Kid art turned wall art

My kids LOVE to paint. anyting artistic and they are all about it. So when My 18 month old minion painted some masterpieces i figured we should put them to good use. He has a ABC animal room now that hes in a toddler bed and so i thought some new art would be good. So despite the mess (made minimal my putting the paper in a cookie sheet and using washable paint on a floor that can be easily wiped down - and of course an immediate bath ) we made some art. I used his pictures and then cut them into shapes to make flash card look alikes. he loves them, especially the kitty. i figure you can expand on this and make all sorts of things! Would love to hear what you come up with!!!!

Laundry Part Deux - dryer "sheets", detergent, and oxiclean

 

Ok I know its been awhile. Holidays and health issues and a crazy house thats my excuse. So first up I finally figured out a way to keep my laundry smelling great even with homemade laundry detergent. I dont typically have essential oils on hand so my laundry smells of wonderful nothingness. This is not a problem per se...but i sometimes miss the fresh smells. So I also don't ever really buy dryer sheets. Dryer sheets AND fabric softeners are both toxic and can have huge impacts on not only the environment but on the health of your family as well. Im not saying that I always buy the good stuff. Sometimes I am too broke and have to go cheap - however, if possible I would recommend a natural fabric softener like 7th generation or a similar type. Anyway back to the way Ive found to get fresh laundry! I took fabric softener and water (1:2 ratio) and put them in a container and added cut up sponges to it. When Im ready to do a load in the dryer I simply grab a small sponge and wring it out and toss it in with the clothes! Simple and cost effective!

The second part of this posting deals with detergent. AGAIN. Last time I made a liquid It was a mess and a disaster. Someone recently made me want to try it again and also I was given the advice to add a bottle of store bought for scent. It turned out great and the bottle of store bought that i added (I just bought whatever was cheapest for this experiment) actually improved the consistency a great deal as well. no complaint and its doing a good job. I don't think its really any different than using the powder but definitely a matter of personal choice....also this should be ok in HE washers as well since it is low suds.

Here is my recipe pretty much the same as my powder: Grate 2 bars of ivory soap and add it to 3 cups water. Boil stirring constantly until dissolved completely. Have a 5 gal bucket filled with 3 gallons of warm/hot water and add to that 1 cup borax and 1 cup washing soda. while mixing add soap mixture to bucket and continue mixing until thoroughly combined. Cover and let sit for 20-24 hours.

Waiting.....

 It will get a very gel-like once you uncover it. Use a long spoon (or in my case a broom handle) and mix it around breaking up the pieces some. 

At this point I added a bottle of store bought detergent and mixed it in. 

 use a funnel (I wouldn't recommend using an old cut up peroxide bottle haha!! It made another pretty big mess....sigh) to transfer the soap to different containers. I used cleaned out milk jugs and then also reused the detergent bottle also. Don't fill the bottles all the way as you will need to shake before each use.

It made about 5 gallons and It worked out perfectly because you use about 2/3cup for each load and the measuring cap on the Purex is almost right on so ill just use that to measure for each load.

OXYCLEAN...is way to expensive for me. so here you go. I got this from over at creatively domestic In a jar mix 1 cup water  1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide  1/2 cup baking soda. I doubled this in a large mason jar. Shake and then pour on stain and let sit for like 20 min. Worked well. enjoy!

6th Birthday Tea Party

 This is Minion 1. She told me that for her birthday this year she wanted to have a "unicorn tea party". I was stumped, really stumped. I mean, a tea party i can do. A unicorn party i can do. How the heck do i pull off hooking them together? Mind you, we have a thing in our house about parties. Every other year the kids get a big party rotated with a small sleepover party. This year was a small party after last years puppy party with 15 preschoolers in attendance (what was i thinking?). Anyhow I got a little inspiration in the form of a not so pretty yellow water pitcher with roses all over it. unfortunately i had craft vomit and didn't even think to take a before picture. This water pitcher was a lifesaver in so many ways i cant even explain. It not only gave me the inspiration for the party, but upon purchasing it at a garage sale for 50 cents, I met the nicest lady who gave me her number and helped to get minion 1 into a daisy girl scout troop! I had been trying unsuccessfully for over 5 months to get her in and in meeting this woman my baby was in a troop that week. Wow! What a lucky pitcher! Anyhow, I digress...heres the pitcher after i decoupaged it with random silver and and toile designed paper i had laying about.

