Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Gluten Free- OH MY
We have just started a gluten free diet for Nicholas! I have a friend who is doing this adventure with me. I have made pork chops with rosemary, vege soup, and tonight is pizza. The soup was not a favorite of Nicholas, but Jeff and Paisley and I loved it. It was even better the next day for lunch. I will post the recipes. Pisza will be sampled soon! It looks great. My fingers are crossed!!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Great Homemade Laundry Soap
Powdered Laundry Detergent -The BEST
2 cups Fels Naptha Soap (finely grated)
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Borax
Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container.
Use 2 tablespoons per full load. You can find all these ingredients at Winco-it makes your clothes really soft and really white! I don't even use fabric softener anymore!! It cost .09 cents a load.
2 cups Fels Naptha Soap (finely grated)
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Borax
Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container.
Use 2 tablespoons per full load. You can find all these ingredients at Winco-it makes your clothes really soft and really white! I don't even use fabric softener anymore!! It cost .09 cents a load.
Spring flowers!!
So, let us begin the tutorial!
Step #1
Gather your supplies!
Here's what you'll need:
tissue paper (WARNING! The cheaper the tissue paper the more likely it will rip. I would know I used the very cheapest!)
12 inch wooden dowel (I used 1/4 width)
floral wire
wire cutter
floral tape
scissors
dry floral foam
jiffy pots or peat pots (you know you can plant seeds in them and then just plant them into the ground)
ribbon (I used a lot of gross grain but satin ties so much nicer for smaller bows)
paper Easter grass
PS I bought everything that I needed at Wal-Mart with my 2 and 3 year olds in tow! They were TONS of help...but not really!
Step #2
You'll need at least 5 sheets of tissue paper. Cut a full size of tissue paper in half and then in half again in order to make smaller pom poms. Then fold the tissue paper accordion style about 1 inch width. Cut off excess if needed.
Step #3
Use the wire cutters to cut an 18" piece of floral wire. Wrap the wire around the tissue paper and twist at the bottom to secure it.
Step #4
Twist the wire around the top of a dowel to secure the tissue paper to the top. Hey it doesn't need to be pretty only fairly secure.
Step #5
Cover the wire and dowel by twisting floral tape all the way down.
Step #6
Cut a curve shape at each end of tissue paper.
Step #7
Carefully and slowly separate each piece of tissue from the center outward. The waxy feeling left on your fingers from the floral tape will help separate the pieces. You might tear some but don't fret! Just try to hide it if you can. I tore plenty today!
If my instructions for the pom poms are a little confusing you can refer to Martha Stewart's pom poms.
Step #8
Take 2 jiffy pots and cut about 1/2 inch off of the bottom of one of them.
Step #9
Take the pot that you just cut and turn it upside down. Place the other pot inside. The purpose of this step is to make it more secure so it won't tip over. Plus it's so cute!
Step #10
Cut a piece of Styrofoam and cut it to fit snugly inside the pot.
Step #11
Push the dowel through the center of the Styrofoam so that it is nice and secure. If the Styrofoam seems to be to loose or doesn't fit right cut a wedge of Styrofoam to make it tighter.
Step #12
Tie a ribbon over the middle of the jiffy pots to hide the split and then add some of the Easter grass to hide the Styrofoam.
Now repeat 38 times until you start dreaming of tissue paper and floral tape.
If you are only going to make one or two it would make more sense to buy a small tin bucket or basket rather than using the jiffy pots since they come in packs of 22 for about $3.
