Veggie Tales

We dabbled a bit in gardens the last year or two and did the tomatoes-in-pots a few times but this year we are trying a square foot garden. If you're not familiar with it check this out: www.squarefootgardening.com - it really sounds too good to be true! We also bought a farm share from www.redoakfarmsny.com and pick up our first set of farm-fresh organic vegetables tonight!

Jake was more interested in the planting tools...



and the hose



and the water



...but that allowed me to get the plants in their squares without interruption (other than the papparazzi)



Our bed is 4 X 4; in our 16 squares we have green beans (3), cherry tomatoes (2), 'regular' tomatoes (2), jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, green peppers, red peppers, cucumbers (2), watermelon (2). Our neighbor stopped by with an eggplant plant so that's going in the empty square.



I'll post a more recent picture later because the plants were a little droopy but have settled in nicely now! Yay for fresh veggies!

UPDATED PICTURE!
Check out how well everything is doing!

Don't You Just LOVE a Bargain?

Today by chance I saw a sign on the door of a Benjamin Moore paint store (on Rte 9 kind of across from A.C. Moore). I usually buy Behr paint at Home and Depot (as Jake calls it) but the sign said to ask about their 'mistake' paint that is $5 a gallon. So I did. They had three shelves in the back with gallons and quarts and glosses and flats and surprisingly... decent colors too! I found several variations of white and quite a few nice mossy or sage-y greens. Yah there were a few weird colors of yellow or pinkish, but most were seemingly usable 'normal' colors. I decided to go back with my hubby to see what gallons he might think we should get but I couldn't leave empty handed so I snagged a nice "Brandy Cream" quart of semi-gloss that will surely perk up trim around here somewhere. The friendly fellow behind the counter (who I didn't catch once making a face or rolling his eyes at Jake chattering and running around) put the can in the shaker for me and gave me a few stir sticks. AND he gave me a little "no charge ma'am" wave. Sweet! Now I'm DEFINITELY gonna go back.

Price Wars

A fellow blogger recently did a comparison test between local grocery store prices. She simply bought her usual stuff at each and compared the individual and total costs. Interesting, but my main market lost!? How can that be? I really pay a lot of attention to trying to save money and have long been convinced that Price Chopper is cheaper than Hannaford. Could I be (gasp) wrong? Pride aside I felt a call to action and went to Hannaford to do some price checking on my 'usual' items.

So how to go about my investigation? Compare regular price to regular price? Current price to current price? Ignore sale prices or use them? Oi! I started out by just cruising the Hannaford looking for what I thought were good deals (to make the trip worthwhile) and noting the prices of things I regularly buy. Some prices stood out as high, some low and they didn't carry some of my weekly needs; I buy organic milk for Jake and they didn't carry gallon jugs for example. So today I went to Price Chopper and did some more recon there. The more I tried to get a clear comparison the more muddled it became. Here's why...

Produce prices are always a moving target. Last week Hannaford avocados were $1.39 versus PC's for $1.00, but this week Hannaford has tomatoes on the vine for $1.99/lb and PC's are $2.99 (and last week Hannaford was charging $2.99! See?!) Ragu pasta sauce was $1.99 at Hannaford last week - it's $2.49 'regularly' at PC but on sale for $1.24 today. So if on a regular Wednesday (Prince spaghetti day!) I had a sauce emergency and could only choose between Hannaford and PC, I'd go to Hannaford for a 50 cents savings. HOWEVER, I look for deals like PC's $1.24/jar, add coupons and stock up on stuff like that. If I really did eat spaghetti on Wednesdays I'd be set for about a year with my current stash and pay about half of the regular Hannaford cost.

Are you brand loyal? If so you may pay more for the name if you don't shift your purchases to the currently lowest prices. Even with a coupon, the store brand is often cheaper than the name brand.

Another wrinkle: I also shop for certain things at WalMart. Unless there's a super-sale at PC that I know to be cheaper or I can't wait for a trip to WalMart I wait til my next trip to WalMart. For example Domino's Organic Sugar...Hannaford $2.69, PC $2.49 BUT WalMart $1.78. Yikes! Mount Olive Banana Peppers? Hannaford $2.37, PC $2.29 and WalMart $1.88. BUT PC sometimes has those for sale as BOGO so I can technically get them for $1.15 per jar. See how complex this all is?! Since I do follow the sales, check the fliers, and keep track of prices (yes I even have a dorky spreadsheet) I am quite confident I save money with my PC/WalMart strategy but I'm now more open to adding some Hannaford to the mix. They often have better produce, I like their hippy (natural foods) section, and they have TofuLin baked tofu that I heart (PC doesn't).

