Crayons, Stickers, and Paper...Oh, My!

Any guesses what this is?

Why, it is a travel art studio for my youngest.  It holds her crayons, paper, and stickers.  

I used Velcro at the top and bottom to keep it closed when not in use.  

Now, who is ready for vacation?  

Is it an Apron or a Bag?

Is it a bag? or...

an Apron?


It is both.

My girls love to paint.  With these bag aprons, it is easy to keep our paint and paintbrushes put away.  When  they are ready to paint, we empty the bag and change it into an apron.  

These were gifts for Christmas.

Crayon Holder

Both of my girls love to color.  They often carry their crayons in a box or a bag.  However, the crayons were always rolling off the tables or getting lost.  I decided to make a crayon roll.  The top of this crayon roll folds down over the crayons and then rolls up.  On the outside, I have a piece of ribbon that my daughter can use to tie the roll closed.  My oldest daughter loves this as she can take this in the car and her crayons will not roll away.

To make this I used a piece of felt, fabric, and ribbon.  The great thing about making this myself is that I can make it the size that is needed.  I lined up my daughter's favorite crayons (the Twister type crayons) and cut my fabric to fit.

Now my girls have informed me they need a bag to carry their color books and crayon roll in...off I go to sew so more.

Santa's Recycle Program

Have you heard of Elf on the Shelf?  (If no, go here.)

We have one named Percy.  This year, I wanted my kids to take a bigger part of cleaning out their room for the new stuff.  I came up with Santa's Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Program.  Santa sent an email to my kids about this program.  This email basically said that our Elf, Percy, will be bringing toys bags for broken and unwanted toys.  The Elf will take them back to the North Pole when he 'flies' back to give Santa the daily behavior report.  The unwanted toys will be passed on to other well behaved children.  The broken ones will be fixed and returned, if wanted, or passed on.

I have also decided that on Christmas Eve, Santa will also leave his presents in their bags, instead of wrapping them or putting them under a blanket.

I made a simple pull string bag.  What do you think?

Mission: Turn Basement into More Usable Space

Again, with the temperature outside in the 100s, we have been playing in our basement a lot.  I am tired of walking through the stuff.  I decided to again work on cleaning out the basement and turn it into a room for our homeschool.  (I did some things last year found here and here.)


Where to start?  Let's play what is in boxes?  I came across one box with 2 different labels...

What is really in it?  I knew that it wasn't anything corrosive or liquid, but it could be really light and easy to move if it had empty binders and folders....  Wrong again!

It was really filled with heavy hardback books.

Ever notice when you clean, you actually make a bigger mess to start?  

Notice all the stuff behind the kids...

Even the dog comes to hang out with us and to watch us play.   Really the dog is just another obstacle for me to work around when moving/sorting boxes.  

 I did most of the work when I had just my youngest little helper. 

My two older children went to Nana's house for a few days. Let's see what I can get done while they are gone.  Better yet, let's see what I can move out :)

Hanging Organizer

I found a picture on  Pinterest  (find me here)  of this organizer being used in the car for books.   I thought it would work great when we travel.  A friend of mine also wanted one for her car and asked if I would make one for her.  

 There was not a 'how-to' for this one, but I thought how hard could it be?  It wasn't hard at all.  In fact, I'll be making a few more ...one for my car and some for our homeschool folders.  

Here is my little helper.  Isn't she cute? 

Barbie Jail?

My middle child has a hard time keeping her room clean.  I'm over the crying that happens when I ask her to clean her room.  I have been making a few fabric covered boxes to fit on her shelf.  However, throwing her stuff in boxes didn't allow her to see her things.  So the next day, she would dump everything out to find her Barbies.  To help with the mess, I made her a "Barbie Jail." (That is what she calls it.)  A shoe rack did not work very well as the Barbies fell out of the pockets.

The best part is that I have room to add more pockets in the middle when we need them.  (I haven't allowed her to bring my Barbies up from the basement yet.)

If you would like to make something similar, go here to how A Girl and A Glue Gun made hers.  It is much fancier than mine.  Maybe she has more time???  :)

So Sick

My youngest has not been feeling well (since before Thanksgiving).  She has been on various medicines for ear infections and strep.  Oh, and the coughing fits...steroids for that.  Since she isn't sleeping well, this momma isn't sleeping well.  I don't know about you, but I have a hard time remembering things if I do not get enough sleep.  Did I remember to give my youngest her medicine?  Times that by 3 when all of my children are sick.  

I happened to come across this idea on Pinterest.  Using a sharpie, I mark it right on the bottle.  

Fabric Covered Box

This weekend I put a box shelf in my youngest daughter's room.  I bought the shelf at Target but I did not purchase the fabric box to fit.  I wanted the fabric to be removable so I could wash it when needed.  The box is a waffle box with the top flaps removed.  My friend, Jackie, made a fabric covered milk crate using this tutorial.  In this tutorial, it gives directions on how to customize the cover to fit other sizes of boxes.  With three sick children, I decided I did not have the time to do all the measuring so I place the box on the fabric and cut around the box.  I sewed a few seems, added a square for the bottom, added pink for the handle, and finished.  I have a feeling that I will be making a few more of these for all of our new Christmas things.  

Bench and Shoe Storage

With trying to finish up the new room for my youngest and the Holidays, I did not get this posted.

Here is another power tool project. We took the top hutch thing off of our computer desk. My hubby was going to cut it up and throw it away, but then he left for some military school and it did not end up in the trash.

So, my plan was to re-purpose it into a shoe bench...You know, a bench where you can sit and put on/take off shoes. It would also store these shoes. I used a rubber mallet to take off the back. Then I pulled out the circular saw. I cut the sides to make it shorter. I added a piece of wood to the bottom.

While working on these I changed my mind and thought I would like it better as a toy bin in my youngest daughter's new room. It ended up being a little long for her room so, back to the shoe bench.

A little primer, some paint and...

Now, I need to cover some boxes to store the shoes!

Mission: Organize Basement

Have I mentioned the super hot, humid days we have been having? My goal was to make the basement more kid friendly so we could actually play. Yes, it had toys but they were everywhere.

We couldn't even sit on our futon. It was covered.

Boxes were ready to fall.

But now.....The futon is a place where we can sit. Toys now have homes in rubbermaid containers or fabric covered diaper boxes which will be labeled with words and pictures to make clean up easier.

Now we have room to play.

Where did a lot of the stuff go? Did I mention I donated at least 8 boxes of toys and stuff, threw away 2 huge bags of trash, and shredded another smaller bag of old papers.

Next Mission: Master Bedroom and Bath