Homemade Mamas

Sentimental Scarf - Wrap Up in Memories!

2012-01-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

We wanted to share this cool scarf made by our good friend Erin Murphy.

Like most of us, she had tons of sweatshirts and t-shirts that she had collected over the years. Most had sentimental value to her and represented a special time or event in her life. She decided to turn them into a reversible scarf. We love how personal this project is! It expresses who she is and where she has been.

What a great gift this would make!

One side is all t-shirts.

The other side is all sweatshirts. If you didn't have enough shirts to make your scarf double sided, you could use fleece or another fabric to back your scarf.
Decide how long and wide you would like your scarf. You may want to use another scarf as a template. Cut squares and rectangles out of your shirts that are the same width (They don't have to be the same length.) If you are making a double sided scarf, both sides should add up to the same length. (hope that makes sense). Sew squares together, right sides facing each other. Next, sew the front and back of your scarf together, with the right sides facing each other. Leave an opening at one end and turn scarf right side out and hand sew shut.

In no time you will be wrapped in warmth and memories!

Flashdog!

2012-01-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, we never really thought of ourselves as one of those people. You know the type. The crazy pet people who buy and make goofy clothes for their pets. We swore we'd never do that. Then we got pets, and the urge to dress them crept up on us. We don't know why...there is no excuse, we know. So when we came across this post on Dollar Store Crafts for making legwarmers for your dog, we knew that we couldn't fight our crazy pet people urges anymore - these are too stinkin' cute! We modified it a little, swapping out fleece for the knit scarf. Using fleece means there is waaaay less sewing involved - you can make these in a matter of minutes! And your pooch will be toasty in no time!

How could we look at Dory's sweet face and deny her warm legs?

What You Need:

fleece (we chose a sassy blue!)
scissors
ribbon (optional)
sewing machine/needle & thread
a willing pooch

First, you might want to take a couple quick measurements to decide the size your legwarmers need to be.

Then using those measurements, cut 4 rectangles out of your fleece. Then wrap them around your dog's legs and make any adjustments to the size. Ours were too big, so we cut them down a bit.

Next, fold your rectangles in half lengthwise, then pin and sew them up with a zig-zag stitch.

And that's it! Try them on your dog, then if you want you can add some decorative touches. We chose to hand-stitch some pink bows to Dory's.

Now she's ready to strut her inner Flashdance!

And we are ready to embrace the fact that we are those crazy pet people!

Paper Valentine Garland

2012-01-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

After the New Year we always get the urge to get the house in order and clear out the clutter. While searching for organization ideas online, we stumbled on this cute heart shaped garland. Our organizing bug quickly disappeared and we decided to make this garland instead! Cleaning can wait! This project is so simple and cute! We can't believe we didn't think of this ourselves. The kids can decorate the whole house for Valentine's Day in no time!

What you need:

construction paper - we used pink, white and red

scissors

stapler

ruler (optional)

pen (optional)

Cut strips of paper about an inch wide and 12 inches long. The kids might find it easier if you mark lines using the ruler and pen for them to cut on.

Fold each strip in half.
Bend ends inward and staple.

Link the next heart to the first.

Continue until you reach your desired length.

Now you are ready to hang!

The boys noticed that some of the hearts were a little stretched out.

So, we put a staple in some of the bottom points of our hearts. It really helped the hearts hold their shape.

Homemade Mod Podge

2012-01-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

As you well know by now, we are pretty thrifty. Chances are that if we see a product we like, we will probably try and find a way to make it ourselves and save a few bucks. The same can be said when it comes to Mod Podge. It's a great product and we are always impressed with the creative uses people find for it. That being said, we are (again) cheap and almost never buy it, since we have found that just water and glue will pretty much do the trick. However our ever-clever friend (who also happens to be Jill's mom) Benita recently passed on a link to a post done by Babblings and More that offers up a more concrete recipe than our "little of this, little of that" method to making Mod Podge. And we thought we'd share it with you!

What You Need:

1 pint-sized jar
school glue
water
varnish (optional)

This is so simple! Just take your jar and fill it halfway full with the glue. Then fill your jar the rest of the way with the water. Now mix it up! Yeah, that's it! The lovely ladies of Babblings and More note that this recipe will create a matte finish and suggest that if you want a glossier finish to just add a Tbsp. of clear varnish!

We tried this out on an old coffee can that Maggie uses to hold her sewing thread. We decided to dress it up by "Mod Podge-ing" some cute fabric onto it! Worked like a charm! Unfortunately the pic doesn't do it justice...

Hope you enjoy this recipe as well!

Dirty Little Secrets - How To Get Your Dirty Whites Clean Again!

2012-01-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

Like most moms we want our families to look their best. We feel a sense of pride when our boys leave the house each morning freshly scrubbed, neat and tidy. By the time they come home after school they are usually sloppy, dirty and stained. The worst offenders are their white socks, or should we say their once white socks. Horrifying! No matter what we did they never seemed to come clean again. We set out on a mission to find out what other parents do to keep their kid's socks white.

Here is what we found:

Wash the really dirty whites, like socks, separately from your other whites to keep them from graying the cleaner whites.

Soak the socks in dishwasher detergent for at least 2 hours before washing and bleaching socks. We found this also really helped our husbands white undershirts as well. It helped remove those stubborn deodorant stains. We used a 1/2 cup in our washing machine and hot water.Wash the socks and then re wash and bleach them. This helps the dirt from redepositing on your clean socks. We were so pleased with how good the boys socks looked! Even if it only last a few fleeting moments.But, the best and easiest new trick we learned... ...just buy black socks!

Lace it up!

2012-01-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! We hope you've enjoyed the holiday season as much as we have! To help us ring in the new year, we decided that some fun new tops were in order! And we think we created the perfect one! Super easy (only minutes to make) with minimal sewing. Perfect for novice seamsters...or lazy seamsters like us! Like most of our homemade fashion ideas, we prefer a quick and dirty approach!

What You Need:

1 1/2 - 2 yards of lace (depending on the size you want to make)
scissors and/or rotary cutter
sewing machine (though it's simple enough to do by hand)
t-shirt to use as a pattern
pins

First, fold your lace in half, short end to short end, then fold in half again, this time like a book.

Next, fold your t-shirt in half lengthwise and line it's fold up with the vertical fold of your fabric. Make sure you've chosen a shirt that you like the fit and length of. Cut around your shirt, leaving a little extra room - you can always take it in later!

Then cut a rounded shape for your head to go through. Again, you can always make the neck wider later.

Unfold your new lace top and lay it flat. This will give you a good idea of how it will look! Then grab some pins and pin up the sides of your top and under the arms. If you're feeling fancy, you can hem up the bottom, sleeves, and neck. But as we've mentioned, we're lazy and like instant gratification! :) Then just run it through your sewing machine!

Once your sewing is done, you are done! Try on your top, adjust the neckline (we cut more out of our neckline because we wanted a more off-the-shoulder look), and take in the sides if necessary. So simple and only takes minutes to whip up!

We liked our pink one so much, we immediately made a black one!

Winter Break

2011-12-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Holiday Season with friends and family! We definitely are! So much so that we've decided to take a little break this week to to slow down and enjoy this time...and recover a little from all the festivities! But we will be back with more crafty fun after the New Year!

Happy Holidays!

Day 12: "Piñata" Ornamants

2011-12-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

Can you believe this is the last day of our Twelve Days of Homemade Christmas? It has gone by so fast, with Christmas approaching even faster! And while we are busy around here getting ready for the big day and all the festivities, we couldn't forget our kids' teachers who have given our boys so much. We wanted to make them special gifts as a way to thank them, and come up with this simple ornament idea! We call them "Pinãta Ornaments" not because there are treats
inside, but because to make them we used the same basic procedure as with our piñ ata! So easy for the kids to make themselves and they look so pretty too!

What You Need:

small balloons (we used water balloons!)
glue (or Modge Podge if you're feeling fancy)
tissue paper
paint brushes
string

First, blow up your balloons. To make them stay still while we worked we placed them on toilet paper rolls that we cut down to smaller sizes! Then rip/cut your tissue paper into smaller pieces.

Pour your glue into a small container, and dilute it with water if you think it's too thick. Then "paint" your balloon with the glue and stick your tissue paper to your balloon. Add another layer of glue to the tissue paper. Add more layers of tissue paper to your balloon, finishing it off by adding a final coat of glue to your balloon (yeah this can get messy but it's fun!). This will help smooth down the tissue paper and give your finished ornament a little shine.

Once you have a layer or two of tissue paper on your balloon, but a length of string and tie it into a loop. Lay it on your balloon and secure it in place with layers of tissue paper. This will be the hanger for your ornament.

Place your balloons somewhere to dry (again we used circles made form toilet paper rolls), or if you are impatient like us you can go at them with a hair dryer!

Once they are dry, hang them on your tree or in your window and admire you and your kid's handiwork!

Unfortunately the above picture doesn't do these ornaments justice. In real life the light shines through them and they are just gorgeous!

Such a simple project, but one that we think our favorite teachers will appreciate.

Day 11 - Coal Candy

2011-12-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a sweet treat to remind your friends and family to be nice and not naughty this time of year! Hard candy that looks an awful lot like real coal! We found recipes all over the web, but we decided to try the one from our Gooseberry Patch cookbook, Christmas in the Country. Many recipes we found flavored the candy with anise, cinnamon or peppermint extracts. We thought the kids would enjoy orange flavored coal more. We were right. Ben says this is his new favorite candy! We wish we had taken more pictures of this project. Jonah was hilarious smashing the candy apart!

The recipe:

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup light corn syrup

3/4 cup water

1 - 2 tsp. black food coloring paste

1 tsp. flavoring (orange is weaker than other flavors, next time we would use more)

In a heavy sauce pan, mix sugar, corn syrup, and water. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Bring mixture to a boil without stirring. Wash down any sugar crystals that form on the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush (we didn't find we needed to do this). Continue to boil with out stirring until a candy thermometer reaches 260°; add food coloring. Continue to boil until the thermometer reaches exactly 300°. Remove from heat. When finished boiling add flavoring. Pour syrup into a lightly greased 8"x8" baking pan; cool completely at room temperature. Using a wooden spoon, (we used a meat mallet) break apart candy into coal like pieces. Wrap in small plastic bags tied with a ribbon!

The boys loved how black the candy made their tongue and teeth! They also think we should leave some of this candy for Santa. It would be funny to leave him some coal for a change!

Day 10: Snowball Surprise Soap

2011-12-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

We recently saw this fantastically simple idea from Sweet and Simple Things (thank you Craft Gossip!) and knew it would make a great addition to our Twelve Days of Homemade Christmas! These adorable "snowball" soaps hold a secret inside and will make a great homemade gift. We're even thinking about making a bunch as gifts for our kids' classmates!

What You Need:

Bar Soap
Grater
Small Toy
Warm Water

First grate your soap into shavings. Keep an eye on little fingers if your kids are helping!

Then add a small amount of water to your shavings and begin to mold the soap around the toy. As usual we were hoping to use something more festive, but the boys insisted on bugs...

Keep molding until you have a nice snowball shape, adding more shavings or water as needed. We got about two snowballs per bar of soap. Then place your soaps somewhere where they can dry for awhile.

