Binky Clips anyone??

Well last year at the Christmas Fair in my home town I decided last minute to make some hair accessories, hair clips and headbands etc as well as some soother and toy clips. Well I purchased supplies and never used it so this year I decided (last minute again) to put that supplies I purchased to use and make some soother clips. Super easy and fun! I even made my own tags for them :) I ended up taking a bunch of fabric I had in my stock (which is forever growing ;) ) and purchased a little too. Here is what I came up with ...My "Binky Clips" with a cute photo and hobbymommy creations on the bottom...
All 50 clips completed...
My girl choices, all double sided, some with different coordinating fabric some matching fabrics...
My boy clips
Finished clip
Clip your "binky" "Paci" or "Soother" to the clip, clip to baby and no more cleaning dirt off of chucked soothers
I made them work for toys too! Clip a ring and a toy to the "Binky Clip" and clip to a blanky, carseat strap etc to keep from loosing or dirtying toys while out and about...
If you are interested in how to make these, there are TONS and TONS of tutorials online. I took a few and then created my own. I would be willing to throw a tutorial together in the future but there are some great ones out there!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Stay tuned for a few more projects that will be "last minute" projects before November 5th's Christmas Fair in Tilley.

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My Amazing Hubby's Creations!

I sell Usborne books and have for over a year now. I signed up because of my love for children's books and my daughters as well.

I have done a few business shows and purchased a display shelf for some books. The gentleman who makes them for us Usborne ladies actually lives in the same city I do so I did not have to pay shipping and he made them within a week for me.

I did a larger business show, and with my growing inventory I had borrowed a couple of my upline's display shelves to help out with my display. This is the portion of my display where I used all three shelves
I have been looking for cheaper display ideas but have not found anything other than wire display shelves but I ran into the problem with shipping to Canada. In the end I asked my amazing husband if he would be willing to put some of his new toys, I mean tools to work and build me a few display shelves for me for the upcoming Christmas fair I am coordinating in my home town. In the picture below is two shelves, the front one is the one the gentleman built for me that I spent a good chunk of money on. The one behind is the one my hubby built (I asked him to build it a little wider)Didn't he do a great job!! I am so excited! I now have 2 more display shelves to add to my collection (3 in total) I am so thankful for his hard work on his days off to build me just what I needed! He has just enough to make a little bit smaller 3rd shelf but I decided to give him the rest of the day off :P
Once he builds the 3rd (well if he does) it will have saved us about $80 which may not seem like too much but it is a big deal to me! I am thankful for his willingness to help me make my display even better :)

Thank you to my wonderful husband who built my new display shelves! You are so wonderful!! and I am so blessed to have a husband who supports my addictions (crafting) and my businesses! Love you!!

View my online website for Usborne books at home at www.usborneonline.ca/cassie


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Finished Serger Projects, ready to sell :)










All finished my project. Hopefully they are a hit at the local Christmas fair. I am excited to use mine! I will be wearing mine at the fair and using it often once baby arrives!!
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My first Serger project

Well I am only 6 weeks away from my due date and all is well! Baby and I are growing well (me more so than I had hoped) I only say that because I have heard your baby has an increased birth weight from the last baby... well my first was 6lbs 5.9oz, my second was 8lbs 11.2oz so I am hoping this one doesn't have that large of a jump in weight from my second.. because YIKES that would be big... Anyway life has slowed down a little itty bit since we have taken our house off the market until next year. Which gives me the ability to get my crafty stuff out and leave it out without having to put it away for showings! YAY!!!!

I have been addicted to pinterest lately and found some great nursing cover ideas, I am a proud owner of the "hooter hider" but loved the idea of my back being covered by some of these other ideas. I am all about covering up when it comes to nursing in public!!

Well I thought I would give making these a try. I purchased a serger yesterday from a friend's mom and am so happy I did! I got a great deal since it is a higher end machine, lightly used. I made myself clean up my house before I took it out and needless to say, house was cleaned by time I went to bed, and serger came out this morning. I played around with it, forced myself to thread it the "hard" way and then test drove it.

I LOVE this machine!! It is a Huskylock 905 by Husqvarna. It is awesome! I would recommend it to beginners and advanced sergers out there! It does more than a basic machine and is wonderful!
So another exciting thing, the design of cover I chose was made from a stretchy material. Lets face it, fabric in Canada, for some reason is not cheap. I started searching online and found some great fabrics for great prices at Fabric.com. I placed my large order to make a whack load of these covers and the order was at my door 4 days later waiting for me to play :) That is AMAZINGLY fast shipping for something to come from the states to Canada! And prices, honestly could not compare to what I could purchase at my local fabric store.

