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