The Missing Piece

If you have children or grandchildren you may have a puzzle with a missing piece or two.  This happened with my grandson's spongebob puzzle.  So we took a piece of stryofoam plate, laid it under the spot where the missing piece went.  Then traced, my artistic son drew the puzzle piece onto stryo piece, my grandson and I colored it in with matching markers and then we cut it out.,  Tada... can you see it?  It's the shoe on right side of puzzle.  Pretty tough to spot, huh?

DIY Christmas

So I'd really been going to town creating and being inspired by pinterest.  I still have some gifts I will be working on to come.  But here are a few projects I've dabbled with.

This was an old faded bamboo wind chime.  Here I had replaced the weathered string and spray painted the wood white.

I made a template on masking paper of a star to match the star on my Santa Claus (see below) that I was going to hang in center.  I cut star out with an x acto knife and spray painted the star onto the top on four different sides.

this is a wooden Christmas ornament that was in our Christmas ornament collection.  it worked perfectly, since I'd lost the middle piece of wood that was on the chime.

Here is the completed chime, even though the stars are not as visible in this picture.

This shows the stars but not the santa claus.  Can't have everything! 

 

Another pinterest inspiration.  branches I cut from a bush, spray painted with the fake snow paint, added to a clear vase, with ribbon and a few small red ball ornaments. Ta da...Easy!

a basket I got as a gift last year.  most of the year, it's in a cupboard holding my small lids to my glad wear but here i brought it out and added just some silk poinsettias, some gold ribbon and a pretty embroidered heart ornament.

 

this too was a pinterest inspiration.  however, I didn't want to make it too complicated.  I just used some red ribbon and looped over each section of chandelier, tying a ball ornament to each end.  I cut at different lengths, but didn't measure (just eyed it)  I hope to add more balls (which I hope to get at an after Christmas sale) next year for a wider span.  I used a combination of red and gold with one glass ornament that was a gift.  Definitely a simplified version but still took some time and patience. 

Easy no water snow globes.  Save either glass or plastic jars.  I used  plastic for my grandsons to play with, and glass for my own decorating.  I spray painted lid, bottom and inside either gold or silver.  I glued little miniatures with hot glue onto lid.  I then used some fake snow that was also sparkly (so I didn't need glitter too) Put lid on and shake up. Some of the glitter/snow sticks to the sides of jar because of static.  Really cute and easy.

Homemade ornament wall Christmas tree.  I didn't want to put up a big tree this year.  I actually only put up the top of our artificial and sat it on table top on deck in front of picture window.  I do not like the hassle of a big tree.  It seems my tree gets smaller as I get older.  Especially since my daughter who loved to decorate has her own home and tree to decorate.  And the boys in my family don't seem to get the joy from putting one up and decorating ...basically it is like pulling teeth.  So since the homemade ornaments are my favorite part I cleared a wall and started taping ornaments in a tree shape to wall.  It turned out kind of cool, I thought.  Only thing is almost everyday I hear a kerplunk as one falls off.  Nothing is breakable...thank goodness. I have tried masking tape and double sided tape, more masking tape and they still fall.  I just rehang them when they fall :)  I also filled in some empty spots with pretty bows. 

12 days before christmas tins, altoid tins with mini donuts(cheerios with icing and sprinkles), ornaments, candy, bugs, pet prayer rocks with instructions. etc.

 

I made these with my two grandsons for their parents.  I made salt dough ~ 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup water (as needed to make a soft dough)  roll it out, make hand impression. Next cut around edges of hand impression, use a straw or pen top to put a hole at top.  bake at 200F for 3 hours.  I let it continue to dry out overnight, then painted.  don't forget to have child write name (or do yourself) and year on back.  put a ribbon for hanging at the top.  My grandsons were so excited to give these to their mom and dad! 


 



Food Creations



Fun easy snowmen and fresh waffles for a week of good breakfasts



mini powdered donuts, candy corn noses and black icing for writing.  enjoyed making these with my grandson.  he did the noses and since the eyes and mouths took a steady hand, I did those! 

waffle mix ~follow directions, spray waffle iron with oil spray (I make my own by putting canola oil in spray bottle), spread oil into all cracks with oil brush.

Pour enough batter to cover bottom of waffle maker, sprinkle some chocolate chips, add more batter if there is room.  don't over fill...big mess

This is how the waffle should look when done.  Mine stuck a little (probably from the homemade no stick spray, doesn't spray as evenly:)  Use fork or spatula to lift off waffle iron.

