DIY Ribbon Bolts {Mini Tutorial}

I've got a sick kiddo today, so we've been taking it easy...resting, watching movies, and since he can't stay still even when he's sick, playing with trains.

We're taking a quick break to share this handy mini tutorial with you. He's being a sweet boy and sitting on my lap as I type. :-) On to the tutorial. It's easy, but such a great idea!

Yesterday, I showed you my DIY Fabric Bolts. When I was making those fabric bolts, I remembered that I had seen something similar for ribbon. Unfortunately, like my DIY Coupon Holders, I can't find where I saw it! I don't think I imagined seeing it...who knows though. I'm a bit scatterbrained today. Earlier, I was trying to find the socks I set down, so I could put them on my little guy's feet; then I realized that I had already put them on his feet! Oh boy...


Anywaaaay! Back to the tutorial. Here's what you'll need. 

• A mess of ribbon
• Heavy card stock
• Paper Cutter
• Tape

Step 1: Cut pieces of card stock 2.5x4.75 inches..

Step 2: Attach one end of the ribbon to the card stock with tape.

Step 3: Wrap the ribbon around the card stock and fasten the end with tape.

You're done! You probably see now why called it a mini tutorial. They should look something like this.

I also used the "bolts" that some of my ribbon came on to wrap and rewrap some of the other ribbon.

It's so much nicer than before!

 And now I can get it all in my ribbon container with ease!

I think it took more effort for me to write this tutorial than it did to do this project, so it's definitely something to try. 

Pin It

I'm having a blast at these lovely linking parties.

DIY Fabric Bolts {Tutorial}

My fabric was a MESS...

I had all my fabric in these cube organizers:

The problem was that I couldn't see all of it at once, so I'd end up digging through it and creating a mess. At one point it was all folded nicely, but it quickly turned into a case of it just being shoved into the cubes.

Then I saw this: 

Source: surecancraft.blogspot.com via Erin on Pinterest

Foam posterboard was used to create mini fabric bolts to organize this fabric. Genius! 


I'm all about using what I have, though, and I didn't have any foam posterboard around. So what else do I have a lot of that I could use? Diaper boxes! They're great boxes, so I have a hard time throwing them away. So, I gathered a couple up (I also had a wipes box).

I broke down the box, so I could lay it out flat.

Since I have little hands that would pull fabric off shelves, I decided I still wanted to keep my fabric in the cubes, so I measured the cubes. Then I measured and drew lines on the boxes to create pieces of cardboard that would fit in the cubes. I just used a ruler and a Sharpie to create the lines.

It's at this point that I took a break to run to the store or something, and when I got back to working on the project, the sun was down. Soooo...we're missing a couple pictures here, but I'm sure you can use that imagination. :-)

I cut along the lines I had drawn to create my cardboard pieces.

Then, since I didn't use that pretty foam posterboard, I wrapped each piece in wrapping paper. I did it inside out, so they would all be white. This was more time consuming than I thought, so I stopped here for the night. In the morning the sun came out (yay!), so I was able to take a picture of my hard work the night before:

I should have taken a picture here, but it's pretty easy to explain. I folded each type of fabric, so it was not quite as wide as the cardboard pieces. Then, I attached one end of the fabric to the cardboard with a straight pin, wrapped the fabric until I came to the end, and attached the end to the cardboard with a straight pin. 

I combined smaller pieces of fabric on one cardboard bolt.

Then I put all the bolts in my cube! I actually was able to fit more fabric in a cube than when I was just piling it in there.

I'm so  happy with how they turned out, and it's going to be so much easier to find my fabric now!

Pin It

I'm having a blast at these lovely linking parties.

