Tuesday's Tip of the Week

You know the white area on a Ziploc freezer bag?  Always use this area and a good marker to label your food before putting said food in the freezer.

That way you can avoid the frustration of having to remove white rice (which you thought was mozzarella cheese) from your baked spaghetti.  : /

What I'm Up To

It may not look like much, but this is the start of something beautiful.  (And the start of a lot of work.)  Our neighborhood will be having it's second annual fall yard sale at the end of September.  Surely, if I start now, I will be ready.  

Tuesday's Tip of the Week

Well, now.  Are our flip flops all clean and spiffy?  Is the medicine getting inside the baby instead of just running out the corners of those cute little mouths?  Good!

Our newest tip of the week is for our showers.

I don't know how many of you out there use those body scrubbers (is that the correct terminology?) instead of using a washcloth.  They are a huge hit in our home and I'm all for something that gets the kids excited about getting clean and not just playing in the shower.  A MEGA pet peeve of mine is those puffy balls just laying on the bottom of the tub or hanging off the bath fixtures.  I didn't want hooks, or anything like that, permanently stuck to the shower wall, either.  What to do?  Hang up a Command Hook*.

I seriously thought these would fall down within a week of installation.  They have now been up for about 18 months with no signs of falling!  

Things to keep in mind.  Keep them well out of the water.  Steam hasn't seemed to make a difference, but direct hit with water might.  Let the kids know that the hooks are not there to help them scale the shower wall.  (Seriously had to do that one.)

I just picked up some more Command Hooks the other day to put in the kids' shower.  They love having their own anything, so this will help them to remember to leave the shower area nice and tidy. 

*The link above is for the 3M Command site.  Check it out for other ideas and also for coupons.  :)

Big Girl

We survived our usual whirlwind weekend.  So much is scrunched into our Saturday and Sunday as a family that it is always crazy.  We didn't even go anywhere this time, and we are all still worn out.

The most eventful of all our happenings has to be the purchase of a big girl bed.  Our youngest daughter will be 2 in October, but the crib she was using is now needed for the baby.  Hard to believe it's that time already, but it was inevitable.  Time for an upgrade.

She did such a good job, too.  She stayed in bed all night and we are still waiting for 'sleeping beauty' to grace us with her presence.

One more step in getting the room completely finished.  Next is to give the rocking chair a new home, then get the bed frames ready and moved in, bed skirts and finally figure out what to do about what to do for comforters.  At least the list is a little shorter after the weekend.

Pick A Color, Any Color

I feel as if I've been keeping the paint sample section of Home Depot in business lately.  Who would have thought that picking out a beige would be such an ordeal?  Wanna see?

Yep.  Great conversation piece when people come over.  I've had all the usual problems - too dark, too light, too green, too pink, too yellow.  And there are those times I stand holding the paint chip up to the paint I just put on the wall sure it wasn't the same color.  (Surely I wouldn't pick out something that awful!)  Then I have to figure in the fireplace and the curtains.  

Colors have been up on the living room walls for several months.  I think my ever patient husband is coming to the end of his rope.  Over the weekend I got to do some shopping all by myself and actually took the time to really look at the different paint chips instead of just doing a 'hit and run' on the displays.  And, I came home with 3 new colors.  You should have seen the look on Kevin's face!  BUT, we finally have a winner.  See the square above the light switch?  That's it!  Gobi Desert by Behr.

Now to find a good painter to fix the nail pops and hit the 20 ft walls in the entry and stairs.  There is NO way you'll find me on a ladder up that high.

Tuesday's Tip of the Week

My baby boy turned 5 months over the weekend.  If that wasn't enough to pull at my heartstrings, he decided to get a little extra attention by getting his first illness this weekend as well.  The fever, congestion and coughing made it necessary for our first sick visit to the pediatrician.  This then led to his first antibiotic.  What a weekend for him!  I am happy to report that he is doing much better now.  Thankfully, he is a happy baby and hasn't stopped smiling through the whole thing.

Our first attempt at administering the medicine was quite the fiasco.  I was just hoping I got half the dose in him since there was so much pink on his face and outfit.  Ever have this happen to you?

Yeah, so many captions could be put with this picture.  Needless to say, he wasn't too thrilled about that dropper going in his mouth. :)

My solution is quick and easy.  Fortunately, he will take a bottle.  So, I grabbed the top of one from our stash, squeezed the medicine from the dropper into that and haven't had any trouble making sure ALL of every dose gets into that little body.

Baby Girl Hospital Cap Tutorial

As promised on Friday, here is the tutorial.

All of these hospital caps I've seen have been made with the 'bow' being the same knit material as the cap.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a second cap, so I had to improvise.  Here's what I did.

