Foodie Penpals: October 2012

This was my second time participating in the Foodie Penpals swap. This time I was paired with someone from Michigan. I asked for local items and things I could take to work with me. She put together a great package for me with awesome items!

My haul included:
-Michigan Cherries (covered in chocolate)
-Michigan honeycrisp apples (these are very expensive in WA right now so I was so very excited to see them in my box!)
-Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds 
-Buddy Fruits Pure Fruit Bites
-Daily's Cocktails Hard Cider (is there anything better than receiving alcohol in the mail?)

I'm excited to heat up the cider tonight to have after dinner. Thanks to Stephanie for such an amazing box! Interested in finding out more about how you can become a foodie penpal? Click the banner at the top of the post!

 The neat thing about Foodie Penpals is that the person you send to, and the person you receive from, are two different people. So I received a box from Michigan but got to send one to Texas! My partner this time did not have a blog, so I decided to chronicle what I sent here. He requested "spicy" and "non-organic". Here is what I came up with:

 

1 bottle Tapatio

1 jar of chili paste

1 hot and spicy ramen bowl

1 tube of wasabi

1 pack of hot tamales

1 pack of crushed chili

I must say the sending and receiving part are both equally fun. Can't wait for November!

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Halloween is almost here!

November Sponsor Opportunity

I'm currently offering ad space for the month of November 2012.  Contact me at elizak Dot stewart AT gmail DOt com if you are interested!

150x150

I currently only accept 150x150 size buttons. The price for one month of sponsorship is $10 payable only through Paypal.

One month of sponsorship gets you a rotating spot on my right hand sidebar as well as two link love posts where I feature content from your blog or Etsy shop during your sponsorship month.

Blog Details:

My blog is almost one year old.

Average daily pageviews: between 500-800

Pageviews last month: 7,995

Pageviews all time: 67,786

 Don't have a button? I will create a custom button for you. I charge $10 per button, but if you purchase ad space the custom button only costs $5.

One month of ad space:

$10

 

One custom made button:

$10

One month of ad space + one custom button

$15

The images to the left are examples of buttons I have made. Contact me if interested!
 elizak. stewart AT Gmail Dot COM.

Tutorial: How To Make Sheet Music Envelopes

One of the most popular items in my Etsy shop, are my sheet music envelopes. I decided to put together a quick tutorial on how to make them. With the holidays coming up, people are starting to stock up on wrapping paper, gift tags and other paper products. Save yourself some money this year and make them at home!

 I'll be posting more tutorials during the next few months for all the items in my shop.

Supplies:

sheet music (1 sheet per envelope)

glue stick

scissors

sharp pencil

envelope template

You will need one piece of sheet music to make one small envelope. For your template, grab an old envelope from a birthday or greeting card and gently take it apart. Or, choose from any of these free templates.















Set your piece of sheet music face down. Trace your template onto the sheet music. Make sure to press lightly so your finished product does not have pencil indentations. Also make sure that the area you are working with has the lines of  music you want on your envelope. Don't place the template too close to any edges or you may end up with large areas of white on your finished product.

Cut out your envelope. Try cutting inside the pencil line so you have less to erase later! If you plan on making a few envelopes, do all your cutting first. Don't toss the leftover sheet music, there are tons of projects you can use it for!

Now you are ready to construct the body of your envelope. First, fold the outer flaps in.

Make sure your folds are flush with the edge of the envelope. If you fold too far in or too far out you'll end up with a crooked envelope. Grab a ruler if you want to be super precise!

Put glue on the bottom half of your flaps. Make sure not to glue anything directly to the body of the envelope as that will decrease the space inside. Also, don't glue any higher than halfway up your flaps just yet.

Fold your bottom half up and press against the side flaps you just glued. If you didn't glue far enough up go head and add more now. Make sure not to glue anything but the portion that will touch the side flap. You don't want to glue your envelope together!

Lastly, fold your top flap over. You've made your first envelope! 

Don't have sheet music lying around? Check out your local Goodwill, thats where I get all of mine!

