Garden Goodies

This is our second year with our container garden and I have to say, we are quite pleased with it.  Last year was really what I call our learning year.  We grew a variety of things from radishes to peppers.  Our biggest failure last year was tomatoes which I tried to grow from seed.  Everyone told me that was hard and I said, "Oh but I want to try anyway!"  And so I did and I was rewarded with no tomatoes.  The biggest success last year was jalapeno peppers.  I used those to make pepper jelly which was pretty tasty!

So this year we are growing:
Bell peppers

Jalapeno peppers

Tomatoes

Green Beans
Romaine Lettuce
Butter Crunch Lettuce
Summer Squash

Cucumbers

Green Onions
Radishes
Basil
Parsley
Spinach
Garlic

So far we have had a good harvest from the green bean, cucumber, and tomato plants and our lettuces with the exception of the spinach.  The peppers are finally starting to take shape and who only knows what's going on with the summer squash.  It's big and flowering, but no fruit yet.  Things I will not be growing again - Spinach, radishes, and Green onions.  Next year I would like to try to grow broccoli.  I am hoping to get a bigger garlic harvest next year, but we will see.

Today I harvested some of the basil today to hang it up and dry for future use in the winter months.  I am hoping the basil plant continues to grow.  I have been told cutting it back promotes growth, so we will see. Later this week I am going to make homemade bruschetta with our tomatoes and basil and then I am going to make baugettes and mozzarella cheese.  I can't wait and I don't even really like bruschetta!  I'll be sure to share some pictures.

Brownie Pudding

How could this even begin to be a bad thing?  I like brownies and pudding, so I would only hope the two combined would be heavenly.  I was not wrong.

From my Food Love board:
http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/02/16/brownie-pudding/

First melt butter:

Then beat together eggs and sugar and add some vanilla:

Flour and cocoa powder:

I sifted these two together because I have learned over all my baking expeditions that cocoa powder can be notoriously clumpy.  Sifted them together is an extra step and one I found quite annoying when I first did it, but now I understand it's purpose and add it in even when I am not told to do so!

Mix these all together and bake:

I would have a picture of the finished product here, but it was consumed extremely quickly and without presentation.  This is the best chocolate fix I have had in a while.  Super easy recipe and super delicious.  What are you waiting for?  Go make this now!

More Meatless Monday

Huh, I could abbreviate this post as MMM which would be kind of ironic since it's about food and good food that makes you say MMMMMM!!!!  Ok, enough about that.  I realized that I skipped over my use of a Pin from last week's Meatless Monday experience.  Truth be told, I used this recipe more as a guideline because I have used a similar approach to pasta toss meals, so this wasn't what I would call a "new" recipe.  Just a new variation of it.

From Meatless Mondays:
http://www.skinnymom.com/2013/04/23/skinny-mediterranean-pasta-toss/

Since I have made a version similar to this, I played around with the ingredients a little more than I normally would on a first go for a recipe.  First, I didn't have zucchini, so that didn't make the cut.  I did not have 10 small sweet bell peppers, but I did have one big one, so I compromised.  I also didn't have grape tomatoes, but had a fresh one from our garden, so I figured it was equivalent in other ways.  I substituted egg noodles for penne because I like it better for a pasta toss.  Turns out I was out of balsamic vinegar (*gasp*) because I had used the last of it to make Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing and hadn't remembered to get any at the store in a while (this has since been fixed).  I should do a post on that too - it was the best!  ANYWHO, back to the actual topic, given all those changes, the meal still turned out great.  I even added capers to the mix because, why not?

I think a pasta toss is a great way to blend a lot of fun flavors together.  Mine always include artichoke hearts and sun dried tomatoes with egg noodles.  The rest is whatever is on hand.  But that's my personal preference.  This is probably one of the few meals I really go off recipe for.  So far it has yielded some pretty tasty results.  I would encourage you to try it too!

Meatless Monday Inspiration

As part of our New Year's Resolution we have adopted the Meatless Monday here in our house.  We have been mostly successful at acknowledging it on Monday, but other days are ok too.  At least in my book.  The idea is to focus on not needing to eat meat at every meal.  They are usually healthier meals and they cost less too.  Pinterest has been really good to find meal ideas for this.  Generally I think of pasta, but they have plenty of beans, vegetable, tofu, and grain options.  It's been fun trying new foods.  Some were better than others, but at least we are trying.