Page Protectors Double As Coupon Holders {Tutorial}

***A note before we begin: I saw this idea somewhere but can't find where, and I didn't pin it for some reason. If you have any idea where I may have seen it, please let me know. I'd love to give that blog credit. :-)***

I've needed to reorganize my coupons for quite some time. I was using the file method, but it quickly turned into the pile method (i.e. you pile all the inserts in one basket and then try to dig through them in search for the right coupon, haha). Yeah, it wasn't working well. I read a couple posts (you can read one of them here) that convinced me that the binder was the way to go. At this point, though, I didn't want to invest in the baseball card holders that a lot of people use (that and I couldn't find them). 


Then I remembered a post I had seen about making your own holders. I wish I could refer you to the post! Since I can't, though, I'm including a mini tutorial to make them. I hadn't planned on a tutorial, so please excuse the lack of pictures. It's really easy, so I'm sure you can follow along with the pictures I did take. :-)


Step 1: You start by inserting paper (I used a lighter weight card stock) in your page protector. I printed lines on the paper first, so I could use them as a guide.


Step 2: On your sewing machine, zig zag over the lines to create different sections. I did 9 sections per page, but I remember the other post doing a variation of sections, so they would be different sizes for different sized coupons. 

Step 3: Using a very pointy pair of scissors or a seam ripper, cut a line BELOW the horizontal zig zags in between the vertical running zig zags. It should look something like this:

Step 4: Insert your coupons! I've got mine organized in different sections in my binder for different types of coupons (food, household items, cleaners, restaurants, etc).

They work very well! It has been sooo much easier to find my coupons since I've been using this method. I was already buying the page protectors for the Dry Erase Busy Book, so it was relatively inexpensive to make as well. :-)

Pin It

I'm having a blast at these lovely linking parties.

PJ Train Pillow {Final Pajama Post}

So this is the project that I've been the most excited to share with you! Back in January, we redid my son's bedroom in trains. I saw the "Pajama Eaters" sometime ago and thought they were the coolest thing, but they didn't quite go with the train theme. They're made to hold pajamas that are somewhere in between fresh out of the dryer clean and time for being washed again.

Source: sewfearless.com via Erin on Pinterest

I thought a train pillow with a pocket for PJs would be cute, and here it is!

I just Googled a silhouette of a train, printed it on two pieces of paper to make it larger, and used that for a pattern. I added wheels and the window to give it a little more detail.

Here's the exciting part though. If you turn the pillow over and look at the bottom...

You'll find a nice little pocket. Fold up those PJs in the morning after the little guy gets dressed...

...and put them in the pocket for safe keeping until bed time that night!

So cute and so handy!

Pin It

I'm having a blast at these lovely linking parties.

Recipe Thursday {Chipotle Style Chicken Burrito Bowl]

My husband LOVES the restaurant Chipotle. I mean LOVES. When we were in high school, he ate there at least once a week (if not more often). A little while ago he asked if we could try to make Chipotle like burritos at home. I wanted to do it right, so I Googled a recipe for the chicken marinade. You can find the original recipe here, but I did a little modifying. First though, here's a tip I saw on Rachael Ray:

"Puree the chipotle in adobo sauce in a food processor. [Place in] a plastic bag and freeze for another use."

You can then break off the amount you want and don't end up wasting the majority of the can when you only need one pepper for a recipe. I've been doing this for a while, and it works great!


Now on to the recipe!


Ingredients for the marinade:

• About a teaspoon of your food processed chipotle peppers in adobo sauce 
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 4 cloves garlic (crushed)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 cup olive oil (I like to use a red pepper flavored one)
• 2 good size chicken breasts

Directions:

After combining all your other ingredients, dice your chicken. I like to get it smaller than bit size pieces. As I'm dicing the chicken, I place it in the marinade. Marinate for at least half an hour. I think the shortest time I've marinated the chicken was 1 hour, and it tasted just as good as the time I marinated it for several hours. 

While your chicken is marinating, you can get your other items ready. We like to have the following items with our burritos/burrito bowls

• Rice with cilantro (just add dried cilantro to your boiling water when you add the rice)
• Black Beans
• Cheese
• Sour Cream
• Salsa
• Guacamole or Avocados
• Tortillas
• We don't usually do this, but you can also have lettuce.

