Sisters Friday...a little late :)

It's back to school time & that's pretty all I've been thinking about! This last week on Sisters Friday Jocelyn Therese and I organized closets! I know. It sounds boring. Therese's 3 daughters all share a room & they decided it's time to split them up a bit. So good-bye therese's craft room :( now her & her hubby are sharing an office/craft room. I forgot to take before pics so this is what we did...

Moved these shelves..,

Into hubbys office...

(kids computer on right)

Now a tiny but tidy closet...

Once a full craft room in the process of turning into a bedroom

Huge closet!!! Now for a little 8 year old boy. Lucky.

Sorry it wasn't more exciting but it's exciting to have families grow!



Brit

This Is Not Disgusting

Thia pucture looks like something i dont even want to smell but trust me, its fabulous. So Therese & I made cookies for the kidos play and of course there was some cookie dough left over. As we were picking it over I asked Therese for some milk and instead of giving me a glass she just poured it straight into the bowl! We grabbed spoons and ate the most delicious cereal EVER!!!

Here are the cookies, most of these in the picture, I burnt. I kept setting the timer for hours not minuets. Whoops! We trashed the really burnt ones, gave the mildly burnt one to the kids and saved the best for the adults...it's just awesome the perks of adult life.

Side note....we did NOT share with our kids. Hey! What they don't know doesn't hurt them... :) There were 6 of them & 2 of us, if we had given them some cookie dough cereal there would be none left over for us... Being an adult can be hard, why not indulge once in a while...did I mention perks?



You should try it...yummy!!!



Brit

Childrens dream come true!

I know that Therese hates to hear these words, but they are sooo true..."she is SUPER MOM!!!" Their family habitually set goals and her 7year old set her summer goal to put on a play. So at the beginning of the summer they started planning it out. They went to the library and picked one out. Her children Picked parts and figured out what they had at home for sets and costumes.

Her 7 year old made all the decisions and directed the whole thing. (of couse with a little support from the mom)

Yesterday we went over and set eveything up, made some treats (more on that tomorrow) and then for family night had some friends and family come watch

I love that Therese went all out enough to keep her promise to her daughter and help that child fulfilll her goals but didn't got all out sooo much to loose focus on what's really important... The family fun.

The king, the ogre, puss in boots, princess rose and poor Tom. My 5 year old says that next year it's her turn to put on a play...lucky me. :)



Brit

Jocelyn's Kitchen Curtain!

I love love the red on red Polk-a-Dot curtains she just put up in her dining area. You must understand that I don't decorate with red, at all. It's a lovely color but I just don't. In fact I have this fabulous bedspread that is all dark red and fabulous and when I put it on my bed I loved it! But everytime I walked in my bedroom it just wasn't right. I'm not sure why. But Jocelyn loves the color and uses it with flair! Sorry about the pictures...camera phone :) Here's her before...

Isn't that a nice spread of grass?



So when I make curtains it's pretty slap stick job- fast- but not perfectly-um-right. Now when my lovely sister Jocelyn makes curtains, we are talking perfection! Step one... Fold the fabric once, iron, fold the fabric twice, iron. Along each side of the curtain panel. I'm sure there is lots of pinning involved...

Then make a big finishing fold on the bottom side...

Along the top she used toole (is that how it's spelled) how creative! Her hubby doesn't like the rings- he thinks it make curtains look like showers - so the toole she placed with 4 inches between each one. Sewing each peice on with a fold on the bottom part, so that the top of the toole has 2 ends.

Then she tied the two ends together around the curtain rod.



Many 90 inch sides later.... Cuteness!!

Well Done Jo!



Brit

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Goodbye $25/container detergent!! Hello $10/YEAR detergent. Think this is too good to be true? Think again ladies!!

Our friend Miss Teeter was so awesome and taught us how to make Laundrey detergent. My sister Therese made this batch shown today. She has 6 in her family so you can imagine the clothes they cycle through her laundry room and hence, the crazy amount of money she could be spending on degergent- This really saves SERIOUS MONEY! (We do put a double helping of detergent with our whites- nice & clean whitie-tighties!







Here is what you need- all purchasable at Winco (in the Laundry Isle)...

1 bar of Soap (you can use whatever but Therese here is using Fels-Naptha because it is made for treating laundry stains)

1 Cup Washing Soda- Arm and Hammer brand

1/2 Cup Borax (20-Mule team brand)

3 Gallons Water

5 Gallon Bucket





Step One: use a regular cheese grater and grate your soap (then throw in the dishwasher and you have a very clean grater!) Next heat up 4 cups of water in a large sauce pan(it will become very volumous so use a huge pot) until it is almost boiling. Add the grated soap and stir until it is dissolved, keeping below the boiling point. - if it boils a little bit it still sets up :)





Step Two: Put 3 Gallons of hot tap water into the 5 gallon bucket. Then mix in the hot soapy water from step one. Stir for 1 minute. Add 1 Cup of washing soda and stir for another minute, then add 1/2 cup borax and stir for another minute. Let the mixture sit overnight, uncovered.





