Homemaking Organized Blog

Archive for the ‘Crafts’ Category

Sew Mom some cute vintage hankies. Check out these delights at Molly’s Sketchbook  Mom can keep them in her purse and whip them out to dab her eyes at your thoughtful gesture.

Even though winter just left any time is the right time to sew mom up a Vintage Inspire fleece hat from Alisa Burke. Truthfully I planned to make this for myself.

Make mom a very chic button necklace from And Sew We Craft

Make mom her own darling spa towel so she can dry off in stye. From Sew4Home. And don’t worry you’ll find many more ideas when you follow the link.

I had the thought to make a Quiet Book for my daughter. She’s a little older than the age most people make Quiet Books for AND I’ve never made one before. (she’s 7)

I didn’t really want to go out and buy a bunch for stuff to make the quiet book with so the only things I purchased were a few fabric squares from the quilt clearance bin at my local fabric store.

I used the pretty quilt fabric for the front back and spine. I used some basic natural cotton for the pages. I used thin batting for the pages. And then I used felt for the activities.

I got ideas from all over the internet and then at the end I landed upon this site Girl Inspired and took a few ideas to pretty up my Peanut’s book.

My Peanut’s book is not big. Only 3 activities, 6 pages, but I am surprised by how much she enjoys it. It could be because I made it. I’m not trying to toot my own horn or anything but I have noticed for the last few years that she really treasures the things that people make her.

Here are a few bad images of her book (she’s sleeping so I snuck it out).

Well it’s done and I’ve been using it. I’ve also been having to hide it from my daughter.

I’m talking about my Housekeeping Card File.  The little file box designed to help me manage my cleaning chores. I’ve actually gotten back on track in the cleaning department but this was a nice little project to get done. I made little cards and dividers for the interior. I typed the information on each card. The only ones I haven’t done yet are the monthly cards. But that will come. It’s all very cute and colorful and now Sweet Peanut wants one.

I made it in a green and blue theme. That is scrapbooking paper Modge Podged to the outside. I had tried painting it but it looked awful and peeled off.

The pages are from Cajoline Scrap. She has some lovely stuff and is nice too. I printed the cards and dividers on cardstock but thought they were a little flimsy so I backed them with more card stock.

I used the Stampin’ Up Rounded tab punch to make the tabs. I don’t have many scrapbooking gadgets but I did get that.

So I said I would post some pictures about making the Crazy Crayons. Peanut is still happily using them to be very artistic around the house.

Here is the recipe again.

Crazy Crayons Recipe

1. Take your old crayons remove paper and break in smaller pieces. Like an inch long.

2. Mix colors to your liking in small oven save bowls. We put yellows and greens together. Reds with oranges and purple. You get the idea.

3. Place in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until melted. You can swirl them together a bit if you want. We did not.

4. Pour mixture into cookie cutters placed on wax paper or candy shape trays (can’t rightly remember the name of these).

5. Let them set up for about 10 minutes and then put in your freezer for 10 minutes more.

6. They should pop out and be ready to draw with.

So here we are next week and I have a whole 7 days to agonize over what kind of Housekeeping Card File I felt would meet my needs.

Mostly it needed to be pretty. Something lovely to the eye. And that I could keep out on my miniscule desk area. And I wanted to make or decorate it myself.

So that’s what I’ve been doing. We’ll call it Part 1. This part is finished and this is the result…

My Housekeeping Card File

I took this picture with my computer camera so sorry it’s not the best.

Even though the card file is not that fabulous, it took me some time to get here. I bought a white tin from the store. I went about painting it a green I wasn’t too happy with. I was trying to get a more chartreuse green but that didn’t happen. Then I Modge Podge’d it and let it dry.Then the whole kit and kaboodle started to peel. So I peeled off the whole works. Some of the paint was harder to get off than the rest.

So I ended up with a blank slate again.

I decided I would Modge Podge some paper I had around the house onto it and then once that dried Modge Podge over it again to seal it in. Then I Modge Podged some ribbon and used the glue gun to add the ribbons and buttons.

Over the whole process I discovered and found out that I NEED a Digital Die Cut machine. If you have any recommendations that would be greatly appreciated.

So once I finished the file itself I’ve been working on the dividers and cards. We’ll call the cards part 2, and the dividers part 3. The cards are just about done but I don’t think I will unveil them until next week.

