DIY Magic Bullet

Have you ever had or wanted one of those Magic Bullet blender systems?  They are around $50 so not too expensive but not cheap either.  Especially if you already have a blender.  Well we had a generic one that I loved.  Made protein shakes every morning, made salsa in it, pesto sauces etc… It really was handy and fast.  But it broke after about 3 years.  Not bad for the money really.  So I’ve been wanting a new one but haven’t wanted to spend the money since I already have a regular blender. 

Well this weekend we were checking them out at Costco when another shopper gave me a pretty neat tip!  Check this out.  You can turn your regular home blender into a magic bullet!

Just Peachy!

I love love love this time of year!  I am nothing more than happy to throw on my jeans and a sweat shirt or long sleeve and bake!  I can enjoy my kids at the park without melting.  It’s not unbearably cold or snowy which I hate driving in.  It’s perfect! 

My mother in law has a friend who get’s peaches from the western slope here in Colorado this time of year for dirt cheap.  So this year she brought me an 18lb box of big fat deliciously juicy peaches for only $30!  I had about one week to figure out what to do with them.

Since canning them was the obvious choice we did do some of that.  But today I’m going to show you how we made peach jam!  And how little miss K had to learn that a watched pot never boils lol.

There Aint No Bugs On Me!

A couple months ago the kids and I bought some seedling strawberry plants and potted them at home for the window atrium in our kitchen.  We also started some tomatoes and herbs.  The best way to start seedlings is to spray them with a fine mist every day until they get to be a couple inches tall.  Then you can start watering them.

We’re excited to have our second season of fresh tomatoes this summer.  Last year our strawberry plant didn’t make it.  I put it outside where I thought it would get more sun and a ferocious wind came through and bye bye strawberries. 

So this year we’ve been using the herbs in our spaghetti sauce already and have been waiting and waiting for the strawberries and tomatoes to catch up.  I’ve cut back the watering to every other day because the leaves were turning a brownish yellow color.  Which I thought was weird since yellow was too much water and brown was too little water.  I mean way to confuse a girl, seriously.

Yesterday morning I went to water them and to my horror, I found this…

Birthday Bash Day two & Paper Flowers

Welcome back for Day two of Designer Gardens Birthday Bash!  I have an incredibly talented and fun blogger here today to share a super fun tutorial and offer another giveaway!  Kristina from Always Springtime Flowers has been kind enough to take some away from busy schedule as a teacher to show us all how to make these incredible paper flowers.  I can't wait to get started on mine.  Oh dear poor Mr Garden isn't going to know what hit him! LOL.

Oatmeal and Headbands

I know, what could one possibly have to do with the other right?  Well before a couple days ago I wouldn’t have been able to guess either.  But I was weeding through the pantry planning my next project in my head, then I started throwing out expired items and one thing led to another.  Story of my life right?!
So here I give you the Oatmeal box headband holder!  Woohoo!  Do you think they would re-name my product if HSN wanted to sell it?

Start with a box of oatmeal.  You might want to empty it first.

Pick up one of those candle holder looking pieces of wood from Michaels or other craft store.
Now glue it onto the bottom.  See the expiration date?  I’m so embarrassed.

Next I took some fabric, it’s kind of a burlap but much softer and thinner.  I had to wrap it twice because the box showed through.  I used spray adhesive to put the fabric on.  I also left the top and bottom edges a little long to wrap under the bottom lip and over the top opening.
 
Now you can glue the decorative block to your base.  I just got a circular wood base and used my E6000 epoxy.


I embellished using just a strip of bias tape.  I thought about doing some more fancy stuff but the fact is, it will have a bunch of headbands on it anyhow.

I finished it off with a little bow on the back seam.

And here is the finish!  I thought about putting the lid back on but it will be easier for my girls to get their bows without it.  And I chose to leave the bottom natural wood instead of painting. 
 

~Sommer

Paint Stick Crate

I saw this incredible crate this week made by Today's Fabulous Finds.  I had to make one for myself like yesterday.  So that's exactly what I did.  Yesterday.  I made one.  LOL.

