It's Twins (edited- Triplets)!

You all know that my daughter, Laura, is pregnant and due in November, right? Okay, I thought you'd be interested to know that this post has nothing to do with that, and no, she is not having twins.
Last night I was sitting on my porch swing which used to be Karen's swing. Anyway, I was looking at our tree thinking how much I didn't like it. Then I started really looking at the tree and noticed some grassy-like stuff in the middle of the branches. I thought it looked like it could be a nest. Upon further investigation (like when a robin flew in and sat on it) I realized it was a nest. I wondered how many eggs might be in the nest. The answer to that was- none.
Instead of eggs, we have two (edited- three) tiny little babies in the nest. I saw them get their dinner and get tucked in for the night. I think I'll watch their progress and see how they grow over the next little while.

What could this be? 

Two little babies, waiting for dinner! 

Yummy worms for dinner!

Good night little robin family

Sleep tight! 

Maiden Voyage

I guess I shouldn't really call it a voyage since it didn't travel anywhere, but I broke out the new Kitchen Aid mixer this morning (I was kind of celebrating something!).

Here it is- out of the box and ready to go. 

Look how much easier it is to add stuff and take pictures of the tornado happening inside the bowl. 

Here's what I made. I'm going to call them Big Island Cookies because they're big (I used the large scoop- nine cookies to a pan. And they have coconut, macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips packed in there. Since I relate macadamia nuts to Hawaii (specifically the "Big Island", since I've been to the Mauna Loa factory twice there), that's going to be the name. That, and it's too much trouble to say White Chocolate Chip cookies with Macadamia nuts and Coconut. 

Big Island Cookies

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened slightly

1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 T vanilla extract

3 cups flour (or 430 grams if you want to weigh it)

1/2 tsp kosher salt

11 tsp baking soda

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped

1 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350°F. 

Beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy;  then add eggs and vanilla. Add the flour, salt and baking soda. Mix just until incorporated. Add the nuts, chips and coconut and mix until it's all together and everyone is being friends with everyone else. 

Use a large cookie scoop (or spoon) to dollop a golf ball-sized amount of dough onto the cookie sheet (my pan doesn't have to be greased, so I hope the dough doesn't stick to your pan. If you think it might, give it a shot of cooking spray or use a parchment paper). Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the tops are just starting to brown (barely). Makes about 3 dozen cookies. 

Let It Shine

After shining up the appliances, I looked at the floor and realized it was in bad shape. I won't disgust you with a before picture.

But this is an after picture! I almost don't want to bring the table and chairs back in here. 

Minwax hardwood floor reviver- high gloss. My new best friend (unpaid endorsement...unfortunately). 

My Mom Knows Stuff

 I was in Target a few minutes ago and was talking to my mom on the phone while I looked for the things I needed wanted. New throw pillows at $25 wasn't going to happen, so I moved on to the next item on my list. My lunch group ladies had been talking about stainless steel wipes and I knew my appliances were difficult to clean so I thought I'd try out the wipes. The only problem was that I couldn't find them in the store. I mentioned it to my mom and when she found out why I wanted them she gave me brilliant advice.

Dirty refrigerator. 

Half clean, half still dirty. 

All clean (and so is the oven and dishwasher and microwave) and I've never seen it so amazingly streak-free! What did my mom tell me to use? 

Yep. She said when she was the custodian for our church building (back in the day when that was a paid position, not volunteer duty like today) she'd use WD-40 to shine the drinking fountains. 

Thanks, Mom! You sure know a lot about a lot! I love you! 

Pumpkin Trio

The latest from Burton Avenue. Seriously, my crafty friends, have you hooked up with her blog yet?

If you've been by my house lately, do you think I've gone a little overkill on the Halloween decorations outside?

This Smells Good!

You probably think I'm baking something, but I'm not. What smells so good? Laundry soap!
I pinned a "recipe" for homemade laundry soap onto my Pinterest board awhile ago and have been eager to try it out. I've been on the search for Zote soap ever since and I'll save you some trouble and just tell you that I found it at Lowe's Walmart Target Big Lots, at the huge cost of 90¢ a bar (so of course I bought 8 bars)! I found the "recipe" here.

The list of participants

This pesky guy was hard to find! 

