We went camping a couple weeks ago.  Moral of the story: camping is a lot of work to just go for a single night.  But we still had a lot of fun.  Mr. Napping took turns taking the boys up to a nearby crystal mine and I kept the other two brothers with me at the campsite.

Well, what’s a girl to do out in the middle of no where, surrounded by huge pine cones and felled birch trees?  Yeah, the campground host gathers up the felled trees, cuts them into chunks and sets them around the camp sites for use as firewood.  These big, amazing, gorgeous tree trunk pieces with their beautiful white bark… I may have swooned a little.  Mr. Napping was mildly dismayed when he found the food box I’d emptied so I could fill it with pine cones… he was less than thrilled with the half a tree I hauled back to the car.  But he loves me, so with a sigh, a slight roll of his eyes and a persuasive kiss, he strapped that sucker to the top of our car and bounced it down the rough dirt road all the way back to our house.  He loves me.

It sat on our porch for a couple days, until I had the chance to turn my lovely vision into reality:

Materials:
– Tree Stump (you might check with local landscapers, nurseries, or go on a nature hunt in your local forest… the stump I took was set aside for fire wood at a campground)
– Wood Burning Tool
– Monogram printed or drawn on paper to use as a stencil

Directions:
– Draw or print out a monogram you want to use one.  If you’re feeling bold and daring, go ahead and free hand your design.  I did both on our tree.
– To transfer the design from the paper to the wood, lay it over your wood where you want it positioned and use the hot wood burning tool to poke holes through the paper and into the stump.  Watch the paper so it doesn’t smolder and catch fire (I didn’t even come close to having this happen, but better safe than sorry),  If the design can be cut out – the circle part of our monogram, for example – you can use a permanent marker to trace the design rather than doing the dot method.  It’s a little faster.

– Use slow and even pressure to connect the dots and solidify your design.  Be patient.  It is not a fast process.  The monogram on our tree took me about an hour to an hour and a half.

– I also free-hand burned the year we got married below the monogram and then I did the boys’ initials on the back of the trunk and a little heart carving with Mr Napping and my initials in it.  I didn’t really want it front and center for the world to see our initials (better safe than sorry), but I wanted something that represented everyone.  It turned out great.  I love it and Mr Napping even admitted last night that it looks pretty neat on our porch.

Tips & Tricks:
– I would suggest doing this outside or your house will smell like a forest fire.  Ironically, I did this in my kitchen because it was too smoky outside… from a forest fire.  The smoke was giving me a headache and I decided that I’d prefer the smell of burning wood from one tree to the terrible air quality from lots of burning trees.
– Use the rounded tip for your wood burning tool.  It makes bolder lines and is easier to get a consistent burn depth than the pointed tip, which is what I used and then was too impatient to change it.  I didn’t want to have to wait for the wood burning tool to cool down and heat up again.
– Keep a wet sponge nearby to clean the tip of your wood burning tool if it starts to get a build up of charred wood on it.  It will burn more quickly if it’s clean.
– DON’T expect perfection.  Nature isn’t perfect, it isn’t symmetrical, but it is beautiful.  You won’t get perfectly straight lines and your burn depth might vary.  It’s okay.  I promise it will still look fine.  Even if you slip or burn something you didn’t mean to.  The bark was incredibly forgiving and you don’t even notice any slips.
– Be very, VERY careful with the wood burning tool.  Take your time, pay attention to what you’re doing and always be aware of other body parts (yours and anyone else’s).  The tip gets extremely hot and can cause 3rd degree burns.  BE CAREFUL.
– Put your wood burning tool inside a glass jar when you’re not using it.  It will be more protected and less likely to be bumped onto the counter or something than if you set it in a stand.
– Don’t be afraid to free hand.  Go read the 4th suggestion again.

Now I just have to decide what else to put out there with it… I have a wreath for the door (watch for that coming soon) but what else?  Pine cones?  Flowers?  More tree pieces?  Rocks? Seasonal decor?  What would you do?

