Simply Thrifty

Reclaimed Wood Sign

2012-12-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

This wooden sign brings a smile to my face and a reminder of who is to be worshiped and adored each time I walk through my living room. I am so thankful for my Savior and I want to be sure that my home reflects that. I want my children to know Jesus Christ and his love for them.

I've been seeing some beautiful signs on Pinterest for awhile and had the desire to create one for our household. A few weeks ago, while driving to pick up our Christmas tree, I drove past some old fence wood on the side of the road. It was too long for my car and full of nails but I grabbed what I could fit and went to get our tree. It was an adventure getting it all in the car but I'm so glad I stopped for this wood because it was beautiful! I went back for more two days later but sadly it was gone as I figured it would be.

In preparing for the Christmas season, I have been trying to find ways to bring Christ into our home in a very visible way. I had a few sayings going through my head that I was trying to decide between. Here were my top four choices.

1. Wise men still seek Him
2. True love was born in a stable
3. for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord
4. Oh come let us adore Him Christ the Lord

I settled on number four and went to work. With two kids (2 and 4) I am able to accomplish a lot but I do almost all of my projects in little baby steps. Please note that this project took me about two weeks from start to finish. I cut the wood one night. I screwed it all together during a nap time. On another day, I worked on the graphic and it took about three different sessions to transfer the words to wood and paint them. If you want to do this, you CAN do it but it will take some time and isn't a 30 minute project...especially if you have young kids like me.

I first cut the wood. The sign ended up being about 26" wide and 20" long. I tried to use the wood from the ends as much as possible as they had the fence post ends and were weathered. I just left the saw cuts raw. I lined the wood up and then turned it over and placed two pieces of furring strip on the back that I had leftover from another project. I predrilled the furring strips and then sunk a screw through each furring strip into the fence wood and it was ready to paint.

Now came the hard part. If you want to make a sign exactly like mine, I'm happy to share a .jpg of the graphic for you to print. I downloaded some fonts that looked pretty and played around with the text, size and layout in Photoshop for quite some time until I ended up with the final product. I then printed it section by section until I had the whole graphic printed in pieces. I trimmed the edges off and taped the whole thing together. I then cut out the word "Lord" first and followed this tutorial from Pinterest to transfer the words to the wood using chalk and a ball-point pen. I immediately painted the word "Lord" so I wouldn't lose my chalk transfer. Next I worked on "Christ the." I slowly moved my way up the sign until I was finished.

I have worked with transferring images to wood before and this chalk method was very easy to do and best of all, you don't need an expensive machine. Just a printer, chalk and a pen. I'm sure I'll be using the chalk method to make many more signs for my home and for friends.

Here is the finished product hanging in my home. I predrilled two small holes in the side of the furring strips and twisted in little eye hooks. I then strung wire through the eye hooks to make a hanger on the back. I'm very pleased with the finished product and hope you're inspired to go make your own wood sign now. Total out of pocket cost = FREE.

I included the graphic I made at the bottom of this post. I don't know if this will work for you all who want it. Please let me know if you're able to save and print the graphic in a format that works for you or if I need to figure out something else to share it.

Dishwasher Soap

2012-12-12T20:31:00.001-07:00

I keep sharing this recipe with friends on Facebook so I thought I would add it to my blog so I could just direct them here. The recipe I use was originally found here. I have made one slight change that makes it much easier to use. I have been using this soap for a few months now and I haven't had any problems with it. My dishes appear clean and I haven't had any soap build-up on the glass. I make my own laundry soap with borax and washing soda so I always have most of these ingredients on hand.

I store my soap in an old baby wipe container and wrote the recipe on the side in permanent maker so I don't have to go look it up each time I need to remake it. I keep a measuring spoon from an old oxi-clean container inside so I always have a scoop ready to measure out the soap.

Mix together:
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda
1 cup kosher salt

Use approximately 1 Tablespoon per load in addition to approximately 1 tsp of Lemi-Shine.

Although the original recipe has you mix the lemi-shine into the other ingredients, I have found that by leaving it separate, my mixture no longer clumps. It remains pourable/scoop-able and it's much easier to just add the lemi-shine separately than having to try to chisel pieces off of the clumped together soap.

Enjoy!!

Save A Penny: Recycled Milk Jug Sandwich Container

2011-10-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

I have been loving Pinterest since I discovered it a month or so ago. If you don't know what it is, it's a virtual pinboard that you can pin any graphic you find on the web to. You create different boards with different category names (recipes, sewing, home decorating etc.). You can also search other people's pinboards and see ideas that they have pinned. The actual photos will take you back to the original post the photo was pinned from. There are many awesome tutorials. I found these sandwich containers made from recycled milk cartons on Pinterest. I love that I'm reusing our milk jugs and that these containers work so well for sandwiches. I can pack a sandwich for my husband's lunch or for a picnic with the kids without worrying that the sandwich will get crushed. They're easy to wash and reuse and only require a piece of velcro and a milk jug.

