New hair doo-dads, cooking, grands, etc.

This will be a post covering many subjects......

Have you ever noticed on EBay some of the crazy-cheap items that come directly from China?  I have ordered several and have only been a little disappointed with one.  

Link for the recipe for the Pickle cheese spread that I talk about at the end of this post.  But I'm on my iPad and the Blogger app likes to do things it's own way. 

Those pictures don't really show the actual size but this stretchy elastic all rolled up was about the size of a big cookie and the envelope was just big enough for it.
Seems things in the US are shipped in packaging much larger than needed.  I recently got a tiny bottle of nail glue shipped in a 10 by 13 envelope.
Stuff coming straight from China also takes awhile, 3 weeks at least or longer.
This elastic was a true bargain.  

EBay polka dot elastic lot

What the elastic looked like after some of grands played with it 😱

I bought it to make headbands for myself.  I had enough to also make pony tail holders.  I made mine on the small side because I have thin, fine hair.  

This was a very quick project, I just cut them to comfortably go around and stay on my head and then tied a knot.  The Pinterest tutorials said to sear the ends to stop fraying but mine don't seem to be the fraying kind.  

I'm happy to have so many new hair so dads for $3ish.  

I'm still happily using Impress press on nails.  I can usually get two manicures from each set.  They cost about $6 a set.  I think $3 a manicure is a great deal as a gel manicure in my town is about $40. 

I haven't wrote out a pretty to do list in months but I did this week.  It's just notebook paper on a clipboard that hangs outside our pantry.  The washi tape was from Dollar Tree and all these stamps were from a thrift store.  

I don't always get it all done but the list helps keep me on track.  

One of the tasks was bread baking.  I mixed up two double batches of sandwich buns and one double batch of cinnamon raisin rolls.  The bread machine does most of the work for me. 

We eat some, we share them with family and they keep in the freezer beautifully. 

I rarely buy store bought bread.  

I try to garden but I truly don't have the green thumb gift.  But 2 years ago, my brother gave us a potted Easter lily.  When it was done blooming, I planted that bulb in our front flower bed.
I was so surprised when it rebloomed last spring.
And I was even more surprised to see that over the year, it has reproduced and is growing up lots of lilies.

The past weekend was busy as all our 8 grands were here off and on.  

I didn't take any group photos but I did get them to all help make this handprint rainbow of their sweet little hands.  

The younger the child, the harder it is to get a good handprint.  My brother and our oldest granddaughter helped with the painting and printing of the 

3 youngest.  

I wasn't sure how many people would be here and when over that weekend so I did some meal prep ahead.
I made 2 fresh fruit trays as all the grands like fruit and so do the adults. 

I also made a fresh vegetable tray and some dip made of cream cheese, dried beef and dill pickles.  I was inspired by a recipe Cheryl posted on her blog.
I was going to make Cole slaw too but ran out of prep time.  

Some clever letter rearranging

This was in yesterday's Oklahoman newspaper.

I think it's fun and clever. 

Anyone know any more  of these? 

live up to my motto day

hello - you all are so sweet and kind to be concerned and offer advice about that nasty stomach bug.
Currently, to the best of my knowledge,  all my family members are virus free and no one else has gotten sick.  So,  I am cautiously optimistic that a most unpleasant situation is over~!


Monday,  I spent most of the day cleaning our home with Lysol and Bleach.  - to obliterate any lingering germs.

Today,  our home wasn't really dirty but it definitely needed some attention,  just lots of things needed put away, etc.  So I wrote out this list and got started

Before in the living room

after- toys put away, blankets straightened, some clutter cleared and the Valentine decorations all packed away  

well - there doesn't seem to be a before in the master bedroom but here is the after- bed made,  clutter dealt with, everything dusted

laundry room before- just little laundry

all laundry done and put away

kitchen- before

after- there were lots of odds and ends on every surface- all put away now!

Pantry- this wasn't on my list but it should of been.  It was messy

after an hour,  the pantry is much better and I found several things I thought we were out of. 

dining room before

dining room- midway- I had time cut out a kimono top for me from an internet tutorial.  Ill let you all know how it turns out after I sew it.  It was very fast to cut out.
I also found a square tablecloth while I was looking for fabric. 

I cut down the table cloth and made a super simple and fast table runner.  I've been wanting to do something for this table for awhile and this project was just the spruce up I was hoping for. 

That's my day.  I did some stuff and stuff got done. 

hope you all are getting stuff done that you want to do too!