So today, I put my son down for a nap, put some toys and a movie on for my daughter and started measuring myself and snipping fabric. I had a few adjustments I made but for the next ones this project should go smoothly. Here is my final project!!

I am going to be making these and selling them at the small community Christmas Fair I coordinate in my home town. I am excited to see what kind of a response I get. I know there are many variations out there but I definitely could see myself using this cover everyday! Not only for its many purposes but the great fashion accessory it is as well!!
Click the photo for larger view
If you are interested they will be fore sale for $25 for my regular covers and $30 for bamboo fabric covers.

Thanks for stopping by :)
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DIY Dryer Sheets

So I am open to fun new uses for every day products as well as ways to use these products to save money. I have been on Pinterest a lot these days, getting inspired but not really putting the ideas I find to action yet. I found a frugal way to make your own bounce dryer sheets! That's right!!

How fun, now I went to get a few everyday things from Wal-Mart yesterday and went to grab some fabric softener since I NEVER use it in my laundry. The kids and I went through almost all the brands and scents to pick our favorite. Compared to a box of bounce sheets at $8.96 a large bottle of fabric softener was only $4-8 depending on the brand. Now my intentions are not to use the fabric softener for my laundry so it will be so worth it!

***Homemade Dryer Sheets
So here is what you need...
- Fabric softener of your choice (for sensitive skin use fragrance free, or use natural softener if you prefer natural products)
-Rags or old towel, flannel rags etc.
-Container
-Scissors
-Hanger or clothes line and clothes pins

Instructions:
Step 1: Cut fabric, or rags etc into smaller size (around 5"x8") whatever you prefer the size to be.
Step 2: Poor Fabric softener in bottom of the container (don't need too much)
Step 3: Add pieces of fabric to container
and let the fabric soak up the fabric softener
Step 4: Now ring out the pieces and allow to dry by using a hanger or clothes line and clothes pins

The instructions I read on how to do this said each towel should be good for about 40 loads, but even if it is only good for 5 loads it is still worth the money!! Some instructions say to use the towels wet too, something that may be worth a try.

Here are some other good uses for fabric softener:

***Make your own Febreze:
What you need:
- a empty 32 oz Febreze spray bottle or other spray bottle.
- 1/8 cup Fabric softener
- 2 TBSP Baking Soda
- Hot Tap Water (to fill bottle up to the top)

Mix ingredients into bottle, shake up and spray away!

Here are some ideas from Readers Digest

Removing old wallpaper


Removing old wallpaper is a snap with fabric softener. Just stir 1 cap-full liquid softener into 1 quart (1 liter) water and sponge the solution onto the wallpaper. Let it soak in for 20 minutes, then scrape the paper from the wall. If the wallpaper has a water-resistant coating, score it with a wire-bristle brush before treating with the fabric softener solution.
Abolish carpet shockTo eliminate static shock when you walk across your carpet, spray the carpet with a fabric softener solution. Dilute 1 cup softener with 2 1/2 quarts (2.5 liters) water; fill a spray bottle and lightly spritz the carpet. Take care not to saturate it and damage the carpet backing. Spray in the evening and let the carpet dry overnight before walking on it. The effect should last for several weeks.
Remove hair-spray residueDried-on overspray from hair spray can be tough to remove from walls and vanities, but even a buildup of residue is no match for a solution of 1 part liquid fabric softener to 2 parts water. Stir to blend, pour into a spray bottle, spritz the surface, and polish it with a dry cloth.
Clean now, not laterClean glass tables, shower doors, and other hard surfaces, and repel dust with liquid fabric softener. Mix 1 part softener into 4 parts water and store in a squirt bottle, such as an empty dishwashing liquid bottle. Apply a little solution to a clean cloth, wipe the surface, and then polish with a dry cloth.
Float away baked-on grimeForget scrubbing. Instead, soak burned-on foods from casseroles with liquid fabric softener. Fill the casserole with water, add a squirt of liquid fabric softener, and soak for an hour, or until residue wipes easily away.
Keep paintbrushes pliableAfter using a paintbrush, clean the bristles thoroughly and rinse them in a coffee can full of water with a drop of liquid fabric softener mixed in. After rinsing, wipe the bristles dry and store the brush as usual.
Remove hard-water stainsHard-water stains on windows can be difficult to remove. To speed up the process, dab full-strength liquid fabric softener onto the stains and let it soak for 10 minutes. Then wipe the softener and stain off the glass with a damp cloth and rinse.
Here are a couple links for great ways to use Dryer Sheets too! I love learning new ways to re-purpose things!!


