Thursday May 30 2013 (no sew patches)

Fast, No-Sew Patches

So if your kids are anything like mine they literally wear their clothes out, but most specifically jeans. We buy them a pair of jeans and they have holes in them within 2 weeks. I finally gave up and said no more. Seriously if they are going to destroy them after a couple of times wearing them then why should I buy new ones for them to ruin? So I set aside 1-2 pairs of NICE jeans that they are only allowed to wear if we are going somewhere semi-nice. But after a couple of skinned knees through the holes on their pants I knew I had to do something about it. I had seen the iron on patches, but they were kind of pricey and reviews I had read said they also needed to be sewn on because they would fall off, but I was smart and tested my sewing machine first to see if I could even get the leg of the jeans around the platform on my sewing machine. It was a no go so I knew I had to figure something else out. 

I love to sew and I had made the boys some shirts last year that had appliques on them for their birthday that used an iron on patch type applique.

This is Mater in his applique shirt. I did sew them on as well, but not because I had to, I just liked the look of the stitching. I knew that the applique stuff I used held up well for light fabrics like jersey and cotton because they have been worn and washed many many times over the last year. So I figured why not try doing an applique over the holes in the jeans.

The stuff that I HIGHLY recommend for appliques in general and what I use is called Steam-A-Seam it's a double stick fusible webbing that is kind of like an iron on patch, but MUCH cheaper. You can get a package of 5 sheets which will patch about 20 pairs of jeans at Joann's for about $2 with a coupon. 

Anyways enough prattling on, here is how I fix the boys' jeans with NO SEWING and it only takes me about 3-5minutes.

Here are the supplies

Steam-A-Seam (the lite was all I had on hand but it does a GREAT job)

Holey Jeans 

(make sure they are washed and dried so that the fabric will lay flat and there is nothing on them to keep the patches from sticking)

Iron

Ironing board 

(not pictured)

Scrap Denim

(I cut up a pair of my jeans that were unsalvageable, but you could also buy some denim at the fabric/craft store)

Take a strip of Steam-A-Seam and peel off one side of the paper, the side you want to hang on to will have a tacky clear web to it. Stick it to the front, or the pretty side of your denim. I realized after I took this picture I had stuck it to the wrong side and had to peel it off to stick it to the other side. I recommend cutting the patches at LEAST 3.5" wide and at least 2.5" tall, they need to be able to have at least a half inch on any side of the hole in the pants so adjust your "patch" accordingly. I used the webbing and denim scrap in this picture for four patches.

Flip your jeans inside out, I chose to patch both knees because although only one side had a hole the other side was REALLY thin and I figured a pre-emptive strike couldn't hurt.

Peel off the remaining paper and place the denim patch with the Steam-A-Steam facing down. In other words imagine it is like double sided tape and you want the tape to hold the two fabrics together. You want the front side or pretty side of the fabric facing down so that if you see the patch through the hole then you will see the front of the denim and not the back of it. If there is an actual hole and not just thin fabric put the wax paper between the two sides of the jeans so that they don't get stuck together. 

Pre-heat your iron to the COTTON setting, do not use cooler temperatures as the web will not stick as well and hotter temperatures may scorch your jeans. If your iron has a  built in steam function turn it off, you DO NOT want steam for this.

When your iron is at the correct temperature push down on the patches with the iron, make sure to push down pretty hard and move the iron slowly so that the patch doesn't slide and the Steam-A-Steam has time to fuse the fabrics. After ironing the patch let it cool for a moment and then test the edges by brushing a finger over them to make sure that they are all adhered, if they are not then go over them with the iron some more. When the sides are all well adhered flip the jeans inside out and you are done!!! 

The patches wash well and hold up REALLY well against playtime as well, the initial test pair I did has been washed and worn at least 20 times and the patches are holding tight and have not developed any new holes.

This is an up close of the hole in the jeans with the new patch.