Now your Snowball Surprise Soaps are ready to wrap up and give as gifts! But they are so cute you might be tempted to keep one for yourself!

Day 9 - White Chocolate Pretzel Snowmen!

2011-12-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

When we opened our Taste Of Home holiday issue. We knew we had to make these cute little guys! Sweet, salty and delicious! They would be great treats for any holiday party or enjoyed with a mug of hot cocoa. Gather up the kiddies and make a batch of these frosty fellows!

What you need:

long pretzel rods

White chocolate chips

gumdrops for the top of the hat (we used Christmas Dots)

gumdrop rings for the hat brim(we used gummy lifesavers)

mini chocolate chips

mini m & m's - for buttons and carrot nose, we couldn't find them so we used mini chocolate chips and orange fruit snacks.

Fruit by the foot for scarfs

wax paper

We put the chocolate chips in a glass and melted them in the microwave. Watch out, stuffepuppies like white chocolate too! While the chocolate was melting, we got the candy ready! We cut the fruit by the foot in half and into about 8 inch strips. We cut orange fruit snacks into carrot shapes. After the chocolate had melted, we assembled the hats. We used a little white chocolate to glue together. The directions had us make them this way, but... ...we thought that flipping the gumdrops over makes them look more like tophats.

The directions for assembly were a little vague. After a little experimenting we figured out a few tips. First we dipped the pretzel rods then laid them on a piece of wax paper. We made the face and added the buttons. Let the chocolate harden then tie on the scarves. Stand the snowmen up in glasses. "Glue" a hat on with a little melted chocolate.

After a few minutes your snowmen will be ready to package or simply eat!
Jonah thought that was a good idea!

Day 8 - "Glass" Candy Ornaments

2011-12-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

When we saw this idea for making "Glass" Candy Ornaments, we knew we had to make it as part of our Twelve Days of Homemade Christmas. The original tutorial involved melting hard candies in your oven using foil-covered cookie cutters as a mold. Sounds simple enough....until we tried it and it was a total FAIL! We are sure the error was on our part, but we were determined to make these adorable ornaments! Then an idea came to us: skip the cookie cutters and use silicone muffin tins! We tried it and it was an amazing success! So much so that we had to share our version with all of you!

What You Need:

Hard Candies
Cooking Spray
Silicone Muffin Tins (all we had were heart-shaped! haha!)
Wooden Skewer
Ribbon or String

Spray your muffin tins with the cooking spray and set them on a cookie sheet. Then place your unwrapped hard candies in a single layer in the tins (we found that three fit nicely).

Place your tins in the oven for about 8-10 minutes or until your candies are completely melted. Careful! They will be really hot! Let the candy sit for a couple minutes, then with your wooden skewer make a hole in the still-soft candy. You may have to do this a couple times, as the warm candy may fill in your hole.
Once it is completely cool, pop your new ornaments out of the molds. They should come out very easily! Then tie a ribbon or string through the hole and hang on your tree or in your window! They look so pretty - just like glass!

Day 7 - Beautiful 3-D Paper Snowflakes!

2011-12-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

Everyone who sees these snowflakes are simply amazed! They can't believe we didn't buy them. We had seen them on several other websites and knew we had to try making them. To our surprise, they were super easy to make! This is a great project for older kids to make as well. Younger kiddos will enjoy them as well, but might need a little help putting them together.

You can use any kind of paper - printer paper, wrapping paper, origami paper. They are pretty in all white or pretty patterns and colors.

What you need:

paper - enough for six equal size squares

scissors

tape

stapler

hole punch

ruler

string or floss to hang

Decide the size of your snowflake. We liked using an 8 1/2 inch square. Cut out a square to use as a pattern.

Trace and cut out 6 squares.

Diagonally fold your first square into a triangle.

Fold in half again into a smaller triangle.

Use the ruler to mark three lines across the triangle starting from the single fold edge toward the double fold edge. We found the ruler was the perfect spacer for the three lines on an 8 1/2 square.

Cut on the lines, but don't cut all the way to the edge. Cut from the single fold edge toward the double fold edge. DON'T CUT ALL THE WAY THROUGH!

When you open the square, it should look like this.

Fold in the corners in on the inner square and tape the corners together with a small piece of tape.

Flip the square over and tape the next inner square's corners together.

Flip over again and tape the next square's corner's together.

Flip over a final time and tape the last set of corners together.

Repeat with the other squares of paper until your have made the six sections of the star. Lay out the sections and make sure that they are all pointing in the same direction. Staple three of the sections together at their inner points.

Then staple the two halves together at the center.

Finally, go around the snowflake and staple together at the sides of each section.

To hang your snowflake, decide which point will be the top. We reinforced the spot where we were going to punch the hole with a square of tape.

Tie a piece of string to the snowflake and hang!

Beautiful!

Day 6- The Gift of Warmth

2011-12-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

With the days getting colder and the nights growing longer, there is nothing like curling up next to a warm fire...except maybe giving a warm fire as a gift! We saw this idea for making Homemade Fire Starters, and thought that they would make a perfect homemade gift this season! All you (or the lucky person you give these to) have to do is light one end of your firestarter, place in your fireplace, and put a little kindling on top!

What You Need:

Cardboard Toilet Paper Tubes

Dryer Lint

Newspaper (optional)

Brown Paper

Cotton String

This is such an easy project! Simply stuff your cardboard tubes with the dryer lint. If you don't have enough lint, you can top it off with newspaper.

This is a fun step for the kids to help with!

Once it is stuffed, roll the brown paper around your tube and tie the ends with the string.

Now you're firestarter is ready for your fire pit or fire place! Or make a few, put them in a basket with some marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate and you have a fun S'mores kit to give as a gift! Or keep some for yourself, curl up with a cup of Homemade Hot Cocoa and enjoy a warm fire on a cold night! Enjoy!

Day 5: Dried Citrus Ornaments

2011-11-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hmm...Now that we made some ornaments for the birds, how about we make some for ourselves? After looking back on some of our past holiday projects, we came across the holiday garland we made a couple years ago. Loving the way the dried fruit looked on it, we thought that they would make wonderful ornaments! And we were right!

What You Need:

Various citrus fruits (we used limes, lemons, & oranges)
Knife
String

First, cut your fruit into 1/4" slices. Then arrange them on a cookie sheet (our original instructions advised lining your cookie sheet with parchment paper, but we were out of it and it still worked fine!) and pop them into a preheated 170 degree oven. Let them dry in the oven for about 6-8 hours, keeping the oven door slightly open using a wooden spoon to let out the moisture. Turn the fruit over every two hours.

Once the fruit was dry, take them out of the oven, let them cool, and pop string or ribbon through the hole in their centers (if a hole isn't there naturally, use a wooden skewer to make one).Then hang on your tree and see how pretty they look! We love the way the light shines through them like stained glass! Simple elegance!

Day 4 - Birdseed Ornaments

2011-11-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We want to wish you and your families a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!

We thought this was a perfect project to post on Thanksgiving. Like many of you we have been talking about being thankful for all we have with our children. We like to find ways to have our boys do kind things for others. Here is an activity that you and your children can do to help feed the birds and squirrels in your neighborhood and look so cute!

We found this idea at Family Fun. We tried making a batch using their recipe, but they didn't turn out very well. They crumbled almost immediately. We read other peoples' reviews and saw that this was a common problem. We still loved the idea of these cute birdseed ornaments, so we experimented with adding more flour and water and came up with this great recipe. This time they worked perfectly. They look adorable in the trees and we know our bird friends will love them!

What you will need:

3/4 cup of birdseed

2 tablespoons of flour

2 tablespoons of water

metal cookie cutters

straws

foil lined cookie sheet

cooking spray

ribbon

This recipe makes two or three ornaments. We quadrupled the recipe and made 9 fairly big ornaments.

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees. First, place your cookie cutters on your cookie sheet. Spray your cookie sheet and cookie cutters with cooking spray.

Cut your straws into two inch pieces. They will make the hole in your biscuits.
Mix your flour and water together in a medium sized bowl.

Add the birdseed and mix.

Spoon mixture into the cookie cutters. Place a straw piece near the top of the cookie cutter. Press the birdseed mixture in well. We found that the back of our spoon worked well.

Bake for about an hour to an hour and a half if you are making a larger batch. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely. Remove the straws.

String each ornament with a pretty ribbon.

Hang outside in a favorite tree. You may want to make several batches, they won't last long!

The birds will thank you!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Day 3: Homemade Eggnog

2011-11-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

'Tis the season for tasty drinks and holiday cheer. And no seasonal drink gives you both quite like eggnog. You can buy it at the store, of course, but making it from scratch is so easy...not to mention delicious! The recipe we used can be found here on Allrecipes.com. We made ours without alcohol so the kids could enjoy it as well, but feel free to add a splash of "something festive" to yours if you'd like!

What You Need:

6 eggs
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 quart milk
1/3 pint heavy whipping cream
a pinch of ground nutmeg
a pinch of salt

First, beat your eggs then mix in the condensed milk, vanilla, milk, and salt. In a separate bowl beat your whipping cream until soft peaks form. Then fold it into your egg/milk mixture. Sprinkle with the nutmeg, serve, and feel merry!

Day 2 - Ben's Snowflake Art

2011-11-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

Ben was super excited to share this easy holiday project with all of you. He was inspired by a recent trip to Target. The store was decorated with beautiful decorations all made of snowflakes connected together. When we got home, Ben, his brother Jonah and cousin Jack got out paper and scissors and set to work.

They used white and colored printer paper, construction paper was to hard to cut. They also discovered that hole punchers made great details on the snowflakes.

They covered all the windows in snowflakes.

Then Ben set to work on making a Christmas tree out of snowflakes. He had everyone cut out lots of green snowflakes and one yellow one for the star on top.
Then he laid out the snowflakes in the shape he thought he would like.

Finally he taped them all together in a tree patern.

Ben and Jonah decided to make some paper presents (complete with snowflake bows). They wrote messages to Santa on each present. Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We had a great time cutting out snowflakes together!

Day 1: Snow Globes!

2011-11-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our second annual Twelve Days of Homemade Christmas! It's not even Thanksgiving, and yet we've already had some snow here. The kids were thrilled, we were less than thrilled. It did however get us in a snowy state of mind, so we decided to make some Homemade Snow Globes! Our kids love snow globes, and were excited to learn that they could make their own. There are a lot of tutorials out there, so we took what we liked from various ones and came up with our own version! It was so easy...the boys already have plans to make more!

What You Need:

Clean, empty jars
Small toys or figurines (not metal - they will rust)
Glitter, sequins, fake snow
Hot glue gun
paint, fabric. etc.

First, hot glue your toy or figurine to the inside of your jar lid (Feel free to paint your lids or cover them with fabric to pretty them up!). We were hoping to make more holiday-ish snow globes. Instead our kids wanted mountain lion, army guys, and Lego snow globes! If your item sits too far down in your jar and isn't going to be very visible, try having it sit on a small object to raise it up a bit (This site mentions using soda bottle caps for this purpose, but we used a small play-doh container).

Now fill your jar with the water and a bit of glitter then see if you like the amount of glitter. You can always add more! (This site reccommends using the clean, ground up shells from hard boiled eggs to make snow!)

