Easy Outfit Shopping List, My Thrift Store Friend

When those days come around that Savers has 50% off their clothing it is a day I get ready to shop!

But how does one sort though all those racks for just the right pieces to complete your wardrobe?

My Style Pinboard

Pinterest has helped me put some pretty neat outfits together while out thrift shopping. I just pin outfits I think are cute into my style board so when I get ready to shop, I have some idea of what to shop for, but I have mostly gone from memory when I get to the store. This has left me forgetting to look for some important pieces, and spending too much time looking at things trying to decide if I like it or not.

I know I like my style pinboard on pinterest so I started to write down some of the pieces I need to look for. But my descriptions of grey sweater leave way to much to my imagination. Even if I get specific with my descriptions they are not always easy to decipher.

So that is when I got the idea of printing off my pinterst style board. I suggest you do so in color as well so that you remember what colors to look for. Now I am set to head off to my favorite thrift stores to shop for the pieces I am missing from the outfits I have pinned.



All I need is at a glance!

To make sure all your pins fit onto your page, go to File, then select Print Preview. Then select the shrink to fit option. If you choose 50% all your pins should fit on the page width wise. You can also adjust the side margins by dragging the dotted lines on the preview page. It can take a bit for the photos to load to the preview page so be patient and don't worry if you are staring at a blank page for a few extra seconds.

Before I head out I plan on printing off my sewing inspiration boards too. You never know when you can upcycle a good thrift piece into a great new piece.

Sewing Stuff

Kids Sewing Fashion Inspiration

Savers does happen to have 50% off summer clearance today (August 21st) for Super Saver Card Members.
So head there and sign up for the Super Savers Club today. It is free and is not a credit card, just a perks type of card.
Happy Shopping!

Grab and Go Granola Bars.

You should totally try this!!!


I honestly wonder how many hours of my life are spent grabbing granola bars, cereal bars, or Baby MumMum's for the people in my life. I know not the healthiest things, but not bad for a quick grab snack.

Think about it, you spend time taking the box out of the cupboard, then opening the box, grabbing the bar, opening the bar, tossing the wrapper away. Closing the box which the flaps are usually ripped and don't work right to close. Plus the mysterious empty boxes that get left in the cabinet that you don't know are empty.

Well Nutri-Grain Bars has cut my time down and solved the empty box or multiple box issue. They have a dotted line on their boxes now that let's you rip them down so that you can store your bars in the cabinet like this..



You can do this with any granola bar box. Just cut the top off, it doesn't even need to have a fancy angle like the Nutri-Grain box. You can also fit WAY more snacks in the box than what comes in them.

You only have to cut the box once then just refill the box when you get a new box, and recycle the other boxes.



I can't explain how nice this is!! I know it seems crazy that I am doing a whole post about this, but you will have to try it for yourself. I didn't realize how much of a haste grabbing and dealing with the boxes was until I did it this way. So much more organised. Multiple boxes don't have to take up cabinet space. We also don't end up accidentally opening more than one box because we can always see if there is the kind we want with the boxes cut this way.



Funny how something so simple can be so amazing. You should totally try this!

Baby Bottle or Cup Leash

Put a stop to the famous Uh-oh game by making one of these!



What is the Uh-oh game? Well it is that nice little game young children like to play when they are sitting in a highchair, or stroller, car seat, or even sometimes on your lap. The game where they take whatever they are holding and drop it on the ground and then look at you and say.... "Uh-oh" Then you pick it up for them and it repeats over and over and over again until you go insane.

Well I had an uh-oh child last summer and we were heading to Disney! Not exactly the best place to be playing the Uh-oh game. Don't want to keep stopping every 30 seconds to grab sippy cups off the ground, nor did I want to search for a place to disinfect them once they have traveled to the ground either. So I came up with this little project and it worked great!

What you need:

Ribbon of Choice- I used 3/4" ribbon



Veggie Rubber band- The kind that comes on the bottom of your broccoli

I used as sewing machine but you really don't need to.
You can also get fancy and use Velcro but not needed either.