Here's an example (roughly) of regular PC to regular Hannaford:

Domino's Organic Sugar 2.49 2.69 1.78
Old El Paso Chilis 1.59 1.83
Swanson Veg Broth 1.29 .99
Ragu Pasta Sauce 2.49 1.99
Mt Olive Pepper Rings 2.29 2.37
Teddie Peanut Butter 2.89 2.89
Store brand mustard 1.49 1.29
Store brand milk gal. 2.57 3.39
Hood Cottage Cheese 2.49 2.49
Cabot cheese 8oz 2.89 2.29
Tofu 2.99 2.99
Goldfish 2.00 2.50
Melba Crackers 1.89 1.79
Store brand sandwich bags (50) 1.99 1.79
Store brand storage bags (50) 2.79 2.99
34.14 34.28

BUT....if I use my usual 'method' and buy PC sale/BOGO items (and assume no other price differences) I could have purchased the list above for about $30.60. Seems that most likely, on average, the higher and lower prices even themselves out over time if you don't do anything but get what you need each week. If, however, you check Price Chopper's flier and stock up on non-perishables and freeze freezables, buy produce at the store with the best prices for what you want each week, and use the cents off on gas you would definitely save a lot at Price Chopper. Add an occasional trip to WalMart for canned and jarred goods, tea/coffee, cereal and non-perishables would mean even more savings.

I've probably made this sound more complicated than it is for me. I've just learned what the things I regularly buy "could" cost and try not to pay more than that. I conclude that more than where you shop it's HOW you shop. Paying attention and stocking up are the saving keys.

Tool Time

Well I got the laundry soap made but didn't get to the other two DIY projects because I started working on yet another new one! Yay for having more projects than there is time to do them! Anyhow, after seeing several home made kitchen sets online I decided darn it...I can do that and I will! I had a small 2-drawer dresser/end table in the basement that I thought would make a good stove/sink and when I went to size it up I found some old kitchen cabinets that, flipped on their side, would be a swell refrigerator. I was completely jazzed to jump in but of course my life no longer operates in such a whimsical way so I had to just dream for a while. In the mean time I did some more poking around the internet for ideas and got all sorts of inspiration.

This past Saturday I was zipping around the house cleaning everything in sight with my new Simple Green cleaner (love it!). When I hit the bathroom I suddenly decided it was the time to put on that final coat of paint and actually finish a (long over due) job. Happily I got it done and while I had extra paint and a wet brush and roller I thought "ding!" time to paint the "stove". So out I scurried to the garage and started slapping paint on the dresser. One coat was certainly not enough but I was happy to be beginning the project - a second coat on Sunday really helped and I may do one more for good measure. Sunday evening I went to Lowe's all by myself and had a great time walking the aisles looking for stuff I could repurpose into burners or knobs or doors or whatever! I found some 3 inch felt rounds that I think were supposed to be for furniture legs that I hope to use as burners and I scored a can of gray gloss spray paint that should be perfect for the stove interior - and half price $3 at that! I'm hoping to get a sink faucet of some sort online; I'm looking at RV size kitchen and bath stuff and think I can get something for under $20. I've been taking pictures and I'll track what I spend so I can put together a summary once it's all done. Yay for Mommy for jumping on a creative hunch and gettin 'er done!

I'm baaaaack!

We're back from our road trip and I'm back in the blogosphere! It seems somehow that the chaos of living in and out of a car for 10 days followed us home and I didn't feel 'settled' again until mid-week this week. So now what?! Well I'm nearly out of laundry soap so that's on the agenda for the weekend (yah, I live on the edge!) I've also looked into making dryer sheets or some sort of homemade version of dryer softening. Most of the information I found basically was a variation of using liquid fabric softener - on a washcloth or towel, dried or damp. Of course I need to use a coupon to buy the softener so I haven't bought my 'supplies' yet. Stay tuned for my results. And also on the DIY front, I found a fun blog tutorial for making freezer packs - you know the kind you pop in the lunch bag or cooler? I'll tackle that over the weekend as well and report back on what happens!

