Our Lego Clean-Up Solution.

Does your floor look like the above photo? We love Legos over here. Our kids have inherited the Legos from when my husband and I were kids, and of course they are adding their own to the mix! Due to our small space we're still figuring out what type of Lego organization/storage we can squeeze in, and without a building table our floor was becoming a heel-health hazard. 

 
One specific issue we were running into was that Legos that were dumped all over the floor took forever to clean up (and of course there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth). In lieu of a building table, I spent some time looking around for a large coffee-table-sized tray that I could slide under the couch when it wasn't in use, but I couldn't find what I was looking for. One afternoon at a friend's house I saw a small boot tray with Legos on one of her tables. That was an aha! moment for me, and, lucky me, I already had a large boot tray at home! 

Since we don't have extensive storage options with bricks sorted by shape and color (we tried this on a small scale for a while and the kids just weren't ready for it), the boot trays work well for being able to see what we have at a glance. And when it's time to clean up I can just dump the whole tray back into our Lego bins while the kids clean up the pieces that escaped onto the carpet. I'm thinking I may need a third tray at this point.

How do you manage the Lego mayhem in your house? 

Find my boot trays here.

DIY // Hair Clip Display Tutorial

I suppose it's no surprise that I have my share of hair accessories due to my business. My headbands have a spot, but my hair pins and clips were kind of stuffed inside a drawer. Makes it difficult to see what I have at a glance. Since my daughter's clips have taken over our other hair clip holder, I decided it was time to make one to call my own.

SUPPLIES

embroidery hoop

doily with open crochet pattern

solid color fabric

cotton lace trim

scissors

needle and thread

1. Cut out fabric to fit in the hoop with a couple of inches allowance on all sides.

2. Use a running stitch to gather the fabric in the back; this makes it easy to remove for cleaning. (Alternately, you can glue the fabric to the inside of the hoop.) Trim edges if necessary. 

3. Carefully sew the doily to the fabric, making sure it is secure. I stitched along the outside, and also in the center.

4. Attach the ribbon tails.  

And that's it! I've decided to keep the pieces I don't use as often on the doily section since removing and replacing items often will cause the doily to lose it's nice starchy stiffness. This type of display would also be great for showcasing earrings; dangly earrings would easily slip into the doily, and post earrings would be a breeze to attach to the lace trim.

Have fun creating your own variation!

DIY Paint Chip Dry Erase Calender Tutorial.

First off, I have to apologize for the quality of these photos. Trying to take photos of marker on glass wasn't easy for me! Anyway, I've been seeing DIY dry erase calenders all over and thought I'd like to try my hand at creating one with my own spin.

SUPPLIES.          paint chips (or scrapbook paper)
             frame
             white paper
             paper punch
             Elmer's glue
             dry erase marker
             ruler, pencil, and good eraser(not pictured) 

When choosing colors, try to pick paint chips in two or three different colors with a variety of values. I chose corals and aquas with green and blue bases. You will need 37 circles to complete the calender (in case the 1st of the month happens to fall on a Saturday). My paper punch is 1" in diameter; I used an 11 x 14 inch clip frame I had in the attic that was large enough to accommodate seven circles across and six down with room left at the bottom for writing notes.

Begin by punching out circles from the paint chips using the paper punch. I always flip the punch upside down so that I can see exactly where I'm punching. 

Once all the circles are punched, arrange them in such a way that you can see all the colors at a glance. This will make it easier to put them in a pleasing order or pattern on the paper.

Cut the white paper to fit the size of the frame (I have a roll of white paper that I keep for crafting purposes). All of that blaring whiteness frightened me a little, so I lightly drew a grid in pencil which really helped me to space the circles evenly.

Play around with placement until you find one that suits you (the one above was not my final scheme). Arrange five rows of circles all the way across the seven days of the week, with the sixth row containing circles in the first two spaces only. Once the placement is set use the glue stick to adhere the paint chip circles to the paper. I found it better to put the glue on the background paper, as opposed to the paint chip itself. Don't forget to erase the pencil lines when done!

If you want some modern minimalist art, feel free to simply display your new piece without anything written on it.

Have fun playing with color and decorating your new dry erase calender! 

The sweet "I make pretty things all day" print pictured is from Yellow Heart Art. The little red riding hood owl is part of a set available in my shop.

Bookshelf Storage.

Creative storage is a way of life over here. At least it's something I'm always brainstorming. In our 750 square feet of happiness there lives five humans, two cats, a homeschool, and a small business. 

When we bought our house there was one tiny corner closet in the main bedroom. That was it. There is also minimal cabinet space in the kitchen. Right after we moved in almost 5 years ago we put a Rubbermaid closet unit along the back wall in the smallest bedroom. And then we had two more children. Last year we ripped out the standing stall shower in our 2nd bathroom and put in a small closet.  Of course, under-the-bed storage is a must, and we're installing more vertical storage in fits and starts.