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I am finally getting to a little decorating in our home.  Yeah, we’ve lived here for over two years… the walls are still white, the carpet I hate is still in place and the bedrooms don’t even have pictures on the walls.  We’re homey like that.  I decided to take it slow.  I didn’t want to scare myself into never taking on another decorating project again.  And the idea of half-painted walls and unfinished projects didn’t totally appeal to me either, but I’ve had a major case of craft A.D.D. recently.  Anyway…

Our house has two bathrooms and three bedrooms.  There’s a bathroom in the master bed and one to serve the rest of the house.  Not a big deal until we have guests… because it’s also the boys’ bathroom.  Ever been in a boy’s bathroom?  Eesh, did you just shudder too?  So, how do we make this bathroom suitable for guests as well as our boys?  Well, we try really hard to train them to aim… and a few of these things too:

10 Easy Ways to Make Your Bathroom More Functional

Via Amazon

2.  A trash can that is obviously a trash can.  This may sound silly, but when I was 15, we were visiting some of my mom’s family that I’d never met before.  Their bathroom was nicely decorated, but nothing over the top.  I had some, ahem… girly items… I needed to discard of and I honestly couldn’t tell if the trash can actually was a trash can or not.  It was a nice, medium-sized wicker basket with no liner.  For all I knew, it held towels or dirty laundry.  How mortifying would it have been to toss my trash in there and find out it wasn’t a trash can?  I opted to carry it tucked in my hand until I could find a more easily identifiable garbage receptacle.  Awkward… and really gross.  If you opt for a basket, at least put a grocery sack in it as a liner… not as classy, but that way you won’t end up with feminine hygiene items in your laundry.  EWWW.  A trash can with a lid is also another good idea to help keep the odor down.

Via Amazon

3.  Common toiletries and supplies in easy to see and use containers.  Because who really wants Grandma or Uncle Billy searching their drawers and medicine cabinets for Q-tips?  Q-tips, cotton balls, safety pins and band-aids are a few items to consider storing in an apothecary-style jars on counter tops or on shelves.

4.  Keep the hand soap stocked.  I ran out of hand soap in our main bathroom while hosting a gathering once.  Someone had refilled the bottle with water, in hopes of getting a bit of soap out.  Not the end of the world until my three-year-old used the restroom and used half the bottle of soap-water to wash his hands.  It was so runny, he kept squirting more into his hand, but he could never get it to lather enough to his liking.  It was a huge, bubbly, slimy mess for the next guest and I didn’t particularly enjoy cleaning it up either.  So, now I double check the soap levels in the bathroom before we have visitors and refill the bottles.

5.  Appropriately stored cleaners, medicines and any other items you wouldn’t want people to discover.  Sometimes, people find themselves in a position where they feel they need to search the drawers or cupboards in your bathroom.  Looking for more toilet paper or a band-aid, for instance.  Kids get into everything and have no sense of privacy… and some people never grow up…  Store your personal items (or cleaning supplies) where they won’t be found.  If you have to store personal items in a commonly used bathroom, consider a magnetic child lock that you can remove the key from the room if you need to.  Keep your skeletons – and chemical cleaners – in the closet.  With the magnet locks, no one will even know you have them with the cupboard doors closed.

Via Amazon

6.  Make sure there is something for guests to dry their hands with.  I once read something that said public restrooms that offer paper towels have a 34% higher rate of hand washing than restrooms with just air dryers.  I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s really gross if it is.  But I get it.  The air dryers are time consuming and don’t work well even if you do spend 3 minutes trying to use one.  No one likes to walk around with wet hands and no one wants to dry their hands on their clothes… so, let’s just skip the washing altogether, right?  Yeah, hang an extra towel.

7.  If you have overnight guests – or kids – install a night light.  LED lights are bright and use very little energy.  If you run into your (for some reason…) half-dressed house guests in a dimly lit hallway at 3am, you’ll be glad that you saw just enough to avoid a full-body collision but not so much that breakfast is an incredibly awkward affair the next morning.  And it’s nice when the kids scream out in the middle of the night and you jump out of bed without thinking.  You’ll have just enough of your senses to not instinctively flick on the light and blind yourself… which probably would have cause you to step on that Lego house your kids left in the middle of the floor… double win.  And night lights don’t have to be ugly.  There’s a huge variety of designs, with a little looking, you’ll probably find something to suit your tastes.

