Here’s a fun variation to the normal pancake flipping–bake them! It’s great if you want to cut down on preparation time or want to serve them all fresh out of the oven. It makes a great Sunday morning breakfast. (Or just any time…like this morning! 🙂 ) Just mix up batter for 8-10 pancakes (using a mix or homemade batter), pour into a casserole dish (pictured with a 2 quart dish), and bake at 425 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. And, oila, you have “pancake casserole!” The time and temperature may vary a bit, but this is what I experimented with, and what worked for me. We love berries in our pancakes, and we like them thick with grains–so that’s what I did here, too. .
Read MoreStretchy Fabric: Frugal Curtains
Having lived 3 places within our first year of marriage, I didn’t want to spend much on curtains when the window sizes would change from residence to residence. We hope to only be in the States for a few more years, so window treatments aren’t something I want to spend much money on. I’ve always loved the way that sheer curtains let light in and the warm, soft look they create. Looking for those elements, I went fabric hunting in the clearance fabric section of Wal*Mart! I was happy to find several styles of sheer, navy fabric marked at $1.00 per yard. I’ve been able to use it in each of our three living spaces. All I did was drape it over a curtain rod and tie a knot it the middle (in our first 2 residences) or use hooks to drape it over (in our current residence). Here’s how it looked in our men’s dormitory apartment: And in the bedroom of the same apartment… Over the bed… (the lovely furnished apartment–I’d love to have a headboard…and dressers like that now!) It even made a great closet door! Now that we’ve lived in our current house for almost a year, it’s about time I start working on our window treatments here! 🙂 Now I just need to find some inexpensive rods and hooks! .
Read MoreHana Kate’s Been Cubed!
Her photos have, that is. Today Hana Kate and I made a photo cube for Daniel to put on his desk at work. Well, actually, she just let me take her picture. You can make your own by going to Tabblo’s website and uploading your pictures. You’ll have to supply your own smiling baby, though. 😉 .
Read MoreOrganizing Small Things: Earrings and Cuff Links
A friend recently loaned me The Art of Homemaking, by Daryl V. Hoole. (You can read my friend’s review of the book here.) I’ve enjoyed reading her (yes, Daryl is a woman) practical suggestions on homemaking and organization, and came across a tip I’ve now put to use. I’ve recently been working on decluttering our home and getting rid of the things that we don’t use. I’m limiting myself to a jewelry box, but even so I have been frustrated with my current system of storing all my earrings in a tiny little drawer where they easily become jumbled together. Hoole’s suggestion? Store them in an ice tray! Well that was ingenious enough to make me rush to our freezer, grab an ice tray and plop in my earrings! Minus the ice, of course. Since my husband has a homeless pair of cuff links, I realized they’d also stay nice and neat in this new storage system, too! I’m sure ice trays would make a great organizing tool for small things such as paper clips, stamps, craft items, and so much more! Pity I got rid of all our extra ice trays a few months back. That’s what works for me!.
Read MoreHow Does Our Garden Grow?
Even with no fertilizer, no pesticides, and a forgetful waterer (me), we were very pleased with the harvest that our two tomato plants yielded last year. All the way through January 1, to be exact! So, this year we’ve decided to put a little more into our garden in hopes that we’ll get a bit more from it. Since South Carolina weather has a reputation for a warm February and March followed by random ice storms in April, we decided to begin our little crops inside until they grow to be a little more hearty. (Although, the only crops which really need to begin inside are our tomato plants.) Since February, we’ve been trying to have no out-of-pocket expenditures besides our bills and gas. Fortunately, we had a Wal-Mart gift card to begin our initial gardening investment of seeds, a seed flat, and a hoe. But then our seed flat developed some mold! As a result, only about half of our seedlings are thriving. Overwhelmed with sadness 😉 , we soon realized that we really hadn’t needed to buy those seed beds after all! We could have made our own! All we needed was an empty egg carton (which we had) and some good soil (our garden soil is great)! So we’re working on starting a new seed bed, and wished we had thought of this idea sooner! Another no-cost way we are helping our garden is by saving all our organic (in the true sense of its meaning) waste to use as compost on our crops. Pictures coming soon! Well, thats what works for us!.
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