That is it you are done. You should have now a bucket of gelatinous slime that iis a paler shad of soap you used before. Keep it covered once its done- um not sure if this keeps the detergent nice or if it just keeps your kidos out :)



 You will need about 1/2 cup per load and this bucket should last for about 96 loads!!! about $10 per year!!!! Also Miss Teeter said that she bought all she would need for a year and put it all in a extra 5 gal bucket and set it in her food storage- great idea! 



Thanks for sharing Therese!!



Funny side note- therese's hubby saw her taking the pictures for this post and their conversation went something like this...

Hubby- "WHY are you taking pictures of your soap."

Therese, "for our sister blog!"

Hubby- "hmm"



We girls may be a bit peculiar but it's fun!

 

Brit

Footboard Pot Rack

Oh my my! I am excited!!! I have been wanting a pot rack for years & years but could never stomach their high high prices... AND Jocelyn gave me this antique footboard years ago and I never put the two together...but now I did!!!!!!! YES!!

So I spray painted...

And stapled...

I Also screwed in the hooks to the ceiling and to the footboard and wallla!!

It was kinda a lame getting to, I didn't have the hooks, spray paint or staples and -man oh man- I can't stand not having what I need in the garage- isn't that thing supposed to be fully stocked with what I want? Right? I Had To Go To The Store- just not right :)



Brit Cooper

Our project que

So today I purchased a couch. That needs some h-e-l-p... But I have some projects that are much higher on the list, I currently have too many ideas amassing, jumbling, overfowing out of my brain. But we have a busy couple of weeks and then out first child starts kindergarten. So I want to spend as much time as possible with her before school starts. I decided to write down my game plan do that I won't get too distracted. At the same time I thought I'd show you what Therese & Jocelyn have on their own game plans!

Brit's....

Hang a pot rack in my kitchen

Build a bunk bed

Redo my oldest daughters room to fit her AND her little sis

Paint a few rooms

Hang curtains in a few rooms

Make a MAN ROOM for my hubby

make a massage room for ME!!!

Reupholster a couch- if i can barely spell the word does that mean anything??

Modge Podge a table

Redo my desk

Wallpaper my closet??

Jocelyn's....

very cute pettiskirts for all 3 of my DD

Crocheted socks for DD #1--have to have cute socks for kindergarten

Curtains for almost every room in my house

a chair before and after

some clothes alterations both for my family and for others

a purse made out of KFC bags

filling my freezer with snacks, breakfasts and whatever else catches my fancy

ETC...The list can and will go on and on

They are not in any particular order

Therese...

Back splash in the kitchen

finish the garage or convert, however you want to look at it

Redo everything in the bathrooms

put in a basketball half court

the porch

move all children to their own rooms

disassemble and rebuild hubbys office

disassemble and rebuild her craft room

...in short move every single thing in every single room... well minus the kitchen, the living room and her son's room

WOWZA... any tips for us???

Free Hugs in Boise ID

This looks so fun and fabulous and such a inspiring idea!!! I sometimes wish I was born a hippie, bur we can all be lovers not fighters- just like our freeflowing skirted friends, right? Right. So my bday is coming up and this is what I want to do!!!



Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=hN8CKwdosjE&feature=youtube_gdata

!!!!!???!!!- Whose with me -????!!!!!!??



{see you September 18th}



Brit



Ps - So I know I said this week I'd have some projects done for you, but they just didn't happen...and neither is sisters Friday happening today :( I'm going camping and Therese has friends in town and truthfully I am sad for Jocelyn but Jocelyn will fill her day with fun stuff for sure {much funner than hosting a yard sale}!

Makingmaking whole wheat bread in 1 hour 40 min

alrightie then, making bread... One of those things that is so much incredibly better than store bought. I sooo want my kids to have memories of waking up (late) in the morning to the yummy smell of my-mommy-loves-me-so-she-made-bread smell! (i like yhe idea of my kids having the healthy habit of waking up early- but in practise...its just so productive for me if they wake up late) okay im rambling...so, I got this fabulous recipe from Corn Farms in Ontario Oregon. Which just happens to be where I buy my wheat.



Here's the recipe...

8 cups whole wheat flour

7 cups hot water

1/2 cup olive oil

3/4 cup honey

3 cups bread flour

2/3 cup gluten

3 Tablespoons Salt

4 Tablespoons yeast- active dry yeast

6-7ish cups whole wheat flour

And you know what? Use the best ingredients available - local honey from the farmers market and pure sea salt and freash organic wheat!!! Why? Because YOU are worth it!



