starting young

The babe is getting so big now and he wants to be a part of everything we are doing. So why not let him get practicing on his kitchen skills. I am working on an apron for him complete with a matching hat but until I get that done I simply just tied this apron up a little bit for him and put him to work!!
I think he should be flipping burgers by the summer!!!

Wall Hangings

We moved into our house two years ago this Sept and it has been a work in progress getting things in order. When we moved in I was 6 months pregnant so the nursery was the biggest priory. It needed to be primed, painted and decorated for our little bundle of joy. So needless to say our room took the back seat. Although hubby did put up our favorite wedding photo in the room for me.

Since we don't have a head board I have been toying with different ideas as to what I would like to do to give our room some character. After much patience, lots of creativity and less then $10 I have finally finished 4 walling hangings that are now beautifully placed (thanks to my cute husband) over our bed.


I started out looking at canvas at the local dollar store but they were quite small and were not designed to hang up nicely. After Christmas the dollar store went through some changes and added new stock. So at an added cost I picked up these 4 canvases for $2 a piece, which is still way cheaper then at an art store. That same day I noticed in their scrap booking section this paper that has all the colors of our bed spread and get this the pack had 25 sheets of paper in it for a buck!!! I still can't believe how prefect it matches!!

After my big find last month these little puppies and the paper sat in my closet and were brought out every other day to be looked at to see if I could get a vision for what I wanted. I needed to add a little more creativity because the canvas was just a bit too big for the paper.

To fill the whole canvas I decided to go with the natural tare look. I tried to measure it out so I would have the same size white boarder. Once the paper was torn (and I did do one at a time) I used Mod Podge to stick the paper onto the canvas and sat it in the sun to dry.

Since these were going to be hung in our bed room I really wanted principles from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 written on them. So using a friends Cricut and brown card stock I cut out these words.






Once the letters were cut out I Mod Podge on this beautiful ribbon and the letters over top of it. I finished the canvas off by placing strips of paper around all four sides and then to give it more depth I took a brown ink pad and dusted around the canvas.


They look so beautiful I can hardly believe I did them for under $10!!! Now I am off to pick up more of these to do some for our living room and I think they would make great gifts.

For more frugal ideas head on over to Life as a Mom who is now hosting frugal Fridays

40 days for life

Morning readers, I want you to jump on over here to our hungry for truth to learn about this time of prayer that is going on through out Canada.

Scatter Joy

~Scatter Joy~ cards is a little home based mission minded card company co-founded by two sisters and a best friend!!

Last summer my friend Deanna got to travel with Compassion to Ecuador to visit a Compassion project there. When she came back and was telling us all about the trip one thing that stuck out to me from her experience was that she could tell that writing to your sponsor child really makes a difference. We combined that experience with our joy for card making (and giving cards) and that is how ~Scatter Joy~ cards was born.



There is nothing like receiving a homemade card letting us know that someone is thinking of us, wishing us happy birthday or sending us an encouraging scripture verse. We put our creativity together and in one blow out card making night we managed to create over 50 cards.




Our cards are all uniquely made with lots of love. These cards are being sold at the merchandise table at Life Support concerts (The band Deanna is part of) . The reason that we wanted to make these cards was for people who were sponsoring a child (because the band are advocates) could have nice encouraging homemade cards to send to their sponsor children letting them know how much they are loved!!





A little bundle of homemade cards also makes great gifts for the people who have everything. So with all that said if you interested in buying any of our cards and are from the NB or NS area we do have them for sale; they are only $2.00 a card. The money that we earn goes towards buying card supplies but also the money raised from the cards that I sell will be going towards a missions trip that our family will be going on in the summer. If you are interested in getting some of these cards please contact me at


And if you aren't from close but you are a Compassion sponsor please feel encouraged to go and write a letter to your child knowing that it does make a difference!

For more works for me ideas head on over here.

