Christmas Card Display

I have a neat way that I usually display my Christmas cards each year. I pick a door (usually I use the door of our coat closet because it's located between our foyer, Great room & kitchen) in a main area of your house where you can display & view throughout the holidays. I take several types of wide holiday themed ribbon and put some ribbon vertically down the door (securing w/tape on the back side of the door). Make sure that it's long enough to go the whole lenghth down the door w/a little extra to go over & under it to be taped on the other side of the door. I also use some double-sided tape on a couple of spots on the back of the ribbon if I need to make sure that it lays flat against the door. I usually do 2 ribbons equally spaced apart vertically down the door & then 3 ribbons horizontally & equally spaced across the door. The idea is that it looks like a Giant Christmas present. Then, as you receive Xmas cards you can tape them all ong the horizontal & vertical lines & looks really neat. When I have a lot of cards, I even place some in between the lines & it fills the space up nicely. I posted pics of different years versions that I did. Give it a try!

Laundry Tips

Once in awhile, I stop what I'm doing & think "Hey, I should blog about this". And sometimes, I actually do. Today, I'm posting a couple of little tips that might be helpful when dealing w/little kids laundry. If you're like most of us, you always have little socks that turn up missing from the laundry. Does the dryer eat them or what? What I started doing w/my first kid was putting all of the dirty socks in a little zippered lingerie bag and tossing it in the washing machine w/the other laundry. Then, they make it in & out of the dryer all together and then I unzip the bag & match them all. I put all my little pairs of socks away without losing any matches! Another tip is for machine washing stuffed animals or any clothing w/faux- fur trim. Put them in a pillow case & tie the end of the pillow case & wash in the washing machine just like that & dry in the dryer in the pillow case too. Stuffed animals are so clean & fresh but the fur stays nice. Trust me, if you just throw them in the machine as is, the fur will be all matted & clumped together if it's long or bumpy & rough if it's short fur. I actually started using pillow protectors which are like a pillow case but they zip up at the end. Super easy & they hold more stuff that way too. You can buy them at places like "Bed, Bath & Beyond" where the pillowcases are.