I had to slice it in half to put it in my food processor, but it cut like butter. 

Into the food processor it goes, using the fine shred blade. 

I put it into an old (and I mean OLD, this was from July of '73 when my dad filled it with wheat!) plastic bucket. 

Here it is all stirred up. 

I was told to put it back in the Purex container, and yes, it looks cute in there, but the Zote soap doesn't come out of the hole easily. Spare yourself the trouble and put it back in the Oxi Clean bucket! 

I found all the ingredients for this at Walmart, except for the Zote soap. I know, Walmart is your least favorite place to shop, but sometimes it just gets the job done. I layered the ingredients a little bit to make mixing it easier. I also put the lid on the bucket and rolled it around, but eventually I just stuck my hand in there to really mix it up. After all, it's only soap. If you use your food processor to grate the soap, make sure you wash it really well afterwards! It is supposed to last for-ev-er. I washed one load of whites last night. There was no static cling and they were clean and smelled nice (I thought they might smell a little stronger, but they didn't). But if I can wash clothes for mere pennies, count me in.

Craftily Organized

Several months ago my friend, Mindy and I went to the vinyl store where we both bought a kit to make the little board you see on the left. Last weekend Mindy got us both the metal sheet to make the board on the right. Bet you can guess which one I was more excited to make!

The board on the left is a white board/chalkboard. So far, we haven't done anything but stick papers under the magnets, and we could do that just as easily by slapping it on to our kitchen/garage door. So that one hasn't been all that useful yet.
The other one is nearing completion. The only thing missing is the menus (or recipe slips) that will be held onto the board by the bottle cap magnets. I'm super excited about this! I first saw a version of it here which then leads you to what might be the original version here. I think I like mine best, even though Ren says it looks Christmassy, but I'm okay with Christmassy. After all, my regular everyday dinner dishes are these.
The deal is that you print up slips of the meals you make most often and stick them in one of the pockets where they await their turn into the rotation of meals you're going to make this week. After you've made the meal, the slip goes in to the other pocket until you've gone through all the slips. Don't we all tend to make the same meals over and over? I know I usually do. Now I won't have to reinvent the wheel every week when it's time to figure out the weekly meals. Yay! The added bonus is being able to jot down things I need to buy at the store, but I think I need to get some Stickies in a color that matches a little better.
I had to remove the vinyl word "keys" just above the key rack because it was just-to-much.
Thanks for getting the metal board for me, Mindy! I love crafting with you. Now if I can just get that sandwich recipe out of you, I'll be a happy camper!

Vinyl Is Very Fun

On Make-it Monday, I spent the day cutting vinyl words with my Silhouette. My Shelf Reliance can-rotater came with magnets that say different things for you to organize with, but they were always falling off because the magnet wasn't strong enough to stay stuck.  

You can't really see what I'm trying to show you from this photo, so let's get a close-up. 

There. See that? The white words. Awesome, huh? 

Then I labeled my shelving units as well. 

And the storage stuff on top of the shelving units got labeled too. 

You know, once I get started on something, it's hard to stop. 

Now I have all these useless magnets. Can anyone use them? 

But for the next three days after I did all this, my legs were toast from all the up-down-squat-stand-climb-repeat times a million. It was worth it.

Structure

I felt like I needed a little more structure to my life, now that I'm retired. Doing what you want to do everyday instead of doing what needs to be done leads to never getting done what you occasionally have to do whether you want to do it or not. Like cleaning bathrooms. 

Karen helped me come up with re-labeling the days of the week. Here they are:

Sweet Sunday

Make it Monday

Tidy up Tuesday

Workout Wednesday which can also be Washing Wednesday

Throw away Thursday

Finish up Friday

Shopping Saturday

Most of that is self explanatory, but here's some details. 

Sweet Sunday means baking something but then most likely giving it away so we don't have to work so hard on Wednesday to make up for eating the sweets. 

Make it Monday means being creative, like doing the cards for my card group (nearly three months ahead now, thanks to watching General Conference), or quilting or, or, or. 

Tidy up Tuesday means at least three hours of housework. I used to have a book called Sidetracked Home Executives which led to my job box. I had every job necessary to keep my house clean written on a 3x5 card which rotated through the box. It's a pretty good system, but I don't think I need that anymore. I just need to know that at least one day a week, my house is going to get some attention, like mopped floors and washed windows. 

