Tattoo Crafts

The kids love using temporary tattoos in their art, I keep some in the art cupboard for them to use at their leisure, they usually use them in lieu of stickers, just on paper, which is fine by me, because they are cheaper than stickers, and I never find them stuck to things they shouldn't be! Lately we've been expanding out and trying new things, I wanted to share with you a few of those things!

 We made Christmas bulbs, these are just plastic, clear bulbs we had left over from Christmas time, they were very simple to make, just apply the tattoos as you normally would, peel the plastic off, place where you want it to go, and use a damp cloth to press it on, and done! That was really it, I'm excited to do these again with Christmas themed tattoos. We had plastic bulbs, but I'm sure this would work on the glass ones too.

 

Next we made some bookmarks, we made two kinds, some on wooden popsicle sticks (these are shaped ones from Hobby Lobby) Again, we applied these just like you would any tattoo. As you can see some of them spilled over the sides, you can use your finger to press them over the side.

 











The other kind we made were out of clear plastic, this was from the packaging of something, I'm not entirely sure, but I put it back "just in case" and I'm glad I did! The kids made several bookmarks from it, I just cut it down into rectangles, and they applied the tattoos like normal, here's one that was made for Miss Amanda.

Here it is in use: 

Lastly, we made water bottles, these required a little more work, I applied a sealer after we put the tattoos on. Just about any non-toxic, waterproof sealer or clear coat will work, just hand wash, and you have a cute bottle! I have been using the glass one for a little over a week now, and haven't had any issues with them coming off! We did a metal and a glass bottle, the glass one is from some tea that I bought, trust me, the bottle was better than the tea!

There you have it! Several things we made with tattoos! The possibilities are endless. These are just cheap ones from the Dollar Tree, so really cheap and easy crafts and gifts. This would be great if you had name tattoos you could personalize water bottles and lunch boxes! 

Orange Vinegar

I prefer to use natural cleaning supplies, and primarily make my own. One of my favorites is orange infused vinegar. I finished making my third batch yesterday! It lasts quite a while, and it an amazing cleaner. It's very simple to do. 

Simply take a large jar (I use a large pickle jar) and toss in all of the citrus peelings that you use. All of the orange peels in mine took only about a week to accumulate, so if you eat less citrus than we do, you could toss it in a baggie in the freezer until you're ready to make it, but if you eat an average of three oranges a day like we do, then just toss them in the jar as you go along. Cover the peels in plain, white vinegar. Allow it to sit for about a week. Mine actually sat for about two this time, and it's fine! 

See all that dust? We're remodeling our kitchen

When you're ready just strain it and then pour it into spray bottles, diluted about half with water. I was able to get two spray bottles, plus about half a vinegar container of undiluted orange vinegar to refill my bottles later,  out of this batch. 

To one of the bottles I added about ten drops of tea tree oil to make it a disinfectant. The other I left plain, I hate the smell of tea tree oil, even though it's awesome. It's a wonderful all purpose cleaner, and easy to make. Plus, you can feel good about knowing what you are exposing your family to, can you say the same for that bottle of Lysol?

Homemade Toothpaste

You know that old illustration about watching what you say because once the words are out you can't put them back? They normally use a tube of toothpaste to illustrate this, squeezing it all out and then saying "now put it back in...you can't" Well, I am here to disprove that. We're going to fill it back up, and not only that but put something BETTER in it! I am going to show you how to make homemade toothpaste using two, or three ingredients that you should have on hand, and then how to put it back into an old toothpaste tube.

Conventional toothpaste is full of yucky things and colorings, blech. I prefer a more natural method to all of my cleaning and personal care, so I went in search of a way to DIY a better toothpaste I found lots of choices, but all of them had things I didn't have on hand. I found a few ideas of just using baking soda or just using coconut oil, or using both. So, that's what I did. You can use essential oils, but I know that a lot of people don't have those on hand, so I tried some with ginger because most people have it, and it's super good for you, especially during cold and flu season.

Ingredients:

• 3 Tablespoons Baking Soda
• 3 Tablespoons Coconut oil
• Pinch of ground ginger (optional) 

Use a hand mixer to whip the coconut oil for a few minutes until it looks about like this: 

Then mix in your baking soda and ginger or other flavorings. You could be done at this point, and just store it in a jar, or you could grab an empty toothpaste tube and a syringe. 

