Make a Natural Looking Wooden Sandbox

A good tutorial with pictures. See here

DIY Ladder Bookshelves

Just one of a few ideas. See here. The shelves on the metal ladders would need to be secured. Perhaps some liquid nails would do the trick.

Image from link.

Make a Children's Sewing Kit Tutorial

Tutorial here.

She has got some more children's sewing freebies here. I like her animal sewing card downloads for preschoolers.

Image from tutorial.

Repeating Calendars

Calendars never really go out of date. Eventually the days repeat themselves, and you can use a vintage or antique calendar again. See which years can be used again for 2010 and 2011. I've found a few vintage public domain images of children's school(blackboard) calendars by month. I'll post them as the months come up, and any others that I find for the entire year.

Cut and Paste Printables

I've got a preschooler who will be enjoying these free cut and paste printables tomorrow.

 

Free Printable Tangram Patterns and Silhouette Cards

Invented by the Chinese and used to develop geometric thinking and spatial sense. 

Numerous free patterns here.

Painted Floor Progress

I'm making headway with the painted floors despite children and/or cats walking or almost walking across wet paint. I finished my son's bedroom and the formal living room. Now that some of the floors are done, it shows how badly the baseboards need painting. I'll work on this next.
I used Behr's One Part Epoxy Concrete Garage Floor Paint with a concrete primer on this concrete first floor living room floor. It turned out nicely and a large vintage wool Persian area rug($176 including shipping on ebay) with padding will go over top. I used 1.5 cans of paint for this 15 x 12(approximate) area, and half a can of concrete primer. The hubby took out the carpet and used a hand sander to smooth the floor.

Vintage Children's Character Education Resources

We are to be fulfilled and satisfied in the abundance of Christ's life, putting our love and trust in God above all else, neither material nor person coming before God.

Most of these resources deal with greed and the consequences of greed in one form or another. All are in public domain and are downloadable and printable:

The Punishment of Greed from the Chinese Fairy Book, 1921.

Proverbs By John H. Bechtel, 1910

Which is Best?, The Wonder Clock by Howard Pyle, Katharine Pyle, 1887.

Greed in Marlowe's Tragedies, English Literature by Alphonso Gerald Newcomer, 1905.

Decline of the Republic, A History of the Ancient World, by George Stephen Goodspeed, 1912.

Service, Junior High School Literature by William Harris Elson, Christine M. Keck, 1920.

The Son of Columbus, Great Men's Sons by Elbridge Streeter Brooks, 1895.

The Last Voyages of Christopher Columbus, Harper's Fourth Reader, 1888.

Malchus the Monk, The Book of Saints and Heroes, by Andrew Lang.

The Wolf and the Crane,  The Folk-lore Readers, by Eulalie Osgood Grover, Margaret Ely Webb, 1914.

The Lion's Share, The Story Hour Readers, 1920

The Magic Well, The American School Readers, 1911

The Greedy Geese, Good Stories for Great Holidays, 1914

More later.....

DIY Pallet Furniture

Made from free pallets. See more here.

Source

Care of Painted Floors

The Housekeeper's Handbook of Cleaning
Harper's Home Economics
Author Sarah Josephine MacLeod
Publisher Harper & Brothers, 1918

Some vintage advice for the care of painted floors:

Floors and  Floor Coverings

"Fortunately the day of nailed-down carpets is almost gone. The sooner all carpets are replaced by rugs the better. Carpets which cover the entire floor hold dust and are hard to clean. Rugs take as much dust for the surface they cover, but the surface is not so great, and they are cleaned much more easily.

Even though a floor is of soft wood, the cracks can be filled and three or four coats of good paint applied. If this surface is covered with one large rug, or with several smaller ones placed where there is the most traffic, the finish will last well. Painted soft-wood floors are not as desirable as hard-wood floors, but they are preferable to carpeted floors.

Painted floors.—To keep these in good condition they should be swept with a soft-hair brush and dusted with a dry mop or duster. Occasionally they may be washed with a slightly moistened cloth."

Painted Concrete Floors

I'm thinking we might paint the concrete floors downstairs instead of renting a grinder for polished concrete floors. The grinder is inexpensive, but paint is even less. Look how nicely Sandy's turned out:

 


She has got a beautiful blog. Go check it out, Paint Me White.