For more on this see Part1 and Part 2

More closeup on the front.

Closeup of top.

So yesterday I mentioned that I’m going to be putting together my own housekeeping card file. Since I have so many irons in the fire I’m going to go about this slowly.

About the Housekeeping Card File System:

You may have heard about this way of setting up your household system from the SideTracked Home Executives.  I first read about in an old Emilie Barnes book but later read the SideTracked Home Executives version too. I tend to gravitate to Emilie Barnes stuff because of her views on making the homemaking process a beautiful one. Things are decorated and made to be attractive not just serviceable and that is how I feel about my Housekeeping Card File.

Yes I could do this in a day with the cards I have on hand and the plastic index card box I already have.

BUT!

I’m one of those that believe that housekeeeping and homemaking comes easier when it’s done with beauty and grace.

I do not want to just slap something together. It will need to be cute and appeal to me to make me want to open it each day.

I have a few of the items needed to put my file together at home. And of course the computer. But I won’t head out to the craft store until tomorrow (Wednesday is library and errands day).  This is going to take me a little while and maybe even a few mishaps. So until then I will give you some eye candy of chore housekeeping index card files (I really don’t know what to call them at this point) around the web.

Apron Girls made this cute chore organizer. BTW I think the blog is closed but left up for reference.

Rebo Scraps made this cute chore organizer for her sister. Oh were are the templates???!!!!

Again here is Travis' cute rendition for sale on her blog Spring Clean Year Round. If you can't fathom putting your own together please support a mom and buy one. They are worth the cost.Frantically Simple made this chore box for herself and for her daughter Newt.

Controlling My Chaos made these cute boxes after hosting a giveaway.

Sherbert Blossom's chore system but isn't this cute?

