Morning Breakfast

These french toast slices were made another day and then frozen. This is a great way to use up stale bread. It's great to have some things prepared! :)

Calzones

A weekly meal in our house are calzones made from whole wheat pizza dough. We fill ours with ricotta (re-goat-ta) cheese and mozzarella cheese, served with marinara sauce on the side. Sometimes it is great to have a special tool to make your food pretty.... but sometimes it is great when you already have something to do the job just as well. Calzones need to have their edges sealed. I've done it with my fingers and with a fork. If I had a fork that was bent to fit my pan I wouldn't have looked farther, but on a cookie sheet with a lip a normal fork doesn't now work well. So... I opened my utensil drawer all the way and looked and looked and then tried a beater... I think I like the look <3
For a nicer presentation you can brush off the cornmeal and brush milk on before it is baked.

 

Banana Bread

 

Who would have ever known that you can make a wonderful loaf of Banana Bread from yucky bananas. The recipe I use is from the Better Homes and Gardens new Cook Book. I visited there website here and found really helpful hints. I was going to add my recipe, but you will see at the website there are many many varieties to this simple and sweet bread. 

 I've tried to make this bread in my bread machine but it was not good. It is worth making this with out your machine.

This time I had substituted almonds for walnuts and it was very good. If you can always wrap your cool banana bread and serve the next day when the flavors have had time to meld beautifully.

Banana Bread with walnuts

Calendar

I love new ideas and sometimes you make something with very little money. But... sometimes it just doesn't work.

The reason this doesn't work is because I never found a "pen" that writes nicely and erases nicely on glass.

 I'm sharing this because for the love of sharing sometimes you will come up with a better idea, like one that will work and I'll see it :)

All that extra lotion

 It drives me a little crazy to have a bottle of lotion that cost about $8 on sale and not be able to use it all. For years I have been cutting the bottle to get to the bottom but have keep it in a container. I guess I never found a pretty container b/c inconvenience led me to figure something out.

 As you can see I have cut the middle section out of bottle, cut the straw accordingly and rejoined the top and bottom to have a mini bottle of lotion.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Re-purposed Teddy Bear

I just couldn't throw him out

Teddy's been sitting in a jar
Looking like a science specimen
Then one day I had an idea...

We regularly use white yarn for one thing or another.
It's like tape, we can't live with out it.
So we've displayed Teddy
Giving him a new life
As the Thread Bearer.

Fish Bowl Treat bags for a birthday party

In the name of "use what you have first" before you buy supplies, the girls and I came up with a treat bag we gave away for Lizzy's "sea themed" birthday party. The fish "swims" between 2 pieces of sheer fabric.

I had sheer fabric that I bought on clearance at Joanne's Fabric a few years ago. These are like the tucker bags I posted in June except we used foamy for the back. The sheer fabric is folded in half with the fold side up at the top of the bowl. We tucked a foamy animal inside the fold of sheer fabric, set (yarn) strap in place to be sewed over, pinned it all, then sewed.


Sewing with foamy on the bottom was very easy. We made the stitches very long, which gave the bag a nice look.
After sewing the bags were trimmed with pinking sheers to cut down on fraying.Bags were then decorated on the foamy side by the kids with smaller foamy stickers. While they were eating lunch, some of the older kids filled the bags with real sea shells, taffy, stickers, erasers, and a piece of chocolate :) Our frugal find was finding sea shells at the dollar store.

By the way, I thought I'd let my friends know I'm still alive. We have had alot projects to do this summer which has taken me away from blogging. I've felt a little overwhelmed with them all. I hope to post about them when things slow down, we have pictures :) I can't wait to check out what you all have been blogging about :)

Curtain Rod Deal

Two weeks ago I ordered a new curtain rod for our front window. After almost 10 years of working with those silly $10 curtain rods, I decided to get something attractive. This window is a headache because it is big (105") and on the right side there is a pipe for the steam heat that leads upstairs. I found a heavy duty curtain rod (pole) at JC Penney. Originally it was $105 and it's now marked down to $35. I wanted to keep the total cost down, but was having trouble finding the special rings or clips that are heavy enough for drapes. Seven rings for $22 is not a bargan when you need 30 rings. ($110 yikes!) So what do I do?

As you can see I came up with something that didn't cost me a cent. From the back each pleat I took my heavy duty upholstery needle and added 7" or 8" of navy blue 1/8" grosgrain ribbon that is tied in back. When it's time to wash the drapes, the attached ribbon should do well, but I may add fray check to the ends of the ribbon to be sure.

Free Christmas Music MP3

Happy Hearts at Home always posts really neat things for home schoolers. Also alot of free things that are very interesting for anyone. Here is her blog.
I downloaded this, it is cute. Thanks Alexandra!!

Free Christmas Music MP3

The "Wait" Shopper

When a new series first came out by Beverly Lewis, I was really thrilled and couldn't wait to get it, but I did not... and then forgot about. Yesterday while shopping I stopped in at Ollie's and there were the first three books for $4 a piece. They are usually around $11 a book. I was excited to spend $12 on 3 books instead of over $30.

I've been talking to a few friends who are "wait" shoppers and were saying that they also teach this to their children. "Wait" until it is on sale. This is a very new for me! I am excited about it and wanted to share it! It's pretty neat to buy something brand new for a third of the sale price.