CHEAP Homemade Furnisher Polish!

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So....I have been enjoying my homemade household cleaner so much lately.  I made that during the first part of January, and it has been so much help.  It is no doubt a money saver, and with the way I like to clean my counter-tops, it is so helpful.

So....I decided to make something else! Well you see...since my house living room really does have lots of dark wood furniture, it gets fairly dusty pretty quickly. So I use a lot of pledge, to try and keep my house looking nice.  So I decided that instead of spending all that money on furniture polish, I was going to make my own... and that is exactly what I did! 

It is super easy! Plus it is super cheap! Just buy olive oil and lemon juice.  Plus you can use the lemon juice for my household cleaner.  You can find the recipe for that by clicking the link.  Anything you can do to save money and still keep your house clean, why wouldn't you!

I know that when I do things like this, and make homemade things that also benefit my families budget, I really feel good about myself.  I mean not to sound weird, but it makes me feel good to know that I am doing something to help take care of my home and my family.  I cannot wait to be a stay at home mom one day and be able to do more things like this.  With the life I lead now it is hard to find time to spend working on homemade things, but one day, I will be able to really take care of my family and my home in this way.  If you didn't know my hearts desire is to stay at home once I have a family.  I know that desire is straight from the Lord...it is strong, and I am constantly reminded of it.  I pray about it a lot, and my husband and I talk about it a lot.  I know that we are doing what we need to do right now.  We are both working, saving money, and I am finishing my masters degree. Then when the time comes, I continuously pray that we will be financially ready and stable to do this, and I know that the Lord hears the desires of my heart and wants good things for us, so I have faith that this will happen!

Just a couple of pics of me and my husband to show you who we are! I want to be able to get to know my readers, and it helps if you have a visual of who I am! and of course who my sweet husband Meguell is! 

Anyways, that is just a little part of my heart and dreams that I wanted to share with you.  Enjoy the recipe, and let me know if you use it and how you like it! 

Also don't forget, our Naturally-Nifty Linky Party #1 is finishing up tonight at midnight, so head over and link up before it ends.  We have had some great entries for our first ever linky party, and we cannot wait to feature some of those next week! Be sure to like some of your favorites, because that one will be featured too! 

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Oh, the fun we have!

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As a daycare provider, one of my favorite things to do is cook with the kids! The kids love it so much. I do not mind a mess and I love to let the kids play and make anything they want. They are use to our routine, so they are pretty good about keeping order. So the other day we decided to make homemade pizza. Of course, we had to grind our wheat in the wheat grinder that I have from Nutrition Lifestyles. The kids LOOOVE that part. It is so loud and so fun to watch the whole wheat go down the grinder. 

The kids really enjoy putting their hands in the wheat and feeling it. Once we have it all ground up and it is the texture of wheat flour, the kids love feeling that as well. It is so fun watching them. Some kids just play and play while others, like my own, are too worried about how dirty their hands are! :) 

Once we finished that part, we had to start putting the dough together. The kids enjoyed putting all of the ingredients in and then we had to let it knead. We used our Bosch from Nutrition Lifestyles! Love my appliances! 

We also made our homemade sauce! Obviously it was so yummy! My little munchkin preferred to eat it straight from the spoon.

I gave each table a plate filled with different items you can put on their pizza. The kiddos were able to get their pizza exactly like they wanted. I did not help at all. It was so fun to see how they did their pizza.

We baked the pizza.. and then each child got to eat half of it and took the other half home! YUM! 

The kids also rolled out their dough. They loved it. Anytime you need something quick to do with your kids-- COOK with them. My kids love it! 

Don't forget to link up at our FIRST LINK PARTY! 

-Big Sis

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Naturally-Nifty Party #1

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Before we get to the exciting news about our first ever Linky Party....

I wanted to share a few of my favorite Pinterest ideas with you! 

If I haven't told you already, I love the colors yellow and gray, and I get so excited and inspired by all the great projects that use this color combination.  So I am going to share some of my top Pinterest picks from my Board: Yellow & Gray

 I love the entire look of this room. With all the different patterns, on the bed pillows, to the rug and stool.   It is so daring to me, but also works so well together.

Along with yellow & gray, I love trees, so this explains why I love this piece of art.

This chair is so great! I would never think to use these two different patterns together, but it really looks great!  

