How To Wrap A Gift

So you might be thinking wow Rina...this post might be more suited towards the Christmas season, not the summer season!

Except that summer season is the prime wedding season. And weddings usually involve gifts, right? Not to mention there's always a birthday or anniversary gift to package!

In any case, I know that I'm always having some sort of trouble when wrapping gifts so when I saw this tutorial in one of my free magazine subscriptions I knew I wanted to share it with you, as well as preserve it for my use too!!

So first step is to find a box for the gift. Wrapping an oddly shaped item or heck, even just trying to wrap something simple like a mixing bowl can be difficult but! Put that item into a box and suddenly your task is way, way easier. Got a box? Oh! Grab some double sided tape, too. Okay. Let's get wrapping.

Step 1:
Lay the boxed item face down on top of your chosen gift wrap, leaving the paper attached to the roll. Cut the wrapping paper along one side, ensuring you cut a wide enough sheet to cover both sides of the box.


Step 2:
Stand on the same side of the table as the roll of gift wrap and pull the paper snugly up and over the far end of the box. Affix with double sided tape and crease the paper along the edge of the box.

Step 3:
Unroll the gift wrap and bring it to meet the already wrapped portion of the box. Cut paper from roll, and leave about and inch of overhang. Fold that inch under and crease along the fold. Affix using double sided tape.


Step 4:
Concentrate on one of the open ends of the box. Push the sides of the paper in towards the box, creating four 45 degree angle flaps. Crease along each flap.


Step 5:
Fold down the top flap. Crease quite sharply along the top of the box and crease again where the gift wrap meets the bottom edge of the box. If you'd like, trim the paper along that bottom crease. Affix to the box with double sided tape.

Step 6:
Fold under any excess gift wrap on the bottom flap so it lines up neatly with the top of the box. Affix double sided tape to the bottom flap, then fold over the top flap and adhere.

Step 7:
Repeat Steps 4-6 on the other end of the box. Finish by running your pinched thumb and forefinger along the edges to create sharp lines.


Ta da! Stand back and give yourself a hand - seriously though, how professional does that look?!? If you'd like, you can attach ribbon or some other sort of decoration but I'm fairly plain and simple so I'd typically just add a card or note of some kind to indicate who the gift is for, plus a few personal lines to the receiver.

I'm Rina and I usually blog over at Gotta Little Space - come say hi!!

Carribean splice ice-blocks

One of the delights of last summer was making ice-cream from scratch. Now I'm not going to share a recipe that you you need to churn for hours and hours (though that's totally worth it!) but this is a quick-fix recipe that you can pour into ice-tups for the kids or ice-cube trays for yourself - fabulous dunked in some cold fresh milk or pineapple juice.

What you'll need

150ml pineapple juice or crushed pineapple

400ml coconut cream

Juice of 1 large or 2 small limes

Ice block moulds (I've use Tupperware Ice Tups, I can seriously never have enough of these!)

Method:

In a jug, mix the juices, coconut cream together, give a good stir.

Pour into moulds

Freeze for at least 6-8 hours

It's really that easy!

You can find more step-by-step cooking from scratch posts and much more at my blog, Frills in the Hills - the fabulous life of our family of five - the fun, the food and the frugality.  Now also tragically on facebook and twitter...

Home Remedy for Fishy Swim Bladder

A couple weeks ago our sucker algae eater fish started floating to the top of the tank - belly up! Not. a. good. sign.

He would swim to the bottom if the other fish came near him but I could tell he was not doing well since he would immediately float back to the top of the tank. It was obvious he was having trouble maintaining his buoyancy. He’s in a tank with two goldfish. Those fellas can sense a sickly fish! They’ve eaten our snail, shell and all, plus the ghost shrimp we had in the tank! Fearing the carnivorous goldfish would eat my sickly sucker fish, I put him in a quarantine tank, even though I had no idea what to do to make him feel better.

After quarantining him and performing some research on the world wide web, I discovered he either had swim bladder or some fatal disease. According to my research, swim bladder is rare in algae eater sucker fish. I decided to treat the little guy for swim bladder anyway since the alternative would be a watery grave via a porcelain coffin!

