Showing posts with label repair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label repair. Show all posts

Crafts, Repairs, and Cooking

I knocked out some small repair jobs on holey pants, but finally broke down and bought a set of 5 new black pants for the twins.  I think 4/5 of their pairs had holes, and they were all pretty small.  But we gave away the repaired ones for the 'free box' at the love clothing center.  Hopefully they will be good laundry day, or outside pants for some little girls!



William's pants needed a second round of repairs.  So, over the break I went through his closet in search of pants that had hung there for a while.


Alice wanted to help coat the fried chicken one night.  It took a lot of time, but everyone really liked dinner that night!

At Grace and Juliet's school, students could bring in a cardboard 'setting' from a book that they enjoyed.  Grace decided to make the log cabin from Little House on the Prairie using the dishwasher box.

It was tall enough for her to stand in, almost.

My favorite jeans were wearing where my purse rubs against them, so I needed some jean material for a large patch job.  Just after my mom found some pre-cut jeans in a free box, I had time at my mom's meeting to make a good start on it!   That was the boost I needed, so I was able to finish it a few days later.  Sadly, they are currently back out of commission, as they ripped on the knee, in between two previous repair jobs!


I was able to make some sweet and sour meatballs (turkey) to bring to a friend and her family, while she recovered from eye surgery!  I included some fresh rice and delivered it hot.  I also froze a beef stew for a later dinner.

Today Alice called me from school, because her sandals (that she got for Christmas) broke!  = (  I brought her some shoes, and repaired the broken one as best I could.  We're going to let it sit overnight to cure.


In addition to delivering shoes to Alice, I brought a water bottle to Grace, and a Saxophone, straight from the repair shop, to Emily!  So, I visited all the schools today! = 0

Hoping for a less exciting day tomorrow!

later days

Cooking and Crafting, Crafting and Cooking

The crossbody bag I gave to Emily was no longer working for her, so I had my mom pull one that I'd purchased for later from Sarah's basement.  Once Grace saw it, she wanted one too.  So, when I found one in the clearance room of one of my favorite thrift stores, it was an easy dollar to spend.  

However, when I got home, I saw why it was in the clearance area, as it was fraying along the connection between the strap and purse.  With my sewing machine, it took me less than a minute to reinforce, and she didn't even notice until I pointed it out to her!


I broke out my vinyl cutter to add a personalized decal to my mom's free find for my cousin Acea.

I had to repair another rip on my favorite jeans.  And sadly, it's currently back in my repair pile, but I'm going to need a large donation piece from some ripped jeans to repair along the side that my purse rubs up against, as there are many small holes as well as thin spots.  Luckily, rummage sales are starting to surface!

This year, so far, the rule has been, that if you have a snow day, you get to plan a meal to cook!  Emily chose a thai dish to make, and it was liked enough by everyone that I made it again a few weeks later!



But, we don't eat fancy every night, lest you be deceived, spaghettio night gets 'dressed up' with a basil leaf, but they are still spaghettios.

Alice and Emily's eye appointment was pushed back from December, thanks to our changing insurance, to January.  While we were there, I was telling them about an impactful meme that I'd seen.  Pretty much that the internet was a 'place' we would go, while on a pc or laptop, but then we would turn it off and go do something else.  It wasn't always avialable in our hands.  

Anyhow, the same article mentioned the quizzes we'd take then, and so I was telling them about how we would take and make all sorts of dumb quizzes.  The example I gave was "what kind of toast are you?"  So, we spent the rest of our visit taking quizzes for each other to figure out what type of toast we are.  Turns out I'm condensed milk toast.  

Well, I'd never heard of such a thing, so at home, I looked up a recipe for said toast, and made some.  I can now say that it's not bad.  It's not my new favorite, and I'd rather just eat the straight milk, but not inedible.

A second repair on William's pants.  Sadly, this embroidery floss was cut into tiny strips, big enough for only a single stitch per needle threading, so it was slow going!  But, I've started bringing my mending to my weekly mom's meetings, and so it's really pleasant to chat and repair simultaneously!  = )

Grace checked out a cookbook, and really, desperately wanted to make the cupcake recipe.  I was in and out of the kitchen, but she did it almost entirely by herself!


Her biggest issue was that she didn't know that there was a difference between sugar and powdered sugar, so her icing was kind of crunchy.  Aside from that, they came out really tasty. = )

William's snow day recipe called for a rotisserie chicken.  Sadly, my Kroger delivery did not contain said chicken, so I ran by Carl's on my way to collect the twins after school, and they had one single one left!!!

So, William was able to make the pizza for dinner afterall!

I still have two, very productive, Basil plants producing copious amounts of basil on my counter, so I've been drying it and bottling it up.  Well, we didn't use much of the fresh cilantro that we bought for last week's snow day meal, so I looked up to see if I could dry it in the microwave, the same way as the basil, and I can!!!