I make about 6-8 and bag about 3 of them in zip sealed gallon baggies.  They can be warmed in microwave and are more fresh and less expensive than the store bought.  They are large, so one is usually one serving. 
I do this too with pancakes.  I make several at a time, saving to be warmed up by my family for a quick, fresh, easy breakfast!

No Boil Lasagna

2 pounds lean ground chuck cooked.
Mix 1 pint of ricotta cheese with 1 cup of Italian cheese, 1 quarter cup of Parmesan
Spread 1/2 jar of spaghetti sauce on bottom of 9x13 pan  Lay 3 Barilla no boil lasagna on top of spaghetti sauce.
Spoon 1/3 of ricotta mixture over the noodles, 1/3 of your meat, another 1/2 jar sauce, then noodles and repeat 2 more times.
Top with remaining mozzarella, cover with foil, then put in oven at 375* for 40 minutes.  Uncover and bake for 10 more minutes till cheese is slightly brown.
Let cool 10 minutes before cutting.
Enjoy.

Diy stain spray

 

Fill an empty squirt bottle with equal parts

Water
Ammonia
1/4 C Laundrey Soap

Spray on stain

DIY Antibacterial Kitchen Counter Cleaner

So I ran out of Lysol Antibacterial Kitchen Cleaner which I use on my kitchen counter tops.  I decided to use what I have on hand and this is the formula I decided to try.
The miracle product as in many cleaning supplies is vinegar.  But don't rule out peroxide or bleach.  I just chose vinegar (despite its bad smell) because it doesn't bleach things out like the prior mentioned.  So here's my simple recipe and it doesn't smell too strong since it's diluted and has a citrus scented dish soap.

Antibacterial Kitchen Counter Cleaner

• empty (reuse old bottle) spray bottle
• fill bottle 1/2 of vinegar
• fill bottle 1/2 of water
• 1T scented dishsoap

Other kitchen hints~ 

For cleaning microwaves, just pour a little lemon juice into a bowl of water and microwave it for a few minutes.  This will deoderize and help wipe down grim in microwave. 

Finally, if your sink is clogged or smelly, try pouring 1/4 cup of that old baking soda that needs replaced for freshing your refrig or freezer (write date on so you know how old it is, I save mine 6 months) down the sink, then add 1 cup of vinegar and cover the drain tightly.  It will bubble up and freshen drain and help drain better.

Window Film for Privacy and Dog Smudges

We have a patio door that opens into our main living room.  It is so frustrating because whenever the neighbors come down their driveway their headlights shine right into our living room.  Also I could see all the smears from not cleaning it good enough.  Well, I got over this.  But then we got a new dog and she smudges it with her big nose and big slobbers.  She is a american bull dog/ st. benard mix.  She is way more slobbier than our previous border collie/ sheperd mix.  I was going to attempt some diy window film but felt I was not artistic or patient enough.  So I found this one on Amazon with a bamboo print that goes pretty well with our decor.  With help from the husband, who has applied tint to many a car window we got it done pretty easily.  I have to say, even though we opted to do only one window, since the other is always blocked by our bamboo shades, it looks pretty good.  Even though Daisy will have to peak behind the bamboo to see the outside cats or anyone approaching the front door, it's a great choice. 

This is our previous dog looking at the cats from our patio door.  you can imagine the doggie nose prints!

This is the door minus the grid and with our new bamboo window film

Halloween Ideas

Spongebob haypants. I made this for grandsons at Halloween. I'm really not into the spooky stuff anymore but saw this idea at Amish Acres. http://www.amishacres.com/ I have a friend that graciously gave me two bails of hay. I then had my son stacked them on top of one another. If you have something to hold them together, like placing dollrods between them, this may prevent a tip over...mine actually stayed upright for quite some time. The mouth, shirt, tie and pants were painted on using cheap spray paint for about $1 at dollar store. I used two wiffle balls painted with blue eyes and secured with some wire to twine that wraps around hay. Also I used a plastic banana stuck into the hay for a nose. For the arms and legs I had a broken rake and a broken broom stick that I spray painted yellow. Added some gloves secured by rubberbands and some black boots. Or if you want to get complicated you can make some boots out of paper mache. My teenage son was the heavy lifter of the hay! And the grandboys got to help and they thought it was cool!

Here are my painted pumpkins from one year with a cat following two mice.

