Daisies and More

Taking on the Meal Planning monster... again

2011-01-14T19:10:00.000-05:00

Meal Planning is my nemesis. It has been since long before we even had kids. Somehow I thought being a stay-at-home mom would magically make it easier. It didn't. I've tried about 8 million times in the past to do a better job of meal planning, and have yet to stick with it. However, to take Edison's view, I haven't failed, I've just found a thousand ways that don't work, right?

Part of my goal of being an organized family means meal planning, so I am taking on the meal planning monster one more time, and I swear this is going to be our last match. I will take him down, take him down to Chinatown. :)

I am only planning dinners. Breakfast & lunch is pretty easy here, so I am not planning those. I've tried using Meals Matter in the past, but really having the plan on paper on the front of my fridge seems to work as well as anything. I found this pad in the dollar bins at Michael's a while back, so I grabbed two.

They have a magnetic back and hang on the fridge. I wrote my list on the side, but I re-wrote it on another piece to take it to the store, because I didn't want to rip off and lose my meal plan.

Here is this week's plan. We're on Friday and so far it's been great. I had to make one modification on Wed, but it still came off great.

Monday - Kid's eat free & $5.99 burger night at our local Champp's restaurant. They're changing the deal at the end of this month, so I figured we'd better take advantage of it while we can. Can't beat feeding a family of 4 for $17 including tip!

Tuesday - Cajun Seafood Pasta - this is mostly for my husband, as I have a seafood allergy. The girls and I just eat regular old spaghetti and Mark takes the leftovers to work for a couple of days. One time one of his friends asked him what restaurant he went to the night before when he saw the leftovers for this. I felt proud. You could easily sub all shrimp in the recipe, or even all chicken. I do modify the directions and cook the seafood first vs. in the sauce. You'd definitely want to do this if you use chicken. I also add sauteed mushrooms, because in my book, everything is better with mushrooms. :)

Wednesday - BBQ bone-in chicken leg quarters & mashed potatoes.

Thursday - Chicken Tortilla Soup - even the girls at it! I love that Kate is finally eating soup!

Tonight - Bacon & Ham Quiche - I modified Paula Deen's Spinach & Bacon Quiche recipe, as I didn't have spinach, and couldn't bring myself to use a cup and a half of heavy cream. I used 1 c fat-free half and half, and 1/2 c skim milk. And I used a homemade pastry crust with part whole wheat pastry flour.

Snow Day...

2011-01-12T07:30:00.013-05:00

We had a snow day yesterday. The kids begged all morning to go out and play in it. I really dislike taking the girls out to play in the snow, because Claire is too young to go out on her own and usually it takes at least 15 minutes to get them all ready to go out and then they only want to be out for 20 minutes. But I sucked it up and took them out after lunch. The lasted almost 45 minutes, and we definitely had lots of fun. Nothing like a snowball "fight" with an almost 3 year old. Here are a few highlights...

Claire refused to go down the slide so she just cleaned everything off.

Close up of Kate before making her snow angel

"The biggest snow angel ever, Mom!"

Claire just "hanging out" on the swingset

Kate after making a huge pile of snow for all her snowballs.

Claire chasing me with a snowball - "I'm dunna det you Mama!"

The Official Household Disney Countdown

2011-01-11T11:05:00.002-05:00

The Louagie Household Official Disney Countdown has begun. We are leaving 1 month from today (we check in 2 days before Claire turns 3, which makes her still FREE! Yay!), and to avoid the continual "How long until Disney?" questions, we made a paper chain to count down. We leave in the evening, so I put on 32 links, so the day they tear up the last one is the day we leave (since we're leaving in the evening). Plus, I used up some old scrapbook paper that was kicking around the basement. As the chain shrinks, I'll move it down the wall (though both girls would probably love to climb up to the ceiling to get to the links). Thanks to my friend Jennifer for the idea!

Blog, Take 2 (or 3)

2011-01-08T21:19:00.000-05:00

So... I am going to attempt to start this blog afresh. I have set some goals for 2011 (I dislike using the term "resolutions"), and I am going to attempt to document my progress towards those goals here on the blog. The goals are:

1) An organized home and family life

2) Efficient and effective time management

3) Become better at saying no (ties in to the time management goal above, but I feel it needs to be stated on it's own, because there is more to it than just time management)

4) Be an excellent steward of our family's money - beyond eliminating debt, this means saving when possible, but also spending when it makes sense.

I'm going to attempt to document the steps I'm taking and the progress I'm making in these areas here.

Here's my first bit of progress:

Our coat closet. It is quite small and in addition to housing our coats it is basically the only possible place to store our vacuum and carpet steam cleaner on the first floor. Before today, all of our mittens/hats/gloves/umbrellas/etc were all housed in one small bin on the shelf above the coats. It was severely overstuffed and on Friday Kate's gloves fell out literally 5 times in a row when I tried to put them back in (after they fell out the first time when I was trying to get Claire's gloves out for preschool). Here is my solution, which proves that I can have the occasional moment of organizational brilliance. I'm sure plenty of other people have thought of this idea, but I was rather pleased with myself for coming up with this entirely on my own, if I do say so myself.

I bought the shoe organizer at Big Lots for $8, which included hooks. I had a choice of this apple green color, aqua or purple. Since our living room is earth tones (olive, brown, yellow-cream & white), this seemed to be the best of the colors I had to work with. I love it because the girls can reach it and can now get their own items out, and also put them away.

Craziness

2010-08-11T23:52:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I haven't written in 3 months. Wow. This summer has been CRAZY, but at the same time it doesn't seem like we've done much! Let me see if I can sum up our last 3 months... trips to the waterpark at Kings Island, speech therapy for Claire (she has made AMAZING progress this summer), VBS, a family reunion, summer ballet class, soccer practices ending and then starting again for the fall, and preparations for both girls to start school. In less than 3 weeks, Kate will start Kindergarten (how in the heck is that happening?!?!) and Claire will start preschool! I am not one to lament the passing of time, but somehow realizing that both my girls will be in school this year and that Kate starts riding the bus does make me nostalgic. At church, Kate moved up to the Kindergarten "class" in early June, and somehow the realization that I'm now the parent of an elementary aged child makes me feel old.

Claire has been taking weekly private speech therapy this summer and has been making amazing progress. She is now linking up to 5 words together (with some prompting), using 2-3 words consistently with no prompting, and is articulating much more clearly. The past two weeks at speech, she's even said "cake" and "cook" instead of "take" and "took". She has been able to get the K sound on the ends of words for a while, but the beginning has been a challenge. Miss Susan is a miracle worker, however, and we're now getting Ks on the front of the words, at least some of the time.

Kate took a 2 week summer dance sampler and has discovered tap. She loves it. She's taking a ballet/tap combo class this year (during Claire's preschool on Tues mornings, so I will have approx 1 hour to grocery shop in peace every week during Kate's class. I am more excited about this than Kate is about dance class, I think!). She's also playing SAY soccer again this fall. This is the first season Mark has not helped coach her team. I may have to force him to go back to coaching after this. I'm kidding. Kind of. Her coach is coaching 3 teams in 2 leagues this fall and practice times have been a nightmare. However, Kate's playing on the same team as one of the girls from her preschool class last year, so that's fun.

I'll sign off with a few pictures from our family reunion last month. By most people's standards, it would hardly count as a family reunion (there were only 19 people at it, and that includes all he cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas & grandpas and even my great aunt!), but we get together every summer with my mom's family and it's so much fun.

Kate & Max checking out Alex's DS... they were enthralled.

Kate showing off her slip n slide skills

Love this photo of Kate - I crouched right at the end of the slide and snapped it at eye level.

More mad slip n' slide skills...

My cousin Michael getting in on the action. He's about 6'4". It was hilarious.

Nice expression, Alex. :)

Claire's version of the slip n' slide consisted of her crawling the length of the slide.

Claire's dismount

Alex torturing his sister Maggie

These girls walked down the path to the community park in my aunt's backyard. All conversation stopped for a good 3 minutes while we gawked at their outfits in disbelief. This was taken in 2010, not 1986. But were it not for me telling you, you'd never have known that.

