Re-Purpose Week: Day 1 BEANIE

I was browsing some stuff last week.  I like to find a blog that looks interesting and has lots of fun projects that I like and then I will spend a day or two ( depending on how big the blog is ) going through the whole blog.  Last week I was browsing through Ruffles and Stuff.  I was looking for something specific that I SWEAR she had on her site.  I never found it BUT I found lots of other things.  She had a page towards the very beginning of her blog that had links to projects she liked and wanted to do.  One of them had taken a knit shirt and made a baby beanie out of it.  I thought it was so cute.  I wish I could remember the link!  So here is what I came up with.  My friend is having a baby girl and I wanted to make her some stuff. I didn't get to go to the baby shower so I wanted the stuff I sent her to be good!

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This project took me a half an hour TOPS and that was total.  The included cutting and stoping every two seconds because my girl wanted me to do something for her.  I love the ruffles.  I hope it fits!  I bought a onesie I just need to embellish and then I will be sending this stuff on their way.  I'll show you everything when it's all done!

Can't wait to show you what I have for tomorrow! :)

I haven't linked up to some parties in a while so I'm linking up here today:

March

Earth Day is in March.  I have been trying really hard to change things in my life to go green.  I think I am going to do a LOT of green posting for the month of March!  Is there anything y'all would like to see?  I plan on posting lots of  recipes for things like cleaners, lotions, and other things we may not normally be looking for or things we might normally think of in terms of being harmful to our bodies.

Leave comments letting me know what kind of stuff you are interested in and I will do my best to post about them some time during the month.  If I don't get any feedback then I will just see what I can find.  :)

Recipe Week: Day 7

It's getting late and I am feeling mighty crappy!  Tyler was sick first, then he gave it to Kayla, she gave it to me and now Cody isn't feeling well either.  BOOOO  I hope we don't pass it back to the kids.  Needless to say I still wasn't sure what to post as the last recipe for this week.  I decided to go ahead and give you an easy recipe.  Everyone loves frosting right?  Everyone has made home made frosting at least once.  Well, this recipe is my FAVORITE!  I know frosting is a very personal thing.  My husband doesn't like my frosting recipe but then again, he doesn't like sweet stuff.  Me on the other hand can eat frosting off of a spoon.  I LOVE IT!  So here is the recipe my mom gave me a couple of years ago and I have hardly ever made another recipe since.  I almost always go to this one.  It's delicious and is good for decorating a cake. You will thank me after you try it ;)

Buttercream Frosting

1 cup crisco
1 teaspoon salt
6 drops butter flavoring
1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream these together until fluffy

Slowly add 2 lbs powdered sugar along with 1/2 cup of cold water as it is needed.

This make enough frosting to frost a 2 layer cake.


If you are being really adventurous you can add in some coconut oil if you have some left over from our natural deodorant.  I wanted to update everyone on that.  I have been using mine for over a week now and I am NEVER buying store bought deodorant again!  The kind I made works fabulous and I don't even feel wet.  I used to sweat through my clothes before ( gross, I know )   I want to buy a new white t-shirt and see if it changes yellow under the arms.  Supposedly, your BO mixed with the store bought stuff is what changes your underarms colors on your shirts.  The natural kind, SHOULDN'T do it.  I LOVE plain white shirts so this is exciting for me.

Tomorrow should start my RE-PURPOSING week.  With everyone feeling sick, we shall see if I get around to it.  I might wait a couple of days.  I do already have some things sewn and pictures taken so I should be able to get it going tomorrow.  I am excited because some of the things I already did turned out good.  Hope everyone had a great Sunday!  I hope everyone feels better tomorrow!

Unfollow

HOw the heck do you "unfollow" someone?  I know it can be done and as I search all over and try and figure out how I CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT!  haha  I am sure it is a simple click of a button too but it proves to be too much for my tiny little brain to figure out.  I have several blogs that I just ignore the updates on and I would much rather just get rid of them.  I notice my followers vary from month to month. I woke up today and I am one follower less. Hmmmmm  Oh well.

On a side note I have SO much stuff planned for next weeks refashion week but I am hoping I have time to do it all.  Right now I am nursing a cold.  I hate colds.  It's kicking my booty too.  I haven't decided which recipe to post today either so hopefully by this evening I will have something up.

On a side note my lips feel SUPER soft after using my chap stick all day yesterday. However, they are also a little sore.  I think maybe I used it too much or my lips are just freaking out over all the chap stick since I normally don't use it more then once a day. We shall see how it goes in another day or two.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend.  I had a visitor and it was fun!  So hopefully I will be back with a great last recipe to end recipe week with a bang!  Until then...

Recipe Week: Day 6

Okay y'all.  Today is a good recipe day.  I just tried this recipe and need to make an adjustment for the next time.  This is a recipe that you can do a lot with and chances are you never even though of making it.  It's chap stick.  :)

I read this recipe on my friend Sarah's blog ( lot's of good stuff on there so check it out )

Chocolate Orange Lip Balm

3-4 Tablespoons Cocoa Butter
3-10 Chocolate Chips
½ tsp Vitamin E Oil
¼ tsp Orange Extract

Melt the cocoa butter in the microwave until it’s a liquid. Measure 3-4 tablespoons into a microwaveable (preferably pourable) cup. I used a pyrex measuring cup. 
Add the chocolate chips and stir to melt.  You may have to microwave the mixture again for the chips to fully melt. Add vitamin E oil and orange extract. Stir to combine and pour mixture into lip balm container(s). 
Place in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to firm.
I got a little crafty with this old chapstick container. If you do this, make sure to put the container in the freezer for a few minutes before you fill it with hot, melty lip balm. Otherwise, it will leak a little until it firms. 