Run hot water through your tube several times (a slow stream is easier than turning it on all the way) fill, squeeze out, repeat until the water runs clear. Let dry, and then use a syringe to suck up the toothpaste and squirt it into the tube. 

It is tedious, and took about five minutes, but I think it's worth it, especially for space saving, and it's an easier transition, when you are so used to grabbing that tube every day. 

That's really it! This got me about half a tube. I've been using it for a while now, but just got around to posting this!

Some tips and ideas:

• Before filling the tube blow on it to open it up more. 
• Use one of those slider things (pictured above) to help get the rest of the old paste out, and then to get the new paste all bunched together.
• You can use about any flavoring, some good ones would be
• Cinnamon
• Orange peel (dried/ground)
• Sweet Orange Essential oil
• Peppermint Essential oil
• Whipping the coconut oil should prevent it from getting hard, but if it does, just run the tube under some hot water, and it should loosen up a bit!

Organizing the playroom!

All of my daycare kids are older now, I don't have any babies, or any that are still in the "eat everything" stage, so I decided it was time to grow the playroom up a tad, give them more work space  and options to be independent. I'm not going to show everything I did, because most if it is rather boring, but I will show you a few tips that I think were rather clever.

First, use the walls! I first did this out of necessity when some of my now "big kids" were still babies, and everything was a choking hazard. I put some hooks in the wall and put the bins from this storage unit. It wasn't working for us because 1.) the choking hazard, and 2.) every time I turned around the kids had every single bin dumped out on the floor! So, I hung them up. I was looking to do this with some of the toys that we didn't really have a place for, but I'm cheap, so I wasn't looking to spend a lot of money, when I had the idea to buy some of the little fabric bins they have right now at Wal-Mart $1.97. You can't beat that price! I bought four of those, and two packs of hooks for $.97/3 so I spent less than ten dollars on all this storage (and it looks prettier than the plastic bins too!

I used hooks that are intended for supporting curtain rods because they are cheaper  and they stick out from the wall a bit more than the other hooks I looked at. 

The hooks I used.

The next thing I would like to share with you is the new puzzle system I started. I don't know about your kids, but we have a serious issue in just dumping the puzzles out and not putting them back, or two kids playing with puzzles and not putting the right pieces in the right boxes. So, the obvious solution was to move them out of reach so they had to ask for them, but then they forgot all about them, and I think puzzles are something they should do fairly often. So, numbered each puzzle board/box, and took the pieces out and put them in a ziplock baggie or recycled jar. I put the pieces themselves up high, but left down the boards and boxes so that they can pick what they want and then come "check out" the pieces from me.

This is puzzle number "9" so if they bring me this I will for the bag that corresponds  I also put # of pieces as well as a short description of the puzzle just to help me out. 

Here is where the puzzles, games, and extra books live. I took the door off this closet so they could have full access to these items. 

Hopefully that will help give you some inspiration, and hopefully we'll keep it this way!

Brothy Beef Stew

Big T is sick =( I mean super duper sick. I feel terrible for him, he looks awful, he's burning up, then freezing, then burning up! I can't keep up! Anyway, he wanted "brothy soup...but no chicken" for supper last night. I happened to have had some stew meat, so I decided to make him some beef stew. Normally I make the broth thicker and add tomatoes, but he requested no tomatoes, he wanted the broth to be thin. Also, I am aware that corn is not part of the paleo diet, but he wanted it, he was sick, so it is what it is. Anyway, it was yummy, flavorful, and brothy, and it's all he's been eating today.

Ingredients

• 1-2lbs. stew meat
• 2-3 large carrots, chopped (or sliced depending on the thickness you prefer)
• 1-2 Medium onions, chopped
• Frozen corn, optional
• Frozen green beans
• 2-3 Pieces Celery, chopped
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
• Water
• Sea Salt, Black Pepper
• Italian Seasoning (I make mine, it's: Basil, Marjoram, Thyme, Rosemary, Savory, Sage, and  Oregano) [that's what all the floaty bits are]

Get all your veggies prepped, and toss into your slow cooker on low (except the carrots and green beans). Sear the meat on both sides (you don't HAVE to do this step)

Add the meat, and the seasonings, and add just about 1 1/2 cups of water, cover, and let cook on low for 6-8 hours. About an hour to two before serving add carrots and green beans, and more water if you think it needs it. Enjoy!