Organizing...Food Containers

I'll tell you what drives me crazy....see if you have an issue with this too...you want to clean up after dinner and put the leftovers away, so you open the drawer and pull out the appropriate container and CANNOT find a lid that fits. Why does that happen? It's like 1 missing sock in the laundry - where do they go?????

To save a little sanity I went thru all of the containers and matched them up with a lid. If I had a container or a lid that didn't match up then out it went. This way I'm positive that every container in the drawer has a matching lid. Then I put the shapes together (bowls with bowls, etc.) and stacked them, odd sizes go in the back, and all of the lids (except the big ones that don't fit, they stay with their containers in the back) go in a large container. I've been doing it this way for a while now and I gotta say - the system works and saves tons of time (and frustration)!

Do you guys have a way to keep this area organized that you want to share?

colored pencil tattoos? by Brooke

this trick amazed me! I didn't think this was going to work! but it did! I was at a friends house the other day and we found this on Instagram in the explore section. I honestly thought it was fake. it colored pencils soaked in water for 5 minutes then they draw on you and come off with just water. I got my colored pencils at Walmart (MAKE SURE THEY ARE NON TOXIC!)then I took a cup filled it up with warm water then took the pencil and drew on my leg an arm. then to get it off you just take a hand towel and put some water on the end and just take a tiny scrub. and I even have sensitive skin and it doesn't bug me! well, I really hope you try this out! it awesome!!

Heart 'felt' Valentine Wishes

I made the first of these cards based on an idea in a craft book my sissy got me (apparently she thinks I need more ideas LOL!), then like usual it changed into something else after I started playing with it. The original one is a small red felt heart stitched with white thread onto a white notecard - really cute and very easy. I changed it a bit by using gray sparkly thread, and adding a piece of sequin ribbon.
For the other ones I used different color felt hearts and papers, and changed the stitching to up the middle only so both sides of the heart are left unattached and stand off the card a bit. For the sentiment - heart 'felt'  har har ;) -  I just typed the words in my word processing program (font is CAC pinafore), cut the strips out, and attached with sticky foam dimensionals or glue stick.

                

                                       to make a heart template - trace half of a heart on a folded piece of paper, then cut it out

to cut the heart out, fold over a piece of felt and hold the folded paper heart with both folds together.

I made a bigger one for Ronda's seasonal display table but since I haven't mailed it out yet she won't get it in time for it to be useful! For hers I folded a Stampin' Up paper doily in half and put it under one side of the felt heart. 

Oatmeal White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

 I made these a while back but forgot to give you the recipe - I shared the cookie sheet hack (click here for that post) but not the cookies! I don't know where I got this recipe so can't credit the original source, it's a pretty basic recipe tho so I don't think I'm gonna get in trouble for stealing it!


Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
• 3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. 
2. In another bowl beat the butter and sugars until smooth. Mix in the egg until incorporated and then add in the vanilla. 
3. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the oats, cranberries and chocolate chips until combined. 
4. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Spoon dough out in about 2 Tablespoon balls, place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper, flatten slightly with your hand.
6. Bake at 350' for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks. They'll look slightly underdone when you take them out of the oven, they'll cook a bit more while cooling. 

2 years ago: "Palentine"/Valentine dinner menu

Master Grocery List

In the quest to be more organized and stop going to the grocery store every day - and also to stop writing things we need on little scraps of paper - I made this master grocery list of the regular things we buy and like to have on hand. When something is getting low or we run out, we just make a little check next to it - and after I make our weekly meal plan (I'm actually sticking to that, see the post about the new way I'm using my planner) I add what we need to this list before heading to the store. My goal is to cut down to twice a week trips and so far, so good.

I did this in Word, just use whatever word processing program you like. For our regular grocery needs I was able to list everything in 4 columns on a half sheet of regular paper (font is chalkboard, text size 8 for the body, 9 for the titles), after getting it like I wanted on the top half of the paper, I copied it and pasted on the bottom half of the paper. Then just cut the pages in half and clip to a small clipboard.

Paracord Camera Wrist Strap

I got a new camera and 'cuz I'm not a guy I started reading the user manual (instead of just pushing buttons haha)...yeah so I have a problem with the instructions. First step in the quick start guide is "attach the camera strap". Can you feel where this is going? I looked at the boring camera strap that came with the camera and thought "oh heck no, I can do better than this" and set about making myself a cool different wrist strap...with beads...and fringe...and it's awesome!

