Game Cabinet Reorganization

Our game cabinet was originally a storage for my scrapbook albums and supplies when we lived in Illinois and then again when we moved to Virginia. Now I am fortunate to have an area where I get to spread out and I have room for all my scrapbooks and the mass of products that follow them.

So I used the storage armoire for our games. We have a lot! We like to play games!

So this is what the game cabinet looked like until about six months ago (which means for about two years).

About six months ago I was searching for a spot for Hubby to put his things. Books and papers and notebooks and stuff when he brought them in the house. I gave him a basket-type box, but it was out in the open and usually overflowing so it just wasn't working.

The kids and I went through the game cabinet, purged what we thought we could, and gave Hubby the middle shelf. (This is where I wish I had a before picture from this morning.)

Our games were just not fitting very well though. They were hard to get out, if we had a new one it wouldn't fit, etc. Then I remembered an idea I saw in a magazine several years ago.

They used expandable scrapbook organizers to score game pieces. In the idea they actually hung the game boards on the wall behind a sofa. I didn't go that far.

The expandable organizers I purchased are called memory keepers. They are polypropolene and will hold a 12x12 sheet of scrapbook paper, if you so desire. They have an accordion fold on the bottom for expansion, and there are two snaps on the top flap depending on how full you fill the organizer. They come in packs of 10 or 12 at Michael's (and probably your other craft and scrapbook stores) and the weekly coupon would knock the price down. They were already on sale this week.

I was able to get rid of all these boxes. Many were bent and falling apart, or much too large for the game they were holding.

This is what they look like now:

Here's a dinosaur game we've had forever, and the board folds up into a square shape so it was able to go in the pocket as well.

Clue:

Dora Candy Land (all the boards that don't fit in the pockets are folded up on a shelf...I'm going to use my labelmaker and put a label on the outside of each one so you can tell which board is which without opening them all up):

Checkers:

Monopoly:

Even Connect Four and Trouble:


Here is what the game cabinet looks like now:

The pockets on the bottom shelf hold card games — Dutch Blitz, one holds several decks of Old Maid (each held together by a ponytail holder or silly band since we don't seem to own regular rubber bands) — you get the idea.

In reality, my labelmaker will probably get a workout because I think I might put a little label on the top corner of each pocket with the name of the game. And if I do one, I'll do them all, even if you can see what game is in the pocket. Because I'm weird that way.

I'm linking up with Thrifty Decor Chick's Organize It Linky Party and Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.

WFMW — Stocking Stuffers For Your Baseball Fan

Currently Rite-Aid has their individual packages of baseball cards on clearance for 75 percent off. Of course there is one in our area where they are only 50 percent off for some reason. I also live in an area where there is a store about every two to three miles down the road in any direction.

We've been to about six.

Do you have a baseball fan in your family? A baseball card fanatic? Double checks for me a few times over!

These are great for stocking stuffers. We were able to purchase packages for 37 cents and 74 cents. You totally can't beat that.

Of course you'll want to check your local Rite-Aid to make sure they have theirs on clearance. The majority of ours don't have the shelves or the packages marked, so check at the counter.
You also will not want to go to any of the stores close to me...

Early frugal Christmas shopping works for me!

Check out other more Works-For-Me-Wednesday at We Are THAT Family!

WFMW — Homemade French Toast Sticks

Sometimes I'll have extra homemade bread when I'm ready to make another batch. Just because I feed my starter doesn't mean I make some, but if I just have a loaf left, it's time.

But nobody wants to eat the old loaf if new fresh ones are available.

That's an excellent time to make French Toast.

Today I had two loaves left when I made new bread, and the kids and I ate most of one for lunch as fresh French Toast. Then I went ahead and sliced the other one up like I normally would for French Toast, then sliced each individual slice from side to side into two pieces.

I put them on wax paper on a cookie sheet when they had cooled some, then I placed them in the freezer to let them harden without sticking together before I put them in a Ziploc bag.


I took two slices, put them on a microwave plate, and cooked them for one minute. They were good and hot.

The only way you can tell the difference between frozen and cooked is the little bit of frost on the side in the above picture. The bottom one had been in the microwave.

Top with some powdered sugar.

