Category: School

Teaching kids to pack their lunch

Posted on October 9, 2019 by

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Teaching kids to pack their lunch + FREE PRINTABLE {Heather's Handmade Life}

I decided our kids were surely old enough to pack their own lunch, so I printed out a list of guidelines and stuck it to the side of the fridge.

Category: Our Daughter, Our Son, Parenting, School, The Mom Scene

School lunch container tips & tricks

Posted on August 20, 2019 by

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Today we’re talking about the best school lunch containers — what lasts, what’s worth the extra money, and what you can cheap out on — and how to store them!

Category: Organization, School

Easily replace a broken zipper

Posted on February 6, 2019 by

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How to replace a broken zipper on a backpack {Heather's Handmade Life}

I replaced the broken zippers on two school backpacks in under half an hour, WITHOUT using a sew machine or any fancy sewing techniques.

Category: Kiddos, School, Sewing

I’m Heather Laura Clarke. I’m journalist and blogger in beautiful Nova Scotia, I have an 9-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter, I married my high school sweetheart, and this is the story of my handmade life.

I have depression and anxiety, and I fight like hell every day to keep it from taking over my life. Making things isn’t just a hobby — it’s part of what keeps me alive.

Whether I’m decorating a room, busting out my power tools to build furniture, getting muddy in the pottery studio, sewing clothes for my kids, or cross-stitching a swear word, I’m all about using my creativity to craft a life I love.

@HFXHeather on Instagram
My son has long hair. It’s thick and silky and gorgeous and it flips out naturally at the ends. He loves his hair. I love his hair. But some other people? Well, they call him a girl. There’s a NEW POST on the blog today, if you’d like to read more about hair (his and also mine) and gender and annoying people and also why none of it matters. 💙💙💙 #parenting #boyswithlonghair #boyswithlonghairrock #boyswithlonghairdontcare 🎶 I always feel like 🎶 🎶 Somebody’s in my tea 🎶 Kitty-cat mug I made in pottery! 🐱 The mama cat is the handle and I sculpted a wee kitten and stuck it to the bottom of the mug as a “fun surprise” for unsuspecting tea-drinkers who suddenly spot something in their mug. 😉 #pottery #handmade #handmademug #potterymug #potterymugs #catmug #handthrownpottery The way this girl loves slime, it’s no wonder she loves Magic Mud (or “Oobleck” as the kids today apparently call it). Perfect indoor snow day activity. Mix three cups cornstarch with 1 1/2 cups water (approx.) and a few drops of food colouring to get a gloppy goop that you can pick up like a solid and then it then instantly to a liquid. My mom used to make it for me and my sister and it’s still really fun. Way better than slime because of the way it changes. Just don’t ask me to explain the science behind it lol. #snowday #again #snowdayfun #indooractivities #handmade #oobleck #magicmud #messy #butnottoomessy When you walk into a project area in your dining room that looks like a @craftsmanca photo shoot except you actually staged nothing! 😂 Can’t wait to show you guys how this BIGGGGGG project is turning out! #DIY #woodworking #furniture #DIYfurniture #buildingfurniture #design #custom #customfurniture #craftsman If you scroll through my posts, you’ll see right away that I make things. I sew. I build. I paint. I craft. I design. I decorate. Oh, and I also write and edit newspaper, magazine, and web copy for a living. Always making stuff, I am. What you don’t see — at least not unless you dive deep into my Insta stories and blog posts — is that there’s something different I’m trying to create. A novel. Finding the time, the headspace, the permission to work on this novel is harder than all the sewing and building and painting and crafting and designing and decorating and “writing for a living” in the world. But I’m trying. I try to work on it every single day, even if I only come out ahead by a couple hundred words. It’s still a couple hundred words more than I had the day before. Baby steps. And there are also stolen moments, like this photo I just snapped, when I take five minutes — in between the family dinner and the family game and then the bedtime routine — to read a few pages of novel-writing wisdom (#savethecatwritesanovel) and scribble down notes to myself. It all counts, however small. It’s all getting me closer. It’s all going to be worth it. I know it. #novelwriting #novel #aspiringnovelist #futurenovelist #onedayatatime #writerlife #writing #amwriting A school week’s worth of handmade cotton dresses, ready to wear. Cupcakes 🧁 Rainbows 🌈 Flowers 🌸 Ice creams 🍦 and forests 🌲 #sewing #handmade #dresses #sewingforkids #sewingproject #thisisseven #handmadewithlove #handmadeclothing #handmadeclothes
@HFXHeather on Twitter
My Top Posts
Easy DIY sofa tables
DIY dog crate cover
Little boys with long hair
Our board game wall
Build your own slide-out pantry
Anne of Green Gables quilt
How to sew a cozy nap mat
Super easy quilt top for beginners
DIY quilt made from old jeans
How to make a backyard water blob
PREGNANCY blog posts
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© Heather Laura Clarke and Heather’s Handmade Life, 2009-2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Heather Laura Clarke and Heather’s Handmade Life with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.