Jar of Memories

I came up with this fabulous idea all on my own. I had a photo box I was keeping of "memory" pieces of Connor. I don't like to keep stuff, so I try to keep only the important stuff. I wanted a nice way to keep things. So, here it is.

1 quart mason jars. One for each year of Connor's life. The first one has his onesie he wore home from the hospital, his nuk + chain, and a hand print. The second one has some favorite cars, and it goes on. I intend to put some nice sticker labels on them. All in good time. So, now as we approach year 4, I can save little momentos throughout the year.

Crayons

You take broken crayons, put them into a silcon mold or into paper cupcake holders, bake at like 200 degrees. For a few minutes, not long, maybe 5. I like to swirl the wax with a tooth pick when they come out of the oven. Let the wax cool off, pop out, and you have a fun multi colored crayon.

Basement Redux

Everyone is talking about the big basement make over. (ok, so I've been talking to everyone who will listen) With the inspiration and assistance from IHeartOrganizing, and my shopping buddy Jenna, my financier John and my supportive Pre-Schooler Connor.

Before: Large TV in corner, toys leaking into the "computer room", toys piled on top of the TV. Toys scattered all over the place, with no real proper home.

Now: Large new shevling units! The big one is new ($99 at IKEA) and the smaller one used to be our TV stand up in the living room. It has been replaced by something new. Green Rubbermaid bins from Target for the toys, $6.99 a piece. The large bins on top are also from Target.
Connor, so happy to show off his new shelves. He helped me with the big one. The corner space he has a few pillows. He likes to hid back in there when he gets overwhelmed. It's a nice sensory break space. The top right on the smaller shelf is MY shelf. I keep my coffee cup there, along with some magazines for me to read while Con plays.

Connor and I made labels for each shelf, so that everything has a home. And since Connor isn't too good at reading, we painted pictures on the labels. I was not planning for Woody and Buzz to have their very own shelf, but Connor insisted. I gave him a few days to sort things out, put the toys where he wanted before attaching the labels. It's his space, let him put things where he wants!

The door to the "computer room" is closed, and no toys are in there. Unburied couch, super comfy! Considering a storage ottoman.

Before: Small TV sitting there, piles of old clothes stacked up next to it, random junk on the top shelf.

After: Got rid of the little TV, turned that stand into a place to play cars. It's the right height for a car garage to be parked on. The tool box is under the window, and he uses it as a stool to peak outside.

Before: Utter and complete chaos.

After: All the little toys are picked up and put into there proper homes on the shelves.

Before: Big open space in the center of the room being unused.


After: Plenty of room for his train table, with more than enough open floor space to play on the floor as well. In the back corner is a "bean bag" I made awhile ago, that homes all of Connor's stuffed animals. The green bucket on top has a few large/long toys that don't fit onto the shelves.

Laundry Detergent

I was taught how to make this last Friday night, by Jenah. She is an expert. It kind of looked like we had a meth kitchen going on.

1 Fels Naptha bar

1 cup washing soda

1/2 cup borax

1 five gallon pail with a lid

All those weird ingredients are available at Hy-vee, or any other major store in the laundry detergent aisle.

Grate the Fels Naptha bar up. It will look like shredded cheddar cheese. In a sauce pan, melt together the bar and 4 cups of water. Stir, and it takes awhile, 15 minutes or so.

Fill the five gallon pail half full with hot water. Mix in the washing soda, Borax, and the melted Fels Naptha water mixture. Fill up the pail with more hot water. Allow sitting overnight, to gel.

The next day, mix up the stuff. I actually did it with my hand/arm. Just dig right in there! Spoon or even a joint-compound mixer would work well). Looks like egg drop soup, the picture is what is looks like at this point. Now use an old Tide container, or Snuggle, or whatever, fill it half with water, half with the soap mixture. Shake it all about.

For standard washing machines, use 5/8 cup. For high efficiency (HE) use 1/4 cup. Hot, Cold, Warm, whatever you wanna use for water, that is up to you. Use cold, it's cheaper.

Here is the breakdown:

• Makes 10 gallons of laundry soap
• 180 loads for standard
• 640 for HE
• Costs around $2 to make this much
• No real smell after the clothes are washed, but smells like my grandma (which is nice) when making it

Play-Doh

• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 and 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 and 1/4 tablespoons alum
• 3 tablespoons oil
• food coloring
• essential oil (optional)
• glitter (optional)

Boil water, add oil, food coloring and essential oil if you so desire. I like the lavender stuff, makes it feel like a spa day.