Via Amazon

8.  Bath toy storage.  My kids are still little enough for bath toys.  Most of my house guests, not so much.  While there are days I’d love to lounge in a warm bubble bath with some foam letters and a rubber ducky or two, that’s very rarely on my to-do list as a guest in someone else’s house.  While I’d have no problems with my guests indulging in a round or two of “Rubby Ducky, you’re the one…”, they would probably rather not have toys underfoot in a wet shower.  We use a mesh bag to store and dry the toys after our boys’ bath time.  The bag can easily be hung over the tub faucet or removed from the shower all together when someone uses the tub for cleansing, rather than pirate adventures.  Again, there are tons of options.  Choose what works best for the space and use you have available.

via Amazon

9.  A functioning door lock.  I am still at the stage where I use the bathroom with an audience.  Hellllloooo, Motherhood!  To be completely honest, during the day when I’m home alone with the kids, I don’t usually even shut the door.  I like to hear the calamity and mayhem at full volume, rather than muted through the door.  Glutton for punishment I guess.  However, my guests, more often than not, do shut the door.  Thank goodness.  This is all well and good, except my boys still struggle with the idea of privacy sometimes.  “We hang out with mom in the bathroom, why not Grandma, Uncle Billy and the dinner guests too?”  Our guests like that they can lock them out…  (Side note: We have also had a problem with Little J interrupting Big J in the bathroom.  Because one boy in the bathroom just doesn’t make enough of a mess on his own, right…?  Soooo, we have a child lock on the outside of the door to keep Little J out, but the door unlocked while Big J is doing his thing.  If he needs help, I can still get in.)

10.  Disinfectant wipes.  Because it’s first and foremost a boys bathroom, there are always puddles of something on the counter tops, the toilet, the floor and I’d bet money there are currently water splashes on the mirror.  To keep from having to do a major clean every week or every few days, I keep disinfectant wipes easily accessible.  I can wipe down the counter tops while I wait for Little J to figure out if he really does need to go or not.  I can wipe up the toilet real quick and drop in a toilet fizzy in before bed and it helps keeps the “boy bathroom” smell down.  I’ve found the best way to keep this bathroom in presentable condition is to clean a little each day and disinfectant wipes are great for quick little clean ups.  It also encourages guests to clean up any messes they may make.

Lisa is back again today and has a pure genius idea to spruce up your bed!  I am always excited to see what Lisa sends each month.  She has some crazy amazing ideas and is a whiz with a sewing machine.  So, here she is:

Hi While He Was Napping readers! I’m Lisa Mabey, and I’m back to share another tutorial with you! I blog at Mabey She Made It about DIY projects, crafting, and sewing.

Have you ever gotten a new bed set and wished that there was a matching body pillow cover? My mom likes to put a body pillow on every bed instead of separate pillows, so when she got a new set, she asked if I’d turn the two shams included into a body pillow cover. I thought she was brilliant. So I did. Here’s how I did it if you’d like to follow along! Here are the shams I started with:

First, I measured the body pillow. It’s (obviously) a different shape than your shams, so we’ll have to alter them just a bit. My body pillow was a little shorter than the combined length of the two shams, so I needed to shorten the shams. I cut the opposite ends of the shams open so that the combined length of the shams was about 1″ longer than the length of the body pillow.

Then I turned one sham inside out, and stuffed one inside the other so the right sides were together.

Now pin the front of the shams together (right sides together) making sure to align the design of the shams and the top and bottom seams.

Then sew all the way around to make a long tube. I also measured the height of the pillow, and adjusted the height of my shams to be 1″ bigger than the pillow once the two shams were connected. Now, all you have to do is slide your body pillow into one of the envelope slots (I actually used both slots to help get such a long pillow inside the case) and make your bed. Here it is before:

It’s a pretty easy fix, but I love how it gives you more freedom to dress your bed how you’d like while not having to buy an extra body pillow cover. And it’s fewer pillows to take off the bed at the the end of the night. I like that part too! If you’d like to see more of what I’m up to, please come visit me over at Mabey She Made It!

 What a smart lady (sounds like her momma is pretty smart too)! Make sure you head over and check out more of Lisa’s awesomeness.  Be patient though, she’s had some problems with her blog recently and is working like a crazy lady to get it all put back together.  You can check out all of last month’s posts!

So, last Fall I posted about our ‘Stained Glass’ Leaves the boys and I made.  We used the same technique to make these.  When you stumble on a good thing, add it to your arsenal.  I love the way these look in my kitchen window and that my boys tell everyone who visits “we made that”!

Materials:
– Wax Paper
– Crayons
– Iron
– Scissors
– Thread or Fishing Line
– Hole Punch
– Knife
– Old towel, paper towels, newspaper or something else to protect your work surface and your iron.

