Garage Sales!

It's here, garage sale season is HERE! Top is a Little People Farm. Only missing a sheep and one of the horses. And we only know about this, because we were at Walmart, and they sold the same one there for $39.97. But ours came with a bonus potty, which is far more exciting than a silly sheep. I paid $4.

I was trying to get a decent picture of all the clothes, but Connor, Daisy and Bruizer wanted to wrestle. I spent $5.55 on all these clothes. There are 8 pairs of pants, 1 PJ set, 1 sweatshirt, 1 polo, and 1 tshirt. Two of the pairs of jeans were $2 a piece, so just figure out how cheap the rest of the stuff was. Or keep up with me on my spreadsheet.

10,000!

Ten thousand hits! Hooray! I'm so excited!

Garden Pad

These cute little pads were in the Target Dollar Spot. They are to be used while gardening, but work super for kneeling on the driveway while using sidewalk chalk! Big pink ones for me, little lady bug ones for Con.

More Cupcake Shots

Two-toned now!

Cupcakes

I just used a quick google searched recipe for vanilla cupcakes. I then used Jenna's famous recipe for the butter cream frosting. But, I FINALLY used my pastry bags that John bought me for Christmas. I know, they aren't the prettiest things, but it was my first try. Con liked them. Pastry bags make me happy. I will get better. Just wait.

Laundry Detergent

I was taught how to make this last Friday night, by Jenah. She is an expert. It kind of looked like we had a meth kitchen going on.

1 Fels Naptha bar

1 cup washing soda

1/2 cup borax

1 five gallon pail with a lid

All those weird ingredients are available at Hy-vee, or any other major store in the laundry detergent aisle.

Grate the Fels Naptha bar up. It will look like shredded cheddar cheese. In a sauce pan, melt together the bar and 4 cups of water. Stir, and it takes awhile, 15 minutes or so.

Fill the five gallon pail half full with hot water. Mix in the washing soda, Borax, and the melted Fels Naptha water mixture. Fill up the pail with more hot water. Allow sitting overnight, to gel.

The next day, mix up the stuff. I actually did it with my hand/arm. Just dig right in there! Spoon or even a joint-compound mixer would work well). Looks like egg drop soup, the picture is what is looks like at this point. Now use an old Tide container, or Snuggle, or whatever, fill it half with water, half with the soap mixture. Shake it all about.

For standard washing machines, use 5/8 cup. For high efficiency (HE) use 1/4 cup. Hot, Cold, Warm, whatever you wanna use for water, that is up to you. Use cold, it's cheaper.

Here is the breakdown:

• Makes 10 gallons of laundry soap
• 180 loads for standard
• 640 for HE
• Costs around $2 to make this much
• No real smell after the clothes are washed, but smells like my grandma (which is nice) when making it

Artichoke Spinach Pasta

• About 10 ounces of pasta (I used whole wheat ziti)
• 1 package of frozen spinach
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 can of whole artichokes
• 1/2 cup parm cheese
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella
  
  

Boil up the pasta, make it al dente. Defrost the spinach, squeeze out any extra water. Mix the spinach with the milk and butter. Stir in the pasta, 1 and 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese and some of the parm. Put it in a greased 2 qt baking dish, top with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for about a half hour.

Of course, John hated it. I loved it, lots. And I'll make it again, and he can just shove off.

Play-Doh

• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 and 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 and 1/4 tablespoons alum
• 3 tablespoons oil
• food coloring
• essential oil (optional)
• glitter (optional)

Boil water, add oil, food coloring and essential oil if you so desire. I like the lavender stuff, makes it feel like a spa day.

Mix together all the dry stuff, use a whisk. Get the alum mixed well though out. This is key. Stir in the water mixture, and kneed the stuff together. It will be hot, so best to do this with out your toddler. I personally don't have any feeling in my hands from burning my hands on a daily basis with all the cooking and baking I do.

I use this play-doh at home, and I make it up and take it to the kids at the YMCA daycare. It's a hit. Last longer than the store bought stuff, and it's probably cheaper. Alum is available at your grocery store in the spice aisle. Trust me, it is.

French Toast

I know, everyone does it their own way, but this is my blog, so this is my way.

• 6 slices of bread, I use wheat even
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 cup of half & half (you could use milk, but why would you want to?)
• bacon grease

First, make up a few slice of bacon. You know you wanna. Once the bacon starts cooking up, pour a little of that grease right into a large skillet pan. Maybe a few tablespoons. Whip together eggs, vanilla, salt and milk substance. Dip the bread, and cook in the grease over medium to medium-high heat. Flip after maybe 2 minutes or so. Top this off with some maple syrup.