Our little mummy.  Tore an old bed sheet into long strips and wrapped away. 

Another simple idea.  Use black sweats and paint a skeleton on the body with glow in dark paint from craft aisle.  Then buy the mask and the skeleton gloves.  He is no longer this little, neither are my other two children.  I miss those years!  Treasure them. 
 

Little Tikes Car Transformed into Batmobile

I got this idea from a picture I saw and for a few dollars I took my $6 thriftshop little tike car and made it an awesome batmobile for my grandsons.  I bought 3 cheap black spray paint for $1 a piece at Dollar Store.  I had a can of silver Krylon that I used for the batman logo background.  You could use yellow which is the original batman logo background color.  I used what I had on hand (and our dollar store didn't carry yellow).
I started by cleaning any dirt from car. And also to help the paint stick better I did some roughing with sandpaper.  You could also use better paint or a primer and skip that step. Then I spray painted the door silver.  (step 1)
My husband made a cardboard batman lego.  After the silver paint set for a day or two, I covered the door with masking tape. (step 2) 
After that I traced the oval onto the masking tape, then cut out the bat and traced it onto center of oval.  (step 3 and 4)
I then used a utility knife to cut out the oval and removed the tape from outside oval. (step 5)
Then I used utility knife to cut the bat out, removing that masking tape, leaving only the oval covered.  (step 6)
We also spray painted the gas cap and hubcaps on wheels silver.  And covered them with masking after paint set. 
Now is the final and hardest step.  Spray paint everything not covered in masking tape with the black spray paint.  This took some time.  I tried to spray evenly so not to have runs.  And I let dry between coats.  I sprayed everything except the bottom.  I even sprayed inside including the roof.  I left the horn button red by covering it with masking.  When all is dry, carefully peel back masking to reveal the silver or yellow. (Step 7)  My 3 year old grandson loved it.  He put some scratches in it by running it into things.  If I wanted I could always touch it up...or leave it with its little scratches that came from fun and play! 

step 1

step 4

Step 2

Step 3

Step 5

step 6

step 7

Finished car

Happy Grandson!

OLD TUBE SOCKS, DOGGIE DIY CHEW ROPES, ETC

I found purpose for my husbands old tube socks.  Our St. Benard, American Bull Dog has shredded a play rope or two, has torn the bits out of stuffed toys so I repurposed some old socks.  I cut the socks toes out, then cut the socks into about 1" strips.  Then I tied three strips into a knot at the top, proceeded to do a simple braid and tied knots at the ends.  I made 2 of these and had 2 strips left over.  So I took the two strands, left about 2" at top and kept knotting them til I got about 2" from ends and then tied the two ends into a circle.  She loves em.  And when they get shredded or just plain nasty from her saliva, I can toss em, with no buyers remorse!

I Did it Myself ~ DIY Ottoman and No Sew Roman Shade

 

This ottoman was a joint project with my hubby. It was made from some old under the bed storage boxes my hubby made for my grown son's room. My son has since moved out and we got rid of bed so my hubby just converted them to this upright box and hinged a top on. We then added rolling casters on bottom and I used a giant pillow on top and covered with some fabric stapled to underneath of top. And it opens for storage!

 

With additional fabric from ottomon I decided to tackle a pinterest diy project for no sew roman shades. I got the idea from http://involvingcolor.com/involvinghome/no-sew-roman-shade-from-mini-blinds/ so not to take credit for myself. Getting a great picture was another story because of lighting.

What happens to people who never hear about God?



The question, what happens to people who have never heard about God was unanswered in my mind until today.  I read the story of the blind man that Jesus healed in John 9:35-41. Inparticular I was interested in the part of that Bible verse where Jesus said to the blind man "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains" The Bible tells us that God is a just God.  It would be foolish to believe that He'd judge a person who never knew about Him the same as someone who did.
No matter where we live we are born with a soul.  That soul has a longing in it.  As Eccles. 3:11 says
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." 
However, some people refuse to accept what is in their very heart.  They drown out that yearning toward God.  Why?  The Bible defines why?  "God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. ²⁰ All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed"
I did this myself for at least 10 years of my adulthood.  I believed there was a God.  I did have skepticism.  But skepticism isn't unbelief.  I wanted to keep living my life in the dark because there were things in my life that were rebellious.  I believe that God didn't force Himself onto me but waited patiently as the father did with the prodigal son. (Luke 15:11-32) In time I chose belief.  And yes, you chose it.