Here is what they look like from far away. The boys may still look like ragamuffins with holes in their jeans, but they are not bleeding our wallets dry and they are not getting skinned knees. I still keep a couple pairs of special jeans that are NOT for playtime so that they can still look decent when they need to, but I can let them get down and dirty like little boys should do without me worrying that they will ruin another pair of pants or skin their knees.

Sunday May 26 2013 (cardboard scratcher)

More frugal pet things

Since Day 1 our cats have always been given cardboard scratchers. It helps keep them from scratching on our walls, furniture and the carpet. I recently saw an episode of "My Cat from Hell" and they had these AWESOME blocks made from cardboard that the cats could scratch and climb on. www.moderncat.net had a link to them.

In fact moderncat had a TON of awesome cardboard cat beds/scratchers. But with most of them starting at $50 and working their way on up, I just couldn't spend that kind of money. Instead I decided to try my hand at making a couple of my own, after all it is just cardboard that's stuck together. First thing I had to do was get ahold of a bunch of cardboard boxes. I had the hubby keep an eye out for me at his work and luckily for me he got ahold of 15 identically sized square boxes. (Can't go wrong with free and up-cycling!)
The next thing I had to do was to cut all of the boxes up.

Here's the boxes cut up, I cut them into square sides and then the small rectangle flaps. Every box yielded 4 square sides and 8 rectangle flaps.

After I cut up the boxes I started marking out templates onto the cardboard.

 

I opted to make the square box sides into a cube. It took a while to mark all of the sides and then cut out the center of them. Before I could even attach them together Ginny cat decided that she liked the idea and I got to play ring toss with a cat as the post.




After I got all of the squares cut out I glued them together using hot glue. it took a LONG LONG time and about 5 glue sticks, My hand was also sore from squeezing the trigger so much, but it held up even when I managed to knock it onto the floor.

Here is the cube. The sides were not perfectly even as you can see in this picture so my dad and I used a saw to cut it down so that they were even. I also put some cat nip (aka kitty crack) in all of the nooks and crannies so that the cats would be more interested in it.

I used the flaps to make a bed type scratcher and following the same first basic steps of creating a template and tracing it.

I opted to give my hand a break and try some Elmer's glue on this one since I was going to also be binding the sides. I used the hubby's weights to help press down on the pieces while I glued other ones together.

Even though the pieces stuck together really well I decided since the cats were probably going to be lounging, scratching and jumping on this one a ton that I would duct tape the sides. It also added a nice pop of color :)

So here are all of the cat's checking it out. Milo of course being the extremely fat cat that he is beat the other cats out of it by simply sitting on them.

I also saved the semi-circle pieces that I cut out of the bed and glued them together to make a rounded cat scratcher. Ginny was really interested in it, I wonder if it will act like a kitty/kid speed bump when they race around the house.



Overall I think the project was a huge success. I spent a grand total of $7 on the whole thing, because I had to get hot glue sticks, a BIG bottle of Elmer's glue and I wanted colored duct tape instead of the boring silver. I would say for a savings of $43 plus shipping I am VERY pleased with the end result.

Pumpkin Update!

Well one of my randomly planted bulbs bloomed, and 3 of the five pumpkins that I planted have been doing well. Hopefully they will start turning into vines soon!

Friday May 24 2013 (t-shirt yarn rug)

T-shirt Yarn Rug

First of all my biggest apologies for not having blogged for a couple days. The T-shirt yarn rug I made took a couple of days and then I also celebrated my birthday this week so I didn't craft, but went hiking with the family instead.

In order to make a T-shirt yarn rug you first need a large pile of T-shirts to turn into a rug. Do not use ribbed tank tops, use knit material only. I tried to use some ribbed tank tops and all I succeeded in doing was making a HUGE mess, there were little white fuzzies EVERYWHERE. I asked family for donations of any old t-shirts that they wouldn't wear again due to stains, holes etc. I collected about 13 T-shirts ranging in sizes from small to X-Large. It doesn't really matter what size it is as long as they are a similar color or if you want you could even use multiple colors! Keep in mind that by using T-shirts you will see some parts of the logo if the shirt is white, but they just add nice pops of color, at least in my opinion.

