Thrifty Decorating - My Boys Room

Last week in this post about The Avengers, I told you we are big super hero fans here at our house.  I also told you I'd share with you my boys' super hero room.  It was not a big expensive redo, in fact it's been very thrifty.

My favorite part of their room, aside from the cute boys themselves, is this gallery wall.

There dresser has never been this clean since. :)  We need to replace this dresser now, it's too small for their clothes now, they're growing up and getting taller.  Decorating is a never ending process, isn't it?

Anyway, these awesome super hero pictures are old comic book covers, well, copies that were a calendar.  When my sister, Leslie, and I went to visit my other sister, Kristen, in Colorado a couple of years ago we went shopping in Boulder one day.  While walking around, we stumbled across this cool calendar and since both our boys were very into super heroes, it immediately caught our eye.  However, it was a little pricey, so we left it.  By the time we were clear down to the end of the whole shopping area and waiting for a table for dinner, we decided we did want it. lol  So while Kristen and her family kept waiting, Leslie and I ran back down to the store and bought it, planning on sharing it with this purpose in mind.  I know, random story, but I just love my sisters, and every time I look at these pictures it reminds me of our fun weekend.

Kristen, Leslie, and Me in 2010

Here's a close up of the pictures so you can see how totally cool they are.

Along with these great super heroes, I wanted my boys to have some real heroes to look up to, so I found these posters:

This is right in their doorway.  Boy, it is really hard to take good photos of pictures.  Reflections are hard! 

This is my favorite, I just framed this one, too, and it hangs over their desk.  These are all scripture heroes - great men, great stories, plus they still have swords and stuff so the boys love them, too.  I got these prints from Real Hero Posters.  My older girls have some in their room, too, you can see them here.  I'm not affiliated with Real Hero Posters in any way, I just think they are awesome!!

This is the rest of their room.  Billy's shelf, filled with lego creations, beds with Superman and Spiderman bedding (just cheap Walmart sets, nothing expensive so we can change it later), and a tall bookshelf at the far end of the bed.  A shelf full of books plus three shelves for pirate lego boats and accessories.  In the spirit of keeping it real, I didn't even clean up the mess of legos under the bed.  Guess what Billy and Jon will be doing when they get home today. :)

So the moral of this post, calendars are a great, inexpensive way to have nice art work in your home.  Now is a great time of year to buy calendars as they are marked down considerably.  Calendars.com is one of my favorite places to buy calendars.  There are calendars for every interest and every theme and decor.  So next time you need some new art work for whatever room you're decorating, check into calendars first.

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Give Clothes a New Life

 
We're starting the countdown to the end of school at our house.  We even got a message yesterday that my youngest 4 get out a day earlier than planned. Yeah!  Now if your kids are like my kids, their clothes are starting to look like it's the end of the school year.  I don't think Maddie has one pair of jeans that don't have holes in them.  The boys do, only because they grew and needed new pants a couple months ago.  Many shirts are stained and my kids are starting to look like little rag-a-muffins. :)  So a little DIY clothing rescue is in order.

First up:
Seriously stained shirts, even my awesome Stain Pretreater couldn't get these really set-in stains out.  At my children's school, Friday is "wear red day" so a red shirt is an absolute must (they get a prize if they wear red.)  So these shirts had to be salvaged.

This was the best picture, after several, without Billy looking like a dork. lol  They do like each other. :)

Billy's shirt was a simple fix.  I used iron on vinyl, very simple.  It was Silhouette vinyl, however I cut it out with my Cricut.  Iron it on and I'm the coolest mom because he now has an "infected" shirt (a version of play on "Halo" that uses that symbol.)

For Chole's shirt, I did a reverse applique, my first time ever.  It was fun!  I found this great tutorial from Sweet Verbena.  The shirt had a few more stains that the applique didn't cover so I added a few circles of the same material just stitched on (they were small enough that I didn't use interfacing on them.)  I also decided to add a little more color by just dabbing on some fabric paint in the flower petals.

