Simply Homemade: A Repurposed Skirt

A friend passed down some play jeans to Taeya that had holes in the knees. My original idea was to put some cute patches on them. However, once I saw a tutorial for how to make a jean skirt on Saved by Naptime's blog, I knew that pair of jeans would be perfect for this project.

This afternoon, during nap time, I whipped out this cute little skirt and a matching belt. I love it. I had a difficult time with the pleats. The pleats on the back look great but the front ones don't. I also messed up the length of the hem on the front but learned as I went. Taeya's not a fan of jeans but loves skirts so I'm hoping I can get her to actually wear this skirt! Best of all, it was FREE as I made it with the jeans and material I had on hand.!!!

If anyone has anymore holey jeans they want to send my way, I'd be happy to take them off your hands. I think I'll make myself a jean skirt next time I wear down a pair of jeans from crawling after the kiddos.

I've been really enjoying finding ideas for re-purposed clothes online. I recently discovered that little girl dresses can be made with men's dress shirts. Of course, I have one half-finished from a dress shirt I picked up at the thrift store. Trying to figure out how to make the straps work with it. I'll post it when it's finished.

 

Do you re-purpose clothing at all? Have any good ideas/links to share? I'd love to see new ideas of how I can make our clothes go a little further.

Organize It: Information I Find Online

If you're anything like me and enjoy reading other people's blogs (I'm guessing you do if you're reading mine!), you probably come across great ideas of crafts you want to make, recipes you'd love to try, book suggestions that sound interesting and so much more. There's no way I can remember all the great ideas I find on my own. If I come across an idea and I think, "I'll remember where I found that." Chances are, I've forgotten by the next day. Here's what I do to remember all the projects and ideas I come across.

I have a folder on my computer called "Household." In this folder are many subcategories that are related mostly to home organization. Here are some of the subcategories:

* Address Lists
* Christmas (Christmas card ideas, our yearly Christmas card and letter, gift ideas etc.)
* Crafts (There are many subcategories under Crafts. Such as...)
 = Birthdays
 = Crocheting
 = Gifts
 = Sewing
* Cutting Costs (I save my homemade soap recipes and ideas like that in here)
* Decorating Ideas
* Game Rules (to card games and such that we enjoy playing)

When I come across a sewing project I'd like to do, I save it under Household/Crafts/Sewing with a description that will help me remember what it's referring to. I then copy either the whole article or part of it and I also copy the web address and paste it in a Word document. Saving the web address is VERY important! If you want to remember where you found it, or maybe you only saved a picture, the web address will allow you to return to that website. Maybe you want to post about what you make someday on your own blog. By having the web address, you can then direct credit back to the blog/website you originally found the idea on.

Make a folder for each of your interests and save ideas related to that interest in that folder. This system seriously helps me remember so many cool things that I come across. I find many projects that I can do with Taeya and save them in a folder called Kid Activities. Then, when I want to do a craft or something fun with Taeya, I'll look through the folder for idea. I love doing activities related to specific holidays so I save ideas by holiday as well.

How do you remember ideas you find online?

(In a future post, I'll tell you how I organize recipes I find online.)

Simply Homemade: Baby Food

Brecken is just getting to the point where he's beginning to eat baby food on a regular basis. As I did with Taeya, I'll be making my own. I find that it really doesn't take long at all, it costs very little and I can even make baby food for different stages.

This week, I started by peeling, cubing, and boiling 4 or 5 large sweet potatoes. I first took out about two cups of the hot water from the pot, I then strained the rest of the water off the sweet potatoes and poured about 1/3 of the cooked potatoes into my Vita-Mix. I pureed the sweet potatoes and added a little of the reserved water until it was the smooth consistency I was looking for. I put it into ice cube trays to freeze in small portions.

I then repeated the pureeing process two more times. However, the second time, I left some small lumps in the puree mixture to make it like a stage 2 baby food. On the third batch, I left larger lumps and also froze it in a Popsicle tray as I was out of ice cube trays and knew that Brecken would be able to eat the larger portions by the time he is eating the larger lumps.

Making baby food is very quick and easy. Best of all, by making it yourself, you know exactly what your baby is eating. Since I aim to have my babies eating table food by the time they are 10 months old, I really only have to make a few batches of baby food before they're eating what our family eats. I start offering finger foods as soon as they can pick it up. Brecken already feeds himself baby Mum-mums and loves them! At just under 5 months, he does really well getting the mum-mum into his mouth, sucking and even chewing on them.

Some of the things I puree into baby food are:
Bananas, Mango, Avacado, Pears, Peaches, Mixed berries, Peas, Organic carrots.

I've done applesauce in the past but this time I just bought a jar of 'no sugar added' applesauce because it's cost effective and what we eat as well. I purchase organic fruits/veggies sometimes but I'm not super worried about everything being organic. However, I do only buy organic carrots for babies because there is something that non-organic carrots can have that isn't good for young babies.

