Easy Homemade "Irish Cream" Body Scrub - Sweet Gift Idea!

Good Wednesday night to all! Recently, my friend Tina Fox invited me to a FREE class she was planning on attending at our local public library. The class (held last night) was on making homemade Irish Cream Body Scrub. That sounded enticing, so I hopped on over there and partook of the fun. It ended up being a simple and quick project that has so much thrifty gift-giving potential! I don't have a smart phone (I lovingly refer to it as my Dumb Phone - - hey, ignorance can be bliss!!), so Tina used hers to take this lovely picture that showcases all the necessary things to make the body scrub. The instructor at the library was very supportive of the fact that I am totally "glomming on" to her idea for my blog, too!

Here is what she did: mix together a 4 pound bag of sugar (about $2) and a 20 ounce bottle of Dawn Ultra Hand Renewal with Olay (about $3 without coupons). She used a hand mixer to make the process easier. Now, you can stop there.....OR, you can add essential oils. I added a few drops of McCormick Peppermint Oil to mine, but it smells great either way. The bag of sugar and bottle of dish soap made a huge bowl of sugar scrub, so the lady had several different containers to package it in. Tina said she had given out a similar scrub at Christmas, and had packaged it in baby food jars. For a larger gift, a salsa jar would also work. Any type of glass jar saved from a future in the trash is great! Spraypaint the lid, tie on a wooden stick for stirring, add a pretty ribbon and tag, and it is ready to give!! I kept the one I made last night for myself. It is on the kitchen sink, and I keep finding excuses to go wash my hands :)

So, to be ready by Christmas, SAVE YOUR JARS!!! ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE BABY FOOD JARS!!  Have a fun, frugal and fabulous day, from our house to yours!!!

Country Crafts for a Good Cause (cheap too, of course!)

Happy Tuesday! I haven't posted in a couple of days, as I have been busy. The youth of Bronston First Baptist Church in Bronston, KY (including my handsome son, Peyton!) who are part of Bronston Changers will be going on a mission trip to the Frankfort area in a few months. They will be performing repairs on the homes of those who are unable to do it themselves. Each of our kids has already paid $50 cash to go, and will raise the remainder of the funds needed. Therefore, everyone who lives near the area is invited to attend a Spaghetti Dinner and Silent Auction on Saturday, March 8, 2014 at 6:00 p.m. Here are some of the fruits of my efforts for the Silent Auction. I will also be making some fudge later in the week.

Assorted country primitive rough cut wooden signs. These signs are my own designs, and are made of discarded wood from one of our local pallet factories. They are more than happy to give you as much as you want for FREE!! Bottles of acrylic craft paint are cheap and last a long time. I got the twine from Mighty Dollar, the clothespins from Dollar Tree, and the other little decorations from a yard sale. I thought they turned out cute! They would be nice gifts, too. There is a store in the local mall that sells stuff very similar to this, but you can make your own for next to nothing using free wood. Start now for Christmas *wink*!

Terracotta and glass "bubble gum machines". The glass ivy bowls came from Dollar Tree, while the pots and saucers were less than a dollar at Walmart. The little round piece on the front where the gum ball would fall from on a real machine is a clothespin stand, and came several to a pack from Walmart years ago. I used a clear silicone adhesive to attach the base to the bowl. Fill with candies and enjoy!!

I am hoping to have time to make more items for the Silent Auction, but we will see!! Tomorrow night is church night, and I also have an order for a teddy bear cake for this weekend. I will be really busy this week, indeed - - - but with doing all the things I LOVE! Thank you, God for blessing me!

Have a fun, frugal and fabulous week from our house to yours!

