Wednesday June 26, 2013 (Disney Fund)

Disney Vacation Fund

So we went to Disneyland back in February and my boys LOVED it. The little one keeps asking me when we can go back. I tried telling him that we have to save enough money to go to Disneyworld this time. Being 3, he doesn't understand the concept of money very well yet, but he does understand needing a visual amount of something to get something else. This is thanks to our Behavior Central. He has to earn 10 marbles in order to get a prize out of the goody bag so he knows how to count to ten, but having the visual helps him to understand. So I decided to quickly whip up a visual aid to explain to them that we have to save up for a Disney vacation as well as give them a way to keep track of how close we are getting to having enough to go on vacation. Luckily I had a piece of extra poster board on hand so I didn't even have to leave the house to make it :)

Believe it or not Tinkerbell's dress is actually green, it's just a dark green because that was the color marker I had and I didn't feel like dragging out the paint. I explained to the boys that each line represents a certain dollar amount and as we get the money we get to fill the bar up and when it gets to the top we will have enough money to go to Disneyworld. The writing on the side tells us what milestones we have reached IE: 1/2 way there. You could use this for TONS of other things like saving up for a game station, a toy or something else that they really want. You also don't have to use poster board, I just did because it's what I had on hand. I'm hoping it will teach the boys about saving money, as well as give them a visual for how long before we can go to Disneyworld without them asking a million times. Only time will tell though.

Tuesday June 25 2013 (Travel Kit)

DIY Travel Kit

My cousin is getting married in a few weeks and her birthday just passed, so I thought that a good gift for her might be a travel kit. I made myself one when we went to California back in February and it was very handy to have all of my toiletries in one place and properly secured.

I based my designs loosely on these patterns

Jewelry Bag

Dock Kit aka: Toiletry Bag

I made a few adjustments and filled up the toiletry bag with some travel goodies as well. Here are the finished results.

Here are the closed up bags. The one on the left is for Jewelry and the One on the right is the toiletry bag

Here are all of the goodies I stuffed inside of the the toiletry kit.

Here is the inside of the jewelry bag. Each of the little triangles is a pocket and can hold a necklace, bracelet, rings etc. Then the bag cinches shut to keep them all from tangling up while you travel!

I also made a pair of earrings for her just so that the jewelry bag wouldn't be empty.

Tuesday June 18 2013 (skunked)

Skunked!!!

 

So these two ornery little varmits decided to corner a skunk in my parents' backyard last night. NOT very smart because they got themselves sprayed. We all know the tomato paste trick, but I really didn't want to do that if I didn't have to because they both have long coats and I didn't even want to think about how much tomato paste I would need. So I took to the internet and read that hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dishwashing liquid would all help. So I concocted a little mixture and the smelly dogs got a bath.

Anti-Skunk Soap

1qt Hydrogen Peroxide ($0.88 per quart at Walmart)

1TBSP dawn dishwashing liquid ($1.07 for a small bottle at Walmart)

1/4 cup baking soda ($0.52 for a small box at Walmart)

Rubber gloves

Pour the hydrogen peroxide into a bucket and gently stir in the baking soda and then the dawn. Try not to make bubbles!

This will make enough for a medium short haired dog. I doubled it for EACH dog because they are big and have a TON of fur.

(I washed the dogs outside because they had to sit for 20minutes while the soap worked it's magic. Normally I dont believe in chaining dogs, but they got tied to a tree with their leashes so they couldnt run away or roll in the mud while I was trying to get them clean.)

First thing is secure your dog so they cant escape, put on your rubber gloves then soak them with plain water. They may smell worse when they get wet so don't be alarmed. Work the water into their coat especially if they have long or thick fur. You want it ALL wet. Try not to get water in their eyes, ears or nose, they wont thank you for it!

Use a cup to pour small amounts of the "soap" onto them and work it into their fur like you would shampoo on your own head. Make sure to get the "soap" everywhere except their eyes, ears, nose, mouth and any open ouchies. Be thorough, make sure to work it into their fur as much as possible.