Finally, I turned a shirt of mine, that was now to short into a shirt for Natalie.  She doesn't like long-sleeved shirts, but 3/4 shirts are okay so I couldn't let this one go to waste.

First of all lay down the shirt to be altered, inside out.  Lay a shirt that fits on top of it.  Match shoulder seams and center it.  I use an old piece of soap - best tailor's chalk ever!, to carefully trace the edge of the top shirt.  Then just stitch up the new seam and turn right side out.  Since this was such a little adjustment and not a work of art, I just left the extra material because Natalie didn't care.  If it was a big adjustment, you could cut off the extra and serge or just zig-zag the edges.

Just a little more fitted and a little shape to it now.  Natalie liked it, yeah!

Here are a few more ideas I've shared for recycling and getting more use out of the clothes that you pay good money for:

Dress into Shirt

Shirts into Skirts

Painting and Felt Applique

Now to tackle the pile of pants I cleaned out of their drawers to turn them into shorts for the summer. :)  What's your favorite way to extend the life of clothes at your house?

Simple Air Freshener

  It's Friday!!! Yeah!! I have another Fantastic Friday tip for you today.  At our house, we're trying to have less chemicals and stuff in our home so I've found a great homemade air freshener.  Super simple, easy, and works pretty well.  I found this idea here.

You all know how great baking soda is with removing odors from your fridge, well, this is the same concept.  Take a small, 1/2 pint or jelly jar or reuse some other jar, punch some holes in the lid (if reusing a canning lid I turned it over so it doesn't have my writing on it), and fill with some baking soda (around 1/4 - 1/2 cup.) and if you want, several drops of essential oils stirred in.  Put the lid on and use a hammer and nail to punch holes into the lid.  I tried to make a star on the first one, which didn't work that well, can you tell it's a star? :)  Since the second one already had the cute fruit lid, I just punched a circle of sorts. 

I have a bathroom in our bonus room that doesn't get used a whole lot but has the door shut most of the time - gets a little musty in there.  Also, my room is at the top of our stairs and all the odors seem to get pulled up the stairs and into my walk-in closet.  Since we put saloon doors on our closet it seems to trap the odors, go figure.  So I put one of these in both these areas and they are working very well.  If I walk into my closet and it's a little smellier, I just shake up the bottle a little which releases the essential oil smell, too, and soon it's smelling much fresher again.  Occasionally, I also sprinkle some of the baking soda right out of the jar onto the carpet in the closet, let it sit for a while and vacuum it up.  Instant carpet freshener, too.  Great simple little air freshener.  Try it!

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Hot Pads and Lots of Fat Quarter Ideas

In early February, I signed up for a fun fabric swap that Amanda at Ninth Street Notions put together.  We were instructed to pick out 5 fat-quarters of material and send them to our partner.  Then  make something out of the fabric you were sent.  Sounds fun, huh!

My first task, go shopping - I can do that.  I found some really, really cute, super fun material to send to my partner.  I wish I had taken a picture or paid attention to the name or something, but it was really bright turquoise and red, polka dots and flowers of different sizes.  (I think I'm going to have to go get me some to make some more of these projects I found.)

Then I waited to see what material I'd be working with.  In the meantime, I started looking for uses of fat-quarters and pinned a bunch of ideas (I'll share in a minute.)  Finally my material came and this is what I got to work with:

The funny thing is, I have a table runner half finished with very similar material/colors.  So then I had to narrow down my project list.  A table runner was out, like I said, I have a similar one.  I didn't really need another bag, my sister has made me a bunch of them.  Oh, and I'm not a really great seamstress -  wait, I'm not even good enough to be called a seamstress, let's just go with sewer - so I didn't want to tackle anything too tricky yet.  Finally my inspiration came as my husband burned his hand, again, while taking something out of the oven and started cussing and grumbling about how we need some good hotpads.  That's it!