After you're finished taking pictures, put more powdered sugar on because you have an obsession with all things sugar, and you didn't want it to come through in the picture. You could use syrup instead.

Works for me! For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday tips, visit Kristen at We Are THAT Family.

WFMW — Storing Decorative Flags

I used to fold up my decorative flags and store them in a plastic shoebox size Sterilite/Rubbermaid container (neatly of course, after laundering them when they came in the house from a long outdoor spell and hanging them to dry).

That worked while I had a few. Now I have many. While I lived in Virginia I started storing them in the front coat closet. I hang multiple ones together on a hanger that you get when you buy pants or a skirt from the store (like Kohl's or Penney's or a place like that).

The small garden size flags hang nicely just as they are. I store the larger ones this way too, they just require a couple of careful folds.

I fold them in half one way, and then in half again the other way. They end up being about the size of a garden flag. I hang them with the unfolded ends at the top. That way the hanger won't put a hard wrinkle where it's folded and the hanger clips on. The folded edges are all hanging loosely at the bottom.

I use about four hangers all together for quite a few flags. They can hang in any closet out of the way until you need them. Works for me!

For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday, visit Kristen at We Are THAT Family.

WFMW — Pillowcases That Fit

Hubby and I both have a special pillow for our necks. They are the memory foam, a strange shape (ours aren't even the same shape!), and regular pillowcases don't fit.

Since we have a king-sized bed, when we buy a sheet set it will include king-sized pillowcases. They are both too long and too wide. But we do use those pillowcases because we usually have our arms thrown over a pillow, which is king-sized, both because of proportion for the bed and because we had the pillowcases that fit.

If I want to buy a nice high-quality pillowcase (at a good price), Marshall's only sells pillowcases in a set of two in either a king-size or standard size.

Standard size is smaller than queen and not long enough. Even if they had queen, they would be too wide.

So the other day at Marshall's I purchased a set of two 600 thread count white pillowcases for $9.99 in the king size. My intent was to make them fit our two pillows.

Here is one of the king-sized pillowcases haphazardly thrown across my pillow before I started so you can see how long it is.

First I put the pillow in the pillowcase to get an idea how much I wanted off the ends and sides. I didn't cut anything off, I just sewed a new seam first along the bottom.

Then I cut off the almost 8 inches of extra fabric and used the closest stitch I had to serging along the edge. I did not do any hemming since I did not do any cutting to start.

Then I did the same thing for the side. It wasn't 8 inches though. It was only about 4 inches.

Here they are on the bed. You almost can't tell they are weird-shaped pillows.

Mine is even bigger at the bottom than the top.

When I pull out the polka-dot flannel next winter (from the first picture), I'm going to do the same thing to them. We've just been tucking the end and side underneath all year. I finally realized there had to be something better, and it was so easy!

For more WFMW, visit Kristen at We Are THAT Family.

WFMW — Tax Tip for Charitable Deductions

My tip today is to help you start getting ready for next year's taxes. You know, because an organized accountant can never start too soon.

I use TurboTax, but you don't have to use it to use one of their newer charitible deduction tools. You'll just have to print out the information you've entered on your own. If you use TurboTax it will automatically import it when you prepare your taxes.

First go to the main page of TurboTax. At the bottom of the page under Tax Calculators and Tools, choose ItsDeductible, or just click directly on this link.

If you've used TurboTax before, you can sign in on the right, and if not, you can start for free. It will keep track of the deductions you enter throughout the year and again, import them into TurboTax, assuming you use it next year. Remember, even if you don't use TurboTax, you could still compile your information there. The best part is that it assigns a value to your items based on the condition you enter, so you don't have to try and guess how much your donation is worth.

One tip — when you are entering items and before you go to a new page, hit 'Add Items' at the bottom because it doesn't remember them as you are popping around to different pages. I initially made the mistake of thinking that I was adding all my items for one donation on different pages and then I should hit add items, but you need to click it before you leave each page. You can still go back to it later.

ItsDeductible is the most helpful for me with the items that I take to Salvation Army or a place like that, but you can also keep track of money, stock, and mileage donations.