Pottery Barn-inspired on the Cheap

Good Monday evening, folks! One work day down for the week and four more to go. Yesterday I shared a primitive Dollar Tree craft with you, so this evening, I thought I would share one that would fit in with other types of decor: a Pottery Barn knockoff. Pottery Barn has some beautiful glass apothecary jars, but be prepared to open your wallet a little wider if you want to add one to your collection. The "PB Classic Glass Apothecary Jar" is not only "modeled after those used for centuries to store dried herbs" but is also "hand blown by talented artisans in Poland". I do send my regards to the (exhausted, I'm sure) Polish glass blowers who worked really hard to perfect their craft; however, I don't feel the need to blow (no pun intended, actually) a few hours' pay to buy the "classic" glass apothecary jar when I can re-create a similar one for a couple of bucks.

On Pottery Barn's website, you can choose from various sizes ranging from 14.5 to 27 inches tall, cylindrical or round, $29 - $69 (?!?!). Here's a pic of the cylindrical ones:

$29.00 - $69.00

Now, my creations (hate to call it that since they literally took about 30 seconds to glue together, LOL). ranged from 11 to 14 inches in height, so I will consider them to be "small", or similar to the dimensions of the "small" PB version. Here is mine:

$2.12 + a few cents for adhesive

I know, I know......the now breathless Polish artisans took the time to create a lid. Mine do not have lids, but I am fine with that. If I really wanted to, I could come up with something for that purpose. Anyway, what did I use to "create" these knockoffs? Three things:

Dollar Tree glass vase (buck + tax). They carry all different shapes and sizes.

Dollar Tree glass candle holder (buck + tax)

Amazing Goop brand Craft Adhesive (about $3.50 + tax from Wallyworld)

   

It really is as simple as scraping the label from the bottom of the vase, applying plenty of adhesive and sticking the two pieces together. Be sure to let them dry for a couple of days or they will fall apart. So, by making these yourself, you save serious cash PLUS help to save a few Polish glass blowers some breath. Win-win all the way around!

Have a fun, frugal and fabulous day, from our house to yours!

Primitive Crafts....from Dollar Tree? Sure!

Anybody who knows me also knows that I do not like to spend money on my craft supplies. If I am inclined to spend money to make something, it has to be cheap. That is but one reason I love the Dollar Tree and Mighty Dollar. While perusing the web recently, I came upon a blog that had SUCH cute things that the lady had made using Dollar Tree materials. Her blog, called Eyeballs by Day, Crafts by Night (find it HERE), is great and the craft ideas are easy. So....the family and I spent this past wild Friday night getting free Dunkin' Donuts drinks and shopping at Dollar Tree. We are just loose cannons that way, you know.

I love anything old, old-looking, crafty, cozy, shabby, cast-off........whatever. I don't have any one particular style. I just pick what I like. That includes primitive stuff which is so popular right now. Dollar Tree has a really good selection of things that are already nice, but have potential to be better. I love candles, and it seems that we always have one burning, and the other blog had some nice ideas on how to make DT's cheap looking candles match country or primitive decor. In my excitement to get started, I forgot to take a before picture of the products, so I pulled these from the Dollar Tree website. Check out the before:

  

I was only able to find one package of the LED tealights, so they may be seasonal with the ones I found being stragglers left from Christmas. They had plenty of the 8" white jar candles, though. The idea was to "grubby" these things up....make them look old and primitive. The lady in the other blog used something called Texture Fierro to get the grubby, textured look. However, I am always one to substitute and use up things I already have; therefore, I thought I would try mixing up some white glue and used coffee grounds. After mixing into a paste, I spread it onto the jar candle as well as the body of the tealights (bulb was taped with masking tape so as not to mess it up). After that dried (took about 2 1/2 hours with the help of a blow dryer), I squirted on some acrylic craft paint in cinnamon brown, and spread it around gently with a mildly stiff paint brush. Throughout the drying process, the paint / coffee grounds / glue kept trying to run down the sides of the jar. I simply used to brush to dab it back into place. This is a messy craft and I had cardboard on the kitchen counter underneath it, BUT this is how they looked after the paint was about half dry (ignore the clothespins......still working on that project):

And, THIS is how they turned out when complete and after a second coat of paint and a bit of torn fabric for a ribbon (the woman in the other blog calls the ribbon "homespun"):

Cute, huh? That candle is not only cheap, but it is supposed to burn for 80 hours. Also, for those who are allergic to certain scents, it is unscented! Yep - - that's a little bit of Dollar Tree potpourri you see there surrounding the little LED tealight in the cast iron skillet. I am inspired now to make more of these for gifts. I I might even dry brush a little black paint on the next ones I make just to make them a little "grubbier". Acrylic craft paint is cheap, white glue is cheap and used coffee grounds are free. There are only 325 more days until Christmas, our Lord and Savior's birthday, so I hope you're inspired! Making gifts a dollar at a time is not only better for the budget, but you are prepared and stress-free by the time it rolls around.

