Grocery Shrink

I was invited to Alexandria, Virginia to do a Grocery Shrink presentation for the MOPS group there.  And since the hostess also invited my entire family to stay for the week at her house and tour Washinton D.C., we jumped at the chance.  It was a fantastic week and I feel so refreshed!  While we were out there I was able to visit IKEA for the first time and bring home a trunk full of home organizational furniture and accessories.  As soon as my feet hit home soil I started building IKEA furniture, getting rid of stuff and organizing what I've kept.  It was long overdue.

Alexandria had a park everywhere you turned around.  Laura (the hostess) and I had a great time getting up early and walking on the trails.  Flowers and trees were blooming everywhere.

Here are a couple of photos from our trip.  I highly recommend that destintation to you.  Most of the museums and sites to visit are free.  We did pay to see the Spy museum (at least Darren and the 2 older kiddoes went while I did my presentation.)  And we paid to go to Mt. Vernon, which was totally worth it.

Historic Homes in Alexandria near the Potomac River

Potomac River. It was a gorgeous day!

Darren and 3 of the kids riding the Metro.  The Metro was safe, prompt, clean and full of freindly people.

 
Super Dad!

Hands on Music Science Lab at the Smithsonian

The Washington Monument and reflection pool with the Capital behind as seen from the Lincoln Memorial.

  Reinactor in front of Mt. Vernon

One of Mt. Vernon's Vegetable Gardens

Chatting with Martha Washington

Aak!  You've been sewing orange silk dresses all day (or maybe not) and your family has to leave for church in 30 minutes and there's no dinner.  You tried this yesterday and already used up your eating out money for the month at McDonalds. What's to do?

Hopefully you made a large batch of soaked flour tortillas over the weekend and have a few to spare.   Grab a can of refried beans and a can of black beans.  (Yes it is easy and less expensive to make your own, but if I you had thought ahead I you wouldn't be in this situation, right?)  So far you have $1 on the table.  Grab a bag of frozen corn and a bag of frozen peas and get them warming on the stove.  That adds another $1.50 to the meal.  Tack on $1 for cheese and $.75 for the tortillas.  You're going to have a balanced meal for $4.25 that will feed 8 people.  And it's going to be ready in 10 minutes!

Mix the refried beans and drained black beans in a sauce pan with 1/4 cup water and some good dashes of cumin and chili powder.  Stir well and let them warm up on the stove.  Then warm the tortillas in the microwave for 1 minute  while your griddle is warming up.

Slap a good amount of beans down the center of a tortilla.  Sprinkle with cheese and fold the sides in.  Place seam side down on the hot griddle and cook on both sides until the cheese is melted and the tortilla is toasted. 

 Voila!  Grilled Stuffed burritoes in less than 10 minutes.  Call the family for dinner, then get in the car.  You can clean up after church.

Ever seen a rabbit in a tutu? It's Day 3 of Fritz's quarterly haircut. He's really not as big as he appears before trimming!

I've always wanted to know how to make tortillas.   I tried lots of times but often ended up with a mess, irritable, and a few hours poorer.

Then one day I found the recipe in the cookbook by the creators of www.Lovetolearn.net and had good success.  I modified their recipe recently to allow for the benefits of lactofermentation to make more of the vitamins in the wheat bioavailable.  Voila! A smooth supple dough that rolled out easily, no flouring needed.  The tortillas were strong and pliable and smooth textured.  Hooray!

Soaked Flour Tortillas

5 cups 100% whole wheat flour (I used Montana Gold Hard White Wheat)

2 teaspoons Salt

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

2 1/4 cups raw soured milk (or place 2 Tablespoons of plain yogurt in a glass measuring cup and fill with enough warm water to yeild 2 1/4 cups.)

Use a heavy duty mixer to beat well into a soft dough.  Cover with plastic wrap and leave overnight or about 8 hours. 

Divide into 20 balls and roll each into a thin circle (7-8 inches in diameter.)  Cook on a hot ungreased griddle or cast iron pan for a few minutes on each side or until bubbles form and turn brown in spots.

Tip:  I roll mine out on a silicone baking sheet and a well seasoned wooden rolling pin.

Cover with a towel to keep soft.

It took me about 30 minutes to make 20 tortillas with a griddle that would hold 2 at a time.  These store well frozen or in the refrigerator.

