DIY Rugs

Well, I've been accumulating a ton of old clothes that aren't even up to Goodwill's standards so my stash has been building downstairs of t-shirts, dress shirts, and jeans.  One prime spot for a rug would be for in Colby's room since the dog can't go in there the room stays much cleaner.  My favorite rug is this one from xoelle.com.  She cut all of her t-shirts into strips and then dyed them a dark gray.  I think I'd like to dye the shirts all different shades of blue, green, and gray so it gives the rug a watery appearance. Here's a few of the best ones I've seen.

Picture found here at xoelle.com

Lovely braids.  Found here at craftpassion.com

 

 

Loving the different colors, found here at creativejewishmom.com

I love these braided rugs-the colors are great.  Found here at moddish.blog.com

I'm not so into the pink but this website has good directions. 

Accessories for the Nursery

Well, this should be the last official post about baby room decor, until I actually get my tush in gear and make something.  I'm thinking making a baby lounger would be awesome, although it will probably just end up being a golden retriever bed.  Once I pick a color scheme and just go for it I think the room will come together. 

Good Old Martha, can you ever let us down?  Oh that's right you've been to prison.  Link here.

Cute little lounger with directions here.

What a cute little rug.  Link here. 

So cute, but Colby will pull these off once he can reach.  Link here.

To measure...here

DIY Card Wreath

Well, I realize it's a bit late, but I made another card wreath to hold all of our lovely Christmas cards from our friends.  This time I decided to make it a bit heftier with some burlap and ribbon.  I used two embroiderly hoops of different sizes and simply tied on strips of burlap and ribbon.  The clothespins just wiggle in between the pieces so they aren't glued on or fastened in anyway which makes it more versatile to fit whatever size of cards you receive.  Now that I have them all done I imagine the clothespins could be placed on the back of the wreath so they would be hidden even more-oh the possibilities.  Happy Crafting!

Mittens Made from Sweaters

Pic from Mossymossy.com and tutorial can be found here.

A few weeks ago I was at the dentist office waiting in the reception area for my appointment.  I over heard my dental assistant going chatting on and on with a woman patient about the mittens she makes out of old sweaters.  The gal was selling her mittens to the office employees and she mentioned how ticked she was that a gal from a church bought a pair, copied them, and then started the whole church making them for fundraising.  The only thought in my head was, "Man, I wish I could just get a glimpse of her mittens so I could make some too."  Well, I never did catch a glance, so I have to resort to the internet.  I found this great tutorial on Mossymossy.com which looks like a really fun blog to peruse through.  The directions look very clear to follow, but I just am waiting for an opportunity to run out to Goodwill and pick up some wool sweaters.  Good Luck if you make these.

Homemade Diapers

It's about that time again to make some more diapers.  I'm working on making a diaper stash for one of my friends I used to live with in college.  I'm finding it harder to do than I thought it would be because I'm more concerned about the diapers actually looking pretty and not just functional.  Of course we just visited back home this last weekend and I waited until the morning we were leaving to start making the diapers-then my machine stopped working so I ended up with 5 fitted diapers and 3 hour glass diapers.  I also am finding it challenging to know what type of diapers to make because I didn't know what kind I wanted until I tried a few different styles out with Colby.  For the diapers I used some recieving blankets I got at a rummage sale for a few cents, an old pair of flannel pants, and some cute fabric from JoAnn when they had flannel super cheap.  I used the pattern Wee Weka from here.  Colby out grew these diapers at about 4 months but they are soooo cute. 

DIY Card Wreath

I finally got around to making a wreath, I've had the components for a few weeks now so I'm relieved to have it finally done and crossed off my list.  Originally I was just going to make the wreath with one embroidery hoop but I thought it looked to skimpy and thin so I decided to add in a smaller hoop to make it actually look like a wreath.  I also had a terrible time with the bow, at first I tried to tie a regular bow with two big loops, but after searching google for tips and untying and tying it numerous times this is what I ended up with.  It was quite simple to make.

1.  Get two hoops of varying sizes.
2.  Using twine tie it to the top of the big hoop then weave it in and out of the little hoop.  The first wrap the twine was really spread out, just so I could get the little hoop positioned in the center.
3.  Continue around the hoops filling in the gaps until it looks pleasing to your eye.

4.  Tye a bow, or at least try to.

5.  Place clothespins in the twine.  I didn't use glue I just kind of got the clothespins tangled up so they can be repositioned depending on how many pictures/cards I have. 