Have a fun, frugal and fabulous Sunday, from our house to yours!

Oh, fiddlesticks..........er, tobacco sticks!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone's week is off to an awesome start. Need a new and crafty idea to get you going on this chilly winter day? Primitive and rustic country decor is in great abundance wherever you look these days. One popular and sought after accessory that goes quite nicely with such decor is anything made from tobacco sticks. Usually I post on things that I have made, but there are many more creative folks hanging from the branches of my family tree. Today I thought I would share the fruits of the efforts of these fine folks! At one point in time, my family grew tobacco on their farm; however we are now left with the remnants of this page in history in the form of oodles of "baccer" sticks once used to hang freshly cut tobacco in the barn rafters to dry. I have been fortunate enough to have received several pieces of furniture and decor made by my mother and father as well as my sister and brother-in-law. Let me share, shall I?

• Chair. Just look at this little chair made by my Mommy and Daddy. I think it looks so cute, and the bears (given to me by Mommy) think it is super comfy.
• Ladder. My sister and brother-in-law surprised all the ladies in the family at Christmas with homemade tobacco stick ladders, embellished with a cream colored bow and red berries. I thought it was the perfect spot to hang my hay hooks given to me by my Daddy.

• Star. This huge star, made by my Mommy and Daddy, is the perfect size for the gable end of my garage on the front of my house. 

• Tree. Mommy and Daddy made this also. This picture was taken at Christmas, and as you can see, i have it all dolled up with a bead garland, feathers, berries, twigs and greenery. It is great because it is so versatile and can be decorated for each season.

I am so proud of my creative family and the things they turn out. I can't wait to see what they make next (hint, hint Mommy, Daddy, Tammy and Damon.....).

So, you don't have access to tobacco sticks, you say? Well, almost anybody can come up with some sticks that could be whipped up into something fantastic. Take a look at this cute little willow twig table I spotted while surfing the internet:

You can read more about it HERE on the Woodworkers Workshop website. Maybe you will get some inspiration. It's not too early to get started on Christmas gifts, you know! These primitive pieces and pieces like them are all wonderfully frugal as well as fab gift ideas.

Have a fun, frugal and fabulous day from our house to yours!

Free Fun with Phone Books

I can honestly say that I have never lived in a place where more telephone directories are distributed than in Somerset, Kentucky. It seems as if my driveway becomes home to a bagged phone book, tossed haphazardly from a speeding car at least three or four times a year. As evidenced by my collection of glass jars, plastic grocery sacks, bread ties and straws, I just don't feel right about the thought of tossing the poor phone book into the trash. For one, it has already suffered so much in its short life, narrowly escaping serious injury in the midst of a rough landing on the surface of my concrete driveway. But also, much like a bright eyed child, it has SO much potential! So what do I do? I rescue it and give it new life! Just so you know we're not getting all hoarder crazy here, I only keep a couple of phone books at a time. I actually do put excess ones in the recycle bin (but don't tell their friends).

IDEA #1:  One big advantage of saving a phone book from the trash is the fact that it is essentially FREE craft material! Consider this wreath I made from phone book pages, a pizza box and a wire clothes hanger. For this thrifty wreath, the only things I had to actually purchase were the letters. The letters were less than a dollar each at Hobby Lobby, and I already had the ribbon on hand. I used probably 25 cents worth of ribbon overall. I just love the little areas of yellow peeking out from the rolled pages, don't you? To make this, I taped the lid shut on a clean (yet used) pizza box. I then cut the pages from a phone book, rolled them and hot glued them to the box. For the hanger, I used duct tape to secure it to the back of the wreath, and then hot glued ribbon to the front to conceal it. If you want a totally free wreath, just omit the letters and ribbon!

