Cloth Diaper Snap Replacement

ACK!!!!!!  If you cloth diaper, you may be like me and have experienced the devastation of pulling out your cloth diapers after a wash and discovering one of the snaps has expired in its loyal service of keeping poop and pee from exploding.  While I was cloth diapering my second son (2011), it happened to me.

I was devastated.

All I could think about was $18-$20 (depending on what diaper you bought) that was wasted, UNTIL, I did a search on the internet on how to repair a cloth diaper.  I found a very helpful youtube video, in which the lovely cloth diapering mama, not only showed me how to replace the snap but also showed me not to be afraid to do so.  She also provided a URL to the snap setter and snaps that she used from Kamsnaps.com.  For just under $20, I would be able to replace any snap that decided it was done working with poop.  They even have free shipping, if you spend enough.

DIY Rubberband Bracelet Loom

My son saw the rubber band bracelet that my niece made for her Uncle's (my husband's) birthday and wanted to make one too.  The problem at the time was that my husband's birthday is about a week before our 3rd child was born.  There are now 3 in our family of 5 with a birthday in September, my husband, my second son, and my new daughter.  Who would have thought?

To make a long story a little longer, my son kept asking (badgering really) to make a rubber band bracelet, day after day.  Being a new mom and so tired I felt drunk, my usually fairly frugal self, would have been satisfied to just buy one of their looms, already!  Unfortunately, during my weekly sleep walk through Walmart food buying trip, I could find the rubber bands but not the stinking loom.

Petal Towel Wrap

I don't know about any of you, but those hooded towels that are sold for infants are not very useful.  Sure, they may be useful for a month or 2, but your baby quickly grows too large for it to cover her effectively.  As a mother of 3, I only used these towels on my first when the novelty was still new, and I still cared about cute over functionality.

Don't get me wrong.  I still love cute!

But if it's a choice of cute or functional, I definitely choose functional.  This is one reason why I make so many things rather than buy them, because I can make them to fit my specifications exactly.

So, when my little girl (#3) came home, I was splitting the extra large hooded towel (basically a regular towel with a hood sewn in the middle length-wise) between my 3-year-old and the baby.  I am not against sharing, but when the baby spit up or peed or worse on the towel, I didn't have a good replacement for my son.

Make Your Own Cloth Diaper Wipes

When the birth of my third child was looming I made several cribs sheets especially for her and a few friends who were also expecting, and I was left with tons of 8 inch x 8 inch squares of perfectly good fabric.  I couldn't think what I could make with them, but I also couldn't bear to throw away such good fabric.

What to do?  What to do?

This is a question I ask myself a lot, and usually, I have too many ideas - more often than not my ideas require me to buy something new.

Well, not this time.  My good friend Margaret gave me several yards of yellow terry cloth a while ago, and BAM!  Some pretty good looking DIY cloth diaper wipes.

Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial

I have written about using freezer paper stencils before when I posted about my Star Wars Birthday T-shirts or any of my fabric paint projects so far, but now I am back with a written and picture filled tutorial.

First, you need to find an image or create your own image that you want to turn into a stencil.  My youngest son just loves trains - Thomas the Train, diesel trains, electric trains, steam trains, any type of train, really, so I tried my hand at drawing a train.

Holey Jeans to Shorts

I am guessing that if you have children, this is a familiar look - holes in the knees.  These were almost new jeans (really, I know because I bought them new), in which my son managed to put holes within a 3 week period.

How do I know?

Because we were on our yearly 3 week vacation.

I purposely brought these pants because they did not have holes in them, and we were visiting my in-laws.  I know it is not the most important thing, but if you see your mother-in-law once a year, you don't bring holey pants with you.  :)

Stitched Jeans Bracelet

Yup, there it is - another upcycled jeans bracelet.  (remember my multi-wrap beaded jeans bracelet?)  Low key and simple, and not particularly fashion-like photography since I had to take the picture myself. 

This bracelet is mine.

I made it for me and my rather simple ascetic.  Don't be fooled.  I can dress myself up pretty well, but I like jeans and a t-shirt the best, or better yet, yoga pants and a t-shirt.

Easy Fabric Paint T-shirt

Have you ever wanted to use fabric paint?

But you are intimidated by having to use an exacto knife and don't trust yourself to be able to use it to make a satisfactory freezer paper template.

All is not lost!

