From My Nest

tootsie roll dough

The whole idea got started when my science-experiment-loving-eight-year-old came up to me and held out a handful of Tootsie Rolls and said, "Mom, I want to put these in a microwave safe bowl and melt them in the microwave to see what happens."

With my help, she unwrapped the Tootsie rolls and put them in a microwave safe bowl. We put them in for about 10 seconds on high. Much to our surprise, they didn't melt, but got very, very soft.

I took them out and started kneading them together to form a ball (careful if you decide to do this, they are very hot in the middle of the Tootsie Rolls). She rolled the ball out on foil and used cookie cutters just like you would do with playdough.

When she was all done, we ended up with some fun (and edible) flat Tootsie Roll shapes. Next time (because there must always be a next time with things that are fun) we will melt more Tootsie Rolls so there will be more dough to play with.

{magnetic} lazy susan art caddy

Awhile ago I really needed something that would easily hold all the stuff we seem to need everyday for school. I loved the lazy susan with buckets that Pottery Barn used to sell, but I just couldn't pay that much for one. So naturally, I made my own.

I've recently seen a few of these on Pinterest and I've noticed that they all require you to either glue or screw the containers in place. When I made mine I wanted my buckets to be removable, but at the same time I needed something to keep things from flying off when it was spun really fast.  That's where the magnets come in. They are just the right height and strength to keep things firmly in place and still allow the containers to be removable (they do stay in place, my kids have tested it out).

What you'll need:

1 lazy susan (mine is from Ikea)

6 10.5 cm tin flower pots (also from Ikea)

1 12 cm tin flower pot (yep, from Ikea)

7 round magnets (not from Ikea)

e6000 glue (also not from Ikea)

compass, pencil, eraser, and a ruler (helpful, but not necessary)

 

 Find the center of the lazy susan. Using the compass, draw a circle with a pencil about 2 1/4 inches away from the edge of the lazy susan (draw lightly because you'll want to be able to erase it afterwards). Arrange six of the magnets evenly around the circle and place one in the center. This does not have to be perfect. You also don't need to draw the circle, I wanted the guide.

 

Glue the magnets down with the e6000 glue. Erase your pencil line and wait for the glue to dry.

 

Place the containers on the lazy susan and fill with lots of fun supplies. Done. Really easy peasy. Now one child can color with markers, another can use crayons, and another can have access to the pencils all at the same time. Then everything is neatly and easily cleaned up at the end of the day.

homemade laundry detergent

I know. I know.  This is probably the hundredth post or so that you've read on how to make your own powdered laundry detergent. Bear with me, it took me about that many posts to finally give this a try.  So I decided to give you all one more testimonial on how this stuff really does work and how simple it really is.

There are a ton of recipes out there, but this is the one I finally gave a go and since it worked I really saw no reason to change. This is exactly what I use and how we make it. I was able to purchase these at a local grocery store, but sometimes Washing Soda can be hard to find.  I've also found it at a small, local hardware store and you could buy it online.

What you'll need for one batch:

1 bar Fels-Naptha Soap

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda

Food processor or cheese grater

Container to store the detergent

Tablespoon Scoop

With the help of my seven year old, we grated the bar of soap in my food processor with the grater attachment.  (Okay, so some of you might be freaking out that I'm grating soap in my food processor. I did when I saw other people do it. Then after making the first batch by grating it with a cheese grater, I realized their genius and gave it a go.  It just simplifies the whole process.) We made three batches all at once.

Once grated it looks just like cheese or dried pasta, but it's still too big to mix well with the Borax and the Washing Soda and disolve in the washer.

So we threw it back in food processor with the blade...

...until it resembled course crumbs. (We probably could have processed it into smaller pieces, but I was getting nervous with how much my seven year old was enjoying using the food processor and suddenly aware (and grateful) of all the safety features food processors have. If you have an adventurous child, you totally understand why.)

Next add your Borax and Washing Soda to your container. Mix it together well.  Add the soap crumbs and mix well again.

Each full load only uses 2 Tablespoons and a smaller load only uses 1 Tablespoon.  Sometimes the soap crumbs will separate from rest of the mixture, so just make sure when you scoop it there is an even mixture. One batch makes about 3 1/2 cups of detergent, which is about 28 full loads if you measure perfectly every time (so it really is 28 loads give or take a few). 

 

chalk board frame

We are moving in 4 weeks.  Yep, move #14 for us (if you count all the moves between internships and flooding).  Which means....the time for procrastination is now.  I do this every time we move.  It must be because I work best under pressure and not because I really detest packing.  Nah, couldn't be that.