IDEA #2:  Use as gift wrap! At one time, this may have been considered really cheap and tacky. However, I have been noticing more and more printed scrapbook paper and decorative items that have newspaper and similar print. It has become fashionable to wrap gifts with newspaper and book pages tied up with a pretty burlap or jute bow! Or, you could also cut a pretty flower out of the pages and tape to the top. This is awesome if you are caught suddenly in need of gift wrap and have none OR just want something different and cute.

IDEA #3:  Tissue paper or gift basket filler. You probably saw the gift bags I made using recycled calendars. Instead of the traditional tissue paper, I stuffed these gift bags with phone book pages. They turned out cute and helped to reduce trash can waste created by more and more store-bought tissue paper

IDEA #4: Have you ever gotten caught out someplace and needed to make a call but didn't have the number? If so, you probably called somebody in your family, had them find a phone book, look up the number and wasted several minutes of your day. Why not use one of those extra or old phone books to carry in your vehicle? My husband actually gave me this bright idea a few weeks ago when he asked for one of the phone books from my "craft stash" to keep in his truck. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that the extra phone books could be used as...............................phone books!

I hope you have a blast using some of my ideas or your own awesome ideas for your old phone books. One thing I REALLY want to do next is to figure out how to make paper from old phone books. I'll keep you informed of the results. Have a fun, frugal and fabulous evening from our house to yours!

Calendars: Where to Get Free Ones and Stuff to Do With Old Ones

Once January rolls around, I always have a few calendars that I hate to toss out to make way for the new year. So, I don't! But, it is impractical to just keep things lying around, all hoarder-style (though I do like those TV shows.....), simply because you hate to get rid of things. The goal is to make use of the resources you have before you for your benefit and the benefit of others, NOT to make life harder by living in the midst of clutter and junk, right? I have received the most beautiful Joyce Meyer Ministries calendar three years in a row. The 2012 calendar had such nice photography on it that I didn't want to stick it in good ol' File 13, so let me will show you what I did with it!

Wall Art 

This is the most obvious option as well as the easiest way to reuse a calendar. The images on the calendar were so bright and inspirational that I decided to choose four of them to hang in groups on each side of my bed, directly above the bedside tables. They look blurry in my photographs (I have told you that I am not a good photographer, haha), but they actually look quite nice in person. The best part is that I can recycle them or even toss them when I want to change decor.

Gift Bags

The first photo illustrates the size box I used to fold the paper to create the gift box. The box doesn't become part of the finished gift bag; it just serves as something to fold the bag and tape it over to get the correct size. After I folded and taped the bags together, I slipped the box out. So, simply fold the bag the way you would wrap a present on the side and one end and tape, and THEN slip out the box. At this point, you can punch holes and insert ribbon, jute or yarn for handles if you want. Notice that I used the pages of an old phone book for tissue paper. This is just one more idea that goes along with the "use what God has provided you" philosophy. I thought they turned out cute despite the fact that I made one of them upside down. Oops!

Kitchen Tool Canister

This project also goes along with a post from the other day about things to do with old jars. Below is simply a pickle jar, some paint and a calendar page. I had admired the look of mercury glass jars and other accessories such as those offered by Pottery Barn and Anthropologie, but I wasn't willing to pay the prices they commanded. So, with a can of silver spray paint in hand I went to work. Once it was dry, I chose a calendar page and trimmed the edges with scrap booking scissors. I secured the edges with tape and decoupaged it so that it can be cleaned easier. 

