Friday, March 30, 2012

Lifesavers Series: YOUR Tips!

Have a tip that save you time, money and some frustration?


Want to share?

I'm looking for guests to share their favorite tips!  
Everyone is in different places in their lives, so they have come across different tips that they LOVE!

And I want you to share with me!

If you have a tip email (allthingsfee@gmail.com) or facebook it to me!

It could be something you've shared on your blog, or found on pinterest ( that worked)!
You'll get FULL credit! Your post will be a guest post, so if you can include pictures please do!

Have a great weekend! I can't wait to hear all the great ideas and tips!


Thursday, March 29, 2012

Bazinga!


If your a Sheldon, or The Big Bang Theory fan, you've heard of Bazinga!

Soon after I had Wyatt I got hooked into the show, and so did Carter!

So for Christmas ( I can't believe I am just posting this!) I made several Bazinga shirts, the first ones for Wyatt, Carter and the Hubs!


Want to make your own? It was pretty easy!

 To make my Bazinga Tshirts, I just used iron on transfers. 

I created the "pow" in photoshop and download a comic book looking font, Bangers. It's a free font!  

Added the word BAZINGA! over the "pow"

Reversed it so that it printed out backwards ( the most important step!)

Ironed and I was done!

Have you ever made any fun tshirts? 
I've been thinking about stitching over the letters so that the letter's don't fade! What do you think?

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Teased by Spring! Protecting my plants.

Here is upstate NY we have had the most mildest winter that I can remember. 
And by mild I mean mild. It maybe snowed once or twice but was gone within 24 hours!

Now, don't get me wrong the mild winter has been great, but now that we were spoiled by springlike temperatures (even some summer temps, it was 80 last week!) our plants are all confused! 

If you remember, last year we planted blueberry and strawberry plants! So with the temperature going from 70's and 80's, back to our normal winter weather with frost, I had to protect my plants! Normally I wouldn't have to do anything, but because they were budding with new growth I didn't want to chance it!

It was super simple and I am pleased to say, they look the same as before the frost!

All I did was use kitchen garbage bags!
For my chives that are in a pot, I just slid it over the entire pot.



For my strawberries, I laid the bag over and weighed down with rocks.



Lastly the blueberries, I just put the bags over top and tied! 




 
I'm so happy we survived last nights frost. I did a quick search and read that once the sun is up and hitting the plant you should take your protection off so that they don't overheat.  

Have you had abnormal weather this winter? 
Are your plants confused too?



Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Montera Hat, or my Mary Margaret Hat

After I finished my Shalom sweater, I started to work on a hat for me. 
Here's my progress!


The pattern is the Montera Hat from the Elite Knits book.


Doesn't look like much progress but it's a busy pattern. 
Every row is just a stitch or two different, and that makes you want to take your time!

I'm also thinking I'm just knitting the rest, because I don't want to mess up the lace pattern!  

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Calling All Crafters: 52nd edition!


Welcome to Calling All Crafters! 


Mondays @ All Things Fee!


A place where you can share your craftiness!

 This week I am loving...
(it is so hard! can I feature you all?)




Sewing Mile's of Smiles
Pirates Life Flannel Board




AND








Totally Lauren Amber's
Little Girl Bedroom
(So Adorable, When can I move in?)










Want a button?
Mondays @ All Things Fee!


Here are the "rules":

I want YOU to stop on by, and share what you are up to, cooking, cleaning, crafting, you name it!

If your not a follower, please become one, this let's me easily find and visit your blog too!
Don't like to follow? Prefer Facebook?  Like Us! 
(we are so close to 150 likes on Facebook! When we hit 150 there will be a little surprise for all of you!)

Tell your friends!

Come back next week to see if your great idea has been featured!




Friday, March 23, 2012

Lifesavers: Erasing logos from plastic!






Just another tip to save you some time, money and frustration!


Did you know you can remove logos from plastic?

Me neither!

But with some nailpolish remover and elbow grease I was able to turn this:

Into This!  


How great is that? 
Another reason to save some of my random containers! Now I don't have to cover them all! 


Thursday, March 22, 2012

NEW Kitchen Command Center!


Gosh, has it really been that long ago? I made my Dry Erase Calendar back in April 2010!

Well after almost two full years of lovingly being used. It was getting hard to erase, I'm guessing because it was plastic not glass, and it even cracked in a couple spots. 
Especially when Carter got ahold of it!


Plus, I also realized that I was always tucking or taping notes, mail or paper that we needed to keep to it. So I decided I needed a change. A nice neat, organized and streamlined change.


It all started with a blank bulletin board that I already had, and centered it on the wall where the dry erase calendar was. Then I picked up two 8 x 10 frames.  To make them all "match" I painted all the frames white, even the bulletin boards. 

I used short screws and went right into the bulletin board, plus I added a dab or two of hot glue to ensure the frames wouldn't fly off, especially since the door to outside is to the right of this board! 

I printed off some blank calendars so I could still have my dry erase calendars and put them in the frames.I found them here, but changed the colors to match my kitchen.  


So here's what it looked like for a couple days.