 This is what I came up with and it turned out GREAT if i do say so myself! I started with the water pitcher and placed a "bouquet" of tree branches in it (one of them still had moss on it! YAY!!!) and then bought the pink Christmas ornaments from walmart for under 4$. Then i decided to add a runner, and since i don't have one i used plain pink wrapping paper down the center of the table and then placed doilies on it down the center. I used pink heart wrapping paper to kind of cover up my china and then strung her name up in doilies too.

 Chocolate covered strawberries were a must have so i made those. They were totally gone within the first 20 min of the party! I used a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and melted them with a tbsp of shortening in the microwave stirring every 5 seconds to prevent burning. then dipped the strawberries and chill. I accidentally froze a few resulting in a mushy mess...oops.

 And how did i tie in the unicorns you ask? Well if i were doing games we could do "pin the horn on the horse" or do a horn craft or something, but we werent doing any of that big stuff this year, so i just popped one on the cake.

 The cake turned out ok. Im not a fan of strawberry cake and thats what she asked for so the cake was just from a box but i jazzed it up a bit with food coloring and then made homemade cream cheese icing which turned out WONDERFUL! Heres the recipe:

• 4 oz unsalted butter (softened)
• 4 oz cream cheese (softened)
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• mix well with electric mixer until well blended. add food coloring

here's a little peek inside the cake...nom nom nom....

 As far as food goes, since the party was 5-8 with only 2 girls sleeping over i had to serve dinner. I made chicken salad for finger sandwiches (just boiled and shredded chicken and added a little mayo and halved red grapes) and turkey and cheese roll-ups (turkey lunch meat with american cheese rolled up in tortillas with a toothpick to hold it together). The roll-ups were GONE! I had to make more of them, but the chicken sandwiches (one of Minion 1s favorites) went pretty much untouched. Oh well.

 The rest of the spread was pretty simple- veggies and dip, ants on a log (with and w/out raisins), sliced apples (tossed in lemon juice to prevent browning) with caramel dip and they were all served pink lemonade.

It was a hit! The girls played twister as the ice breaker and then we headed outside with flashlights for a little flashlight tag and a game of "ghost in the graveyard" and a few others. Im pretty sure the girls all had a good time. Instead of traditional favors i made suger cookie pops with just a bagged mix for the cookies, Wilton lollipop sticks (like 2.50$ for 25 of them) and then powdered sugar icing (powdered suger and a tiny bit of milk) and popped them in some cello bags.

Other than food the whole thing was under 30$. The food we made sure was stuff we could eat leftovers of the following day or for snacks later so there was no waste. On another day i will have to write about the cake balls that i had attempted to make to go with this party.....here is a hint NEVER AGAIN!!!! Next time i am just buying doughnut holes and popping them on sticks hahaha!

Learning to crochet...

So ive had a few friends that know how to crochet quite proficiently. I have always wanted to learn. I asked to be taught but it seems that time always escaped us and now i live pretty far from most of them So thats when i though...Ill teach myself! Ok let me be honest here. I have been supposed to "teach myself" to play the acoustic guitar that has been sitting in my room for years. I have yet to try more than twice. Time always escapes me. Im also Pretty good at doing alot of things, but I am yet to find something that I am really good at. Well my friends, i think i may have found my nitch! I am just learning and im pretty good at it if i do say so myself :) So i started off by buying a kit at wal-mart called "I taught myself to crochet" It helped with the basics. I learned how to hold the string, how to do a chain, single and double crochet. I made my first few blankets....they looked awful. I guess i didnt quite understand. I never really have the money to go out and just buy stuff to mess around and see if i can do something. It doesnt work like that when you are living on one income. two years ago on my wonderful sister in law gave me an amazon gift card. YAY!!! I bought the Crochet "For Dummies" book. and have been slowly going through it over that time and made some junk and now am starting to really get the hang of it. I skipped the first few chapters since i knew some of the basics already. But it worked out great, even now if i come to something i dont understand or remember i can refer back to previous chapters. Ive never used a "For Dummies" book, but they way it is set up is so easy and user friendly that i will definitely be using them again if the need or desire arises. So now without further ado, I have made a few things that are actually worthy of use!I have also taught myself amigurumi!I made a frog... For a first try i think its pretty good! Also below is a scarf i made using every stitch i know.

Don't Throw it Away!!!!!

Heres two great ways to recycle, One is an old standby for me, the other i just started doing the other day when i realized the area under my sink is a disaster.

Would you throw this away? You used the butter, now what?


