How to Crochet a Dishcloth

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Back by popular demand: my favorite pattern for crocheting homemade dish/wash cloths!

"Natural fibers" are all the rage these days - I use a 100% cotton thread when sewing these useful (and highly gift-able!) cloths.  The thread I use can be found on Amazon here:  Cotton yarn

This pattern has excellent texture, a gap-free pattern, and shrinks fairly uniformly so the cloth tends to keep it's shape after many washes.

Here's the pattern:

Chain 34 loosely

Row 1: Dc in fourth ch from hook and in each ch across.

Row 2:  Ch 1, turn; sc in first dc, ch 2, skip next dc, sc in sp before next dc, ch 2, ** skip next 2 dc, sc in sp before next dc, ch 2; repeat from ** across to last 2 st, sc in top of beginning ch.

Row 3:  Ch 3, turn; dc in first ch-2 sp, 2 dc in each ch-2 sp across to last ch-2 sp, dc in last ch-2 sp, dc in last sc.

Repeat rows 2 and 3 until piece is approximately square.

You can leave it as is, or you can sew a border for a more finished look.  I do a simple dc border all the way around the edges, taking care to evenly space the stitches to avoid ruffling or puckering.  Sew 3 stitches in each corner to make the turn.  If the piece "cups" after making the turn, rip back to the corner and add a corner stitch.  I frequently have to do 4 stitches in the corner.

Happy sewing!

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12 Simple Steps to Render and Store Tallow

If you're a crunchy girl, you know that tallow is having a moment lately.

Personally, I use tallow to create skincare products (skin and lip balms, soap, etc) to replace toxic chemical laden products from the store.  My friends and I love it :-)

But, boy, I've learned the hard way how NOT to render and store tallow!  I've seen burning, crumbling, and molding.  It's a serious disappointment to spend time and money to render and store tallow...only to have to throw it in the trash!

I'm sharing my simple process here in the hopes that it will help someone avoid my mistakes.  Let's jump in.







My process:

1.  Source your tallow.  It's as simple as calling a local butcher.  You want to ask for "Leaf fat from around the kidney".  Tallow is NOT "trimmings", or fat you'd cut from a roast or steak. Tallow is a solid white (or cream) color chunk of fat from a specific location in the cow.  Some butchers refer to it as suet.  Just make sure to clarify exactly what you're looking for.  If they're willing to grind or chop it for you, that will make your life MUCH easier!

2.  Trim (if you want).  Word of warning...when you get tallow from the butcher (especially if it's not ground or chopped), it's not much to look at.  You might see connective tissue or meat attached to it.  That's normal.  You can simply trim that stuff off and toss it.  Personally, I do not trim unless there's a huge amount of meat.  I use the "waste" product from rendered tallow and I turn it into suet cakes for the bird feeders.  

3.  Melt with water (wet render).  Notice I said MELT, not cook! Using too high a temp is a great way to produce really smelly tallow.  You want to melt on a low temp, not cook it.   I place the tallow in a roaster or crock pot, and fill the vessel about 1/2 way up with water after adding the tallow.  I also like to add a bit of salt to help draw out any water soluble impurities/odors. I cook at about 200 degrees F overnight.

Salt is not required, and there's lots of debate about it.  A quick google research will give you the info you need to decide if you want to use salt.  

To salt or not?  I use salt because removing as much of the odor as possible is important to me.  The first time I rendered, I didn't use salt...the end product smelled so beefy that I was afraid the neighborhood dogs would attack me if I left the house haha!  Totally your call.  If you have lots of great reasons to NOT salt, that's just fine.  I'm not here to debate...just to share what's worked for me :-)

4.  De-Chunk.  This is an official term ;-)  This is just for those of you who do NOT have ground or fine-chopped tallow like me.  Even after it's fully melted, some of the fat will be bound up in the rest of the tissues - I don't want to let it go to waste!  You basically want to crush as many chunks as possible to release the fat.  I've used in immersion blender, a food processor, and a good old fashioned potato masher.  You can also dump it in a fine mesh strainer and press it against the mesh with a spoon/spatula to release the fat (my favorite method).

5.  Strain.  Now that your tallow has been melted and de-chunked, it's time to pour the whole water and tallow (and salt) mixture into a big bowl.  Let the mixture cool to a temp that is still warm enough to be melty, but cool enough to be comfortable to touch. Place a big pasta strainer in a big mixing bowl, and drape some cheesecloth over the strainer.  Pour the mixture into the cheesecloth. Twist and squeeze the cheesecloth to release as much fat as you can.

