Mom Hack: cotton swab paintbrushes

Sometimes, the worst part of crafting with kids is the clean-up afterwards. This past summer, when we were painting rocks like crazy, I was so excited when I realized that cotton swabs work perfectly for little paintbrushes!

I cut them in half, and they're the perfect size for my 3 year old to hold. When we're all done painting, they go straight in the trash and I don't have to wash any paint brushes. Win!

I'll be linking up to Tip Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie.

Pumpkin Carving Tip

If you're carving pumpkins in the near future, be sure to pull out your ice cream scoop! Ours worked perfectly to pull the string goop away from the pumpkin when I was cooking one last year and I'm sure it will work perfectly for carving jack-o-lanterns too!

Bobbin Organizers

I have a lovely sewing desk that I inherited from my mother-in-law and I love having an actual desk to put all of my random sewing supplies in, but my bobbins were causing trouble! I’m sure you understand…bobbins rolling everywhere, getting unwound and tangled, making a terrible mess :). Until I saw this pin from Pinterest and my life changed…

I had a bunch of the toe separators from random pedicure kits given to me and all of my bobbins are neatly rolled up and contained with an easy way to see what color thread is on each one…so there you have it, Toe Separator Bobbin Organizers. Try it out!

I’ll be linking up to Mommy Solutions, Mom’s Library, Works For Me Wednesday,

(I would have linked to the original post that I found through the pin, but apparently it doesn’t exist anymore…)

Stuffed Animal Basket

If you don’t want to deal with a hammock, but the stuffed animals are overrunning your house, try putting some in a basket and hanging it from the ceiling.
It looks like the animals are in a hot air balloon basket looking down at you and, for us, it keeps the stuffed animals safely out of the way.
I’ll be linking up to Works For Me Wednesday, Mommy Solutions, and Mom’s Library.

How to Pit Cherries

My mom is very proud of her bumper crop of cherries this year and called me very excitedly a week or so ago exclaiming her brilliance in figuring out how to pit cherries with, of all things, icing tips! I have to admit, it’s pretty clever…

Instead of buying a cherry pitter, or using chop sticks or bobby pins as others had suggested, she used icing tip #32 and was able to whip through a huge batch of cherries in no time with 2 tips and both hands. This is something kids can easily do. Then you can freeze or can your cherries!

Thanks Mom!

I’m linking up to Homemaker Monday, Market Yourself Monday , Making Monday Marvelous, Don’t Waste Your Homemaking, Mommy Monday, Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays, and Works for Me Wednesday.

Prevent Boiling Over

If you have ever let your pot boil over it isn’t pretty, but thanks to We Are That Family, I’ve learned a new trick to prevent it…a wooden spoon. You just have to lay a wooden spoon across the top of the pot and your water will not boil over!
I had to test this out for myself and it really does work. I had the stove burner on hi, added my noodles and set the spoon across the top. The bubbles would rise to just over the edge of the pot but they never boiled over. Sweet!

Dryer Tip: Foil Ball

I normally try to avoid using my dryer, but there are times when I’m in a rush or for whatever reason do need the dryer, in which case I still don’t want to use dryer sheets…the residue builds up on clothing, reduces absorbency in towels, and can build up film on your lint screen and other interior parts of your dryer.

For the above reasons, I was very grateful when my husband shared this link from Lifehacker. All you need is a tightly wadded ball of foil in the dryer to reduce static in your clothing without having to pay for dryer sheets! I’ve used the same ball for the past several weeks and though it doesn’t completely eliminate static, it decreases the static a great amount and definitely works for me!

I’m linking up to Mommy Club Wednesday, Family Time Tuesday, Works for Me Wednesday.

Bias Tape

Look what I made!

I know it’s not terribly impressive looking, but I made my own bias tape, thanks to Dana over at Made…if you’ve ever thought about trying to make your own, go check her tutorial out. I don’t have the bias tool she uses in her tutorial but was able to just fold and iron with the measurements she provides and now I have a massive amount of maroon bias tape :).

Just thought you’d like to know.

Spray Bottle vs Water Gun

I got to spend some time recently with my best friend’s mom who used to run a day care. When I told her about the fact my boys were given water guns she explained how she learned to buy cheap spray bottles instead because…

• They don’t run out of water as quickly, meaning you have to refill them a lot less often
• They cool kids off faster
• Younger kids are able to squeeze the trigger much easier than on a water gun
• They tend to last longer (one of our water guns has already died)

Brilliant, no?! Those water guns are nearly impossible to refill, especially for children so I think next time I’m on the lookout for something to cool off during the summer, I will get some dollar store spray bottles and let my kids have at it.

I’ll be linking up at Works for Me Wednesday.

