Spiffing Up Worn-Out Glitter Shoes

I remember my little sister (who will start college at the end of this month!) wearing glitter shoes to church. And I remember the glitter left on the pews and in the hallways from her, and other little girls. My daughter has now joined the ranks of glitter-trailing girls. Wonder Daddy tried to save these shoes by setting the rule that they had to stay on the floor if she wanted to sit cross-legged at church, to try and prevent all the glitter from being scraped off...but it was all in vain.

The toes were bare and devoid of glitter.

Ernie was sad: Dilapidated and glitter-less shoes are NOT fit to be worn to church!

Luckily, Momma has overcome her fear of Mod-Podge, and the shoes are now rehabilitated and ready to be worn (and worn out) all over again!

It's a really easy fix- using a foam brush, I wiped a thin layer of Mod-Podge in a symmetrical shape on the front of each shoe and (holding the shoes over a piece of newspaper) shook glitter on. Tap the excess glitter off, decant it back into the jar, and let dry. Top with another coat or two of Mod-Podge (let it dry well in between coats.) You're back in business!

I wasn't able to find any pink glitter (and besides- the chances are slim of finding a PERFECT match for these shoes) so I went with a cheery gold glitter. I think they look kind of like wing-tips. Sparkly, Wicked-esque, wing-tips.

(Speaking of Wicked- saw it the other afternoon with Wonder Daddy. Great show! I'm still humming the songs.)

The Doll Family

I finished up this family of dolls just in time for our family reunion- say hello so Siu Jeun, Bubba Jyu, Lo Gong, and Aunt LoLo! (Oh, and Mimi's little piggy toes- Mama was multi-tasking during her lunch time :)

The dolls are painted with acryclic paints, and sealed with a matte-finish varnish. I love how it deepened the colors just a smidge.

I'm so excited for the birthday girl to meet her new dolls!

Garden Update

Just a few pictures of what's been coming through the kitchen recently- our yard isn't terribly productive right now, but it IS nice to have some homegrown produce, and get more gardening experience under my belt.



Turnips from the raise garden bed

Blackberries from the brambles that grow around the perimeter of the backyard (this is nothing extraordinary- it's hard to find any empty land NOT encroached upon by this vicious vine!)

Italian prunes from an enormous tree in the backyard (we're picking them under-ripe this year: last year I had to watch as racoons and squirrels hung by their toes in my tree, eating every last plum)

"Chinese green bean"- I will definitely not be growing these again! They taste fine, but from at least a dozen plants, I've harvested 6 beans. Yes, they're 12-18 inches long, but 2 beans a week is NOT worth the space :)

Those round things...beats me! They came from the bean plants. We composted them.

More italian prunes

Apples from Mom's yard

Seeds harvested from my mysterious purple flower

(Oh, the limes are from an enormous bag my dad picked up. The juice is in the freezer now.)

How is your garden doing? I'm hoping to do a Fall garden this year, but August has slipped away from me. I hope if I can plant the seeds soon, we'll have enough sunshine to bring in a little harvest in a few months.

Another Use for Apple Cider Vinegar

I'm must really like you guys- I can't believe I'm posting these pictures! *grin*

So...this picture was taken at the end of May. Do you see that thing on my forehead? I was mighty concerned about it.

**edit: Yes. It's a wart.**

Here's a photo taken last weekend.

And another from Tuesday.

If you look really carefully, it's still there (but you know, in my experience they can stay "in remission" so to speak for YEARS so I'm not concerned.)

Want to know my ultra-fancy, super-expensive secret? Apple cider vinegar. Swab it on with a q-tip and cover it with a bandaid if you want it to go away faster. Mine took three days. (Wonder Daddy and I had a race- he used a $10 package of wart-off stickers from the drug store. I won by a land slide!)