How much does it cost? 

It was hard for me to find a comparible product commercially but the closest I came was sprouted wheat tortillas which were around $3.69 for 8 or $9.25 for the amount in this recipe.  The homemade recipe cost is $1.76 and 30 minutes of time.  If you made your own soaked wheat tortillas instead of buying them at the store it's like making $14.98 an hour.

(If you want to know how I found how much the tortillas cost, read the paragraph below.)

On the assumption that there are 3.5 cups of flour in a pound, we need 1.5 lbs for this recipe.  I buy my flour at clnf.org for 50 lbs for 25.50 or $.51 a pound.  I have $.75 of flour in this recipe.  Olive oil at CLNF is 16 oz for 7.25 or $.22 a Tablespoon.  I have $.44 in this recipe.  Real Salt is 26 oz for $5.25.  Assuming .16 oz per teaspoon the cost is $.03 per teaspoon.  Yogurt is $2 a quart (64 Tablespoons) at Walmart or $.06 for this recipe.  I'll assume water is free.  (My raw milk is $3 a gallon or $.37 in this recipe.)

Hourly wage is found by taking what you could have spent ($9.25) minus what you did spend ($1.76) and multiplying by the factor by the time you spent to reach an hour (in this case x 2).

Tomorrow I will share a dinner 911 recipe to use when you have tortillas in the fridge and 10 minutes to prepare dinner.

I haven't posted for awhile because I'm finishing up a huge custom sewing project for a dear friend's wedding.  It has been a blast but all consuming and will be quite an accomplishment when finished.  Here's a sneak peek photo:

There are 5 all together and they are all from the same gorgeous silk, but all different styles.  The girls developed their own looks from designer inspirations and I did my best with their wishes.  Measuring figures, drafting patterns, and 12 mock dresses later, I cut into the silk. 3 are finished, 1 is half done and the last one almost ready to start. 

My house is a mess and my cupboard is getting bare.  DH is wondering where his Grocery Shrink went and I'm thinking it will be awhile before I attempt a project like this again (even though it was a blast.)

So the next post will be on a nutritious, inexpensive, quick and highly adaptable food I made to keep me sane during these several weeks–tortillas.  You'll have to wait until tomorrow since I need to go and use my tortillas to make a quick dinner!

I love to sew. It saves money, provides a creative outlet, and I can make money in my own home.  Sewing a dress for myself saves about $40.  But Ana White figured out that making her own headboard saved her about $2,000!  My dress took 8 hours to sew. Her headboard?  About 3.

She became so good at creating beautiful designer look furniture that she did it for money.  Creating for money in mass wasn't as much fun as creating for loved ones, so she started www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com. Knock Off Wood is where Ana shares free instructions, building plans, and encoruagement for DIY furniture building.  It's an amazing place.

She inspired me to pick up my drill and get to work.  The hardware store even cut my lumber to size for me.  First on my project list are these shelves from Martha Stewart:

Next is this bench from Knock Off Wood: 

And after that, I'd like to try a farmhouse table and benches.

Go visit www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com and get inspired.  Happy Nailing!

Wherever we live, I need a sewing room :),  a place to cut out fabric and leave my machine up all the time.  It should be a place out of the direct path of traffic, since I am a bit of a mess.  A lot of my sewing students just don't have an extra room to dedicate to sewing, and I'm so pleased to find some alternatives.

Below is a photo from Martha Stewart.  They converted a pair of bookcases to a craft studio with a set of castors and hinges.  This could easily be adapted to a sewing studio.  Notice the use of a pegboard, painted to match the rest of the area.  Shelves were deliberately placed to allow the unit to close completely and still leave an overhang at which to work.

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/bookcase-armoire-how-to?&backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/25-bedroom-organizers#slide_19

The same idea can be adapted to use an extra closet.  The picture below is from Steven and Chris:  http://www.cbc.ca/stevenandchris/2009/06/decor_on_a_dime_home_office_1.html

I love how they used the doors for extra storage space with pegboards on the bottom half and cork board on the top. Replace the computer with a sewing machine and the office supplies with craft tools and you have an instant sewing room that you can shut the door and hide. I love how the mirror makes it feel less closed in, almost like a window.

