Ear pins

A few weeks ago the ladies over at JustCraftyEnough.com had a green challenge for the IronCraft challenge.

I took this opportunity to make some ear pins after having seen some on pinterest.  They were actually quite quick to make.

I took two bead pins with flat heads, threaded my beads on and then bent them.

So you put them on like regular earrings and then turn them so the wire clips them against your ear to hold them in place.

Maybe some day, I'll be up to making some like these.

WFMW: Weekly Bible Verse

As part of my goals for the new year, I'm doing something each week to help bring my kids closer to God.  This week, we started a weekly Bible verse for them to memorize.  We've had them in the past, that they've brought home from church, but it often was just added to the stack of papers on the table.

So, I've decided to make it more visible for us by using a dry erase marker and writing on our sliding glass door. (Our blinds are in between the glass).

Is it the perfect solution? Not really, there's a lot of glare during dinner when we're reading it because of the light) but it's working for us until I find something better.  It is right next to the kitchen table where we can all see it though. The girls have almost memorized this verse and my husband has picked out next week's verse.

Do you display a weekly verse for your family? How do you do it?

For more great ideas, check out the Works for Me Wednesday link up at We are THAT Family.

To follow my new years' goals check out Five for the New Year.

New Blog!

I started a new blog a few weeks ago.  Come check it out.
Five For the New Year.

I'll still blog here too, this just provides a little separation between my new years resolutions/goals and everything else.

IC 2013 Challenge 2: Orange basket

This "week" the challenge was the color orange.  And for me, that truly is a challenge since, it's no where near my top favorite color.  But, I did happen to have some orange fabric in my stash and I also had some more organizing to do.

In our kitchen, there's a small counter next to the refrigerator that is for the phone.  But our phone mounts on the wall, so we use it to keep the girls brushes, etc right now since we still help with their hair some and usually do it right after breakfast.  The problem is it is always looking cluttered.

I took a box that I had, covered it in white fabric (I just hot glue it to the outside of the box) and then I sewed a liner for it out of the orange floral fabric I had.  Then, I put all the tall bottles and the hair brushes in the box.  Now, there is actually counter visible and we're not constantly knocking stuff off.

For more great Orange projects, check out the IronCraft Flickr pool.

IC1: Bean Bag Storage

Stuffed Animals, they're EVERYWHERE! They're in pretty much every room of our house (except the bathrooms, but don't think that my daughters haven't tried to change that!).  The problem is most of them have a story or some other sort of emotional attachment.  For example this guy:

His name is Bear Bear. For a while, he went everywhere with my oldest.  She gave him the name Bear Bear on a trip to the doctors office when she was about 2.

Then, there are the ones that my husband has won for them from those claw machines you see in some restaurants, the ones they got on vacation, a gift from Grandma, etc.  We've got a lot!

I don't want to get rid of them, but I would like to store them in a better way.  They've outgrown the boxes/bins that we're using currently. And it looks a bit cluttered.

Then, I saw this pattern for a bean bag chair and remembered somewhere seeing a "bean" bag chair that was "stuffed" with stuffed animals.  It seemed like a great solution and I have a lot of fabric already (plus it only takes 3 yards if you don't line it, which I didn't).  So when the first Iron Craft Challenge for 2013 was Cotton, I decided to give it a try!

I also used a zipper instead of velcro to keep it closed.  

Check out other great cotton projects in the IronCraft Flickr group.

This is definitely working for us.  For more great tips check out the Works for Me Wednesday post at WeAreThatFamily.com.