Monday's Etsy Find

Etsy is an awesome place to purchase handmade items. I've decided to feature a new Esty item/ shop every Monday.

So this Monday's feature is stunningannak!

She has some very unique items that caught my eye right away. All the items are very reasonably priced. Her items range from fabric brouches and headbands to soldered charms.

This is one of my favorite items from stunningannak's shop.

It is a beautiful orange and yellow fabric brooch.

 A few other samples from her shop

Chicken Wire Hot Pink Flower Headband

This one made me laugh...

Sisters are Chocolate Chips Soldered Charm

 (Front)

 

(Back)

 haha! Isn't that cute?

Please visit stunningannak's shop here!

 

(If you would like to be featured on my blog, send me a message with a link to your shop, a little note about why you should be picked and a pic of your favorite item. Your shop will be featured from Monday to Sunday. I just ask that you promote the feature on your blog or facebook page)

Using up Produce Idea

I really hate throwing away produce because we haven't used it enough time. Unfortunetely, that tends to happen a lot in my house. I'm trying to be more conscientious of this. So when I saw that we had a few tomatoes and some chopped up onion, I tried to figure out what I could make with them.

I went to my favorite online recipe site All Recipes. I love that they have a section that you can search for recipes by typing in the ingredients you want to use. Well, bruschetta came up and I knew I had to make it as I also had a loaf of french bread that was going to be stale soon.

Bruschetta Recipe
chopped tomatoes
chopped onions
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of Italian seasoning  (I actually used the Partylite Two Sisters Gourmet seasonings)
1 loaf of French or Italian  cut into 1 inch thick slices

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, combine tomatoes, onion, olive oil, and seasonings Place bread on a baking sheet, and top with tomato mixture. Sprinkle with Parmesan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until bottom of bread is browned. Allow to cool 5 minutes before serving.

It came out amazing! I've been making it a lot and it's also very cheap to make. One loaf will make a lot of servings.

Enjoy!

Windowsill Garden Part 2

After your home made flower pots are dry you can continue on to this step. Haven't made your flower pots yet? Read back to HERE to see how to make one.

For this project we are going to be filling the pot and planting the seeds. Very good project to tie in science and math with the little ones!

Materials Needed:

Finished Flower Pots from THIS project

Potting Soil

Seeds (I chose tomatos)

Water

First, fill the containers with the potting soil following the directions on the bag. Some brands may call for you to mix the soil with water. Make sure to keep the soil loose and not have it packed in tightly so that the roots will be able to grow.

Have your child help you make a few holes in the soil using their fingers. Be sure to space the holes by the amount suggested on the seed packaging. Next let the child count out the correct amount of seeds and have her place one seed in each hole.

Lightly cover the dirt. Do not push the dirt down, you will need it loose so that the seed will be able to push it's way through it. 

Water and place the pots on a sunny windowsill.

That's it! Your done! For older kids, have them talk about what they see happening to the plants every couple of days for a science lesson for them too!

Cost of Project: $3.19

Potting Soil at CVS- $2.99

1 Seed Packet from Walmart- $0.20

Flower Pots- Free

Plus, you will be getting vegetables in a few weeks from this project so that is an added bonus!

Windowsill Garden Part 1

S and I decided to try to make our own windowsill garden this year. For a few days, I collected some plastic containers to use as the pot of the plants. It saved me some money so that I didn't have to pay for a bunch of plant pots. Plus, the containers are all plastic so that if S accidentally knocks one over she won't hurt herself on shards of ceramic. The first thing we did was decorate the recycled containers to make them look a little cuter sitting on our sill.


Materials Needed:
Recycled Containers
Glue
Water
Paintbrush
Colorful Tissue Papers
Wax Paper (not shown)

Make sure you have all of the supplies ready before you get your child at the table to help!

Add a little water to the glue and mix well. This will make the glue more see through so you will see your paper better. Cut the tissue paper into squares. For toddlers, I would recommend larger squares as it will take them a long time with smaller squares. (Believe me, we started off with small squares and I quickly learned my mistake!)

Now your child can join in. Have him or her paint sections of the container with glue and then add a tissue paper square on top.

Keep layering the tissue paper until you can no longer see the writing on the container. Add different colors on top of each other for a really cool stained glass look!

Keep Going! Make sure you leave the bottom of the container blank. You don't want the glue and paper to stick to your windowsill!

Ta Da! The finished product

Put the pots bottom up on a sheet of wax paper to dry. Plan for it to dry for at least 24 hours before adding potting soil so that it doesn't stick to the tissue paper.

Cost of Project: FREE!
I recycled the containers. I already had brushes, glue and wax paper. For the tissue paper, I used some that I had been saving from a gift bag.

Coming back after a long break

Ok well, I am hoping to get the blog rolling again. I had a lot going on in my personal life and I'm finally at a point where I can start up again.

Get ready to see some new craft ideas and some new money saving deals! Please bear with me as I change my blog layout. I think it's about time that I get rid of the santa background! Haha!