Make it Last a Little Longer #2

Most of the children's clothes that get outgrown at our house get passed on to someone else that can use them. These jammies could just not be passed on with the bottoms looking like this.

The other knee looked slightly better.  They seem doomed for the landfill don't they?  Not so! They are salevagable! I've been using this tutorial to turn the shirt and pants into little boy boxer briefs.  I love them!

As you can see, I didn't pay quite enough attention to the tutorial.  I cut out one of the legs on the wrong side of the fabric.  Luckily I had another pair of ripped jammie bottoms in blue so that will be the other leg.  I will aslo use the elastic from the original jammie bottoms for the elastic in the undies.  I had to put this project on hold because I had pressing projects for a birthday and Christmas but there it is.

Salad Dressing Snob

Oh, for a salad.

Oh yeah! Now that's a salad!

I love a garden salad.  It is one of my very favorite foods.  Ranch is my favorite kind of dressing but I have a problem with store bought varieties.  I think it's the preservitives I can taste but I don't know.  I know I don't like it though so I make my own.  This is what I have been putting in most recently:

Ranch Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup Greek yogurt

oregano

onion powder

dried parsley

minced garlic

paprika

ground red pepper

salt

pepper

I just start putting spices in the mayo and yogurt blend until it tastes good.

Pumpkin Pancakes

I used the rest of the pumpkin patch pumpkin to make divine Pumpkin Pancakes. They were really unbelievably good - and I don't always care for pancakes.

The recipe came from ALL NEW Square Foot Gardening Cookbook by Mel Bartholomew.

Garden Inspiration #1

I really like this stone path.

We spent a bit enjoying Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah about a week ago.
I found this interesting:

And upon closer inspection of a few of the trees:

Already?  I love planning ahead!

Lollipop Costume

Have you ever seen a lollipop run? We had a fun Halloween.

I sewed the leggings and the lollipop itself. I also used a hot glue gun on the twists to save time. But yes, it did still take longer to make than it was worn.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I used my pumpkin patch pumpkin to make enough of Jennifer's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies III from allrecipes.com to eat as many as I wanted and have some leftover to freeze for another day.

Yum.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies III

Ingredients

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Water Bottle Soap Molds

I think I can find a use for anything. I try hard not to because then I end out saving stuff that I will never get around to making so it really isn't useful. I end out saving trash. This is a time when I did end out using my trash for something useful - and it can still be recycled when I'm done. I cut the top off a water bottle (this one is actually a milk container but it works the same) and poured my soap in and put it to bed. After a couple of days, I had this:

I used a blade to carefully cut the plastic off the soap,

sliced it up and put it away to cure.

Girl Style #2

One of my favorites:

One of my favorites:

Wild Oats

I found a big bag of oats. I mean big. 50 pounds big. And it was less than $20. I had my husband with me and asked him to grab it for us. He looked puzzled, got a little crook in his smile and said "What are we, horses?" He's seen big bags of oats like that were indeed, for horses. It's all right. He'll appreciate these oats. We will use them often not only for oatmeal but for a couple of our regular recipes: Magic Meatloaf and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. I'll share the recipes later. Now I'll share how I handled this big bag of wild oats.

Yes, that's right. I tamed those oats into Ziploc bags and they are patiently waiting in our pantry to be eaten. I'm looking forward to it.

Making the Most of a Pumpkin

In the spirit of Halloween, we went to a local pumpkin patch. I'm talking about an actual pumpkin patch that is just a big field of pumpkins. We tromped through the plants to find a couple of our favorites. We ended out with two that had already been picked.

We got one large orange pumpkin and one medium white pumpkin. The owner of the patch was so nice. She sent us home with two brown bags of mini pumpkins that didn't have stems so she wasn't going to sell them. I was so happy! We spent an evening carving and having a wonderful time together. We only had one carving tool so when it wasn't my turn, I toasted the seeds and boiled the parts of the pumpkin we cut off. So we ended out with these:

and toasted pumpkin seeds

and pureed pumpkin

that will be frozen and eventually turned into something delicious and the inside goop and outsides

 will be turned into compost. Oh, and I saved a few seeds from each of the pumpkins to plant in the spring.

I'm not sure what else a can be expected of a couple of pumpkins.

Have a happy Halloween!

Carrot Harvest

I've been digging up (and wishing the soil wasn't quite so hard in some places) carrots. I got a couple buckets of these beautiful Scarlet Nantes. They only grow to be about 5" and I was glad I didn't have to try to unlodge anything longer. I'll keep amending the soil and it'll get easier but for this season, I am thankful for these little guys.

Unconsume

I read an interesting blog post called Noted: What it Means to Unconsume. It's short and I think using what you have as long as you can just makes sense.
From that blog post, went to the Unconsumption tumblr and found these

Vintage Suitcase Drawers

by James Plumb

that made me swoon.


I like the challenge of using what I have to make what I need. It's a great way to get my creativity fix. I always loved those times in school when the teacher would hand you a pile of junk and tell you to make a bridge or your name out of it. I always just thought it was fun. I had no idea it would also become useful.

Something to think about.

Applesauce

A neighbor gave me a big box of Red Delicious apples that either had worm holes or the birds had tasted so they couldn't be stored. I kind of helped my sister make and bottle applesauce before so I decided I wanted to try. Eight hours laster, four calls to my sister and some help from my husband, I had almost eleven quarts of applesauce. Next time will got smoother because I will know what to do with the tools I have. All ten jars sealed so I am calling it a success.

Girl Style

I love doing my daughter's hair. It's a creative outlet that doesn't leave a mess or a bunch of finished products to clutter up my house. In fact, it makes the world just a little bit more beautiful (most of the time). Sometimes my daughter wants to see what I've done back there so we quickly snap a photo of the back of her head before she heads off to school. I might as well share.

Apron Skirt

My great grandma made this fantastic apron.

I was given some yellow gingham and decided see if I could make a skirt stlyed after the apron.



(Why does Blogger insist that this photo must remain sideways?)

Art Carrier

This art carrier was a gift for a girl turning six years old. My daughter wanted to give her something Polly Pocket. I wanted to give her something handmade. I think this was a nice marriage of the ideas.

I used this tutorial as a starting point. Thanks Geta!

Cowl Neck Shirt

I used a shirt I already owned to create a pattern for this shirt.

I also promptly added a grease stain to the shirt right after this photo. *sigh*

Falls Leaves Napkins

I just put a new set of napkins in the shop. Just right for autumn.