Alex getting crazy with the younger cousins....

The weekend's activities

2010-05-20T09:10:00.000-04:00

This weekend was rather busy for Kate. Saturday morning she had a soccer game, which Grandma and Grandpa Louagie came down to see. She was super excited, and she scored her 4th goal of the season. There was much rejoicing. There are a couple of kids on her team (on in particular) who probably score 4 goals per game, but while Kate tries hard, she's not quite as fast or aggressive as a couple of the other kids.

Kate really seems to like soccer, so I'm often torn on what to do. Around here in Cincinnati, you kind of have to commit to soccer early (like now for Kate) if you want to play in high school. I always think I would have been pretty good at soccer had my parents started me playing early. I grew up in Cleveland and it's just like Cincinnati - you have to start soccer early. My parents were both from rural Illinois and soccer never crossed their radar when I was little. No blame, just curiosity of what might have been, I guess.

This is Kate's 2nd year playing (spring only), and the second year that she's had the same coaches - her friend's dad is head coach and Mark is assistant coach. I love it because I don't have to hang out at practice the whole time since Mark is there anyway! But I have a feeling this is the end of Mark's coaching career, should Kate move on.

What I did do for many years growing up was dance. I started at about 7 or 8 and danced all the way until I graduated. I LOVED it. Now, God did not grant me a professional dancer's body. I'm way to, um, top heavy. But I still enjoy dancing pretty much any way I can. And of course I married a man who doesn't dance. Go figure.

We enrolled Kate in a ballet/jazz combo class this year. It was her first dance experience and she loved it. The studio is run by a woman who used to volunteer in the kids ministry at our church, so I loved supporting someone I know. It's a "ballet-focused" studio - all dancers are required to take a ballet class, which I kind of like. I think ballet is the backbone of good dancing.

This Sunday was Kate's "recital". At her studio the youngest 2 levels don't participate in the large on-stage recital. It's actually rather nice since the recital would be quite long for them to sit through and some kids (not Kate, I'm sure, Ms. Shy-as-a-Mac-Truck) might freeze up on stage. They have several "mini-recitals" at the studio and 2-3 classes perform their dances for the parents. It was CROWDED, but fun. The only bummer was buying a $60 cheaply made costume for a recital at the studio. Apparently some parents get upset if they can't pay $60 for a terribly made costume for their child (I'd love to know who they are so I can smack some sense into them). I really wish they could have just had a simple skirt to go over their leotard or something that was more affordable.

Next year Kate is going to try a Ballet/Tap combo - can't wait for "tappy shoes" all over the kitchen for the first couple of weeks...

Gatlinburg Retreat

2010-05-10T12:36:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, we went on a retreat with other leaders from our church to Gatlinburg. We LOVE our church - Four Corners Church - and this was a really fun weekend. I lead the early childhood area of our kids ministry, and this was an opportunity for people to just hang out and relax and get to know each other better. We stayed in a 14 bedroom cabin on the side of a hill, with the steepest driveway known to man - we have a manual transmission and the first time made the mistake of stopping at the bottom of the drive. I kid you not it took us 3 attempts to get up the bottom part of the driveway and you could smell our clutch for at least a day afterwards. Wow.

The other fun part to the trip is that on the 13th, Mark and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary. We spent our honeymoon in Gatlinburg, and so coming back for the first time almost 10 years to the day with the family was pretty fun, and a reminder of just how much things have changed (for the good) in 10 years. Mark even took Kate miniature golfing at the same place he and I went on our honeymoon. :)

Here are some highlights from the trip....

The view from the cabin balcony

The view inside the cabin - a.k.a the "Lodge-ball" arena. Lodge-ball claimed the saddle on the cross beam, several lampshades from the chandelier and at least one chandelier light bulb. All was back to normal when we left on Sat.

Kate playing one of many games of air hockey.

Claire just being her adorable self, sitting in a window.

Sunset from the cabin balcony on Thurs. night

Kate "swimming" in the hot tub (we turned it way down and a bunch of the kids had a blast in it).

"Bouldering" in the Greenbrier area of Smoky Mountain Nat'l Park

Kate at the TN/NC border sign - I took a picture of Mark at this sign almost 10 years to the day before this picture was taken, while we were in Gatlinburg on our honeymoon. My how times have changed in 10 years.

My awesome family posed on "the biggest rock in the whole world" according to Kate.

Claire chowing down on some bread before we headed home on Sat.

Catching Up

2010-04-30T08:34:00.000-04:00

Wow, this has been a busy spring. Really busy. Here are some of the things we've been up to:

Claire has discovered nail polish, and if I don't have the time to paint her nails then she'll do it herself using marker. Sigh. I should have been suspicious when she was quiet in the car for way to long....

We had to put a childproof knob on the pantry because about 5 times a day Claire would come hand me either the oatmeal jar or the peanuts from the pantry and say "eat". I am happy she has a word, but I began to wonder how much oatmeal a 2 year old could eat. I guess it keeps her regular...

As I write this post, Kate is proudly helping Daddy fold laundry (have I mentioned how awesome my husband is? He does over half of the laundry around here!). This is one of the first times that I have not had to put quotation marks around help. She's even folding shirts with only a little help straightening from her a bit too Type A Daddy. Here she is very proudly holding up a shirt she folded.

And of course, if big sister is doing something, Claire has to do it too... after these photos she stood up and said "Dah!" (her version of Ta-da) and then "All Done!"

This morning is Kate's Mother's Day program at preschool, which she is super excited about. I'm sure I will have many more pictures from it...

Minnie Mouse pillowcase dress

2010-04-20T10:24:00.000-04:00

I made this Minnie Mouse pillowcase dress for my daughter. Sometime I'll put up a tutorial on pillowcase dresses, but I'm really bad at taking pictures through the whole process!!

The red & white fabric is from JoAnn's and is only $4.99 regular price, and I managed to get it for half price. Gotta love it!

The circle for Minnie Mouses' head is from one of the play dishes from my daughter's kitchen, and the ears are a jumbo size plastic Easter egg. I traced both onto Wonder-Under, then ironed the Wonder-Under to black fabric and cut around it. Then, I removed the backing and ironed the circles onto the polka dot fabric so that they looked like Minnie Mouse. I put a mid-weight stabilizer fabric behind the polka dot fabric and then did a "satin stitch" (a zig-zag with a very short stitch length) over the edges of the circles. Then, I cut away the extra stabilizer fabric from the back.

The bow is held on with fabric glue (Heat & Bond is not strong enough, you need liquid fabric glue) and I hand-stitched it about 5-6 times as well to make sure it stayed.

For my pillowcase dresses, I sew elastic into the neck and then sew the ribbon to the top of each of the corners of the dress. I think it looks a bit more polished, and I like that there is less of a strangulation hazard from the elastic than there is from a true drawstring neck.

Now - if only we had the funds to plan a trip to Disney.... :)

Kitchen Stool Makeover

2010-04-01T02:23:00.000-04:00

I finally re-did our kitchen stools. They have been living in the garage for the past 9 months or so, ever since Mark turned his back on Claire in the kitchen for 2 minutes and returned to find her standing on top of our kitchen island. However, I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe, we are mostly past that stage with Claire and I can now keep the stools at the island.

Here is a "before" shot of the stools - functional, but certainly not pretty. I got them at a church rummage sale for $1.00 each.

I have been wanting to paint them for a while, but have been slightly challenged by the wicker type seat.

I ended up painting the wooden part of the stool (and some of the wicker seat as well) black.

Then I made a cover for the wicker part out of some old muslin I had. Here is the final product:

Much better, isn't it?

For the cover, I cut a piece of muslin about 5-6" larger than the dimensions of the top of the seat. I then cut a 4" square out of each corner of the muslin to accommodate the corners of the stool that stick out. I did the same thing out of Pellon Fusible Fleece (978F) and then ironed the fusible fleece to the muslin, just to give the muslin a little padding and to make sure none of the black on the seat showed through the muslin.