No, I don't know how to use my camera yet because I got a little sidetracked with the whole making a new strap thing...but I will. Let's hope step number two doesn't lead me to start adding glitter and stickers to the body ;)

There's a bunch of different instructions and videos online - I watched a few and then just made my own. It's similar to making dog collars actually (click here for that post), without the buckle. I used 10 yards of paracord, a big keyring, and two letter beads for my initials.

It's a little long but this is where I got the basic instructions for how to make the strap (click here). I changed it by using a 1 1/4" keyring instead of a small jump ring, and for mine I left tails instead of cutting the ends off. To the tails I strung initial beads and tied them on with a knot. I made Dave a gray one (using a small jump ring and without tails and beads) that ended up being too small so I told him I'd remake it and what color would he like - I have blue, gray, camo...he goes "well black would match the camera". Geesh, well that's not fun. He also thinks the keyring is better than the jump ring in case you're wondering :)

one year ago: crock pot mac and cheese
two years ago: valentine poppers with brooke and sydney

Last Minute Super Bowl Ideas

I haven't had time to make anything other than Super Bowl stuff because I've been working on the party all week...so here's a couple last minute things you can make if you woke up this morning thinking "oh crap, what am I going to make for the Super Bowl at the last minute" hahahah!

I was worried about not having enough food for the party (I'm not sure that's ever happened before at any Super Bowl party ever...there's always TOO MUCH FOOD, I know I know), the hostess in me worries about these things. So I boiled some eggs to make football deviled eggs (I've made them in the past but I'm posting again, read above to understand why), and then I whipped up a pepperoni football cheeseball. I used a new recipe and unfortunately I don't love it - so trust me and just use my normal recipe (click here and here), shape it into an oval "football" and cover the outside with ground pepperoni (or mini pepperoni slices). Slice some white cheese into little strips to decorate the top like football laces. I don't have pictures because this posts at 6am and I don't have time to show you. Here's my inspiration picture so you can see what I'm going for...

I did end up pulling together a "rate the commercials" game - googled the top 25 commercials that are airing and typed them up in no particular order. Everyone will pick and rank the top 3 that they think we will all rate the highest. During the game when one of the top 25 comes on we will all hold up a clipboard with our score (1 thru 5 points), I'll write down what the total score is and then at end of game see who got it right. 

Have a fun day!! 

Football Toss Game

Trying to come up with fun football games that we can play at our Super Bowl party - thought about corn hole (bean bag toss game) but then thought again since we (a) live in a condo without a yard and (b) have no room to play actual corn hole. How about indoor corn hole though?  They sell little tabletop versions but as usual I had a frugal and crafty moment of "I can make that"- and with some suggestions from my sissy we came up with this. Corn hole only has 1 hole that you attempt to throw bean bags thru, our version has 3 different size holes (you'll get different points depending on which hole you get the ball in) and I found little squishy footballs at the grocery store that we are going to throw.

I bought 2 pieces of white 20x30 foam core board at the craft store - I wanted to buy green board but it cost $7.50 per sheet, the white is 2/$4. So I went with white and bought 2 sheets of green poster board (.50 each) to cover up the white. The white lines are made of thin duct tape, I was going to number the lines like a football field but then decided it's fine without (plus I'm tired. Cutting out the holes took longer than I thought and I have other things to get done today!), if I get time before the party maybe I'll add some numbers...

To hold it up on an angle I hot glued white cardboard to the underside, then reinforced it with some more duct tape. I was worried that the cardboard prop underneath wouldn't be strong enough, but I just accidentally tested it by forgetting one was behind me and leaning back on it (!) and it held up. Good sign. Fingers crossed.

I put the tape stripes down first, then cut the holes out of the green paper.

cutting out the circles was a little time consuming - I found that cutting the inside of the circle into
wedges helped cut a cleaner circle. 

after cutting the holes out of the green paper, I lined it up with the white
foam core board and traced where the circles needed to be. Then cut out
the same circles from the white board. Attach the green cover with double sided tape

glue and tape a piece of white cardboard to the underside to prop up the back of the game and raise it off the floor.
Oh, and I covered the inside of the foam core holes with green tape because they looked a little jaggedy. 

two years ago: cookie bites

Super Bowl Games

Invitations - check. Menu - check. Now we need some games and activities to keep everyone entertained before and during the big game (I almost said after the game but let's be real - it's time to go home after the game. I'm thinking I need a big count down clock just like they use in the game, when the clock runs out it's time for the party to end LOL!). I know, I know, we could just watch the game and commercials and leave it at that...but I think it's fun to get everyone involved - laughing, moving around, competing, and possibly winning a couple prizes keeps the party from turning into a bunch of people just sitting on the couch eating too much :). 

