DIY Via Pinterest

So you've heard I'm addicted to Pinterest, right?  It's true.  I am.  I think there is no better use of technology right now than perusing Pinterest and pinning... well pretty much everything.  But I DO get off there and try some things every once in a while.  I'll have to share several recipes that turned out fantastic!  Of all the recipes I've tried from Pinterest, I don't think there has been one that hasn't pleased every member of my family.  And that's saying something!

I've also been trying the DIY recipes.  Several times I saw the DIY Microdermabrasion and passed it up.  I don't know why, it just never struck my fancy.  Until the last time I saw it and I finally thought, if it's good enough to be passed around this much, I might want to look into it.  Turns out its baking soda and water.  That's it!  So I figured I'd give it a try.  I didn't expect much- its baking soda and water.  But I also figured it should be pretty harmless.  OMIGOSH!!! 

I mixed up a batch - 3 Tbsp baking soda and 1 Tbsp water mixed into a paste - and picked up a clump with my fingers and started applying to my face.  It wasn't bad but it kind of reinforced my "this is going to do nothing" attitude.  I got the entire right side of my face covered and then it started to work.  It kind of burned and images of chemical peel-ed women started racing through my mind so I started wiping it off with a wet washcloth thinking it was Sunday night and I had no time for a bad chemical reaction ON MY FACE.  And then it really started to work.  IT BURNED!!!  I abandoned the wash cloth and started lapping water onto my face to try to wash this hideous paste off.  And I don't let water touch my face sans a washcloth ever.  I know- its weird.  No, I don't go underwater at a pool (on purpose), no I don't let water touch my face in the shower.  Its just who I am.  But I wanted nothing more than to get that fire off my face so splashing water it was.  Finally I did get it off and I patted my skin dry to survey the damage and I was pleasantly surprised.  My skin was dewy and shiny and pink and actually looked fantastic.  On the right side.  The left still looked normal.  I moisturized and put that experience behind me. 

Later it crossed my mind that maybe that wasn't so bad.  Maybe I should try it again next month.  Crazy?  Yes.  But here's how I figure:  I think I cried the first time I plucked a stray hair away from my eyebrow and now I rip those suckers out by the strip-full without flinching.  Maybe I have smooth skin in my future after all.

Still with me?  Good!  I've got more!

The very first DIY project I tried was powdered laundry detergent.  You can find the recipe here.  There are a few things that I absolutely hate to buy.  Laundry detergent is one of them.  I don't know why.  I just really hate buying it.  It seems so expensive and, I know, its terribly useful but still... I hate to buy it.

So I thought I'd give this DIY a whirl.  Let me tell you - making this stuff is a treat!  (seriously)  My house and hands smelled SOO good the rest of the evening.   

This is everything it took to make it.  About $17 for everything in OKC.

You have to grate the Fels-Naptha soap with a cheese grater and that's where the wonderful smell comes from.  It looks like shredded cheddar and smells like heaven. 

I used a new trashcan liner in my kitchen trashcan and just dumped everything in there.  I mixed it with a large wooden spoon and my  hands and finally took the whole mess out of the trashcan and mixed it a little like kneading bread.  I wanted to be sure all of the powders and soap were mixed very thoroughly.

I bought two shoebox size tubs to put it in and it fit perfectly!  I used the scoops from the Oxyclean stuff.

I've used it exclusively ever since I made it but I am going to rate it as only so-so.  It does a fine job on my clothes and Peyton's - they are clean and have no smell at all- not detergent or fragrance or otherwise.  But it doesn't clean Brandon's work shirts well enough.  I don't know if the other detergents I've used have just masked it or what but his shirts still have a faint eau de Brandon.  Somehow this detergent doesn't combat the powerful combination of strong manly body wash, strong manly cologne and bbq smoke.  I'm planning to just wash his shirts separately in our old detergent. 

So $17 and I don't know how long it will last - a while I'm betting.  I'll make a final decision on if its a keeper later.

And now for the best one.  Why didn't I lead with this one??  Its truly one of the best things I've found on Pinterest so far.  And I didn't expect a whole lot from it.  (probably because of the above experiences.)  This is DIY eye makeup remover.  This is another thing I really hate to buy - and I've tried other methods of removing it in the past but nothing worked well enough to abandon the cleanser.  I wear a lot of eye makeup lately and I just accept the fact that I'll have a bit of makeup leftover after I wash my face everyday.  Until now...

