Weekly Cleaning Chart

My husband and I recently moved into our first home, after months of fixing it up (watch for a future post showing before and after pictures). Now that we've moved in, we not only need to unpack, but we also need to maintain our home. I frequently find cleaning overwhelming. I'm tired after work, and it seems like there is just so much that needs to be cleaned. Over the years, I've seen many articles (via Pinterest and Facebook) with advice on how to keep your home clean. Below is a list of just a few of the articles I have found and saved over the years.

• "How to Speed Clean Your Way to a Happy Home" 
• "20 Things People With Clean Homes Do Daily" 
• "12 Habits of People Who Always Have A Clean Home"
• "Cleaning House"
• "15-20 Minutes a Day to a Clean House"

These articles inspired me to implement practices to keep my house clean. I have seen some cleaning charts, and decided to make one that would fit our needs. My husband and I discussed what we wanted on our weekly cleaning chart. Then I designed it, printed it, laminated it, and hung it on our fridge. 

Since it is laminated, we can mark off completed items with a dry erase marker. I am looking forward to using this chart (though not looking forward quite as much to doing some of the actual cleaning). 

What helps you keep your house clean? Let me know in the comments.

Books and Holly Christmas Ornaments

I have learned that trial and error come hand in hand with cross-stitch design. And sometimes you even have lucky accidents. As I worked on my Christmas Owl Sitting on Books bookmark design (you can read about my owl bookmarks here), something seemed off about the design. After I cross-stitched the first version, I made some modifications to the design. I felt better about the design but still felt unsure about the best way to do the wording on the books. Should I use black embroidery floss or white embroidery floss? One strand or two strands of embroidery floss? 

Separately, I cross-stitched the two books from the Christmas Owl bookmark design that had words on them to try out how to do the wording. Not wanting these practice books to go to waste, I decided to make a Christmas ornament out of them. I quickly made the decision on what to do for the words on the bookmark, but finalizing the design for the ornament took longer.

For the ornament, I first made the basic design. I kept the red and green book from the Owl design, then added a white book with the year and holly berries and leaves. I had a few ideas for color variations, so I started to cross-stitch them trying to find the perfect color scheme. More ideas came as I experimented with different color variations. 

I first tried the design with a golden yellow for the year and for the accents on the white book (version 1).

Next, I tried gold for the year and for the accents on the white book (version 2).

After that I tried DMC light effects (metallic) embroidery floss for the accents on all the books, white for the backstitching on the inside of the holly leaves, and black for the year (version 3).

Next, I again used metallic red and green accents on the red and green books, and I used metallic gold for the accents on the white book and for the year, a metallic thread for the words "Merry Christmas," and a light green for the backstitching on the inside of the holly leaves (version 4).

After each variation, something still seemed off. The deadline for the release date I had set loomed. I considered just picking one, but I decided to give it one more try.

This time I used white for the lettering of "Merry Christmas" (same as versions 1–3), metallic thread for the accents on the books (same or similar to versions 3–4), black for the year (but with a single thread rather than the double thread from version 3), and light green for the backstitching on the inside of the holly leaves (same as version 4).

Finally, I had a design that felt right, a design I was happy and satisfied with. I released the pattern for this design on Monday. It is available through my Etsy store. 

In between version 2 and 3, I made a mistake while cross-stitching. Not paying close enough attention to what I was doing, I made the books 10 stitches smaller than they should have been. Once I realized my mistake, I decided to try and make something of it. 

To my surprise, it turned out remarkably well. So, I made up a pattern for it and released it on Monday as well (available here).

So, through a mistake I ended up with a second design, and through trial and error I found a design I liked best. Which design is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below.

Rediscovering the Blanket Stitch

A couple of years ago, while buying cloth for another project, my husband and I came across a fabric that was very soft. It wasn’t the right pattern for the project we were buying cloth for, but we kept going back to feel its softness. In the end we bought some of the super soft cloth, thinking to make a couple of baby blankets out of it someday. After that I set the cloth aside. A few months later when I started planning a baby shower for my sister-in-law, I decided I would make a blanket using the cloth to give as my gift. 

I used a blanket stitch around the edge of the cloth. When I was twelve, a lady down the street taught me this sewing stitch as part of a project she teaching me how to make. However, soon after that my family moved. I never completed the project and forgot how to do the stitch she'd taught me. I remembered it being fairly easy, but since I didn't know what the stitch was called, I didn't know how to find out how to do it.

The project I started but never finished.

Luckily, one day I came across the stitch while scrolling though Pinterest. It told how to do it on a sewing machine, but that gave me the name of the stitch and I was able to search and find how to do it by hand. I found quite a few tutorials, but decided to use the tutorial from Holiday Crafts and Creations. 