A little sick here, a lot of sick there, sick everywhere

There is a stomach bug going around our area that seems to be visiting almost everyone. Some people are just sick a couple days.  Others are sick for a week.   And after the bug seems to be gone, it sometimes comes back.
All our grands have had it.  Some of their parents have had it.  My dad was so sick, he needed rehydration by IV at the emergency room.  My husband and I had a short-lived bout with it.

Some school districts have closed.

Anyway,  I am really concerned about it and did some research,
These 2 graphics  are from  stopthesromachflu.com

This one really has lots of points that I never thought of.  I had no idea this bug could be contagious so long.  

There are also lots of natural ways to help with this bug on Pinterest.  

I hope none of you are dealing with this but if you are,  some of this might help.  

We had some lemon lime soda, jello, Gatorade, bananas, rice and saltine crackers on hand before we got sick.  We sure appreciated having these things here and not having to ask for help.  I will be restocking those things very soon - just in case! 

No,  I have not been sick the entire time since I last posted, and I will have a more normal post soon. 

Recipes, Mabel and sewing

First, here is a link to a recipe like the dish I cooked 2 days ago.  The original blog where I found it doesn't seem to be available any more.  This recipe is just like the one I used, except I've used lean ground beef and lean ground turkey for the meat.  This one uses sausage which I am sure is good too.
Also, we cook the rice separately and serve the bean mixture on top of a spoon full of white rice.
SpicyCajunRice


The cheeseburger soup was a blend of 2 Internet recipes.  I'll try to explain what I did
Brown about a 1/2 pound of lean ground beef with 1/2 a chopped onion.
When that's done, add about 3 big potatos, peeled and diced, 3 carrots, peeled and diced and 1/2 cup finely diced celery.  Pour in about a quart of chicken broth and bring to a simmer
When the vegetables are tender, add 2 cups of milk that has been whisked with 1/4 cup of flour and about 1 cup of diced velveeta chees.
Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer until slightly thickened and the cheese is melted.
This soup is good and reheats nicely.  Despite it's name, it tastes nothing like an American Cheeseburger.  You could easily use your choice of vegetables and cheese.




Second,  Mabel the puppy, has been with us for 1 month and we estimate she is 3 months old.
She is growing but not a lot.  She happily eats Puppy Chow and sleeps in her crate.
She likes all the grands and is sweet to them (but 2 of the grands don't like her and we hope they will come around)
She doesn't shed much and she creates an illusion that all our tile floors are clean as she searches out and licks up any crumb or splatter.

Third, I've had time sew this week because some our grands have had a virus and have stayed home.  They are all on the mend and the virus didn't spread to any one else because their parents kept them home.

I bought a chevron beach towel when CVS was doing their summer clearance and I think it cost about $2.  I cut it up and hemmed the edges to make 4 hand towels and 2 wash cloths.  They will be going to one set of the grands for their bathroom.

I finished the 3 double sided fleece blankets.
This one, I sewed the 2 pieces about 1 1/2 inches from the edge and then cut fringe about 1/2 inch wide.  It took more time but I think it will the favorite of the grandgirls.

This one has rounded corners and is sewn about 1/2 inch from the edge.

The red and black fleeces are both fuzzier than the pink ones.

They will all be quite warm being double sided.  

That's what has been getting done here 😄

Cooking, tackling a job and some sewing

This post is far from perfect - I did it on the iPad with the blogger app that has a mind of it's own 😫

hello everyone
Yesterday, I spent about an hour cooking 2 dishes that will feed us several times.
I made a batch of cheeseburger soup where I loosely followed 2 recipes.
The other was a batch of Dirt E Rice, which is a Trim Healthy Mama diet recipe, and we just like the way it tastes.
I used  a pound and half package of lean ground beef and divided it for the 2 recipes.  They both use basic ingredients,  what you see in the photo as well as bell pepper and sage in the rice dish, and milk and cheese in the soup.

I know some people turn up there noses  at leftovers but we really like have homemade food that we can reheat and enjoy at our convenience.  

Wendi at My Heart Is Always Home has  been doing some Tackle It Tuesday projects where she cleans and organizes small areas in her home.  Earlier this week I straightened up our extra pantry.  

Today I worked on our silver ware drawer.  

 Before and it is just crazy how many crumbs were hiding in there 😱

After - yes we have lots of silverware - and it gets used when we have a big family gathering.  I happily use paper plates then but we all prefer real flatware.

I also worked on making 3 reversible fleece blankets from the Joann remnants.  

They were quick to sew up and I'll show the finished blankets tomorrow.  Right now they are in the washer,

Our big table was a nice surface to spread out the fabrics and trim them. 

See the plastic sack? My sewing tip is to keep a sack handy for corralling all the unusable scraps as you work and then just throw it all away