E-Mealz

A couple of you have noticed a button on my sidebar for E-Mealz, so I've been meaning to share my experience with it for you. We've been using E-Mealz for about the last 5 months. This has helped me tremendously in an area I am very weak...meal planning. I enjoy cooking, but too often I would wait until 5:00pm to decide what to make for dinner only to realize I don't have half the ingredients in the house and we end up eating the same things over and over. Sound familiar?

E-mealz does all the grunt work for me! We chose to get the Aldi's meal plan because we do the majority of our shopping there. (There are also a few more store-specific plans, and also diet specific plans as well, or plans for families of 2). So, once a week I go into my account and download 7 days worth of recipes (main dishes and sides included!) complete with the grocery list for it! We've tried probably about 90% of the recipes and pretty much every one has been delicious and easy to prepare. There is a lot of variety in each week - ususally one crock pot meal, one mexican-type meal, one fish meal, and a mix of chicken, beef, and pork main dishes.

It costs $15 for a 3 month subscription (you can get a $2.50 discount if you search the web for a promo code by the way), which amounts to a little over a dollar a week! I'm very happy to pay someone a dollar and change a week to choose my meals, write out the recipe, and provide me with the matching grocery list! (And for you Financial Peace people out there, this program is endorsed by Dave Ramsey!)

I think it does 2 major things for us:
1. Makes it super easy for me to be prepared and organized in an area that gets overlooked or pushed aside for all the other jobs I do around here because I don't enjoy that part of it.
2. Although for us it hasn't changed our grocery budget much (because we were already doing pretty well keeping it very low for a family of 5, especially by shopping at Aldis), it has prevented us from "stocking up" on all kinds of things that end up pushed to the back of our pantry and never used. We buy things for specific meals, and everything gets used, so we're not spending money on food we "may or may not" need.

If you decide to give it a try after reading this, please click on the following link or the button at the top or on my sidebar before signing up so they know I'm the one that sent ya! Feel free to ask me any questions. It really has made a big difference for our family and maybe it will for yours too!

CLICK HERE:

E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families

Dinosaur Hoodie Costume

I am not a seamstress by any means, but I have pulled out my sewing machine on occasion to make pillow covers or hem pants or do a simple project. I want to learn to sew better and more difficult things, but I know that takes time and practice. So I hit up the girls in my small group to see if anyone else was interested in joining me in tackling a project every month or so, which I have dubbed "Susie Homemaker" nights LOL. Our first group project is next weekend and we are doing ruffle scarfs! I am very excited. I pulled out my sewing machine yesterday to give it a dry run and work out the kinks before everyone tries it and, despite a few snafoos, I ended up with a pretty cute scarf. I'll share more about that project and the projects to come as we do them so stay tuned!

However, our trip to the museum this week spurred another project that was pretty easy to pull together and my little dinosaur-lover is quite happy! After seeing the costumes at the museum (as shown in my last post) that were made from an adult sized hoodie, I decided I could make something pretty similar at home. (And frankly, I'm astounded by how many costume possibilities there are with an oversized hoodie if you think about it!) So Riley and I took a trip to the store yesterday to pick up the supplies.

Materials Needed:

* Adult-sized hoodie jacket (I purchased a Large because that was the smallest size they had in green and I didn't want to make another trip, but a medium or a small would work well too)
* Felt squares - 1 white, 1 black, 1 orange, 1 green, 1 yellow
* Green thread
* Scissors
* Liquid stitch glue
* Pins
* Green fabric (I used a jersey knit fabric that worked really well, because I also used it for my scarf project and it was on the clearance rack - you could use whatever fabric you prefer)
* Stuffing


Steps:
1. Cut small triangles from the white felt and pin around the rim of the hood for teeth. Using a straight stitch, secure them to the hood.

2. Cut out two yellow eyes, and a white and black piece for the center. Glue them to the top of the hood using the Liquid Stitch. I ran a stitch down the center of the eye to reinforce all three pieces.

3. Cut two nostril pieces from the black felt and secure them to the hoodie with the Liquid Stitch.

4. From the green felt, cut several large triangles. Follow the seam from the hood and starting at the top of the hood pin the triangles upright down the center of the hood and continue down the back of the jacket. On the inside of the jacket, use a straight stitch to secure the felt.

5. From the orange felt cut 6 triangle pieces for the claws. (I made the center 2 larger than the others). Pin three triangles on the top of each cuff and stitch them in place.

6. For the tail, take the green fabric and fold it in half. Cut a large triangle shape, as big as you want the tail, making sure the fabric is "wrong-side up". Sew up the open edges, leaving a small opening for the stuffing. Turn the fabric right side out, and fill with stuffing. Sew up the opening.

7. Pin the tail in place and on the inside of the jacket, stitch along the center to secure it.

8. Zip up the jacket on your little dino-lover and viola! A scary (cute) little dinosaur!

Try This At Home: Stenciled Lettering

I love the look of vinyl lettering, but I'm not a fan of the price tag. I had seen several different ideas around the Internet about painting letters by making your own stencils, so I figured I'd give it a try. The first step is to decide what font to use and print out your letters/numbers on card stock. Most methods I had come across said to cut out the letters with an exacto-knife, so I tried that with the first 3 letters. I thought it took way too long, and was too difficult, so I started just cutting out the black letters with scissors. Since you are going to be tracing it onto your surface anyways, I figured it didn't matter which way you did it, and the scissor method was a lot quicker and more user friendly :).

