Art Totes

A little more Christmas show and tell. Here are some gifts that I made for my 3 nephews. They are art totes that are sized for a coloring book on the inside. On the outside, there are pockets on one side for markers and on the other for crayons.

I had this bright, fun fabric in my stash. I used one larger piece of fabric that was twice the width of the finished tote and a shorter piece of coordinating fabric that was the same width. I did a simple hem (folded over the fabric once and top-stitched) along the top of the shorter piece which was to become the pockets for the marker/crayons. Then I placed this piece along the bottom edge of the larger piece and sewed straight vertical lines to form the pockets. I made my lines 7/8" apart, but that could be adjusted if you were using fatter markers. I did a hem at the top of the large piece and then stitched the bag together by folding it right sides together (pockets on the inside) and sewing down the sides and across the bottom. I made straps with 4" wide strips of fabric. I pressed the strips in half and then pressed each half in towards the center fold that I had just pressed (like bias tape). I top-stitched the strap close to the edge and then sewed these onto the bags.

I think these are pretty fun an I hope my nephews enjoy them!

Needle Felting

We spent the first day of our new year having a lazy day. Half of us spend it in PJs and we just plain relaxed. I managed to steal a little time to try out this new needle felting kit I got for Christmas. I made this little heart pin that I plan to put on my red winter coat. This was really fun to do and I am excited to try some other projects, too, especially some from this fun book I found at the library.

Hope your new year is looking bright and hopeful!

Homemade Dishwasher Soap Revisited

A while back I posted about making your own natural dishwasher detergent. We have been using this exclusively for nearly 2 months now so I feel like I can report back.

Sadly, I have to say that I am a bit disappointed with the results. Often, the powder turns into a gelatinous mess and gets stuck in the detergent cup. Then the dishes don't get so clean and we have to remove the old detergent and try again. I did discover that using white vinegar as a rinse agent does seem to help prevent this a little.

Another thing that I discovered is that the citric acid that the recipe calls for can get expensive. I have not been able to find a really cheap source for this. I did try the recipe's alternative which was 2 packages of lemon flavored kool-aid mix. This seems to add to the whole icky blob stuck in the detergent cup. Next I decided to just leave this ingredient out all together which seemed to work just fine for the most part.

Several times I nearly broke down and just bought some commercial dishwashing detergent, but I really like the idea of making my own. Not only is is cheaper, it is convenient to be able to mix up a new batch at my convenience when I am getting low (eliminating a run to the store), and there is one less chemical concoction sitting in my cupboards.

This morning I stumbled upon another recipe for dishwasher soap. This one uses Borax and washing soda. I think I may just give this one a try and see how it compares. This article also includes other uses for Borax and washing soda including a link for homemade laundry detergent.

If you try any of these recipes, be sure and comment and let me know how it goes for you.

Christmas Pajamas

Here is a little of my Christmas show and tell that I promised. One of my big handmade projects this year was to sew PJs for each of my 5 kids for Christmas. We have a tradition of giving the kids new pajamas each Christmas Eve. It is the one present from us that they get to open. Usually I just buy them, but with finances tight this year, I thought maybe I could save some money and make them special by sewing them myself. (BTW credits for the scrapbook page can be found here.)

I got this idea one day when I was at Wal-Mart. I found this cute flannel kitty fabric that just cried out "Anna" when I saw it. So I found an inexpensive, easy PJ pattern and bought the fabric.

Patrick's Pjs are from the same pattern, but the gown is shortened to a shirt and I made pants with it. The fabric was actually 2 fleece blankets that I found at Menards for $3.88 each. That worked out to be cheaper than I could even by fleece fabric on sale at the store. He has been practically living in these since Christmas Eve.

The girls' nightgowns are made from some Noah's Ark print fabric that was in my stash. Note that these gowns match the nightgown I made for Abi's birthday doll as well as some of the fabric used to make the quilted sleeping bag.

Here are my goofy children modeling their new duds on Christmas Eve. Elizabeth's nightgown was also created from 2 fleece blankets like Patrick's. I did cheat on the big girls' sleep pants. I found the set of 2 pair at Sam's Club for cheaper than I could sew them.



