Easy Holiday Yarn Garland

Supplies:

• Skein of yarn - one for each color in your garland
• Cardboard for wrapping, at least 4"
• Scissors

You will want to cut your cardboard according to how long you want your tassels. I found several scraps of cardboard that were already 4-1/2", which works great. 

First, you will need a strand laid against the cardboard horizontally, that you will wrap over. Mine are about 9" so they hang over the edge of the cardboard. Because I have two pieces of cardboard, I find it helpful to put this horizontal yarn between the sheets of cardboard to keep it tucked out of the way.

2. Start wrapping. My garlands are wrapped 32 times. You can play with it to decide how fat you want your tassels.  

Keep in mind that when you're looking at it, you are only seeing 1/2 of the thickness; half is on the backside.

3. It's time for that horizontal piece you wrapped over. Gather both ends and tie the top of all the yarn in a double knot, as tight as you can make it.

4. Slide the yarn off the cardboard and cut the bottom ends. If it is easier to cut the ends while it is still wrapped on the cardboard, go for it! 

5. Cut another short string to tie the "head" of the tassel. This piece doesn't need to be quite as long as the top piece. You will double knot as tight as you can, then the ends will hang down and join the rest of the tassel. 

6. Trim any pieces that hang too long, and you're done with the tassel! 

Keep making tassels in all the colors you want to use for your garland.

Presenting, my finished garland:

For this first garland, I used a ruler and tied the tassels every 8 inches (below picture). As I looked at the garland hanging, I decided to do my second garland with tassels attached every 6 inches. 

Garland with tassels every 8 inches

Garland with tassels every 6 inches

That's it! A pretty simple project that doesn't take long, easy for kids to help with, doesn't need to be perfect to look good - ingredients of a perfect Christmas craft in my book. Please comment and let me know what you think! I'd also love to hear about your tassel garland.

Environmental-Friendly Christmas Shopping

It's never too early to start your holiday shopping. When you're on summer vacation and you see something that reminds you of someone, maybe that's a good present for their next birthday or Christmas? One of the best gifts you can give is experiences or your time. If this is not an option, the following are some great ideas.

1. Metal straws - plastic straws are horrible for our environment. If you have people you need small gifts for (i.e. teachers, babysitters, house cleaners, etc), buy metal straws in bulk and split into smaller packages for everyone. If you get them in pouches or cases, even better - they can be kept in purses whenever needed in restaurants or drive-thrus.
2. Homemade napkins - If you have a little time to make gifts, how about a set of homemade napkins? You could pick out a fabric color that matches their decor if you're really motivated. Or buy Christmas fabric so they will have festive holiday napkins. Or, if you want to emphasize enviro-friendly, use fabric scraps you already have around the house. Hem them for clean edges, or cut and wash for rough edges. Fold them and wrap with ribbon. 
3. Shopping bags - if you are like me and have lots, perhaps include this with another gift (or use with a food gift basket).
4. Sew gift bags - This requires a bit of time, but it's the gift that keeps on giving. Bonus points if you use fabric you have on hand. Make variety packs: big, small, rectangle, square, etc. If you're like me and like to buy after Christmas, buy fabric and start making gift bags to give next year.
5. Food - another great way to not give STUFF is to give food. Make a themed gift basket with things they like (i.e. popcorn, bbq, chocolate, coffee, ice cream sundae's)
6. Reusable sandwich bags or wraps - especially families who pack lunches, can use these. I have found wraps tricky to sew, so prefer to buy them. But if you have a good sewing machine, you just need a heavy-duty needle, outer fabric, liner fabric and velcro. Here's one example of sewing instructions: https://www.sisterswhat.com/2019/07/diy-reusable-sandwich-bag-wraps.html
7. Homemade greeting cards - If you have children who love to draw or paint, turn their art into greeting cards. Grandparents love these! I buy large quantities of blank greeting cards and either draw/paint directly on them or glue photographs to the front. Leaving the inside blank makes them more 
8. Homemade heating pad - You can buy millet in bulk and sew a long, rectangle of fabric and fill with millet. This heating pad just requires a minute in the microwave. 

I will keep adding to this list, so check back again later! 

