Another Tiny Home Improvement

Before our party this weekend for the Boss's christening, we were doing some light cleaning and I realized how incredibly icky the light plate was in our dining room. It was never a favorite - but it came with the house, and we never got around to changing it.

Then I saw that it wasn't just the light switch plate - there were 4 outlet plates in the living room with the same ugly rusting metal. Who picked these??

Anyhow, I had also been cleaning the drawers out in the kitchen the week before and came across a white light switch plate which we must have bought sometime. I knew we had a few electric plates downstairs as well from other projects, so I changed them up. Who knew how much it cost when we bought them - a dollar each plate perhaps? I love these tiny 5 minute projects I'm finally getting to.

Wasted Space

A few weeks ago I impulse purchased a box of those space saver bags at BJ's wholesale club ($19 for 10 bags). I figured with the kids outgrown clothes alone I could use them all pretty quick. I have always been a sucker for their infomercials - so I was pretty excited to try them out.

I found my chance when I was putting away my maternity clothes this past week. That's right - I'm back in my pre-baby jeans!! I am still employing Spanx for dresses and skirts and whatnot (which are seriously great too) but it is cause for celebration. Thank heavens for breastfeeding because I haven't gotten to the gym at all yet.

Anyway, here's the overflowing tub. I tried rolling all my clothes to fit - and they didn't. I obviously stopped rolling them when I reached the top and just threw the rest on there. But believe me, all the clothes are packed TIGHT in that tub.

So then I put them in the space saver and vacuumed it up. I still rolled all the clothes to get the most I could inside the bag.

Two misconceptions I had before using this: 1) For some reason I thought that the vacuum hose had to fit inside that white clip - and when it didn't I was scared I wouldn't be able to use them. Fortunately it just has to go on top of the clip when its opened. It creates enough of a seal to vacuum all the air out anyway. 2) For some reason I thought it would be lighter when I vacuumed it up. It still as heavy as a brick. Why did I think air weighed so much? lol.

But in the end I'm happy with the results. Basically the clothes are stored much flatter, and a smidge more compact than I was able to do rolling on my own. Flatter is better for storing here though because I can stack several of the completed bags on top of each other to reach the same height as the tub. If I was doing this with pillows, stuffed animals, or blankets, I know that the results would be ah-mazing.

Improving My Swag

I did a very small home improvement project this week, but its quite often the little things that make you the happiest. Both because it solved a very annoying problem and also because I accomplished a house project. Yay!!

When I made my curtains, I didn't realize that the weight of the curtains wouldn't allow them to slide along the (flimsy but free) curtain rods. I simply had put a sleeve at the top and expected them to pull along. They didn't. They constantly got stuck and we'd end up either with a wacky swag when we tucked them back or would end up pulling the top of the curtain rod apart. And often enough I wouldn't even bother pulling them back because it was so annoying to fix them.

So after a few years (I'm pretty good at ignoring things), it finally got to me and I bought two packs of clip on rings for them. I got each pack of 14 rings for $7.50 at Big Lots and they work amazingly. (I've seen packs of 7 at Target for $10, so I thought this was a pretty good deal.) The added 3 inches also gives the drapes a little drag on the floor so it did help them look a little more hefty.

Since I didn't make the curtains wide enough for my huge windows they're hung on (I was too cheap and honestly didn't know the "twice as wide" rule), I am considering moving them to the dining room when / if we repaint it or I find a better option for the living room. I guess I could also try and find more fabric and do four panels on each window to "beef it up" but again, I'm cheaping out for now. Right now our living room is grey with red as our accent color, and we were considering painting the dining room grey with burnt orange accents, so that may nix the whole red curtains in the dining room idea. The kitchen is a very dark grey with yellow accents - so we think it would flow well, but are still undecided; I really don't have enough burnt orange in my life.

Before:

After:

October catchup- The Last

Halloween being October 31st, it's the last of my October catchup series. I hope to not have to do another series like that now that we're on a bit of a schedule (as I'm writing this, I'm pumping while rocking mcMuffin in a bouncy at my feet. He's 7 weeks old today, though you won't see this post for another week).

