Sarchix Finds

My daughter LOVES fairies!  I think she wants to be one.

When I saw WeeFolkArt.com’s post on these little faerie items, I thought of her.

First we have a simple felt flower fairies.  They are just too cute and seem simple to make too.  It might be something good for her to practice her stitches with.

The second one that they offer is a fairy flower carpet.  The base is felt and the flowers are silk.

If my daughter ever cleaned her room, I would make this for her in a second!

The best part of this one, is you can make it to your own desired size, limited only by the number of flowers or amount of felt you have.

Wee Folk Art – Flower Fairies and Flower Faerie Carpet

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I love basil!  It is my favorite herb but I don’t seem to ever be able to use up the whole clump that they sell at the grocery store.  I really dislike using the dried stuff because I know the fresh stuff is just so much better.  In addition to the traditional uses for basil, i.e. anything Italian, I like to use it in pressed sandwiches that are a hit in the summer with my whole family.

I’ve tried to grow basil, from seed, and failed miserably.  I’ve tried it from plant from Home Depot to similar results.

The thing is, I didn’t follow any directions or guidance.

Now that Chez Larsson has published a SUPER easy way to not kill a basil plant makes me feel confident in trying again.  Even better, I can pick up the plant at the grocery store and not another trip to Home Depot or some garden store.

Nice and easy steps and the cool thing is, I can do this in my kitchen and just snip off what I need and then more will continue to grow in its place.  I can’t wait to have fresh basil on my pasta and home made pizzas!

I know it won’t last forever but if I can not kill it AND get 4-6 months out of it, then I consider this one for the win column.

Chez Larsson – Grow your own basil

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I’ve been thinking of starting a garden.  My Mom always had one growing up and I remember being stuck eating way too much zucchini.  There were the fond memories of eating peas right off the vine and always enjoyed watching the morning glories appear in the morning then disappear in the PM.  It wasn’t until I became an adult that I understood why we composted in the garden although I remember helping bury coffee grounds and egg shells.

The Seattle Time have written an article on how to grow potatoes without using vast amounts of land.  They claim that at the end of the growing season, you can end up with about 100 lbs. of potatoes!  I don’t know about you but I love potatoes, all kinds.  This is so tempting to try out and the directions make me itch to seek out my power tools and run to Home Depot for wood and dirt.  Sure this year might mean some bigger costs, but as long as the wood doesn’t rot or get super icky, its reusable for many years to come.  They do say not to re-use the same dirt to grow potatoes in back to back years but that just gives me dirt for a raised bed near by.

I really hope this is as easy as it say it is because having 100 lbs of potatoes sounds like a long winter of potato fun in my house!

The Seattle Times – Grow your own Potatoes

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With Earth Day coming up, the recent topics have been geared towards just that.  Yesterday was the knitted tote and today is the reusable produce bag!

I try not to use the plastic bags that you can get at the grocery store when I pick up produce but sometimes its impossible.  I don’t want the kiwis or the limes rolling around in the cart or loose in the bag so I am stuck using these thin and quite annoying bags.  I don’t know how many times I’ve had one sliced open by a sweet potato and had them roll around inside the bag or try to wrangle them in the kitchen.

I’ve seen adorable bags for sale and thought about either purchasing them or trying to make my own but then my Mom made a comment.  “How much to they weigh?” was all she said.  I don’t want to pay a few more cents for the bag that I’ve brought from home, that’s for sure.  Then I found Linda Permann’s post over at CraftStylish on how to make your own bags from mesh fabric.  She can make 3-4 out of half a yard of mesh fabric that ran her $.75 ($1.50 a yard before coupon).

This is such a simple but fantastic idea that I kick myself for not thinking of it first.

CraftStylish – Produce Bags

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Reusable shopping bags are all the rage.  I try my best to use them as much as possible.  I carry one in my purse and really do use it.  The ones from the grocery store are wonderful but there is not too much style in them.

Lion Brand Yarns has a few patterns (both knit and crochet) to make bags that can be used shopping but look a lot nicer than the boring black ones I got at Wegmans.  A knitted bag would be wonderful to carry around the local farmer’s market or just walking down the street while doing some local shopping.  I really like this one – their Green Living Tote.  I probably won’t get the recycled cotton yarn that they suggest but will use something out of my stash.  I’m thinking either a cotton blend I have or an acrylic so its easily washed.  This is not something you would want to use wool, unless it’s superwash wool.

