I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, crafter, and blogger living in rural New England. As seen in Martha Stewart Living, Food Network Magazine, and more! | Tutorials, DIY, crafts, parenting tips, recipes, money saving tips, product reviews, local product features, New England living, intentional living, and more! |
We’re definitely living in different times right now… and it’s becoming clearer that it looks as though we will have to co-exist with this virus for the foreseeable future. Because of that anything we can do that might mitigate the risk of virus transmission, like always wearing face masks or face coverings when outside our homes, are becoming a part of our “new normal.” Today a lot of small businesses are hurting, including small local makers, many of whom have pivoted to also offer masks for sale. As we move forward into our new normal, consider supporting a local maker and purchase masks from them. | This post is not sponsored or an endorsement. Makers are listed in no particular order and I plan to continue to add to this list as I come across more makers who request to be added. |
Masks by New England Makers
Disclaimer: I am not giving medical advice. Make sure to always consult the CDC and local health officials for up-to-date recommendations. These masks are not considered medical grade and should be washed in between each use… please see each individual mask maker regarding details, care instructions, pricing, and current availability.
Scrub Caps for Scholars is an Etsy shop recently started by Marissa of One CrafDIY Girl (who’s also an ICU nurse in Massachusetts) looking to give back to frontline nurses who are struggling to pay their student loans. Proceeds from sales of masks and scrub caps will go towards that fund. Masks are available in different styles in child through adult sizes with different fabrics to choose from; there are also some matching scrub caps available too.
Nicole has created 615+ masks so far - including donations to local businesses and healthcare workers across the country. She has many fabrics to choose from, with masks in tie and elastic styles. (*If there's an essential worker you want to surprise with a free cloth mask, send her a message and she will send it out with a thank you note!)
Think Greene is a Maine-based company best known for their eco-friendly items and apparel. They are offering boldly designed masks in adult and kid sizes made with organic cotton. Masks are tie-style.
Singer Vintage is a Maine-based Etsy stop, which normally sells vintage sewing machine parts, but now offers a wide variety of summer-inspired masks (gingham, chambray, lobsters, etc) in different styles and sizes.
Little Green Pear
| Shop Masks by Little Green Pear (Etsy shop temporarily closed, please order through direct message on Facebook or Instagram) |
Little Green Pear is run by a Vermont-based mom and best known for hair bows and baby accessories, but is now offering a variety of masks in different styles, fabric patterns, and sizes from toddler through adult.
Maine Mom Boutique is a highly-rated shop on Etsy, best known for baby-related items, now offering elastic loop style masks for adults in a variety of fabric patterns.
Maine-based Sea Crow Co. is best known for their popular colorful bags and accessories and is now offering masks too. Masks are pleated-style and available in a variety of fabric patterns and in both ear loop and tie options (child sizes are available upon request).
Miss Harlow VT is a Vermont-based crafter best known for her sewn baby items and gifts and is now offering masks as well in many different fabrics, in both child and adult sizes. To date she has made over 500!
Jackie’s Boutique are two “brick and mortar” shops located in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire known for resort wear and accessories. Right now they are also offering masks with vintage Lake Winnipesaukee map patterns on them. The fabric is made and printed in New England.
The Artsy Fox is New Hampshire-based and known for crocheted and knit items as well as quilted items, and is now also offering masks in different patterns too.
Two Little Beans & Co. is a Maine-based company best known for their baby booties, bibs, and other baby items but is now also offering ear loop style pleated masks in many fabric options, in both kid and adult sizes. She has also been making mask donations for healthcare and frontline workers. (*There is a tutorial on her website if you’re looking for instructions to make your own mask.)
We Fill Good is an eco-friendly shop in Kittery, Maine known for selling reusable products that can help you achieve a low-waste household. Right now they are also offering masks in a variety of fabric pattern options in both adult and kid sizes.
Red House VT is best known for their waxed canvas and leather bags and are now offering simple modern style masks, currently as a wait-list item.