Ok !!



So in a large bowl combine first amount of flour then water salt olive oil, honey and stir until combined. Then add gluten and bread flour, and stir in yeast, combine well.

Add the rest of the flour until it's not a huge sticky mess just a bit sticky!! About half way through adding the last of the flour I dump it all on the counter and start kneading. Don't be wimpy while kneading...push and fold with the palm of your hand! If you need more flour at this point i like to use bread flour just because it makes for a smooth knead. Once it feels like chewed gum, it's ready to rest!



****you don't want to add too much flour or knead too much or your bread will be dry**



Let rest (sit untouched on the counter for 10 min)- during the 10 min grease your pans and preheat your oven to 170, once it hits temp, turn the oven off and walla!! You've created yourself a warm breeze free rising spot!

Cut your dough into 6 even balls of dough, to form your bread loaf you punch your ball into a small rectangle, just a bit smaller than your glass bread pans. Next fold over the far side into the center, pinching in the left and right sides, then turn your dough a little more towards yourself and tuck those sides in. {sometimes i need a bit more flour at this point-so of the dough is stixking to your hands-add a bit o flour} Once in a oval shape rotate your bread dough with the seam on the bottom.

Place softly all your formed loaves into the greased glass bread pans and put it into the {warmed but off} oven to let rise.

Rise 30 min. Now in my directions it says that the bread is ready to cook but 30 min never seems to be enough rising time for my bread so at this point I leave the bread in the oven and turn it on to 335. While the oven preheats the bread rises to perfection!!- at least that's the goal!

As soon as the oven hits temp-Bake at 335 for 25-30 min

Cut one loaf immediately and eat with butter and honey or butter and jam or just butter or honey and almond butter or pure style without anything

My amazing hubby is a picky eater to the emph degree and he LOVES this bread so I hope you love it to!



Brit



ps jocelyn & therese have their own bread recipes that are FABULOUS and at one point we'll be sharing those too!



And pps... I know that there are kitchen aids and Bosch machines that do the kneading for you- but I enjoy kneading it gives me the earthly pure motherly feeling of providing food for my chillins... I realize I'm silly- but? It's fun.

A cute work in progress

Yesterday, Jocelyn texted {wait, is it texted or just txt} me this picture with the heading "a cute work in progress" ....

Before she had a few random framed pictures on each wall in her bedroom and hated it, now they are working on on fun fun fun cohesive wall of cuteness! I love the pairing of antique frames and ultra modern frames, as well as the grouping of framed pictures, empty frames and the rose artwork that Tim drew for Jocelyn!! Tim isn't too sure of the empty antique frame that Jocelyn hung on an angle, personally I think it makes the arrangement ... What do you think?



Brit

Emma's Modge Podge Wall Hanging

So my wonderful friend Melody Ross taught me at Brave Girls Camp how to use modge podge to create art.  I had the amazing blessing to attend as staff-which was just amazing and I hope hope hope to go back as soon as our schedules allow! It was amazing, uplifting, spiritual, fabulous experiance that I will always hold close to my heart... and if you go to the website, she has these fabulous little messages that she sends out every day and you should sign up because they are fabulous!!! (I think I use that word an little too much)...umm back to the point My daughter has been wanting flower painting in her bedroom, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do some fun, stylized, pop type art. (which is fun but i don't really want in my living room)  And a perfect opportunity to give her something that reminded her whenever she saw it that she is loved and perfect just the way she is. So here is the finished product...

 

First I cut wood to the size I wanted - you can use canvas but I didn't have any ... but I did have wood so I used that -

Then I painted a base layer of paint -

On top of the paint I painted the bottom half -afterwards I wished I had done the top too- with modge podge and layed down tissue paper...

  

of course you put a layer of modge podge on the bottom and the top...

Then I painted another layer of paint.

While it was drying I cut out tons of different flower petals, laying them on the table as I went to see how it would look.

When the board was dry I used more modge podge and started laying down petals with the modge podge...

 ...  The awesome thing about this type of work is that you can do almost as many layers as you want.  This ended up being pretty 2 dimensional and kitchy art but it can also have a lot of depth and movement from all the textures and layers but that wasn't quite what I was going for a fun playful hangin

once I was done laying all that I wanted to modge podge... I added some fun little paint here and there, I did dots on some of the flowers and swirls on the background- which thinking about it now I should have done the swirls before I laid the flowers
 

When it was all dried and done I took about 10ish different ribbon, knotted them together, and stapled them with a staple gun onto the back.  And yes this is a piece of beadboard.  That all I had on hand so I used it and it worked!!   And also yes this photo is out of order, I couldn't seem to move it, so here it is in the middle of the process,...whoops!

