Pepper Paints

Leaf Print Tablecloth

This is sort of how this project felt…crazy.

First off  you will need some flat leaves for this project. Next, you will need a tablecloth to decorate. A quick trip to my local thrift shop got me a gold tablecloth-perfect!  You will also need fabric paint. So,  a hopeful run down the one craft aisle at my grocery to find fabric paint and save me a trip to the craft store,  revealed fluorescent colors. Boo!! But then out of the corner of my eye, on the clearance rack, I spied the perfect Fall colors of permanent acrylic paint. Score again! I love when things are easy and work out that way! It doesn’t usually happen, so I was indeed happy with my lucky finds!

So I cleared the way in my kitchen to spread the table cloth on the floor. My kitchen is small and my floor isn’t spic and span-eww- and the tablecloth took up all the available floor space. That meant we were constantly walking all over the tablecloth–eww again-it also meant the material kept getting wrinkled up. I begin to get annoyed.

OK-next I spread out some newspaper and paper plates with the paint, leaves and brushes.

You will also need more newspaper and a rolling pin for this project.

Paint the underside of the leaf—the veins will give you a better print.

Then carefully put the leaf, paint side down, on the tablecloth and cover it with wax paper or a sheet of newspaper. Carefully so that the paint that is all over your fingers doesn’t get all over the tablecloth.  Then again-carefully, so that the leaf doesn’t slide around, roll over the top of the newspaper with your rolling pin a couple of times.

Remove the newspaper and then carefully peel your leaf back up-so that you don’t just drop it back down creating paint splots on the tablecloth. And watch were you throw your cover piece of paper-it has wet paint on it. Are you feeling my blood pressure rising??

Can you see that I was a little too invested in the product of this project!!! Part of it was this was a little messy for my kitchen floor and tables. Water colors or tempra are one thing but permanent acrylics are another. As Ginger walked over the wet paint back onto the wood floors and I am yelling, “Don’t step in the paint, wipe your hands off, don’t get that paint on my rolling pin, you’re wrinkling the tablecloth” etc… etc….  But surprisingly-they endured my fussiness  and the leaf prints came out great. We plan on using this on  our Thanksgiving table.

So the moral of this story is…if your looking to make this a really perfect looking tablecloth…do it your self. If your looking for a fun project for your kids…protect all surfaces and  shut your mouth. Allowing the kids to make it without being over supervised (and probably taking most of the fun out of it)!! It will look great either way! Another lesson learned!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Out With Plastics!

Look Ma-no plastic!  It has been a long road (not too long), but little by little I have been able to replace just about all of our plastic with glass and stainless steel. I still have a few very large plasic tubbies I haven’t parted with but that’s about it. Some stuff was cheap and some things weren’t. This is by no means my entire stash-but you get the picture!

I purchased these stainless steel thermoses  and water bottle from Target. Not too pricey.

I bought these mason jars and other large glass storing jars at various grocery stores and thrift stores. These were cheap. I now freeze everything in Mason jars and store all of our nuts, grains and dried fruits etc.. in these. I am always on the look out for more really large ones!

I bought this stainless steel water bottle and both re-usable stainless containers at Kids Konserve. Looks like they have some nice new products since I made my purchase!

These tiffins I bought at Life With Out Plastics. They carry several different kinds. I choose these because they have a silicon seal around the lid so they are leak proof-making them safe for lunch boxes and they also have individual lids. The other type have to be stacked and used all together as the they serve as lids for each other. But they sure are cute all stacked up and are really conveinant to tote around!

And my latest purchase—the “kids drawer” that used to be filled with plasic cups, melamine plates, plastic picnin cutlery, plastic bowls, is now filled with shiney stainless steel plates, cups, bowls and meal trays. My girls said they feel like royality eating off of these huge trays with many little spots to hold various treats. We have a thing about our food touching at our house-so this is a perfect solution!

These were more expensive and I bought them at an Indian Grocery (Thanks for the tip Sheri!!) I am on the look out for some bowls that are cereal size-I am going to try a few of the restaraunt supply stores around here. Most of the online stuff I found was only available in HUGE quantities!

My storage conainers are from the thrift stores. I love when I find them with the matching lids!! And I have a set of Martha Stewart glass containers that came  from KMart pretty cheap.

A few other things I have aquired are TONS of cloth napkins from the thrift store

A produce bag that Molly made for me (That’s another post!)

I use it in place of the plastic bags I would use to put apples or handfuls of green beans in.

We also got rid of all of our teflon coated pans. I use parchment paper to line cookie sheets and wax paper bags when necessary.

I also LOVE our cast iron pans I have collected from various thrift stores. I even have a dutch oven waiting for me in the basement to be de-rusted.

And one other thing I am loving right now is our super large pump top thermos.