How:
Take your ribbon, you may want to melt the ends a little with a lighter or match so that they don't fray. Then string one end through the rubber band and sew it back onto itself so that it is attached around the rubber band. Be careful not to sew the rubber band. It will make it week and it will break easier and not last as long. If you do not sew, then do a good old double knot.
Then you will have this.



Then attach it to your favorite bottle.



Or cup.



Or Tummy Tickler bottles (love these by the way, never leak! We reuse them for water.)



Then head out to your stroller and look for a good place to attach it. We use the metal bar on the side of ours. Measure how long you will need your string to be. You want it short enough that the bottle will not touch the ground with dropped but long enough that it will still get to your child's mouth and to the cup holder if you have one. Then tie the end onto the stroller in a double knot. (you can get fancy and do Velcro, but I don't have the time to get too fancy and knots hold better any day.)



Not only did it keep the drinks near the children all day to keep them hydrated, it saved us from going crazy! If one of kids dropped their water bottles, they just grabbed the ribbon and were able to fish it back up themselves! The drinks were always accessible to them, and we never once had to pick a drink up from the dirty ground.

Other possible uses:
Take it off the stroller and tie it to the highchair at the resturant. Attach it to a car seat for older kids on long car trips. Use it for other things such as toys or stuffed animals.

Food Prep Idea for Kids Birthday Parties

Kids parties can be hard to handle. Kids running everywhere. I have been at many young kids parties this year and just saw a few things that didn't work so well.
For example, young children don't know how much food to take. They get excited and grab way more than they need or will ever eat ending up wasting most of it because they want to play anyway.
I have also seen parents circle the table with bowls of chips handing out food constantly the whole party while children bark out demands for more. Running around getting serving food makes it hard to control the group of children as well.

I wanted to avoid being tied down to the table during the party and wanted to be free to take pictures and enjoy myself too, so I came up with this time saving proactive idea.

I grabbed all the serving trays we had at our house, if you don't have trays you can use cookie sheets. I prepped correct portions sizes in little plastic cups and placed them on the tray. Then I took the tray and placed it in the middle of the table. At my daughter's last party we did three things involving food. Cookie wands, Pizza making, and of course eating. I had everything set to go so children only needed to take one of each cup if they wished to have it. If a child didn't care for carrots they didn't need to take the cup with carrots in it. This worked really well and when they were done with their food project or eating their plates and empty cups went back on the tray making cleanup super easy and the table clear and ready for the next birthday activity. It does take a little prep work but the pay off to just relax and enjoy with easy clean up is more than worth it!

Wheel and Axle Snack.

Sometimes you just need fast easy food to grab for your kids on the way to soccer and such. Well my crew consists of 3 kids under 5 years old. To find something they can all eat with minimal mess in the car is pretty hard. That is why I just had to post this idea. It was fun, and enjoyed my all my kids.

Buy a bag of mini bagels. We found ours at our Hy-vee grocery store and once my kids discovered them they are now a staple at our house for breakfast, snacks and sometimes meals on the go. You things with these bagels such as mini pizzas, peanut butter, or traditonal cream cheese.



But for this little idea you are going to need your choice of cheese sticks. String or Colby Jack are the favoirtes around our house but there are many kinds on the market these days.



Some of you may already know where this is headed. But if you look at this bagel what would the logical thing be to do with the cheese stick.





Very portable, fun, non messy, filling for my crew, and easy to eat in the car. They love them!

Art Splat Mat

This is not a project more of an idea/time saver. We do a lot of paint projects in our house and I got tired of always putting down newspaper before we painted not to mention that newspaper never stayed put too well and paint soaked through it.
I happened across a free piece of poster board that had a smudge of paint on it and knew that this was our new official "Art Splat Mat". We keep it in a cabinet in our kitchen. When we are going to paint, or use large amounts of glue I take it out and put it on the table and we are ready to go without searching for or messing with newspaper. We can let projects dry on it and have never had a problem with paint soaking through. My son even enjoys just adding some of the leftover paint to it just for fun. Saves time, reusable, a must have at our house with three little ones.

Isn't it beautiful??? I may have to frame it and hang it someday!