Sandwich and homemade container

Sandwich container made from a milk carton

There's a crease in the bottom of the milk carton so it works best to cut the sandwich at a diagonal.

Save A Penny: Painted Horizontal Striped Dropcloth Curtains

2011-10-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

Before

Recently, I started working on redecorating my son's room. We live in a rental and the walls in his room were peach (3 walls) and a burnt orange color. Needless to say, I wasn't a fan and haven't done anything with his room since we moved in months ago.

I recently had some time in my schedule and received permission to repaint the room so I got to work. I painted the walls Dover White. It's so nice to have a clean slate to work on. If we owned the home, I might have done something a bit more daring than white but since it's a rental, I wanted it to be neutral.

I rearranged the furniture just a little and refinished a chair with some new paint and a new pad. I painted the chair blue and decided that the white curtains that I borrowed from my daughter's room didn't do enough with the white walls. I found a tutorial on painted curtains on Pinterest that I loved so I decided to give painted curtains a try. I absolutely love the end result. I still need to change up the bedspread but overall, I love his room so much more now than I did two weeks ago!

Here's how you can make your own painted curtains.

Supplies:

2 drop cloths (or regular curtains if you'd prefer)

1 gallon of paint (I used nearly a quart on just ONE curtain)

A small foam roller and paint tray

Blue painters tape

Plastic to put under the drop cloth as you paint.

I purchased two drop clothes from Home Depot. I didn't have much of a choice because HD is all we have here but I've read if you want to use drop cloths, Home Depot is the place to go. Lowe's has them but many of them have a seam down the middle. I purchased two 6'x 9' canvas drop cloths for just over $10 apiece.

1. Wash the drop cloths.

2. Iron them out. This takes some time since they are so large. I found that the highest setting was too hot for them. They needed a medium setting. I didn't use starch because I didn't want to have issues with the paint if I used starch.

3. Hem your cloth to the length you want. I have 8' ceilings and I wanted them to go from ceiling to floor so they are 94" long. I folded down the edge to 94" and then sewed the hem.

4. Decide how many rows you want and how wide you want each row to be. I was planning on doing each line 6 1/4" but after I painted the first curtain and was measuring the second, I found that I had actually made the blue liens 6 1/2 and the white was 6 1/4. You can't tell but it made my last line on the bottom a little shorter as a result.

5. Carefully tape off each row that you will paint. The wider the tape, the more likely it will be that you won't mess up while painting. I used 1 1/2" tape because that's what I had on hand. I didn't make mistakes but if I were buying it, I'd purchase it a little wider just to be safe. I taped off one curtain, painted it and let it dry then tried taping off the other curtain. On the second curtain, I kept making mistakes while I taped so I finally laid the first, finished curtain underneath to help me as a guide. I'm SO GLAD I did this as the lines would have been totally off if I had taped them separately. I'd highly recommend lining them up together to make sure you tape them the same.

When taping your second curtain, line your first up underneath to make sure you tape it correctly!!

Tip: I wanted the top line white and both times I started taping I messed up and put the tape where the blue line would be painted. I had to peel it off and start over. Make sure you start off correctly with your tape after deciding if you want the top painted or white.

Because the tape has to stay only in the part that's staying white, it creates sort of an optical illusion with the lines.Your lines should LOOK wide and narrow if you want even lines.

6. Lay down your plastic and tape the edges. Lay your curtain on top and begin painting. I sat on a piece of brown paper that helped in case I accidentally stepped in paint or got it on my pants or something. I didn't want to worry about accidentally smudging paint onto the wrong area of the curtain.

7. Load that paint roller and start painting. The drop clothes absorb A LOT of paint so don't skimp. I got pretty good coverage but really should touch up the curtains because with the light shining through them, you can see some areas that need a bit more paint. The back of the curtain doesn't look nearly as pretty as the front. I'd recommend sewing a panel to the back if you want it to look pretty. You can also try to paint the lines on the back. However, I haven't tried this and I'm not sure that it wouldn't ruin the front if you did that so be cautious.

8. Peel off the tape carefully. Don't allow it to touch down on the curtain! Allow to dry overnight and then the curtains are ready to hang!

All finished!!!

Simply Homemade: Canned Fruit

2011-10-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

Well, my blog has been hibernating over the summer months. We're now into Fall and I'm hoping life will slow down a bit during these colder months. I put my blog on the back burner because I have been doing so many projects these past months I just haven't had time to blog. However, I'd like to get back into it, both on this blog and on our family blog.

Homemade Cinnamon Pears

The past few years, I have been doing some canning for our family. With having Brecken last November, I didn't even try to can anything. However, this year, I have made four loads (7 qts/load) of cinnamon pears, 2 loads of apple pie filling, 2 loads of peaches and one batch of applesauce (so far). Some of this was done with one of my friends and some of it I did alone.

