Craftiness for pretty much nothing

I ran across a phrase on a craft blog yesterday that made me chuckle.  It said the item could be made "with things crafters usually have on hand."  It's true, we tend to keep things like hot glue guns, buttons, bottle caps, fabric scraps, and zippers much more often than people who would rather buy things than make them.

In the vein of making do, many of us honestly do find creating an item much more fulfilling than purchasing the same item.  We love having a say in tailoring our possessions to the needs they are designed to meet, rather than having to re-arrange to accommodate an item that was too small or large for the space it needed to fill.  And better yet, we love having done it all with things we had on hand already--things that were given to us or that somehow found their way into our homes.

Thus my last two crafted items have come into being.  The first was from Stash Tea catalogs and packing tape, the second from fabric that was bequeathed to me from someone that had no use for it.  My friend and colleague Dr. Lape called them "sustainable crafting," and I suppose they are--it is very easy to be sustainable when you look at what you have to work with and use it well.  Whether or not you do so because you have no money to throw at things, or for the love of it, or both, is up to you.

Meet the tea bag.  This bag is adorable, despite what my horribly lit bedroom might tell you.  My idea use for it would be to take it out into a kitchen garden, gather herbs, and set them gently into it.  I even added an inner pocket for scissors or a knife to cut the herbs or vegetables, so the sharp places won't damage the cuttings.  Because of the packing tape I used to hold the parts together, it has a vinyl crackle and feel, but the patterns, images, and descriptions visible on it are all from a tea catalog.  Very chic, very fresh.

This is the rug.  I took at least 6 yards of a garden-themed print fabric and tore it into approximately 4-inch strips.  I sewed the strips together to make a giant "yarn" of sorts and crocheted the rug with a chopstick.  The entire project took me the better part of 3 hours, and I'm already contemplating shredding more fabric and making the rug big enough to fill a room.  It is incredibly soft, as the knots of the crocheting put over an inch of cushion between your tired feet and the hard floor.  This rug is also chic and summery, which is tending to be a theme now that it is cold and blustery outdoors.

So...the challenge for the week is this: use ONLY things you have on hand to create something new and beautiful.  Bonus: The thing you create must fulfill a purpose in your home.

Ready, set, MAKE SOME AMAZING!

What is the Christmas Spirit, Anyway?

4 days until Christmas.  Nope, hasn't hit me.  Honestly, it might miss me altogether this year.  I am at the point where I'm wondering what the Christmas spirit really is, since I apparently don't feel Christmassy until I wrap presents.  And this year, I will be doing very little present wrapping because of our budget.  Not that we can't afford presents, we just can't afford to spend $500 on presents for family I see maybe once a year, and am not going to get to see this year at all.  Instead, I've opted to make cool (ok, VERY cool) snacks and foods and freeze them until I can send a courier to deliver plates/baskets of goodies.  Sounds great!  It just doesn't involve much wrapping, and even less gifting, especially since it will be the weekend after New Year's Day when my mom can visit to be that courier.

Good news: I have a whole 2 more weeks to bake/arrange goodies to give.
Bad news: Christmas isn't going to be anywhere near Christmas Day.

So, here's the delivery schedule as it stands so far:
Husband's family: Christmas Eve or Christmas Day
My family: January 7th-ish
Church people: Whenever we see them at church/New Year's LAN party

Here's the baked/made goods list so far:
All-Natural Vanilla Almond Biscotti dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with organic coconut
Chocolate-covered salted caramel shortbread squares

Here's the list of other things I plan to make:
Chocolate-covered pretzels (can't get enough) and pretzel sticks
Cheesecake-stuffed strawberries
Brie-stuffed spinach puffs (a la Kronk)

Honestly, though, complaining about lack of wrapping-paper highs is not where I intend to be.  I actually think I'm still in the Thanksgiving Spirit and am going to get my Christmas on after New Year's.  I'm insanely thankful for the gift of Christ's life, death, and resurrection.  The less stuff we have cluttering our lives, the more thankful I am for God's simple gifts.  I'm thankful for gifts of family and friends, especially for my husband's little brother who is visiting us for the week and my college roommate and her husband, who will also be visiting.  Their company is an incalculable gift.

Do I need more stuff when I have such wonderful gifts to rejoice over?  I think not.

Merry Christmas.

