Bookcase in the Bathroom for hiding all the mess of a large family

I got rather over the big mess at the end of the bath due to at the time our household comprising of 6 people including 2 teenage girls.
So I bought a 30cm wide bookcase with 6 shelves, the younger kids didn't have a heap of bathroom supplies so they didn't need a shelf.
Sorry I don't have photos of the original set up as I wasn't blogging then and Miss 19 has moved out of home.
The original set up each teen had a full shelf, the rule was all your stuff must be kept on the shelf or in your room, it is not to migrate to the end of the bath, the basin or beside the basin.

I have now added 3 baskets as I needed to hide my teens supplies and she was overflowing into other shelves, her basket is full to the brim with everything including her sunglasses.  I could only get 3 matching that fit in my shelves via local shops, so I have put 1 on every second shelf.

Sorry only showing the top 3 shelves as the kids seem to always have mess in front of the bottom half whenever I go to take photos for this post and a 7month delay is long enough :)









Hubby and my shelves have items that are family use such as I have first aid supplies behind my skin care and he has nit shampoo in his basket (we live in Qld so this is a essential in every houshold, though we don't use the chemical based one due to my eldest having a severe reaction when she was 5).
On the top of bookcase is other items needed to be out of the reach of children such as peroxide, nail polish remover, hairspray, etc.
Note while my children are no longer young enough to need this I do have visitors with young children and like to keep dangerous things out of their reach.
There is a shelf for dental supplies.
Another shelf has a basket full of sanitary supplies so any female guests or household members can easily access these if they need them.
 

Baskets are great for hiding things and getting more into a storage space, heaps of room left in this basket.
I wish I could find 2 or 3 more of these baskets, or just a set of matching baskets that fit the shelf space as well as these 3 do.





What is your storage solution in the Bathroom?

Keeping a child engaged when they can't attend school

This is my experience with my 10yr, I went through a similar situation when my nearly 20yr was 16 and did things very differently, for her we switched to home schooling through Brisbane School Of Distance Education but my son did not want to leave school and his knee will heal so I felt it was important to keep him in his school and keep him engaged and as up to date with school work as possible.
I signed him up with Startlight Foundation's Livewire program so he can talk to other kids, got work from his teacher, and moved my study supplies out from the office to one end of the dining table so I can study while he is doing schoolwork, and a few craft supplies at the other end though I did very little crafting while keeping him engaged.
This may not work for everyone but I thought it may help someone when their child is stuck home due to injury or illness.
Here are pics of the set up of our dining table while this has been going on.  He has been off school for 7 weeks now.

How everything is stacked so the table can still be used by Mr 10, Mr 8 and one other when eating.
It is a mess but it is what we have needed for these 7 weeks, usually all of this has a home somewhere else.
The rainbow loom supplies are for hand therapy.
In the future I will use Magazine holders along the back of the table for everything.

How I lay out what Mr 10 is doing, ready for him (his hand splint is covering his name).
I only have 3 chairs at the table despite it being a 6 seater, one each end and one along the side he sits, the empty space where he sits is to accommodate his wheelchair he is temporarily using.

The stack of Mr 10's school work including sketching supplies for art time, 2 math books, grammar and a folder full of print outs his teacher emails me for him to do.
He has also done some card making during art time.

His schedule, I took what information I had about how things run at school and created this. 
I have also put each item into the calendar app on the Ipad so a alarm goes off to alert him and others who may be in the room when I am not when it is time to move onto the next activity. 
During free time he is allowed to do anything he would do at school during free time that he is currently able to do.  This is about him feeling he is still having a fairly normal day, as normal as it can be given the circumstances.

He is very excited to go back to school.
I would love to hear from teachers for any ideas on ways I can keep him engaged.
Also other parents who have had a child unable to attend school for a long time but could utilise distance education.

The need of a hand splint in addition to a pencil grip.

A few months back in one of the support groups I am in a Mum was trying to figure out how to help her child's pencil hold and many were telling her to just go buy any old pencil grip from the stationary store.  Her child had the exact same hold as Mr E so I shared these photos with her and our journey with trying to assist Mr E's and Mr C's hand issues that they have due to their EDS.
I thought I would share some of this with you in case a child or person in your life is having issues with their pen/pencil hold and may or may not have hand pain.
 Disclaimer:  I am just a Mum of kids with EDS, I also have EDS and Dyspraxia and my 17yr tests positive to Dyspraxia, I and my 19yr have Fibromyalgia and Orthostatic Intolerance.  Posts about our experiences, I am not a medical professional, I can only speak of our experiences and what has/has not worked for us.

This is Mr E's pencil hold without any assistance, those bendy EDS make pencil control difficult but it also means he and his brother have a lot of hand and wrist pain from writing and drawing, their writing speed is not where it should be for their age and they are not able to write at the neatness level expected at their age.
We do lots of Occupational Therapy focusing on Fine Motor Skills at home.











