Menu Planning, Making Do, and Making Stuff

(If you're here for Make Do Monday or Make Something Monday, please scroll down!)

You might remember that last week was Mexican Week around here. It was rudely interrupted by Egg Salad Day and German Day. I felt like some brats, so I thawed some from the freezer. Click here for the B.E.S.T brats on the planet. They're proudly made in Bucyrus, Ohio, which in case you didn't know, is the Bratwurst Capital and home of the Bratwurst Festival and also the birthplace of little ole me. Oh how I dreamed of being Miss Bratwurst... being dressed up in old-fashioned German garb, sitting atop of the float, waving that fake wave to the parade goers... ah, but I've digressed.

Back to the bratwurst. We didn't have any bread to go with them, but we did have two half loaves that were stale, so my brain started ticking, and this is what I came up with: Sauerkraut Bread Pudding. As you all know bread pudding can be sweet or savory. My favorite combos are cinnamon apple bread pudding for the sweet side, and cheesy spinach for the savory. I figured that sauerkraut and spinach kind of have the same consistency, so it might work. I could not find any recipes for sauerkraut bread pudding, so I just winged it.

• 6 eggs
  
• 2 cups milk
  
• caraway seed
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper
  
• 10 oz sauerkraut, drained
  
• 1 cup cheese (I actually forgot to add this though I meant to)
  
• about 12 slices dense white and wheat bread (ripped into pieces) though rye would be great for this recipe!

Heat oven to 375.
Whisk together eggs, milk, and spices. Stir in saurkraut, cheese and bread with rubber spatula. Pour into 13X9 baking dish. Bake 45 minutes until knife inserted comes out clean.

I wish I had remembered the cheese. I think this bread pudding was missing something in the taste department, and cheese would have made it much tastier! I don't know what's wrong with me because I also forgot to add cheese to the sausage-bisquick stuff I made last week. It definitely would have been better with the cheese too.

Anyway, for this week I think I'll make some...

• Beef Stew, Burgundy Style to use up two half bottles of red wine
  
• Baked Ziti to use up the opened jar of spaghetti sauce
  
• Texas Style Lasagna because I didn't get around to it last week

Make sure to drop by orgjunkie for more menu planning madness, and leave all the participants lots of bloggy love!

---

I have not one, not two, but three things I've done lately that is "making do" in my books. First of all, let me just say that I hate bar soap. It is a big concession for me to use bar soap. I don't like how it feels all slimy. I don't like how it slips out of my hand and goes flying into the sink all the time. I don't like the thought of touching it after someone else has touched it (though that one doesn't really bother me when it's at my house). I've somehow amassed quite a collection of barsoaps, ranging from a shimmery Christmas tree barsoap to barsoaps shaped like frogs to fancy schmancy barsoap that smelled of cinnamon apples. I've broked down and decided that we should use it up! *The crowd goes wild with cheering and applause; throws roses up on stage* Thank you, thank you very much! I'm pretty proud of myself too!

The next way I'm making do is by not buying gray paint when I needed it in the basement. Black paint? Check. White paint? You know that's a big fat check. I think every room in the house has furniture in it that's been spruced up with a fresh coat of white paint. Black + White= free gray paint. Mind you, the gray that I created didn't quite match the gray of the paneling, however it matched good enough for a basement!

Finally, I bring you the ugliest ceiling fan on the planet. I've been patiently putting up with this fugly fan for seven years and counting. I cringe every time I see it. It turns on all by itself (I'm not kidding) so either I have a ghost who is afraid of the dark or it's malfunctioning... (You may have noticed the picture is missing. That's because the ceiling fan is so ugly that my camera broke when I was photographing it. Either that or my house is so messy that I cannot find my camera, Ahem.)

---

Here’s a little something that I made last week: introducing the pretty-in-pink piggy bank! I got the idea over at Nosey Nest and thought they were so cute that I just had to make one for my son. Hopefully he won’t have a complex about the pink, but pigs are supposed to be pink, you know?! All I have left to do with this little piglet is place some velcro under the flap so that she will stay closed. Do you have some pink fabric and a free hour? If so, you should totally make this!


