Freezing Beets

I have decided that since I have a TON of beets, I will spare my family another week of beet-related meals and save them for when the weather turns cooler.
I love beet soup and quick (and easy) microwave beets. I also love shredded beets in salads with some apples and either pecans or walnuts (for some reason beets in salad makes me think of early fall and not summer).
I freeze A LOT of stuff - right now, I have beans, bulgur, brown rice, cooked beans, extra pasta sauce, extra freeze-dried herbs, homemade "ice-cream", and soup base in my freezer. I will literally attempt to freeze anything if it means that I can save it before it goes bad or before it goes to waste. I have never attempted to freeze beets before, so I won't be able to tell you - until maybe September or October - - how they come out, but I will be sure to mention it once I use them again.

This was my method to freeze the beets:

Clean beets; trim off ends; submerge in a pot full of water; bring to a boil; Continue to boil for approx. 25 minutes (until you can insert a knife or fork into the largest one easily).

Drain pot of hot water; add cold water and (lots!) of ice cubes to cover; leave for approx. 15 minutes (or until beets are cool enough to handle).

Peel beets (I use wax or parchment paper on my cutting board so that I have less (beet juice) to clean up).

Slice beets, if desired (I sliced some and left the small ones whole).

Lay out on parchment paper on a small cookie sheet or jelly roll sheet and put in the freezer overnight.

Put in freezer bags to save for later!!

What kinds of things do you freeze?

You can find me at some of these cool linky parties this week!
More later! :)

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Up-Cycled T-Shirt Dress

We decided to clean out our closets for the Goodwill. Mr. NoNo was doing a great job and he got rid of a lot of old t-shirts and sweaters that he doesn't wear anymore. Unfortunately, Miss NoNo got very upset that he was getting rid of his Hawaii t-shirt (that he has had since our honeymoon!). She was nearly crying (!) and she told him that he needed to keep it because she thought it was her favorite shirt. But, since he really didn't want it anymore, I told her that I would make it into something that SHE could wear. That way, SHE would be able to keep her favorite t-shirt!! :)

And...we made the "Up-Cycled T-Shirt Dress".

Lay the t-shirt out and use a dress (or nightgown!) that fits a little bit loose for your "pattern". Fold the pattern in half and lay it right against the middle of the XL t-shirt. If you have a design on the front of the "old" t-shirt that you want to be centered, now is the time to make sure that the design is on the center of your fold.

Fold the original t-shirt in half (both your pattern and the t-shirt should be folded vertically in half with the folds of each laying together). Cut around the pattern, leaving some space between the pattern and your cut for a seam allowance - I used 1/2". Make sure to omit the sleeves at this point - your pieces should look like parts of a tank dress.

You should now have two pieces that, when unfolded, are the back and the front halves of the new dress. Lay down the dress pieces against one of the remaining t-shirt pieces to cut the sleeves out. (To do this, I laid the newly cut pieces down and traced where the "sleeve" ended; then I put the pattern over all of that, lining up the cut "sleeve" and the pattern; I traced around the sleeve on the pattern - my pattern was ruffled on the edge, so I added a little bit extra to make up for the ruffled portion; cut it out, leaving room for a seam allowance.) You should have four sleeve pieces. Line them up to make sure that all pieces are about the same size (so that the sleeves look even once you sew them on).

Pin the front and back pieces together along the sides and along the shoulders. Cut out the neck more - you should need to do this to make sure it fits over your daughter's head (trust me - - I didn't check and I had to cut the neck once, then re-cut again (!) to get it right...you want to only have to sew the neckline hem ONE time - lol). Pin around the neckline hem (I used about 1/4" hem).

Sew along the shoulder hems, the side hems and the neckline hem. Next, pin two sleeve pieces together and then sew to make a sleeve (open at both ends). Do the same to the other sleeve and then pin the sleeve pieces on to the dress body. Sew the sleeves onto the dress body - you want to put the sleeves inside of the arm holes - with the dress turned inside out. Once you sew the seam, you will flip the dress right side out and pull the sleeves out and your hem is perfectly hidden. (FYI - my sleeves did not fit perfectly flush to the dress body. Fortunately, since the pieces were the same size, I was able to fold the sleeves (like little pleats) in the same areas on both sides of the dress - - adding a little extra omph! that wouldn't have been there otherwise...so don't worry if it's not a perfect fit, it will still come out good!). Trim the bottom hemline so that it is the same length in the front and the back.

At this point, I decided to not hem the sleeves or the bottom of the new dress. Since it was t-shirt material, I pulled the "hems" taut until they started to curl up. To do that: I just grabbed two parts of the hem a couple of inches apart, pulled and pulled again (but not so hard that you rip the shirt) - the material will start to curl up around the cut edge.

There was a large paint splatter on one part of the new dress (from an old painting job that Mr. NoNo did). Since I couldn't cut that part out without ruining the dress - or making it waaaaay too short, I decided to make a little flower with an extra strip of fabric and just sew that over the paint stain.

