Showing posts with label Use it up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Use it up. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The fun of living on a budget is finding all the wonderful things you can achieve while living on it.  I don't want to spend our money on storage when I could stash it for a vacation.  This is a simple project that makes my storage a bit easier on the eyes.  When we get food that comes in the pull top cans I wash them out and save them for projects.  These seem to have less sharp edges to deal with.
Round up glue, cans, and the paper you want to cover your cans with.  I love my glue gun for so may reasons but probably the biggest is my patience, I don't want to wait for glue to dry to play with my projects. 

I like to measure and cut with a mat and a rotary cutter but anything will do.  Measure the height you want covered and cut a strip.  For this can I cut a 4 inch strip from a 12 inch paper. 
Glue the end you don't want to see down first and line up the paper with the top ring of the can.  This will give you a nice line to follow.  Put down a strip of glue along the edge of the paper and get it on the can. 

Wrap the paper around and add a few drops of glue when you reach paper again.  You will have a little flap sticking out that you can make a nice edge with.  Put glue close to edge and smash down to make it lay nice. It just takes pressure and smearing if there are bumps. 
Now your done and have storage cans made from scraps around your home.  What are you going to use these for?  We use them for pencils, tools, organizing nuts and bolts and a chore system.  Yes I said chore system.  That's a teaser.  I will be posting on that one later. 





Friday, May 6, 2011

The sun is bringing a warm glow to my neck of the woods these days and somehow that makes it seem almost cruel to slave over a stove for a warm dinner when we can have something simple, cool, and tasty.  Unless its the Hubbs turn to cook then light up the BBQ and I will get my lounger out. 

We get a variety pack of produce from a local food co-op.  Its always the same price but the items in it are always just a little different.  I have learned to love this pasta salad because the vegi varieties are an endless option. 

The basic recipe is this simple. 
One thing of pasta... I used a 2lb box of elbows today but I just use what ever I have. 
3/4 C Ranch Dressing ... Your favorite will do just fine
3/4 C Italian Dressing ... Again your fav.

Then just start dumping stuff in from there.


Here is what I used today. 
2lb box of elbow noodles
Kens Ranch and lite Italian dressing.
Sliced almonds
One tomato
Bag of broccoli and cauliflower
One carrot and
about 2 pounds of chicken.

 Cook up the chicken any way your family likes it.  Cook the noodles and let
them cool.  Dice up all your produce and mix it in a big bowl.  The only issue we have ever had is if we mix it up while the chicken or noodles are still warm.  It makes the cheese go greasy.  We chill it for a while because we like it cooler but as long as its not melting the cheese hot its all good.



                                   XOXO  Misty
 

Friday, February 25, 2011

If you have kids that love to color, then you have tiny bits of crayons that most people just throw away.  I know my kids get new boxes at the beginning of the school year, for birthdays, Easter, Christmas, and at other random times throughout the year. Instead of tossing the crayons that "spontaneously broke by themselves while my child was holding it," I collect these little bits because my kids have a tendency not to want to use them because they are broken. I know my kids are not the only ones that have broken crayons so I contacted my local elementary school. What better place to find broken crayons, right? Turns out that the school was just going to throw these old, broken crayons away so I asked for them and they bagged them up and gave them to me. Now I have a stash of broken crayons that I can use to make more crayons.

The hardest part of this whole project is unwrapping the crayons. For that, I turned to my little helpers. I took a knife and scored the sides of the paper and let the kids sit and peel for a while. We also broke them into pieces that fit into the cups of my tin.  I had this nightmare thought that if the crayon pieces were larger, they might somehow escape to the floor of my oven. That sounds like a mess I would never be able to clean entirely.

We organized them by the colors we wanted them to melt with and put them in an old muffin tin.  I only use this tin for crayons.  If you actually bake with yours then you will want to line them with foil cups.  Ive never done it that way but It seems like paper wouldn't work since the crayons would stick.


When all the unwrapping fun is done and the cups are filled then it's time to pop them in the oven and turn it on.  200 degrees on the center rack. 

Melt them until they are flat on the top and completely blended. Resist the urge to touch the melted, gooey mess. I know, it just calls out to you but if you want pretty crayons, you'll thank me. I tried to poke one of the pieces down when it was almost done to make mine pretty and a few bumps were left on the top.  For my efforts I was rewarded with a dent in my crayon and some brightly colored wax on my finger. All in all it took me about 30 minutes but my kids peeked a few times.  Just start checking after 15 minutes so you don't burn them. 


Now it's time to let them cool and solidify. It's a cold day here so I stuck ours outside to cool.  When they are cool enough just pop them out like an ice cube tray and voila! You have some custom crayons that will be harder for your most ardent destroyer to break.



Just for kicks I put all the brown crayons into my chocolate bar silicone pan.  It almost looks edible.  I might try to feed it to my Hubby later. 

XOXO Mist