Guest Post: Lisa from Picnic

On a recent gloomy afternoon, we headed one hour west from our home in Berkeley to the calm seashore of Tomales Bay.  Tomales Bay is famous for their oysters but as it turns out, has quite a nice collection of driftwood as well. My eldest took in the scenery and my youngest kept me on my toes with his attempts to swim in the frigid waters (with his clothes on), and both were enthusiastic for my driftwood scavenger hunt.  I had this very project in mind.

A Nature-themed Mobile

Step 1: Collect driftwood and allow it to dry out back at home. This could take up to a week. A hair dryer can speed up the process.

Step 2: Spray paint the driftwood or keep it natural if you prefer that look. I choose black. Children 6 and over are capable and more than willing to help with this step.

Step 3:  Use bright or metallic paint to paint stripes in various thicknesses onto the driftwood.  I used silver screen printing ink since that is what I already had lying around but acrylic paint would work well too.

Step 4: Collect feathers or use the craft-store variety to plan out your design.  I choose natural-toned feathers with just two bright yellow ones to add some pop.

Step 5:  Heat up your glue gun. Make a ring of glue on the driftwood and lay twine into the hot glue.  Add more glue and wrap the twine several times around so it is strong.

Step 6:  Repeat step 5 to complete the structure of your mobile.

Step 7:  Using bird twine (very thin), attach one strand to each feather.  I put hot glue along the stem of the feather and set the twine in the glue and held it until it was cool enough to stay in place.  If you tie the twine onto the feather stem, the feather will not hang vertically.

Step 8:  Attach the feathers with bird twine onto the mobile by tying knots.

Hang from the ceiling and enjoy!

Lisa Fontaine is the creative force behind the blog Picnic. To see more of her work click here and here.  Thanks for the beautiful post! -Heather

The Cover Up: Guest Post by Jen from Day By Daily

Let me start by saying a big thank you to Heather for inviting me here to guest post. I am lucky enough to know Heather in real life, and let me tell you that it is a treat to be invited to her house (hint, hint). Her boys are wild much like my own, but her home is always happy and beautiful (and clean!). There is always something delicious to eat, and some cool new DIY that has been done. I always check in to Poppy Haus hoping she has revealed THE BIG SECRET of how she does it all. But on to the goods...

Books in my house seem to come in four flavors: 1) children's books 2) one time reads/novels 3) beautiful books and 4) less-then-pretty reference books (aka my slightly embarrassing stack of ragged self help and parenting books). In the past I have resorted to turning the spines of my less attractive books to the wall, jut to reduce the amount of visual clutter. But the fact is, I refer to those books fairly often and want to see their titles.

So what's a girl to do? Yes, I could cover them all in craft paper. But here's the thing. I'm kind of lazy. Covering all those books would take hours. Instead I opted for a quick and easy alternative. With just a little paper packing tape, washi tape, and a white gel pen I covered and catagorized this stack of books in less than 10 minutes.

I like how the newly covered books just disappear into the background. Better than calling attention to my copy of "How to Make Friends and Influence People". In my case I used the Washi tape to catagorize Parenting books vs Self Help. A plain stack of books would also be lovely.

*Note that trying to remove the paper packing tape may result in some tearing. I wouldn't use it on any books of value. My collection came to me mostly second hand, and were already quite tattered.

Thank you Jen! Check out Day By Daily for more of her crafty ideas, reflections on motherhood, and stunning photography.

The Laundress

Today I'm doing something that I've never done before here on Poppy Haus (do I sound like Ira Glass?).  I've enlisted my sister-in-law/ best friend to do a guest post. The topic is one that she is, by all measures, an expert on. Now, I know how to use stain remover and what detergents to buy; what I need help with strategy. I envy her ability to prevent pilling and prolong the life of inexpensive knits, keep her kid's clothes stain free, and preserve the original texture and size of her jeans. You never see an overflowing hamper at her house. No, not ever. I just don't know how she does it! So I asked, and she told me. Cue the Amelie soundtrack.

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Carrie's Laundry List

I like to do laundry. I like the feeling of accomplishment when I’ve finished folding and putting away the last load of the weekend. I like how all of the clothes look in their appropriate homes, dressers and closets stuffed full of outfit options for the week. I also like wearing clean clothes that aren’t faded or wrinkled
and I like looking at my husband and little boy wearing clean clothes that aren’t faded or wrinkled.

Those that know me well think I’m a teensy bit crazy about my obsession with clothing and laundry and not looking disheveled and making sure the dirty pile of clothes doesn’t become overwhelming; but it is what it is. And now that I’m a mom that works full time these things are even more important to me and I’m sure there are other people out there that feel the same.

Here are some strategies for staying on top of the laundry and keeping clothes looking fresh.

To avoid the overwhelming dirty clothes pile and inevitable backlog:

Start doing laundry for the weekend Thursday night and do a load  

or two each day until Sunday, folding and putting away after each load. That way you don’t feel as though you are devoting
large chunks of your weekend to this task. 

For the moms out there: 

• Fold at the table while your little guy or girl is eating breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack.

• Fold on the living room floor while he or she is playing next to you.

• Fold after he or she has gone to bed, while you are watching True Blood, with a glass of wine in hand.

• Get him or her involved with sorting the clothes into their appropriate piles and putting them in the washer or dryer…it’s fun for them to help, can be a teaching opportunity(colors) and you get to be productive while spending time with them. (This one will probably only work with toddlers…unfortunately.)

To keep clothes looking like new:

• Wash everything (except whites) in cold/cold…yep, even the lights and delicates that contain tags that tell you to wash them in warm (cold water keeps color from fading).

• Turn jeans inside out before washing and never, ever dry them. Also, wear them 3-5 times between washes.

• Don’t just hang to dry things you want to keep from shrinking. Also hang anything you want to keep looking like new (dryers wear down the best of fabric pretty quickly and as a result, it becomes misshapen and faded very quickly).

When you hang something to dry:

• Fluff the garment in the dryer for 3-5 minutes before you hang it to remove wrinkles and help it take it’s original shape.

• Fluff the garment in the dryer for another 3-5 minutes once it’s dry, before you wear it, to remove stiffness.

Happy Laundering!

Carrie

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