Then hold or tape your letters to the surface and trace the outline with a pencil. This is great because it allows you to erase or adjust things before you actually start painting. Once the letters are penciled on where you want them, use a fine brush to fill them in with paint. You need a pretty fine brush to do most fonts, especially if they are decorative or cursive. I used a small brush for the main letters, and a tiny makeup brush to do the detailed part.

I am pretty happy with the results and have a few more projects in mind around the house. Now we just need to build the inside of the pantry! :)

Try This At Home: No-Sew Tutus

I guess you could call this a slight interlude from all the recent vacation photos, except that they were taken in Halifax on our trip. But, it's the perfect opportunity for me to share a new Try This At Home post since I had the cutest little models! I found this idea on nannygoat for making tutus and couldn't resist the chance to make one for each of the little girls in the family. In fact, they were so easy and so super adorable that I am planning on making a couple more to keep in our play room for dress up when the kids' friends come over!

The only materials you need are 3 yards worth of tulle in your choice of color (I used 2 colors for each tutu, 1.5 yds of each), and a 1-2 in elastic band sewn to your child's waist size. You cut the tulle into 4 inch strips and knot the strips around the elastic. So easy! Check out the link for some great instructions!

So go ahead... don't try this at home!

Try This At Home: Mod-Podged Frames

I had been keeping my eyes open for quite awhile for the perfect something to hang on one blank section of wall in Naomi's room. It wasn't until I came across these mod-podged frames that I discovered a world of crafty decor-possibilities, at a minimal cost. Seven magic words to my ears.

Not only did I make three pretty frames to hang on the wall, I made two more for the dresser, mod-podged her white name letters, and completed the ensemble by doing her mirror that greatly needed a facelift.

You have been forewarned. This can become quite addicting! :)

To begin, you need a bottle of Mod-Podge, scissors, scrapbooking paper, a brush and container for the Mod-Podge, and your frame (or whatever you are making). I found a bunch of woooden frames at my local craft store for under $2 a piece. Depending on what you are making, you may want to paint the frame first before starting this part if there are any edges that will show.


Begin by cutting pieces of your scrapbook paper to fit the frame you are covering. Once all the pieces are cut, brush a thin, well-covered coat of Mod-Podge onto the frame. Press the paper into place and smooth out to avoid any creases or air bubbles.Allow it to dry for 10-15 minutes. Then brush another thin, well-coated layer of Mod-Podge over the top of the paper to seal and protect it. Allow it to dry completely.

Once it is dry you can sand the edges to finish it off and then add any embellishments, such as ribbon, buttons, silk flowers, or wooden cutouts. Hang, enjoy, and start the next one! :)

{Will post a finished photo of the mirror tomorrow! My husband has the SD card for my camera!}

Try This At Home: Recycling Crayons

I love the fact that my kids are really into coloring.

I do not love the fact that we end up with little, broken crayon pieces everywhere that are virtually wasted because even little toddler fingers cannot properly grasp them anymore. Besides that, it just isn't as much fun to color with broken crayons.

Last year for Riley's birthday, I bought him a box of art supplies in which I included the Crayola Twistable crayons. Let me tell you, they are worth the price if your kids color as much as mine do. They come in a plastic tube and as you use up the tip, you twist to use more of the crayon.

No breaking, no wasting, no paper peeling. Happy mommy.

The only thing that would be better is if they would sell tubes like these to fit regular crayons and you could reuse them by inserting new crayons. Get on the ball, Crayola! :)

Aside from the Twistables, we still have a collection of crayon-bits that I reluctantly started throwing away as I'd find them all over my house . . . until I came across this fabulous idea. You can take the broken crayon pieces and melt them down into rainbow crayons! Brilliant!

So here's our go at it today:

1. Peel the paper off the crayons.

2. Line a muffin tin with foil baking cups.

3. Fill the foil cups with the broken crayon pieces.

4. Bake in the oven at 150 degrees (F) for 15-20 min or until wax is melted. (Keep a close eye on it and make sure the fan is on to reduce the fumes).


5. Let them cool and harden. (Takes 5-10 min)

6. Pop out the crayons and color your heart out!

Now . . . don't try this at home!

Try This At Home: Something Unexpected

Despite how miserable I felt yesterday, I was bound and determined to make myself have a more normal day (obviously I got the chitlens' sickness). I washed, dressed, and motivated myself enough to stay out of bed and off the couch for the whole morning and although I was thoroughly exhausted by 11:30am, the kids and I had a fun morning which we all needed. I wanted to think of something exciting for them to do that would either be something we hadn't done in awhile or at least something unexpected. We are all going a little stir crazy here...

Anyways, I peeked my head out in the garage for some ideas and saw the ball crawl a friend had passed on to us that we use out in the yard in the summer. It needed a little air, but was easy enough for me to drag up to the living room. So they got to have a little summer fun indoors today!

I'm glad I took the time to try something different to brighten the kids' day a bit. Who wouldn't have fun in a blow-up train full of colored plastic balls? It's like a mini-Chuckie Cheese here.

Don't TRY this at home!

Try This At Home: Water Play

This is one way I often keep my kids entertained while I am working in the kitchen. (You are probably wondering if my son ever does anything without his pirate hat....nope.)