I then decided I wanted to have a space to remind myself what the meal plan looked like for the week. (Since the boxes are kind of small on the calendars too) With a quick search, I found and printed this week calendar, and laminated it so that I could use my dry erase marker on it too.

On the back of the week calendar I added this freezer inventory to help with meal planning!

All that was left was somewhere to corral or clip or pin the random paper piles that used to find their way to the old calendar. 



I used a piece of 12" x 12" scrapbook paper (folded in half) to create a pocket for papers that do not need to be front and center but easily accessible.

Plus some extra push pins for anything else we need to hang up.

So far I am loving the change. It helps keep the shelf below the calendars free of clutter like it use to fill up with!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Quick Coloring Book Corral!

Carter loves to color, and after I corralled all our markers, pencils and crayons into our art caddy I needed somewhere to store the paper, coloring books and note pads.

And my solutions was delivered right to my front door. Well. Sort of.


My husband ordered some parts online and the box was a perfect 8" x 8" box.  So before he even had a chance to open the box I did, and started cutting it apart!


I cut the top off, and then used those pieces to insert two dividers.
Covered with some craft paper and mod podge.



 Filled with my random paper supplies!


The dividers help keep the other books standing when you take one out! 
Now, I'm thinking about wrapping craft paper around my art caddy to make them match!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Analytics Technical Difficulties!

Anyone out there having issues with their Google Analytics?

I went in to check my visitor rates and what not and it is saying I have zero traffic. 
Which at first made me sad, and in shock. But then I came over to the blog to double check and I know for a fact I have had visitors! You guys have left comments for me!

Please tell me I am not the only one!  
Anyone have any ideas what I has gone wrong?  

I'll be working on fixing that today, if you have any input on how to possibly fix it! I would love to know!
Hopefully, I can update you guys tomorrow!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Calling All Crafters: 51st Edition


Welcome to Calling All Crafters! 


Mondays @ All Things Fee!


A place where you can share your craftiness!

 This week I am loving...
(it is so hard! can I feature you all?)




Crazy Daze Design's
Cleaning Foggy Headlights
(My husband will love this!)


AND



Suzys Artsy Craftsy Sitcom
Ukrainian Eggs
(Are they not beautiful?)









Want a button?
Mondays @ All Things Fee!


Here are the "rules":

I want YOU to stop on by, and share what you are up to, cooking, cleaning, crafting, you name it!

If your not a follower, please become one, this let's me easily find and visit your blog too!
Don't like to follow? Prefer Facebook?  Like Us! 
(we are so close to 150 likes on Facebook! When we hit 150 there will be a little surprise for all of you!)

Tell your friends!

Come back next week to see if your great idea has been featured!







Friday, March 16, 2012

Lifesavers: Clean your Dishwasher


Just another tip to save you some time, money and frustration!

Did you know you can clean your dishwasher? 
And that it can be done with kool aid?
Here I go again with the untraditional uses for kool aid.
Well, not really the kool aid but what's in the kool aid.


If your glasses don't come out gleaming, pick up some Orange or Lemon kool aid.  And it doesn't have to be name brand either. But make sure you look at the ingredients and check for Citric Acid.  


See how my Orange has it but not Lemon? That's what made me use the orange. 

Dump the kool aid in where your detergent goes and run it. 
My glasses have never gleamed so nicely! 

If you make your own dish soap, and your glasses are not gleaming, does your recipe have citric acid in it? That's how I figured it out! I was thinking about making my own dish soap, and the different recipes said the citric acid makes the difference!  

I cleaned my dishwasher about a month ago and it's still giving me nice gleamy glasses. When they start looking filmy again, I will just run a load of kool aid!



Thursday, March 15, 2012

Stuffed Pepper Casserole



No more awkward pepper eating!
I love stuffed peppers, but when you eat all the filling out of them, you awkwardly cut up the steamed pepper.

So last night I gave Stuffed Peppers the Casserole treatment, and boy did it turn out great!

For the casserole, you need the same ingredients as traditional Stuffed Peppers:
Ground Beef
Rice
Peppers
Onions
Sauce 
Mozzarella Cheese
I started out by cooking my rice as per the packages recipe. 
I chopped and sauted my peppers and onions in a skillet until they were starting to soften them up. 
Once cooked to my preference I put them in a bowl. Then I used the same skillet to brown my beef.
Once everything was cooked I tossed it all together and put in a casserole dish.
Topped it with the sauce and cheese and baked.
The best part, my husbands response. "I know I am going to like this without even trying it!"

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Shalom!


She's finished! It only took two tries, but she is finished! 
Yea!

Now, to get the guts to wear her in public! I'm funny like that. I feel like she might look "homemade-y" even though I've been told she doesn't! When I wear her, I will get pics, I promise!

I think where I went wrong the first time was the thin ply yarn, and small needles. She was taking me forever. And then I ran into this problem. Oops. So this time I used a worsted weight yarn, and a size 9 or 10 needle and tried her on several times as I went. (I took her off the needles and threaded her onto a random piece of yarn and tried her on).  Definitely glad I did. 

What's on your needles? Hooks?  
I'm working on an adorable beret (more when I'm done!), that reminds me of Mary Margaret's from Once Upon A Time