I tried this recipe but I modified it.  I am a bigger white chocolate person then regular chocolate. I also am not a huge orange person.  SO I used white chocolate and almond flavoring.  I also put a little too much of the vitamin E in it so mine is very oily.  I am going to order some empty chap stick containers.  You can go HERE and find them really cheap.  My dad is a chocoholic and he is also addicted to chap stick.  I told him I would make him some.  I need to get some chocolate so I can make it.  


There are many other versions of chap stick out there.  If you look for your own don't use the ones that are a petroleum based.   The reason being is because it is harmful to you.  If you have never heard of that before look it up.  Here is another one 


HERE  


Check out that web site because she has ALL kinds of cool stuff.  


There were several I found that call for honey but a lot of people say they have problems with it separating so I choose not to try one.  All in all this is a great chance for us for lots of opportunities for riding ourselves of more toxic crap, making things for cheaper, and something that can be made and used as presents that I know MOST people will enjoy.  Who doesn't like chap stick.  On the one blog above she has a recipe for hand made lotion too and I can't WAIT to try that one.  I have to order some stuff before I can because I don't have everything I need for it.  It feels really great to know that you can have some control over what you put into your body and what a difference it can make for your wallet as well. 

Recipe Week: Day 5

Day 5 already?  Crazy.  I am glad to have something good to post for y'all today because I had a recipe I was wanting to share but have had a crazy week and didn't get to it yet.  I wanted to actually try it before I posted it.  Ironic since the first recipe from this week was one I have not tried.  That one I went ahead and just trusted my SIL and brother.  Since my brother said it was the best chocolate cake ever, I figured that was good enough for me!  :)

Today's recipe is one I actually got off of line around Christmas time.  I don't have the link any more but I know you could find it on Skip to my Lou .  I went back to try and put the actual link in but had trouble finding it and I am in a hurry to go take my kids shopping.  It was under a post about 10 editable Christmas presents.

ANY WAYS.  This is for a quick and easy breakfast that is good for you and YUMMY!  Not to meniton filling!  Wheat pancakes!  MMMMMMMMM

Wheat pancakes

2 1/4 cups wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup shortening or butter
1/4 tsp salt

Take your ingredients and put them in a food processor until it looks like corse meal.  If you do not have a food processor, then cut in the butter or shortening with two butter knives.  It works either way.  Once you have this mixture you can put them in a container and stick this mix in your freezer until you are ready to use it.  I always make a double batch and then it usually makes between 3 and 4 batches of pancakes.

Ready to make the pancakes?

2 cups mix
1 egg
1 cup milk

If you want to make these waffles instead of pancakes, add some oil to it.

Mix all together and enjoy!  I usually get between 7 to 10 pancakes depending on how big I make them. These are super filling. My husband can usually only handle two and he's stuffed.  I like 3 but usually don't finish the third.  The best part about this mix is it last for a while in the freezer and you can make pancakes whenever you feel like it fairly easily.  Plus you don't have to buy a mix with added crap!  I am all about trying ot rid myself of the extra crap because I am not the best at reading labels while in the store.  I always get them home and then get made that it has High Fructose Corn Syrup in it.  Do you know what amazes me?  The amount of ALL WHEAT products that have the High Fructose Corn Syrup in it.  Really.  Have you noticed that yet?  I bought wheat ritz crackers and it had it in them.  BOOOOO  I also bought something the other day and it was the FIRST ingredient in it!  Gross.

On a side note, I am SO happy to announce that they are starting to make wheat lasagna noodles.  You have NO idea how excited I am about this.  I always buy wheat noodles but was always bitter they didn't make them in lasagna ones.  I will say this though, mine kinda fell apart.  Especially the sides.  I made Kayla her own lasagna with all the sides that fell off.  It tasted wonderful though.  That's probably all that matters.  My husband who is a little picky about the wheat noodles said he tasted no difference.  SCORE!

Now go make some wheat pancakes!

Next Week

So I have been doing a lot of sewing lately. Mostly small re-fashioning stuff.  I was thinking about doing another week of posting.  Since I did recipe week this week, I think next week is going to be RE-FASHION week.  Sounds like fun right?  I think it should be.  There are so many things you can do to clothes to make them fit better or to make them longer or shorter or whatever it is you need.  I have that problem all the time of things being to short.  Whether it's shirts or skirts and dresses, they just don't seem to make things that fit people who are taller then 5'5.  That's okay.  This is why I LOVE sewing.  Next week will be filled with lots of re-fashionsing projects.

My sister was here for a day or so and we managed to sneak out to the thrift store we have here in town.  I hadn't been yet.  I got a couple of goodies.

See that fabric?  It is a round table cloth that I am planning on turning into a skirt!  I hope it turns out cute because I REALLY love the 70ish style of fabric.

Cute shirt I bought Kayla.  I LOVE how cute it is.

My SIL Lauren wants a tie for my nephews 1st birthday pictures.  I bought this skinny tie to take apart and use as a pattern!  Then this frame I bought to repurpose.  It's an odd size which is why I picked it.  I plan on using it as a jewelry organizer.

And this AWESOME suit case.  I have been wanting an old suit case for photo shoots.  My sister saw it and showed me and then we opened it up and saw how cute it was inside.  Check it out

I LOVE the inside.  It's so adorable.

Then I bought these for 50 cents.  I plan on maybe making a cute little jumper dress for my girl for the summer.

And real happiness came today when I went to pick up the mail.  I had a box from fabric.com with my material I ordered last week!  EEEEEEEEE  Now next time I am in the mood to make more flower hair clips for my etsy shop I am gonna have TONS of material to cut up and use.   See y'all tomorrow for another recipe!