Sewing Project - Door curtain strap to Velcro strip

I don't really sew. I mean, I know how to sew and mend and whatnot, but I don't have a sewing machine nor do I generally take on projects that involve cutting fabric. All of this is slightly ironic since all throughout high school I was in the drama costume department where we had to mend or make costumes, but mostly mend.

So, needless to say I was quite pleased that this little idea of mine turned out as well as it did. You see, our backdoor is slightly awkward in our living room. During the evening, cars turning down the street shine directly into our living room through the backdoor.

Once we discovered the door was magnetic, we quickly bought two magnetic curtain rods and the door curtain, which came with a strap to pinch in the sides, to let some light in. The only problem with the strap is that you have to completely take the curtain off the rod, slide the strap down, put the curtain back on the rod and then rehang and position the curtain on the door. PAIN IN THE BUTT if I do say so myself. So, we just stuck with it being completely covered most of the time.

But still, it bugged me that we couldn't let some light in, especially on these great sunshiny days. So began my idea of taking the strap apart and making it a strip with Velcro instead of a strap. If you're in a similar situation, please read on and let me show you what I did...

1. This is the strap as it was before I did anything.
 

When I inspected it, I realized one end was tucked into the other, meaning I didn't have to cut the strap (great since I can't cut a straight line!). I was able to rip out the seam between the two sections to create my one long strap.

2. The only problem was now I had raw edges. Not to worry, I sewed the "open" end closed.

And I essentially hemmed the "tucked" end over itself to create a smooth edge.

See both my "clean" edges ready to go! (I know it's not completely straight, but it will be hidden)

3. Next came attaching the Velcro. Let me say, this would have been so much easier with a machine. It was pretty tough to stick the needle through all those layers, especially on the hemmed side, and not to get the thread caught in the teeth of the Velcro. It is doable if you need to do so, but just a warning.

 

4. Once I had both the Velcro sides attached, I was ready to go!

The best part is, I only lost about half an inch in my overall length in adding the Velcro - pretty good I thought since the Velcro was wider than that!

Looks pretty similar to original if I do say so!

I realize not everyone has a door curtain like this that needs fixing, but for those of you who are struggling with the slip on strap, try this and see the possibilities!

Fresh Greek Salad

I think I've shared on here before that I'm not exactly the best with side dishes. Needless to say, when there is a potluck and everyone needs to bring a side or salad, I'm usually at a loss. That was until I found a recipe card from my wedding shower hidden in my box.

This is a great, fresh salad that is perfect for potlucks. My husband's work does a potluck every few weeks so I made this the most recent time. There is quite a bit to the salad, so it can feed a decent size crowd. And of course my favorite requirement in a recipe - you can easily change it to your tastes!

Greek Salad

2 cucumbers
1 zucchini
2 green peppers
1 onion
grape tomatoes (I used almost all the container)
1 C sugar
1/2 C vinegar
1/2 C olive oil
salt
pepper
garlic powder

Chop all of your vegetables into bite-sized pieces and combine in a large bowl. This can be a time consuming task - which is one reason I like to use grape tomatoes since you can really just wash and throw in the bowl if you like! You can always add different vegetables you prefer; I would suggest maybe trying cauliflower or broccoli.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the sugar, vinegar and olive oil. Whisk or combine with a fork until the sugar has dissolved in the liquid. Add your salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. I also like to sprinkle my veggies with some of the seasoning as well.

Pour the dressing over your vegetables and stir it up. Refrigerate the salad. It may need to be stirred occasionally as it can get a little soupy, but I think it has the great balance between sweet and freshness I crave in a salad.


With spring supposedly here and summer around the corner, I hope this gives some of you another option for all those potlucks and picnics!

Not every one is a winner...

I tried my hand at converting one of my simple baked chicken recipes to the crock pot this weekend. Needless to say it did not turn out very well! But, I feel the need to be honest that it was a failure, and offer the encouragement I'm giving to myself - to not give up!

In the devotional I'm reading, the Bible passages I've been reading and the verses I've seen lately have all dealt with not giving up and pursuing your dream. Our sermon yesterday was about having faith in all situations, the good and the bad, and I think this really applies to not giving up in your circumstance; and definitely something of which I need reminding!

While a new recipe idea not working out is minutely small compared to the big stuff, I think it's an easy example we can use to relate the big idea to every area of our lives. Because as long as you're working toward something and doing it with the right purpose in mind, you can have success.


Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the LORD, not for human masters

Colossians 3:23

Starting this blog was a big step of faith for me, as is working freelance full time. I've been feeling afraid of failure lately but I'm realizing these constant reminders are letting me know that I'll never know unless I try. The best part is I have my loving Savior to back me up for He will never leave me nor forsake me!

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but fives us power, love and self-discipline.

2 Timothy 1:7

So for anyone out there reading, I sincerely hope you feel encouraged and remember to not give up!

Snack Time: Popcorn my way

We love popcorn around here at our house. Both of us grew up with this as a constant snack in the home and we can down a bag in nothing flat! I know it's not the healthiest, but I love the taste and the convenience of microwave popcorn. I've had other types, but honestly we don't have room for another appliance for popcorn. I remember as a kid making popcorn with my grandpa on one of these:

But anyway, we don't just make popcorn, we like to add a little something extra. Our favorite is M&Ms - peanut for my husband and plain for me (but we both will eat both types). This gives for the perfect sweet and salty I'm always craving.

What do you like to add to your popcorn, or do you prefer it plain?

Lasagna Rollups

This is a great freezer meal, which is great this week since I've been sick and we just got over hosting family, so I've really not been in the mood to cook. I combined a recipe I was given and a picture of a recipe on Pinterest (I didn't pin it or look at the link, so not really sure how close mine is to it).

The other great thing about this recipe was it was completely made from leftovers - I didn't buy anything new for this one! I made these a few weeks back, froze them and we enjoyed them this week. Since I was using leftovers only, I was able to make just four rollups but you can easily make this expand with more ingredients.

Lasagna Rollups

5 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (as much as you can =) )
1 C. ricotta cheese
3/4 C. mozzarella cheese
1 large egg
1/2 t. garlic powder
4 lasagna noodles
~1/2 C. spaghetti or marinara sauce (more or less depending on your taste)

Boil the lasagna noodles according to package instructions. Try and use a large pot if possible since it's imperative the noodles don't break, and I have the worst time with lasagna noodles. I generally use no-boil noodles now, which is why I had just a few regular leftover for this meal. Lay the noodles out flat to allow them to cool, flipping them so they don't stick to the counter or cutting board.

In a small bowl, combine the cheeses, spinach, egg and garlic powder. Mix well and ensure the egg is completely beaten within the mix.

Carefully spoon the cheese mixture along the length of a noodle, leaving a little space on the sides and at the opposite end from which you plan to start rolling (the filling will press down the length of the noodle, so leaving a little space will avoid mess and using too much filling).

Roll up the noodles with the filling inside. Carefully place the rollups in a freezer bag until you are ready to use.

When you are ready to eat your rollups, preheat your oven to 350°. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and place the frozen rollups in the dish. Cover with the sauce and sprinkle with a little mozzarella cheese. Cover the dish and bake for about an hour. I cooked mine for 45 minutes per the first recipe I was adjusting and they weren't very warm, so be sure to check them before serving.


You can always make this recipe with a meaty filling instead of spinach; I think I might try and make it that way next time around.

Puppy Chow

This sweet snack is so tempting and never lasts long around our house! I made a batch a bit back for our group and it's too easy to just keep eating and eating until it's gone, but it's so yummy that way!

I realize the recipe is on the box of Chex cereal, but the recipe I use is different. I got it from a friend of mine's mom who I've known since kindergarten. Oh, and it's most definitely called Puppy Chow, not Muddy Buddies ;)

Puppy Chow

9 Cups Chex cereal (I like to use corn or rice)
1/2 C peanut butter
1/2 C chocolate chips
1/2 C butterscotch chips
1/4 C butter
2 t vanilla
1 1/2 C powdered sugar (plus extra if you want to add)


Melt the peanut butter, butter and chips in a saucepan on the stove. You can do this in the microwave, but I have such bad luck melting chocolate in there I prefer to watch it on the stove. My trick is to constantly stir the mixture and keep it on low heat. This prevents the chocolate from sticking and burning to the pan.

Add the vanilla to the melted mixture and mix well. Pour the mixture over the cereal and mix/stir/use your hands until it is coated well.

Pour the powdered sugar into a gallon size zipped bag. Add the cereal mixture. Seal well and shake it! This was my favorite part as a kid, and probably still is! Add more powdered sugar if you would like it to be coated more.

