T.A.A.F.O.M.F.T.

These are a few of my favorite things!

Guess what I love?  My new Mukluks!  These were my early Christmas present to myself and they are fabulous!  Admittedly the style and colors are a little crazy, but as far as comfort and warmth they cannot be beat.

Happy Thursday everyone!

Salad in a jar - I finally tried it!

So I absolutely adore Paula Rhodes blog http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/.  I don't remember how long ago it was that I came across her youtube video, but I have been wanting to try out her technique ever since. 

When I first came across her idea she was using a FoodSaver vacuum-pack machine, which I knew I'd never be able to afford.  Budget-wise I couldn't justify the expense.  But I still loved the idea of making a week's worth of salads all at once and not having to worry about them going bad.  Dieting is hard enough so why not make part of the meal preparation easier?  And packing David's lunch in the mornings takes so much time so anything to help there makes me happy too!

Since I started school back in January I've had little time to blog or even read up on my favorite blogs, but a couple of  months ago I checked back in on Paula's blog.  She has since done an updated version and had some lower cost alternatives for vacuum sealing.  The blog post can be seen here:

http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/family-recipes/which-vacuum-pack-machine-should-i-buy-to-make-salad-in-a-jar

I've had all of my equipment for well over a month now, but tonight was the first time that I actually got to try them out.  First I purchased a salad spinner from Walmart.  It's nothing fancy and I think was less than $10.  Removing as much moisture as possible is one of the tricks to salad in a jar.

I also purchased a dozen quart size mason jars from Walmart.  These were around $10 as well.  The only bad review that I found about the jars was that the sealant in the lids contains BPA.  There are other companies that you can buy lids from that are BPA free, but that's an expense that I'll worry with another time.  Paula's blog mentioned that wide mouth jars made the process much easier so I went with those.  I'm not sure what size jars Paula is using in the original video, they could be quarts, but I figured this would be a good place to start.

I bought a huge bag of romaine lettuce from Sams Club that had five heads for about $2.50.  Unfortunately I got busy (as usual) and it sat in the fridge for over a week.  I had to peel off all of the brown pieces and throw quite a bit of it away, but I chopped up the rest and crammed it all into four jars.

On the original video I didn't see anything being added to the jars other than romaine lettuce, but I wanted to see how other ingredients would hold up.  I love tomatoes, but David does not so I only added them to two jars.  I added cheddar cheese to two jars and shredded parmesan to the other two.  Then I finished them all off with real bacon bits.  David likes croutons, but I knew they would get soggy so I left them out.  I figure they can be included in a separate tupperware container and the dressing will have to be as well.

After reading Paula's post about choosing a vacuum-pack machine and reading reviews online I went with the FoodSaver FreshSaver handheld vac.  I bought mine from amazon for about $15.  I also purchased the wide mouth jar sealer from amazon for $10.

The process is pretty simple.  After filling the jars you put on the lids and the wide mouth jar sealer fits snugly on top.  The FreshSaver sits on top of that.  You do have to apply pressure as you are holding in the button to suck out all of the air.  After just a while you will hear a pop to signal the lid has been sealed.  Screw the rings on and you're done!

Right now I have four days worth of salads.  I'm keeping them in the crisper section of my fridge.  It will be interesting to see how well these keep.  I wonder if the cheese will get soggy.  If they all hold well then I'll definitely start making a week's worth at a time.  I'd also like to try adding cut-up pieces of pre-cooked skinless chicken breasts, but I don't know how well they will keep.  Maybe changing up the order would help too - putting the chicken in first, then cheese, then bacon bits, tomatoes, and lettuce.  Who knows?

Happy Wednesday everyone!