I searched Google Images for a bird silhouette and found this one that I liked, then printed it onto iron on transfer paper and ironed it onto the face of the muslin. It was a bit tricky getting the entire image to adhere to the muslin, unfortunately. Thank God for Sharpie marker to fill in a few missing spots!

I then used a package of extra wide double fold bias tape. I first sewed 8.5" pieces into each "corner" that was cut out, making a fold where it came to the corner. Then, I sewed approx. a 22" piece of bias tape over each long straight edge, leaving the ends to serve as ties for the cover.

Here is a close-up of the corner of the cover once it is tied on the stool:

Voila - tie it on. I had all the materials for this project, so it was free to me, but if you are attempting it from scratch you need the following things to cover 2 stools:

1/2 yard muslin, any width (over 36")
1/2 yard Pellon Fusible Fleece (Pellon 978F or any similar fusible padding)
1 package iron-on transfer paper (can get this at almost any hobby, craft, fabric or even large mass merchandiser in their craft section)
1 package extra wide double fold bias tape in the color of your choice
sewing machine

I did not take pictures of the steps of making the cover, I will try to take them when I make the 2nd cover and then post a more detailed tutorial. They certainly aren't perfect, but they're much better than the original stools with the flaking white paint!

My Favorite Time of Day

2010-03-30T17:55:00.000-04:00

I love it when my husband walks in the door from work each day. I'm always glad to see him, and I'm often very glad to have him entertain the girls for a while while I make dinner or get a little break. Some days I am VERY glad, if you know what I mean (i.e. - here are YOUR children I am disowning them for the time being). Today was one of those days. Sigh.

Both girls generally love it when Mark gets home (Claire's a little more hit-or-miss on that subject than Kate is, since she is more of a "Momma's girl") and situations such as this often arise:

This was the take down and tackle of the Daddy tickle robot.

First Claire's turn.

Then Kate.

Then Claire goes in for the assist.

Just another reason why my husband rocks - I'm sure after a long day at work being attacked by two young children isn't necessarily the most "relaxing" time, but he does it with a smile.

StudioDelve Rocks

2010-03-29T07:36:00.002-04:00

I have to share my friend Lisa's amazing ceramic work. Lisa and I were good friends my senior year of high school, which is longer ago than I care to admit. Let's just say that my 5 year old daughter is closer to being a senior in high school than I am. Wow. That's a scary thought.

Since high school, Lisa has started StudioDelve and makes completely awesome ceramic pieces like this:

And this:

And this light fixture. Seriously. I want this. My husband does not. Go figure.

And this plaque for just $8. Love.

So stop by and check out Lisa's website, Etsy shop or Facebook fan page!

Make your own Sports Headband Tutorial

2010-03-26T17:39:00.005-04:00

If you have a daughter who plays on sports teams or if you like to work out and you wear the "sports style" headbands with a ponytail - this tutorial is for you! Don't want to pay $8-$18 for a headband? Make one yourself for cheap!

You need:

A sewing machine (or patience and good eyesight for hand sewing)
7/8" wide grosgrain ribbon of your choice (background color) ($1.97 or less - look for coupons)
5/8" wide grosgrain ribbon of your choice (top color) ($1.97 or less)
3/8" wide grosgrain ribbon that matches either of the two previous colors ($1.97 or less)
7/8" wide velvet ribbon (this is the hardest to find - check Hobby Lobby for $1.99 spools of 6 ft of ribbon that are often half price or check other fabric stores in the "by the yard" ribbon - black or brown work well, white is good for lighter colors)
Fabric glue ($4 or so a bottle) - hot glue does NOT work for this, sorry, it is too stiff
Invisible thread or thread that matches both of your ribbon colors
Two "adult" size "no metal" thick ponytail holders
Scissors
Measuring tape

Step 1
Cut the 7/8" wide and 5/8" wide grosgrain ribbons to 15 1/2" long for a child's size headband or 16 1/2" long for a teen or adult headband.

Step 2
Cut the 7/8" wide velvet ribbon to 14" (kids) or 15" (adult) - you could cut it the same length as the grosgrain, but depending on your spool of ribbon you may be able to get an extra headband out of the spool if you cut it a bit shorter.

Step 3
Use the fabric glue and run a small line of fabric glue down each long edge of the 5/8" grosgrain ribbon. If this ribbon is a dark color, you could put one line down the middle, but lighter colors will show the glue line if you put it in the middle. Glue the 5/8" ribbon to the middle of the 7/8" ribbon - putting the ribbon down carefully so that the edges are even.

Step 4
Using invisible thread (or thread that matches the color of the 5/8" ribbon) sew down the edge of the 5/8" ribbon.

Step 5
Run a line of glue down the velvet ribbon. Glue this to the back of the 7/8" grosgrain ribbon. There will be a gap at each end of the ribbon where it is not covered by velvet - this is okay, it won't show.

Step 6
Using invisible thread (or thread that matches the color of the 7/8" grosgrain ribbon) carefully and slowly (especially if you are using invisible thread) sew down the edge of the velvet ribbon to attach it securely to the grosgrain ribbon.

Step 7
Take the two ponytail holders and knot them together. This is slightly difficult to explain, but I don't have a internet-compatible video camera, so I'm going to have to do the best I can. You're going to find the spot on each ponytail holder where they have been stuck together. Lay the two ponytail holders on top of each other with the connection spots on opposite sides of the circle from each other. Loop one side of one ponytail holder around the other and pull taught. Hopefully the pictures below help explain this.

Step 8
Fold the end of the ribbon from Step 6 over one side of the ponytail holder. Sew in place, going back-and-forth several times over the end to make sure it doesn't pull out. Repeat with the other side.

Step 9
Cut two pieces of 3/8" grosgrain ribbon to 2 1/2" long. Heat seal the ends (run a lighter or match quickly and carefully across the cut end of the ribbon and it will melt together slightly and prevent fraying). Put a line of fabric glue on each 2 1/2" piece.

Step 10
Fold these short pieces over the sewn part of the headband for a nicer looking finish. Allow to dry before putting in anyone's hair.

You can replace the "team colors" with a patterned 7/8" grosgrain ribbon like I did below, and you omit steps 3 & 4. (See photo of Kate below with the zebra print headband on.) Or you can move up a size and use 1 1/2" grosgrain ribbon and velvet ribbon, and 7/8" for the top piece (or again use a patterned ribbon).

Here in Cincinnati I've found both Ohio State and Kentucky printed ribbons at WalMart (which I normally hate to shop at, but it's the only place I've found the ribbon) so you could make "game day" headbands for you and your friends.

For about the cost of a headband you could buy, you'll have enough materials to make 10+ headbands of your own. Offer to make them for the rest of the team to help cover your initial expenses.

The Kitchen Update

2010-03-11T00:15:00.004-05:00

We decided this year to use part of our tax return to update our kitchen and downstairs half bath (which is about the only room we hadn't touched in the 5 years we've lived in this house). Here was our starting point for both...

Kitchen overview - start

More kitchen starting point

Bathroom start - note the nice brass light fixture and floral wallpaper border. Plus the sink has light aqua marbling in it. So classy.

More starting bathroom, more floral wallpaper border.

And here is the end result...

Kitchen overview - after - we are about 90% done at this point - we still have to lay floor under the stove & fridge, and re-attach baseboards in many places.

The new floor - $1.29 a square foot laminate made from recycled plastic for the laminate - have I mentioned how much I love Costco?

Updated decor - 1950s Betty Crocker cookbook that I already had that was given to me by my aunt before she passed away, and my great grandmother's wedding china from 1901. The Laugh word is from Hobby Lobby and was $7 (half price) when I got it. The word may not stay, as Mark hates it. We'll see who wins. :)

A close up of the china plate. I am so happy to have a plate and a cup/saucer from her wedding set, and I love that it works to display it now so it's not buried in a cupboard somewhere like it was before.

The bathroom is the left door, the pantry is the right. The photos are from IKEA - $.99 for the set of 5 fruit postcards and $2.99 ea from IKEA for the frames. The apron hook was something I already had that I painted black.

There's the $1 imagine wall art from last week.

