Super Simple Christmas Decorations

One Cold Winter Day, As I sit bored as can be. I looked around and decided I needed more Christmas Deocrations. Something New..Different...Something maybe I can make myself, cause I was too lazy to get out, lol. 

So I searched Pintrest and found pictures of snowflakes made out of Popsicle sticks! How Easy!

I had some left over sticks from a previous project, so I broke out the ol' trusty glue gun, some paint that I had on hand, and as a bonus I had some glitter glue left too!! 

So I constructed these snowflakes that are Super Cute and were SUPER SIMPLE!! 

And it only cost me 1.00!!! (And only because I picked up more Popsicle sticks at The Dollar Tree next time I was in town to make more, lol)

Merry Christmas Everybody!! 

*~Sumer~*

LIGHTSABERS RULE!!

I'm not for sure who was more excited about this DIY, my boys or me, lol. 

We already have light sabers, but for a very cheap cost and for the sake of having something "new" (oh and the fact that they are less likely to hurt one another helps!) we took on this challenge!!!!!  :)

VERY SIMPLE SUPPLIES!

Found them all at the Dollar Tree, except for the little silver Duck tape that was less than $2.00 at Walmart and of course the cutting supplies I already had at home. 

Step #1

Cut the pool noodle in half. Use bread knife that has a serrated edge for easy cutting. 

Step #2 

Cut two pieces of duck tape and position over the end to look like this

Step #3 

Take the black electric tape and just start wrapping up to wherever you want. 

Step#4

Time to let your imagination go wild! 

Just cut and make whatever design you want!! 

And Vola! YOUR DONE! 

*Disclaimer: If you have Star War fans in your household be prepared to google the different light sabers from the movies to make them "accurate". 

    I had to remind my 2 boys twice that these are just something simple to play with and for fun, because I was getting requests for buttons, switches, and places to put crystals, lol. 

All in All this is a GREAT project and SUPER easy to make!! 

Rain or Shine I recommend this for some simple fun! 

Oh and Trenton came up with the idea if using them in a Pool as well because, "Well they are after all pool noodles and will float"

:D

**Made By Sumer**

String Art Awesomeness

I loved this SO SO much! I need more wood!

♦Elisha♦

Wax Paper Disaster

My husband has a lot of plaques and awards he acquired throughout his Navy career. Every person who has been in the military a long time has an "I Love Me" wall which we are attempting to create in our den. I saw in the Pinterest World that you can use wax paper to arrange pictures on the wall. Brilliant?!....not so much!

Here is the design I was going for.

Then I turned them all over, keeping the same design.

Lay wax paper over the back of the pictures. This was when my disaster started. There is no easy way to keep the wax paper straight...and if your wax paper isn't straight, then how are you going to know it's straight on the wall? I also had to tape the wax paper in a million places or it fell all apart.  Then I made holes in the wax paper where the holes in the pictures were so I knew where the nails were supposed to go on the wall.

First attempt at hanging the wax paper. Now, if you have a really really super small arrangement you're doing, it might work fine. My arrangement was at least 4 feet tall and maybe about 6 feet wide. I was also doing this all by myself. I am woman hear me roar.

This was probably my millionth attempt at getting the stupid paper straight on the wall. I was hot and frustrated and I don't like giving up!

UGH!! Never again!! If you have 5 people helping you, you might be able to pull off this "tip". Pinterest Fail!

♦Elisha♦

Philly Filled Bell Peppers

We love Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches and we love peppers...so why not put them together?!

I made a mistake cutting the peppers..it's suppose to be lengthwise. I was scared all the cheese would run out since I had holes in the bottom of each half, but it really wasn't that bad.  There are several different variations of the recipe. Mine said to roast the peppers in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes before adding anything to them..which is what I did. Since I had holes in the bottom of my peppers, I lined the baking sheet with foil, plus I like containing the mess.

While the peppers were roasting, I sautéed up some onion, mushroom and garlic. Once the onions are good and caramelized, add in pieces of sliced roast beef. I recommend getting roast beef from the deli and not the kind in a package....just because it's better quality and tastes like real beef.  I didn't really measure any of these ingredients. My husband doesn't really like mushrooms but I love them, so I added enough for me but not enough for him to be able to taste much of them. Just use your best judgement :) 

 Next, line the roasted peppers with provolone cheese. Do this while the peppers are still hot! It makes the cheese malleable and easier to put in the pepper, or just get the shredded kind.

