homemade ginger

Frugal Living Day 1: Frozen Fruit

2012-02-01T19:14:00.000-06:00

For Day 1 of my 28 days of frugal living challenge, I'm doing a simple little quick tip that you all might already do...freeze your own fruit (and veggies).

I've mentioned this before, but Dole pineapples are $1 each at Aldi right now. Usually they are about $3-$4, so this is an amazing deal. Plus, if you are trying to eat organic, pineapples are on the "clean 15" list...meaning that there really is no need to buy organic in this case. So, I went and bought 4 pineapple and decided to cut it up and freeze it.

Here's how to do it. Cut off the top and bottom

Cut off all of the outer skin

Slice into fourths

Cut off the center core (not pictured) it will be the harder portion of the flesh...the pointy part of each fourth. Cut into chunks.

Spread the chunks on a baking sheet and freeze.

Once frozen, store in a freezer bag in the freezer. I tried this without freezing the chunks individually on the baking sheet first and it definitely froze all in one huge chunk in the bag. If you do it this way, each chunk is perfectly separate.

Here is the cost breakdown:

1 small bag of store bought frozen pineapple: $3.

1 large freezer bag of pineapple that I froze myself: $1.

Love it! And I came up with an AMAZING smoothie by accident. It's a pina colada green smoothie and it's delicious. I can't wait to share it with you.

Februrary Challenge : 29 Days of Frugal Living

2012-01-31T19:19:00.000-06:00

Introducing my challenge for February as part of my 30 days project.

28 Days of Frugal Living. This should be a fun one! I have gathered lots of tips over the years on saving money. I love to save money by figuring out how to do or make things myself. It really is a satisfying feeling! I thought it would be a fun challenge to try to come up with a bunch of new ways to save money this month and blog about it of course!

The rules...well...RULE. There really is just one.

1. Post 5 days a week with a different money saving tip or project each day. (I admit, I was horrible at posting daily in January...February will be better!)

And that's it! I am hoping to organize all of my 30 days project posts and archive them in a more organized way. I will be sure to update you all when that is complete!

Indoor Activity Fail...(and one that didn't)

2012-01-27T17:48:00.004-06:00

In the midst of trying out indoor activities for the month, there was one that majorly failed. I think I could do it again and it would work...but I doubt I will.

I thought it would be fun to try this winter sun catcher craft. I found an old cake pan and we filled it with water.

Then we found some natural things on hand to throw in...frozen berries, lemon and orange slices and pine needles.

We placed two pieces of yarn to hang out from the top...I think this is where we went wrong. (The yarn wasn't strong enough and we needed more pieces.) But this is what I looked like after it was frozen. It popped out very easily.

I went outside and hung it from a tree outside our window. I didn't have time to snap a picture of it until the next morning...and this is what I found was left of our sun catcher...

Some sad orange and lemon slices on the ground. Apparently the string broke and it was a little too warm out!

But, we did attempt an indoor activity (if you can even call it that) that succeeded...

I stuck some green onion roots in water to see if they would grow (I've seen this idea pinned a bunch of times)

And look how much they grew in about 2 weeks! (They started off about 2 inches of the white parts)

Indoor Activities Day 26: Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies

2012-01-26T14:41:00.002-06:00

I know I've been absent this week...life has been busy and the blog isn't #1 on my priority list. But, I do have an indoor activity to share! This is a simple one...make cookies! Maybe some healthy cookies to make it even better.

I saw this yummy recipe on Deliciously Organic for peanut butter and jelly cookies. What a fun idea. I decided to modify the recipe based on ingredients I had on hand. This is such a fun one to do with kids!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup coconut oil (probably any oil would work here)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sucanat (or brown sugar)
1 Tbs vanilla
Jelly, preserves, jam or whatever you have on hand!

Mix peanut butter and oil with a mixer, add in sugar and vanilla. Slowly add in flour and salt until incorporated. It will be a bit crumbly. Form dough into small balls...

Get your little helper to make some thumbprints on each ball...

