Under the bathroom sink organizing!

Last week, I was so excited to go out to lunch with a new friend; I got a babysitter and everything!  And then I got a message that she had to cancel due to work. I read her email at 10:30am, and I was supposed to leave at 11am and the babysitter was already on her way.

What's a girl to do with no plans and a babysitter for the kids?!  Shopping of course!

I ended up going to Bed, Bath ad Beyond, and although I felt like the youngest person in there by 30 years (there are a lot of snowbirds where I live), I found some awesome things!

I got this really cool Two Tier Sliding Basket Organizer for $20, and I used it to organizer under our bathroom sink in the master bath.  I was really proud of myself that I actually used it (sometimes I like to just buy things, lol) and that it really worked well since I didn't measure it or anything!  I also got rid of a bunch of stuff we don't use anymore and cleaned the cabinet.  The drawers slide out really nicely too!

I also got a few clip-on shelves for the girl's beds, hopefully to help keep all their stuff off the floor.  It's so hard to clean when there's stuff everywhere!  I also got a over-the-door organizer, a bathtub storage thingy and a few letter trays.  Oh, and a new shower curtain to go with the new paint color I'm putting up in the master bath this week.  I can't wait for that!  Our bathroom is going to be amazing! 

Stay tuned!
~Patricia

100th Day of School Ideas!

If you're like me, you realized at 8pm last night (during a Super Bowl party) that your 2nd grader has a "100th Day of School" project due. Tomorrow.

My daughter had told me when she brought home the assignment that she wanted to do a gumball machine and when she asked last night if she could have a gumball from her friend's machine.....everything clicked!  It was a late night / early morning, but she (we) got it done!

Whew!  Project completed!

I got the gumball machine from a free printable from PlumAdorable.com.  Here's the link: click here!  I loved the simplicity of it, but it was originally supposed to be printed as a 12 x 8 photo at a place like Costco. Ain't nobody got time for that at 8pm the night before!  I ended up printing it as a Google Drive document at 75% magnification, cutting it out and then gluing it to black construction paper and then to a flat canvas that I had lying around. G did a great job putting the stickers on and adding the title and drawing some money in the slot. The stickers are the kind you'd use in a garage sale to tag items. I think I got them at Target awhile back.

If you find you're in a jam (like I was), I found a bunch of awesome resources for 100th Day of School project in my search yesterday (apparently this is a big thing in schools), and I've put them here for you to look at and find the one that's best for you. I'm pinning my own post for next year! 

This list of 50 ideas from likemomandapplepie.blogspot.com

This list of the 25 best ideas from classymommy.com

These hat and t-shirt ideas from kindercraze.com

And this blog post from a teacher with fruit loop necklace ideas and classroom ideas! From kinder-pond.blogspot.com

Happy 100th Day of School!

Little sister had to do her own project too! 

~Patricia

A gift and a project completed!

You know how sometimes, if you just wait long enough, things turn out? 

I have been wanting to get my oldest daughter a dresser for the past few months.  The small IKEA dresser that we painted for her a few years back is just way too small for her "big girl" things.  Or maybe she just has too many clothes. 

I had been searching some local buy-sell-trade groups on Facebook to see if anyone had anything reasonable for sale. Whenever I'd find something good, someone else had always gotten there first, and there was still the problem of moving a dresser, since we don't have a truck. I also thought of going back to IKEA, but the nearest one is 2 hours away, and I didn't feel like putting an entire dresser together.

So....I waited. And then our friends called. They were moving and had a wicker dresser and side table that they needed to give away. For free. And this week. My husband wanted to know if I wanted it and I couldn't help but get super excited.....YES!! 

I was actually going right by their house the next night, without the kids (I am on a board for our local science center and we had a meeting), so I decided to take all the seats out of the van, and pick it up after the meeting. 

So the next day, the babysitter called to cancel. There was no way I could pick up the furniture with the 3 kids in the van.....so I called our other sitter and she was free. Whew!  Then I couldn't get one of the seats out of the van (the second row seats in a Sienna are REALLY HEAVY btw--I had to have the babysitter help me lift it inside the house!). So I just prayed that the rest of the back of the van would be enough to haul this all home. Please let it be enough!  