BackFlipFlops Cute Housekeeping File

Image via Wikipedia

“I finally worked out what my husband calls my “time-and-worry-saving family cabinet.’* I bought a drawer, illustrated herewith, of 3 by 5 inch filing cards. The drawer will hold a thousand cards costing about 75 cents. I divided the cards under subheads which I will classify later, and which, of course, must depend upon the needs of the family. I keep this drawer on the top of my desk, where I can use it every day, and when you see how much information is packed away into that little drawer fifteen inches long I think you will be surprised.” ~Christine Frederick, The New Housekeeping

~~~~~~~~

By now I know, if you are a regular reader of the website or blog, that keeping up with things in the home goes a bit better with a Homemaking Notebook (or is it Home Binder? Or Housekeeping Notebook! Oh goodness I can’t keep track). What ever you call it it can make things run really nice and smooth.

Sometimes we think things like this are brand new and someone just thought of them in the past few years. But truthfully they have been around a while. They went forgotten when homemaking was no longer vogue. And have come out of hibernation again in the last few years because…well goodness it just works!

I’ve worked through a few Homemaking Notebooks in my home trying to improve on them etc. No matter how often I’ve tried though, for my day to day stuff, I need something small and compact. For long term records, schedules, appointments, the binder works well. But for day to day stuff I work within a small comfy cozy space and a spread out full sized binder is just too big.

So the past week or so I’ve decided I want to dust off the idea keeping house with the card file and make one that I LIKE!

I first read about them in my Emilie Barnes books Survival for Busy Women  and More Hours in My Day. Emilie discusses how to put a housekeeping card file together and use them these nifty boxes to organize your home and daily activities. I’ve also read about them in the S.H.E. (Sidetracked Home Executives) books. They are put together a tiny bit differently there. Not much to be an issue but I’m going with the Emilie Barnes version. I believe there are less divider cards and the less the better for me.

By the way if you want to know what I am talking about check out Spring Clean, Year Round. She has put a lot of work into these  lovely boxes.  Since I’m going to “try” to do some customizing in mine I thought I’d better go ahead and make my own. Besides I’ve been really crafty (for me) as of late and this is something I really want to do.

So far what I have in my head is an idea and some templates.

I’ll start talking about the process tomorrow and I’ll post some more about Housekeeping Card Files on the site in the weeks to come.

Stay tuned (oh the quote up top was the vintage part).

This is one of those “Where Have I Been!!?” posts.  Actually I already knew about these, I just didn’t know I could make one. I’m talking about Quiet Books. My sister has a Noah’s Ark one from her son’s baby days (he’s now 18) that she would let Sweet Peanut play with in church. She loved it so much I would kind muss about wanting more. But looking at the one she was playing with, with all the stitching, I knew I could never recreate such a masterpiece. That was before I discovered you could make them with felt. AND that I can sew a bit better than I thought. Still not great but passable.

Quietly, secretly, while I slept. Okay I’m being dramatic. But it seems that there is this whole community of women making these lovely books and expanding on the ideas. Using them as teaching tools and such for their little darlings.

Where have I been??!!

Anyway while browsing through some of these an idea hatched.

My  Sweet Peanut is an active six but I still think I would like to sew up one for her at times when we’re away from home and she may have to sit still or something. The beautiful darling has an affinity for things I make her so I thought she might like one to take in the car .

Some of the pages I’ve been thinking of are: Hair Braiding, Tic -tac-toe (when someone else can play too), the dress up doll one, writing or note taking. I would love to do a chess one but that might be too much.

I’ve rounded up some nice pages around the internet so you can have an idea of what I’m talking about.

The Bungalow Boutique had this nice option of a section to write letters. I thought this would be nice if you're making your Quiet Book for a slightly older child (like me).

Leafy Tree Top Spot has a very tic tac toe section in her book. I'm thinking tic tac toe too because we like to play a good game of this... I mean Peanut.

An ABC Quiet Book tutorial. Very cute.

From Elisa Loves. Her book is made from fabric as opposed to felt.

This is from the Quiet Book blog. I liked this page as idea for my Big Girl Quiet Book. Peanut likes to do hair.

Well as we were passing the exit of the store the other day my Sweet Peanut exclaimed loudly that she wanted the plastic Noah’s Ark so nicely displayed in the corner at kiddie eye level.

Now we are a simple folk who do not celebrate The Lord’s birth with gift giving and such so she wasn’t asking for Christmas she was just asking just because. So I quoted her the price and let her know in no uncertain terms that we would not be buying that big hulking thing that would just sit in the corner and catch dust. Besides she rarely asks for toys. It’s usually food because she’s a foodie.

So all the way home in the car she analyzed that she could have the full dollar amount by the next day (I’m not sure how she thought she could do this). While I tried to reason with a six year old.

So knowing how much most children just love the whole Noah’s Ark thingy I thought maybe I could make her one out of felt in time for her next birthday (early next year) and was kind of talking this over with my mother who thought it was a good idea. So she overheard me talking about this and announced she wanted the plastic one so she could play with it in the bathtub. Sigh! Oh well I still think she would like the felt one and frankly she’s getting old enough to help me make it. Which is my what I think I will do. Teach her to sew with this pattern. My thinking in the felt one is that actually it would perfect for future siblings, cousins etc.

I found a cute pattern at esty.com with BuggaBugs. I’ve also made the felt groceries, felt fruit, some of the homemade bread, and pies from her patterns.

My daughter LOVES craft kits. I suppose I fed that love years ago with a craft kit subscription. Well Kid’s Activities Blog is holding a Green Kids Craft Kit Subscription giveaway.

“Well what are these Green Kids Craft Kits anyway!” you ask.

Each Green Craft Kit is…

• kid-friendly, earth-friendly, and safe
• You receive 3 different craft kits once a month – that’s a lot of sustainable crafting!
• Each kit includes everything needed to complete the craft (you just supply glue, markers, and/or scissors)
• Every month will feature unique, multicultural crafts to enrich and entertain your creative child
• Great gifts for eco-conscious parents
• Customize your kits to reflect the holidays and cultures that you wish to celebrate

“What kinds of crafts will my child receive?”…

Some examples are

• canvas puppets
• worry dolls
• lizard puzzle
• airplane
• train whistle
• owl mask

and so on.

I tell you craft kits are FABULOUS gifts for busy kids and ultra busy parents. I’ve gone through my share of craft kits and when you find a good one they are worth every penny! They keep your busy child busy at something they can usually do with minimal input from you (so get that laptop out and start posting) and your child is being creative. Craft kit’s have inspired my peanut to some great things. Her grandmother currently holds the copyright to all photos and details so sorry about that. But back to Green Craft Kit. Go, shoo! Enter the giveaway busy mom!

Ends Monday September 12th (I think).