We play with Legos a lot, and that means that there are legos EVERYWHERE. I looked online to see what other moms do to combat the land mine field that stray pieces turn into late at night.
I found this Lego sack on Amazon, but I didn’t have any Amazon Credit, so I decided to improvise.
I pulled out a top sheet. Because, really, how many of us use topsheets on our kids beds? In fact, this top sheet was once part of a set that belonged to hubs as a child. The fitted sheet has long since passed on, but the top sheet lives on, since we never use it on the bed.
I poured out the box of Legos onto the sheet. After we played and built for a few hours, I gathered up the corners, so all of the legos were snug in the center of the sheet and deposited the sheet full of Legos into our 12 gallon plastic tote (like this one). It is the tote that has housed the Legos for a while.
Now when it’s time to play, all we have to do is lift out the bundle, lay it on the floor and spread out the sheet.
I am so glad that I no longer have to chase around stray pieces, and there are no more late night swearing sessions when we step on one in a darkened room.
I had a can of pumpkin open the other day and I decided to make cookies. Part of the show that hubs is in has a scene where all the characters eat cookies on stage. They had been eating Madeline’s, which are super tasty, but high in calories.
So I opted to bake something a little lower in calories. I also made the cookies quite small (1 tablespoon, instead of two), to cut down on calories. I added pumpkin instead of the eggs and some of the fat to lower the calories and add fiber and fruit.
In keeping with the spirit of using up what we have in the house, I also used only brown sugar, as we were out of white sugar.Lil’ Man was a big helper- He added the chocolate chips and helped scoop the dough onto the cookie sheets. He’s going to be a Master Chef yet!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 c butter (or use vegan margarine if vegan), room temp
1 15 oz can of pumpkin
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c flour (I used AP, but feel free to use wheat or even 1 for 1 gluten free)
3/4 c. almond meal
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
dash salt
2 c. chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, cream the first 4 ingredients until smooth using a hand mixer on medium.
Add remaining 4 ingredients until a soft dough forms, using hand mixer on low, or by hand with large wooden spoon.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 9-13 minutes.
Makes 3-4 dozen cookies.
Variations: This recipe is east to make as vegan, just sub out butter for the solid fat of your choice. To make GF, sub in GF flour of your choice. To make it nut free, omit the almond meal and increase the amount of flour to 2 cups.
Hubs got one of these awesome Obol bowls a few years ago for Xmas, and they are super awesome! I can’t wait to get one and let Lil’ Man try it out!
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A few weeks ago I went to the Moms Meet Wow Summit and learned a lot of ways that any family can start their journey to going green. And it is a journey. It’s not something that you wake up one morning and think, “Today we go green!”. Or at least it shouldn’t be. Think about how much stuff you’d throw away: Cleaning supplies, food, household goods. That woud make a lot of trash all at once, and that’s definitely not the direction you’d want to go in.
Here are 5 steps to start your going green journey (all of these we’ve implemented at our house):
Reduce: In order to reduce our carbon footprint, we re-use as much as we can. For me the first step was to reduce the number of cleaners we had in the house, since a lot of them aren’t too environmentally friendly.
Re-using packages helps the environment!
I made up some of the Dr. Bronner’s All Purpose cleaner (¼ c. soap in a quart of water in a spray bottle. Add ¼ tsp. tea tree essential oil if desired.) using a sample of the Baby Unscented Pure-Castile Liquid Soap, and I put it into a bottle that used to hold another cleaner. I washed the bottle thoroughly before mixing up the new cleaner. It REALLY gets the kitchen clean and because it’s an all purpose cleaner, I use it in the bathroom too! I really like that Dr. Bronner’s products are biodegradable, organic and are safe enough that you can brush your teeth with (but, yes, it does taste like soap!!).
Sturdy Thirty-One bag and the Banana Box!
