If you ask my husband, he knows it makes me crazy when he says he didn’t have time to do something.
You didn’t put the trash out? (as it’s overflowing and the dog is licking the sides of the can…)
Sorry, didn’t have time.
Can you change the batteries in the smoke detector? (after it’s been beeping for a few days…)
Yeah, I’ll have time later.
Even though I know how busy we are, the time excuse makes me crazy.
Why?
Because the way we keep our schedules, if you want more time, you have to make it.
And you can, if you manage your time well.
I first learned to manage time when I was waitressing in college. For the first few weeks, I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off.
Then, I eased into a routine.
While one table was waiting for their food, I would head off to take another’s order, stopping by the beverage station to grab a refill for a third table, and extra sugar packets for a fourth.
I definitely put those skills to use when I started teaching classes of 35+ kids in the inner city.
After all this, I thought I was awesome at managing time… until I had my own kids.
Nursing a newborn while potty training a toddler had me feeling the same way I did when I was a new waitress in the weeds.
However, I have learned if you manage your time well, there are so many ways to find extra time in a hectic schedule.
And, extra time means more time for all those DIY projects you keep pinning. 🙂
How to Find Time for DIY Projects
With the follow eight tips, you’ll be making extra time in your crazy schedule – in no time 🙂 You’ll be amazed at just how much more time you will have.
1. Get up an hour earlier
I know what you’re thinking.
You already set snooze as many times as you possibly can, so how can you get up earlier?!
I felt the same way… until I did it.
Getting up an hour earlier gives you time to work on your projects.
The chance to work on your project first thing is a great motivator to get you out of bed.
Or, start your day (throw dinner in the crockpot, get the day’s chores done), to free up that hour later for your diy projects.
It’s so peaceful in the mornings. The house is so quiet that you’ll never sleep in again.
2. Cut some things out
You know when you are throwing a party and the day of the party, you still have a long list of things to do?
Then some guests show up early. And, the rest of the list goes out the window.
And you know what?
No one noticed anyway.
Think about your day, your week, your schedule. What things can you cut out – that wouldn’t be noticed?
Maybe you start vacuuming once a week instead of every other day.
Maybe you really don’t need to do laundry every day?
If you can cut a couple things out of your busy days, you’ll dust off some much needed diy time.
3. Let kids work with you
Have little ones and a project you’re dying to work on?
You can actually manage both at the same time. Simply set up a little station for your kids to work too.
If you’re painting a piece of wood, give them something to paint too.
If you’re sewing a craft, give them some fabric to play with or color.
My toddler LOVES our craft time. He usually picks up all of my scraps and makes things with them. He put together a bunch of foam scraps into the shape of a train the other day.
While my husband wondered what I was teaching him, I got a solid hour of craft time in while spending time with my toddler. 🙂
Working alongside your child inspires creativity and gives you quality time together.
4. Delegate what you can
I LOVE to delegate.
Why?
Because the job still gets done – but not by you. 😉
Maybe your husband can take over dinner or packing lunches a few times a week.
Kids can start making their beds or doing their laundry.
Maybe your mom or a mommy’s helper can come watch your little ones while you get some DIY time.
Think about your schedule. And find a few ways that you can delegate some of your tasks.
Delegation is definitely a win-win that you can benefit from.
5. Organize your project ahead of time
There’s nothing like FINALLY having time for your diy project, and then you can’t find the painters tape, or the ribbon you wanted to use, or the tools you need.
Or, maybe your workspace is covered in junk.
Or, maybe you can’t find the website with the instructions (or the pin you thought you pinned).
Take a few minutes during the day and get your project, your workspace, and your instructions organized.
Read through the instructions to familiarize yourself with the steps (it’s like pre-reading – can you tell I was a literacy teacher?!)
When you finally have the time, you can jump right in.
6. Multi-task, multi-task, multi-task
Talking on the phone?
Get the dishes washed. Delete your emails. Steam the floor.
Have a slow eater in your family?
Clean up the kitchen while they’re finishing up. Make the kids lunches for the next day. Write down your shopping list.
As much as you want to relax, using this time wisely lets you cross TWO things off your list, instead of one. How’s that for productivity?!
6. Put the devices down
Even though I manage my time well, my cell phone is my downfall.
I check Facebook, then I see what’s trending on twitter.
I look at the news, my instagram feed, and of course, reply to all my text messages.
Yet, once I started realizing all of the time I was wasting, my mind was blown.
All those minutes add up into hours a day. Those hours across a whole week – the number was insane.
Even though I love to relax by checking my phone, I would much rather be spending this time on my DIY projects.
7. Use wait time to the max
During my college orientation, one of the deans gave amazing advice that I still follow today.