Then fill those puppies up with the meat mixture

Top with more cheese.

Pop those babies in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is nice and gooey on top.

I was recently given some Lemon Boy yellow tomatoes and boy are those suckers good! My husband's aunt has a huge garden and has been supplying us with fresh veggies. Every meal we have beautiful fresh vegetables and I love it!

My husband really liked these carb friendly stuffed peppers. Next time I make them, I will of course make sure to cut them the right way! Also, I will add some yellow or red peppers...maybe some basil. They were missing some flavor. Overall, this dinner was a hit at my house! 

♦Elisha♦

DIY Coasters

I'm refusing to buy more coasters. 

I don't know where mine keep disappearing to, but I'm pretty sure it's one of those things your kids or significant other take or hide just to drive the Mom crazy when they turn around and ask you where one is and all you can find is ONE. 

And well let's face it, no one really uses them anyway. 

So I ran across this post on Pintrest on how to make your own that look like cute little pallets!!

Simple enough!?

Went to the ol' trusty Dollar Tree and picked up some Popsicle sticks. And put the hot glue gun to work!!

So, First the post on Pintrest is just a picture, with no directions, but thats ok, it can't be too hard to figure out....

You basically just flashback to stacking sticks and glueing them together. The concept is pretty cut and dry. 

Start by making a square and just add on    

I mean it's simple...and looks like it will do the job a coaster is suppose to do...get lost in your house somewhere or make you look fancy when you hand your house guest a drink and place it on a coaster.  

BUT

Mine looks NOTHING like the picture! 

After studying the picture they could not have used only these sticks!

It appears they used small blocks and different sized "planks" to get the more Pallet effect. 

And of course as you can see by their picture there is no rounded edges. 

Well I attempted to cut off the round edges and it was HARD! So I didn't. 

Anyway with all that aside here is their Coaster... And then there's mine...

**Made By Sumer**

Oven Hard Boiled Eggs

I love hard boiled eggs, especially late at night when I have NO business eating hard boiled eggs. When I saw on Pinterest I could cook my beloved eggs in the oven, I was intrigued!

Preheat oven to 325-350 depending on how well your oven heats. I did mine on 325. Put the eggs in a muffin tin so they don't roll around. Can you imagine having to clean up a broken egg from the oven?! Yuck!

 Cook for 30 minutes and immediately bath in a bowl of ice water. This stops the cooking process. I left mine in the water for about 5 minutes. I'm assuming you can remove them sooner as long as you don't burn yourself peeling.

 So I read that cooking the eggs in the oven makes them easier to peel, but I didn't find this to be true. I roll the eggs around in the palm of my hand before peeling and this makes them easier to peel no matter what cooking method you use. Aren't these eggs pretty!? The cooked up perfectly on the inside.

 .....but the outside...ick! I'm assuming those brown spots are from where eggs were touching the sides of the muffin tin. The spots didn't effect the flavor at all. I even tasted just the brown spot and it tasted like a normal egg white.

Would I make them like this again for my own personal eating? Absolutely. I found it a lot easier using the oven cooking method over boiling and it took the guess work out of whether you let them sit off the heat long enough. Would I use this method for a party or potluck? Nope! I like my food for the public to look pretty and edible. I think the oven method would be a great way of cooking up some eggs for Easter egg dyeing.

If you find out a way to prevent those brown spots, I'd love to hear it!

♦Elisha♦

Frames and Fabric

So I finally got my new floor for my kitchen!! And it's magical!!
Along with the hard adult choices of deciding which kind, how much to/not too spend, how to get it installed, and which color/design (being an adult is HARD!)
I had decided to expand my decor (or as some may say "lack there of") to bring everything a little more together.
This was really the only room in the house that was being left out.
So my journey began...
I bargain shopped everywhere possible, searched Pinterest near and far, and even called in for back up from Elisha and Lee Ann on opinions and suggestions!
My final decision was as follows:
•By some frames of different sizes
•paint them
•attach some cool fabric I found at Hancock Fabrics

First off the frames:
I found these at Hobby Lobby during a 50% off sale.

