Paw Patrol Cake

My baby girl turned 3 this year and she is one of the biggest Paw Patrol fans you'd ever see! So of course we had to have a Paw Patrol cake...

How to quickly peel lots of peaches

Peach season is here and during the summer I tend to fantasize about peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream on top…yum!

Last year my husband brought home a few pounds of peaches and I set off to make my peach cobbler. I tried to make peach cobbler in the crock pot but when we ate it, the peaches were still very tart. A day later, however, it was DELICIOUS!

That’s not the point of this post though. The point is, there’s a way to peel peaches quickly without wasting any of the peach itself. I learned how to from Movita Beaucoup, and here’s how:

• Put a large pot of water on the stove and turn on high.
• Wash your peaches
• Gently score an X on the bottom of each peach, just barely cutting through the skin
• Put your peaches in boiling water for one minute (less ripe peaches may require a little more time).
• Remove and put in a large bowl full of ice water to stop the peaches from cooking more.
• Gently remove the skin, peeling from the corners where you scored the X
• And, done! Cut, remove the pit and use those peaches for anything your heart desires :).

How to clean gunk off your kitchen cabinets

Our house was built in the 60’s and the cupboards are original…my dad says my kitchen looks like a lodge. But, it’s what we have and we’ll work with it. However, who knows when the cabinets were last cleaned. There is a lot of gunky build-up and using plain-old elbow grease was not cutting it. Then, I found Jillee’s post on Kitchen Cabinet Gunk Remover and knew I had to try it.
All you have to do is mix 1 part vegetable oil with 2 parts baking soda! If the idea of using vegetable oil on your cabinets makes you wary, I promise it works! I took a wet wash cloth, dipped a corner into the cleaning mixture and used that to rub it into the cabinets really well. Then I used another corner of the wash cloth to wipe it clean. I had a bowl full of warm water to rinse my wash cloth out occasionally.

Just make sure to test this on an inconspicuous part of your cabinets to make sure it doesn't strip to stain/paint.

I was SO impressed with how well this worked and it even left my cabinets looking polished. Now, I have the rest of my cabinets to clean…

I’ll be linking up to Works for Me Wednesday,  Tip Me Tuesday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Penny Pinching Party,

How to Cure the Hiccups

Does anyone else still regularly get the hiccups as an adult? I do, and it drives me nuts! It wasn’t until high school that I found a truly effective way to get rid of hiccups, as taught to me by one of my instructors…

If you find yourself in the midst of a bought of hiccups, here’s what you need to do:

Plug your nose and hold your breath while you count to 10. Then, before unplugging your nose or exhaling, swallow twice. This usually makes my ears pop, but I’ll tell you, it works every time!

If you hiccup in the middle of this process, you’ll probably have to start over, but it’s worth it :).

What do you do to stop the hiccups?

I’ll be linking up to Works for Me Wednesday.

Spice Ornaments

I think I made spice ornaments as a kid and when I saw the “recipe” to make them in my Everything Christmas book (page 14), I thought it would be fun to make them with my boys…sure enough, we had a blast and my kitchen smelled amazing for days!

All you need is equal parts cinnamon and applesauce. I used one cup of applesauce and one cup of cinnamon which was perfect to make several ornaments. It makes a very thick, crumbly dough…

Just roll it out on some wax paper and have your kids use their cookie cutters to make their ornaments. We had to use a spatula to transfer the ornaments so they wouldn’t break. Use a toothpick to poke a hole in each ornament.

Lay them out on a cookie sheet to dry for several days. Once they’re dry, your kids can paint them, or you can just hang them up with some thread on your tree…a fun, simple craft that you can keep for years to come.

I’ll be linking up to What Are Little Boys Made Of? Crafty Soiree, Making It With Allie, Show Off Your Stuff Party, Strut Your Stuff, and Christmas Craft Link Party.

How to Make Gift Bows from Magazines

Last year I saw several blogs post about making their own gift bows, but I procrastinated too long, so the idea has been simmering in my mind ever since! Thanks to eHow, I can now share with you how you can make your own gift bows :).

All you need is a magazine, scissors, some paper board (like a cereal box), and glue.

Bottle Cap Reindeer Ornaments

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m on a bit of a bottle cap rampage right now and am loving all the different ways you can reuse little metal bottle caps…just more proof to me that just about everything can be recycled! Anyhow…

All you need to make these darling ornament is some brown paint, white and black paint (or googly eyes), and a little red for the nose. Hot glue small twigs on for the antlers and hot glue a ribbon on the back to hang up your darling ornaments and you are done!

I’ll be linking up to Christmas Crafts Link Up, Make it 4 Monday, Motivate Me Monday, Market Yourself Monday, Mad Skills LInk Party, Homemaker Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, Monday Blog Hop and Mommy Monday.

Halloween Luminaries

After I posted about my Jack-O-Lanterns from a Jar last year, Debbie left a comment explaining how she used to make Luminaries for Halloween and of course I had to try it!