He said that in the next four years, you will find yourself waiting a lot.
Waiting for that awkward amount of time in between classes – where you have more than a few minutes but not enough time to go back to the dorm.
Waiting for professor’s office hours to start, waiting for your study group to show up, waiting for class to start.
He said that all that time adds up – so use it wisely.
His advice undoubtedly applies to more than just college.
Waiting is a big part of life, especially with kids.
So use those few minutes you are waiting in the school parking lot to answer emails or make a hair appointment.
It will make your to do list shorter later – giving you more time for your projects.
How do I start?
Pick just one or two of the above tasks to work on.
You’ll soon start to see that you’ve freed up some time for your DIY projects.
With your hectic schedule and the constant running, you will finally have time for yourself and the projects that you’ve been dying to start.
There weren’t too many ideas on Pinterest or google for puzzle parties, which was great because I got to start with a blank canvas. Sometimes there are too many ideas out there, and it gets so overwhelming.
What’s inside the goody bags?
If I had a little extra time, I would have done pom-poms too, but when you are short on time and super pregnant, something gets cut from the list 🙂
This is a great pre-party activity that kids can help with too!
This entertained my son for DAYS before the party, and the kids loved it!
I tossed a few balls and bean bags in a bucket, and voila! The puzzle pitch was ready to go 🙂
I spread the cones out to elongate the obstacle course. Also, I put out a few soccer balls, so kids could kick around the cones.
Every year, I’m impressed at how much time the kids spend playing in the water table at our summer parties. It’s definitely a must-have for easiness and entertainment!
We shaped it into a dog and painted it with acrylic paints. We used…. but more details will be forthcoming on a future post 🙂
6.) Puzzle Palace
This was the perfect example of how something so simple (hanging a sign and tossing in some puzzle pieces) makes for another cute touch at a child’s birthday party. See, you don’t need to go crazy to throw a great party. Simple ideas and activities can tie everything together nicely.
So, I guess you are probably wondering about the cake. We did have a cake of some sorts – it was chocolate coconut fudge that I last-minutely shaped into a puzzle piece. Perfect for a puzzle party!
Materials for the Popsicle Stick Puppets
How to Make a Cardboard Box Puppet Theater
After that, I grabbed some felt and hot glued it to the box. Surprisingly, I only used three sheets of felt. I love to work with felt and had a huge stack of it, but you could also use wrapping paper or construction paper or whatever you have lying around the house.
Last, if your kids are not toddlers, they can totally do this craft and more independently. In fact, you could simply print the shapes template, have them trace, cut, and decorate themselves. And, puppet theaters are perfect for kids of all ages.
How to Make a Robot Body
I designed Moo-Bot to be easy to transport. So it separates into three parts – the body, head and post. Each attaches to one another securely with a large bolt and wingnut.
Constructing the Mount
How to House the Electrical Components
The top left contained a removable board hosting some circuitry for the brains of our robot cow. The top right contains the speakers, and below are eight D sized batteries, split into two sections.
The speakers supported four AA batteries, but I wanted to power it from eight D batteries. So I saw an area in the battery compartment to insert some wires, and secured them in place with some metal washers. I then drilled a small hole in the compartment lid for the wires to stick out.
Even though the switch was located inside our robot cow, it was positioned so I could access it from underneath.
Similar to the body design, I made the frames from more strips of ¾” wood. I connected the pieces together with construction adhesive and my finishing nail gun.
Here are the frames assembled to form the iconic robot cow’s head:
Wrapping the Robot’s Head with Sheet Metal
I had to be careful with the sharp edges and corners. Most of the time I wore thick gloves to protect my hands while cutting.
Making the Robot Weather-Proof
Here’s a picture showing the bent robot face piece:
After cutting the face piece, I worked on the eye holes. I etched an outline with my utility knife and cut a hole with my jigsaw (using metal cutting blades).
It sort of looks like a welding masking. It was perfect for a robot.
Here is a picture of the partially completed head, sitting next to the body:
Moo-Bot is really starting to take shape at this point.
Next, I attached the mouthpiece containing the interaction button.
These adapters are actually for a computer power supply, but I repurposed them into cow robot adapters.
The wires on the right plug straight into the body and the head. The cable on the left connects these two adapters. This setup allowed me to literally plug/unplug the head without the hassle of managing different wires and risk mangling my setup.
After the cuts were made, I re-used my cutting station to also perform the folds:
Here are the completed boxes:
Here I am assembling the boxes at the 15 degree angle:
Bending the Robot Body
When the two body segments were joined, I needed to do something about the ridge they created at the top.