I think I'm so enamored with my piggy that I'm going to have to get one of these

Super Secondhand Saturday

I just love alliterations, don’t you? (okay, so I’m a grammar nerd…)

T-3 and I hit the big one this weekend. We went down to Victorian Village and spent all day at the community garage sales there. We didn’t even get to finish because they closed before we got all the way through. Actually, we didn’t even come close to finishing because not only did Victorian Village participate, but so did the Short North, Italian Village, and Harrison West.

We walked around for awhile and found some great stuff (more on that later), and then we went back to the car to grab our picnic lunch (we parked near Goodale Park). Hubby came and picked up the little one because he was severely slowing down our garage saling, plus I think it was just too hot for him. After some delicious egg salad sandwiches and tomato-cucumber-and-bean salad, we hit the streets once again. Our day finally concluded at about 3 pm. To say my feet hurt would be an understatement.

My favorite stop each year is the church. I wish I could be more specific but I don’t remember its name nor do I remember the street it’s on. They have the best stuff down in the basement for awesome prices (and it’s air conditioned, woot, woot!) This year I just bought baby clothes. All clothes were 3/ $1. I got seven pairs of 6-9 month baby pants and two 6-9 sweatshirts. I remember last year scoring some bunny Christmas cards (unused of course), and that’s what I sent out this past Christmas.

(Cue the techno music). Are you ready for this? Here’s what else I got:

• A sunburn, free of charge.
  
• Two small baby toys, also free of charge
  
• A very cool bluish-green necklace for 75c.
  
• A small metallic pendant for a nickel. Yes, you read that right, folks!
  
• A pair of sunglasses for yours truly, 50c
  
• A bread pan for a quarter, and a metallic soap dispenser for 50c. I found the soap dispenser in the bottom of a large box of crap. The lady didn't have any of it priced, and when I asked her how much it was, she said it was a couple bucks. What?! Are you insane, woman? Stuff from boxes o' crap should cost a quarter or something. T-3 said fifty cents and the lady agreed. (More on these items later).
  
• Some blue fabric with black polka dots for 50c
  
• A bag of kid tools, including a hammer, and also a toy circular saw for $1.25
  
• Yellow no-scratch mittens (we can’t have enough of these) for 50c
  
• A 12-month Christmas sleeper for 50c
  
• And drumroll please…. An upholstered rocking chair for a mere $20. Can I get a “hell yeah?!”

I have a strict Do-Not-Bring-Home-Any-Chairs-or-I’m-Going-to-Divorce-You policy. But when my husband came to pick up Joel, I was able to convince him that we needed this rocker. We do have one upstairs that my parents got me for my birthday. It’s an oak one from Amish country. But our house has three levels, so we need one per level, right? Hubby reluctantly agreed to purchase this rocker as long as I agreed to get rid of one chair around here. And he said it has to be of comparable size. I can’t get rid of a kitchen chair in order to keep the rocker. Ouch. I can’t stand to part with any of my chairs. Click here to read more about my love affair with all things sit-uponable.

Here are the photos of some of my finds.
The blue fabric is from yesterday. The pepper fabric is from a thrifting outing last week. I thought it would make a nice apron or something.

Here's my stash o' necklaces. The big blue one is the one I got yesterday.

As promised, more on why I bought this nasty loaf pan and this metallic soap dispenser. I've decided to make a kid stove and sink, and these two items are going to make the sink. I'll just jigsaw out the holes on the top of this small cabinet we already have and drop these bad boys in. What I'm really excited about is that the soap dispenser just might be able to actually have water flow out of it because there's the reservoir underneath. How cool will that be if Joel can actually pump water from the "spigot" into the sink?! Also pictured here are two tiny enamelware pieces I thrifted last week for the kiddie stove. I'm addicted to enamelware. Some day I'll have to show you the mounds of enamelware that I've amassed. But not today, because I still have not shown you ... drumroll please....

The Chair! Jason thinks it's ugly. He wants me to recover it to hide the current upholstery job, but quite frankly I love it as is! What do you guys think? Slipcover or floral print?

Egg Carton Scriptures

I opened my carton of Aldi eggs and found this:

Do you find this odd, or is it just me? I've been getting Aldi eggs for awhile now (68c per dozen, woot, woot!) but never noticed that they put a bible verse on the carton. I had another carton sitting around (craft project... more on that in a little bit), so I checked it, and sure enough, the same passage was on that one too, however it was smaller and located in a different spot. I feel like I'd opened a fortune cookie or something. How did my egg carton know that I had a crappy day at work? That I had my last day at work. That I cried and cried as I hugged everyone good-bye?

