Sunday, December 15, 2013

Snowmen Ornaments

This weekend it was craft time with Katie again. She chose to make these bead snowman ornaments.


The kits came with the standard beads and pipe cleaners. Katie put the beads on on and I used hot glue after each bead. The last step was to tie the ribbon scarf around the neck.



 These guys are already hanging on the tree and look adorable.


Weather Stripping

In the continuing mission to save energy and make my house more efficient I have been focusing on a few part of the house which are some of the worst offenders. One of these is my back door. I have tried to put traditional weather stripping on the door last year and that did not work, the door would not close. I asked my brother for help in finding a real solution to the door issue. We recently made a trip to Lowes to look at some items we found online. While there we happened to find this product which looked like it might solve the problem and still keep the door functional. 


Here is a look at the door and frame before we started, there is a gap there that you can actually see light through. This was the problem, if you sat neat the door you would feel the cold draft because so much air is coming through.


Here is a look at after, there is no longer a gap!


To achieve this result we first cleaned out the door frame of the pieces of existing insulation.


This silicone stripping is very flexible and thin. It has an adhesive side to it just presses into the door frame. Just doing this one side of the frame was enough to solve the problem but it can be installed on all sides.


The change from finally solving this leaking door has been drastic. You can now sit at the table near the door and not have to wear a sweater, you can walk by without feeling the rush of cool air. I am sure this will help in the summer as well. Just one small step towards making my home more efficient and comfortable.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Rainbow Favors

My little girl will be turning 5 this month, it is all going by so fast! For her 5th birthday I decided to give her a big party like she had been asking for. We invited her entire class and many other friends and family. To prepare I went to Pinterest for inspiration and found a picture that looked like something we could make however I could not find instructions. After some searching I discovered pretzel bags, M&M's and Rolos to be the answer. First we sorted a huge bag of M&M's by color.


Next four Rolo's went into the bottom of the bag.


M&M's are then added by color making a rainbow.


Quickly and easily it comes together into a cute party favor.


A lot of rainbows for preschoolers to eat!