So pretty.

You’ll need:

Egg cartons, emptied. Preferably the cardboardy ones. Scissors, paint and Christmas lights.

Start by cutting up the carton until you’re left with 12 little pieces per carton. I had two so I ended up with 24.

Then paint to your hearts content. Or not, you can leave them plain. You’ll poke each light, individually through the bottom of the carton piece and then watch magic happen.

We’ve all seen the mini Zen gardens or small Bonsai trees on someone’s desk before, possibly even a water feature or rock garden. Not only are these great stress relievers and oftentimes hobbies; they’re meant to personalize the space but to also bring in other dimensions or textures to your workspace.

This week I show you how to add texture to your workspace – it’s easy, frugal and I bet you already have everything you need in a cupboard at home. Click here to read more over at Turnstone.

I don’t have anything against wrapping paper, just that it’s over done. And everyone and their cousin’s brother has a closet full of the stuff. Except me? I gave away most of my stockpile in the wrapping department when we sold our house.

I’ve seen most of these ideas in magazines or around pinterest but got really excited about them when I saw an uber-creative and very talented friend gift wrap a present for her husband in an old blueprint.

Genius.

You’ll need:

Old blueprints, old sewing patterns, comics, scissors, tape and gifts!

I called up that favorite realtor of ours and asked if he had any old blueprints or if anyone in the office might? Maybe you know a contractor? Hoarder? Is it possible you know a realtor who is involved with a development?

He had a few laying around and agreed to give a few to me. GIDDY! (I have a few other ideas for them as well – but as gift wrap? AMAZING. So fun.)

Sewing patterns you either have in your basement or at your local thrift store for 10 cents a piece. And comics? If you don’t get the paper – your local paper is a great place to walk in and ask for day old or week old papers to sort through. Also, your parents? Grandparents? Anyone who gets the paper?

Your tree just got interesting.

It begs to be mentioned that this is a great alternative (and eco friendly version) for wrapping but it’s also mostly free. In my case, entirely. You throw away or recycle the gift wrap after opening presents but there’s no need to throw away your money too. Right?

Friends!! What are you doing differently this year?

I spent ZERO dollars on this project and I didn’t pull out one tool. I used my muscles; which are huge, for the record, and my hands (not huge).

In our last house (that we owned) we had a 3 season breezeway that was on it’s way to becoming our laundry room/mudroom/kitchen prep room Place of Amazing. We paid our favorite contractor around $1,200 to build a custom cubby situation with shoe storage, a mail sorting desk, pantry shelves and lockers.

It was b-glorious. I loved it. We ended up painting it an orange, yellow and I probably would have repainted it something cleaner (more cohesive to the rest of the room) had we stayed. But oh well! Someone else’s problem now.

Only – now that we’re renting and shlepping 18 million pairs of shoes around and no longer have the room for custom built cabinets (nor the budget as a renter) for a permanent solution to the ongoing suffering of our back entry … well. I did this.

And here’s how:

Welcome to our back entry. A place of many insurance problems, I’m sure.

We were about to hang a liability disclaimer on the back door letting folks know that any fall or mishap was their sole responsibility.

In short: it’s a mess back there. And we trip over eachother and shoes and our CSA crate and I dump stuff there that I don’t know what to do with or for a trip to the garage when the weather turns …

I went on a hunt this morning for a pallet thinking I’d need two but only had room for one in the van – you should have seen my daughters face when I pulled over (in the Lowes parking lot at their dumpster pile) and ruffled through the pallets laying in the rain. I think she was half mesmerized that I was actually doing this and half mortified that I didn’t care who saw me.

We found one and I lugged it to the van for use in our back entry.

Then I just kicked around the shoes and whatever else was laying around to make some room for the pallet.

And simply leaned it against the wall.

Stuck our shoes in the slots, toes first, and was amazed that they all fit on one pallet with room to spare.

A totally free solution!

Now I just need to vacuum …. and hang a new sign ::Welcome to our home::

Yum. I made this just for you.

You’ll need:

I’m still working on the lighting in the kitchen – it does not bode well for photographs. Artificial light and green floors – I battle the yellow 70′s glow in all food photos unless it’s 6pm and the door is wide open and things are just so and well … you get it. I’m working on it.

For this recipe you need Flour, Sugar, Oil, an Egg, Salt, Cinnamon/Sugar, Buttermilk (or milk and vinegar) and Baking Soda.

You start by mixing your Buttermilk with 1 tsp baking soda but if you’re like me and never have buttermilk in your house, you make some. Like this:

Measure some milk (right now I have Almond milk) just shy of your 1 cup marker. Top it off with Vinegar and let sit for a minute or two.

It curdles.

Yay!

Now, add your 1 tsp baking soda and let the mixture sit for 5 minutes.

Pour the milk mixture into your bowl and add the rest of your ingredients.

1/2 Cup oil.

One egg.

1 Cup sugar.

1/2 tsp salt.

Two Cups flour.

Mix.

Prepare your loaf pan (or muffin tins). I had parchment paper so I used it, otherwise I just oil it.

Pour half the batter in your loaf pan and sprinkle a generous amount of your Cinnamon Sugar on top (1/2 C Sugar to 1 TSP cinnamon ratio). Use a clean knife to swirl around, top with other half of batter, sprinkle a bit more and swirl one last time.

Bake at 350 for 55 minutes to an hour.

Try not to eat it all at once.

Enjoy!

Printable Recipe.