My egg carton reminded me to rejoice and to be glad. I know that when God closes a door, he opens a window. I just needed my egg carton to remind me, that's all. Thank you, egg carton, for putting things into perspective.

So how exactly does one properly thank an egg carton? By stuffing it full of dryer lint and hot wax and setting it on fire, of course!

Yes, that's right folks. After I came home from sob-fest, I got busy making some firestarters. No work = no income = how are we going to pay the expensive gas bills this winter? Really we won't be scraping it that close since hubby is still working, however I figured we could utilize the fireplace a little more this coming winter. We didn't use it a single time last winter.

Yes, I realize it's technically not even summer yet, however don't you remember the story about the bugs? You know the one. Bug #1 works all summer long gathering food and storing it away while Bug #2 screws around the whole time and then finds himself up a creek without a paddle when winter comes. You better believe that I am Bug #1, baby.

Here's some photos of my not-very-glamorous-yet-oh-so-practical frugal friday project.

Everything you need for this project. Paper towel tubes, TP tubes, and/or paper egg cartons, candle wax, and dryer lint.

"I'm Melting! I'm M. E. L. T. I. N. G. !"

How pretty do these toilet paper tubes look, all cozy in a basket?

The finished product. Three dozen firestarters. That's enough to last me over one month!

Repurposing Stuff from School

My personal items from my classroom are now completely boxed up and sitting here at home. I had accumulated a lot of stuff in the eight years I taught there. I brought home over ten boxes of stuff. I realized there are several things I can reuse or repurpose, such as

• index cards: use for my brother's birthday next month. I bought him different brands of bbq sauce (when it was on clearance), and to each bottle I am going to attach a recipe which uses bbq sauce. I think this will be a nice frugal gift because my brother and his girlfriend will be moving in together soon. Hopefully she'll cook and be able to use the bbq sauce.
  
• four different fabrics (three of them very large pieces that covered eight feet tall bulletin boards, and one was window treatments). Perhaps I'll make this tension rod puppet theatre
  
• dowel rod previously used to hang the window treatments- surely can be used for something
  
• small stickers- can be used on a chart to reward Joel for doing chores, etc. when he gets older. Originally I used these small stickers to mark flute keys so the students could remember where their fingers are supposed to go. I thrifted these years ago; I think these originally were a dime per package of 440 stickers. I bought twenty packs. You do the math. I have enough stickers to reward an entire daycare center.
  
• a small garage-sale four-drawer cabinet that I previously decoupaged with pieces of sheet music. I can sand the cabinet down to eliminate the sheet music, and then it will match the other cabinet that I kept at home and painted white. I can repaint the two matching cabinets and have my dad turn one into a kid stove and the other into a kid sink.
  
• wallpaper that I used to line a bulletin board- can be used for some craft project down the road
  
• Happy Birthday wrapping paper, laminated, used to line a birthday bulletin board. Since it's laminated, it can be taped together with clear tape and placed on the floor under Joel to keep the floor safe from pieces of falling smashed birthday cake. After his first birthday, it can be cut to fit the table and turned into a festive birthday tablecloth.
  
• Lots and lots of children's books that will now be Joel's.
  
• Wallpaper samples for crafting: first craft I'd like to do is cover large formula cans and turn them into pretty storage
  
• Various holiday wall-hangings. When I was little, I loved hanging up Halloween and Easter decorations in the windows and doors of our house. I have lots of stuff that I used in my classroom on bulletin boards that we can now use at home instead.
  
• an el cheapo $3 garage sale office chair. I found a tute that shows us how to recover a boring black office chair to add some pizzaz. Joel can use this chair when he's older.
  
• A thrifted Little Tikes basketball hoop used to play "band basketball" with my students. Now it will bring endless hours of entertainment to my own offspring.
  
• Broken up Crayons. I've been dying to make this project for the past week or two. There's now lots of people out there who have made these darling Crayon initial shadowboxes. I even thrifted a shadow box on Wed. for 90c just so I could make this project. It just needs a coat of paint and a back for the frame.
  
• Probably lots more that I can't think of right now!
  

The gray and blue fabrics would make nice skirts. The brown fabric has already been cut up and is being used in the growth chart.