I also used a sewing machine a cutting mat, rotary blade, quilting ruler and a good pair of scissors.The only 100% necessary ones are the scissors.

First thing that I did to get the Maximum amount of yarn out of each shirt was to sew the sleeves off to make a tube out of the body of the t-shirt.

I used black thread so you could see where I sewed at. This step is not necessary and if you don't want the lumps from the seams in your rug you can simply skip this step. And move on to the next part.

If you sewed the sleeves shut you can cut right below the neckline on the shirt. If you didn't sew the sleeves shut then cut at the armpits on your t-shirt.

Next cut off the bottom hem of the t-shirt, it is too thick to do much with, but will make a great scrunchy in a pinch if you get hot while making all this yarn!

Fold the T-shirt almost in half leaving approximately a 2" gap where it is only 1 layer of shirt. Using scissors or a rotary cutter cut through all the layers of t-shirt up to about 1" from the edge of the single layer portion.

slide your arm into the middle of the tube, you will have one section where all of the T-shirt is still attached.

grab one loop that is on the outside of the tube and cut it. This will create the end of one skein of t-shirt yarn

On the upper right you will see where I cut the end of the yarn. Make your next cut from the first slit on the opposite side of the one you cut the end of the yarn from to the new first slit on the opposite side, this will be a diagonal. continue cutting all the way to the end until you have no more loops on one side. Cut the other end by cutting it directly to the outside of the shirt tube.

You will end up with a LONG strip of T-shirt. This is Chloe our new kitten trying to help me with making the yarn. Mostly she made a big mess, but she's too cute to get mad at.

Now the semi-fun part. Grab a section of the T-shirt ribbon and pull on it. It should curl in on itself, changing from the ribbon on the left to the tube on the right. Continue until you have worked through the entire length of the T-shirt.

Repeat this until you have gotten through all of your T-shirts attach them using a simple knot and cutting the ends short like this. 

Now roll them into a giant ball of T-shirt yarn.

I ended up with two balls of yarn that were about the size of one of those small personal watermelons. It took me about 6 hours to get through 13 T-shirts.

Then I used this pattern  To create my rug. I didn't get all the way through the pattern since I ran out of yarn, but I got to the Stitch 23 increase one and then repeat. It still made a good sized rug.

This is our oldest cat Milo on the rug to give you a size comparison. He is a BIG cat weighing in at about 17lbs. The rug is octagonal, but it looks a little out of shape in this picture from my munchkins dragging it around. Good thing it's durable, they are so hard on everything I make.The bits of color that you see in the rug are from the logos on the t-shirts. If you pay close attention you can also see some variance in the whites from the different T-shirts. I like it because it is unique, up-cycled and VERY squishy to walk on. The boys think it's a landing pad because it kind of has a target pattern to it from the different shades of white and they drag it around to jump onto it from various places, like their climbing blocks, the bottom bunk in their bedroom and their toy chest. I'd originally planned on putting it in the kitchen till I discovered that it slides VERY easily on the wood floor and I don't need to be dumping any food stuffs on myself because of it. Maybe one day I'll stick one of those rug grippy things on the back of it, but after 3days of laboring on this rug I need a break from it. 

Tuesday May 21 2013 (coconut shrimp)

Healthy Coconut shrimp

So I have been trying to cook some healthier meals. One of our newer meals that is fairly fast, very easy and SUPER yummy is healthy coconut shrimp. What makes it so healthy is that it's baked not fried and the "batter" is a light Panko breading.

Ingredients

1 bag of Jumbo shrimp precooked, shelled and deveined

(Costco carries a 2lb bag for about $15)

Panko breading

(most stores will carry this in the Asian section of their multicultural aisle)

Sweetened shredded coconut

(baking aisle)

2-3 Egg whites

The first thing you want to do is make sure the shrimp are defrosted if they were frozen as most shrimp are.

Next you will want to preheat the oven to 425 and then beat the egg whites. I like to beat mine till they have a little foam just to make sure that they are well mixed. 