The dining area - still working on decor here. The photo to the left of the light is one I took when Mark and I were in Venice in 2001 and it's one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken. It's light reflecting off rain puddles at dusk on the main pedestrian route.

Bathroom - after - Vanity was $88 from Home Depot (plus $20 in plumbing items from the hardware store), faucet was $30 from Home Depot, mirror was $35 (half price) from Hobby Lobby, light fixture was $35 from Costco, and not shown are a towel ring and toilet paper holder from Home Depot for $22 total. Paint is low VOC Behr Paint and Primer in one for $28 from Home Depot in the color "Sensible Hue" (I questioned whether we should get the paint and primer in one and the sales guy gave me a gallon at the price of the regular paint. Totally awesome.)

Another view of bathroom - after - no floral wallpaper border. Why oh why did we not do this 5 years ago??? The wall decor is a Bible Verse (As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord) my mom cross-stitched for us when we got married 10 years ago. It's hung in our bathroom, no matter where we lived, ever since.

I'm still looking for a few things for on top of the cabinets - I plan to go raid boxes in my parents basement next week for more family heirlooms. I love having pieces that have stories behind them.

The total cost for this remodel, including all last minute trips to the hardware store, etc is right about $1000 (included in this price - paint, flooring & trim, dishwasher, vanity, faucet, light fixture, towel bar and toilet paper holder ) . We could have easily spent that much on just the approx 300 sq ft of flooring.

Linking this up with Domestically Speaking's Power of Paint
and
Penny Pinching Party at The Thrifty Home
and
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Front Porch

Ah, spring!

2010-03-09T00:05:00.000-05:00

Today was quite the day. I started the day with a medical procedure for which Katie Couric would be proud of me. It wasn't as bad as I expected, though I'm in no rush to have another one.

We had a GORGEOUS day here in Cincinnati, and I got to spend some time outside this afternoon planting seeds for the garden. Nothing is a sign of spring like planting seeds. Granted all of the seeds were in flats and will be indoors for a month or two until it is really time to plant them outdoors, but I sat in the sun on the back patio and sowed two kinds of eggplant, two kinds of peppers and three kinds of tomatoes. I can almost taste the delicious eggplant parmigiana we'll be having this summer. [Insert Homer Simpson like "Mmmmm" here.]

I've grown peppers, eggplants and tomatoes before, but never from seed so I'm really hoping this goes well. However, I don't have a grow light so tomorrow when I go to Home Depot after mom's group to buy the towel bar and toilet paper holder for the remodeled bathroom I will be picking up a grow light.

Gardening is another one of my favorite activities - I guess like crafting it's creating/transforming something with your own hands. And it tastes so much better too!

I also have to include these pictures of Claire from Saturday. She was trying to put in a pair of green plastic vampire teeth left from Halloween, but had them in backward. She was so proud of herself though. The first picture is what happens when you tell Claire to "smile!" -she immediately closes her eyes. Every time.

My little Ballerina

2010-03-05T00:21:00.001-05:00

Kate got her dance recital costume this morning. It was practically better than Christmas morning for her. She begged and begged to wear it once she got home, so before dinner I caved and let her wear it for about 20 minutes. She had to put on "elegant music" and dance for me, Mark and Claire. When she prayed tonight we had to thank God for her beautiful new costume.

Note the nice hot chocolate traces all over her mouth. It goes so well with the fancy costume, doesn't it? You can't see it very well but there is even a necklace/choker that goes with it that is made of "diamonds" according to Kate. The thing that always kills me with costumes like this is how expensive they are and how cheaply they are slapped together. I'm going to have to cover all the seams at her arms because they sewed the sequin trim right into the armhole and it is really scratchy. Really, really scratchy. This really irks me.

Kate also lovingly indulged her sister in her favorite activity today - being pushed around in a doll stroller. This is a stroller I got at a garage sale for $1 when Kate was about Claire's age. One wheel is pushed out and wobbles and it always tries to fold closed on Claire when she sits in it. This doesn't phase her in the least. She sits in it and promptly says "Mama! Date! (kate) Dada!" hoping that one of us will push her in it. I'm waiting for the wheel to come off and her to end up on her rear end on the floor. We shall see.

The final topping on Kate's day was a handmade amigurumi (crocheted doll) from my friend Amber. It is pink and red (Kate's two favorite colors) and white, and has a little flower on it's head. It's adorable. Kate christened it "Snuggly" and insisted on sleeping with it and giving it a goodnight kiss. I'm sorry, Kate would correct me here - giving HER a goodnight kiss. "It's a girl mom!" Here's what she looked like when I went up to check on her earlier this evening.

Another Tote

2010-03-04T08:54:00.000-05:00

Yes, I have a tote obsession right now. This one I made from a man's L T-shirt. The local thrift store has T-shirts for $.99 and they were 25% off. The lining fabric was from my stash. Total cost out of pocket right now for this tote - $.75 plus tax. Yay! And this is only because my dear husband was not willing to part with any of his Ohio State T-shirts for my project this time.

Cut a piece from the front & back of the shirt to the desired tote size. I cut 15" x 15" pieces to make a 13" x 13" x 3" finished tote. Let me say, however, that I really dislike working with the stretchiness of knit. I am going to have to get used to it and practice I guess.

I ironed medium-weight fusible interfacing to the front and back T-shirt tote pieces. It was a bit tricky and you can see I wrinkled the front a smidge in the middle of the logo. Grrr. Then I cut matching lining pieces from the other fabric - same dimensions. I ironed fusible fleece to those for padding, but I think next time I'll just use interfacing also - maybe some heavyweight so it's a bit stiffer.

I cut the pocket piece from a sleeve and the tote handles are the side seam areas that were left after cutting out the large pieces from the shirt. They're a bit short - I'm going to have to work on that next time. I didn't pad the handles for this one, I just used some interfacing inside them to help stiffen up the knit.

Overall, I'm fairly happy. I'm thinking that I need to cut up an old UT (that's University of Toledo, not University of Tennessee) shirt from college and make one for my alma matter.

If I get around to it this week (things are a bit crazy - my youngest has a surgery consult this morning during my oldest's ballet class, for example - I'm not looking forward to surgery on a barely 2 year old, even if it is for something routine like a hernia behind her belly button).

Well, I'm off to today's races. Hope you've been inspired to try making your own upcycled tote from these posts!

Upcycled Tote

2010-03-02T10:01:00.004-05:00

Here's a tote I made last night. It started as a man's size L button down shirt (thank you to my husband Mark for his donation to this project) and some ancient quilting fabric handed down to me from my mom (only used about 3/4 yds of the 7 yds I have - more pink projects on the way I think!)

I basically just cut the shirt apart at the seams, cut the top yoke and collar off and then used the fabric to cut out the pieces of my tote like I would on regular fabric. I just made sure that the front piece of the tote had the buttons and front shirt pocket on it. I also used no-sew hem tape and ironed it in between the buttons on the front shirt placket so that it didn't gap and show the interfacing.

I ironed Pellon 978 fusible fleece to the gray shirt pieces to give it a bit of padding, and then on the pink lining pieces I just ironed on midweight fusible interfacing. The inside has two pockets - one that is about 9x9 (finished size) that holds a couple of diapers and travel wipes really well and another that is about 6x9 that holds small stuff like gum, cell phone, ipod, etc. The outside pocket of the bag is the pocket of the shirt, which I embellished with pink grosgrain ribbon (I ironed this one at the end with no-sew hem tape - next time I will sew it on before assembling the bag) and a faux bow.

The tote is modeled after the "Charm Party Tote" pattern from Quilts Illustrated, just for dimensions, basically. I think I'd honestly like the tote to be a bit taller and narrower so that more buttons show - I think I'll offset the buttons to the side of the tote if it's taller.

Not bad for a first attempt I think. Right now I'm on a kick of converting men's dress shirts into other things - girls peasant dresses, totes, and I'm thinking maybe even a shirt for myself sometime soon.

