Family Home Evening board using transfer paper

This has been on my list of projects to do for more than a year now.  And I finally got around to it!  A Family Home Evening board.  We'll no longer be scrambling around come Monday night deciding who is going to do what.  You can buy these, but they're much cheaper to make.



I started with a piece of wood.  My friend was getting rid of this and asked if I wanted it.  While I didn't need another Christmas decoration, I knew I could use it for something else.  Perfect!  Any old piece of wood will do.



I have yet to use vinyl letters.  I'm sure they would have worked well for this project, but I didn't want to spend any money if I didn't have to.  So I decided to layout everything on the computer and then trace it on to the board.  This made it so I didn't have to measure anything and saved a lot of time.



Then I printed this out, taped it on to the board, which I painted white, and slid some yellow transfer paper between the printout and the board.



Then I traced the letters with a pen.



And they showed up as a light yellow on the board.  So simple!



From there I painted over the large letters with black paint and drew over the small letters with a thin permanent marker.  Then I screwed some hooks into the board, drilled a hole in 8 small circles, and wrote our names on the circles.  I was going to paint the circles, but I couldn't decide what color to do.  So to keep it from sitting there for who knows how long unfinished, I did a quick job with the names, knowing that I could paint over them later if I wanted to.



I'm looking forward to more organized family nights!

Mother's Day gift: homemade bookmarks

I knew I wanted to get my mom a book for Mother's Day.  I recently read The Pearl by John Steinbeck (has anyone read this?).  Not really a fuzzy, warm, feel good book, but a great story with a great message.  So I got that and decided to have the kids help make some bookmarks to go along with it (kind of a repeat... oh well... these are new and improved!)



The kids each designed one bookmark.  Then I scanned them into the computer and printed them with colorful borders.



I got them laminated like I did last time at Kinko's, then cut them out.  This time I cut out a little hole at the top and tied some embroidery floss on.



For some reason having cute bookmarks makes me want to read that much more :)

Mother's Day gift... garden markers

Living away from family forces me to be on the ball with things like Mother's Day gifts.  Normally I would be whipping something together the night before, but now I have to actually plan ahead so it has time to get there.  This year I tried to think of gifts that were thoughtful but also useful.  Gifts that the kids could help with but that wouldn't just clutter up the house.  My mother-in-law loves spending time working in the yard, so we came up with the idea to make garden markers for her vegetable garden.




I wanted to keep it as simple and natural looking as possible.  I cut the wood and nailed the pieces together, John wrote the letters, Pete used a wood burner to trace the letters, and Dan stained the wood.



I think they turned out pretty cute!  I love little kid handwriting.  I can't wait to see how they look in her garden.



Now I want to make some for our garden!

The reinforced knee patch

I don't know why all little boy pants don't come with reinforced knees.  Daniel got some pants for his birthday in February, and a few weeks ago I noticed they were getting a hole in them!  Two days later, the hole had grown to the size of a golf ball.  It seems little boy pants rarely last long enough to be passed down to the next child.  So I decided to try to stretch the life of a few pairs of the kids pants by reinforcing the knees.



These were all pants that already had holes in the knees.  They were in the pile of pants waiting to be turned into shorts.  But how many shorts do the kids really need??  Thankfully I noticed we were running low on pants before I cut these off.



I found an old apron I had that was made of thick, durable denim.  Perfect.  I cut it into squares to fit each pair of pants, ironed the edges under, pinned in place, then sewed a zig zag stitch all around it.



With the warm weather here, these pants will probably spend the next few months sitting in the drawer.  But hopefully come fall we won't have to buy anymore pants.  And hopefully these knee patches will keep the holes away... at least for a little while.

Peanut butter chocolate chip bananas

I thought I'd share what the kids love to snack on these days: banana slices topped with peanut butter and chocolate chips.  We have it probably every other day.  They'll never turn it down, and you won't hear me complaining when they request it.  It's a snack I can feel good about!


I recently came up with a much easier (and faster) way to put on the peanut butter than using a knife.  Put a spoonful in a plastic bag, cut a corner and squeeze it out.  Brilliant, I know.

Color change

For the winner of the Essential Swimwear Giveaway, see the previous post.

My mom recently passed this wool sweater from J. Crew along to me.  I can't ever turn away hand-me downs... even if I won't ever wear it, it's free fabric!  I have a tub full of old shirts, pants, sweaters and skirts, all waiting to be turned into something new.  

This sweater fit well, but after wearing it for a day I decided I just really did not like the color.  At least on me.  I was almost about to toss it in the fabric bin, until I remembered this post I saw on MADE about dyeing fabric.  Of course!  I could dye this sweater to a color I liked!

So that's what I did.  I purchased some dark brown liquid dye from Amazon and got to work.  The additional tips for dyeing from MADE were also helpful.

Ta duh! A new dark brown sweater, all for $3.49.  Not bad.

I wanted to show a close up of the buttons and stitching.  I was surprised that the buttons were dyed along with the fabric.  And interesting that the thread was not.  I guess you never know what's going to happen when dying, but I quite like how it turned out!

Essential Swimwear giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed.  See the end of this post for the winner.

Today I'm excited to bring you a giveaway from Essential Swimwear!  And just in time for summer.  My sister Brittney started this company in 2008.  She designs and sells modest, stylish swimming suits, all at a reasonable price.  She is amazing!!



In her own words:

After becoming thoroughly discouraged every season as I searched for the perfect swimsuit, I decided that it didn't exist.  I was frustrated with expensive prices, wrong fits and the hassle of searching online for hours.  Having some sewing experience, the thought came to mind, "Why don't I make my own swimsuit?"

After a lot of trial and error, I was finally able to sew swimsuits that were comfortable, stylish and flattering.  I began making swimsuits for friends and family and soon the word started spreading.

I sold hand-made women's swimsuits for two years and received an overwhelmingly positive response. I gained priceless knowledge as I personally fit hundreds of women.  I was able to discover their needs, wants and insecurities.  With this knowledge I started designing swimsuits and now have them manufactured to keep up with demand and increase quality.  

I hope you enjoy wearing these swimsuits as much as I have enjoyed designing them!

You can visit Essential Swimwear online, via blog and on Facebook.

Essential Swimwear offers tankinis, swim skirts and board shorts.  And this year they are also selling one pieces by Albion.  I love how simple and flattering all of the suits are!

This is one of my personal favorites (below): the Cappuccino Ruched Halter Top.  In fact, if you must know, it has already joined my own collection of swimsuits!  I love how the gathered sides and simple design cover up my post pregnancy imperfections... well, some of them :)  And I've already got my eyes set on the Ocean Ruffled Halter Top.  Why do I feel like I never have enough suits??



Today Essential Swimwear is generously giving away a $50 credit towards a suit of your choice!  That would buy you an entire tankini set (top and bottom) from this seasons line.  Or you could use it towards a swim skirt, board shorts, a one piece, or suits from previous seasons... oh, the possibilities!

The Blue Basket readers can also take 10% off their entire purchase at Essential Swimwear from now until Monday, May 7.  Just enter thebluebasket10 at checkout.

Here's how to enter:

Simply "like" Essential Swimwear on Facebook then leave a comment on this post (one entry per person, please).

The giveaway ends Monday at midnight.  Winner will be announced Tuesday morning.  Good luck!

And the winner is...

Alicia!  She said, "What cute suits! I would love to win one of these! Classic and stylish."

Congratulations!