Car Organization: Toddler Version

Yesterday I shared my organizing solution for all my stuff that was floating around the car making a big old mess. 

Well, today is all about the little people in your life. I like to keep a small bag in the car to keep Little Man entertained, especially for longer car trips, shopping adventures, or when I know we're going to have to wait (like the doctor's office). I've had this in my car for a while, but it was time to get tidied up and I thought I'd share.

This bag is actually a shower caddy, perfect for a toddler since it's completely washable. I picked up this bag last year at Target when the "back to college" gear was on clearance. 

Here's a closer look...

So, what's inside:

Emergency Essentials

Small Toys

No-Mess Coloring

Thin Books

Activities: Homemade Lacing Card, "Shaker" they made at school (he loves to shake it and yell, "Dance Mommy!"), and a frisbee if we make a stop to burn off some energy

Car Mat I made for our friends from Radiator Springs.

This only comes out when we have to go in somewhere and wait. It rolls up and fits easily in the car bag, his backpack, and sometimes even my purse (depending on how much stuff I'm carrying around!).

This is Little Man's view - easily accessible from his car seat.

There's also a snack size baggie of pretzels tucked away just in case we're ever in dire need of a snack.

Now, my car is all organized - hooray! I'm still wishing someone would come along to vacuum all the crumbs & dirt out of there! :)

Contoured Burp Cloth Tutorial Mash-Up

Anyone else a Glee fan? I love a Mash-Up, so I had to use it in my post title.

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For the Sip & See, I needed a simple, yet useful baby shower gift (actually we've had a baby BOOM lately & I've needed lots of gifts & some I'm not done with yet, but that's besides the point). I knew I wanted to make something (because I love handmade gifts!), but I wasn't quite sure what. I had bookmarked several baby-gift tutorials, but finally decided on contoured burp cloths.

I combined this tutorial with this tutorial to make something that was just right!

I started with a few flannel receiving blankets (regular flannel yardage would work too, but these colors were perfect for our shower theme), a yard of chenille, and some batting I had leftover from a quilting project.

When I finished, I had three contoured burp cloths with batting, making them extra absorbent.

They fit perfect over your should and contour around your neck while still giving you plenty of coverage for spit-up.

 The burp cloths, a package of those sweet Pampers Swaddlers diapers, all wrapped up in a cute personalized tub was quite a useful gift. Fashion & form - gotta love it!

Frugal Friday: Handmade Holidays Wrap-Up

Since we're only 8 days away from Christmas, I thought it was a good time to make sure I have all my hand-made gifts made (or scramble over the next few days to get them done). Giving handmade not only seems more personable, but it's also quite helpful for our Christmas budget. I'm counting my homemade & semi-homemade gifts, so here they are.

1. Picture Calendar: I do this every year for my side of the family. Make the pages in my Digital Scrapbooking software, then upload & order at VistaPrint when they're having a sale (which is pretty much all the time). Huge hit!

2. Reindeer Pops: Made these for Little Man's preschool buddies. He was really excited about the "Flying Deer"! You can find out more about this project here.

3. Car Playmat: Little Man is getting an awesome playmat that I made from felt. This is a picture from the beginning stages, but unfortunately I forgot to take a finished picture & it's all wrapped up. I'll take a final picture later. You can read about this project here.

4. Christmas Pickles: These are pickles made from cucumbers out of our garden. I've done this the past two years and it's always a hit! I think the Christmas Pickle ornament & story behind it is a nice extra touch. Here's my post from last year describing it.

5. Jam: I canned a lot of jam this summer. I'm not sure what came over me, but it was definitely "year of the jam"! Although last year we gave everyone at Josh's work pickles, I opted for jam this year. Wishing them a "sweet" Christmas! Best of all, all the jam I made (except the Damson Jam) was low-sugar and even one batch of sugar-free for his diabetic co-worker.

6. Glass Ornaments with Vinyl: I made several of these glass ornaments with vinyl, which turned out oh so cute!

7. Candle with Vinyl: I also fancied these plain jar candles up with some red vinyl.

8. Etched Beer Stein: My Dollar Store mug looks great now that's it's etched with personalization.

I exceeded my 5 gift goal - yay! Also, these were all frugal, yet not "cheap". Definitely something everyone can use or enjoy. And I had fun making them!

I'm linking up to Frugal Fridays at Life As Mom.