Next Paint:
I knew I wanted gray to bring out the color in my main fabric, but I wanted it a little cooler than just painted.
So after reading through some pins, I was determined to do the crackle paint. It would after all give these normal boring frames some coolness and texture.
I picked out a dolphin gray acrylic paint for the base, then a dark gray to go on top.
One pin said use Elmer's glue another said wood glue. So I put them head to head on the back of a frame to see which one i liked better and the wood glue won!
My crackle didn't turn out as...crackly as the pictures looked online, but isn't the the story with every Pinterest Project? I mean where do these people come from with their perfectness...it's sickening
None the less I'm pretty darn satisfied!!!
All you do is this:
-paint your frame with base color
-paint on wood glue (it's harder than it sounds so don't freak)
-wait a few mins...or don't, lol. They say to in the directions but during my trail run I kinda forgot the wait step and it still turned out ok
-when its tacky (given that you waited) paint on the second color
-.........no really that's it, no other steps, your done
What that seems too easy?
Here a bonus step..
-let it dry completely
Is that better????

Fabric:
I had this fabric put back from the minute I found it, it spoke to me, it said something like, "BUY ME!! YOU LOVE ME, YOU KNOW YOU DO!! BUY ME BUY ME!!"
And what can I say I'm a sucker for a begger, that and it was a remnant so it only cost me $6!!
After some patience, I begin to find some others to match. Now when I say patience, I mean MONTHS! It was hard!! I MEAN REALLY HARD PEOPLE! But it was well worth it because during those months I had to find out what the heck I was even going to do with the begger fabric.
None the less I found two more I was happy with and they were also remnants so that was only $12! And may I add that this was for a yard of fabric which is wayyy more than I needed, but at that price who can pass it up!?
When my frames were done all I did was staple the fabric (making sure to pull it tight) to the back of the frame and WaaLaaa! It's that easy!

So if your at a standstill for kitchen art..well any art for that matter,and don't want to have to sell your plasma for something neat to hang on your wall, don't forget to search your local fabric store in the remnants till something catches your eye and turn it into your own master piece!!

Cleaning pots and pans Attempt 1

First, do not judge me! And second, do not judge me!

I have owned some of my pots and pans for thirteen years. Seriously. One set my grandma bought me when I was eighteen and I just never could part with them. The other set was bought by my husband's grandma so we kept them forever too.

My cleaning approach was soap, water, dishwasher. I had no idea how to get the other stuff off of the pans.

Recently, I decided that despite the sentimental value of my pots and pans, I needed new ones, but first, maybe I should clean these and see if any were worth saving.

I, of course, first searched Pinterest for ideas and the first one was so easy that.... well, honestly, I forgot to read the whole blog about it. The solution was to use Easy Off Oven Cleaner to remove the burns and other gunk that develops on pots and pans over time. I assumed this was all I needed to know, so I bought fume free Easy Off and sprayed away. I followed the directions per the bottle and waited 2 hours then scrubbed. It worked great on the stainless steel pan but my generic TJ Maxx pan showed little improvement and my KitchenAid pots and pansweren't even worth posting pictures of, because there was really no results. However, I was so impressed by the shininess of my stainless steel pan (despite it still showing some black) that I decided I better reread the blog to make sure I did every last step. I missed one!
According to the blogger, she sprayed her pans and put them in a trash bag and left them over night. I may try this. I don't think I will on the KitchenAid pans because they are blue on the outside and I am afraid it might take that off and ruin them. I definitely need to do more research.

To be continued...........

DIY Drano. Epic fail.