DIY - Soda Bottle Terrarium

 

This is a fun nerdy little project that decided to do.  I haven't made one of these since I was a kid!  Here is a great tutorial that I found online in case you want some step-by-step instructions -

http://www.melindamyers.com/pdf/Create-Your-Own-Terrarium.pdf

I bought these little seed starter kits from Michael's clearance aisle a few months ago.  They're shaped like those plastic Easter eggs with a prize inside that you get out of quarter machines in gas stations or the grocery store lobby.  They came with a tiny little packet of dirt and a packet of seeds.  Mine were mini cactus.  Anyway, I planted them, added the water, and left them sitting out in the sun toward the end of the summer.  Months went by and nothing happened.  I brought them in when the weather turned cold, sat them in a window sill, and finally these cute little green guys started sprouting up!

I wanted to plant them in something bigger to give them a better chance to survive, but with it being November I didn't want to spend alot of money on a fancy terrarium, so I decided to use supplies that I already had around the apartment.  First I started with an empty Dr. Pepper 2 liter.  I removed the label and then drew a line approximately 4-1/2 inches up the bottle.  I started a hole with an Xacto knife and then used scissors to finish cutting the bottle in two.

The bottom layer of the terrarium is lined with rocks.  Given that I have a 75 gallon aquarium I have plenty of rocks/gravel lying around.  My turtles Herman and Cecil tend to eat anything (and everything!) so I can't put small rocks in their tank anymore.

The tutorial I used suggested a layer of gardener's carbon.  From everything I read aquarium activated carbon is the same thing so I just used some that I already had on hand.

*Unrelated side note:  I prefer the Rena Filstar to the Fluval aquarium filter, but Fluval carbon is cheaper at the pet store*

The third layer is potting soil.  Probably most of you still have some of this lying around in your garage or basement left over from earlier this year.

I transplanted all of the tiny cactus sprouts and then put the top of the bottle back on.  I cut 4 small slits around the edge in order to get the top to slide down over the bottom.  This was by far the most difficult part and it didn't fit perfectly, but again this is just a cheap project that I hope will last through until warm weather comes again.  I spritzed the soil and sides with water and put the cap back on.  I'm going to sit the terrarium in the window sill and let the sun help some of the water absorb back up out of the soil and create a nice warm self-contained environment.  If the insides get too foggy all you have to do is remove the cap for a day or so and let the inside air out for a bit.

Here's hoping that my cheap little project actually works!  Happy Monday everyone!

Pinterest in action! T-shirt organization

It's been a long time since I've blogged - almost 6 months!  I made the decision to go back to school in January so this has been quite a busy year.  I went to college straight of high school and the first time around got a BBA.  The problem that I've had is finding good-paying, long-term employment in my area.  So that's when the idea of second degree came up.  This spring I took a CNA class and at the same time took Microbiology and Medical Terminology at a local community college.  Summer term I took Anatomy & Physiology I and an Intro. to Psychology class.  This fall I'm currently enrolled in Anatomy and Physiology II and a Computer Concepts class.  My plan is to apply to Nursing school and become an RN.  I'd also be interested in Hospital Management somewhere down the road.  My sister, who is an RN and currently in NP school has become my mentor and is a constant source of help, praise, and motivation.

I also started back to work this past April, after being out of work since September of 2010.  I'm working right now as an elder caregiver, which has probably taught me more than any other job in my life.  One of my first client's was a wonderful lady who was in hospice care at her home.  I spent the last 48 days of her life with her, including her 85th birthday :)

Needless to say my blog posts may be few and far between in the coming months and years, but it is still my goal to keep the blog active.  I constantly take pictures of my craft projects so I have quite a few things to share, I just need the time to get everything uploaded.

I thought that I'd start with something that I actually worked on today.  Laundry is something that David and I have struggled to keep up with, especially now with me in school and both of us working full time jobs.  There is this endless cycle of one load in the washer, one in the dryer, and the few clothes that make it out of the dryer that aren't immediately worn have taken over our dining room table in a semi-folded, semi-laid-out way to at least avoid wrinkles.  More than once a load has had to be rewashed as it was forgotten in the washer.