6.  Enjoy.

Infant Sensory Wall

So I've been struggling with the feeling that I am some how failing as a mother and should be working harder to stimulate Colby's brain.  I suppose it is partially my fault since I read lots of parenting books and a brain enrichment book.  I know deep down that just the fact that I worry about him means that I am probably doing just fine.  I also have heard of a few people having their kids in Montessori preschools and day cares.  From what I can gather these basically just involve getting the kids involved outdoors, textures, tastes, and talking through your day with them.  I thought I would give my hand at stimulating his brain with sticky textures.  He seemed to like the wall and the dog also liked the challenge of pulling things off.  (I taped up contact paper sticky side up to the wall under a counter and then I taped some strips of clear tape on the other sheet.  Many different objects stick to these and I taped tape sticky side out onto a oatmeal lid and he was really perplexed by the lid getting stuck to his fingers)

Dehydrated Apples

Earlier this fall I picked a ton of apples off of my neighbor's tree.  He was just going to throw them out since there were way more than he wanted.  After some research we decided that most likely it was a yellow delicious variety and they were really clean.  There were some spots from Asian Beetles, but I didn't find any worms at all.  Well, after freezing 4 bags of sliced apples for future pies, 3 pies, and a crisp I needed to use up the apples without going into a diabetic coma, so I decided to make some dried apples.  I googled it of course and it was recommended to use a food dehydrator because it would be  more energy efficient, but I didn't have one so I used my oven.   It took me about 6 hours from start to finish and I devoured all the dried apples within 3 days.  Yum.  Here's how I did it:

 1.  This nifty contraption is a life saver.  It peels, cores and slices the apples all at once.  It looks like a torture machine but was a great present from my dad a few years ago.  So I sliced and peeled the apples then placed them in a bowl with lemon water to prevent browning.

2.  I placed them on cookies sheets and sprinkled them with cinnamon.  There were a lot of variations from putting jello on to sugar, but they are delicious just with cinnamon. 

3.  Then I put them in my oven set at 150 or so with the door open.  I revolved the pans of apples around the oven and flipped the apples about every half hour. 

4.  It took my apples probably about 3 hours to get fully dehydrated.  They are done when they are bendy like leather but don't have moisture beads in them when they are torn. I stored mine in a bowl and as I said they were gone within a few days-but they should keep for several months if stored in a sealed container in a dry, cool place. 

Painted Rugs

Shannonberrey.com

Along with my desire to paint my curtains, I've been considering painting a rug for Colby's room or the laundry room.  I've seen some pretty awesome ones, but it seems that they aren't very durable with dog claws.  Most I have seen are painted just using latex paint either free form or stenciling and then they sand down the paint so it softens up more.  Hopefully I can find a plain rug on sale at IKEA or Target soon.    Here are some of my inspirations:

The Chevron Stripes

http://www.thehouseofsmiths.com

  Gradients

Burkelodge.blogspot.com

Numbers

designsponge.com

Stamped Rug

http://myhandsmadeit.com

Homemade Message Board Using Old Frame

This past summer I went to a wonderful garage sale and everything was 2 for 25 cents, so officially I got this framed oil pastel artwork for twelve and a half cents.

 

To make the board I simply cut fabric  a bit bigger then the backing and then taped it to masking tape to the board.  

Then I put the glass back on and I think it looks pretty snazzy.  Now it can be written on with overhead markers or white board markers and just wiped off clean.  Just a touch fancier then a white board hanging on the wall.  

 

Homemade Laundry Soap

Yeah, yeah, I know these recipes have been circulating frequently and you can google and find a bazillion recipes that are basically the same.  I've tried out the liquid detergent and it seems to work out really well.  I've read mixed reviews on the safety of Borax and the environmental harms but I'm sure the impacts are far less than the ingredients in store bought detergent. The laundry comes out clean but without the fragrance (lingering chemicals) from regular detergent.  It dissolves well in warm water washes and if it doesn't dissolve well in cold water you can shake 1 tablespoon in a jar with warm water and then put in wash.  I've read that the dry detergent works great for HE Front loading machines because it prevents a lot of build up that can come from using liquids.  I found all the ingredients in the laundry isle of the grocery store. 

Recipe for Dry Detergent:
1 Cup of Washing Soda
1 Cup of Borax
1 Grated Bar of Felsnaptha Laundry soap or bath bar soap like Ivory or Lever 2000

Mix all ingredients and use 1 Tablespoon per load.

Diapering Advice for New Moms

Alrighty!  We have made it to almost 9 months of cloth diapering, which I guess makes me a  slight expert.  I was waiting for pictures to be developed at Walgreens and the cashier noticed Colby was wearing cloth and struck up a converstation with me about diapering.  She was happy to finally meet someone personally who uses cloth instead of just hearing about it on blogs.   Today one of my friends emailed me for advice on which type of cloth to use and the ins and out of cloth so I thought I would share my advice with all.  Sorry to bore you if you have no desire to use cloth diapers, don't have a baby, or just think it is plain gross.

DIAPERS:   Flannel diapers are quite easy and cheap to make.  I've made some that are just old t-shirts with towel inside.  they sound really back roads-but they work great and are pretty soft.  We're still on the cloth diaper train right now and he's been on solid foods for almost 3 months and it isn't too bad and it is actually a bit easier since they don't go all over the place like when he was just on milk-and he only goes like every 3-4 days so solids aren't bad at all and I just have a rubber spatula I keep in the bathroom in a cool whip container to scrape them off and then I use a Lysol wipe to clean the scraper.