How to Get Rid of Hiccups

Have you ever had a humiliating hiccup attack…like when you’re trying to talk to someone important and *hic!* *hic!* *hic!*? The trick to get rid of them is to hold your breath, count to 10 and swallow twice before breathing again. The tricky part is swallowing twice but it works for me and it’s what I tell poor souls in the middle of a hiccup attack. I swear by it!

What works for you in getting rid of hiccups?

Getting Blood Out

A few weeks ago, I hosted a giveaway for Purex with Zout. The prompt for the mandatory entry was to tell me what stain is the hardest to get out of laundry. The number one stain mentioned was blood.

Frankly, I was baffled. Why? Because I rarely have trouble getting blood out, and it really is not difficult:

As soon as a piece of clothing gets blood on it, take it off and soak it in cold water. The water itself does a fantastic job getting blood out, but if there’s still some blood on your clothing, spray it with your usual stain treater and wash in cold water.

If the article of clothing still has some blood on it, do NOT dry it in the dryer (heat will set the stain)…wash it again.

How do you get blood stains out of clothes?

I’m linking up to Works for Me Wednesday, Homemaker Monday, and Don’t Waste Your Homemaking.

Perfectly Shaped Eggs

My husband is a genius…I mean the guy was potty trained at 9 months so how could he not be :) (we just acquired his baby book!). With that genius, he comes up with the most random hacks to make his life better, and cooking eggs to the same size as his English biscuits is no exception!

How did he do it? After looking around the kitchen, he found his solution in the lid to a canning jar.

Some tips we’ve learned after doing this a few times:

Cheap, Green Coloring Pages

Right now, K is obsessed with coloring which I am absolutely thrilled about. It’s so fun watching the gradual development of coordination over time as he colors more and more.

My husband, being in law school, goes through paper like crazy and though much of his paper is printed double sided, there’s still plenty of one-sided paper.

Our solution to both scenarios above? Print coloring pages on the back of hubby’s law school paper. K will instruct me as to what he wants to color and all I have to do is search google or Swagbucks for “car coloring pages” or whatever he asked for. I can fit several images on one sheet and K is happy as a peach! This works with paper we receive in the mail or otherwise inherit as well.

K has enjoyed this so much that we have to limit him to one page a day, but this is just a fun, frugal way to entertain him.

I’m linking up to Works For Me Wednesday.

Car Tissue Holder

Allergies are in full swing and many people have to make sure they have tissues with them wherever they go. For me, that means having a box in the car. Since we have a sedan, there’s really no where to store a whole box of tissues, and a box of tissues can suffer a lot in our car, but Parent Hacks solved my dilemma!

Use a hard baby wipes container for your tissues. It’s the perfect size and the tissues won’t get smashed, torn, or dirty even on the floor of your car. Even with my two boys, this container has held up to months of stomping, jumping, and more without even popping open.

I’m linking up to Works for Me Wednesday and Homemaker Monday.

Numbering Comments Tutorial

After hosting several giveaways, I became very envious of bloggers who had numbered comments for each blog post but couldn’t find a tutorial on how to do this for Blogger blogs (everything I found was for Word Press!).

When I saw a tutorial on Design It Chic for numbering post comments I was ecstatic…so ecstatic that I had to share it with you. Seriously, if you’ve been trying to figure out how to number comments, go check it out! This is especially a life saver if you offer giveaways on your blog with entries being in the comment section. You can thank me after you thank Design It Chic :)

Get the Stink out of Dishcloths

When my husband and I got married, my mother-in-law gave me a beautiful, colorful batch of dishcloths that she had crocheted. Having been raised in a sponge home, it took me a while, but eventually I began to use and enjoy the benefits of dishcloths.

The downside? After a while, they can start to stink…if you’ve had stinky dishcloths you know exactly what I’m talking about! I had tried washing them and adding vinegar to the load but the smell was just as bad.

A while ago, I read somewhere in the blogosphere to soak the dishcloths in pure vinegar and I did overnight. Make sure they are completely immersed. I then washed them as normal, and guess what?! No stink! I was so excited that I can keep using the dishcloths my mother-in-law made since she passed away 2 years ago and I really don’t have many things from her.

Have you found any other methods that work to get the stink out?

Teaching Kids to Eat Veggies

There are very few parents in this world who have never had to struggle to get their kids to eat their veggies. I am not one of them.

Now that K is old enough to hold a conversation and understand more, I have found that he is much more willing to eat his veggies and other foods if he understands the part that those foods play in his body. As soon as I explain that beans have protein and will make his muscles strong, he gobbles them up!

All my husband and I have to do is look up the nutritional value of whatever we are eating and dinner goes so much smoother for us.

I have even found that when I understand the role a food has in my health, I am more willing to eat it, and make sure to incorporate it into my diet. I always knew that peas were good for you, but had no idea that they were high in vitamin A, vitamin C, B vitamins and lutein (thanks Wikipedia).

Eating healthy…convincing my kids to eat healthy…that works for me.