Grocery Shrink

I love felt!  It is inexpensive and perfect for the beginner crafter since it doesn't ravel.  You can sew it, glue it or needle felt it together. 

Remember colorforms?  A creative mom to five children translated this idea into felt! You can see her creations at her etsy site:  http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_gallery_8&listing_id=17408633  She said a do it yourself pattern was on her to do list, but could be awhile before it comes out.  As a fellow mom of 5, I can understand that!

With a litle imagination–this (above) becomes this (below)!

I’ve heard from a lot of FOX 4 viewers, requesting our mini pizza recipe.  So here it is!  You will love how fast and simple it is.

Spread leftover spaghetti sauce on day old hamburger buns.  (We get 100% whole wheat buns from our local day old bread outlet.)  Top with leftover hamburger, pepperoni and whatever you like (mushrooms, olives, onions, peppers, etc.) Sprinkle with grated cheese and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown.

These taste better when kids make them and it’s worth the extra mess caused by letting them help.

Tip:  You can make plain hamburger or ground turkey taste like Italian sausage by adding 1t garlic salt, 1 t whole fennel, 1 t Italian seasoning, and 1/8 t cayenne to 1 lb of meat as  you brown it.  Next time you are at the store compare the price of ground Turkey ($1 at Aldi) and Italian Sausage ($3) and save!  Not to mention that the ground Turkey is lower in fat and calories!

Heather Claybrook, anchor from Fox 4 news in K.C. came to our home last August to do a feature story on the Grocery Shrink!  It aired last night and I was so happy with the final product.  Heather did a great job and is a beautiful person, inside and out.  Here's a link to the story:  http://www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=7884110&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1 

and a link to the video:  http://www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/MyFox/pages/sidebar_video.jsp?contentId=7886607&version=1&locale=EN-US

If you have a little sewing experience felt books are fun to make and make great gifts for toddlers.  Here are some ideas:

Gifts by Hand http://giftsbyhand.blogspot.com/2008/11/traveling-race-track-book.html has thought of a great racetrack book for the little boy in your life.  It includes 2 tracks and a pocket in the back to hold matchbox cars.  They are available for sale in her etsy shop:  http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16929169&ref=em 

She also has a cute doll house book available:  http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_2&listing_id=17101208

Martha Stewart has some great directions for a felt book here:  http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/quiet-book?autonomy_kw=felt%20book&rsc=header_2

I bought this pattern and am having fun putting a book together:  http://www.keepsakequilting.com/productdetail/2927.htm  It is fun and not too difficult, but very time consuming!  It's a great way to use up scraps and shows how to mix fun cotton prints with the felt.

Check out this link to see what other creative people have done. http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_type=tag_title&search_query=quiet+book

This is a diaper cake I made for a baby shower in October.  I found the inspiration here:  http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2007/09/diaper-cake-tutorial.html I was on a tight budget for the shower, so I made some modifications to the design.  The cake is sitting on a metal platter from Deals ($1) and I gave it to the mom-to-be as part of the cake.  I used one size of diapers.  The cake took 2 packages of newborn diapers ($10 from Walmart) but there were significant diapers left over from the second bag.  I used a wrapping paper tube for the center of the cake (I unrolled the paper to use it :).  And did not worry about a cardboard support for each layer.  I used plain brown rubberbands as they were much less expensive than clear ones.  The doilies and ribbon were left over from a previous craft and the roses were made from the driections found here:  http://www.marthastewart.com/article/paper-roses?autonomy_kw=coffee%20filter%20roses  (The leaves were cut out of coffee filter scraps and painted with water diluted acryllic craft paint.)I did buy the filters and 2 tubes of water colors, but I have lots of that left over for another craft.   A beautiful arrangement of these roses would make a lovely Christmas or Birthday gift and could be accomplished in an afternoon.

 About 3 days ago, I noticed my envelope system was missing.  I wasn’t too worried about it because the zipper on my purse is broken, which gives baby Brandon free access to all the goodies in there.  I figured I would find it under a chair or something sometime.  Well, as the week wore on, I was getting pretty concerned.  That envelope system had ALL our cash for the rest of November.  Our milk was getting low and I only had a few diapers left.  I told myself it would be okay.  We have dry milk and cloth diapers and a food pantry to get us through.  But I made it a serious matter of prayer.  If I’m going to blow $300 I could think of a lot better things to blow it on, than just losing it.  I prayed that the Lord would help me find it, but if it wasn’t meant for me to find, then to put the money to good use.  It’s all His money anyway.   I don’t have a lot of identifying information in my envelope system.  No bank cards, driver’s license etc.  I keep that stuff separate so if a purse snatcher reached in for something, chances are I’d still have half my important things.   

We cleaned our house from top to bottom (company coming and all J.) But never found it.  I took the car to the carwash and shoveled out all the stale French fries, broken crayons, leaf collections, Sunday School papers…. (Please tell me I’m not the only one with a car like that.) And never found it.  I started figuring out my what-if plan.  It didn’t sound fun.  I had promised to take a potential recruit to dinner tonight.  So I’ll make her my awesome homemade pizza instead.  Where are those cloth diapers anyway?…..Ring, ring.  “Hello?”  

            “Hello, is Angela Coffman there.  This is Ruby Tuesdays….”

            “Gasp, you found my wallet?”

            “Yes ma’am.”

            “There was money in it…”

            “Yes, ma’am there’s a lot of money in it.”

            “Oh!  I’m going to cry…sob

I was babysitting today and had 7 children that wouldn’t fit in my car.  My beautiful mother went and picked up my wallet for me and gave the honest waitress a $20 reward.  Good thinking, mom.  She told me that the only identifying piece in my wallet was an expired membership to Nature's Pantry.  It happened to have my name on it.

We took my parents to the restaurant last Saturday for dinner as a thank you for all the babysitting they've done for us recently.  It hadn't even crossed my mind to look at the restaurant.  To be honest, I  didn't even remember going there until they called. 

Rejoice with me as I praise the Lord.

(Now to get a purse that zips!)

I love candy corn!  The tiny little nuggest of honey sweetness make my mouth happy.  My kids love them too.  Candy corn is a great motivator to get my children to practice their piano and violins.  I’ve had a hankering to make some cute candy corn cookies and found a couple of neat recipes.  The first one is from Country Living Magazine http://www.countryliving.com/halloween/autumn-treats-1007.  These cookies would be the perfect thing to take to a Thanksgiving gathering!  They recommend tinting refrigerator cookie dough orange.  Cutting out triangle shapes and baking the cookies.  Then dipping the wide end in melted chocolate and the tip in white chocolate.  I plan to try it by making my sugar dough from scratch and throwing in a box of orange gelatin to tint and flavor the dough.  I like orange and chocolate together–a lot!

The next recipe is for slice and bake cookies from Taste of Home Magazine http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Candy-Corn-Cookies  They consider this a halloween treat.  We don’t celebrate halloween around here and figure corn makes a lot of sense at harvest and Thanksgiving.