Super-cheap DIY shiplap wall tutorial
I tend to live in a blog-fogged Pinterest world where I get caught up in trends that aren’t really that, well, normal outside of a computer monitor. I thought everyone was lusting after shiplap until I realized nobody in real life had even heard of it. They were like “Ship-what? What are you doing?”
I’d been stewing over the focal wall in our basement family room/playroom for months. I’d enlisted my handy husband to paint it emerald green immediately after Pantone announced it as 2013’s Colour of the Year, but it turned out darker than I expected and I wasn’t crazy about it. (That is not something you want to admit to the person who just applied three or four coats for you, so I kept quiet.)
I knew I wanted to do something different on that wall but I couldn’t decide what. A really amazing wallpaper? A cool paint treatment like stripes or dots or a crazy geometric pattern?
When the shiplap trend started popping up everywhere online, I knew it was perfect … but I was worried about the cost.
Reusable snack bag party favours
Ready to quit loot bags and hand out something that’s actually useful?
These reusable snack bags can be filled with candy, crackers or pretzels to be eaten on the drive home from the birthday party, and then the bag can be used over and over again in their lunchbox. They don’t even need snaps or velcro because they have a fold-over flap.
Here’s how to make them:
- Cut out rectangles of fabric, one per bag (mine were roughly 8×12” but it doesn’t matter if they’re all slightly different)
- Hem or serge the short ends
- Fold one end down by a couple of inches to be the bag’s flap, and fold the other end up to meet the top
- Serge or sew up each side to close the bags
- Turn the bags right side out and fill it with snacks!
Say no to loot bags. Seriously.
Dear Parents,
Let’s all decide, as a group, that traditional loot bags are a terrible waste of money and sanity and we should never, ever make them again? OK?
Yes, I know. It’s easy to roam around a Dollar Store and fill a basket with six-packs and eight-packs colourful crap. It sounded very inexpensive in theory, didn’t it? A couple of bucks here for party blowers, two bucks for powdery candies with questionable ingredients. Each bag will only cost two or three dollars, right?
There’s math involved, sure, as you count the number of guests on your fingers. If I buy three six-packs of erasers shaped like horses and two 12-packs of pencils then I could, hmmm. But what about the soccer ball notebooks? Those come in four-packs so I’ll need — PUT DOWN THE CERAMIC DOLPHIN!
Yes, your kids are probably “helping” you shop, too, and insisting they need to give each friend a mini harmonica (the other parents will hate you) and a piercing whistle (seriously, the other parents will stop inviting you fun places).
I have done these loot bags, many times. I have bought or made cute themed bags and written each child’s name on the front, stacking them neatly on a table by the door. I have filled the bags with the junkiest junk you can imagine — the yo-yos that break immediately, the cheap stickers, the miniature bottles of bubbles that last for about eight seconds of bubble-blowing. There’s something satisfying about assembling a loot bag, which is probably why they still exist since being on the receiving end is painful.
When my own kids pile into the van after a birthday party, I immediately ask to see “their cool new bouncy ball” — there’s always a bouncy ball. It’s perfectly throat-sized and just squishy enough that it seem fun to pop in their mouth. (Some kids outgrow “mouthing” things — mine didn’t.) I pretend to drop the ball somewhere in the van and promise to retrieve it later, but I’ve actually used Mommy Sleight of Hand to sneak it inside an empty Tim’s cup.
About an hour after the birthday party, the loot bag toys are broken and go straight into the garbage. I hide any uneaten made-in-China candy in a high cabinet where I’ll “forget” to give it to them, ever, and throw it out six months later. Was that really worth the $5 or $6 the damn thing ended up costing the parent? Nope!
I officially quit loot bags at the kids’ party last year, when they turned three and five. I bought a hard plastic Paw Patrol cup for each guest and filled it with homemade caramel corn and a gummy snake. Eat the snack, keep the cup, DONE. It worked out so well that I did something similar for our daughter’s party over the weekend, and — surprise, surprise — it cost way less than a loot bag of litter.
Trust me, it’s so much better.
Sincerely,
A Parent Who Is Tired of Hiding Bouncy Balls
***
Pinterest fail: Egg carton flower picture frames
I love a good DIY project that uses recycled items (hello, FREE!) but I’ll be the first to admit things don’t always turn out as pretty as they do on Pinterest.
My attempts to turn old egg cartons into 3D art for picture frames? This *should* have been a great, kid-friendly, nearly-free project that cleverly used up something that would otherwise be trash, but it certainly didn’t work out as lovely as advertised.
I maintain there’s still hope, though, so here’s what to do if you’d like to give it a try …
1. Grab a couple of empty egg cartons to get started. Styrofoam or cardboard cartons are all fine, but you’ll be stuck with plain white flowers if you choose a styrofoam carton. Trust me, white is better than what happens when you paint them. (Spoiler alert: “I’m meltingggg! Oh, what a world! What a world!”)
Continue reading in my weekly DIY column, My Handmade Home …
You might also like these recycled material projects …
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| Mirror from plastic spoons |
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| Paper mache letter wrapped with yarn |
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| Recycling burnt-out light bulbs into glittery decor |
Parental essentials on the road
This all fits into a mini pencil case and I keep it in the driver’s side door (along with an extra baggie of my oh-so-awesome Lifesaver mints) so it’s always easy to grab.
Now let’s take things into the backseat (oooooh!) and see what’s happening in the heart of the minivan.
One of my recent discoveries, which I mentioned in yesterday’s piece, is that I keep a bag of mini trash bags in the seatback pocket of each vehicle so we always have a fresh bag ready to go.
Each package was $1 each and they’ve been INVALUABLE for us, since we were accumulating a lot of garbage and often trucking around full grocery bags of trash, etc.
I also started tying the trash bag to the netting on the seatback pocket, rather than on the passenger armrest, so I can still reach it from the front without constantly looking at it. Also, it’s easier for the kids to put their trash in the bag since they pass it to exit the vehicle — and let’s face it, they’re the real pigs.
On the other side of the van (driver’s side), the seatback pocket holds the empty bags (ready to be used), a mini package of wipes (we don’t use many now that the kids are four and five), a pump of hand sanitizer and a mini package of tissues. All very important and therefore SUPER EASY TO GRAB.
Potty emerg. Daughter was horrified I suggested peeing in Spider-Man cup in privacy of van. Peed right in the parking lot instead, happily.
— Heather Laura Clarke (@HFXHeather) April 29, 2016
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