There was enough cloth for two baby blankets, so I made one for my sister-in-law and one for us (to set aside for when we have kids). I stitched using the full skein of embroidery floss, so I had to be very careful to prevent unwanted knots. I used a light green for my sister-in-law's blanket and a variegated yellow for ours.

"Name the Baby" and other Baby Shower Games and Activities

Last month, I threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law Anneli. I also threw a baby shower for her first child a couple of years ago. In the process, I found a lot of cool baby shower games and activities. I thought I'd share my favorites. And I am offering free printables that I created for the baby showers. I hope you enjoy!

Baby Word Search: 

I love word searches, so this game is right down my alley. Frugal Fanatic offers great Baby Word Search downloads. Check them out Here.

Baby Word Scramble: 

I'm not as good at word scrambles, but some people really enjoyed working on this game at the baby shower. I used the word scramble from Plan the Perfect Baby Shower, which you can get Here. Or you can get the word scramble from Frugal Fantastic Here. 

Baby Bingo: 

This is a fun game to do while the mother-to-be opens her gifts. You fill out your card with items you think she will receive. It can be difficult to fill all the space, but sometimes you have to think creatively. I used the adorable bingo card from Aspen Jay, which can be found Here. Frugal Fantastic also offers Baby Bingo cards Here. Or if you want to do Bingo separate from the gifts, Catch My Party has Bingo cards that are already filled out Here (it's #11 on the list). 

Name the Baby:

I made my own design for this game. The first person to come up with a name for every letter wins. I was surprised how quickly the game was over. Afterwards we read all the names we'd come up with. You can download this game below.

Download Here

Download Here 

Baby Advice: 

I have seen a number of different baby advice games, but I decided to create my own version. I made 4 x 5.5" cards with space to write advice for mom, dad, and baby. I also provided stickers for guests to decorate the card. You can download my instructions and printout Here. 

Advice cards, pens, stickers, and photo album for completed cards.

The advice page I did for my nephew.

Decorate a Block: 

I didn't do this one, but I really wanted to. Maybe I can do it for another baby shower. I got the inspiration for this idea from We Heart Parties. You can see what they did Here. 

Guess the Belly Size:

Invite guests to guess how big the mom-to-be's belly is. Provide scissors and yarn or string, so the guests can cut a string the length they think will perfectly fit around the mom-to-be's belly. The guest with the string closest to the actual size wins. The mom-to-be can try each string around her waist or cut a string the length that fits around her belly and measure the strings against that one.

Decorating Onesies: 

I was first introduced to this idea at a friend's baby shower. Everyone says you can never have too many onesies, so I thought it would be a perfect activity for the first baby shower for my sister-in-law. I bought four sizes of white onesies and fabric markers. To prevent bleeding through the shirt, I put cardboard in the onsies. There were some great (and some not so great) designs.

Ready for decorating.

The guests had fun decorating the onsies.

I decorated one with the image from the invitation.

I hope this list helps you plan a baby shower!

Owl Sitting on Books—My First Foray into Cross-stitch Design

Last spring, I read an article that changed my life. And I almost didn’t read it. I filed away the email it had come in, but something compelled me to go find and read it. I am so grateful I did. From the article, I learned of selling cross-stitch designs on Etsy.

I have loved cross-stitch since I really learned how to do it, back in 2007. Throughout the years I have enjoyed cross-stitching presents for family and friends. I have used designs I found in books and online, and I frequently modified them to fit my needs (keep watch for a future blog post about this). However, after reading the article, the idea of creating my own designs hit me with full force. I have an Etsy shop that I've sold some jewelry and finished cross-stitches through. But as far as the cross-stitch goes, no one is likely to pay for the full time it takes to cross-stitch a design. So, cross-stitch design sounded like an excellent way to pursue my love of cross-stitch and make a living (hopefully at some point) by it.

I decided to give cross-stitch design a try. I pulled out some graph paper and began designing. One of my first ideas was a bookmark of an owl sitting on a stack of books. After a bit of trial and error, I had a design I liked. I then added color using colored pencils. Once I was satisfied with the design, I began stitching it.

              Initial Sketch                          Graph Paper Design

I also looked into cross-stitch design software. I found one I liked, but I was hesitant to make the investment right away. I thought  I should work harder to sell some other things on my Etsy store before buying it. But, my husband convinced me to buy it right away, and I have not regretted it. It is much easier to design with the program than with pencil and paper. I still sketch out ideas on paper, but the bulk of my designing happens on the computer.

While I worked on this design, I kept having ideas for other designs—a series of owl sitting on books bookmarks. My husband thought it was overkill. But the ideas seemed to grip me and wouldn’t let go, so I designed them all, and am pleased with how they turned out.

