Idea Queen Tips & News

You may or may not have noticed there isn’t a whole lot of sewing projects posts here this time of year. That’s mostly because I don’t have a whole lot of interest in sewing in the summer for some reason.

I don’t know why, but I usually don’t get the “sewing bug” until winter. Maybe it’s because I prefer to be out in the garden this time of the year, or playing outside in some way. Something about warm weather and sewing just doesn’t appeal to me.

There ARE projects I probably should be doing, including some dress ideas and shorts. Luckily I did make my daughter a pair of shorts for Christmas so she’ll have at least one handmade item to wear this year. But aside from that I really don’t have anything and the motivation is gone. Maybe it’s just me - I tend to lose interest in ideas and projects after a set amount of time.

What about you, do you sew during the summer?

The following low cost ideas may help you decide what to get your girls this year for Christmas or their birthday. Each of them can be very cheap if you look in the right places or make them yourself.

1. Handmade Items
This may work better for little ones, but if you can sew you can create all kinds of handmade items. Doll clothes, clothes for the kids, bedding, and quilts are just a few. My daughter absolutely loves getting clothes for her dolls. Granted it’s usually mom dressing them, but she likes it anyway.

Last year for Christmas I found tiny iron-on ballet shoes to put on a doll shirt. Since she is very much into dance right now, she absolutely LOVED this.

2. Toy Collections
This may not always be low cost, but asking all family members to buy certain types of toys can help your kids keep their toys organized better. Plus it’s always exciting to have entire sets of certain toys.

Things like My Little Ponies, Webkinz, and My Littlest Pet Shop are great toys (and often inexpensive as well). Check with mom to see what the little girl likes. There’s always accessories and different items to buy for each of the sets listed.

3. Dollar Stores
While they may not always be the best quality of products, with some children this may be your best bet. As much as we try to teach our children to be good with their toys, sometimes it doesn’t matter and they get broken anyway. Buying cheaper items may cut down on your costs.

Coloring books work well, as do stickers and other “general” toys like jump ropes, bubbles, and chalk. At a buck a piece, you won’t break the bank and they’ll be entertained for hours.

4. Personalized Items
A special gift for kids can be as simple as an item with their name on it. There is no shortage of personalized products out there - they can be CDs, books, pencils, clothes, and other items.

Lots of personalized gift ideas can be found at Idea Queen.

5. School Supplies & Clothes
While they may not always be appreciative of “boring” gifts, you can sometimes get away with buying something useful. School supplies featuring their favorite characters they would love, as would special outfits in colors or characters which interest them. If they are starting kindergarten soon, this could be an exciting gift.

Be careful on the items you buy though, as they may not be able to use them. Most schools have very specific lists of items that parents can vary from. Also if the child is being homeschooled, be careful not to get them something the parents won’t be using. “Safe” items usually include pencils or writing tablets (the kind you use to print letters) for little ones.

These are just a few gift ideas for girls. More kids gift ideas can be found on Idea Queen for both boys and girls.

Last week the focus was on sorting clothes and I didn’t get as far as I would have liked to. While I did go through the 4 massive tubs of clothes we got over a week ago, I never made it upstairs to short out the smaller clothes. So I’m going to try to get a bit more of that accomplished while I work on this week’s challenge - the computer desk.

It’s pretty ugly looking right now, with paper stacked and things kinda thrown everywhere. I really need to sort through everything and organize it a bit. I joke that my desks likes to “eat” things like pens and other small items. Ok so not even small items - it’s been known to eat larger items as well. Yeah, time to clean it.

How did you do on last week’s challenge? Are you joining us this week?

Alright, so Free Kids Crafts is not a “new” site, but it’s got a new layout and focus. We decided keeping up with the newsletter was just too much, so now the site focuses just on free crafts (just like the name says, imagine that!).

You’ll notice on the navigation the crafts are broken down into types of crafts, seasons, and holidays. We’re also adding a list of places online to buy supplies (and a few tips for offline shopping), plus an easy way to submit your own crafts.

Over the next few weeks you might not find exactly what you are looking for, but we are doing our best to get the site redesigned so that it becomes an nice resource for those looking for free kids crafts.

If you have a minute, stop on by and let us know what you think!

Mom’s can play games online too, right? Heck yeah they can! What better way to take advantage of your “special day” then doing nothing but playing games.

From now until May 16th, Big Fish is offering 40% off games when you use the code “MOTHERSDAY” at check out. Just click the link above, find a game, then buy. Don’t forget the code!