Tonight's meal comes from my Meatless Monday board (duh):
http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/06/grilled-corn-cheddar-quinoa/

Quinoa has become a staple grain in our house and a nice alternative to just plain rice.  According to what the internet tells me, it's also healthier for us.  Bonus.  Like most recipes I was drawn to this one for the ingredients list - I liked them all, and the ease factor of the recipe.  I will say I already pre-grilled the corn and it's been hanging out in the refrigerator waiting.  The meal itself came together really easy (when you have the corn all ready and waiting).

The taste factor/family taste bud test was a hit for both my husband and myself.  My toddler had other opinions, but it could just be the day of the week since he usually loves this kind of stuff.  It's a little weird having this as the main dish because it feels like it could easily be a side to salmon, chicken, or pork.  It was still pretty substantial to stand on it's own though, so either way, it was good and we will do it again.

Adventures in Cooking

Probably the most useful function of Pinterest for me has been recipes.  New ways to try food, find fast one pot friendly recipes, bake amazing tasty treats, and find healthy ways to incorporate the "good for you" food into all of this.  Tonight was not unlike most nights around here.  Hmm, what to make for dinner.  I have chicken thawing, what can I do with that?  Amazingly enough, you can search "chicken recipes" and get answers.  I love the internet.

Recently pinned to my Real Food board:
http://pinchofyum.com/creamy-chicken-quinoa-broccoli-casserole

I had actually been searching the internet for quinoa recipes for my Meatless Monday campaign, so this kind of worked out nice, although definitely not meatless.  I liked how this meal came together, although I am not sure the science behind heating half your liquid then adding half a cup of cold liquid and flour to make the "cream" sauce.  It seemed to work out, but I did need to sift the flour as I put it in so it wouldn't clump too much on me.

My rule of thumb for cooking a new recipe is to follow the instructions as they are written and the ingredients as measured out by the author the first time through.  If I like it as it stands, beautiful, if not, I make notes on what to change should I make this next time.  In this case, I might make the sauce differently than they said to.  I might learn that there is a reason why they explain to do it the way they have it, but that's the wonderful thing about cooking, all the learning as you go. :)

This cooked in the initial 30 minutes they said to cook it for.  Well, maybe it was 35 minutes by the time I actually got to the oven.  At first it didn't look like it was done, but I mixed it all together as they said to and as I did so, it looked like the right consistency.  I added the broccoli and topped with cheese.  I didn't have Gruyere, but they said any kind would work, so I added Jarlsberg instead.  Next time I am sure I'll use cheddar or mozzarella since that's usually what's on hand.  I also used Old World Seasoning for both my poultry seasoning (apparently I don't have this spice?) and the substitute for "seasoning".  That just seems a little random to me, clearly you have a taste in mind, could you be more specific?  I think those two things can definitely influence the flavor of the dish, so who knows if this tasted anything like what the blog author intended.  Bottom line though: I liked my version.  This will be done again.

Things to play with in future makings of this dish:
Change up the vegetables.  I could see doing carrots, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, peas, corn, etc.  Pretty much anything would go.  Since you add the vegetables at the end, you can cook them to your level of doneness and just add at the end.
Change up the seasoning.  I am not sure what other generally seasonings are out there, but you could always build your meal around whatever one you pick.  For example, if you used Italian seasoning, maybe use mozzarella cheese and maybe Italian sausage for the meat instead of the chicken and maybe peppers and onions instead of broccoli.  If you did that, you probably need to cook the meat ahead of time.
Change up the cheese.  I would say just use whatever you have so long as you like it. :)  My general cooking sense - if you like the flavors individually, why not try them together? If it's terrible, make a note and don't do it again.

Definitely worth having in rotation and hey, it uses quinoa so it's got to be healthier than most things out there. Mark that as a plus!

Oven Cleaner

After yesterdays spectacular debut into homemade cleaners that promise miracles, I decided to try another.  I mean, at the very least I have to be cleaning stuff at least somewhat even if it doesn't get it sparkling spotless like the instructions said it would.  Today's goal - clean the oven.

