Reusable Nursing pads

This is a super old project that I never posted on because, well, let's just say I am busy...  Hence the not posting for 7 months.  Oops.  Anywho, I loved these little lifesavers and they saved me a bundle since I didn't have to buy nursing pads for the year and couple months that I breastfed.

My breast feeding experience included a lot of leaking. My milk supply is shall we say... Ample. To give you a nice TMI, if I didn't nurse or express frequently enough, I was likely to shoot your eye out. As a result I burned through breast pads pretty quickly. I didn't want to use disposables since I was trying to be eco friendly, and the reusable pads I found didn't quite work.  The store bought ones were itchy, the handmade ones seemed really expensive, and ones that didn't have the drawbacks above couldn't dried in a dryer.  I laugh thinking about hanging up or laying out billions of tiny little fabric rounds.  People already thought they were coasters all the time.  So not working for me.

So, of course, I decided to make my own. I made some burp cloths and swaddle blankets so I had lots of scrap flannel lying around. I didn't trust layers of flannel to be absorbent enough so I cut up towels to layer between two pretty flannel pieces.

Reusable Nursing Pads

1) Make a cardboard template. Find a circle to use, like a coaster (haha) or bowl, or draw one with a compass (or use the string and a pin method). Mine was about 4" in diameter although a bit bigger might be nice for larger breasted mommies.  I am rather small busted, so adjust as you see fit.

2) Use your template to trace circles on your flannel and your old towel.  You can use a sharpie for this as you will be cutting them out, and if you have a serger, you will be trimming off the ends. For each pair you need 4 flannel circles for the outside and 2 terry cloth (towel) circles for the absorbent layer.

3) Cut out the circles and stack them up flannel, towel, flannel. Make sure the pretty side of the flannel is facing out.  Line up the edges the best you can.

4) Serge the edges, going slowly enough to keep the round shape and all the layers even. Make sure the layers don't bunch. If bunching is a problem, baste the layers together in an x before serging. This should help.  If you don't own a serger, you can turn and top stitch.  It will take longer, but is still really cheap and easy!

Some people say to use PUL (a waterproof material) for the backing. I'm a little afraid to use waterproof material because it's not breathable and can encourage yeast growth which causes thrush.

Don't want to make them yourself?  Check out my Etsy shop to buy a few pairs!

Bleach pen shirt for the cotton anniversary

This is another t shirt craft that I made with a ruined shirt.  Somehow it managed to get some bleach speckles on it - nothing huge mind you, but ugly nonetheless.  Hubs wears these as undershirts anyway, so it stayed in rotation for a good long time, but I finally got tired of seeing him wear it NOT as an undershirt and cringing at the orangey-brown bleach marks.  So I on-purpose bleached the heck out of it!  Stylishly of course...

Stupid bleach spots... I'm gonna cover you!

I made this do double duty as an anniversary gift for Hubs.  I am trying to do a handmade gift every year that corresponds with the traditional list of anniversary gifts (year one is paper, year two is cotton, year three is... well we haven't gotten to 3 years so I don't know yet haha).  Last year I made him a photo book on Blurb.com that was a fairytale starting with how and where we met all the way through our son's birth and so on.  It spanned about 6 years, so there were lots of great pictures and it was both sweet and funny.  This year, I took his shirt and wrote the lyrics to "Lucky" by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat.  Bleach pen shirts are all over the interwebz, so I wont go over board on the instructions, but I will share some of my experience with you.

You will need:
a Clorox bleach pen (don't get the color safe one!)
a dark colored t-shirt, preferably a ruined one :-)
several pieces of cardboard that fit in the sleeves and across the whole center of the shirt
latex/rubber gloves
a printed out sheet of your lyrics, poem, whatever
a large work area (I used my floor, but the kitchen table would have been easier)
A full bottle of hydrogen peroxide
A sink or tub for rinsing
a load of whites in the washing machine

Step 1: Arrange your cardboard inside your shirt under the area you want to write on first.  Make sure you slip it between the front and back unless you want bleach bleed through.  I guess that is a look if you want to go for it, but the bleach will soak through unevenly, so beware.  Figure out how you want your writing to look.  If you want, start below the collar to write straight, or you can write on a diagonal across the whole shirt, or you can do a spiral or something else cool - use your imagination.  The song I liked has an interlude by both singers, so I wrote one on each side of the collar then the chorus started across the whole middle.