Streeeetch that food budget

I'm as guilty as anyone of overspending during the holidays.  I've been forced to take drastic measures to cut down to match our reduced income of late, and with all the money going toward presents, I've got to find somewhere to cut to send the money to the shopping item.  

And what better to cut than the food budget?  Seriously, I'm about to be eating A TON more than what I should be, anyway, so now is the time to find some healthy, cheap food.  

What's that I hear?  Santa's "hohoho" of merriment?  Cheap, healthy food?  Am I nuts?  Would I like a handful of almonds?  Don't mind if I do.  

Here are some easy grow-it-yourself options that I've discovered recently, thanks to Pinterest:  

Grow your own bean sprouts.  The grocery store has lentils for pretty much nothing.  There's a lot you can do with a bag of dried beans, but I'd never heard, until last week, that you can use them to grow bean sprouts for salads or egg rolls or as a healthy filler in stir fry.  

Here's the process: Get a quart jar.  Put 1/2 cup (ish) of lentils in the bottom.  Fill it with water and let it soak overnight.  You'll be keeping it in the windowsill about 4 days.  Strain the water the next morning (if you have a sieve lid or a small strainer so you don't have to dump the beans out, that's the best way.)  The following morning, rinse the beans and drain the water (you're basically keeping them moist without allowing standing water to set up for mold.)  Same thing days 3 and 4.  By dinnertime on Day 4, you should have a quart full of bean sprouts.  

Green onions:

I go through green onions like kids go through peanut butter.  So, when I heard you can grow your own green onions in the windowsill FROM THE BOTTOMS OF YOUR OLD GREEN ONIONS, I about did a dance of joy.  I left about an inch and a half on the bottoms, planted the onions in an old tea tin, kept them moist, and in a day or two, had enough tops to make a chicken salad.  This picture is the day after I cut them.  I'm not even joking.  I need to get some more tins like this and have herb gardens in my windowsills.

Ginger (sorry, no photo, it hasn't sprouted yet).

Set store-bought ginger on top of the soil, and keep the soil moist.  We'll see how this one goes.  :)  

What else do you guys grow in your windowsills?  I think my bathroom window could use some greenery...

Making Doing Without for Thanksgiving Amazing

If I had a dime for every time I've heard "I couldn't live without (insert food type)"...I'd be at least able to buy a nice ice cream cone right about now.  Such statements, though often made with kind intents, reflect a very narrow mindset.  Yes, you can, and would, live without all sorts of comfort foods if the alternative was bad enough.  I have family and friends who live, and eat, quite well without such things as gluten, dairy, corn, and peanuts.

Which brings us to Thanksgiving, the time of the year when families come together to celebrate and share dishes with one another.  Don't forget the person or people in your life and at your table who have food allergies or are lactose intolerant.  Make some amazing dishes that everyone can enjoy, whisper to that person that the food is safe, and slip him or her the recipe.  It's an amazing gift, and if nothing else, will make you appreciate some of what that person goes through to stay healthy.

Our person this year is my sister-in-law.  She recently discovered that she can't have dairy, even lactose-free dairy, which puts most of her favorite Thanksgiving dishes into the no zone.  So, we have plotted some great dairy-free varieties of those dishes that we can all enjoy (or suffer through) together.

So, without further ado, the recipes I'm bringing to Thanksgiving:

Vegan Fudge
14 T cocoa
11 T sugar
5 T coconut oil (this was a substitution for butter or crisco, and added a WONDERFUL flavor)

Mix all in top of double boiler until incorporated.  Add 1/4 t. vanilla.

4.5 c. powdered sugar
8 oz vegan cream cheese

Mix these two in a bowl with a mixer until it forms a stiff frosting.
Add the chocolate mixture from before.  Mix until smooth.  Place in a pan lined with wax paper (I used an 8-inch spring form pan) and refrigerate until you serve it, at least 2 hours.  Keeps up to 3 days, but won't last that long, especially in our family.  I really should have made 2 recipes.

