Skirt to shirt

By Lyndee:

Anyone that knows me can attest to the fact that I don’t have a lot of fashion sense.  I like looking at what other people wear but when I’m getting ready in the morning, fashion faux pas and rules do not cross my mind. I’m a comfort over cuteness kind of girl. I saw this skirt in goodwill the other day and for some reason I thought, hey, Melody and I can probably make something out of that on our Pinterest Princess Experiment Sunday funday! I paid the $3 and was on my way. 

I could tell by Melody’s face when she saw it, she wasn’t exactly on the same page.  But by the end, she was a fan and the best part?  No sewing!  Just a scissor and a two safety pins.  First we removed the liner so that it was the sheer skirt.  We cut the slit a little higher and tried about 4 different ways to slip it on, around and wrap it.  I put my head through the hole on the top of the skirt and left it over one shoulder.  

We cut a hole in the side of the skirt to put my arm through.  Make sure you have enough room to raise your hand if needed.  We bunched the side that was over the shoulder and fastened it with a Walmart hair clip that was a copper/brown color.  Then we took the two “flaps” where we had enlarged the slit and fastened them beneath the arm pit or the exposed shoulder.  Walla! We had a fun new shirt I could wear out with jeans.  Add some funky turquoise jewelry and I am ready to hit the town! Of course, I will do my hair and makeup before I head out and about.  No worries.  

Caramel Apple Crockpot Cake

Caramel Apple Crockpot Cake

-2 cans of apple pie filling
-1 jar of caramel ice cream topping
-1 box of butter pecan cake mix - dry mix only, no eggs, milk, or etc.
-1 stick of butter - cut up

Place ingredients in to crockpot in the order listed above.

DO NOT STIR AND DO NOT LIFT LID DURING COOKING TIME!!

Cover and cook on high for two hours and serve with ice cream or whipped cream on top. Can be refrigerated and reheated.

Review by Rachael:

This may be the easiest and yummiest (yes – Yummiest!!) recipe I have ever made!

It truly is as simple as buying the ingredients above & placing them in your slow cooker. (It is a little sweet so depending on your taste you may want to only use ½ a jar of caramel ice cream topping.)

Place the apple pie filling in the bottom of the crock pot, then pour the caramel topping on, add the dry mix from the cake and last but not least cut up the butter to place on top. 

Cover, turn on high and let it cook for two hours. It’s hard to not lift the lid during this time because it smells so amazing you want to see if it’s done already! But try to leave it alone so it’s done in the two hour timeframe.

When it has completed cooking it is still in layers, I mixed it all up before serving so that each person was able to get a little of each amazing layer. My way might not look as pretty but still taste scrumptious! 

I added a scoop (or 2) of vanilla ice cream or whipped topping and welcome to heaven!!!!! Rave reviews from all that have tried this dessert. It’s too easy and delicious not to try this one!! 

Our first fail

Saturday I made the crockpot lasagna from http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/02/slow-cooker-lasagna.html  We knew in the beginning that not everything we tried was going to turn out perfect.  Hence, the need for the experiments.  This was to be our first fail. 

Slow Cooker Lasagna Recipe

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground beef (could be substituted for Italian sausage)

1 (24 oz) jar spaghetti sauce

1 cup water

1 (15 oz) container of ricotta cheese (can use skim ricotta)

1 pkg. Kraft Italian Cheese (approx. 2 cups)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg

2 tablespoons parsley

6 regular lasagna noodles, uncooked

Directions:

Brown meat in large skillet; drain.  Stir in spaghetti sauce and water.  Mix ricotta, 1-1/2 cups Kraft Italian cheese, 2 tablespoons Parmesan, egg and parsley.

Spoon 1 cup meat sauce into slow cooker; top with 3 lasagna noodles, broken to fit; and half of cheese mixture.  Cover with 2 cups meat sauce.  Top with remaining noodles, broken to fit; cheese mixture and meat sauce.  Cover with lid.

Cook on low 4-6 hours or until liquid is absorbed.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese; let stand, covered, 10 min. or until melted.

Lyndee’s Review:

This was our most expensive project to date at around $13.  It was easy to make.  It smelled great and looked amazing when I put in the crockpot.  So where did we go wrong?  I put it on 8 hours low autosetting on my crock because I had to leave and that was my best choice. I asked the 15 year old of the house to make sure to turn it off before she left for her church activity which would’ve been a perfect 4 hour cooking.  When I returned eight hours later I could smell the disaster as soon as I walked in the house.  She had forgotten to turn it off and I know had a brick of pasta in the crockpot.  It was not salvageable.  So although it was easy and it looked great when we started, I was not able to actually taste and rate this.  I will have to try again down the road.  

Make up remover

Eye make up remover can be pretty pricey, even the generic stuff!  So we tried a pin for do it yourself this weekend.  The best part of the experiment?  We let a four year old do the make-up application and then tested our concoction to see if it really worked to remover her, um, masterpiece.  This was so easy to and cheap to make!  Generic remover can cost over $5 a bottle and we made this for pennies. 

DIY Eye Make Up Remover:

1 cup water

1 1/2 tablespoons Tear Free Baby Shampoo

1/8 teaspoon Baby Oil.

Directions:  Add all ingredients into a small bowl and stir. Shake before every use.  

The cost was maybe 10 cents for the batch.  Baby oil and baby shampoo are $1 each at the Dollar Tree and the batch we made would last for months and didn’t use hardly any of our supply. Store the liquid in a baby jar, yogurt container or old make up remover bottle. Just shake before using and enjoy! It was less oily than typical ones we have bought in stores so that's a plus too.  