Step 2: Put on your gloves and begin writing.  Use the narrow tip end of the bleach pen and GENTLY squeeze as you write.  To get it started you may want to dab at a piece of scrap something to get the tip of the pen wet with bleach gel.  You don't need a lot of bleach to make it work, and the less you get out the less it will run and get "blobby" so a thin layer is best.  Just make sure it looks a little wet.  Don't worry overmuch about your penmanship as it will look cool and stylized and nothing like your actual writing, but do leave a little extra space between letters so they don't run together.  Mine is only barely legible, but I like it that way.  Make your letters as big as you want to fit your words well in the pattern you have chosen.  I did a mix of cursive and all caps to lend emphasis and style.  If you want, you can write in chalk first and then trace your letters with the bleach, but I am not that patient, so I went for the big time right away.

Step 3: Write fast.  No, seriously.  You can really damage your shirt if you go too slowly because just like when you get highlights, the bleach is blowing out proteins in the fiber of the shirt which removes the color, but can create holes if you leave it too long.  As you move down the shirt you can skooch the cardboard down with you if you don't have a piece big enough to cover the whole thing, so you aren't bleeding through.  You run less risk of bleed through once you are done writing on the section unless you have saturated the fibers with bleach, which I already told you not to... just sayin.

Step 4: If you are concerned about taking too long to do the whole shirt, take the shirt to the sink and wash out the excess bleach.  Leaving your gloves on, run some water over the shirt and quickly rub out the bleach under the stream.  Work from the top to bottom (or from the words you wrote first to the ones you wrote last).  If you work reasonably quickly and rinse well you wont bleach out the background by rubbing the gel over it.  Squeeze out the excess water.  Pour a little hydrogen peroxide over the lettering until the shirt is saturated, let it sit for a minute or so, then rinse it out.  This will counteract the action of the bleach so you don't continue the chemical reaction blah blah blah.  I used vinegar for mine, but apparently that is super dangerous as the leftover bleach and vinegar can create an INCREDIBLY dangerous gas, so don't do that.  I read up on it since and supposedly peroxide is much safer.  I'm no chemist, so if you injure yourself, please don't sue.  I'm just doin my best here folks :-)  I think I rinsed mine well enough to not run any risk of the chemical reaction, but please be safe.  The gas is so dangerous we are talking one good whiff and you are DEAD.  Double Plus Ungood.

The downside to all this is that you will want to let your shirt at least mostly dry out if not totally before you go back to working on it.  Remember how impatient I am?  But the upside is that you will end up with a much more consistent text color rather than having super light at the top and super dark at the bottom, and the top will be less likely to develop holes over time as you wear the garment.  Again, that whole less damage to the fibers thing.

Step 5: When you are totally done, rinse out the bleach as described in step 4, peroxide it and let it soak for a few, then rinse thoroughly.  Toss in the washer with whites that can handle the bleach (no silk undies) or in an empty washer but shame on you for wasting water, and run a full cycle on hot with two rinses.  I added vinegar to my fabric softener container so it would rinse with vinegar and stop that chemical reaction some more, but again, its up to you to determine the safety factors.  Dry as usual.  For the next few washes you may want to avoid washing with darks that may be damaged by bleach, but by this point with all the chemical neutralizing we have done, you are probably pretty safe.

Bottom Line:
shirt: free for me, but a new one runs maybe $5
peroxide: $1 from the dollar store, maybe less.
Bleach pen: about $3

Total - for me, $3.  Not bad for an anniversary gift!
If you have to buy everything, $9 (depending on how much writing you do, you may have enough bleach pen to do more shirts, too!)

Time: with no stops for rinsing, about 30 minutes plus washing and drying.  With stops for rinsing, about 2:30, maybe more if its a humid day.

I plan to play with this for more shirts that have been ruined by stains, bleach, etc, to give them a cool new life.  I also want to try the spray bottle bleach with a stencil method as that seems like it would go faster and has different options for graphics and large images.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and the hubs says he will totally wear it, so hooray!  Happy anniversary baby!

Orange cranberry rice recipe

Hey everyone!  I am super excited to share a tasty recipe I MADE ALL BY MYSELF.  That's right.  I rule.

Downside.  It was a last minute weeknight meal discovery, and I have no photos.  But I am sure you will do just fine.

Orange-cranberry rice with toasted almonds
1c almonds
1/2 c dried cranberries
2 c white jasmine rice (brown jasmine would work great too, but the cooking times will be different)
3 1/2 c water
1 orange

1) in a medium saucepan, combine the water and rice.  Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.

2) Rinse the outside of the orange off and remove labels, etc.  Zest the entire orange over the pan.  Cut the orange in half, and use a citrus press or your hands to squeeze the juice of the orange into the pan.  Add cranberries and gently fold to combine everything, being careful not to bruise the grains of rice (over stirring will make the rice very sticky). Cover the pan and cook about 20 minutes, or until rice is tender and all the water has been absorbed.

3) Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350.  Coarsely chop the almonds with a knife.  I have not yet found an "easy" way to do this that keeps my fingers safe, so just chop each one, one at a time.  You don't need to cut them really finely, just into 3 or 4 pieces from each almond.  Bigger gives more crunch!  Spread the nuts out on a baking sheet and bake the almonds about 7 minutes, or until they are lightly golden brown and fragrant.

4) Fluff the cooked rice with a fork and scoop onto a plate.  Sprinkle the nuts on top of the rice and serve.

I made this VERY impromptu side with Caribean Jerk Chicken that my hubs grilled up along with some veggie kabobs.  The sweet rice went very well with the spicy chicken, and the smoky grilled flavor of the veggies.  I wouldn't pair it with anything bland as I think the flavor will be really off, but with something spicy, it is perfect.  Hope you like it!
Enjoy!!

Homemade Sugar Free Applesauce

I started making applesauce for my son because I didn't trust commercial applesauces to actually be healthy and sugar free, and those little jars of baby food are way overpriced for just applesauce.  And then my husband tried it, you know, just licking off the spoon while feeding the baby.  Or something.  And now I am not ALLOWED to buy the store stuff haha.  Admittedly, I sometimes add a little brown sugar to get the apples to release their juices faster and add that caramel flavor, but its really not needed and I love the taste without.  This is a rough recipe because I usually make it "till it looks right" but I absolutely hate it when people say that in recipes, so I have done my best to measure things and time things at least generally.  Feel free to tweak where needed! :-)

Homemade Applesauce

4 Lbs of Apples - a mix of varieties is fine, and even recommended as long as they cook at roughly the same speed.  Choose a bagged bulk apple to save money.  Avoid using flavorless or overly tart apples like red delicious and granny smiths.  Try McIntosh, Pink Lady, Gala, Golden Delicious, or another tasty, firm fleshed variety.
2 t cinnamon
1/2 c raisins
Paring knife or peeler
chef's knife/santoku
Large stockpot or saucepan with a lid
food processor, blender, or potato masher
containers for storage

That's it!

1) Peel your apples using a paring knife or a vegetable peeler.  I prefer a knife because I think it actually goes faster while doing a better job and giving me more control, but I do tend to waste a little more apple.  If using a knife, make sure it is good and sharp to avoid slipping and cutting yourself!  Sharp knives are WAY less dangerous!

2) Once all your apples are peeled, use your chef knife to cut them into thin slices.  Rather than coring them the traditional way (cut into fourths and cut out the core with a paring knife, then slice into tiny wedges) which makes it hard to get even slices, try my way.  Put the apple on the board and place your knife about 1/4-1/2" away from the core.  Slice away that piece.

Put the apple cut side down on the cutting board and slice the same 1/4-1/2" away from the core on each side.

Turn to one side and cut out the last chunk.

I cut into the core which leaves hard pieces in the applesauce. Ick...

Hopefully you will have cleared the core!  If not try out a little farther on the next apple.  Slice each piece into thin slices (about 1/8" or so).  Try to keep your slices even.  If you have to, it is better to cut larger slices than to have uneven slices, because they will all cook at the same rate.  If you are very unsure of slices, cube them up.  Cubes work fine, but takes a little longer to cook.

Had to show off my good slicing!

3) Preheat your saucepan/stockpot on medium.  After all the apples are sliced, toss them in the pan.  They should sizzle just a tiny bit.  Cover the pot.  Stir them every 5 minutes or so, but try to keep them covered to keep in the moisture.  If the apples are sticking to the bottom, add a small amount of water (a Tablespoon or so) to loosen them up.  You may need to add more water if you have less juicy apples, but you would be surprised at how much water the apples release, and you are just diluting flavor when you add water, so hold off unless its absolutely necessary to keep them from burning!

If you don't see any steam, add a little water to the pot.

4) Cook about 15 minutes until the apples are starting to break down.  Add cinnamon and raisins to the pot. Cover and cook another 10-15 minutes until the apples are nicely broken down and the raisins are plump.

5) Dump the apples into a food processor or blender, or leave them in the pan and use a potato masher to smash them up (they may need to be a little more tender for the potato masher... use your judgement.  This is part of that "cook it till it looks right" thing haha).  Blend or process until the apples are in small pieces or completely blended if you want to use as a first food for babies.  I leave it chunky now because my 15 month old can handle it, but when he was first starting solids I added a little water or 100% juice and pureed the heck out of it!  It is delicious warm, or you can refrigerate 5 days or so, or freeze it in portions and thaw when you want it.  Makes roughly 5-6 cups. (10-12 jars of baby food)

Just add spoon.