Here is Miss NoNo in her dress to check the fit (before I "finished" the hems). Obviously, she loves it!!
What do you think?? If you try it out, let me know - - I would love to see how everyone works their old tees into new, comfy dresses for the little ones! :)

More later!! :)

Ribbon Bows!

I recently bought this outfit for Miss NoNo that I thought she would love - - it's matching shorts and a shirt. The shirt has matching buttons and a ruffle down the middle and the shorts have a tuxedo pant-like strip down the sides that is sparkly. I really did think that she would like it - and it's her favorite color. HOWEVER, she pretty much refused to wear it...I brought it out every.single.day one week and every.single.time she said that she didn't like it and she wanted to wear something else.
...Enter the pink ribbon bows....


I got this ribbon and the buttons from JoAnn Fabrics. I had Miss NoNo help pick out the ribbon colors and the buttons and then we went home and got started! We bought a lot so that we could make a bunch and get her excited about putting the ribbon bows (flowers) on all of her clothes, if we needed to!!

I cut the ribbon to about 17 or 18 inches to make the bows. Then I took it out about one inch and folded it back in on itself. Where it comes together (in between my thumb and fingers) will be the center of the bow.

Make another loop on the other side - the same way as the first - take it out about one inch and then fold it back to join the 'center'.

Continue creating loops, alternating sides, until you have the desired numbers of 'petals' for your flowers. I did four loops per side for eight loops total.

Pinch all the loops together and check the distance of each loop. The individual loops should all be about even.

Insert a threaded needle through the 'center' of your flower.

Before pushing the needle all the way through the first time, fan out the 'petals' until they are about equal distance from each other (once you start sewing, you won't be able to adjust the placement).

Using the needle, pull the thread through a couple of times in each direction to secure your new 'flower'. At this point, you could trim the extra piece of ribbon (the remnant) just to clean it up, but I left as is.

Place the flower on whatever garment you want to attach it to. Run your thread through the center of the flower and the garment a couple of times in each direction to secure it. At this point, you don't have to worry about how the thread looks because you will be covering up the stitches with a button in the next step.

This is how the flower looks sewn on to Miss NoNo's shorts.

Place the button in the center of the flower and, using your threaded needle, run the thread through the button, through the flower, and through the garment. Do this a couple of times to secure the button to the flower.

This is the finished product. You could trim the extra piece, but I left it (as you can see!) to keep the flower full.

And this is how it looks from a distance. :)

To complete the outfit, I also added a flower to Miss NoNo's matching shirt.

This was a fast and easy project. It's amazing how quickly I was able to "upgrade" this outfit. And now, Miss NoNo WANTS to wear it! Ahhhh! 

If there is a step or two that is not clear, let me know and I will attempt to re-explain it better!!

I got inspiration for this idea from Family Fun Magazine - it's a great resource for quick crafts that keep your babies happy and entertained!!

More later! :)

T-Shirt Necklace

Hey all - this is my first tutorial...I will be learning as we go here, so hopefully, they will get better from here on out!!! :)
I found this link for a necklace up-cycle (from an old t-shirt) here. It was a really cute idea and I just happened to have an old t-shirt that was perfect for this!
The Martha Stewart link suggested using the whole shirt, but I only used four strips. It came out looking pretty cool!

Here are the steps:

Take an old t-shirt or camisole and spread it flat on a cutting surface (it has to be t-shirt style material, not anything ribbed, trust me on this one - - I already tried! lol).

Measure and cut strips (or skinny tubes) from the t-shirt. I used 1/2" strips and that came out great; but, you could use wider strips to make it more chunky.

Separate the strips and take each one and stretch it out by holding on to the seams and then pulling a bit to make it curl or roll in itself. I did the strips individually so that I could make sure that the tubes didn't come apart at the seams. The more you stretch, the more the tube curls in on itself. To make the curls tighter, I also took each tube (after pulling on it a bit) and then just separated my hands by 6 inches or so and pulled it again a little bit more.

Put all the tubes together at the seams. You should have all the tube/circles joined together and all the seams in just about the same place. Hold one side of the sets of seams with one hand and the other side with the other hand. Twist one hand around 180 degrees (one hand should be facing up and one hand facing down). This will give you a figure eight with your tubes/circles. Put both sets of seams together and pin to keep them in place. Cut one more strip from your t-shirt and use that (without stretching) to wrap around (or hide) your pinned sets of seams. (Remove the pins.) I wrapped the final piece around and around until it wouldn't go anymore, tied it as tight as possible, and then knotted it. I cut off the hanging ends and then singed it with a small torch to make sure it wouldn't fray. I don't know if that last step was actually necessary, but I did it just in case!

I also made a purple one for Miss M (out of one of her old t-shirts) that she really liked wearing!!!

In the future, I will attempt to take more pics at each actual step so that my explanations don't have to stand on their own so much.

More later!! :)