How to Make Sour Cream From Plain Yogurt

Easy!  You take plain yogurt(no additives), drain off the liquid(whey), add some lemon, and refrigerate for two hours. See here for detailed recipe.

This tutorial mentions the use of a fine mesh kitchen sieve to drain the yogurt, but cheese cloth or a strong paper towel over a colander works well too. I use the colander/paper towel combination over a large bowl to drain the yogurt. Instead of discarding the drainage(whey), save it for baking and cooking. I use whey in homemade bread.

For something extra, save a portion of the drained yogurt; skip the lemon, drain overnight, and you'll have creamy cheese!

Image for wikipedia.

Common Ingredient Substitutions When You Run Short

Helpful list here, at Allrecipes.com.

Substituting apple sauce or yogurt for oil/butter in baking recipes is one of my favorite diet secrets. I also use this substitution in my homemade salad dressing; instead of oil, I use yogurt. Just one tablespoon of my canola oil is 120 calories! One cup of plain whole milk yogurt is only 130 calories.

Extending the Table Cookbook

I finally ordered this cookbook, Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook, which was written in the spirit of the More-With-Less Cookbook (World Community Cookbook), one of my favorites. The recipes are diverse simple nutritious meals from around the world, the international version of the Hillbilly Housewife's low cost made from scratch recipes. Many of the meals are similar to what I already cook, but the book gave me so many ideas for diversifying them. I'll be sharing some of these recipes soon, as I make them.

I got the cookbook free with Amazon gift certificates via Swagbucks.

Tonight's Menu: Lemon Lentils Recipe with Kale, Cumin and Turmeric

Recipe here. 

Image from link.

Update: This was so good, and even better as a leftover! I added some curry,  pepper flakes, seasoned salt, and a little homemade syrup  for extra taste. My husband wanted some meat, so it also had about a cup of shredded chicken. A little lemon juice would have been tasty as well.

What's for Dinner: Senegalese Black-eyed Pea Fritters and Senegalese Lemon Chicken

The World Cup coverage has inspired me to explore African recipes, especially the countries whose cuisine had been influenced by many different cultures. I really like the multitude of spices used in North African recipes. I'm trying this recipe for bean fritters tomorrow night, but I haven't decided on an accompaniment. Maybe Poulet Yassa(Senegalese chicken with onions and lemon).

My taste buds have been happy with all the variety. I must also try some spicy Moroccan recipes soon.

Tutorial: Iron-on Decals from Plastic Shopping Bags

Click here. So Clever!
Image from tutorial.

DIY Low Cost Floors

Thinking about converting carpet to something low cost, allergy friendly, and green - polished concrete floors. More in about two weeks.

A few helpful links for DIY polished concrete floors:

How to Polish a Concrete Floor 

DIY Polished Concrete Floors

 Floor Grinder Rental with Diamond Pads

Pink Potato Casserole

Boil potatoes, a rutabaga or two, and a beet until soft. In a casserole dish, mash together all with sour cream, butter, and seasonings. Top with sauteed  onion ringlets and Parmesan cheese. Pour a little evaporated milk across top and pop into the oven for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Use leftover pink boiling water for pink homemade bread, or for other baking recipes.

What's for Dinner: West African Jollof Rice

"Jollof Rice, also called 'Benachin' meaning one pot in the Wolof language, is a popular dish all over West Africa. It is thought to have originated from Gambia but has since spread to the whole of West Africa, especially amongst members of the Wolof ethnic group.

There are many variations of Jollof rice. The most common basic ingredients are: rice, tomatoes and tomato paste, onion, salt, and red pepper. Beyond that, nearly any kind of meat, vegetable, or spice can be added." ~ Wikipedia

Image from BBC Good Food.

I use a recipe close to this one. Tonight I used what I had on hand for the base vegetables: collard greens and beets. I have packs of pre-made rice and shredded chicken ready in the freezer, so this is a quick meal for us.

Iced Mint Tea Concentrate from the Garden

Take a two quart bottle and fill half the bottle with clean mint leaves. Add one cup of sugar and fill with boiling water. Let it sit for a few hours, or overnight in the refrigerator once it cools down. This is very refreshing on a hot day. Add a little fresh lemon, if desired, and serve over lots of ice.

Recipe from: More-With-Less Cookbook

If you find this too strong, use a bit to flavor some regular ice tea, or even better, use some as a complement to green tea. Green tea and mint really complement one and other.

