Campground Showers Made Easy!

So many of you campers out there know the hassle of trying to pack shampoo, conditioner and soap to take to the showers when camping. And if more than one want to go at the same time you need double the number of bottles etc. Or you simply can't. Storage in our trailers etc is prime real estate. So I saw this on pinterest and really wanted one. Actually 3 would work best for us as we have many people in our house. We just bought a new trailer and I'm already collecting the little things that take clutter to the minimum and life easy. So I started hunting. Found this exact product on a US site that....You guessed it....only to a US address. Crud!

 

So began the search. Really all I need is the bottles, or something similar that can be attached to the lanyard and take a bit of a beating. I started was frustrated at what I was finding on the web and brainstormed if I could make my own. But really in the end I couldn't come up with something that would work. But then I stumbled on these.

 

yes they ship to canada. Only downfall is they come in quantities of 10. I bought 20 total because I can thing of several people who would like one for themselve and they would make a great gift. I need 9 bottles just to do my family and the price is certainly doable.

Happy Camping.

 

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Master Bedroom Make Over Complete - For Now Anyway

So I began this blog with my master bedroom make over. And I'm happy to say it is done for now anyway. I have a couple of things I would like to upgrade or improve but will not be tackling it anytime soon. So here are the before and afters. Changes included - flooring - paint - area carpets - bedding, bed and night tables - window treatments.

 

 

 

 

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Making Less Than Perfect Beef Cuts Yummy!

I don't know about you, but I'm not the worlds worst cook and I'm not the best. I married young and have been acquiring this skill when the responsibility was plunked on my lap 20 years ago. And honestly the learning curve just keeps going and going. Especially since we turned gluten free and as low carb as possible. This past week I researched and found two great recipes for cooking up those cuts of beef that are not so easy to cook. This week it was stewing beef and a blade steak and I learned some valuable information that I want to pass on and that I know will serve me well probably for the rest of my life.

I'm a pretty good soup maker. I have a couple of stand by soups that I basically made myself and perfected over the years. But beef soup was never one that I had attempted. But I found this hearty recipe that takes those stewing beef cuts and makes them tender and yummy. In this recipe it calls for dusting of the beef cuts with flour. For this I just used a gluten free version.

http://www.theslowroasteditalian.com/2014/09/hearty-beef-soup-recipe.html

The second excellent recipe I came across was for blade steak. They seem to be the last cuts left in the freezer from our CSA (community supported agriculture) purchase and honestly I had no idea how to cut this. So after some research this is a passed the test recipe sure to make your beef yummy fall off the bone.

How to Cook a Blade Steak | LIVESTRONG.COM

I encourage you to check these out! They certainly passed the test in our home.

 

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Canvas Floor Mats

So I had bought these cushy, soft and EXPENSIVE floor mats from bed bath and beyond. They weren't in use for more than a day before I understood a major problem with them. They attract dirt like crazy. And that dirt sticks, like micro fiber clothes. Completely bummed with my failed purchase at this point, I again begin to brainstorm. How can I possibly salvage the situation. So after looking at the construction of the mats...they have a rubber under coating, cloth topped and edged with a binding sewn through all the layers. So I decide that I can get canvas material from the fabric store and new binding and makeover these mats into a stain resistent and easily clean funky mats.

Here are the original mats.

after ripping of the binding, I cut the fabric to size and and spray glue the new fabric in place

carefully sewing both the front and the back of the binding. This was a slow process but well worth it. And the rubber backing was making it difficult to maneuver but with patience I made it work.

 

Loving my new mats.

 

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How to Fix Ripped Drywall

I am currently cleaning and reorganizning my office AGAIN...and after removing a storage container that I had stuck to the wall I ripped a decent chunk of dry wall. I knew I could fix this as I had done some repairs around the house earlier but it wasn't until then that I finally figured out how to fix these issues properly. So I'm passing along my info to you.

Drywall tears don't fix the same as normal dents or holes but it is really very simple.

This is what you will need.

 

I'm all about convenience so for almost all wall repair I use poly fill in a tube, yes premixed and easy to use but for drywall rips you definitely need a compound that you mix yourself. The consistency is much finer and will clean the fine details of the rip that you need to hide under paint.

 

Next you will need a decently large putty knife blade. The longer the better.

 

Here is the rip I was repairing. Ist remove all the loose bits. You don't want anything that can flap or move left on the wall. Sometimes this means making the rip bigger. If its getting out of control use an sharp knife or blade to put a cut in the wall where the rip is heading. A blunt cut will still be better to repair than a very long tear.