Enjoy your snack and reminisce about childhood :)

DIY: Custom Magnets

I probably am a pack rat, but just am afraid to admit it. I worry there will be a use for something that I throw away. I blame my Dad for this - you should see all the odds and ends in his garage! But it is completely organized and everything has its place :)

So when I used up my magnetic notepad, I couldn't throw away the strong magnets that were on the back. They sat on the fridge for awhile before I decided to pretty them up a little bit. You can do this project too, all you will need is:

DIY Magnets

* magnet from magnetic paper pad
* scrapbook paper
* scissors
* glue and/or double-stick tape
* your choice of decorative elements

This is from another notepad since I had already thrown my old one away, but I'm sure this magnet will end up in a similar project when the time comes!

1. I trimmed off the excess cardboard stuck to the magnet to make a clean edge. Just turn the magnet around so you can see the extra tops sticking out.

2. I measured the magnet and cut a piece of my chosen paper to the same size. You can make it a little larger if you like and trim the excess after, like with the cardboard fragments.

3. I then attached the decorative paper with a glue stick and added double-stick tape to make sure the edges stuck. This is when the cardboard fragments come in handy to have a rough surface to attach the paper.

4. You can now decorate the front however you would like. I received some hand-me-down letter whole punches a few months back and I've been using these to label everything lately. I think it'd be just as cute to put a fun sticker or cut out on the front. The possibilities really are endless, or dependent on what you have on hand because this project is about spending $0!

This is pre-glued; I did my best to make the letters straight in the end :)

5. Enjoy your custom magnets on your fridge!

Switching up Recipes: Converting to Crock Pot Cooking!

This has been a longtime goal of mine. I started toying with this idea around Christmas. I wanted to have a nice meal once we got back from Christmas Eve service, but I didn't want to have to cook everything real quick in the oven once we got home.

Enter the crock pot. :)

I had found a great pork tenderloin recipe online I wanted to try, but it was all in the oven and on the stove. I began searching simply for a pork tenderloin recipe in the crock pot, just to give me an idea of how long to cook it in there.

I made the marinade according to directions, well, using what I had on hand and substituting where I didn't. Instead of marinating for a few hours, I just placed the juices in the crock pot with the meat. I still had to make the sauce for on top once we got home, but that only took me about 15 minutes; much quicker too since I had pre-measured everything before church.The meat came out so incredibly tender and delicious it made making this recipe in the crock pot a no brainer for the future!

All that being said, I've definitely started getting my brain thinking about how I will adapt our eating and my cooking habits once we move to Hawaii. We've talked to quite a few friends and I've gotten this information from them so there are a few things I will need to consider:
1. food goes bad fairly quickly
2. going to the commissary will be the best choice for price, but may be far away and very crowded
3. it's going to be warm - we may not want to use the oven very often
4. it's Hawaii! I don't want to have to spend all day every day in the kitchen!

So, for now I plan on trying to convert some of my oven recipes to the crock pot. It should be nice even for South Carolina weather now too since it is starting to warm up already. My next step will be to begin the endeavor of freezer cooking, or at least freezer preparing for meals.

I'm excited to start this project and look forward to documenting what I can here on the blog! If anyone has any tips or ideas for converting recipes, please feel free to share!

Menu for the week: Cooking for a group

Ok, so not really a group, but going from cooking for two to cooking for five can seem overwhelming, at least for me! I have it down pretty well how much to make for us and if I want leftovers out not, but cooking for more people and not knowing their appetites can be challenging. So with my in-laws in town I stuck with a lot of sandwich and crock pot meals, I hope it all turns out well!


Monday: spaghetti
Tuesday: roast sandwiches with au jus
Wednesday: burrito lasagna
Thursday: dinner out
Friday: homemade pizza
Saturday: homemade chick fil a sandwiches (big kudos to my hubby for funding this one and making it for me on a Sunday a few weeks ago!)


We'll be pretty busy this week but I have a few posts lined up, including a fun DIY craft I made on an experimenting whim a few weeks back! Enjoy your week, everyone!

Freezing Strawberries

It's no secret around here that strawberries are my favorite fruit, snack, food, dessert, everything! So when the grocery store had a great sale on them, I couldn't pass it up and stocked up.