Fill each thumbprint with some jelly or jam

Bake at 300 for 20 minutes and let cool...then eat!

They won't last long.

Guest Post: Repurposed Hat from a Sweatshirt

2012-01-21T07:54:00.000-06:00

I have a fun guest post for you all today! I love repurposing projects, as you might know from my month of repurposing back in November. My cousin, Kayla has a fun blog where she writes about homeschooling her 3 kids and coming up with creative projects. Kayla is the closest thing I have to a sister (I only have brothers and she's my only girl cousin!) and I've always looked up to her. She is great at coming up with creative sewing projects and how amazing is it that she homeschools 3 kids! I hope you all enjoy this creative project where she turns an old sweatshirt into a hat! Genius! Take it away, Kayla!

Here is an old sweatshirt I rescued from the trash:

Lay it out flat.

Measure 5in from the bottom and cut across.

Measure down the 1/2 of the measure meant of your head plus 1 in. I cut mine 7in which would make it 14 total.

I turn the wrong side out. So the wrong side is now my right side. Then I stitched the ends. You should now have a ring shape sweatshirt end.

Then I cut a circle. Kind of a circle at it's largest it's 7x6.5. I used my protractor (I love cool tools) and then I trimmed a bit of the side. The longest measurement is for the front to back distance.

So you should have a ring and a circle.

Sew the circle into the ring.

The I made a little rim or brim template what ever you call it. And cut 2.

Then I found some really stiff interfacing. cut 1. You could use cardboard.

I pressed the interfacing in between the two rim pieces.

then I sewed around the edges.

Next I attached the rim the opposite end I attached the top to. and sewed it in.

Next I marked about 3 in in the center back of the hat.

I made a small cut at one end to feed some elastic into.

I stitched one end down and then pulled the elastic tight.

Then I stitched the other end and closed the hole. I then pinched the front of the hat just above the rim in the center and stitched it down. That is optional.

You could be done here. But since this is for me pre-teen I gave it to her and a bleach pen and said have fun.

This is her new hat and her own artwork.

So cute! Thanks so much for sharing your tutorial, Kayla. Be sure to stop by her blog to check out more!

Indoor Activities Day 20: Cloud Dough

2012-01-20T13:42:00.002-06:00

When I saw this post on cloud dough, I was very intrigued and had to try it. I had never heard of it before, but it seemed easy and cheap...so we went for it. And they loved it (and so did I)!

First you will need to find something to put it in. I found an old box and dumped in 8 cups of all purpose flour.

Then, measure out 1 cup of baby oil. I picked some up at the $ store since this isn't something we keep in the house.

Pour in the oil...

At this point, you will probably be confused as I was. How is this supposed to turn into dough?

Just dig in there with your hands and mush it all together. The flour will quickly absorb the oil. Get rid of any big clumps.

Now it will still look like flour

But if you squeeze it...

It sticks together!

I stood there playing with the dough all by myself for a good five minutes before I realized what I was doing. It's pretty addicting. My advice is to put it in the kitchen or an easily mopped area. Also, next time I'll lay down a sheet under the box. That way, I can just gather the sheet and shake it out outside rather than sweeping and mopping tiny flour pieces!

Have fun!

Indoor Activities Day 17: Ice Cream In A Bag

2012-01-17T13:02:00.001-06:00

When I was looking for indoor activities for this month, I came across this idea for making homemade ice cream in a ziplock baggie. I've heard of this concept before, but never tried it! Have you? We decided to give it a try and made a few modifications along the way!

You will need:
1 sandwich baggie
1 gallon size baggie
2 cups of ice
1/2 cup salt
1 cup half and half
2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs vanilla
2 Tbs chocolate syrup (optional)

First, you combine the half and half, sugar, vanilla in the smaller bag. Lula said she wanted chocolate ice cream, so we added in a few tablespoons of chocolate syrup. You could probably add in any other flavors at this point.

Fill the larger bag with the ice and salt. Put the small bag inside the large ice bag and shake it up for about 5 minutes.

