Striving for a God-honoring daily legacy amid life's beautiful adventure.
Sometimes when you feel that “gotta buy something new for this house” bug bite you just gotta rearrange the furniture. I’ve found it makes things feel fresh and gives me a renewed appreciation for what we have.
– Living within your means and finding contentment in what you have = financially savvy.
So over these last few days I’ve found projects to keep me busy and distracted.
After being given the first letters of Rachael and Abi’s names a good while back that I hung above their beds on the wall, I decided it would be cool to have one for Hannah as well. Before we got a second glimpse at Hannah’s gender (when we found out that she was breached) I was debating leaving the letter off the wall until we were certain of gender come delivery day. Even though they get a good look at her gender at 21 weeks, you never know. After we discovered she was breached we were certain of her femininity with a clear, unmoving picture. At 37 weeks she would have had VERY obvious boy parts should she have been an Elijah Joel. 😉
So the letter on the wall was now an option.
I started off to the craft store with the girls to buy an H in the same letter series that the girls’ letters came from. Unfortunately in the past two years the craft store had stopped selling that line of letters. So I became more creative. Still wanting things to be reasonably priced, I opted for the simpler letters for $1.50 a piece instead of the $3 ones since I’d now be purchasing three letters, one for each of the girls, so they matched. With the $1.50 letters I was also able to give Rachael and Abi a choice from a few decals to put on their letters. Hannah got the default one after Rachael and Abi picked.
When we got home and the girls were down comfortably for their nap, I used some nearby paint left over from painting the nursery “back in the day”. I painted all three letters the same so they’d match and then attached their decals to the letters with sticky tac so they could exchange decals later if they wanted or the decals could be used to decorate other things in the future.
Thus I give you their letters: It was a few hour project due to allowing paint to dry.
I also decided to label the girls’ drawers and put up words/pictures to help them in putting away the laundry. Rachael has her drawers memorized as to what should go where, but Abi often will forget between the couch and her squealing run down the hallway just what drawer you asked her to put her clothing into. So in an effort to reinforce literacy for Rachael and encourage Abi’s independence, I found these labels online. I printed them off and slapped their beautiful black/white selves on the drawers.
And that happy little project also extended to the closet where the organization is a happy perk in easy communication of hang-up items.
Then I saw a pinterest post of a do-it-yourself butterfly mobile and thought instantly “I’d like to do that….. some day” well some day came over the last few days. While I chose not to use the above tutorial, I did print off a basic outline of a butterfly from searching “clipart butterfly” on google images. Then I printed off 10 pages of black/white butterflies. Since I wasn’t worried about rushing the project, but instead about filling time with a fun craft, I wasn’t concerned that I planned to color each of the 60 butterflies’ front and back (120 total) and then cut each one out. I used a cross-stitching wooden ring as my circular base. I then painted it white as a primer and a light pink (mixed from the old nursery colors). I used some clear fishing line found in the bracelet section of the craft store ($2). Thanks to borrowing a friend’s glue gun (I don’t have one), I tied and glued the fishing line to four spots on the top of the circle, attaching a small washer to the top as a “hanging hook.” I then glued nine butterflies around the upper circle. Then I attached the various lengths of fishing line hanging down from the circle. After each butterfly was colored and cut out, I hot glued each at various places to each of the eight hanging strings. I did some basic math to use the remaining butterflies to attach at least six butterflies per string.
Now I did have some battle scars from gluing the butterflies on: burnt fingers, two thumbs, a spot on my wrist, and, sadly, the pad of my right foot from dripping glue. But honestly I really enjoyed the project without the time commitment feeling too laborious. And thus the product that hangs above the changing table in the nursery:
Fun projects. More simple home improvement. And time well spent. =D
When our $5 Ikea stuffed animal hanging toy tower bit the dust due to weight, I started brainstorming what could work better in the corner space.
I looked into these hanging hammock things, but they seemed way too big for our small space. Plus, at $10 a piece, I didn’t want to make an investment in something that wasn’t what I really wanted.
Other storage ideas were cute, but bulky. And quite honestly, I thought they still looked messy.
In efforts to limit the stuffed toy explosion – seriously they can NEVER play with all of those toys and it just gets too crowded, I have been known to pick off a forgotten stuffed toy here or there to reuse the stuffing for other projects. 😉 Shhhh, don’t tell the girls.
But since they still have the beloved ones, I wanted to find a way to display them, keep them out of reach (therefore allowing special ones to be picked for play and not the whole stinkin’ zoo needing to be cleaned up), and still allow for easy clean-up as needed.
So I checked out my space and modified this tutorial to make my own stuffed animal hammocks from my sewing/material supplies here.Â
First off, I thought the hammock this lady made was WAY too big for our space. So I measured the corner walls and decided on how far I wanted it to hang out.