Mix together all the dry stuff, use a whisk. Get the alum mixed well though out. This is key. Stir in the water mixture, and kneed the stuff together. It will be hot, so best to do this with out your toddler. I personally don't have any feeling in my hands from burning my hands on a daily basis with all the cooking and baking I do.

I use this play-doh at home, and I make it up and take it to the kids at the YMCA daycare. It's a hit. Last longer than the store bought stuff, and it's probably cheaper. Alum is available at your grocery store in the spice aisle. Trust me, it is.

Fun with Bleach

I had this black hooded sweat shirt that I had got some bleach spots on a long time ago. I just wear it when I go to the gym or whatever. So I spiced it up! I cut out a star on the cardboard from an old cereal box, and used a cookie cutter to create stars on it. I sprayed down the stars with bleach. I used a travel sized spray bottle that used to have hair spray in it. (I made sure to label it "bleach" now). After spraying down the stars, I waited about 2 minutes or so, till it began to change. They I took a wash rag and blotted the bleach spots down with vinegar to stop the bleach process. Tossed it in the wash, and there you have it! Supa cute!

Dog Bed

I made this dog bed out of old sofa pillows that were chewed up by the dogs when they were puppies. It was a great way to "recycle" the, and I was able to use fabric that the kiddos really like. Here is a link to some cute photos of the tiny dude playing around in the pillows before I sewed it all together.

On a sad note, my sewing machine is getting a little worn out. It is only from 1914.

Pacifier Cupcakes

These are the cupcakes I served. I took two mint lifesaver, and "glued" them together using royal icing. I let that dry, then "glued" a Jelly Belly brand jelly bean to it. Very cute, and you can eat it! Pacifier Inspired.

Royal Icing: 1 egg white and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice whipped together, stir in 1 cup powder sugar

Diaper Cake

For my friend's baby shower I made up this diaper cake. It was pretty simple. I used size 2 diapers, making three tiers around a bottle of champagne. I chose the green ribbon and flowers based off of the color of the pattern of the diapers. It took about 50 for the first layer, 25 for the second and 7 for top.

Stuffed Animal Bean Bag

I saw these awesome storage bean bags on Boon, but they are like $80! So I made my own, out of $8 worth of fabric (4 yards) and a $2 zipper. It took about 2 hours to make it. I made it a little too big, it is the shape of a fat cylinder. Four foot diameter circles on the top and bottom, and eighteen inch strip of fabric around it. Even though it is huge, it is full....meaning Connor has WAY too many stuffed animals! It really makes a comfy seat. I had to take out the talking animals, they were getting annoying.

Car Pouch/Car Mat

I made this little play mat for Connor while he was away at Aunt Jessica's/Grandma's house this past weekend. It transforms into a pouch that can hold his cars, hopefully this will help us not lose so many. I wanted to do more embroidering on it, but the Walmart here does not sell embroidery floss. They told me other places to go, but I get lost to easily in this town. I had to make due with whatever bits of floss I had left over from other projects.

Baby Bunch Bouquet

I got the idea to make this as a shower gift from Martha Stewart.
Instead of roses, I used bright gerber daisies, but I think you could use whatever fake flower looked the prettiest. I bought all the supplies to make this at Dollar Tree, and it cost $10. There are 2 onesies, 1 shirt, 2 hats, 2 pairs of socks, tights and wash clothes in it. I am putting it in an oversized vase, wrapped with a few extra clothing items. It was a little hard starting out, and would have been easier with another set of hand when taping them all together, but overall was a pretty easy craft. It took me about an hour to do.

Shirt Bag

Today I was getting crafty! I hate it when I go shopping at Wal-mart or where ever, and you get all those plastic bags! Some are alright, I use them in my little trash cans, but I always have way too many of them, and you can't recycle them, so they just end up taking up trash space. So I am taking all my old tshirts that I never really wore to start with (you know, the ones you get free like this one for getting a Sprint phone). I turned it inside out and sewed the bottom part closed. Cut off the sleeves and a larger hole where the neck was, and that's all. It took me longer to thread my sewing machine than it did to make!

Shirt bag fits well in my purse and I don't have to deal with all those nasty plastic bags.

*******UPDATE**********

My husband thinks this I am crazy for using these bags, bug I don't care. I used them all last weekend, and got no crazy looks. And I was watching for them!