We learned quickly to put on mittens!

After 5 minutes or so, your baggie will feel a little more solid. This is what the vanilla looks like:

And the chocolate:

The texture is definitely not going to be the same as your regular store bought ice cream. Ours was still kind of mushy, so we stuck it in the freezer for about an hour. We waited until after lunch to enjoy our icy treat! The texture was a little more solid after being in the freezer.

Both the chocolate...

And vanilla were very tasty!

Don't be afraid to just dig in there

And eat your homemade treat!

TUTORIAL: Chapstick Cozy Key Chains

2012-01-16T14:33:00.000-06:00

First and foremost...the winners of the Money Saving Mom's Budget book giveaway are..... jackandellasmum
latanya
Heather G
lynaeve
Cat

If you don't receive an email from me today, it's because I didn't have any way to contact you. Please send me an e-mail in the next few days, or I will have to choose someone else. homemadeginger (at) gmail (dot) com
Congrats!!

If you missed my tutorial over at Me Sew Crazy, I'm sharing it again with you all today! Enjoy!

I don't know about you, but in the winter months my lips get super chapped and I can never keep track of my chapstick! I'm always digging through my purse for it. Quite a few years ago, I had found a little chapstick cozy key chain at the drugstore and although it wasn't cute, I always knew where my chapstick was! I haven't been able to find them at the store recently, so I decided to come up with a cuter version of my own. I've been using it for a few weeks now and it's made life just a little easier.

It's super simple to make! Here's what you will need:

1 piece of felt - 2" x 3"
1 piece of fabric - 2 3/4" x 4"
1 piece of fabric for loop - 1 1/2 " x 3"
thread
velcro
button and/or felt for embellishment (optional)

Cut your felt and fabric. I like to use my rotary cutter and ruler to make things easier

Fold the long ends of your rectangle piece of fabric under about 1/4 inch and iron.

Next, fold the short ends under twice and iron. Lay your piece of felt on top to make sure the fabric square is about the same size or a bit bigger than the felt and adjust as necessary.

Fold your strip of fabric edges under about 1/8 inch and iron.

Then, fold in half and iron . Top stitch along both long sides, close to the edge.

Now, fold your long strip in half to form a loop. Sandwich it in between the felt and ironed fabric rectangle and pin.

Sew along all sides, close the edge.

Next, cut a small piece of velcro and sew on opposite sides of your finished rectangle. Put on one the fabric side

And one on the felt side on the opposite edge. Notice that you can see the stitched square on the right side of the fabric. If this bothers you, like it did me...you can add a little embellishment to cover it up!

Find a button, cut a felt square or flower....

And stitch it on right on top of that stitched square. Since there is velcro on the other side, it will be a bit tricky to get the needle through, but it can be done!

The possibilities are endless! You can make a bunch for gifts and they can all be totally different. I came up with a few different variations.

You can sew a bunch of lines through the layers to make more of a quilted look.

I tried making a long and skinny horizontal piece of velcro instead of a rectangle

You can add a felt flower or just a button.

The nice thing about the velcro is that your cozy can be adjusted! It can fit a fat chapstick, like my Blistex Deep Renewal that I love, or just your conventional size

A little bit more of the velcro shows with your fatter chapstick, but it still works!

Stick the loop on your key chain and you are ready to go!

I hope you have as much fun as I did coming up with different fabric and button combinations!

Real Food Update: Green Smoothies

2012-01-15T19:09:00.000-06:00

Ever since last month's real food challenge, I've been motivated and inspired to keep with it. It's so much easier than I was expecting (probably because I'd been doing many of the things already, I just wasn't "all in"). I thought it would be fun to do an occasional real food post because I 'm always trying new recipes and tweaking things!

My girls love spinach. They eat it all the time. What? Your kids don't? That's weird. Ok, I was being sarcastic. My girls don't love spinach...but they DO love green smoothies. Which means that they are eating tons of spinach and LOVING it...they just don't know it.

