Frog In Stitches: July 2011

Friday Happy: Can he make it?

This was recorded at a family get together. Now.. ask yourself.. Can he make it?

The poor tube did not survive the afternoon. The last guy is the father of the boy, and the guy in the middle is my DH.

What crazy stunts do the guys in you life pull?

Swiss Chard

It's in the bottom left corner of the box.. that was months ago. It is now 2-3 times that size. And I have another block that is just as big

No DIY today... at least not from me... I need some help!
I have Swiss Chard growing like CRAZY in my garden... with one problem......
What do I do with the stuff???
I tried cooking it like turnip greens/spinach but it ended up having a dirtish taste.. (not a member of the raw foods movement..) I had rinsed it off before hand.
Do ya'll have any recipies or anything on how to use the stuff?
Every tried canning it or dehydrating it? Does it work?

Help a girl out!

Touched out

I have hit a nursing mom phenomenon... I'm getting very, very touched out lately. I about chewed Hubby's head off last night because he wanted to snuggle while watching a movie. He started snoring in my ear... I wanted to rip his head off so bad... Violent... I know.

Have you ever been touched out?

Should have seen the "discussion" this sucker sparked.... *Sigh*

I feel like I'm constantly in-demand..

Hop on~->

Friday Happy: Baby Giggles

I know... I know... I'm late... Our computer has been on the fritz. So, better late than never!! :D

All right the funny video for the week. My mother and Lil' C, she knows just how to make him laugh.

How can that not make you smile? :D
I hope ya'll are having a good day!

What have you been up to this week?

DIY Camera softie

No I did not create the original tutorial. I found it here at Pink stitches which I found at Craft Gossip... If you don't know about Craft Gossip, you should! And yes... you may just hate me for showing you.

I made this little orange camera for my niece's 3rd birthday gift. My sister (her mother) is a professional photographer. Her response on seeing the camera? "It says Canon on it because it is well made!" :P Can you tell what brand all her cameras are? :P

Hop on~->

My Boys...

But Mommy... I don't wanna wake up for breakfast...

It has been a few long weeks here at the pond... My boys are.. well boys.
Hubby is still looking for a job, Lil'C is finally learning to scoot. He can now move all the way across the kitchen. :)

Hopefully he will be really crawling and walking very soon.
They are figuring out "rough & tumble" baby games to play together.. mostly it is a game of toss in the air. Or Hubby will lay on the floor while Lil'C sits on his neck and beeps his nose... repetitively.
We have also realized why Lil'C doesn't like to eat with spoons.. apparently they are to slow. He prefers to "drink" his meals. He only wants to drink his food right out of the jar. Hubby tend to feed him now and he will even hold hubby's hand so that he won't take the jar away. It's rather funny to watch.

Well I hope ya'll all had a fantastic weekend :)
What do your boys do?

I drink from a sippy cup.. Friday Happy

I have had this song stuck in for days!! ... So I figured I would share!
It starts at after the theme song but this was the closest I could find.

yeah.. try and keep that out of your head now! Yep, you can now hate me :P

Lil' C has gotten pretty good at his Tommee Tippee Sippy cups. I highly suggest these, but not the ones with the harder spouts.. he had problems with those. Their bottle with a cereal nipple was the only one he could use at all, in the beginning. He never got very good at any bottles. I like alot of the TT products.. although they are rather expensive, we just don't buy many. Sippy cups sure make car trips easier, though!

DIY vannilla :)

If you have been reading my blog for long you know that I love DIY... I have another one for you! DIY Vanilla "Extract"!

What you will need....
3-4 vanilla beans
1 small bottle of vodka
1 Med-large bottle of vodka

Take the vanilla beans and splice them down the middle. Drop them in the small vodka bottle and shake.
Make sure the vodka completely covers the beans. Store the bottle in the dark for a few weeks, until the vodka turns dark brown. Use it as you would any other vanilla extract. Use the larger bottle of vodka to re-fill the small bottle after each use, make sure that the beans are never sit exposed to air so that they do not mold. I have been using my vanilla for years and have a friend that has been using hers closer to a decade.
Now... if for some reason you don't want to use liquor.... you can replace the vodka with vinegar. :D

More DIY:
Dish Detergent
Window cleaner
both of the above also have more links for many many more cleaners as well :D Check 'em out if you haven't before!

