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!