I've been making these green smoothies every day for the past few weeks and they are so yummy, easy and healthy. I especially love them for breakfast. My girls will drink an entire cup in about 10 seconds and then ask for more.

I don't really have a precise recipe, I just throw things in. Lately I've been putting in about 1 cup of frozen mangoes, 1 cup of pineapple ($0.99 at Aldi right now and pineapple is one of the "clean" 15, so no need to buy organic!), 2 tablespoons of orange juice concentrate, 1/2 cup of milk and a huge handful of spinach. I add water and a few ice cubes to get it to the consistency that we like. I prefer my smoothies to be pretty thick and slushy, but if you like yours thinner...just add more liquid. You can also make it with berries, which is delicious...it just won't be green!

Blend it all up...

And enjoy!

And you honestly can't taste the spinach. I promise! (at least I can't!)

ReSEWlutions guest post

2012-01-14T10:59:00.003-06:00

Jessica from Me Sew Crazy asked me to participate in a fun series called New Years ReSEWlutions

Lots of fabulous bloggers have been participating for the past few weeks with some awesome projects. I was flattered to be a part of the fun and I came up with a simple tutorial great for winter!

Head on over to Me Sew Crazy to check out the full tutorial!

Indoor Activities Day 13: Monochromatic Painting

2012-01-13T15:44:00.002-06:00

*I will update soon on the winners of the The Money Saving Mom's Budget giveaway! I'm trying to work out a few technical kinks first, so stay tuned!*

I found this adorable painting project on Pinterest and thought it would be fun to try my own spin on it with Lula. It evolved into a monochromatic painting project perfect for developing fine motor painting skills for my 3.5 year old.

We were reading Blueberries for Sal for preschool and talking about different shades of blue. I decided to try making a grid on the computer and printing it on cardstock. You could do this with pencil and then erase later if you really wanted it. But, I was pretty sure Lula wouldn't be able to stay inside all of the squares anyway, plus I didn't want to spend the time drawing all the squares.

Next, I mixed up some acrylic paint and water in different shades of blue. We had light blue, teal, royal blue, gray blue..etc...

Then, I let Lula try to paint inside the squares with the different shades.

This little project really helped her learn how to properly hold the paintbrush and load it with paint. I hadn't really worked on these skills with her before. She really enjoyed it!

She just kept painting and rinsing and painting all the little squares...

It's definitely not as perfect as the example I found on Pinterest, but I think it's pretty cool

We actually did half one day and then finished it the next day. Once she started to get bored with it, I knew the painting was complete!

I hope art projects are never forced activities and I try not to push these things. Here is the final little painting!

I think I might have to frame this one!

(please not that this post contains affiliate links)

Indoor Activities Day 11: Handmade Recycled Cards & Envelopes

2012-01-11T09:23:00.000-06:00

*This is a re-post of a project I did last year with my MOPS group, but it would be super fun to do with kids as well! You can use scrapbook paper, old books, maps, construction paper or even your child's paintings.*

I'm in charge of the creative activities at my church's MOPS group this year. We had a session on "going green" and so I came up with an eco-friendly project. I collected some vintage maps and books and had everyone make cards and envelopes. We used some simple stamps as well. I think they turned out pretty cute!

To make the envelopes, I just took apart an envelope and photocopied it. The ladies could cut it out and use it as a template to trace around on the maps or book pages. Then, all they needed to do was fold and use a little glue!

Does anyone else reuse vintage books for any crafty projects?

Indoor Activities Day 10: Preschool Curriculum

2012-01-10T16:41:00.001-06:00

Sorry for the delay in posting this! I've had internet connection troubles at my house!

When Lula turned 3 this summer, we decided it was time to implement a preschool curriculum at home with her. Because I'm staying home most time (I do work outside the home 10-12 hours a week), it's just not in our budget to send her to conventional preschool. Plus, I was excited to try a little bit of homeschooling to see how I liked it. (Sending your child to preschool is wonderful and great, just doesn't work for us right now!)