Discard the stuff caught by the cheesecloth if you'd like (in the trash, NOT down the drain). Or, you can keep it and let it cool in a small baking dish.  Once cooled, pop it out, and roll it in birdseed.  The birds LOVE it!

6.  Refrigerate overnight or until a hard "puck" of tallow forms at the top, and the water puddles at the bottom.

7.  Remove the fat layer from the bowl, and discard the water at the bottom.  You'll see some impurities on the surface of the tallow (especially on the bottom).  Use a knife or bench scraper to scrape it away and discard.  It's ok for some of the impurities to be stuck in the tallow - it'll be filtered out with more rendering and straining.

   

8.  Repeat steps 3,5, & 6 until the water in the bottom of the bowl is mostly clear and odor-free.  At this point, you have removed most of the impurities from the tallow.  It should have a generally uniform color and very faint odor if any.

**Change your cooling basin at this point - instead of a big deep mixing bowl, use several smaller shallow containers.  I use plastic containers with lids to allow me to stack them in the fridge.

(note the yellow color of this nearly finished tallow - this is normal!  Finished color will vary from pure white to cream or yellow depending on the animal's diet)

**The reason for switching to shallow containers, it to allow any remaining impurities and/or salt to make it's way out of the fat and into the water.  Thinner layers of fat will be less likely to have pockets of stuff you don't want...they can get trapped in the larger, thicker pucks of fat.




9.  Remove the salt.  If you used salt in your rendering process, it's important to do a couple more wet renders WITHOUT the salt.  The water will find any salt that's trapped, and will bind to it.  As you do wet renders without salt, you'll notice the water in the bowl under the puck will become less and less cloudy....that cloudiness is the salt being pulled off. I wet render as many times as it takes for the water to be clear.

10.  Melt without water (dry render).  And now it's time to remove any remaining water from your tallow.  This part is CRUCIAL for long term storage (either on a shelf, in a fridge/freezer, or in a product) because trapped water will cause mold. Melt the tallow down without adding any water or salt.  Once it's fully melted, pour no more than 1.5 inches deep in your shallow containers.

11.  Refrigerate until solid.  Remove the thin pucks of tallow from the containers, and dry thoroughly with paper towel.  At this point, the tallow should be very firm.  If you break it or cut it, it should have a "snap" to it.  

12.  Store in a way that will preserve it well. This is where I've lost so much good tallow!  Do NOT store in a mason jar.  All it takes is a single drop of water to find it's way into that closed jar, and mold takes hold.

How I store it: I take my dried pucks and wrap them in parchment paper.  Then place several wrapped pucks in a zipper bag along with a piece of paper towel (which will grab any moisture).  The whole bag goes into a freezer for long term storage.  Not only does the freezer pull any moisture out, but it also prevents spoilage.   


Congrats!  You did it!  You now have pure tallow to use in cooking or in skincare products.  Pro tip:  I typically keep some set aside in my fridge for popping my popcorn ;-) 

Enjoy! 

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Hello, Summer! (recipe and an update)

Welcome, Summer.....it seems I've been waiting forever for you!

Popsicles

Sprinklers

Little giggles

Cool breezes

The smell of sunscreen

Sleeping in (a little)

Throwing the ball for the dogs

Flowers in bloom

and FLIP FLOPS!  Oh, how I love flip flops!!

(all pictures taken with my iPhone and the Instagram app - look me up on Instagram!  my user name is daiquirifouch)

One of my favorite things about summer is the FOOD.  Our garden is in (our Mother's Day tradition):

And WOW, I can't believe how much the garden has grown in just the couple of weeks since I took this picture!

I can hardly wait for tomatoes still warm from the sun, fresh basil plucked from the pot, a bit of mozzarella cheese and a drizzle of oil and vinegar!  It's what I live on all summer!

But that's not the recipe I planned to share.  In fact, the summer dish I've been craving isn't something I can take credit for.  I'm thinking about orzo pasta with asparagus, cherry tomatoes, and fresh basil.  You can find the recipe here (I substitute basil for parsley):  Lemon Orzo Salad at "ABig Mouthful.com" (how fun is that web name?!) :-)  I think I might try this recipe with quinoa instead of orzo too...a bit of extra protein....what do you think?  