Growing up, my mom canned every summer and my sister and I would help her. We always got our fruit from a local farm. When I lived in Silt, CO, I had a friend, Kristi, who used to stop at people's houses who had fruit trees where the fruit was dropping unused onto the ground. She would stop and ask them if they were going to use their fruit and ask if she could pick the fruit if they weren't going to use it. I have now been doing this for a couple years and have hardly had to pay for any of the fruit I have canned. I've received tons of free apples, free pears and found free plum trees on the side of a frontage road that wasn't on anyone's property. I've also posted on Freecycle asking for free fruit and have received responses each time. This makes for an awesome deal on fruit for our family. All I end up paying for is sugar for preserving and lids if I need them for my jars.

I was running out of canning jars recently so I also asked on Freecycle for mason jars. Just yesterday, I picked up 7 BOXES full of canning jars. That should keep me busy for awhile! (I'll be sharing them with my friend as well). So, if you're interested in canning but maybe don't want to shell out a lot of money to get started, keep your eyes open for fruit that you can pick yourself and ask on Freecycle. Find a friend who has canning supplies (waterbath/pressure canner etc.) that you can borrow. Canning is also much more fun with a friend. It's a lot of work but it truly is worth it.

I'd like to share my apple pie filling recipe. It's easier to make than applesauce because you just have to peel and slice the apples and stuff them into jars. No cooking down and putting them through the strainer. Here's the recipe. It's a great one!!

Apple Pie Filling
Makes enough filling for 7 quarts of pie filling.
Mix together: 4 ½ cups sugar, 1 cup cornstarch, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 tsp salt, 1 teaspoon nutmeg. Wisk together the dry ingredients before adding water to prevent lumps.
Add: 10 cups water
Cook until thick and bubbly while stirring occasionally.
Peel, core and slice about 32 apples. Pack raw apples in jars and pour syrup over. Fill to w/in ½ inch of rim.
Cooking Time in a pressure canner: 5 lbs at 10 minutes add 1 lb pressure for each 1,000 feet

Also, if you'd like to make cinnamon pears, just add a teaspoon of cinnamon to your syrup. They taste so amazing with the addition of cinnamon!

Simple Kitchen Shortcut: Cleaning A Burnt Pot

2011-04-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, I burn a pot while cooking. It doesn't happen too often and usually, with a bit of elbow grease I can scrub it off. However, one time I made a very large pot of soup in my biggest and nicest stock pot. I had it on low to keep it warm during a party and unfortunately burned the whole batch. The bottom of the pot was badly burned. It had a very thick, black and incredibly hard layer of burnt soup on the bottom! I tried everything I could think of to get my pot clean. I boiled water in it, cleaned it with tough scrubbers and cleaners, soaked it for a couple days. Although the burnt residue came off a little, I still had a very burnt layer on the pan that I was unable to remove. I even boiled tin foil in the pot because I heard that worked...it didn't. If it had been one of my cheaper pans/pots I probably would have just thrown it away. However, I wanted to keep this pot and wanted to get it clean.

I asked people for advice and someone (maybe my sister?) suggested boiling a dryer sheet in the pot. Since I don't have any dryer sheets (I use dryer balls) I finally asked my friend for one and tried it out. Boiling the dryer sheet made my house smell very strongly of dryer sheet but it totally worked! I was elated. I had no problem scrubbing out ALL of the remaining residue after using the dryer sheet. It still took a little bit of elbow grease but I could immediately tell a difference and it actually was able to come off this time. So, if you have a pot or pan you need to salvage, try a dryer sheet. You might also try soaking it in water without boiling it. There's a chance that might work without having to breathe in all the dryer sheet fumes.

Do you have any other tips for cleaning difficult pots and pans?

Simply Homemade: Reupholstered Dining Room Chairs

2011-04-11T09:00:00.006-07:00

This is one of my favorite DIY projects to date. When Phil and I decided to purchase a new dining room table (pre-kids), we loved the table we purchased but weren't super excited about the white, yes, WHITE material that the chairs were covered with. We decided that we'd buy the chairs and someday, when the white was no longer that color, that we'd reupholster them.

They stayed decently clean until Taeya came along. At first, we delegated her to one specific chair and also covered it with a dish towel to protect it. After a few months, she started moving around to different chairs for whatever reason or we'd have guests and she'd end up on a chair she didn't normally sit on. She also drank soy milk which she seemed to spill at nearly every meal. How does that happen? It always soaked through the towels and stained not only our chairs but her clothes as well. It wasn't long before our chairs looked like this:

Our original WHITE covered chairs at the end of their life

Yuck! We didn't even like sitting on them, even though we knew they were just stained. It was DEFINITELY time to recover our white dining room chairs and recover them we did.

It really wasn't a very difficult or time consuming process and the end result was dramatically different from what we started with. First, my husband and I stopped at Joann's going out of business sale and picked out a DARK fabric we both liked. I liked it A LOT but Phil finally caved and agreed to use it as well. He now likes it as well. I love that it's dark and has a print all over it because it makes any spills much harder to spot. While we were at Joann's, we also purchased some clear plastic to try out as well. More to come on that at the end of the post. We borrowed a staple gun and a compressor and would have finished this project in one evening except that we ran out of staples. So, it took us two evenings and probably a total of about 2-3 hours to recover all six chairs.

