Improvise, Adapt and Overcome- Crib Assembly

This past weekend we took advantage of Scott's 3 day weekend and drove up to Branson to spend a couple days. This is the second year we have taken the kiddos to Silver Dollar City and it was so much fun! Brooklyn was finally tall enough to be able to ride a lot of the little kid rides. She even rode her first roller coaster! Proud roller coaster loving momma over here!

That's my brave 3 year old and myself in the third car back! You can barely see her head sticking up out of the car. But she did it!

We also took the kids to play mini golf for the first time. It was actually my first time at mini golf too. I was pretty surprised to find I wasn't to shabby either! The kids loved golfing with their own kid sized clubs, but we figured out we were a bit adventurous when we prepaid for 36 holes… At 5 and 3, they would have been good with only doing the first 9 holes. 

Ah well, live and learn!

During our weekend away we had a very small queen bed for myself, my 6 foot 4 inch husband, and our small 7 month old adorable baby. At home we still co-sleep with him, but we have a king so it hasn't been much of an issue. 

I know there are probably a lot of you who share a queen bed with a kid (or maybe even two!), I seriously don't know how you all do it! 

I hardly slept both nights we were out and vowed when we got home we were going to figure out the crib situation.

So yesterday we got out the crib that a friend of ours so graciously gave us! The crib was missing all the screws to attach the panels together. I had called Delta the crib company and inquired about replacement screws. I was told that they no longer carried that crib model and didn't make that particular screw size anymore.

Back to the drawing board I went and called a crib building company I found online that sold crib parts.

This route I actually found the correct screws we needed, but they were going to cost $67 for the screws and an additional $11 for shipping. 

Now I'm not sure if it's just me, but I was pretty sure I could figure something else out for a lot cheaper then $78! 

We still needed a crib mattress too, which was going to be $40 for one at Walmart. So I was pretty determined we could improvise and use different screws for quite a bit less. 

Easy Laundry Detergent Recipe

Sometime after we had our first baby, we realized how fast we were going through detergent. Every time we went to the store we were buying another jug. So I decided to try a homemade laundry detergent and was hooked!

At that time I was making a liquid detergent and it would make 10 gallons at one time!

It worked great for the 1 1/2 years we used it. I have since moved to a powder recipe and have to say I love it even more! The liquid recipe is pretty time consuming with melting down the bars of soap. So I decided to try a powder detergent recipe I haven't looked back since! 

There are no perfumes or dyes in this detergent and is safe for those with sensitive skin. However, this is not a good recipe for washing cloth diapers. The Fels Naptha can build up on the diapers and create repelling.

This recipe is a modified version of one I found online. I can't remember where I first saw the original recipe or I'd post a link. 

Homemade Laundry Detergent

3 bars Fels Naptha

1 box Baking Soda

1 box Washing Soda

1 box Borax

First, pour the baking soda, washing soda and borax into a large bucket. We bought a 5 gallon bucket at Lowes for around $3.

Covered Canvas and Framed Fabric

While preparing our house to sell, we took almost all of our family photos down and packed them safely away. I read that it is better to take down photos so that the potential buyers can see themselves living in the home and not focus on who is currently living there.

Unfortunately, that meant we had a lot of bare walls.

I didn't want to spend money on decor I might not use in the new house, so I had to do some brainstorming….and Pinterest browsing! 

This is what I decided to do for a quick and easy solution for our empty wall space….

I already had a 2 pack of 11"x14" canvases and the fabric was in my stash. Yep, another free-ish project! When I can make a project for free it just makes the finished product that much better!

Wooden Elephant Art

This project was inspired by a cute book our kids love us to read to them, "Kiss Kiss" by Margaret Wild. 

The book is actually about a baby hippo who leaves his mama to go play. As he is walking past his little jungle friends giving their mamas kisses, he realizes he forgot to "kiss kiss" his mama! 

It's a simple, yet adorable children's book about a baby and his need for his kisses.

Do I need to say more!

I chose to use elephants, because I loved the way they give kisses with their trunks. 

That's at least how I think a sweet mama elephant would kiss her baby! 

It didn't take much for me to put this together. I already had these scrap pieces of stained wood from an old jewelry box (it was large!) that fell apart.

The wood was still in great shape, and to my husbands demise I have kept it for projects like this.

All I needed was some small nails (found at the bottom of the tool box), a sawtooth hanger, scrap wood, a hammer, elephant clip art and coordinating scrapbook paper.

I wiped down the wood to clean of all the dust.