Baby food jar storage

My little girl just started eating solids and I'm so excited! Mainly because I get to have all of her finished empty glass baby food jars. They are SO useful!! I use them to store dried herbs and spices, craft accessories, and I make candles out of them for year supply. I just hate throwing away most glass jars when their empty, no matter what size.

First, you have to take off the labels and wash and sanitize them. Next, paint the lids with an all-surface paint (or one that won't come off - I like Martha Stuart brand all-surface paints). You'll have to do a few coats to cover all the words. Next, write your labels and stick them on (I found my labels for $.50 on clearance at Joanns!). EASY and fun! 

Making Something Out of Nothing...

My husband's parents live out in the country and always have a lot of  scrap wood lying around.  My husband teases me because I am always rummaging through it to find things I can use for "my projects".  These are my latest creations:

I made this out of old garden sticks:  5 pieces of wood nailed together, stained and dolled up!  Easy, Easy!!

It will now by my Christmas wreath on my door! I will most likely add an American Flag and use it again on Independence day!

The burlap bow was reused from a gift!

Still a work in progress but this is made from pallets.  It was just 5 same length pieces nailed to a slab of wood.  I painted the snowman and star freestyle but used a printout for the words and traced them onto by wood then painted over the tracing. 

Step up...

In August of 2012, I took a big financial risk and quit my full time job to be a stay at home mom. One of the best decisions of my life! My husband was still in school and working part time. Our budget was tight. So I decided to try to help ease the burden. I had a few pieces of furniture around the house that I had intended on re-finishing for my own home. At that moment, I decided I would instead re-finish them and sell them. I never realized how much I would enjoy it! I took the money from the sells to buy more furniture and supplies. It doesn't produce a lot of extra income, but enough for those extra diapers the budget didn't cover or a nice night out with my husband. But, the best part of it all is seeing the excitement on my buyer's face!

Most challenging project but I loved the results!

I used rope for the handles to save. I made a $75 profit!         

The Pillow Case Dress

Probably one of the easiest projects for a beginner. You can use an actual pillow case, or two coordinating fabrics. I really wanted to use the circle appliques and buttons to match my multicolored fabric (bottom strip), so I paired it with this orange fabric cut from an old bed sheet. Poor Macy was teething, but she still let me dress her up and take pictures.

This is the tutorial I used:

Pillow Case Dress Tutorial

Ashley does a great job of explaining and taking pictures along the way. Plus she has an adorable model showing off the finished project! So cute.

Coloring Fun!

The other day at Joanne's I scored this on clearance! 


The books were missing the dry erase crayons but at 75% off, it was still dirt cheap. And guess what, the crayon packs were also on sale! They normally run around $3-5 a box. The pages are interchangeable and you can even print off your own pages to add to it. 

Is that still too expensive for your taste? Don't worry, I've got your back. Try this easy craft idea for re-usable coloring pages. Pair with any dry-erase marker/crayon and let the coloring fun begin!

What you'll need:
-Skinny 3-ring binder
-Package of clear sheet protectors (make sure they are the really clear ones!)
-A few un-used coloring pages OR activities OR workbook pages of your choice (for optimal coloring make sure the paper fits perfectly into the sheet protectors so it doesn't slide around. If you are cutting from a magazine, glue it to a regular sheet of card stock or computer paper)
-Box of Dry Erase Crayons

Start by loading the page protectors with pages from coloring books or workbook you chose. You could also use a blank piece of paper to serve as a blank canvas! 

Next, load the pages into the 3 ring binder and add a plastic bag to the front of the book so the crayons/markers can be easily stored.  

The box of Crayola dry-erase crayons comes with a little mitt that erases the coloring perfectly, but you could also throw in a soft piece of cloth to make a home-made eraser. Half the fun is just erasing! 

Now, have fun with it! Decorate the front with stickers and put your child's name on it to make it individual.

Here is a quick example of what the inside should look like when put together: