Remember when Linkys were all the rage in blogging? They were a great way to find and get to know other bloggers before social media and Pinterest became mainstream. It didn't hurt that they brought a ton of traffic to your site too. Lindsi and I started our Fun Stuff Fridays linky back in 2011. We kept it going for 20 weeks before it fizzled out (or we got sick of doing it, I'm not sure which happened). It is now soon to be 2017 and at lot of the links in those linkies no longer exist. Plus, I've let my link up subscription lapse so you can't get to them anyway. Instead of deleting the Fun Stuff Fridays posts, however, I have decided to clean them up and make sure our featured links are still valid. After all, on a rare occasion I get traffic from one of these old posts. The linky may be gone but the featured posts are still valid as of December 2016... Welcome to day 3 of Toys In The Dryer 14 Days of Valentines! Welcome to Fun Stuff Fridays. Can't wait to see your … [Read more...]
Surprise Valentines
Welcome to day 2 of Toys In The Dryer 14 Days of Valentines! From February 1-14 we'll be posting non-stop Valentine's posts to celebrate this lovely holiday. Today we're making Surprise Valentines! I hope your kids have just as much fun as mine did while making these! Here's what you'll need to make Surprise Valentines: Cereal boxes or some other kind of thin cardboard Paper in Valentines colors Glue Scissors Candy Tape Step 1) Cut your cardboard and some paper into pieces approximately 3 x 3 inches. You'll need 2 pieces of cardboard and 2 pieces of paper per Valentine. Step 2) Glue the paper to the colored side of the cardboard to cover it up. Set them aside for later. Step 3) Take an 8.5 x 11 in piece of paper and cut it evenly into 4 strips the long way. (Yes, I realize there's only 3 strips above. My daughter was using the 4th strip.) Step 4) Accordion fold each strip into 8 sections. Step 5) Cut a half-heart out of the folded accordion … [Read more...]
We Love You Because…
Welcome to Toys In The Dryer 14 Days Of Valentines! For the next fourteen days straight (including Saturdays and Sundays) we'll be posting Valentines related posts! Even our Fun Stuff Fridays linky party will be Valentines focused! We'll be going a little off of our usual schedule during this time, but we hope you enjoy our tribute to this lovely holiday. Show your kids that you love them and boost their self esteem with these easy "We Love You Because..." message boards. I have to admit, this is another one of our Pinterest inspired posts. I found this husband geared Love Message Board tutorial and totally thought this would be great for my girls! I'm always looking for unique ways to show them that I love them. These are so easy to make! In fact, they are so easy, I didn't feel the need to take step-by-step photos. I'm pretty sure you're smart enough not to need a visual... 1) Grab your computer, some paper, some scissors (optional), an 8x10 photo frame, and make … [Read more...]
Year Of The Paper Christmas Tree–Christmas Mishap
1983, the "Year Of The Paper Christmas Tree" is a Christmas I will treasure for the rest of my life. It is both one of the saddest and funniest Christmases I have experienced (so far). It started a few weeks before Christmas when we went to pick out our "fresh cut" Christmas tree. It was perfect! In the weeks leading up to Christmas our perfect tree began to lose some needles, but what real tree doesn't lose a few needles-right? Christmas Eve brought a terrible snow storm and some of the coldest temps on record. It also brought a sound, then a site, that horrified my mom... She awoke to what she thought was the sound of running water. She followed the sound into the living room where she witnessed what she calls "a shower of pine needles". Almost every needle was falling off our Christmas tree in one big cascade. She had never seen anything like it before. My sister and I woke shortly after my mom and freaked out when we saw what was left of our beautiful … [Read more...]
Holiday Soap
Ever notice how the price of hand soap is more when it's put in a festive container? Solution-------- do it yourself! Here is what you will need: Hand soap Stickers Carefully peel off the manufacture labels from the hand soap (and shhhhh, don't tell them you are doing this) Remove and excess goop left behind and simply place stickers on the bottles. My kids think these are fancy shmancy soaps from the store...little do they know it cost me all of $2.00 (soap and stickers). *a little edit for ya- I also like to add a few drops of my favorite essential oil-peppermint to make them smell festive!* … [Read more...]
Make your own ornaments
Something my mom and I used to do a lot when I was younger (and pre-kids) was paint Christmas ornaments. It's really simple to do and MUCH cheaper than some of those fancy shmancy ones you can purchase. Here is what you need: GLASS ornaments (trust me the plastic ones don't work) Acrylic paint Add a few drops of paint to the inside of each ornament Roll the ornaments carefully around to get the paint to cover the entire inside Allow each ornament to dry upside down and the excess paint to drip out You can stop there and hang them or you can glue pretty ribbon to the tops of the ornaments...it's really up to you! … [Read more...]