Once you are happy with your snow-to-water ratio, add more hot glue around the threaded rim of your jar and to the inside of your jar lid.Now flip it over and let it snow!!

Homemade Citrus Enzyme Cleaner - part 2

2011-11-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Starting next week, we will begin our 12 Days of Homemade Christmas. We will have 12 post dedicated to holiday foods, crafts, gifts and fun! So before that starts we wanted to catch you up with how the homemade citrus enzyme cleaner turned out.

Click here to see the recipe and uses for the enzyme cleaner made from fruit scrapes, brown sugar and water. As you may recall it takes 3 months to prepare. We actually have another week before is fully mature, but we didn't want to wait until after the holidays to share our results with you!

We decided to put the enzyme cleaner to the test. We poured a half cup of strained cleaner into a spray bottle and added twenty ounces of water to dilute. Then we hit the house! We were quite impressed with our results. The enzyme cleaner was fantastic in the kitchen and the bathroom. It cleaned the tile floors and the grout really well. It totally eliminated the odors in the plastic garbage cans. It even cleaned the mirrors. The most impressive results were when in cleaning around the toilet (we have little boys with bad aim). It removed all the unpleasant bathroom odors. The bathroom is super clean and smells fresh!

For once we were kind of excited when Rocky, the dog, had an accident in the house. Here was our chance to really give the enzyme cleaner a workout! Our cleaner came through with flying colors!

We totally recommend giving this recipe a try! We have already started another batch.

A Few Tips:

Keep the lid very loose. The first few weeks there is a lot of gas pressure.

Keep the cleaner somewhere you will see it so you will remember to shake it. (everyday for the first few weeks)

The cleaner should keep indefinitely

If you keep the fruit bits in your cleaner it will continue to get stronger.

Use diluted, but use more cleaner for tougher jobs

We recommend allowing the product to sit for about five minutes, more for tougher jobs

Peanut Butter Cups!

2011-11-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

We love peanut butter cups! Favorite candy hands down! Our kids have finally figured out how good they are as well. They no longer share them with us from their Halloween stash. What's a homemade mama to do? Make her own of course!

Luckily we happened to pick up this Taste of Home magazine at the grocery store. It is full of fabulous ideas for the upcoming holidays. We were so tickled when we found a recipe for making homemade peanut butter cups. We actually made sunbutter cups (sunflower seed butter - taste almost like peanut butter). Jonah is allergic to peanuts. Poor guy, never has had a peanut butter cup. He was finally able to enjoy one!

Makes about 3 dozen.

What you need:

1 cup creamy peanut butter divided

4 1/2 teaspoons butter, softened

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 milk chocolate bars (1.55 ounces each) coarsely chopped

mini cupcake liners

colored sprinkles optional

In a small bowl combine 1/2 cup of peanut butter, salt, sugar, and butter. Mix until smooth. In a larger bowl, mix chocolate chips, chocolate bars and the other 1/2 cup of peanut butter. Melt in the microwave. We did this on medium power stirring occasionally. Cheesy grin optional.Already looks delicious!
Line a mini muffin cup pan with paper liners.

Top each liner with about a teaspoonful of chocolate. Using the back of the spoon, spread chocolate up the sides.

Top each with a scant teaspoonful of the peanut butter.

Cover top with more chocolate.

Decorate with sprinkles for extra fun! They would be really cute with red and green sprinkles for the holidays!

Place in the fridge for about an hour until set. Then enjoy!

A Tisket, A Tasket, A Paper Plate Basket!

2011-11-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

We saw this project over the summer for making Paper Plate Baskets for fruit and stored it away for future crafting. But, as usual, it got buried and forgotten about...until today! And though now may not be the right time to think about making fruit baskets, we think these simple and adorable baskets would be perfect for holding all yummy little goodies that we will be whipping up over the holidays!

What You Need:

Paper Plate
Pencil
Scissors and/or Pinking Shears
Rubber Band
Paper Clips
Ribbon

Using your pinking shears (or any decorative scissors) cut roughly a 1/4" from around the edge of your plate. Our pinking shears have mysteriously disappeared, so we decided to just make a scalloped edge using regular scissors!

Now flip your plate over and with a pencil draw out "tic-tac-toe lines" on the back, with the center square approximately in the middle of your plate. You can be precise and use a ruler, but we just eyeballed it!

With your regular scissors, cut every other vertical line up to the edge of the center square.

Fold one side up at a time to form a basket shape, using the paper clips to hold the sides in place.

Once all four sides are up, place your rubber band around the outside of your basket and then remove the paper clips.

Then take your ribbon and cover the rubber band, tying a cute bow to finish it off!

Now you are ready to fill your basket with yummy sweet and savory treats (we filled ours with these No-Bake Cookies from Skip To My Lou)! These little baskets would make perfect gifts for neighbors, teachers, hostesses...or maybe just make one for yourself to enjoy!

Happy Halloweenies!

2011-10-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everyone!

If you are like us, your children can hardly wait until school is over so they can go trick or treating! Our kids want a quick dinner that they can quickly eat so they can get out and start collecting all that CANDY!!!

We got this cute idea from Pillsbury a few years ago - halloweenies! Hot dogs wrapped in crescent roll dough to look like mummies! (We also like to call them mummy dogs.) The boys all love them! They request them all year long, but are a must for Halloween. They are cute, festive and fast! You can grab one and eat it on your way to your first trick-or -treat stop.

Pillsbury suggest using mini cocktail weenies, but we like using full sized hot dogs.

All you need is a tube of crescent roll dough, a package of hot dogs and ketchup or mustard.

Preheat your oven to 375°. Unroll the dough on a cutting board.Press the seems together to make a seem less sheet. If you can find it, you can also use Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations - which is a seem less sheet of crescent roll dough.

Cut strips about a half inch wide. We find a pizza wheel works great for this!

Now pat dry your hot dogs on a paper towel. Wrap a strip of dough in a mummy like fashion. leave room for your mummy's face to peek out. Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet.

We only wanted to make 5 dogs, so we decided to sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on the rest of the strips. We rolled them up like cinnamon rolls and also placed them on the cookie sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until they start to turn golden brown.

Use the ketchup or mustard to make 2 glowing eyes!

We wanted to take more pictures of the finished dogs, but the kids couldn't wait to eat them! Ben didn't even wait for them to cool before chowing down. Ouch! But sooo good!

Blood...And Chocolate??

2011-10-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Halloween is fast approaching, and around here the kids (not to mention a few grown-ups) are getting VERY excited! And with costume choices being finalized some of the boys have decided that they need some fake blood to complete their spooky looks. So while we could have just run off to the nearest costume shop or drug store, we decided to poke around and see if we could make our own! We were pleasantly surprised to find a recipe for a simple and edible yet VERY realistic fake blood using chocolate! (Because what mother doesn't like whipping up a batch of blood for her kids? :P)

What You Need:

1/2 cup warm water
4 Tbsp. corn syrup
1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. red food coloring

First, mix the warm water and cocoa very well. Then add the rest of our ingredients. Let it sit for awhile, skimming off any bubbles that appear (we didn't have any bubbles when we made this). Admire your bloody creation!

Then apply to your favorite little vampire and get ready for some Halloween fun!

While it was fun to wear the chocolaty blood, Jack thought it would be more fun to try dipping pretzels in it!

Time to Make the Donuts!

2011-10-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

This week, one of our homemade papas, Keith, got the urge to make homemade donuts! The Mamas are rubbing off! We should also say that none of us have ever made homemade donuts! He went out and found three recipes online to try. With three new recipes we expected at least one to be a dud. To our surprise all three were fantastic and very easy to make!!! It was an awesome way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

We made these three recipes: apple fritters, glazed donuts (these taste just like Krispy Kremes!) and cake donuts with cinnamon sugar! Give these recipes a try! You may never want to buy store bought donuts again!

We were so impressed. Keith (who is NOT a baker at all) did most of the cooking!

We finally finished up the last of our apples with these apple fritters!
We don't do a lot of frying, but we found it was super easy. We used one big tub of vegetable Crisco for all three batches!

The glazed donuts are soooo light and fluffy!

We now have more donuts than we know what to do with!

I'm sure we'll think of something!

Dad's Birthday ROCKS!

2011-10-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Maggie's husband is an avid rock collector and has passed on his love of geology to their sons. So when his birthday rolled around this week, we knew we had to include rocks somehow. We always try to make some sort of homemade gift on birthdays and holidays, but how do you and the kids do homemade when it comes to rocks? Make Treasure Rocks, of course! These fun, homemade rocks contain small trinkets and surprises that will delight the recipient when the rocks are cracked open! So easy and fun for the whole family!

What You Need:

1/2 cup coffee grounds (used or instant)
1/2 cup sand
1/2 cup salt
1 cup flour
1 cup water

First, find small, non-plastic objects that you want as treasure for inside your rocks. We let the kids go around the house and pick out what "treasures" they thought Dad would like: glass marbles, a jingle bell, "gold" buttons, coins, and fake diamonds were what caught their eye! They even decided at the last minute to put leprechaun gold in one!

Now you are ready to make your rocks! Preheat your oven to 250 and mix your dry ingredients together.

Then add the water a little bit at a time until you get a play dough-like consistency.

Once your dough is just right, divide it up depending on how many rocks you want. Then flatten the divided parts...

...and place your "treasures" inside.

Then fold the dough around the "treasures" sealing them up. Mold your dough into the shape of rocks.

Place your rocks on a cookie sheet, pop them in the oven, and bake for 15 minutes. Once the time is up, leave your rocks in overnight to finish drying. We found that ours were still a little underdone on the bottoms, so we flipped them over and popped them back in for some more cooking time. And there you have it: Homemade Treasure Rocks! Do they look real or what??

Now the fun part: breaking them! Dad had a great time breaking open the Treasure Rocks with the boys and seeing what wonderful things they had hidden! No, a rock hammer is not necessary, just more fun!

This was a fun project for the whole family, as kids of all ages could help make (and break!) them!

An Apple A Day Keeps the Acne Away!

2011-10-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Rebecca still has a refrigerator full of apples (12 lbs of apples takes a lot longer to eat than expected). She is putting apples in everything! She decided to look for other uses for apples. She found this recipe on several sites and decided to give it a try. It is supposed to be great at getting rid of acne when used regularly.

The Recipe:

1 medium apple

5 Tbl honey

Peel the apple. Coarsely chop the apple and place in a blender. Add honey and puree. Wash your face with warm water to help open your pores. Rub mask onto your face. leave for 15-20 minutes. Rinse well with warm water.

Super simple right! The natural fruit acids help remove dead skin cells, plus apples are loaded with vitamins! Another great reason to love this recipe is that both ingredients are available all year round! .

Spooktacular Halloween Wreath

2011-10-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

With Halloween around the corner and all the "Halloweenifying" we've been doing around here, it seems like the only thing we were missing was a great wreath for the front door! We were looking for something not only perfect for the season, but also perfect for the budget. When we came across this idea for a Halloween Stick Wreath, we knew we had a winner! Not only is it cute and free, but it is a great way to add some creativity to a walk on a warm fall day!