I've always loved the idea of freezing leftovers, fresh fruits and veggies or even freezer meals, but I am very limited in my freezer space. We have a normal size fridge/freezer; however, about half of the freezer is taken up by an ice machine.

But I wasn't going to let this stop me! I had already bought them anyway and we couldn't really live on strawberry only meals! So I decided my hand at freezing the berries, and hoped they wouldn't stick together in a huge clumped mess, so here's what I did:

Freezing Strawberries step by step

1. Wash the berries and cut of the tops. Also cut off any squishy parts or just discard the icky looking ones.

2. Slice your berries. I wanted slices since they will a) thaw a little easier and b) are easier to use in desserts and smoothies I think.

3. Lay out the berries in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Put them in the fridge for a few hours so they are nice and chilled.

 

4. Move the berries to the freezer - still on the cookie sheets. I think mine were in there between five and six hours.

5. Remove from the cookie sheets. You may have to get a spatula if they have semi-frozen to the sheet in some areas.

6. Place in a bag and label with the date!

I can happily report that a few days later these were still frozen individually and not in a large clump! It is so nice knowing that I was able to freeze my own FRESH berries for cheaper than I normally buy the frozen bag!

Date Night Jar

I had seen several different date night jars on Pinterest and was intrigued. We go out a decent amount, but we can easily get stuck in a rut and I liked the idea of choosing something for the evening to make it fun.

My husband was on board with me so one afternoon we sat down together and wrote out different date ideas on small pieces of paper I had already cut up for us. If the date was weather specific (like going to see a baseball game had to be in summer) we put either a sun or a snowflake on the outside to indicate to the person drawing the date. We tried to get a good mix of cheap and expensive dates as well as at home and going out dates.

I took an old candle jar and lightly glued scrapbook paper to the outside of the jar. I spread a little bit of white glue on the paper and smeared it using a scrap piece of paper. I then pushed out any bubbles using my straight edge for scrapbooking and cardmaking.

I used the same size scrapbook paper I did with my spare change jar, but it was a little short being on the outside rather than on the inside. I added a small additional piece of scrapbook paper to cover the hole and provide a label for my jar.

In went all of our date ideas!

We take turns drawing a date each week and whomever draws the date is in charge of planning the date. We try to do this every week unless we have a) done a lot lately and should save some money or b) we already have something planned for the week.

Some of our dates in the past have been:
* at home game night for two
* going out for icecream
* candlelit dinner
* couples painting class
* hockey game
* iceskating
* horseback riding
* at home movie night (rent from Redbox with a code or OnDemand)
* shooting at the gun range

Adjusting the menu for visitors

We've got family coming into town at the end of this week so I tried to accomodate for that in the beginning. Before they get here I am choosing to make simple meals without too much leftovers. It will be nice to have that break before I go from cooking for two to cooking for five!


Monday: Ranch ham and cheese pasta
Tuesday: Beef stuffed zucchini
Wednesday: fajitas
Thursday: fish filets
Friday: Calzones
Saturday: Sandwich roll
Sunday: Pulled pork barbeque sandwiches


Next week will contain more of the recipes I plan on making in bulk during their visit.

Easy Chicken Spaghetti Bake

I've been in "clean out the pantry" mode lately and whipped up this dish recently to do just that! I threw together some leftovers and pantry/fridge staples to make this dish and my husband was pleasantly impressed. You end up with a tetrazzini type of flavor and texture, but with a little more flavor I think. This recipe doesn't make many servings, but can be increased to feed a larger crowd.

Easy Chicken Spaghetti Bake

1 C shredded chicken (leftovers for us)
1/4 small green pepper, diced
1/4 small onion, diced
1 can cream of chicken with herbs soup
1/4 C milk
1 t garlic powder
2 T parmesan cheese
1 T dried parsley
1/4 C panko seasoned breadcrumbs
whole wheat spaghetti (honestly, I just guess with what seems right)


Boil the spaghetti according to directions.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the chicken, soup, milk, cheese, onion, green pepper and garlic. Mix well until it is a good consistency - not too soupy but not too thick.

Drain noodles. Pour into a greased baking dish. Top with the chicken mixture. You can mix these two parts together also if you like, but it did make it a little hard to spread. Sprinkle parsley on the mixture. Top with light coating of breadcrumbs.

Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes until slightly bubbly and heated through. Enjoy!