Heres the fun swirlies... and some more dots around the swirlies...cause I wanted to..
  

Around the outside of the piece I painted a pink boarder- mainly because I never get things framed and so it helped finish the piece off, But what I was actually going with this is that inside the pink boarder I wrote in silver the many things that I adore about my oldest girl... creative, daring, zesty, adventurous, imaginative, thoughtful, lover of life, girlie... etc  I want her to look at the art and know that life is fun, optimistic and escpecially that she is loved and perfect just as she is.  Here is the pen that I used...
 

Then I hung it on the wall!!  
 

A little detailing... um above⤴   and below ⤵ I just wanted to point out that since i did do it all on beadboard I needed to hang it in a stud, so it has two hooks.  Next week I am going to be switching some rooms around in our house and at that point this will be moved to a new wall, hopefully that wall will have a stud exactly  where I want to hang it, and then I won't need two hooks! positive thinking!!!
  

 

Honestly, emma helped with it a little too much design wise and colors (which don't flow as much as I would like but she likes them and thats what counts) and I ran out of modge podge to do all the different layers and things that I wanted... melody gave an amazing example with soooany layers it was fabulous. But Emma loves it so that's what matters! (and the cool thing about modge podge is if you don't like it, layer over it...so I might fix some issues one day when I get the bug!  

(also i did one for my bedroom, and I'll show you when I get around to it)

Up next this week...jocelyns curtains, a new addition to my kitchen made out of an antique footboard and a tutorial on how to make bread

Brit

Huge GIGANTIC garage SALe

Hello neighbors!!



On Friday ( tomorrow) my sisters and I are having a HUGE gigantic garage sale for sisters Friday!!



We cleared out a vacation rental and have furniture, mattresses of Every size, tona & tons of bedding of every size, dishes, small kitchen stuff, pillows & blankets.



We are growing out of baby stuff and have a bike trailor and high chairs & travel cribs clothing toys and more



Our hubbys cleared out garages of weight benches and tires and man stuff



Kids cleared our rooms of legos and stuffed animals and dolls,



We cleared out decor and clothing tons of first aid stuff ( don't ask :))



So much stuff I can't walk into my garage!!!



Come by tomorrow from 7am-4pm

581 n carswell in star-

Hope to see you!!!

Brit Cooper

Swimsuit refashion!! Part 1

Not one thing is wrong with this suit, but it pulled up funky on the sides - alright you win, I'm lying, it was just too small in the length...which is weird cause I'm only 5'2-



Part 1- so we are having a garage sale this weekend and so....I'm cleaning out closets and dressers and such. On day 2 (yesterday) I went through my clothes. I opened my beloved swimsuit collection and began sorting. I figured there was at least a few that I could part with. Out of my 23, (I know that's a rediculous amount of swimsuits- but I LOVE them!!!) I found 3- 2 that dont fit well and one that's a hand-me-down from my mom, it's dang cute but highlights the stretch marks in my stomach- a big no no...



But instead of selling them, I just love them too much, so I'm refashioning them to fit!! Sadly all three were either tankini or one peice... I don't know about you but those are a hot commodity in my life. They are hard to find and even harder to find ones that are flattering, cute, sexy, and modest to boot. So it's with much deliberation that I made this one into a little bikini. (which I love but with kidos harder to wear)

Before....

First off I cut off the bottoms from the top at the point in which I thought would be high enough for the top of the bottoms...



Then I tried it on and decided it could NOT be a tankini...it highlighted the stretchmarks. So I cut off the top into a bikini leaving enough room to serge. Then I served the bottoms and the top...

Then I cut the remaining middle section into 3 strips and sewed them together.

Using my newly aquirred gathering foot I gathered and sewed the now one long strip onto the bottoms to make a cute little ruffle- okay I lied again- man I'm a little liar today- Jocelyn sod the whole gathering thing...her & I just got a new gathering foot and this was my first time using it. Long story short- me the machine, the gathering foot and the Lycra did NOT get along, I guess I'll have to practise on cotton :(

So sorry I digressed!



So Jocelyn sewed the gathering tucks together...

Done!!! Sooo easy and now I have another suit that I'll actually wear!



Weeellll, I did have 12 modest and 11 bikini but soon I will have only 9 modest and 14 bikini... I guess my kidos will have to make do with less variety- at least hubby will enjoy more variety. Although I don't think that in the entirity of this year we will go on enough dates, that require me to wear a swimsuit, to fullfill the amount of suits I have aquirred! But oh boy I do love them!!!!

Brit