Tissue boxes have become more decorative over the years. Gone are the days of the marbled blues, greens, and browns – thank goodness!

For a long time I always thought it was a shame to toss them out (in the recycling bin of course!) but never knew what to do with them if I kept them. Then one day it hit me, I could use them to make a mobile for over my daughters changing table!

All you need is an animal shape, an empty tissue box, chopsticks, string and some glue and voila! A mobile.

Here are the basic steps:

1. Cut out the animal shape from the tissue box (use two boxes for varied colors and designs). Make half of the shapes reversed so that you can glue them together and have the pretty side out.

2. Glue the pieces together with the string in between. I doubled the string and put the loop at the top to attach it to the chopsticks.

3. Use string to tie the chopsticks into an X shape. (Leave a tail for attaching it to the ceiling.)

4. Wrap the string from the shapes around the chopstick ends a few times to secure. This is where making the loop in step 2 comes in handy.

5. Hang and enjoy!

I’m a sucker for making the small things look pretty. At my old job I even decorated my pen/pencil holder (ie. a paper cup!) by drawing on it with a sharpie. Print-it-yourself calendars are often plain to look at. Why not dress them up by printing it on decorative paper?

These are the basic steps if you already have decorative paper:

Step 1: Select your paper.

Step 2: Open the calendar file.

Step 3: Load the paper into your printer. Make sure the pretty side is what will be printed on.

Step 4: Print!

If you don’t have any decorative paper- no worries! You can do what I did for the calendar in the image. I went to Canon’s Creative Park. They have free download-able scrap booking backgrounds, borders, stickers, and letters.

For October I wanted something halloween-ish and found this one with spiderwebs. I printed the paper first and then followed steps 2-4. I used Microsoft Word to print the calendar and moved it to the bottom right for aesthetics (I like white space! Plus it gives me room to add notes.)

My daughter loves toys that make the crinkly noise. She also loves to wake up before us in the mornings but we’re lucky that she will play in her crib for awhile before calling out for “ma ma ma ma.” We usually know she’s up though by the “crinkle crinkle” noises coming from the crib because I always put the soft one in before I go to bed.

She only has one soft crinkly toy and not wanting her to get bored of it I decided I’d make her one. The idea struck when I was refilling the diaper basket and was getting ready to throw away the plastic bag they come in. As I was crumpling it up it made a “crinkle” and a picture flashed in my head of a plush toy. After digging through my fabric and craft boxes I sat down at the sewing machine and made Ella the elephant!

She’s stuffed with two of the diaper bags which makes it soft as well as crinkly and perfect for an in the crib toy. I added some texture using a reverse applique for the ear, button for the eye, a knitted i-cord for the tail and stripes of ribbon on the back.

I went a little overboard on the details, but it doesn’t have to be. Sewing a silhouette of an animal and embroidered facial features would be just as fun for any baby – the important part is that it crinkles!

My daughter recently discovered my stash of beauty products under the bathroom sink. Don’t worry, I’ve moved it now that she’s found it! I keep them  in a small basket and it houses things such as lotion, hair products, nail polish remover, hair clips, brush etc. I would have thought with so many things available for her to get into she would go from one thing to another, but nope, she went straight for the blue nail polish remover.

I watched as she shook it and passed it from hand to hand mesmerized by the blue water moving back and forth. Until now we’ve only given her water bottles to play with (which she loves!) Watching her stare at the colored water inspired me to add a little color to one of her favorite toys.

I filled the bottles to varying degrees and added two to three drops of food coloring in each. Instant new toy! Giving her a new color each day makes the novelty last a little longer.

Tried & true recipes!

Before Cathy and I had kids, we had dinner and movie nights pretty frequently. The husbands really enjoyed it too because it was our opportunity to try something new and be creative with our dishes, whether the recipe came from one of our trusted cookbooks or from an episode of “Everyday Italian” or “Barefoot Contessa” that we watched earlier in the week.

Of course, Cathy and I did all the planning, first figuring out who would host that week. The host would prepare the meal and the other couple would bring wine or dessert which usually fit the theme for the night (i.e. Asian, American, Italian, Mexican, etc.). We even had movie themes…comedy, Johnny Depp, horror, action, and so on. We had our share of bad movie picks, but the evening was fun, nonetheless, sharing a good meal with good company.

Our dinner get-togethers (pre-baby!)

We haven’t had a dinner/movie night in a while, but with the kids being a little older and sleeping better at night, I think it would be fun to start them up again…my cookbooks will be happy to see me, and it has been a while since I’ve had a date with Johnny Depp!

picture gallery

After I’ve watched a great “Divine Design” makeover, I dream of giving one of my own rooms (actually all my rooms!) the Candace Olson touch. But unfortunately I don’t have $20,000 to spare. With bills to pay and mouths to feed, re-decorating is a luxury I can’t afford. To fill that urge, I get creative and learn how to stretch my decorating dollar. Here are some quick tips to bring some life back into any room in the house:

1) Go shopping…at home! If you’re like me, you have furniture in other parts of the house that you’ve forgotten about. Swap out furniture pieces and/or artwork and it will transform your room immediately!