I am so inspired by this piece! I love the idea of using yellow and gray (with giraffes) in a baby room.  This might finally be my chance to have this color scheme in my house.  I think the next room I will be redoing will be when we decide to have kids, so this is definitely in my future!  

They took the yellow & gray color scheme to a whole different level and I LOVE IT! It is such a bold statement on the outside of their home and it looks so classy to me! 

Love the wedding colors...this works so well together! 

Then of course I love this look on the outdoor furniture! Especially because it is my pin.  This is the furniture that my husband and I made together from scratch. You can read more about it HERE. 

NOW....for the Naturally-Nifty Party #1! 

So us sisters over at Natural-Nesters have finally gotten our very first Linky Party together! And we want to invite each one of you to take part in it!! 

We are so excited to introduce Naturally-Nifty to you! We want this to be a place where everyone can come and share their newest or oldest nifty ideas.  Whether it is a great recipe, a craft you did at home, DIY projects, home decor, or children's projects! We want to see it all! 

The only things we ask is that you become a follower of Natural-Nesters & that you put our button on you blog so that you can link back to us! (You can find our button on the right side bar)

You can post as many links as you want. And next week we will feature some of our favorite projects/ideas! 

Plus we will have a bloggers choice feature! So take time to visit some other blogs and LIKE your favorites and the blog with the top Likes will be featured next week as well! 

Thanks for linking up with us!

We can't wait to see your nifty ideas and accomplishments! 

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Homemade Glitter

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We had so much fun at daycare making homemade glitter. Anything we can find to make homemade, we do! It is so much cheaper and so much more fun for the kids. They are so excited when we do things like this. First thing is we gathered all of the supplies. You need:

-Salt

-Food Coloring

-Container for Shaking (or baggie)

-Container for your glitter

All of the kids got their own containers and they were able to pour as much salt into their container as they wanted. Some poured very little, others overflowed it, and there was one that actually stopped at the top! This is so fun for the kids when they are getting to do it themselves. 

The next thing is to put food coloring in their salt. I let each child have their own container of food coloring. I also let each child choose which color they wanted. Luckily I had enough that there were not arguments over who got which color. It worked out because we had several different colored glitters. Only one child as not content with just one color... that would be mine. He mixed in three colors and made a pretty blueish green. 

 My little man was way excited about the food coloring. The other kids enjoyed shaking their containers but not little man. He just wanted to put food coloring, more food coloring, and more food coloring! It was soo fun though. 

 After you have your food coloring in the salt and you have shook it up to make the colors all even- you can put it into a container. The kids were so proud of them. So I gave each child a piece of construction paper, glue stick, and glitter. They went to town, made a mess, and had FUN! :)

We LOOOOVE learning here at daycare! This is the home away from home for many of my kids... and we have so much fun doing different things! :)

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COME VOTE & Help Me Make a Choice

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   In case you didn't know, our beautiful dalmatian Bella-Jane had puppies back in December.  She had 9 healthy full blood dalmatians. They are so cute and so fun! It has been so much fun to watch them grow from when they were first born, literally, to now when they are at the fun "toddler stage."

    Take a look at a few of these stages! 

Now.....

   My husband and I are at the sad part.  We are taking them this weekend to the breeder who decided to buy all of them from us.  That was a blessing on it's own.  We had planned to spend the weekend at a big Trades Day in our childhood hometown and hope to sell them.  Instead, the breeder called and asked if he could buy them all.  So we saved time, money, and we don't have to pay $200 extra dollars for their shots either. And we made a whopping $2,100!  So that was all around a blessing.  

Anyways......

    Here's where you come in...and your vote MATTERS! My husband and I have known all along that we wanted to keep a dog.  But we have yet to make a decision on which dog.  We leave tomorrow night to drive the 5 1/2 hours home, and will take the puppies on Saturday, mid morning.  So we have to make a decision pretty quickly.  

But......

    We both have a favorite, and we cannot agree on which dog to keep.  You have no idea how hard of a decision this is for me! So I am going to need your help! Please everyone leave a comment telling me your choice...if you were in my shoes and needed to decide. First let me tell you a little bit about the puppies!

His Choice...

This one is a little girl...she is skinny and sweet and looks a lot like the dog we have now.  One great thing about her is that...she is a female, and that has it's own perks.  The second thing is that because she looks like our dog, Bella, we pretty much know she will be beautiful even when she gets bigger.  Long & Lean, which we like. My husband likes her the most because of the way she looks, because her spots are defined. 

