Easiest DIY Hair Clip

Okay guys, this is hands down the easiest hair clip you will ever make. You don't need to cut, sew, heck you don't even need glue!

Check out these organza beauties that I got at Michael's for less than $2.50 (with the 40% off coupon)! The only other thing you'll need is some plain clips. I got these at Michael's also, a while back, so I don't remember exactly how much they cost, but it wasn't more than a few dollars.

When you remove the backing from them, you'll see they are attached with a twist-tie that goes through two small slits in the felt.

Simply slide the clip through those same slits and you're done!

Find a cute girl to model them :-)

It doesn't get any easier than that, does it??

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DIY Wooden Book Crate

Have you ever completed a project and it turns out even better than you imagined? I just finished one of those and I am thrilled to share it with you.

My kids LOVE to read (even the little one who doesn't know how to!) and we have tons of books. Most of them are downstairs in the playroom, but we have a small collection of some of their favorites upstairs so we have easy access to them for bedtime stories. We also have a constant rotation of library books that I try to keep somewhat separate from our own books. Unfortunately, it was turning into a big jumble and something had to be done!

I saw this wooden crate from Michael's used as a shadow box on Emily's blog and I got inspired to use the same one to solve this book mess. These are the supplies I used:

crate • pre-stain • stain • stencils • paint (I actually ended up using craft paint and not wall paint) • casters • sanding block • polycrylic (I ended up using a spray version)

First thing to do is the prep work. Sand it down until it's nice and smooth. Then apply the pre-stain wood conditioner. You don't really see much of a difference, but it helps the wood take the color of the stain more evenly.

Read the directions on the can and wait the specified time and then apply the stain. I used Miniwax's walnut color, and used the same foam brush from the pre-stain. It's pretty liquidy so you really don't need to use that much. A little stain goes a long way.

After you let it sit for a while, wipe off the excess stain with a clean rag. It may look like there's nothing to wipe, but you'll see that there really is.

 Here it is all stained - already looking so much better!

I then took the letters and lined them up to space them properly before painting.

The stenciling itself was simple. I used Martha Stewart's foam stenciling brushes - just dip the brush into some craft paint, wipe off the excess and dab repeatedly in an up-and-down motion to avoid bleeding. I used some tape on the underside of the stencil to keep them from shifting and that worked out fine.

The bottom of the crate was slatted, just like the sides and I wanted a solid bottom, both for extra support for books and so they wouldn't slip through the cracks, and also to have something sturdier to screw the casters into. I happened to have some spare plywood the exact width (Divine providence!) and my dad helped me cut it down to size. We screwed the casters right through the crate and into the plywood.

The final step was to spray it with a clear protective coating. I was originally going to use the polycrylic pictured above, but I only had it in glossy and I didn't want a shiny finish. I had a can of a matte protective spray (Rustoleum) so that's what I used. (Beware, that stuff stinks!)

Here you can see the plywood on the bottom. Since I added it in after the fact, I forgot to sand it down first and it was hard to get a really smooth surface once it was screwed in. In order to protect the kids' fingers from splinters, I covered it with a layer of clear contact paper. Safety first! It's not as obvious in real life as it is here in this picture, but it'll always be covered with books anyway so I'm not too concerned.

The kids couldn't wait to fill it up with their books!

And now in its new location (subject to change, of course!).

I am so happy with how it turned out and it was a really easy project! The longest part was definitely just the waiting for the stain/paint/poly to dry. So tell me, how do you keep your kids' books organized?

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Summer Fun Continues

Summer fun is already in full swing and the kids are loving camp. Over July 4th weekend, the hubby and I both had some time off without the kids so we headed to the newest tourist attraction in our area - Ripley's Believe It or Not. I had been to some other locations before, but this was a first for the mister. We left the place thinking that there are too many people in this world with too much time on their hands. A Justin Bieber artwork made completely out of candy - seriously?

They had a huge "penny" made out of a gazillion real pennies.

Then there was a "coffin" made out of cigarette butts and cigars. A little tongue-in-cheek in a not-so-subtle way!

And a scaled-down replica of Hogwarts made out of a half a million matchsticks. I can't imagine the patience needed to construct something like this.

They also had these really interesting glass bottles with wooden arrows through them. We could not figure out how they did this, so if you know please share!!

We do allow the kids to have fun also :-) Here they are playing some arcade games at Chuck E. Cheese.

And my sister-in-law is being kind enough to give my daughter swimming lessons this summer. I am so proud of how much she has progressed so far! Unfortunately, my son doesn't like to venture too far off the steps at the edge. We're making progress with him though...