This one is from Janet @ Today's Fabulous Finds and you can find the entire tutorial over at her blog!

Here is mine!  My handles are a bit thinner and not as "rope" looking but I don't mind and it's what I had on hand. 

I used the same dark walnut stain as Janet did.  I wanted it old and grungy looking.  I didn't sand it or anything.  Just slopped it on.  My favorite technique.

I saw a little crate in a catalog somewhere sitting on a coffee table with candles in it and I knew this one would be perfect for the same idea.

I grabbed a bag of polished river rocks and filled it in.  I love all the natural elements.

I really LOVE it!  Thanks Janet!

 ~Sommer

How's it Hangin?

Your keys I mean.  Member those old keys from Hobby Lobby that I took home for a song?  If not you can see them here.  I left you guessing as to what I was going to make with them.  I knew before I found the keys that I wanted to do something like this...

Wanna see?  Well... do you ya... punk?  Yep that definitely sounded better in my head lol.

Here is my new key hook holder!  I used to have one of those mail sorter ones with the slots and the hooks.  It was a light wood with gold cup hooks.  Not exactly my style anymore.  Hubby has been bugging me since we moved in to put something up to hang the keys on.  Even the old holder which I couldn't bring myself to do.

Want to see how I made it?  Oh it was so simple you'll want to run right out and make one!

Get a drawer face.  And with a chisel and hammer knock the back lip off so it can hang flat against the wall.

Now sand it until smooth, doesn't have to be perfect if you plan on distressing it, just smooth.  Then paint and distress.  I didn't take a picture of this part since I know my readers are capable =)  At least I hope so.

Then get some E-6000 glue and adhere your keys onto the front of the board in any pattern you choose.  This took me the longest.  Trying to figure out how I wanted them to lay.  Vertical, horizontal, slanted etc... The possibilities are endless and totally based on preference.

You can see above I also measured and drilled where I wanted my cup hooks to go.  The E-6000 glue takes a bit to set up so I would leave them overnight to set and then it will be like cement.

Next you will need some of this stuff.  Frame hanging brackets and cup hooks of your choice.

Measure for center unless you feel you need a bracket on both sides.  Then I would measure for the center of the bracket to be 2in in from each end of your wood.  Just a few smacks with the hammer will secure this piece on.

Now screw in your cup hooks and hang!  Voila, so simple and totally tres chic!

I've linked up to these parties

~Sommer

Keys

I've been looking all over for these.  I was at Hobby Lobby looking for a towel rack when I stumbled across them for 1/2 off.  The last set hanging there, waiting to find their forever home.  I got them for a song at $6.00. 

When I got them home I realized.... the metal loop was one solid piece.  And I needed the keys to come off!  So this was a perfect excuse oportunity to use the Dremel =)

I didn't have the right bit for cutting the metal so I used this.  It's a metal engraver tool.  Very neat!  I just carressed it until it broke through.

Once it was cut through I could pull it apart.

And now I have this...

But I am not going to tell you what I'm doing with them yet... Of course your welcome to guess, I love guessing games! lol.

I've linked up to these parties.

~Sommer

Electrical 101

How to re-wire your dryer in 10 easy steps...  So one of the first projects you may get into when moving into a new home could end up being more out of necessity than desire.  In this case, a new dryer connection.  We realized after moving in that the cord on our dryer was a 4 prong and the outlet was only a 3. 

Can you say round hole, square peg?  After a bit of research we understand that more modern appliances are 4 prong conductors.  Two hot wires, a neutral and a ground. This is safer because the current carrying neutral is not connected to the dryer case. But when you live in an older home you most likely will find that the wall receptacle will not have a ground slot.  Leaving you with only three slots instead of four.

So in this case we have to convert the four wire dryer to a three wire set up.  Don't worry, I only got electrocuted once.  Joking, joking... lol. 

1. Verify the electrical requirements of the dryer... typically in the US will be 240 volts.

2.  Make sure the receptacle in the wall has the same rating and note the number of slots, either 3 or 4.

3.  You'll need to buy a new cord to coincide with the wall receptacle.  If it has three slots you will need one with three prongs.