If you like, you can add other dried fruit, add ginger or nutmeg with the cinnamon, or add some sugar.  Play with it and make it your own!  Hope you like it!

Tamale Pie Recipe

This is a long time coming to a lot of my friends and family.  I am terrible at remembering to give recipes to people.  Its not intentional as if I didn't want to share my culinary secrets or something, I am just really bad at remembering, and often too lazy to write things out via pen and ink or email.  Sue me.  I am busy surfing the web for random craft supplies.  Duh.  Anyway, this is a really popular (and super simple) recipe that I always get asked for.  Not sure exactly where it came from, although my mom says my grandma used to make it all the time.  So here it is!

Tamale Pie

Ingredients:
1 lb Hamburger, preferably ground chuck
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
1-16 oz can tomatoes (I have used diced and stewed; different flavors but both good)
1-16 ox can corn, drained
1 can black olives, drained and sliced (or buy sliced olives)
3 T chili powder
1 1/2 t salt
1 c cornmeal
1 c milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 c shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Step 1: Brown the hamburger and onion in a large saucepan.  Drain.  Add garlic and cook till fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Step 2: While meat is browning, mix together cornmeal, eggs, and milk. Set aside.

Step 3: Stir tomatoes (with liquid), olives, corn, chili powder, and salt in with the meat mixture.  Heat till boiling.  Pour into a 13x9 glass baking dish. Stir up the cornmeal mixture (it will settle very quickly, so do this or it will be an uneven crust) and pour it over the meat mixture.  Top with cheese.

Step 4: Bake the casserole for about 50 minutes, until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly and delicious looking.  Let stand a bit before serving.  EAT.

There you have it.  The mostly canned ingredients (which are staples in my pantry) make it a super easy and often last minute meal at my house.  Hope you like it!

Chalkboard wine glasses

This is my first post on a Christmas gift project idea for the year.  I am okay with posting this one because it is for a family member, not a friend.  You see, my family DOESN'T read my blog ;-)

My dad and his wife love hosting parties and they love wine, as does much of my family.  However, they always have the problem of who set their glass where, and am I drinking someone else's wine?  There have been many solutions to this problem, like wine glass charms, different glass styles, and the like, but when you are at a particularly GOOD party, and are half in the bag, its hard to remember if you were blue or green or if yours had that funny flourish thingy on the stem.  One thing you are unlikely to forget is your name, regardless of how drunk you are.  You get that at keggers with those little red cups and a sharpie, but that doesn't translate well to the world of wine.  I needed a real wine glass that was writable, preferably rewritable, and elegant.

So I set about making some glasses with chalkboard paint on them.  I was kind of unconvinced that it would come out well, but I figured with some goodwill glasses and the multi-surface paint I already had, it was worth a shot.  They came out pretty well!

I will say that I don't think the chalkboard paint will last forever, but I can totally scrape it off and reapply.  It wasn't a terribly labor intensive process, so I wouldn't mind spiffing them up every now and again.  I wouldn't recommend washing them in the dishwasher or leaving them to soak, but a gentle hand washing and drying seems like it wouldn't be a problem.

Supplies needed:
all surface or glass Chalkboard paint (I used Martha Stewart paint, available at Michael's)
paint brush
Wine glasses - go to the dollar store or goodwill and save yourself some money!
Xacto knife
contact paper (the kind you use to line shelves)
a nice pretty template (I used 2 for fun, found here and here)

Step 1:
Find your template and print it out.  Cut it out and use the inside piece to trace onto the contact paper as many times as needed for the number of glasses you are making. Make sure to leave enough space between tracings for a good solid border.  You will need at least half an inch (preferably more) around each template to mask off the glass.  Cut them out into individually rectangles.

Step 2:
Carefully cut out the middle of each template using your exacto knife.  Gently peel off the backing and adhere each one to the glasses, trying to keep the top aligned with the upper edge of the glass.  I found that using four fingers one on each corner, and pulling taut was the best way to keep the shape even.

Step 3:
Carefully apply the paint to the glass.  I used a natural bristle brush because it was what I had, but it royally sucked.  I think a synthetic brush would have worked better.  Mine left awful streaks.  Let it dry thoroughly between coats (at least an hour according to the bottle).  I used 4 coats.  I think a good rule of thumb is holding the glass up to the light with the painted part facing away from you.  When you can no longer see light through the painted part, you have sufficient coverage.

