Clean those re-usable straws for heaven's sake!

I love those reusable plastic cups with the lids and straws. I get them as gifts. I give them as gifts. I use them everyday. 

At Christmas I got this one from a student:

The straw is see-through. I started to see mold growing inside the straw!!! Disgusting! Well, I brainstormed as to how to get this mold out of there. Here's what you need:

1. Q-tip

2. Long, skinny object that will fit through the straw, at least 3/4 of the way through

3. Water

I have not been able to locate a long skinny object for quite a while, but yesterday I got my new character shoes for work, and holding the shoe apart was a long skinny object! That's the black thing you see down below. Skewers or skinny straws will work too, as long as they can fit in the straw.

Get the Q-tip and the inside of the straw a little wet. You might need to spread out the cotton on the Q-tip a little bit so it reaches the sides of the straw.

Stick it in, then push it through with the long skinny thing (ignore the dirty Q-tip, the other Q-tip is inside the straw).

Push it all the way through, then go back and forth a bunch of times. 

This is how your Q-tip will look after going back and forth 10 times or so... yuck! You were drinking through that gunk!

Now rinse the straw, and drink with peace.

Aloha, Becca

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New Project for a New Baby Boy

Haven't had much time to blog. I work for a Performing Arts organization and the dance department's year-end recital is at the beginning of May. Less than a month away, so I have been spending a lot of time prepping for that. But, Monday is my day off and today I decided to really take the day off, and do a project. 

A friend had a baby recently and I wanted to make my signature bunting. Also, I have been dying to try this tutorial for a Fabric Bucket from here. So I got out my adorable Squirrel Fabric, and every piece of coordinating fabric I own, and made this:

I used these fabrics, but nixed the white at the last second. Too many solids.

Started with the triangular bunting...

Best tip ever: snip the corners!

End product:

These squirrels and birdies are just adorable. 

Those are the same aqua birdies from the pillow in this post.

 Can't go wrong with grey and white polka dots.

I don't love the black bias-tape on top, but I can't find aqua or grey bias tape anywhere! Orange would have looked good, but I doubt it would have been burnt sienna enough to match the acorns... so I had to settle for black. 

 And now for my new creation, the fabric bucket. 

The top can be folded down...

Or left up...

There's a great tutorial at http://inspiredbyfamilymag.com/2012/01/15/diy-fabric-bucket/ so I won't repeat the work they've already done...

I used felt instead of interfacing... I'm too cheap to get interfacing, plus I always forget to look for it at the store. 

Btw-- the bucket is sitting on one of the Kids Pottery Barn chairs I've been working on for forever. I've completed painting 2 out of 4 of them. See full post here.

I sewed a little X on the bottom to give it an extra element.

A look inside...

Stuff diapers, wipes, etc. in it. 

I can't get over the natural lighting that was coming in when I took these photos.

I haven't given it to the recipient yet, but I hope they like it! It was fun to do a new sewing project. It was pretty easy to follow the tutorial. I got some great new fabric today that matches Ivy's room: dark blue, light greens and pink and grey and white... and... and... just kidding. Anyway, I want to make one of these fabric buckets for her room. 

Check out my other bunting posts here and here and here.

Aloha, Becca

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$2 Shelf - COMPLETED!

I took on the March "Before & After" challenge at www.shineyourlightblog.com. My first project was the $2 shelf. See the original post here.

BEFORE:

in process...

AFTER:

Painted in Shiloh

top shelf

 middle shelf...

bottom shelf...

The brown catch-alls in the center and the crystal one on the right were my grandma's. The brown one has a note in it from my grandma. Those kinds of things make me really happy.

The shelf is up on our bedroom wall, and now that it's up, I really want to paint the walls. A pool blue? Grey? Sage? Celery? I think it would make the shelf look better. But how can I justify to my landlords that I should be able to paint the walls because I want a shelf to look better? 

I had actually finished the shelf a couple weeks ago. I hung it up, staged it, didn't take any photos, then got a text from my husband a few hours later: 

"Your shelf was hanging by a thread 

with half of the stuff you had on it on the ground..."

Oops. Thank you Kit for hanging my shelf properly. Thank you to the people who had the garage sale last month who gave this to me for $2. :)

Aloha, 

Becca

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