Beware the afternoon nap

Oh that the temporal properties of wakefulness / sleep were simply additive.

The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

MLF&H: Bag Tags -- not just for school bags!

Have you ever asked your child to fetch your purse at playgroup, only to have them bring back the wrong one? (Ever send your husband to get your purse at a party only to have him get the wrong one?)

Solution: attach a Mabel's Labels Bag Tag!

Use your child's Bag Tag for consistency, or splurge on your own!

(This hack is also good for snack bags, beach bags, cooler bags, diaper bags, camera bags, fanny packs, ski /skate bags, lunch bags and canvas bags!)

Happiness vs energy

This is based on the post "The Three Types of Fun, and the secret of why people watch so much TV" by Gretchen Rubin over at The Happiness Project.

The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

MLF&H: Double your iron-ons!

If you're ordering iron-ons with a short name, here's a hack to consider. Get the name printed up twice on the same iron-on, with 6 or so spaces between them. (See example image to the right.)

Before applying the half-sized iron-ons to clothes:

• cut the iron-on in half vertically
  
• cut rounded corners for each half (approximated by the red dotted lines in the image to the right) Failure to round the corners will result in the iron-on prematurely lifting and peeling.
  
• apply the half-sized iron-on as you would a full-sized one
  
  

Pros:

• twice as many iron-ons for the same price!
• labels fit nicely on tiny items (think infant socks)
  

Cons:

• Will not work with long names.
• Only one image per iron-on, so only 50% of your half-sized labels will have an image.
• It is time consuming to cut rounded corners on the half-sized labels.
  
• You buy fewer iron-ons which means I earn less commission! (Booooooo.)

references: How to Draw Caricatures

Tom Richmond has begun publishing tutorials on creating a caricatures!

• Part One: How to Draw Caricatures: The 5 Shapes
• Part Two: Relating the Features

[I'll be editing this post adding the links to the rest of the tutorials as they come down the pipe.]

I hope to make some time to work on Tom's lessons as well as getting back to John's. I've previously posted a line drawing or three of mine which are clearly not caricatures.

Here are some older more humourous line drawings, which I'll call "cartoon-ish," because I don't feel they are quite at the caricature level.

(Please do not reproduce these images without my permission!)




And one a little more serious, based on a photograph:

I'll get there one day! Thanks Tom, for posting such wonderful resources!

--
PS: Can anyone out there identify the subjects of the above cartoons? [Bonus points if you can do it without Googling "David Acer."]

MLF&H: How do I label boots?

Pint size boots all seem to look the same. How can you label them so it's obvious to the teachers and the children which boots belong to whom?

Here are some ideas that I've seen work (in no particular order):

• stick Tag-Mates™ on the sizing label on the inside of the tongue of the boot
• stick a Skinny-Mini™ on the sizing label on the inside of the tongue of the boot
• stick a shoe label (with protective cover) on the sizing label on the inside of the tongue of the boot
• stick a shoe label (with protective cover) on the lining on the (inside) side of the boot
• stick a shoe label (with protective cover) into the insole of the boot (it may be difficult to see depending on the style and size of boot)
• stick a Skinny-Mini™ on the outside on the back of the boot (shown in photo to the right)
  

Hope you found a solution that meets your needs!

Paper snowman

(This idea came home from school.)

Instructions for creating a Paper Snowman can be found at Craft Day.

MLF&H: Can shoe labels be washed?

It's well known that Mabel's Labels shoe labels are:

• extra tough
• extra sticky
  
• do not rub off on socks
  
• fit nicely into the insole of shoes, boots, skates and rollerblades and are
  
• shipped with protective overlays to ensure durability.

But what happens when you need to wash the shoes?

We sent a pair of running shoes* through two consecutive cold water washes and both the shoe labels and the protective coatings look as good as new!

--
* The labels had been applied to the shoe for over one month and were securely stuck in the shoe thanks to the heat and pressure of little feet.

Technical review - coloured pencil crayons

Have a read of this entertaining technical review of coloured pencil crayons. An excerpt:

"The different fonts however, like Arial or Times New Roman, came out rather quirky, as the photo illustrates. Vector graphic quality was leaving a lot to be desired as well; lines were often not straight, aligned, or perfectly round as known from other utilities."

The Plan vs Reality - parent edition

This one's for Dani, Alex, Cory, Nadine, Haley-O and everyone else with wee babes in arms.

The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

Paper mosaics

Does the crafter in your house hate throwing away all the little scraps of coloured paper? Not sure what to do with it all? Just glue it all down!

Materials:

• colouring sheet (or draw something free-hand)
• glue
• lots of small pieces of paper of different colours (larger pieces for younger kids, smaller pieces for kids with more patience and hand-eye co-ordination)
  

Instructions:

• apply glue to colouring sheet
• apply scrap pieces of paper to glued area in colouring sheet
  

Close-up:

[Cross-posted at Craft Day.]

Points of view

The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

I surrender

Enough said.

The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

Homemade Valentine's Day cards

Quick and easy homemade Valentine's Day cards.

Materials:

• letter sized card stock or sheets of perforated "postcards"
• scissors
• optional: paper-cutter if using card stock
• red crayon, pencil crayon or marker
• red and pink construction paper cut into hearts of varying sizes
• white glue
• heart shaped stickers
• optional: stamps, markers, glitter etc for additional decorating
  

Instructions:

• optional: if you want to have identical text on each of the cards (such as "Happy Valentine's Day" or "From your friend" then you may want to run the sheets through the printer before you cut them down to size)
• cut card stock into quarters or perforate postcards
• draw a large, red, free-hand heart on each card
• have child glue construction paper hearts as desired
• let glue dry
• have child apply stickers, stamps or other decorations as desired
• voila!
  

[Cross-posted at Craft Day.]

Tomorrow's weather

How many more days until spring?

The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

Hearts!

Heart necklace

WARNING:

The finished product could be a choking hazard if child left unsupervized. Child safety is your responsibility!

Instructions for creating a Heart necklace can be found at Craft Day.

Heart sun catcher

Instructions for creating a Heart Sun Catcher can be found at Craft Day.

(These ideas came home from school.)

End quote

Based on the things I read online, there are a lot of people who don't know where the punctuation goes relative to an end quote. Are you one of them?

To find out take the Question Marks, Quotation Marks, and Parentheses Quiz or read the section on Quotation Marks.

Doodle by Lee. The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

Mobius redux

It's fun to see what happens when talented people riff on an idea you've had!

Click on the image below to see today's XKCD post, "Mobius Battle."





Mobius hopscotch
[originally published 2007-09-15]

10% off your next Mabel's Labels purchase!

Need clothing labels to send your kids to March break camp?
Run out of return address labels?
Need stationery kits?

Receive 10% off your next Mabel's Labels purchase!

Coupon code: NLEEFEB08
(Valid at Nicole's Mabel's Labels site through the end of March 2008.)

Cinch in a pinch

[edited to add: Welcome ParentHacks readers and thanks for the link Asha!]

Ever have your toddler decide they MUST wear a pair of pants that is too large around the waist? Ever been half-way out the door when you realize your child's pants keep falling to their ankles? Don't have the time / patience / energy / skill to adjust the waist?

Problem solved if you have an extra mitten-clip lying about. Simply attach the mitten clip to the waist of the pants (taking in some of the extra fabric with the clip alone) and then fasten the other end making an improvised cinch!

Out of sync

Ever get the feeling you're just not on the same wavelength as everyone else?

The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

Welcome readers!

Welcome readers of Neatorama and bonjour aux lecteurs de Gonzague Dambricourt!

With a special thanks to Alex for getting the ball rolling.