Menu Board

In my meal planning frenzy, I've been printing off a weekly menu to hang on my fridge and keep me on track. Printing a new one every week seems so wasteful, even though it get recycled. Luckily, I had an old picture frame hanging around the house to repurpose into a menu board! Did you know that you can write on glass with a wipe-off marker and it comes right off?!

Menu Board
Materials:
- Picture frame
- Staple gun
- Ribbon
- Fabric Glue
- Days of the Week printout

Print Out:
1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Draw a table 8" wide and 10" high with 7 rows, 1 column.
3. Make each row 1.3" high.
4. Type on day of the week on each line. I started with Sunday since that's how I do my menu.
5. Choose a great font, make it size 72 and print that bad boy out.
6. Cut the paper down to 8" x 10" size - cut around the outside of the table.

Board:
1. Measure out 3 feet of ribbon. Tie a bow directly in the middle, insert fabric glue into the knot and pull the knot part tight.
2. Place the frame on the floor/table, front facing down.
3. Place the ribbon ends on the corners of the back of the frame, fold each end over onto itself once or twice, and staple into place.
4. Remove back panel from frame, set the print out face down on the glass, then replace the back panel.

5. Find a convenient spot to hang the menu board in your kitchen and write out your week's dinner menu!


This is a QUICK project, literally took me all of 5 minutes! I'm sure hubby will love the pink ribbon too! :)

Eating "Fresh"

This post isn't about a project, but is about my opinion on food. Stop reading if you don't want to hear my opinion, otherwise, thanks for listening :)

 Lately, I've gotten into a ton of discussions with people about what kind of food they eat and how either processed food is the devil or the inexpensive solution to feeding a growing family. It doesn't matter which side of the fence you're on regarding this issue, but here's the bottom line: there's food revolution going on in our country. People need to educate themselves with factual information and stop blindly following everything that they see on the news or the internet. Yes, fresh food is definitely healthier for you. Is organic necessarily better? That's your personal opinion, in my opinion. I don't think that we eat very much processed food at my house. An outsider would probably come in, look at my pantry, and beg to differ. True, there are lots of boxed and canned items in my pantry, but after looking closer, you'd see that it's all raw ingredients. Sugar, flour, rice, pasta, etc. Of course there are things like cereal and tortilla chips, but I don't feed my family "convenience foods" like frozen pizza or TV dinners. We literally make everything from scratch. Breakfast muffins? Scratch. Granola? Scratch. Spanish rice? Scratch. Every single lunch and dinner, baby food, and dessert - from scratch. Sure, the ingredients were processed, but compare the little bit the raw ingredients are processed to how much a boxed mix of brownies is. It's a no-brainer.
I've also been hearing that vegetables are expensive. I will agree with this to some extent, but the fact is, when you buy things in season (ie, asparagus in the spring time or apples in the fall), that's when the price is lowest. Eating produce when it is in season is sustainable and cost effective. Don't believe me? We just got 20 lbs of blueberries for $2.50 a pound because they are in season. Compare that to a pint for $3.99 in January. Vegetables are an investment, but they stretch mush further because they FILL YOU UP. You'd be amazed by how far a few single veggies can go. $25 worth of produce will feed us for a week, eating veggies as a side dish or main dish for every meal. If that isn't bang for your buck, I don't know what is.

Moral of the story, if you want to feed your family less processed food, start with buying more produce and more raw ingredients. Making things from scratch is time consuming, but I'm 100% convinced that it's saved us majorly on our grocery bill.

Homemade Composter

The hubs came up with this project idea while we were planning our garden for this summer. While our compost won't be ready to use this season, it will be a nutritious delight for our veggies next summer! This is an easy homemade composter made from some 2x4, a 5 gallon bucket with lid, L brackets, rollerblade wheels, and two thin poles. He constructed a rectangular base out of the 2x4s and drilled a few drainage holes in the bucket. Then he screwed L brackets into the inside of the bucket in 3 rows on diagonals. He put wheels on the poles with nuts to hold them in place and set them on top of the base. The bucket is placed on it's side and sealed with the lid. We give it a spin to stir it up every few days. There are a TON of resources for composting available through your local county extension. You need to have the right mix of green and brown materials for your compost to not smell terrible and be nutrient rich. Composting is a great way to keep some food waste out of the landfill and to boost your garden soil for free!

Coffee Cup Coozie

I saw this project idea on Pinterest and couldn't resist making my own version of it. I always recycle my coffee cup coozies after my coffeeStarbuck's beverage has been consumed, but having a reusable one, made from materials that I already have, seemed like a no-brainer. Reducing and reusing, while still feeding my coffee habit. These work great for hot and cold bevs! Store it in your car and you'll always be prepared for a caffeine fix.


Reusable Coffee Coozie
Materials:
- hair elastic
- large button
- cotton fabric (5" x 10")
- flannel fabric (5" x 10")
- pellon (4" x 9")
- marker
- cardboard coozie (to trace)
- iron
- scissors
- needle and thread or sewing machine


1. Lay cotton and flannel fabric out, printed side down. Break the seam on the cardboard coozie carefully, making sure not to rip it. Trace the cardboard coozie onto the fabric, adding about 1/4 inch extra around all sides. Cut it out. 

