My husband and I have been married for 8.5 years. Due to living far away, I’ve stored my wedding dress at my parents house. We finally managed to get it to our house only to find that it was filthy. We hadn’t bothered to have it cleaned after the last time I wore it (and I did wear it twice – we had a reception about 5 months after the wedding). Not only was the bottom of it dirty and greasy, but there was some sort of food stain that looked like chocolate sauce right on the front of it. (more…)
Cleaning a Wedding Dress in the Bathtub
Working the soap into the hem
Can you see the dirt along the hem - it's gone!
Hanging to dry in the shower
Converting out-of-season clothing
As I’ve mentioned previously, I follow a lot of blogs. My new favorite crafty blog just posted a tutorial on converting out-of-season clothing. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this! The end of the season sales are great places to pick up really cheap clothing for kids. (more…)
Saving Money on Magazines
I really do love magazines. There’s something about going to the mailbox and seeing your shiny, new copy of Real Simple full of ideas that get your mind racing. For some reason, I can sit and flip through a magazine for a straight hour and it seems like just minutes. Recently, I’ve received a few free yearly subscriptions to magazines such as Whole Living and Living and thought you might benefit from knowing just how to do that. Well, remember my article on social couponing? Sometimes those sites offer deals on magazines. (more…)
Sandwich making for lunches
My assembly line
Bag of sandwiches ready for the freezer
When I was younger, my sister and I switched off weeks for preparing lunches. As an added incentive, the one preparing lunches got to sit in front on the way to school. We were easily pleased. Now that I’m making lunches for my husband, I can’t quite get him excited about sitting in front if he makes his own lunch so I’m stuck serving him in this way. (more…)
How to Sew a 3-in-1 Skirt / Dress
Some of the things you'll need
The fabric I choose to use
Completed strapless dress
I recently saw a 3-in-1 dress in a catalog and I thought “I love that idea!” It converts from a skirt to a strapless dress and finally, to a halter dress. But the price tag made me cringe ($60). Now, I think the dress is worth that much, but I just couldn’t bring myself to buy it when I thought I could make it. So I enlisted the help of my sister who is better spatially than I and we looked at the photos in the catalog to determine how it should be created. (more…)
Clever Ways to Use a Knitting Counter
The gym I go to has small track. 16 laps = 1 mile. I don’t know about you, but I lose track after lap 2 and about lap 4, I think, I’ve definitely run a mile by now. So I decided to use my knitting counter to help me keep track of my laps. And you know what? A mile is a lot longer than I thought 
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