Soap nuts, just bag it

ok, even though I love the ease of use of the liquid detergent made by the soap nuts, and the flexibility of using hot or cold water, chasing triplet toddlers around every day doesn't allow me the time to make it when I run low.  This is something I wish someone had told me about soap nuts, the little secret that helps when you need to just throw 5 +/- soap nuts in a bag and just keep the laundry going....

When the bag no longer has that odd, described 'vinegar' smell and just smells like an over washed stick then it is time to retire those nuts.  The odd smell of the nuts actually leaves your laundry smelling just clean and not like the odd, unfavorable smell the nuts themselves have.  If the bag is on it's 4+ cycle of use and smell has shifted, well, that is what your clothes will smell like.

I've read that the nuts will turn grey or mushy when they have reached their maximum washing capacity but I have never found this useful.  If they lose their characteristic smell then they are done, pretty simple.

St. Patrick's Day craft fun

Shamrock Handprint

This was an easy craft to do with my 3 toddlers it just takes a little paint and some hand prints.  The result was to a fun way to remember St. Patrick's Day and also just how small my kids were at one time.  We made a 3 leaf clover perfect if you have 3 kids or in our case triplets :-)  We also made an extra keepsake shamrock print for the grandparents who were over the moon to receive a fun surprise in the mail.

Photo Leprechauns

No handmade St. Patrick's day card would be complete with out a little Leprechaun cheekiness.  We over ordered our Christmas cards so I saw the opportunity to create something silly with the extras.  Using some Microsoft Leprechaun clipart in a Word document sized to accommodate the faces from the leftover greeting cards I printed them out, cut out the faces and added in some of my own. 

St. Patrick's Day Party for toddlers

The triplets hosted a St. Paddy's Day party for their friends aged 18mo - 3yrs.  We started with some cookie decorating.

Confetti cake batter cookies

Easy, fast and most people have a box of cake mix on hand

1- box of cake mix

1/4c oil

1/4c water

1 egg

Spoon a tsp of batter leaving a couple inches in between cookies

Cook at 350° for approximately 15 minutes!

For the frosting we mixed up a myriad of colors using whip cream & food coloring.  The colors were a little light but I feared mixing the whip cream too much and making it watery.

No party would be complete without a pinata!  

I saw this awesome Pull-open Pinata in my current issue of Family Fun.

Our version was not made from cardboard but a recycled coffee can.  We were lacking on our overall  'look' but the kids loved it!  It was also a good learning experience on colors as each picked a color they wanted to pull and had to locate that ribbon.  Not only did they love when the trap door spilled gold chocolate coins, rainbow colored lollipops, bracelets and balls but they loved having a long ribbon to run around with, a win win!

Spot Like - Rubber, Purple Broom!

 

One handled, one headed, flying purple dirt eater!  
Purple, oh so pretty.
Rubber, oh  so odd
Oh so amazing is it what it is. 

 My mom brought me a gift on her most recent visit.  A purple, rubber broom.   It sweeps amazingly after you've mastered the sweep.  Being a fan of  the flylady, my mom purchased this off of the flylady's website.   This type of broom is not unique to the flylady as I found out after mentioning it to my Australian friend.  They have used these brooms for ages.  I'm glad however that the flylady is bringing attention to a cleaning tool that really does work well and people may not know about.

* I am getting zero incentive for mentioning this product, I'm just sharing what I like and where to get it :-)

Receiving Blanket Rag Quilt Pillow Cover

This sewing project was easy, a pillow form, receiving blankets, a tape measure, scissors and a sewing machine and voila!  a fun way to capture a piece of the past.  Pictures coming.....

1.  Choose any pillow form

2.  Measure the pillow and then divide into squares

3.  Cut squares adding 2" per inch of desired width (8" x 8" cut 10"x10")

4.  Start by placing two squares together w/print side facing OUT and sew seam of 1"

5.  Add on squares as needed to achieve desired lengh & width, seam should be on the patterned, outside of pillow

6.  Measure out two backs, measuring width by 2" and length add 3" or 4" on

7.  Overlap the two pieces so that they overlap making it easy to add/remove the pillow

8. With right sides now facing each other attach the front to the back

6.  Last but not least snip vertical cuts to give the raw edge a fringe

7.  Throw in wash to make it look ragged and not just like fringe

Receiving blankets seem to pop up on everyone's registries it is only certain that if you have had a baby a few have passed through your household.  In our case, with our triplets at 10 weeks premature, receiving blankets were one of the few personal items we could bring to them in the NICU.  Two of the triplets were in the hospital for 2 months and the third nearly 4 months.  In the NICU the nurses used the blankets in their little hospital beds, called isolates, as bedding to line the isolate as well to swaddle them. Since these blankets are tied into the first months of my children's lives whether adorning their isolate or when snuggling with them it seemed like they should continue on.  I knew I wanted to do something quilted since we had a fair amount to work with but wasn't sure what.  After the kids no longer needed them I remembered being intrigued by rag quilts.  A rag quilt seem easy enough and also since I was going to do it on a smaller scale by making pillow covers.  These pillows are in their beds and come out on the rare occasion that they get to watch a movie or when they just want to have something fluffy and soft to sit on. 

Nuts about Soap Nuts!

Landing on an old episode of Dragon's Den I was introduced to the idea of soap nuts, a natural berry that can be used to wash laundry and more importantly for me, cloth diapers.

Today I made my 2nd batch of detergent.  My first 500 gram purchase of soap nuts I used the traditional way, counting out 4-6 soap nuts, putting them in the muslin bags and throwing them in the washer.  The muslin bags are reusable but after going through the wash the tie gets twisted and it is a huge hassle to get the bag open when disposing of the soap nuts (ours go in a bin for compost).  With my second purchase I decided to make the liquid detergent, it's easy and it allows me to use cold water versus hot which is required when using the nuts.  

Valentine's Day Canvas

I wanted a fun art project for my toddlers and keepsake for Valentine's day.  Keeping it simple and cheap I figured why not just help them make an actual piece of canvas art.  I had brushes and craft paint on hand already and headed to the dollar store to pick up some 8x10 blank canvases & contact paper (the kind you line drawers).

Keep it fun, keep it simple!

1.  Measure out the contact paper and cut out desired design and stick it to the canvas - 

2. Give the kids some brushes & paint and let them create -

3. After giving the canvases plenty of time to dry it's time to remove the 'sticker' design from the canvas -

4. Voila!  Fun, pretty art for Valentine's Day!