I am using another pin from my Cleaning Tips board:
http://craptastical.com/oven-needed-cleaning/

I have abused my oven quite a bit.  Sometimes things will bubble over and I'll think, man I should clean that up.  What really happens is I forget about it because you have to wait until an oven is cool before you can go playing in it.  And by then, I have moved on to some other sparkly thing in the house or a screaming toddler or have gone to bed.  Possibly all three.  I get a nice reminder the next time I turn on my oven and there's a pretty obnoxious smell/smoke coming from the oven.  "Oh yeah.... I was supposed to do something about that."  The process repeats until I have effectively burned off whatever I boiled over.  So sad for the oven.

BUT!  Today is the day the oven gets a face lift!  I am sure it's as excited as I am.  I mean, how excited can one get for a clean oven?  I am not even really sure.  Anywho, here's the very fancy recipe:
3-4 drops of Dawn
4 Tbsp. Baking Soda
5 Tbsp. Distilled Vinegar **do not use this much, start with 1 tablespoon and add until you get a good paste.
Juice of 1 lemon = 1 Tbsp. lemon juice

As the website I am using said: Go slow when added the vinegar.  Otherwise you are going to get a mini volcano on your kitchen counter.  Smear the goop all over your oven however you see fit.  Let it set for a few hours and then come back and wipe it down/clean it out with a dish towel.

Before picture:

I told you it was gross.

After pictures:

Notes:
1. I think the mixture is wrong.  Mine was much more liquid than paste, so I would dial back the vinegar a bit.  I ended up sprinkling some more baking soda directly into the oven to get the scour power.  They may have meant 5 teaspoons and not 5 tablespoons.  The picture also showed way more dawn than 3-4 drops.  I think if you can find the mixture balance to get it to a paste, then you are much better off.
2. There is NO way this is just a "wipe" down and bingo-bango, it's miraculously clean.  This still took a fair amount of arm muscle and a sponge with the scrub side to clean the sides of the oven and get the junk off.  And even then, some places did not come clean.

Overall, my oven is cleaner, although not the pristine clean I was looking for.  The oven door is still gross (in my opinion, although less gross than it was).  I think the lesson here is: Cleaning ovens suck no matter how you do it.  This just happens to be the non-toxic version which can be cheaper and better for the environment.  So, take that for what you will.  I have a clean oven and that's really an accomplishment in and of itself.

Does This Really Work?

I am sure you have seen pins that claim they have the newest, most simplest, fancy way of cleaning ever!  I am always skeptical about these claims.  Most are using ingredients that sound plausible, but just not main stream enough for it to be, "oh, of course that would work".  I have a handful of pins on my Cleaning Tips board which boast a lot of these kinds of things.  Today I am going to try this one:
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2011/11/goodbye-to-yellow-armpit-stains.html

This blog entry actually did what I am doing.  She explains that she was told about this miracle cure fix it for stains and she was skeptical but she posted before and after results and it seems to work for her.  Since I am able to follow a recipe (the ingredients ratio) and scrub clothes with the best of them, I am pretty confident this will work.

I sweat like there's no tomorrow.  I think I might sweat more than my husband, so needless to say, the shirts I am going to try this on are from my drawers.  I have a lot of free shirts I wear around the house (especially on maternity leave) and I used to wear them out in public.  I wear them a lot less now because they have the funky arm pits.  So, let's see how this stacks up on the cleaning scale.

Mixture 1 part Dawn to 2 parts hydrogen peroxide.  Mix together, apply to stain.  Scrub.

Before:

After:

Overall opinion:
This worked, but there is still some stain on the shirt.  I imagine this is partly because I picked one of my worst shirts to try it on and I have really high expectations.  Also, the pin text called for adding baking soda whereas the actual article did not specify that until later as a "bonus" ingredient.  They also let it sit for an hour then laundered as normal.  I rinsed it after scrubbing and let it dry.  SO!  There are a few things I can try in the future which may help remove the stains further.  I think this could be a valuable thing to keep on hand especially with small kids who manage to wear most of their daily activities from arts and crafts to food to poop.  I have seen it all.  Ha!  It'd be nice to know it can really actually come out though.  :)  

Getting Things In Order

Since I have a bit of time on my hands, I decided that I could tackle some of the more frivolous organizational tasks on my wish list.  First batter up: our pantry.  I mean, who usually has the time to just dive into taking apart their food stash in the busy days of our lives?  If I weren't on maternity leave, I know I wouldn't.  I would be using those precious free moments to drink a glass of wine and read a book.  Anywho, in keeping with the theme of things this month, I did find a Pinterest pin regarding organized/inventoried pantries.

