I Did It Again - Flat Book Shelf #2

If by chance, anyone was wondering what happened to me in the past few months, being laid off on maternity leave should explain it all.  While I didn't stop being crafty, it sure put a kibosh on the time I could devote to my blog.  While THE job is still elusive, I am currently working a relatively steady contract job that pays well.  (Prayers and good vibes from any willing to give them, are greatly appreciated.)

My daughter's room is the smallest of our 3 bedrooms, and with a single bed, crib and dresser/change table, there just wasn't any space for a bookshelf.  Well before my daughter joined our family, I had decided that I wanted to build a flat bookshelf like the one I had already built for my boys' room.

While similar in many ways, the space behind the door in my daughter's room was a bit larger, so I made the bookshelf deeper by using 1x4's by the side rails instead of 1x3's.  I also changed up my materials list a bit to save a little cash, and I had learned a few things while building my first bookshelf that I put to good use on this project.

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.

Bad Velcro Bib

Disclaimer:  I did not make this bib.  I made it better.  :)

If you have kids, you have bibs, and there are all kinds of closures: snaps, velcro, and bad velcro.  There is a lot to like about this bib, including the side closure, which I love to have on my bibs.  What I don't like is the bad velcro.  It is always falling off my baby because it won't stick to itself, but it always sticks to everything else, especially in the wash.  Boo!


Since I had my third child 3 months ago, I have been crafty, but the bigger projects still elude me.  Between feeding and napping and just trying to keep the rest of the household working, I don't have much time for the bigger projects... yet.  So, today, I had a moment of brilliance, and I was going to solve my bad velcro problem for good.

My solution:  KAM snaps.  (My KAM snap setter has to be one of my favorite crafting tools.)

I examined the material of the bib and determined that the fabric of the bib would be sufficient to handle the stresses of a KAM snap closure.

Before You Trash It

Recently, we just had our 3rd child (You can read about her amazing VBAC delivery.), and since we do things slower than other folks, the baby seat that our oldest used was older than the recommended 5 years.  It had been used twice - with our oldest and our second, and besides being subject to the rigors of weather (hot and cold) while installed in our car, it also endured almost 6 years in our attic.  So, when I pulled it down for our third child and the stickers practically fell off of it, I thought it might be time for a new car seat for our newest little angel. 

When I went to look into giving it to the Goodwill, I discovered that they would no longer take it because of its age, and then when I looked to recycle it, I found that in my entire state (Virginia) there was no recycling program for car seats.

Iron and Ironing Board Holder

It is sad, but my iron was a fixture on my mantel for years, and more recently my ironing board was a fixture in my family room because putting it 'away' would require time and effort that would need repeating too frequently to bother with doing so. 

How do you make more storage in a house that already feels full?

You make it to fit, of course.

Please disregard the hideousness of my ironing board cover.  That is a project for another day.

Moving on, I had some hidden space behind the door that leads to our mudroom/laundry room/back door and most used exit - i.e. this door is almost never closed, so it will effectively hide my ironing board and iron storage solution. (In my next home - and maybe in my next life - I want a craft/office/laundry/storage room, maybe even a room for each.)