I think perhaps Elizabeth is the only sane one in the group. What do you think?

I have to admit that with all that has gone on in our house, I was down to the wire to complete these. I finished Elizabeth's and Anna's on Christmas Eve morning. I was thankful that I used the same simple pattern for all of them because I had it practically memorized by the time I got to theirs.

I am off to an OB appointment today for a non-stress test. Will share more later.

Have a great day!

Handmade Holidays

It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. I believe that. Because our funds are on the short side, it has necessitated that I become a bit more inventive as to how I am going to come up with the many gifts we have to give this year. With 5 kids the gifts add up, not to mention that one of them has a birthday this month, too.

So, I decided that this year as going to have to be a mostly handmade Christmas. I have a rather large stash of fabric and craft supplies that I have collected throughout the years. I figure if I use that as a base for my projects, I can eliminate a lot of cash outlay. This little doll in the photo is the perfect example of that.

I have been working on some felt play food for my daughter for her birthday this year because I know that grams and gramps are getting she and her younger sister a play kitchen for Christmas. But as I looked at what I have made, it looked pretty paltry, so I decided I needed to come up with something else. I got the idea that she would love a special little doll and set forth to find inspiration on the web. I LOVE the internet. Within a half hour, I had not only found inspiration, but a pattern, directions and a video showing how to make this little cutie. I had the doll pretty well put together that afternoon out of some of my scrap fabric.

That evening, I was reading Bend the Rules Sewing which I got from the library. There are instructions to make a cute lap quilt. The light bulb in my head went off and I decided that I would make a quilt for the doll. I used the same fabric that I used for the doll along with some scraps of fabric from the nightgown that I made for my daughter for Christmas. I have never made a quilt before and this was so much FUN! I am glad I that my first quilt was doll size because it was great to see this come together in just one afternoon. It is pictured here with the binding only partially finished. I machine stitched one side on and hand stitched the other. I am going to turn this into a cute sleeping bag for the doll because my daughter is really into her own sleeping bag right now.

I have enough fabric scraps to make the doll some PJs that will match my daughter's and I am also going to make my daughter a little tulle tutu and a matching one for the doll. I just know that she is going to love this. And the best part? The only thing I purchased for this was the quilt batting and stuffing. Everything else, I already had, so it only cost me my time. LOVE that!

I'll have to show it all off here once it is all done because I am pretty excited about it. If you are wondering about the doll pattern, it can be found here on the Martha Stewart site.

I have LOTS of other projects in the works, and it is my plan to start showing them off here as I get things done. Some I will have to keep hidden until after Christmas, though, because my older children actually do read this blog. (So nana boo boo, I am not showing you girls anything!) So do some of others that I am creating for, so I suppose that I will have to watch what I say!

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

For years now, I have been a big fan of using the dishwasher tablets (Electrosol Powerball) for my 3 loads of dishes we do each day. This began because I was encouraging (read: making it one of their chores) my older daughters to load and run the dishwasher. At the time, they were 10 and 7 years old and I didn't really trust them to measure out the powdered stuff accurately and not spill it everywhere. The tablets are nice because there is no measuring.

Well, that was about 4 or so years ago and we have been hooked on these ever since. I generally get them at Sam's Club for the best price, but lately they haven't had them. Even with watching for sales and using coupons, they are expensive and I keep running out before I can find another good deal. When you do 3 loads of dishes per day, running out of soap is a bad thing.

Recently, I discovered a recipe for homemade dishwasher soap here. After my daughter came to me yesterday and informed me that we were officially out of dishwasher tablets and the dishwasher was bursting-at-the-seams full, I decided to pull out this recipe and give it a try. So far we have only done 2 loads with it, but it seems to be just as good of a job as the Electrosol tablets. I suppose it will take a bit more time to decide if it is really just as good. According to the article where I found it, this is a much cheaper alternative to storebought dishwasher detergent. They claim that Cascade brand costs $0.22 per load. I can only assume that this is the cheapest form - probably the powder. I haven't done the math myself, but they say that the homemade version only costs $0.08 per load. That is a substantial savings!