So I bought some Insul-Bright batting - it's batting with a metallic/mylar stitched into one side, making it heat or cold reflective.  Like this:



Then I found this super easy tutorial here.  This was so simple, and she did such a good job of it, I didn't redo the tutorial.  I'll just share what I learned.  I tore the strips the length of the fat-quarter, giving me enough length for two strips.  Same with the backing piece, so after I finished the first one I had another one all ready to go - matching set. :) Also, after looking a little closer at the hot pad Bill burned his hand on and seeing it did use the Insul-Bright, too, I used two layers of the batting, making sure that the metallic side (which reflects the heat) was facing out.   It was really quite fun and rewarding to have something I made myself to be so useful. lol  I gave them a good test and am happy to report no burnt hands.

As I said, I found a lot of fat-quarter ideas, some simpler than others, so at $1-2/fat-quarter you can try out many of these fun things:
50 Scrap & Remnant Ideas
Sprocket Pillows - this is really cute!
Cloth Napkins
Ipod/Camera Case - if you noticed, I didn't use the gray/orange print from up above. This is what I'll be making with that material, a case for my new video camera I got for my birthday.
Handbag - really want to get more of the turquoise/red material and make this
Tiered Ruffled Skirt - my girls might be getting some of these soon. :)
Poochie Bags - the name makes me laugh, but they're cute.

That's just a few that I pinned, there are TONS of ideas/tutorials out there for fat-quarters.  So grab a few quarters and have some fun sewing!


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Menu Planning

I've been meaning to do this post all month, so nothing like waiting for THE last day. :)  Since it is the month of love and heart health month, too, I'm challenging you to try menu planning of some sort or another.  Now don't roll your eyes or close your browser, menu planning does not have to be hard or complicated.  It takes many different forms.  So how does menu planning relate to love and heart health you might ask?  Well, nothing says you love your family more than a nice, warm meal, good conversation together around the table, and a happy mom because she's not stressed out over dinner.  Also when you plan your own meals, you control what you're putting in them and not putting in them, not giving up and ordering pizza or hitting the drive-thru on the way home - both of which are NOT heart healthy.  Also you save so much money when you plan your meals rather than just throw something together which usually ends up with a quick ($50) trip to the store.

There are many different ways and levels of menu planning, so just find one that works for you.  You can plan a whole month at a time, having one major shopping day and then just buy fresh produce weekly.  You can plan two weeks at a time or even one week at a time.  When we were growing up, my mom had little binder that had a rotating menu, complete with shopping list, for three weeks.  Now that is organized!  Pocket Full of Posies has a similar idea, only they do all the work for you. :)  Food on the Table is another simliar one, complete with apps for your smart phone.  There are many more, too.  Of course these options aren't free, but if it gets you planning and works for you, do it!

This is how I do my menu planning.  Tuesday nights/Wednesday morning I grab a my "tools" and get to work.  This is great to do while watching tv, makes me feel like I'm being productive while chillin'. 

My pile along with my pretty daisys from my sweet friend.

Tools of the job:
My calendar
Cookbooks - The blue "What's for Dinner" cookbook above is awesome! I bought it several years ago and loved it so much I bought one for my SIL, too. It has 52 weeks of complete dinner menus - main dish, salads, even desserts. Now I don't love EVERY meal they have planned, but I've found some really good ones and it's a great starting point. If there's a meal my family doesn't like, I either substitute my own recipe or a different meal.   If you're interested, you can find it here:

I also regularly use the "Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook", too. I LOVE my crockpot!! I use my crockpot at least once a week and have many, many recipes that I enjoy in this book.   You can find it at Amazon also:

As I said, I really enjoy a good cookbook and have been known to sit and "read" cookbooks often. :) I usually try to try a new recipe every week, with Pinterest now, I have even more new recipes to try. When I make a new meal, I have my family give it a rating of 1-5 (5 is the best) and I write it down in the book. That way I won't make the same mistake twice. lol If it's on Pinterest or from a magazine or something like that, if it's a keeper it'll get typed up and added to the recipe box. 
My local ads (or circulars as my Grandma called them:) ) - We only have two grocery stores here, so it's pretty easy to quickly scan through, see what's on sale, build a meal around it if I want or just jot down other sale items I want to stock up on.
My grocery list - I found this awesome grocery list printable from the girls at The Letter 4.  You can print 3 to a sheet and print off 17 sheets and have enough for one a week for almost a whole year.  I cut mine apart and glued them together to make a notepad like I did here.  I also glued two magnets on the back so I could hang it right on my fridge so everyone knows where to write something down when we run out.
The big "How To":
I scan through the calendar and see what we have going on. I know Monday's I need something quick and easy or in the crockpot because I teach piano lessons until 5 and often take Natalie to karate at 6. Depending on what's going on, when basketball practices are, or band concerts, or whatever else, makes a difference in what I'll plan for dinner. That's probably the biggest reason I only plan one week at a time.  I usually have a mexican meal, italian meal, an asian meal, and in the winter I add a soup meal each week, that's just how it works out.  Now I use those terms very loosly, lol, if it's pasta it's counted as italian, if it involves tortillas it's mexican, and rice = asian. :)  If I think of it that way, it's easier to figure out what to eat.  We also have pizza usually every Friday night, and then leftovers or grilled cheese sandwiches or something similarly easy on Saturday.  I pretty much plan for 4 meals.  I also have a list of "Family Favorite Meals" I've made over the years so when I'm stumped I can pull that out and see what we haven't had for a while.  I have also started a "Summer Meals" list, too, okay so I like lists and my husband get's picky about what's "too heavy" to eat in the summer.  Just makes things easier.
Speaking of easier, the easiest way to plan your meals is have 6 kids and make them all pick one meal a week.  Now that they're older, I do this quite often now.  Everyone has a say, and you know there's at least one meal a week each person won't complain about. :)  I do limit them sometimes because we can't have spaghetti or chicken curry every week and I also threaten, lol.  If Cheyenne won't come up with a meal I tell her I'm adding stir-fry to the list and if Natalie won't pick something, it's tacos.  That usually works.
That's it!  It's really not that much work, it's not rocket science, and it only takes about 15 min., maybe.  So here's my challenge to you, if you're not planning your meals yet, try it out, see if it's worth that little bit of preparation and if the time and money savings at the grocery store is worth it.  If you are a planner, how do you do it, what works for you?  Any tips?  Please share in the comments and let's make supper time a happy time. :)



 

Lotion and Lip Balm - Beat the Winter Weather

It's the middle of January, the bitter coldest winter month; snowflakes flying; kids praying for wind so we can get out of school; the temperature dropping to negative digits - again the kids praying it gets to the magic number for school closure.  Well, that's usually what January is around here.  Today is a balmy 35 degrees already at 8 a.m., rain if we're lucky, and not a trace of snow. :(  However, my hands and lips are still feeling the effects of winter's wrath, always dry, chapped, and cracking.  I have a solution, and this year, my hands are much better than in the past.  I found two great recipes for making your own lotion and chapstick and they are great!

I found this recipe from Katie at This Chick Cooks.  She also has a great cost break down if you're interested in the nitty gritty of it.

Homemade Bee Balm Recipeyields 16 ounces of balm 1 1/4 cups grated bee wax (about 2 ounces)
2 cups light olive oil or coconut oil
15-20 drops of essential oil (optional)
Containers for your balm

Set out your containers that you will be putting the balm into so that they are ready. Next, find a large pot and a smaller pot that will sit in your larger pot (or a double boiler). Add enough water to the larger pot so that it comes up around the bottom of the smaller pot. Bring the water to a boil.
In the top pan, add the olive oil and cook for 15 minutes. Next, add your grated bee wax. Stir the mixture until everything is melted. Add essential oil. Dip a spoon into the mixture and set it aside for a few minutes to see if the balm is your desired consistency. If you want thinner balm add more olive oil, and if you want a thicker balm add more bee wax.

While the mixture is still liquid pour it into your containers. Let it sit uncovered for several hours until totally cooled and it will harden and be ready to use. 

I used coconut oil and a some mango essential oil and it smells delicious.  However, the coconut oil really overpowers the other smells and the essential oil isn't noticed much.  Also, when you grate the beeswax it smells like honey, who knew?! Probably all you smart people out there. :) I've never used beeswax for anything so this was a nice little surprise. lol  Anyway, this is SUPER easy.  I'm not sure why you need to heat the oil for 15 min. because it took maybe 1 minute for it to all melt so I might try shortening that time next time I do it.