Make sure you check out the comments on the Dish Detergent, there is a FANTASTIC link for laundry detergent by one of my commenters! :D

I got my beans from Rainbow Grocery but if you need a link... You can go here to get your beans!

Family Adventure

Sorry about Friday folks. It was a crazy week... On Thursday Lil'C had a checkup with his cousin Lil'E. Yep.. two infants at a Dr appointment at one time, and both getting shots. They both calmed down pretty quickly. After that I started having a health issue and ended up in the ER. Lil'C stayed home with my family while hubby, my mom and myself was at the hospital. Mom left earliest and stayed with Lil'C until we got home sometime after midnight. All in all.. I'm ok but have to take it easy for a bit.
Wait till I tell you about the booby traps I got because of all that! It was hard not to laugh in the face of some "medical professionals" but more on that later.

Also this week is our church's VBS. What kind of art teacher would I be if I didn't help with crafts? .... I'm not so good at taking it easy.... We're doing "Pandamania" it's ... interesting. I came into it kinna last minute so they ended up getting mostly "pre-packaged" crafts... and if you have ever done those you will know that they don't usually take long to do. So I'm working on coming up with some ideas for filler crafts.
Got any ideas??

DIY Dishwasher Detergent

As I have said before I prefer to DIY, and I have already shared with ya'll my window cleaner.
I have found a pretty effective method for DIY Dishwasher detergent.
I searched all over for recipes and ended up mixing some ideas..

For my system you will need: (notice that it is divided into 2 sections)
Baking Soda

1 part vinagar
1 part castle soap
1 part lemon juice (or double the vinigar)
1 part water

Combine the vinegar, castle soap, lemon juice and water in a container. A squirt bottle works great for this. Shake before each use.

When your ready to run the dishwasher put your mixture in the main soap spot (the one with the lid) and put about a tablespoon or two of the baking soda in the pre-wash soap spot.

The baking soda will help break up what is on your dishes and may even have a slight reaction with the vinegar in the main wash cycle to add to the scrubbing power.

I love it and think it works great.   My mom still prefers to use Cascade (remember she prefers to buy) and I can now taste it when she does the dishes. ick...

What DIY products do you like to use?   Have you found anything new lately?
Check out this post for a large list of DIY cleaners.
Some more to add to the list:
All purpose cleaning spray
List of Homemade Cleaners (Faux Fabreze too!)
A nice multi-list

There is one common cleaner that I don't use.. DIY or store bought.   I don't use carpet "cleaners", you know those powdered thing?    We have a specific reason for that... Years ago when we were replacing my parents carpet and we pulled up the carpet.... ick...   years and years and years (my mom is gonna hate me for posting this!!) of carpet "cleaner" powder alllllll over the place under the carpet and carpet mat..    My one exception would be in the case of fleas.. because one of the ways to get rid of fleas in carpet is by putting baking soda on your carpet since it dehydrates the evil little critters and their eggs. ick ick...
Do you have any products you refuse to use... most of the time?

Happy 4th!

To all my fellow American's... Happy independance day!!!!

Time to blow stuff up! At least that is what will be happening at my house. Three Pyros with 42 acres to play.... yep. Stuff blowing up. Probably gonna set off the potato cannon and a sparkler bomb or two.

What does your family do for the 4th?

The 4th is a perfect day for swimming!

I have noticed that I have TONS of Austrailian readers and I was wondering... when is ya'll independance day? Australia is one of those places I have always wanted to visit.. I had a friend years ago who lived there and he said that the kangaroos were like deer are here... a pain in the neck. I still think they are cool, but I don't have to worry about them totaling my car!