2) Re-arrange your furniture. I can’t tell you what a big difference this makes. It’ll make your room feel totally new and you’ll be able to do some deep cleaning in the process! Just remember the new layout or else you’ll wind up with bruises if you get up in the middle of the night

3) Color! Color! Color! Try painting your walls a different color (or try an accent wall). If you’re afraid of that kind of commitment, try different drapery or bedding.

4) Accessorize. Pillows are great accessories for your sofa and bed and are super-inexpensive to make. Or try hanging up some picture frames or putting a flower arrangment in the room. Accent rugs are fun too (it’ll also hide the food stains your kid decided to put there!).

make-up desk turned accent table

Accent wall, accessories and brown curtains

This past spring, I took two classes–HTML and Dreamweaver. Both were online classes–I had never taken an online class before and was pleasantly surprised at how much I learned without physically being in the classroom.

As a marketing professional, I used the Web quite extensively to market products as it is a powerful and cost-efficient way to reach a broad audience. I wanted to take my experience one step further and learn how a Web page is created. Just like knitting where the instructions look like another language, HTML is a computer language with its own set of instructions. In the 6-week class, I learned the fundamentals of Web design, planned the content, structure of my Web site and created pages with backgrounds, tables, hot buttons and animations. I even got more insight into search engine listings.

The other class I took was Dreamweaver which is an industry-standard Web design program. This class required purchasing Dreamweaver software. The challenge that I had was that I purchased the latest version of Dreamweaver (I mean, why would I buy an older version), but the course material was written for Dreamweaver 8. I’d say about 80% was still valid, but there were a lot of parts that I skipped because it was not relevant with the newer version.

Anyway, in this class, I learned how to create documents and work with text, images, links, tables and multimedia files. I learned that there are 5 primary questions to guarantee success for any Web site project:

1) What is the primary objective of my site?

2) Who is the intended audience?

3) How will visitors be viewing the site?

4) How should visitors navigate my site?

5) What will the site look like?

I highly recommend these classes for anyone interested in creating their own Web site!

A lot of people are surprised to learn that I’m a self-taught knitter or that I knit at all! It all started when I got married and discovered a love for HGTV. I remember watching a show called “crafters from coast to coast” and thinking that it would be fun to pick up a crafting hobby.

I initially learned from a “Learn to Knit” kit I picked up at Michaels. While the book was helpful in learning the basic techniques of casting on, knitting and purling I found I needed more guidance then what the book could provide if I wanted to make more than potholders. Not knowing anyone who knitted and being an IT professional, I turned to–you guessed it–the Internet!

One of the firsts websites I came across was knittinghelp.com. What drew me in were the free instructional videos. They were just the thing I needed to learn more advanced stitches, like increasing and decreasing! (It’s funny to hear myself say that increasing and decreasing were considered advanced but to me each new technique is advanced!) Even now, four years later, I return time and time again to KnittingHelp for a refresher on a technique I hadn’t used in awhile or for something new.

Another site I use is knittingdaily.com. They just recently started posting how-to videos and some of my favorites are how to knit joggless stripes in the round and tubular cast on. The knittingdaily blog also is a wealth of information. It’s taught me how to take my body measurememtnts to ensure that a sweater will fit, how to knit lace, and different types of cast-ons and cast-offs.

I’ve come a long way since my potholder days and I owe it to all the great online knitting websites. Now that I’ve given out my secret, you can start knitting now too!

P.S. I am in no way affiliated with KnittingHelp and KnittingDaily, nor did they pay me to say such great things. KnittingDaily image from knittingdaily.com

If your child is like mine, he receives many gifts that–I’ll be honest with you–don’t get a lot of mileage. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the thought and the gift itself, but at the end of the day, he loses interest in it. And then it takes up space and starts to collect dust. (Hmmm, I hope I didn’t just talk Isaac out of some presents come Christmas time!).

When I create things, not only do I go for aesthetics, I think about its usefulness. “Will the recipient get a lot of use out of this?” is what I’m constantly asking myself. I find inspiration in its purpose. Can it do more and last longer than a toy off the shelf? More importantly, will he/she (and the parents) really enjoy it months (and even years) afterwards?

Just because something is practical doesn’t mean it can’t also be pretty. I like to create things for my customers that I would be proud to have displayed in my own home. For instance, we have Isaac’s growth chart hanging in the kitchen. He’s too young to understand what it is right now, but I can tell that he is attracted by the colors and textures. The colors are nice and bright but not tacky . It’s like a work of art, if I say so myself!

So in a world full of gadgets and gizmos, I like to create pretty and practical gifts while preserving the art of handmade goods that can be enjoyed without having to buy batteries for it.

Cathy and I are very excited to unveil embe, our online shop offering unique, handmade gifts for babies and tots! I remember one day back in May when we took the kids on their first official playdate, the idea came up to start something together. At first, I thought “it’s just an idea” but after giving it some thought, I realized that there was something there. During our first meeting, we both shared our ideas for what we could call our shop, and we both came up with embe on our own. Now, talk about coincidence!

The months leading up to our launch can be described as exciting, filled with late nights, inspiring, a learning experience, fun, and fulfilling. Starting a business is a lot of hard work but so rewarding in the process. We are both passionate about being mothers and being creative. embe allows us to combine both passions, and we hope that you join us on our creative and parenting journeys by reading our blogs and enjoying our creations for the little ones in your life!