Rubber band bracelets-no loom needed!

Last week I saw on a rubber bands posted on a deal site. I checked it out and was curious what they were for. It turns out you can make pretty awesome little bracelets out of rubber bands! I ordered my rubber bands from the rainbow loom website, but only ordered rubber bands and "c" clips, no loom. You don't need a loom to make regular rubber band bracelet or the fishtail rubber band bracelet. My 8 year old and her 10 year old friend had a blast making them.

So you need a bunch of rubber bands (I ordered the mixed pack but will be ordering more in specific colors) and clips. Each back ordered from rainbow loom comes with 25 "c" clips.

Pick out your colors, if doing an alternating pattern 2 take the 2 different colors and lay them on top of each other.Then loop them through each other and pull tight.



Then take your next color fold it in half and slid it through one end

continue doing this with alternating colors until you reach your desired length.

Then slide a "c" clip on the one end, then the other.

A variety of colors

Alternating colors

All done!!

To make a fishtail:

Take one color and put it on your middle finger, twist it once and put the other side on your index finger.

Then place 2 more rubber bands on you finger, no twisting (I chose alternating colors, but have also done a rainbow).

Then take once side of the bottom rubber band and pull it to the middle, taking it off your finger. Do that to the other side. You should now have 1 rubber band in the middle and two on your fingers.

Add another rubber band to your finger (NO TWISTING AFTER THE FIRST RUBBER BAND!) and pull the bottom rubber band to off and to the middle.

Continue, and you begin to see the fishtail!

Continue to you desire length and attach a "c" clip.

A pattern of 3 colors

Alternating colors

Rainbow!

This is a great craft for any age, for boys and girls, preteen, teen and adult. Buy rubber bands in your school colors, holidays, the sky is the limit!

Linked up at: The Girl Creative, Classy Clutter, sugarbeecrafts, Ginger Snap Crafts

Ric-Rac Flannel Baby Blanket

 

A friend is having a baby boy soon and I needed a gift! I like to make something for baby gifts because it's so much more personal. I pulled out a piece of flannel from my stash and started sewing. It was 2 yards so I just put right sides together and sewed until I just had an opening left to flip. Once it was flipped I was ready to top stitch and I thought it needed a little something more. I happened to have some orange ric-rac that went perfectly with that fabric. I didn't quite have enough to go around the entire thing so I just did 2 sides and I love how it turned out. Just a little something to punch up the interest!

Happy Sewing!

Peanut Chocolate Caramel Chex Mix

I was looking for a quick, easy and fun snack to make my kids that did not involve the oven. It's HOT here and I didn't want to add to the temperature. I came across a recipe for PAYDAY Chex Mix and thought I would give it a go, with a few adjustments for my family.

A very Simple recipe:
Peanut Chocolate Caramel Chex Mix

• 8 Cups Rice Chex


• 14 oz bag of Caramels, unwrapped


• 1 TBSP Milk


• 1 1/2 C Roasted Peanuts


• 1/2-3/4 C Chocolate Chips

In a large bowl place Rice Chex and peanuts. Line a baking sheet with wax paper. In a microwave safe bowl place unwrapped caramels and milk. Microwave for 1 minute and stir. Continue in 30 second increments, stirring after each 30 seconds until caramel is smooth. Once smoothly quickly pour over Chex/peanut mixture and stir until coated. Pour in chocolate chips and mix. Spread onto wax paper lined baking sheet and let set up. Enjoy & Eat!

Ikea Hack-Bathroom & Jewelry Storage

Storage is a universal problem throughout my home and I know I'm not the only person that struggles with it. I'm constantly going through things, getting rid of things, reorganizing things, etc. But there are certain things that you still need around. And for those things you just need for find a home for them. In the bathroom It's nice if that home is not the countertop. Here is my solution and it come in at about $5.

What you need is:

• 1 BEKVAM Spice Rack from IKEA ($3.99)


• 1 package of mug hooks ($.97)

That's it!!!

Our bathroom is separated so the toilet shower is in one space and the sink is in a another space, neither of which is very big. The shelf space up above to hold lotions and hair stuff :

And the hooks below to hang necklaces and earrings (admittedly I do not own a lot of jewelry, but obviously there is a lot more space under here for hooks and more jewelry!). I just hand screwed each of the hooks in, the wood is soft enough to do it. If you find it difficult or want to make sure your spacing is correct, before hanging your shelf, hammer a nail partway in and pull it out wherever you would like hook. This will help you screw your hooks in.