What You Need:

Sticks...all shapes and sizes
Cardboard
Scissors
Black acrylic paint
Glue Gun

Draw a circle for the base of your wreath on your cardboard. We traced a mixing bowl and a saucer to get the sizes we wanted. Then cut them out!

Next, paint your cardboard circle black. This will help it blend in later.
Now start laying out your sticks around the circle, breaking them to be the right length as you go. They don't have to be perfect - the more rough and scraggly-looking the better!.

Then hot glue them into place! You can add smaller sticks to fill in any large gaps as you go along as well.

Once the hot glue dries completely, it's time to paint your wreath! This is a perfect time for the little ones to get involved! Spray paint would also work well - we just didn't happen to have any on hand.

When your wreath is dry you can start thinking about decorations. We wanted to keep ours simple, but you can get as ornate and creative as you'd like. Once it done, tie a festive ribbon on and you are ready to hang it up!

Homemade Halloweenification!

2011-10-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

Now that the days are getting cooler and the leaves are starting to fall, our boys thoughts have turned to ghost and goblins, Our homes have been decorated since October !st (we had to force them to wait that long). Today they all went to Nana's house and decided they had to "Halloweenify" her condo. Nana was a great sport and gave the boys free reign over decorating - and a pile of construction paper, glue and scissors! Those boys are so creative! Who needs store bought decorations when you have creative kids around! We gave them the supplies and they came up with so many cute ideas. Sorry the pics. aren't so great. It was an spontaneous craft day and all we had was our phone's camera.

Bat mobile - (ha ha) Ok mom helped a little with this one.

Bats, ghost and window markers!

Blood dripping down the windows (Oh, what must the neighbors think!)

Spiders in the windows make great silhouettes!

Ben made this spooky spiderweb by cutting paper like you would paper snowflakes.

Jacks "bloody" hand prints decorate Nana's fire[lace.

Ben made these scary trees using brown, rolled up paper and a hole punch for eyes.

We weren't planning on having a crafty afternoon. In fact we had another project all set to post. We were so inspired by the boys creativity today that we wanted to share their ideas with you. Kids are so structured today. They reminded us that it is so important to give them time to create and express themselves freely. They will surprise you every time!

Dare-To-Wear Hardware

2011-10-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

After a little household project, Maggie's husband was left with an almost full, 100 count box of washers. What normal person needs that many washers?? A Homemade Mama, that's who! We trolled the internet looking for ideas and came across several sites with tutorials for making necklaces. But with so many washers, Maggie's husband suggested taking the same idea and turning it into a belt instead! Genius!

A word of advice: check out the diagram offered on Tiny Sparkly Things if our directions need some clarifying. This is not an easy project to explain and it was a big help to us!

What You Need:

metal washers (we used size 3/16" x 1-1/4")
ribbon
scissors

Before you start making the actual belt, take your ribbon and measure out the length you want your belt to be, including extra for tying. Then double it (at least!), as you will lose a lot of length as you go. You might also want to singe the ends of your ribbon since they will get a lot of wear and tear as you weave them in and out of the washers.

Now thread your first washer onto your ribbon as shown below. We found that doing this on a flat surface helped us see what we ere doing better, as well as kept the ribbon for twisting on us. Leave 8 or so inches on one end (we will refer to this as the "short end", and will always be on the left side of the pics, as we worked from left to right) to make the tie for your belt.

Then thread the second washer onto the "long end" (on the right), so that it looks like this:

Take your second washer, and tuck it a bit under the first.This is where it might get confusing, so bear with us. Take the long end of your ribbon and thread it through the bottom of your first washer.

Then thread the long end through the top of the second washer and pull tight.

Now thread on a third washer and tuck it a bit under the second washer, like you did above. Repeat the above steps (and, again, look at this diagram if you need more clarifying!!).

Continue adding more washers until you get the desired length of your belt.

To finish the ends, take the end of your ribbon and thread it up and into the hole of the last washer.

Pull tight. Then flip your belt over and repeat with the first washer.

Ta-da! Your belt is done!

Now tie it on and look FABULOUS!

The Gingerbread Man!

2011-10-02T22:27:00.000-07:00

In case you were looking for a reason to do a little baking, how about reading enrichment.

Last year, our boy's teacher asked us for a little help with a class project. They were planning on doing a lesson with the book The Gingerbread Man. After reading the book, the kids got to go on a scavenger hunt all around school to find the runaway gingerbread man! It really made the story come to life for the kids. Jack and Jonah still talk about how gingerbread cookies really run away! Bake up a batch and hid them somewhere around your house. Leave clues, notes or eyewitness accounts with other family members. The kids will have so much fun, and be inspired to read!

The cookies Rebecca made were such a hit with the kids, that the teacher asked her to make them again for her class this year! The recipe is from the McCormick spice company. It makes a nice soft cookie that isn't too spicy!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp. ground ginger 3/4 cup butter softened
1 tsp. cinnamon 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda 1/2 cup molasses
1/4 tsp nutmeg 1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. Beat butter, sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add molasses, egg and vanilla; beat well. Gradually beat in dry ingredients on low speed until well mixed.press dough into a thick flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

We like to make 3 disk to make the refrigerating go quicker! (about an hour)

Preheat oven to 350°. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a lightly floured work surface. Cut gingerbread men.
Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheets. (we like to use parchment paper) Bake 8-10 minutes or until the edges just begin to turn brown. Cool on baking sheets for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks. Cool completely.

Decorate cookies as desired. We used a simple royal icing. Normally we would have let the boys decorate the cookies, but since they were for school Mom decorated them.
The hardest part was keeping Dad out of them!

Then you are ready to curl up with a good book and a delicious cookie!

Ghost in a Jar

2011-09-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

For weeks now our boys have been begging to "Halloweenify" the house, but we're making them wait until October 1st, which is this weekend. To help get the festivities started we wanted to find a fun Halloween craft. After seeing some of the cute projects where people turn jars into ghosts, we wondered if we could put a ghost in a jar! We knew the kids would get a kick out of that! We gave it some thought, and this is what we came up with!

What You Need:

clean jar with lid
gauze pad
small toy or object to shape your ghost
school glue
water
plastic wrap
construction paper
fabric, ribbon (optional)

First, wrap your small toy in plastic wrap. This will help you remove your ghost later.

Pour some glue into a small bowl and dilute it with water a bit (there are no exact measurements for this - just eyeball it).

Stand up your wrapped toy on a small dish. Then dip a single layer of gauze into the diluted glue. It will absorb a lot, so wring it out a bit. Then drape it over your toy, manipulating it to get the shape you want.
Let your ghost dry for a few hours or overnight...or if you are impatient like us, use the hairdryer!
When it is dry or almost dry, remove the stiff gauze from the plastic-wrapped toy. it will be flexible, which will help you put it in the jar later. Then using your construction paper, cut out some spooky faces and glue them to your ghost. Now insert your ghost into the jar and put on the lid. We then covered out lids with fabric and ribbon to make them more festive.

They are cute as-is, but look really neat with lights shining behind them!

Just don't take the lid off - they might escape! ;)

Newsworthy Nails!

2011-09-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

We have wanted to post this project for months! Unfortunately, none of the mamas have long, lovely nails. We kept hoping we might magically grow some, but that never happened. So use your imagination and picture this fun and funky nail art on your beautiful hands and not on these dishpan hands!

What you need:

nail polish (we used white so you could see it better, but almost any color would work)

rubbing alcohol

clear top coat

newspaper

Click here to watch a video of this process!

First paint your nails your base color. Let them thoroughly dry. Next, pour a small amount of rubbing alcohol in a small bowl or shot glass. Stick your finger in for about 5 seconds. Press a small piece of newspaper to your nail. Don't hold it for more than a couple of seconds, or it will start to stick. Pay attention to the direction of the newspaper type.

Finish off each nail with a coat of clear topcoat. Wash off your fingers to get any of the extra newsprint off your hands (you can use rubbing alcohol for this as well).

Even our little boys were impressed by how cool these came out!

Sweet Sweet Nature

2011-09-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the delay in posting today. We had a power outage. But better late than never!!

We have been doing quite a few food postings, but we can't help it when inspiration strikes! This latest treat was inspired by the rose bushes growing outside Maggie's house. With the cold weather lurking in the not-so-distant future, we know that we won't get to enjoy them for much longer. So to make the most of them we decided to try making Candied Rose Petals! This can be done with any edible flower, and add a fun, unexpected touch to cakes,cookies,or even just in a dish at tea time! You guests will think you bought them at some fancy store - shhh! We won't tell!

What You Need:

about 3 dozen organic rose petals
1 large egg white, lightly beaten (grade A or AA well refrigerated & pasteurized) or if you are worried about using raw egg whites use powdered.
1 cup superfine sugar (we used regular & it worked fine)

First, make sure your rose petals are completely dry.

Then dip each petal in the egg white, being sure to completely cover it. Then simply dip the petal into the sugar, also completely covering it.Even Jack enjoyed making this simple recipe!

Lay your sugary petals on wire racks to dry for several hours or overnight until they are hard and crystally!

Put them on sweets or just in a pretty dish and completely wow your guests!

Technical difficulties

2011-09-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry everyone. We have been experiencing technical difficulties. So check back later for Maggie's new post!!

Sent from my iPhone

German Apple Cake

2011-09-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Rebecca and her boys went apple picking at a
local orchard. The boys had a great time picking 24 pounds of apples! Which of course means lots of apple recipes! The first recipe we always make is for German Apple Cake. Our family has been making this recipe for years! It came from our Grandmother's church cookbook. (We think from the early 80's!) One of her good friends, Betty Hammond donated this recipe. We all love this recipe. You only need a few simple ingredients and it can easily be doubled for a crowd.

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 8 or 9 inch square baking pan.

The Recipe:

1 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 egg

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups of peeled, sliced apples

Cream sugar and butter. Beat egg and add to creamed mixture. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add to butter mixture.Stir in apples. This may seem awkward. There is as much apples as there is dough. Don't worry, it will all work out in the oven. Lightly press dough into the pan. Bake for 40 - 50 min. until the top is puffed and crunchy looking. It should start pulling away from the edge. Cool and then enjoy! Try it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Delicious!

Omelet Mug

2011-09-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

School has started and so has the hectic morning routine! But you still want to give your kids a good breakfast that will stay keep them going until lunchtime. So thanks to Allrecipes and this recipe that we've modified you can give your kids a hot breakfast in minutes: an Omelet In A Mug! (yeah, you know we can't resist tasty treats in mugs!)

What You Need:

2 eggs
splash of milk
2 tablespoons of cheese (but can you ever have too much cheese??)
veggies, meat...whatever else you want to throw in!
cooking spray

This is to stinkin' easy! First, spray the inside of your mug with the cooking spray. Then add your two eggs, cheese, milk, and other tasty ingredients. Mix them up and throw your mug into the microwave and cook on high for 1 minute. Stir, then cook for an additional 30 to 60 seconds. And TA-DA! A delicious hot breakfast! How simple is that??

Surprise Muffins!

2011-09-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

These muffins should be called double surprise muffins. One, they have a delicious surprise inside, and two, surprise they are made from pancake mix! Surprise! You may have noticed we love pancakes and pancake mix. We have made all kinds of pancakes, as well as biscuits made from pancake mix. You can imagine how excited we were when we found a whole section on cooks.com dedicated to muffins made from pancake mix! We love this recipe because it is so versatile and simple. We have used it as a base for all different kinds of muffins. You can replace the oil with melted butter too - YUM! The pancake mix eliminates several other ingredients, making warm delicious muffins arrive even quicker!