If it seems strong at first, it will mellow. I filled my two quart bottle up all the way with leaves, and it was so strong it unpalatable until the next day.

What's for Dinner? Ethiopian Split Peas and Rice

Easy Peasy Kik Alicha

You can increase the volume of spices as you like; this recipe is not very spicy:


* 3 cups water
* 1 cup yellow split peas
* 2-3 Tbsp chopped onion (this amount varies depending on how spicy you want it)
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1/2 tsp ground ginger
* 1/2 tsp turmeric
* 1 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil


1. Cook water and split peas together for about 30 minutes in a pot. While you are cooking the water/split peas, cut up the onions and garlic.
2. Heat up oil in a small skillet, and add onions, garlic, ginger, and turmeric. Brown these ingredients.
3. Once you’ve cooked the split peas for about 30 minutes, the split peas should have soaked up most or all of the water. Add the oil/spice mixture to the pot and cook for another 30 minutes, stirring often. I had to add a bit more water to this mixture, but that depends on how hot you cook the mixture. The mixture will be a lumpy consistency (like lumpy mashed potatoes or mushy baked beans).
4. Serve with rice, with injera (Ethiopian “bread”), or eat it plain


Makes 2-4 servings

I added Adobo seasoning and pepper for stronger seasoning, an entire onion, and a heaping spoon of minced garlic(jar). Delicious meal, although it looks a little unappealing. My son said it looked like baby food. I used green split peas instead of yellow.


Split peas:

Carbohydrates 60 g
Sugars 8 g
Dietary fibre 26 g
Fat 1 g
Protein 25 g
Thiamine (Vit. B1) 0.7 mg (54%)
Pantothenic acid (B5) 1.7 mg (34%)
Folate (Vit. B9) 274 μg (69%)
Iron 4 mg (32%)

Garden is Coming Along

Our tiny kitchen garden/jungle in a sunny corner is doing well this year. It's full of squash, carrots, onions, Roma tomatoes, and various herbs, including fragrant lavender. In between grows wild flowers and day lilies. All were grown from seeds, so it's been inexpensive to grow.

I threaded a soaker hose purchased at Dollar General through the plants when they were small, but I have not had to use it much. We've had a enough rain to keep the garden from wilting. It's also helped that plants are packed together; they are creating their own ground shade which in turn blocks weeds and preserves ground moisture.  I do have to step in periodically to trim back the edges of overlapping plants. This is especially needed with the quick growing mints and sage that can crowd out other plants such as the delicate carrot.

List of beneficial companion plants

Homeschool Elementary Freebies: Printable Flag Day Stories

Vintage Flag Day stories(1914) for elementary school students. Betsy Ross(pages 137-138)  and The Star Spangled Banner(Pages 138-141).

In order to print pages, right click on images of pages at link. Entire book can be downloaded as well.

A book of the flag, The Little Book of the Flag By Eva March Tappan, 1917.

Free vintage clip art and more about Flag Day here.

Hands-on Homeschool Mathematics: Learning Mathematics in the Garden

Primary Arithmetic and the School Garden

By Harriet L. Peet, State Normal School, Salem, Mass.

A school garden offers rich opportunities for primary arithmetic work. The laying out of a garden calls for work with perimeters, and division of beds into rows and rows into spaces for single plants. The preparation and planting necessitates many simple calculations as to quantity of seed to be purchased and time for planting; and the gathering, valuing, and disposing of crops requires measuring and some little work with accounts. Read more here.

pages 350 - 351.

50 Healthy Foods for Under $1 a Pound

Read here.

Fun at the Beach

A lovely restored building along the boardwalk, built in 1881.

A climb to the top of Lucy the Elephant(1882), and more climbing up a WWII lookout tower and light house(1859) at the Cape May Point State Park.

We meet up with family who traveled south to meet us on the beach Sunday.

Fountain light show at the pier shopping center.


Next year, maybe we'll get to Amish country, or Philadelphia during the slow season.