- All photos used with permission -
If you are a New England Maker who is also making masks and would like to be added to this list, please send me a message and I would love to add you. Thank you all for your hard work to help keep our communities a little safer.
Disclaimer: I am not giving medical advice or endorsing any particular seller - purchase at your own risk. Make sure to always consult the CDC and local health officials for up-to-date recommendations. These masks are not considered medical grade and should be washed in between each use… please see each individual mask maker regarding details, care instructions, pricing, and current availability.
Just wanted to hop on here and share this ADORABLE KidKraft Cabana my sister bought for our kids as a fun, very thoughtful gift. We’ve been trying to turn our home into an oasis of sorts for the kids since we’re home 24/7 now. Mostly just rearranging their current toys and books to create zones and make things more efficient for play, remote learning, and relaxing - but this Cabana takes the cake! It’s absolutely adorable and perfect for relaxing outside for snack, reading a book, or taking a rest after they get out of the kiddie pool. We might not be able to go on vacation this year, but they can certainly pretend they’re at a beach resort now - though I must confess, I’m totally jealous and wish I had one in my size too!
The Cabana also has cupholders and a little storage cubby which the kids absolutely love! It’s definitely been a huge hit and now I know where the kids will be hanging out all summer long.
Thanks again Auntie Suz for such an awesome gift for the kids! :)
With the Covid-19 Pandemic still persisting and school in our state cancelled for the rest of the school year (and maybe longer), average parents have been thrown into the role of becoming teachers too and most of us weren’t prepared at all. While I have a degree in Art Education, I went a different career route after graduation and my teaching/classroom management skills are now quite rusty. So I pulled from my own classroom and remote teaching experiences - as well as polling many teacher friends, homeschooling parents, and regular now-remote-teaching-parents for ideas on what’s working for them and what supplies have been lifesavers as they navigate this new remote learning world. | This post contains affiliate links |
Give Yourself Grace
This is probably the biggest takeaway from everyone I’ve talked to…. remote learning during a Pandemic is definitely uncharted territory and everyone is trying to figure things out - readjusting roles, schedules, expectations, everything. Most of us weren’t cut out to be teachers, and it can be incredibly hard to motivate and focus your own kids as well as their teachers are able to. Ultimately, it’s a matter of doing the best that you can in the circumstance you’re currently in… and don’t beat yourself up if everything isn’t perfect.
Communicate with Teachers and Administrators
If you have a lot going on at home (working from home yourself, several kids schedules to juggle, other personal hurdles to deal with, etc) or if the teacher’s expectations for remote learning are just unrealistic, definitely reach out to them to voice your concerns and come up with a plan. Maybe deadlines can be extended, or the workload can be reduced to the essential assignments. Maybe the big group Zoom meetings are too overwhelming and frustrating for your young child and they need a one-on-one meeting instead. Maybe the schedule the teacher came up with won’t work for your family with your own work and other school schedules. The point is - if you or your kids are feeling overwhelmed and stressed about about the whole remote learning process, it’s worth discussing with their teachers and administrators so that you can come up with something that works for everyone and still meets all the learning requirements.
Come up With a Schedule that Works for Your Family
This will take some trial-and-error. And if you have older students with a heavier workload, their home school day might just look very similar to a regular school day schedule-wise and time-wise - especially if they can work pretty independently. But for us with younger kids, mom or dad needs to be there to walk them through each assignment, activity, and online meeting.
If you’re also working from home or juggling other kids schedules too this can be particularly challenging and exhausting... if you need something to buy periods of occupation from your kids (maybe so you can do an uninterupted confrence call, or you can concentrate helping one child with an assignment while keeping the other kids busy), consider giving them something they will enjoy doing and keep them safely occupied (but always under some parent supervision of course). Maybe it's educational games on the Kindle, or perhaps low-mess craft projects, or an hour of TV time, or reading a book series on their own that they enjoy, etc. Or maybe you find school work or office work done in fragments at unusual times is what works best for your family.