I read on multiple sites one way to cure swim bladder in other fish species was to use crushed shelled peas but none of my research specifically mentioned how to treat my sucker fish. I had some frozen peas I got from the garden so I tried the only home remedy I could find.

I allowed the peas to thaw completely in the pod. Then, I removed the individual peas from their pods and pressed them between my fingers to shell them. Once the peas are shelled, I used a knife to cut them into teeny pieces. I tried using the back of a spoon to crush them but had no luck. Then I sprinkled the pieces of peas inside the quarantine bowl and let my sucker fish eat on them for a few days. One week later, he’s healthy and no longer floating! YIPPEE – Davey Jone’s Locker will have to wait for our little fishy friend!

I apologize for the lack of photos on this post but we were so wrapped up with getting our fish nursed back to health, I forgot to take any pictures!

Jenn is a stay at home southern mom raising her kids in Northwestern Minnesota with her trucker hubby. She loves to cook, craft and blog. Soon she’ll be going back to school for a new adventure in Graphic Design. You can find recipes, crafts, parenting strategies, budget tips, product reviews and fabulous giveaways on her blog, Frugal Front Porch.

Technorati Tags: swim bladder,sucker fish,algae eater,home remedy

Cheap Kid’s Summer Activity: Invisible Ink

Summer is officially here in my house! This means long days with my kids plus my husband’s two children at home. Since neither of us are working, the entertainment budget is VERY small, really it’s non-existent but I’ve discovered some fun things they can do throughout the summer to keep them occupied.

One activity uses items right out of the kitchen! Invisible ink!

What kid wouldn’t love writing secret invisible messages revealed only to the person who can uncover the trick to making the message visible again?

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Paper (duh!)
• Q-tips
• lemon or lime juice (fresh or from the plastic lemon shaped bottle)
• cookie sheet or shallow baking pan
• dryer or oven set to 400

Write your messages or draw pictures with a Q-tip dipped in lemon/lime juice. Place your paper with the hidden message on a cookie sheet and into the oven for just a few minutes. Carefully remove the cookie sheet to see the image revealed. Ours took about 2 minutes to fully reveal the invisible message.

If you don’t want to use the oven, you can use a blow dryer but it took us much longer doing it this way and the image was much lighter than when we did it in the oven.

Another option we haven’t tested yet is using grape juice to reveal the hidden message. You swab a Q-tip soaked in grape juice over the dried invisible lemon juice message. The message is revealed when the grape juice interacts with the lemon juice changing the color of the message area. Again, we haven’t tried this one yet but this would be a great activity for later this summer.

What do you have planned for a budget friendly summer?

 

Jenn’s a southern gal raising her family in Northwestern Minnesota with her husband. Find recipes, crafts, parenting strategies, home keeping tips, product reviews, and giveaways on her blog, Frugal Front Porch. Be sure to link up your giveaways, recipes, or other favorite posts to the weekly blog meme, Strut Your Stuff.

Technorati Tags: craft,kids,invisible ink,kids activity,frugal craft,cheap craft

Cool Semi-Homemade Summer Treats – Just in Time for Memorial Day!

Can you tell the difference between these two?

Both have rich vanilla ice cream. Both use a yummy sugar cone. Both have a delicious hard chocolate shell. Both are coated in crunchy peanuts.

Price for the one on the right is $8.73 for 16 at Sam’s.

Price for the one on the left…pennies on the dollar.

Why? The one on the left is homemade! This month’s edition of Food Network’s Magazine features a selection of semi-homemade ice cream truck style recipes. These types of treats can add up…quickly…especially if you purchase them in singles from the ice cream truck, convenience store, or concession stand. Making my own, even a semi-homemade version, will take the crunch out of my wallet this summer.