This costs somewhere around $5 and lasts me about 3 months if I use it VERY sparingly.

It does a pretty good job of getting my eye makeup off but not a fantastic job. 

The recipe is here but the instructions are easy enough:

1 1/2 Tbsp tear-free baby shampoo

1/8 tsp baby oil

1 C water

Combine all ingredients well and pour into containers.  That's it!  I used the butter container because I could pinch the sides to make a little funnel to pour the liquid into the baby food jars but you could use anything.  And I used kids shampoo PLUS conditioner because its what I had and I know my eyelashes could use conditioner too.  (I have no idea if that works or not)  And instead of having the wonderful clean baby smell my remover smells like Flippin' Citrus Squirt (it sounds like I'm saying something crude but I swear that's what its called). 

This recipe made enough to fill 5 regular size baby food jars. 

I used it last night and It. Was. Wonderful!!!  To make a fair comparison, I used a cotton ball with a tiny bit of solution and it removed at least as much as my current remover.  I normally use my fingers but this solution isn't oily at all and I felt like I couldn't get enough on just my fingers.  Then I tried another cotton ball with a more generous amount and it removed all of my makeup in two swipes.  TWO SWIPES!!!!

This little project cost me $1 because I didn't have any baby oil on hand.  But if I had to purchase the shampoo, I would have purchased a tiny size bottle for another dollar.  So $2 for over a year's worth of (good) makeup remover.  Yes, please!

Pinterest DIY : HUGE SUCCESS!!  (Finally!)

Next up: DIY Liquid Hand soap and a supposedly miracle hand/body lotion everyone is going on about.  I'll letcha know how that goes! 

Peyton

And now for the part I know you are looking for... Pictures of Peyton being Peyton. 

As part of his room renovation, I made a basket of his most frequently read books and put it close to his bed so we aren't rifling through ALL of his books every night trying to find the ones he wants.  So far he's loved the basket.  (And so have I!)

Peyton and his daddy have played this "slap game" at the dinner table (at home or out) ever since Peyton was a baby.  They continue to think its a riot!

Peyton enjoying a pizza on a lazy saturday afternoon.

Empty DVD jackets make an excellent 'tent city' for Hot Wheels cars.

All of the Hot Wheels lined up for a race.

And finally... Peyton's boots.  He's had them for a while but I always forget to take a picture of them.  Peyton and I (and Kathy and Kristine) LOVE these boots!!  I mean LOVE them! 

Brandon hates them.  HATES them.  I think the only reason Peyton actually has them is because Brandon knows, as well as I do, that he will outgrow them before they are even scuffed.  I'm very sad about that.  Brandon just looks the other way when he sees them.  (and then comments to me that they are ugly boots)

How to package frozen burrito

I know you didn't ask, but I would be remiss if I gave you a recipe for this fantastic burrito and didn't show you how I keep it tasting so good after it is reheated.  I think its the most crucial part!

First, pile on the insides

Then wrap the burrito like you're swaddling a baby.  (except close the top, too!)

Since I used this new brand of tortilla, it was soft enough not to tear when I folded it cold.  Last time I had to heat up the tortillas just a little to make them pliable.

Wrap your little burrito again in a paper towel using the same swaddling method.

Wrap it yet again in a sheet of foil.

When you're done and you have a shining pile of goodness,

Stuff them all into a freezer bag and seal. 

I learned from (you guessed it) moneysavingmom.com that I need to keep as much air from the food as possible.  This works!!!

One little guy didn't fit but he went in with the mcmuffins, which I packaged the same way.

To reheat, I unwrap the burrito from the foil, save it for later, and loosely unwrap the paper towel but keep the burrito covered.  I microwave it for one minute and, voila, I have a hot, good for me breakfast!

The bag and foil don't generally have food on them so when I'm done with one, I keep it for the next batch. 

24 Hours of Cooking (Chicken Chili)

I found a recipe on Pinterest for slow cooker Chicken Chili and, while I could certainly make this for a dinner, I thought it would probably freeze well enough to use for several lunches.  So I tried it.

I found the recipe here, via Pinterest, of course!