I didn't get through it all, because cilantro leaves are much smaller than Basil, so it's far more tedious, but I'll try to dry a few platefuls a day, so as not to waste it!


If luck holds, we'll have another snow day Thursday, with a new child made meal! ; )

later days 

Food and Crafts

I bought some pho noodles at Aldi a while ago, and thought it high time to use them, after reading about all the takeaway meals Strike and Robin eat in the Robert Gailbraith books that I'm rereading.  I found a noodle casserole recipe, which I doubled for our family.  Unexpectedly, it made so much that it wouldn't all fit into my largest baking dish!  So, I separated it into two portions, and froze the second one (with toppings in a container on top.)



I forgot to take a picture after cooking it up, but it was well received, and now we have a second round ready to go!

Emily's swimsuit bow detached from her skirt cover, and she gave it to me to repair.  This wasn't unusual in and of itself, but she gave it to me wet. children, lol. I got it reattached, then hung it so that it could dry before her final day of swim camp.

My previously repaired skirt had a few new holes that needed attention.  I added a new color, for the new repairs.  If this skirt continues at this rate, I'll have a whole new skirt made out of embroidered scraps!

During our camping trip, my previously repaired jeans ripped in a new spot just above the old repair.  So, I used another round of Sashiko on the new and old holes.  It seemed to be nice and stable on my trip to Oklahoma.

According to their supply list, the twins need some earbuds.  Since earbuds are super similar and tangle so easily, I thought I would try my hand at improving a few pairs that we had in the basement by wrapping them with embroidery thread.  I watched a quick tutorial, and then spent hours wrapping their cords, but they came out too cute!  They don't tangle nearly as easily, and they will be easy to pick out! = )

We seemed to go through a period of uneaten bananas, and I saw a video of someone using puff pastry with Nutella and wrapping up a slice of banana.  I didn't have puff pastry, but I did have some crescent rolls that needed to be used!  They were a big hit. = )

Another viral food video going around was a Brazilian limeade. Emily followed the instructions, and we ended up with an entire pitcher of it!

I thought it was pretty tasty, but it's not something I'd go out of my way to make sure we keep on hand all summer.  I'm really glad she made it though!


I found some cute containers at a rummage sale, so I upgraded my potato and rice flour into their new homes.


Emily made a travel bag for Abby for her birthday.  It came out pretty cute.


Grace found two halves of m&ms in her box and combine them into a whole!


Internet videos have seen us in the kitchen quite often this summer!  Emily found a video on how to combine yoghurt and honey, drip it onto parchment paper and freeze it to make a dippin dots-like treat. 


I didn't try it, but she was unimpressed.


I found an oatmeal cookie recipe to use up some of the old packets of oatmeal that were not being eaten by anyone.  I made two variations: oatmeal raisin & oatmeal chocolate chip.  Everyone gave positive reviews, depending on their preference.  I'm pretty sure only Billy was eating on the oatmeal raisin batch. = )


I attempted to make some cute little spaghetti nests, but possibly went too heavy handed on the sauce, because they did not crisp up like the pictures showed.  I didn't have any, but the ladies at my mom's meeting said they were really good, served with fresh basil and hot dog bun garlic bread!


Juliet and Emily went through an uncrustable phase, where they were eating one each day!  Unsure of whether or not we would use it past that week, I didn't want to spend the $7 on Amazon (and contribute to the production of more plastic goods) so I researched how to make them without a mold. It was not simple, so I never acted upon it. 

But, when I saw a 79 cent apple shaped sandwich press at the thrift store, I snatched it up!  Emily helped me keep them in stock, and now we have a small stash in the freezer.


We've been putting them in used bread bags that I tie off and cut, so that they can throw it away just like the store-bought ones if they pack them for school*. = )

Aldi's price isn't bad (less than a dollar per sandwich) but ours are much cheaper!


Kristy was cleaning out her eggs before their camping trip and gave me 8 dozen!  This in addition to the ones that I already had, made for a very full fridge!!!  I tried to pass along some of the gift, but had no takers.  


So, I cooked with them!

Yorkshire puddings, 


to go with some of the leftover steak that I'd made earlier in the week!  I made three meals out of it!  So good.


Devilled eggs, of course!


Egg noodles,


for a tuna noodle casserole.  I think everyone, except for William, genuinely likes this meal.


Billy's been fighting his 3D printer, first to conduct an experiment,


then to make cute little figures for Grace and Juliet.


William's roblox figure didn't come out quite as well as the girls' but he likes his blox.


He played with printing multiple badges for the robotics team to pass out next year, but his machine wasn't playing nice.  So far, I have two, which is not really enough to pass out. 


As much work as it is, I don't blame him for not wanting to fight it in his free time.  Maybe he'll try again next week with some gentle prompting from yours truly. lol.

Considering I feel like I've been home sparsely this summer, we seem to have completed quite a few projects this summer!  (Though some of these were before the school year ended.)

later days

*Emily is super conscientious though, and will unknot them so that we can get one more use out of the already reused bag. = )