But more importantly, did it work?  Watch our video to see Emma Jean applying makeup to her mommy Melody and whether or not this remover was strong enough to get it back off!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V-3AHdW3Rw

Halter top t-shirt

A fun flirty halter top from a $2 T-shirt bought at Goodwill. Does it sound to good to be true? Lucky for you, it's not! We started with instructions from a pinterest pin at  http://wobisobi.blogspot.com/2012/07/no-sew-tee-shirt-tied-halter-diy.html.  I had seen my friend Monica (our crafty fairy godmother) do this to a friend’s shirt one night at a bar. No sewing, just a scissor. But could Melody and I pull this off when we have no real crafty skills?  We started by chalking off what we would cut away and then began the video.

CHECK OUT OUR FIRST VIDEO!! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gECn7ejjXQ

This really was very simple.  We made the shirt for $2 and it was less than a 10 minute project.  Throw this on with jeans and some chunky jewelry and you’re set for a fun, comfortable night out with friends.  We are going to try the same thing with some college football t-shirts and wear them for the big interstate rival game on September 8^th.  

Strawberry Yogurt Bundt Cake

Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 Tb. lemon juice, divided
Zest of 1 lemon
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
8 oz. plain or vanilla, Greek yogurt
12 oz. fresh strawberries, diced
1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan (10-15 cup pan.) Sift together the 2 ¼ cups of flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.

2. With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 Tb. lemon juice. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.

3. Toss the strawberries with the remaining ¼ cup of flour. Gently mix them into the batter.
 
4. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to 325 degrees F. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

5. Allow to cool at least 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Once cooled whisk together the remaining 2 Tb. of lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

Preparation time: 15 minute(s)
Cooking time: 1 hour(s)
Number of servings (yield): 12

Lyndee’s Review:

Let's be honest I may not have followed my first ever attempt at bundt cake recipe as closely as I should've. I went to happy hour from 5-7:30 and for some reason around 10 pm it seemed like a great time to bake. I hadn't printed the recipe so I had to do it from the internet. The iPad possibly got bedazzled in sugar in the process. Fail.  The batter tasted awesome though. Just ask Mitchell. He licked the beaters and the bowl clean as a whistle.  

 

 

This was pretty cheap to make. I bought a bundt cake pan on clearance for $3.  Hooray for the Dollar General store.  I had most of the ingrediants on hand so it was $3 for strawberries, 50 cents for a lemon, and 50 cents for a vanilla greek yogurt.  It was simple to make even thought I messed a few things up.  I did, however, zest my first lemon ever.  I used a vegetable peeler and just tried to do little pieces.  It kind of creeped me out to put the peel in the batter as I was afraid I would be able to taste chunks of nasty rhine later but it didn't happen. 

 

Pay attention to the amounts needed in the ingredient list versus the actual directions.  You set aside part of the lemon juice and the flour, which I neglected to do so mine probably has a more lemony taste as I squeeze a full lemon into the batter and then realized I needed two more tablespoons for the glaze.  My glaze didn’t melt very well like it did in the pictures from the original pin.  It still tasted great just wasn’t an A+ for presentation.  The cake is moist, summery and delicious.  If you have a bundt pan and like some fruit in your dessert this is a total win.  I would suggest not starting it at 10 pm though.  You have to mix it, bake it for an hour, let it cool for 20 minutes then drizzle.  Poor Mitchell was so excited to have some but fell asleep long before it was ready to eat.  It received 5 big thumbs up from the family though so that's a definite win!!  We will make this again. 

 

 

 

Top It With A Cushion

Review by Melody:
My search on Pinterest began when I wanted to restore my old piano.  I learned how to play on that piano when I was in second grade.  It is an old stand-up piano in much need of a good tuning.  I thought about painting it, but was afraid of possibly ruining a piano that I would never be able to part with for sentimental purposes.  Ultimately, I decided to delay the restoration project, change the decor on the top of the piano, and opt for a sprucing up of the piano bench by adding a cushion when I found a pin via http://inmyownstyle.com/2012/01/how-to-make-a-no-sew-fabric-covered-cushion.html.  I went to Walmart, and found some fabric that would be sturdy and strong enough to stand up to two toddlers.  More importantly, a dark shaded fabric to conveniently absorb any spills from my two little pianists when they're banging out their compositions on the piano.  I bought some roll-out cushioning, cut it to size and then folded the fabric around the cushion I laid on top of the lid of the bench.  I grabbed my husband's staple gun from the garage and...presto change-o -- ta-da!!

 

It's definitely something that I can easily change the fabric if I'd like someday.  And, it adds some additional charm to a bench that holds so much sentimental character to me already.  You'll notice that the board nailed to the bottom of the bench is an addition by my late grandpa.  When the bench began to get week and wobbly, he stabalized the bench with that.  It has come in handy over the years as more pressure has been applied to the bench as my butt increases in size! 

 

  The above is the bottom of the lid.  I folded over the fabric to make a clean edge.  Then, I pulled it tight, and stapled it to the bench.

After this, I did a similar project with a chest my aunt handed down to me when I graduated high school.  My dad had originally made it for her in a shop class when he was in high school.  When I graduated, she gave it to me.  I love it, but over the years, it had began to look a tad bit outdated.  By changing out the decorative knobs, and upholstering the bench with a cushion and some bright fabric, the chest really made for a cozy and inviting little nook in our upstairs hallway.  I went with white since it's bright, and the kids wouldn't be sitting or playing around it often.  I bought the fabric at Wal-Mart, and used the extra fabric to make a couple matching pillows, in addition to sewing some additional pillows to contrast the white and pull-in the sage valance.  I love it, and my husband has stopped complaining about it taking up room in our hallway. 

 

 

 

I used the same technique I used with the piano bench --folding over the fabric over some roll-out cushion.  Then, I folded over the ends of the fabric before stapling it down to make a clean hem.  Easy-peasy!!