What else can you think of to share with others? Please comment so we can all have even more ideas :)

Reduce Reuse Recycle

Places to Recycle all Kinds of Things

Sneakers - If your sneakers are well and truly busted, you don't want to pawn them off on a new owner. In that case, transport them to a new life as part of a floor surface for other soles to stomp all over. As part of their Reuse-A-Shoe program, Nike has collected more than 28 million pairs of athletic shoes since the 1990s. The footwear giant partners with other companies to turn your destroyed footwear into track surfaces, basketball courts, and playgrounds. To take advantage of this program, you can drop off your old sneakers at a Nike or Converse store with a collection bin. Details: https://www.nike.com/help/a/recycle-shoes

REI usually has a bin in the entry to the store. Call to confirm with your location.


Oral Care Items - Don’t worry, no one is going to put your old toothbrush in their mouth. But a recycling program called TerraCycle, working with the Colgate brand, can transform your old oral-care items—squeezed-out toothpaste tubes, empty floss containers, battered toothbrushes, and all their packaging—into new plastic products.

Once you register online, Terracycle will email you a shipping label. Slap it on a package of your tooth-cleaning leftovers to dispose of them, free of charge. Even though Colgate sponsors the program, you can send in any brand of oral hygiene products. 

What you can recycle in this program
Program accepted waste: Toothpaste tubes and caps, toothbrushes, toothpaste cartons, toothbrush outer packaging, and floss containers.


Please note: Electric toothbrushes, battery toothbrushes, and/or their parts are not recyclable through the program.

*Thanks to Popular Science for these details. You can also recycle eyeglasses, crayons and tennis balls according to their article. 

Spent markers - 15 pounds of dead markers that will NOT end up in landfills or our oceans. Did you know that Crayola has a program called ColorCycle? Crayola ColorCycle will accept all brands of plastic markers, not just Crayola markers. That includes dry erase markers & highlighters. If you collect the dead markers, they’ll send you a free shipping label & you can ship them back to Crayola to be recycled! Link to get started with this program: http://www.crayola.com/colorcycle.aspx. This program is currently in the US & parts of Canada, check website & www.crayola.com/colorcycle/frequently-asked-questions.aspx - FAQ's. Kids get so excited to set up boxes at their schools...know any teachers? These markers were collected in just 3 months at a preschool! Imagine what we could divert from landfills during the whole school year at every school!


Inhalers - More than 46 million people throw away their inhalers every year. This is a huge amount of waste that can be recycled. Call your local pharmacy to see if they recycle them. They will be broken down into plastics and aluminum.

Corks - Wine corks can be recycled and used in a variety of materials including flooring tiles, insulation, automotive parts, and sports equipment. Many Whole Foods markets have placed drop boxes inside their stores for you to dump your collection, so look for one the next time you’re grocery shopping. The organizations ReCORK and SOLE have also teamed up to repurpose your wine tops into soles for shoes and list of all the drop off locations on their site.

Cosmetics - Cosmetic packaging probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when considering recycling, but compacts, tubs, tubes, and other containers can be easily recycled. Various companies have their own programs, including: Lush, M·A·C Cosmetics, Origins and Kiehl’s, to name a few.

Holiday Lights - Send those energy-sucking strands of holiday lights off to HolidayLEDs.com to be recycled and you’ll get a 15-percent-off coupon for anything on their site, so you can get the twinkly LED lights of your dreams. The Christmas Light Recycling Program is open year round.

Juice pouches - Because most are a combination of a plastic polymer and aluminum, these are not recyclable. TerraCycle will donate 2 cents for each Honest Kids, Capri Sun, and Kool-Aid Drink pouch and 1 cent for any other brand you collect. The organization provides free shipping, too. TerraCycle turns them into colorful purses, totes, and pencil cases that are sold at Target and Walgreens stores.

* Credit to https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/surprising-things-you-can-recycle/ 

Plastic pots from purchased bushes, plants - Call Home Depot or Lowe's near you. Locally, take them to Lafayette Florist.

Sweater Pillows

As I was wandering the aisles of Hobby Lobby during the holiday season, I noticed the adorable throw pillows, some made of sweater material. So cute! When I saw they were $20 or more, I had that old familiar thought, "I should just make my own!"

Yup, the thought that plagues me and sets me up for a basement full of unfinished projects. But not this time! I came up with an even better idea. Why not create holiday pillow covers? Not only are they festive at Christmastime, but they pack away compactly and you have your old familiar pillows again after the holidays. BOOM! I was excited to get this idea into action.

