Experiment: Can I Make a Fun Hat?

Experiment Taken From: Notebook Entry 07.31.08

Materials Needed: Please see maya made for the full instructions on this task. Since I was doing this with my 2 year old daughter, we decided to color our hats instead of the flowers because it involved her helping more.

Results: With my son gone to school during the day, I wanted to carve out some special time with Emily and what could be more fun than making a hat together? Emily helped me color the newspaper and then I had to fit the hat to her head. That part was not fun because she was wiggling and screaming underneath the newspaper. If you have a younger child, you might want to keep that in mind and have the tape ready so there is no waiting. We tied our hat with ribbon and Emily declared herself the queen and even did a queenly little curtsy for me. I think she really liked the idea of the hat, but it didn’t stay on her head very long.

Conclusion: This was a fun and thrifty craft that I would like to do again when she gets a little older. I picture having tea parties with her and her friends and sharing the tea under their newspaper brims. It is definitely a craft worth repeating! Many thanks to maya made for the fabulous craft idea!
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I am so excited to open our Notebook Experiments up to everyone and I hope that you will be able to participate this week or in weeks to come! I will be posting this each Thursday so please mark your calendars if you plan to participate. You can post your entries at any time throughout the week and then leave your entry in the links below.

Today is the big day because I am giving away a Flip Camera to one lucky participant! Please read yesterday’s post for the full scoop!

We have this handy banner that you are more than welcome to use, but it is not a requirement! It is just something you can add to add a little sparkle to your entry.

Rules for Participation:

1. Choose anything from any of our notebook entries (past or present) to do with your family. We have hundreds of bookmarked links of crafts, ways to save money, and organizing ideas.
2. Complete an experiment from the notebook and share about it on your blog or website. We would love to see pictures of what you accomplished or a detailed description of how your projects turned out. Please include a link to this entry, a link to the original posting of the entry (at the original crafster’s blog), and (to help us relocate the project) the date or link of the notebook entry where you found it. You can use the same formatting as our entries or you can just include that information in your post in your own unique way!
3. Post a link below. Please include your name or blog name & a fast description of your project. Example- MomAdvice (WHO bread)

I can’t wait to see what you create and what you find inspiring!

Experiment: Can I Green My Sink Routine?

Experiment Taken From: Notebook Entry 05.29.08

Materials Needed: Please see ohdeedoh for the full instructions on this task. I used the vinegar and a lavender essential oil to make my homemade disinfectant, but you could also use tea tree oil. For extra credit, grab some baking soda and use this to scour the sink before disinfecting.

Results: I will admit that I really used to love bleaching my sink. I am all about cleaning the sink and have been ever since I read Sink Reflections. There was just something so therapeutic about having a fresh clean sink and there is just something so cleansing about that sparkling white sink after a good bleaching. To this day, if I smell Comet cleanser it makes me think of my mom and her sink cleaning days when I was a little girl.

But the times, they are a changin’ and I am trying to incorporate more green living into my life. I have talked a lot about implementing homemade cleaners into your routine, but I was still dragging my feet on cleaning my sink with the green stuff.

I really wanted to try this homemade disinfectant and thought I would give my sink a good scrubbing with baking soda instead this time.

I just sprinkled my sink liberally with baking soda and ran a tiny bit of water. This made it more of a scouring paste and I scrubbed it with a little brush (or whatever else you have on hand). Once I scrubbed it well, I gave the sink a rinse and then wiped it out with a towel. I finished the routine off by spraying my homemade disinfectant and wiping the sink down again.

If you are a bleach user, I wouldn’t say it was exactly the same type of white, but it came very close. It did require a bit of elbow grease and took longer, but it was oh-so-worth-it!

Oh, and did you notice that sweet little dishcloth hanging over my faucet? I made that! It is a gift to myself after all of the gifts I have made. It isn’t even a reject one (which is what I normally give myself). It is the first item that I have knitted for myself since I have learned how. Oh, and it also happens to be green- just like my new sink routine!

I feel like this is something that I can do regularly and am proud that I have finally given the bleach up for good! Thanks ohdeedoh for this great idea!