Another Spelling Bee Update

Jake got Boggle Jr as a Christmas gift. I stashed it away for 'someday' and someday came this week! I assumed it was like the grown-up version (Boggle Sr.?) so I really hadn't imagined it would be of any interest to a 2 1/2 year old fella. Well, as it turns out it's pretty cool even at his age (and mine!) and is something he'll grow with as well. Basically, it's a set of cards with 3 or 4 letter words (no not THOSE 4 letter words), a set of letter dice and a tray with several ways to play. Simply looking at the cards and the words is a way to introduce a 'game'. The cards can be placed in the tray for the player(s) to find the corresponding letters and line them up with the letters on the picture, or the word on the picture can be hidden and the letter dice selected from memory. I also just lined up the dice with letters set to spell out familiar words (such as the names of our cats).

Jake's attention span for games is still a bit short (he asked for Chutes and Ladders today and sort of even played for longer than usual today so it's catching on!) but I really think this is a great way to combine learning and fun!

ABC's

Jake is AWESOME at his letters and singing the ABC Song. We started building an alphabet book together and it's coming along nicely. Each week (or every few days I guess really) we create a 12x12 scrapbook page with cut outs of the capital and lower case letter and various things that start with the letter. Our "A" page has an alligator and an apple and an ant and AbbyCaddaby for example. Yay for learning and yay for the Cricut cutting machine!

Quick Tip

Soap is soap. No, this isn't another soap making post...but it is soap related. Have you ever thought about soap? Of course not! But really, other than scent or bleach additives, how different is soap from soap? Not much. I found that cheap and/or unwanted shampoo works well all over the bathroom. I use a blob on the toilet brush or squirt some in the tub or sink and scrub it around. No yucky chemicals, smells nice, easy on the hands and kid/pet friendly for storage. I use the shampoo(s) I didn't like once I tried them or that were super cheap. I rarely buy anything but food at the grocery market, but when Price Chopper has a buy-one-get-one-free sale and I have a coupon I have scored shampoos for as little as 50 cents a bottle or even free! I bet you could even get some good "substitute" tub and bowl cleaner at a dollar store. Try it! You can always go back to your stinky, bleachy, toxic chemicals if you want to! :-)

DYKWIK? (Do You Know What I Know?) Yoga Edition

Oh how I wish I could do yoga every day. OK, I suppose technically I could if I did my own sun salutations or made up my own routines but somehow that never seems to happen. So, alas, I schlep out to the gym to flop about on the dirty floor with a bunch of other people in a big usually cold room. It's really not that bad but it's a long way to Zen. Anyhow, I do bring my own mat because I am generally grossed out by other people and dirty floors and gym yuck and I also just happen to have one. Of course rolling your mat out on said dirty floor then rolls back onto itself when I leave so I am destined to collect dirt and gack anyhow. Recently my mat was shabby unchic with dust and road salt from the car and heaven knows what else and really needed a bath. But how to clean it? I looked it up on the trusty internets and found numerous people saying wash it in the washing machine. Could it be so easy?! Yes, but there's one catch I found (we'll get to that in a minute).

So I popped my mat into my machine with a little home-made laundry soap (see previous post!) and set it to cold and left the lid open so it wouldn't go to the spin cycle. Amazingly I remembered to go back and run it through a rinse cycle (again skip the spin cycle) and I remembered to go retrieve it after it was rinsed. It stayed in one piece and looked shiny and new! Yay! I hung it in the bathroom to dry. When it seemed dry-ish I draped it over a couple of laundry baskets to make sure it got enough air circulation. Seemed I'd found a quick way to clean when I assumed it would be a big hassle. Now...the catch. It takes a seriously long time to dry. Like a looooong time. In my case, longer than I allowed because when I proudly rolled out my fresh, sanitized mat on the dusty grubby floor and plunked down on it, my socks and yoga pants got wet. As class progressed I felt like I was going to slip as I squeezed out more water with every downward dog. I didn't really create a puddle or any danger to myself or those around me, but I now know I need to use a back-up mat until I'm really sure the washer-washed one isn't wet. Despite my learning curve, I'm happy with the results, a clean mat that even has a renewed 'stickiness' to it and a few fewer germs to boot!