So now you know. And I'm going to go burn these pictures :)

What do you use apple cider vinegar for? (It also makes great coleslaw...and works miracles on athlete's foot. And yes, we have MORE THAN ONE BOTTLE. Eww... :)

Screen Time

To my dismay, it seems the things we have so carefully tried to limit for our oldest daughter...have become her obsession. We limit candy, and it fills her every waking thought if she finds it in the house. We try to limit screen time (movies, computer games, etc.) and she spends ALL DAY asking for more! (If you're silently judging me because my daughter watches movies, can spend an hour scrolling through our family pictures, and plays Starfall, Friend, and our spanish language program...that's fine. Just please don't tell me!)

We came up with a system the other day that hopefully will work well for her- I made a "token box" on the side of the refrigerator and moved three magnets inside. Each magnet is worth 30 minutes of screen time- she can move them out and I start the timer. So far this has really cut down on whining and tantrums! Of course, this afternoon she went and moved all her tokens back in, to try and get more screen time... but I'm hoping this will help her see concretely how much time she has available, and help her to choose what to do (play a game, watch a long movie, watch 3 short movies, etc.) It also helps that I can say "No, you're out of tokens for today, but tomorrow we'll fill the box again!"

I hope to make some marble magnets just for this box, but haven't come up with a design yet, but it's nice to have something she can physically touch and feel that she can control.

What do you do about screen time in your house?

A Week of Paint

We've been getting a lot of use out of our paints lately- I picked up some tempura paints for Ernie during our last foray to the craft store, and she loves to make colorful pictures. It's amazing- it's really not messy at all! She knows to pull out her art placemat, and there's normally a little bit of overage at the bottom of the page, but it's easy to clean.

Mommy and Daddy have been playing with paint too- after a year of looking at our dining room with its vibrant walls and blah rosy-beige trim, we painted the woodwoork a bright shiny white. I LOVE it! We need another coat in a few spots, but it's nice to be getting some of the house "list" crossed off :)

Apple Butter Tutorial

After mentioning a batch of apple butter last week, Sam requested a recipe. Umm...OK. Here's ya a recipe :)

Go ahead. Eat me. Make my day

Start with a LOT of apples. I had half a paper sack full. The great thing about apple butter is you can use those funky home-grown apples- cracks, blemishes, etc. are all fine. Mine were from a tree in Mom's yard we always forget about and harvest late. These apples were way past their prime- I'm sure I couldn't have eaten them if I wanted to keep my vow to never touch alcohol. They were POTENT! You'll also want a food mill and a crockpot. You could punt and do without, but they make this a lot easier!

So, take your apples and cook them soft. It will go faster if you halve or quarter them first. I microwaved mine, but you could boil them too. Mine were soft enough that they didn't need much help.

Once your apples are soft, start loading the hopper of your food mill. You can see my set up below- I clamp it onto an extendable bread board under the counter with a 9x13" pan to catch the puree and a small bowl to catch the waste. (I actually traded the small bowl for a 9x9" pan later. Do whatever works for you.)

Once your apples are in the hopper start using the wooden pusher to start mashing them through, while turning the crank on the side. The corkscrew inside mashes everything against a fine sieve- the puree comes out the side and down the chute, while the nasty parts (skins, seeds, stems, etc.) head straight through. It's REALLY a good idea to have one of these- go borrow one! (Mine belonged to my sweet MIL...who swears she was never able to use it for applesauce and had to borrow HER mother-in-laws. Which makes me wonder...do I have Great-Grandma's food mill??)

Once you've churned through all those apples, dump the whole thing into a crockpot and crank it to high for the rest of the day. Keep it on low over night, and then crank it again in the morning. You want to go from this....

to this. It will take quite a while, but keep the lid off and it will cook down and won't scorch. It's hard to do this on the stove top without scorching it! If you like you can add cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, sugar, or whatever floats your boat. Me, I like straight up apples.

Once it's nice and thick, ladle/push it into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space, and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. My half bag of apples made 2 pints of apple butter, so you'd need a LOT of apples if you wanted to make a lot of apple butter. The good news is that most of the work is hands off. You could also start with store-bought apple sauce.

Enjoy!