Now that you are armed with some ideas, just where can you get calendars (without buying them, of course)? Unfortunately, Joyce Meyer Ministries is all out, as is Betty Crocker and the West VA Dept of Tourism. These are some of the prettiest ones. HOWEVER - - I was able to locate more sources that still have calendars on hand, but you must act quickly:

1. Ontario Outdoor Adventures 2014. Go here to request this calendar, filled with "stunning photography from across the province" of Ontario, Canada: http://www.ontariotravel.net/TCISSegmentsWeb/gn/travelGuides/outdoor.xhtml?_nfpb=true&_nfls=false&language=en&WT.ac=BA:Calendar
2. Farnam Horse Calendar. If you like horses, it looks like this one has some nice photography. http://go.farnamhorse.com/Calendar?source=apha 
   
3. The Calendar of Mathematical Imagery from the American Mathematical Society. I actually received mine in the mail this very day, and it included "albums of mathematically inspired works in a variety of media--computer-generated fractals, quilts, origami, sculpture, painting, and more". The pages were actually quite nice. Request it by email here: http://www.ams.org/cgi-bin/fmail/fmail.cgi?emailto=52616e646f6d4956ccb23a27f6aa46e261e30b517a3caeae1562eec714a6cbe36ed52b88a62eef16&name=AMS%20Public%20Awareness%20Office#  In the box that says "body", tell them you would like a free calendar of mathematical imagery, and then tell them your address. Mine arrived in one week!
   
4. The HR Green Annual Calendar. From their website:  "Each year, HR Green creates a calendar that highlights our clients' projects across our business lines. Featuring projects around the United States, the 12 month calendar also includes major holidays, lunar cycles, and seasonal dates. A colorful and functional tool for any office, sign up to receive your copy today, FREE of charge. Simply select the 'receive FREE calendar' option below and include your contact information." I have never ordered this before, but, hey - - -it's free. If it's really ugly, you could use it to start a campfire, line the botton of your kitchen trash can with it so it doesn't get dirty OR toss it! The picture beside the request form is of some green grasses and the edge of a pond, though. It might be nice, so here's the link: http://www.hrgreen.com/aboutus/contactUs_HRGreenCalendar.aspx

To get a beautiful Joyce Meyer ministries calendar or one of the others that is no longer available, be on the lookout around October or November before supplies are exhausted. Stay abreast of available freebies by reading one of the blogs I mentioned the other day: freestufftimes.com, freestufffinder.com, free-product-samples.blogspot.com or hip2save.com. I get no compensation (or even thanks) from mentioning these other blogs. I just want to share with everyone what resources are available to them just by taking a couple of minutes to ask for them. Like I said before, be creative and make use of what God gives you. It's fun! From our house to yours, have a fun, frugal and fabulous day!

Throwing away that empty salsa jar? STOP AND READ FIRST!

Remember the December post about Redneck Travel Kits? Well, as I mentioned, I have an obsession with jars - - big, little, short, tall, skinny.....glass and even plastic. I like 'em all. I die a little inside when I am at someone's house and see such useful articles discarded, tossed away in the garbage can like an old shoe. Hmm....an old shoe (an old L.L. Bean boot in particular) MIGHT make a cute container for a marigold on the porch in the summertime....but I digress! Back to the jars. I rounded up a few recycled jars that are just plain fun, frugal and fabulous. Indeed, I (and my sister) saw the potential for that which is typically trashed.

Here's a reminder of the results of a year's worth of jar-saving and freebie-requesting. I think it is a super great way to reuse and recycle an old jar:

BUT, that's not the only cool thing you can do with a jar. Check this out:

What a lineup......let's talk about 'em, left to right:

1. The first jar with the cute grasshopper is actually not a glass jar, but a plastic jar that began life holding stinky (yet dee-lish) pickled bologna. My parents gave me some cool old books, some of which included a paperback song book. I decided it wouldn't be too awful to sacrifice just a few pages to decoupage onto a couple of jars, so decoupage I did! To finish the top a bit, I simply wrapped some off-white yarn around the jar and glued the ends.
2. This short little jar was a glass salsa jar. I wanted another one to match the taller one, so this was perfect! Big brother and little brother. Or father and son.
3. This little cutie was made by my sister and was given to me for Christmas. She scrubbed it up, cleaned off the gooey label and painted the lid a cool chalkboard black followed by my initial in white. Then she filled it with some yummy smelling potpourri. What an elegant yet simple project!
4. Mr. Barilla pasta sauce jar is still humbly working full time behind the scenes in the food storage industry. However, in his retirement, he serves as a container for rice instead of pungent spaghetti sauce. This suits me and my kitchen cabinets perfectly. You see, Mr. Barilla is akin to a bad liar. You can see right through him and his other jar friends. This makes it oh so easy for me to keep tabs on my rice and dry goods inventory!
5. If you read about how to make sweet tea the other day, then you've already seen the last suspect in the lineup. This was a little relish jar that was just the right size to sit perched on a candlestick from Dollar Tree. I am sorry to say, but I don't really remember what brand of adhesive I used to attach the top and bottom. BUT, hot glue does NOT work, FYI. Most adhesives will list on the back if they are appropriate for adhering glass, so just read up on it. Also FYI, there is a very similar looking drinking vessel (they called it a Redneck Wine Glass) on walmart.com right now priced at $19.95 for a set of four. With tax, that's a little over 5 bucks for each glass. Now why would you do that when you can make a set of four with four free jars that you've saved, $4 worth of candlesticks and MAYBE a $3 - $4 tube of adhesive?!?

Well, whadda ya say? Are you inspired yet? Make your garbageman happier with less heavy trash bags and keep those jars! You've got craftin' to do. Have a fun, frugal and fabulous week, from our house to yours!

How to Fake a Pressed Tin Backsplash

I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! My wish for you is that it will be the best and most blessed year yet. Perhaps you want to try something new this year or have plans to re-do something in your home. Well, here's a little something that may give you some inspiration.

Have you ever seen and admired a backsplash or ceiling all dressed up in pressed tin? Well I had admired them for many years, both in magazines as well as in the homes of a couple of family members. One day I headed out to Lowes to do a little snooping to see if this was something I could do in my own kitchen. Unfortunately, here's what I found (copied from Lowes website):

From www.lowes.com

Ughh.....one 18x24 inch tile for $19.95. And how many would I need?!? I would probably have to buy the adhesive to go along with it too, and whatever else, I don't know. On to Plan B. But just what is Plan B? I really wanted something other than just the blaaaank walllll behind the sink and stove, so I pondered several other options. I thought about other options like cut up pallets, stones and ceramic tiles, but kept running into the same issues - - too difficult, too pricey.......etc, etc. I finally concluded that I really wanted the pressed tin look to go along with my decor, so I searched on. One day I came across a photo of some textured wallpaper that had the same sort of pattern to it as the pressed tin tiles. Best of all, it was less than twenty bucks!!!! So I thought that maybe, just maybe this might work!

From www.lowes.com

In my opinion, the pros were: it's cheap, I can cut it with scissors, I can do ALL of the backsplash with one roll, I can paint it with whatever shade or tint I want, I can remove it later if I get tired of it with little regret of wasted money. The cons - - well, okay, only one "con": If you look closely, you will know it isn't authentic. So, my decision was obvious. I went to Lowe's and bought a double roll of allen+roth brand Paintable Ceiling Tiles Wallpaper for $18.97 + tax. No adhesive was needed, as it was prepasted. The only supplies needed to install it were simple: a tape measure, pencil and a sharp pair of scissors. I didn't fool with buying a wallpaper trough for water, either. I installed it in the kitchen, so the sink was literally right there! The pattern was easy to match up and I had the paper up in one evening! I let the paste dry a couple of days prior to painting it. Fortunately, I had plenty of paint in the garage to mix and match, so I simply mixed up some black, gray and white and painted 'er up! After that dried, I touched up here and there and then sponged on some silver metallic acrylic craft paint, followed by a dry brushing of some gloss black. These paints together gave the wallpaper depth and an authentic metal look. So, without further adieu, here are the before and after shots. Ignore the objects in the pictures. This is the only close-up of the "before" that I could find:

BEFORE: "Plain brown wrapper"

AFTER: Fab and Frugal!