The material we chose

I first took the seat off of one chair and cut out six pieces of material with enough extra to wrap around the bottom edges of the chair. Phil and I then worked as a team to remove the rest of the seats and we recovered them together. It was much easier doing this with two people because one could make sure the material was straight and pulled tight while the other managed the staple gun. We stapled the new material right over the top of the old seat covers. The most time-consuming part of this project was screwing the seats back onto the chairs when we were finished.

Phil working on our chairs

Three of my beautiful newly covered chairs.

On our last two chairs, we used the clear plastic we purchased to cover the material to make child-proof dining room chairs for each of our kids. We figured we would cover just two chairs with the plastic (over top of our new material) to use with the kids and that we'd rip it off when they outgrew the messy stage. We didn't put the plastic on all six because we thought it would be somewhat uncomfortable to sit on. We found out that it's actually not uncomfortable, sticky etc. If we were to do it again, we'd recover ALL six of our chairs with the plastic protection.

Our plastic covered chair

Plastic covered chair on the right, regular material on the left

We love, love, love our new chair covers and although there have been a few spills on them, they still look amazing and I love that I can easily wipe off the two plastic covered chairs which we really try to have Taeya sit on when she eats. We now no longer dread sitting on our filthy dining room chairs and love how it's made our dining room look so much classier and cleaner.

Have you ever recovered something? Are your dining chairs in need of recovering? If so, give it a try! If you don't have access to a compressor and staple gun, you can purchase a hand held one that doesn't need a compressor at your local hardware store.

Simply Homemade: A Repurposed Skirt

2011-04-07T16:11:00.000-07:00

A friend passed down some play jeans to Taeya that had holes in the knees. My original idea was to put some cute patches on them. However, once I saw a tutorial for how to make a jean skirt on Saved by Naptime's blog, I knew that pair of jeans would be perfect for this project.

This afternoon, during nap time, I whipped out this cute little skirt and a matching belt. I love it. I had a difficult time with the pleats. The pleats on the back look great but the front ones don't. I also messed up the length of the hem on the front but learned as I went. Taeya's not a fan of jeans but loves skirts so I'm hoping I can get her to actually wear this skirt! Best of all, it was FREE as I made it with the jeans and material I had on hand.!!!

If anyone has anymore holey jeans they want to send my way, I'd be happy to take them off your hands. I think I'll make myself a jean skirt next time I wear down a pair of jeans from crawling after the kiddos.

I've been really enjoying finding ideas for re-purposed clothes online. I recently discovered that little girl dresses can be made with men's dress shirts. Of course, I have one half-finished from a dress shirt I picked up at the thrift store. Trying to figure out how to make the straps work with it. I'll post it when it's finished.

Do you re-purpose clothing at all? Have any good ideas/links to share? I'd love to see new ideas of how I can make our clothes go a little further.

Organize It: Information I Find Online

2011-04-04T17:10:00.000-07:00

If you're anything like me and enjoy reading other people's blogs (I'm guessing you do if you're reading mine!), you probably come across great ideas of crafts you want to make, recipes you'd love to try, book suggestions that sound interesting and so much more. There's no way I can remember all the great ideas I find on my own. If I come across an idea and I think, "I'll remember where I found that." Chances are, I've forgotten by the next day. Here's what I do to remember all the projects and ideas I come across.

I have a folder on my computer called "Household." In this folder are many subcategories that are related mostly to home organization. Here are some of the subcategories:

* Address Lists
* Christmas (Christmas card ideas, our yearly Christmas card and letter, gift ideas etc.)
* Crafts (There are many subcategories under Crafts. Such as...)
= Birthdays
= Crocheting
= Gifts
= Sewing
* Cutting Costs (I save my homemade soap recipes and ideas like that in here)
* Decorating Ideas
* Game Rules (to card games and such that we enjoy playing)

When I come across a sewing project I'd like to do, I save it under Household/Crafts/Sewing with a description that will help me remember what it's referring to. I then copy either the whole article or part of it and I also copy the web address and paste it in a Word document. Saving the web address is VERY important! If you want to remember where you found it, or maybe you only saved a picture, the web address will allow you to return to that website. Maybe you want to post about what you make someday on your own blog. By having the web address, you can then direct credit back to the blog/website you originally found the idea on.

Make a folder for each of your interests and save ideas related to that interest in that folder. This system seriously helps me remember so many cool things that I come across. I find many projects that I can do with Taeya and save them in a folder called Kid Activities. Then, when I want to do a craft or something fun with Taeya, I'll look through the folder for idea. I love doing activities related to specific holidays so I save ideas by holiday as well.

How do you remember ideas you find online?

(In a future post, I'll tell you how I organize recipes I find online.)

Simply Homemade: Baby Food

2011-03-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Brecken is just getting to the point where he's beginning to eat baby food on a regular basis. As I did with Taeya, I'll be making my own. I find that it really doesn't take long at all, it costs very little and I can even make baby food for different stages.