Re-Use: I re-use as much as I can around the house. We’ve got re-usable lunch bags for Little Man (and that classy banana box too- keeps the bananas from getting beat up in transit), and one for the car (it’s replaced our car snack box). I cut up old beat up bath towels and use them to clean up around the house. I re-use containers as well. I cleaned out an empty formula canister and put Nesquik powder in it instead. I even re-used the formula scoop (since it’s smaller than the usual portion size, we use less each time!).
Recycle: We have a recycling bin with a lid on the patio and we put our recycling in it. Once it’s full we take it to our local Re-Planet Recycling center. We earn a little money and help the planet- nothing better! It’s a great teaching tool for Lil’ Man!
Walk: We are fortunate to live within walking distance of a grocery store (which is closing soon, but will re-open as a Smart and Final soon), as well as a park, and a few other places that we like to go. When it’s possible (aka not 100 degrees), I put Birdy in the Stroller, and we walk as a family to pick up whatever we need or to go have an adventure. There is a second bonus: When we are shopping, I am limited to what we can carry in the undercarriage/storage area of the stroller. It really helps me stick to my shopping list! Not only are we getting exercise, but we’re leaving our car at home and that cuts down on the pollutants that are in car exhaust.
Replace non-green stuff with a green counterpart as we can: When we finish up with a non-green product, I replace it with a green version. Like the cleaner above, once I used up the last of the Windex, I replaced it with the Bronner’s recipe for cleaner. We ran out of paper towels a few weeks back, and in it’s place, I’ve been using lint free cloths instead. I just wash them with the other towels when I do the laundry each week. I picked up AmazonBasics Microfiber Cleaning Cloth – 24 Pack for only $14.99. A few towels added to a load of laundry doesn’t cost anything extra either.
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I’ll post photos of my next Bulu Box when it arrives!
Over the weekend I took part in the Moms Meet Wow Summit here in San Diego. I got to meet and network with tons of awesome moms and brands. I got to learn about how we can live more naturally with just a few small (and easy) tweaks! I met Lisa Bronner of Dr. Bronner’s Soap fame and learned a lot of how to start my own journey to green (which I’ll be sharing with you later in the week).
Part of the event was meeting brand ambassadors and sampling their products. That means tons of swag. I came home with an assortment of goodies, and I am sharing my bounty with you! I pulled together a box of goodies! In addition to all of these awesome goodies, I’ll also include a few coupons for free products.
Entering is easy… To get started leave a comment with your easy go green tip! It could be something like turning off the water when you brush your teeth or carrying reusable shopping bags in your car at all times! There are additional entries too. Just check out the Raffle copter widget here or on the giveaway tab of our FB page (it’s NOT mobile friendly- FYI).
You’ve probably heard or read about bartering to save money, but you aren’t sure where to start, or how it works. I’m here to demystify it for you!
I barter all the time! Thankfully, a lot of my friends have large vegetable and fruit gardens, fruit trees, or chickens produce eggs. I trade my time and services that I can provide for these things. I love to trade my ability and skill with sewing for farm fresh eggs. The price of eggs in California is insane! A dozen eggs can be almost $6.00, depending on where you shop.
Here are a few tips that I recommend you try in order to stretch your budget with the use of bartering:
Step One: Make a list of the skills you have. Can you sew? Can you babysit? Do you have a lawnmower and some free time to mow lawns? There are lots of things that you can do the people need help with. Maybe you have a great eye for organization and you could help a friend or a neighbor organize their pantry or their garage. Maybe you Love to clean? You can use that skill to either earn money or to barter for goods and services that you need. Maybe you have an overflowing garden or hen house!
Step Two: Make a list of stuff that you need. Do you need help sewing, cleaning house, or do you need to stretch your grocery budget a little bit further with the help of homegrown fruits and vegetables, farm fresh eggs?
Step Three: Ask! Ask your friends or if you’re feeling shy post on your Facebook page or whatever social media that you use. If you’d like to get a broader reach you can even post on websites like craigslist or fiverr.com. You’d be surprised at what kind of offers you get!