Then you want to mix a cup of Panko and a cup of coconut in a bowl till they are well distributed.

Once this is done then you will want to line two cookie trays with parchment paper. Dip the shrimp first in the egg and then in the Panko coconut mixture then place on them  on the trays. 2lbs of Jumbo shrimp will take about 2.5 trays.

Here is what they look like before they are baked. You will bake them for approximately 8-12minutes or until the coconut and Panko are lightly browned.

Here they are all done. I made a piña colada dipping sauce for myself that is very similar to the one from Red Lobster. The hubby prefers the sauce from the Outback which I didn't get a picture of. Here are the recipes for those.

Piña Colada Dipping Sauce

1/4cup sour cream

1/4cup Piña Colada Mix

1/4cup drained crushed pineapple 

Outback Orange Sauce

1cup orange marmalade

3TBSP Horseradish

2TBSP Dijon Mustard

With both recipes simply mix them and chill before serving.

These are excellent appetizers or served as a meal with a side of veggies. I hope you enjoy!

Sunday May 19 2013 (bridal shower)

Surprise Bridal Shower

So today was my cousin's surprise bridal shower. We (the bridesmaids) thought it would be fun to surprise her with a shower representing some of her favorite things. We had lemonade and iced tea for Arnold Palmers, Bacon Roses, Nutella stuffed Strawberries dipped in chocolate, Cheese, Salami, Crackers and an Ice-cream/Frozen yogurt bar. We also had a scrap booking station to make a page for a recipe book with a recipe from anyone who attended.

Here is the cover of the scrapbook. I sewed a home decor weight cotton cover for it to make it a little bit more unique

These are the Nutella stuffed strawberries that we dipped in chocolate. They were REALLY yummy.

For our Party favors we decided to do tea because that is another one of her favorite things. Her favorite tea is currently Blackberry Sage by the Republic of tea. I packaged them by first creating small envelopes for them.

They are roughly 3"x3.5" when they are sealed. I went with shades of blue because that is her favorite color and I couldn't resist the adorable wedding print.

This is what the tea bags looked like. I personalized them with little tags for when they are being dipped in the teacups.

Then I sealed the envelopes using these little label stickers. Hopefully everyone gets to enjoy a cup!

This is one of the decorations we also put up for the party as a little bit of a count down.

We also had her fiancé come and pick her up to take her away after giving her mother and his mother each a flower and giving her a bouquet. We (the bridesmaids) thought it went over pretty well and hopefully she enjoyed it all! 

Friday May 17 2013 (wedding globe)

Wedding shenanigans

Some of our friends got married today, a HUGE congrats to them. Normally I'm one of those boring people who just gives a card, but they deserved something special so I put together something that I thought they might enjoy.

First I got a jar and put a bunch of confetti in it using their wedding colors.

Then I painted some little wooden characters to look like a bride and groom

I glued them to lid of the jar so that they wouldn't flop around

Then we got a wedding themed gift card and I attached it to the lid behind the little characters

It's kind of like a snow globe without the water. I tied a card to it with a ribbon so that we could express our congrats to them since there isn't really a good place to write on it :)

Their wedding was beautiful and we truly wish them the best of everything in their future together.

Thursday May 16 2013 (berry bouquets)

Last Day of Preschool

Today was the Rooster's last day of preschool. They got to have a picnic and play outside for a lot of the day. I learned my lesson that I should not make Nutella and banana sandwiches on hot days as his sandwich completely melted before he could eat it. Oh well, at least he had other food and I learned before he started kindergarten and went hungry for half a day. The Rooster LOVES fruit so when he saw the edible arrangements I put together for mother's day he decided that he wanted to give some to his teachers for their end of the year gift. I wasn't sure what kind of fruit they liked so I decided to go a little bit simpler and went with just chocolate covered strawberries since I know they are usually a pretty safe bet. I thought it would be funny to make a silly pun to go with the arrangements so I made little cards that read "Thank you so berry much for helping me to grow this year." Connor made a card and I wrote a little note to each teacher. Connor also picked out some flower seeds for the "to grow" portion of the gift. Here is how they turned out

Each arrangement has a dozen chocolate covered strawberries, the greenery on the bottom is baby spinach just like the mother's day arrangements.