 Six Sisters' Stuff

Today I will choose Joy

A few months ago a wonderful friend moved away. I helped her clean out her garage and she had a bunch of wood stuck up in her rafters that she was just going to send off to the dump. I quickly grabbed it and stuck it in my trunk knowing at some point it would become something beautiful!

Here's what I started with:

I sanded and poly-ed it and used brown vinyl and a new favorite saying "Today I will choose Joy"

I love how it turned out. It's right about our slider out to the backyard.

"Mock Mason Jar" Lego Storage

I've been seeing all sorts of storage and planting ideas popping up using mason jars and hose clamps. I thought they were fun but couldn't find a use for any of them in my home. What I did need was more LEGO storage! But I didn't want to use glass mason jars with LEGOs. So here's what I did, I used plastic peanut butter jars!! The large peanut butter jars are larger enough for even an adult hand to get to the bottom of!

So, here's what you need to make your own:

• A piece of wood, cut to length, sanded and stained (or painted)


• Plastic peanut butter jars (I used large PB jars from Costco)


• Hose clamps (they were about $1.50 a piece)


• Screws


• Tools-screw driver, hammer & 1 large nail

It was fairly simple, A stained piece of wood with 3 hose clamps and 3 PB jars attached. The only tricky part for me was getting the hose clamps on. You have to hammer a hole through the back of the hole clamp to put a screw through the back to attach it to the wood. We didn't happen to have any large nails. That would have helped the process considerably, but I got the job done!. Once the 3 clamps are attached to the wood tighten around the jars and attach onto the wall! Fill them up with LEGOs and enjoy!

Above this fun storage solutions is another simple LEGO storage idea from the DollarTree. These wooden boxes were natural wood and got a quick coat of spray paint. I will admit though that they rarely have minifigs in them. My LEGO loving kid keeps his minifigs in use most of the time!!

Recipe: Oatmeal Whole Wheat Buttermilk Bread

My husband is currently training to run the St George marathon. We nearing the finish line of training (only about 4 more weeks) and each week he seems to get hungrier and hungrier with all of the calories he's burning running! So he asked if I could make some whole wheat bread. In my searches I came across Tracey's Culinary Adventures: Whole Wheat Oatmeal Buttermilk Bread.

I loved that it had a combo of white and whole wheat flour as well as oatmeal. It was easy to put together and turned out to be a wonderful bread. Here is my take on the recipe!

Oatmeal Whole Wheat Buttermilk Bread

1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup boiling water
1/4 cup room temperature water
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon honey
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature (or 1 TBSP lemon juice + milk to = 1 1/2 C)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt

Place 1 C water in a heat glass bowl and microwave 2 minutes or until boiling. Then add 1 1/2 C oats. Stir together and let soak for 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Meanwhile make "buttermilk" by pouring 1 TBSP lemon juice + milk to equal 1 1/2 C and let sit for 2 minutes or until milk begins to curdle. Add everything into mixer with paddle attachment and knead for 10 minutes. Dough should be smooth and not sticky.

Put into a well oiled bowl and let rise in a warm place (a warm oven works well) for 30 to 45 minutes.

Once doubled in size punch down and split in half and form loaves.

Place each loaf in a prepared loaf pan. Let rise for 20 to 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375. Mix 1 TBSP warm water with 1 TBSP honey. Brush tops of loaves and sprinkle with oats. Bake at 375 for 50 minutes. YUM!!

Quick and easy picnic blanket (from jeans)

I've had this big box of tired, worn out, or ill fitting jeans for a few years. Shameful I know, but they were in the garage and-out of sight, out of mind. Well 2 of our kids just started soccer season which means 2 practices a week and 2 games a week. We needed a new blanket to take with us!

I've made jean quilts before and they are  along and tedious process getting all of your pieces cut to the same size and organized. Then pieces the squares, putting a backing on and then tying it.

For this blanket I took the jeans and cut the leg off as close to the crotch as possible. Then I cut down one seam (or tore) to the bottom of the leg and cut off the bottom seam. This left me with large pieces of jean. I squared them off and set off to sew them together. I matched up right sides together and sewed together until I had a length I was happy with. Then did several more strips. With the large jean pieces it only took 3 or 4 lengths to get it long enough. Once my strips were done I sewed them together.

All done! In all it took me less than an hour and I have a free, durable picnic quilt.

Many times we get pizza and a movie on the weekends. The kids like to eat it picnic style while watching the movie (We got The Lorax this weekend). This was another great use for the jean quilt and it can easily be thrown in the wash if there are any spills!