I'm linking this up to the "Get Your Craft On" day at Today's Creative Blog, "Tip Me Tuesday" at Tip Junkie, and Do It Yourself Day at A Soft Place to Land

Here's what my girls did this morning - the box from our new bathroom vanity is now a house. Kate ate her breakfast in the house. Claire screamed that she couldn't also fit in the house at the same time. Sigh.

Almost Free Wall Art

2010-02-23T08:07:00.017-05:00

While cruising the dollar bins at Michael's today (almost as good as cruising the dollar bins at Target) I ran across a cool chipboard phrase - imagine. Kate is in a very imaginative phase right now. She spent all morning talking to her imaginary friend Jenny on my old cell phone. Jenny couldn't come to Michael's with us because she had to go to "The Bunny Show", and then to her grandparents. Except Jenny forgot that her grandpa died. I kid you not, this all came out of Kate's mouth in the span of about 15 minutes. So her other imaginary friend Jessica came to the store with us, and I had to buckle her in using the middle seat belt and had to offer her a snack, etc.

Anyway, back to the post at hand. I knew I wanted to do something with the imagine word, so I snagged it - hey, it was only $1. At home, I found the perfect scrapbook paper background that will match the new kitchen colors (we are doing a mini kitchen makeover, more to come on that) which are creamy yellow, red and black. So I painted the word black and adhered it to the scrapbook paper (which I cut to fit a 8x10 frame I had on hand).

Total out of pocket cost now - $1. Score. You could create this yourself for approximately $7 if you didn't already have the scrapbook paper and frame on hand.

I think I'm going to link this up with Today's Creative Blog's "Get Your Craft On". You can find lots more cool ideas through the link below...

A New Twist on the Laundry

2010-02-23T01:05:00.000-05:00

You're two. You're bored. What to do? Why eat a milkshake while sitting in a laundry basket of course...

Best Kid's Birthday Card Ever

2010-02-17T01:23:00.000-05:00

My mom's close friend made this card at a handmade card workshop she went to and didn't know who to use it for since her kids are older, so my mom gave it to Claire for her birthday. I LOVE this card. So much so that I am on a quest to find a punch like this. I want to make 27 of these and give them for every birthday party my children attend.

I think it speaks for itself when you see it, and these pictures do not do it justice.

This is the snow that never ends....

2010-02-15T19:10:00.000-05:00

it just goes on and on my friend.... Seriously. Cincinnati has now broken a record for the most snowfall ever in the month of February (a record in place since 1914) and it is still coming down outside. We are all getting cabin fever. I have no memory of ever seeing this much snow on the ground at one time in Cincinnati, ever. I haven't been out to measure today, but I'm guessing we're at about 14 inches on the ground currently.

Here is what it looks like out our front & back windows, as of this morning (another 3-4 inches have accumulated since then)

We have been trying to stay busy and have been doing crafts and playing baby dolls, but this afternoon we busted out a fort in the living room. We re-arranged the furniture on Saturday and shifted our couch and loveseat over to one side of the living room (I was inspired by my friend Tiffany who has a very similar house layout to ours - thanks Tiffany!). I'm not sure I love the section where the couch and loveseat are, but I love having the open space by the toys for things like this fort.

I am hoping that tomorrow by lunchtime the roads clear up and maybe we can hit IKEA for lunch (it's just 2 miles down the road from us) or something to keep us from being cooped up all day. The problem with this much snow outside is that it is too deep for Claire to get around in, so it's hard for us to go outside even!

I am really excited to get crafty tonight with a tool that has been sitting in my closet gathering dust for a while - I will post some photos tomorrow and maybe it will inspire you too....

The Little Monkey Turns 2

2010-02-13T23:11:00.002-05:00

My little monkey turned 2 today. I can't believe it's been 2 years. I think an old Baby Blues comment put it best - "The days are long and the years are short." Amen to that! In honor of her being our little monkey, and her Curious George obsession, I made Claire monkey cupcakes. I found the super easy instructions here.

Claire actually had a family party today, which I never had growing up since my family was all between 3-8 hours away. This weekend my parents-in-law (is that a word?) and one of my brother-in-laws came down from NW Ohio, my parents came over and my sister and brother-in-law even happened to be up visiting from Atlanta. It was really nice, and perfect for Claire. We had presents, cake and ice cream before nap.

Claire was all about ripping open her presents. She was not as much into actually opening the boxes to find out what was in them. I think I could have wrapped up empty boxes and she would have been content. However, she did make very cute "Wow!" sounds when she opened most presents. Here are a few photos of the presents. The first gift is a pack of toothbrushes (really - she is currently obsessed with brushing her teeth) and the last is her baby doll stroller.

She LOVED the stroller. She pushed it around for over an hour after she opened it. I am not exaggerating. She put her baby doll in it and pushed it all over, as documented below. However, she first buried her baby doll's face under her jiggly Koosh ball, and was very insistent about it. Very insistent.

She was a pro with her cupcakes - we put 2 candles in one and she blew them out with no assistance on about her 3rd try. She was not so sure about everyone singing to her though - she kept trying to hide behind her hand. And Kate was really good about the fact that it was Claire's birthday, not hers. There were only a few squabbles over the new toys.

We Love a Good Party...

2010-02-13T00:25:00.000-05:00

Today was the day that Kate has been looking forward too for weeks. She had DOUBLE Valentine Parties! (For the correct effect, pretend you are 5 and say this while jumping up and down excitedly.)

First, we had her preschool Valentine party. The wonderful mom that I am, I agreed to fill in for our room mom who couldn't make the party. However, it means I was running around at the last minute and completely forgot my camera at home. I hate with a passion when that happens. The party involved things such as ice cream sundaes, Valentine Bingo and a Model Magic Craft. Plus, I have to say kudos to my awesome friend Jen for corralling Claire during the party for me. And for her awesome Valentine box craft. I will post a photo Sunday of her awesome Valentine box craft, made from cereal boxes. I made super-cute heart lollipops from leftover candy canes, which I found at Skip to My Lou, here.

Then, we quickly cleaned up and headed to her friend Avery's Valentine Party, which was already in progress. Why is it that things always happen at the same time?? My super-amazing friend Tiffany over at Happy Day hosted. I believe there were some games before we came (I saw some heart-shaped bean bags on the floor - heart shaped. Really.) and we arrived just in time for a craft and lunch. Sandwiches and cheese cut into heart shapes and strawberries. Plus frost-your-own cupcakes for dessert. With red frosting. Tiffany is very brave!

Since I forgot my camera, some of my friends kindly sent their photos... here are some of the best.

Kate and Avery - how adorable is this. Seriously. I love it.

Tyson and Claire - not a bad shot for trying to get 2 toddlers to cooperate for a photo. These two are two peas in a pod, I swear.

Check out Tiffany's awesome handmade Love banner over her fireplace, which I think she explains how she made on her blog. And those cute preschoolers.

Kate frosting her own red cupcake. Which she then refused to eat. Go figure. I am such a good mom that I forced myself to eat it for her. :)

Free Pampers Sample

2010-02-10T14:55:00.000-05:00

Do you have a kid in diapers? If so, head here for a free sample of Pampers Cruisers with new DryMax. Sizes 3, 4, or 5 available. I'm wondering if this is what I tested on one of diapers studies I did for P&G last fall? :) You have to register an account with P&G Brand Sampler to get the sample.

What's for Dinner Wednesday?

2010-02-10T13:55:00.000-05:00

It's the return of What's for Dinner Wednesday. Tonight at our house is "Darn Good Chili" (our favorite chili) and Beer Bread. Beer Bread is so simple and so easy, you'll never pay $7 for a mix from a home party company again. Don't get me wrong, I love all the tasty, simple (ahem) items that the company has, but I never, ever buy their Beer Bread after finding this recipe. It's so simple it's almost unbelievable.

Your ingredients:

3 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
12 oz beer, ideally at room temp
3 oz melted butter (or cooking spray)

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 9x5 bread pan well.

In a medium bowl, combine the first 4 ingredients. Add beer, stir until combined, but don't overmix.

Spread batter in greased pan. Pour the butter over the top (or to save calories, just spray the top with cooking spray, you really can't tell a difference).