Last year we did Super Bowl Bingo and it was too much work - you couldn't get up to get a drink or more food (or go to the bathroom!) 'cuz you'd miss out spotting an item that was on your card. Too hard. This year I found this idea that we can fill out before the game starts - then everyone can just watch the commercials...er, I mean the game...in peace, and be free to move around!

*Sheryl found a "pass the hat" game that we are going to play - it's pretty simple:

 You need 1) a hat, 2) some people with some money. At the start of the game, person #1 throws a buck in the hat and holds it. After each play the hat is passed to the next person, who throws a buck in and holds it. Keep going – whoever is holding the hat when either team scores collects what’s in the hat. Start over after each score.

*I'm working on "rate the commercials" but it hasn't totally come together yet - we are thinking of getting a list of the top 20 potentially good commercials, having everyone pick their number 1, 2, and 3 favorite (everyone gets their own list and marks their picks without everyone else knowing). Then during the game when those commercials come on we will hold up numbers to rank them (1 thru 5) and make note of the total score. At the end we'll tally up the numbers and see who got their guesses right.

*And of course you need a football squares pool ;) Decide how much you want each square to cost, ( a quarter each, $1, $5 each...if you don't want to play with money you can bet anything - candy, pretzels, goldfish hahaha...whatever your group wants! (There are 100 squares that need to be filled in). For every square a person buys they put their initials in a square at random. Once every square is filled in and accounted for, put the number 1 thru 10 in a hat and draw out at random, put the number you pull out in the first gray box at the top, continue until all 10 numbers are pulled and filled in across the top. Put the numbers back in the hat and repeat for the gray boxes down the side. This all needs to happen before the game starts! Also decide on how you are divying up the pot - we usually do a percentage paid out at first quarter, half time, third quarter and then the largest amount for the final score. If you are paying out at first quarter look at the number across the top that corresponds with the Patriots score, and then the number on the side that is the Eagles score - the square that is filled in where those two numbers meet is the winner of that round. 

I'm making an indoor ball toss that I'll show you tomorrow if I get it done today (!),  and we are going to fire up our new game table and have a tournament...nothing says football like ms. pacman and frogger ;)

I'm trying to get some of the food made ahead of time - the mini pigs in a blanket are assembled and I popped them in the freezer (before baking); I didn't take a picture but I'm pretty sure you know what they look like right? Mini smokey links wrapped in small triangles of crescent dough (I get 6 or 7 pieces out of one crescent roll), bake at 350' for a few minutes until golden brown. Serve them with ketchup and mustard (no need for special sauces people, it's sausage wrapped in dough!), they are always a huge hit and I've learned to make more than I think we'll need. You can always keep the unbaked ones in the freezer for next time if you end up not needing them all. Yum....sausage...and my favorite thing is we are having "Super Bowl Sundaes" - a make-your-own ice cream bar with vanilla ice cream, tons of toppings, and sprinkles (of course).


one year ago: triple berry muffins

February Challenge - Squats

Ok, it's the first of February so time for a new challenge. Did anyone do our no added sugar or sweets challenge for January (click here for that post)? I am the only one in our group that actually made the whole month!! Woohoo!! My sister accidentally ate something without even thinking about it until it was too late; Brooke broke down over a pixie stick of all things; Mickey baked cookies and ate half before remembering - then of course ate the other half haha; Macey decided a donut was worth breaking the challenge over...and P didn't bother even pretending she was joining us LOL. So - one month down, and I'm in the lead for now :) I have to gloat while I can, they are sure to catch me at some point!


February is Mickey's month and as predicted she is doing an exercise challenge. Starting with today we do 10 squats, and then add 10 more to every day of the month (2/2 = 20, 2/3 = 30, etc.) so by 2/28 we will be doing 280 squats! She is being "nice" and letting us break them up thru the day if we want (like 25 at a time or whatever).

Who else is up for the 28-day squat challenge?