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.)  

My VBAC Story

My adventure begins with my third pregnancy.  Having had two beautiful boys via c-section, I never felt like I was missing anything because I hadn't pushed a baby out of my vagina, however, when I became pregnant for a third time and started doing research, I was very frightened by the prospect of a 3rd c-section.  The more I read about repeat c-sections, the more frightened I became.

What is really scary about my journey, is how my then OB refused to consider a VBAC based on a relatively small increase in the chance of uterine rupture, but offered no comparative stats on the dangers of a repeat c-section.  When I asked if my OB knew of any practice in town that would considered a VBAC after 2 c-sections, I was given a very small, hypothetical list.  Unfortunately, since they wouldn't do a VBAC after 2 c-sections, they didn't educate themselves on who would. 

To put it mildly, I was very disappointed.

After doing more research, I found the midwives at VCU, and I was so grateful that I did.  While they could not guarantee a VBAC (no provider could), they were willing to give it a go, which is all I was asking for.

Not So $10 Ledges

About 2 years ago when we were redoing our kitchen, I made these ledge shelves inspired by Ana White's $10 Ledges.  I originally wanted to use them as storage for spices and our olive oil, but once our vent hood was installed, there just wasn't room for them, at least not as I had originally intended.  Since mine are made of yellow pine (harder wood) and I used a 1 x 6 for my platform instead of a 1 x 4, my ledges cost more than $10.

Needless to say, they have been hanging around and taking up space for about 2 years.  I thought about cutting them to make them smaller.  (They are 4 feet long.)  But since I had painted them with Annie Sloan's chalk paint, that made it tricky.

Do I repaint?

Stick it in a corner so you don't see the cut?

What to do?

Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial

I have written about using freezer paper stencils before when I posted about my Star Wars Birthday T-shirts or any of my fabric paint projects so far, but now I am back with a written and picture filled tutorial.

First, you need to find an image or create your own image that you want to turn into a stencil.  My youngest son just loves trains - Thomas the Train, diesel trains, electric trains, steam trains, any type of train, really, so I tried my hand at drawing a train.

Holey Jeans to Shorts

I am guessing that if you have children, this is a familiar look - holes in the knees.  These were almost new jeans (really, I know because I bought them new), in which my son managed to put holes within a 3 week period.

How do I know?

Because we were on our yearly 3 week vacation.

I purposely brought these pants because they did not have holes in them, and we were visiting my in-laws.  I know it is not the most important thing, but if you see your mother-in-law once a year, you don't bring holey pants with you.  :)

Stitched Jeans Bracelet

Yup, there it is - another upcycled jeans bracelet.  (remember my multi-wrap beaded jeans bracelet?)  Low key and simple, and not particularly fashion-like photography since I had to take the picture myself. 

This bracelet is mine.

I made it for me and my rather simple ascetic.  Don't be fooled.  I can dress myself up pretty well, but I like jeans and a t-shirt the best, or better yet, yoga pants and a t-shirt.

Easy Fabric Paint T-shirt

Have you ever wanted to use fabric paint?

But you are intimidated by having to use an exacto knife and don't trust yourself to be able to use it to make a satisfactory freezer paper template.

All is not lost!

You don't need mad exacto knife skills to make way cool freezer paper stencils.  All you need is a cool paper punch.  Fiskars and Martha Stewart sell loads of different lever and press punches of all different shapes and sizes.  I grabbed a few coupons for Joann's and picked out 2 press punches, a large star and a small star.

Thomas the Train Double Riser

If your children are fans of the wooden Thomas the Train sets, I am sure you have plenty of experience with their wooden risers - both the good and the bad.  They allow your children to build bigger and better, AND they are also not particularly stable, especially, if you double stack them.

I revealed how I solved a few issues in this post, Thomas the Train Bridge Tutorial, involving permanently attaching a track section to 2 single wooden risers.  Simple and yet so very helpful.  I am not sure how much my boys appreciated this change, but I sure appreciated it as it stopped a lot of whining and crying because the track broke, yet again.  Screws and glue are good for that.

So, when my oldest recently started combining the single risers to make double risers (which they are meant to do, unfortunately), I experienced a similar problem as before - the track broke.  Grrrr.

Boo.  Real stable, right?

Tutorial: Baby/Toddler Duvet Cover Part 2

I mentioned in my DIY Your Own Pottery Barn Pillow post that I had a matching duvet cover coming, and here it is.  This tutorial makes the Baby/Toddler Duvet Cover Tutorial even easier.

 Do your kids have any special interests or characters that they like?