Wednesday May 15th 2013 (litterbox)

Frugal Family Pet tips

So many people out there have cats and dogs, and they know just how pricey cat/dog toys and supplies are. I have a few tricks that I have used to save money over the years with our critters that I thought I would share with you.

Covered Litter box

The first kitten we got was Milo cat

Here he is snuggling with Kiki when we first brought him home. He was so tiny!!! But man could that kitten make a HUGE mess with cat litter. He would kick it all over the place! It drove me nuts, I felt like I was constantly vacuuming up cat litter! We tried a litter box tent, but it still spilt over the sides and when I moved the tent to clean up the litter there would still be a pile around the outside of the box. I started looking at covered litter boxes, but they can get super pricey like $20-$30 on average. I was just not ready to spend that kind of money on a place for my kitten to poop. So I came up with a solution, I bought an 18gallon rubbermaid tub at Target for less than $5. I took a pair of scissors and a heavy duty box cutter and sliced a hole in the side of the box.

You could also cut a hole in the lid to get a litter box like this

but I chose not to because I thought that the hole in the side was going to be the easiest transition for him. I love my home-made litter box because it's so easy to clean and it keeps the litter inside of it! To clean it you just pop the lid off and scoop away. I try to clean the cat box completely out at least once a month and since it's a giant tupperware container it's so easy to just dump the contents in a trash bag then take it outside and hose it out.

Inexpensive cat shelves

So I love this show called "My cat from hell" it's a humorous and informative show about naughty cats and what their humans do to change their behavior with the help of a cat behavior specialist. One of the things that he mentions all the time is that the cats need someplace to observe their domain from. I couldn't stomach $100 for a cat tree and we don't have a ton of floor space so when he mentioned cat shelves on one episode I thought, now that is something that we can do. So I researched them online and they are pretty pricey. I decided that I could build them for cheaper so after some more online research at Home Depot, Lowes, Target, Walmart and IKEA I found that IKEA was the cheapest option for our shelves. I picked up some of the cheapest shelves

These were all under $10 and we bought 3 of them. Then we also got some of the cheap brackets. They were like $0.50 each. We only used two brackets per shelf, but you could use more if you want it to be sturdier. They also have longer shelves that I would recommend using more brackets with. I also got some of the cheapest rolled carpet that they have on rolls at Lowes, I think I got a 4 foot section and it was enough for all three shelves with a little bit left over. I cut it to the same size as the shelves then used a High Temp hot glue gun to glue the carpet to the top of the shelves. We hung the shelves on the walls fairly high because I didn't want the boys trying to climb them, but if you don't have children you could put them lower. We also made sure that the brackets were put into studs in the wall so that they wouldn't rip out the drywall. The shelves are pretty sturdy and can hold even Milo cat (full grown now at 15+ pounds) and Ginny cat (about 7 pounds) at the same time with their food and water. That was another bonus, keeping their food and water out of reach of the dog and kids.

Here they are checking out the shelves. The one with the cat grass is the shelf that now holds their food and water as well.

This is a picture from Christmas time with Ginny cat checking out one of our resident elves on a shelf Rosey.

Inexpensive Pet bed

Another inexpensive tip is to get a cheap pillow from Target or Walmart for a couple of dollars and then get a couple yards of fleece. You can usually catch some great deals at JoAnn's or Hobby lobby and they have adorable patterns and colors. Then all you have to do is lay out the fleece, put the pillow in the center on one of the short ends of the fabric. Then fold the excess sides in over the pillow and then simply roll the pillow until you are out of fleece. It's kind of like making a pillow Burrito. It's cheap and REALLY easy to wash in case of accidents or even just to get rid of the gross dog hair or pet smell. I have one of these next to the couch that the dogs and cat use all of the time.