Iced Pine Cones

I wanted a new Christmas decoration...but money is tight!. Here is an idea that I found in an old Country Living magazine. Paint pine cones.

The magazine said to spray paint the cones, but I tried that. What a flop. The paint was SUCKED into the wood and never seen again!

So, I decided I needed to clean out some old paint anyway AND I had one that reminded me of toothpaste. Since I was Not going to use it in my house, the toothpaste paint became the new icy blue color choice for my winter decoration. It looks icy fresh and winter-y!

So ....here's the scoop.

Tie a string to the top of the pine cone. Wind the string around a clothes line, or something hung up OUTSIDE over a tarp or cardboard. Dip the pine cone in the paint and let it drip dry.




When dry, tie a skinny ribbon around the first row of cone-stick-y-outie-parts. Then gather all the ribbons together at the top (tie a bow, knot, something!) and hang it.


Ta-dah! I love the way this "wreath" turned out.





--TARA

Give Leather new Life!

I have a pair of leather boots that were beginning to look.....used! I really wanted them to look a little nicer. The one in front has not been treated. See how dusty and abused it looks. But the one in back has a deep, rich look!
I looked on line and there is an easy --at home-- way to condition the leather (they said this works on a sofa too).

Vaseline! Just rub it on with a soft cloth until it feels dry. Work in small areas and that is it!

These boots are ready for walkin'.


--Tara--

Orange-Pineapple Crepes

Orange-Pineapple Crepes
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp. finely shredded orange peel
1/3 c. orange juice
2 tsp. cooking oil
1/2 of a fresh pineapple peeled, cored and sliced
2 tbsp. butter
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 c. orange juice
2 medium oranges, peeled and sectioned
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla or rum extract
1/4 c. chopped pecans or toasted slivered almonds
1/4 c. toasted coconut
fresh strawberries (optional)

In a small mixing bowl combine flour, milk, egg, orange peel, 1/3 cup orange juice and oil. Beat with a rotary beater until well mixed. Heat a lightly greased small skillet over medium heat then spoon 2 tablespoons batter into skillet. Lift and tilt skillet to spread batter then return to heat and brown on one side only. Invert pan over paper towels and remove crepe. Repeat with remaining batter, greasing skillet occasionally. Fold each crepe in half browned side out then fold in half again forming triangle. Place a single layer on a baking sheet then keep warm in 300 degree oven while making sauce.
For sauce, cut pineapple slices into fourths then set aside. In a medium saucepan melt butter then stir in brown sugar and cornstarch. Add 1/2 cup orange juice then cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 1 minute more then add pineapple, orange sections and vanilla or rum extract. Cook over low heat stirring gently until heated through. Arrange folded crepes on dessert plates and spoon sauce over crepes. Sprinkle with nuts and coconut then garnish with fresh strawberries and serve.

This is an example of what I had to do with 20 pounds of fresh oranges. I needed ideas and came across this great recipe. It is very rich. If I could go back and add anything, it would be whipped topping to cut the sweet. My kids ask for these crepes often. Yum!

Play dough - The best!

The best play dough recipe comes from Summer. My daughter had the idea to make a model of a tyrannosaurus for a school project, that just happened to be due the next day! (Next time I hope she'll tell me before the night before.) In a panic I called Summer since she often made play dough for her kids. Here is her recipe:

PLAY DOUGH
2 c. flour
1/2 c. salt
4 tbsp. cream of tartar
2 c. warm water
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
4-6 drops food coloring

Mix flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a 2 quart sauce pan. Stir in water, oil and food coloring. Stir over medium heat until dough pulls away from the sides. It will look dry and seem like it's burning. Remove onto wax paper or a cutting board to cool. Cool for about 5-10 minutes or until you can touch it. Knead until smooth.

I actually found it easier to add coloring while kneading. The orange color of the dinosaur in the picture was about 14 drops red, 10 drops yellow and 4 drops green. I had to be careful to make a well in the dough for the coloring, then fold the dough over the top so my hands wouldn't stain.

Another great thing about this dough is that it didn't dry out overnight. I thought that I would try to bake it to dry out the dino model, but after 2 hours in a 200 degree oven, it still wasn't dry. This was a good thing since just before school, someone sat on the t-rex and we were able to reform it quickly.

Pillows: from plain to pretty

I wanted some new pillows for my couch. I was having a hard time finding the color I wanted in a pattern I liked, so I bought some plain pillows in the color I wanted and added my own embellishments.

Taking my old fashioned needle and thread and 4 to 5 yards of skinny brown ribbon (which generally goes for less than a dollar a yard), I took my pillows from plain to pretty by stitching the ribbon to the front of the pillow in a fun design.

Now don't these pillows look nice on my new couch?

Food storage- SALT

Question:
How do you store a year supply of salt. Lets see.... that is 21 little containers (like you see here).

Answer:
You get a 6 and a half gallon bucket with a screw on lid. (I think they are called gamma lids) Then you stack the salt three high. See how nicely they will fit in the bucket!