Step 4:
After letting the paint dry thoroughly overnight, its time to peel off the contact paper.  BE CAREFUL!  If you have ever painted anything and left the masking tape on, you know that the paint will peel up just as easily as the masking.  First, take your exacto knife and score around the edge of the shape.  Then, use the edge of the blade to gently push away the contact paper from one edge.  Cut out to the edge of the contact paper, and use that point to start peeling up the masking.

Score around the edge,

Pull away one small section and cut the template to the outside edge.

Then peel off carefully.

Step 5:

There will be some small spots where the paint bled under the masking.  Use the exacto blade to scrape off any excess and clean up the edges (sorry for the REALLY bad photo).  Next, rub chalk over the surface of the painted portion (to prime it and make it easier to write on), smooth it out with your finger, and write something clever.  Voila!  You're finished!

Pretty simple, right?  And at a dollar a glass and about $4 for the paint, its a pretty cheap gift, too!  I will stress, be careful about the scoring and peeling part.  I botched one of the glasses, but I figure its not that big a deal since they wont last forever anyway.  But just to make you feel better in case one of yours don't turn out either, here it is :-)

Crap.  Well, lesson learned.  Be careful. :-)

Pacifier Clips

I recently discovered a cool new craft website for supplies: KAMsnaps.com.  Not only is it an inexpensive site, it offers FREE SHIPPING on orders over $28.  Why $28 and not $25 or $30?  Who knows... but its an easy number to hit once you see how much awesomeness there is!  They also do a %5 back rewards program as well as offer incentives for referring friends (you will all cite me as your referring friend so I get free stuff, right?)  I got snap pliers from them for future diapering ventures as well as the plastic snaps to go with, but I also found pacifier clips.  PLASTIC ONES!  That are specifically designed to be pacifier clips!  And they are really cheap compared to Joann's suspender clips which is what I had been using.  At $0.33 a piece instead of $1.50, it is easier than ever to make affordable stuff for yourself or to sell and still make a profit.  Not to mention plastic, although less durable perhaps, seems like a better material for babies since its not full of sharp edges and they are so much lighter.  They also come in colors, so plain jane silver metal is totally out!  I got the clear ones to test out, but I plan to order more if they work well.
Anywho I made a few for the baby shower and decided to post a tutorial for them, although there are lots of tutes out there for these.

Materials:
Grosgrain ribbon wide enough to just fit through the clip (check this as it varies!!)
Narrower grosgrain ribbon in a coordinating color/pattern
Suspender clips or plastic pacifier clips
Sewing machine and coordinating thread
Pins
Snap pliers/press and snaps OR Velcro dots and a hot glue gun

Step 1) Cut both ribbons to about 8 inches. This will result in a somewhat short paci clip, but it won't pose a strangulation risk to your baby. Bonus :)

Step 2) Lay the narrow ribbon over the top of the fatter ribbon. Pin in place down the middle of the wider ribbon. Stitch across one end to hold the ribbon in place, then stitch down one of the long sides, across the other end, and back up the other long side. Be careful not to shift the ribbons or they will pull and pucker or curl.

across the end

down one side

across the other end

and back up the other side

viola!

Step 3) Snip both raw edges to make the ribbons even. Fold over the raw edge of the ribbon by 1/8"-1/4" and stitch. Fold under again and stitch, encasing the frayed edges. Repeat on the other side so both ends are finished.

Fold over raw edge

stitch

Fold over again

Stitch again.

Step 4) Thread the ribbon through the loop of the clip. Pull it through about half an inch and stitch. Make sure the clip will be right side up before you sew; the top of the clip should touch the right side of the ribbon as you see.

Step 5) Fold over about one inch of ribbon on the other end. Mark where you want your snaps or Velcro to be and apply, staying close to the finished edge on the one side. My photos show me adding snaps, but also show the kind of velcro I used for the first batch, just in case you wanted to try that route.
I used hot glue to affix Velcro to the ones for my son to augment the adhesive that comes on them because I didn't think it would hold up on its own. With daily use, drool, spit up, and chewing, it lasted about 6 months before I replaced it with the more durable plastic snaps. But I could have just re-glued it and been fine or replaced the Velcro. Just FYI...

Once you have the snaps or velcro done, you have a complete Pacifier clip!

Bottom Line:
Ribbon scraps and a roll bought at the dollar spot: $1
Snaps: really cheap once I bought the press and all.  I think its about $5 for 100.
Clips: $0.30
Total cost: less than $1

Total time: about 30 minutes, maybe less.  I made three at a time, so its hard to say how long one would take.
Retail cost: about $4 for one of those munchkin clips that I honestly think are too wide anyway. They always seem to bunch up around the pacifier.
Total savings: $3.  That's enough to make 3 more! :-)