Category Archives: Uncategorized

T-shirt transfer paper comes in two varieties; those for dark t-shirts (the solid white background blocks out the cloth behind it) and those for light t-shirts (transparent background allows cloth to show through).   I use both for various purposes, but this is a lesson in the dark t-shirt transfers as I find them more versatile.

T-shirt transfers that you print at home don’t last as long as screen printing, so I recommend using them on projects that won’t be washed often, like throw pillows, on leather, or even on cards and paper.   Play around!  You can iron these things to just about anything!!   Although the package says you can launder these, I recommend spot cleaning or a gentle hand wash instead.  After you wash your item, NEVER iron the transfer directly or it will melt; iron the backside instead.

This is how I made the pillows in the photo, but you can use any image and iron to any surface you want to try!   But, if you don’t want to make them yourself,  you can always just buy them here.  😉 Continue reading →

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THIS WEEK’S MENU

Breakfast

• Whole Wheat Toaster Waffles with Homemade Applesauce

Lunch

• Mexican Casserole with Corn and Black Bean Salad

Dinner

• Thai Curry Noodles

Snack

• Reduced Guilt Walnut Brownie

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Although our big day is going to be pretty casual by wedding standards (a picnic with field day games and face painting), I still really want to be able to “look like a bride”.   I found a compromise with this flower crown I made yesterday, combining the idea of a casual headpiece with something really special and luxurious.   I don’t have a good set of DIY instructions for this, as I was merely winging it, but if you have a good eye and some basic jewelry making skills, you can easily create your own crown!  Continue reading →

Full sized Pom

Jeff and I are making everything for our wedding ourselves, so we decided to do one project every other weekend until the big day.  This way, it never gets overwhelming!

Paper pompoms are all the rage these days for a good reason.  They are ADORABLE, easy to color coordinate to your party, and super cheap.   We ordered three colors of high quality tissue paper from Paper Mart for about $70 dollars total.   Each ream has 480 sheets which is A LOT, so don’t expect to use all of it!

We created cute vertical garlands by knotting three of the small poms to yarn decorated with fabric "leaves".

We decided to make full sized poms to hang all around the ceremony and reception location and smaller versions to put together in hanging arrangements as shown in the photos.   The big ones use full sized sheets of tissue paper and the small ones are formed from halves.   We are storing ours in a box, folded up but “unfluffed” until the wedding.

What you need for one pom:

• 7 sheets of tissue paper, stacked and lined up evenly
• 1 piece of utility wire, about 7 inches long
• wire cutters
• needle nose pliers
• scissors

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For the scoop on this series of posts, click here!

THIS WEEK’S MENU

Breakfast

• Poblano Breakfast Burritos

Lunch

• Curried Cauliflower and Edamame with Almond Cranberry Rice

Dinner

• Moroccan Stuffed Acorn Squash

Snack

• Banana “Creme Brulee”

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I’m here to demystify a few common recipe terms so you can shake the fear of cooking and get in the kitchen more!

Today’s Lesson: Stirring

Recipes often use the terms “occasionally”, “frequently” and “constantly”  in reference to stirring something on the stove.  This is completely subjective and could be a cause for fear of cooking (Mageirocophobia).  I’m here to make it a little more objective for you.

Occasionally:  Let’s say you’ve got a stew on the stove over low heat.  You chop an onion for your next dish; you stir your stew.  You wash your dishes; you stir your stew.  You change into your party dress; you stir your stew. You get the point.  If your stew is going to cook for several hours or even all day, “occasionally” could get stretched out to every 20 minutes to an hour.

Frequently: Pretend that you are sauteing some veggies over medium to medium high heat.  You step away to read your recipe; you stir your veggies.  You wash one or two dishes; you stir your veggies.  You answer the door; you stir your veggies.  You aren’t standing over the pan and stressing over stirring, but you aren’t watching a show either!

Constantly: This term is used most often when you are thickening something or stirring something that contains a lot of milk or cream.  You have to stir things you are thickening constantly so they don’t turn into gloopy goo.  It is the best way to monitor the cooking process so you can turn off the heat the second that it is thick enough based on the recipe.   You have to stir milk based things constantly because they burn easily on the bottom of your pan if they’re not swirling around.

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THIS WEEK’S MENU

Breakfast

• Cream of Wheat with Mixed Berry Chutney and Brown Sugar

Lunch

• Green Chile Chili

Dinner

• Fennel and Linguine with Walnut Breadcrumbs and a Soft Egg

Snack

• Grapefruit Buttermilk Sherbet

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We made an all-purpose “winter balm” as our Christmas gift this year, and it ended up working better on my dry hands than anything I’ve ever purchased!  It’s easy to make and has the same components as lip balm, so it can be used to soften and soothe anything chapped from the winter air.   Here’s how you do it at home!

You will need:

• Container(s): This is what we bought from Paper Mart.  You can also use cleaned, used containers that you already have at home.  Test some things out!  Altoids tin, perhaps?  Maybe a small jam jar?
• Clean and dry mason jar with a lid: You can use this over and over again for making your balm
• Cosmetic grade beeswax pellets (white or natural): You can buy these here.
• Grapeseed, almond, or vitamin E oil: We used a little almond and vitamin E oil in ours for their smoothing and healing properties.
• Light olive oil (NO extra virgin!): Olive oil is GREAT for your skin, but you don’t want the scent or color of extra virgin olive oil.  Get the lightest colored oil you can.
• Essential oils (i.e. lemon, sweet orange, geranium, rosemary):Essential oils are used for healing, aromatherapy and for their scent.  You can combine them to create a personal scent or play around with mixtures for their medicinal benefits.

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For the scoop on this series of posts, click here!

THIS WEEK’S MENU

Breakfast

• Egg-in-the-Hole-in-the-Middle with Texas Black Eyed Peas

Lunch

• Beef and Butternut Squash Tagine

Dinner

• Mixed Veggie Sushi

Snack

• No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Continue reading →

Luckily, I have some experience with Photoshop and have been able to get a jump-start on our wedding graphics.   Don’t laugh, there are A LOT of graphics involved in a wedding and it’s the one thing I can work on that is free.  Making them look really professional is the key to making your wedding look less DIY and more like you hired someone!

We will personalize our wine bottles so no one has to know EXACTLY what brand we bought...;-)

We are saving a lot of money by designing and making our own Save The Dates, invitations and wedding day signage and labels.

Rough design for our wedding favor labels. We will hand write each guest's name and tie a balsa wood glider to the top with table assignments on them. These will serve as favors AND escort cards!

Design for picnic blanket and table number signs. I think I'll print these on a heavy card stock and cut with rounded corners.

Postcard sized Save The Dates are your first way to save a ton of money since the postage is only 28 cents per card.  I realize that not everyone knows how to use Photoshop, but you can always hand stamp or use a fun photo of yourselves if you do want to make your own postcard style Save the Dates.  Here are a few things I learned this week about the rules and regulations for making and sending postcards.

• 28 cent stamps are for up to 4 1/4 x 6 inch postcards only.
• No rounded corners and nothing too thick!
• Use this site to make sure you leave certain areas on the back blank for the post office and that you put your address, return address and stamp in the right spots!
• Use high quality address labels or full sheet sticky labels that you cut yourself so they don’t get pulled off in the automatic sorter.

We spent about $130 dollars for 130 postcards including all the supplies and postage.  Printing and assembly took about 4 hours.   Not too shabby!!!

OR you could always just pick one of these designs and have them printed for you for about a buck each before postage!