I was thrilled with the results, and still may go over it again with the metallic paint for additional shine. I am still thinking about whether or not to paint the outlets to match....but I am sorta leaning toward no. What do you think? My hope is that this will inspire you to do awesome and creative things while on a budget. Most everything in our house would be considered "builder grade", but I am slowly making it our own! It doesn't matter WHERE you live, really. With a little imagination and some effort, anyplace can be nice if it is your heart's desire.

What in the World's a "Redneck Travel Kit?!?"

You may have read that I don't like to throw things away if I believe they have more life left in them. Glass jars are certainly no exception. I buy many things that are contained within glass jars: spaghetti sauce, jelly, pickles, salsa, etc. It always seemed such a shame to toss these sturdy vessels as if they were yesterday's news when there is so much potential for reuse! I mean, people intentionally BUY those cute little "Mason jar" drinking glasses with the lids and straws nowadays. I will get into all the possibilities for glass jars in another post, but for now I'd like to share with you one way that I recycled many of my glass jars into something useful and pretty darn cute - - or so I thought . Enter: the Redneck Travel Kit!

You may have ALSO read in my introductory post that I love sprinting out to the mailbox to rob it of its bounty AKA free samples and other super exciting free stuff! I get a lot of free samples in the mail (again, that will be material for another post when I share my sources with you!). It kinda softens the blow of the wretched bills that inevitably accompany the free stuff, you know? With an ever-expanding shoebox chock full of travel sized shampoo, conditioner, feminine hygiene products, toothpaste, antacids, vitamins, mouthwash........whewww......you name it - - AND a closet shelf brimming with my impressive glass jar collection salvaged from a life of broken (literally) dreams, what is a girl to do? Much like the Brady Bunch, I "knew that it was much more than a hunch, that this group must somehow form a family"....

I'll let you in on a little secret. My parents keep me perpetually stocked with an array of awesome "stuff" ranging from antiques to clothing to odds-n-ends.  One of my most favorite things they have given me was a gallon jug of Goof Off. This stuff is lethal, let me tell ya......it will remove the funky, gunky, sticky, icky from ANYTHING! But one word of advice - - VENTILATE. Anyhow, I got to work on the messy, sticky labels on my jars with my trusty Goof Off, a pair of latex gloves and an old washcloth. They came out gleaming following Goof Off and a bath in the dishwasher. My next step was to spray paint the lids, outside of course. Now, you don't have to do this. I suppose you could always cut out a pretty little square of cloth to cover it, but I wanted the recipient to be able to use the jar for something else (cotton swabs in the bathroom, rubber bands on a desk?) after the contents were removed without having to look at KROGER VALUE HAMBURGER SLICES all the time. That's not cool.

Once the jars were cleaned and the lids painted and dried, the fun part began! I did this a couple of weeks ago in mid-December with an array of samples that I had requested from various websites, collected and saved all throughout the year. I had enough to fill nearly a dozen jars, with each one having a nice variety of things. Now I must confess that I did this same thing last year, but I had named them "Spa in a Jar" and had attached a bath puff to the lid of the jar. I wanted to do something a little different, so the hubster suggested "Redneck Travel Kit". Sounded good to me!

Any good Redneck Travel kit needs attractive packaging, doesn't it? My local Dollar Tree sells packs of clear cellophane treat sacks at 20 for a dollar, so I went with these. The jars fit very nicely in these with room to tie the bag off at the top. Again, I could have left it like this, but I wanted to embellish it a bit more. I am blessed to own a Cricut paper cutting machine given to me by my husband's grandmother. I'll tell ya, it's nifty! I had saved several of the thin pieces of cardboard that come in things liked packaged t-shirts because I knew I would use this to make adorable little tags on my Cricut, but you could EASILY just hand cut some cute tags. After making my tags and labeling them, I tied them to the kits. However, they still looked like they needed something. My thoughts then went to the impossibly wrinkled and mis-sized pajamas that my nephew could no longer wear. They were a perfect burgundy and navy plaid and would match my blue jar lids. I got those and went to work tearing strips. These strips became rustic little ribbons for the travel kits.