Start with store bought ice cream, sherbet, or frozen yogurt (or if your really adventurous, make you own). Allow it to soften slightly to make scooping and molding easier. Place a malted milk ball in the bottom of each chilled cone. This helps prevent drippage during consumption! Using store boughtor homemade hard shell chocolate syrup, coat the inside of chilled sugar cones. Allow chocolate to set. Scoop ice cream into each cone. Dip the top in the hard shell syrup and roll in chopped nuts. Place cones in chilled glasses on a baking sheet inside the freezer to allow ice cream to harden, approximately 2 hours. Once ice cream has completely set, place cones in a freezer bag for an ice cream truck style treat anytime!

The Food Network Magazine’s version of the Ice Cream Sundae Cones recipe includes a make it yourself hard shell chocolate sauce I’d like to try for even more savings on our frozen treats.

I also liked their idea about making marbled orange cream popsicles. They used orange sherbet but any flavor will work, vanilla ice cream,  basic cookie cutters, parchment paper and popsicle sticks. I have a popsicle mold that will make this process much easier. Allow the ice cream to soften, then place alternate small scoops of ice cream/sherbet flavors into your mold. After several scoops, use a spoon or spatula to press the ice cream mixture down into the mold/cookie cutter. Add more alternating scoops of ice cream and press down again until the mold is full and smooth. With a popsicle mold, simply add the stick or top and pop back into the freezer till firm.

The cookie cutter method is a bit different and a bit more involved but produces a variety of shapes that’s certain to be a hit at your Memorial Day party. Cover the cookie cutter filled with ice cream with plastic wrap and freeze for an hour. Then remove the cookie cutter, insert your popsicle stick, smooth the ice cream if necessary then place on a secondary chilled baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Pop it back into the freezer until completely frozen. I’ll stick with my ice cream molds since they wolf them down faster than I can make them!

Here are some links to other ice cream recipe ideas:

• Strawberry Shortcake Parfait Pops (Food Network)
• Mini Mud Pie Towers (IceCream.com)
• Sushi Surprise (IceCream.com & YES, it’s an ice cream treat presented Sushi style!)
• Ice Cream Truffles (IceCream.com)
• Chocolate Ice Crispy Pie Sundae (Hershey’s Kitchen)
• Ice Cream Taco’s (Hershey’s Kitchen)

I plan to experiment with pureed fruit, fruit juices along some of these tempting ideas. What is your favorite frozen treat?

Jenn is a SAHM with three kids of her own plus two step kids with her fabulous husband. She writes about her transition from 30 years of big city life in Tennessee to small town living in Northwestern Minnesota. Find recipes, home keeping tips, craft ideas, family strategies, plus giveaways and product reviews that help keep her budget in balance.

Grow Plants in ANY Container

I admit, my green thumb needs some serious adjustment since we moved to Minnesota in 2008 but BEFORE I could grow the heck out plants. It's quite possible I'm overwatering my plants since Tennessee is significantly hotter than Northwestern Minnesota. The other possibility is the difference in the soil. I plant to consult with my local Agriculture Extension office later today to see what if they can help with soil testing.

The one thing I have learned over the years is how to use all sort of containers to start seeds and cultivate plants in.

You need three things when constructing your own planter:

1. 
   
   Drainage - Proper drainage is key to preventing root rot and good plant health.
• 
  
  The most obvious method to create proper drainage is to drill a few holes in the bottom of your container. If you can't drill a hole then use either packing peanuts or wadded up newspaper to create a space in the bottom of the container for excess water to drain. You can use rocks but they add to the weight of the container. I've used all three methods successfully but prefer using the newspaper and packing peanuts for a lighter planter.
2. 
   
