Beach Towel Cover-up

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I saw a super cute homemade beach towel cover-up on this MADE blog.  Now, just so you know, I didn't plan using the exact same towel as she did, but it was the only towel that matched my swimming suit at Target.

It was super simple - the only pain was having to hand wind the elastic thread on the bobbin for the shirring.  I would definitely suggest making one though.  It's great because your towel stays on you without you having to wrap it or hold it in place - which is great when you have kids to take care of :)  Check out her instructions and if you have any questions let me know!

How to Keep Your Lettuce Fresh and Crisp

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I went to a cooking class a while ago and learned an awesome little trick on how to keep your lettuce fresh longer.  What's the trick?  Paper towels!  That's right!  You just need to put a folded up paper towel in your bag of lettuce.  Now, in the previous post, one of the foods to never buy again was bagged lettuce since it's much cheaper to buy a head of lettuce.  So if you buy a head of lettuce, you want to wrap the lettuce with a paper towel to remove all of the water they spray on it at the store.  Once you have removed the excess water,  get a new paper towel, wrap it around the lettuce and put it back in the produce bag.  This will seriously lengthen the lifespan of your lettuce.  Other things you can do are: keep it cool and give it room to breathe (store it in the produce drawer with lots of room so the leaves don't get bruised).

15 Foods You Should Never Buy Again

Pin It A while ago I found and article on yahoo.com on 15 foods you should never buy again. Now, I'll be honest, I will probably still buy some of these items again at some point because of convenience, but I the article helped me realize ways that I can still buy have these foods, but there are cheaper/better ways to get them.  You can find the article here: http://www.rd.com/home-garden/15-foods-you-should-never-buy-again/article179928.html#slide but I will be summing it up for you too :)

1 - Gourmet frozen vegetables - You can add butter and herbs to the normal frozen veggies.
2 - Microwave sandwiches - Pre-made sandwiches of any kind are extremely over priced.
3 - Premium frozen fruit bars - The article said you pay nearly $2/fruit bar.  They suggested buying the ice-pop molds or small paper cups and making your own.  This is the recipe they gave for fruit bars:
Throw 2 cups cut-up fruit, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice into a blender. Cover and blend until smooth. You might wish to add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water so the final mix is a thick slush. Pour into 4-ounce pop molds or paper cups, insert sticks, and freeze until solid.
4 - Boxed rice entree or side-dish mixes - These consist of basically rice, salt and spices.  You can buy a bag of rice add your own herbs/seasoning and then cook the rice according to the package directions for much cheaper.
5 - Energy or protein bars - people think they are more wholesome than a candy bar, but they are also very high in fat and sugar contents and usually just as caloric as a candy bar; plus they are $2-$3 a bar!  The suggest eating a piece of fruit, a yogurt or a small handful of nuts.
6 - Spice mixes - Grill mixes and other spice mixes seem like a good buy, but when you look at the list of ingredients you will see the first ingredient is salt, followed by the vague "herbs and spices".  They suggest making your own rubs.
7 - Powdered ice tea mixes or prepared flavored ice tea - they suggest making your own.  Apparently most tea-bag boxes have recipes.  I don't drink tea, so this one didn't apply to me so much.
8 - Bottled water - It's a bad investment for many reasons - tap water is much cheaper, it's not even better for your health than the stuff coming out of the tap.  Buy a filter if you want and save money, but hate tap water.  All of the bottles are a waste also.
9 - Salad kits - While they can be a time saver, they can cost 3 times as much as buying the same amount of a head of lettuce.  Even more expensive are the kits that come with a small bag of dressing and a small bag of croutons.  If you are wanting to save even more money, you can make your own croutons by toasting cut-up stale bread that you would otherwise toss.  I myself have switched to using heads of lettuce and it really does save money, not to mention my salads look/taste better.
10 - Individual servings of anything - Buy a big box and then parcel out the single servings.  We all know buying in bulk is cheaper!
11 - Trail mix - The article said they were shocked when they found that the trail mixes sold in the candy isle were costing about $10/pound!  They suggest making your own, it's cheaper and you get to add what you want.
12 - "Snack" or "lunch" packs - I loved lunchables as a kid, but now I realize just how over priced they really are.  You can make your own for soo sooo much cheaper!
13 - Gourmet ice cream - There is usually at least one brand of ice cream on sale.  Don't pay $6 for a gallon of designer brand ice cream.
14 - Pre-formed meat patties - The timed it, and it takes less than 10 seconds to form a flat circle and throw it on the grill.  I think 10 seconds is probably a little too short to patty the burger AND put it on the grill, but it definitely doesn't take long to do it and fresh is always better!
15 - Tomato-based pasta sauces - They suggest making your own sauces from canned, crushed or fresh tomatoes.  Here is a little recipe of theirs: The easiest method is to put crushed tomatoes (canned or fresh) into a skillet, stir in some wine or wine vinegar, a little sugar, your favorite herbs, and whatever chopped vegetables you like in your sauce — peppers, onions, mushrooms, even carrots — and let simmer for an hour. Adjust the flavorings and serve. Even better: Coat fresh tomatoes and the top of a cooking sheet with olive oil and roast the tomatoes for 20 to 30 minutes at 425˚F before making your stovetop sauce.
    