One recipe made enough for 7 lunches.  Instead of bowls, I put about a cup of chili into a sandwich bag and paired it with a snack-size bag of brown rice and shredded cheese.  I put all three little bags together so that they will be together when I need them for a lunch.  I learned from my frozen breakfast burrito days that you want to have several layers of protection between the food and the freezer air so I piled them all into lunch bags before I put them in the freezer.

I didn't take a finished product picture but, believe me, its delish!

24 Hours of Cooking (Lunches)

The other success I've had in freezing is with Peyton's sandwiches.  (Also from Moneysavingmom.com)  So we made a month's worth of lunches for Peyton but made the following for each week:

2 Dinosaur shaped sandwiches

1 Train shaped sandwich

1 bowl of edamame, cheese tortellini, carrot & broccoli

1 "lunchable" (crackers, Earls turkey breast & cheese slices)

Peyton helped with the sandwiches.

Its okay to lick your fingers and cook in your underwear if its your own food, right?

He really enjoyed making little "packages" of crackers and cheese that he will open later.

24 Hours of Cooking (breakfasts)

I really love the concept of Once-A-Month Cooking but I also typically despise freezer food.  The one success I've found is breakfasts.

I wanted to give a few things a try again so Peyton and I broke out the crock pots and rice cooker and set to work.  I set up all three the night before I wanted to tackle the cooking so that at least three things would be done when I got up.  (24 hour cooking)

I truly loved the month that I cooked a month's worth of breakfast burritos and froze them to throw in my lunch bag everyday, so I decided to build on that and freeze a month of breakfasts but mix it up a bit.  I figured on a 4 week month and made 2 breakfast burritos, 2 egg mcmuffins and 1 bowl of oatmal for each week. 

The egg mcmuffins were something I dreamed up so I wasnt 100% sure how they'd turn out but I was SOO pleased when I tried the first one!  And it was SOO easy!

10 eggs, scrambled

1/2 lb deli sliced chicken breast sliced into small strips

small handfull of cheese

Sandwich between 2 slices of an english muffin

Peyton whisked the eggs for me

YUM!!

Next time I plan to substitute a whole wheat english muffin but this is what I had this time.

I had tried the freezer-friendly breakfast burritos from the MoneySavingMom.com site and was very pleased. I couldn't remember what all she put in hers but I thought it would suit me just fine to use the same ingredients from the egg mcmuffins. I also found a new brand of whole-wheat tortillas as Walmart and, no kidding, they are the best packaged tortilla's I've ever had.

16 eggs, scrambled (the burritos hold more than the mcmuffins)

1/2 lb deli sliced chicken breast sliced into small strips

small handfull of shredded cheese

wrap up in tortilla

Soo good!

I tried a crock-pot recipe for steel-cut oatmeal but it failed miserably. So I cooked up a batch on the stove and it was perfect! One large batch of oatmeal made exactly four bowls for me to take to work. I topped each bowl with a little cinnamon and about a teaspoon of brown sugar.

I seriously look forward to breakfast every morning now.  I never feel like I'm eating the same thing over and over because I mix it up and everything froze well and is perfect (for me) microwaved at work.

It really did make four bowls.  One was in the diswasher at picture time. 

A Home for Toys

When we finally came home after our stay at Kathy's we had A LOT of new toys that needed homes.  So Peyton and I set to work rearranging his room.  He requested that we move his bed to the other side of the room and that turned out to be a genius idea!  It made everything else fall into place and now he has more open floor for playing. 

Christmas

Its been a few weeks since I updated the blogosphere on our family happenings but we've been busy!!  And this time I took pictures!  So I'm finally ready to dive into an update.  Ready?

The week before Christmas I had my gallbladder removed so we extended our customary Christmas Eve sleepover at Kathy's into a week-long stay for the extra help while I was our of commission.  My surgery went very well and I think everyone enjoyed the time together.  I know Peyton did!

Peyton had stayed with Aunt Joann the day of my surgery and they made reindeer food for Santa's reindeer.  He spread it out in the grass before we put out the milk and cookies.  The reindeer ate it!  Or spread it around, anyway...

Christmas morning Peyton found that Santa had, indeed, come to visit and Peyton was not disappointed.  He got an iPod touch of his very own,

A Christmas train set,

Lots and lots and lots of Hot Wheels (its all he asked for),

two watches and lots of other fun things.

Peyton spent the rest of the day playing. 

I'm so glad uncle Joe wanted to spend his day setting up Hot Wheels...  :)