How To Make Rope

My little girl made a her first tutorial (with my help) for her own blog--to show her cousins-- and it was so great I thought I'd share.

Here's how you make rope...

step one

take three pieces of thread, string, yarn or twine and cut them to equal lengths.

Step two

tie a pencil to each end of the 3 strings

(it can be a stick also)

Step three

pull string taught between two people (one can improvise)

Step four

spin pencils in opposite directions

Step five

balling string is bad

Step six

after you are done spinning the three strings together you are going to fold it into thirds. do this by putting both pencils together.

the string should loop around pencil #1 and go back to person #2

then pull the folded string onto pencil #2 making three strings again.

Like this

Step seven

spin string in the OPPOSITE way from last time. (remember balling is bad, but if it balls just pull away from each other as hard as you can... it will eventually work)

step eight

pull off of pencils and please tie the ends so your rope doesn't come undone.

Now what to do with your rope...

For girls you can tie it in your hair:

Or

Make a head band:

Isn't my mom so awesome!

Since I'm not a boy I don't know what a boy would use it for... why don't you be creative (and tell me what you come up with).

Wall Craft

You know those necklace holder's everyone seems to be in to? Well I wanted one, but I didn't want something that just had pretty paper on it. I wanted a little more personal appeal. So I decided to go with something that pulled in a bunch of different idea's. This is what I came up with:

I didn't think until after that I should have taken pictures. But I plan on making another one so maybe I will then. Here's what I used-

Items: Plywood, Black spray-paint, old frame I had around the house, a photo, hook and screws, ribbon and buttons, and a wall hanging hook thing for the back (what are those called?).

Tools needed: Hot glue gun, mod podge, drill or screw driver, a saw, and your imagination (or in my case the combination of mine and my 8 year old's).

All in all it cost .96 cents for the spray paint, everything else I had around the house. I did have to use a hand saw to cut the wood to size but that wasn't to bad.

Hope this gets your creative juices flowing!

-Charity

PS. here's a hint... I had a hard time getting the thing to hang straight especially after I put the necklace on so I took a tiny piece of adhesive Velcro and stuck it to the back and wall. Voila! no more slipping and sliding.

Taco Soup in Ones

Ingredients:

1-medium onion- chopped
1 lb ground beef
1-can beans (kidney or black or other dark bean)- rinsed and drained
1-can stewed tomatoes
1-can whole kernel corn
1-cup beef broth
1-bag taco seasoning
1-bag tortilla chips (we like the scoop kind)

In the pan you'll cook the whole soup in cook onion and beef together (this is how I make things faster and add some flavor to the meat).

Add beef broth and taco soup.

Add beans, stewed tomatoes, corn.

Cook till heated through (boiling-ish) and serve with tortilla chips.


Notes: I use beef granules, that way I can add just a smidge more than one tsp to give the soup a little added flavor.

All cans are your typical 14.5 oz size.



That's it.

It is a family favorite, my brother even likes it and he hates taco soup. It's because I use the beef broth instead of tomato paste *gag.*

Free Vodka Shirts Re-Purposed

So, first the story:

The university in these here parts had their homecoming this weekend. It's a very big deal, full of celebration, candy and alcohol. Most of us family folk hole up and come out only for the parade. As we did today. We were walking down to our usual parade spot when my 6 year old caught sight of a box that had one of the few words he can read in big letters on the front.

FREE

Ah, yes, free t-shirts. I picked one up and read the front. "Bomb Disposal Unit."

Well, that's nice I thought. Except later--to my dismay--I realized that the shirts were not a salute to our bravest and fines but to the fine art of binge drinking.

I had grabbed 5 shirts.

So..... I remembered a tutorial over at Make It and Love It. And I went to work.

I turned this: (please ignore the floor... and the toothbrush was tossed from a float at the parade. No one has used it yet.)

Into this:

Tweaks: I cut the chest piece from the bottom so I could gather the skirt. Then I sewed it back on with the hem facing out for little more spunk. I also added the ruffles on the front. Plus the waist band to give it a little more stability and structure (they were pretty flimsy t-shirts). I also kept the back low and crisscrossed the straps... which I put to far apart and the back bubbles a bit, but now I know not to do that.

Here's another view:My daughter was wearing a pair of ankle length leggings under this and it looked way cute, she's excited for Tuesday so she can wear it to school. (I feel loved).

Now you know what to do with a bunch of shirts that you find for free at a parade! Enjoy.

--Charity