2. Trace the cardboard coozie onto the pellon, then cut it out. 


3. Lay the flannel down, place the pellon on top of it, then the cotton fabric on top of the pellon. Run the iron over the top until the pellon has fused to the fabric, then flip it over carefully and iron the flannel side as well. 

4. Zig-zag stitch hair elastic together in the center so that each end is in a loop. cup one of the loops off. Place the stitched end in between the fabric on one of the short sides so it is hidden, but the loop in hanging out. 


5. Fold the edges of the cotton and flannel in so that the rough edges are hidden. Sew them together all of the way around, sewing over the side with the elastic loop an extra time to secure it. 


6. Bend the coozie into a circle and overlap the edges by about 1/4-1/2 inch. Mark where the elastic reaches to without stretching with a sharpie. Sew the button on that dot. 


7. Enjoy a delish hot beverage from your favorite coffee shop with your new, stylish coozie.

Hydrangea Hair Bow

Now that we're well into spring, its warm enough for baby bear to wear her colorful spring and summer clothes. A new wardrobe calls for new hair bows!! I still have a TON of left over felt from the quiet book project so I decided that the new accessories would be felt flowers. I'll post another type of felt flower that I made later when I have an extra few minutes!

Felt Hydrangea Hair Clip

Materials:

- Felt, green and another color (one or more colors, depending on what color combination you want)

- Alligator clip

- needle and thread

- scissors

- flower stencil or artistic skill

- hot glue

1. Trace or freehand a four petal flower onto the felt. You will want about 12-14 individual flowers total. Cut the flowers out. 

2. Cut a circle out of the felt, about 3" in diameter. Also cut 2-3 one inch long leaves out of some green felt.

3. Sew each flower onto the circle by sewing a small x in the center of the flower. Some flowers will have to be squished and overlap a little bit, but that's ok. It will give the whole flower a final look. 

4. Sew the leaves onto the back of the flower, letting them peek out from behind the flowers as much or little as you like. 

5. Using hot glue, attach the alligator clip. Or, to make this a head band, sew the flower onto a stretchy head band, then glue a piece of felt onto the back to secure the flower to the head band. 

Fabric Bin

I was doing laundry the other day and managed to knock one of the many random things that have found their way onto the top of my washer behind it. Our laundry room is the walkway into the garage, so the washer has become home to everything and anything that would go from garage to house and back. After spending 5 minutes reaching behind the washer to retrieve it and being terrified of what kind of pest was going to jump out at me (unfortunately we have more than just dust bunnies lurking in dark places), I decided that this scenario didn't need to be repeated. Luckily, I had a shoe box and a fat quarter of fabric hanging around to make a fabric bin to wrangle all of the random stuff that finds its way onto the washer. This literally took me five minutes to make and is a great organizational tool!

DIY Fabric Bin

Materials:

- shoe box

- hot glue

- fabric (I used a fat quarter because it was the right size for my box)

- scissors, if you need to cut the fabric

Directions:

1. Remove the lid from the shoe box. If lid is attached like mine was, cut the lid and any other flaps off.

2. Lay the fabric out, printed side facing down. Set the box in the middle of it and test folding the fabric up the sides to make sure there will be enough and that the box is positioned correctly. 

3. Spread hot glue on the bottom of the box and carefully smooth the fabric over it. Spread glue on one side of the box, then  pull the fabric up over it, smoothing out any wrinkles. Repeat for all four sides. There should be some overlap to go into the box, glue that down inside of the box, one side at a time.

Ta-da!

T-Shirt Dog Toy

My dog is a little ball of energy and personality. Actually, I'm not even sure that he is a dog some days. He's destroyed pretty much all of his toys except for the ones that can be used to play fetch with (convenient for him, since he's a fetch robot!). I refuse to buy him more chew toys since he ruins them in the first 5 minutes of ownership, so I thought that I would give making him one from a t-shirt a try. He's been chewing on it for the last little while, so I'd call it a win.

Recycled T-shirt Dog Toy

Materials:

- Scissors

- Old t-shirt (you could use one, or a few for different colors)

- Knot tying abilities

Directions:

1. Cut the old t-shirt into 1 inch think strips. I cut mine across from side to side. You'll want to cut at least 8 strips, but more than 8 would definitely make the toy better!

2. Take one strip, make it into a loop and tie a knot in it, leaving the loop.

3. Feed another strip through the loop from step 2, then tie it in a knot to secure it. 

4. Feed the rest of the strips, one at a time, through the original loop, then tie a knot in each to secure it to the rest. It should kind of look like a ball where the knots are, with lots of tails hanging off. 

5. Tie a knot in each of the "tails." Dogs like to chew on knots, it's science. Well not really, but it will add interest to the toy. 

6. Give the toy to your dog and let it go to town chewing! 

This toy doesn't have an adorable face to rip off, but it serves it purpose. If your animal is anything like mine, this is a great alternative to a rope, which they eat the string out of and risk causing serious digestive track injuries. The best part, it's free. Who doesn't love a free dog toy?