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I went to a Girls' Night Crafting Party last year, and one of the ladies brought this neat little organizer.  She explained to me how to make it, and it was really easy, but so cute.  She made hers for her daughter to show off her artwork, but mine is for making me more organized...hopefully.  (But I do have my baby's first coloring attempts hanging there at the end.  Just a couple of days ago, she figured out coloring, and she LOVES it!)

I don't have any pictures from making it, but it's so simple you don't need them.

You will need:
a 2x4 of whatever length you want your organizer to be
cute cloth to cover it
some clothespins (the kind with hinges)
glue or Modge Podge (I just used regular ol' Elmers)
a junk one inch wide paintbrush to spread out the glue
small nails (two per clothespin)
maybe a drill
hammer
picture hanging supplies


Take the 2x4 and coat it with glue or Modge Podge.

Position the fabric on top and press it on.  Be sure to get rid of any bubbles caught under the fabric.  Fold it around the ends like you are wrapping a Christmas present.  (The glue will probably soak through the fabric, so be careful to not glue your project to the table.  Or your lap.  Yes, I made mine on my lap while I watched a movie with my family.)

Coat the outside with glue, too.  I like the nice, slightly shiny finish the glue gives, it protects the fabric from jelly-covered fingers, and fabric just looks different when the glue soaks through, so this way those spots blend in.

While that's drying, take apart the clothespins.  You'll probably want to drill small holes (to fit the nails) into the clothespins so that they don't split when you hammer the nails in.

When the glue is dry, attach the picture hanging hardware of your choice to the back.  (My husband did this step for me after the clothespins were attached...It's easier before.)

Position the clothespins where you want them to be and nail them in place.  I used two nails per clothespin so that they couldn't spin around to random angles.

Put the clothespins back together.  Now you're done!  That was easy.

Now mine is hung up in my almost-finished kitchen.  Hurray!

New Kitchen Cabinets = Playhouse for Hailey!

I am so excited!  Our kitchen countertops will be installed tomorrow!  Hurray!!!  We've had much of our kitchen stuff stacked in Hailey's and our bedrooms for about a month.  But my dad finished installing the cabinets last week (Thanks, Dad!), and tomorrow the countertops will be added.  Then it will just be 24 hours of sitting until the sink can be plumbed, and then we will have a fully functional kitchen.  Hurray!

There is an upside to having all the hassle and mess of having the cabinets put in (besides the joy of finally having cabinets!  And no, we didn't have any cabinets in our apartment's kitchen before now.  Yeah, not fun...but the rent is cheap.), and that is the empty boxes.  One night after Hailey went to bed, I taped together three of the boxes the cabinets had come in, cut holes in them for windows, and voila!  Perfect playhouse for a toddler.  She was thrilled.

What you need:
one or more big boxes
packaging tape
a serrated knife to cut out windows, doors...  (I used a bread knife and it worked great.)
optional:  paint or other means of decorating.  I didn't decorate Hailey's, but I kinda' want to...hmm...

Here are our cabinets.  Our kitchen is almost done!

 Here's the door to the playhouse.

 Windows, including one with "shutters" that Hailey loves to open and close.

 Don't forget skylights!  It gets dark in there, even with all the windows.  I added "chimneys" to the two skylights, so they weren't just holes in the ceiling.

The playhouse

Can I come in and visit you, Hailey?

I found out about this great blog today.

I love to make stuff, but I don't like to have random projects hanging around and cluttering up my house.  Well, I found out about a blog today, called Humanitarian Helpers, that gives me one solution to that problem:  make projects for charities!  What better use for creative energies could there be than making nice things, needed things, for people who would otherwise have to do without?

This blog has information about and links to different charities, some local (she lives in Nevada), some national.  A really touching cause she has information about is Greyson's Gift.  (Warning to mothers: you may cry a little when you read about this one.  I almost did, and I am not a cryer.)  Another charity is Little Dresses for Africa.  I hope you check out the blog.

Free Valentine's Day Card Templates!

I got an e-mail from MCP Actions announcing that their Facebook fans could download some free Valentine's Day card templates from them.  Here is a link to the download.  The templates work in both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

When you download the templates, you get the entire unflattened file--this means you can edit and change anything about it!  You can use the adorable cards as they are (plus your child's name and picture), you can change the colors to perfectly coordinate with your picture, or you can use the template just for inspiration to create your own design!

I hope you have fun with it.  Here's my effort.  (I'll probably make lots more!)  The cards are wallet size, by the way.

Happy New Year! and Happy Flu Season...

Hi readers!  Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  Between the holidays, traveling (we're back home now!) and the entire family getting the flu, well, I've been busy.  But I have some good things planned for the blog!  I'm going to post some Basic Techniques, like Tying a Quilt.  Until then, Happy New Year!

Make Your Own Travel Baby Monitor!

Hi all!  Here's another quick post while I'm on vacation.  Hope you enjoy!

So, the other evening, the munchkins were in bed and the adults were wanting to watch a movie.  (Ramona and Beezus.  Cute movie.  I read the books when I was little, but I think I'm going to have to read them again now.  Hmm, maybe I'll wait until Hailey is old enough to appreciate them and we'll read them together.  What reading level are they, anyway?  But I digress.)  The problem was, we didn't bring our baby monitor!  What if Hailey woke up and was crying and crying and we couldn't hear her at the other end of the house, down the stairs, and with the movie playing?  (We'd just put her down and she wasn't asleep yet.)  But Joseph and I came up with a genius idea, if I do say so myself.  We called each other on our cell phones and put them both on speakerphone.  My phone went in the guest room with Hailey, and Joseph stuck his in his pocket (muted, so Hailey wouldn't hear our movie or laughter).  We could hear Hailey singing herself to sleep (we call it her "sleepy song") and knew she just fine.

(Warning!  If you want to try this, make sure you won't go over your cell phone minutes!  Joseph and I are on the same plan, so the hour and a half-ish movie didn't take any minutes.)

On Vacation, but still Posting!

Hi, readers!  I'm away visiting relatives for the holidays, but I wanted to write a quick post for you.  The other day, I made my little girl a tutu, and it turned out so cute!  This is the tutorial I used.  It was really easy to do, and the instructions were easy to understand.  (Always good.)

Here are a few things I learned while making Hailey's tutu:

The tutorial says to use about 20 yards of 6" tulle, but how much is that if you buy it off a bolt?  I ended up needing about two yards of 50" width fabric to make the tutu for my petite one one year old.  I cut the strips to 6" x 15" (and the tutu pokes almost straight out!).  If your little girl is bigger than my munchkin or you want the tutu to be more of an actual skirt than a ballerina tutu, you'll need more fabric, but at least this will give you an estimate to start from.

I used big fat ribbon to tie the tulle around instead of elastic.  It works well because it can grow with Hailey.  But it was a little harder to tie the tulle around, because I couldn't really put it around an object to hold it for me.

You can feel free to not follow the instructions exactly; it's a forgiving kind of project.

I'll add an update with my own pictures later. (We brought the tutu with us, and I'm sure there will be some great photo opportunities at Grammie's house!)  I've got to go now, it's breakfast time, and Hailey and her Daddy are hungry!