Bake for 45 minutes, or until top is brown and crusty.

Turn loaf out of pan onto a cooling rack, and let cool 30 min before cutting.

Yum. You can change it up by using soda instead of beer (lemon-lime soda is great, or you can use other fruity sodas like orange or Mt Dew, etc) or using a darker beer or a craft beer, etc. If you want to make a whole wheat loaf, use a total of 3 cups of flour, subbing whole wheat for no more than 1 cup of regular flour. Otherwise the loaf is extremely dense.

Updated Kitchen Work Station

2010-02-09T23:37:00.000-05:00

We have a built-in desk/work station in our kitchen. It's very handy and quite annoying at the same time. Short of ripping out the entire desk and putting in a better cabinet, I organized and updated the desk this past weekend. Here is the before image:

This really isn't that bad, either. I'm kind of loathe to admit that, but this is definitely a "hotspot" and gets cluttered fast. Lighting fast.

Well, in the hopes of cutting some of that clutter, and short of ripping out the cabinet and desktop and putting in a cabinet that is actually useful (ie - one that is all drawers instead of a super-annoying base cupboard with no dividers in it), I decided to make the back wall under the shelf a magnetic chalkboard, courtesy of some magnetic paint and chalkboard paint.

I took the bottom shelf down and taped across the line that was still on the wall from when we hung the shelf last year. Then I opened the magnetic paint, which I bought about 2 years ago and hadn't gotten around to using. The can actually recommends on the side of it having it mixed in the paint department machine - haven't mixed this can by hand, I heartily concur with the directions of having the paint dept do it. It took a lot of stirring. A LOT. It also took a LOT of coats. 5 to be exact. The can said 3. I recommend 5, or even 6 if you'd like a magnet to actually hold up a piece of paper or two. I did 5 coats and most magnets will hold up 2 sheets of paper on the wall.

I let the magnetic paint dry for a day, then topcoated with chalkboard paint (you could easily topcoat with a couple coats of paint to match your walls for a "hidden" magnet wall).

Here's the finished product, decluttered (mostly) and organized. I'm pretty happy with it, and the girls are currently loving it - Kate plays tic-tac-toe on the wall almost daily.

The Snowpocalypse that almost was...

2010-02-06T18:57:00.001-05:00

I swear meteorologists are just guessing half the time. At least half the time. Over the past 72 hours, Northern Cincinnati went from getting 3-5 inches of snow to 8-12 inches of snow and back to 5-6 inches of snow. I think we have about 4 inches on the ground. The girls of course wanted to go out and play in it this morning - so Mark and I got all dressed and took the girls out. Claire is still a challenge in the snow as it is hard for her to walk around and her hands don't stay in her mittens well, etc. But she loves it and big sister was going out, so out she went too.

This evening Mark shoveled the drive and Kate went out to help. I don't know what happened, but Mark came in and said "I need the camera" and when he handed it back there was this photo on it. Something about staring at the stars and being buried in snow. Who knows.

Claire is turning two a week from today - which is unbelievable. She seems like she has grown up so much in the past month. I discovered last Sunday that her hair is long enough for one single ponytail in back. It makes her look about 6 months older.

Off to build a fire and have some family time this evening (perhaps the Curious George movie - Claire adores Curious George right now), and finish my Valentine's Tote/Bag (using the Quilts Illustrated Charm Party Tote pattern - one of my favorites). Pictures tomorrow. Plus tomorrow is one more run to Kroger for the end of the Mega Sale event - gotta get my free goldfish if there are some left, and use my coupon for free Oreos that came in the mail today. Yay! So far I've done pretty well - saved about 60% on both trips during the sale. This one might not be quite as high, as I'm going to buy a few things for the donations to Haiti that Kate's preschool is doing. I got a letter Friday that they are parterning with the awesome organization that my sister Erin went on 3 mission trips with in high school Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. So I'm going to be giving a bunch of stuff there - mostly medical related things like Tylenol, Advil, vitamins, first aid items, etc. If you haven't given anything yet to Haiti relief, please consider NWHCM. Their need is increasing as people leave Port-Au-Prince and head to NW Haiti which has much less earthquake damage.

Giveaway on an awesome blog

2010-02-05T18:49:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite blogs, Today's Creative Blog, is featuring a giveaway from a fellow Etsy artist - a $50 gift certificate for some beautiful stamped jewelry. Be sure to check it out!

Applique T-shirt tutorial

2010-02-04T13:49:00.002-05:00

This is a documented first attempt at applique. It's not perfect, but overall I'm very happy with it and learned a few things that I need to try a bit different for next time. Thankfully Kate isn't picky, and declared that she "LOVED IT!!!" and the matching skirt I whipped up when she saw them this morning and hasn't taken them off since except for ballet class.

Here is what you need for this project...

1 pre-washed T-shirt (I used one of Kate's she already had which had a stain on it - I love getting new life out of old things)
Fabric of your choice in a piece large enough to cut the image of your choice out of - pre-wash the fabric
Cardstock or cardboard (like old cereal boxes or the like) to make your template from
"Wonder Under" or "Heat N Bond" - this needs to be in a big sheet and not the skinny "no-sew" hem tape. I bought mine at Joann's (with a coupon, of course) and it was in the notions section near the interfacing. I think it may also come on a bolt (Pellon is the manufacturer), but I'm not sure. If you buy a package, keep the package, as it has has the directions for use on it.
Iron
Coordinating thread
Sewing machine (you could do it by hand if you are more patient than I am)

Step 1
Trace or Draw the image that you want onto your cardstock, then cut it out. If you are drawing, you could draw directly onto the papery side of the Wonder-Under. It's your choice. I made a simple flower design.

Step 2
Trace your cardstock/cardboard image onto the papery-side of a piece of Wonder-Under. This is hard to see in the photo below - sorry!

Step 3
Iron your piece of Wonder Under to the wrong side of the fabric of your choice, following the directions on the package.

Step 4
Cut out the fabric image around the lines you traced on the Wonder Under.

Step 5
Carefully remove the paper backing from the fabric image.

Step 6
Position the applique on the T-shirt and iron on following the directions on the Wonder Under.

Step 7
Set your sewing machine to it's zigzag stitch. Shorten the stitch length down a bunch. On my machine, I chose a stitch width (how big your zigzag is, basically) of 6.0 (on a 7.0 scale) and a stitch length (how far apart the zigzags are) of 0.3 when standard length was 1.4. Zigzag back and forth over the edge of the entire applique. This ensures the edges won't fray, and gives it a bit of an "outline" effect. This was the most challenging part, as the knit of the T-shirt wants to stretch some as you're maneuvering it through your machine. I think this is one of those "practice makes perfect" steps. Alternately, you could skip zig-zagging and just straight stitch around the edge of the applique, but the edges of the applique may fray a bit over washings. It's your choice. Unless you are hand-sewing, in which case for the sake of your own sanity you just want to straight-stitch as close to the edge as you can.

Step 8
TA DA! You are finished!

Overall, I am pretty happy with the finished result. The T-shirt puckered up in a few places around the edges of the applique where it stretched as I was sewing. However, for the cost of the material (both were in the clearance bin at Joann's last month for $2 a yard) and giving new life to a T-shirt that had a stain, I give this project 2 thumbs up.

My suggestion is to try something similar for your first time - see if you can find an old T-shirt of your child's that has a stain or a tear or something and see if you can breathe new life into it with an applique. Chances are it will look better when you're done than it did before!

The coordinating skirt is simply a basic gathered skirt that I sewed a contrasting strip on the bottom of. Sew the strip on, sew the side seams together, hem the bottom, put a casing for elastic on the top. If you want step by step directions for this I can give them, but there are a bunch of free tutorials on a basic gathered skirt already out there. I will post a picture as soon as I can get Kate to stop twirling around in it!!!

**Update** - since posting this, I've discovered that it greatly helps to use a mid-weight stabilizer on the underside of the T-shirt below the applique. I use the "sew-on" kind and then tear away the excess. It definitely helps stop the puckering/stretching of the T-shirt.

Another attempt...