What kind of summer fun have you and your family been up to? It's been so hot by us lately that even walking from the house to the car is enough to work up a sweat!

The Garden is Growing!

I know I've been talking a lot about the landscaping and outside of our house (getting our trees cut down, landscaping touch ups, garden planting, etc.), but I guess it's just that time of year that all this type of work gets done! Things are slowly starting to look up around here.

The grass is finally starting to grow in where we formerly had tree stumps.

Before:

Now: (not sure why that big patch is a totally different color than the rest of the grass...)

I've been doing TONS of weeding. And finally got some more mulch to pretty up the front flower bed.

Before:

Now:

OK, so the azaleas are no longer blooming, but that mulch definitely improved the look of it. I also took some spare bricks we had lying around to edge the right side of the bed, giving it more of a finishing touch.


And look at how nicely the garden is growing.

Before:

Now:


You can see real plants and not just tiny little sprouts! I don't know what went wrong with our cucumber seeds, but only a few actually sprouted. The snap peas and carrots look great, and we've got about three zucchini plants that took. To be honest, since this is our first year, I wasn't sure if anything was going to grow so just seeing what we've got is so exciting. I must say that if you have young children, growing a vegetable garden is such an amazing project to create with them. There are so many benefits, not to mention the exercise and healthy foods they'll be eating from it, but the joy of seeing the fruits of their labor (pun intended!) is priceless.

Since I dragged my daughter to Home Depot with me to get the mulch, I told her she could pick out a flower for us to plant and this is what she wanted:

(It had just rained when I took these pictures so that's why everything looks wet.) After laying all the mulch, my back was quite sore and I didn't feel like digging around, so we just put the whole planter in the little indentation in the ground where the random daffodils used to live. She's happy so I'm happy!

What did you work on over the weekend?

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No-Sew Blackout Shades

Ever since sunrise has been getting earlier and earlier, the kids have been getting up earlier and earlier. Not good for someone who doesn't like to get out of bed even a minute before she has to! My hubby is up anyway so he's there to take care of them, but they get tired at night much earlier than usual and are sometimes yawning at the dinner table. I knew the problem was that the mini-blinds on their windows didn't do a whole lot in blocking out the sun.

I finally went off to JoAnn in search of blackout fabric. I found some that was on sale (score!) and spent only $8.73 on the liner itself. Now for some pictorial foreshadowing...

More on that later...

The first step was measuring and cutting the fabric. I measured my windows and added 4 inches to each dimension. For example, one window was 34"x45" so I cut my fabric to 38"x49". One inch on each side would be to overlap a little onto the moulding around the window so there would be more light coverage and the other extra inch was for the hem on each side.

You can see the the fabric is different on each side and I wanted the white part to face towards the room (not that it really matters because you can't see it through the blinds.)

I then used the Heat n Bond to hem each side. Make sure that you put the fabric with the wrong side face up. I found it easier to first iron the fold without the tape to it would stay flatter while I was ironing with the tape.

For some reason, there is literally no space for an inside mount of a curtain rod or anything of the sort, and since we already had the blinds, an outside mount was out of the question. I had to get my MacGyver on and figure out a way to get this fabric hung. That's where (I thought) the elastic and mini-command hooks would come in. (By the way, don't you love that they are now making clear hooks??)

I had in my head that I could just put four of those hooks in the corners of the window, fashion a little loop made out of the elastic and then hang them from the command hooks.

Like so:

Clearly, those hooks were not made to support any significant amount of weight so this idea became one big FAIL! Luckily I had only sewn the elastic loops onto one piece of fabric! On to plan B. I looked through my craft area trying to figure out what I could use and then it dawned on me - velcro! (Excuse the trim that needs some major touch up paint - those marks are from the blinds and some kids (who will remain nameless) banging into the moulding.)

See, I wanted the fabric to be removable in the winter time when sunrise is much later, otherwise it would be so dark that I'd never be able to get the kids out of bed. That's why I was looking for a way to hang it that would be easily removable.

Here's how one of them looks all hung up. When the blinds are down, you can't see that anything is behind them.

But when you turn the lights off,  it makes a world of a difference. I don't mind the slits of light coming through because I don't want it to be pitch black in there ever.

 From the outside it looks totally normal, too. The hems are covered by the moulding so they aren't visible from the outside.

And just because we all love a good before and after, here you go. The lights in the room are off for both of these pictures.

So far I'm happy to report that it's working! Yay for an extra hour of sleep (or not being awoken an hour early)!! What tips do you have for keeping your kids in bed later?

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