PLARN Part 1

Okay...small confession...I kinda' like watching the show Hoarders. Well, let me re-phrase that. It's not the I truly enjoy grossing myself out to the point of gagging, but I can't take my eyes off the T.V. and I can't stop watching the next episode on Netflix.

I've analyzed myself because this fact kinda' disturbs me and I think I watch it so that I can feel good that my NOT-ALWAYS-SPOTLESS home, or more appropriately ALMOST-NEVER-SPOTLESS home has crumbs on the floor and the couch pillows aren't arranged, and there are remnants of kids games throughout the house...but at least I can see the floor and I don't have to sleep in my bathtub because there's food rotting in my bed.

I'm amazed that people live like that and I feel sad for them. It also makes me think as I step over the unfolded blanket on the floor, "If I don't pick that up now, I'm one step closer to the T.V. show" and I pick it up. I mean, I do have some Hoarder tendencies...I like to buy things on sale, even if I don't really need them, and I don't like to throw things away because I might need them someday (especially craft supplies). I'm not as bad as I was when I was younger. My mother and grandmother were...ehem...are very frugal and wasting was and is a sin. So we saved a lot of things and (like I exposed in an earlier post) cut the mold off of cheese and ate the good part.

Mom has gotten a lot better about throwing things away, but one thing she has an over abundance of is plastic grocery bags. Seriously, those things are like bunnies. They multiply so quickly. My mom has this holder that you shove plastic grocery bags in and it is FULL. I once emptied it and I'm not kidding that there were nearly 100 bags in there or more.  So when I saw a purse made from plastic grocery bags at a fair, I had to know how to reuse these things that way.

Introducing PLARN. Plastic bag yarn.  This is part one because this is just showing you how to make the plarn and part two will be a cute bag I'll crochet from it.  I'll show you a preview:

The whole purse will be cute!

Be warned, PLARN takes more time to make than you think...but it's kind of a fun thing for the kids to do and it can make them feel like they are helping the planet.

First, fold the bag in half and then in half again as shown below:

Then, cut the bottom (you can recycle) and the handles (you can recycle) and cut the rest into 1 inch strips.

Then unfold the plastic bag strips and keep them in a loop.  Then, loop the circle strip under the other loop and through and pull...i know, confusing...just look at the pictures below:

Keep doing that till all your loops are connected. Because I had different colored bags, I did three brown loops then three white loops. Those brown plastic bags were REALLY thin and kept breaking. You can either tie them back together or just throw them away in the recycle bin.

Then wind up your plarn into a ball ready to crochet. For my purse I will need about 60 bags.  This section below was about 10 bags.

Stay tuned for my finished purse (about 2 weeks because I'm leaving for a business trip to Chicago and will be gone for a while!!)

Because Super Heros need a place for their cape....

In case you don't know this, now is a great time to hit the thrift stores! Folks have donated to clear their closets for all of the new stuff from Santa. Plus it's a great way to beat cabin fever. It gets the kids out, it doesn't break the bank if I buy a $.50 plastic boat and it keeps an extremely busy 4 1/2 year old occupied for part of the day. (Plus I don't feel bad if I donate it right back a couple of weeks later!)

So thanks to these little escapes to the thrift stores, my project pile has grown! Fun and exciting things are coming your way!

Let's start with this little thing....

It was kind of a mess. It had bright, splotchy, pink paint. And whoever painted it must have done it on newspaper because there was paper stuck to it. But it was half off of $.69 and I had an idea!



I sanded the paint blobs and newspaper off. And then I gave it a coat of primer to try to hide some of the bright pink. And I used my paint pyramids. My brilliant husband got me these for Christmas! Are these perfect for my spray paint addiction or what?!



So after I primed it and sprayed it an off white.



I took it apart....



Modge Podged....



And look how pretty! Perfect for my daughter's room!



I used Command Adhesive strips to hang it. I didn't want to put holes in the door and with the strips I can move it up or down as much as I want.



Now my super hero child has a place to hang her cape and her ever-important purse, that has to go everywhere we go, has a peg as well!

Happy Friday!

Resolutions of the Harried Housewife

It's New Year's Eve so everyone is saying that word: Res-o-lution. Of course, there is the obvious resolution, the "I'm going to lose weight" one. But I'm gonna skip over that and talk about my #1 goal for the year....Get and STAY organized!

I have two kids, a husband, two dogs and a full time job. If I don't stay on top of things, my world can collapse quickly! The weeks when I'm really on top of things and I've spent the weekend meal planning, laundry and wardrobe planning for the coming week, things run like clock work. I love that and my resolution is to have more weeks like that!

So for today's post, I thought I'd share some of the little things that make my life just a wee bit easier. Enjoy!

Let's start in the bathroom.....

For a long time bath toys were the bane of my existence. They drove me crazy! I tried various storage options. Most of them involved suction cup holders that would work temporarily. But one day this idea came to me:

A plastic bucket. I had this from Easter. It's the same size as an ice cream bucket.

Flip it over and drill or poke holes in the bottom.

Now you have a bucket of wet toys to perch in the corner of the tub that will drain on it's own.

This time of year seems to bring an abundance of coffee mugs in gift baskets from vendors and coworkers. I've put some of those mugs to use in the medicine cabinet with the kids toothpaste and brushes.

And also in the medicine cabinet a coffee mug or an old butter container can hold all those tubes and small bottles.

And in the tub, these Link-a-doos clip anywhere and are great for holding shower/bath accessories.



On to the kids rooms...

I discovered these jumbo, 2.5 gallon ziploc bags and I love them!



Perfect for the toys with lots of pieces! And the zipper top makes it kid-friendly. I put games, train sets, Lego sets.... I just seal them up and toss them into the toy box. Takes a little bit of training but the kids eventually start to cooperate and put the stuff back in the bags!