Workout Wednesday means a really good workout! It also means I get all the laundry done on Wednesday. 

Throw away Thursday is my organizing day. 

Finish up Friday means I can get everything done that was started earlier in the week that didn't get completely finished. This will usually pertain to crafting, but may include other things as well. 

Saturday's shopping doesn't mean grocery shopping, it means hang out with my daughter and do stuff she wants to do, like shopping or movies or, or, or. 

So there you have my days of the week. 

When Did This Happen?

Yesterday my sweet husband said to me, "You're always re-organizing." Well, not ALWAYS, but I spent the day yesterday re-doing a few spots. I was hating (okay, hate is a strong word. Let's say frustrated instead) my spice cupboard. I finally realized what the problem was, and I'm sorry I don't have a before picture to show you, but I know you are good at using your imagination.
The tins used to be on the back row, because the shelf wouldn't accommodate the taller bottles. Hello? Raise the shelf! Duh. But, I still hated was frustrated with not being able to know exactly what spice was where (even though they are in alphabetical order). I had to break out the label maker. I figure that once a spice needs to be replaced, I can either make a new label, or just take the lid off the old one and put it on the new one.

So my question is this. When did I become so obsessed with order? I wasn't that way as a child. Ask my sisters. I met a lady at the rug class who was just like me (same hair cut, same way of dressing, and the same obsession of organization). Our clothes closets have the clothes all facing the same direction, and are hung in color groups (no, I don't think mine are organized by Roy G. Biv, only because I don't have all the colors of the rainbow in my clothes).

I thought my pantry was already organized. I realized I was wrong and added a few more baskets and stacking shelves.

I attached a clip to the inside of the pantry door to hold the menu list.

Then I moved on to the bathroom.

I stopped just short of labeling what belonged where. Maybe there is some hope for me yet to be a normal non-OCD person.

But probably not.

And just to finish up on tips you might like, my friend sent this to me yesterday. I found several things of interest, and saw several things I already do to make life easier! Take a look.

24 Clever Ideas to Make Life Easier

Why didn’t I think of that?!  We guarantee you’ll
be uttering those words more than once at these
ingenious little tips,tricks and ideas that solve
everyday problems.
Hull strawberries easily using a straw.


Rubbing a walnut over scratches in your furniture
will disguise dings and scrapes. 


Remove crayon masterpieces from your TV or
computer screen with WD40.


Stop cut apples browning in your child’s lunch box
by securing with a rubber band.


Overhaul your linen cupboard, store bed linen sets
inside one of their own pillowcases and there will
be no more hunting through piles for a match.


Pump up the volume by placing your iPhone & iPod
in a bowl.  The concave shape amplifies the music.


Re-use a wet-wipes container to store plastic bags.


Add this item to your beach bag.  Baby powder
gets sand off your skin easily, who knew?!


Attach a Velcro strip to the wall to store soft toys.


Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls
against the ceiling, rather than cluttering up the
floor.


Find tiny lost items like earrings by putting a
stocking over the vacuum hose.


Make an instant cupcake carrier by cutting
crosses into a box lid.


For those who can’t stand the scrunching and
bunching: how to perfectly fold a fitted sheet.


Forever losing your bathroom essentials?  Use
magnetic strips to store bobby pins, tweezers
and clippers, behind a vanity door


Store shoes inside shower caps to stop dirty
soles rubbing on your clothes.  And you can
find them in just about every hotel.


A muffin pan becomes a craft caddy.  Magnets
hold the plastic cups down to make them
tip-resistant.


Bread tags make the perfect cord labels.


Bake cupcakes directly in ice-cream cones, so
much more fun and easier for kids to eat.


Microwave your own popcorn in a plain brown paper
bag.  Much healthier and cheaper than the packet
stuff.


Install a tension rod to hang your spray bottles.


Turn your muffin pan upside down, bake cookie-dough
over the top and voila, you have cookie bowls for fruit
or ice-cream.


Freeze Aloe Vera in ice-cube trays for soothing
sunburn relief.


Create a window-box veggie patch using guttering.


Use egg cartons to separate and store your
Christmas decorations.