I’d love to hear about the types of things you barter for!
ME: “Henry, what do you want to be for Halloween?”
HENRY: “A Pirate Penguin!”
ME: 0_0
Henry: “You know, Mommy a Penguin that’s a pirate! Like Pingu! NUG NUG!!”
FIN
Yeah, so I set out to create a Pirate Penguin Costume. First I was going to make a penguin costume from scratch, but after pricing out fabric and questioning whether or not I’d be sane at the end of the process, I bought this penguin hoodie and a pair of black pants. He will wear both of these items again and again until they no longer fit, whereas, he’d probably only wear the costume I had originally designed and sketched just once.
Modeling the jacket Miami Vice Style
Next came the question of the pirate part. I scoured thrift stores for two months looking for the PERFECT coat to pirate-ize. Luckily for me (and Henry), I found this amazing dark teal velvet ladies jacket at AmVets for only $4.95. It’s a size 6 Petite, which is perfect. In it’s original life, it had a short Mandarin collar and single breast front with 5 large buttons.
To fully embrace the pirate-ness of this jacket, we first had to take it in so it fit. We lopped off 4 inches of sleeve length from each arm, and then put a dart in the back.
Working with velvet and satin lining isn’t easy, but I used these awesome Wonder Clips and the fabric stayed in place without a problem. These clips are perfect for taking in or up garments. They have built in seam allowance marking, and they can clamp together large or bulky fabrics (and in my case, slippery ones too).
I like these clips much better than my usual sewing pins- The bottom of the clip is flat, so I don’t worry about the bottom of the fabric scrunching up, and I didn’t stab my self while sewing (something that occurs every time I sew a garment that is pinned together and I’ve been sewing for 20 years)! After we had taken in the back and the sleeves it was time to crank up the pirate-ness of this jacket.
We spray painted rayon lace with antique gold spray paint. We pinned the lace pieces to foam core board, sprayed the lace, and once it was dry sewed it on the cuffs. For the lace on the front, we applied it using fusible web. We did this instead of sewing it down because the jacket has pockets in the front that could not be accessed if the trim was sewn on.
I hot glued acrylic gems over top of the existing buttons. And there you have it- A Pirate coat, fit for a penguin!
NUG NUG! (Pirate hat not shown in photo)
We used additional accessories that we had laying around the house: Pirate Hat, sash belt, velvet pouch, and no pirate kit is complete without a telescoping spyglass (it was a birthday gift).
There you go! A complete costume for less than $40.00
Hoodie: $16.24
Pants: $6.00
Coat: $4.95
All of the additional supplies (lace, spray paint, acrylic jewels, sewing notions) we already had on-hand.
I’d love to hear about and see your DIY Halloween creations! Leave me a comment (and a photo)!
I received the Wonder Clips free to facilitate a review. All Opinions are my own. I received no finanacial compensation to review them.
I posted about Schoola last month- and they are back again with an awesome offer AND a great sale that helps others in need! When you sign up for a Schoola account here you will earn $20 in credit and you can give $20 in Schoola credit for a limited time!
There are thousands of top-notch finds you can purchase with your Schoola credit. Plus, now for a limited time you can get FREE shipping with no minimum order value. That means with referral credit, you can SHOP FOR FREE. I recently picked up a bunch of white shirts and onsies that I’ll be using for out next big Tie Dye Project!
I poured out the box of Legos onto the sheet. After we played and built for a few hours, I gathered up the corners, so all of the legos were snug in the center of the sheet and deposited the sheet full of Legos into our 12 gallon plastic tote (like this one). It is the tote that has housed the Legos for a while.
I am so glad that I no longer have to chase around stray pieces, and there are no more late night swearing sessions when we step on one in a darkened room.
for only $14.99. A few towels added to a load of laundry doesn’t cost anything extra either.
(so good on salads, in smoothies or just out of the bag!)
(I’ve already eaten 10 of these bars- they are insanely delicious)
Hewes Family Fun 