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For the most part, I don't use a lot of Martha Stewart's ideas.  I think she's a very creative woman with lovely projects, but I just don't have much need for a fancy centerpiece when our table is usually set with mismatched cups and plastic plates.  However, when I came across this idea for ornament storage on Pinterest, I knew that it was a Martha Stewart tip I would actually use.  Before I took down our Christmas tree the other day, I got my supplies ready. Check it out... Pretty smart, isn't it?  I already had the large storage box, but the flimsy little cardboard dividers it came with were pretty much worthless.  I just cut two pieces the same size as the storage bin from a large cardboard box, then hot glued on some plastic cups.  As I took the ornaments off the tree, I put them into the plastic cups, filled up one layer, then added the second piece of cardboard and cups! Thanks, Martha, for this smart and easy solution.   (Now if only she had s...

Need a quick and easy idea for drinks for your kids' classroom party?  Maybe you're having a party at your house this winter and want something cute and simple?  Do you wait till the last minute, but still want something fun?   Check out how I added a little extra cheer to some regular bottled water... So cute and super quick and easy.  I made up little labels that I could cut out and stick on the water bottles using regular clear packing tape.  I opted for this method over printing directly on regular sticky labels for a couple reasons.  One, I can never figure out how to get my images the right size to align properly on the labels.  They're always too big, too small or running off one side.  The other, more practical reason, is by using packing tape over the label, I avoid the chance of the ink running and the image being ruined by a drip of water.  I wouldn't put these bottles in a cooler full of ice, but the image should be fine if j...

With three kids, I've had many attempts at Gingerbread Houses over the years.  They love the idea of making a house out of cookies and candy, but every year we end up being disappointed by the final results.  We can never get the royal icing to actually hold the walls and roof together so the whole house ends up being lopsided, if we were even lucky enough to get it to stand up at all.  Then, that same darn royal icing ends up dripping and glopping all over the place when we try to attach the candy pieces.  If they don't get too frustrated, they do enjoy the process, but I knew I wanted to come up with a better idea for this year. Check out our houses...   Don't they look cute?  They look like real gingerbread houses and they even SMELL like real gingerbread houses.  We got to plan our designs and choose fun candies to put on them.  They even have what looks like royal icing on them as decoration  ~ but we didn't have to deal with the real th...

I can't remember in what magazine or book I originally saw how to make these cute fireworks shirts, but I first made them when my youngest was just a toddler.  Now, nearly 5 years later, we decided to make some more fireworks shirts for the Fourth of July! Don't they look a lot like real fireworks? They were really simple to make and the kids had a blast (pun intended). Here's how we made them... 1.  Gather your supplies ~ plain t-shirts, fabric paint in spray bottles and puffy fabric paint.  (You'll also want a piece of cardboard or several sheets of newspaper to put inside your t-shirt so the paint doesn't bleed through and something to cover your work surface with.) NOTE: I happened to pick up the Fabric Spray Paint with a coupon at the craft store.  However, last time I just watered down regular fabric paint and put it in my own spray bottle  (about 2 parts paint to 1 part water) and it worked just as well. 2.  Spray several bursts of color on the fro...