Water Bottle Bowling

Another fun Toddler project for my little man. He is really into balls and throwing. So, I came up with an idea to make him a bowling game. We normally don't buy bottled water but, what better way to recycle and reuse and entertain a child all in one.

For this project you will need: 1. Water Bottles. I used 5. You can use as many as you want but, I didn't want to store more. Make sure to let them completely air dry before you start. 2. 1/4 cup or less of Epsom Salt or sand or beans. You just need something to give the bottle a little weight. 3. Food Coloring to dye the salt or whatever you use. This is optional. 4. Labels to wrap around the bottle. I wanted to make this educational as well as fun. So, I measured the circumference of the bottle. I made my labels 9 inches long and 2 inches wide. I made each label a different color. Then, I put a different shape on each label and a number inside of the shape. So, this will help with colors, shapes, and numbers all in one.

To Assemble:
Measure out your Epsom Salt into a bowl. Add whatever color of food coloring you want. Mix it up. Pour it into the bottle using a funnel. I used a piece of paper folded into a funnel. It worked well. Don't put the lid on until the salt is dry again.

Attach your labels with craft glue or whatever works best for you. I then put clear contact paper over them to make it harder for little hands to rip off the label.

Last glue your lid on. Make sure it is nice and tight. I can't even imagine how bad that mess would be.

Here's the finished project. I think they turned out pretty cute. Lil guy found them first thing this morning and has been having a blast. This project costed cents. I had everything on hand except for the water bottles. I saw a little bowling set at Wal-Mart for $5 but it didn't have numbers or shapes. The pins were just different colors. The best thing about this project is it's completely customizable. You could do letters or animals too.

Happy Bowling!

~Tabitha~

*Project for personal use only, please.

In Use

I am officially using my homemade laundry detergent! I am very hopeful that it won't affect our sensitive skin. I would love to do laundry for pennies and say good bye forever to expensive store bought detergents. Making the detergent was even easier than I thought it would be. It was nothing to measure and mix the borax and washing soda. The most time consuming part was grating up the blasted bar of soap. I started (key word) with using a hand grater. It did not end that way. I am not a patient person by any means. It was taking FOREVER. I am trying to keep life simple here so, standing at the kitchen counter hand grating a bar of soap all day is not my idea of productive. So, I started thinking about what I could do to speed up the process. A light bulb turned on. I have a blender/chopper that sits up high in a cabinet all by itself collecting dust. The thing claims to be able to break up concrete. So, I thought why not a bar of soap? So I dusted it off and gave it a job. It is no longer useless. In less than 15 seconds I had soap DUST! It was awesome! It made it so fine that it mixes in wonderfuly with the other powders. Making the fabric softener was even easier. All I did was combine the ingredients into a Rubbermaid Shaker bottle. Just remember to shake it up before every use because the baking soda settles to the bottom.

Here are my laundry staples sitting happily together on the shelf over my washer and taking up very little room.

Happy Laundry Day!

~Tabitha~

Breakfast for Dinner

At our house this is one of our favorite nights. We have actually made this a weekly habit. One night a week we eat breakfast for dinner. We love breakfast so, it was only fitting. Last night I made homemade biscuits and gravy. Yum! I did cheat on the biscuits though. I didn't make them homemade. They were still delish! Here is the recipe that I use.

Basic White Sauce
http://www.mormonchic.com/
Serves one hungry family of 4
8Tbsp (1 stick) butter or margarine
8Tbsp flour
4 Cups Milk
Salt/Pepper to taste
1lb Sausage

Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Blend in flour, salt, and pepper. Cook over low heat. Stir in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Add sausage (brown before adding to gravy).
Hint: I usually don't add the salt. The sausage is enough salt for us.

Baking Powder Biscuits
Betty Crocker
2  Cups Flour
1 Tbsp Sugar
3 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 Cup Shortening
3/4 Cup Milk

Heat oven to 450. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Cut in shortening using pastry blender until mixture looks like fine crumbs. Stir in milk until dough leaves side of bowl (dough will be soft and sticky). Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead lightly 10 times. Roll or pat to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with floured 2 to 2 1/4 inch round cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart for crusty sides, and touching for soft sides. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Serve Warm.

Tick Tock

Does this ever happen to you? You sit down at the computer to only check your e-mail and then find yourself on Facebook, and then one site just leads to another site. The 5 minutes you were intending to spend on the internet turns into, oh say, 1-2 hours. You look at the clock and say, "Oh my, where has the time gone?" Well, this happens to me all the time. So, I'm going to try something new.

Ta Da! I dug my little kitchen timer out of the back of my spice cabinet where it was happily collecting dust. Now, I'll just set it for how long I need to be on the computer and hopefully break myself of this terrible habit. Most likely I'll probably be so absorbed in what I'm doing that when it goes off it will scare me half to death. Wish me luck.

~Tabitha~

Tiny Tot Belt

My poor little boy has no bum. Poor kid can't help it. Yesterday, I think his pants fell down 3 times. I've had enough. I went into town today and bought supplies to make him a big boy belt. So, if you have a child that suffers from the same problem here's how to make the solution:

Supplies: Decorative Ribbon, 1yard of cording (measure your child's waist to determine how much you need), and 2 D rings (you'll want them bigger than the cording so you can pull it through to tighten the belt)

Step 1: Pin your ribbon to the cording on both sides and then sew in place.

Step 2: Place your D rings together on one end. Make sure to fold the end of your cording under so it will have a finished end. It was a beast to sew through this thickness.

Step 3: Fold the other end in the opposite direction and sew it the same way.

Here is the finished product.

My cute little model just couldn't wait to try it out.

Up close, rear view.

This is such a versatile project. You can use different colors of cording with or without ribbon for decoration. I also have an idea for using one belt but adding velcro so, you can change the ribbon for different outfits. I'm going to try that next.

*Please use this for personal use only. Please do not use my pictures.

Laundry Update

So, I have been looking for the Borax and Washing Soda forever. We were at the Urbana Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago and I thought I'd look again. They actually had the Borax but, no Washing Soda. I went to Meijer this week and they had the Washing Soda. Yea! Now I can actually make the detergent. I spent a total of $6 which I think is great because it will last for several months. Can't beat that!

One Week Boutique

I'm so excited about One Week Boutique! It starts on Friday, April 9th. It will be at the old Best Buy Building next to Ashley Furniture in Champaign. The address is 606 W. Anthony Drive. One Week Boutique is a wonderful consignment sale of infant, toddler, and children clothing. They also have baby furniture, toys, maternity clothing, etc. When I was pregnant with my little one I found maternity clothing for super cheap that still had the price tags on them. The sale will feature spring/summer clothing. The hours of the sale are:
4/9       9AM-7PM
4/10     9AM-7PM
4/11    11AM-5PM
4/12    12PM-7PM (most items 50% off)

For more information you can check out http://www.oneweekboutique.com/
Admission is $2 but you can find a free admission ticket at the above website

Happy Shopping!

~Tabitha~