I came upon a general idea of a 19″ by 19″ by 29″ sketch of a triangle, used the general explanation of making a stuffed animal hammock from the aforementioned website, and started my cutting part of the project.
I cut two by two (layering the fabric) to cut down on the amount of time to cut. I had some brightly colored fabric, nice addition to our cheery playroom, but not really “my style” when it comes to “non-kid” sewing projects. Since I had a good deal of it and it was a little stretchy, I thought it a nice choice.
Instead of wasting some of the fabric, as suggested in the cutting out of the triangle in the tutorial, I decided to sew my fabric down as a reinforced hammock since some animals have beans in them (making them a little heavy in bulk, and also the material itself was a little thin and not what I’d consider “industrial strength home decorating fabric.” But I wanted to use what I have and not add any additional cost to the project beyond time.
After sewing the one side down, I folded and sewed the other side down and hemmed each side excluding the front of the triangle (since I planned on using bias tape to reinforce that).
Instead of using bias tape all around the project, I decided to reserve the bias tape for only the hooks at each triangle point and the front of the hammock. This not only saved the bias tape for other projects, but seemed smart since the animals would be filling the other sides of the triangle. So I got a nice clean finish on the front and a frugal cheat on the other sides. 😉
When putting on the bias tape I found it important to hold out the one side, fold over the other side while sewing it on (just for added support due to the stretchy material). [I also chose to fold over the material (since it was a raveling, stretchy material) and then sew the fold to the 1/2 bias tape side. I cut off the extra material after the bias tape was completely sewn on.].
With all hoops sewn on each triangle edge, my project was complete. =)
It hung nicely and easily with three nails (I didn’t use special wall hooks) and serves the job quite well.
It took me about an hour to complete hammock one, 40 minutes for hammock two and 35 minutes for hammock three. I like to go at a nice slow and not stressful pace so as to enjoy the project with no real “time limitations” and nap time provided just that environment. But I did increase in speed as I learned the tricks of the trade for this project.
Three hammocks total should get the job done and still limit our stuffed toy space so as not to overrun and not add an addictive hoarding behavior. 😉
Cost: Total of 2 hours and 15 minutes of time (over 3 days) from scraps to hanging.
=DÂ
P.S. I’m sure there’s some other way to sew these a lot more simply and quickly, but for my amateur skill level this method worked great!
A little while ago now, I started a series of home decorating/organizing projects to use our space more effectively. It involved building the wall-mounted bookshelves and moving the toys out of our living room, remember?
Well I changed around our “office space” too and promised I’d let you see the finished product. That project sat a little more on the back burner and I finally finished it earlier this week. So….. drum roll please…..
Our new office space has everything in it there was before (ta da!!!) hehe. PLUS all our “please ask Mommy” homeschooling supplies.
In order to avoid tempting disobedience, I went to the thrift store and purchased two sheer-ish curtains. I wanted them to be sheer-ISH because even the wonderful organization in clear tubs, etc behind them can begin to look messy with all it’s business.
So with these cute little curtains cut, reinforced at the top and stapled onto my bookshelves, it helps with the “no touchy, please” hint, keeps with our black/white “office” furniture theme, and makes it look not quite as cluttered. I also added a panel of sheer curtain to the underside of the desk to follow-suit and really section off the space.
And again, for my non-reading crowd, I added my stop signs as a reminder that while I don’t mind them standing around in this space, curious hands need to stay in pockets.
The girls have been very good and respectful of the privacy of the space/items in the space as well as their happy little welcome selves in sharing in electronic fun with me.
To give you a general feel for how “the office” falls in the layout of the room, here’s a pic to help.
I like how open the “office” remains despite the fact that I turned the desk to cut the room up a bit. And now I have this gorgeous sliding glass window to gaze out while blogging [Sorry in advance for the spacey posts. 😉 ].
It’s not ridiculously impressive, but I’m happy with the space changes and I like that it allows for function, some cuteness, and still being a part of family life while getting a few “officey” things done.
Thus closes the chapter on the living room/fireside room flip.
=)
I sent this email to my sister this morning and I just wanted to share it with you all over here too because it really makes me happy.
God has blessed us with our financial situation and the ability to stay afloat through good budgeting (even with some mistakes) so that I can stay at home to raise our two (almost three) girls. Along with choosing the budget and for me to stay home, comes gradual financial decisions and less of the “eggs all in one basket” whims. While the later method sounds foolish, there are some cases (like purchasing a vehicle) where “eggs all in one basket” is really the only choice.
One way to “cut back” and be more financially responsible in our spending has been to cloth diaper over disposable diapers. One helper of that decision has been Abi’s skin sensitivity, but another has been the obvious money saver.
I must confess, I have been slightly jealous of those with duel income or at least a greater nest egg that have been able to make the cloth diaper switch all at once, purchasing their whole stash in one big chunk of a withdrawal.