DIY Laundry Soap ...Really!

I happened upon instructions for making your own laundry soap and I immediately was fascinated by the prospect. I'm always glad to use fewer chemicals around the house and HELLO - SAVE MONEY! Below are ingredients, instructions and my tips based on having made this a couple of times. It's really easy, quick and oddly fun.

First off - what you will need:

• A 5 gallon bucket (I scored a perfect heavy duty one at Lowe's for $2.34)
• Sauce pan
• Hot water
• Washing soda (Arm&Hammer is the only brand I know. You can buy it at Price Chopper for about $2.99 for a 3lb 7 oz box and don't confuse it with BAKING soda they are different animals)
• A bar of soap (I used Ivory but Pure n Natural or something without additives would be fine. FelsNaptha is a laundry bar soap but I find it's too strong to use exclusively)
• Borax (I bought mine at Target for about $2.99 for a 4 lb box)

Second off - what you will do:

- Measure 4 cups of water into your saucepan and start heating to just below boiling.

- Grate the bar of soap. I used a regular cheese grater for my first batch. I used the grater attachment for the KitchenAid for my second batch. Hands down winner (pardon the pun) was the machine. You could use a food processor too. I used a full bar of Ivory and about 1/4 cup of FelsNaptha.

- Add the soap shreds to the heated water and stir occasionally until melted. Try to keep the mix from boiling. You'll end up with slightly sudsy, cloudy water.

- Pour your hot soap mix into the 5 gallon bucket and add 3 gallons of hot water. I just used hot tap water.

- Add in 1 cup of washing soda and stir for about 2 minutes or so. I used a big wooden paint stick but you could use a wooden yard stick or a long spoon or whatever you've got.

- Add 1/2 cup of Borax (if using) and stir again for about 2 minutes or so.

- If you want to add some essential oil for a bit of pretty scent, put in about 10-15 drops and stir up one last time. I made a plain batch the first time and added about 15 drops of Body Shoppe Lavender oil my second go around. My soap result was very lightly scented so I think you'd have to add a LOT to make overly scented soap. In other words don't worry about it being stinky.
Third off - what you will have:



- That's it basically! Put the bucket somewhere safe so kids, pets, or other critters can't mess with it. I put mine in the basement laundry area and used a large lobster pot lid to cover it. Let it sit overnight.

- When your new soap is thoroughly cooled it will look like whitish Jell-o. Give it a really good stir to break it up into a more pourable form. I stirred my second batch much better than the first and could easily funnel it into empty plastic milk jugs. I've also used empty laundry soap jugs. It works the same lumpy or smooth.

- When you're ready to use it just dump about 1 cup into the washer as usual and wash away. If you have a high efficiency washer I expect you'd use less but the 'gimmick' of HE laundry detergents is that they are low sudsing. This DIY stuff is already low suds so it should work a-ok in any kind of machine.

I was able to do 35 full size loads with the first batch so at less than $9 for supplies which would make at least 6 batches I calculate about 4 cents per wash. You can do 18 loads of laundry a month for under $10 a year! Tide and other commercial soaps cost between 22 and 25 cents per load so we're talking 80% off or more. This really is simple and doesn't take much time, and who wouldn't make time for a 80% off sale?!

Enjoy! Feel free to comment or email any questions and I'll try to help.

Do You Know What I Know?

I'm a big fan of "helpful hints"...if they're actually helpful and actually work of course. When I do find a neat trick that, um, does the trick, I am always so pleased, but often wonder if maybe I was just the last to find out? Either way, whether it was my clever idea or someone else's clever idea that I finally got around to testing out, when it turns out great it's a Yay For Mommy! moment. Today's tip to pass along is a peanut butter solution. Now I have no idea where or when I heard this, but I recalled a tip that sticky, gooey, gummy sticker residue could be removed with peanut butter. I like to try to limit the use of chemicals where I can and heck, I have peanut butter around so I gave it a try.

My first attempt was that stubborn sticker backing and fuzz that I couldn't get off the dining room chair after Jake went through a sticker sticking spree. I rubbed on a dab of peanut butter and lo and behold it worked. No smelly chemicals and the peanut oil agreed with the furniture. DING!