Now, this idea could be modified and the contents could be changed for any occasion. You could put in candy for Valentine's Day or Easter. A jar could be filled with paper clips, rubber bands, a few pens, etc. for a "Redneck Office Supplies" jar. Or, you could fill it with potpourri and paint the recipients initial on the lid for a cute and elegant little gift. My sister made several potpourri jars this Christmas. I will do another post on her and her husband's craftiness later on!

So, have I inspired you yet?? Have a fun, frugal and fabulous day from our house to yours!

Homemade Turkey Pot Pie

Well folks, for my very first fun and frugal homespun post, I would like to share with you my homemade turkey pot pie. I am sure many of you are in a quandary over what to do with all that leftover turkey and fixins' from Christmas. Never fear, you can create something beautiful AND delicious that will have everyone bragging and asking for more. Best of all, this recipe isn't really even a recipe (other than the dough). It is a composition of all the things you have in your fridge or pantry that you might want to throw into a pie crust. That, to me, is the best part. There is nothing worse that starting a recipe and finding out I am missing a couple of ingredients. I usually ALWAYS substitute something else or leave it out if possible. I don't like having to stop what I am doing and go to the grocery store. Ughhh.  It stifles my creativity and causes me to have to spend money. No thanks. Anyhoozle, on to the pot pie......

For the crust, I used my standard biscuit dough recipe, but in the spirit of using what you have, you could probably use canned biscuits! Here's my recipe:

2 cups flour

1 stick of margarine / butter (that's 1/4 cup, folks!)

2/3 cup of milk (water will work if you don't have milk)

Dash of salt

Dash of sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place all these ingredients in a big bowl until they are combined (if you stir TOO much, though, the finished product will be a bit on the tough side). Dust your countertop with flour and dump the dough out. sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough and start rolling out until you reach about a 1/4 of an inch in thickness. Next, turn your pie plate (or baking dish) upside down on top of the rolled dough and cut roughly around it to get the correct size for the bottom crust. Then, with the help of a nice and flat spatula, gently lift the dough and place it into the pie plate. You will have enough left for a top crust, too!

Are you ready for the fun part now? Start adding ingredients! Here's what I happened to have: 

2 1/2 cups more or less of turkey, which I cubed

About a cup of stuffing

About a a cup combined of both whole kernel and creamed corn

1 1/2 cups of leftover cream of chicken soup

I simply layered these things into the crust, adding my soup last so that it would drain down into the other ingredients and moisten them as the pie baked. Next, I decided that I wanted a lattice top on my pie. I re-rolled the rest of the dough and cut some strips. I added them to the top of the pie, weaving them as I went. You don't have to do this, as I think a regular, solid top would be nice too - - just don't forget to make some holes in the top so your filling can vent! I baked it for about 20 - 25 minutes, and here's the result!

Trust me - - there's no precision here, and it turned out yummy! The hubster and son were thrilled with the result, and the pie itself was so big, it took the three of us two different meals to eat it. I loved the fact that I only added what I had leftover. If I hadn't had any corn, I might have opened a can of green beans - - you get the idea. From our house to yours:  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Tanya

Greetings and Salutations

Hello everybody! 

My name is Tanya and it is a pleasure to begin a new adventure in the world of blogging. First, a little info - - I am the only gal in a house full of guys: the hubster, my son, a Jack Russell and a Chihuahua.  I work full time as a case manager. My wish for this blog is to be a creative outlet for me, while providing you with info that you might just find useful. I have been interested for many years in making my home a wonderful place to be, while at the same time, doing it in a fun and frugal way. Yep. I'm one of those who panics if someone is about to throw out an empty butter bowl or discard a gently used gift bag. I LIVE to receive free samples and such goodies in the mail. A good coupon really gets my heart to racing! So, with that being said, let's start blogging. I hope to share some of my favorite projects and tips while chronicling my frugal and homespun life here on Ridgewood!