Photo from www.abigmouthful.com

This summer got started right with an INCREDIBLE spring ....when I learned that I'd qualified for an all-expenses-paid trip to Sonoma and San Francisco for 5 days!  I got to meet our Doctors, tour the Corporate Offices, go to the spa, give wine tasting a try, and more -- unreal!  I blogged about it at my "Skin, Beautiful Skin" blog, if you'd like to see more pics:  "Big Time Perks"  But I can't NOT share one of my favorite pictures here.....I got to meet the doctors who changed my skin and my life!

And finally....big Fouch family news....Sammy lost her first front tooth!  She's impossibly cute with her sweet little missing-tooth-lisp!

Be blessed, friends!!

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Sunny Summer Flower

I LOVE this sunflower!  My little Sammy planted these little sunflowers in her garden this year, and we've all enjoyed the joy they bring to the little plot of dirt.  I'm absolutely printing and framing this one - what a great addition to my office it will be! :-)

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Planning For a Clean House

As I settled into our cozy couch with my yummy man, I took a glance around and said something like, "You know, I always imagined I'd be a better housekeeper than I turned out to be."

The scattered toys, unwashed dishes in the sink and dust bunnies seemed to nod their head in disappointment and agreement.

My husband, being the wise man that he is, simple chuckled with no comment.

I started thinking, I need a plan.  A schedule.  Yes, that's it...a spreadsheet!  (it's been a long time since the days when I called myself an engineer, but the geek...she's still in there)

So far (it's been just a few days), it's worked like a charm.  My house is being cleaned.  I have time in my day to do something OTHER than clean.  And the dust bunnies aren't communicating with me anymore.  That's always a good thing.

My idea/plan is hardly revolutionary.  I'm sure many of you do it without even thinking about it.  But for personalities like mine...the kind that wants the WHOLE house clean NOW and who will practically kill myself trying to get it clean only to turn around, see more mess the very next day, and GIVE UP for 3 weeks...I needed this plan on paper.

I broke the house up into sections, and assigned them a day of the week.  My plan looks something like this:

Deep Clean 

Monday- Master bedroom and bath 

Tuesday- Half bath, Laundry Room and garage entry.  Water plants. 

Wednesday- Front entry and stoop, office, kids bath 

Thursday- Living room and play room 

Friday- Kid's rooms, stairs, upstairs hallway 

Saturday- Kitchen and dining 

Sunday- rest 

Daily 

Bible 

Exercise 

Straighten living room and kitchen 

Vacuum living room and kitchen 

Load of laundry

"Deep Clean" means dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing floors, washing sheets and towels, scrubbing the sinks and toilets, etc.  Once a week for those things seems adequate to me.  Especially compared to how often it's typically done around here (ahem).

Ironically, the hardest part of this plan is the "daily" part of my list.  I'm working on it.

So that's what Works for Me this Wednesday.  If you'd like more great tips from the blogosphere, click over to "We Are That Family".  If that's where you came from today, thanks for stopping by!

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God's Abundance

I learn something new about God every year...from my garden.

I put a few seeds in some dirt.  Add some water from time to time.  I don't worry.  Or fret.  Or stand by and watch.  Or dream about the seeds.  Or ask myself "how will this turn out?" or "what if there's not enough?"  

I simply sit by and wait.  I enjoy the sunshine as it warms and ripens the fruit that miraculously appeared.  I breathe the smell of the tomato plants deep into my lungs.  I wonder at the incredible size and weight of the plant...almost as tall as me when they were mere seeds just a couple of months ago!

And then, joy upon joy, I gather.  And each year, God provides more abundance than I could have even dreamed of.  It makes me glad that I don't get to decide how much the plant produces...I'd have far fewer tomatoes than I do now.

Today, I'll make the THIRD giant batch of salsa for the summer .  My fridge and freezer are full to overflowing.  

Not to mention my heart and soul...God is so sweet and good to me.

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Homemade "Topsy Turvey"

For a mere $19.99 (and $7.95 S&H) you can have your very own "Topsy Turvey" (as seen on TV)

OR

You can make your own with stuff you probably have in your garage or garden shed.  And if you don't have everything you need?  I guarantee that you can buy all the supplies for less than $28.  

I've always planted my tomatoes in the garden, and have always had great success (the key to great tomatoes is consistent watering, you know), but this year I decided to plant one of my plants upside down.  Those infomercials are just so convincing...

The trickiest part was figuring out where to hang it - planting the tomato was actually very simple (and fun if you're into that sort of thing, which I am).  I love the idea of growing tomatoes without a giant plant flopping all over the garden...not to mention the fact that I won't have to worry about weeds.  

