Every year I like to make some homemade birdseed cakes for my feathered friends during the coldest months of the winter. When I was getting ready to make some again this year, I noticed I had a recipe for a batch that made six homemade birdseed cakes, and recipes for a single batch to make …
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Blog
My Favorite Morning Oatmeal Recipe
I’ll begin by saying I never thought I would use the words “favorite” and “oatmeal” together in a sentence. For years I couldn’t stand the stuff. To me oatmeal was a bland, mooshy, gooshy mess that I could barely get down and so I avoided oatmeal for a long, long, long time. But a few …
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DIY Photo Coasters
Ever since I first started making my own mod podge several years ago, one of my favorite ways to use it has been to make homemade ceramic tile coasters. Seriously, I look for excuses to make more DIY coasters. I have them for different seasons and holidays and make them for gifts and have them …
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DIY Christmas Plates
Christmas dishes can be such a pretty way to dress up a table around the holidays. But if you’re a frugal, practical sort of person, you may find yourself not wanting to spend a lot of money to buy dishes that are only used once or twice a year. The money-saving solution? Make your own! …
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How To Make A String Christmas Tree
I’ve always thought that Christmas is a season that can bring out our inner craftiness. Even if you’re not willing to be crafty at other times of the year, you might just give it a go for the holidays. And there’s not much else to do during the cold months anyway so hey . . …
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Make Your Own Mod Podge for Decoupage Crafts
If you’ve done any amount of crafting, you’ve probably heard of Mod Podge, a product that’s been around since the 1960’s and calls itself an all-in-one glue, sealer, and finish. It’s most often used for decoupage crafts which is the art of decorating surfaces with paper cutouts that are sealed, glued and finished. But did …
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More $5 to $10 Gift Exchange Ideas
Last year I put together a list of $5 to $10 gift exchange ideas that uses one of my favorite strategies – combining a simple homemade item with a complimentary store bought item. This is a strategy that’s worked so well for me over the years and it’s a great way to be able to …
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Dark Chocolate Bark Recipe
Some of the recipes that I enjoy most are those that are more of a “method” or a “formula” than a recipe. Rather than having to very closely follow instructions and a list of ingredients, they are more of a process that can be easily used to create new versions of the original. Today’s recipe …
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Homemade Cinnamon Spice Body Scrub
Making homemade things makes me happy. No secret there! And one of the things that always adds to my happiness is if all the ingredients are easy to find. Sure, I know that I can probably search out what I need on the internet if I have to, but if I can just grab everything …
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Homemade Chocolates {No Sugar}
One of my little indulgences in life is chocolate. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and can bypass lots of desserts without too much effort but when it comes to chocolate? Well, chocolate will almost always get a yes from me! And so it was that I found myself slipping into a habit …
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How to Make A Crumb Coating for Fish
For many years I was intimidated by cooking fish. My idea of having fish for dinner was to pick up a package of frozen fish sticks. Thankfully I progressed a little bit beyond that option and we now have several homemade recipes for baked fish at our house that we really enjoy. One of the …
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Homemade Bubble Bath Salts
I’ve gotten in the habit of keeping epsom salt around the house because I use it in my favorite homemade laundry soap recipe. But I was reminded again the other day as I was looking at some of the info on my bag of epsom salts, that it can be used for other things too, …
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Round Knit Scrubby Pattern
If you’re a knitter, you might be a little envious of crocheters who can whip up those nylon net scrubbies. Around and around they go with their crochet hooks and in no time they have a sweet little round scrubby. But what if you like to knit? Are we knitters forever stuck making flat rectangles …
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Summer Corn Chowder {Copycat Panera}
Once in a while when I’m out and about I treat myself to lunch at Panera Bread, and one of my favorite things to order is their Summer Corn Chowder. But as the name implies, it’s an item they have on their summer menu and you can’t always get it at other times of the …
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Recycle Old Newspapers To Make Your Own Bags
One of the little things that always makes me happy is when I can use what I already have to make what I need. That kind of thinking has always fit with my frugal nature, but it’s also become a bonus for me to know I’m not creating more waste in the world. Today’s project …
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One Skillet Mexican Quinoa Dinner
One thing I quickly realized when trying to add more vegetables and plants to our daily meals, was that this also meant more chopping, and slicing, and dicing when it was time to make dinner. And at the risk of sounding like a whiner, sometimes it just feels like too much work. Yes, at the …
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How To Make Your Own Tea Bags
Every once in a while when I’m in the midst of trying to figure something out, I end up making some other fun discovery at the same time. And that’s exactly what happened a few years ago when I was trying to make homemade flavored tea with loose tea and ground spices. That approach didn’t …
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2020 Free Printable Planner Pages
It’s that time of year again when I start thinking about making my own planner for the next year. I’m so happy that I’ve finally found a system that’s working for me and that I’ve been able to stick with (the Arc notebook system). Because it’s worked well for me, I’ve been happy to share …
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