For us personally with younger kids, we’ve fallen into a good rhythm and schedule over the last two months of remote learning. For our family we’ve found it best to buckle down in the mornings and get the work done first thing when attention spans are at their best and everyone is well rested. So our daughter works through her assignments one-by-one every morning with breaks for snack and classroom meetings. Our goal is to have all her work completed for the day by lunchtime, and while some days that doesn’t happen and things need to be finished after lunch, most of the time she’s done by noon which leaves the afternoons for “free choice fun.” Typically, spending the whole afternoon outside if the weather is nice or inside playing legos or watching a movie if it’s raining (and while the kids are playing I can chip away at whatever work I need to get done too). Our days have consistent expectations and a nice rhythm to them now which helps a lot.
Set Snack and Meal Times
As anyone with kids home 24/7 can tell you, they can and WILL eat you out of house and home if you let them. By having set snack and mealtimes it will help your pantry and wallet by not blowing through all your quarantine snacks in 2 days flat. I’ve seen some parents even pack their kids lunch box every morning, just like they would for school, so the kids have a finite amount of snacks and lunch food for the day.
Designate a School Space and Stay Organized
Having a designated “school space” that has all the supplies your kids will need to complete their assignments at their fingertips can be crucial to success. Ideally having a desk or separate workspace would be ideal, but any designated space can work. For us, we set up one end of our kitchen island - it has a laptop where our daughter completes most of her assignments online and a small basket where we store paper, workbooks, flashcards, and a few ziplock bags containing different supplies that she uses often (markers, counting chips, etc). By having everything ready to go each day, there's no excuse when it's time to get to work.
I polled many friends, both teachers and regular parents who are now remote teaching, and compiled a list of things they have needed or found to be extremely helpful during this time. Younger kids definitely tend to need more learning aides so the list has many items geared to younger students but there are also some items that can be useful for older grade levels listed too. Click the button below to browse our picks, which I will be periodically adding to as I get more suggestions:
Because someday the kids will go back to school… (Right..? Right! fingers crossed) I ordered our youngest her own pink monogrammed L.L. Bean Boat and Tote to match Mama and big sis for when she hopefully starts school in the Fall. I love that each will have her own tote for school to stay organized and carry snow gear and sports things, and that these bags are something that will grow with them and be used for many years to come.
A bag for each of us and each of us has our own color to keep us organized. Our oldest’s bag has been through the wash many times and is a bit softer and more broken in :) These bags get better with use!
L.L. Bean Fashion
| This particular post is not sponsored by L.L. Bean but contains affiliate links and my personal opinions |
It seems kind of weird and petty to write about fun DIY projects during a Pandemic, but maybe fun projects to work on at home is just what we need right now :) I did this project about two months ago when I was looking for a nice way to display our oldest’s growing collection of award ribbons and medals but couldn’t find a display setup that I liked or was remotely affordable. The whole project was super easy and done start-to-finish within two days. Here’s hoping for things to go back to normal someday soon so she can continue to add to her award collection. | This post contains affiliate links |
Materials:
lumber (I used a 1x8" board for the shelf top and 1x6" board for the back)
two decorative shelf brackets (or two pieces of wood cut at 45 degree angle)
First decide how long you want the overall shelf to be (in our case I decided on making it 3ft wide). Then cut your shelf top to that length.
(Nothing is screwed in yet here… just laying everything out to make sure it will fit like I want it to.)
Next decide how wide you want the shelf back to be - remember that the self back plus the brackets should fall within your overall shelf top length. Ultimately how long you cut the shelf back is your preference though. But visually I think that the shelf back and the brackets look best if they fall within about 2 inches of the shelf top on each side.
(Side note: If you have a router you can cut a dovetail channel along the back of the shelf back now to make for easier hanging… I do not have one of those handy so I skipped this step and will hang our shelf another way.)
Once you have everything laid out, cut your dowel to about 1/8” less than your shelf back length so it will fit comfortably within that space.
After everything is cut, I recommend sanding everything first before you assemble. I love using our orbital sander - it makes for quick work and does a nice job.
Next start assembling. Screw the shelf supports to the backing first, making sure everything is lined up and flush.