At first, I tried to come up with my own curriculum, but I was pretty overwhelmed. I decided I needed one thing that touched on many different subjects and pretty much told me what to do each lesson...and then I could expand on that myself. I came across Flowering Baby on Passionate Homemaking and decided to look into it. I liked that it was broken up into months and that it touched on math, reasoning, letters, numbers, reading comprehension and many more subjects. Plus, the price was right...so I bought it.

We've been doing it since October and it's been wonderful! It's laid back and fun, yet educational at the same time. Lula loves doing it and asks to do "preschool" all the time. Each month has different themes, recommended books and even music. I've been requesting the recommended books online at my local library a few weeks before the upcoming month. Then, I'll just hit up the library at the beginning of the month, and all my preschool books are there waiting for me. Easy!

Most activities in the curriculum require materials that we already have on hand and little prep time. It's also fine if you miss out on a lesson, or do two in one day or whatever. We usually do preschool about 4 times a week and it takes about 30 minutes or so. Pretty simple!

I've rearranged my front living room to be conducive for preschool activities and creativity in general...

You can see our new teal dining room walls peeking through...and our little table that needs to be re-painted!

I moved this little vintage magazine holder from Jane's room to hold art supplies, library books and the preschool stuff

It's worked very well for me to have everything somewhat organized. It's also been nice to have the library books up high and out of reach. We've had to buy one library book already this year due to pages being ripped out during nap time. I'm sure it won't be the last.

So, there you have it! That's our little preschool routine. I'd love to hear what curriculum any of you have used or activities that have worked for you!

Also, there is still time to enter the giveaway if you haven't! Five people will win a copy of The Money Saving Mom's Budget!

Amazing GIVEAWAY!! The Money Saving Mom's Budget

2012-01-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

* Giveaway is now CLOSED. The winners are:

jackandellasmum
latanya
Heather G
lynaeve
Cat

If you don't receive an email from me, it's because I didn't have any way to contact you. Please send me an e-mail in the next few days, or I will have to choose someone else. homemadeginger (at) gmail (dot) com

I'm so excited to be doing this giveaway today! I hope you all will be excited about it as well. It's even better than my other giveaways because FIVE people will be winners! Woohoo!

Crystal Paine from Money Saving Mom just wrote a great book called The Money Saving Mom's Budget . It actually officially goes on sale tomorrow on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. She sent me a copy a little while ago for me to read in preparation for this giveaway.

I have learned so many useful tips for budgeting and simplifying life. And it's not just for moms. It's a wonderful tool for anyone at any stage of life. I wish I had read this book when I was in college or newly married. It's super easy to read and every single page has practical tips that will change your life if you follow them.

The best part of all is that 100% of the books proceeds are going to Compassion International. Yes, you read that correctly. Crystal is giving away ALL of the profits from her book. Who does that? I am excited about the book, but I think I'm even more inspired and encouraged by her incredible generosity. And Compassion is an amazing ministry that I stand behind. We've supported a little girl through Compassion for about 5 years now and it's been a great experience.

All of that to say that Crystal is giving away FIVE copies of her book to FIVE lucky readers!

Here is how to enter:

You have the chance to enter up to 3 times if you wish.

1. leave a comment on this blog post.

2. Become a follower or subscriber and leave a comment telling me you did so.

3. "Like" Homemade Ginger on Facebook and leave another comment telling me so.

If you are already a follower and/or already like hg on facebook, you can just leave me comments telling me so!

**I need a way to contact you if you win, so include your email in your comment if you don't have email reply enabled. Here is a tutorial on how to change that setting. Please consider doing it if you haven't!! **

The giveaway will end on Wednesday, January 11.

I'll be back later today with an indoor activity!

(please note that this post contains affiliate links)

Indoor Activities Day 7: Texture Rubbings

2012-01-07T12:27:00.001-06:00

For day 7 of my 31 days of indoor activitites project, I'm doing an oldie but a goodie. I did so many variations of this as an art teacher and it's perfect for preschoolers in learning about textures, shapes and even fine motor skills.

