How to Make DIY Spend Save Share Banks

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For months, Nano kept telling me that he had a fifty dollar bill in his piggy bank.  Obviously, I didn't believe him because where in the world would a 7-year-old have gotten that kind of money?  I figured that he had mistaken a five dollar bill for a fifty and was a little overly optimistic about his financial state.

After months of hearing him brag about his riches, I was getting tired of it.

Easy No Sew High Low Vest Tutorial

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I wear layers most of the time.  Sometimes it's a t-shirt and hoodie, but other times, when I have to look like adulty and like I didn't just roll out of bed, I throw a vest on over my shirt to dress it up.

One day, I was wishing I had a vest to go with a specific shirt I was wearing that day and then happened to glance at my mountain reasonably sized stash of fabric and realized that I had everything I needed to make myself a new vest.  10 minutes later, I was done and out the door.

Want to make the cutest, easiest fashion piece ever for yourself?  You'll need four things...a yard of knit fabric, fabric scissors, 10 minutes of your time, and a long sleeved shirt from your closet.

Seriously, that's it.  And don't worry.  You won't be cutting up your long sleeved shirt.   

How to Start an Online T-Shirt Business with Printful

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When I first started my t-shirt business, I had to figure everything out on my own.  What sites to use, how to set up my website, how to design graphics for my shirts, etc.  It was time-consuming and intimidating to say the least.

Thankfully, I had some experience researching things like that as I'd been running an online shop selling handmade children's clothing and accessories called Annalie's Baby Boutique since 2010.  I loved my shop, but I knew it was time for a change.  I just didn't have the time to devote to it anymore plus my health was deteriorating thanks to Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, and it was getting harder for me keep up.  

I had a lot of designs that I wanted to have printed on shirts, but the idea of having to pay up front to have a bunch of shirts printed that may or may not sell was a little daunting.  That also would mean keeping up on inventory, packaging, and shipping products myself.  And then I found Printful, a print-on-demand company that would take care of all of that for me.  It was exactly what I was looking for.

I closed down Annalie's Baby Boutique and opened the Sunshine and Spoons Shop in September 2016 to go along with my blog, Sunshine and Spoons.

Here are my statistics for the year of 2016.  I opened my shop in mid-September.

Want to open your own print-on-demand t-shirt shop?  Here's how to do it.

How to Make No Sew DIY Rice Heating Pads

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There are five people in my family who have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which means that pain is a normal occurrence around.  I prefer to try alternative methods of pain relief such as using essential oils (Panaway is a great one for muscle pain!), massage, ice, and heat before turning to tylenol.

A few weeks ago, I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed and was in excruciating pain for 10 days straight.  After applying ice to both sides of my face for the first 48 hours, the oral surgeon recommended switching to heat.  He said I could heat up the ice packs he'd sent home with me, but they just didn't seem to hold the heat very well so I decided to grab one of our trusty rice socks that I'd made with one of Hubby's (clean!) tube socks instead.  The problem was that it was too big and bulky to work well for my face.  In a rare moment of clarity, I grabbed a leg warmer from the kids' mis-matched sock basket and turned it into a perfectly sized rice heating pad.  

Want to make your own rice heating pads that are the perfect size for kids AND adults?

Gift Guide - Unique Toys Under $20

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My kids are watching the mail like hawks right now.  Why?  Because they know that Mommy does most of her shopping online, including the Christmas shopping.

Which is also why I'm glad that the mail usually comes while the older kids are in school.

Anyways...if you're like me, you can sometimes have a hard time figuring out what to get your kids for Christmas.  I don't like to spend a lot of money on their gifts since they also get a lot from relatives.  Bigger ticket items are usually reserved for birthdays.

With that in mind, I put together a gift guide of toys under $20 each for kids of all ages.  I hope you find some good ideas for your Christmas list!

30 Random Acts of Kindness to Do With Your Kids

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Update 12/7/2020: I've received a lot of comments and feedback on this post and I wanted to address some of them. First of all, I live in a small rural town where homemade treats are the norm, but I understand that that's not the case for everyone. That's okay! Just substitute store bought treats and you're good to go. This list is meant to give you some ideas of various things you can do with your kids. Adapt it as needed to make it work for you, your kids, and your community. Not everything needs to include spending money or giving it away. One of the best random acts of kindness your kids can do is to be kind to others. Also, for those worried that people might think finding things in public places is "creepy" or accidental, make sure you're including a "random acts of kindness" card with them so the meaning is understood.

I want to do something with the kids this Christmas that encourages them to put others first and focus on the real reason of Christmas.  After being inspired by this book, I put together a list of 30 random acts of kindness that I can do with them at Christmas and all year round!

I thought it would be a good idea to leave a little note with each random act of kindness so I created this printable sheet of cards to cut up.  I plan to print mine on card stock to make them a little more heavy duty.  I'm also going to print extras to keep in my wallet for those times when I come across an opportunity to do a random act of kindness unexpectedly :)  If you don't feel like making your own, you can buy some really cute ones here.

Right click and save to your computer to get the printable.

  

Cheap and Easy DIY Picture Wall

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When I was a kid, my favorite thing at my great grandma's house was her wall of pictures.  The pictures were of relatives, mostly from her generation and earlier.  I fell in love with her "picture wall" and decided that when I grew up and had my own house, I was going to have one too.

We've had our own house for a little over two years now.  It was time to put up my picture wall.

I was a little daunted at the thought of buying a ton of frames and then having to hang them so I started researching other options.

I decided to opt out of framing my pictures and go for a simpler look, using Scotch Clear Mounting Squares.  The squares are removable which appealed to me since I didn't want to end up with marks on the wall.