Madeon Hard Lotion Sale

Our favorite lotion - Madeon Hard Lotion is having a free shipping weekend.  Use the code "backtoschool" for free shipping Friday and Saturday.  This is the only lotion that has helped Lucy's severe dry hands in the past.  We're big fans of the hard lotion bars and the Beesilk jr for soft baby skin.  Stock up now for winter!  :)

Bedroom Organizing

The great end-of-summer house cleaning has begun!  Here is a look at the girls' bedroom before we tackled it the other day.  Sadly, this was in its "clean" state; it pretty much always looked like this or worse.

We made more of a mess while cleaning.

And there's still a mess in the playroom downstairs.  We're working on it.

But they love their peaceful bedroom now!

 I gave the girls a big pep talk before we started.  We live in a small two bedroom house, and just can't continue piling up things and filling our house!  I talked to them about making space to play, getting rid of what we don't love and keeping what we enjoy most.  We talked about how "things" are to be used and enjoyed, not hoarded, and sometimes that means giving those things to someone else who will use and enjoy them.  Someday we may have a bigger house, but this is what we have now and we need to fit into it!  They know that other people do not even have homes and we are very blessed to have the one that we live in.  While we wish for a bigger one, we should do the best we can with our little house.  (This was a pep talk to myself as well.)

I am so proud of them for making good choices!  They got rid of an entire laundry basket full of stuffed animals, threw away lots of random papers and junk, and chose to pass along some things we didn't need anymore.  They LOVE their new baby doll corner and all the space that they have to play now.  We moved the toy shelf to a downstairs room that we are working on organizing as well.  That is a bigger project that requires purchasing some new shelves, but hopefully that will happen soon.  I've been very overwhelmed with our house and it feels great to be organizing it now.  We tackled the hallway school cupboard and several other messy spots this week too.  My bedroom bookshelves will be getting whipped into shape tomorrow!

From the Sewing Machine

Here are some of the fun easy things I have sewn lately:

This is a skirt that I picked up at Costco.  I sewed one seam down the back, cutting off the extra fabric.  We then sewed ribbon on the top for straps.  Its adorable on Lucy, almost floor length, which she loves.

Julia got to choose fabric for her "6" shirt, a birthday tradition around here!  I made a skirt for Julie (her doll) with the extra.

These skirts are made of material we found at Field's Fabric store.  The ruffle around the bottom was already sewn on.  All I did was a seam down the back.  These are a great longer length on the girls which is hard to find in stores.

I saw this cute bug and butterfly fabric and couldn't resist.  I'm sewing pillowcases for the girls.  Maybe I'll stash them away for Christmas.

Are you working on any fun projects lately?  I love sewing and it makes me happy when I can fit in little bits of time to do a few simple things.

A Cozy Pack N Play

We live in a small two bedroom house... with four kids.  The second bedroom is quite full.  Two dressers, twin bunkbeds, a toddler bed, and a small toy shelf fill the room.  So where does Isaac sleep?  He sleeps with us right now, but eventually he will move to a pack n play in our room.  I am getting it set up and my plan is to start using it for naps and go from there.  In the past, my babies haven't liked the pack n play, but I think I found a way to make it pretty comfy for him.

I discovered a pack n play mattress on Amazon!  Genius!  Who wants to sleep on a hard bumpy pack n play bottom anyway?

This is the pack n play we bought:

And here is the pack n play mattress! (The description says it fits a square pack n play, which is obviously not true.)  It fits perfectly.

I also bought this organic waterproof mattress cover.  We have the crib size on Esther's toddler bed and love it.  These are very soft and comfortable and not crinkly at all.  I took a chance with the sizing on this one since it wasn't exactly the measurements I was looking for, but its stretchy enough that it works just fine.  (You can see it on the mattress in my photo above.)

These organic sheets fit over top of it all (get two!).  Again, I love these.  They are stretchy, soft, and comfortable.  I used this same brand in a different size on our co-sleeper.

Oh, and the kitty in the top picture is "Diddy".  Isaac is obsessed with kitties and was so excited when I got him his own diddy.  He is so cute snuggling with it!

Pinterest Find: Toothbrush Travel Towel

I love easy sewing projects!  This one didn't take long at all (except for the pulling Isaac off the chair, away from the sewing machine, off the middle of the table, and so on...).  :)

This was my Pinterest inspiration.  I grabbed the hand towel today at Kohl's with one of those $10 off anything in the store coupons.  Some of the other towel toothbrush holders I saw on Pinterest had pretty ribbons on them, but I decided to use elastic so that the kids could easily close it up.

A few tips:
wash the towel before sewing.
put the ribbon or elastic in the side seam before you sew that up.
make your spaces a variety of widths to fit various sizes of toothbrushes.
make some big spaces for toothpaste.

I love this!  No more gunky plastic baggies or toothbrushes getting germy and infected.  I can just throw this in the wash and be all set.  I am excited to try it out on our upcoming cottage vacation.

Easy peasy!  Let me know if you have any questions.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Spread (Dairy Free)

Before we were gluten and dairy free, it was a birthday tradition to have Nutella toast for breakfast.  Not wanting to disappoint my kids, I've searched for homemade Nutella recipes many times, but have never made them.  I mean really, who has time to go out and find hazelnuts and roast them and... yeah....  I finally came up with a good solution.  Julia was thrilled that she got to have "Nutella" toast for her sixth birthday this morning!!

(Ok, this is not Nutella, but its chocolatey and sweet and spreadable and totally works for us.  Try it and let me know what you think.  Its also a ton cheaper than the all-natural hazelnut spreads out there.)

1/2 cup peanut butter (no sugar added; if yours has sugar in it, use less honey)
1/2 cup honey (can also use maple syrup for a different flavor)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla

Mix and eat!  :)