Handmade Holidays: Glass Etching

Another venture into my semi-homemade gifts was a glass etching project. I bookmarked this post from Sarah at Create Studio a long time ago and was so excited to finally put it to use! 

My brothers enjoy beer, especially from a Beer Stein or Frosty Mug. When I stumbled upon glass beer steins at the Dollar Tree, I knew I had to try out glass etching. I didn't have much to lose with my investment!

I bought this Etching Cream at Michaels with a coupon (it is pricey - use a coupon!)

You aren't suppose to rinse this off in a porcelain sink, so I rinsed into this stainless bowl then dumped it outside.

I used my Silhouette to cut the white medium adhesion contact paper for my stencil.

The Dollar Tree glass beer stein. I was so surprised at how heavy this is - for only $1!!

And the result...

I thought it turned out great! I made one for my other brother as well which was the reverse of this...an etched square with a clear glass "H" in the middle. My husband is requesting one for himself...that's how I know it turned out well!

Handmade Holidays: Using Vinyl

I love handmade gifts - both giving & receiving them. It's one of my 101 Goals at least 5 Handmade Gifts for Christmas. Last year I made several handmade gifts and it looks like I will definitely hit my goal this year! 

I used my Silhouette and vinyl to make some semi-homemade gifts.

Vinyl Gift 1: Personalized Ornaments

Start with clear glass ornaments...

Add some Christmasy metallic basket filler to the inside, some personalized vinyl to the outside, tie a festive ribbon on top and voila! A cute semi-homemade gift. 

This particular ornament is for an ornament exchange so it is generic, however I made a couple with family monograms that turned out equally cute.  

Vinyl Gift 2: Festive Jar Candle

Kmart had these large jar candles marked down to $2.99 and the "Holiday Floral" smelled divine! I bought three with intentions of making them more festive.

Start by removing that awful sticker...

Cut festive vinyl phrases and shapes, then adhere for a fun, useful, and inexpensive Christmas gift. 

Perfect for a neighbor or just something to have out for the holidays.

 

Reindeer Pops

I mentioned yesterday that I was going to make some Reindeer Pops this week for Little Man's preschool class. I was a little worried they wouldn't turn out as cute, but I think they did!

Little Man is in love with these "Flying Deer" (his term for reindeer). I hope they'll be a hit at his class tomorrow!

Recipe Review: Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Emphasis on BIG...and chewy....and delicious! And I'm sure fattening too, but let's just ignore that one.

I made these cookies tonight and they are probably the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. After reading over some of the reviews and suggestions, I decided to let my eggs come to room temperature and let the melted butter cool a bit. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly and they are yummy! They are very chocolaty, which is fine by me, but it wouldn't hurt them to have a few less chocolate chips.

Warning: they are HUGE. I can be a bit of a cookie monster and I couldn't eat a whole one alone (my husband was happy to help out). This pan usually holds at least 15 regular size cookies, but barely held 8 of these cookies.

They are so big they seem sort of "gourmet", so I'm thinking wrapping a few in a cellophane bag with a pretty ribbon would make an excellent gift for the holidays. Sort of like this, but with a BIG ribbon because that's how we do it in the south!

Source

Car Play Mat

My Little Man came into a zillion Hot Wheels cars recently when his generous uncle passed on his entire collection. Honestly it's too many cars for one little boy, but he does love them so I've been trying to come up with fun things for to play with aside from the real track that he can pull apart but not put back together yet (which means I'm stuck doing it!). 

I've seen several tutorials for take-along car mats, which are cute, but wasn't quite what I was thinking. Then, I ran across this tutorial for a car play mat and instantly knew this was the one! I already had plenty of felt (remember?), so I got started tonight. 

So far, so good. I think he's really going to enjoy it when it's all finished. I'm going to include special places to him like our house, a barn with some animals, preschool, church, the park, etc. 

The tutorial said everything was hot-glued. I hot glued the binding which was enough to make me decide to sew everything else. The gray road & garage pieces are just laid out, not permanently attached yet.

I'm thinking this could be one (of hopefully 5ish) handmade Christmas presents this year. It's one of the goals!

Strawberry Jam

It's STRAWBERRY SEASON!!!

I'm excited - how about you? My little man has eaten a TON of strawberries. He literally ate over a pound on the way home from the strawberry patch BY HIMSELF Thursday. The kid loves fruit - I'm not complaining! 

