Making some Glue Dots

These are great! They are like the little glue booger that hold samples on in the mail. They work for scrapbooking- holding on a crushed penny or baby hospital id bracelet. But also for regular crafting. I use them to tack 8x10 photos on the wall’s of my 4 yr old’s bedroom. It is great that they stay repositionable (because she like to move them around) and do not harm the wall.

I save sticker sheets and the paper backing from my mini xyron and mailing labels.

The Aleene’s Tack It Over & Over I get at Michael’s (using my 40% off coupon of course!).

I lay out all the paper, making sure I have a matching cover piece for each piece, and just start squeezing the dots- some are big, some are small, some are lines or dashes. Once they turn clear you can cover with the matching cover piece.

I have tried covering when wet - didn’t work. I store mine in a couple of snack or sandwich size baggies- keep some in my scrapbooking tote and some in the craft cabinet. They are pretty handy.

She works hard for the money . .

 

CL has been pretty quiet – I have a handful of things listed and nothing is moving. Not even at 5 or 10 bucks! The vase, shopping cart cover, swim diapers and giant lazy susan ate 5 and the speaker is 10. The speaker is headed to goodwill if my nephew does not want it. The vase is going in the closet for a teacher’s gift next year. Everything else I am emailing my friends and offering for free and taking it to goodwill if there are no takers. (gawd! I cannot believe no one wants the lazy susan! The only reason I am selling it is because I have a nice big wooden one now).

But ebay has been surprising lately. I still never can tell what will sell and what will not.

These things did not sell and have been sent to friends or goodwill:

The sassy horse and bags and the See kai Run shoes are really spendy but they did not even sell for 4$. The old navy jellies, disneyland princess straw hat and the cute vintage gloves I thought had good chances of selling but nope.

What did sell?

The builda a bear shoes and skates (yardsale find) were the top sellers of the week and sold for 12.50. The keen watershoes I got from CL last year and we used them well for a season. They sold for just over 9$. And because I had seen how well keens were selling I picked up the black pair (like new!) at the thriftshop for 3$ and they sold for 10.

The fridgits (yardsale, the kids played with them till I got too annoyed) sold for 10.50 – shipping was brutal on those- like another 10 bucks for parcel! The lot of crocs went for 10.50. And the bjorn (5$ yardsale find) always sell good went for 9.50. I was hoping for a touch higher but, oh well.

I have a bunch of 3t clothes and shoes to list at the moment and some nice toys when I find boxes to ship them in.

I made a goal to list 3 new things each day. If I can get into the habit, I hope to clear some of my ebay stash before too long.

I also have an awesome lego set I picked up at a yardsale but surprisingly it looks like the two little star wars lego minifigs will sell for about 20 and if I sell the whole set in the box it only sells for less than 25. Decisions, decisions. I kinda want to split them up and see how it goes. I think it is the shipping that is the factor for the buyers. Whatcha think? Have you split up sets before??

Spaghetti Dogs!

  Pretty self explanatory. Cut hot dogs into chunks. Jam spaghetti (I happened to have fettuccini on hand- it works fine) into hotdog chunks. I found breaking the spaghetti in half and the hotdogs into thirds or fourths made for a great size. Boil the spaghetti spiked chunks until the pasta is done. Serve. No sauce needed but can be used. Me- I prefer my hotdogs sliced open with cheese crammed inside, wrapped in bacon and grilled or broiled. But the kids get a kick out of “cooking” this themselves so that is good enough for me.

Best Sellers

Here are a few of our favorite books at the moment.

• Vintage Rose Red and Snow White
• Machines
• The Aristocats
• Snow Bear
• The Three Little Kittens – what do you call that kind of pictures?
• Kitty’s Outdoor Day (the page where she gets wet from the sprinkler send the kids into gales of laughs – no kidding.
• Giggle Giggle Quack
• Counting on Calico – love the illustrations! Had to buy another copy we wore it out so good!
• Babies and Baby Animals- I admit it is more for the Gyo Fujikawa artwork (*love*)
• I love you with all my heart
• Bear snores on
• Meet my cats (again *love* the drawings!)

Who used my camera?

I found this single odd photo mixed in with my pictures on my camera. Everyone in our household denies all knowledge of it. I still cannot figure out what toys were used as the eyes. But it makes me smile.

PS: I suspect the 7 yr old and secretly applaud his graphic design skillz.

Utilitarian Storage

Pill bottle with label removed + stickers (leftovers from cd labeling at xmas time) = personalized storage capsules for the “tooth fairy” to keep each of the kiddos’ teeth separate. I thought about making them all pretty with scrapbooking paper and stickers etc. Might still do that at some point but time was of the essence.

I made 1 storage capsule for each kid and labeled them and will happily give them their teeth at some point. Not sure why or what they will do with them but it seems a waste of genetic material to just throw them away, right?

I did once hear about a man who carved them into beads – teeth are just like ivory, right?? hmmm – wonder if I could find a craftsperson on etsy who does that *off to check*.

Potty training ponderings

 

So, how do you convince your willful potty trainees to wear a pull up when out running errands? I am trying to convince her that wearing panties over a pull up is a good thing. Not sure she is buying it but, man, I just hate dealing with public bathrooms with her. ugh!

Teacher Appreciation

Someone is finally over his fear of the sun exploding. Discovery documentary about planets + Autistic brain = obsessive fears that can only be overcome by an awesome teacher!

Squeeze in OT whenever you can

Kiddo #2 has dysgraphia (his brain and hands do not communicate all that good)- so he has awful handwriting. And by awful I mean wayyyy below grade level. But at his school they do not have a therapist to help. So, mom to the rescue. Partly because we did so much therapy with the Autistic one and partly because I am a homeschool mom, I am finding sneaky ways to get kiddo #2 to manipulate and work with his hands. This was a birthday card he made for his cousin. He made two at the same time – one for an uncle and this one. He hated finding the letters and cutting them out but he did it and the cards were graciously accepted.

Kidlet #3 does not know how to write yet but she can stick stickers on and so :

I drew the waterline and did the writing and she colored and put on the stickers. Pinching, removing, placing stickers- awesome fine motoring!

I am so durn sneaky!

(and I have no idea why my photos have that silly white border. cannot figure out how to remove it so oh, well)