But the reality has been for us that the slower building of our stash and adjusting our stash method has been the piece by piece and most responsible approach for us.
This may not sound like too much of a sacrifice until you see the behind the scenes of that picture. Adding 1-4 diapers per month to get to a 3 day washing schedule for Abi and build our stash for a newborn has involved hours of research, trial/error, craigslist hopefuls and failures, waiting on 3 week difference international postage, and much strategy of mine and the girls’ allowance money over an eight month period.
That being said, I give you my email to my sis this morning and share with you my domestic joy:
“So I’m dorkily excited because my last shipment of cloth diapers came in today. I got 6 more. I have been slowly picking at adding cloth diapers to our stash for the last, seriously, EIGHT months and we finally have a full stash from birth to potty training. I’m SO EXCITED to no longer be looking at, sewing, altering, and fussing with cloth diapers to build up our stash. As it is our newbie baby stash has me washing every 2 days, for the 3month to 18 month phase I’ll be washing every 2-2.5 days and for the 18month plus phase I’ll be washing every 3 days. YAY! This just gives me a REALITY washing experience (cause washing daily is not on my agenda along with managing 3 kids/nursing/house work/wifehood/outside of our house ministry oh yeah and eating, breathing and sleeping).
So as I wash the “fresh from the factory” 6 diapers, adjust our diaper bins to fit our new diapers in, and settle into the new washing machine routine just know that this domestic-happy me is smiling…. big time.
And after next month’s allowance money spend on 3 wetbags (one for Hannah’s diaper bag [since Sundays/Wednesdays Abi and Hannah will be separate and I’d like a “catch the dirty diaper and lock out the smell” bag for each], one for the living room changing table [new baby = CONSTANT changes] and one for the nursery changing table), I will happily put the cloth diaper thoughts aside and just coast through diapering 2 kiddos. [Sure some of these things are not needed, but there also is a “convenience” factor of diapering two kids 2 years apart that plays into my success on minimal hours of sleep. – Just being real.]
On our registry there are still 3 covers/prefold sets for the 3m-18m phase that could be quite helpful to add to our stash as night diapers (prefolds/covers are the only thing we’ve found that can hold a HUGE amount of pee and not leak all over the bed while the child does aerobics in the night), but nothing we couldn’t live without. So it’s possible that in the future I may purchase 2-3 more diapers, but it’s just nice to sort of close the door on the “building our stash to actually work for our lifestyle” phase and move on. =D
If we were Mr. and Mrs. Moneybanks, we would have dropped the money all at once (up to $300 – and that’s on the cheap side!), but that’s not the case with us, so purchasing primarily 1-2 cloth diapers from overseas and waiting out the 3 week difference between purchase and receiving we have done… for eight months. And now…. YAY! We’re done! YAY!
The washer never sounded so good.
=)
– delighting in domesticity. ;)”
Our financial situation is really good due to my husband’s hard work and great budgeting. So please do not think for one minute that I am complaining or in any way feeling oppressed. We are blessed beyond belief to be able to sponsor two (soon to be three) World Vision kids as well as serve the Lord in many ways with our finances. I’m just happy to see the fruit of our budgeting coming to a close in the world of cloth diapering. =D
– Thanks for sharing in my joy. =)
So after seeing this idea on pinterest: using a wine rack for a towel holder,
it began to make my creative juices flow.
Since wine racks like this one are easily $50-80 or more, I instantly vetoed the wire rack idea.
In doing some searching, I found that the cheapest places to find wine racks still required a $15-20+ investment that I thought was a bit outlandish for my personal frugality. Plus some looked a little difficult to convert. And in looking at towel racks the prices weren’t looking better.
So I kept thinking and let it sit on the back burner while our kid towels took up bulky space in the linen closet and were a bit difficult to stack due to their cute hoods.
Then I saw it on the thrift store shelf. With a tag on it for $1.99 plus it was 25% off day. =)
So I bought it, brought it home and cleaned it up.
Then painted it (already had the paint) to match our shower curtain/turqoise bathrub (seriously, we have a turquoise bathtub and toilet) with some much-needed supervision and assistance.
Then I found this lonely space on the bathroom wall.
Mounted our new friend.
And stuffed him with kid and baby towels alike.
We’re not going to store any wet towels in this guy since the active towels are stored on our single towel rack. There are currently two sweet critter towels (a duck and a butterfly) and will soon be a sweet newborn towel as well. But for the remaining towels with great character, this rack will work wonderfully.
And it brings more life and joy to the bathroom.
Total project cost:Â about an hour in research, $0.69 at the thrift store (after 25% off applied), and 2 hours from cleaning to painting to drying to mounting/stuffing in the towels.
Wins all around! =D
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.
Â