And don't forget the wipe boxes. Perfect for some toys too!



This last idea is a great one for the summer months. If you have kids in and out all day asking for drinks, doing this keeps the beverages coming quickly.

I used these snack containers. They are 9.5 oz each.



I put a cup of sugar and add a packet of kool-aid in the container.



Seal it up and tape the flavor to the top.



And I have Kool-aid ready to mix when the thirsty neighborhood invades my backyard.



These aren't life-changing ideas but I know, in my house, any shortcut helps!
I'd love to hear any household ideas/tips you have to share!

Happy New Year!!

There's an APP for that!

I'd never thought I'd need them and somehow I'm still in denial that I have them. I don't know why, but to me they seem like something paranoid old people have like plastic on couches, yet here I am totally endorsing them....coasters.  Not roller coasters, coasters to keep your drinks from creating little crop circles on your nice furniture.

WAIT! That's it! That's why I've never needed coasters...we've never really had nice furniture! I never wanted to get anything too nice when the kids were little which was a good idea (I have pictures of a couple of large drawings on couches with sharpee markers to prove my theory).

But the baby is 4 now and for the most part knows not to draw on things, so we decided to get a nicer dining set. Note the word "nicer" does not equal nice. It means it's nicer than our last one, but I didn't break the bank on it because I know my kids aren't grown up yet and I already have a lot of stress in my life, I don't need to add scratches and nicks on the table to the long list of things I get mad at my kids about. But it's nicer.

And a few nights ago husband suggests that we get coasters for our new table to keep it "nicer." "Coasters," I thought. "We're one step away from shoving kleenex up our sleeves." But determined to have cool coasters I hit the internet. There are plenty of cute coasters out there and so many ways to make your own, but most of them involved using tiles and decorating them. If I made tile-based coasters, water rings on my table are the last things I need to worry about. I'm sure my kids would drop them, or throw them at each other or use them to carve fun things into the table.

Then I saw these iphone app icon coasters:

Since we're iphone people, I thought these were great. But the $60 price tag wasn't so great. I was determined to make these.  I looked for a while online to find these icons in a high enough resolution so I could print them to a 4inch x 4inch size which is standard coaster size, I guess. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ICON FILES.

Of course, you can always use whatever print outs you want. Pictures of family, magazine ads, beautiful flowers, funny sayings, whatever! I just happen to like Apple products.

I headed to Michael's to find a non-tile solution and I found a bargain. In their bargain bins in the front, I found a pack of 8 thick cardboard coasters for $.30 a pack. I had modge podge already, so I bought some cork ($3.29 for a roll) and some acrylic sealer ($7.99 minus 40% coupon).

So I cut out the icons and applied modge podge to the underside of the coaster (because the design showed through the paper) and I placed the print out on, making sure there were no bubbles (this is harder than you think. I'm not a very good modge podger...so this frustrates me a little).

After it was dry, I used an exacto knife to cut the corners off. Don't worry if it's not perfect, we are going to sand it.

Then take a fine sand paper (or here a sand block) and sand the corners to smooth them. You can sand all the edges, too. If you want to add an antique look to some vintage pictures or something, you can lightly rub some brown paint around the edges and sand it, too.

I applied a layer of modge podge on top of the paper and on the sides of the coaster "sealing" it in. And let it dry completely. Then (not pictured) I sprayed sealer over the coasters. I put on three coats, allowing each to dry before adding the other. This is to help make them waterproof and it also takes away the modge podge stickiness. Sealer makes them shiny and smooth.

Then I cut some cork just slightly smaller than the coaster and glued it to the bottom.

I set a couple of heavy books on them and let them dry and this is how they turned out.  Here are my very inexpensive version of iphone app icon coasters. I chose our favorite apps...see words with friends? Who wants to play? My user name is nonobull!!

And I found a cute little box that fit them perfectly...it needs some decoration...but that can be another project for another day.

These personalized coasters can be a great Christmas gift for the person who has everything. Yes, I said it....Christmas!  And as a couple of friends who use coasters have pointed out...coasters are your friends. They are not a sign of old age! I agree, especially these...they're not your mother's coasters!

Today I linked up to:

Sew Much Ado
The Thrifty Home 
Someday Crafts 
Blue Cricket Design 
The Trendy Treehouse 
Lucky Star Lane 
Hope Studios 
Suzy's Artsy-Craftsy Sitcom
Paisley Passion

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” - Dr. Seuss

My son’s book collection was getting a little out of control (thanks to those great Scholastic book orders that come home from school every month!) So I moved a little, Target brand bookcase into his room (and this isn't even all of the books!):

Turns out that my son would never make it working in a library. He cannot shelf a book to save his life! I was spending way too much time sweeping out books from under his bed because he just couldn't (and wouldn't) put them on the shelf. And I wasn't real thrilled with the fake wood bookcase that didn't match the rest of his room.

So I decided that I wanted these:

Yes...these are from Pottery Barn. Now If you’re like me when you get the Pottery Barn Kids catalog you want everything on every page! If only I had an unlimited amount of money with a house with an unlimited amount of space! But lucky for me I have something better -- a husband with an unlimited amount of talent!

The love of my life tore the page from the catalog, hung it in his workshop and in a couple of months (give him a break...he works a lot!) I had these:





I could not be more thrilled! Aren't they great?! Unfortunately he did not take any pictures of the process or document their making in any way. BUT...I found a tutorial after he finished these on Ana-White.com.

P.S. The bookcase made it's way across the hall to my daughter's room. But it's home there is temporary because my uber talented husband is making THIS from this tutorial! Thank you Ana White and thank you Super Dad!!!