2010-02-04T01:49:00.000-05:00

Okay - so I completely abandoned the entire blogging thing for, oh, the past six months or more. I am aware of that. I did have intentions from time to time to come back and get back into the swing of things and update but obviously it never happened. But a new year, new things (yes, I know it's already February)... so here I am. Again. A bit sheepish, but I'm back. I'm not quite sure what this blog may morph into this year - I'm leaning towards a bit more crafty things and of course some bargain shopping, etc. But we shall see. I am also hoping that I stick with things a bit more this time. Life is rather crazy right now - trying to step up my Etsy business and contemplating officially filing it as a business, plus putting in quite a bit of time with our awesome church overseeing the early childhood area, plus tackling some home improvement projects (a new kitchen floor and dishwasher) as soon as our tax refund arrives, and then there's simply being a mom & wife. Wow. I'm tired just typing it. Thank you Lord for caffeine.

So tomorrow I really want to post the photos/tutorial for an applique shirt and matching skirt that I made for Kate tonight. I'd post it now but it is WAY to late, so it will have to wait until tomorrow at nap time most likely.

Arts discounts in Cincinnati

2009-09-14T08:59:00.000-04:00

I do exist - things have been super crazy the past week and a half getting ready for a craft show I had last weekend, and I have had no free time. However, I'm back and I have an awesome discount for everyone...

If you live in the Greater Cincinnati area, and are at all interested in the arts, you need this! Especially if you are 35 yrs old or under.

Click here and join the Enjoy The Arts group for $40. For your membership fee you will receive:

half-price tickets to many arts venues in Cincinnati available the week of the show - Symphony, Opera, Pops, Ballet, Playhouse in the Park, various other theater companies that perform at the Arnoff
discounted tickets to Museum Center, the Zoo, Cincinnati Art Museum special exhibits, Taft Museum, the Aquarium
discounted tickets to all Broadway Across America shows - between 25%-50% depending on the performance and seating area - the membership can pay for itself if just 2 people are going to one Broadway Across America show!
Plus, if you are under 35, you get a slew of free day-of-show vouchers for 2 free tickets - Ballet, Playhouse, Symphony, etc.

If you do sign up, mention that I referred you (Alyssa Louagie), since you can get additional free ticket vouchers if you refer 2 or more people.

What's for Dinner? Wednesday

2009-08-26T14:05:00.002-04:00

Quickie Calzones

What you need:
1 package pizza dough mix, or use this recipe for no-rise dough here
1 package shredded mozzarella or Italian mix cheese
pizza toppings of your choice (we typically like mushrooms, pepperoni & ham)
pizza or spaghetti sauce for dipping

1) Mix dough with water according to package directions

2) divide dough into 3 or 4 pieces (maybe more if you used the recipe) - we typically do 2 large pieces for the adults and 2 smaller pieces for the kids

3) Using your hands, stretch (or smush, as my 4 yr old says) each dough ball out into a circle about the size of a salad plate.

4) Put your pizza toppings and cheese on one side of the circle. Fold the other half of the circle over and push the edges together really well, sealing the calzone.

5) Repeat for other dough balls (we typically serve the kids as regular pizzas, as they prefer it that way)

6) Place calzones on a greased cookie sheet. (We put calzones one sheet & pizzas on another & bake them both at the same time, pulling the pizzas out a few minutes earlier than the calzones)

7) Bake at 400 for about 12-15 minutes, checking after 12. Calzones are ready when they are brown on the outside.

8) Serve pizza sauce on the side for dipping.

Quick & easy - ready in less than a half hour and minimal prep time. This is a great quick meal on a work night or a day where things are crazy and you didn't think of dinner, etc.

What's for Dinner? Wednesday

2009-08-19T09:40:00.003-04:00

I'm starting a new themed day, because I think we all can use some dinner ideas. This is one of my husband's favorites, and when he took leftovers into work the next day they asked him what restaurant he went to for dinner the night before. :) I love that! This is an adaptation from this recipe submitted by Star Pooley on one of my favorite recipe sites - Allrecipes. I did some modification to the technique (quite a bit) and the ingredients. It's extremely rare for me to make a recipe with zero modifications!

Swiss cheese is not pictured as I need to get more today!

Cajun Seafood Pasta

If you don't care for seafood, you can easily make this with cut-up chicken breasts instead. Also, you can use all scallops or all shrimp if you prefer. I make it with all shrimp about 1/2 the time, as I can't always find scallops on sale. If you use the large sea scallops, cut them into quarters. It is also very good with crumbled bacon in it.

2 cups fat-free half & half (or milk)

1 tbsp chopped fresh dried basil (or 1 tsp dried)

1 tbsp chpped fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)

2 tsp salt (can use less)

2 tsp ground black pepper

1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (can use more or less to taste)

1 tsp ground white pepper (sub more black if you don't have it)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 c sliced mushrooms

1 c chopped green onions

1 c chopped fresh parsley (1 T dried or a bit more)

1/2 lb shrimp, peeled & deveined

1/2 lb scallops

1/2 c shredded Swiss cheese

1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese (fresh, not the bottled powdery stuff)

1 lb dry fettucine (or spaghetti or linguine) pasta

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling water until al dente (see box for cooking time depending on pasta thickness)

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, cook shrimp & scallops in a tiny bit of olive oil and/or butter until shrimp is pink. Add minced garlic, mushrooms and green onions. Once mushrooms are soft, add half and half (or milk). Add the thyme, basil & parsley. Cook over medium heat 7-8 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened (it should coat the back of a spoon). Stir in cheeses until well blended.

Serve over drained pasta.

Why you should visit your local farmer's market!

2009-08-15T11:07:00.000-04:00

I love saving money as much as anyone, but there are some things I think are worth every extra penny. One of those things is shopping at my local farmer's market. I know I won't convert everyone, but I just thought I'd share a bit about why I love the farmer's market so much and why I think it's not as expensive as people think.

First, NOTHING compares to freshly picked fruits and vegetables. No tomato in the grocery store (even when they are advertised as being "local" - which still may be 1 to 2 hours away) is going to come anywhere close to a tomato that completely vine-ripened and picked a day or two before you buy it. Also, fresh sweet corn is beyond comparison also.

Second, you get personalized service. The people at the farmer's market will give you tips on how to prepare your purchase, whether it can be frozen (I heard a tip 2 weeks ago about freezing corn still on the cob that I am dying to try this week), prepared ahead, etc, etc. Become friends with the vendors at your farmer's market! Today I got some great heirloom cherry tomatoes and some great tips on saving the seeds so I can grow my own next year. I also will be getting some free zucchini seeds in a couple of months from another stall. They had "Eight Ball" zucchini which are round, and I commented to Kate (my 4 1/2 year old) that they would be fun to grow next year, and asked if you could get the seeds in the area. The owner of the booth said to stop back and ask at the end of the season and if I didn't need many seeds (I figure I can maybe grow 3 plants in the space I have by the house) he'd just give me some free. His wife is there every week and knows me by sight because I came in the pouring rain one week to buy blueberries from her.

Some of the heirloom cherry tomatoes I got today at my farmer's market - I can save the seeds from these and grow my own plants next year, and they were $3.50 for this pint container. I need to email the farm I bought them from and have them remind me of the variety.

Third, you know where your money is going and what it is supporting. Often, the people working the booth are the same people who are directly benefiting from your purchase. By purchasing from your local farmer's market you are supporting small business, organic farming methods (typically, though many small farms don't spend the money to be certified) and sustainable agriculture. Plus you can often get things like humanely raised meats and fresh eggs.

Fourth, you may be inspired to try growing your own produce, which is MUCH cheaper than buying it. I love to garden, and I have a separate blog with gardening info here. You do NOT need a lot of space to garden. You can grow many, many, many things in pots. Lettuce, for example, is GREAT for pots - it has shallow roots and is fairly compact. In fact, unless you live in the extreme north, you can plant some lettuce in a pot right now, and get some fresh lettuce before your first frost. And to extend the season, you can bring your pots inside or into the garage overnight for the first few frosts. The only thing you really need to successfully grow your own produce about 6 hours of sun in a spot a day. Though I know of someone who put their pots in a wagon and pulled them around to different sunny spots throughout the day.