Makes 12 muffins.

The Recipe:

2 cups of pancake mix

1 cup of milk

1/3 cup of sugar (we used brown because we were out of white - either works)

1 egg beaten

1/3 cup oil

fruit preserves

preheat oven to 425 °

Mix pancake mix and sugar together. Mix in milk, egg and oil, just until blended.
Line muffin tray, or spray with cooking spray.
Fill cups 1/2 way full with batter.They spoon about a teaspoon of fruit preserves onto each cup. Then top with the rest of the batter. Bake for 17-20 min. until golden brown.

Cool and enjoy!

Fungus Among Us!

2011-09-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

We went to the Chicago Botanic Gardens this past weekend and saw that they had a whole exhibit on mushrooms, with tons of varieties to see and learn about. Who knew there were so many? We later took a walk and saw many beautiful ones on our own:

Also at this exhibit they had a little Homemade Mamas-style inspiration: Making spore prints! Apparently spore prints are a great way to identify mushrooms, but we thought they were just pretty and would make lovely autumnal artwork! The kids really got into this project, too! It's a great way in incorporate art and science.

What You Need:

various fresh mushrooms (both store bought & wild mushrooms can work great!)
paper
glass
knife

First, cut the stem from your mushroom, exposing the "gills" underneath.

Place your mushroom "gill" side down on your paper.

Then place a glass over the mushroom. The glass keeps air currents from disturbing the spores and giving you a better chance of getting a good print.

The glass also keeps curious cats at bay...As you can see, we did a whole bunch of these!

Now the hard part: waiting! Leave your mushrooms alone for a few hours at least (although we recommend you leave them overnight). Don't peek!

The next day, remove the glass and lift your mushroom cap straight up - try not to smudge your print. And you should have a lovely print of spores in the shape of your mushroom's "gills"!

We thought it might be fun to cover these with contact paper (to keep them from smudging), but we decided to frame them for a little fall art! This is an oddly addictive project, and one that the whole family got a kick out of!

Homemade Gel Air Fresheners!

2011-09-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

With 4 boys, 2 dogs, 2 husbands and a couple of cats between us - you sometimes need a little air freshener! But having 4 boys. 2 dogs, 2 husbands and a couple of cats, we worry about someone eating, licking or inhaling something that is not so good for them. So we loved this idea (and wondered why we hadn't thought of it ourselves) of making a gel air freshener out of unflavored gelatin! Safe for kids and pets!

You can customize your air freshener with any essential oil you like and use any glass container!

What you need:

one package unflavored gelatin

1 cup boiling water

essential oil (15-20 drops depending on the scent)

small glass jar or bowl - this recipe makes one cup of liquid

1 Tbl. salt (helps prevent mold)

food coloring - optional

So Easy! All you do is mix the ingredients together in a heatproof bowl. You want to make the essential oils to be a little stronger smelling than you would normally like. It will smell less as it cools. Let the gelatin dissolve. Stir and pour the liquid into the glass container of your choice. We decided to use some shot glasses and then place them all around the living room.

We found we preferred ours with no food coloring. They are less noticeable that way. The gel is slightly yellow when it firms up.

The air fresheners should last about a month!

T-Shirt Pillow...POW!

2011-09-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Our boys are usually pretty well behaved, except for one thing: they insist on growing! We keep telling them to stay little, but they just don't listen. So we seem to constantly have to go through their clothes, weeding out what no longer fits. While we normally give the out-grown clothes to other kids we know or to charity, sometimes there is that one too-cute t-shirt that we can't seem to part with. One such item was Charlie's muscle shirt that reads,"POW!". And since his 3-year-old body won't fit into the 24 month shirt, and we didn't have the heart to give it away, we decided to make a little pillow out of it for him! It was so easy we knew we had to share it!

What You Need:

1 old t-shirt
scissors or roller cutter
sewing machine
stuffing
pins
needle & thread

First, lay your shirt out flat and decide how you want to cut your shirt. After looking at the size and shape of our shirt as well as the image on the shirt, we decided to just simply cut the top off. That way the sides were kept in tact, which meant less sewing!

Turn your fabric inside out so that the right sides are facing. Pin the raw edges together.

Sew it up, being careful to remember to leave a hole so that you can stuff your pillow.

Now turn it right side out and stuff it like there's no tomorrow!

Sew up the hole with your needle and thread. And you're done!

As you can see,the new pillow is a hit with Charlie - he now carries it around with him!

Too cute and too easy! A simple way to give new life to your kids' old clothes!

Homemade Citrus Enzyme Cleaner - part 1

2011-08-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

We were so excited to try this when we found this here. A homemade enzyme cleaner that is made from fruit scrapes, water and brown sugar. This enzyme cleaner is all natural and safe for children and pets! According to the reviews - you can use this cleaner for just about everything!

floor wash

dishes

laundry stains

clearing blockages from drains

fertilizer for veg, flowering and non-flowering plants

cleaning fruits and veggies

pet stains

insect repellent (ants and cockroaches)

Some people even use it as a skin cleanser!

You can make this with fruit or veggie scrapes, but most people agree that the veggie scraps make it smell bad, and citrus fruits make it smell great!

This recipe is very simple. The tricky part is that it takes 3 months to ferment and make the enzymes! We decided to do this post as a two parter. We just made a batch and thought we would share our results in three months. If you have made this let us know your thoughts, tips and results!

The first article we read about this cleaner had the recipe in metric units we found this recipe that was all ready converted for us at eHow.com.

What you need:

a large 2 liter bottle with an airtight lid - a juice bottle works great

2 1/2 cups of fruit peels and scraps - fruit bits are fine to add

7 Tbl. brown sugar

4 cups of water

We started with about 2 large lemons and 2 medium orange peels.

We chopped up the peels until they were small enough to fit in the top of the bottle.

Then we added the brown sugar and the water to the bottle. We closed the lid tight and shook well.

Make sure you label your bottle with the date you made the enzyme cleaner.

For the first month, you want to shake the bottle every day. Store in a cool, dark place where you will see it and remember to give it that shake! We like our pantry for this. After you shake,open the lid to allow gas pressure to escape. Store the bottle with the lid halfway open. As the liquid ferments gas can build up. Some reviewers who kept their lids on tight had explosions when they opened their bottles! If you see a white or black film on the top of the liquid just give the bottle a shake. It is just natural yeast growing. After 3 months strain the liquid with cheese cloth or a fine strainer. Use diluted.

The author of the first article recommended:

1/2 cup enzyme cleaner to 1 liter of water for bathrooms, 2Tbl. cleaner to 3 liters of water for tiled floors, 2Tbl. cleaner to 2 liters of water for windows. Use more or less for depending on the job. The cleaner will last indefinitely.

If you want to makes a smaller or larger batch, you want to use 1 part brown sugar, 3 parts fruit scraps, and 10 parts water. To read more about the homemade enzyme cleaners. read this newspaper article

So far our bottle is looking good. It smells wonderful. It is so hard to wait the three months! We will let you know our results in November! Please send us your results and tips if you have all ready tried this!

Homemade Bread Bag

2011-08-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Need a quick housewarming or hostess gift for someone? Why not give the gift of fresh bread! It's warm, welcoming, and thoughtful. In fact, the only way to make homemade bread even better is to give it in an adorable Homemade Bread Bag! We first saw this idea on Saltwater Kids using a kitchen towel. Not having one on hand, we used a cloth napkin to create our bag. And the results were fantastically cute and simple!

What You Need:

1 cloth napkin
ribbon
scissors
sewing machine

First fold your napkin in half, right sides together. Then cut a length of ribbon, fold it in half, and place the ribbon inside the napkin with the fold poking out a bit, placing it a few inches from the side you want to be the opening for your bag. This will be the tie for your finished bag.

Pin along one short side of the napkin and the long side, being sure to pin the ribbon into place.

Now just sew up what will now be the bottom and the side of your bread bag!

Turn it right side out and figure out what kind of yummy bread you will make to put inside (we made carrot bread using this muffin recipe, although if using a cakey quick bread like this one you might want to wrap it in plastic before putting it in your bread bag).

Place your bread in the bag, tie the ribbon, and you are ready to give the gift of deliciousness! this project takes only a matter of minutes to whip up, but the end result is so great. Plus the recipient can reuse it, if they want. We think it would also make a great wine bag!

Mamas are Back!!

2011-08-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Well we recently came back from visiting our family in beautiful Pennsylvania. We knew we would have a great time once we got there, but it was the getting there that we weren't so sure about. The trip from Chicago took about 11 hours each way! It was a tight squeeze with 7 of us in the car, but we were prepared with our backseat car organizers, loaded with all kinds of craft supplies, books and activity pages.

Those creative kids came up with all kinds of ideas and uses for the art supplies.

Homemade Nana brought a supply of surprises for each kid to open every hour. Most were small toys, craft supplies or treats from the dollar store. If you are planning a long road trip, we highly recommend this idea! The kids loved the surprises! The new toy or treat kept them busy until it was time for the next one.We all enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Once in Pennsylvania, the boys had fun climbing old tanks at the park across the street...

wading in the creek behind our Aunt's house, exploring, and of course spending lots of time with our wonderful family!

Hittin' The Road!

2011-08-04T06:03:00.000-07:00

As we mentioned in our last post, the Homemade Mamas are getting ready for a road trip to parts unknown! So for about the next two weeks we will be taking a bit of a blogging break. But we'll be back with you on August 22nd with more fun projects!

See you soon!!

On-The-Road Organization

2011-08-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Summer is the official road trip season for families, and the Homemade Mamas are no exception. We're getting ready to hit the road ourselves in a week and so we are doing out best to get organized. One memory of family road trips for Rebecca and Maggie is the backseat car organizer that Homemade Nana made (out of a lovely red, white, and blue funky plaid material!) that hung from the back of the front seats so that the kids in the back could store various art supplies, books, toys, and other things to keep busy with. Nana suggested we make one for our upcoming trip, and since we had all the supplies needed already on hand, we thought we'd give it a whirl!

We should mention that there are some great tutorials out there, we're sure. However, we decided to make this up as we went along, so if anything isn't clear, please let us know and we'll try to clarify!

What You Need:

1 old sheet set (we think ours might have been a twin)

sewing machine

elastic

ribbon

ruler

pen/pencil

some fun things to stuff your organizer with when you're done!

First, measure the backs of the front seats of your car. Then trace and cut that size rectangle out of your flat sheet. We found that the backs of our car was about the same size as our cutting mat, so we just traced and cut around that, making two so we could have one for the back of each front seat.

Then pin and hem the raw edges. This is the base for your organizer.

Now it's time to think about pockets. After much pondering (and cursing) we realized that we could use the elastic edge from the fitted sheet to help the pockets hold in all the stuff our kids are bringing.