I have been making strawberry jam with the 20lbs of strawberries we've acquired in the last couple of weeks. I plan on making more too, because after I give some away as gifts and eat it with PB or Nutella, there's just not a lot left to last the rest of the year. And we have an entire YEAR until strawberry season rolls around again.

I've been making all my jam with Ball's No Sugar Needed Pectin.

One batch I made completely sugar free. It's pretty good with PB, but I wouldn't want it by itself on buttered toast. The other 4 batches I've made a "low-sugar" version, using between 2-3 cups of sugar. That's still quite a bit of sugar, but much better than the 7 cups that would typically go in there. I've gotten rave reviews on the low-sugar version, so I'll keep on making it that way.

I gave a jar to each of the ladies in my MOPS Care Group at our meeting the Friday before Mother's Day. 

I wanted to make sure they all had a SWEET Mother's Day!

Got felt?

I promise I have more going on in my life than coupons, groceries, & cooking...even if my blog posts don't reflect that. I have an entire shelf of sewing projects waiting to be worked on, as well as Little Man's ABC Quilt I need to continue hand-quilting. And let's not even think about the bathrooms that I constantly avoid cleaning.

What is intriguing me most right now is the huge pile of felt that I got at a crazy cheap price at Joann's after Thanksgiving sale. I'm planning to make a lot of felt food to go with Little Man's kitchen he'll be getting for his birthday (in July - I'm a planner). I'm also planning to make a felt playhouse similar to this. I'm looking for some other felt crafts, so if you read this & have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Last of the Handmade Holidays

Here is my last post of my handmade holiday items for 2009. I have really enjoyed this & will probably try to be more organized to get things done in a timely fashion next year. 


You don't know this, but I come from a family of giants. I am the shortest child & I'm just short of 6 feet tall. Both of my brothers are over 6'2, my dad is 6'4 & my husband is 6'5. See, GIANTS. Sometimes people stare if we're all standing together in a crowd. Or maybe they're just trying to see over us. Not gonna happen people. Anyway, since we are giants regular blankets just don't cut it for us usually. My MIL made a 6' fleece blanket (made of fleece from our alma mater) for us a few years ago & I'm pretty sure we've used it more than any other gift EVER. Seriously, we use it everyday...it's wonderful. I thought it would be great to make one for both of my "little" brothers. The littlest bro's school does not have fleece by the yard that you can purchase (or at least that I could find), so I had to go with camo. Perfect since he's a hunter & general outdoorsman. The middle bro's alma mater is regularly available, even though it pained me to purchase it - I did it anyway. That's love people. LOVE. Of course, he loves me too - he took this picture with me right after we beat them for the 3rd year in a row in football. See lots of love in our family. Anyway - I purchased 2 1/3 yards of each, hemmed them up & here are some pictures. 

Told you they were big! This is hanging over a door.

We decided to do a "service exchange" with my BIL, the Reddneck (I promise this is not derogatory, he likes this name & has it as part of his business title - including this spelling which drives me nuts!). He might be a Reddneck, but he has a heart of gold & always helps us whenever we need him. And he loves Little Man to pieces! The only thing I really wanted from him was to detail my car. He did this once & oh my goodness. It looked better than when it was new! Since money is pretty tight, we thought it would be perfect to do a service exchange - free & exactly what we each want. He's a single dad & has his boys every other week, so I thought the following were perfect "coupons" for him:

Now, my wonderful husband couldn't think of a service to offer, so who knows what he'll end up doing with this coupon:

I made these "coupons" on my Digital Scrapbooking software. I can't remember where I got these kits, but I'm sure they are from a generous person who has free kits on the internet. If you recognize them, please leave a comment & I'll be happy to give credit where credit is due.

To recap, we gave away 20 jars of pickles to friends & coworkers, created 4 "Garden Goodies" Baskets for grandparents & friends, made one Kid Toolbelt for a friend who is getting a tool table for Christmas (now I need to make one for my own Little Man), sewn 2 HUGE fleece blankets, and made one set of service coupons. I am way more excited about these items than the things I bought in the stores, although those items are nice too.


And a follow up...Little Man's girlfriend LOVED her apron & chef hat. She put it on immediately & trotted around the house saying "Tank You! Tank You!" 

It's all adjustable, so it actually fits better than this picture shows. She just wouldn't stay still long enough for us to tighten it up.

And she loved pulling the hat down over her head...she's just too funny!

Happy Handmade Holidays to you & your family! I'd love to see your handmade presents, please leave a comment with a link if you've made some.