There are so many great fabrics to choose from.  You don't have to settle for whatever the kid's stores want to sell you for too much money.  I bought my Star Wars fabric from Joann's at 40% off 4.5 yards.  If you play your coupons right, you might even get 50% off your desired fabric, which is likely way less then what you would pay a the store. 

Who's with me?!

Pottery Barn Pillow Case Tutorial

You may or may not have been willing to pay for some Pottery Barn Kids bedding, but I have to tell you they got me with their Star Wars line.  Mind you, I waited and watched until I got a whopping 30% discount on 2 sets of 2 different Star Wars sheets sets.  (It has been my plan all along for my 2 boys to share a room.)

Well, let me rephrase that.  

I only bought a pillow case (not the sham which costs more) and a duvet cover from Pottery Barns Kids, and I bought a navy blue fitted sheet from Walmart which matched both sets so they are interchangeable.  That is how I was able to afford it.  It was still expensive from my point of view, but totally worth it.  They only had the Star Wars bedding and the Empire Strikes Back bedding when I bought them, for which I am eternally grateful.  I don't know if I could have made a decision with 2 more, just as cool options (Vader and Return of the Jedi too) that they now have.

Upcycled Jeans Bracelet

My boys kill jeans (well any pants, really) with such regularity that I end up with lots of extra fabric in my upcycle pile.  I love that fabric, because despite having paid for it at some point, it is like free fabric to muck around with as I please.

What, try a new idea?  Sure, because it is free!  No worries that you are wasting your money on some craziness.

So, when we went to Germany, I was looking to make something or somethings really cool for my niece to match these cool t-shirts that I had made for my nephew.

Since I love upcycling, especially jeans, I was perusing pinterest for ideas and found this great idea by Av Susanne.

When you visit her blog, there is a fantastic tutorial about how to make these great jeans and beads bracelets just like she did, but of course, being me, I followed my own path.  Av Susanne cut and used existing seams to create her bracelets, which according to her tutorial only wrap around the wrist once.  I chose to create my bracelets such that they wrapped 2, 3, or 4 times (use your imagination) around the wrist.  (If you use a leg seam, you could do the same thing still using her tutorial.)  The reason for the multiple wrap idea, was that I thought this bracelet would be great to grow with my 9-year-old niece versus a bracelet that only wraps once, i.e. if if it wraps 4 times around her slim wrist now, it will wrap 3 times around when she get bigger like me.  It wraps nicely around my wrist 3 times.

Borussia Dortmund T-shirts a la Tanta Kelley

It is that time of year again!  Every spring/summer we make a pilgrimage to Germany to visit my husband’s family, and because I am so craftacular, I often make gifts (Not always, mind you) for my niece (9) and nephew (11). 

The past few years my nephew has been hard to shop or make things for.  He is not too excited about much, Kelley special or not.  Well, my Borussia Dortmund or BVB 09 (my nephew’s SOCCER team) scarf that I made him for Christmas was such a hit (incredible, right?), that I thought maybe a can’t-buy-this-anywhere-else BVB 09 t-shirt would be just the ticket.

I have been scavenging Old Navy to get the cheapest T’s when there are sales, and I just so happened to have a large and extra-large black boy’s t-shirt.  Remember, his team’s colors are black and yellow. 

What else did I need?

• yellow fabric paint.   check
• freezer paper stencil.  check

Tutorial: Baby/Toddler Duvet Cover Part 1

Like most first time parents, we bought the crib set with matching bumper (that we never used for fear of suffocating our baby), crib skirt, fitted crib sheet, super cute blanket (that I never used for fear of making it look bad after many washings), and diaper stacker.  Of all the things the came with the crib bedding set, we used the fitted crib sheet and the diaper stacker.

So, when my second son made the move from sleep sack to blanket, we chose a baby/toddler duvet and duvet cover from IKEA.  I mean, my husband is German after all

Even though I know that Americans use duvets, that is not how I grew up.  For me growing up, normal American bedding meant a comforter, blanket - maybe, top sheet, fitted sheet and pillowcase, and when we started our life together here in the States, that is how we made the beds, or rather how I made the beds.  This is not to say that my husband isn't a great help around the house, but he just didn't understand the bedding system, the hospital corners my mom taught me on the top sheet, etc.  He also hated having tucked in sheets, which I LOVE.  His feet must be FREE.  So we graduated to a duvet that covered the entire bed like a comforter.  Eventually, that was too hot (for him - being on the cold side, I loved the extra man heat).  Finally, we went totally German.  We each have our own single duvets with matching duvet covers, and this is how our children sleep as well.

I have to say that I quite like the German way as long as my duvet is long enough to be tucked in at the bottom, because this girl likes warm feet. 

Flat Book Shelf How-to

Our home is small, about 1600 sq/ft, so I am on a mission to create as much out of the way storage as possible.  It feels like a loosing battle, but I suppose with 2 young children most mothers feel like this with or without more square footage.  You might wonder why I don't buy furniture to solve my problems?   My answer to that question is that most of the furniture out there is too expensive, it doesn't fit the space available, and just doesn't suit all of our needs.  Most importantly, I know that I can make it myself, build it better, and use quality materials.  No particle board here, thank you.

So, my storage solution for my boys books was inspired by the Ana Whites Flat Wall Book Shelves.  I wanted to maximize my storage and make a good use of space in our already cramped home.

DIY Your Own Crib Sheet

Ever looked at crib sheets and thought, It costs that much? - and you're not even getting anything really special or cute - in my opinion anyway.  Crib sheets can cost anywhere between $8-$40, maybe more.  Ouch!  When you think about how many sheets a baby could go through and if you are a working mom, like me, you wash on the weekend, that can be a lot of crib sheets!

Even if you buy the cheapest ones, that can add up quick.

$8 x 6 sheets = $48

And that is just an estimate.  If you are like me and you want to take care of all contingencies - be that mom who says - It's okay.  I got this. - and whips out a fresh sheet, you might even have more than 6 crib sheets in your stash.  I know, I am likely a little too conservative in this regard, but I have been caught off guard before.  And I like being prepared.

Fixing a Knit Hole in a Soccer Warmup Suit

We inherited this great German soccer warmup suit from my nephew.  It has the logo of their local German soccer club, which is from the same little village where my husband grew up, so I know that it means a lot to my husband, and well it is just plain cool for any soccer loving kid.

There is just one teeny problem - holes - two to be precise.  Another addition to my Project Patch Series.

Who knew I would be fixing holes that other kids put in their clothes?  Granted, I am fixing the warmup suit so that my children can wear it.

Table Centerpiece

I started working on this lovely little candle centerpiece last fall and finished it a few weeks ago.  You might ask yourself why it has taken me so long to post about it.

One word, okay two - taking pictures.

We have a single table that we eat on, entertain on, do homework on, play on, etc, and since Christmas, it was cluttered with newspapers that didn't get recycled for a few days on end, Christmas legos, Thomas the train (including track), and other miscellaneous items that never seemed to be put away, or were brought back despite my efforts to put them away.

Recently, we had guests over, and I won my table back from the mess.  Phew!  So, now I could take pictures of my creation where it belonged, on the table.

Kids' Easy Bike Rack

A few weekends ago, I went into our tool house to get my bike out so I could ride to work, and I had to remove so many obstacles, that I was too late to ride to work, and as a result, boiling mad.  Several of the objects I had to move out of my way were my kids bikes that don't have kick stands, which my kids just haphazardly dump on their sides on the floor of the shed.

I had had the idea to build a bike rack out of spare 2x4s for the kids' bikes for a while, but this incident cemented my resolve to finish it quickly.

Diagonal Lines - Project Patch 2

I always ask my self how he he does it.

How does a 6-year-old blow out both knees in a pair of jeans in a matter of weeks?

I have theories, but without constant surveillance at school, I will never know.  And so my project patch series continues with some diagonal patches.

Creative Baby Announcements

Ever get tired of pregnancy announcements where you just get the ultrasound pictures?  Of course it means something special to the parents, because, well, it is their little peanut in there, but for the rest of us it could just be a little sea monkey as apposed to a baby.  Since we are expecting our 3rd, I wanted to make this announcement a bit more interesting and special at the same time, so I started with a little internet search on creative baby announcements.

Wow, there are a bunch of good ideas out there.  I love being surprised at how creative people can be.  It makes life more interesting.

Fort on a Rainy Weekend

As a parent after a what has seemed like a very LONG cold winter, when the weekend forecast in spring is 2 straight days of rain, you ask yourself what are you going to do with the kids who are already stir crazy?  Luckily, a fabulous idea came to me Saturday morning, while I was making breakfast for my family.

A fort!

I can count on my 2 hands the number of times my mom let me make one.  I understand, since it was pretty much up to her to fold the sheets back up.  You can't expect a 6-year-old to fold a full sized sheet back up, can you?  :)

Horizontal Lines - Project Patch 1

,

I have mentioned at least once with my Union Jack Jeans how my boys can put holes in their clothes, especially the knees of their jeans.  I have used the iron on patches, and they are never long or wide enough.  Even when I stitch them down after ironing them on, my kids still manage to kill the stitching and separate the patch from the fabric.