This week, I started by peeling, cubing, and boiling 4 or 5 large sweet potatoes. I first took out about two cups of the hot water from the pot, I then strained the rest of the water off the sweet potatoes and poured about 1/3 of the cooked potatoes into my Vita-Mix. I pureed the sweet potatoes and added a little of the reserved water until it was the smooth consistency I was looking for. I put it into ice cube trays to freeze in small portions.

I then repeated the pureeing process two more times. However, the second time, I left some small lumps in the puree mixture to make it like a stage 2 baby food. On the third batch, I left larger lumps and also froze it in a Popsicle tray as I was out of ice cube trays and knew that Brecken would be able to eat the larger portions by the time he is eating the larger lumps.

Making baby food is very quick and easy. Best of all, by making it yourself, you know exactly what your baby is eating. Since I aim to have my babies eating table food by the time they are 10 months old, I really only have to make a few batches of baby food before they're eating what our family eats. I start offering finger foods as soon as they can pick it up. Brecken already feeds himself baby Mum-mums and loves them! At just under 5 months, he does really well getting the mum-mum into his mouth, sucking and even chewing on them.

Some of the things I puree into baby food are:
Bananas, Mango, Avacado, Pears, Peaches, Mixed berries, Peas, Organic carrots.

I've done applesauce in the past but this time I just bought a jar of 'no sugar added' applesauce because it's cost effective and what we eat as well. I purchase organic fruits/veggies sometimes but I'm not super worried about everything being organic. However, I do only buy organic carrots for babies because there is something that non-organic carrots can have that isn't good for young babies.

I don't do any sort of pureed meat because it's not realistic to what we eat. When he's a couple months older, I'll begin offering him small pieces of chicken to start with. He'll also get protein from beans and eggs.

If you've made baby food, what do you make? What advice do you have regarding baby food? Everyone does it a bit different and I'd love to hear what you think.

Save A Penny: A Thrifty Coat Rack

2011-03-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

In our new home, we have a very large coat closet right by the front door and garage. However, it's downstairs and when we arrive home, we often walk upstairs with our jackets on and then have to lay them by the staircase to be taken back downstairs. I also have the diaper bag which hangs out near the staircase as well. I decided that we should probably have some sort of coat rack upstairs to keep things a little more organized. A trip to Home Depot was in order.

While at Home Depot, I looked through the salvage bin to see if I could find what I needed for my coat rack project as well as the shelving I was building. I found a beautiful piece of oak that would be perfect for my coat rack. Best of all, because it was a salvage piece, it was priced at $0.50! I picked up some dark metal screws for $0.99 to use with my project as well.

Originally, I was planning on painting the wood because I was going to buy the least expensive piece I could and didn't think I'd like the look of it. However, since I really liked the Oak I decided not to paint it and just brushed it with two coats of Tung Oil to finish it. I then measured and screwed on the hooks and screwed it to the wall. We love our new coat rack and because we already had the hooks, this project cost just $1.50!

Keep It Clean: Removing Blood Stains

2011-03-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm slowly getting back in the swing of things. I've been busy since we moved. After unpacking, I built some shelving and started sewing as well. My mom bought me a sewing machine while she was out visiting and I've been having great fun playing with it. Those of you who follow me on Facebook have seen the sweet little dress I made for my daughter and the matching one for her baby doll. I'll include a picture because they're too cute not to share and I'm proud of the first article of clothing I've ever sewn.

Taeya loves both the dress and that her baby doll matches her dress. I'm so happy that she is enjoying them so much.

Anyways, on to the real topic of this post. How to remove fresh blood stains. It's a little gross but it works! If you get fresh blood on an article of clothing or some type of material, just spit on it and let the spit soak it for a little while and then rinse out. It works best if the person who made the blood stain spits on it themselves. Something in the saliva is able to break down the blood. If it doesn't come out completely the first time, after you rinse it out, repeat the process and then wash it. Before you dry it, check to be sure the stain is gone.

Simple Kitchen Shortcut: Grating Cheese

2011-03-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

When I'm in the kitchen, I'm always looking for ways to do things a little bit quicker and easier. One area I have simplified on many occasions is when I need grated cheese. I don't mind grating cheese with the hand held grater if I only have a little to grate. However, if I have a whole block of cheese that needs grating, I find it a bit tedious to grate it by hand. To save time and energy, I will pull out my Vita-mix, cube the cheese into approximately 1 inch squares and then I throw the cheese in and blend on a low speed. It crumbles it nicely which, in my book, is the equivalent of grated cheese. I don't usually throw all of the cheese in at once because it tends to compress into the corners once it's crumbled. I'll start with 1/2 to 3/4 cup and dump it out and add more when the first batch is finished.

Recipe Round-up: Almond Puff

2011-03-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I've spent the past few weeks packing, moving and unpacking. I'm about 90% done unpacking and I'm enjoying getting organized once again. I will be back to blogging more regularly soon.