Next you will need a temporary small container for mixing the dry wall compound with water. Add enough water to make a consistency that is not runny but not thick like peanut butter. It needs to be easy to manuveur.

put a decent amount along the top edge of your blade and turn the blade to face the wall with the putty side towards your tear. On an angle smooth over the surface until you get a clean thin cover over the whole tear. Try not to muck with it to much at the drywall is susceptible to the moisture. On or two quick runs over and leave it to dry. It drys quick. After its dry run a slightly damp spong over the surface or give it a very quick sanding. If its not smooth to the touch repeat the putty steps. After it is dry its ready for paint.

 

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Organizing a Small Laundry Room

We have a rather small, not the smallest, but small none the less, laundry room and we have 6 occupants using it. There is nothing I hate more than clutter, but clutter in a small space is a nightmare for me, and on top of that I have to do the chore of laundry in this space. It hasn't been great these last several years, so much so that I have been folding on my bed.

I think I finally got this figured out!

Here's the space I'm talking about.

 

After thinking and brainstorming a long time about this I asked myself what do I hate most about my laundry room. It's stuff! Stuff on the counter, stuff on the floor, no work space. So I figured my objective is to get stuff off the counter and off the floor FOR GOOD! And make it comfortable to work in there.

I don't know about your house, but in mine clothes gets collected from everywhere. I can't tell you how many stray socks I collect from our basement every week. Then sweaters or t shirts that get left lying around. So for me step one was to make it organized to accept these items without compromising floor space.

 

I added 3 matching hampers to accept floater items at any time. One for dark, lights, and whites. I gave a lesson to my kids and husband :) that clothes on the floor is no longer an option. And when they do a dark load they can fill it in with whatever is collected in the dark bin etc.

The other issue was not having a clean workspace for folding closes. This is caused by the above articles and stray socks (ugh) that get washed with someone else's load but never seem to find it back to their closet. And calling that person to get their clothes is not really reasonable since at any given time they aren't even home. So I knew I needed better organized storage for that. So I installed one more shelf, so that I could put 6 generous baskets within reach for each person in our house. Their items can go into their basket when cleaned and they can empty it all when its full or when they do their own laundry. Yes all my kids do their own laundry but I take pity and help the boys fold. YES I LABEL STUFF This makes it easier to make everyone accountable.

 

Lastly I wanted hand towels, dish towels to have a quick and easy spot to be stored so I hung the undercounted baskets (in First photo above) to the underneath side of the counter. I actually had these laying around and all it took was some small hooks turned into the underneath side of the counter. Then I labeled them too so that other people in the house can help keep things organized instead of trying to read my mind where things should go :)

 

 

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Recommended Blog

A girlfriend of mine has this great blog where she discusses tons of great ideas and tidbits of info from parenting to organizing and life as a sailers wife. Check it out! Here's the link!

 

 

 

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How to Install a Dryer Heat Saver In a Cramped Space

We recently replaced our washer and dryer. And we wanted to take advantage of a heat saver on our dryer again as we had one many years ago in our old house. This is the one we bought.

 

Our little laundry room is quite small and we are a large family so space and organization are extremely important. When the new dryer arrived I was excited to get going and get it installed but immediately noticed my first issue. As you can see in the photo the dryer vent comes out of our wall very low, probably like most situations. Our new dryer sits on a pedastool and needs the port to be up higher. Not a huge issue we could run 2 elbows to bring it up and lie up with the new dryer, right, wrong! Because our room is so small and the new machines are so big they already block the doorway somewhat, but to add another 7 or so inches out from the wall to accommodate the new running of vents, no way. I grumped like I usually do when presented with a less than ideal situation, then I think. And this is what I came up with to give me everything I wanted.

 

I decided in is case I was ok cutting up the wall. I mean it's behind the dryer right? No one will see it. Still a bit nervous.

This is the mess I made. Actually its perfect. I dismantled the elbow coming into the room and installed an extension, the vent saver, and then a new elbow.

 

 

The final end result isn't too bad. These machines are huge compared to what we had. We now have enough room to reach around the side and behind to empty the grate on the heat saver and are able to run a fan that helps push the heat into the hallway.

Check out my next post where I go through how I keep 6 people organized in this tiny space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Yay I Get To Do Laundry!

That's exactly what I was thinking when I decided it was time to do mine and my husbands laundry. No believe me I can't believe that I wasn't being sarcastic when I thought it. But nop I am happy to do laundry. Mostly because I think I have finally gotten this laundry thing figured out with a win win situation. It goes quicker, with no stress and energy efficient.

