A Packing List

We get out of the house a lot. And I don't just mean that in a non-sheltered sort of way.

My husband frequently travels for business and we love to go along for the ride. Besides work, we really like poking around new places. Familiar places, too.

Pre-parenthood, we'd throw some stuff in the car and leave town for the weekend on a whim. No biggie. 20 minutes to throw things into a suitcase and we were out the door.

But with two kiddos, that type of spontaneity is limited. It's not the kids themselves--they're easy--it's their stuff. The bedding and snacks and diapers and stroller and car activities and extra outfits if they have an accident. It all takes so much more thought now.

Last-minute travel planning is a thing of the past in this house... at least for now. I fought off the structure as long as I could, man.

Here's my new, organized and responsible packing list. Cute cars included.

Fabric-Covered Notebook and Album

Summer is almost here...

Are you as ready as I am?

I've been planning some fun things that I want to do this year like going to the pool and the beach, taking a weekend trip to pick fresh peaches, cheering for our local minor-league baseball team, the Fourth of July fireworks show.

Ahhhh. I love this perfect time of year.

I'm a list-maker and I wanted a pretty notebook to keep by my side or in my purse for planning.

So I painted the top of my spiral with Mod Podge and laid fabric on top, smoothing it out with my fingers. Then I painted another layer of Mod Podge over it and let it dry. 

The big "E" was made with yarn and a hot glue gun. I added ribbon to the edges to cover the less-than perfect cut fabric.

This also works really nicely on photo albums for gifts or your coffee table.

Look at my little stink three summers ago.

I love it.



Shared with: Fingerprints on the Fridge

Guest Tutorial: Closet Tags with "She Wears Flowers"

My friend, Tammy, from She Wears Flowers is here today! Her blog is amazing--filled with beautiful pictures and wonderful crafts. She is even writing a how-to-sew series that you don't want to miss! 

So hurry over to her blog and get to know Tammy!

Hi! I’m Tammy from she wears flowers

and I’m thrilled to be at In Between Laundry today!

I blog to avoid the laundry—forget about in between! {haha!} I started blogging to document and share my crafting experiences. I like a whole lotta crafty stuff especially sewing. With three girls of my own, I keep pretty busy!

Here are some of my favorite projects. 

I hope you’ll stop by and see what I have going on!
I’m going to share a little organizing idea with you today.

It is super easy and quick—two things I love with crafts!

I have one darling daughter who is a little nUtTy in the mornings before school. One way to minimize the craziness is for her to have her clothes picked out the night before. That works until…she gets upset because she already wore something she actually wanted to wear later in the week. I only do laundry one day a week which created a problem.
So I created closet tags—a handy way to quickly sort and choose her clothes so she can plan it all out ahead of time! 

Whether you have a child (or you!) who needs a little organization each week or you want to sort clothes within your closet, these little tags can help in all kinds of ways. I wish I had made them when my twins were tiny (but not the same tiny size) and I had to keep sorting and resorting their clothes!
Let’s make these tags!

Materials

fabric – variety of colors

Heat N Bond Ultra (no sew)

ribbon – 9 inches per tag

pinking shears (optional)

scissors

iron

tag template

Instructions

Make a template for your tags. I actually traced around my phone and then made my tag a little bigger. My tags are about 3 inches wide x  4 1/2 inches tall. I rounded the corners, but it really wasn’t necessary since you can do it at the end with pinking shears.
Cut your Heat N Bond into rectangles that are a little wider than your template and as long as (or tall as for this picture) twice the height of your template. (My rectangles are roughly 3 1/4 wide x 9 1/2 inches tall, but I cut it a little close as you will see later—give yourself enough room to work.)

Adhere Heat N Bond to each fabric section following the instructions on the package.

Cut the rectangle away from your fabric so you don’t have any bulk.

Trace your template directly onto the Heat N Bond two times. Cut out. Peel off paper backing from Heat N Bond.

Fold one tag down the length to find the center.

Place the ribbon along the center on the side with the Heat N Bond with about 2 inches on the tag.

 The Heat N Bond will be just a little tacky and will hold the ribbon if you don’t move it around.

Place the matching tag on top of this with the Heat N Bond sides together. Iron both sides.

Repeat for the other tags, pink the edges with your pinking shears and you’re done!

The ribbon easily loops over the hanger

We have to deal with shirts or dresses, mainly, so it only takes one hanger, but if you need to loop over a few that works, too!
There is no day designated on the tag (although you could do that, too!) but at least I know there are 6 or 7 days’ worth of outfits planned for the week. I don’t press the issue on Sundays although she wears TWO outfits that day—church and play clothes! Since Monday is my laundry day, she usually has limited choices so it all works out!

