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.

Doll Ring

Here's a craft you can quickly make for your American Girl doll.

All you need are brass fasteners, jewel pieces and a hot glue gun.

Glue a gem to the top of the brass fastener:

Open fastener and wrap around doll finger. Here's how it looked on my pinkie (sorry I didn't get the pic clearer)

Quick and done!

I Love You to the Moon and Back

This year's DIY Father's Day present was quite a success!

Supplies:

• Canvas, poster board or heavy paper
• Blue and black washable paint
• plastic plate or paint palate
• scrap paper
• double-sided tape or masking tape
• wooden skewers
• wooden popsicle sticks
• printer photo paper
• hot glue gun, regular glue
• silver glitter (optional)

1. Cut out a circle of  scrap paper and tape it to your canvas, using double-sided tape or a loop of masking tape underneath. You could trace something round to get a good circle (measuring cup, glass, masking tape roll, etc)
2. Mix blue and black paint on your palate until you have a night-blue color you like. Let this dry.
3. Pose children in a climbing position against a white background. We had them step up on our white stool so as to not see the floor in the picture. Take a picture of each child you will be including.
4. Print pictures and cut out.
5. Create the ladder. First we trimmed the skewers to fit the size of our canvas. Next, we hot glued them vertically on the canvas. 
6. Hot glue popsicle sticks across skewers as the rungs of your ladder. We also laid our people in place to figure out where to position the rungs. 
7. Glue people to the ladder.
8. If you like the idea of stars in the sky, brush some glue across the top and sprinkle glitter.

Don't forget to sign and date your artwork!

Upcycling old crayons

I've always wanted to try making our own molded crayon chunks. Well, it was one of the most successful projects of the summer in several ways.

First, we got out our big tub of crayons and sorted out all the tiny stubs. Great job for the kids to do on their own.

Secondly, the kids got to peel the wrappers off all the crayon stubs.

I broke crayons into smaller pieces wherever possible.

Finally, the kids got to fill the (greased - don't know if it's important or not) muffin tin with whatever combination of colors they wanted to create.

The next step is thanks to the hot summer sun.

We set the muffin tin out in the sun on a 90+ degree day and voila!

Popped right out of muffin tin after they were cooled. Melted crayon chunks.

Nice and big, easy for small hands to use.