In these photos and the photo in the post about closet curtains I noticed that I loved the look because of all the work the designer put into choosing colors and making the area feel cohesive and coordinated.  I'm going to stretch myself in this area.  I tend to use what is free and available and not worry so much on how it looks.  I can still use the free and available, but a can of spray paint would work wonders to make it all coordinate!

It's not an office closet, but this pantry photo from Martha Stewart is another example.  It's way over the top, but notice how the scissors, funnel, exacto knive, water jug, and bleach bottle all share the same tone and color as the wall and printed stripe on the tablet?  All the pictures on her site (in the organizing section) are similarly monochromatic.  It's a peaceful feeling–clean and organized.  I like it, but is it boring?  Is it possible to achieve in real life?

http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/25-kitchen-organizers#slide_13

Here's a link to a jaw dropping beautiful and huge sewing room:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/athomesewing/ Lots of ideas there.

And another link to a list of over 100 different real person sewing rooms: http://www.younge.com/sewing%20rooms.htm

And a final tip: When planning your sewing space pay lots of attention to having plenty of light.

I am so blessed!  My mother in law brought me 50 Avocados today and she is coming back with that many more again.  The food pantry in her small town had too many to use and are sharing with us.  I did a little research on the internet and found that they freeze well if mashed into guacamole first.

Avocados are a rare treat for us and they are sooo good for you.  They are usually $1 each, and I wait and snag them when they are half price.  A ripe avocado is dark skinned and soft, but not gushy.  (Although a few of the ones I received were gushy and they were just fine.)

Avocados make nice facials, check out this video:

I think that just plain avocado would be great for a facial too.  I'll try it today and let you know :).

Avocados are easy to prepare and eat and are great mashed, cubed in a salad, sliced on a sandwich, or just eaten out of the shell with a spoon!

Easy Guacamole

 
1.  Step one–slice in half and remove the pit.

 2.  Step 2–Use a spoon to scoop the meat into a bowl.  Add salt and lemon juice for flavor and to prevent browning.  4 Avocados take 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice.

3.  Mash with a fork or use an electric mixer.

4.  You can package in freezer containers or…

…eat right away. 

Guacamole makes a great chip dip, salad dressing, or sandwich spread.

My 2 daughters share a closet with sliding doors.  It's impossible for both of them to reach their things at the same time and the doors often come off the track causing a safety problem.  I've been dreaming of taking off the doors for awhile.  There isn't enough room for bi-fold doors or pocket doors, so I am going to hang a curtain. 

I've seen this done well and I've seen it done poorly.  Done well, it's elegant and fresh. Done poorly it looks half finished and cheap.  If you do a google image search for "closet curtain" you will see a lot of photos of closet curtains.  I'm not a designer, but I know what I like. 

Photo Credit:  http://keloconnell.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/office-in-a-closet/

Visit Kelo Connell for great inexpensive decorating ideas

I like curtains hung from the inside of the closet so all hardware and top of the curtain is completely concealed. This gives a feeling of mystery and keeps the curtain from taking over the room. I also prefer curtains that are very full, at least 2-3 times the width of the opening.  Curtains that are too sparse feel cheap.  Length is another consideration.  Curtains that are very long, at least grazing the floor if not pooling a little, feel elegant and extravagant but don't have to be expensive.  Short curtains look a little like someone wearing high water pants.  I love the look of wide constrasting bands at the bottom of the curtain.  They are a fun way to add beautiful prints and also give weight to the curtain to help it hang well.

I plan to add metal tie backs to the inside of the closet so the girls can tuck the fabric out of their way when they are dressing in the morning.  I wish I had room to hang sturdy robe hooks on the wall to hang out an outfit in the evening for the next day.  I'm still thinking about a place.

Photo Credit:  http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/pictures-of-kids-rooms/page9.html

I love how this curtain is hung on the outside of the closet but the top is concealed with a decorative cornice.

To make it look the way I want it, I'm going to need to paint all their wood work white–aak!  It's on my schedule, but may have to wait until after our kitchen remodel which will start next week!  (More on that later.)  Perhaps I can hang the curtain now and paint when I have more time.

DIY Dish has just launched their new online television show.  The first project features a cute no sew (or little sew) cake pincushion.  You can watch it right here and then visit their blog to enter the giveaways for a free Janome embroidery machine and pincushion patterns and kits from my favorite designer, Heather Bailey.