You don't need mad exacto knife skills to make way cool freezer paper stencils.  All you need is a cool paper punch.  Fiskars and Martha Stewart sell loads of different lever and press punches of all different shapes and sizes.  I grabbed a few coupons for Joann's and picked out 2 press punches, a large star and a small star.

Thomas the Train Double Riser

If your children are fans of the wooden Thomas the Train sets, I am sure you have plenty of experience with their wooden risers - both the good and the bad.  They allow your children to build bigger and better, AND they are also not particularly stable, especially, if you double stack them.

I revealed how I solved a few issues in this post, Thomas the Train Bridge Tutorial, involving permanently attaching a track section to 2 single wooden risers.  Simple and yet so very helpful.  I am not sure how much my boys appreciated this change, but I sure appreciated it as it stopped a lot of whining and crying because the track broke, yet again.  Screws and glue are good for that.

So, when my oldest recently started combining the single risers to make double risers (which they are meant to do, unfortunately), I experienced a similar problem as before - the track broke.  Grrrr.

Boo.  Real stable, right?

Tutorial: Baby/Toddler Duvet Cover Part 2

I mentioned in my DIY Your Own Pottery Barn Pillow post that I had a matching duvet cover coming, and here it is.  This tutorial makes the Baby/Toddler Duvet Cover Tutorial even easier.

 Do your kids have any special interests or characters that they like?

There are so many great fabrics to choose from.  You don't have to settle for whatever the kid's stores want to sell you for too much money.  I bought my Star Wars fabric from Joann's at 40% off 4.5 yards.  If you play your coupons right, you might even get 50% off your desired fabric, which is likely way less then what you would pay a the store. 

Who's with me?!

Pottery Barn Pillow Case Tutorial

You may or may not have been willing to pay for some Pottery Barn Kids bedding, but I have to tell you they got me with their Star Wars line.  Mind you, I waited and watched until I got a whopping 30% discount on 2 sets of 2 different Star Wars sheets sets.  (It has been my plan all along for my 2 boys to share a room.)

Well, let me rephrase that.  

I only bought a pillow case (not the sham which costs more) and a duvet cover from Pottery Barns Kids, and I bought a navy blue fitted sheet from Walmart which matched both sets so they are interchangeable.  That is how I was able to afford it.  It was still expensive from my point of view, but totally worth it.  They only had the Star Wars bedding and the Empire Strikes Back bedding when I bought them, for which I am eternally grateful.  I don't know if I could have made a decision with 2 more, just as cool options (Vader and Return of the Jedi too) that they now have.

Upcycled Jeans Bracelet

My boys kill jeans (well any pants, really) with such regularity that I end up with lots of extra fabric in my upcycle pile.  I love that fabric, because despite having paid for it at some point, it is like free fabric to muck around with as I please.

What, try a new idea?  Sure, because it is free!  No worries that you are wasting your money on some craziness.

So, when we went to Germany, I was looking to make something or somethings really cool for my niece to match these cool t-shirts that I had made for my nephew.

Since I love upcycling, especially jeans, I was perusing pinterest for ideas and found this great idea by Av Susanne.

When you visit her blog, there is a fantastic tutorial about how to make these great jeans and beads bracelets just like she did, but of course, being me, I followed my own path.  Av Susanne cut and used existing seams to create her bracelets, which according to her tutorial only wrap around the wrist once.  I chose to create my bracelets such that they wrapped 2, 3, or 4 times (use your imagination) around the wrist.  (If you use a leg seam, you could do the same thing still using her tutorial.)  The reason for the multiple wrap idea, was that I thought this bracelet would be great to grow with my 9-year-old niece versus a bracelet that only wraps once, i.e. if if it wraps 4 times around her slim wrist now, it will wrap 3 times around when she get bigger like me.  It wraps nicely around my wrist 3 times.

Tutorial: Baby/Toddler Duvet Cover Part 1

Like most first time parents, we bought the crib set with matching bumper (that we never used for fear of suffocating our baby), crib skirt, fitted crib sheet, super cute blanket (that I never used for fear of making it look bad after many washings), and diaper stacker.  Of all the things the came with the crib bedding set, we used the fitted crib sheet and the diaper stacker.