Recyling Crayons

While working in our church nursery a couple of Sundays ago I noticed this lovely bucket of broken crayons that the kids where trying to color with. Without hesitation I quickly told the nursery leader that I had seen on a couple of blogs how you could melt down old broken crayons and make them new again and that I would be up for the challenge if she wanted me to try. She had no objections so that week I got to work on what I though would a fun simple project!

First you have to peel off all the paper on the crayons. You think that this would be an easy job but you come to realize once you are working on trying paper off crayons that I have been around since the church was built how hard and tedious this job can be. So then I had a brilliant idea which I am sure my friend Niki laughed at when I messaged her with my brain wave to steam the paper off....OK now that you have composed your self from busting a gut at the fact that I tried to steam paper off a wax substance I will continue with my adventure as I am sure many of you can image the big mess I had in my steamer after only have the crayon in there 1 minute trying to remove the paper.

So finally I worked out a little "paper taking off" system by using a knife that helped speed things up until my thumb was so sore but now that its calloused over I am sure the next time I do it, it may go over better.

Once all the paper was off I shorted the crayons out by color and placed them into a lined muffin tin.


I put them into the oven (300) for about 10-15 minutes.

The colored did look so pretty but the whole house smelled like a big waxy crayon factory and I thought from reading some of these other blogs that the crayon came popping out like nothing and it was easy as pie to make "new" crayons...haha not exactly as the wax leaked through the paper liners and stained the muffin tin. I am way to scared to use it now because who wants their honey bran muffins tasting like wax!

So after this batch in the oven I decided to follow some one else instruction they had posted where you can put the crayons into a tin (old soup can) and melt the crayons in boiling water. Once melted I poured into a silicon star shaped ice cube tray. This process seemed to work better but still after a week the wax smell is still lingering in the house!

So here is my finished bucket of crayons. Some big round ones from the muffin tin and lots of stars. The "new' crayons work really well. I think that the kids loved them and of course these ones are easy for the little kids to color with.

As for a project to do again. I may wait until my little guy is past the stage of eating the crayons before I try this project again.

For more works for me ideas head on over here.

My assistant

Hey readers. I want to introduce you to my new kitchen helper. He still has some getting use to the different utensil in the kitchen and their proper uses but I am sure once he realizes that, he will be cooking away like mama in no time!

Clean Green with Norwex

I want to share with all you readers a wonderful cleaning company called Norwex.

My sister in law was given a gift this summer from her sister of some Norwex products. After trying these products (I am sure just once) she was sold. With 4 children running around her house what housewife wouldn't want cleaning products that don't require any chemicals at all.

Soon after receiving this gift Deja had our family and friends convinced of these magical wonderful cloths. And since she is a stay at home mom she decided that she would be become an independent Norwex consultant and sell these products here in the Maritimes.

I have been waiting to post about these products since I held a Norwex party before Christmas and got some great products but I have been waiting for Deja to get her website up and running. You can jump over to Norwex healthy cleaning to find out about Norwex, why to chose Norwex and product usage guide.


For the products I will be talking about all of them are linked back to her page as well where you can find more informative information about the product. So with no further waiting let me tell you about the wonderful products I have from Norwex.



First off... the Norwex Dust mit (isn't my model cute!!). This wonderful mit is so easy to use and picks up dust like nothing I have ever seen before. Once its full its hard to even shake the dust off of it. If you have a dust allergy like me, this will be great for you. It doesn't just push the dust around to some other place it actually picks it up!!

Norwex Enviro Cloth

Antibac Enviro Cloth
This is a great cloth and probably one of their biggest things!! You can read this blog post which will tell you why the cloth is so great. I use mine mostly in the bathroom to clean the tub, sinks, mirror and shower doors. One thing that Deja did when she was here doing a Norwex party was she scrubbed my shower door with this puppy, with a bit of elbow grease, and polished with the window cloth (listed below) and tada the scum came right off the doors. I love the cloth for keeping them clean!!