4.  To change your electric dryer power cord from a 4-wire to a 3-wire you first need to disconnect the old dryer cord. To do this make sure your dryer is unplugged and open the access panel cover on the back of the dryer.

5.  Once the cover is off you will see a terminal block with three wires. Black on one side (HOT), white in the middle (NEUTRAL) and red on the other side (HOT).  The green is your GROUND wire so you don't get electrocuted!  Use a 3/8″ nut driver to remove the nuts or a phillips screwdriver to remove the bolts (depending on your dryer) and remove each dryer cord wire from the terminal block. When you remove the nuts or bolts, be careful not to drop them down into your dryer!

6.  Now this is going to get interesting so bear with me... Since the new three wire connection has no ground wire your neutral conductor will have to serve as neutral and ground.  This means you'll have to create a jumper conductor from the neutral terminal to the dryer’s framer.  Also known as a ground strap.  The bonding jumper is either a metallic strap or a green wire that is connected between your dryer’s neutral (white wire) terminal and the green ground screw connected to your dryer’s frame.

New 3 wire cord (no ground wire)

Installing this bonding jumper is an extremely important step when changing from a 4-wire to a 3-wire power cord to prevent electrical shocks when touching anything metallic on your dryer.



Bonding strap




















If you don't have the original bonding strap, you can make one. You need a short piece of green 10 AWG wire, 2 ring terminals, a pair of wire strippers and a pair of crimpers. Strip both ends of the green 10 AWG wire and crimp one ring terminal onto each end of the wire. Now connect one end of the wire to the neutral (center) terminal and the other end to the dryer’s frame; where your ground is connected now.


Tools to make your own bonding jumper with green wire.  This can be used from the old 4 wire cord.

























New wiring.  The green jumper shares the spot with the neutral
conductor and also mounts to the unit itself.





















7.  Now you will insert the new 3 prong cord through the connector and secure but don't over tighten. 

8.  Hook up the new 3 wire cord  and connect each wire to the dryers terminal block.  Remember the two outer wires are HOT and the center wire is NEUTRAL.

9.  Replace the terminal panel cover.

10. Plug in and have a margarita to celebrate a job well done while the laundry is drying!

I've linked up to these parties.

~Sommer

Sweater Pillows

Okay these are awesome!  I just came across these over at All Things Beautiful.  Charity is the mastermind behind these darling little pillows that I fully intend to make and throw on my newly slip covered sofa!

Now look at the darling victim!!  Can you believe she sacrificed this totally adorable sweater?

Now if you have a weak stomach you should cover your eyes for this next part.  There are actual photo's of the murder.... Sigh.

Okay so head on over to Charity's Blog and get the whole tutorial, these will make awesome gifts people!  Just don't tell your recipients how they are made ;P

Cone Christmas Tree

I don’t about you but I could definitely find myself “Rockin Around” this Christmas tree!  My girlfriend made one of these recently from sheet music and some toile papers and it was so darn cute I had to make one for myself.  So this is what I like to call the lazy bloggers tutorial.  Since it’s such a simple project I’ll just guide you through as I we go along.

First you should know that I used just as many papers cut to the same size as my friend and still ran out!  So use the paper guide and just that, a guide!  You will need 5 each of 5 different patterns on 12x12 paper.  You will cut these down to 3x3’s.  Lot’s of cutting. 

Next we start rolling elf sized cones.  Perfect for the season don’t you think?!  Seriously it takes some getting the hang of but you can do it, they are tiny cones, but not impossible.  Tape them closed with invisible tape.

You will need a large cone tree made out of that brown paper mache.  Make sure you get the largest one since it’s the only one that has a base on it.  This is necessary to have the bottom layer not squish the ground beneath or show gaps around the bottom of your tree.

Now just dab that hot glue on and stick to the tree.  You will have to flatten the tips of your cones for them lay nicely, don’t worry the next row will hide it.

See! Now keep going until you reach the top!


Enjoy!!  And rock around like merry people!