First, find some old and broken crayons and take the paper off.

Gather some scrap paper and some objects with different textures. Have your child feel each object and talk about how each one feels. We had things that were bumpy, sharp, smooth, lumpy...etc. Put the paper on top of the object and show your child how to hold it sideways and rub the crayon over the texture.

Sometimes it takes them a few times to remember to hold their crayon sideways, not vertical

Let your child walk around the house and find things with different textures to make rubbings.

It's so fun for them to hunt down toys and and objects and look at them in a different way. I loved the words that Lula was using to describe different textures. "Curly" was my favorite adjective she used.

Hope you have a fun filled weekend! As I said in my rules, I won't be posting on Sundays this month.

I will be back Monday with some new indoor activities and a really awesome giveaway!!

Indoor Activities Day 6: Perfect Play Dough

2012-01-06T15:00:00.002-06:00

It seems a little funny to be discussing indoor activities because it's 60 degrees outside right now where I live! Actually, the month of January has been very nice so far. I'm sure we will experience negative temps in the near future, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts!

Today I'll be sharing a great play dough recipe!

I found a play dough recipe using Jello on Pinterest and thought it looked interesting, but the instructions were not very clear, so I thought I'd try it out and take some pictures in the process! I really did love the end results compared to other play dough I've made in the past. The colors were vibrant, it smells nice and the texture of the play dough is very soft and smooth.

Here's what you will need. This amount makes one nice size ball of play dough. I made 3 different batches to get my 3 colors.

1 cup of flour
2 Tbs salt
2 Tbs cream of tarter
1 cup water
2 Tbs oil - (I used vegetable oil, but I'm sure any edible oil would work!)
1 3oz. pack of Jello in the color of your choice (I used the off brand and it worked fine)

First, mix all your ingredients in a medium saucepan

Mix in your jello and watch it turn a bright color! This is the cherry flavor

After it's mixed, turn the heat to medium-high and stir constantly

It will start smelling great. It will also start slowly thickening and clumping together..this is after about 2 minutes

And here it is almost done after 6 minutes or so

Once it's in a ball and there aren't any wet areas, take it out and plop in on some waxed paper to cool. Once it's cool, you may want to knead it with a little flour if it seems sticky. I had to do this with 2 of my colors. Then you are ready to play!

I used orange, lime and cherry for my colors. They all have a nice light scent, but the cherry has the strongest smell. Thankfully it's not a strong enough scent that my girls have tried to eat it....yet. :)

Store in an airtight container and it should last a long time...or until all the colors get mixed up and it turns brown, of course.

Indoor Activities Day 5: Sequence Cards

2012-01-05T15:11:00.002-06:00

I'm on Day 5 of my 31 Days of Indoor Activities project. This one is so simple and quick to do. I actually came up with this as part of Lula's preschool curriculum (which I will talk about soon!). We did some sequence cards with letters and numbers.

I had some colored cardstock and wrote the alphabet on them. We are working our way up doing the entire alphabet, but for now just started with a few letters. I mixed up all the cards and had her put them in order

She really loved it and after doing it two or three times, could do it perfectly! It really helped her in going from left to right, which she has trouble with.

I flipped the cards over and wrote numbers on the other side and we did the same exercise with numbers. We just started with 1-5 and will work our way up!

We practiced counting backwards from 5 which she also has trouble with. (and yes, she did it incorrectly in the picture below...)

It's simple, but a free and fun activity for a preschooler or early elementary age child. You could do it with all different things...sight words, pictures, reading comprehension (ordering from beginning, middle, end etc...)

I know it's a common learning technique in elementary school, but I wouldn't have thought to do it with my preschooler!

Indoor Activities Day 4: Color Sorting

2012-01-04T08:54:00.003-06:00

I'm skipping ahead to day 4, since it's January 4th for my January project - Indoor Activities. Even though it's only the 2nd project...but I had to get on track!