Another thing we did last year before Christmas came (which means more toys, books, games, and other things that will need a place to be kept) was to get rid of two big old speakers and CD changer and radio to put bookshelves on either side of our television unit.

It was very important to me that the shelves stay organized since I'm always warring against clutter on flat surfaces. I put a lot of thought into my quandary as I organized the shelves. It soon became apparent that I would need to find another place to store a good quantity of the kids' books, as I would need a lot of this space for other things, so we took care of that by installing book ledges in our dining room/school room.

Click on photo to view it larger.

On the bottom shelves the kids each have a fabric box labeled with their name for storing their smaller toys. The shelves above are home to some of the larger toys and their stack of magazines. Then comes the things that we want out of reach of the baby: some of the "nicer" kids books and boxes of puzzles and small games that belong to the older kids. Above that we store some of our school books, library items, and a basket for keys and other odds and ends. The top shelf is reserved for crafting supplies and my camera and Flip, and a few of mine and my husband's books. I purposely kept a mix of boxes and books on almost all of the shelves to encourage the shelves to stay organized. A place for everything, and everything in its place.

Even still, it's a bit overwhelming as the living room is small and one can't get further than 7 or 8 feet away from the wall of storage. (If you rememeber, this is why I needed a photo wall that was uncluttered and uniform.) 

The bookshelves are from Target, as are the fabric boxes.

How do you organize your space efficiently while utilizing affordable storage solutions?

Book Nook.

We finally managed to put our book ledges together and get them up on the wall! And by we, I mean my husband. I needed some more space on our regular book shelves for school supplies for the kids, and since we also use the bookshelves for toy storage we decided to move some of their books onto ledges.

There was this odd bit of wall space between the grandfather clock and the steps in the dining room (really it's more of a school room at this point), and I adore the idea of books under the stairs. We can't build bookshelves into the steps because the stairs to the basement run under there. But this is the next best thing! I want to add a comfy pillow to the floor as well.

I found this metal wire basket in our yard right after we bought the house four years ago. It's been sitting in the basement ever since. I spray painted it gray, and I think it is perfect for our book nook!

One of the great things about the ledges is that it is much easier for the kids to see what books are there. I want to paint them white eventually, but we're still painting our living room and kitchen, and I don't think I can take any more painting projects right now!

There is a window to the left by the stairs, so the kids also like to sit there and look out the window while reading. I'm so glad our kids love books! The ledges are packed two to three books deep, plus there are still plenty more books on the big bookshelves, not to mention the books in their rooms. Yup. We love books, and book nooks, in this book house.

DIY // Hair Clip & Earring Holder Tutorial

Largely due to the business, I have more than my fair share of felt hair clips floating around. I've been thinking about creating a fun, more grown-up version of a hair clip holder for myself, and I wanted to share how I crafted a wee combination hair clip and earring holder! It doesn't hold a whole lot of pieces, so I'll definitely have to come up with some sort of organized solution for my daughter's clippies.

MATERIALS:   sturdy stick of some sort, at least 6" across
             strip of fabric, 3" wide x 36" long    
             strip of fabric, 1" wide x 32" long 
             lace, 36"
             cotton twine
          
Before I started, I had my husband sand the bark off of the stick, and then I applied a quick two coats of a semi-gloss paint. I also cut my fabric using scissors and a measuring tape, (or you can use a self-healing cutting mat and rotary cutter). Please note that the fabric dimensions are just suggestions, and do not need to be cut exactly; since you will be braiding the fabric it is not critical that your edges be perfectly straight.

Take your longer strip of fabric (I used the hem from an old worn-out pillow case and a bit of sunny yellow fabric), and fold it in half both ways (first the width, making it 1.5" wide, and then the length). Tie the remaining piece of fabric at the fold (as shown in the top left image), leaving a little bit of a tail. Drape the fabric over your stick where you wish to attach it, bring the tail around the back and pull it through the loop as pictured; cinch your knot tight.

  
Place the little tail of the middle strip of fabric on top of the rest, so that you can braid it in to hide it (see above image).
 

 

Begin braiding your the three bits of fabric together, including the wee little tail that you've previously overlapped. You want to be sure that you don't braid too tightly (or too loosely) since this is where you will hang your earrings. You'll also want to keep the printed side of your odd piece of fabric facing toward you. When you come near the end of your braid cut the longer strip even with the other two, and use the loose piece to wrap around the bottom of your braid and then knot it in the back to secure it. Trim.

Next, fold your length of lace in half, and secure it to the stick the same way you attached the fabric; knot the ends to keep the lace from fraying.

To finish, cut a length of twine and secure the ends to opposite sides of your stick, so as to be able to hang your finished holder from a nail or decorative hook. I also tied a bow to one side of my twine to pretty it up a bit (you can see that better in the very top image).

       
The braided side of the holder is perfect to hang earrings from and the seams are great to slip earring posts through! The two lace tails opposite are just the thing to hold barrettes.    

I know this is kind of a wordy tutorial, so be sure to find my email to the right if you have any questions for me! Happy creating!