Dont trash it, i flatten them out, put them in a freezer zip-lock and pop them in the freezer. Next time im baking and i need to grease up a cookie sheet or casserole dish, i pull one out and rub it on! Works great. Only then do the butter wrappers make their way to the garbage can in my house.

Next up, New use for Paper towel rolls. I always threw these out unless we were making binoculars or some other project for the kids. The other day I was grabbing a plastic bag from under the sink for doggie duty and i realized it was probably the messiest place in my house under there! The reason was all the plastic bags that i cant bring myself to throw away....they had taken over!!!! SO i decided something had to be done. shoving them inside each other just isnt working for me anymore. I feel like I read this somewhere or saw someone else do it, and i wish i could give credit where credit is due but i have no idea where i found this or whether it was just luck that i happened to look around the kitch and see the empty paper towel roll. I shoved all the plasic bags i could inside and have been collecting them and doing the same everytime the roll is empty. Soon i will have a nice neat stack of rolls of plasic bags. So easy to just reach in and pull one out!

Crayon Rocks

I did this project the first time with The big minion when she was about 3. Its one that you really have to judge your childs direction following skills before doing since it involes an oven and a hot cookie sheet. Basically you melt the crayons onto a hot rock. Stands up to the elements pretty nicely so we put them in the garden. My Iz USED to be a great listener HA! but in all seriousness, she is now almost 6 and still remembers doing this when she was little. We had a blast with this the other day :)

First you need to find some large rocks, which can be an adventure all on its own. We have a "nature bucket"  that we keep stocked outside with all sorts of treasure that  we find on our nature walks and such. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with foil. Place the rocks on the cookie sheet and pop them in the oven. for younger kids just a few minutes to heat it up should suffice, but we put it in for about 30 min (i may have forgotten about them for a bit..oops, oh well!). While they are heating up pick out some colors of crayone to use. I like to use old crayons we have stored in an empty coffee container. Peel back the paper off the crayons  Once the rocks come out of the oven they will be very hot. make sure to take caution that the kids avoid touching the rock or cookie sheet. If you want you can put dish old dish towels over the cookie sheet but keep in mind they may get ruined. Then you simply melt the crayons onto the hot rock by touching them to it. Its super easy and alot of fun if you keep safety in mind. Our rock was so hot that the crayon actually bubbled in some spots. It turned out beautifully.  Let cool completely before picking up.

Homemade Doggie Biscuits

Ingredients 

1 cup rolled oats or oatmeal
1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup cornmeal
3 teaspoons white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
1/2 cup milk
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 egg, beaten
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup butter or margarine
Flour for rolling out dough 

Preheat oven to 325. Stir together oats, margarine, and boiling water. Let stand 10 minutes. Grease cookie sheet. Add cornmeal, sugar, bouillon, milk, Cheddar cheese, and egg, and stir by hand with a spoon (do NOT use an electric mixer as it will become very thick and actually fried my mixer). Gradually mix in flour, 1 cup at a time, until a stiff dough has formed. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface adding flour until a thick dough is formed and it isn't sticky.  Roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutter and place 1 inch apart on cookie sheets. Bake around 45 minutes in oven, until golden brown. Cool before serving. Store in a loosely covered container. after they harden up more you can put them in pretty much any container. They store very well and the minion had a BLAST making them with me  :)

Stinky Laundry

So lately i have been CRAZY cleaning my house. Its been a complete disaster with school starting, a thousabd and one doctor appts(long story) and just general family life plus me slacking off for a day (or week) here and there. I have scrubbed walls (water and borax) and bleached every hard surface in the house. scrubber behind toilets, cleaned out drawers (pencil baskets/utensil holders make great organizers - read:dollar store) And a bunch of other stuff. my downstairs is sparkling. I dont want to talk about the upstairs. On another good note Ive been getting rid of alot if stuff and selling it on craigslist and some local sales sites on facebook. Its been really great and ive been using the money i make to buy other things off the site that i want or need. Let me be completely honest...its how i bought my daughters back to school clothes. With me not working at the moment theres not alot of spare money lying around to buy brand new clothes, or other desires, so i have gotten very creative. I keep saying i will blog about how i coupon, and i still intend to. ive just been very busy and have decided to blog during JackJack nap time when i can. But i digress.... Occasionally lately i have noticed a strange smell popping up here and there. Im a clean freak so its really been bothering me. When i smell it i go around trying to figure out what it is sniffing like a crazy cop dog that smells crack. its bad. Well I recently figured out where the smell was coming from....random pieces of my families CLEAN laundry. In particular my husbands work shirts at the end of the day, a pair of baby pajamas, a blanket, and a pair of my jeans. Its bad. Well after a million and one washes i figured it out. My washing machine is dirty. I cant explain why somethings dont get clean and others do, but after cleaning the thing out it seems to have totally solved the problem. I have never really done a big clean on my washer. I always wipe it down with bleach when im running a load of whites, but thats about it. Well i found this tutorial over at Somewhat Simple and i would like to share it. seemed easy enough and her pictures speak for themselves. check it out! How to clean a washer. It worked for me :)