This a super easy and quick little activity that I saw on I Can Teach My Child and I thought it would be fun to try with my 17 month old.

First, you just gather some colored pieces of paper and then find coordinating objects. Lula (my 3.5 yr old) had fun hunting down yellow, orange and pink objects and placing them on the paper for Jane.

After finding your objects, put them all in a basket and mix them up, then help your toddler place the correct color on the coordinating piece of paper.

I learned that they have to see you do it a few times to understand the concept. Jane had fun with this, although she doesn't really know her colors yet (see below where she is putting the yellow bow on the orange paper!)

I have just started working on colors with her, so this will be a good little activity to do over and over again. It was fun for Lula as well and kept them occupied for awhile. You can obviously add more and more colors, or just start out with one color. I think it's a keeper!

Check out my day 1 indoor activity here!

Indoor Acitivities Day 1: No Mess Painting

2012-01-03T10:08:00.000-06:00

Even though it's technically the 3rd day of the month, we are on day 1 of my newest challenge for January - indoor activities (for kids).

I'm using a project that I did when I was an elementary art teacher. I had a class of special needs kids and this was a fun way to paint without any mess to clean up. It's a fun way to use unusual objects to paint and see what textures they create.

Here's what you'll need:

An old box
a few objects that will "roll"
tape
paint (acrylic or finger paint works)

Tape your paper down

squirt a few blobs of paint on...

Throw your objects in the box and shake away!

They will roll around in the paint and create different shapes and splatters

After a bit, you can add another color

And just keep shaking away until you are done!

Leave it in the box to dry and your only cleanup is washing off the toys. No messy hands or clothes whatsoever!

30 Days Project: January Challenge

2012-01-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

I'm excited to introduce my project for January as a part of my 30 Days Project series.

January and February are my least favorite months of the year. I'm very affected by the weather and in Kansas, Jan and Feb are very bleak, cold and depressing. Having all of this in mind, I came up with a fitting project for the month.

I will be attempting to post a different indoor activity geared towards kids every day this month! I've been trying to come up with new fun and educational activities anyway, so I figured this would motivate me to gather a bunch of ideas...plus it will make January a bit more fun while we are stuck inside.

My rules this month are:
1. I will post 6 days a week (I learned from the first challenge that I need to take a day off, which will be Sunday)
2. Each daily activity must be different
3. Each activity must be free or very cheap.

Do you have any good ideas for indoor activities during the winter months? I'd love to have a few people guest post their ideas on my blog. Email me at homemadeginger@gmail.com

Real Food Recap

2012-01-02T10:21:00.000-06:00

My real food challenge is over. I really loved the challenge and think we did pretty well on sticking to the rules. We did cheat a few times around Christmas by making some yummy treats for Christmas eve and Christmas day. The other downfall was that we had lots of leftovers and ended up eating those up not to waste food. So, there were a few days where we were definitely not eating real food, but overall we stuck to it.

For all those reasons I"m giving myself a B+ for my real food grade.

Here's a little recap of some of the things I made:

Healthy Snacks

Stretching a chicken for 6 recipes

Whole wheat cottage cheese pancakes

Whole wheat brownies

Peanut butter chocolate oatmeal bars

Homemade microwave popcorn

And you can also check out my menu plans:
Menu Plan 1
Menu Plan 2
Menu Plan 3
Menu Plan 4

I plan to keep cooking with a lot of the same principles of my real food challenge. I'm sure there will be a little more "cheating" going on, but I have tried some really great recipes and I think I've learned that substituting with whole wheat flour and cutting out white sugar really isn't as hard as it seems...and you can still make yummy treats without all the processed sugar. I hope to keep sharing real food recipes as an ongoing series. I've actually tried a few new real food things out since the challenge has ended!

I'll be back with my January challenge rules!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T14:31:00.004-06:00

Happy new year from my family to yours!

Can't wait to start my January challenge. I'll be back soon with details!