Here is the recipe:

NATURAL DISHWASHING POWDER

In a plastic container with a firmly fitting lid, mix:

• 1 cup borax (20-Mule-Team Borax, available in any supermarket)


• 1 cup baking soda


• 1/4 cup salt


• 1/4 cup citric acid (available in brewing stores among other places--if you haven't tracked it down yet but must try this formula, use two packets of Lemonade-Flavored Kool-Aid, ONLY lemon, or you'll dye your dishwasher! and ONLY unsweetened Kool-Aid!)


• 30 drops citrus essential oil--lemon, grapefruit, orange, tangerine, or a mixture
  

Put all of it in the container, shake it up.
To use, put a tablespoon or so into each cup of your dishwasher.

I will add that you can also find citric acid in with the canning supplies at your local Wal-Mart or hardware store. I decided not to use the essential oil. This was for two reasons: I wasn't sure where mine was and it is expensive. I suppose that if you used the lemonade flavored Kool-aid, you would still get that lemon fresh scent. I also just realized that I forgot to include the salt when I mixed mine up. It still seemed to work, but I will try it with the salt, too. Luckily, salt is a cheap additive and if it improves the recipe, well worth using. I can buy a big box of it at Sam's Club for under $1.

Adventures in Domesticity: Homemade Mayonnaise

We scraped the bottom of the Hellman's jar today at lunch while making tuna salad and I got the bug to try my hand at making homemade mayonnaise. As I have shared before, we have been trying really hard to eat more healthy and cheaply. I figured this might be a great way to do this. I had read a recipe in the book, "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon (which is listed in My Library down on the right side of this page). It uses olive oil. Most store-bought brands seem to use soybean oil. Since we suspect my little guy may be allergic to soy, I like the idea of having a mayo recipe that is not soy-based. I will say that unless you are big fan of the flavor of olive oil, substitute something else. We found this to seem very bitter from the oil so we added additional lemon juice and a bit of honey. That was enough to temper the flavor and we did not notice that bitterness in our tuna salad. The book says that you can substitute sunflower oil if you don't like the strong flavor of olive oil. The book is not a big fan of vegetable oil and therefore does not suggest it, but I think my basic canola oil would work just fine, too.

Homemade Mayonnaise

1 whole egg (at room temperature)

1 egg yolk (at room temperature)

1 teaspoon Dijon-type mustard

1 1/2 tablesppons lemon juice

1 tablespoon whey (optional - we didn't have any to use)

3/4 - 1 cup extra virgin olive oil or expeller-expressed sunflower oil

Generous pinch sea salt

In your food processor (we used a blender), place egg, egg yolk, mustard, salt and lemon juice and optional whey. Process until well blended, about 30 seconds. Add oil very slowly with the motor running. Taste and check seasoning. You may want to add more salt or lemon juice.

If you have added whey, let the mayonnaise sit at room temperature, well covered, for 7 hours before refrigerating. With the whey added, mayonnaise will keep several months and will become firmer with time. Without whey, it will keep for about 2 weeks.

We will continue to use this and probably try this recipe again with a milder oil. I have been trying to have the attitude of "why buy it if you can make it" when it comes to our menus. It is definitely a mental adjustment. You walk through the stores and are surrounded by processed foods. I wonder how good all of these foods filled with unpronounceable ingredients are for us. I am slowing trying to wean us away from all of this and cook from scratch using more basic staple foods. While this may require a bit more time in the kitchen, it seems to make grocery shopping simpler. I spend more time selecting fewer better-quality ingredients. Then we also suppliment with visits to a local farm stands. Just today, I swung by a farm stand on our way home from dentist appointments to get fresh eggs. They also had some locally-made, no sugar added apple syrup which was reasonably priced so bought to try on pancakes. She also had some red onions which were a bit past their prime, but what do expect in March in Indiana. I couldn't find a price, so I asked her about them. She said she was embarassed to sell them in their condition and gave me a big bag full for free! Ya' gotta love that. I am thinking that we may have to make some french onion soup for dinner. It will be cheap and oh so yummy!

Label tool