The other day, we went to a friend's house for brunch. I made one of my mom's favorite recipes since she is visiting right now. The recipe is fairly quick and easy to prepare. It is sure to impress and it tastes absolutely delicious. It takes just a few minutes to make and put in the oven. However, it needs to bake for an hour so make sure you have the time before making it.

Almond Puff

From the kitchen of: Carm Allen.

Preparation time: 60 minutes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Crust:

½ cup soft butter

1 cup flour

2 tablespoons water

Cut butter into flour. Sprinkle with water. Mix with fork. Round into a ball. Divide and put each half onto un-greased baking sheet. Shape into 12x3 inch strips (3 inches apart).

Puff Pastry:

½ cup butter

1 cup water

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup flour

3 eggs

In medium saucepan heat butter and water and bring to a rolling boil. Remove from heat. Add extract and flour. Stir over low heat 1 minute until it forms a ball. Remove. Beat in 3 eggs 1 at a time until smooth. The eggs should be fully incorporated. Spread over 2 strips. Bake 60 minutes at 350 degrees. Sprinkle with sliced almonds and drizzle on glaze. Allow to cool briefly and then cut into 1 inch strips.

Glaze:

½ cup confectionery sugar

2 tablespoons softened butter

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 tablespoon warm water

Mix until smooth.

Tip: The hardest part of this recipe is probably spreading the crust flat enough. When I make it, I try to make the crust as thin and long as possible. You want it to cover as much surface area as you can. I sometimes sprinkle a little flour on the top to help it not be so sticky as I press on it.

Kitchen Tip: Where Does Your Dishwasher Drain?

2011-02-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

I've rented at two places while I was in college where the dishwasher drained through the aerator into the sink. It SHOULD NOT be draining here. When a garbage disposal is installed as well as a dishwasher, there is a little plastic plug on the garbage disposal that needs to be removed manually IF you have a dishwasher that needs to drain into the sink pipes. The dishwasher hose is attached to this spot on the garbage disposal and will drain into the garbage disposal rather than into the sink through the aerator.

If your dishwasher drains at the wrong place, loosen up the hose from the dishwasher (have a bucket ready and hold your breath because the water that drains is really GROSS). Take a hammer and nail and pound out the little plastic plug on the side of the disposal and then re-attach your dishwasher drain. It'll work great from here on out.

I did this in two different places I lived because whoever installed the garbage disposal hadn't removed the plastic plug when they installed the garbage disposal. This was super important in the second place I rented because the aerator was cracked and when the dishwasher would drain, we had to run over and hold it down or the water pressure would push off the aerator and spray on the ceiling. My dad, an appliance repairman, walked me through the process. He's the best!

Save A Penny: A Post For My Woman Readers

2011-02-22T23:11:00.067-07:00

Today's topic is one that is a little awkward to write about on a public blog but I have met so many women who have never heard of this product and I think it is fabulous and is a great way to save money on a monthly basis. I would like to share with you how to save money on feminine hygiene products.

A few years ago, I was reading a friend's blog and she mentioned some different, environmentally friendly options for sanity products. The one that stood out to me was called a Diva Cup. I had never heard of one before but it is "a reusable silicone menstrual cup alternative to disposable pads and tampons that can be safely worn for 12 hours." I read many reviews and researched it and ended up ordering one. I won't go into all the details on my blog but suffice it to say, I've been very happy with the product and would highly recommend it. I have absolutely no complaints about it and love the savings it has provided. It is not at all associated with toxic shock syndrome that can occur with tampon use. If you have questions or would like more information about what I like about the product or how it works, feel free to email me or leave your question in the comments with your email address.

Many women spend $100-150 per year on disposable personal hygiene products. You can purchase a Diva Cup for a one-time cost of approximately $30-40. The only time I still purchase feminine products is when I find them free with coupons and then I give them away to friends or donate them to our local Lift-up. Since purchasing a Diva Cup, I have not needed or used any other feminine care products. Although I purchased the Diva Cup primarily to save money, I want to point out that it is an environmentally friendly product that will help keep more trash out of our landfills.

After researching it, I ended up ordering my Diva Cup from an online, organic pharmacy. I don't remember which website I purchased it from as it's been a few years but I spent approximately $32 total on it. Hope this product will help you save a penny.

Free $20 RueLaLa Credit

2011-02-21T17:14:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I saw this promotion on a number of the coupon blogs I read. I didn't sign up for it because I didn't really know what RueLaLa was and didn't want to take the time to sign up for something I didn't need. I was bummed when in the following weeks/months, I kept seeing RueLaLa deals posted so people could get free items or nearly free items with their $20 credit. Needless to say, I signed up this time. :) All you have to put in is an email address, your name, a password and an area code. So, if you're interested, you can
use this link to get your RueLaLa Credit.

Just be sure to sign up soon before the promotion ends or runs out!