Top 11 in 2011

2011-12-30T13:54:00.000-06:00

I thought it would be fun to take a stroll down memory lane and look back at the 11 most popular posts in 2011. It's fun to see which posts are most popular...some of the ones that get the most hits are random posts I never dreamed anyone would care about...(for instance, the #1 most popular post kind of shocked me!) Here are the top 11 in order:

#11: Ruffled Sweater Tutorial

#10: Waterproof Pocket Bib

#9: DIY Roman Shades

#8: Felt Flowers

#7: DIY List Maker Notepad

#6: Painted Fireplace Makeover

#5: Homemade Whole Grain Baby Cereal

#4: Homemade Natural Cleaning Wipes

#3: T-Shirt Flower Ring

#2: Anthropologie Inspired Blooms (this was #1 for a long time)

#1: Homemade Sugar Scrub

So, there you have it! I never dreamed that my sugar scrub would be the #1 post in 2011. It gets viewed on Pinterest hundreds of times a day. Go figure! I can't wait to see what my top posts for 2012 will be. I have some fun things in store for the next year. I will talk about some of my goals for the next year soon!

You can check out my top 10 favorite posts of 2010 here!

Fresh Dining Room Paint

2011-12-29T13:54:00.001-06:00

Remember when I showed you the paint swatches that I was deciding on for our dining room?

We ended up with the bottom one, which is called "Secluded Garden" by Valspar

When we moved in, we painted our dining room a light neutral color. Our entire house was so dark with paneling and wall paper that we decided to play it safe to lighten things up.

After thinking about it for many months and going back and forth, I decided to take the plunge and paint the room a dark teal. My main fear was that it would make the space feel small and dark. I did not want to go back to how the house was when we first moved in! But, I'm absolutely in love with the results! It's the perfect shade of teal, not too dark, not too light. It makes the space feel fresh and modern, yet still goes well with our mid-century dining room table. However, I do plan to recover the chair cushions in something simple and neutral. Here it it:

It's really a beautiful color. I'm so glad that I got so many swatches and spent the extra $ to buy the 2 small jars to test out my favorite colors in the space. I have re-painted a few too many rooms because of making hasty paint color choices. I will never go back to that method!

I'm also ok with the same curtains in the room. Originally, I had planned to make new white curtains, but I think these will do for awhile.

And I threw together a little functional centerpiece with my "new" vintage salt and pepper shakers and a cute vintage teal planter that my friend Erin gave me. It's perfect for holding napkins. And I put it all on a white tray that I can easily move when needed.

Oh, and I have big plans for the big empty wall. I've already started working on it and I hope it will be as great as the vision I have in my head!

I love paint.

Christmas Favorites

2011-12-28T13:45:00.002-06:00

I wanted to share some favorite gifts that we received this year...they are pretty fun.

Reid and I just do stockings for each other and I was surprised to pull out these little vintage salt and pepper shakers that he found for $1 at the thrift store. They are so perfect. Good work, Reid!

He also bought me The Civil Wars album Barton Hollow. I know they've been around for a little while, but I have been loving them for the past few months.

My favorite songs are Poison & Wine and To Whom it May Concern. If you haven't heard of them before, you have to check them out. Seriously beautiful.

I also got a fun scarf in my stocking from my mom. It's from an organization called JOYN based out of India. The fabric is handmade and stamped. Love it.

My mom outdid herself and gave myself and my brothers and their wives each a quilt. This one is a quilt she designed and made for a challenge for the modern quilt guild here in KC. You can read more about it on her blog.

Here are some other pictures of the quilt that I stole from her blog:

The girls also got a few adorable gifts that I'm excited about!

They each received backpacks from their Gramie that I found on Amazon.

They are made by Skip Hop and come in all different animals. They are pretty small, but it's the perfect size for my girls since they aren't in school yet. So adorable.

And my mom found this vintage metal tea set for Lula...

It's about the cutest thing I've seen. We've been having so much fun playing with it

I love that it's not breakable. Perfect for pouring water over and over and over again...

And to make it even better, it came in a vintage metal doll box.

We were definitely blessed this Christmas!