So starting with a large bottom pocket that is as wide as your base fabric (perfect for books and paper), measure on your fitted sheet how tall you want your pocket to go, making sure that the elastic trim will be at the top of the pocket. Then stretch your elastic a bit on both sides (we did about 3-4 inches) and draw diagonal lines down for the sides of the pockets. The end result is a trapezoidal-shaped pocket where the elastic top is wider than the base, which will allow for a more roomier pocket. (see the pic if the makes no sense).

Pin your pocket onto your base fabric and sew!

Next, onto the top pocket. Using the same technique as with the large bottom pocket, measure the dimensions for a top pocket that will also be as wide as your base fabric, making sure to again stretch the elastic on both sides a bit and making a trapezoid. Again, pin and sew it to the base fabric.

Don't worry about the wonky shape! The elastic on the pockets pulls it in, but it will lay flat when it's on your car's seats, we promise!

Now you can decide if you would like to make your one long top pocket into smaller pockets, by simply top stiching seam into it. We made on organizer that had two pockets on top, and one with three. It all depends on what kinds of things your kids will be storing.

Once your pockets are done, the hard work is behind you! All that's left is to make the straps that will attach your organizers to your seats. Using your cars seat measurements, cut two lengths of elastic and sew them onto your organizer - one and the top of the top pocket, and one at the top of the bottom pocket. The sew two lengths of ribbon to the top of your organizer so that you can tie it around the base of the head rest.

Now just slip it over your seats and you are ready to hit the road with the kids! We are amazed at how much stuff these hold. The elastic in the pockets really makes a difference! Now our kids are ready to face an 11 hour car trip with tons of toys, books, art supplies, as well as any treasures they find along the way! And the best part is that this whole project cost us absolutely nothing!

Rainy Day Rainbows

2011-07-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

We don't know about where you live, but around here it has been raining like crazy! Giant thunderstorms, pouring rain, and dark skies! Since we haven't seen the sunshine much, we decided to brighten things up by creating some rainbows with a few simple household items! What brightens a day more than rainbows and butterflies?

What You Need:

Coffee Filters
Washable Markers
Spray Bottle
Water

Have your kids color all over the coffee filters with brightly colored markers. The brighter the better!

Then grab a spray bottle filled with water and spray all over th filter, allowing the colors to bleed together. Let it air dry, or speed up the process with the help of a hair dryer.

The results are beautiful circles of rainbow colors!

When they are dry, hang them in the window! And once the sun finally comes out, you can admire your beautiful creations! We we decided to leave some as circles and turn some into butterflies with the help of clothespins!

Miracle Biscuits - Made With Pancake Mix

2011-07-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

You ever have one of those nights when you have no idea what you are going to make for dinner. You look in the pantry and hope for a miracle? We call that "Miracle Dinner" - it'll be a miracle if there is dinner. Well Rebecca was having one of those nights. She finally settled on breakfast dinner - a favorite of the kids. She was feeling especially proud of herself because she had everything to make homemade biscuits - AGGHHH!!! - everything except flour!
Maybe pancake mix would work? Apparently other people have been in this same situation because there were several recipes online. She decided to try this one. They turned out so well we wanted to share them with you!

We made small biscuits and were able to make 18.

The Recipe

2 1/2 - 3 cups of complete pancake mix (the recipe called for 2 1/2 cups of mix, but we found we needed 3 cups)

1/3 cup of water

1/4 cup melted butter

1 egg

Preheat oven to 425°. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl with a spoon. Roll out dough on a floured (or in our case pancake mixed) counter. Cut out circles of dough with a floured glass or biscuit cutter.Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the tops are golden.

Dinner turned out great. The boys loved the biscuits! Jonah said he would give them 4 thumbs up! You know they're good when Jonah has to use his toe thumbs!

Car Wash Hedgies

2011-07-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

When we first saw this project for making hedgies from Darling Petunia about 2 years ago, we were so excited to try it! Of course, when we went to the Dollar Store to pick up the needed car wash mitts, they were sold out (isn't that always the way?). So when Maggie came across them recently she had to snatch some up and whip up some hedgies her boys!

What You Need:

Car Wash Mitt
Scissors
Sewing Machine and/or Needle & Thread
Button or Beads
Pom-Poms
Pencil or Pen
Stuffing Material

First, cut of the cuff and thumb of your mitt (we're pretty sure there is something we can make out of the leftover elastic cuff...).

Guesstimate about where you'd like your hedgie's eyes to go, then sew on your buttons or beads (the boys picked out these buttons for their hedgie eyes)

Next, turn your mitt inside out and draw lines to form the triangle that will become the hedgie's nose.

Sew along those lines, being careful not to sew up the thumb hole.

Using the thumb hole, turn your hedgie right side out and stuff him until he is nice and plump. Then sew up the thumb hole!

With your needle and thread, sew your pom-pom onto the tip of the hedgie's nose.

Grab that hedgie and give him a snuggle! And make weird faces like these guys!

Giving them a good name is important, too. Jack named his orange one "Fire Chog" and Charlie named his green one "Veggie"! How do kids come up with this stuff?!?

Homemade Hair Mask For Dry Summer Hair

2011-07-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Fun in the sun can be so hard on your hair! Wind, sun and chlorine are so drying and damaging. We knew egg, honey and olive oil were good for our skin and used in many homemade facials so we knew we could make a great hair mask. After researching the benefits of different popular ingredients, we decided to use egg yolk - which is loaded with fats and protein, honey - which is a natural humectant, and olive oil.

Our Recipe:

1/2 cup of honey

1 egg yolk

1 Tbs. olive oil

you may also want a shower cap or an old towel to wrap your hair in while the mask sits.

Mix the 3 ingredients together very well. Next dampen your hair and work the honey mixture into your hair. You may want to cover your hair with a shower cap or towel to minimize the mess. After your hair has sat for 20 min, rinse out your hair with cool water (you don't want to cook the egg). Then wash your hair as normal. We were so impressed with the results. Our hair looked an felt amazing! You can use this mask on your hail once a month. If you have super dry summer hair, give this a try!

Febreze....For Less!

2011-07-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

With houses full of dogs, cats, husbands and kids we are always looking for new ways to keep things smelling fresh. We like Febreze and have used it for a while now. But, as is the norm with us, we wondered if we could make our own version for less*. Turns out we can!

What You Need:

2 cups warm water
1/4 cup liquid fabric softener
1 tsp. baking soda

Simply mix these three ingredients together in a spray bottle, shake well, and get spraying! The great part about this recipe (aside from how well it works and how much money you can save) is that the scent isn't terribly strong or overpowering. Our home smells like clean laundry for a short time, then the scent quickly dissipates taking any bad smells with it!

*We can't remember where we originally saw this recipe!

From Pouf To Pouch!

2011-07-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

So the day has come when we announce the winner of The Great Pouf Challenge! Thank you so much to those of you who entered your ideas! We know it was a tough one and we were so thrilled with your creative suggestions!! It was this same creativity, though, that made this such a hard choice! In the end, we had to take our pouf apart and see what project idea fit the actual size and shape of the dismantled pouf's meshy material. And the winner is.....Amber! She had a couple of great suggestions, but the one that really spoke to us was turning part of the long, mesh tube into a bath toy bag! Here's the how-to:

What You Need:

1 dismantled bath pouf
scissors
bias tape (optional)
sewing machine (optional)
pins (optional)

With your scissors, cut the mesh tube to about the length you want. We made ours a little longer than an arm's length, but it really depends on how many bath toys you have. Then tie a knot at one end (which will be the bottom), closing it up.

At this point you could simply tie a ribbon or string to the top and call it a day. We decided to cuten ours up a bit by adding a little bias tape to the top.

Lay your bias tape down, then lay your mesh on top of it. Fold it over and secure it with a pin. Stretch out the mesh, lay it down on your bias tape again, and pin. Stretching it out will allow you to get those bigger bath toys of yours into the finished bag, since the bias tape will eliminate stretch at the top.

Keep stretching, folding and pinning until you've gone all the way around your bag.

Then sew it up, pulling it straight as you go.

Next we added two ties made of additional bias tape to either side of the top of our bath bag.

We even added a little bias tape to the bottom, covering up our knot.

The fill it with your kids' bath toys and you are all set for bath time!

Thank you so much to all of you for sending in your ideas! It was so fun to see what you guys came up with! And a special thanks to Amber for her winning idea! We will be contacting you so that we can send you a little thank you gift!

Homemade Pop Tarts!

2011-07-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

The other day we stumbled on this idea for making homemade
pop tarts while visiting Flexible Dreams. You know we jumped on that! We looked at other recipes. They were more complicated then we wanted to get - homemade crust and and fillings. Sometimes you just want a quick, rewarding and of course delicious treat that the kids can make with just a little help from mom! The kids loved getting creative with the filling, so premade pie crust dough got us to the fun part faster! These are so quick you and the kids could make them for breakfast.

What you need:

refrigerated pie crust dough

filling (sky's the limit!) We used seedless strawberry jelly, milk chocolate chips, coconut. Cinnamon sugar, cream cheese, fruit, nuttella would also be yummy!

bowl of water

fork to crimp the edges

a little flour to keep dough from sticking

First we unrolled the dough on a lightly floured surface. We cut the dough in half. Each half made one pop tart. Next time we will try using a quarter of the dough for each. They were a little big.

Then the boys filled half of the dough with the toppings of their choice. They

both used chocolate and coconut. Then they rubbed the edges with a little water.

(Jonah insisted on cooking shirtless - what a goof!) Then they crimped the edges with a fork to seal the tarts.

Mom made two strawberry pop tarts.

We pricked the tops to let out the steam. Then we baked them for 10 minutes at 400° until they turned lightly golden. The hardest part was waiting til they were cool!

While we were waiting we had dinner. Made us laugh. The Pierogies looked an awful lot like dessert.

Finally it was time to eat!

YUM!

Kid-Created Placemats!

2011-07-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July to our readers here in the U.S.! We hope you are enjoying the holiday weekend! We wanted to have a more festive and patriotic post, but the kids came up with this one all on their own. We recently had a sleepover with all four boys, during which they found some contact paper and decided that they wanted to make place mats (don't all kids ask to make place mats at sleepovers? haha!). While they were creating their masterpieces Rebecca's oldest said, "You should put this on Homemade Mamas." How could we refuse?

What You Need:

paper
markers, crayons, paint, stamps, etc.
contact paper
a group of creative kids

First, have your little artists draw works of art on the paper. Let them get as creative as they want! Some of the ones our kids made were double-sided for twice the fun! Even the littlest of artists can get in on the action!

When their pictures are done, simply cover both sides with the contact paper! Simple, fun, and a great way to preserve and display the wonderful works of art your kids create! And they will be so proud to have dinner served on their very special place mats!

Happy 4th!

Simple Strawberry Foot Scrub

2011-06-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

With sandal season in full swing, your feet may need a little sprucing up. We have used strawberries to make facials in the past. They are loaded with alpha hydroxy acids - great for exfoliating dry, rough skin. So we played around with a few recipes and came up with this soothing (and delicious!) foot treatment.

What You Need:

3-4 small strawberries

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

large bowl of water

an old towel

First, puree the strawberries and olive oil. Wait to add the brown sugar until you are about to put the scrub on your feet or it will dissolve to soon.

Soak your feet in warm water for at least 10 minutes to start softening the skin.