I also reinforced the ridge with some weatherproofing tape underneath, just in case rain still managed to find its way in:
Cutting Out an Access Panel
Here’s a picture showing the access panel covered (you’ll also notice that I added some wooden legs to help support our robot cow):
Here’s a close-up of them dangling off the cow:
Making the Cow Spots
Cutting and Reinforcing the Scarecrow Post
Constructing a Wooden Moon
Next, I joined them together with some pocket hole screws (using my 
I tied one end of the wire to the pencil and the other end to the screw.
Once the complete circle for the moon prop was cut out, I placed the piece in a large clamp to sand down the edges really smooth:
After I sanded, I dusted it off and spray painted it outside with an exterior off-white paint.
Finally, I wrapped some LED lights around the moon, and quickly fabricated an adapter to plug into the body.
As a side note, the LED lights I used for the moon were self-powered with their own batteries. The Arduino simply turns them off and on.
How to Use the Ardunio Processor
The Arduino is on the far right. On the left is a circuit breadboard, where I have a number of accessories plugged in. The breadboard allows you to quickly connect electrical components without the need for soldering. The Arduino also has a limited number of ports physically available, so I use the breadboard to expand those ports.
Moo-Bot was a sure blast to work on and everyone misses him here at home. We plan on visiting him regularly to make sure he is still fully operational, and wish him the best of luck in his competition.
Planning the Kite Design
It just so happens that a few days before my birthday, Eileen was on the phone with one of her sisters and mentioned that we were planning to make a kite.
I only used four of the dowels. The extra one you can use to keep pets away from chewing your sticks while working on your kite 🙂
Several cuts later, here is the end result:
Add some string to that and I could sell it as a kit online!
Here are the dowels intersecting via the notches:
The ends of these crosses were going to be in contact with the long 36” dowels. To make for a better fit, I opted to carve the ends of the crosses slightly with a concave cut. This would allow the crosses to rest nicely against the long dowels.
To make a strong connection between the crosses and the long dowels, I used wire that I inserted into small holes drilled into the dowels.
Step 3 – My Strengthening Process
Finally, I used strips of strong repair tape to repeatedly wrap the intersections:
Here is one of the finished structural crosses (it’s very sturdy at this point):
Step 4 – Assembling the Kite Frame
The wire ran through a hole in the cross, and a hole in the 36” dowel. Then it was twist-tied.
The wires made for a very strong connection between the dowels. However, the structure was still a little wobbly. To remedy that, I wrapped all the wire joints with electrical tape:
The kite structure was now complete and very rigid. It should have no problems standing up to strong wind forces (and inevitable crashes).
I also made sure the fabric was wrapped nice and tight around the structure. Then, I used a lot of shipping tape to help secure and reinforce the fabric.
This last step with taping the edges was especially important to prevent the fabric from ripping as wind gushed through the structure. It would also help during landings to prevent tearing.
Step 6 – Stringing the Kite
Zeus had been wondering what we were working on and was overjoyed for his trip to the park. He got to run along with the box kite and enjoy a windy evening outside.
The homemade box kite was a really fun project to work on. It only took a few hours, and didn’t cost much to make. I can’t wait until my son’s old enough to create his own designs with me. His interest is already peaked – we are definitely a family of engineers.
If you have been wondering how to make a box kite, these six easy steps will have your kite ready in no time. All you’ll need then is a windy day.
How cool is that?!
How to Make the Lamp Pole
First, mark the center of each end of the upright wood pole. Then carefully drill from both ends. Use a level, so that holes drilled closely align in the middle.
I used 3/8″ drill, as it perfectly allowed for a standard threaded lamp pipe to fit snugly in the hole.
Here’s the threaded lamp pipe inserted into the pole.
Applying Finish
I let the stain, and then polyurethane each dry overnight.
Additional Lamp Pole Work
Assembling the Electrical Parts
Next, I aligned the electrical lamp components.
Attaching the Lamp Pole
Next, turn the base over, and enlarge the holes. However, they should be a diameter less than that of the screws to be used. So, use a countersink drill bit so that the wood screw heads will be recessed.
Next, drill screw holes in bottom of the post where marked, and hold the two pieces of wood together tightly while screws are tightened.
Assembling the Lamp Parts
With both wires extended through the threaded lamp pipe and the socket base, push the pipe down into the wood base. If it doesn’t fit tightly, put some wood glue on the threads first.
Then, I snapped the socket cover into its base. Make sure that the lamp switch is to the right side.
With the small socket attached to the model with screws, washers, and nuts, use a pair of 5″ or longer twist ties to securely fasten the model’s axles to the rear rail of the track.
Next, I installed the small frosted light bulb into model’s socket. You could also consider taping thin yellow plastic sheet pieces over the insides of the model’s windows to dim glare.
Finishing the Lamp
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