Norwex Window Cloth

Antibac Window and Polishing cloth

If you have kids you know how dirty mirrors and windows can get. This cloth works so great for getting them clean and streak free. I use my Antibac cloth to wash the window and then use this to dry it. I actually just did the shower doors tonight to be sure it would clean them perfect and it sure did. It also works well for the computer screen.

Norwex Kitchen Scrub Cloth

Kitchen Scrub cloth

This cloth is a bit too big for me to use in the kitchen as an everyday cloth. We did love it for the sliver specks in it that helped to clean up the mess at the bottom of our pots and pans.

Norwex Mattress Spray

Mattress Cleaner

I don't have this product but Deja does and she used it on my mattress, couch, chair and nursing rocker. I do have a severe dust allergy and found that this has been helping my symptoms. I noticed it the most in the nursery after she sprayed the chair I can sit in their for more then 10 minutes without going through a box of Kleenex.

Norwex Optic Cloth

Optic Cloth

I got this as a hostess gift (along with all the other products I am telling you about...it really pays to host a party) and find that it really shines up my lens and takes all of the babes figure prints away like nothing.

Norwex Spirinetts

Spirinetts and Spirisponge

Now these and the spirisponge are hubby's favorite products. He love doing the dishes now! heheh...

These are great in the kitchen and are used for those big crusty messes that usually occur in the pots and pans. The great thing about these is that they have been sitting out on my sink now for a month or so and there isn't one little bit of rust under it.

Norwex Spirisponge

Another thing that these are great for is cleaning the stove top. They really get it looking nice and white again.

Norwex Laundry Detergent

Ultra Power Plus Laundry Detergent

This detergent has been doing a great job. As a mom with a baby in cloth diapers it works great getting the diapers clean, smelling fresh and even looking white (like they should).

I have been using this bag since boxing day have probably done over 30 loads of laundry and still have lots left. The great thing about this stuff is I only use about 1 Tbsp.




So readers I think that these cleaning products work for me and my family. I really enjoy just being able to wet the cloth and go. I have my cleaning bucket under the bathroom sink and don't have to worry about having lots of cleaning chemical bottles around for the little guy to find. They are an investment but its worth it! If you would like more information about the products or would like to book a party here is Deja's contact information which can also be found on her website. Just to let you all know that hosting a party is great. Deja is very informative and fun! Also with hosting a party you get the bonuses of hostess gifts!!!


For more works for me ideas head on over to Rocks in my dryer

Paperless cooking

I am sure like me many of you have stacks upon stacks of cook books, recipe cards and lose pieces of paper stuffed in every cook book with recipes you got from friends scattered all over the kitchen.

During the Christmas season when I was taking things down to be replaced with my Christmas decorations I decided that it was time for some of my cook books to go and for some of them to be packed up to be stored down stairs. I decided to do this because the internet has such an abundance of recipes on it and whenever you are in a pickle and need recipe Google has TONS ready for you in seconds.

There are many sites that I love to go to get a recipe as I find the reviews are good. When I find a recipe that I enjoy I usually go to the print this recipe or printer friendly version; once there I copy the recipe and paste it into my google docs. Google docs is one way I keep my kitchen paperless. I love how all my recipes are stored there and they have a search tool so I can find all my recipes in a jiffy!!

Here are some great sites and great recipes


Taste of Home: Has delicious recipes and usually a picture to go with each recipe. I always like seeing what the product will turn out like. Also they have lots of different categories of cooking that you can search through. They have a membership as well that allows you to create your own recipe box there. I like this site because their recipes don't call for wacky ingredients that I usually don't have stocked in the cupboards.

All recipes I love this site because of the pictures and the reviews. The reviews always help make the recipe better as you can learn what not to do or what to add to make the recipe better. Also there are usually many different recipes for the one thing you are trying to make. I think there are at least 10 recipes for baked oatmeal. The search bar is great for when you are looking for a specific recipe.