And it was! I didn't snap a picture because it was late when I got home and I had to have my husband help me trudge everything inside the house, so that I could put all the seats back, install a car seat and throw a booster in there too. 

The furniture ended up staying inside our living room, until I finally had time to go to Home Depot and get some spray paint.  The dresser and night stand were in really good condition, just sort of yellow from age, so I picked up 2 cans of this Rustoleum White Semi-Gloss spray paint (and had to go back for one more later), and it worked so well and so fast, I was really surprised! 

Some before shots! 

It was nice to get something on my to-do list completed!

I realize that these are just the before pictures of the nightstand, I had to wait until this weekend to paint the dresser since it was kinda heavy and my husband and I could bring it outside together.  It's also sorta hard to spray paint when it's windy.  Just saying.

So right now I'm just waiting for the dresser to dry, then we can bring it in and bring it upstairs.  We'll probably just leave it in the living room until I get G's room finished.  There are boxes of our junk to take out and wallpaper that needs to be removed (so not looking forward to that!).

And while in Home Depot, I picked up some paint for our master bathroom, since it's a disgusting brown color and I just can't.stand.it.anymore! I figure I needed to do something for myself too. :)

Check out more of my home improvement ideas on my Pinterest board: DIY projects for the home! 

That's all for now~

~Patricia

Happy New Year!

Hey all!!

After taking the month of December and half of November off (hello family time!), I'm back and ready to share with you some of the things I'm going to be working on / want to be working on this year.  Hey, it doesn't count if I don't write it down, right?

(Plus, I'd love to see what you're going to be working on too! Share in the comments!)

1. Organizing my older daughter G's room.  Right now, it's a mismatched room with red curtains, boxes that belong in storage, a way too small dresser, a crib (I tried to pass it off as a reading nook), and some extra little tables as a makeshift desk.  I would love to get the 2 baseball wallpaper borders gone, repaint the room some fun color, find a big girl horizontal dresser, and make a headboard for the bed.  A new fan might also be in order!  I have found so many good ideas on Pinterest, feel free to follow me and get inspired too!

I can't take any before photos now because she's sleeping, but she's still using this dresser for her clothes, and she'd need about 3 of these to hold all of her stuff now!  I'm thinking of passing this IKEA Rast dresser down to her littlest sister C. She'll love having her own space!

2. Organize my sewing / craft space. It's a hot mess right now. And I just want something organized so if I have 10 minutes, I can just sit down and pick up a project and work on it. But, I also want something opaque, so that when people come over, they can't see all my unfinished stuff, since my sewing space is in the corner of our bonus space in our house.  I organized (mostly) my craft closet, but need to get this done.

Before photo:

3. Finish up a bunch of sewing and craft projects that I've just been neglecting. There's the Little Mermaid lap quilt and a bunch of bibs that I have cut out but haven't sewn together. I have also wanted to make the girls aprons for the longest time, as well as a bunch of projects that I'm sure are just sitting at the bottom of the sewing pile on my table.

The lap quilt:


4. Sell something on Etsy!  I've been making felted wool dryer balls for awhile, and I would love to sell some!  It's a goal!  Come visit my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TshirtsandTulle

5. Get another sewing machine. Ok, this seems a little weird, since I already have a sewing machine, an embroidery machine and a serger, but the sewing machine I am using right now is this adorable vintage Singer that only sews in straight lines.  I want something that does different stitches!  The other machine that I had was a 1980s machine that was gifted to me by a friend.  I ended up breaking both machines at the same time, right before Halloween.  The black vintage machine had a thread jam (fixable) and the 1980s Singer had a broken gear (fixable, but not worth it).  I am going to do some research and pick a new machine this year!

My awesome vintage Singer:



Well, that's it for right now, but I definitely want to get these things accomplished this year!  Can't wait to get started!  Thanks for reading, don't forget to follow along via email or Find us on Facebook!

~Patricia

Bakers and Chefs Baking Sheet Review (hint: it's a winner!)

