McGyver headphone holder!
My purse is messy. No surprise really, but once in a while I really don’t want to get caught up on my phone headphones when I need to make a call, or am searching for who-knows what else. I know there are lots of cute things to wrap and control headphones, but you know what works great and is a lot cheaper? A square breadbag tie. Wrap your headphones around your hand a few times and slip the bag tie around a section… stays together great—even in my purse!
Enjoy! Jenna
You know what those spring weeds hate? Boiling water. Really! Next time you make a cup of tea, or have left over boiling water (like after you take corn-on-the-cob out of the pot), pour your extra boiling water right over those pesky weeds. At my house it works especially well with the small grasses that grow in my gravel walkways or in between pavers. The boiling water makes them wilt (and smells kind of like wilted spinach) and eventually kills the whole plant. Have a pesticide and backbreaking weeding free week! Jenna
Ok, so I must admit that my husband and I are addicted to Almond Lattes in the morning. We make them at home with our espresso machine (which saves a ton of money) plus when Starbucks stopped carrying almond syrup, that sealed the deal. The problem was that we were going through so much almond syrup, and it added up to big bucks—about $8 a bottle at our local store. So, I started making my own, once a week to keep it fresh, and keep it in the same old syrup bottle in the fridge. Now it only costs about $1.50 per bottle, and that’s with organic sugar (which is why mine looks brownish in the photo). An added bonus—no preservatives or additives! The recipe is below—happy coffee mornings! JennaPut sugar and water in small saucepan. Bring to a hard boil and boil for one minute. Take off heat, add almond extract. When slightly cool, pour into bottle with funnel. It will keep in the refrigerator for a little more than a week.
#1: Don’t promise to bring your 4 year old an an Air Emerites toy plane when you’re flying from Dayton and all they have at the gift shop is very little.
#2: Do ask for extra luggage tags at check-in counter so when you get home, your son can hang them to his school tote and pretend he is going on a trip. Serve pretzels and lemonade on his “flight” and cross your fingers that you don’t hit turbulance.
Shoestrings and Peace
Beth
I found another cool use for shower caps this week—but I must admit, my obsession with shower caps is driving my girls crazy! My youngest daughter had an end of the season basketball party, and we made a cupcake “basketball”—put all the cupcakes close to each other in as much of a circle as we could manage, spread thick orange frosting over the whole thing … you get the idea. But when it came time to cover it, instead of my nemesis plastic wrap doing the job—why not my new friend shower cap? It worked perfectly—it stayed in place and was puffy enough that it didn’t touch the frosting. This would be a great solution for pies and other round tote-around treats. Have a great day! Jenna
Use a shower cap to cover round treats!
My girls and I are big fans of homemade lemon curd, and when we make it there is an added bonus—the juiced lemon rind halves work great to clean the sink! Sprinkle baking soda in your sink and scrub away with the lemon, cut side down, then rinse—the rind works in the soda and the little bit of acid left in makes the soda fizz for better cleaning power. It smells great and gives another use to your lemons before composting them.
By the way, for the BEST and easiest lemon curd recipe visit Fine Cooking: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/lemon_curd.aspx
Enjoy! Jenna
I blogged a few weeks ago about learning how to make wonderful crusty bread and it lead me to a great tip of the week! I am not a big fan of plastic wrap and the bread recipe calls for using plastic wrap to cover your dough as it rises for 8-12 hours. I’ve been making so much bread (and wasting plastic wrap!) so I thought, why not try using one of those (unused) shower caps from our last hotel vacation? It worked perfectly! The shape is perfect for the bowl, and the elastic keeps it in place. Once done, I just wrapped it up for next time. Have a great week!
Best, Jenna
Aglet of the Week—replace plastic wrap with shower cap!
Ok, forgive me, but when Beth and I were talking about adding a segment called “Shoestring Tip of the Week” to our radio show, I couldn’t help singing “A-G-L-E-T, don’t forget it!” from my daughters’ favorite show “Phineas and Ferb” on Disney channel. Besides the fact that it is really a hilarious and witty show (can’t believe I’m saying that out loud), it’s teaching our young minds new words – like the name for the end of a shoelace is “Aglet”. So in honor of my daughters’ laughter, we are calling our new segment “Aglet of the Week”. Each week we’ll post a great shoestring tip, and we would love to hear yours too. Leave us a comment and we’ll try and mention it on our Mommy on a Shoestring radio show on Toginet, Thursdays 1-2 CST.
In case you want the Aglet song stuck in your head too – here’s a link. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAxBA8HYE58
Jenna