A Time Saving Tip

2011-02-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

We keep my daughter's shoes downstairs by the door. She never wears socks unless she's going outside and wearing shoes. I used to keep her socks upstairs and would continually have to run upstairs to fetch a pair of socks each time we left the house. I now keep all of her socks right inside the door of the garage. When we are getting ready to leave, I just have to open the door, grab a pair of socks and her shoes that are already downstairs and we're ready to go.

What could you keep in a more convenient location in your house to save you a little time?

It's Mega-Swagbucks Day!

2011-02-18T03:00:00.001-07:00

Today is Mega Swagbucks day! Sign up if you haven't done so and would like to earn free money.

For those of you who may not know about Swagbucks, you can earn Swagbucks just by searching the web. You can then trade these Swagbucks in for Paypal cash, Amazon gift cards, Starbucks cards and so much more. Sign up with Swagbucks today and be sure to enter your birthday. You will get 50 free Swagbucks on your birthday. You'll also get 30 free Swagbucks just for signing up.

Who doesn't want to earn a little free cash just for using a search engine. This is a simple way to be a little thrifty as you search the web. As it says on the Swagbucks website, "It's like frequent flier miles for using the web."

You can earn extra swagbucks by taking their daily poll, playing games and doing special offers.

Save A Penny: Inexpensive Eyeglasses

2011-02-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

First of all, a little explanation about where I've been. As I previously mentioned in another post, I'm in the middle of packing for a big move. There are so many things related to the move that are taking up so much of my time. The move is in two weeks so hopefully, after we get settled, I'll have a bit more free time to continue updating my blog on a regular basis once again.

If you're needing new glasses anytime soon, you might want to check out Zenni Optical. I must admit that I have not yet had the opportunity to use this company myself but the next time I get a new prescription, I plan on giving them a try. At Zenni Optical, you can find frames for as low as $8.00. If you get a basic pair of single-vision lenses, you can receive them for just $12.95!!

"As far as value goes, for a cheap pair of glasses, Zenni's tough to beat. $8.00 gets you an anti-scratch and UV coating, not to mention a fair selection of frames in that price range. Even looking at some of the other offerings, some of their Bendable Titanium frames for example can be had for $12.95. They're certainly competitive price-wise for just about any type of frame you might be looking at." Quote from eyeglassretailerreviews.com

If you have to pay for glasses out-of-pocket, they are typically very expensive. I recently took an elderly man who I have helped care for the past two years to the optometrist for new glasses. He ordered some simple, rimless, bifocals and ended up paying over $600 for them! I don't know about you, but I don't have an extra $600 laying around to spend on eyeglasses.

As I said previously, I haven't had a chance to use Zenni Optical myself. However, I do know people who have used them and have been very pleased with the product they received. I read some reviews about ZO on eyeglassretailerreviews.com which I found very helpful. It looks like for a time, they were getting backlogged and received a lot of complaints. However, for the past two years, they seem to have fixed the issues customers were having and the BBB received very few complaints in 2009 & 2010.

If you don't have insurance that covers the cost of your eyeglasses, where do you purchase them?

It's Mega-Swagbucks Day!

2011-02-11T03:00:00.002-07:00

Today is Mega Swagbucks day! Sign up if you haven't done so and would like to earn free money.

Wordless Wednesday: My Baking Drawer

2011-02-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Keep It Clean: Magic Erasers

2011-02-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've mentioned it yet on here, but I'm in the middle of a big move. I'm packing, cleaning, trying to rent our house, find housing for where we're moving to and above all, care for my two little ones. Whew. I'm a bit busy these days.

As I do all of the above, I try to do little bits of cleaning here and there to make it easier when we move out of the house. One of my favorite cleaning tools is...you guessed it, Mr. Clean Magic Erasers.

If you've never used a magic eraser before, they truly are just that, magic! They are white, spongy and are able to easily clean up dirt that other cleaners have trouble getting off. If you've not used them before, you need to try them.

The first time I saw a magic eraser, I was in college at one of my babysitting families' homes. Holly, the mom, had just given her kids magic erasers and had them clean up the walls of their house. She didn't have any marks left that she could easily show me how the erasers worked so she took a pen and wrote on her wall. Yes, they work that well that she willingly wrote on her wall to demonstrate what a great tool the magic eraser really is. It just took a moment of gentle scrubbing and the mark was gone.

I use them to scrub little, dirty fingerprints off of walls, shine up the grime left around light switches, door knobs, on the edges of doors, bathroom sinks, tubs and more. I've even purchased ones that take all the grime off of the hubcaps of our car. With just a wipe of the magic eraser, all the built up greasy gunk was removed and the hubcaps were once again shiny. They're so simple to use and chemical free that I give them to my 3 year old and let her help me clean with them. As I continue to prep for our move, I have my magic erasers handy to help me clean up all the little marks that I discover throughout the house.

Have you ever used magic erasers? If so, what do you use them for?