One thing that I recently bought to try and help us was a laundry sorter.  I got this one from Walmart.  It could stand to be made a bit more sturdy, but other than that it serves it's purpose well.  Instead of throwing dirty clothes and towels all together into the laundry basket we now sort them right away into lights, darks, and towels/jackets/bigger items.  I keep the sorter in the bedroom (where most of the dirty clothes end up) and then when it's full I roll it right up to the washing machine.  The bags are the perfect size for one load of laundry.

So at this point the laundry is making it to where it needs to be, but is never quite making it back to its "home" in the closet or drawer.  On a side note, I'd like to learn how to make my own laundry detergent - so I've pinned a bunch of different recipes on pinterest, but that's for another post.

And now to get to the point (sorry for this being such a long winded post!)  I started thinking back to a time when I loved working with clothes.  This may sound weird, but when I worked retail I loved folding, sorting, and organizing clothes.  I worked in the junior department at Goody's for a few years and I can honestly say that I miss it.  I worked with great people and I enjoyed the job.  The thing is that they had great tools and techniques.  One of my favorite tools was the folding table.  You rolled it out on the floor, place the shirt on top, and then fold, fold, flip - you have the perfect folded shirt!  There was always a sense of accomplishment that came from a perfectly arranged display :)

So I thought maybe I could trick my brain into enjoying the same task at home!  I saved a pin months ago of this beautifully clever way to fold and stack shirts so that they are easily viewable in a dresser drawer.

Here is the link to the post that the above photo was pinned from:  http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/search/label/DIY%20Projects?max-results=5

I've been wanting to do this since I first saw the pin, but never could bring myself to sit down and "fancy fold" all of our t-shirts (David alone probably has over 100) until today that is when I remembered the folding table from Goody's.  I have no idea where you would buy a folding table, but I did find some nice t-shirt folding boards on amazon.com.  I currently have one sitting in my wish list just waiting until I have $25 worth of items so that I can use their free shipping feature!

In the meantime I looked online for a DIY t-shirt folder and this is the simplest easy to follow link that I found:  http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-T-Shirt-Folder.   I had an empty cardboard box laying around waiting to be taken out with the recyclables so I decided to give it a try.  The instructions from the link show the board being 23 inches wide and 30 inches long.  

My box wasn't quite long enough so my board ended up being about 19 inches long.

To fix this problem I just ended up folding my shirts up once in order to fit the board.  Then I folded the sleeves in and folded the rest as normal.  See how small the shirts on the left are folded?!

And here's the finished product!  I'm already in love!  Everything is folded so neatly and I can see exactly what each shirt is.  I will probably be able to fit all of my t-shirts into a single drawer, but David's are going to be a different story.  I'm happy to say though that my motivation for clothes organization seems to be back (for now!) and I hope that I can continue on this "fancy folded" path!

Happy Monday everyone - have a great day!

Pinterest in action! Organize your store cards

As I have posted before I am addicted to Pinterest.  I have pinned so many craft projects that I will probably never have enough time to try them all.  Today though I found a cute, simple, organize-one-of-those-annoying-little-things-in-your-life kind of pins that was so clever I had to try it out right away.

This is so simple that I imagine other people have probably already figured it out, but just in case there are others out there like me who are still organizationally challenged I thought I would share.

The original pin came from this website:
http://www.cookingatcafed.com/2012/02/follow-up-getting-grip.html

As you can see from the pictures above all I have to do is unzip my wallet and all of my cards come tumbling out - along with some loose change!  I can't stand putting the cards on my keychain because they make my car and house keys too bulky.  But I still have to carry them around or I forfeit my discount when I go to the grocery store!  The original blogger basically took a spare keyring (which I already had a bag of) and punched holes into all of her cards.  Since I was just using store cards mine already had holes in them.  The original blogger even included her restaurant gift cards on her keyring, but when David and I have those they don't last long enough.

The bottom left picture shows how my cards are now neat and organized - from my library card to my grocery store discount cards.  My Thirty-One bag comes with a link already sewn into the side where I hooked a pink carabiner to hang things that I want to be able to grab without having to hunt through my purse. As you can see from the bottom right picture it holds my keys, a mini flashlight, and now my organized store cards!

Happy Tuesday everyone!