Both boys have had many different pencil grips over the years and none fully corrected the issues they had.
This is Mr E's current pencil grip, it is hard to see due to the umbrella part of the grip but his finger tips are still bent backwards.
The need for a custom hand splint for each boy was apparent from early on but finding a Hand Specialist was a challenge.  The first one we saw misdiagnosed a issue with my daughter's hand and said some things that showed me he had limited EDS knowledge.  Then I found the wonderful Olga (she is a Upper Limb Specialist) and she made a custom splint for each boy and had Coralee bring her cello in and play for her so she could make a splint that would correct the issues she was having without impeding her playing.



 
Here is Mr E just using his splint without his grip.  As you can see he still bends his index finger in a funny way but the thumb is improved, this is important as both boys have had their thumbs get looser in the 12 months before getting their splints so they need the thumb support.
 



Here is Mr E wearing his splint and using his grip.
It is hard to see but no joints are bending in the wrong direction.  YAY.
It can take lots of trials to find the right grip, but even the best grip for the person may not be enough if they need a splint.





Here is Mr E and Mr C's splints.
Thought they both have issues with their hands, most especially the thumb joints the issues are different and require a different splint.
The plastic that Mr C's is made of is heat sensitive so it can't be left in the sun or the car, the same applies the the hard part of Mr E's.
They have held up really well to the battering they get from a 8 and 10yr boy at school.



So my advice is if a child or person has issues with their pen/pencil hold seek advice from Hand Specialist/Upper Limb Specialist.

Pokemon Party

When Mr C asked for a Pokemon themed 10th Birthday Party this sent me into planning, crafting and shopping mode.
We tossed ideas around and someone suggested we set up a table and have games.
We had enough second hand cards for the boys to have a deck each, though once we started learning about the game we realised it was lacking.
He also wanted to give each guest a pokeball charm made from rainbow loom bands and a little Pokemon.  He wanted his tournament to have prizes and I found a Ash Ketchum hat cheap so he was over the moon.
Due to the amount of cards needed to play 2 games at once and the time involved in each game we had to cap numbers.
After making 2 game boards and buying more cards cheaply I discovered there are starter sets.  You can definitely tell we are new to the card game, my older kids just watched the show and weren't interested in the cards.  So I grabbed a starter set, that leaves us with a proper mat and 2 handmade, the proper tokens and 2 sets of handmade.
Even with all our card purchases as I bought second hand in bulk I have pulled this all off below budget.  Also the boys used their own pocket money to buy half of the cards, I just needed to boost the supplies.

 Water themed game board.

 Fire themed game board.





































 First Prize for our mini tournament I scored for $5.98.
The boys love it.

Second and Third place holders with get one of these cuties.

Treat Bags Supplies.

The treat bags will be low on sugary treats as Mr E has Dental Hypoplasia so I have to consider him.

I used this tutorial from Made by Mommy to make pokeball charms.  Making enough was a great way to get some hand therapy in for myself and the boys.

































I scored 24 little pokemon figurines at a bargain price, depending on how many guests we have they will each get at least 1 possibly 3.





















In addition to the cards the boys bought and I bought a bulk lot off ebay and a bulk lot of very worn cards from a local shop that does trades.
I sorted through the boys cards and the extra cards and pulled out the multiples.
Party guests will get 3 cards each in their loot bags.

White paper lanterns that my daughter and I painted the top half red and then put masking tape I coloured black with a permanent marker around the middle.

Yellow printer paper with Pikachu colouring in printables printed on it and cut out to form a banner.

Game table all set up waiting for party guests.

Loot Bags









Each loot bag had a twirl, fredo, pokeball charm, 2 pokemon figures and 3 pokemon cards.

Cake made by my lovely friend Shirlee, unfortunately we were having a very humid day and the figurines she made from fondant collapsed so she replaced them with a toy pokeball and a pikachu she got from the shop, still a awesome cake for my little Pokemon Trainer.




Apart from food I have only spent $75 on this party, that is including decorations, supplies for invites, prizes, extra cards and items for the treat bags.
I was going to bake and create all kinds of themed food but hubby was on a pretty nasty roster in the lead up and after the party and the day of the party was his only day off so with food I went the easy way and just put out chips, store bought muffins, etc.
The kids had a blast, most want to come over regularly and play pokemon, due to time constraints we couldn't play full games so had mini rounds of 20mins and then as time grew short sudden death (first to inflict damage).  Our final it was clear one young boy wanted his friend to win, he had the chance to inflict damage on multiple occasions and didn't take it and when he finally did he gave first prize to his friend.
As for the loot bags they were a hit with all but 1 child but you can't please everyone.

Pokeball Birthday Invites

Mr C has a 10th Birthday coming up and Pokemon has become a big thing he and his brother and their friends are into.  When asked what he wanted his 10th Birthday to be he said Pokemon and well Trainers do get their first Pokemon at 10 so this fits perfectly.
I will do a follow up post on Party supplies but as I had to make a extra invite I took photos of each step (sorry 2 are blurry) as some had asked to see the process.

