Fall Fun Craft!

My friend's blog, "...from under His feathers..." had this tutorial and I LOVED the idea so I decided I would let Luke do it!  The original post is here. You should stop by and check out her blog.

I had slightly different resources at my disposal so I will make my own tutorial below.  You can choose which tutorial you would like to use based on the supplies you have on hand.  We had so much fun making these and I hope you do too!  Thank you Brooke for this wonderful idea!  This cost me nothing but time as I had all these supplies on hand.

First you start with the basics.  I had some pint and half pint canning jars.  You can use any glass jars you have on hand:

I had Blue, Red, Yellow and Green paint:

I wanted to make an orange.  I know that yellow and red make orange.  Armed with that knowledge, I set about mixing the two for my desired pumpkin orange tint:

Then we wanted to see what color we could make if we combined ALL the colors together.  This is what we got.  It's a dark purple:

I had some random tea lights on hand:

I had just the basic thin masking tape and some kitchen scissors:

I cut out some faces with the masking tape and put them on the jars.  Brooke says to be sure to rub the masking tape on really well so the paint wont seep under the tape (my masking tape is the cheapest stuff you can buy from the dollar store so paint seeped under ours as you will see in later pictures):

I had Luke paint the jars (over the masking tape faces):

We waited for them to dry and then removed the masking tape.  Voila!!!:

So very cheap, easy and fun!!

You can laugh if you want...I don't mind.

I just got finished ironing (yes, I said ironing) 55 pieces of gift wrapping tissue paper.  "Why?", you ask...well, at my baby shower, I made mention of all the gift bags and tissue paper there were.  Our generation is just not into wrapping packages with wrapping paper.

I have been saving bags for a couple of years now to reuse as those puppies are EXPENSIVE!  I thought to myself at my shower, "I wonder how big of a deal it would be to reuse tissue paper?".  My friend Autumn told me that her mother irons the tissue paper to reuse.  What a great idea!!

Now, a couple of months ago, this thought would never have crossed my mind.  I too would be laughing at me.  But now, with the cost of food going crazy and gas prices estimated to be at or near $5.00 per gallon by summer...we ALL need to cut costs where we can.  Every dollar counts when a family is existing on one income and when that family is soon to be expanding!!

So, here is the low down.  It took me a little over an hour to iron 55 pieces of tissue paper.  It would have not taken me as long had I got the idea to fold the tissue in HALF earlier in the process.  DUH!

Anyhoo...at Target, the little packages of colored tissue paper are about $1.99 for 6-8 sheets.  So I figure (at the rate of 8 sheets = $1.99) I saved myself at least $13.69 (plus tax) on tissue paper.  Crazy huh!  AND I have an assortment of colors!  There were a total of 10 colors of tissue paper.

The big question is...would I do it again?  You betcha!!  I would probably not iron a couple tissues at a time, I would save them up so I have a large amount to iron again.  It always seems to save time when you do a repetitive task on a large quantity all at one time as opposed to doing it in small batches.

So like I said, you can laugh if you want to...I don't mind!!  : )

Make your own canned beef stew!

Darren and I borrowed a pressure cooker/canner last summer from our friend Mindy to do our canning as we had never done it before and wanted to get a feel for what we were doing before investing of one of our own.  Darren bought us a canner just a few days ago and we just HAD to use it.

We didn't have any veggies to can since it's not summer, but we found a recipe for canned beef stew that was super simple and CHEAP!  It will help to have some of these pre-made meals after the baby is born, so we decided to give it a try.

The recipe was simple:

potatoes
carrots
onions
garlic
celery
roast
thyme
salt
pepper
boiling water

You should take a look at some commercial canned beef soup/stew next time you are at the grocery store.  Most of the ingredients on the label, I cannot even pronounce!

You don't even have to cook the veggies since this whole concoction will "process" in the canner for 90 minutes.  We cut up all the veggies and meat, browned the meat.  Poured hot water over all of it.  Put it in some Quart Mason jars and then put them in our canner to do the rest.  90 minutes later we had 7 quarts of DELICIOUS beef stew all canned and ready for post-baby days!!

We did the math and even using Tri-Tip roast, the meals worked out to only $4.00 per quart/meal!  One quart feeds all three of us with leftovers!

Cheap, quick, fun project to work on together and good for us.  It doesn't get much better than that!!

