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reuse: oatmeal containers for storing artwork

oatmeal container storage

I’ve been saving our empty oatmeal containers on the top shelf of the pantry for awhile. My plan is to use them for storing my daughter’s artwork. Right now, most of what we want to keep is stored flat in my office closet, which is pretty packed. I’d like to sort and move them to the top shelf of her closet, which is pretty empty.

oatmeal container storage

Of course, she has other ideas. After taking the photo for the blog, she informed me that, “No artwork should be stored in Puppy Dog’s rocket!” As you can see, she’s also in charge of decorating the containers.

reuse: How do you reuse oatmeal containers? I think they would be great for packaging holiday cookies.

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thrifty thursday: father’s day edition

I could have posted this last Thursday, when I actually found it, but that would have ruined my Father’s Day surprise. There are very few surprises around our house where gifts are concerned, so here it is a week late.

A few weeks ago my husband was looking for some shoe polish and I told him to check the pink wicker basket in the linen closet. Yeah, I know. A pink wicker basket doesn’t seem appropriate for black, brown and cordovan polish, wooden brushes and buffing rags. Then last week, while I was wandering around a church sale not really looking for anything in particular I saw this:

ronson roto shine

Now that’s proper shoe supply storage! I checked it over briefly. It looked ok from the outside. The inside appeared to be filled with old polish tins. I figured I’d throw them out and clean it up later. When I got home and had a closer look, guess what I found!

ronson roto shine

Not only was everything there, but it worked! I was pretty excited. I think for once I actually surprised my husband and he seems to really like it. Now the question is: how well does it work?

church sales: This year church sales have been mostly a bust for me. Usually they are filled with garage sale leftovers. I don’t know if people are holding on to things longer or they are selling more at their sales. I still go to them because they’re inside and it’s much easier to keep an eye on my daughter while I look around. Plus, there’s always such a wide assortment of things that get donated. You never know what you’ll find!

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cool birthday gift idea for boys

I was at the bookstore the other night and found a book called How to Draw Cool Cars.* These weren’t your average cool cars, but super fast ones like Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lamborghini — you get the idea. I had never seen anything like it and knew I needed to get it for Wyatt’s ninth birthday.

A few years ago I made a bunch of crayon rolls, including one for Wyatt with car fabric. You can’t really draw a Lamborghini with crayon, though. It just doesn’t seem right. So, I made him a much more grown-up colored pencil roll.

felt pencil roll

I have this really nice, thick wool felt that I got at a garage sale a few years ago. I never knew what to do with it, but it had Japanese characters printed on it with a sparkly gold ink. I knew I had to save it. I was so glad I did. It was perfect for this project!

felt pencil roll

I saved the printed part of the wool for myself. It will make a cool crochet hook roll, don’t you think?

stash: If you don’t have a use for a certain fabric right away, but it speaks to you somehow, I recommend keeping it in your stash. It might just be waiting for the perfect project to come along.

*I can’t find the exact book online, but this one looks similar.

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a million little pieces

Ok. That’s a little bit of an exaggeration. I’m talking about all of the Christmas toys that come with too many pieces and nothing in which to store them. I have to give a thumbs up to the folks who designed M’s drum. They put a handle on it, so you can turn it upside down and store the drumsticks and other instruments inside. Brilliant!

Her awesome eco-friendly tea set could have used an awesome eco-friendly tote or basket, though. And it would have been great if her cute wooden “paper” doll set came with a cute wooden lid. Plus, there is the growing collection of matchbox cars and Thomas trains. I needed to get control over all these bits and pieces, so I sewed up a bunch of drawstring bags last weekend.

These were super easy and economical. I bought the set of fat quarters from Michael’s with my 50% off coupon, the ribbon came from a thrift store and the muslin lining came from one of my amazing garage sale fabric scores last summer. Total for all of the bags: about $4. I love these so much, I’m thinking of making some for my knitting projects. M thinks they’re pretty cool, too.

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crafty storage tutorial on whipup.net

During the month of November, whipup.net is featuring tutorials, ideas and stories for refashioning, re-using, up-cycling and recycling items made of paper, cloth, yarn or plastic. I submitted a tutorial for turning prescription bottles into useful storage containers and it was posted today! Go check it out!