Spread your towel out in the kitchen or bathroom. It can get a little sticky! Have another bowl of water ready for rinsing your feet. Stir in the brown sugar and massage the mixture the mixture all over your feet. Let the scrub sit for 15 - 20 minutes. Then rinse well. Your feet will look and feel wonderful. Our only complaint with this scrub was that we couldn't keep Rocky the dog out of it!

The Great Pouf Challenge!

2011-06-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

We sometimes get emails from readers asking various questions, including asking about how we might craft with various materials. Recently, we received the following email from reader Alaina:

I have followed you on facebook and your website and adore all of your great ideas. I'm in a bind and hoping you can help. My mom unravelled one of those mesh bath sponges, leaving a long mesh tube. She gave it to me and said "Here, make something with this!" I am crafty, but haven't come up with anything and have not found any ideas online either. Is there anything you can suggest to me and maybe your legion of readers?? I don't want to throw in the towel - or sponge in this case! Any contributions would be greatly appreciated and I would be honored to be able to use your idea.

We were thrilled with the challenge of coming up with something to do with the bath pouf's meshy material....until we realized that we had NO ideas! We even asked the husbands for ideas! But nothing came to us. Rebecca then had a great idea: why not have a contest? So that's what we've decided to do!

Here, dear readers, is where you come in! Starting today until Thursday July 7th, you can leave a comment on this post giving us your idea with what to do with the material from a bath pouf. We will be looking for the most creative, yet easily doable idea. The winner will be announced/featured on Monday July 11th (yep! We will make your project idea into a reality!) ! We will also have a small thank you gift for the winner, so make sure you leave your email address with your submission!

So enter your awesome ideas - and enter as many as you'd like! We can't wait to see what you come up with!! Let The Great Pouf Challenge begin!!

Bleach Pen Painting

2011-06-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

We love this cute idea for painting negative images on t-shirts using bleach pens. You can quickly transform plain shirts into works of art. Our 6 and 9 year old both enjoyed the project and could do most of it themselves with a little help from mom.

What you need:

shirt

bleach pen

chalk

cutting board, cardboard or other item to place in shirt to keep bleach from bleeding through

Using the chalk, sketch out design on your shirt.
Shake bleach pen well. Make sure it is flowing well by testing it on a scrap of paper. Then trace your chalk drawing. Jonah made a dragon.
Let the bleach sit until you can see the shirt changing color. This should take from 10 min to 2 hours depending on the shirt. We found that shirts that were older and had been washed many times only took about 10 min. The new shirt we tried took a lot longer.Mom or Dad should carefully take out the cutting board and rinse the bleach out very well (try not to let the bleach sit too long on other parts of the shirt). Wash and dry as usual.

Ben designed a Lego shirt. Mom had a shirt that already had a big bleach stain on it. She made a zinnia with a few leaves to cover it up.
You don't even notice the stain anymore! We all love our new shirts!

Sandy Candle Holders

2011-06-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend! Today we have a fun kid craft that we actually made as a gift for Father's Day: Sandy Candle Holders! We saw this candle holder made out of beans and glue (thanks to Craft Gossip), and while we liked the idea, we didn't think beans were the right medium for us. But we did have a big bag of sand, so we wondered if we could mix it with glue and create a fun gift for dad Turns out we could...and you can too!

What You Need:

Sand
School glue
Plastic cup (or other object to use as a mold)
Tea light
Ribbon or other decorative materials

In a bowl, mix together you sand with glue. We used about a cup of sand for our two candle holders, and slowly added glue until the sand took on the consistancy of the kind of wet sand you'd use to make a sand castle with.

Once you are happy with the way it feels, press your sand into your container. Make sure you press it nice and tight - we found that pressing another cup into the sand helped to make it nice and firm.

Then press your tea light into the wet sand to make the right sized indentation.

Remove your tealight and tip out your wet candle holder. Let it dry at least 24 hours (depending on how big your candle holder is and how much glue you used), checking on it every so often to see if it's ready (ours took a few days to dry).

Once it's dry, you can decorate it. Our boys wanted to use ribbon, which they picked out themselves.

Then just pop in a tea light! This was a fun project, especially since the kids could pretty much do it themselves!
And Dad loved it!

Coffee Bag Sandwich Wrap!

2011-06-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

We decided to give Dad a green gift this year. This easy to make reusable sandwich wrapper is made from coffee bags. They can be used over and over again and are easy to wash with warm soapy water. We had a stash of coffee bags that we had been saving for months, not sure what we could do with them. In a matter of minutes we had made a whole stack of these handy wraps.

We found this great idea on FamilyFun. They have lots and lots of really cute ideas for Father's Day. Check it out!

All you need are coffee bags (one 12 0z bag makes one wrapper) and Velcro tape or circles.

First we cut the bottom of the bag at the bottom seam.

Next we cut up the back seam to make a flat square.

We trimmed the edges to make a 10 x 10 inch square.

You could use either side for the front or back of the wrapper. If your bag has a freshness valve like this one, keep it facing out so you don't dent your sandwich.

Add your Velcro to two opposite corners. One part on the inside and the other on the outside so you can close it like an envelope.

Now Dad's sandwich will stay fresh, protected and best of all - no waste!

Rejuvenating Pumpkin Mask

2011-06-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

We know that dry skin is a problem in the winter months, but did you know that summer activities can dry your skin out as well? Spending lots of time in water, especially chlorinated pools and the salty ocean water, can break down the lipid barriers of our skin, leaving it dry. Water also evaporates from our skin, taking our natural moisturizers with it. What can we do to fight it? Whip up a fast and easy Pumpkin Mask, of course! Not only will this mask (which was adapted from this recipe) help with your dry skin, but pumpkin also contains loads of anti-oxidants and natural exfoliating acids!

What You Need:

1/2 cup pumpkin
1 egg
1 tsp. honey

Puree your pumpkin into a thick paste. Then add your egg and honey and mix well. Apply the mask to your clean, dry face. Leave it on for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how sensitive your skin is. Rinse with lukewarm water and moisturize as you normally would.

A Summer To Remember

2011-06-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

The last day of school is next Monday for our boys, and then it's on to a long-awaited summer break! They are so excited for all the fun things the summer holds. While we love summer too, it can be hard to keep the kids entertained all day, everyday for three months while still encouraging them to learn new things Then we had the idea to create "Summer Adventure Journals"! We hope that these fun little books will not only get the kids excited by the various activities this summer, but also encourage us to come up with more creative things for them to do. Plus, it will also get the boys to continue practice writing!

What You Need:

2 Pieces of Cardboard (we cut up fruit snack boxes)
Glue
Hole punch
Construction paper
White paper
Markers
Contact paper
Binder rings (This will allow you to add more pages as you go)

First, glue and cover your cardboard with the construction paper. We chose smaller-sized cardboard so that we can easily toss the journals into our bags.

Do this with the second so that you have a front and back cover for your journal.

With another piece of paper, we made a fun title for the journal and glued it onto the cover.

Then cover your colorful front and back covers with contact paper. Summer adventures are fun but can be messy and this will protect the journal.

Grab your hole punch and put a couple holes through both of your covers. Then you will be able to attach your binder rings.

Now it's time to fill your journals. You can just put plain paper (with holes punched in the sides) in if you'd like, but we decided to make a "10 Things I Want To Do This Summer" as our first page, as well as a few pages with the header "Where:" and "Date:" with a large blank space for the kids to write about their adventure, draw a picture, or even glue mementos to the page!

We also plan on using the journals to hold other fun activities, such as games, scavenger hunts and Bingo!

Not only do we think the kids will enjoy writing about our adventures this summer, but we think this will be a great way to look back on all the fun we have.

Pooch Paint!

2011-06-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Who made this beautiful piece of modern artwork? Well, it was our little shit-tzu Rocky! We're so proud of our little artist. Today Rebecca and her family went to the neighborhood dog park for Woofstock. An event for dogs and their owners. There, Rocky made this painting. It turned out so cute and easy, we thought it would be fun to try with our other dog friends. This would make a great gift for a doggy grandparent or a father's day present for a doggy dad.

We wish we had taken more pictures while rocky was painting it was so adorable!

What you need:

a calm, willing dog

nontoxic paints they used acrylic, but we thought tempera paints would be better

paper

foam paint brush

matting

frame - optional

An Extra person to lend a hand

Take your furry friend outside. You may want to have some wet washcloths handy, or maybe even a kiddie pool ready. An extra set of hands is also really helpful! This could get messy!Squeeze small blobs of paint on a plate (3 colors worked well). Using the foam brush, dab paint on your pup's paw and dab the paw on the paper.
Add a much or as little paint as you like.

Let your artwork dry and now it is ready to matte and frame.

$1 Yard Sale Wreath Re-Vamp

2011-06-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite things about summer - yard sales! It's always fun to find a great bargain and turn something from blah to ta-dah! With a few supplies already on hand at home and $1 later - a brand new spring/summer wreath for the front door!

Supplies:

$1 yard sale wreath

Grapevine Wreath - on hand (but you can find for under $5 at most craft stores)

Floral Wire - on hand

Curling Ribbon - on hand

We really got lucky with this flower wreath - all we had to do was remove the blue flowers (didn't really match our decor)!

Using floral wire, the yard sale wreath was wired to the grapevine wreath to hold secure.

Still missing something but not sure what - curling ribbon! A few strands curled on the side and the punch of color was just what we were looking for!

What can you buy for $1 these days? That's the perfect price for this summer wreath!

This Bud's For You!

2011-05-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day! Hope you and your family are enjoying beautiful weather! We've actually had quite a bit of rain lately, which has made the flowers so happy. Our kids are also happy, since they LOVE to pick flowers! The flowers they pick tend to have short stems (though we keep telling them to pick further down the stem!), and therefor need little bud vases to hold them. Around here vases little enough can be in short supply, so sometimes we have to resort to using shot glasses....classy! But thanks to Camilla from Family Craft, we now have a great way to dress up our less-than-attractive shot glass vases!

What You Need:

a shot glass or two
balloons
scissors

First, cut a bit off of the neck of a balloon.

Then work it over your shot glass going from the bottom to the top. You can then either leave the neck of the balloon pointing up...

...but we like it tucked in.

Fill your new, modern-looking bud vase with water and pop in a flower or two!

The perfect way to brighten up a rainy spring day!

Butterfly Cafe

2011-05-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Today, six year old Jonah bought a an old copy of Spider Magazine (June 1997) from the used book store at school. He was very excited when he found an article about making your own butterfly cafe. The article talked about butterflies and how important they are to our planet because they pollinate flowers. It said that butterflies are disappearing from many parts of the world, but that you can make your yard a safe and inviting "cafe" for these beautiful creatures. This is a great project for the whole family!

The article said to look for a sunny place in your yard. Butterflies are cold-blooded. They need sun to keep them warm. Place several dark rocks there. They love to bask on stones heated by the sun. Butterflies need water. You can dig out a shallow hollow in the ground and fill it with water, or place a plate with only enough water in it to barely cover the bottom. Place a few small rocks in it for them to sit on. Most importantly plant lots of colorful flowers like zinnias, phlox, daisies, cone flowers, brown-eyed susans, marigolds and butterfly bush.. Nectar from flowers is their primary food. Many plants at garden centers are marked to let you know they attract butterflies.