Quick Meals with Frozen Basic Ingredients

Not a new idea to those who make freezer meals, but I've been freezing my rice, beans, and chicken(and other meats) for convenience. Staple ingredients are simple to make and freeze with very little effort. I tend to make stock from leftover vegetable water, and bits and pieces of leftover vegetables. Celery tops are excellent for stock. I freeze it in large plastic containers until I get about twelve cups. Then next time I make rice for a meal, I make a huge pot, cooking six cups of dry rice in a stock pot with the vegetable water. This makes 18 cups of cooked rice, about eleven packets of rice to freeze. I cook beans in mass too, cooking an entire bag instead of just what I need for the meal, then the individual packs get popped in the freezer. If a chicken meal is planned, I cooked the entire ten pound bag of leg quarters in the stock pot. The meat comes off the bone easily, and gets packaged and frozen along with the chicken stock.  

To keep things inexpensive, I use plastic wrap rather than freezer bags. Inexpensive small reusable plastic containers might be good as well; I need to switch to this in the near future. I use recycled plastic food containers for liquids; however, they tend to crack after the third freeze.

All this cooking and freezing saves me about two to three weeks of cooking. All I have to do is re-heat when I plan meals with these staples.

Tonight I made a super quick meal with my frozen ingredients. Heat together two packets of black beans(about 2 cups), a packet of shredded chicken(about 1 cup), 1/3 a can of cream of mushroom soup, and a pre-seasoned(spicy) can of Margaret Holmes Triple Succotash(.79 cents). Serve over a packet of rice(about 1.5 cups). Inexpensively feeds three people. Big taste!

Vintage Scarf Pillows

This idea has been kicking around in design circles for some time now, and I am warming up to the idea of making my own vintage scarf pillows. I thought about trying this after seeing a bin of beautiful vintage scarves at a thrift last week. These pillows would blend especially well with the modern neutral home design themes. They could be switched out seasonally according to color and pattern for a fresh look.

I was thinking that the scarves could be sewn to the fronts of existing pillows to save time and effort. This would be super thrifty if you could find secondhand pillows in good shape(clean them in bleach water) at a yard sale or thrift.

See this post for tutorials.

HT to Allyson for image.

Nature Studies at a Municipal Nature Reserve

This spring weather is perfect for getting out. Our summers are just too hot for hiking. Yesterday, we spent a few hours at a 465 acre nature reserve park with trails, wetlands, and a big lake.We saw so many Fowler's toads along one of the foot paths, we had to keep stopping to avoid stepping on them. We were able to identify a good number of wild flowers, forest and aquatic plants, birds, insects, and even fish. The butterflies and dragon flies were active and plentiful. We saw snowy egrets fishing in the wetland, and a few ospreys flying overhead.


After a very long walk(we got a bit lost), we rented a paddle boat for an hour. The park is free admittance; the boats are $4.00 an hour, and well worth it. Next week we'll be going to another municipal park with trails. These places are wonderful for bringing along your nature study books for field study. A little notebook for drawings of what you see is an enjoyable activity for younger children. My preschooler asks me to draw the animals we see when we get home. I label the pictures, and she gets the added benefit of vocabulary building and word recognition.

Rod & Staff has a number of nature books for coloring with realistic pictures. Their older science books concentrate on nature studies and are appropriate for late elementary school students(5th and 6th grades). We've used these over the years, and it has helped the children know and appreciate the natural world around us.

Simple DIY Bird Bath/Feeder

Elizabeth made this simple naturalistic feeder and bird bath recently. See here for instructions. I would make this in a minute if it weren't for so many squirrels in my backyard.

Worked on Some Embellished Tees This Evening

Handsewn flowers and buttons on one of my sleeveless white T-shirts. The tan tee was too low, so I added a little valance and a clip-on $2.00 flower. Actually, I still need to sew this one.



The fabric were very inexpensive, found in remnant bins. See this post for tutorials.

A few more tees I'd like to work on, maybe with ribbons as well as fabric flowers.

Embellishing Plain T-Shirts AKA: CorsageTee

Ahhh, just what I was looking for to liven up two of my tired white T-shirts! I'll go a bit less and angle it onto the corner of my larger T-shirt. No ribbons for me(too chubby). Tutorial here.

I might try an easier carnation as well.

Here is a very simple tutorial for floral cascades off the shoulder.

Another good tutorial...she flowered quite a few of her T-shirts using pin backs, and they turned out so professional looking, yet they were very simple to make.

Ribbons and heart flowers.

Another good tutorial(easy, easy), a sewing party with four sisters. Cute post. 

Jersey knit fabric is a good non-fraying choice for permanent flowers. They will wash well.