This was a gift, found at the thrift store, for my birthday a few years ago. It has a glass insert and stainless steel pump. It sure comes in handy when someone wants a cup of hot tea or gasp….a cup of hot cocoa. (I do buy those packets, hey, at least they are organic!). I fill it up with really hot water every few days. And in the summer you just slide over a little button and it keeps things cold! What a great find!!

I would love to find an alternative to the larger, gallon size, plastic bags. Sometimes things need to stay moist, that rules out the cloth bags, and need to be large-like for celery sticks or bunches of lettuce or greens. Although I do wash and re-use them.

This post was really sparked by an article I read about a women who tried to live with no plastic for a week or 2. There were so many things she could not  purchase or eat because either it was packaged or served in plastic. It really got me thinking about all the plastic I use daily and how plastic has changed our lives. Funny how great technology is but it also causes so many unforeseen problems.  Nature Moms Blog has a post about plastics and some alternatives.

Game On

We love to play games at our house. And let me tell you, we have quite the selection! I am almost embarrassed to admit to the number of games we actually own!

Friday nights used to be “Game Night” at our house. We would take turns picking out games each week so everyone would get a chance to choose their favorite.  We went through phases of playing Parchisi for weeks on end, Mouse Trap, Harry Potter Clue and Candy Land. We all enjoyed a thrifted game called Snapshot for quite a while too. You slide a black and white photo behind a door with 12 tiny windows and you take turns opening them one at a time revealing bits and pieces of the photo and trying to guess what it is. Thrift stores can be great places to find games that may be otherwise pricey-grant it they have all their parts!

We all have our favorites;  Joe=Monopoly, Risk, UNO    Jake-Monopoly, Square Up, SET    Molly= Mille Bornes, Make N Break, Cranium Cadoo   Me=Blokus,Othello,Five Crowns, Quiddler    Ginger= Elefun, Don’t Break the Ice and this

this game from 1969 that my husband played when he was Gingers age!

I just might have a question concering these ever so simple rules!! Really I need one, blue replacement egg-only one mind you-my Mother-in-law did good!!

There is nothing like playing games together-the arguing over which game to play and who got to pick last time. Who’s on whose team and who will go first. Yelling at people to go because they are taking too long. The eventual speculation that someone’s turn got skipped and someone is inevitably cheating! Oh,the memories we are creating!

Even through all that I still ask on many occasions;  who wants to play a game with me!!

Look How Much Weight I Lost!!!!!!!!!!!!! (And Creepy Faces II)

Gotch ya!! Not really me, but my closet. This is embarrassing but I am going to let you look in my closet, yesterday…..

It was bad I know! But after a few hours yesterday and about an hour today, I manged to purge ALOT!

Plus a hand me down bag to a friend. At this point I must tell you that I buy 90% of our clothes second hand-and not at upscale consignment stores either. I prefer thrift stores that are packed floor to ceiling with hidden treasures. I love the thrill of the hunt! I occasionally buy things new-sometimes I splurge on really expensive things, like on the two new pairs of shoes I recently purchased, or the winter coat I bought three years ago. And sometimes I buy at Old Navy and Target. But the packed garbage bags that are headed back to the thrift store as a donation are filled with the many treasures I buy at the VOA or Salvation Army or my favorite Village Discount. For some, the great thing about shopping second hand is the savings, and I am no exception but really in the long run, because I buy so much, I probably don’t save as much as most thrift store shoppers. I posted awhile back about how I am not a simple person-and my closet confirms that story! But with some trimming of the fat…it looks a whole lot better!

I parted with lots of treasures, but one pair of old favorites will probably never leave my closet. Not on my butt nor in a donation bag. They will sit on my upper shelf, buried by things that now fit my 40 something year old figure.

Oh, if these cut offs could talk! They may utter the name, written in marker, on the inside of the front pocket, that is crossed out, to become the property of a younger brother. That younger brother would be my husband. Not long after we met in college, I claimed this pair of Sears plain pocket jean shorts. I wore them through every season. With tan legs in the summer and tights and long johns underneath them along with slouchy boots in the winter. It has been a few years since these fit me (comfortably). But they are a reminder of my youth. What once was. Something I may never part with.

I found a few strays in the mess too. I thought the combinations of these lost and found items were really funny!

On day one, I found-a ballon, a dice, a ticket stub, broken jibbet, a doll shoe, 2 hair clips, my drivers liscense I had to replace, my matching slipper covered in dog fur, an acorn top, one of Gingers old slippers (yea-the match is in the basement).

On cleaning day two, I found a headless doll, Some Kodak movies (Need to find a projector) and a pair of magic magnet rocks (Yeah! A pair).

My goal is to not bring tons of stuff back into that closet. I am going to try to be a little more thrifty!

As far as the creepy faces-well those apples are still wet. They are beginning to mold too. So into the compost bin they shall go.