Well what do you know...

I just found this stuffed animal bowling set like I'm working on. They're only asking forty five bucks. That's $7.50 per bowling pin. It takes me well over an hour to do each one, when you figure in hunting for just the right fabric, tracing and cutting paper templates, pinning, cutting, sewing, taking forever to get those ears turned right side out, stuffing, dropping rice everywhere, stopping to clean up spilled rice, and sewing the hole closed by hand. Let's say about an hour and a half. Here's the math.

Apparently, I'm going to spend about nine hours on this project. Probably more actually, but let's go with nine. When teaching private music lessons, I make twelve dollars a half hour (and for around here, that's cheap). If I were to charge twenty four dollars an hour to make these rabbit bowling pins, I would have to charge $216 for a set of six. And that doesn't even take into consideration the cost of the fabric and stuffing! Any takers? I didn't think so.

But it does make me feel good to know that I'm saving $45 since I do not need to buy the ready-made version. Hey, a penny saved is a penny earned!

The Spice Girls

If you could be a Spice Girl, what would your name be? I think I would be Baby Spice. Or maybe Crafting-for-Baby Spice. Breastfeeding Spice has a nice ring to it too, don't you think? Diaper-Changing Spice and Baby-Always-Spits-Up-on-Me-But-Never-on-Daddy Spice are also contenders.

Speaking of spices...


I've had this thrifted spice rack* and some milk glass spice jars that I've collected on various thrift outings. I recently washed them, removed their old labels, and began the hunt for new labels. I was thinking I'd buy some sticker labels at Office Max, until Tiffany over at songbirdtiff said some regular paper and mod podge works just dandy.

Paper? Check. Mod Podge? Check. Sweet, a no-cost project!

Our good buddy Stock-Trading-Scandal Spice** (aliases include Jailbird Spice or Kmart Spice) has a pdf file of some awesome blue and cream spice labels. She even leaves some blank so you can add your own spices; the only problem is that I could not figure out how to add text to the pdf file. Instead, I created a jpeg file which I will gladly share with y'all because I'm nice like that. (A small version is below; click on it to make it large).

Here you can see the font I've chosen.


Here I've squeezed more on one page in case you have way more spice jars than me. Don't want to waste paper, you know!


If you want to do this project like I did, you'll want to use Microsoft Picture it9 aka Digital Image Pro. Open up the file, click on the little "A" button (that's the font button), and a text box will appear. You can move, shrink, or enlarge the text box so that it's directly over the spice label. Add your text in any size and font that your little heart desires.

* I thought about naming this post, "I've Got a Great Rack" (a spice rack that is), however I thought that might be a little too risque for this blog. It would go along nice with Breastfeeding Spice though.

** Just kidding, Martha. You know you're my homegirl.

WIP Wascally Wabbits on Wednesday

These Bunny Bowling Pins are the bane of my existence. They are so adorable, and I just had to make them, however as it turns out, sewing them is a major pain in the you-know-what. I hate stuffing softies and sewing the last hole shut. My contempt for these little buggers is multiplied because you have to fill them with rice. More rice landed on the counter and floor than in the rabbit.

The ears also were a source of contention. I did the ears of each rabbit a little differently, trying to find just the right stuff. I don't have any fusible interfacing so I tried various things like silk organza, stiff tulle, and used dryer sheets. A double layer of stiff tulle (from the bridesmaid dress) was the winner. Speaking of the bridesmaid dress, the red bunny is made from its fabric.





Another WIP is this here zippered pouch. "Wasn't this selvedge project supposed to be a water bottle sling?" you ask. Yep, I changed my mind. I thrifted a whole bag of vintage zippers and thought I'd actually use one instead of just looking at them with fear. Zippers are quite scary. I have no idea how to sew them, as evidenced by the chop job I did on this little pouch. I'm too embarrassed to show you what it looks like underneath the lace. Let's just say the stitching looks straight. If you cross your eyes and have a hangover. BTW, the lining is... you guessed it, bridesmaid dress! It's the dress that keeps going and going and going...



Lastly, here's a little growth chart I'm making. I only have one measuring tape, so this project is on hold until I can get another one. I'd like to find a vintage one at a thrift store however I won't hold my breath. This project also requires me to applique. *Gulp* Wish me luck.