So please consider visiting your local farmer's market. When you see the prices, remember that you are paying not only for the actual produce, but the vendor's time and energy in raising that produce. How much is your time worth per hour? How much should their time be worth per hour? That factors into the cost.

I will step down from my soapbox now. :)

PF Chang's Lettuce Wrap copycat recipe

2009-07-27T15:08:00.000-04:00

I love PF Chang's but we rarely go out to dinner because of the cost. So here is a copycat recipe of PF Chang's lettuce wraps that is basically spot-on as far as taste. The original link can be found here on Recipezaar but I have re-typed it below with a couple of modifications that I made. It's a little bit complex and calls for some unique ingredients, but you should be able to find them in the asian section of most major grocery stores. Below is a photo of what you'll need:

PF Chang's lettuce wraps

Ingredients

3 Tbsp peanut oil (or other high temperature frying oil - preferably not olive oil)

3/4 lb ground chicken (or 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced small)

1 8oz can water chesnuts, diced

3 Tbsp diced onion

2/3 c mushrooms, diced

1 clove garlic, minced (or 1 tsp jarred minced garlic - not garlic powder)

Optional - 1/2 c diced carrots

Stir Fry sauce

3 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce

3 Tbsp brown sugar

3/4 tsp rice wine vinegar

"Special Sauce"

1/4 c sugar

1/2 c water

2 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce

2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

2 Tbsp ketchup

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/8 tsp sesame oil

1 Tbsp Chinese-style hot mustard

2 tsp hot water

1-2 tsp garlic and red chile paste

1 head iceberg lettuce

Optional crisped noodles

Frying oil (such as peanut)

1 pkg cellophane (rice vermicelli) noodles

1) Heat oil in a wok or large skillet

2) While oil is heating, make stir fry sauce by combining soy sauce, brown sugar and rice wine vinegar in a small bowl. Set aside.

3) Add ground chicken. Stir and break up into small pieces. When cooked through, add water chesnuts, onion, mushrooms, garlic and carrots (if using). Saute for 1-2 minutes, then add stir fry sauce and saute 2-3 minutes more until mushrooms are cooked and onion and carrot have softened somewhat.

4) For the "special sauce" dissolve the sugar in the water in a small bowl. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil and stir to combine.

5) In a separate bowl, combine hot water and hot mustard and stir until smooth.

6) Add mustard and garlic & red chili paste to special sauce slowly to desired taste. If the sauce is too runny, at 1 tsp cornstarch to sauce and bring to a boil to thicken.

7) If you'd like rice noodles, heat frying oil in large pan or deep fryer to approx 375. Break rice noodles into 2-3" pieces. Add in small batches to the hot oil, they will puff immediately. Remove them from the oil with a handheld strainer or large slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. These will keep up to 1 week in a zip-top bag or longer in the freezer

To serve - place chicken mixture into a lettuce leaf. Top with puffed rice noodles and special sauce. Roll and enjoy!

So there you go. Some of the ingredients are uncommon, but once you have them you can make many batches of this with the bottles. The chicken mixture is not as dark in color as PF Changs, but the taste is very very similar.

Super Cute gift idea!

2009-07-16T13:35:00.000-04:00

I was looking on Etsy and found this SUPER cute listing for washcloths made to look like cupcakes! This would make a really cute shower gift. I'm sure you could probably make your own if you're craftily-inclined. If not, buy them from the link below as they're very reasonably priced for a gift and they're super cute!

Set of 3 Cupcake Towels by luly612

Welcome & Coupon Basics

2009-07-15T14:39:00.001-04:00

I didn't think the gardening blog I have covered quite everything I wanted it to, so I started a 2nd blog. As if I don't already have enough to do. This one is going to be more about our daily life and crafting/creating and saving money and whatever else pops into my head to blog about.

One of the things that has been on my mind this week is saving money, since the alternator just went out in my car and that will be an unexpected expense next week when our mechanic gets back from vacation.

So I thought I'd share some couponing tips. I'm not going to share everything there is about couponing, as there are tons of blogs out there dedicated to couponing. I'll link to some below if you want more info. Here are some basics if you're just getting started...

1) get your Sunday paper - there are generally 1-3 coupon sections each week in the Sunday paper. You can subscribe to just the Sunday edition in most cities, or you could pick it up anywhere that sells a paper.

2) cut out all the coupons (or most all of them). Even for things you think you might not use. You never know when you can get things for free or better.

3) organize your coupons. The super-basic way is to buy a small coupon sorter with about 12-13 pockets and then divide your coupons into 12 categories that make sense to you (ie - canned, frozen, refrigerated, pasta/rice, etc, etc). If you're really going to start couponing seriously, you'll probably want a 3 ring binder (the kind that zip closed are really nice, but I have a regular one that I already had and didn't have to buy). Then you'll want inserts to organize your coupons. I use 3x5 photo pages I got at Staples - I got two 10-page packs, so I have 20 pages, or 60 coupon pockets. That seems like a lot, but I use them all! I've heard of other people using trading card pages, but those pockets seem small to me.

This was my first coupon binder. I used a binder I already had. After about a year I upgraded to a zipper binder that I got a good deal on using coupons. :)

4) At the very least, check your grocery ads. Ours are typically delivered on Sunday morning in our driveway or hanging on our mailbox, but can arrive anywhere from Friday evening through Monday morning. Take them out of the bag, open them up and look at them. Also check the Target, Walgreens & CVS ads that come in the Sunday paper.

5) Make a list - I have a friend who doesn't shop from a list, and I am totally baffled by it! Even without coupons, I don't know how you get everything you need if you don't have a list! As you're looking through the ad, write down the deals you see on produce, etc that you probably don't have coupons for. For example this week our Kroger has containers of blueberries for $1. Since Kate could eat about a pint of blueberries in one sitting, those went on my list right away!

6) Know your store's coupon policies - do they double coupons? If so, up to how much? Do they price match competitors ads? Here in my area, Kroger and Meijer do double coupons regularly (coupons up to and including $.50 are worth double the face value, coupons between $.50 and $1.00 are rounded up to be worth $1. Coupons $1 and up are face value- Meijer doubles the first 2 coupons that are the same, Kroger has unlimited double coupons). Biggs, WalMart, Walgreens, CVS and Target do not double. WalMart price matches competitors ads, as does Target.

7) Be willing to shop a couple of stores. Some people swear this is not worth it. I beg to differ. For example this week I ran errands on Monday morning. I spent $86 at 4 stores (Kroger, CVS, Walgreens & Target) but I saved $123. It took me about 3 hours and that included the time I spent getting 2 kids in and out of the car, in and out of carts, trying to keep Claire, my 18 month old, from standing up in the cart, etc. Even figuring the value of gas I spent and my time, that's a deal.

8) Use electronic coupons. This is the biggest no-brainer with coupons there is. These load electronically onto your Kroger-affliated store card, and come off the total automatically when you buy an item. The best part is that they can also be combined with paper coupons for the same thing - ie a $1.50 electronic coupon for Huggies and a $1.50 paper coupon for Huggies = $3.00 off a package of Huggies. Here are some sites:

http://www.shortcuts.com

http://www.cellfire.com

http://www.pgesaver.com

9) Check out some of the following blogs/sites for more couponing info and info on sale/coupoon "match-ups" each week...

http://blog.nickels-n-dimes.com - Cincinnati/NKY area blogger

http://www.cincinnaticents.blogspot.com - obviously Cincinnati area

http://happyhomemakercindy.blogspot.com - somewhere in Ohio, not sure where

http://www.livingasmom.com - Atlanta area

http://www.littlemissknowitall.net

10) If you don't want to be bothered checking several different sites, then do a trial of http://www.thegrocerygame.com - you get 4 weeks of any stores you choose for $1. You can see if you think it's worth it in the long run. I used to use this site a lot, but now that I know what I'm doing pretty well and have found the lists on the free blogs, I cancelled my subscription. But it's definitely worth it to help you get started!