If you don't itemize on your tax return and take the standard deduction, then you don't need to keep track of your donations anyway. I should also put a disclaimer that anything I put in this post is not intended as tax advice. I'm just sharing what works for me!

Visit We Are THAT Family for Works-For-Me-Wednesday.

WFMW — Easter Basket Scavenger Hunt

Our kids used to get up in the middle of the night to check out their Easter baskets.

Hubby and I are pretty heavy sleepers, sleep was and is important to us, and so we didn't feel like it was critical to stay up and keep them guarded. We just left them out so that when they got up in the morning they could check them out.

Of course that was when we thought they might get up a little earlier than usual rather than the middle of the night.

When we were in Virginia we decided to come up with a fun and make-them-wait option...an Easter basket scavenger hunt. The first year, or maybe two, we did it before church.

Now they are older and we have to be there by 8:00 a.m. They wait until we get home.

When they were younger it started out by giving them an egg with the first clue. Last year we decided they had to find the clue amidst a lot of eggs.

Once we put that little piece of paper in there, we realized they would know immediately which one it was since you could see through the eggs.

So we cut a bunch of extra little plain pieces of paper and put them in all the other eggs. We're sneaky like that.

They found the first clue:

When visitors come over they ring the doorbell
Which is directly outside the front door.
So that’s where you need to go start your search
Inside by Peka’s vent on the floor.

There was an egg waiting for them with the next clue. We find that we have to be very careful and put them in the egg one-by-one as we walk through the house to make sure they end up in the right spot for the next clue. That first year or so when we did it late at night after they went to bed we almost goofed a few times.

They also know not to pick up any stray eggs they might find because they'd get messed up, but we actually hide some not in plain sight now to make it harder. They love it!

Here are a sample of a few of our other very cheesy clues:

Where do you find the ingredients
For grilled cheese in this house?
Just the white bread you need
Not the cheese for the mouse.

Who do you think has the messiest bedroom?
I think we all know who that is.
I wonder where you will find the next clue in that room.
I can tell you it’s not by a broom.

Find Harold.

A lover of Yankees
A lover of Cardinals
A lover of Blues
Go find the next clue.

Oh where, oh where is Mom’s new space
Where Chatty loves to go?
Just be careful when you are looking around
Or Mom will have to throw you to the ground.

We do 15 to 20 clues, and it's a lot of fun now that we have stairs plus a basement. We have them running all over the place!

They look forward to this every year.

Find more great Works-For-Me-Wednesday ideas at We Are THAT Family.

WFMW — Decorating Easter Eggs

Several years ago, as in more than ten, when we lived in New Jersey and only had three children, we purchased an egg spinner to decorate our Easter eggs. At the time, and until about a year or so ago, the only place I'd seen it was at a specialty toy store or in catalogs.

Our biggest challenge since purchasing the egg spinner was not each child taking their turn as we passed it around the table, it was finding an egg kit with some of the water-soluble liquid dye in little packets that we could use in the spinner.

Then the challenge was not mixing red and blue (for purple) and then forgetting and putting some yellow in before we rinsed it out. Brown eggs aren't as pretty.

Last year, I saw the egg spinners at Wal-Mart for $5.00. Since we have four kids now I picked up another one so that egg decorating would go just a little faster.

This year I decided that at $5.00 a pop, we could go ahead and get one for each of them.

Plus if we have oodles of grandkids someday, we'll be the go-to house for egg decorating.

I also got some packages of the egg coloring kits that have the little color packets in them. We just throw away whatever else comes with it (bags or something).

Here are our eggs from last year.


The kids look forward to this every year, and for us it's much easier than the other methods. This is what 'works for us' when we color our Easter eggs.

Visit We Are THAT Family for more Works For Me Wednesday ideas.

WFMW — Travel Tip

I'm too lazy to go back in my archives and search for the other button, but WFMW is actually being hosted by Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer for the next two weeks while Kristen is in Kenya with Compassion.

Which is on the tail end of Sparky getting back from Togo.

Which brings me to my WFMW tip.

Pack your carry-on like you will never see your checked luggage!

Especially if you are going overseas.

Sparky's checked suitcase did not make it to Togo.

Mr. Churchmember's checked suitcase did not make it back to New York.