It all started with a broken washing machine. This machine was only half the age of our dryer as it was going on 20 years old. Both of our machines had lost their door handles and we had improvised with shoe laces and bungy cords to be able to open them. We had been thinking about replacing our appliances for ages now as we have spent way too many times taking the washer apart and cleaning out the pump. It's dirty, messy, stinky and an uncomfortable time consuming job. Yuck all around! Anyways over the end of the holidays the damn pump quite AGAIN! Staring down another pull apart (only 2 weeks from the last time in which we found nothing and yes the damn thing worked again after we out it back together!) ...we caved! Not the most ideal time to buy a washer and dryer from the pocket book standpoint but none the less we decided to jump.

 

Just for the record washer and dryers are the absolute cheapest on Boxing Day! We were Shopping after that point but not out of the sale category. Also note that Sears will forward their up coming sales and reimburse you cost on those dates. Yay! We ended up with a great deal and opted for the insurance on the washer. Yes we have lost faith :(

So pleased with our purchase this was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. And the beginning of a laundry room overhaul.

 

I had overhauled the laundry area several years prior with shelving and bars for hanging and drying laundry but now it was time to step it up a notch.

Here's a before.

 

Here is the after!

 

Check out my next couple of posts where I talk about installing a heat saver vent for the dryer and how to organize a small laundry room for aLarge family.

 

 

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Paleo Recipes - These Were A Hit At Our House

It's been a couple of days since I've posted. We did finish the flooring in our master bedroom makeover only to RUN OUT! Man I hate that! I'll post about that all later. 

Nop this time I'm talking about recipes. I have two newbies for you that were a hit at our house. 

This recipe is called Paleo Spegghetti Pie the adults in the family thought it was delicious. And some of the kids didn't mind it at all. We did have one thumbs down but all in all not bad. So It went into the tested and parents loved recipe section.  

Another recipe we just added to our was Mel's Good For You Cookies. I can't for the life of me find the link for this one. So if you're out there and this is your recipe post me a note and I can link it over. Here's our photo and my notes that I saved. Now these aren't really a cookie to me. More like a chewy granola snack but they are yummy and have very little sugar. Only what you find in chocolate chips. Kids love them and they were filled into our PASSED THE TEST - Healthy Snacks! 

Recipe Organization App

If you're like me and have stepped into the digital era, you probably are no longer using your cookbooks. I gave the last of mine away a couple of months ago and everything I do has gone digital. It's easier, right! You know all your favorite recipes are on that iPad or computer. All in one place and easy to find, right? Well not really. Because if you're like me you've collected links on facebook and your yum app, one recipe and paper ones too. But I recently found a solution to get them all, in all their different formats into one organized spot. I recently purchased, for the price of a glorified fancy coffee an app called recipe gallery.

This app is great for me because it uses your screen capture or photo gallery to import you recipes. Then you can organize recipes from absolutely anywhere. As soon as you import it allows you to crop to your relevant information or photos and it works great.

 

I recently started advance prepping meals or doing freezer meals two months ago. What I learned quickly was doing 5 meals of a recipe my family is not crazy about is really a bad idea. So I started using this app to organize recipes from testing stage to passed the test so I will hopefully have a full list of recipes they love Iin one spot.  Then on meal prep day I can compile my grocery list and be ready to go!

Great App. Check it out!

 

 

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Master Bedroom Makeover - Step One (Paint) - Check!

 

BEFORE AND AFTER

 

 

Well the paint is done. Onto the flooring. We are going to have to rip and lay down flooring. A little at a time because I am NOT moving all the furniture out of the room. And we want to live in it as we go.

 

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Lunches Stress Me Out

LUNCHES STRESS ME OUT!

Trying to get kids and teenagers to spend 5 minutes in order to prepare a healthy, gluten free lunch is trying to say the least. Here's one tip that gets something wholesome in their bellies that is easy and they don't mind eating.

 

Apple sauce!

It's actually very very easy to make. My step father taught me that you don't need to blender it just a quick run thru with a masher does the trick.

I bought a massive amount of apples from good friends of ours who have an orchard Last fall and left them in the garage in a big tub. Keeps the critters out but cool enough to keep good. Now I admit I should have gotten onto this a bit earlier as some apples are on their way out.

I chose a tart apple for the majority of the batch but I also like to throw in a sweet one or two to make it a bit nicer and avoid using sugar.

I used a peeler that I got from Stokes. It is the absolute best and if I ever recommend a product this would be it. Simple construction, inexpensive and it cores, peels and slices in one shot. ITS A DREAM!

Peel up however much you like, throw in a big pot with a bit of water, cover and boil till nice a mushy, add cinnamon if you like and mash. I put my batch in jars that were clean but not sterilized as I am not keeping them long term. They will get refrigerated and eatin probably by the end of the week. But at least this way it can be a quick stash and go for my guys lunches. Want more info? Please leave a comment.

 

 

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