Cinnamon Raisin Bread from scratch.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup warm water
2 packets active dry yeast
3 eggs
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup margarine (softened)
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 - 2 cup raisins (to your liking)
about 8 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup white cinnamon sugar
2 tablespoons butter (melted)

Heat milk in a small saucepan just until it begins to foam over and bubble. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Dissolve both packets of yeast in the warm water, and set aside until it gets foamy. Mix together eggs, sugar, butter or margarine, salt, and raisins. Mix in the yeast and water. Stir in the room temperature milk. Add the flour gradually until it forms a stiff dough the amount needed will changed based on weather, humidity etc. If you have a mixer with bread hooks it will be enough flour when the dough "chases" the hooks. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes and then place the dough in a large pre-greased mixing bowl turning the dough to grease the entire surface. Cover the dough with a damp cloth. Set aside and allow to rise until doubled. using a rolling pin o n a generously floured surface, roll the dough into a large rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Moisten dough with the 2 tablespoons milk (I like to use a brush to do so). Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture and raisins on top of the moistened dough. Roll the dough up as tightly as you can, Cut into thirds, and tuck the ends under the loaves. Place each loaf into greased 9 x 5 inch pans. Lightly grease tops of loaves as well. Cover and let rise again for 1 hour. Bake at 350 degrees  for about 40-45 minutes. Loaves will be slightly browned and sound hollow when knocked if they are done. Remove from pans and brush with melted butter and enjoy! yummy!

Who says you need alot of cupcakes?

OH WOW these were delicious. I only really needed one cupcake for a photo shoot that my son was doing for his first birthday. looked all over the internet for small batch recipes...ehhh ill just whip up something myself. To my great surprise THEY ROCK! these cupcakes stand alone and dont really need any icing....not that i would ever let a cupcake go un-iced....but anyhow....The recipe makes just enough for 6 flat-topped cupcakes.

Ingredients :

2/3 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
5 tbsp. butter, softened
1/3 c. sugar
1 egg

Honestly i just mixed it all together except the egg. Beat it really well by hand and then mixed in the egg last. Put into paper lined cups and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees and voila! Decorate as desired!

Homemade Fabric Freshener!!!!

This is gonna be a quick post. Im in the middle of trying to do my morning housework while the baby is asleep (sort of) and getting ready for an appointment later. So this is an EMERGENCY post as my neighbor had a smelly cat issue this morning, and it sounds as though Febreeze would be a big help :) I have seen a ton of recipes for Febreeze online, but Im shying away from any that involve vinegar. I didnt mind it on my floor as I posted yesterday, but on my couch??? Not so much. I messed around with some ratios and this is my favorite concentration. not to strong but definately fresh! Seriously This recipe works, I love it! My house smells like clean lavender scented laundry. My favorite!

My Fabric Freshener Recipe - 1 part scented fabric softener to 2 parts water

Thats it. simple. I will NEVER but commercial fabric freshener again. I buy the cheap fabric softener in lavendar scent and It worked just fine. Put it all in a spray bottle, shake and spray a mist onto fabric and sniff!

Homemade Household Cleaners

Ok, so I have been trying so different household cleaners for awhile now. a few I use on a regular basis, and a few I am trying for the first time. I'll start off with the things that I use on a regular basis.

Rubbing Alcohol - I LOVE to use rubbing alcohol to shine my metal sink, faucets and other metal items throughout the house. It sterilizes and evaporates immediately leaving a great shine. Simply put it on a soft washcloth (i use a baby cloth) and wipe the area to a shine.

Wood cleaner- mix 1 part oil (olive or even vegetable) to 1 part lemon juice in spray bottle. Shake well before use. Spray onto  soft cloth and rub onto wood surface. Cleans and shines.

Counters- I still just mix bleach and water. Let sit wet for 5 min and wipe off with wet cloth. Nice and clean.