Christmas is coming!! Now is a great time to start to think about your homemade gifts, gathering the items you might need if you don’t already have them on hand. For this fun tutorial you’ll need … Click over to read more!

I bought the bins from the Dollar store and scavenged the house for items to play with. I made five bins for my son and he has no idea they exist yet.

You’ll need:

One box or package for each day you need rest time. We did 5 for Mon-Fri. Weekends we all nap, we’re that. much. fun.

Misc items, books or toys from around the house. Mix it up, be surprising. My son l-o-v-e-s texture. A bin of rice would keep him busy for literally 3 hours. (I’ve tried, it’s proven.) But I stayed away from food or objects smaller than a quarter because the idea is that these boxes will be used up in his room – away from me.

This is what my loot looked like at my first pass:

Hats, play food, feathers, googly eyes, trucks and cars, tools (that do not cut) and some coloring stuff.

My bins – phase one:

My bins have some repeating items and I’m not sure how well that will go over but as I get him used to this one bin a day concept I’ll be able to add and take away items that I’m noticing get left out or hoarded in his pockets.

You should see what comes through the wash.

Viola! You (hopefully) successfully created some quiet time for your child, who has no idea they’re learning, as well as for you. You *should* do the laundry but I won’t tell if all you do is sip a cup of tea and watch the weather.

It’s quiet time, after-all.

Halloween is almost here and my son is very afraid of bugs. Trick or treating is going to be an adventure. We did pumpkins but then our squirrels ate them (grrrrrr!!!), we made an easy garland for our entry way and we have our costumes. Now we need some gore.

You’ll need:

An old doily or lace, a cross-stitch loom (??) thing, spiders.

I have a wooden cross-stitch circle some where. SOME WHERE. But I cannot find it so I have an alternative posted lower. (Not a fan of the pink for a scary spider web.)

You start by pinching the metal loops together to release the inner circle from the form.

Wrap the metal circle in the lace.

Then you just re-pinch the loops and fit everything back together – make sure you don’t have bubbles in your doily or lace. Pull it tight over the circle for a taut surface.

Cut away the excess lace/doily and add your spiders … then hang for display.

OR …

I have these pieces of cut wood in our garage I’ve been moving around with us because I love them. I love them.

They’re left over from an old project that never made it here.

But I just wrapped my lace around the wood and tucked the excess in the back.

See?

Add spiders and set up. Be scared.

I probably like the cross-stitch way of display more than the log but until I find my wooden one – I’m sticking with my alternative.

Pretty fun! And cheap. And easy. (All the things you never want your son to say about a girl. Ever.)

Really? Never?

Ok, well – WHEN YOU DO I have a tip for you.

You can place the newspaper right on the counter or over your cooling rack.

Then place your right-out-of-the-oven cookies on top to cool.

Here’s the secret – the newspaper soaks up grease from the cookies. The cookies are still moist and delicious but no more shiny fingers (or faces) when you grab one for a treat.

When you’re done cooling all your cookies (can re-use for each and every pan per batch of cookies) you just recycle the newspaper. Easy!

I learned this tip from my mom when I was about my daughters age (6) and have been doing this since. We still buy wax paper and what not but this is one of those things that I saw over and over and over again that stuck.

Do you have any fun kitchen tips or tricks that you picked up from watching your mom/dad/grandma/someone constantly in the kitchen?

I can’t wait to hear someday what my kids remember most about the hours I spend above a mixer

Inspiration here.

I’ve done this every week since I saw it on Pinterest and l-o-v-e them. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to make Egg Salad for the stuffing, but please just sub Tuna or Canned Chicken or whatever your fav is for the Egg and you’ll make a delicious discovery.

You’ll need:

Eggs (or Tuna, Chicken etc), Celery, peppers, cilantro, avocado (not avAcado as I’ve been spelling it), mayo, mustard, paprika and salt/pepper to taste.

We’re going forward with eggs for Egg Salad:

Put the eggs in a large pot and fill with cold water.

For a great tutorial on how to hard boil eggs go here – this is the method I follow every time.

Bring to that lovely boil, keep it rolling for a minute or two and then turn the heat off, but leave your pot on the stove. Let cool.

Once that’s all done – you can get everything together – drain the eggs and prepare your base for the salad.

I have an Egg Slicer because we boil eggs all. the. time. And I add them to salads or snack plates whenever I have a chance – it’s nifty, I’ll show you why. (You could just coarse chop the eggs for the same effect, I do not like applesauce texture for egg salad so I love the chunks this gives the salad.)

You place the egg between the layers and then push the top down – it’ll cut through the egg nice and easy.

See?

Then I pick the whole thing up, no big deal, turn it 180 degrees and chop again:

(That would be marker on my finger from my son, the picaso of this house – his entire body ALWAYS his canvas, and today – my hand as well.)

And DUMP in the bowl. Rinse and repeat – I had 6 eggs, so I did this six times.

Chop the celery (I used 2 stalks) and your pepper (I used 1 baby red pepper)

Coarse chop some cilantro and throw it in the bowl.

Stir to combine.

Halve an avocado (and for a great tutorial on that go here.)

Fill with a spoonful or two of your egg salad, top with a sprig of whatever herb you have on hand (cilantro works well, oregano, thyme, chives … ) and ENJOY!

(I know, I know – you all want measurements and exacts. Welcome to my kitchen: every recipe is a suggestion – rules are made to be broken. I almost never make the same thing twice. TRY IT!)