Today I busted this trick out again for two things: to remove the sticky residue left from the band-aid Jake stuck to the hardwood floor (he often asks for a 'boo-boo sticker' to open and waste by sticking it anywhere but on himself) and to remove adhesive on a couple of plastic frosting tubs. I'd let the floor go an embarrassingly long time but a bit of the peanut butter rub and a few swipes of a sponge to clean up and floor done! The tubs took more work because they had more goo and I'd put them through the dishwasher. I thought the empty frosting containers would be handy for craft item storage or even for a project but they had an annoying stripe of label glue on each of them. It took more rubs but still only a few minutes and I had goo-free containers.

I only buy natural peanut butter so I suspect the slight 'grit' it has may help but as far as I know the tip is intended for any peanut butter (I'd skip chunky though). I've also heard peanut butter gets gum out of hair, but I hope I'll never have to test that one out!

More Fun Food Facts

I drink too much (tea) and there's nothing like a nice cuppa tea and a lovely slice (or 5) of toast. But I have another tea companion love: goldfish. Yes the crackers. No not the cheese or pretzel or rainbow. It began with cinnamon goldfish, the perfect match of crunchy little cookie-ish bite with another of my favorites - cinnamon. Then yesterday at Target when I was restocking my cinnamon snack fix (on sale for $1.66 a bag) I happened upon vanilla goldfish. Now I have tea time goodness times two! And while I won't try to suggest that they are a 'healthy' snack, you can eat 50 of the little buggers for 140 calories. That's about a half cup and if you eat them one or two at a time between tea sips they really last and feel like more than they are. And the best part of all? My 2 year old thinks "goldfish" are the orange cheese crackers so he stays away from Mommy's stash. Win-win!

Yum For Mommy!

I made a yummo quiche for a Mom's group meeting. A bunch of my friends are following Weight Watchers so I thought it would be nice to bring something that was already translated into "points". It really is good and doesn't taste at all diet-y. I intend to add it to the dinner rotation next week!

Weight Watchers Cheese and Broccoli Quiche

Ingredients:

• 6 oz pie crust, 9-inch, refrigerated
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup red onions, chopped
• 1 1/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1 cup low-fat shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg white
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tbsp fresh chopped dill
• 1/2 tsp table salt, or more to taste
• 1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground, or more to taste
• 10 oz frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and well-drained
• 1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

TIP: Not a broccoli fan? Substitute spinach in its place.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Press pie crust into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch, removable-bottom tart pan or a 9-inch pie pan; refrigerate until ready to use.
To make filling, heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until soft, about 3 minutes. Transfer onion to a large bowl and add ricotta cheese, cheddar cheese, egg, egg whites, mustard, oregano, salt and pepper; mix well and fold in broccoli. Spoon mixture into prepared crust and level surface with a wooden spoon; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and chopped dill.
Bake until a knife inserted near center comes out clean, about 35 to 40 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing into 8 pieces.

Entire recipe makes 8 servings
Serving size is 1 slice (1/8th of quiche)
Each serving = 5 Weight Watchers Points

Love Me, Love My Feet

Growing up I remember my maternal Grammie having "pretty feet". At least she said that. Or my Mom said she said that. But in any case, I believe I inherited those pretty feet so I simply must keep them polished and pretty! My Mother-in-Law gave my hubby and me these AWESOME Pedi-scrub foot buffers for Christmas and after my first use I stole G's. I totally can't express how much I love them. But I'll try...they are soapy soft on one side and scrubby rough on the other for pampery perfection! They smell terrific and feel great and of course they make my feet smooth and sexy. I bet even ugly feet would get prettied up with these fantabulous foot fixer-uppers. I started out with revitalizing Citron-Eucalyptus Aromatherapy and then tried Lavender Tea-tree Oil that I bought in a 4-pack from amazon.com. They have special sponges for hands and body and even dogs (huh?) Seriously. These things rock. Massage, exfoliate, moisturize, enjoy!

G'day!

Hello blog world!

Here I am again this time with a place to note cool Mommy/kid/household/family/whatever stuff. I decided to keep my crafting updates separate so I can post all the cool non-felt stuff I want to share here and not create clutter. I'm all about the decluttering and organizing...despite the fact that you might not know it simply by looking at my house. If you want to see my crafty felt-world updates, follow me at feltsilly.blogspot.com. While you're here, though, stay for a cup of tea and check out my recent finds and ideas I love that you might love too!