The process is fairly simple...you empty and clean how ever many cans you want. Draw a Jack-O-Lantern face on them and use a nail and hammer to punch holes along your lines. When you light a tea candle inside, you get something like this:

Back Pocket Organizer

If your husband is anything like mine, he can go through jeans pretty quickly…basically, I have a lot of extra denim sitting around :). I’m saving most of the denim for another project but I’ve been stock piling his back pockets for quite a while now. When a friend gave me some of her old jeans, I had the perfect amount to make a back pocket organizer.

To make your own back pocket organizer, you’ll need:

Homemade Marble (AKA Dirt) Run

I have been saving these cardboard wrapping paper tubes for ages and we moved to a place with a chain-link fence…just what I needed to make a marble/dirt run for my boys (as inspired by Fun on a Dime).

All you need is wrapping paper tubes (or paper towel/toilet paper tubes), a hole punch, twisty ties and if desired, the mouths of some water bottles to act as funnels. My boys had so much fun pouring dirt and they were absolutely filthy by the time they came inside :). Punch holes in the tubes and cut into them as shown below so the dirt can make it into the tubes.

Peanut Butter Play Dough

I have been seeing peanut butter play dough on several blogs and knew it was something my 4 year old would love…sure enough, he adored the whole process of making it, playing with it and eating it! He kept begging me to let his play dough be his dinner :). After hunting for the perfect recipe I settled on the one from Make and Takes. Warning-this is excessively sweet but your children will LOVE IT!

Make Your Own Buzz Saw

Long before Legos and Barbies, children somehow kept themselves entertained. One of the toys kids use to play with was a buzz saw…doesn’t it just sound kid friendly? If you get it going right, it does sound like a saw.

This is a great game for older kids if they’re looking for something to do and all you need is a piece of string and a button. I used embroidery thread and a piece of cardboard and it worked surprisingly well.

American Flag Sugar Cookies

It’s been a while since we’ve made sugar cookies and yesterday I couldn’t resist any longer…I started wondering how on earth I could make American flag sugar cookies and this is what we ended up with:

The process seems long and complicated, but these turned out so cute and I can’t wait to take them to my husband’s work party! If it’s confusing, please leave a comment or e-mail me and I will explain it better.

Cereal Box Magazine Holder

If you’ve signed up for free cooking magazines recently, you might have more magazines than you know exactly what to do with…or is that just me? This morning as I was pouring my cereal, I happened to glance on the inside of my Honey Comb box and noticed directions on the flap detailing how to make a recycle rack (which I have converted to a magazine holder).

Perfectly Shaped Eggs

My husband is a genius…I mean the guy was potty trained at 9 months so how could he not be :) (we just acquired his baby book!). With that genius, he comes up with the most random hacks to make his life better, and cooking eggs to the same size as his English biscuits is no exception!

How did he do it? After looking around the kitchen, he found his solution in the lid to a canning jar.

Some tips we’ve learned after doing this a few times:

Felt Car

I was completely in shock at how much my boys love this little car. I had originally made it for a project that I’m mulling over, but may have to make another one since this one has been commandeered…

Rice Bunnies

I figured my boys could use some more friends for Bunny & Clyde this year and after seeing Dana’s Peeps Bunting, and pondering on it for a while, this is what came to mind:
Rice bunnies! You know the rice bags that you heat up for a sore tummy…or bean bags for throwing around?

Men’s Pants to Toddler Pants

It always astounds me how much fabric goes into men’s pants…just look at how much is required for their never-ending pockets! My husband had a random pair of “soldier pants” as K fondly refers to them and instead of donating them, K inspired me to make him his own pair of soldier pants.

If your husband has pants lying around that he’ll never wear, repurpose them into a pair of pants for your little boy :).

Here’s how:

Glass Jar Acid Etching

Did you know you can etch your own glass items and personalize them however you please? All you need is a glass etching cream like Armour Etch which can be found at stores like Hobby Lobby. The cream I have costs about $20, so wait until you have a coupon for 40% off or something of the sort.

The process is fairly simple but a bit time consuming if you’re not blessed with a Cricut…

Get the Stink out of Dishcloths

When my husband and I got married, my mother-in-law gave me a beautiful, colorful batch of dishcloths that she had crocheted. Having been raised in a sponge home, it took me a while, but eventually I began to use and enjoy the benefits of dishcloths.

The downside? After a while, they can start to stink…if you’ve had stinky dishcloths you know exactly what I’m talking about! I had tried washing them and adding vinegar to the load but the smell was just as bad.

A while ago, I read somewhere in the blogosphere to soak the dishcloths in pure vinegar and I did overnight. Make sure they are completely immersed. I then washed them as normal, and guess what?! No stink! I was so excited that I can keep using the dishcloths my mother-in-law made since she passed away 2 years ago and I really don’t have many things from her.

Have you found any other methods that work to get the stink out?