My husband recently decided to trim his beard and he did so over my sink. Now, this might not have been a big deal if it was just stubble, but he had a beard, like a two reed lengths from being on Duck Dynasty beard. It was the kind of beard other men envy and women flee from! It was the kind of beard that clogged my dang sink!
I decided instead of spending money on Drano and have chemicals draining into the Earth near my home, I would turn to Pinterest for a safer and cheaper alternative, so I searched "Diy drano" and lots of pins emerged, but all basically called for the same two ingredients: 1/4 of a cup of baking soda followed by 1 cup vinegar.
After much debate, I decided that I would fix the clogged sink all by myself with baking soda and vinegar. I have to admit I was a little scared. I have two sons and we've done experiments with vinegar and baking soda, you can really make quite the explosion with those two ingredients. I did not want anything to explode. I did not want a huge mess. I have had so many things explode in my house that it isn't funny and I did not want to cause one myself. If that happened, I would never hear the end of it. But I finally decided that I didn't think there was any way that small of an amount could cause too much trouble and that I would try it.
First, I measured out my baking soda and poured it into the sink then I slowly poured the vinegar on top. It bubbled a lot and almost looked like it was going to create a fountain but it never did. I waited three to five minutes until my sink completely stopped bubbling and fizzing and making strange noises and then I turned on the warm water.
It was still clogged.
Since we were going to town later that day, I decided to give it one more try before I gave up and added Drano to the grocery list.
I repeated the exact same thing one more time and waited, then ran the warm water, but nothing. It was still clogged.
We opted to buy Drano and we used half of what the bottle called for to unclog our drain.
I was really disappointed. Maybe I missed a step, but I would say you need more than these two ingredients to unclog your drain or at least when that clog involves, Duck Dynasty worthy beard hairs, you need more umph than baking soda and vinegar.

The Three Day "Military" Diet Review

I have not been very crafty lately, but I have been on a health kick....... again. I won't go into detail about why or how, but if you are wondering how that all came about go click here.
Anyway, with that being said, I have decided to try some different "diets." I usually don't diet or maybe I do, but I try to call it "life style changes" to make myself feel better, but overall, I do not think I have ever tried any "gimmick" type diets; however, this military diet was way too tempting.
First off, you can find the article with the diet plan for FREE. I followed the diet off of this blog. I followed it precisely and even tried to get the healthiest options of all of the foods listed. I stuck with fresh vegetables and all natural ice cream. The hot dogs were made of chicken and I got all natural peanut butter.
Secondly, this diet is all over Pinterest. If you go to Pinterest now and go to the categories of "Popular" or "Health and Fitness," you will most likely find a pin about this diet. It is everywhere, which makes it hard not to consider, so I considered.
And last, the reason this diet was so tempting is because the foods are healthy and I don't mind eating any of the items that were listed.

My three days on the diet:

Day 1 was not bad, but (and I expressed this on my other blog as well) all of the tuna on day one was hard. I chose to eat tuna for lunch and supper just because it was easy, but tuna with nothing on it, but a "small" amount of mustard is hard to choke down (especially in the portion sizes listed for this diet), even if you love tuna. The great thing about day 1 was that it is the only day you can have caffeine. At the end of the day, I was not hungry and I felt great.

Day 2 was probably the easiest aside from the mid-day headache, which was just my body's way of saying, "Hey, where did the caffeine go?"

Day 3 was the most difficult. It is actually less than 800 calories for the day with no caffeine. I was shaky by the end of day 3.

Some important notes, I had made a life style change the week before, slowly cutting down on caffeine and calorie intake. I also started working out and I worked out 45 minutes to an hour each day while on this diet. I drank a minimum of 32 ounces of water per day everyday that I was on this diet. I did exactly what was outlined on the blog that I linked, except I think I ate less tuna than outlined, because that is a lot of tuna. I used a little mustard, less than a tablespoon, the entire three days and that is all I added.

I weighed every morning and night and even during day 1, I weighed less by the end of the day than I did at the beginning of the day. I lost two pounds per day for a total of six pounds. Now, before you get all excited and decide to try this diet, please read on!

Even though I was super excited about losing six pounds in three days, I knew that there was a possibility that some of that weight would show back up on my scale. This diet boasts that you could lose up to ten pounds in three days and lose forty pounds in one month. Let's just be real here. That is NOT going to happen. It also suggests you can go back to eating whatever on your four days off the diet as long as you "don't get carried away." A week before I started this diet, I was already limiting my calories and working out and when I went off of this diet, I continued to limit my calories and work out and yet, the scale did change back. I gained two pounds back within the next two days, so I really only lost four. I would suggest reading WebMD's post about this diet, which explains why that happened. Some of the weight you lose is actually from fluid, not fat.