Amidst canceled flights from New York to Detroit, the airline booking Sparky on a separate flight than Mr. Churchmember and Mrs. Missionary (with a plane and terminal change at Dulles in only 50 minutes, which they did not let her do and made the airline put her on the same flight as them), Mrs. Missionary said to the counter person in New York,

"This is the only bag we have left to check. One didn't make it to Ghana, one didn't make it back from Ghana (they drive from Ghana into Togo). Do you think you can get this one to Detroit?"

We packed one of Sparky's towels, all her washclothes, her passport copy, all her undies, all her t-shirts, three of her skirts, two of her blouses, her fitted sheet, her light blanket, feminine personal items, half her soap products, her extra sunscreen, and all her socks in her carry-on.

She had one sunscreen, her hat, all her medicines (prescription and over-the-counter), her compact (the only make-up she wears), a small bottle of contact solution and a case, an extra pair of contacts, hand sanitizer, sunglasses, snacks, a journal, and her Bible in a backpack as her personal item that she put under the seat.

People asked her who packed her carry-on because they were impressed that she could function well with what she had. Mr. Churchmember's wife had given me the advice to do it that way or I wouldn't have had a clue. We were all impressed at the maturity shown by a 16-year-old who was missing a suitcase.

Which still hasn't shown up.

Africa pictures coming in a little while!

Fabric Family Rules

I showed you a little teaser of my project when I was getting started the other day.Here's what you'll need if you do it like I did:

24x36 canvas
paint to finish out the sides and edges
fabric (at least fat quarter width works best, but you could use scraps and piece them)
iron-on transfer labels
mod podge (I used the gloss)
sponge brush
iron
cutting mat and rotary cutter make it easier to cut the strips, but if you have decorative scissors that will cut your fabric (mine were too dull) you could do that

I downloaded some cute fonts from here. There are even directions on how to get them to show up in your dropdown menu, which I never knew how to do.

I typed out the rules I wanted to use and set up my page for landscape. I tried out different fonts on each one until I found the one I wanted in the size I wanted. I had the margins at 1/2" on each side and to fit on the canvas they can't run much past two full lines. I printed them out on plain paper and cut them out to see if they would fit and if I liked the fonts before I printed them on the transfer paper.

When you print them on the transfer paper you have to print them as a mirror image. Then I cut all of those out prior to ironing them on the fabrics I chose.


I placed an old moving box on the table with a beach towel on it. The nice thing was that the towel had lines on it so it made it easy to line things up as I was ironing.


I used 11 different fabrics and repeated all of them except for a couple. Once I got all the words ironed on I started cutting them out.

I lined everything up before I started mod-podging it on.

When I was done I decided that I didn't like the way the edges looked all different lengths, so I cut some of the dot fabric for the sides. It covers almost all of the ends.

Then you just mod podge it until it's stiff like my hair in the '80s and '90s.

It hangs in my newly painted 'mud room'.


My family rules were taken from other family rules I'd seen, some were original, and some a combination of the two.

The transfer does show up a little, but not as much as in the pictures with the flash.

I'm ready to make another one for the second floor outside the kids' bathroom and bedrooms. I think it will need to be a slightly smaller canvas because of the space, so if it is I'll have to alter everything. But I'm still going to do it sometime soon.

I got my ideas for the family rules here, here, and here.

This post is linked to Works-For-Me-Wednesday at We Are THAT Family and Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home.

FAMILY RULES

Act justly, Love mercy, Walk humbly with your God
thank God for this day, for this family, for this home
use kind words - obey your parents - always tell the truth
sing silly, dance crazy, hug often, snuggle up, say I love you
always admit when you are wrong
say what you are sorry for - forgiveness is mandatory
give your guest your best
husband love your wife - wife always be on his side
hands are for hugging, not hitting
there is no “mine” in this house - it’s all God’s
encourage your siblings. . .share in their joy!
act responsibly, be respectful, choose wisely
too much t.v. is bad. . .too much reading is good
keep your promises
use your manners - yes, please; no, thank you; yes, ma’am; no, sir
pay with hugs & kisses
use nice words - ignore dirty words - no name calling
love the Lord your God