You need Thin Black Tape.
I did not have enough thin black masking tape in my stash so I tore off minimum 9inch long strips of plain masking tape, stuck them onto my nonstick craftsheet and coloured the stripes black with a permanent marker.
I recommend this as first step to ensure fully dry when applying.

When doing my first 10 I just cut 4inch wide strips of white and red cardstock but for this extra I just cut 4inch squares.
When doing the longer pieces in half lengthways so you have a 2 inch wide strip.







You want the narrowest part of your circle to be the folded edge.
I used my old Creative Memories Custom Cutting sytem with the blade and circle that results in a 4 inch Circle, if you don't have this you could use a 4inch Circle Die.

This cardstock was very thick so when folded in half my blade could only cut one layer at a time, the white was thinner so I didn't need to flip the excess up like this for White.

Repeat these steps with white for how many Pokeball invites you are making.

Red half, White half, White 4 inch circle to add stability, details printed and cut to a 4 inch circle.

You will need a 1.5inch black circle and a 1inch white circle for the button.

 Using my Fiskars 12 inch trimmer I cut each peace of masking tape in half length ways.
I did this 1 at a time assembling each invite as I went as when pealing up off the trimmer it would curl.





This was the easiest way to get the seem right.
I stuck a end of the tap down so the sticky side was up and placed the red, followed by the white, then I folded over the tape.

For the red and white edge that is the opening I tore the other half of the masking tape in half and placed it sticky side up.

 I folded it over the edge and trimmed.

 A pic of the inside before adding the 4 inch circle of white cardstock that is for stability

 With text glued in (sorry markers are covering personal details).

8 of the 11 made.

Pocket Raspberry Finsbury as my wallet and mini schedule.

My planner/EDS friend Toni gave me this lovely Pocket Raspberry Finsbury to use as my wallet and I love it.
I don't change dividers or charms in this as well it lives in my bag.

Here are some photos of my set up.


Best wallet I have every had as I can customise it to my needs.





















Hand covering license.
Sorry taking on the go lol.
Card slots have my card to my account for groceries/getting each weeks cash out and my carers card (though very few places where I live honour this card sadly).
Pocket behind card slots has stamps and postal receipts for tracking purposes, these receipts get binned when I know the person has received their item.

Cut down collector card inserts to make reward card storage.
They are staggered to avoid bulk.
8 in total pockets in total holding 14 cards

Showing a old week.
WO2 for schedule with minimal detail as I don't take my planner out any more due to pain levels but still need to be able to schedule stuff.

Second divider for my notes section.
At back of notes I have a fly leaf, behind it is 1 sheet of address paper to record contact info if I need to.

Clear filofax pocket on left for vouchers.
Upcycled paperclip packaging for envelop budget.
I have 3 of these (groceries, fuel, kids).

Zipper pocket is for money to spend on me (has been empty for some time lol).

Receipts in back.

My Fauxdori Uni Planner

For my first Semester at Uni I just had a section in my main planner (my A5 Finsbury) but a bargain buy of a A5 Fauxdori came to my attention and someone suggested (sorry I can't remember who) that it would be great for Uni.
A notebook per subject was suggested and I love this idea for when I get to the more intensive note taking subjects.
So here is my work in progress set up so far.

 My $15 Fauxdori, I don't have a pen loop for it yet so the elastic is holding my pens.
I decided I want to take colourful notes so I selected a cheap 4 colour pen with my favourite colour in and the Orange Frixion I got in a RAK and I don't use Orange in my colour code very often.

 This handy writers wheel (I think that is what it is called) is paper clipped to my home made flyleaf.
Note as everything was in a filofax I had to stick things together to fit in my dori.

On the back of my Writers Wheel is a sticky note with info I need on hand for Uni.
On the right is a card holder from my A5 filofax it has my student ID and local Library card (thinking I will put washi samples in the empty pockets.
Pink sticky notes are covering personal info, blue and white are a small pile stuck to empty pockets until I get a dashboard happening.

Back of A5 filofax card insert (not this is stuck with packing tape to a filofax A5 top opening pocket).
Pink sticky notes are a little stack.
On right is a cheap Collect & Co notebook from Big W that I covered with paper that was more me.
I couldn't afford proper books and couldn't make them myself due to my hand.

The other Collect & Co book (2 A5 for $2).
I love the layout of their pages but I will be covering the logo on each page with a sticker.

A5 filofax top opening pocket.
It is home to index cards for studying, paperwork from Uni, the single page of notes I made in my first subject and a letter for Uni.

On the right is the recycled/upcycled A4 page protector that I made a A5 when it was torn.
In my first subject we covered assessing websites for reliability and I saved the documents for assessing it and keep them here for reference.