Walls/cabinets/basebords- I just mix borax and water and wipe the area down. Works wonders.

waterspots on wood - toothpaste! let it dry and wipe it off.

I just tried these for the first time...

Floor cleaner. I usually just mix bleach and water and go to town. Mop & Glow if I need a shine. My husband is sick of the bleach smell and so I was serching for something else. I have a hardwood laminate floor in my house and I tried two types Borax and then vinegar lemon. let me tell you one thing before you read on. I HATE VINEGAR SMELL!! with passion. It makes me think of coloring easter eggs or eating fair fries...not something I want my house smelling like, but i tried it anyways...

Borax cleaner - 1 cup Borax to about a gallon of water. Mop as usual. I didnt like this one. I felt it left my floor very very splotchy. You could actually see the mop streaks on the floor. Not a fan and I wont be using this...

Vinegar Lemon- 1 cup white vinegar, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 1 tbsp dish soap. Mix in about a gallon or so of water. Mop as usual. I was actually pleasantly surprised. It did smell of vinegar, but the lemon covered alot of the smell and once it dried it wasn't noticeable at all. It cleaned very well. Left a pretty decent shine to the floor also. Dried quickly. I can't believe im saying this as much as I am against using vinegar in cleaning, and as much as the smell offends me.... but I have now used this more than once. I will probably continue to use it also.....

Dishwasher detergent

1 cup borax, 1 cup washing soda, 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup citric acid.
OR
sub the citric acid with 8 packets of unsweetened lemonade (kool-aid or off brand)
Use white vinegar as the rinse agent

Citric acid costs entirely too much so I followed the second recipe. works well enough. Some spots on my glasses, but I have that even with the expensive stuff so no difference in quality as far as I can see. Now mind you that my dishwasher sucks so if yours is a good dishwasher and you try this let me know how you like it.
 
Anyone else have any good tips for cleaning? I'd love to hear you share!!!! The cheaper the better. Ha!

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Ok, I came across this recipe for the first time in a cookbook I checked out from the library called Family Meals. There are plenty of variations online, including this exact recipe. I thought it was a really neat cookbook with unusual things that I hadnt even thought of. Its also the book where I got one of the recipes for marshmallows that I will be doing later this week
The ricotta turned out great. I wasn't sure it had actually worked until I was pretty much done with it. It is going to be used in a 3-cheese ziti that was adapted from a recipe my best friend Christy gave me. I'll post that recipe too, maybe tomorrow?

Ingredients

1 gallon whole milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp distilled white vinegar
1 tsp kosher salt


tools needed

1 large nonreactive pot (meaning no copper or aluminum)
instant read thermometer
silicone spatula
colondar
cheesecloth (muslin)
large bowl
slotted spoon
storage container


Pour the milk and cream into the pot over med-high heat. Stir with spatula to keep from burning. Check temperature frequently and heat to just before the milk boils to a temperature just shy or 185 degrees.
Remove from heat and add vinegar. stir for 30 seconds, during which the milk with form curds. Add salt and stir another 30 seconds. Cover the pot with a dish towel and let stand at room temp for 2 hours. After the 2 hours have past place the cheesecloth in the colander and place it over the bowl. Using the slotted spoon transfer the curds to the colander. Allow to drain for 30 min. Gather the cheesecloth and twist to drain out the rest of the liquid. When the water that is draining turns to a milky color and the cheese starts to come through the cloth then it has been sufficiently drained. Remove the cheese from the cloth and store in airtight container in fridge. Use within one week.

Check temperature frequently. Remove from heat just before 185 degrees.

Curds will form quickly after adding the vinegar.

Make sure to store in airtight container.

Homemade Butter

I was actually giggling when I made this...seriously. For some reason I thought It was really really neat to watch it actually separate and form butter. My husband is pretty sure that I have lost my mind...
Anyhow this was really easy and it tastes like....butter!!!!

Ingredients

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 tsp salt (more or less to taste)

Pour whipping cream into a blender or food processor. Blend for 10 min. Make sure as the cream becomes more thick that it keeps blending. I dont have a food processor so i had to keep pushing mine down into the blender to ensure it kept moving. After about 10 min you will notice that the cream has begun to curd and separate into butter and buttermilk. drain off buttermilk into a cup and place the butter into a separate container. Use a spatula to press down on the butter to squeeze out the remaining buttermilk into the separate cup. Add salt to butter to taste.  Refrigerate. Retain buttermilk for pancakes, or other recipes :)  Too easy!