Hey there!

It seems I'm in a mood to upgrade lately. I've switched out a bunch of things and most recently I bought a new set of rimmed baking sheets from Sam's Club.  They are the Bakers and Chefs brand, and they come in a pack of 2 for around $11. And they are super shiny:

Ooooo....shiny!

Before I bought them, I did some research. I really wanted to consult America's Test Kitchen (because they are so thorough with their research), but I realized that most of their stuff you need a subscription for, and I don't have one. Boo.  So, after a little more googling, I found this really intensive article from thesweethome.com.  If you care about baking sheets, you should read it, it's a great article!

It said that the Bakers and Chefs rimmed baking sheets (only available in-store) were it's #2 pick, and cost half as much as the #1 pick.  (The number one pick, by the way, was this one.)  Also, these sheets may warp at temperatures over 400 degrees, so that's a consideration if you're always baking at a high temp--which I don't usually do.   We've used them a few times a week since getting them, and I only noticed some slight warping once for a few seconds after I pulled it out of the oven. I actually pressed down firmly on the pan on both sides while it was still hot, and then it wasn't warped anymore. Maybe I have super powers! I haven't noticed any warping before or since then.

I guess some people like rimless baking sheets for baking cookies and things, and there was some research that your cookies get done faster on a rimless sheet (for those of you that can't wait), but I like the rimmed.  We mostly use our sheets for roasting, and I like that nothing will roll off of these.

Hello rim!

And this is super embarrassing.....

But these are the baking sheets we were using before....

Ick. 

We'd put foil down for everything (a habit we still do because it makes cleanup a breeze).

These are not so shiny.

And to celebrate our new baking sheets, we've been making some yummy dinners too!

Delicious! 

My husband is a much better cook than I am, and I know we both love these new baking sheets! I just wish that I would have picked these up sooner, since I have to make a run to Sam's every few months to stock up on essentials anyways!

And just fyi, I have not been compensated in any way by Sam's to tell you about these baking sheets (I wish!).  I just really like them and and wanted to share with you! 

Here's the recipe for the photo on the left btw, it's a keeper! (Click here)

Thanks for stopping by!

~Patricia

Wordless Wednesday: t-shirt upcycle: The workout shirt

Welcome to Wordless Wednesday! 

(Am I doing this wrong, since I'm including words?)

Anyways, here we go!

Ta-da!!

Thanks for following along!

~Patricia

Easy T-shirt Bag Tutorial

Hey Y'all! 

The other day I was at our local natural parenting store, just browsing, scoping out the toddler carriers, when I saw these interesting bags made out of t-shirts. The concept is to basically cut off the sleeves and neck of the shirt, and to sew up the bottom.  The idea was so simple and easy, I decided to make one myself!

Last night I had an hour to spare, so I dug a t-shirt out of my upcycle bin, grabbed some scissors, and got to work! 

Got your t-shirt? Let's begin! I got this one from my mom, and while I love the color, it ended up in the upcycle bin.

I started by cutting off the sleeves individually. I then folded the shirt in half so I could make sure the sleeves were cut evenly.

I then lined up the arm holes, folded the shirt in half and then cut the sides down so they sloped.  I was aiming for an Envirosax shape, which is this awesome brand of reusable bags that roll up that I've admired for years. 

I sewed the bottom together.  I saw a cool version on my Pinterest that uses fringe from the t-shirt as  the means to the shirt together.  You can check that version out here.

I decided to add some bias tape to the edges of the arm holes and around the other edges, just to give the bag a little more structure and contrast. I didn't even pin it on first, just opened the bias tape and sewed it on.

I think it turned out super cute!  I also decided to match up the arm holes and sew the t-shirt from front to back, instead of from side to side, like is usually shown.  I just like how this looks better!  I'm excited to try it again with a shirt that doesn't have anything written on it, I think it'll be awesome!

And there you go--ta-da!!

Super easy and fast! I think this took under an hour to make, and that includes stopping to adjust my Stitcher radio podcast and trying to find the box where I store all the bias tape. :)

Don't forget to follow along and thanks for reading!!

~Patricia