Directions:
– Make the ‘stained glass’ like we did back in the Fall.  Refer to THIS POST for those directions.  The less wax between the sheets of wax paper, the better.  You just want the colors, not a solid sheet of crayon wax.
– After you’ve melted the crayons to your wax paper, let it cool.
– Use the scissors to cut heart shapes out of the wax paper sheet.  Cut various sizes, fat hearts, skinny hearts, tall hearts, and small hearts.  The more color variation you can get in each heart, the neater they will look.  If your kids are coordinated enough, let them help cut hearts (or let them use your heart paper punch if you have one large enough).

– Use the hole punch to make holes in the hearts.  I used a 1/16″ punch.  For vertical garlands, you’ll need a hole at the top and bottom of each heart, except the last heart on the string.  It just needs a top hole.  If you do horizontal garlands, your holes will be on each side.  Let the kiddos help string the hearts.
– Cut a length of thread and string each heart onto the garland.  You can use a small piece of Scotch tape to secure the hearts in place if you’re worried about them sliding.  Some of my heavier hearts (the ones with thicker wax in them) hung funny, so I just taped over the holes and the top and bottom to hold them right side up.
– Repeat for multiple strings of hearts.  Secure in a sunny window.  I just used a small piece of tape.  Enjoy!

I posted last week about DIY toilet fizzers and trying to curb the swamp monsters that grow in our toilets.  Hopefully, between those and these air fresheners, our bathrooms will be cleaner and smell better with less of my time spent in rubber gloves, up to my elbows in the toilet. To check out the fizzers, click the link above.

So… I live in a house with three boys.  Two of which are toilet trained.  One of them is four years old.  If you have ever been in a men’s room, or walked by one, they don’t usually smell very good.  Granted, I don’t have hundreds of men using my bathrooms every day, but my four year old has… shall we say… less than careful aim.  Most of the time, everything makes it where it’s supposed to and the toilet even gets flushed.  But, if he’s in a hurry or just doesn’t care, it’s a stinkin’ mess.  Literally.  He’s old enough to use the restroom by himself, so I don’t always catch his carelessness right away.  Which often leaves my bathroom smelling more like a truck stop restroom.  Ew.

I first saw this idea on One Good Thing by Jillee.  If you’ve never been there, you should really go check it out.  In just a few minutes… of course.  I saw the idea and that’s about where I took off on my own and didn’t follow the directions, like at all.  So, if you don’t like my way, check out Jillee’s for a good alternative.

Materials:
– 2 packets Knox Unflavored Gelatin
– 1 Tbsp Salt (keeps the gelatin from molding)
– 1 Tbsp Baking Powder (helps deodorize)
– 2 Cups Water
– Heat Resistant Jars with lids (I used three 4oz clean baby food jars)
– Essential Oils for fragrance (your choice – I used cedarwood and pine, lemon and lime, and peppermint and lavender combinations)
– Washi tape and paper (optional)
– Cinnamon sticks or other additives (optional)
– Food coloring (optional)

Directions:
– Mix 1 cup of hot water and the salt and baking powder together in a small saucepan on the stove.  Stir together until the salt and baking powder dissolve.
–  Remove the pan from the burner and SLOWLY pour the packets of gelatin into the water, stirring while you do so.  I dumped the first packet in all nonchalant and willy-nilly.  It foamed up and nearly overflowed.  I went slowly with the second packet and it worked out much better.
– Return to the burner and stir until gelatin dissolves.  Remove from burner and add 1 cup of cool water.  Mix together.
– Pour the gelatin mixture into your clean jar.  If you want to add color, put in a tiny drop of food coloring and mix it until well combined.  You don’t really even need a whole drop, I just shook the excess dye off the top of the dropper.
– Add your essential oils.  I did about five drops of each oil, ten drops total.  I made one with a cedarwood and pine combination, one with lemon and lime and the last with peppermint and lavender.  Scents are totally at your discretion.
– Put in any additives, if you want.  I broke up a cinnamon stick and put that in one jar.  Jillee used some silk flowers in hers.  Little figurines would be cute too.  If I didn’t think it would cause World War III, I’d have put a Lego man in one for the kids’ bathroom.
– Allow gelatin to set.  I put mine in the fridge overnight, just to help it out.
– Punch holes in the lids of the jars with a hammer and nail (or a screw will work too, I was too lazy to go looking for a nail).  Put the lids on the jars and decorate if you’d like.
–  Place in bathroom and ta-da!  Hopefully, things will smell much better from now on…