I hope you find these closet tags useful, too!

 

Be sure to stop by she wears flowers and tell me what you think!

Thanks, Erin, for letting me share a project on your wonderful blog! It’s always so fun here!

Guest Tutorial: DIY Wire Baskets with Attempting Aloha

I adore these wire baskets-- they are officially added to my to-do-sies. Thanks so much, Charlie!

Aloha, In Between Laundry friends!!
My name is Charlie (pink, not blue), and I write a little blog called Attempting Aloha.

Today I'm going to share a tutorial on making your own wire baskets! Everyone loves a great knock-off, right?  Well, good old PB and Ballard have some lovely wire baskets I've been coveting but can't part with my cheap-o side and fork out $30 a pop for them.

Pottery Barn

Ballard Design

So I went ahead and made a few of my own!



Here's what you'll need:
1) Hardware cloth (wire mesh thingie stuff). I bought mine at a small local hardware store. It's 2' x 10' and cost just under $8.

 2) Wire cutter thingies. I found these in my husband's tool stash. If yours doesn't have one, just ask your local hardware store for wire cutter thingies, and they'll send you to the right section. ;)

 3) Floral wire. I used both 20 gauge and 26. The 26 was cheaper and worked better. Sweet. ;)

Be aware that the edges can be very sharp, so use gloves if you aren't comfortable working with the wire mesh, and you'll want to cut right up close to one of the verticle wires in order to keep from having sharp edges. :)
First, you will need to decide what size you want your baskets to be, and draw up a little sketch, so you can measure and cut one piece out. I used sizes close to the Ballard and PB hanging baskets, but I also created a few smaller ones for our hair supplies that are 5" wide x 4" tall x 11" deep.
The wall ones I made measured 12" wide x 4" deep x 10" tall. I calculated that to wrap a piece around the 10" tall back and 4" deep bottom and 10" tall front, I would need 24". PERFECT since the "cloth" is 24" wide.  I cut across one side 20" (12" wide front plus two 4" "wings" that will be the sides).
Side note: I chose to cut them this way in order to reduce the amount wasted. This way, the next one could be flipped on the opposide side, and I only "wasted" a small patch.
Here's what it looked like after being cut out (Step 1 for anyone who's counting):

HERE'S A PIC WITH THE MEASUREMENTS FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS IT REALLY SPELLED OUT.

 Step 2: Make your creases/folds along the "wings" and then around the bottom and up the back.

Step 3: Unfold and give it a little bit of shape. Don't stress too much about the form, though, until after we "sew" the sides together.

Step 4: Cut your floral wire about 1.5x the size of the side you're going to sew up. So for your 4" sides, cut it about 6". For the 12" side, cut it about 18".
Start at one end, and pull the wire almost all the way through. Leave about 1" hanging out, and wrap through that first square a couple times, then weave it up the side. I hit every square because I preferred the look, but every other also gets a good effect and saves on time...totally up to you.

Step 5: Trim the ends of your wire, and shape your basket out! Easy as that. So for less than $3, and in under 1 hour, I saved $75-90 (depending on the catalog we're hacking here)!

 And here they are all prettied up in my mom cave. I created a few labels and printed them out on photo paper, cut them out and then cut out a piece of fabric and sandwiched the mesh and some hot glue between the label and the fabric. Easy to swap out, looks like funky chalkboard paint, but no dust. :)

 Curious how I hooked them to the walls??  I researched extensively, tried numerous hooks and nails, and eventually I came up with an innovative idea...wait for it... STAPLES!  Yep. Good ol' staple gun across the top. Leaves tiny holes, so they're super easy to hide and/or paint over without patching when the time comes. I'm sure there are a million other ways to hang them, but this is what I had on hand, and it got the job done.

Check out what else I decided to craft up for some of them:

Ahhh... Lovin' the pleated ruffles and contrast of the drop cloth and wire mesh. I'm actually jealous of my magazines. :)
Here are the smaller ones for our hair accessories:

So with the one $8 hardware cloth, I made 3 large baskets, 3 small baskets, and I also used a couple feet for another project I'll be showing later.
Total cost per large basket with pleated liner is approximately $1.50. The small baskets are about $.75 WITH liners. Pretty awesome, right?
Comparison: 
My three baskets:  $4.50
Three PB Baskets: $72
Three Ballard Baskets: $87
(And mine have liners...)
PLUS...you can customize mine for any space! Pretty stinking awesome!!

Thanks again, Erin!!
Aloha,
charlie