Make a Pantyhose Rose

Made from pantyhose and wire! I'd like to make one of these for my niece.

Vintage Children's Topographical Map of North and South Amercia

From a children's turn of the 20th century geography book found in public domain at Google Books. Click to enlarge and save. Charming and colorful, this map is helpful in showing the shared mountain ranges and major rivers.

Chicken Chili Recipe

The other night I tried Tammy's chili recipe, but used shredded chicken instead of ground beef, diced celery instead of green pepper, leftover black beans instead of kidney beans, and half a jar of leftover spaghetti sauce(organic from Big Lots!) instead of tomato sauce. I ended up adding too much brown sugar(I should really make it a habit to measure), but it was really good, regardless.

I served this over hot white rice - delicious! I added a little hot sauce to mine and the hubby's, while the kiddos liked the less spicy version. I'll definitely make this again.

Round Loaf Cinnamon Bread Recipe

This is a partially self created recipe(base recipe from More-With-Less Cookbook on my sidebar), so measurements are approximate. You can shape this bread any way that you like. I rolled them into small balls, and pushed them flat. Half way through, I took the last of the dough and make one big giant roll, baking it in a large cast iron pan. They turned out very well; the small ones were just perfect for little hands.

Dissolve:

2 packages of dry yeast in
1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp sugar

Combine in large mixing bowl:

1.5 cups of sugar
1/8 cup cinnamon(2 Tbsp)  I didn't measure, so this is a guess. Make each tablespoon a little under and that should get you there. Try 1.5 tablespoons, and give it a taste test. Adjust to taste.
1/4 cup oil
3 c. warm water
yeast mixture

Add about six cups flour gradually to the bowl, stirring thoroughly. Add more if too sticky, a little at a time. Knead until elastic, about 5-7 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turn over once, cover and place in a warm place to rise for 1/2 hour. Punch down, knead a little, and let rise again in bowl until doubled in size.

Pull apart and shape into balls, flatten a little, and bake at 325 for about 20 minutes. Half way through baking, butter the top and drizzle honey and a sprinkle of cinnamon, if desired. Slather it together with your fingers, distributing it over the top and sides. Check bottoms of bread at 15 minutes to make sure they are not burning. Use middle oven shelf. They are done when the bottoms are golden brown, and/or they sound hollow when you knock the bottom.  Smaller loaves will cook more quickly.

Freeze what you don't eat because homemade bread does not have preservatives like store bread. When you are ready to eat, just pop them in a warm oven with a little butter on top. So good!

Recipe made about eleven small rolls, and one big round one.

Old Time Radio Broadcasts, Homeschool Audio Learning

There is an interesting war-time biography on Hitler(free) at the OTR widget on my sidebar today.  More vintage educational history broadcasts here with samples. Freebies here, although not always of the educational variety.

Listener's favorites:
01. Churchill (Winston) Recordings
02. Mr President
03. AFVN Recordings (Armed Forces Vietnam)
04. Blitzkrieg
05. Complete Broadcast 1944 (D-Day Invasion of Normandy CBS)
06. World War II Collection
07. Great Moments in Radio
08. FDR Fireside Chats & Speeches
09. Complete Broadcast 1939 (Nazi Invasion of Poland)

Of interest:
Science Magazine of the Air
"Leonardo di Vinci is considered the Renaissance man. From being the first man to come up with the concept of the helicopter to being able to leap over a man that was standing straight upward, Leo was very gifted. Only if good old Leo could be in this time period, in order so he could hear the story of his life immortalized on the radio in Science Magazine of the Air. A show during wartime for serviceman, Science Magazine of the Air told the stories of extraordinary human beings that accomplished extraordinary things."

Frontier Fighters
"From Robert La Salle's navigation of the Mississippi River, to Lewis and Clark's dauntless challenge of reaching the West Coast of North America, Frontier Fighters takes you on a historical voyage that pits you in the middle of the taming of the West. So, if it you're following John C. Fremont on his legendary "Oregon trail" or helping Zebulon Pike verify the true source of the mighty Mississippi river, Frontier Fighters will transport you to a time where American history is unfolding before your very own ears!"

Their prices have remained low over the years, many are no more than $5.00 per MP3 CD collection. Shipping has always been fast. I'm a customer and an affiliate.

Some vintage radio shows can also be found free and in public domain at Internet Archives, and other places across the net.