6 Steps to your own Arrowroot (cornstarch) and baking soda ornaments

"Their" cost : $9.99

Our cost : Free ?! 

Ok so the supplies are usually already in your home. 

If not, the amount I used versus the amount this stuff costs equaled about .18 cents.

Ingredients:

1 cup baking soda

1/2 cup arrowroot (or cornstarch, we have arrowroot)

3/4 cup water

Plastic wrap

Saucepan

Optional: Straw or something to poke out hole for string and cookie cutters to make a shape around the impression. 

Steps:

1: Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan. Stir consistently over low heat.  About five mins in mine started clumping so we mixed faster. At about ten mins in it started thickening up. Almost feeling like glue. Once it's so thick it's difficult to bring your spoon through take it off the heat and let cool for a few mins or until it's cool to the touch. It took us 15 mins of stirring over low heat to get to that point. Cook yours out longer ours was not even close and could have been less sticky.

2: Remove. Let cool

I tired rolling it before it was all cooled and it didn't want to do that. Just kept sticking. So be patient and wait until it is not sticky. 

Mine may have wanted to be over heat longer. It's still sticky to the touch.

Hours hours later it was dried enough to roll

3: Roll out.

4: Place paw (key to first home, child's foot etc) in it firmly

4.5: Embellish the print (if you couldn't get a deep enough impression. We were gentle because I wanted to be able to wipe it off the animals easy. Tip: Have a wet warm soapy rag on hand). We used a chopstick.

5: Let completely dry before painting

Then the weekend ended. Allowing the imprints to dry thoroughly for a whole week. (really only recommended 24 hours but things got busy).

Advice: Really really cook out all the moisture you possibly can. make it so very difficult for you to drag that spoon through. It's a weird liquid / solid gak type substance ( delicious in my beef and broccoli, I swear secret ingredient type stuff).  

6: Paint! Some cracks started showing so first coat of paint I recommend is a white latex paint. After that dried we then decorated. Painters Tip: Wait until the first two contrasting colors dry before painting any trim or embellishments for best results.

2 Steps to a Winter craft Snow Flake Wreath and Bonus Ideas

Cost: Free !

Ok well I had these snowflakes for a while and they just lacked umph. You can get them in a pack for $2 

Snowflake Wreath

I have been trying to reuse and reinvigorate old Xmas items. In today's post you see that I made a wreath ornament out of cheap plastic snowflake ornaments that I hot glued the ends together of and found a pretty bow from last years bag of gift bags! (They are too nice to throw away and look that bow is gorgeous!) Those plastic snowflakes last year were on each of my cabinet doors dangling down on a ribbon. Have to say I am in love with the wreath though!

Supplies: 

Plastic Snowflakes

Hot Glue Gun and Glue

Bow or ribbon to hang

Steps:

1.) Arrange snowflakes in a circle where a point can overlap and Hot Glue that

2.) Tie a ribbon around it

DONE

Day time view

Close up. You can see better they are just a cheap set of plastic snowflakes. Once Hot glued together ! Wreath!

Even at night it is still so beautiful. (Yes that is a troll picking his nose! Gift from mom!)

All in all a success. 

Bonus: I added some Christmas ornaments to my existing candle holders to spruce that up.

 Bonus: My favorite add on though may be the elf hat and ears I bought for my dog one year. It now dons our kitchenaid !

Operation get ready for Christmas is under way ! 

Can Overripe Cucumbers be salvaged and Zucchinis up to our ears.

So today we realized that I have not taken a look at the garden closely enough. A lot of my cucumbers have been growing too long and are now yellow almost orange.

 The Internet has a lot to say about these over ripe cucumbers. I tried a bite of one. The outer edge leaves a lot to be desired. So. Since I have an abundance... Going to peel them and try some recipes that may make use of them. If not... Then nothing wasted. Have to say they are going to make great test subjects.

First. These were floating around Pinterest. The link didn't go anywhere but the directions were in the subject field anyway. Worth a shot

                                            

Shots! Lets do a shot of rum. Or make a Mojito while I am trying these out. Sounds good to me. (Mojito : origin has been butchered. Mint from garden and clear rum are correct. Rest is just Sierra mist. Lazy Mojito)

Alright. Back to the cucumbers. 

Sassy water ? Why not.

Also have a huge zucchini from the neighbors that I have already

made one successful bread out of. Took enough to make another and then I am going to try and make some chips.

Well first batch of chips burnt. Next.

New method. 

350. Seeds out. Folded on half. 30 mins

In the meantime back to this. 

Ok so lets just say.... cucumbers were well past their mark and this barely helped. Trash.

Zucchini chips were way too thin and I didn't even take photos. Zucchini bread was amazing.

Sassy water.... well let's say I got sassy before making it.

Next project. 

Year Two garden boxes

Update: Year two on the Garden Boxes.

So those garden boxes came up so well this year. we were able to move on to focusing more on our garden and Less ended up being More.

Today I found a new favorite thing, cucumbers.  The garden boxes we made last year were somewhat a success.  This year we learned from some of our mistakes. The First year the vegetables were root bound and we did not take them out of the biodegradable containers, so we did not harvest a lot of vegetables.

This year we took them out of the containers and already I can tell a difference in our garden.  The cucumber plant is the most exciting for me and I've already reaped some benefits from it.  I have decided that my favorite snack now is slicing up a cucumber and dipping it in cream cheese.

I really think you're going to hear a lot about cucumber inspiration.  Not that anyone is really listening I still think it is fun.