The best part about Big Fish is you can try the games out before you buy. So make sure you pick a great game you’ll like before using your coupon.

Enjoy your Mother’s Day!

Yesterday was my son’s birthday, so it was his choice on what we made for supper. I thought he’d say tacos since mom’s taco meat is his absolute favorite (move over Taco Bell!). Much to my surprise he said “pasta”.

I knew exactly which type he was talking about, because it’s the one we make the least. Usually when I make pasta it’s fettucini or mac and cheese. Those are the only two my daughter will eat (I don’t know what’s wrong with that child - she doesn’t even like spaghetti!). But since it was his birthday, he picked the one pasta dish his sister doesn’t like.

I actually love this recipe, and jumped at the chance to make it again. The last time we made it was clear back in December, so yeah I was excited. It came out pretty good too, and we cooked it the same way we did last time (See Angel Hair Pasta Recipe).

He was happy, although we had to pry the pot from his hands and convince him he really should use his own bowl. It’s rather funny to watch him scarf this pasta since he’s normally such a picky eater!

Growing up I never cared to be in after school activities. Aside from a few choir-related things, I just never got into sports or anything else. The only thing I wanted to do when the bell rang at 3pm was get HOME.

Because it never interested me, I tend to not push my own kids into things. In the summer they take swimming lessons, and my daughter is in dance (enjoying it much more than I did, but then again she’s quite a girly-girl where as I was not). My son has also taken Tae Kwan Do in the past and wants to take it again (we’ll be getting him in that again in a few weeks). But aside from that, they really aren’t involved in much.

So the question here is, what’s too little? Most parents worry about getting their kids into too many activities, but here I am worrying I don’t have them in enough. My son I especially worry about, since I’ll most likely be homeschooling him this fall. I hear about all these clubs and sports homeschooled kids are involved in, and think maybe I *should* be getting them involved in more stuff. Maybe I’m projecting my own dislikes on my kids and preventing them from getting involved in activities they’d really like. But if they really don’t express interested in wanting to get involved, maybe I shouldn’t push it?

What’s your thoughts?

I actually got a jump start on this yesterday knowing I was going to be gone today for a few hours. My daughter is lucky to have several older cousins who all have some very nice clothes. The other day we got 3 big boxes dumped on us, plus more boxes still sitting upstairs needing to be sorted.

It’s time to sort.

This week I’ll be sorting all the clothes we’ve gotten and going through her drawers to see what fits and what doesn’t. I probably should have a better system in place for all this, but I really don’t. We are getting clothes faster than I can sort them, and I can’t seem to get rid of the small ones fast enough either.

I’ve also come to realize that I need to have my daughter right there with me because we really can’t judge sizes very well. When I started yesterday I was sorting clothes by size thinking ones in the pile would fit her and they really don’t. She’s a bit on the chunky side, so finding clothes that fit her is a challenge.

Anyway, that’s my Tidy Tuesday Challenge - sorting through clothes and cleaning out drawers. Hopefully by the end of the week we’ll have nothing but clothes that fit!

I’m a big online shopper. I love especially comparison shopping for big ticket items or things I don’t need immediately. Just about everything you’ll ever need you could buy online. Yet still there’s a good chunk of the population that absolutely refuses to shop online for various reason.

So I got to thinking, if you are one of those who doesn’t like shopping online, why is that? I’m sure there’s a variety of reasons such as not wanting your personal information online or not trusting various sites. Which you all have very good reasons, I don’t doubt that one bit. Even though I’m a big online shopper there are sites that make me uncomfortable and warnings to heed.

Actually I just wrote an article about this very topic the other day for Associated Content. It focuses on the pros and cons of shopping from small businesses. You can take a look at it if you’d like and leave your feedback.

So what about you? Do you shop online? What are your reasons for shopping online or not shopping online?

Scrapbooking can be a lot of fun, but it can also be very expensive. One easy way to cut down your costs is by doing digital scrapbooking instead of the traditional form.

Not only can it be extremely low cost to buy reusable supplies from places like ComputerScrapbook.com, but often times you can find FREE supplies to use as well.

The best part about digital scrapbooking is you aren’t limited by your tools and supplies. It’s easier, quicker, and if you want a traditional scrapbook you can print at any time.

Digital scrapbooking supplies are usually very inexpensive, only costing you a $1 or less per item. To see all the items available, click on the banner at the top of this post, or visit TheScrapbookingSource.com for more details on traditional and digital scrapbooking supplies.