Anyhow, this is the project that took up most of my (very limited) free time in October. Halloween costumes!! I believe I only ever had one store bought costume - and how silly of me to have wasted money on that!! I'm bound and determined that my kids will have a homemade costume every year that they want one - hopefully as long as they trick-or-treat! I really love making them (here's mcNugget's from 2010).

The hardest part was deciding what they should be. Obviously they had to go as a set - I only have a couple of years for them to let me do that! So this year we decided (after considering Pebbles & BamBam) on Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the beautiful butterfly at the end of the book.

Truth be told, I got the idea from the Pottery Barn kid's magazine, but like I said - I wanted them to only have homemade costumes. And I think I saw only one other kid at their school who had a homemade costume (he was a John Deere tractor). Now they certainly have adorable store bought costumes - there was a set of twins in her class who went as garden gnomes (FREAKING AWESOME). But like the prom, no one wants to show up in the same outfit someone else has.

So here are the 2011 costumes for the babes. The caterpillar was easy - it's just a sack that i stuffed the front of and stitched two lines across. There is a lining to hold in the stuffing, and to make things easy, remember to stuff it and stitch the front before sewing the back on. I used leftover fabric I had and sized it to one of his sleep-sacks - at that age they are tiny enough to use almost any fabric - you could even use a pillow case. The hats are the same for each kid - just some stretchy red fabric, white fleece for the eyes painted with yellow and green fabric paint and stitched on. The hat absolutely was the key to these costumes.

The butterfly was the more time consuming costume - but certainly easy - and no sewing! The basis was a yellow sweatshirt and brown leggings. I made the tutu with 2 yards of tulle and a leftover ribbon we had. To make a no-sew tutu, just take a length of ribbon to tie comfortably around the child's waist and any color tulle you want. Cut the tulle into strips about 1" wide. The length of your strips folded in half will determine how long your skirt will be (the shorter ones will stick out more). Then fold each strip in half so the ends are even- lay the ribbon on top, and pull the two loose ends around the ribbon and back through the tulle strip to make a knot. It takes about 30 minutes to make the skirt.

The wings are 1" foam that cut to shape for the four sections of the wing.  I then covered them in leftover white fabric (using spray adhesive) and then painted with the fabric paint since I wanted the wings to be as close to Eric Carle's original so you could tell what they were. Lastly I safety pinned the wings together and then safety pinned two elastic bands to the wings and the shoulders of her shirt to keep them on (an older kid would definitely keep them on if they were just sewn on there... and you could of course paint on top of those pre-formed wings they sell everywhere (or even make them out of wire hangers and nylon stockings) - I just had leftover foam from an upholstery project.

The best part is that for anyone who'se seen Eric Carle's illustrations - the costumes don't have to be perfect, and that's the beauty of his drawings. Even in his butterfly drawing, the wings weren't the same, so you have a lot of room for artistic interpretation. Both costumes together cost under $15 and was done in 3 of mcMuffin's naps  over 3 days. The fabric paint was on sale in a 20 pack from Joanne's for $9.90 - and the tulle and elastic came to about $5 with a coupon. I also loved that these costumes were so warm for the kids. It gets cold here and with the sweatshirt, winter hats, and basically a sleep sack, my kids were snuggly-buggly warm this year.

October Catchup - the sixth

The very same day we painted our first pumpkin with mcNugget - we also built our first snowman. We had about 4" for mcMuffin's first snowfall - but he stayed nice and warm and dry inside with Daddy while mommy and mcNugget went out to play. It was absolutely perfect snowman building snow. If she had been older I'm sure there would have been snow forts and snowball fights. Soon enough.

Trotter wasn't too keen on being outside for very long

mcNugget and the snowman that was just her size!

October Catchup- the fifth

This year was a lot of fun with our pumpkin preparations; McNugget painted her very own pumpkin. We taped over the eyes and mouth - but the tape pulled away, so we had to do a little clean up and "artistic additions" to her pumpkin. It was a real team effort between her and Daddy. :)

In honor of Halloween, she thought it would be good to dress as Charlie Chaplin...

All done!!

