Keep Those Instructions Straight

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Lego instructions can get a bit unruly once you get more than about five sets. Actually, some come with so many instructions for one kit that it can become overwhelming. So I came up with the idea to make an instruction binder. Or I found the idea somewhere. Can’t really remember which it was.

All it took was a large binder, some page protectors, and some divider tabs. Or you could probably just put actual dividers between the sections. I chose to just label the first page protector in each group. Most of them only have one anyway.

This makes it easy to add sections, too. I had originally thought about getting an accordion folder, but decided it would be a safer option to be able to add space as the collection grows. Seems to have been a good call so far.

Time to Swim

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The local swim school requires that kids be put in swim diapers until the age of four, regardless of their potty training status. Once they aren’t actively pooping their pants on a regular basis, it seems a bit wasteful to use a disposable diaper for every class. This is where the reusable swim diaper comes in handy.

Problem is, most over size two only come in a pull-up style. That works when it is dry, but wet swim trunks are tough enough. You don’t want to be dealing with a wet swim pull-up tangled in that mess. So i decided to make one that has side snaps. Best decision ever.

I found this pattern on Sew Mama Sew and we went on a trip to the fabric store after swim class one day. Couldn’t find any PUL material, so went for the ripstop nylon option. Got swim fabric (that the little one got to pick himself), and some black wicking jerset, plus fold-over elastic. It took a couple of tries, but I finally figured out how to get all the layers to stay together while sewing. Once I had that figured out, it was a really quick finish.

It also took a couple tries to get the snaps on the right way, too. But it is so easy for the kids to put on when it is snapped up and then even easier to unsnap and pull of at the end of class. It makes getting dressed after swim class so much easier.

More Kitchen Experimentation

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Last week I wrote about making a body butter lotion. I really like “sciencey” DIY projects like that. It’s always so cool to be able to make things like that myself. So when I came across a string of Lush substitute DIY posts on Pinterest, I knew I had to try them.

The first project I tried was the bath bomb recipe found here. Super simple, just four ingredients (I left out the colors). I don’t really get to take baths often, but I do like using those shower melt things to help with congestion. I tried one once that was just baking soda and peppermint oil, but it didn’t really have enough smell to it and washed away too quickly. But these new ones work great. Lasted a lot longer than the plain baking soda cake in the shower stream, too.

Another simple one I found was the sugar lip scrub. I didn’t bother pricing it out, but it uses so little of each of the ingredients there’s no way it’s not a better deal than the $10 it costs at Lush. Plus, it really is just things you probably have around the house. One tip for using that recipe, though: I had to add almost twice as much sugar to get the right consistency.