Mexican orange fudge with cranberries and almonds

3 c. sugar, div.
1/4 c. boiling water
1 c. soy or almond milk
1/4 t. salt
2 t. orange peel
1 c. almonds
1 c. dried cranberries

Melt 1 c. sugar, add water CAREFULLY (it will hiss, bubble, and act all upset), add rest of sugar, milk, and salt.  Stir for a few moments, then put away the spoon.  Let it boil until it reaches 242-248F, or forms solid ball when dropped in ice water.   Remove from heat and beat until it loses its gloss. Add orange peel and drizzle into wax paper-lined 8X8 pan with cranberries and almonds at the bottom.  Alternatively, you could sprinkle them on top as a garnish.  Whatever works.

I made this one first and didn't realize a small saucepan would not hold it once it started boiling, so mine only reached about 224F.  It made a soft, spoonable fudge that still tasted delicious.

Mexican dip dish

1 layer-browned ground turkey
1 layer-homemade refried beans
1 layer-homemade guacamole (avocados, salt, pepper, salsa, snipped green onion)
1 layer- picante sauce
1 layer-mixed dairy-free sour cream and dairy free cream cheese (1 tub each)

Top with dairy-free cheese, bake at 350F until hot and bubbly, serve hot and bubbly with tortilla chips.

Pizza, braided apple chai loaves (substitute soymilk for milk in a cinnamon roll recipe)

:)  Happy Turkey Day!

Making Dumpster Diving Amazing

Just that title makes me feel like a redneck.  I'd love to imagine that I'm one of those chic people who gets her furniture at antiques stores and reclaims thrift pieces with a keen eye for what will best furnish her home...

But alas, I must admit it to the world.  I got a table out of a dumpster.  I wanted a table, and I dug it out of the trash.  I'll never get an upscale New York studio at this rate.

*dodges rotten vegetables*

But I did say I made it amazing, didn't I?  And I did!  Read on, if my ethos hasn't been entirely demolished at this point.

At first, I needed the table, but didn't have the time to fix it up properly.  One glance showed exactly why it had been thrown out in the first place:  whoever owned it had dogs which chewed it to smithereens.  It was ugly, a cheap, tan table that belonged at a flea market--being used to sell merchandise because no one would buy it like that.

So, I threw a square of fabric over it and made sure no casual observer would see any part of the actual table.  Then I covered that in plants, and made it a lovely, useful piece.  And when we moved, I sat it outside until I could figure out a more permanent solution to the problem.

At that point, we began noticing another problem.  We had no table in the house at all, except the craft table David had bought me, which was being used as a computer desk.  There was no place for us to set our drinks or food, no place for Jeremy to set up for gaming, and no place for a dining table of any size.  A card table would have been too big.  But that hideous little critter outside was perfect.  Except that it was hideous.

I finally dug into my craft supplies and managed to find my sandpaper.  An hour of rough sanding, and half of the chewed places looked better.  I went for a rough-carved idea, sanding all the distinct edges down.  Then, I perused Walmart's mismatched paint section and picked up a pint of grey indoor-outdoor 2 in 1 paint/primer.  Finally, today, I painted the stew out of that table.  I filled the tooth marks with paint and smoothed it over with the bristles of the brush.

And it looks great!  Check out the picture!  So, here's to years of use for this lovely dog's chew toy.  :)  I am truly proud of this table, and I truly love walking in my living room and planning things to serve on it, decorate it, and do with it.

But it made me think about something....

I have another table that would be great to use, but it's in storage and has been since before we moved, because the glue that holds the legs together isn't strong enough to hold the weight of the marble top.  Yeah, it's an antique marble-top table.

But it's more worthless than this dumpster table, because I can't try to fix it in a way that would hurt it's looks. It would take someone with a lot more skill to fix, and even then, it would have to be treated with kid gloves and couldn't take a beating like this one.

It reminded me of my own pride.  I often try to be that pretentious marble table.  I won't allow myself to be humbled to the point where I'm actually useful.  I won't let God re-make me into someone He can use because I'm too busy trying to look good to everyone else.

Both tables needed work to become useful.  Both had potential to fulfill.  But only one is, and it's not the snazzy, chic one.  Such is the way of things in the upside-down kingdom.

Making Eating on a Budget Amazing!!!!!!!!!

If you saw my receipts from today, you wouldn't believe what I paid.  I used no coupons, only the deals in the sales papers from the day. 

