A HarmonyArt Fabric Giveaway!

If you haven’t already heard of Harmony Art Organic Design Fabrics, go familiarize yourself NOW!

Harmony graciously sent me some beautiful organic knit yardage in her solstice print and apricot solid to test drive. I chose to use the fabulously popular flat front yoga skirt tutorial to make a cute little skirt. (I can’t wait for it to be warm and sunny!)

This fabric was so wonderfully easy to work with. It’s a great weight, soft, easy to cut and sew and the edges won’t roll up like a lot of knits.

I will be hoarding my scraps for future projects!

If you’re interested in starting to sew with knits, I think Harmony Arts is a great fabric line with which to learn. And the flat-front yoga skirt is a fun pattern to make! (It’s very comfy.)

Now for the really good part. Harmony sent me an extra yard (it’s a little more than a yard, actually!) of the apricot color knit to give away to one of my readers! It’s a 60” wide piece, big enough to make yourself a skirt or two. (If you have girls, make a few matching skirts!)

To enter to win this yard of apricot interlock fabric:

1. If you’re a follower of Monkey See, Monkey Do, go to HarmonyArt.com and comment about which is your favorite fabric!

2. For a second entry: go “Like” Money See, Monkey Do on Facebook! Then leave a comment telling me you did this!

3. For a third entry: go “Like” Harmony Art Organic Designs on Facebook! Leave another comment.

And if you don’t win and want to purchase some yardage, be sure to order from HarmonyArt retailers.

This giveaway will close on January 24th at 9 am! It is only open to US residents. Get your comments started.

A Cleaning Discovery

If anyone had told me five years ago that I'd be writing a blog post about cleaning products, I'd have laughed at them.

But I just had to share that I found the very best stuff to clean my cast iron sink with.

I didn't know what a cast-iron sink was until we got one. So here's a
[really bad] picture of part of my kitchen in case you are wondering:

That picture was taken before we moved in. The counters are never that clear nor is the sink ever that empty.

Not only have I found the perfect cleanser for my sink, but I also found some stuff to clean stainless steel and my flat cook top stove.

First, the cast iron sink. I bought this powder cleaner called Bonami that promises it won't scratch. It worked better than the baking soda I had been using. I had a few scratches from pans that it took off right away. The packaging is a little retro. My husband asked if it was from the 1970's. And it only cost $1.19!!

(No, Bonami is not paying me. I wish.)

Next, the stainless steel stuff. I found this stuff called Bar Keeper's Friend next to the Bonami at the store. I had read somewhere it works well for cleaning All-Clad cookware, which we have. It was only $1, so I bought some of it, too. LOVE IT. Not so much for the All-Clad stuff (although I haven't tried it for the food surfaces yet, just the outside, wanted to research if it was food-safe first) but I used it to clean the outside of our tea kettle that was in terrible need of scrubbing. It worked so well I decided to try it on the cook top, too. (It worked better than the stuff I bought specifically for the cook top!)

Bar Keeper's Friend is not paying me to say this stuff, either. But again, feel free to contact me! Hah.

The Wonder of [Homemade] Play Dough

I'd sorta forgotten about making my little guy some play dough. My MIL made him some a few weeks ago...he liked it and was sad to leave it at her house. So I made him some for home using the same recipe I posted last winter. Try it out! Ours turned out to be a weird shade of chartreuse...but he didn't mind.

It kept him occupied for almost an hour while I made dinner.

And he probably would've played with it even longer had it not been time to eat dinner.

Dry Erase Calendar: Finished!

Before we start, can I just say it is super hard to take a good picture of something with glass in it?

This is the best I could do!

I was so excited to finally finish my calendar!

Briefly, all I did was measure the width and divide by 7. I cut out 35 pieces of scrabook paper. Then I used a glue stick to glue them to a big piece of brown paper (it was a middle of a wrapping paper roll). Then I put them behind a big piece of glass my husband got for me from Lowe’s. It can be written on with a dry erase marker!

Tutorial: Repurposed T-Shirt Bag with Iron-on Animals

My kids got tons of toys for Christmas. Way too many. It drives me insane when they all end up in one big jumble…I like to group like toys together. I made a few repurposed bags last summer (small ones from t-shirt sleeves and large ones from t-shirts).

I used an old t-shirt that had some oil stains on it that I couldn’t remove. It was size 2T.

I just cut it off below the armpits. (I saved the sleeves & neck for another project!)

Next, it was time to do some embellishing. I used heat-n-bond to attach an elephant and a hippo to a scrap of white jersey fabric.

Ironing on the hippo:

To make the bottom of the bag, I measured the perimeter of the t-shirt. Then I cut out a rectangle.

I sewed the rectangle to the bottom of the bag, making square corners.

I used the original hem of the t-shirt for the drawstring’s casing. I just pulled out a few stitches and then backstitched with my sewing machine to prevent any more from unraveling.

I made the drawstring out of jersey fabric. I cut a length about 2” wide long enough to go all through the t-shirt’s hem. I sewed a tube and then turned it right-side out with a safety pin.

Then I simply threaded it through the hem with the safety pin and tied a knot at either end! Simple, yet very cute!