Baby Headbands

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Baby headbands and flowers can really add up when you want to have one that matches every outfit.  My cousin Mindy, gave me a little headband for my baby shower that was made out of tights.  It has a ribbon on the top so you can easily clip on new flowers.  I was at Robert's Craft and found some flower kits in their scrap booking section.  I was able to make 24 different flowers to use for Claire's headbands.  I also saved ribbon from gifts and made bows that could be clipped onto the headband.  I purchased some little alligator clips at Roberts as well, though Mindy told me you can get clips at Sally's for really cheap.  I'm gonna try that next time.  Here are some of the little flowers/bows that I made:

 Rather than paying $4 for each separate bow I was able to make 24 of them for close to $12 and will be cheaper next time since I already have the ribbon :)  If you need help in making them please let me know.  I can help you out!

Grillin' Cupcakes

Pin It I had some leftover cupcakes from when I made the hamburgers, so I decided to try these also.  I saw them on Fun Family's website.  Since I had leftover yellow cake cupcakes, I used chocolate frosting for the dark part of the cupcake.  I believe Fun Family used chocolate cupcakes and didn't frost them.  Then I put a few orange sprinkles for the "fire/coals"  - which in hind site, I think needed to be brighter.  I mixed the red, green and yellow frosting I had left over from the hamburgers and added a little blue food coloring to get the purple/gray color of frosting for the "grill" part.

Then I grabbed some hot tamales and used chocolate frosting to make the grill marks on them.  That completed to hot dog cupcakes:

For the shish kabobs, I cut up hot tamales and starbursts and put them on a toothpick:

Mini Hamburger Cupcakes

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We are having a BBQ at our friends house tonight.  I had seen these online at Cupcakes Take the Cake before and wanted to try them out.  There are some things I would change the next time I do them - which I will mention a bit later.

The first thing I did was bake brownies in a 9x13 pan.  I then used yellow cake mix to make some cupcakes.  My first batch of cupcakes, I followed the normal directions and filled the cup 2/3 full with the batter.  The cupcakes were too tall and much too wide at the top.  The next batch I filled the cups 1/2 full and they were perfect. Next time I make these, I would like to try baking the cupcakes without the paper cups so the "buns" don't have little indents.

I cut the cupcakes in half and then started working on the meat part (the brownies).  To make the burger patty look more realistic, I molded the brownies.  To do this I just cut out little circles and then patted them out until I had the right shape and size.

 

For the cheese, I used white chocolate that I dyed with food coloring.  I spread the chocolate out on wax paper and let it harden.  

 Then I cut out little square and using a large knife, I lifted up the pieces and placed them on top of the brownie.

  DO NOT lay the top of the cupcake down on the counter.  Put the cut side down.  The top will get stuck to the counter and your bun will not look as nice.

Next, I took a package of frosting and colored it red, yellow and green.  For the ketchup, mustard and lettuce.  On the site I mentioned above, they used shredded coconut that was dyed green for the lettuce.  I would like to try that sometime, but I wasn't sure everyone who was going to be at this party liked coconut.

Since I do not have a cake decorating set, I just used ziplock bags to do my frosting.

I wasn't able to get the dark red color I would have liked, and will probably just by some red frosting next time.  After I put the frosting on, I topped the burger off with the top of the cupcake.

On Cupcakes Take the Cake, they put sesame seeds on top of the cupcakes.  That didn't sound very good to me, so I didn't do it.  Here are the finished products:

Baby Dress Out of My Old Skirt

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I have heard of people making baby clothes out of their old clothes.  I decided to try and make my daughter, Claire, a dress out of one of my old skirts. Here is what I did:

Here is my old skirt before I cut it up:

I then measured the length that I wanted the bottom of the dress to be and cut off the extra.

This skirt had two layers, the top layer is sheer and the bottom layer is a cute salmon colored fabric.

Using a dress of Claire's, I traced the pieces I would need for the top of her dress.

I bought some green fabric and sewed it around the neckline.

Then I sewed the top pieces together - making sure to leave arm holes an the bottom open.  I did a gather on the top of the "skirt" part of the dress.  I then sewed the top and bottom pieces together and added some ribbon to the bottom.  This is the finished product:

 And here is Claire modeling it for you:

For my first attempt at doing this, I think it turned out pretty well.  I can't wait to make another one!If you have any questions about how to do this, please ask!