This diet, in my opinion, and I am not a nutritionist or dietitian, is o-kay. If you need something to get you motivated to stop drinking caffeine or watch your eating habits, then this might be a great way to start. I also have read that the combinations of food (while they are not metabolism/ fat burning like they claim) may actually act like a diuretic, which can help with fluid retention, high blood pressure, and an overall cleanse for your body. That is not a bad thing, but I think the main point is to remember this isn't some miracle diet that will solve all your problems or make your fat disappear. It is just a "jump start" plan in my opinion and a pretty good one, but don't plan on eating junk food for four days and following this diet for three and seeing any results, because that will not happen.

Thanks for reading and I hope this helps you make an educated decision about the Three Day Military Diet that is all over Pinterest.



*** Lee Ann***

The Stove Experience 2

So after trying the baking soda/water experiment. I opted for some cheap oven cleaner for the inside of my stove. It was easy to use and It worked wonders, and that's how I roll, so I went with it. Lol.

Something I did find handy from allllll the stove cleaning pins I had, was something I had never thought of.
Take out your wire trays and put them in the bathtub with the hottest water you can get and some vinegar. Wait a few hours and all you have to do is lightly scrub them and they are clean! I did this while still in the tub because it makes cleaning those huge things much easier.
((!Caution! you will have a ring around your tub, so if you plan on cleaning that the same day, wait till AFTER your stove experience))

Next for me was the stove top. This I clean all the time, so that's no big deal for me. A couple tips I've found that help though.
#1 turn on your oven.
I know this sounds strange, but with the oven on it heats up the stove top which makes it easier to remove grease and grime with out having to scrub.
#2 I use some simple All Purpose 409, to shine it up.

Here's the kicker for me. I have a gas stove, and those quirky stove burners are a PEST!
They have so many crevasses and awkward places to have to clean its a real chore to get them even the slightest bit clean. To make them look new again?...HA Yea Right!?
Here is where our dear old friend Pinterest has saved me!

Literally all you need is this:
-Gallon ziplock bags
-baking sheet/pan
-your dirty stove burners
-1/4 cup Ammonia
-some elbow (but not elbow grease..cause that would mean this would be a little hard and you would have to work at it...this does not apply here)

All you do is get your baggie, put your burner inside, pour in the ammonia and zip it up. Place it on the baking sheet, just in case it leaks, although mine never did.

Now you wait...

It says 8 hours, I probably left mine in for a little over 24 hours. I put it in before work and while the kids stayed at grandmas a couple days for spring break, I used this as an excuse to eat out, cause I'm "cleaning", lol.
After your wait time unzip and pour the grossness down the drain. It will smell like an 80's perm job, Just so you know, lol.
Throw away your Baggie and run some hot water, grab a scrubber and use that elbow to start seeing a new stove burner emerge!

You will still have the weird crevasses and stuff to work around, but this makes it SOOOO easy, I couldn't even imagine complaining about them anymore!!

Fun fact: even though 1/4 doesn't seem like much, it's not the liquid itself that is cleaning your burners, it's the fumes.

*Makes me feel like some sort of Chemist, Feel free to insert huge words and elaborate speech when explaining this to anyone, even if its just your kids, they will think you are a Chemist too, lol.

*~Sumer~*

Soap Thingie

I like my liquid soap and poof but my husband prefers the good ol' fashion bar soap. I saw on Pinterest that you just sew up the sides of a piece of washcloth, and abracadabra you have a soap pouch thingie! I ran into a few problems, first one being a broken needle because of the thickness of the washcloth. Second, the needle kept getting caught in the little loops of the cloth.

See that little dangling thing on the black string? Yep, that's my needle. Anyway, the day before embarking on my little soap adventure, I decided to get out some scrap material to figure out how I was supposed to fold and sew the fabric to get the pouch I wanted. You know those sandwich baggies that come like 100/box, that you mom used to put in your lunchbox, that kind of fold into itself? That's the effect I was going for. After lots of folding and deliberating and folding again I finally figured it out! 

 

The idea is that that little flap fold on the inside will hold the soap in the pouch even when the soap gets smaller. And here is the finished product.

 

My pouch isn't exactly straight and the seams are way too thick but with all the issues I had with the machine and needles, I give myself a pat on the back. And if you don't want to put your soap in it, you can always use it as a candy holder☺

♦Elisha♦