This comes from my For the Home board:
http://www.pullingcurls.com/2014/03/pantry-excel-file.html

It mostly talks about having an excel file for the inventory of the pantry.  I thought this was a good start, figure out what has fallen into the darkest pits of this tiny closet and arrange it in some meaningful manner while recording what I have in an excel file.  I didn't use the template she had because I am pretty good at excel and customizing her sheet to match what we actually had was going to take more work for me than just making my own.  Here's a before picture of my mess:

I am sure this picture isn't going to do it justice, but there was only a somewhat convoluted convention to how this was organized.  It changed every time I stocked it from a grocery trip too.  A summary of what I found:
Oldest expiration date:  I think the oldest date I found was 2012, so not tooo bad.  And it was only one item, so really I think we were doing pretty good.
Most bizarre item: Seaweed snacks.  I guess they were supposed to be like kale chips, but just made out of seaweed.  Clearly we were not interested in trying them.  This is what happens when people give you really weird food to try and you have no intention of doing so.  You take it home, give it a nice cozy spot deep out of sight and when you do some big deep clean months later you realize that you took it to be polite and have no intention of ever consuming these things.
Most Unexpected Find: 6 boxes of chocolate pudding.  I think I just kept buying them 2 at a time thinking, I would love some pudding pie.  Well, I have enough to make 3 pies worth now.  I guess we are stocked for any pudding pie emergency we might have.

Let's just say I filled a trash can with stuff that was either old, stale (marshmallows that were like pebbles), or just something we were never going to use.  I tried to put things back in a manner to reflect the categories I used on my excel file.  Keeping pasta and grains together, bakery items, snack foods, and canned goods on their own shelves.  This is what it looks like after:

It may not look like much, but I now have a better idea of everything we have and more importantly, where to find it.  I also got to sweep out the bottom of the pantry and finally collect the last of the popcorn kernels that exploded all over the place last winter.  So we are cleaned and generally in order now.

The next step is figuring out the best method to update this big excel file.  I am a nerd, but not a very diligent nerd.  I could say I'll update it daily after preparing meals, but I know me.  That's not going to happen.  I also know I don't have time to do an inventory every month, so we will have to figure out something that will work.  In the grander scheme of things, it would be nice to determine a good way to incorporate what gets depleted into a grocery list.  I still have another 3 weeks of leave, so I am sure something will come to me by then.  In the meantime, I have photographic evidence that at one point in time, this was clean and organized.  Score one for me!

Smores Bars

Do you like rice krispie treats?  Do you like smores?  Then this recipe is definitely for you!

From my Food Love board:
http://www.countrycleaver.com/2012/06/smores-graham-krispie-treats-and-tuesday-wedding-things.html
I stumbled upon these about a year ago and think they are the most scrumptious thing ever.  When I get a craving for something sweet, these have been able to provide that "fix".

These come together just like rice krispie treats with cereal, marshmallows and butter.  These also require chocolate chips and vanilla.  (Clearly we are a Wegmans brand family).

The hardest part of this recipe is waiting for the contents to cool before cutting into them.  They are delicious!

Pop Tab Purse

I love funky purses.  I am not one to get really hung up on getting some $400 bag for Christmas or the ever popular Coach bag which almost everyone seems to own these days.  I prefer ones that have some personality but are still functional and aren't on everyone's arm.  So when I saw some photos on Pinterest for purses that were made from tabs of cans, I thought, hey, that looks like something I would like!

The link I am using comes from my Craft board:
http://naomivandoren.com/pop-tab-purse-tutorial/
Most of the references are for Etsy shops which are selling them, but there are a few links that are actually tutorials.  Some suggest crocheting, and others have you putting them together with wire.  I opted for the wire option after I was in Jo-Anns and saw colored copper wire.  I thought, ok, that's pretty cool.  Sadly, I haven't gotten too far on this, but I think it's a good, "work on it when I have time" kind of project.  So this is what it looks like so far:

I picked out a blue and purple colored wire so I will alternate as I go.  It'll be interested to see how this will take shape.  Progress photos will be posted as I go.