To Attract butterflies you can also try making this butterfly bait. This recipe was also in Jonah's magazine. He had to make it right away!

what you need:

1/2 cup of soft ripe fruit (we used kiwi, but bananas, pears or apples would work too)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

4 tablespoons of cola

Stir ingredients together. Pour into a small plate. Place it onto a larger plate. Fill the larger plate with water. This will keep crawling bugs out like a moat. Set the mixture in the sun for about a day. It will start to ferment and give off a strong sweet, fruity Oder that will attract the butterflies. We added a few rocks for the butterflies to sit on as well. (We just put ours out tonight, so we will let you know how well it works.) Once you have butterflies in your "cafe", you may want to try making our butterfly feeder.

Ten Minute Top...From A Skirt!

2011-05-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

These days we are becoming more and more inspired to expand our summer wardrobe. Being on a budget means we are looking to more creative solutions to do this! Having seen this project on Recycled Fashion, we knew it was just what we were looking for. And it seriously takes 10 minutes or less to make! Maggie happened to have a long, boring skirt that was not her style and just taking up space in the closet, and was excited to give it new life!

What You Need:

a long skirt with slits up the sides (ours didn't have any, so we did a little seam-ripping and quickly made some!)
pins
sewing machine or needle and thread

First, put on your skirt and twist it around so the slits are no longer at your sides but go front to back.The leopard print slippers really complete outfit!

Then grab the corners of the slits and lift the skirt up to your shoulders so it's inside out. Then pin the corners of the front slit to the corners of the back slit to make sleeves. You can pin as much or as little as you'd like, depending on how much of a sleeve you like or how deep of a v-neck you want (we decided to make ours more of a tank top).

Once it's pinned, take off your new top and sew along your pins.

Then turn it right side out, try it on, (tucking under the waistband) and enjoy how cute your thriftiness can be! The best part about this skirt (aside form it being cheap, quick, and easy) is that if you ever decide to turn it back into a skirt, all you have to do is remove a few stitches. But with it being so cute, we think we'll keep ours as a top!

Poor Man's Lasagna

2011-05-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

This is a great recipe we found at Mommy's Kitchen; not only is it inexpensive and easy to make - it has become a household favorite for Homemade Mamas!

Ingredients:
2 - packages (7.25 oz) Macaroni & Cheese
1 - lb ground beef or Italian Sausage
1 - Jar Spaghetti Sauce (use your favorite)
1 - (8oz) package mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare the macaroni and cheese according to package directions.

While the macaroni is cooking, brown and drain the ground beef/Italian Sausage. We also added 1/2 chopped onion to the sausage while browning.

Add the ground meat to the prepared macaroni and cheese.

Mix in the spaghetti sauce and add to a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Top with mozzarella cheese. Cover with foil sprayed with baking spray and bake for 25 minutes until heated through and bubbly.

Anti-wrinkle Banana Mask

2011-05-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick, easy (and delicious) anti-wrinkle facial mask. We did a little research on ingredients that you probably have around the house with anti-wrinkle properties. We were surprised to learn that bananas and their peel have been used for centuries to help with many skin conditions, including acne, wrinkles, warts, psoriasis and poison ivy. We also used honey because of it's moisturizing and anti-bacterial abilities. The final ingredient is plain yogurt (we used Greek) which cleanses the skin, unclogs pores, reduces wrinkles and moisturizes dry skin.

The recipe:

about 1 T of banana (just break off a hunk)

1 teaspoon of honey

1 teaspoon of yogurt

Place ingredients in a bowl.

Mash with a fork. Apply with your fingers to your face. Let dry for 20-30 minutes. Wash off your face with a clean, warm washcloth. You can save the unused portion in the fridge for up to 3 days.

The best part of the mask is it also doubles as a delicious breakfast treat. Slice the rest of your banana into the yogurt with a drizzle of honey and enjoy while your mask dries!

You will be beautiful on the inside and out!

Pillowcase Dress-up!

2011-05-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

We are back from our much-needed break with a really quick and fun project for you! While trolling the thrift store, we came upon a plain brown pillowcase. With visions of a tote bag dancing in our head, we happily purchased it (originally priced at .99 but we got it for 25% off that!). But when we got it home we realized it was a pillowcase for an extra-long pillow. Definitely not the right size for a tote bag...more like a duffel bag! Not to be discouraged, we put on our thinking caps and came up with the idea to turn a blah, long pillowcase into a cute, just-below-the knee strapless dress (who says pillowcases are just f or skirts?)! And it took almost no time at all to create!

What You Need:

Long pillowcase
elastic
scissors
sewing machine (or needle & thread)

First, lay out your pillowcase. You might want to iron it, but we were too excited (not to mention impatient) by the idea of this to pull out the iron. Then cut off the sealed base of your pillowcase.

Next, fold your cut edge and pin it , making sure it is wide enough to fit your elastic to fit through. To avoid fraying, you might want to fold it over twice so the raw edge isn't exposed.

Once it is pinned all the way around, sew it up to make your casing. However, be sure not to sew it up all the way around - leave a small opening so you can insert your elastic.

Measure your elastic by wrapping it around under your armpits (or where you want the finished top of your dress to sit) and then cut it a few inches shorter. This will insure a snug fit. No one wants a dress dress that will fall around your ankles! Then attach a safety pin to your elastic and work it through the casing.

Once it is inside, stitch the two ends of the elastic together. The sew up the hole in your casing.

Now try on your dress! It will probably look like a sack, so tie a cute ribbon or cinch it with a belt to give it more interest and shape.
From boring pillowcase to cutie dress in no time flat!

Happy (Belated) Mother's Day!

2011-05-09T04:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all our lovely readers! We hope you and your loved ones had a wonderful day!

In honor of Mother's Day, the Homemade Mamas and taking a day off! But we will be back on Thursday with a fun new project for you!

Corona Beer Bread

2011-05-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

It's Cinco de Mayo! Corona Beer Bread is an easy snack for the festivities!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour (sifted)

3 teaspoons baking powder (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)

1 teaspoon salt (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)

1/4 cup sugar

1 (12 ounce) beer (we used Corona)

1/2 cup melted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients and beer.

Pour into a greased loaf pan.

Pour melted butter over mixture.

Bake 1 hour, remove from pan and cool for at least 15 minutes.

This is perfect on its own or with a spicy cheese dip!

*Please note; be sure to sift your flour to keep your bread from coming out like a brick! The above recipe calls for you to pour the butter on TOP of the bread - this will make the crust more crunchy. Mix the melted butter into the batter if you prefer a softer crust!

Gross Out!

2011-05-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Maggie's son Jack turned six (where did the time go??). When asked what kind of party he wanted, he gleefully answered, "A GROSS party!!" This was right up our alley!

(Here are Jack, Jonah, & Ben making gross faces)

We were expecting a pretty large group kids, so we wanted to have activities that were not very structured and would allow the kids to do them at their leisure. We made a large batch of slime for the kids to get good and goopy in.We also made some "Mystery Boxes"! We cut holes in empty diaper boxes, painted them black and decorated them with question marks. We then covered the holes with black fabric.

When the boxes were done and ready for the party, we placed bowls of icky feeling things (cold, wet spaghetti, peeled grapes, and wet batting) inside. We then let the kids stick their hands inside (without seeing what's inside, of course) and feel the grossness!!

Another activity we had for the kids was super-simple! We hung a ton of streamers from the ceiling and just let the kids run through them! While it sounds like a pretty basic idea, the kids loved it!!

No gross party would be complete without a gross birthday cake! We had such a large group that we decided to make two sheet cakes. We then covered them in slime green-colored frosting and decorated it with plastic, eyeballs, witch fingers, bugs, and various gummy creatures. Super icky-looking but oh-so-tasty! The kids washed down their gross cake with tall glasses of Auntie's Yoda Soda (although we changed the name to "Swamp Soda").

The final activity we did was a piñata. Using pretty much the same technique we've used before, we made this one in the shape of an eyeball!

So there you have it! A really gross party using a few simple things that we pretty much had on hand! Happy Birthday Jack!

Earth Friendly Party

2011-04-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Over the past weekend, Maggie and Rebecca were in the St. Louis area visiting family. They had a little free time, and decided to visit the The Butterfly House in Chesterfeild, MO.

As you can see the boys had a great time climbing on the giant caterpillar.

It was even fun to get eaten by the giant caterpillar!

Inside they were surprised to find (besides lots of butterflies and other bugs) an Earth Day Celebration going on. They realized the activities would make for a fun and educational children's birthday party. (or anytime activities)

There was nature themed face painting.

The kids played water bottle bowling. The bottles had a little gravel at the bottom for added weight. The balls seemed to be made out of recycled paper pulp.

Acorn toss - which was a lot like Bozo's Buckets - but with acorns. You could use pine cones or some other natural materials to toss.

Not sure what this game was called, but the kids loved it. They tossed a rope with a small paper pulp balls on each end. They had to catch them on the poles to win a prize.

There was also several craft tables set up. The kids made pine cone bird feeders, paper towel tube rain sicks, plastic tub wind socks, toilet paper tube bees and our favorite - seed bombs!

They kids had a blast and learned a little something too.

Add a birthday cake on some reusable plates and you have a great children's party!

Sour Cream and Cherry Coffee Cake

2011-04-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Let's end the month of April on a YUMMY note with this recipe for coffee cake! What a delicious (and easy) way to start the morning!

Ingredients:
1 - 18 oz package of white cake mix
1 - 8 oz container of sour cream
3 large eggs
1/4 cup water
1 - 21 oz can of cherry pie filling

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 9x13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Mix together sour cream, eggs, and water. Fold into cake mix and mix until well blended.

Spread into baking dish and spoon the cherry pie filling on top. Swirl the cherry filling into the batter to prevent the cherries from settling down into the middle.

Bake 35 minutes, until lightly browned and cooked through.

Cool in pan and drizzle with icing* if desired.

*Icing Recipe:
1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Blend all ingredients together until smooth and drizzle over coffee cake!

Tough As Nails

2011-04-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Having been a habitual nail-biter since kindergarten, Maggie has decided to finally break this bad habit and grow some "big girl nails". To help her poor, abused nails grow long and healthy, we decided to look into making a Gelatin Nail Strengthener (we found this one on eHow.com). Gelatin is a cheap, easy, and convenient way to build strong, beautiful nails!

What You Need:

1/2 oz Gelatin
1 cup water

Put the gelatin into a glass bowl. Pour the water into a teakettle or saucepan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, pour the water into the bowl with the gelatin and stir to dissolve. Allow the mixture to cool so that it is still warm but not so hot that it will burn you.

The original instructions we found said to fill a shot glass with the warm gelatin mixture and then dip one finger in and let it soak for 2 minutes...

But who has the time to dip one finger at a time? Just fill a small container with the mixture and dunk 5 finger tips in at once. Once finished, wash and dry your hands. Using a nice moisturizer is a good idea, too.

Pour any unused gelatin mixture into a resealable container and it will keep in the fridge for about 2 months!

Of course, as gelatin tends to do, it will firm up quickly in the fridge. Just scoop out the desired amount next time you want to pamper your nails and warm it in the microwave for a couple seconds. It will be melted quickly and be ready to use!

And soon you will see healthy, happy nails!