Next carefully center the shelf top, making sure it’s flush with the back and screw in.
Now for the fun part - paint! I did one coat of primer and then three coats of semi-gloss white paint, though you could choose any color you wish. I like semi-gloss paint since it has a slight sheen to it and is easier to dust and keep clean.
For hanging - first I measured this wall side-to-side to figure out where the shelf should fall within that space to be centered. Then I marked the studs with a stud finder.
To be honest I usually use two different kinds of stud finders when I have to hang something - I use a magnetic stud finder first to identify exactly where the stud is and then a digital one to find the edges of the stud. I’ve found that sometimes the digital ones can be finicky so it’s nice to know where the studs are first rather than get a false stud reading when it could be something else (a pipe, a thick area of plaster on the wall, etc).
Then using a level to make sure the shelf was level, I screwed directly into the wall studs through the shelf back making sure to place the screws where they would be hidden by the dowel once I installed it.
Next I hung the dowel by centering it and adding a simple hook to support it on each side, as shown above (this also hides the screws I used to hang it). And now the project is finished and ready to display ribbons, medals, and trophies!
To hang the ribbons and medals you can easily lift the dowel up and string them on, or loop them around the dowel like I did here.
I hope you liked the project and we look forward to when this Pandemic is over and there will be sport and fair ribbon awards again - stay well!
UPDATE:
Years later our kids are still using the DIY Ribbon and Trophy Displays but they’re getting a little full. In order to spread things out a bit I bought these simple medal holders (similar one linked), so they could hang their medals on these and keep the DIY Display just for their ribbons/trophies. It’s working great!
Yesterday the kids finger-painted some big sheets of paper and today we cut hearts out to hang in all our windows as a way to say THANK YOU to all the heroes out there - especially medical personnel, but also mail/package carriers, truck drivers, and our neighbors and community that are staying home.
I hope everyone can find some small way to help spread some hope and gratitude in your neighborhoods too. Thank you all!
Whether you believe the extent of the hype about the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) or not, you should still take it very seriously. This is unprecedented for our generation and a lot of people are in denial that something may be so out of our control.
I wanted to share this link to a post by Scientific American that I found - I felt like this was a really calm and helpful perspective on why we should prepare now - and no, you don’t have to go overboard. We personally bought extra groceries this week, along with diapers, dog food, and the OTC medicine our toddler takes daily. I'm also planning on taking this opportunity to potty train her so we hopefully don't run out of diapers. I pray this virus doesn't become a widespread issue but it's best to prepare now.
The whole point of being cautious and complying with “social distancing measures” is to keep our hospitals and medical personnel with their heads above water - because if this outbreak becomes large it will overwhelm our capabilities, which would be bad for everyone but especially our vulnerable populations (elderly, those with chronic illness, etc). So please, I ask you to take it seriously and prepare - then hope and pray for the best. Stay healthy out there! <3
You know that potty training is getting serious when you start driving around with a tiny toilet in your trunk! Thought I’d hop on here real quick and share some of our potty training “on-the-go” hacks. | This post contains affiliate links |
First, while we may be doing undies in the house - we still use pull-ups at night and when we leave the house… why? Because Mama don’t like having to change wet or poopy clothes in Target or get a carseat full on a drive. That is not fun for anyone and doesn’t set your kid up for success. Also, cleaning carseats is the worst.
For us we potty train our kids 100% at home and let them be flexible (by using a pull-up) whenever we’re out and about until they are VERY good at it, before transitioning them to undies all the time. During this transitionary time, we always keep a small potty in our trunk in case they need to go. It’s a lot easier and more comfortable for them to use a little potty that they’re used to, rather than having you dangle them over a public toilet at Starbucks.
The biggest helpful trick to the trunk potty? Line it with a clean diaper to absorb waste - that way you’re not driving around with a cup full of pee sloshing around in your trunk. It also makes for much easier cleanup!
And it goes without saying to keep wipes, clean pull-ups, a change of clothes, and a towel within reach in the trunk as well too… just in case.