Lisa at Lisa Take Six shared this super cheap, you can get everything at the Dollar Store, but wonderful recipe for really moisturizing lotion at her blog a few weeks ago.

Super Moisturizing Lotion

Baby lotion
Vitamin E Cream (found out from looking at other recipes, this was probably supposed to be Vitamin E face cream)
Pictured here is a cocoa butter WITH vitamin E.  Pretty much any lotion will do, the vitamin E cream would just be more nourishing for your skin
Vaseline (small jar)
Containers - these small travel bottles are perfect for a purse, a desk drawer, or to give as gifts

Just dump everything in your mixer or you can use a bowl and hand mixer, and start whipping.  Tip - if you cut down the middle of the bottle, you can use a spatula to scrap out every bit of the lotion.  However, you might want to keep your biggest bottle to reuse and put the lotion back in when you're done.

Looks yummy, doesn't it?  Let it combine until it's all nice and fluffy.

That's it!  Now put it in your containers.  I tried using a funnel to fill the jars, it worked okay, but I spent a long time trying to "push" the lotion down, it doesn't pour.  However, I found an awesome tip from another lotion blog and I apologize to whomever I found it from, I forgot to write your name down, but she scooped the lotion into a ziplock bag and cut a corner off the bag to easily squeeze it into jars.  Trust me, do it this way, it's got to be sooooo much faster! This is a nice thick lotion. It's a little greasy at first (because of the vaseline) but it really soaks in quickly, and I'm a little picky about how greasy my lotion is. I don't like to be slimy. lol  This would be great to rub into feet and wear a pair of socks to bed or into hands with some cotton gloves to really let it soak in all night.

I made these for my friends for Christmas, and to decorate the jars, I used Avery 2x4" labels.  You can go to Avery's website and design them however you want, even bringing in any digital scrapbook papers, or even pictures if you want.  For the lip balm jars, I used the same labels, but used a 1" circle punch to cut them out.  I'm sorry, I don't have pictures, I guess I never took any before I gave them away and the ones I kept are just plain.  Plus, at the time, I only had a black/white printer (got a new color printer now, yeah!) and the labels weren't super cute. :)

Hope this helps with you beat your winter dry skin!  Now pray for snow or spring, I can't decide which I want more now. :)

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DIY Stain Pretreater & Other Laundry Tips

Funny story, a couple years ago our women's group at church was having a Saturday meeting and I was asked to teach a class on making your own cleaning products.  I'm not sure why I was asked as I had never done any of this before.  My mother-in-law was in charge of the meeting and I'm not sure if she thought I made my own stuff or what. lol  I had always wanted to make my own cleaners; I'd bookmarked (back in the days before Pinterest) several sites and recipes I wanted to try but had never gotten around to it.  So I did a bunch of research, tested out a few things, and ended up with a several page handout of awesome cleaning recipes. :)

Anyway, today I'll share my laundry tips and recipes.  Here is one of my very favorites:

Stain Pretreater

• ½ c. vinegar
• ½ c. ammonia
• ½ c. Wisk
• ½ c. water

Mix all ingredients and store in a spray bottle. Spray on anything with grease or food spots and wash as usual.  This is super cheap and will get out about anything.  It'll get out most food grease spots even after being washed and dried - you know, when the kids don't tell you or the kids themselves are doing wash and just shove everything in.  It's also really good at removing ring-around-the-collar.

I also found this recipe for laundry soap - it's all over the internet.  However, I've never tried it myself.  I already ruined a washing machine because I used too much soap and I'm not sure how "soapy" this is.  Plus, when we bought our same washing machine 4 years later, the sales lady told us to only use 1 tbsp. of soap at the most per load.  This has worked great for us, getting all our clothes clean.  I bought a HUGE box (I can't remember how many pounds) of laundry soap when our triplets were born and almost 7 years later I still haven't finished it yet, getting very close though. 

Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value

• 4  Cups - hot tap water
• 1  Fels-Naptha soap bar
• 1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
• ½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
-For Top Load Machine - use 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-For Front Load Machines – use ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)
* Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent

TIPS FOR LAUNDRY SOAP: We use Fels-Naptha  bar soap in the homemade soap recipes, but you can use Ivory, Sunlight, Kirk's Hardwater Castile or Zote bars. Don't use heavily perfumed soaps. We buy Fels-Naptha by the case from our local grocer or online. Washing Soda and Borax can often be found on the laundry or cleaning aisle. Recipe cost approx. $2 per batch.

Fabric Softener for Dryer

• 1 Sponge cut in quarters
• 1 Cup Downy or other liquid fabric softener
• 4 Cups Water

Cut sponge into 4 sections. Mix Downy and water. Store sponge in mixture; drain one sponge for each load of laundry. Put sponge in dryer with clothes. When load is done put sponge back into the mixture to use again.

If you don't like using fabric softener because it leaves a coating on your clothes i.e. your skin; because of allergies/sensitivities; or because like all of my husband's wrinkle-free dress pants say not to use fabric softener; I use vinegar.  I add 1/2 to 1 c. to the rinse cycle, just pour it in the fabric softener dispenser.  You can smell the vinegar when the clothes are wet, but when they're dry they have no smell.  Believe me, my husband with his "super-smeller" can't even smell the vinegar after the clothes are dry. I use dryer balls, like these, to cut down on the static electricity in the dryer.

 Here are a few more uses for vinegar in the laundry room:

• Before washing a mustard, ketchup, spaghetti, or barbecue stain, dab with white distilled vinegar.
• Remove perspiration odor and stains on clothing, as well as those left by deodorants, by spraying full-strength white distilled vinegar on underarm and collar areas before tossing them into the washing machine.
• Get cleaner laundry! Add about 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar to the last rinse. The acid in white distilled vinegar is too mild to harm fabrics, yet strong enough to dissolve the alkalies in soaps and detergents. Besides removing soap, white distilled vinegar prevents yellowing, acts as a fabric softener and static cling reducer, and attacks mold and mildew.  It helps keep colors from running, and helps keep hair (pet or human) and lint from clinging to clothes.
• Keep the steam iron clean and in good working order by getting rid of mineral deposits in steam vents and spray nozzles. Fill the water chamber with a solution of equal parts white distilled vinegar and distilled water. Set it in an upright position and let it steam for about 5 minutes. When the iron is cool, rinse the tank with water, refill and shake water through the vents onto an old cloth. Test before using.

Do you have any more great tips for laundry?  Please share them in the comments.  We can all benefit from being thrifty and a little more "green" health wise in the laundry room.


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Teacher and Neighbor Gift Ideas

Here is my sister, Leslie, again with some cute, simple, easy gift ideas:

Are you still looking for inexpensive gift ideas for teachers or neighbors?  These are some of the things I am going to give this year:

These word art picture frames are fun and super "cost effective" (that sounds so much better than cheap).  I bought used picture frames from D.I. ($1-2 each) and gave them I fresh coat of paint.  Then I printed the free prints found here and here. 

Next up, neighbor gifts:

I've seen lots of cute ideas out there for reusing glass jars.   I reused spaghetti sauce and pickle jars, and spray painted the lids black.  The bases are Dollar Store candlesticks that I also painted black.  You could fill them with all kinds of things.  Pencils or crayons for teachers?

And one more idea to go along with a gift for my children's teachers, these initial notepads, journals and cards from the dollar section of Target:

I couldn't find a whole set for each initial I need, but I think they would be cute to add to one of the ideas above. 


Hope your shopping is almost finished!  Once I find Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits, I think I will have everything I need (Mom, don't tell Dad!)

Thank you, Leslie, fantastic ideas as usual!  I'm going to start saving my glass jars now so I can do this next year (we don't use those very often, lol.)  I'm so excited that Leslie and family is coming up to visit for Christmas! Yeah!! You're still coming right, Les? Tell Luke I published it so it's fact now. :)

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