My youngest enjoys taking her lunch to school, but the lunch box can’t go in her bag, she feels she must carry it. She has a rolling bag because the amount of stuff the kids need to carry (no lockers here) can’t be good for their backs. So she has a roller bag handle in one hand and her lunch in the other. This year she has chosen to learn trumpet and be in band class. She has run out of hands. I tried hooking the lunch bag to the rolling bag, but that was not acceptable. It either fell to one side as she walked, or made it hard to get into the bag. What to do? How about wear the lunchbag? It is the lightest item, after all. I bought a length of nylon webbing (marketed in the craft store as belt material and usually by the ribbons and notions), and measured across her shoulder and down to her hip. I sewed loops into each end and added lightweight carabiners to each loop.

Then it is just a matter of clipping the strap to the top of the lunch box and she has a cross-body bag! And two hands available for her trumpet and the rolling bag. Thank goodness the band room does still have lockers and she doesn’t have to carry it to every class. This solution is working well for getting to her first class, and getting back home. Yay!

This is not about crafting things for an emergency, this is about having to wait in the car for a half-hour, and despite my best intentions I still have not squirreled away a small spindle and fiber about my person, and I was getting fidgety. My oldest handed me a fast food napkin. I tore it into strips and twined it. Ah. Better. We almost always have a stash of napkins in the car, and the resulting twine is surprisingly robust, for a short stapled fiber stuck together with starch. So there we go, fidgets fidgeted with readily available materials.

I can no longer take things touching my neck. It started when my kids were little and I stopped wearing necklaces because being choked out by my baby was not on my to-do list. I tried wearing necklaces again when they were past the grabby stage, but could only tolerate light pieces or short sessions with heavier adornment. Then crew necks started bothering me. Sheesh.

In the heat of the Texas summer, many turn to cooling devices worn around the neck. I’ve tried, really, and after 5 minutes I simply can’t take it. I’d rather be hot than have the pressure on my carotid (or maybe it is the jugular, but nothing can brush the back of my neck either, so there we go.) So I took a “cooling” neck gaiter, cut it down, and resewed bits to fit my wrists. Wetting them down certainly produces a cooling effect, and having them arranged in wrinkles rather than folded increases the evaporation. We’ll see how they do for me this summer. If they do work, I need to make some in nicer colors!