The best thing is, this pattern is FREE!  All you have to do is register at Lion Brand’s site and you have access to this pattern and hundreds more.

Lion Brand Yarn – Green Living Tote

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Earth day is April 22.  What are you going to be doing?  What are you changing this year to make the world better?  More importantly, how are you going to involve your kids with it?

I found that Disney has a site that does just that.  I have found that the Disney sites are very kid friendly and pretty easy to navigate in general.

They have “green” crafts and recipes, games and project all aimed to involve the entire family. 

I’m really liking the crafting section.  Most are geared to the under 8 crowd but I know my daughter will like reusing cans as flower pots.  The only question for her will be how many can she do.  We’ll start the seeds inside and then move them outside when the weather isn’t so cold.

I’m looking forward to trying some of these ideas out with the kiddies!

Kaboose – Earth Day

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By now, you’re probably sick of all the leftovers from Easter.  One can only have so many ham sandwiches with a side of sweet potato before you got batty.

Candy is something different.  If allowed, the kids would have eaten all the candy by now.  We’re trying our best to limit how much candy they actually eat, so we should still have some come the end of the summer.

My downfall has to be the Peeps.

I can polish off an entire 12 pack of those little marshmallow treats with out even thinking.  Every once in a while, my Dad will place a box of them on my desk at work.

Enough about my little Peep obsession and onto today’s find.

As you can see in the picture, the idea is to use the Peep as the marshmallow in a s’more, thus making what the creation calls a S’meep. How brilliant is that!  I love that the color really seems to stay intact during the heating process.

This is going to be so oohey-gooey and I’m sure my youngest will be a royal mess after eating one of these, but what a great little treat to make up.  If I have my way, we will be “testing” this one out tonight.

Note: This week is also “Peeps Week” over at Serious Eats.

Serious Eats – S’meeps

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This was just too funny to not post.

Here’s another use for leftover Easter candy.

The Candy Turducken!

Enjoy

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Why does it seem like like if one friend is pregnant, there are three more as well?  One of my best friends, my cousin and two other friends are all pregnant and due around the same time (this fall).  I’m happy with my three kiddos but enjoy it when others have kids because it lets me get my baby fix without the late nights and diper changes.

The best thing about friends having babies, is getting to give them gifts!  Even the older babies are still so much fun to either buy for or craft for.

With Earth Day coming up next week, I found this post for a “crinkely” baby toy that reuses the plastic wrapper from wipes.  I would have never thought to use this for a toy but it is BRILLIANT!  My kids, plus the dog as well, always loved the noisy, crinkley toys when they were little.

Susan Beal over at Craft Stylish has given us guidance on how to create this toy for your favorite kiddo*.

The best thing is, you don’t have to make an owl if you don’t want to.  I see me sneaking noisy wrappers into all kinds of shapes of stuffed toys for kiddies over the years.  I could even ask my youngest kid’s pre-school teacher to keep the wrappers for me since she goes through so much with the young ones who go there and the many uses for them.

With recycled, or reused, fabric this could be a fun and green craft to do.

Craft Stylish – Baby Toy

*Let the record state, that me giving a child a gift of this sort does not desinate them as my favorite nor do I love one of my own children more then the others.

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It’s almost Easter and I found this paper project that I am hoping to try out later today (with or without my daughter).  I love flowers but hate how they die so quickly, especially tulips.  If you make them with paper, they won’t wilt as fast and there will be no pollen on the table either.

Need a cute centerpiece for tomorrow’s lunch?  This is something you can whip up tonight.  Older kids could even help with it.  (I’m all about trying to keep the kids busy.)

Cheeky Magpie created a great tutorial and the best thing is, I think I have all the things needed to make this… paper (uhh… just a little), clue, scissors and chenille stems (aka pipe cleaners).  I don’t think i have any rick rack but might try out something else, maybe some braided embroidery floss or a bit of ribbon.

Cheeky Magpie – Paper Tulip

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