Back to basics: Cleaning supplies

As most of you are aware, I am very active in ridding my house of as many toxins as possible.  In this day and age, this quest is proving to be daunting to say the least, but a quest worth endeavoring upon.  One of the ways I have chosen to prevent my house from becoming a dangerous toxic waste dump is to thin out my cleaning supplies.

Not only do I believe it is good for safety, (as most of the cleaning supplies I use are benign and would not harm my son if he were to ingest them) I also believe it is health promoting to limit the use of toxic chemicals as much as possible in day to day cleaning.  

Much of the toxins we have in our bodies have been absorbed by our skin by simply touching surfaces, believe it or not.  When you wipe off that Windex or Comet, it does not magically disappear.  It is still on the surface and being abosorbed by your (or your children's) body upon contact.  Scary...

Below is a list of cleaning supplies I keep on hand for day to day use:

Borax

Washing Soda (baking soda that has not been finely processed for consumption)

White Vinegar

Lemon juice

Olive Oil

Castille Soap

Tea Tree oil

I use a mixture of 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar to clean most kitchen and dining room surfaces and appliances (including the floor) as well as clean my windows, mirrors and other glass surfaces.

For a "disinfectant" cleaning for the bathroom surfaces and kitchen surfaces when needed, I use a combination of water, castille soap and tea tree oil.  This also cleans polished brass and blinds or shutters.

For dusting my wood furniture I use olive oil I have scented with lemon essential oil (the essential oil is not necessary, it just makes it smell good).

For my bathtub, shower, kitchen and bathroom sinks, to shine my stainless steel pots and pans and to rid my coffee cups of stains I use Borax and/or washing soda.  

For laundry detergent, a mixture of a shredded bar of Fels Naptha soap, water and Borax can be used.  This will make about 5 gallons of laundry detergent for under $3.00.

Borax can also be substituted for 1/2 of your laundry detergent to minimize cost.

I use white vinegar in the rinse cycle of my washing machine for fabric softener.  No, my clothes do not smell like vinegar, the smell dissipates once your clothes are dry.  : P

It is not to be said that I do not use harsh chemicals on rare occasions.  When we moved into this house it needed some SERIOUS scrubbing attention and we found ourselves resorting to the more harsh cleansers.  However, once we dropped the chemical bomb (this statement used in jest) on our home to 'deep clean' we have maintained as much as possible the non-toxic cleaning route.

It's not only safer and healthier, it is also MUCH cheaper than purchasing the other cleaners and I can use one cleaner for multiple things.

It's not for everyone, I know.  But you could always pick one and give it a try.  In my opinion...it is worth the peace of mind to know that if my son got into my cleaning cabinet, a trip to the emergency room would not be necessary.

Do you have any additional suggestions?  I hope you have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!!!

Line drying for the modern woman

In the Spring and Summer (and for as long as I can in the Fall) I like to line dry my clothes. I do this for a couple of different reasons:
1. It's saves money in electricity both by not running the dryer much (or at all) and by not heating up the house whilst running my dryer so I don't have to run the air conditioner as often.
2. I like to do things "old school".
3. It is surprisingly efficient.
4. For those of you like me who iron some clothes still...an article of clothing which has been line dried has a texture to it much like it has been starched. This makes for a crisp, clean, just ironed look.
5. Line dried towels are much more absorbent!
6. I just LIKE IT!

I know, I know. You are already laughing at me and rolling your eyes. Well, be that as it may...I have a few tips for those of you who may be woman enough to give it a try one day.

Tips:
1. Don't hang your shirts by the shoulders. It leaves a bump and looks funny. Always hang shirts by the shirt tails, one clothespin on each side.
2. Be sure to wipe down the line before you hang your clothes. Dust piles up on the line and will transfer to your newly cleaned clothes. NOT fun!
3. If you want to "cheat" a little and cut down on the ironing, you can put the clothes from the washer into the dryer for about 3 minutes THEN hang them to finish drying. This will help smooth them out and limit or even eliminate the wrinkles.
4. If you have more than one line (which I do not), hang your unmentionables in the middle surrounded by your shirts, pants, towels or sheets. That way no one has to gawk at your tidy (or not so) whites! LOL!
5. You can use white vinegar (or nothing at all) instead of costly fabric softener because line dried clothes create little to no static!!
6. If you hang your clothes in an area where it gets lots of direct sunlight, you may want to hang your dark clothes inside-out to prevent fading.

Ok, well now that you have read my blog about the lost art of line drying clothes perhaps you will give it a try. If not, feel free to laugh at me, shake your head and wonder what in the world is wrong with me. I don't mind!! : )