Artist Solution 1.0 - Where's my eraser?!

My kids have their own little art corner where they work on their paintings and such. They always do a rough sketch in pencil, draw over it and then erase. Almost inevitably I hear someone screaming at another someone over where they left the erasers. Then we spend the next half an hour looking for one. I recently came up with a simple solution:

A Hair band or two around the pencil cup does the trick. Any elastic will do. One band will hold several erasers or whatever small object you want on hand.

See how happy they are hugging the mug :)

We also use this method to dry damp paintbrushes to keep them from getting water damaged while laying flat.

I hope that you find this as helpful as we do!

Onyx's Upcycled Beatles School Messenger Bag

So I'm new at this whole blogging thing, but I thought with school starting I would share how I upcycled a thrift store messenger bag for my oldest daughter.

We bought a messenger bag at the local thrift shop for $2 and machine washed it. It was one of those giveaway bags with a paint company's logo on it. Besides being completely boring it was of excellent quality and made with heavy duty materials.

We chose some of her favorite shirts that no longer fit her and that over her dead body would get passed down to her other sisters.

We cut out the tastiest parts and I hand stitched them onto the bag.

On the parts of the bag that would see the most wear (the back side that rests against her) I used embroidery thread and tacked it with some stitches in the middle to make sure that it wouldn't pull too much in any particular place.

The stitches aren't the prettiest, but the overall effect is pretty rock and roll.

Voila! She now has a bag that we can add to, that will last and that only cost us a couple bucks and a little elbow grease!