Check out my shop to see what other shenanigans I get into with paper;)

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How to Winterize Your Compost

I woke up this morning to a freezing house 

 Every fall, my boyfriend and I see how far we can make it before turning on the heat. We pile on the blankets, wear sweatshirts over long sleeves, and never get out of bed without socks on. All to avoid an extra $30-$40 on our electricity bill. What can I say, we're cheap!

I had been planning to bring my worms inside fairly soon, but I assumed I would do it closer to the end of the month. When I got outside I started to get worried for my little guys.

My winter lettuce was covered in a fine layer of frost, the garbage can lid was frozen shut and the walkway was a slippery ice skating adventure. If it was 52 degrees inside, I couldn't imagine how cold it was outside.

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year and it would appear that we only got about two weeks of it this year. The leaves only started changing colors and now they're freezing off and falling to the ground before I even get a chance to enjoy them!

A quick jaunt down to the river confirmed my suspicions that winter is upon us. 

The hills already have snow! As pretty as they are, I was definitely looking forward to a few more days of being able to start the car in the morning without having to pry the door open with a crowbar.

I was afraid to check my compost, because I was sure the worms would be dead.

The garden tool I use to turn the compost was frozen to the lid. Not a good sign.

I had to dig deep to find the worms, but they were there. You can't tell from the photo but they were wriggling around so I knew they hadn't died. Phew! I decided to move them inside right away. Vermicomposters are actually meant to be kept under the kitchen sink. Since I made my own vermicompost rather than buying one, its a little too big for that. I decided to put mine in the laundry room.

As you can see my vermicompost is just a blue medium sized tupperware bin with holes poked in it for air flow. I switched to a vermicompost when rodents started getting into my large traditional compost. Plus, this size is ideal for a small two person home. They don't smell at all and I get an astounding amount of dirt out of this thing.  I keep kitchen scraps in the white pail on top of the compost and feed my worms a little bit each day. The white pail has a carbon filter at the top to keep bugs from getting in and any smells from getting out.



These things are the best!


For those of you with a more traditional compost, use the following guidelines to winterize them!

1. Keep it Sunny

If your compost only gets a few hours of sun a day, you'll want to move it to a better lit location. The heat from the sun keeps the worms warm.

2. Insulate 

 You'll want to get a hold of some dry material like straw or hay to insulate your compost. If you compost is only a wire cage or just a pile with a tarp over it you can actually position hay bales all around to keep heat in. For a plastic composter (like the one pictured above) add hay to the top and cease "turning" your compost until the weather warms up.

3. Add Hot Materials

If you want your compost to keep "cooking" when temps get really low, make sure to add a lot of "hot materials" such as manure (horse and/or chicken). I've also read you can use seafood scraps but I personally prefer to never use items that will attract pests. I also do not have access to manure, and don't really have a compost big enough to justify using it. I like to use coffee grounds as my source of "hot" materials.

Do you have a compost? What do  you do to keep it going through the winter? Let me know in the comments!


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Tutorial: Tin Can Planters for Succulents

I had so much fun making these! I love being able to take something that would have been thrown into the garbage and instead make it functional and pretty. This project takes about 20 minutes to complete, is easy enough for kids to do and cost me a total of $7. Keep reading to find the story behind this project as well as a full tutorial.

Before we moved, we lived two miles from a county recycling center. We would collect our recyclables and every month or so we would drop them off on our way somewhere. There are a lot of arguments out there that recycling takes just as much from the earth as simply throwing our trash in a landfill. The basic premise is that it takes fossil fuels to break down the recyclable material (namely glass) as well as transport the material from our homes to the plant. The process releases harmful emissions into our atmosphere and does nothing for our dependence on oil.  I've read some arguments that say we're better off dumping it in with our "regular" trash and calling it a day. As someone who grew up during the 90s (and was taught how to recycle during elementary school) I find this incredibly disheartening. Recycling always gave me a sense of hope and purpose. Rather than ignore the arguments against recycling, I've tried to change the way I consume.