I don't do any sort of pureed meat because it's not realistic to what we eat. When he's a couple months older, I'll begin offering him small pieces of chicken to start with. He'll also get protein from beans and eggs. 

If you've made baby food, what do you make? What advice do you have regarding baby food? Everyone does it a bit different and I'd love to hear what you think.

Save A Penny: A Thrifty Coat Rack

In our new home, we have a very large coat closet right by the front door and garage. However, it's downstairs and when we arrive home, we often walk upstairs with our jackets on and then have to lay them by the staircase to be taken back downstairs. I also have the diaper bag which hangs out near the staircase as well. I decided that we should probably have some sort of coat rack upstairs to keep things a little more organized. A trip to Home Depot was in order.

While at Home Depot, I looked through the salvage bin to see if I could find what I needed for my coat rack project as well as the shelving I was building. I found a beautiful piece of oak that would be perfect for my coat rack. Best of all, because it was a salvage piece, it was priced at $0.50! I picked up some dark metal screws for $0.99 to use with my project as well.

Originally, I was planning on painting the wood because I was going to buy the least expensive piece I could and didn't think I'd like the look of it. However, since I really liked the Oak I decided not to paint it and just brushed it with two coats of Tung Oil to finish it. I then measured and screwed on the hooks and  screwed it to the wall. We love our new coat rack and because we already had the hooks, this project cost just $1.50!

Keep It Clean: Removing Blood Stains

 Well, I'm slowly getting back in the swing of things. I've been busy since we moved. After unpacking, I built some shelving and started sewing as well. My mom bought me a sewing machine while she was out visiting and I've been having great fun playing with it. Those of you who follow me on Facebook have seen the sweet little dress I made for my daughter and the matching one for her baby doll. I'll include a picture because they're too cute not to share and I'm proud of the first article of clothing I've ever sewn.

Taeya loves both the dress and that her baby doll matches her dress. I'm so happy that she is enjoying them so much.

Anyways, on to the real topic of this post. How to remove fresh blood stains. It's a little gross but it works! If you get fresh blood on an article of clothing or some type of material, just spit on it and let the spit soak it for a little while and then rinse out. It works best if the person who made the blood stain spits on it themselves. Something in the saliva is able to break down the blood. If it doesn't come out completely the first time, after you rinse it out, repeat the process and then wash it. Before you dry it, check to be sure the stain is gone.

Simple Kitchen Shortcut: Grating Cheese

When I'm in the kitchen, I'm always looking for ways to do things a little bit quicker and easier. One area I have simplified on many occasions is when I need grated cheese. I don't mind grating cheese with the hand held grater if I only have a little to grate. However, if I have a whole block of cheese that needs grating, I find it a bit tedious to grate it by hand. To save time and energy, I will pull out my Vita-mix, cube the cheese into approximately 1 inch squares and then I throw the cheese in and blend on a low speed. It crumbles it nicely which, in my book, is the equivalent of grated cheese. I don't usually throw all of the cheese in at once because it tends to compress into the corners once it's crumbled. I'll start with 1/2 to 3/4 cup and dump it out and add more when the first batch is finished.

Recipe Round-up: Almond Puff

Well, I've spent the past few weeks packing, moving and unpacking. I'm about 90% done unpacking and I'm enjoying getting organized once again. I will be back to blogging more regularly soon.

The other day, we went to a friend's house for brunch. I made one of my mom's favorite recipes since she is visiting right now. The recipe is fairly quick and easy to prepare. It is sure to impress and it tastes absolutely delicious. It takes just a few minutes to make and put in the oven. However, it needs to bake for an hour so make sure you have the time before making it.

Almond Puff

From the kitchen of: Carm Allen.

Preparation time: 60 minutes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Crust:

½ cup soft butter

1 cup flour

2 tablespoons water

Cut butter into flour. Sprinkle with water. Mix with fork. Round into a ball. Divide and put each half onto un-greased baking sheet. Shape into 12x3 inch strips (3 inches apart).

Puff Pastry:

½ cup butter

1 cup water

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup flour

3 eggs

In medium saucepan heat butter and water and bring to a rolling boil. Remove from heat. Add extract and flour. Stir over low heat 1 minute until it forms a ball. Remove. Beat in 3 eggs 1 at a time until smooth. The eggs should be fully incorporated. Spread over 2 strips. Bake 60 minutes at 350 degrees. Sprinkle with sliced almonds and drizzle on glaze. Allow to cool briefly and then cut into 1 inch strips.

Glaze:

½ cup confectionery sugar

2 tablespoons softened butter

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 tablespoon warm water

Mix until smooth.

Tip: The hardest part of this recipe is probably spreading the crust flat enough. When I make it, I try to make the crust as thin and long as possible. You want it to cover as much surface area as you can. I sometimes sprinkle a little flour on the top to help it not be so sticky as I press on it.