Want to try one?  I wrote an eHow article with step by step instructions.  (Big strong man with power tool not included...but you can do it yourself if you're not worried about taking pictures, I promise!)  

As always, I'd sure appreciate it if you'd take a second to rate the article for me :-)

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W.O.W.

One of my good friends hosts the occasional W.O.W (within one week) meme.  I've always avoided it because I hate to commit to doing something I've been avoiding.  I tend to avoid for a reason...primarily because the thing I'm avoiding is a pain in the tush.

The general idea is that we blog about what we want to complete "within one week".   We can cheer each other on, check out everyone's progress, and share our progress.

As if this isn't a cool enough idea all on it's own, Becky throws in a prize at the end of the week for one (or two) of the participants.

Alright - so I'm going to try and do this.  My thing?  I'm drowning in photos.  Not D Rose Photography stuff...family snapshot stuff.  I try and print pictures on a regular basis and get them in albums.  I'm horribly behind.  I haven't finished my 2008 album, never mind my 2009 album.  

So my plan for this W.O.W.?  I guess I have to set a specific goal, huh?  I can't just say "I'm going to work on pictures"?

Okay - I'm going to shoot for getting the rest of last year's pics sorted, printed, and put in an album.  Oh boy, that's a lot.  Wish me luck...

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Spring Cleaning - Another eHow Article

I wrote another Spring Cleaning article!  This one is about spring cleaning bathrooms.  A necessary job...but one that makes me feel like I have to take a shower just thinking about it.  

I'm tempted to call my local veterinarian to find out where I can buy some of those rubber gloves that stretch all  the way to the shoulder ;-)

One of my favorite things about eHow is the ads that run with the articles.  I find that when I check out articles I'm interested in, I get all sorts of links to neat products and tips in the ads that run on those articles.  Cool deal!  Don't get me wrong...I also like them because that's how an eHow writer is compensated (by folks clicking on the ads on their articles).  

This isn't a plug to encourage you to click on ads for the sake of clicking (although I KNOW it sounds like it) - just drawing your attention to the fact that some of those ads are pretty useful.  I think my eHow "friends" must love me with all my ad clicking :-)

Anwyay - here's the article : How to Spring Clean Your Bathrooms

Hope you like it.  I'm going to continue with these Spring Cleaning articles - any requests for the next room I should focus on?  How about requests for any article at all?    

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Spring Cleaning

Photo courtesy of Stock Xchng

Anyone else out there feel a tad overwhelmed by the idea of "Spring Cleaning"?  As if I need more on my plate besides the daily cleaning, laundry, meals, and kiddo loving I do.  I'm guessing I'm not alone.

As I was considering the idea of giving my entire house a deep clean (do I have to get it done by the end of spring just because it's called spring cleaning?), I decided a plan was in order.  Big surprise, I know.  I'm a planner and organizer by nature...sometimes it seems my whole life is detailed out on a spreadsheet!  Don't believe me?  I'm sure I have a spreadsheet which lists all my spreadsheets somewhere around here to show you...

;)

So I did a cleaning plan that seems like it will work for me.  My house will get cleaned AND I'll be able to still do my daily stuff.  Being the organizer that I am, I thought the most anal retentive efficient way to share it with you would be to write another eHow article.  I've written two so far and plan to write about 6 more for the other areas of my house.  I'll let you know when the rest are done.

In the mean time, check out my latest articles:

How to Plan & Prepare For Spring Cleaning

How to Spring Clean Your Bedrooms

As always, I'd appreciate it if you'd rate my articles for me.  Thanks :)

PS.  Hey...look at that!  I just realized that I've been promoted to an "Authority" at eHow.  Yippee!  

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Crochet A Dishcloth

I think I might be having a minor OCD episode.  I can't seem to stop crocheting!  I've had this hobby since I was a young child making lopsided blankets for my dollies, scarves for my teddy, and pillows for myself.  I sure wish wearing doilies as sweaters was fashionable, because I'd be SET.  I made about 100 of them in college.

(Mom, Dad, close your eyes and skip to the next paragraph please)  When I was working on an afghan for my grandma, I used to actually skip classes to work on it!  If it wasn't for the crocheting and that hot guy in Mechanics of Materials?  I'm sure I could have gotten an A instead of a B.  But then my grandma wouldn't have that afghan.  And I wouldn't be married to that hot guy.  