I've found the only surefire way to decrease my use of fossil fuels and decrease the amount of waste going into the landfill, is to limit my use of "throwaway" items. An easy "throwaway" item to stop using is plastic bags, simply switch them out for a few canvas ones you can reuse. And remember to bring them to the grocery store! We rarely have plastic bottles in the house, and when we're through with them I use them to make self watering planters. I've also recently started filling the bigger ones with water and storing them. Its nice to have a stash of water that you can use to wash dishes or flush the toilet with when the power goes out.

Our biggest waste is glass. Wine, beer and Coca Cola. We probably fill two cardboard boxes a month with the stuff. Our second biggest waste is cans (not aluminum, canned food cans). Our dinky small town recycling center does not have a bin for recycling cans. I've decided to come up with creative ways to use them again, rather than tossing them in with our regular trash.

Tin Can Succulents: A Tutorial

I bought two succulents at home depot for 7 dollars total. I had a hard time choosing just two!

After you have found the succulents you want, you'll need to find a suitable can(s) for the project. Make sure you choose clean, undented cans.

 First you will want to soak your cans in water for about five minutes. This makes the second step a lot easier. You want to peel off the label without ripping it

Dry off your cans and place them open end down on a hard non-slippery surface. You are going to create drainage holes in the bottom of your planter. Take your screwdriver and position it over the can. Pound the screwdriver with a hammer to create a hole in the can. Repeat this at least twice and make sure to spread the holes around the bottom of the can. This part is easier than it looks and it takes a minimal amount of force to create a hole. Next, you'll want to transplant your succulents into their new home. Make sure you transplant before you put your nice new label on.

Dry your label off and place it onto your cardstock. I chose white cardstock because it shows the details of the stamp so well. Trace your label and cut.

Cut a few white labels and play around with your stamps. It helps to place the stamp in the center of your label but play around with it and see what you like!

Once you have something you really like, affix it to your can with either glue or tape. I tend to not like glue because it ripples the paper and is messy. If you are using tape, just tape one end of the label directly to the can. Then wrap the label around your can and tape the other end down!

Now your succulents have a new home that was saved from the landfill!

What do you do with your leftover cans? Let me know in the comments!

This has been a Trash 2 Treasure post. Checkout more transformations!

 

Thought For the Day

Live each moment, as if its your first.

Ocean Shores, Washington

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Tutorial: Make Your Own Cork Coasters

This has been something I've wanted to try for a long time, but haven't had enough cork to do so! We're not big wine drinkers and as you can see from the photos, we only really drink one brand. I like the uniform look only using one brand accomplished, but I think it would be fun to mismatch as well. This project also fits in with my goal of trying to create less waste and use things I already have. Don't throw away your cork! There are so many innovative things you can do with it!

First: Assemble your cork!  

 

This is easiest if you simply keep them all together from the start rather than having to search through a million drawers to get the right amount. I keep mine in a plastic baggy in the pantry.

Second: Placement.

 Choose corks that fit well together. Some are oddly shaped and difficult to stick to each other. Save yourself some grief during the gluing process and create your layout before you start gluing. Make sure the way they are positioned that they are touching on all sides!

Third: Strategy

  I'm not particularly graceful, and when it comes to glue I'm downright clumsy. I almost always get it on something or someone (usually myself). Figure out the best way to glue them together so they'll stay with everyday wear and tear. Follow these tips to get the desired outcome below!

- Glue the middle two together first. These will be the most difficult. Follow the instructions on your glue and if it says "hold together for 30 seconds" be safe and double it to 60. Follow the gluing order using the diagram below!

- Crazy glue is just that, crazy. Make sure you are gluing on a surface that you don't care too much about, and that you a wearing scrub clothes. You're going to get glue somewhere, trust me.

When all is said and done you should have a coaster that looks something like this:

What do you usually do with  your leftover cork? Let me know in the comments!



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This has been a Trash 2  Treasure post. Checkout more transformations!