Original, Spring, Graduation, Autumn, Christmas

Each bookmark features the last name of two authors. There were so many to choose from, and Dickens ended up getting used twice. With the owl sitting on books cross-stitch patterns, I am including the three cross-stitch alphabets I used on these patterns. This way the pattern can be personalized.

The journey of creating these designs wasn’t always easy. For example, as I worked on backstitching the Autumn Owl Sitting on Books, I realized I’d made a mistake in the cross-stitching. There was no easy way to fix it, so I ended up cross-stitching that one again. Also, in cross-stitching the Christmas Owl Sitting on Books, I felt the books overwhelmed the owl, and I was not sure what color would be best for the author names. I created an ornament design to explore what would look best for the author names (keep watch for a future blog post about this) and cross-stitched another Christmas Owl Sitting on Books with the new, revised pattern.

Despite the trials of the journey, it has been one I have thoroughly enjoyed. And now, I’m pleased to announce that the designs will be available on Etsy next week. I will be releasing one design each day, culminating with the release of the combo pack on Saturday. Each design will sell for $5, with the combo pack selling for $20 (if you buy the combo, you will get 5 designs for the price of 4). Below is the release schedule. I will update it throughout the week with links to the Etsy listings.

Monday: Owl Sitting on Books
Tuesday: Spring Owl Sitting on Books
Wednesday: Graduation Owl Sitting on Books
Thursday: Autumn Owl Sitting on Books
Friday: Christmas Owl Sitting on Books
Saturday: Owl Sitting on Books Combo

Iroh Destiny Quote

Two nights ago my husband and I watched the Avatar: The Last Airbender finale, all four episodes. We wanted to watch something, and that sounded good. And it was good. During one of the episodes, Iroh said a quote that I really liked, so I wrote it down on a scrap of paper. My husband suggested I make a design for it. Since I love to save quotes by pinning them, I decided to design and pin the quote.

I had an idea for the border, so I looked for a stock image that I could at least modify to make what I wanted. I didn't find anything that seemed quite right, but they did give me some ideas. After mulling it over some more, I decided to attempt to create the type of border I wanted. I opened up Adobe Illustrator and started trying to create something like what I envisioned. After some trial and error, I created something I felt would work. I designed four intertwining strands in the colors of blue, green, red, and yellow to represent the four nations—Water, Earth, Fire, Air. I then got the idea to put some icon in each corner to represent each nation. I found a stock image that had exactly what I needed.

Once I finished designing the border, I added the background and text. I wasn't completely satisfied with the design, but I liked it alright. I wrote this post and had my husband read the post. He told me not to post it until I really liked my design. So, today, I revised my design and this post. In the end, I have two variations of the design that I like. So, without further ado, here are my designs.

Which do you like best? Tell me in the comments below. 

Making a Dry Erase Menu Board

Have you ever had the following scenario happen to you?

"What should we have for dinner tonight?"

"I don't know. What do you want?"

"I don't know."

Open and close fridge, freezer, and cupboards, and still you have no idea what to eat for dinner. 

That scenario happened all too often in our home. And after seeing numerous menu planning ideas on Pinterest, I decided to make us a dry erase menu board. I read one blog post (which I can no longer find) and used it loosely as my guide. Here's my process. 

Step One: Gather supplies. I picked a frame (from the stack of available frames at my family's house), chose a colored card stock (I chose an off white/light tan that I thought complemented the gold frame), and gathered some gel pens (my husband gave me a huge pack of gel pens as an early Christmas present last year; I chose to use the metallic ones for this project). Oh, and a ruler.

Step Two: Draw the blank menu onto the card stock. I used the ruler to mark off the lines for eight boxes. It took a little math to figure out the right sizing, but once I had it figured out, I easily made my grid, with the ruler ensuring I drew straight lines. I chose to write the names for each day in different colors, and I labeled the extra square, "Notes." 

Step Three: Put the card stock into the frame. And admire.

Step Four: Find a dry erase marker and fill out your menu for the week. 

Simple as that. This is my kind of project. 

Having this menu board has really helped us. Now only once a week do we ask the question "What should we eat for dinner?" It has also reduced our trips to the store. It had gotten to the point where we were going to the store three or four times a week to get something we needed in order to make the dinner we decided on. 

Also, don't be afraid to change your plan any time during the week. For the week shown in the picture above, we were going camping on Friday and had decided that Chicken Caesar Sandwiches (recipe from Two Healthy Kitchens) would work well to take with us for our dinner. We had tried the recipe out for the first time the week before. It was an easy and delicious meal. However, Jason decided to change the meal. He wouldn't tell me what he had changed it to. He did the prep Thursday night (I wasn't allowed in the kitchen), and Friday night he cooked it over the fire he made. We enjoyed a delicious tin foil dinner of roast and veggies.