s the label that I came up with: I printed the labels out on white card stock, but regular computer paper would work fine too. I designed them to fold in half over the top of the plastic baggie that holds the parachute man. I got a dozen parachute…