 There are several routes you can go with cloth diapers and we are just doing flannel homemade ones with covers.  I use thirsties covers which you can order online at target or amazon.  I did buy two bumgenius diapers-these you stuff them and they snap up to different settings so you don't have to buy different sizes.  These are alright and the fleece liner wicks the moisture away better than flannel so you can leave them in wet diapers longer.  One of the mom gals I know uses softbums-they are a Minnesota based company and she apparently only uses 4 a day for her girl-they look pretty nice here's the website:  http://www.softbums.com/  If you want to go the expensive diaper route you will probably need 12-18 ish at 20 dollars a piece.  The cheap route is the diaper covers are 12 dollars a piece and the flannel diapers or they can be made out of t-shirts and towels which I have done as well-are practically free. 

24-30 Flannel Diapers or so (Colby is still a super pee-er so we have to change a lot of diapers)
4-5 small/medium diaper covers
4-5 Large ones
Diaper pail=cat litter bucket with lid-it keeps the stink in and it fits about all his diapers before I need to wash
Pins-we did pins at the beginning but now we just set them in the cover and velcro it up-seems to work well-so I wouldn't even bother with these
Wipes-you can use regular ones but I've done some flannel or baby wash clothes too-just in a tupperware with water and or baby wash and some baby oil-you can find lots of recipes online

Next time around I'm going to buy some flat birdseye or gauze ones from Target because they are super soft for the newborn butt and circumcision. 

Laundry is easy too-sometimes I do a soak in cold then a cycle in hot with extra spin and half the detergent-or I just run a cold cycle with detergent then run a full cycle in cold to get out all the suds.  Sometimes I throw in some vinegar in the wash too for an extra boost. 

Once A Month Cooking List for October

Here comes a big one.  I'm going to actually try to have all my meals prepared and planned for the whole month! (We usually have left overs on the big dishes to have the next day)  Should be a tasty month and the prep wasn't bad at all.  Basically most of the meats just marinate in a baggie and I put them in the freezer then the day before I want to eat the dish I put it in the fridge.  I try to just do steamed veggies, potato, rice or salad as sides so it doesn't get too hectic.  I only spent 125 for all the meals!
Here's the plan:
1.  Chicken Curry
2.  Sweet Soy Marinated Chicken
3.  Chili Burgers
4.  Pork Chops
5.  Chicken Tacos
6.  Chicken Nuggets
7.  Farmer's Casserole
8.  Green Chili Enchiladas
9. Chili
10.  Grilled Chicken
11. Corn Soup
12.  BBQ Chicken Pizza
13.  Eggs and Waffles
14.  Meat Loaf
15.  Potato Soup
16.  Pizza
17.  Tacos
18.  Spaghetti

Once a Month Cooking

I bought this cookbook because I needed to spend five more dollars to get free shipping so I ended up with this gem.  I had heard about once a month cooking and it perplexed me.  Would it save me time?  Money?  Energy?  I tried it last month and I don't think it saved any money or time.  I still had to use the oven or crock pot most days and instead of buying groceries once every week I did one big shop and still had to go back every week for lunch meat and milk.  What  I do enjoy about this method is the variety.  We commonly get in a rut of tacos, spaghetti, and grilled chicken so having new recipes to try out is thrilling in its own respect.  I was dissappointed in the quality of revisions of the cookbook.  Some recipes are vague and contradictory.  One calls for cooked cubed chicken in the ingredient list and then in the directions it says to cook it.  Here's our menu for two weeks that pretty much lasted a month for us.

Herbed Chicken:  Chicken with cream of mushroom soup baked in oven
Pot Roast:  Pot roast in crock pot
Chicken Nuggets:  Delicious!  Chicken strips dipped in bread crumbs
Playoff Burgers:  Burgers with cheese and onion
Farmer's Casserole:  Eggs, potatoes, ham, onion, and green pepper
Poppy Beef:  Strange but good.  Hamburger with linguine coated in cheese
Chicken Tacos:  Chicken mixed with taco seasoning in crock pot
Mexican Lasagna:  Chicken, beans, lasagna noodles baked
Corn Soup:  Tasty spicy corn soup

Homemade High Chair Cover

The high chair the most of our baby gear was second hand.  My husband's coworker graciously gave us a crib, high chair, and booster seat.  Unfortunately the chair was covered in cracking vinyl so I finally got around to refinishing it since we are using it a few times a day now. I had a bunch of PUL (water proof fabric) left over from my attempts to make diaper covers so I was set. 

 It was really a pretty simple job.  It was just one solid piece so I traced a front and back, cut it out, sewed it together and stuffed it with the padding from the old one.  I then did some decorative stitching to keep the foam padding in place and wallah, it was done. 

Candles out of Clementines-FALSE

I saw this idea on apartmenttherapy.com and it sounded sooooo cool:  Make a candle using a clementine and olive oil, awesome.  Reality-enjoy it for two seconds before it extinguishes itself.  The premise is you tear away the flesh of the fruit leaving the white part (pith) and then soak it in olive oil and it will light on up and smell great.  Reality-it won't stay lit for more than two seconds-but those will be two very aromatic seconds. 


Theirs:  Artistic 

Mine:  Burnt out