Week 25: New Recipe Binder

I know I'm still behind! But I'm working on it :)
Check out my newest idea!


The New:
So for this week, I decided to take on a rather large project: organizing all of my favorite recipes and putting them in one convenient place. I saw something on pinterest that inspired me to keep them all in a binder. So smart. I'm not completely done with this project, but I've made some good progress and I'm gonna share my progress with you now!

For starters, I bought a binder and some dividers.
Then I designed a simple cover page on Microsoft Word, because I'm just crafty like that ;)
Next, I decided on my categories. Since I had 8 divider tabs to work with, I went with the following categories:

• Beverages 
• Breakfast Foods
• Soups & Salads
• Breads
• Fruits & Veggies
• Pasta & Grains
• Meats
• Desserts 

And now, I'm in the process of searching out, typing up and sorting all of my favorite recipes :)


The Evidence:
The only evidence I have for you thus far is the cover page for my binder, but I hope that it's convincing enough :)
Feel free to use it for your own recipe binder!

The Verdict:
I'm not sure if I can give an accurate verdict yet, but I'm enjoying this project so far! I will continue to update this post as I make more progress on this beast!


Have a lovely weekend :)

Week 24: New Up-cycled Jar Craft

I know that I have been pretty behind on getting my  new thing posted each week, and I can't exactly promise that I will be more on top of it in the weeks to come (as I have been working lots lately and will continue to do so for the rest of summer). However, I can definitely promise that come New Year's Eve, I will have posted 52 new things. So without further ado, here is last week's newness :)


The New:
I stumbled upon some extra crepe paper and tissue paper, shoved way in the back of a cupboard, and so I decided to do something with them. Being the crafty gal that I am, I always save the glass jars when I finish jelly or make spaghetti sauce, and so I knew just what I would do. I tore the crepe paper and tissue paper into smallish pieces and used mod podge to stick them to the jar. It was super quick and simple, and now I have a cute place to store pens and pencils, highlighters, Q-tips or cotton balls,  or to display a bouquet of wild flowers. No matter what I decide to do with it though, I am already quite fond of it :)

More specific directions:

You need: a jar, mod podge, a paint brush, tissue paper, and/or (if you dare) crepe paper

1. Tear the paper into 1" size pieces (it doesn't have to be exact by any means)
2. Use the mod podge to stick the paper pieces to the jar, in a pattern if you desire. I decided to go with a checkerboard pattern, although with the uneven edges, it doesn't quite look the same.
3. Let it dry and put it to good use :)

The Evidence:

The Verdict:
This project was cheap, simple, quick, and had minimal clean-up. So basically, it was just enough for me to get my creative energy out and then get on with my day!
The only thing I would do differently is use all tissue paper, and completely avoid the crepe paper. Once it got wet, it wrinkled and tore way too easily for my liking.





Have a lovely weekend everyone :)

Week 23: New Refreshing Beverage

It has been HOT in New Mexico for the several days. Therefore, there was no better time to try out this citrus flavored iced tea



The New:
I found a drink recipe called "muddy water" on Pinterest (of course) and so I decided to make it with dinner last night. The directions I found were a tiny bit confusing, so I admit that I partially made it up as I went along, but fear not: it came out nothing short of awesome. You need:

12 oz. orange juice frozen concentrate
12 oz. lemonade frozen concentrate
2-3 quarts of brewed black tea

Basically, all you have to do is combine them and enjoy. I have a Mr. Coffee tea maker, so I brewed 2 quarts worth of tea without filling the pitcher up with ice. I then filled the pitcher to the 2 quart line with water and added both frozen concentrates, which consequently cooled the tea right off, as they were both frozen :) Doing it this way makes a little less than three quarts.

That's it!

The Evidence:

The Verdict:
Between the boyfriend and myself, I only have a quart left of this magically refreshing drink, meaning we polished off 2 QUARTS in less than 24 hours. Simply put, we love this drink! The citrus flavors were very prominent, so I think next time I'll try 3 quarts of tea and see if it makes a difference in how much tea flavor I'm able to taste. Other than that, I'm hooked and will continue drinking this wonder throughout the rest of this hot New Mexico summer!