Well, I have decided to start a bit of a series on how I have patched my children's clothes, mostly jeans, but we have had the Scissors and Pajamas Don't Mix business and some other random holes, so I expect other projects to make it into this series.  We will just have to wait and see what my boys are able to do, or undo as the case may be.

Rooting Your House Plants

I am the first to admit that I do not have a green thumb for everything that grows, but I really like to grow things.  For some reason, I can kill Ivy with ease, but grow other house plants and most things in my garden without a problem. I really enjoy it and love having green things around my house, even though some of them meet an untimely death as a result of my own not so green thumb, little twiddling fingers, or my father forgetting (refusing) to water my house plants at least once when we are on vacation for 3 weeks.

Here is one of my success stories.

I acquired the plant I am rooting from a coworker's cutting more than 10 years ago.  Since that original cutting, I have rooted this plant many times.  They make great gifts for others who love some green in their homes, and it is pretty easy to accomplish with just a bit of patience.

DIY Your Own Bling 2 - Sequence and Pink Zebra Stripes

If you didn't like the my other bling bracelet, you can not deny pink flannel zebra stripes AND sequence.  I mean, really, even I can't wait to put this one with short sleeves and show it off.

When I finished with my other bracelet, an image of my pink flannel zebra stripe scraps just popped into my head, and I just had to see how it would look with my sequence ribbon.  I broke out my sequence ribbon and by black trim and started to fool around with my fabric.  I don't know about you, but I like the silver over the pink sequence.

DIY Your Own Bling - Sequenced Bracelet

While I love making jewelry, I am not a great wearer of jewelry.  I feel like I am just too rough and tumble and well, that coordinating look persona is just not me.  I haven't worn jewelry or makeup regularly since high school, when I realized I wasn't very good at the coordinating thing, and I just didn't care enough.  (Good thing my husband appreciates these qualities.)  But that does not mean I don't like to look at or make beautiful things.  I just usually make them for others.

So, I was surprised when I was searching through the ribbon section (for a completely unrelated project, naturally) at Hobby Lobby and spotted this fabulous sequenced ribbon.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.  I was going to make some easy, worry-proof (as in it is so cheap and easy, I don't care if it breaks) bling for myself, my niece, whoever, and I knew exactly how I wanted to do it.

Hemming Yoga Pants

I don't know about you, but I am too tall for the shorter hems and not tall enough for the taller hems.  I am often folding up my favorite pants so that they don't drag, but that doesn't work so well with yoga pants.

Well, Gap had a sale on their sale items and I got 2 pairs of really nice (as in they fit my fabulous rump and feel good) yoga pants for $15.  When does that happen?

Body Pillow Cover Tutorial from a Bed Sheet

I have shared my bed with a body pillow since I was in high school.  Since that time I have tried my hand several times at making a body pillow cover for my favorite bed partner.  (Don't worry hubby, if I had to choose I would choose you.)  All my covers did the job, more or less (sometimes less), but this one was surprisingly more perfect than all the rest.

Now, I based it on a store bought one that I had purchased when I originally purchased my body pillows many years ago.  It's dimensions are 19" wide x 51" long.  This body pillow cover had a zipper, but I had no intention of putting zippers on mine.  Instead, I planned on adding an inner flap that I have seen on IKEA, Pottery Barn and European pillow cases.  Now, I had done this once before, but not well, so learn from my mistakes.

Dish Towel Modification

Have I mentioned we have a small house?  Well, we do, which includes having a small kitchen.  While our kitchen reno (still a bit in progress - haha) added some space, as in we tore down the wall between the small kitchen and small dining room.  With the reno we also managed to fit in a dishwasher - hallelujah!  The only issue was that the hooks my mom had attached to the their old frig, which we were incredibly lucky to inherit, were just a bit too low for our dish towels, causing them to catch in the dishwasher door.  If you hang them from the tag that is, and if you try to hang them via the halfway point, they always fall off.  Boo.

Well, this past weekend, I was suddenly struck with an easy, quick solution.

I should use some kind of ribbon at the halfway point on the long side to make a permanent hanging loop, from which the dish towel can hang.  No more falling off and ending up on the floor OR getting caught in the dishwasher.  YAY!

Star Wars Scarf

It's sad, but I had one of those weekends where I did tons but didn't feel like I got anything done.  Ever had one of those?

