April 23, 2012

Two Great Tips!

Who says the internet can't improve your life? Ha! Not me! Here's two tips/hints that I recently found that are so very helpful, saving time, money and frustration.

My 3 1/2 year old daughter is quite the card shark. Thanks to Grandma, she LOVES playing cards. She plays Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Uno and her favorite, Old Maid. It has really helped her learn her numbers & how to take turns nicely and she has become a sneaky strategist, much to the chagrin of her brother. The only problem is her little hands have trouble holding all those cards, especially in Old Maid where you deal the whole deck. So, this idea popped up on Pinterest the other day. I didn't repin like I should've so I don't have the link. But, it's a very simple card holder.

Take two plastic lids from any various disposable ...whipped topping, yogurt, sour cream, pringles, etc. In the tutorial I saw, she took two lids of the same size. But, in our experience it works better if one lid is smaller than the other. So, you take the two lids and put them back to back, flat sides together. Staple them in the middle a couple times. It was a little tricky, but the stapler did fit over the 'lips' of the lids and it stapled through two layers of plastic rather easily.



Then after they are secure, decorate them with stickers, be sure to cover the staples so there's no sharp parts. Here's a couple of ours all stickered up:



And here they are in action:


The cards slide right in & out easily but are held securely! I actually enjoy using them too :)



The next idea is a tutorial on how to shorten jeans so that the original hem is visible. I have an average sized husband with shorter than average legs. So, it is hard to find his size jeans. And hemming jeans the old fashioned way makes them look...not like real (cool) jeans. Problem solved thanks to THIS tutorial! I tried this out on a nice pair that I bought last week at a garage sale. The right sized waist but about 4 inches too long. It wasn't easy to get my sewing machine to sew along the side seams. I broke one needle, a denim needle no less! I had to take it slow & easy around those thick parts. And I top-stitched my seam so it lays nice & flat.



If you look closely, you can tell they've been altered, but it's not obvious at all. Hubby was quite impressed! It's worth it if I can find jeans at Goodwill and only have to look at the waist size and not have to worry about the length. He goes through jeans like crazy!

So, there's two of my new favorite little tips!

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