October Catchup- the fourth

One of the other things that kept me busy during October was my future sister-in-law's bridal shower. I can't begin to tell you how lucky I am to have such an amazing brother-in-law and future SIL. They're mcNugget's godparents, and definitely some of our best friends. They just moved home - after years of us all living states apart, and I cannot wait to hang out with them every week!!

My key responsibility for the party was the invites. They're getting married New Years Eve - and we're all in the wedding. We decided to have a Winter themed shower - so here's the invite I designed. I did the trees by hand - all using a program called "GIMP" (I am trying it out - since its free- until I can save up the money for Adobe Photoshop; its working really well!). I kept it close to her wedding colors (Red, Black & Silver) - trendy, and not too "Christmasy". What do you think? Obviously I removed all their information :)

I had them printed at FedEx Kinko's on cardstock - and they cut them all for me (YAY!). Here's a tip - 5X7 envelopes are really expensive, so go with a smaller photo size if you don't need the 5X7. We did though, so I spent the extra money on the envelopes from Staples.

Also, we asked everyone to bring a Christmas ornament for their future tree. I found this fabulous idea on Pinterest.com - and made them one out of this invite (original photo found here). I'll do the same out of their wedding invite after the wedding. (Sorry I didn't capture my actual ornament yet, I'll have to get that sometime soon). A box of 4 glass ornaments cost $4 at JoAnn fabric - and I still have two more leftover to make us an ornament from our extra wedding invites.

October Catchup - the third

For a special day out with mommy, we visited the Please Touch Museum for the first time. It has got to be one of my favorite places I've ever gone - after seeing how happy it made my girl. I have never been anywhere that was so perfect for kids and families! Safe zones for different age groups, family bathrooms big enough for strollers, kid level hand dryer outside of the water play area... and best of all kids running everywhere so you're not afraid of them a) breaking anything and b) bothering anyone else. There were even moms breastfeeding whenever they needed to- not in some hidden away corner or dressing room stall, which was great for mcMuffin and me. I'm telling you, it was love at first sight- for both of us.

Here are a few shots of the big hit items; the third photo is just after her first carousel ride. They had the piano from the movie BIG - and my favorite display was for "Alice and Wonderland" - complete with a life-size tea party and a movable flamingo/playing card croquet set.  I can't wait to go back!!

October Catchup- the second

In the hopes of building a Halloween tradition, we went pumpkin-picking again at the same farm we did last year. Our friend's family runs horse drawn hayrides there- which are so much fun! And this year McNugget got to ride her very first pony and loved the petting zoo!

October Catchup - the first

Well I abashedly have some catching up to do. The short of it is that things have been going great - even if the days themselves seem like a bit of a struggle. Forrest through the trees, right? The highlights:

• Breastfeeding is going well, and we're even pumping to store up for a night out (and daycare next month)
• Managing two is a bit of a challenge, but having two children is absolutely incredible (and amazing, and all the synonyms that can't begin to express how happy my children make me ... everyday i squeal at least once with absolute glee).
• I'm watching a lot of TV
• I have not yet starting on my house projects (which makes me sad)
• I have started reading a new book series (the Ice and Fire series - currently reading Game of Thrones, it's so good and quite like the HBO series)
• I can't wait to go running and back to the gym

Beyond that, we've been having aot of fun as the holidays have officially started. I've queued up a couple of posts for what I'm calling the "October Catchup". Here is the first entry:

I have a bad back; its been that way since high school. Chiropractors were like a drug to me- and the only real help is going to the gym to strengthen my (very weak) abs and back. So I was quite sad when the baby carrier (the Jeep carrier) we had for McNugget didn't work - it pulled way too much on me. But McMuffin likes to be held; a lot. I wasn't geting anything done, so my friend mentioned that she would loan me her Moby wrap when she saw me next. That was going to be a while so I hit up Craigslist and scored one for $10 (they originally sell for $50) from a lady around the corner who hadn't sold it at her yard sale.

And I love it!! I had to watch a Youtube video to learn how to wear it, but it really doesn't pull at all once I got it right. And McMuffin's a big boy! So take a look on Craigslist if you're in the market for one; it's wonderful!