Bi-Lo

Sara Lee plain bagels

Sara Lee blueberry bagels

Arnold oatnut bread (paid full price--it's worth it)

1lb ground turkey breast

5 crab cakes

Frozen flounder filets

Frozen whiting filets

Frozen catfish nuggets

---------------------------

Total before savings: 50.22

Total savings: 21.96

Total: $29.11

The bagels were Buy One Get One Free, and the last five items were all in the "Pick 5 for $20" deal.  I can bake or stuff the fish for one meal and have plenty left over for sushi the next day.  Of course, the crab cakes are for when my dad comes to visit. 

Ingles

Ginger Ale Spritzer

Tangerine Spritzer

Havarti sliced cheese

Muenster sliced cheese

Sour cream

Natural eggs (cage free, vegetarian diet, no hormones/steroids)

Rotisserie chicken sandwich meat

Jimmy Dean hot sausage X2 (for sausage and cheese balls)

Passion Orange Bolthouse smoothie (large)

Fresh broccoli

Fresh tomato

Bell pepper

4lb navel oranges

3 cloves garlic

Hass avocado

--------------------------------

Total before savings:  48.09

Total savings: 9.69

Total: 38.40

Dollar General

Plastic garden spade

Plastic garden rake

Metal garden birdie

------------------------

Total: $.30  

Pizza Hut

Breadsticks with marinara sauce (free for signing up)

Large Super Supreme minus sausage and plus bacon

--------------------------

$10 (we ate half and saved half for another meal)

So, for less than $80, we got food for the next two weeks.  Pretty sweet!  

Top 5 Ways to Keep out the Cold

I admit it, I'm a cold-weather weenie, for lack of a better term.  My ideal climate is somewhere between 75 and 95 degrees, and preferably closer to the 95 than the 75.  I don't use air conditioning unless I must for either company or the house's temperature exceeding 85.  So, when I check the week's weather forecast and see this:

 

My response was the same cold chill that Orphan Annie likely felt on the icy streets.   So, besides abandoning all plans of doing anything outdoors for the next week, I'm listing a few plans that I hope will make surviving this winter's first cold snap amazing.  

1. Hot beverages

Whether your poison of choice is apple cider, cocoa, mochas, or hot tea, (to which I reply "yes") it is definitely time to begin to heat up your beverages.  Find a new recipe for Russian tea, hot fruit punches, and toddies, if you enjoy them.  Nothing heats you up from the inside out like that warm beverage sliding down your throat into your stomach.  

2. Physical activity

Tis the season to start early on that New Year's resolution, or get the final squeezes out of this year's.  You simply cannot be cold after a good hour of P90X.  Your body heat also makes a convenient space heater for loved ones, and if your deodorant works, you may actually manage to get some warming snuggles out of the deal.  Not to mention your rock-solid body will encourage that spouse to get in on the snuggling as well. Combine this with number 3, and you're good to go.

3. Hot showers

Nothing feels better on a cold, crisp morning than to hop into a boiling hot shower.  To keep your skin from molting and morphing into alligator leather, squirt some conditioner onto your wash cloth along with your body wash to soften it up a bit.  You, not the wash cloth.  Also, if you use clear shampoos and body washes, dig out or buy a creamy one.  They're made to be less harsh and more moisturizing.  I also like the ones that smell like an island beach so I can dream about summer a little more while I thaw out.  

4. FWIPPIES!  

I don't know what you call your fwippies--fuzzy bunny slippers, house shoes, whatever.  They're a must-have for especially those of us with wood, tile, or linoleum flooring.  Couple them with some warm yoga pants (see number 2), a hoodie, or my personal favorite--one of my husband's long-sleeve shirts, for a match made in the warm, celestial heavens. 

5.  Baking

I confess, I don't like most heaters.  We aren't blessed with a fireplace at this residence, so I'm left with whatever the nebulous "they" installed in the apartment complex.  Usually those things aggravate my eczema to no end and leave me coming into springtime as one massive scab that finally gets healed by October.  I have a whole host of things to combat this, but the best preventive measure is simply baking.  

If I bake in a 1-bedroom apartment, the temperature of the entire place shoots up by about 5 degrees.  So, everything I stir-fried over the summer, I bake.  Tonight, we're having baked salmon, baked potatoes, and roasted vegetables.  See how this works?  It warms me up just to think about standing next to the oven, starting some cookies for the upcoming holiday season, some coffeecakes for friends, some pumpkin breads, some regular breads, pizzas, you name it.  

How do you keep warm in the winter?  Anything I missed?