http://mountainsurvival.com/bounce.html
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Kid Friendly Stepping Stones

So have I have found my new love on the internet... pinterest. Have you heard of it? It is AMAZING! A place to organize all my recipes I find online, crafts and DIY's inspiration, home wants and decor likes... the list goes on!
Anyway, So I have found so many KID FRIENDLY crafts. My little pumpkin, Adalie, is almost 3 and she is mommy's big helper! She loves to help make and bake and clean and craft.... So I have been looking up Kid Friendly crafts for us to do during her brother's nap time.
I have found some stepping stone ideas but they use concrete... which scares me out a little with kids since it is TOXIC and CORROSIVE. ( I was not able to find Kid Friendly concrete at Home Depot... ie non corrosive)
I found a kit at walmart for 11.96 or something along the lines of that. It makes 4 little stepping stones and I thought, WHAT A FUN IDEA for her birthday party next month!! I remember doing these at our church VBS when I was a leader and at summer camp when I was a kid.
This kit comes with the round butterfly design mold, so you actually make up the stones, let them set for a couple days and paint them... As far as I am concerned... We will skip that. Paint with the age range of kids that come to Adalie's parties probably will stress out all the moms at the party. Adalie and I will do this kit for us... I am putting together my own Stepping Stone kits for each of the kids that is simple, easy, and of course the most important... FUN!!
So enough jibber jabber... Lets get to it.
What you need:

  • Plaster of Paris (Kid Friendly source of FUN)
  • Water
  • Stir Stick (I used a paint stir stick)
  • Measuring Cup
  • bucket for mixing (not shown in photo)
  • Foil container (for mold... you can use a bucket, plastic container etc)
  • Flyers or newspaper for easy clean up
  • rocks, stones, tiles for decorating
  • Any extra fun stuff you want to use
Now for my tin container I didn't use a foil pie plate because I didn't want the slanted sides to be that drastic, I purchased these cook-n-carry, pack of three foil containers that worked perfect! 3 for $1 works for me :)
I got most of my stones and rocks from the dollar store, in expensive, and work GREAT! In fact you could get most of your supplies from the dollar store, and I did! Now I did go to Michaels for a few things and I wanted to see what they had in the stepping stone/mosaic isle. I found some things on clearance. I also found these fun stone stamps. They were 9.99 for a pack and they had two fonts to choose from. I chose the simple block letters since this is KID FRIENDLY ;) So next set up your area. Put your flyers or newsprint down and spread out your decorating supplies.
NOW I played around and made 2 different step stones. I came to the conclusion... you need to work fast if you are doing hand prints or basically any decorating (make mixture a little watery for intricate decorative stones) I mixed 1 1/2-2 parts water to 3 parts plaster of paris.
So here I mixed 3 cups plaster of paris and 1 1/2 - 2 cups water Start with 1 1/2 cups and then slowly add more if needed (add more if you find it sets up too fast)
Mix with stir stick
You want it a yogurt consistency, possibly even runnier.
pour into foil pan
Now it is key to tap the container. pick it up and drop it (only from about 2-4" above your surface. this gets all the bubbles to the top like shown in the photo
Now for the fun part... decorate it! When it is dry (it sets so fast an hour is even good... but leave it longer if you wish.
pop out of mold or tear away sides.
Place in your garden and enjoy :)
This is a fun, fast, easy, KID FRIENDLY way of doing stepping stones. It can get a little messy and it is best you leave the stirring to the mommies and the decorating for the kidlets :)
Have fun!
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Birthday Rolodex

I made this for my mom a year ago after seeing the idea online. Hope you enjoy...I used my Cricut to cut out the files and words for the title and months as well as tabs and accessories. I ended up designing my own Rolodex file on SCAL so I could cut colors and use Very Vanilla instead of the white that came with it.
I created little lists and printed them out on paper and cut them up for each tab... I liked it better than writing it out
Finished project. It was fun and the best part is my mom LOVED it!



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