Somewhere in my mind I know I shouldn't start anything new since I, truly, don't need more to pack. But I just keep starting new projects and I keep having this nagging conversation in my head between my "productive-self" and my "avoiding-self "that goes like this:

PS: "Oh, no! I've already started to avoid packing."

AS: "No, of course not. You've done this so many time - you're a pro!" 

PS: "There is just so much to do."

AS: "You go through this stage with every move and why not get it over with now? See, in the end it may         make you more productive." 

PS: "Then why do I have a feeling that this "avoiding" may last longer then the others?" 

AS: "Probably because between school, internships, and flooding this will be your 7th move in three years?" 

PS:  "Yeah, I'm sure that has a lot to do with it."

So....you may be seeing a bunch of new projects pop up here when I really should be concentrating on other things.  (Although, I do have a big donate and consign piles in my garage, I've taken 6 tubs of stuff to the consignment store, one mini-van load of furniture to the consignment store, and taken pictures of all the rooms in the house.  My theory is that the more stuff that leaves my house now, the less I have to pack/unpack.)

Still here? Sorry, now back to the chalk board frame...

I bought some cheap frames from the thrift store.  Removed the glass.  Spray painted the frame.  Spray painted the glass with chalkboard paint.  Put the frame back together (when they were dry, of course) and there you have a simple chalkboard frame.

But what do you write in a chalkboard frame? Especially when you are going through a handwriting funk?

With my Cricut, I created a "stencil" from cardstock (I used the Storybook cartridge).  Using Dotto removable adhesive, I attached the stencil to the chalkboard.  (Don't forget to "pre-treat" your chalkboard by coloring it all over with chalk and then erase it.)

Then using a piece of chalk, I colored in the stencil.  Be careful with where you place your fingers, I discovered a bunch of fingerprints I had to cover up. You may have to do some touch ups with a cloth or more chalk.  But I kind of like the uneven chalkboard look.

 

Now you have a frame to display favorite quotes, scriptures, etc.  And you can change it however many times you wish.

As for me,  my "avoiding-self" and I have an appointment with my sewing machine...

the Matt and Mandy book

My kids have become great fans of Matt and Mandy (It's a little comic that comes in our church childrens's magazine called The Friend. )  They watch them online, listen to them on Mormon Channel, and have recently pulled out every Friend magazine in our house to search for them.   Which then gave me some inspiration on what to do with those stacks and stacks of magazines.  

Why not have all our Matt and Mandy's in one spot?  So I removed every Matt and Mandy story that we had and compiled them in a 1 inch notebook..  Now we have our very own Matt and Mandy book. 

 

About half way through years of magazines, I realized that I was still left with a lot of fun things we could still have fun with.  I then started to tear out all those things too (I also pulled out anything I thought would be fun for FHE lessons).  

By placing them in sheet protectors, all the activities are now reusable with dry erase markers.  This has eliminated the debating of who gets to do what activity in the magazine because everyone gets to over and over again! Now we have an entire notebook full of activities and short stories for some instant portable fun.

 

 To keep everything together, I can fit two packs of dry erase markers (with erasers on the lids) in a pencil pouch (I bought everything at Wal-Mart except the magazines).   We still keep a few recent magazines on hand for reading, but now my coffee table is a bit lighter and we are actually using the fun stuff from one of our favorite magazines.

 

from old to new

I must confess that I have an embarrassing amount of crayons in my home. However I will not confess just how many there are (or were).  That will have to remain a mystery (although you may get an idea of just how many by the end of this post).  So what is one to do with so many crayons? Make more. 

I have been collecting our old, broken and worn out crayons for some time now just for this craft.  Like me you've all been informed, by your children, that crayons loose their coloring ability once the paper is gone or the crayon has been broken.  News to me. 

I'm sure that I am not the only with a bunch of crayons lurking in my closet or in the corners of my home.  So here you go.  A little, simple tutorial on how to make these yourself.

1. Scavenge through your home for all those old, broken crayons.  I found that the best ones to use are Crayola and that with less expensive brands the wax separates from the color.

Remove the paper from your crayons.  This is much easier with an exacto knife.  Trust me.  I learned this through experience.  All I did was cut a straight line through the wrapper and the paper is much easier to remove. 

2. Brake the crayons into pieces no longer than one inch and place them in a muffin tin or a cookie mold like I used that I bought at JoAnns.  Do not fret, they remove easily out of the pan. 

For the pan I used, it took about 4 crayons to fill up each mold. So that's 48 crayons per pan. 

3.  Place in a preheated oven at 250 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes. Careful when you remove it from the oven, especially if you are accident prone like me.  It is hot, melted wax.  Once the wax cools, they'll come out of the pan with little help.

There you have it.  Taking something old and making it new again.  These will be packaged up and given away as Valentines this year.  So wonderful to get all those crayons out of the house!