   Soil - Make sure you have soil full of nutrients.
• 
  
  I've used Miracle Gro in the past with satisfactory results. This year, I'm trying a new soil additive, KoKo Pro. It's an organic peat comprised of coconut shells. It claims to be super absorbant so I hope this will help with my compulsion to overwater the plants. It was a lot cheaper than Miracle Gro ringing in under $12 for 10 pounds. We'll see how well it performs.
• 
  
  I also prefer to use newspaper formed pots or egg shells to grow my seeds in it naturally decomposes in the ground. It makes planting easier and adds to the soil when it's fully decomp'd. To make newspaper pots, simply grab a cup the size you need for the plant, place several layers of newspaper inside the cup with the excess rubber banded to the outside of the cup. Add your soil, your plant, and water well. You know when to rewater the plant when the newspaper is dry.  Once the plant is ready to be transplanted, wait for the paper to be dry (it will make things easier), remove the rubber bands from the cup, use the excess newspaper like handles to lift from the cup and replant where you like.
• 
  
  I also like to toss our used coffee and tea grounds, filter and all, in the plants. Crushed eggs shells and bits of banana peelings are often placed in my potting mix to help enrich the soil.
3. 
   
   Sun - Your plants will need adequate sunlight. Either grow them in a sunny window or under a flourescent grow light. This will improve your plant's health and speed up growing.

If you want your homemade container to look pretty, then you have several options. You can paint the container, Modge Podge some fabric or pretty paper to it, or simply use double sided sticky tape to wrap the fabric or paper around the container to make it easier to decorate. Obviously you do this before you plant anything in them but you can also leave them au naturale', letting the container's personality shine! I've got big plans for my old rubber boots and my new strawberry plants - just as soon as this overcast rainy weather passes!!!!

Here's some of the planters I've made from everyday household items. 

Egg Shell Planters (Don't know where the mushrooms came from!)

Oatmeal Containers, Juice Containers, Plastic Cups, Newspaper Cups

Sometimes you just need some water in a cup - like with these onions!

You can use a number of items from around the house.

 

baskets cups laundry baskets light fixture globes

shoes bowls hampers suitcases

hats pots old desk drawers handbags

Basically if it can hold dirt, you can make it hold a plan. In the case of baskets, or something with holes in the sides of the container, you can use a garbage bag to line the container with then poke a few holes in the bottom or add packing peanuts for drainage.

What the most unusual planting container you've ever used or seen?

 

Jenn also blogs about family, food, & crafts, on a budget with product reviews and giveaways on her blog Frugal Front Porch. Be sure to enter the Wonder Hanger Giveaway and link up to Strut Your Stuff blog meme.

How To Make Thousand Islands Dressing

Has there ever been a time where you actually smacked yourself upside the head? This was my *doh* moment.

Thousand islands salad dressing: ubiquitous, popular, familiar, and most purchased. I'm not embarrassed to admit that it's my first choice to dress a garden salad. I've always loved it, ever since I was a kid.

Over at my regular blog, Gotta Little Space, I have a 100 Things To Make list, and on that list is thousand islands dressing. So a few days ago I decided there's no time like the present and I just did it. And that was my *doh* moment. Because in less than five minutes I'd whipped up a homemade version of thousand islands dressing that was just as familiar as Kraft.

Except...except I made it with ingredients everyone has in their kitchen, and without the unpronounceable mystery ingredients listed on the product page of Kraft's website, for example:

SOYBEAN OIL, TOMATO PUREE (WATER, TOMATO PASTE), VINEGAR, SUGAR, CHOPPED PICKLES, SALT, WATER, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF XANTHAN GUM, LEMON JUICE CONCENTRATE, LACTIC ACID, DRIED ONIONS, CITRIC ACID, POLYSORBATE 60, PROPYLENE GLYCOL ALGINATE, SPICE, MUSTARD FLOUR, VITAMIN E, NATURAL FLAVOR, OLEORESIN TURMERIC.

I took the liberty of researching a few of the strange phrases for you - if you click on the links it will take you to a description of what they really are. My question is this: if it's this easy to make my own, minus those wonky ingredients, why the heck have I been buying it for so long??

What about you, what's your best *doh* moment?

Thousand Islands Salad Dressing
Recipezaar
Makes 3/4 cup

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish or chopped pickles
1 teaspoon finely minced white onion
1/8 teaspoon salt
few grindings black pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Stir well to combine and refrigerate several hours, stirring occasionally, to allow sugar to dissolve and flavors to marry.