Finished Pillow

So I did end up finishing the pillow and this is how it turned out:

A couple of lessons/notes:
I need a really really long needle if I want it to be a fairly firm pillow.
The bigger the needle, the bigger the hole it makes when you push it through, so you need bigger thread.  I used a heavy embroidery floss for this.
This really is a pretty easy pillow to make even if you are fairly new the sewing.  You just need the right tools and go slow while stitching around the circle.

Supply Run!

So I am taking a sort of break from hands on projects today.  I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics to seek out some supplies for future projects.  It's one of those things where I have 90% of what I need and am missing that 1 item that's preventing me from starting it.  I was armed with a sales flyer and a stack of 50% off coupons.  Seriously, if you aren't on their mailing list (email OR paper mail) you need to take advantage of it.  One - you get to make your own sales.  Two - you can use more than one coupon at the register.  Today I used 4 of my 50% off coupons (it's coupon commotion) and combined with sales, I saved 45% off my entire bill which was a hefty chunk.  Honestly, it's the only way these projects are affordable.

So I did pick up another bag of Poly-Fill to have until the next ice age probably.  I will need some amount to finish the pillow and then I have another project lined up which should hopefully even out the bag and I won't need any more.  *fingers crossed*  I might be in an infinite loop.

I also picked up piping material ($0.59/yd) which will allow me to work on some experiments I have in mind.  Eventually I am going to reupholster the chairs in the living room (haha, I have had these for 3 years telling myself this), so might as well learn how to make piping now on the smaller stuff.

I am most excited about my colored copper wire purchase today.  I will be making a can tab purse as one of these upcoming projects.  There were numerous ways people have done these in how the fasten them to each other.  A lot of people used nylon cord or crocheted them together, but there was one post that explained how to do it with wire.  At first I thought that was obnoxious, but I realized it allows for some vibrant colors to be worked in too.  I am probably going to contribute blood to that fiasco, but hopefully it'll look cool in the end. To start, I cleaned a load of tabs and am letting them dry.

I have no idea how many I need, but I figure, might as well start with a bunch and see how far I get.  

Sprocket Pillows!

Today's project comes from my Sewing! board:
http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2011/03/tutorial-sprocket-pillows.html
These remind me of pillows that used to be at the family camp.  They were full of scraps of random material.  Some shinny, some velvety, and some just plain funky.  I do not have such a diverse scrap fabric collection yet (key word), so I made do with pulling on a color group and working from there.

Anyone who has been in our house or knows anything about us will not be surprised at my pick of the color blue for this pillow.  To be fair, I needed 12 pie slices for the top and I didn't think I could pull together the eclectic look the author in the tutorial was able to do (need to learn that skill).  I also have more random blue fabric than any other color.

First step first, print the template from her tutorial page.  Mine printed right on the first try.

 I cut out the pie slices which wasn't too hard.  I made 2 each of 6 different fabrics.  Just folding the fabric over itself meant only 1 cut to get two pieces.  This I like. My assortment looked pretty good to me.

I will say I am glad she put the instructions to sew them in pairs and then sew the pairs together and then sew the halves together.  This helps keep all your pieces even and allows you to have a fairly good circle at the end.  Way to go!

So my pretty pinwheel of color looks like this:

When cutting out the bottom circle, it's important to make it match the top as close as possible.  I went a little bigger on mine and had trouble lining it up with the center ring in the last steps.  I ended up just fudging it at the end, but had I thought about it earlier, I would have taken the time to pin it down and make a closer copy.

I was able to reuse some of the crib skirt material I used in my son's room for the side of this project.  Getting the length of that just right was a little tricky, but not too bad. When you go to sew the top to the side band, pinning is really your friend.  I dislike pinning, so you know if I am telling you you need to, then you really probably need to.  I am guessing I used close to 30 pins to make sure it would sew correctly.  You are basically sewing a straight piece to a curve and that's not exactly an easy thing to just have happen.  You'll need to be as obsessive about pinning for the bottom as well.  If you did it right you get something like this:

And because I happen to have a random bag of Poly-Fill laying around (who doesn't right?), I went ahead and started to fill the pillow.  The bad news?  I only had enough to fill the pillow about half way.  The good news?  I finally found a use for that silly bag of Poly-Fill I have had forever.