Well, one of the things I wanted to get done and did get done was a scarf for my oldest son.  He informed me last week that he wanted one, so I broke out my stash of fabric, looking for things I thought he would like and that were long enough (2 yards).

I found I had 2 yards of this fabulous Star Wars fabric.  My son agreed that the fabric was awesome!

To make it nice and warm, I decided to use the same anti-pill black fleece that I used on my nephew's Borussia Dortmund (soccer) scarf, but unlike that scarf, I wanted it to be an infinity scarf like the one I made for my niece so that it couldn't fall off accidentally.

Knit Hat Fix

Like most things, my kids can find a way to break it.  My oldest has this store-bought knit hat, and one day, I saw it sitting in his coat rack cubbie by the door looking a bit unraveled.  I have no idea how he managed it, but he did.  It was, however, not completely dead, so I thought I would try to resuscitate it.

I had some lovely non-pill black fleece from another project that just happened to match the black and gray color scheme of the hat.  I decided I would use it as a lining for the original. 

Necessary fabric.  Check.

DIY Kids Tool Belt

The inspiration for this came this past Saturday night.  My parents kindly took the boys for the afternoon.  Our usual pattern when this happens is to eat dinner with my parents in the evening.  When we arrived, my mom told me how my oldest son had worn this toy tool belt all afternoon, putting different things in as his tools.

The second piece to this puzzle starts with the dollar sale at our local secondhand shop.  I picked up several pairs of 2T jeans.  Well, I checked the snaps, but somehow forgot to check the zippers.  Whoops!  So, of the 4 pair I bought one had a broken zipper, but I figure for a buck, I can suck it up, and into the upcycling pile it went.

Now, put these 2 things together, and you get a very easy DIY kids tool belt!

Fix a Small Hole in Knit Fabric

My kids are lively, crazy, sweet, dirty, fun trouble makers, who can put holes in anything, especially their clothes.  This post is just part of my journey to save and reuse.  Recently, my oldest put a hole in one of the sleeves of one of his favorite long-sleeve tees.  I know how this hole came to be.  When he is upset he pulls the ends of his sleeves over his fists and bites at the fabric.  The result over time was a hole, which I am pretty sure he helped along by poking his finger through the hole when it appeared and before I noticed it.

Next on the list of repair is another pair of pajama pants, which have a similar hole, but it is definitely not as a result of biting, because if it were, my son should be performing for Circ du Soleil.  Because the hole is located in an area at the top of the pajama pants in a non-stress location, I believe that the fabric was just weaker there for some reason and finally came apart.  Naturally, I could be wrong.  It is just a theory.

Scissors and Pajamas Don't Mix

A little while ago, I was folding laundry, and discovered there were some very intentional holes in the pant's leg of one of my oldest's jammie pants.  It was very clear that these holes had been made with scissors, and I was not a happy Mama.  As it happened, my son had already fallen asleep, and I am glad for it because it gave me time to calm down before I talked with him about it and to decide on a consequence that would be appropriate.

The next day I was able to talk to him calmly about the problem.  One of his biggest concerns was whether I was mad at him, and I was truly able to say that I was not mad.  It was a good feeling and allowed me to make the points below with a calm, matter of fact demeanor.

1. The pajamas needed to be pulled out of circulation.
2. This means I have to wash more often to get his pajamas back for wearing or buy another pair.  This costs Mama time and/or money.
3. There is no punishment for this first time, since he didn't know the ramifications of his actions.  BUT the punishment for cutting up any clothing in the future would be the loss of one of his prized Lego sets, and it would not be returned.

Lego Star Ship Enterprise

To put things mildly, I am a Star Trek fan.  You may have already guessed this from the blog name.  I like Star Wars too - the ORIGINAL 3 movies, mind you - but I like Star Trek more than I like Star Wars, so much so, that I (with my husbands agreement, of course) gave both of my boys Star Trek inspired names.  When I was pregnant with my oldest, I watched Star Trek Insurrection (Next Generation) and there was a little boy named Artem.  So, he was christened Artem Forssell - Forssell being the last name of my husband's favorite soccer player at the time.  Our second son, Briggs Tiberius.  Briggs is a family name and Jim T. Kirk - the T is for Tiberius.  To put things in perspective, I love watching the films and movies, but I don't dress up like a character and go to conventions, although I am not ruling out a convention or two.  :)

After that super long explanation, I have been waiting anxiously for my oldest, who is six, to want to watch it with me.  With the most recent film, Star Trek Into Darkness, it finally happened!!