To cook the chicken, I just pour the chicken (including the marinade) in a skillet to cook on medium. It cooks really quickly, so keep an eye on it. You want to make sure your other ingredients are ready or nearly ready when you start the chicken since it cooks so quickly. Once your chicken is cooked, you can throw your bowls or burritos together. Yum!

Pin It

I'm having a blast at these lovely linking parties.

PJ Pants Revived

Yesterday I told you how I recycled some of my husband's torn PJ pants into new ones for my son. There was still quite a bit of fabric left from the old pants, so I decided to put it to good use. My son had some PJ pants that he outgrew in the length, but still fit perfectly otherwise, so I did a little modifying or reviving...


I added cuffs to the legs and pockets to match the cuffs. 

I somehow deleted the closeup of the pockets, but here is full shot. They turned out pretty cute!

Another pair of pajama pants for my little guy! He's going to be set for PJ pants, I think.

Tomorrow is Recipe Thursday, and I hope you'll join me for that, but be sure to come back on Friday for my last PJ project. It's not another pair of PJs or PJ pants, but it does have something to do with them...and trains. I can't wait to share this project with you!

Pin It

I'm having a blast at these lovely linking parties.

Toddler Recycled PJ Pants

My little guy has managed to outgrow his PJ pants. Like all kids, he just grows and grows and grows...


Then one day I saw a post from Dana at Made for sewing PJ pants. What a great idea! I have lots of fabric I can use and her post looked like it was simple enough. I hadn't got around to making them when my husband ripped an unfixable hole in his favorite pair of PJ pants. 


The fabric was still in good shape though, so I decided it was time to try out Dana's tutorial and "recycle" those pants. I'm so glad I gave it a shot! They turned out just fabulous. 

My little actually loves getting new clothes, so he enjoyed them so much that he actually cooperated for a few pictures. 

Not bad for pictures of a two year old without a flash. Keeping still is a rare thing, so I'm enjoying these pictures of him. :-)

If you haven't already, you should really check out Dana's blog Made. She's got so many great ideas and helpful tips. Following her instructions made sewing these pajama pants a cinch. She even had a 2T-3T downloadable pattern! Pretty awesome.

Pin It

I'm having a blast at these lovely linking parties.

Marvelous Monday {Weekend Adventure}

I have one less project to share with you this week, so I thought I'd share a few pictures from our weekend adventure today and give you a little preview of what I have in store for you this week. It involves PJs :-)


Since Valentine's Day was during the week, we decided to celebrate this past weekend. I did the 14 Days of Valentines for my hubby, so he wanted to plan a special day. And what did we do for our adventure? We went on a ride on the Pike's Peak Cog Railway to start...

At A Stop Part Way Up The Mountain

It was so beautiful up there!

Looking Up The Tracks

This next picture was while we were climbing one particular hill. I had the camera straight, but look at the slant on the window! Oh, and you could even see Kansas on the horizon. :-) We didn't get to go all the way up since it's winter (the wind on Pike's Peak is CRAZY in the winter...160 mph sometimes), but it was soooo awesome all the same.

After the awesome train ride, we headed down to the town of Manitou Springs. They were having a parade that day, so there were all kinds of people walking around...it was quite a festive environment! We like going to the old arcade there, so we stopped in and played a few games...

I discovered that I'm terrible at Pac-Man...at least using a joy stick. I remember playing it on a phone or computer and doing a little better. :-)

 This was some kind of old hockey game. Kind of hard to play, but it was interesting looking.

We also did a little racing. It was a close race, and I was winning a few times, but, ultimately, my hubby was able to pull out the win.

We also had dinner and a movie, but that's not nearly as exciting as all this, so I didn't take pictures. 


And now on to the weekly preview! There seems to be an unintentional theme with this week's projects, and that was pajamas! I hope you'll check back this week for the PJ Projects.

Pin It