I'll post finished products when I get to the store to buy more Poly-Fill.  I was thinking I was doing pretty darn good on not spending any money on these projects just yet.  There are a lot I can just do with the mini craft store I seem to have in my house, but there are also a number of them that need just 1 or 2 random things that I don't seem to have.  My shopping list is becoming a hodge podge of random supplies.  All in the name of a Pinterest Challenge. :)

Glittery Things

What makes every day items better?  Glitter of course!  My oldest is bringing home some smashing art work these days and the magnets we have on the fridge are only kind of so-so with holding them on there.  So these looked easy enough to do.  The hardest part was locating my glitter stash.  I swear it moves on me.

Another one from my Crafts board:
http://fromainsleywithlove.blogspot.com/2011/07/shake-glitter-off-your-clothes-now.html
This one is actually just an image and someone "hacked" instructions below it.  It's the clothes pins with glitter on top and magnets on the bottom.

I had some left over magnet reel from when I did my spiders on my door (still my favorite Halloween decoration).  I have glue and I did manage to locate my glitter.  Surprisingly, I only found 1 clothes pin though.  Eh, better to start with one than none.  Here's what the final product looked like:

Total time: 10 minutes plus drying.  Pretty snazzy upgrade for not a lot of effort.  And hey, glitter!

*Changes I would make - not to use the curled up magnets, they don't lay flat enough to stick well.  I have some flat circle magnets that work better.  :)

Heating Pads

I may be a hoarder of fabric. It's possible that I have bought fabric from the remnants bin at Jo-Ann's with no real clear goal in mind other than - "this will be handy to have some day".  I get really excited with those some days come around.  About 3 years ago I bought some flannel material I thought would be good for burp cloths. Let's just say that never happened.  And because of that, I have fabric laying around to do my next Pinterest Project.

From my Sewing Corner board I present this gem:
http://www.thegreenwife.com/2010/04/02/heating-pad-tutorial/
I love heating pads.  They do wonders for aches and pains and are great for winter nights with the bed is cold.  I have one that I made a long time ago that is now getting to the point where it's seen better days.  I might have burned the rice once and it's an old towel that's getting kind of beat up.

I liked this tutorial because it showed a sectioned heating pad thus making sure the rice was evenly distributed.  Mine is basically just in a long tube and it can be a pain to get the right amount of stuff where I want it.  Also, this one added some essential oil to make them smell nice.  Something I wasn't aware of when I made mine years ago.  SO!  I set aside a chunk of rice yesterday with some lavender oil to marinate for this project.

I liked the timeline on this project for being about an hour.  I don't have a fancy serger (although Santa could bring me one and I would be happy to have it), so I made so with my regular sewing machine.  Most of the places she used hers for are all inside seams anyway.  Flannel doesn't unravel like most cotton, so not a big deal.  I also didn't buy "high quality flannel".  Did you read the part where I got this out of the remnants bin?  Pound puppy material more like it.

I love how thorough these tutorials are with each step shown so you know exactly what you should be doing.  As I read through what she had detailed I made mental notes to skip stages.  Pinning has never been my strong suit and for something as simple as this, I didn't bother.  The exception was holding back the rice to get a stitch down.  That was sort of necessary.  I figure I saved myself some time by not having to serge all the edges and then serge them together.  I did pin at the 3" intervals because I do not own a proper fabric marking pencil.

So how did all of this turn out?  I would say fairly good.  Some of the sections aren't as straight as they should be, but whatever.  It still works the same.  Perhaps I should invest in a pencil.  It took me about 50 minutes to do.  This does not include the overnight marinade with lavender oil on the rice.  Now I just need to put it to good use which I am sure won't take long!

Pinterest Challenge

Ok so it's been a while.  A long while.  Ok, just over a year long while kind of.  I could fill in all the blanks on what happened in the last year, but honestly, I have better things to do with the limited free time I have.  Speaking of free time, I am on maternity leave, so it seems I have some more time available to me than I used to have.  Funny, first kid is a loss of personal time, and the second you get some back and don't know what to do with yourself.