So, when my second son made the move from sleep sack to blanket, we chose a baby/toddler duvet and duvet cover from IKEA.  I mean, my husband is German after all

Even though I know that Americans use duvets, that is not how I grew up.  For me growing up, normal American bedding meant a comforter, blanket - maybe, top sheet, fitted sheet and pillowcase, and when we started our life together here in the States, that is how we made the beds, or rather how I made the beds.  This is not to say that my husband isn't a great help around the house, but he just didn't understand the bedding system, the hospital corners my mom taught me on the top sheet, etc.  He also hated having tucked in sheets, which I LOVE.  His feet must be FREE.  So we graduated to a duvet that covered the entire bed like a comforter.  Eventually, that was too hot (for him - being on the cold side, I loved the extra man heat).  Finally, we went totally German.  We each have our own single duvets with matching duvet covers, and this is how our children sleep as well.

I have to say that I quite like the German way as long as my duvet is long enough to be tucked in at the bottom, because this girl likes warm feet. 

Flat Book Shelf How-to

Our home is small, about 1600 sq/ft, so I am on a mission to create as much out of the way storage as possible.  It feels like a loosing battle, but I suppose with 2 young children most mothers feel like this with or without more square footage.  You might wonder why I don't buy furniture to solve my problems?   My answer to that question is that most of the furniture out there is too expensive, it doesn't fit the space available, and just doesn't suit all of our needs.  Most importantly, I know that I can make it myself, build it better, and use quality materials.  No particle board here, thank you.

So, my storage solution for my boys books was inspired by the Ana Whites Flat Wall Book Shelves.  I wanted to maximize my storage and make a good use of space in our already cramped home.

DIY Your Own Crib Sheet

Ever looked at crib sheets and thought, It costs that much? - and you're not even getting anything really special or cute - in my opinion anyway.  Crib sheets can cost anywhere between $8-$40, maybe more.  Ouch!  When you think about how many sheets a baby could go through and if you are a working mom, like me, you wash on the weekend, that can be a lot of crib sheets!

Even if you buy the cheapest ones, that can add up quick.

$8 x 6 sheets = $48

And that is just an estimate.  If you are like me and you want to take care of all contingencies - be that mom who says - It's okay.  I got this. - and whips out a fresh sheet, you might even have more than 6 crib sheets in your stash.  I know, I am likely a little too conservative in this regard, but I have been caught off guard before.  And I like being prepared.

Table Centerpiece

I started working on this lovely little candle centerpiece last fall and finished it a few weeks ago.  You might ask yourself why it has taken me so long to post about it.

One word, okay two - taking pictures.

We have a single table that we eat on, entertain on, do homework on, play on, etc, and since Christmas, it was cluttered with newspapers that didn't get recycled for a few days on end, Christmas legos, Thomas the train (including track), and other miscellaneous items that never seemed to be put away, or were brought back despite my efforts to put them away.

Recently, we had guests over, and I won my table back from the mess.  Phew!  So, now I could take pictures of my creation where it belonged, on the table.

Kids' Easy Bike Rack

A few weekends ago, I went into our tool house to get my bike out so I could ride to work, and I had to remove so many obstacles, that I was too late to ride to work, and as a result, boiling mad.  Several of the objects I had to move out of my way were my kids bikes that don't have kick stands, which my kids just haphazardly dump on their sides on the floor of the shed.

I had had the idea to build a bike rack out of spare 2x4s for the kids' bikes for a while, but this incident cemented my resolve to finish it quickly.

Diagonal Lines - Project Patch 2

I always ask my self how he he does it.

How does a 6-year-old blow out both knees in a pair of jeans in a matter of weeks?

I have theories, but without constant surveillance at school, I will never know.  And so my project patch series continues with some diagonal patches.

Fort on a Rainy Weekend

As a parent after a what has seemed like a very LONG cold winter, when the weekend forecast in spring is 2 straight days of rain, you ask yourself what are you going to do with the kids who are already stir crazy?  Luckily, a fabulous idea came to me Saturday morning, while I was making breakfast for my family.

A fort!

I can count on my 2 hands the number of times my mom let me make one.  I understand, since it was pretty much up to her to fold the sheets back up.  You can't expect a 6-year-old to fold a full sized sheet back up, can you?  :)

Horizontal Lines - Project Patch 1

,

I have mentioned at least once with my Union Jack Jeans how my boys can put holes in their clothes, especially the knees of their jeans.  I have used the iron on patches, and they are never long or wide enough.  Even when I stitch them down after ironing them on, my kids still manage to kill the stitching and separate the patch from the fabric.

Well, I have decided to start a bit of a series on how I have patched my children's clothes, mostly jeans, but we have had the Scissors and Pajamas Don't Mix business and some other random holes, so I expect other projects to make it into this series.  We will just have to wait and see what my boys are able to do, or undo as the case may be.