This is a delicious muffin recipe, found at all recipes, that my friend made for us a couple of weekends ago when she was here.








Other sites that I use to search for recipes or supper inspirations

Tammy's recipes
$5 dinners
Niki
Dairy goodness
365 crock potting


If you have other recipe sites that you use please let me know so I can add them to my list!! Also for more frugal ideas head on over to Biblical Womanhood.

yummy muffins

I really love this recipe and thought that I would share it. I did originally get it from another blog and please forgive me for forgetting which one it was, if it was yours send me the link and I will for sure link it up!



Chocolate chip muffins


Ingredients

1 3/4 cups white flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup buttermilk (used 1 cup skim milk with 1tsp vinegar)
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1 cup chocolate chips (you could use a little less...some where VERY chocolaty).

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all the ingredients together, except for chocolate chips. After it’s mixed, stir in the chocolate chips. Fill greased muffin tin (or use your silicon baking liners) and bake for about 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. These muffins can also be frozen and reheated in the microwave or oven.

Makes 12 muffins

Here is my nice clean muffin tin; because of my wonderful silicon baking liners. If you haven't started using them head over to my previous post(link above) and find out for yourself why you should RUN out and get some. This $3 purchased has given our family fresh baked muffins at least once a week.

Coffee cup sleeve

I saw this very cute gift idea just weeks before Christmas on Amys Notebook and with lots of gal friends being the coffee lovers they are I thought what a great little gift for them.


The pattern is from Canadian Living and was very easy to do. It took me about 3 sleeves before I could make them look really nice in about 1 hour. I think that one of the learning curves was purling since I have only ever straight knit before (please remember readers I only started knitting early this fall).



I can't wait to see the gals using their cute little sleeves to keep their second cup java's warm!!


Check out rocks in my dryer for more cool ideas

Muffin Magic

I have heard a lot of talk on how great silicone cook wear is for a while now. However whenever I would look at it in the stores it was so expensive I just couldn't justify using it without knowing anyone who really LOVED using it. Well my mind was changed when my friend Niki posted about her experience using ones she had picked up from our local dollar store.



Immediately I needed to get to the dollar store to pick some of these up and try them for my self. I am pretty sure it was probably the next day that I ran out to get some to see for myself if they really worked. I mean for $3.00 I picked up 18 cups. Some stores wanted $8.00 for 6 cups!!!! The next morning (after washing them) I whipped up a batch of my favorite Honey Bran Muffins, lined the tines, scooped in the dough and waited 20 minutes to see how well they worked.

So here are my conclusions:

1. The lining peels off like nothing even when they are hot.


2. Half the muffin isn't left on the lining
3. The muffins are a perfect shape (not like that matters to little ones but to some of us it does)
4. Best of all the pan is soooooo clean!!!! I didn't take a picture because I figured some people may not believe me, may have thought I just took a picture of my clean muffin tin... heheh. For this one you will have to find out yourself.


Also some may be wondering if this is safe to use. If you click on Niki's link there is an article in her post about the safety of using silicone to bake with.

Since I have picked this little guys up we have had a fresh batch of muffins every week. With the no hassle clean up...its a great way to start my day!!!



Head on over to rocks in my dryer to see whats working for other people

Peach Jam

I have really been enjoying making my own jams this season. Already I have made strawberry, peach and blueberry jam. I do have to admit (although I haven't tried the blueberry yet) that the peach has been my favorite so far. The peaches this season have been deliciously sweet and they are also very nutritious. The contain essential vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin A,B, C, copper, magnesium, potassium and zinc.

The process for making jam is very simple. Here is a picture of my mixture just getting ready to boil hard for 1 minute.

And here is the finished product. I really love the color of the peach jam. This batch turned out a little darker then the last batch but I am sure it is still delicious.


I have heard that pear jam is very good. So now that they are coming into season I think I may try to make some. Let me know of your jam making skills and what types of berries and combination you use.