Anywho, since it's the middle of summer and it's not always nice or easy to just get out and go for a walk or otherwise occupy my time anywhere other than home, I have come up with a game plan.  I have decided that I am going to set a challenge for myself.  I don't have anything better to do right?  So the challenge is this: Do something related to my Pinterest Pins 5 times a week.  This could be anything that has to do with the just over 1,000 pins I have on my board.  Preferably, it's some sort of "project" and not me just laughing at a hilarious eCard I pinned.  Although, on some days that might count.  This challenge is for the month of July (what's left of it).  I am hoping this yields at least roughly 20 project-ish things.

So to kick things off, here's what I did yesterday:
http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/06/01/chocolate-chip-scones/
That's right, make something from my Food Love board.  This is where I pin things I consider "treats" instead of Real Food (another board).  I have to say, baking things really isn't a huge time investment other than waiting for the oven to make your mush turn to magic deliciousness.  Also, I prefer recipes that don't care for completely off the wall ingredients.  So, this one fit the bill.

There may be one missing because I couldn't wait to taste it before taking a picture.  I regret nothing.  It was delicious and I would encourage you to try the recipe if you like to have "cookies" for breakfast because let's face it, scone is a nice way of saying breakfast cookie.

The second project is one that I adapted from this post from my Craft board:
http://www.ohreallybeckyforever.com/2011/08/15/im-not-crazy-youre-crazy/
Making envelopes from scrapbook paper!  We have decided after this past Mother's day that we are kind of done spending $45 on cards for people for one holiday.  Since when should it cost $5 to say Happy Mother's Day with a cute picture on the front?  My kids can do that!  Anywho, in her tutorial she was making the envelopes a different size.  I wanted to make mine so they would fit an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper/card stock folded in half.  For those that want to know, this is known as an A2 envelope size (4 3/8" x 5 3/4").  She also had a template to work from that fit the scrap book paper.  I did not. You would think I would have measured using the dimensions for the A2 size envelope, but that would have made sense right?  I just sort of eyeballed it with a piece of folded over paper.  I did however pick a scrapbook paper that was essentially a grid so I would have some guidelines.

Overall, it came out pretty good.  I also did not have double sided tape, so I raided the Elmer's glue stash and used that instead.  I would in the future make the tabs that fold in a bit wider so there's more surface area to glue to.  One of the questions that she was asked was how did you seal the envelope?  There are a few ways to do this; 1 - use double sided tape, 2 - use Elmer's glue, 3 - use a decorative sticker (you can splurge there since these are cheap to make - see breakout below).  I think I would go with double sided tape or a sticker.

Otherwise I think it turned out ok.  I just need to put something on the card stock and mail it to someone.  :)  Also, if you are tempted to do this at home yourself, the comments section recommended that you use a white sticker address label so the poor people at the post office don't have to decipher the mailing address a midst whatever pattern paper you decided to use.  And if you want a price comparison for store bought vs. homemade, here you go:
Store bought - cheapest I could find $1.99, but I'll admit, even those were sort of lame.  Typically $3.99 is more average for a card.
Homemade - 50 pack of card stock (regular price $9.99, I buy it only with 40% off coupons at a minimum - $6).  Price per sheet (assuming $6 for pack) - $0.12.  Price per sheet of scrapbook paper - Individually $0.49, rock bottom sales - 6 sheets for $1 ($0.16 each) for individual sheets.  Packs can come in 180 sheets for $20, can get them on sale for $10 - $0.06 a sheet. So card stock - $0.12 + $0.16 = $0.28

So that's $3.99 - $0.28 = $3.71 savings per card.  I know some people will say, "I don't have time to make a card."  I get that.  I don't have time to agonize over the 50+ card selection in the store (which can take me up to 30 minutes, plus driving to and from - I hate picking out cards) only to find cards I like which are $6 a piece which I won't spend.  SO!  To each their own, but for family at least, you are going to get homemade wonders.  Don't worry, we have markers, crayons, glue, glitter, and stamps to make them all one of a kind Picasso's.  :)