Her Choice...

This one is a little boy...he is normal sized, so sweet, and also so playful.  He has the cutest face ever as you can tell.  Also, he has really attached to me a lot, like he knows me well.  He always comes up to me, he hides under the chair as we put others dogs up, and stays out with us, and he always seems to find me.  I guess you could say we have made a connection and I have gotten attached :-)  He is different than our dog, so we don't know what he will look like when he gets bigger. He doesn't have as many spots that are defined like the other.  My favorite thing about him is his great personality! 

So.......

    GO AHEAD! Take a vote....which one is your favorite! 

-Little Sis

Also, take a look, the Natural-NesterS officially have their very own button! Located on our right side bar! We would love for you to support us by putting it somewhere on your blog! 

Plus we are talking about having our very first Link Party sometime soon! Yay! We can't wait to host a party! We love linking up to other parties and checking out everyone's wonderful creations and ideas! So go on and get a head start by subscribing to our page and putting our button on your blog! Then you will for sure be ready when the party gets here! 

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Brussels Sprouts 'n' Bacon

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As much as I wish this was MY creation, it isn't... All credit goes to the book Everyday Paleo by Sarah Fragoso. 

I post pictures on my facebook of the many awesome foods that I cook. I posted this one and was requested the recipe by many people. So, friends, now you get to see the recipe here!

Even if you do not like brussels sprouts, you will LOVE this! If you have never cooked brussels sprouts, you can COOK this! It is so easy and oh so yummy. I have been trying many different recipes from this cookbook and everything I have cooked has been fab! Just look at the awesomeness in this picture:

YUMMO! 

Seriously! This is so great! 

Ingredients:

       6 bacon strips                                 1 tablespoon dried thyme

1 pound brussels sprouts                Black pepper to taste

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Dice bacon and cook in a skillet until crispy.

3. Steam the brussels sprouts for 4 minutes, cut off stem, and quarter.

4. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, toss the brussels sprouts with the bacon, bacon grease, garlic powder, thyme, and black pepper. Spread evenly in a glass baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Stir once half way through cooking time.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 5

Seriously, how easy is this. I have made it as a side for dinner and also just as a lunch meal! 

Happy eating!

-Big Sis

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My 1st Ever Sewing Projects!

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Last year, in about April or May of 2011 I got my first sewing machine ever! I didn't really know how to use a sewing machine, had never done it before actually, and when it came down to someone showing me, it was the first time I had ever even heard of a bobbin! ha I didn't know that thread went in the bottom of the machine! It was such a surprise to me.

Anyways, my mother-in-law gave me hers and I was taught just the basic skills on how to use it.  So I took it back to Abilene with me and decided to use it.  

So, since I was going to Africa that summer, I needed lots of ankle-length skirts, (a requirement for the trip) because of the culture there.  So my friend and I went to Hancock's Fabric and got some really great and cheap fabric that looked semi-African to us! And we decided to make some long skirts. 

This first one I made was inspired by a wrap-around skirt my friend bought from EarthBound.  We like the idea of a two layered wrap-around skirt.  So here was the outcome! 

It is a little rough around the edges, but give me a break, it was my first time ever! I so wish I could give you the tutorial :-) But, being new, that was not on my mind at all! ha I was lucky to even get this done! 

The other skirt I made was a lot easier.  It was just a simple elastic band skirt.  If you know anything about sewing you could figure this out easily.  Just measure your length, plus some for the waist band and bottom hem, and I think I used a yard and a half across (that's just guessing though), and then just sew the bottom hem, and hem the top to make it nice, then sew the side up together to make it a circle, then put the elastic band in the top.  

For a first time sewer this was a super easy skirt to make.  

If you are interested in trying this, email me and I can give you more specific details. 

Then...later in the summer right before our trip I got together with my friend who had bought a very cheap dress pattern, and we made dresses.  This was rather challenging, but I know I could do it better next time.  Basically I made the same skirt as the one above and used the dress pattern for the top.  It turned out okay, but I would definitely spend more time on the next one I make, but it served its purpose while we were in Africa.  And we walked around looked cute and proud of the dresses that we made! 

This picture is of us actually in Africa wearing our dresses and chacos! 

(Sorry for the bad quality of this one, it was the best one I could find) 

-Little Sis

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