Fabric Barn

What do you get when you combine a thin red Delta blanket with a diaper box? A barn of course... right? Here is how its done....

 get a diaper box, or any thick cardboard box for that matter, this one had some pretty convenient creases so I chose it, the two white flaps for the side were flaps on a diaper box.

 I wanted a barn type of top so I took the corners off the tops of my flaps/sides.

 measuring where it should be

 The roof of the barn is made up of two pieces, one larger piece with a crease that I had to make, the other a flap cut to the right size.

 where the delta blanket comes into play

 I didn't feel like making this harder than it needed to be so I just cut around the whole thing leaving enough space for hot gluing the blanket to the box.

 I cut into where the corners could be so it would be a tighter fit.

 this is how it looked when it was put into the box shape- it had been hot glued except for the tops of all four sides.

 for the green grass area I used another blanket that had already been cut up for some other project, to make it softer I used a square of leftover white felt batting I had left over from making insulating curtains 2 yrs ago.

 I did end up sewing the green grass to the red top of the side but not down the sides I glued them. I used a piece of jean for the pond, I hot glued it on there then sewed around it by hand because my kid likes to pick things off.

 This pic has the barns roof that I sewed a dark gray fabric cover for, but since I didn't have very much dark gray I used jean material for the underside. I stitched a pocket for the smaller piece to go into so they didn't fall into each other all of the time. on the raw edge I machine sewed it together as close as possible to the edge, it isn't beautiful but it also isn't that noticeable.

 I hand stitched the roof onto the backside of the barn first, then after I hand stiched the two sides to the back I stitched the rest of the roof.

 I wanted him to have a handle so I machine sewed a white ribbon to the tops of the sides then folded and glued the rest of the fabric down on the inside.

 I cut more pieces of red for the inside of the barn and hot glued them in.

 with everything together I hand stitched the sides to each other and to the roof.

 bad picture I know, but the two white squares are Velcro for the front panel, the top roof flap is flipped up, I didn't want to sew or Velcro it because it would make it difficult to shut the front panel, and its fun to have a flap.

Finally I used the white ribbon to put a window on the side of the barn and a door on the front of the barn, all with the glue gun.

how to get kids to kinda drink powdered milk

 We've been here before, my husband is outta work till the 26th of this month and were never financially well equipped to handle it but our food storage has gained some ground since the last time we wiped it out. Milk is getting pretty limited, were down to a real gallon and several gallons of my sons lacto-free whole milk that nobody likes but my son. Last time I figured out that my daughter despises dry milk, so I thought to buy a big thing of strawberry milk powder (the nestle kind) to help it go down better. I made up some yummy granola pear muffins(we have a ridiculous abundance of pears) and also mixed up some strawberry milk for the kids and I to drink and it didn't go too bad, I think straws help with children too. I guess if your really thirsty you'll drink anything right?

Apron

I've always wanted to make myself a cute apron, I have one from walmart that is pretty heavy duty but not cute. So today I made a cute apron only its not for myself, I'm going to a cousins shower and I spaced getting a gift before now so I thought I'd make her a cute apron instead of break the Sabbath and buy her a gift today here's how it turned out...

Kids back seat organizer

I'm gonna be taking the kids by myself to my families cabin in West Yellowstone; so lately all that has been on my mind is making the long drive enjoyable for me and the kids. I'm happy when things are clean, and unfortunately family vans (especially ours) have this nasty habit of rarely being clean. Today I created my own backseat organizer for behind the passengers seat of our van using scraps of fabric I've had laying around. I'll show you a basic step by step. First I have pant legs saved up from cutting the majority of my pants into shorts last year. I used one pant leg as a thicker material for the backing of my organizer. I went out to the van and measured where I would want the top curve to be so it would line up nicely with the head rest.
then I folded it in half and cut out the curve on the top corners for the head rest.

choose a fabric the you want for the outside

use the first piece as a stencil and cut out the patterned fabric

put them back to back with the insides facing out and sew together like you would a pillow, leaving a place for you to turn out the fabric. then stick the opening shut

you don't have to but i like to stitch a boarder around the edges, it makes it feel cleaner to me.

I then began adding pockets to the outside, I used coloring books to determine the sizes of the bigger pockets and then a cup and jean material to make a cup holder. I used a half circle for the cups base and the front side of one pant leg as the length for the round of the cup. You can measure the pocket with a cup to get the right size.

sewed it kinda like a pillow and then turned it out

I could only fit the 4 pockets on mine but each serve a purpose.

loaded up on my table.

I used elastic for the top and ribbon for the bottom straps. I figured it would be easier to tie the bottom then try to fit it over the arm rest.

I did end up adding one more elastic toward the top of the middle for more support.

The Budget Play House

I decieded last fall that I wanted to build a playhouse for the kids, and figured I could find a cheap way to put it all together. These are the pics of how I put it all together. Above and below is 4 grass sod pallets, one was used for the base or sub floor, the other 3 were used as side walls. I hooked them all together with some metal braces we had left over from building our fence.

I cut two windows out on the sides by using the rotery saw to cut out one of the pallets boards.

I know this looks like a huge jump from the pic above but I basicly made a rough frame for the front then added the particle board to the sides and roof, keeping a window area in the front. We had extra hinges from our fence and I used them as a hinge for the front door

this is the back view of the play house

it has since been painted yellow with the trim white. I've liquid nailed some flat river bed rocks to below the front window and used old siding on the 3 outside walls from the window down. I did shingle the roof after puting tar paper down, and the playhouse was home to our dogs batch of 9 puppies while they were with us. The playhouse is now my childrens and the dogs when its rainy :)

With a small amout of creativity I was able to build this one for about $20 initally. Now I've painted it and so its tab comes to around $40. I plan on finnishing the trim work when I feel like it but other than that its been finnished

1-1-11

In 2011 I want to fill my days with positive thinking, good experiences, learning and accomplishments! I know that I can achieve this by simplifying and focusing on what matters most to me.

Search for simple is gonna be my blog where I will share my personal search for making life more simple and gratifying. Having a blog isn't necessarily a simple task to keep up, but I feel that by keeping one up to date that I will be able to better keep my eyes peeled for the positive things in life and those things I love.

Things that I love and wish to get better at are gardening, cooking/baking, decorating, and making things from the stuff I have on hand. Those things I wish to weed out of my life include my personal time wasters and the fact that my mind always seems to be distracted with an endless to-do list. I feel like I live those precious moments with my family but I fail to really take them in and appreciate all that I have. So this is my attempt to clear out the clutter and focus on the good stuff!

I started reading "The Joy of Simple Living" at first as a way to find short cuts to make our budget last longer, but it has a bunch of useful information for all of the different areas of my life. I'll be sure to share what has inspired me in one way or another.

p.s. this is an amazon pic you cant really click to look inside from here but you can on amazon if you wish.