I KNOW - I was such a wild college girl.  I wonder if I'd have any takers if I could figure out a way to crochet a "Girls Gone Wild Over Crocheting" sweater?  Yeah.  Probably not.

Good grief.  How old am I anyway?  102?

So, as you can see, I've been sewing my crazy fingers to the bone recently.  I'm determined to clear out my craft room.  I have so many supplies for various projects, they literally fill an entire room in my house.  It seems the OCD flares up every time I walk into a craft store too.

I found the most excellent pattern for making dishcloths, and I thought I'd share.   This makes a cloth that's about 9 1/2 inches square, it washes up beautifully, and even keeps it's shape after washing and drying.  If you're new to dishcloths, you'll need to pick up some 100% cotton yarn.  One popular brand is "Peaches -n- Cream" or something like that.  

Who knows - if the economy keeps going like this, maybe I'll be bartering my crochet work.  What do you think I'll be able to get for a hand-made teddy bear?  A sack of potatoes, maybe?

Anyhoo - here's the pattern:

Chain 34 loosely

Row 1: Dc in fourth ch from hook and in each ch across.

Row 2:  Ch 1, turn; sc in first dc, ch 2, skip next dc, sc in sp before next dc, ch 2, ** skip next 2 dc, sc in sp before next dc, ch 2; repeat from ** across to last 2 st, sc in top of beginning ch.

Row 3:  Ch 3, turn; dc in first ch-2 sp, 2 dc in each ch-2 sp across to last ch-2 sp, dc in last ch-2 sp, dc in last sc.

Repeat rows 2 and 3 until piece is approximately square.

You can leave it as is, or you can sew a border for a more finished look.  I do a simple dc border all the way around the edges, taking care to evenly space the stitches to avoid ruffling or puckering.  Sew 3 stitches in each corner to make the turn.  If the piece "cups" after making the turn, rip back to the corner and add a corner stitch.  I frequently have to do 4 stitches in the corner.

Happy sewing!

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Boys' Room - All Done!

Boy, did we ever have fun with these recent bedroom projects!  Before covering the walls all by our grown-up selves, we let the kids climb into their painting duds and add their artistic touches (but we were abundantly clear that we'd be painting over them soon).  They had so much fun painting on the giant canvas that was bedroom walls!

When we finally told them that it was Mommy and Daddy's turn to paint, and that they should go play for a while...they didn't mind a bit.  Mostly because we had taken the king mattress out of the guest room (that we converted to the boys' room), and put it in the play room.  It kept them entertained for hours :)

Oh, by the way....I forgot to share one of my favorite painting tips with you.  Every now and then, we have to take a break from painting and tend to kids, or eat lunch, or run to the store for more paint or something.  It's such a hassle to rinse out the brushes and rollers...we just don't do it anymore!  We've found that simply covering the painting stuff with plastic will prevent it from forming that icky and irritating "skin".  Hubby likes to put the whole tray with the roller in a grocery bag - I prefer to use plastic wrap.  They both work fine for short breaks, but if you're interested in letting it sit overnight, I recommend using a couple of layers of plastic wrap.

Now for the fun pictures!  I'm thrilled with the way this room turned out:

I know it's supposed to be a big boy room, but I couldn't resist leaving some of the sweet baby stuff up for a little while longer.  Look at my sweet little Thomas' toes...

I also insisted on having a rocker for the rare occasions that Thomas will still let me rock and cuddle him.  This is the great quilt that my Mom made for him (she made a gorgeous quilt for each of my babies)...Thomas and I love to sit together and find the different animals and do their sounds.  He loves "ARF" for the doggy :)

Notice the bulletin boards?  I really like having a place for their individual artwork and special notes.  

I'm already happy with our decision to put boys in one room and girls in the other.  Sammy and Clara already play together, but I've noticed a fresh connection between my boys.  I love to listen to them settle into bed at night.  Thomas stands in his crib and says, "BEH!  BEH!", and Ben replies, "Night-night little brother".  Good grief...coulda cried the first time I heard that!  

As painful as it is to know that I'll never be pregnant again or nurse a baby again, it feels so good to just be moving on, ya know?  It's like I can finally find it in me to just relax and enjoy our little family instead of always looking forward to and planning for the next big change.  

If ever I need real physical proof that God loves little ol' me...I just need to look at my husband and babies.  What abundant blessings I have in my life (Sigh).