Summer Dates

There is no doubt at this point; it is SUMMERTIME! And now that my boyfriend is much closer to me, and by much closer I mean living a mile away from me, we have plenty of dates to go on this summer. There are several that we are planning on using for double dates too! Here is a list that I will be adding to as I/we think of more :)
I would love to hear some of your favorite things to do with your sweetheart during the summer in the comments section :)

• Go swimming at night
• Grown up slip n' slide on a tarp with paint or shaving cream
• Picnic
• Watching the clouds pass by
• Using food coloring to spruce up a traditional water gun fight
• Watch fireworks
• Going camping 
• Visiting the zoo
• Running through golf course sprinklers together
• Water balloon fight (we're thinking of filling some with shaving cream too)
• Day trip to the lake
• Hike a local trail
• Making homemade ice cream or popsicles
• Game night with other couples (Panemopoly is first on our list- it is our own creative way of making a Hunger Games themed monopoly. Pictures soon to follow :))
• Learn a new dance together and show if off together at a local bar (we loooove to go two-stepping)
• Create masterpieces out of sidewalk chalk
• Enjoy a bonfire
• Visit a farmer's market/flea market/yard sales
• Do some grilling
• Attend an outdoor concert
• Take lots of pictures

I will continue adding to this list as I think of more :) 

Whether you're in the middle of a summer fling or you're working on your 50th year with someone, enjoy them. Far too often it seems to me, people take each other for granted and slowly begin forgetting how to love, cherish, treasure, and prioritize the people who really matter. This applies to friends, lovers, family members, everyone. And although I came up with this list in the context of dating someone, these would be fun things to do/try with anyone that you care about. Maybe one of these things would be the perfect way to reconnect with someone who you haven't seen in a while! I don't know, but enjoy these ideas and the people around you!

Week 22: New Homemade Sugar Scrub

I know how late this post is, but I promise I will not get too far behind! You see, since since my semester ended I have been working full-time (for the first time ever), and spending my most energetic hours with the kids in our summer program. Needless to say, it is exhausting! However, being nearly halfway through 2014 (crazy right?) I refuse to give up on my resolution. I have lots of new stuff planned out for these summer weeks, and no one will be more disappointed than me if I skip a week of it! So without further ado, keep reading to discover how to get the softest skin everrrrr!


The New:
Shaving your legs is great. Shaving your legs with a new razor after using a homemade sugar scrub is worth blogging about. My legs have never ever been so silky smooth with such little effort! So little effort in fact, that I was able to pull it off before work this morning. I got out of the shower over 12 hours ago, and my skin is still soft to the touch and is sufficiently moisturized (and I was in 90+ degree heat in the dry New Mexico Sun for several hours today!).

So you are probably more than ready for me to share my secret with you at point, and here it is:

Mix together the following ingredients and scrub your body with them.
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. oil (I used vegetable this time, but will use baby oil in the future)
1 Tbs. lemon juice


The Evidence:

This is the only picture I have for you because, well, taking pictures of me using it in the shower didn't seem quite appropriate. Anyhow, this is what it looks like all mixed up.

The Verdict:
I was completely satisfied with this dandy little trick. Like I said, my skin is still soft, 12+ hours after using this! And I didn't even put lotion on when I got out of the shower, so I know that it was the oil working it's magic.
As I mentioned above, next time I will use baby oil as opposed to cooking oil, only because I think I will like the smell better. Speaking of which, you could probably add some sort of essential oil to kick this puppy up a notch.
This batch was more than enough for my entire body, so if you want to make a single-use 'serving' try halving the recipe. If you love it as much as I did and are convinced that this is something you need on hand, double it and keep it in a container that won't let water seep in.

Enjoy your smooth legs ladies :)