Once they are coated let them sit for 20minutes, longer if they REALLY stink.

When the time is up rinse them thoroughly, if you still smell skunk, repeat the process. My dogs only needed one treatment.

Hopefully they learned their lesson and at least they don't stink anymore. I can't say the same for my dad's trailer that got the worst of it, but hopefully some rain and sunshine will get rid of that smell for us!

Monday June 10 2013 (Revised Almond Joy cookies)

Revised Almond Joy Cookies

The last time I made almond joy cookies I tried using all coconut oil, but unfortunately it basically caused my cookies to melt into flat little wafers. So this time I did part butter part coconut oil and got a MUCH better result.

This is the dough, one of the toughest parts about it is not eating the dough before you bake it. Salmonella be darned I am a sucker for cookie dough raw eggs or not and this is one of the most appealing cookie doughs I've made in a while.

Ingredients

2& 2/3 cup flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

2/3cup granulated sugar

2/3cup brown sugar

1/2tsp salt

3/4cups butter

1/4cup coconut oil

2eggs

1/2tsp almond extract

1/2tsp coconut extract

1 cup shredded sweetened coconut

1.5cups milk chocolate chips

1/2cup sliced almonds

6 fun size almond joy candy bars chopped into little pieces

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375

Chop the almond joy candy bars into little pieces, freezing them and then using a food processor will speed up the process.

Cream together the butter, coconut oil and sugars

Add in the eggs and extracts

Add in the baking soda, salt and flour and mix till you get a nice dough.

add in the coconut, chocolate, almonds and candy bar bits and mix till they are evenly distributed.

Place TALL heaps of the dough onto a parchment paper lined cookie tray and bake for 11-12minutes or until lightly browned. Give each cookie ample space at least 3" diameter as they like to spread.

**I use an ice cream scoop for my cookies because we like BIG cookies and because it's an easy way for me to measure the dough. You can of course use a cookie scoop, but remember to adjust the bake time accordingly. I also like to make my cookies in more of a cylinder shape than a ball because it tends to yield a thicker cookie, which is very important with these cookies as they tend to like to spread ALOT. This recipe will yield about 16-20 giant cookies**

Here are the finished cookies, they taste as much like an almond joy candy bar as I think is possible for a cookie.

To give you an idea of size.

Pumpkin Update

The pumpkin plants are getting fairly large! They have cute little curly vines starting and some of them even have male flowers starting to form. Hopefully they will keep on growing!

Thursday June 6 2013 (saving the Rooster's blanket)

Saving the Rooster's Blanket

This is Rooster on the day we brought him home from the hospital. That blanket that is covering him up has literally been with him since day one and it's his security blanket. As soon as he could talk he affectionately dubbed it "Star Blankey".

Needless to say after 5 years of being dragged around the house, being chewed on while he was teething and countless washings Star Blankey finally gave out and got a HUGE hole in the middle of it. The Rooster BEGGED me to "save" him, but I knew there was no way I could patch it. So instead I told him that to save Star Blankey I would have to cut him up and turn him into a quilt. It took him a little while to decide, but he decided that since he could keep his Star Blankey that way that he would let me cut it up. I wish I had thought to take a before picture of the raggedy blanket I had to drag with me to JoAnn's so that I could try and match the fabric to the stars, I got some disgusted looks when I pulled it out to compare, but what's a mom to do when her son begs her to save his security blanket.

I picked a simple pattern just so that I could throw it together in the couple of hours that I had before bedtime, since he won't sleep without it. I would NOT recommend using the thermal knit for quilting, it stretches and is a ROYAL PAIN IN THE BOTTOM! For swaddling however it's hard to beat!

Here is the finished product. I love that you can still see how worn the Star Blankey was because the stars are all worn off.

As a side note sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. I have been working on a lot of projects that will have to stay top secret until they are gifted or their occasion is over!