Save A Penny: Home Hair Cuts

2011-02-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

This thrifty tip may not be for everyone but if you're looking for ways to cut back on your monthly expenses you really should consider home hair cuts. This is an excellent way to save money on a regular basis. A simple haircut in an inexpensive salon usually cost about $20 for the haircut and tip. If your husband gets his hair cut just once per month and you opt to do it at home instead, that's a savings of $240/year. If you try home haircuts for your kids and yourself, you could easily be looking at savings of over $300-400. In the 9 years I have been cutting Phil's hair, we've saved approximately $2,000 on HIS haircuts alone!

When I was in college and dating Phil, he didn't have money to spend on haircuts on a regular basis. I volunteered to try cutting his hair. Yes, TRY. I had never cut hair before and I had probably seen my dad get his haircut approximately two times as a young child. I really had never even watched how they cut guys' hair. Phil was up for the adventure so we went to a local store and bought an inexpensive hair-cutting kit for about $15. We went back to the dorms and carefully, I followed Phil's instructions about cutting his hair. It took me forever; probably close to 45 minutes to 1 hour, but in the end, he had his hair cut and it didn't look bad. One time, I wasn't paying attention and cut one section of the front too short so the rest of the front had to be cut short as well. He was pretty bummed about that haircut. However, I can now cut his hair in about 15 minutes and do an ~~amazing~~ decent job.

When we had a little more expendable income when we were both graduated from college and working, Phil went back to getting his hair cut at the salon. However, after a haircut he didn't like from a stylist, he decided that I did a ~~better~~ more consistent job and it wasn't worth paying for a haircut if I could do just as good as a salon. Ever since, I have been cutting his hair. The only people who have ever noticed that he doesn't have a "professional" haircut are stylists themselves. They can tell that an untrained individual cut his hair but no one else has ever noticed.

I not only cut Phil's hair but also my daughter's. I have given Taeya all her haircuts since we started cutting her hair at about 6 months. It's usually a very simple trim. It has never been an overly difficult experience because she is comfortable with me and our home environment. I think, when she was younger, it would actually have been harder for her to have a stylist cut her hair. Kids hair is so easy to cut! When Brecken gets bigger, I'll definitely be cutting his hair as well.

I'm sure I've lost many of you by this point. Cut my family's hair? No way!! Seriously, you should give it a try! Not only do I cut my husband and children's hair, I also have actually cut my own. It's tough to do though and I wouldn't recommend it. However, I usually just ask a friend or family member to cut my hair when it needs it. I have very straight hair and have no desire for coloring or layers. I wear it long so it's really very simple to cut. Over Christmas, I asked my Mother-in-law to cut my hair and she did a fantastic job. I've paid to have my hair cut only two times in the last four years.

Tip: If you are willing to give home haircuts a try, make sure you spend a little more than $15 on a hair-cutting kit. The first one we purchased for $15 didn't last very long. I think we spent between $30-40 on our next kit and it's lasted a good 5 years and is still going strong.

Crazy Couponing: Coupon Blogs and Blog Readers

2011-02-05T07:00:00.002-07:00

I believe a few of you have decided to become couponers...yeah!! Keep asking questions as you have them. I'd love to help however I can.

One of the best places besides couponmom.com that I use to find out about deals across the internet and in my local stores is by reading coupon blogs. These blogs are dedicated to posting about all sorts of deals across the country. There are many of them out there. I read a couple of them and will share them with you. If you search online, I'm sure you can find many more.

1. A Thrifty Mom
2. Money Saving Maine-iac
3. Money Saving Mom

These blogs are awesome and share many freebies, great internet deals, grocery deals, restaurant coupons/deals and so much more. They also often show what THEY purchase with coupons and the exact coupons they used. They share the cost out-of-pocket and how much they were able to save. A Thrifty Mom usually saves about 90% off what she buys during a month. Crazy huh?

Blog Readers

"Have trouble keeping up with the sites you visit? Read them in one place with Google Reader, where keeping up with your favorite websites is as easy as checking your email."-Google Reader

Each coupon blog I use posts many posts each day (approximately 30 give or take). That takes a lot of time to have to read through all of their posts and isn't very time effective to do so, especially when I might want to read only about 5% of all of their deals. (They post deals for many grocery chains and stores that are not found in CO.) Many of you may know how to use a blog reader but I'm sure some of you have never used one. I didn't start using a blog reader until my brother-in-law showed me how to set it up. It will save you so much time in reading not only coupon blogs but any other blogs you might follow as well.

A blog reader allows you to see what new posts a blog author has posted to their blog. It will show you each new post in bold whether there are two or fifty-two. I believe there are multiple blog readers but I'll just introduce you to the one I use, google reader

Just type in "reader.google.com" and it will take you to the sign-in page for the Google reader. If you have a gmail account, you can use that email and password to log in, if not, just create one. Once you log-in, just start adding subscriptions in the top left box. Pretty soon, you'll be able to read all the websites you enjoy reading in one place. Follow some coupon blogs and pretty-soon, you'll be finding out about so many deals that you had no idea existed.

Just remember, less is more so only buy what you need when you coupon! Don't get sucked into buying items you don't need just because there's an awesome sale!