What you will need:

Infant knit hospital cap

Baby washcloth

Scissors

Sewing Machine

Okay.  Let's get started!

Take your knit cap and determine where you want the center of your bow.  Cut two small slits in the folded cuff part of the cap.  (Remember you are working with knit.  The slits you cut WILL stretch.)

Lay your washcloth out flat.

Now, fold it in thirds like you would a letter to put in an envelope.  Fold with right side of washcloth to the inside.  (Unlike what the picture shows.  Sorry, Folks.)

  

Line up one edge of your cap with the same edge of the washcloth.  Trim the washcloth to the same length (width?) as the cap.

Mosey on over to your trusty sewing machine and make a stitch down both open edges of your washcloth.  I used my machines overlock stitch.

See where your opening is?  Turn your little rectangle right-side-out through there.

Now you are going to make an accordion folding out of your rectangle.  This will help you thread it through the slits and give a little demention to the 'bow' when in.

It's taking shape!  Gently work it through the slits in the cap brim.  Those little cuts will open up a bit.  If you need to open them up more to accommodate the 'bow', go for it - just don't let your scissors get carried away.

Fluff, center and shape your bow now that it's in the cap.  I didn't tack the bow to the cap at all.  Obviously, if you feel there is a need, do it.  

Now all you have to do is wait for that precious little bundle to arrive to become the envy of all those in the hospital nursery.

Linking To



      

Baby Girl Hospital Cap

So many of my friends have been having babies this year.  (Many of them their first.)  It's such an exciting time in a persons life when that sweet little bundle is handed to you for the first time.  Then comes the 'ooo'-ing and 'ah'-ing and the kissing of the little nose and the counting of fingers and toes.  Such an amazing time!

Several of those new born little girls where donning a really cute twist to the usual hospital cap.

Definitely screams 'little girl' in a sea of nursery bassinets

A good friend is having a little girl in less than a month, so I thought it would be fun to make a girly cap for her.  Here is my version.

I decided to spare my son the future embarrassment and used a Bitty Baby as the model.  It turned out pretty good even though I had to improvise.  Tutorial on Monday.  :) 

Tuesday's Tip of the Week

With summer coming to an end and school starting in a week, I've been evaluating all the kids' clothing and gear.  Shoes are outgrown quickly around here and are easy things to pass down to the next child if they are still in good shape.  Why buy something new when you can fix or clean up what you already have?  Especially when it's flip-flops.

Here's a great way to bring new life to those little shoes.  Just grab a Scotch-Brite sponge with the green scrubbing stuff on one side,  get the sponge and the flip-flop wet and start scrubbing.  You'll have clean shoes in no time.

Reclaiming My Home, Part 1

I've been working on getting my home in order.  (Remember?  That was one of my goals after my latest little bundle of fluff was born.)  So, I took a break from eating bon-bons (ahem*) over the weekend to work on the basement.

Before:

After:

It took us a whole day to get this space cleaned!  I'm seriously considering banning the kids from the basement.  (Not really.)  At some point over the summer, they found some sawdust and had the bright idea to use it as confetti.  Not one of their best moments.

While I worked on this side of the basement, DH worked on his workshop side.  HUGE amount of work, but it's so much nicer downstairs now!  The tent was uncovered at some point and the little ones have had an absolute blast playing with it.  Bikes can once again be ridden on an open road course instead of an obstical course with hazards every 2 inches.

Next up for this space?  We have some shelving to put up in the newly created storage area to organize all our extra/holiday items.  Then (once the deck project is finished) we will start the process of getting a design drafted and obtain permits for finishing.  So many ideas floating around in this head of mine......

*You all don't really think I just sit around and eat bon-bons all day, do you?  Don't get me wrong.  Copious amounts of chocolate have been consumed lately, but only for coping purposes.  ;)

Little Girls' Finished Room

I posted my start to this room last week.  I actually got it finished on Thursday, but completely ran out of time to post since I had to pack for a weekend trip.  Better late than never, right?

I didn't want another pink room.  When you have girls it is sometimes hard to convince them that there are other colors in the world besides varying shades of pink.  This time I just didn't ask and made the decision on my own.  Bibbidi Bobbidi Blue (a Disney color by Behr) is now on the walls.  (I could make some cheesy comments on magic and such, but I'll refrain.)  I've had the purple curtains for a couple of months and I'm really liking them in the room.

All the dots on the walls are bug/butterfly wall decals.  Really cute, removable and reusable.  I put them on the walls, on the door.....

and even on the light switch.

The look on her face when she saw the room completed was great!  Made it worth all the effort.  

One of these days I might put pictures up.  All the bugs are above the reach of little girls, too, so some grass painted around the room in places might be cute or a tree painted in one corner.  I think I'll move on to the next room and do some more thinking on the embellishments.