Viola! You have now successfully stored your salt. This is a really easy organization idea......
And easy to access the salt.
(You can still keep each small salt in it's own carton!)
--Tara

Baby Leggings Tutorial

I bought some pretty loud knee sox on clearance. The idea was to make baby leggings out of them.

So here's how it goes... First cut them off at the heel.

Then cut off the toe.

Take that short piece you just cut between the toe and

the heel and fold in half, wrong sides together. Pin.

Now pin that piece to the cut end of the long of the stocking.

Sew them together using a stretch stitch.

Should look something like this. (I serged them but don't have a picture.)

If you don't have a serger, just zigzag the seam.

The finished leggings. You could embellish them if you like.

All done.

PVc Pipe Play house

Pvc Pipe Play house

I finally got to this project. Thanks to Wintertree Design for her instructions. We modified it just a little. We made the connection from the roof to the cross connectors longer for a taller roof. I can actually stand inside it.We took old (repurposed-love it!) curtains and hung them around the side, they worked out really well. Lady actually hung a flashlight from the cross bar on the roof for a night light and she slept in it a few nights ago.
We still need to add a front door and some details. Any ideas?

Then we got to my son's loft bed. This was completely constructed from our own plans, so we made it up.
Talk about a custom house. It will eventually be a fort.
My son actually cut the pipe himself. He loved it.
Great summer time project.

little dresser, turned blue

This little dresser is plain wood no more! It is now fit for a sporty little boy's room.

Here is a close up of some of the drawer designs. I took some oops paint from the local home improvement store and used it to paint the base. Then using wallpaper boarder and spray adhesive, affixed it to the sides and top drawer of the dresser. The paper was a little large for the drawer fronts, so it was cut to the right size and a red and white boarder were painted to match the original boarders. Then a few pieces of sports equipment were cut and glued over the edge to make it feel more authentic. As a finishing touch, I added some of the blue paint to the edges of the balls, and such. Thus making a cohesive collage. Oh and the knobs got a little red paint along with a layer of clear varnish too!

--Tara

Smell that Broccoli!

I found a trick! When cooking broccoli sometimes it smells like old flatulence... especially when your broccoli is not super fresh. Last night I had the idea to put garlic salt in the water when boiling it... and Voila! Yummy smelling broccoli for dinner! I probably used 1/2 a tsp of garlic salt in the water. Not enough to flavor the broccoli, but enough to make it aromatically pleasing.

Tables... a decorative storage idea!

Looks like a table sitting there in the corner, right? Yeah, but it doesn't really have legs. In fact, it isn't actually a real table at all. That's just a stack of food storage buckets covered to look like a piece of furniture. If you look really hard, you might notice it... but nobody ever looks that hard. Trust me.

The idea is simple really...

Stack your storage items (I used buckets of wheat here, but I've used boxes, bins, just about anything stackable). If you're using a heavy storage item, put some cardboard down to protect the space around it - in this case, the wall, the carpet, and the pretty scrap of wood that's going to sit on top later.


Then just cover it! I used a bed sheet because I didnt have a beautiful table cloth large enough, and I really wanted this scrap wood to show... it already looked like a beautiful table top!

After trimming the cardboard that was sticking out underneath (which should have been trimmed before I finished putting the buckets down), I propped a chair in front of it. A pot of peacock feathers, a few pictures on top, and tada!

Can't really tell at first glance can ya?

This simple idea was a hit at college. Usually the boxes themselves wound up as the table top and the whole thing got a fabric cover. We used similar tables as night stands and sofa backers. Note this: if you're going to put lamps or other heavy items on top, make sure your box, bins, or whatever is strong and heavy enough to handle some good bumping around.

That's a Jannie-Original. Hope it helps you like it did me!

Crib Canopy for the Princess

My little girl needed something to dress up her room, and what better than a royal canopy? The problem was that all the ones I wanted were $100 or more. So here was my fancy little idea... I started out with a wire basket that hangs on the wall (bought it at Ross for $10), and spray painted it white ($2 at any craft/all-purpose store). Spray paint works best for a solid color because it gets in all those teeny tiny crevasses that your paint brush can't reach. If you're going for a vintage or shabby chic look, you may try acrylic paint and a foam brush.

Using some white toole (or sheer curtains called "Lill" from IKEA for $5), I poked the fabric through the base of the wire basket. To make it stay in place, you can hot glue it, sew it by hand, or just do what I did - safety pin it.

Then hang it on the wall...

...add a little color to the basket (I used stuffed animals, but it would look great with whatever you wanted to put in there)...

And there you have it my friends! A beautiful new canopy for your bed... or your baby's bed! If you're concerned about little fingers getting ahold of that beautiful sheer fabric and pulling it down, just use a pair of hooks or curtain tie-backs on the wall to keep it away from the bed and out of harm's way.

Giant Ruby Red Grapefruit

Remember that monster of a grapefruit I found on my tree? It ended up being over six inches tall and almost as wide.
I thought it might be sweet, but I really had no idea how sweet it was! No honey needed. Who ever heard of that? I tried a little salt, but that wasn't necessary either. My kids ate most of it. Goes to show that you can have healthy snacks for your kids. It probably helped that it was a novelty. I try to have seasonal fruit in the house to keep the kids interested. It's fun!