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Make A Homemade Bulletin Board

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? That I've already done a post on this topic? You're right - I have done a post about making a bulletin board before. And those simple, quick, and very inexpensive bulletin boards have been serving us well all this time! If you're looking for the ultimate in quick, functional, and frugal, I recommend making your own bulletin board out of cardboard and left-over fabric.

However...those bulletin boards are pretty light weight. We recently decided that our kids could use some bigger and more heavy-duty bulletin boards. We shopped and shopped, but everything just looked too industrial (and were expensive to boot!). Being who we are...we made our own. They are big, sturdy, strong....AND feature custom colors and fabrics to match our kids' rooms!

I wrote a detailed eHow article complete with lots of pictures. Go on over, print it out, and rate my article for me (pretty please).

By the way, if you're ever looking for one of my eHow articles, you can find all the links in my sidebar.

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Before And After

We're back to real life around here after a glorious week of spring break for the kids and hubby.  I was so shocked to learn that my wonderful man was planning on taking most of the week off to spend with his little family while the kids were home...after a few seconds of "aww, he's so sweet" my brain went straight to..."think of the projects we can get done!"

We love a good home improvement project.  In fact, at the beginning of our marriage, hubby and I moved from a 2 year old "all finished" home to a 50+ year old fixer-upper just for the projects!  We both enjoy the planning, the work, the hanging out together as we hammer, paint, arrange furniture...it's just who we are, I guess.

This past week, the kids' bedrooms were our projects.  Thomas (the baby) has been in his own room this whole time to keep him from waking his older siblings when he wakes in the night.  In the mean time, all three older kids were crammed into one room.  We've had room to spread them out, but they all love a buddy in their room.

Now though, Thomas is ready to share a room.  The most difficult part of the entire project was to figure out who should share with who.  Do we keep the older kids together since they're such good friends and have the same sleep and wake schedules?  Or do we do boys and girls together?  We went for boys and girls.  My goal is to help Ben and Thomas connect a little bit.  There's 6 years between them, and it won't be long before Ben doesn't want to hang out with the little guy.  Hopefully, this time of bunking together will help them grow to be buddies like it did with Ben and Clara.  

Besides...this way, we got to do a fun girls' room and a fun boys' room ;)

Enough of my chatter - wanna see some pictures?  

Here's the before shot of the room that we decided to use for the girls.  Notice three beds crammed in there and stuff all over the place:

We cleared out the room, negotiated with the girls on paint colors (I talked them down from BRIGHT pink and purple to a slightly less bright pink with a soft yellow), put on the hot-mama painting sweats that really do reach to my armpits if I yank them painfully high enough:

See?  Told ya...hot.

And then got to work.  I'm thrilled with our sweet, bright, airy, and pretty girl room.  The girls love it too.  When Sammy saw it for the first time, she wrapped her arms around herself and said in a soft whisper, "It's boootiful!"  

These beautiful sheer curtains were the inspiration for our paint colors:

I love this sweet photo.  We bought it when I was pregnant with our very first child, and it's hung in one of the kids' rooms ever since.  I don't think I'll ever get rid of it.  

We're not exactly 100% finished.  We have plans to make a big bulletin board to go over each of their beds - a great place to keep all those random works of art instead of having them taped all over the darn place.  Besides, it will break up that giant pink wall a little bit.

The boys' room is finished except for some crown moulding that hubby is working on as I type.  After shots will be available of that room soon...

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Today's Public Service Announcement

FYI:  If you fail to de-crumb your toaster oven more than about once a year, it will eventually catch on fire.  Big orange flames will be bursting out the front, and you'll be forced to screech, throw a box of baking soda all over the place, and open windows in February to keep the smoke alarms from going off.

Don't ask me how I know.

That's all I have to say about that.

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Organizing Hair Accessories

This has been driving me IN. SANE.

Every morning, I'm brushing hair for school and digging frantically through this mess to find something that works. And then I got organized. This was my sister's idea...isn't it great?

You can find these things practically anywhere. You can find them in sporting supplies (to organize fishing stuff), or craft stores. I think I got mine at Wally-World. Some I sorted by type, and some I sorted by color. It's so much easier to find what I'm looking for now!

While I'm at it, I thought I'd share a tip for getting clips to stay in my girls' hair. These clips typically slide right out of their silky soft hair. So I took some clear hair bands, and wrapped it around the arm of the clip. Sticks like glue now, and you can't see it.

Give it a try, it works for me!

Want to see my other WFMW posts?

Thanks for stopping by :)

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