I had my heart set on the cute, red sweater material pillows I'd seen in the store. Next stop, my favorite thrift store - sweater section! I found the biggest sweaters (the more fabric the better) in the most vibrant reds, that wouldn't look thin when stretched. Here is what I came home with, along with the pillows they would soon cover:

Sweaters and my stash of various pillows to be covered

After washing the sweaters (because - thrift store!) I matched up the sweaters and pillows. Time to trim off the sleeves. The sleeves are sitting in my sewing area for future projects - I just can't throw anything away, you never know when you'll need gorgeous, red sweater fabric again!

Sweaters after arms trimmed off.

There are lots of ways to put together pillow covers: velcro, zipper, but I thought the easiest option would be button closure. And white buttons as closures are most definitely the most attractive. If only I could get my sewing machine to cooperate, this step wouldn't have been so complicated. Alas, I got it done by hand and if you don't look too carefully, the sweater pillows look cute. I didn't take into account how stretchy sweaters are, and the buttons come undone easily. If they're just decorative and you don't have kids messing with them, you're golden.

each sweater with my notes and cute white buttons

I am especially proud that I got this project finished before Christmas, to enjoy them for at least a few days. They are now boxed up until next November, when I will get to enjoy a full season with them decorating my couches.

Final Collection of Sweater-Covered Pillows

Final Sweater-covered pillow with accent buttons

A New Life For Your Dingy Whites

Do you have white shirts that have gotten dingy over time? And with kids, this happens a lot more often, with panties also. No matter what you try, you just can't get them white anymore? I know I have - google and google and try and try with no luck.

Well, there's nothing wrong with the shirts other than the color. So, why not change that? Dye them a darker color and they'll never be dingy again!

I decided that with a variety of dingy white shirts and panties, we needed more color selection. I bought red dye and blue dye.

I put about 2/3 of my items in the red dye. Once it was going well, I started my blue dye and put the rest of the items in there.  After both pots steeped about a half hour, I pulled out some red and blue items and set aside to keep pure red and pure blue (they would get rinsed as per the final instructions of the dye package). Then, I combined the red dye, blue dye and the remaining items. After they steeped sufficiently I removed them and rinsed.

I didn't trust my freshly dyed items in our washer, so I hand washed everything. They did fine in my dryer, however.

The only down side is the thread often won't dye because it is made of different materials. But I actually like the accent colors of the string and even waist bands of panties. I don't know how well the colors will hold after multiple washes, but since these are my kids shirts, they'll grow out of them fast enough that it won't matter for us.

Here is the final result - No More Dingy!

as you can see, I have a thing for burgundy - note the curtains hanging beside the shirts :)

Great Family Movies

Now that all the kids are in elementary school, we can phase out of watching 100% cartoon movies (except the good ones of course). With the youngest in kindergarten, there is still some challenge with scary movies, extra long, or those requiring play-by-play explanation. Thus, the "not ready" list. Feel free to comment your recommended additions!

Great Family Movies for Elementary-Aged Kids

• The Sandlot
• Back to the Future series
• The Night at the Museum series
• Adventures in Babysitting
• Home Alone series
• American Girl movies (for girls)
• * Harry Potter series
• Ghostbusters
• Annie
• Pete's Dragon
• The Neverending Story
• * Holes
• Wizard of Oz
• Muppet movies
• Swiss Family Robinson
• A Dolphin Tale
• * Diary of a Wimpy Kid series
• Blank Check
• The Parent Trap
• The Love Bug
• RV
• Flubber
• Because of Winn-Dixie
• Escape to Witch Mountain
• The Apple Dumpling Gang series
• * How to Eat Fried Worms
• Jumanji
• Maleficient
• Mr Popper's Penguins
• Nanny McPhee
• Spy Kids series
• Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
• 
  

Not Ready Yet:

• Goonies
• Raiders of the Lost Ark series
• Gremlins
• Pirates of the Caribbean series
• * Narnia
• Karate Kid
• ET
• Beetle Juice
• National Treasure
• School of Rock

RED - The movies we have already seen and enjoyed

* movies that come from great books.

Updated 1/22/2016

S'more Treats

What do you do with a box of chocolate cheerios that no one wants to eat? Mix them up with marshmallows and small chunks of graham crackers. Rice Krispie treats meet S'mores! Mmm...

Because cheerios are bigger and heavier pieces than Rice Krispies, the treats end up much harder. Use a smaller amount of cheerios than Rice Krispie treat recipes suggest.

Great treat for a summer picnic where they can warm up and soften in the sun.