Recently my granddaughter decided she wanted to “decorate” the dresser in my bedroom with some string art. Tis the season I guess! She loves to wander around our bedroom when I am settling her little brother down for his nap.
Buttons are Passe
She discovered my sewing storage unit a while ago. The drawers of buttons have been her favourite for months now. We have literally spent hours playing with those buttons. Throwing them into the air and watching them bounce, then organizing and sorting them before putting them back into their little drawers for next time. It is amazing how far they bounce, hubby and I are always discovering some tucked away all over our bedroom.
Embroidery Thread and String Art
Buttons are now passé, (although we are still finding them) she has since graduated to the drawers containing skeins and pieces of colourful embroidery thread, remnants of myDIY projects over the years.
I convinced her not to open the “new” (unopened) skeins, but could not resist indulging her creativity, so let her use her imagination to “decorate” with the smaller pieces. She now calls it string art.
Now I am wondering if I should clean up this string art (just to be recreated the next time she is here) or move it to an area less frequented so she can continue her masterpiece.
What’s Next
As the interest in string art wanes, who knows what will interest her next? I have seen her eyeing my jewelry boxes as she decorated my dresser…..perhaps that will be
A few months ago I saved an idea I saw on Facebook for future reference. It was simple DIY sewing instructions for a child’s portable bed; perfect Christmas gifts for my grandchildren. These will be great for sleepovers or just lounging around watching a movie. This past week I tackled the project and it (thankfully) was as easy as promised.
The most difficult part was finding cute and colorful pillow cases suitable for a young girl and boy. Although the instructions advised to use pillow cases for the whole portable bed and simply sew the cases together, I decided to improvise a bit and purchased themed twin sized sheet sets. My granddaughter loves pink, purple and rainbows, while my grandson is fixated on cars…
Trolls twin sheet set
I used the pillow cases for the heads and the flat sheets for the large portion of the beds. I saved the fitted sheets to take to the cottage for the (real) kids beds there. Although the instructions suggested a pillow in each section of the body, I (improvising again) used rectangular pieces of foam. To hold the foam pieces in place, I folded each flat sheet in half long ways and sewed “pockets” into them. The pillow case was a guideline to figure out the width of the pockets, with an inch added to each one.
foam pieces
I figured the flatness of the foam and the added inches between each section would make it easier to fold each portable bed up for storage when not in use…
I did use (standard sized) pillows for the heads as suggested. The beauty of this project is that the pillows and foam can easily be removed to wash the casings.
Here are the finished products, ready for use. Pretty cute if I do say so myself! I’m sure my grandchildren will gets lots of use out of them, hopefully at my house!
Gray is not my color. My hair started to turn gray when I was just 14 years old, yes 14! The boys in my classes at school used to fight to sit behind me so they could pull out the strands of gray from my very long hair. Good thing I have always had lots of hair.
By the time I was 30, my hair was very gray. This picture of me and my siblings was taken when I was 34; I’m the sister with the gray hair…
….even though I am the youngest sister and second youngest sibling. Very annoying, even though I knew it was hereditary; my father was totally white by 30.
When it was streaky gray (like the picture) people actually asked if I had it colored that way. It did kind of frame my face I guess. The straw that broke the camel’s (gray) back came later that year (still 34) when my eldest son started junior kindergarten. For a Hallowe’en party in his classroom, I dressed up as Snow White. When I took my wig off at the end of the day, one of the children said “that must be Matthew’s grandmother, she has white hair” That was when I decided that gray is not my color.
So, for years (twenty some now) I have tried various colors on my hair. I have always admired red hair on other girls, and because my dark brown hair always had natural reddish highlights in the summer, I have always aimed for reddish brown. The problem is with so much gray, the reddish brown sometimes comes out orange and I HATE orange. Even at expensive salons my hair would come out too orangy/coppery for my liking.
The solution? I finally discovered how to get the color I want by combining two shades. Yes, DIY haircolor. I do it myself, saving myself lots of money and the annoyance of paying for the wrong color. I start with a medium dark brown on the roots, then spread the rest of that color throughout my hair, then add a reddish brown in streaks on top of the medium brown, avoiding the roots. This phote was taken in the summer when my hair is always lightened by the sun, but you get the picture…
Over the years I have tried many DIY hair color products too. My choice these days is Belle Color by Garnier, in shades 50 (medium brown) and 65 (chestnut brown)…
It reminds me of a commercial (I cannot remember which one) where Penelope Cruz proclaimed (with her sultry, sexy accent) “the color I want is the color is get”
I love these Garnier products because they make my hair silky smooth (others leave it coarse and tangly) even before I condition it. Each box of hair color includes a pouch of conditioner that contains argan oil, a well-known miraculous treatment for hair…
The Garnier products are creamy (not drippy) and offer 100% gray coverage. They also have an almost pleasant smell, unlike others that reek. My color lasts three to four weeks before those returning gray roots are too obvious to hide. It is so unfair that dark roots look much better than white ones and are even quite fashionable (apparently)
These Garnier products can be purchased online through Amazon here:
