thrift store finds!

I've been checking out the local thrift stores here around our new house. It's a little bit more hit or miss then I'm used to, my local Goodwill in Washington was huge and well stocked, and it's a bit different here for sure! We are now living in a much more rural area which makes for slimmer pickings at the thrift stores.

But I still managed quite the haul yesterday!

This clutch was $0.95. It opens up into a full wallet, and I needed a new wallet.

This cardigan will be great as the weather here in Idaho is starting to warm up into the '50's during the day. Nice and light and I love the lace inset on the back! It was $3.95.

This skirt is awful at first glance, but I am going to hem it and make it into something fabulous. I love the combonation of the chevrons and the polka dots, and the dark blue and tan colors are cute too. And it has pockets! It was $1.95! I can experiment with refashions for that price.

 

 I know, I know! It looks ugly, but I think as a flippy short skirt it will be really cute. And look at the pockets! I really love pockets.

I got this heinous piece of 1970's wall art as another DIY project, it was only $0.95 and there were two of them. Hilary and I have big plans to spray paint these and use them as wall art in the Girl's rooms.

 

I also found a couple of treasures for my Girl, she was thrilled to find a full set of these Disney princess magnetic paper dolls for only $1.35!

 

These things have well paid for themselves in entertainment value in just the last 24 hours. Seriously.

 I also found this Little Mermaid play set for her, she is obsessed with mermaids and the ocean right now and has approximately 1,000 of those tiny Disney princess polly pocket dolls. Now her five mermaids have a home! (And for $1.95 I can actually feel somewhat ok about adding to her toy collection.)

 

In addition I also got a book for the Dude (which he's already eaten part of--sigh) and a book for myself. Grand total? $12.29 after tax! Did I mention that Idaho has less sales tax then Washington? I am SO loving it here!

~Jessica

whip it up Wednesday: DIY almond coffee syrup

Last weekend on our first Boise shopping extravaganza, Hilary and I stopped at Moxi Java in West Boise and got what is arguably the. Best. Coffee. Ever. I'd never been to a Moxi before but now I'm totally hooked! In WA I had my fabulous local Forza coffee shop that I adored, but I think I may have found the Idaho equivalent in Moxi. The best coffee I've had here yet, and a child friendly atmosphere! Seriously, they had a children's movie playing. It was genius.

Ok I'm done raving. And no, they didn't pay me to say this! I'm just a wanna-be amateur coffee shop critic. I really really really like my coffee.

Anyways, I got their almond latte. Let me tell you, I want that stuff fed to me by IV. It was amazing! Since Hilary and I are always looking for a new DIY recipe, we discussed it and decided that almond coffee syrup was probably something we could make at home for our own coffee, on the cheap. Hilary had already made vanilla-raspberry coffee syrup and it came out great.  Lo and behold, we were right! Here is the (stupidly simple) recipe:

Thrifty Tip Tuesday: DIY Children's Sensory Board

This winter has been an especially cold one this year in Idaho.  We've spent TONS of time, sitting inside and me drinking way too much coffee.  I (Hilary) grew up in California, so this snow stuff drives me nuts!

I've really had to stretch my brain to figure out good indoor activities (hello, four hundredth game of Candyland) and interesting toys to keep my kids occupied.

A few years ago, my husband made my daughter a DIY sensory board out of things we had around the house.  It was a great idea and she loved it.  We then packed it away since she had outgrown it.  Oh a whim a few weeks ago, we pulled it out for my son and it was a HUGE hit.  Then when Jessica moved here and brought the Dude over to play, both boys loved it.

So here's a quick "tutorial" to make your own DIY sensory board for your little ones!

Paint a board any color.  We had an old board in the garage (pine) and some old yellow paint.  My husband sanded the edges, then painted the board yellow.

Then my husband searched the house for random materials for the board.  You can use any materials you want, but I labeled the ones my husband used so you can have a starting point.

He stapled them on, and ta-da!  A sensory board.  So quick and easy and because he used things we had, it was free!  We've debated hanging it on a wall (which you definitely could), but we like that we can bring it out to the living room or hide it away.

It was a huge hit with the boys!

What creative activities are you doing to keep your kids happy this winter?

Monday morning update and a sneak peek!

Wheeee! SO happy to be together!

This morning Hilary and I are finally able to enjoy our first cup of coffee together (in person, NOT on the phone!) at my house. I am working really hard at unpacking my boxes and furniture, but we still found time to go shopping in Boise on Saturday!

We hunted high and low for a ceramic pen to correct my *ahem* sharpie mug fail for her birthday. We finally found one at Hobby Lobby! God bless Hobby Lobby, they have crazy stuff that literally no other craft store has, apparently. We looked at three other stores before we found this baby:

who knew this would be so hard to find?

Yuck! Please excuse the bad cell phone picture. 

This week we will be back up and blogging more regularly I promise! We even have a giveaway planned for the near future, which I'm really excited about!  I will leave you all with a sneak peek at just one of the projects we have planned for this week...

Pinterest Friday: The Infamous Sharpie Mug (of doom)

I'm sure everyone has seen these Pins on how to make decorate ceramic dishes with Sharpie all over Pinterest by now, they're one of the most common Pins I've seen out there. And I've also seen mixed reviews, because about half the people who try this say it works perfectly, and half say it completely doesn't work.

Source: Uploaded by user via Domestic on Pinterest

Hil and I are both in love with fun coffee mugs, so I decided to try this out for her birthday present. I found a perfect mug at a thrift store for $.49, grabbed my Sharpie and got to work! I chose a cool quote by Sherlock Holmes because Hil is obsessed with him, and this quote perfectly describes her.

 "My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work."

      --Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of the Four

I followed the instructions to a T. I wrote on my mug with Sharpie, baked my mug in the oven and then send it through the dishwasher to see if the Sharpie would stick:

 

Yeah, not so much.

As you can see, the Sharpie comes off in the dishwasher! Although not completely, so you can still read the quote. I tried everything to make this work the way it's supposed to. I went over it again (and again) with more Sharpie, I baked it twice, then I baked it for much longer then called for. Nothing worked!

The only thing I can think of that may have gone wrong is that some people say you're supposed to choose a dish with a rougher finish, and this mug had a really glossy finish to it.

This would have been really cool if it had worked! My solution is to buy a real ceramic pen and trace over the Sharpie, and re-bake it. Once I do that I'll give it to her, just a couple of months late for her birthday...in the meantime this doesn't stop my husband from using it whenever it's clean.

Want to see our awesome redo that actually worked?  Check it out here!

Whip-it-up Wednesday: Four-Step "Frankenberry" (Tri-berry) Cobbler

(We're back!  Jessica is moved here safely and staying with Hilary for a few days.  Four adults and four kids under the age of five in one house has been a little crazy, but we will be blogging consistently by next week!)

Berry cobbler is my husband's absolute favorite dessert. He prefers straight blackberry, but for today's Whip-it-up Wednesday, I had a 'cobbled together' (see what I did there, I made a funny!) mess of frozen berries from our freezer. I think it ended up being about an equal mixture of blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. Don't judge, it was still delicious! The best part? This is the world's easiest dessert! It's only four steps and prep time is almost nonexistent.

Hilary made multi-berry jam last year and called it "frankenberry" jam and we decided to use that for the cobbler (it doesn't actually have frankenberry cereal in it, we promise!).

Four Step Frankenberry (Tri-Berry) Cobbler

Ingredients:

4 cups of berries, of really any type (fresh or frozen! I used frozen, they tasted great and were cheaper)

1/4 cup lime or lemon juice (I used lime, it's what I had on hand)

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup sugar (you can cut the sugar even more for a more tart cobbler)

2 Tbsp corn starch

1 Tbsp butter

1 pre-made refrigerated pie crust, like Pillsbury

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put your butter into an 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan, and set it in the oven while it warms up. Take out the butter when it's melted.

2. In a mixing bowl, add together berries, lime juice, vanilla, sugar and corn starch. Stir a little bit to fully coat the berries.

3. Add the berry mixture to the baking dish with the melted butter, then gently roll out the pie crust over the top. It won't fit perfectly, I just kind of crumpled it up in spots and it worked great. 

4. Bake for 30 minutes, or until berry mixture is bubbling and the crust is a very light golden brown. 

Personally I think this cobbler is best when the crust is still a little underdone. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes once it's out of the oven so that the corn starch has time to thicken up the berry mixture. Serve with ice cream or vanilla Greek yogurt and enjoy!

~ Jessica

Pinterest Friday: Recycled t-shirt bracelets

I've been making some of these recycled T-shirt bracelets lately, they're really simple. I simply cut up some old T-shirts into strips and braided them together, then sewed them together at the back.

I love using them at the gym, they're kind of a fun accessory and when I get them sweaty from wiping off my face I can throw them into the washing machine with my gym clothes! I feel like they're a little more stylish then a gross old hand towel, you know?

I didn't really use a single tutorial for this project, but sort of cobbled together a couple of them.

I used the braiding and sewing techniques from this Pin:

Source: doitself.triggercrazy.com via Jessica on Pinterest

And the cool center knot technique from this Pin:

Source: hotpolkadot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

I love recycling old T-shirts, and this project was quick and fun, something I can do while watching TV and between kids demanding my attention.

Boot Cuffs Crochet Pattern...Free!

I had a friend who was dying for some boot cuffs, and I've been wanting to figure them out for a while now. I agreed that if she would supply the yarn I would make up a couple of pairs for her. Turns out, they're super easy to make!

The Tan ones are a smaller version, the friend who they were for has very slim legs:

These grey ones were a gift for the friend who originally requested them. She bought the yarn and I tested out the pattern:

Key:
Sl St: Slip Stitch
Dc: double crochet
ch: chain

You will Need: 
An H hook (5.0-5.0)
A worsted weight yarn, I used Caron Simply Soft, because that's what I had on hand!

Pattern:
1. Ch. 20
in second st from hook, dc 1.
2. dc 1 in each st (total of 18)
ch 2, turn
3. continue for 24 rows*. Sl st to join, leave the tail long.
4. Use a yarn needle to sew the edges of your rectangle together tightly, right sides facing.
tie off ends
5. scallop the edges--I found that 8-10 scallops looks best, I just tried to keep my scallops as even as possible as I worked my way around, making sure each scallop spanned the same number of the ends of the vertical rows**

*You can do more or less rows depending on the size of the leg you're using your boot cuff on. I found that 24 was the most versatile, but the tan boot cuffs only have 20 rows (for my friend with slim calves), and the blue has 25 rows.

**There are some great tutorials on how to scallop an edge, the best ones I found were here and here.

Whip-It-Up Wednesday: Buffalo Mac 'N Cheese

We eat pretty healthy around our house, partially for health reasons and partially because we don't eat gluten, which limits things like french bread and chicken nuggets.

My husband's always been a huge fan of homemade mac 'n cheese.  Me, not so much.  I find it to be heavy, greasy and too salty.  One day, my husband brought home a jar of Ragu's Double Cheddar Cheese Sauce.  Scratching my head, I tried to figure out what to do with it.  I saw veggies in my fridge, the cheese sauce, and some Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce.  And my buffalo mac 'n cheese was born.  We eat this all of the time.

Its a great comfort food and the cheese sauce actually has significantly less calories than cheddar cheese.  You can use chicken, but we use turkey hot dogs instead (since they are lower-calorie than regular hot dogs).  You could even put chopped-up chicken nuggets in it.

Buffalo Mac 'N Cheese
1 jar Ragu Double Cheddar Chese Sauce
2 cups elbow macaroni (we use gluten-free potato macaroni)
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup of baby carrots, chopped
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce (depending on how spicy you want it)
6 turkey hot dogs, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
8-10 cups of water

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees. Put water into a big stockpot and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, put the noodles, chopped carrots and chopped celery into the water.  After 5 minutes, throw the chopped up hot dogs into the pot as well.

2. Once noodles and veggies are soft (around 10 minutes total), drain, then put in a big mixing bowl.

4. Pour jar of cheese sauce over the top.  Add Frank's Red Hot to bowl.  Put a little salt and pepper in to taste.

5. Stir until it is blended evenly.  Pour into casserole dish.  You can drizzle a little more Red Hot sauce if you want.  Bake for about 15 minutes until everything is heated and there is a light crust on the top.

We serve it with a little sour cream drizzled over the top.

Voila!  So easy and so good.  You can also freeze this dish.  The noodles get a little gummy after you thaw and bake them, but it's still tasty.

Enjoy! ~ Hilary

Thrifty Tip Tuesday: Beauty Stuff!

So this week has been crazy! Jessica is in the huge process of moving and will be here in a few days (hooray!) and has all of her craft supplies packed up...

Jessica's living room.  Eek!

 ...and my (Hilary's) camera died. 

So instead of a Domestic Bliss original post, we are doing a round up of other people's awesome posts and ideas! 

Beauty stuff (lotions, exfoliants, face masks) are a fun way to treat yourself, but often cost money. Even a few dollars here and there can start to add up. So we are always on the lookout for cheap, but effective beauty tips and things you can make at home. 

Here's a few of our favorites! 

 1. Two-Ingredient Heel Scrub. 
 It literally calls for water and Epsom salts. A great way to get your heels ready for flip-flops and sandals!

Source: ehow.com via Hilary on Pinterest

2. Lemon Sugar Scrub.

A friend made this as a gift for Jessica. Sugar kind of freaked me out, but it works really well, smells amazing and is quick and easy to make. That way, if you make some as a gift for a friend, you can double the recipe and make some for yourself!

Source: bystephanielynn.com via Jessica on Pinterest

3. DIY Microdermabrasion. 

 Two ingredients. Baking soda and water. So easy and works amazingly. Helps with acne and leaves skin soft!

Source: budandleo.blogspot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

These are just a few of our favorites! Make these and give yourself a spa day.

 What is your favorite thrifty beauty tip?

I've Been Working On...Necklaces

I've been on a serious jewelry making kick lately, and so I thought I'd post some pictures of what I've made. I've been trying to build up some stock for our Etsy store (and also make myself some pretty new presents!) None of these really require a tutorial, it's just simple stringing on beads. I'm still new at this, but pretty happy with the results!

These are my two favorite colors for jewelry, white and red! I love the natural stones. I've been wanting a coral necklace forever and now I have one, I'm so excited.

This is a simple coral and turquoise strung piece on a chain, it was my first attempt at doing something with a chain. I'm pretty happy with the results, but I don't know yet if I'm going to keep this one it's actually available in our Etsy store here.

This last one was actually my first necklace, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I love asymmetry, and I love the Anthropologie-esque look of it. The beads are big gorgeous vintage turquoise beads from a 1950's necklace, repurposed amber and lapis lazuli with one freshwater pearl. It's also listed here.

-Jessica

Pinterest Friday: Amigurami Doctor Who

We are more then a little obsessed with Doctor Who in our house. My Girl has been known to run around shrieking "Exterminate! Exterminate!" and my husband and I wait with baited breath for Saturday nights. Since the Doctor is so much a part of our family life, I thought that the Dude should probably be indoctrinated early before he has a choice. With this in mind I pinned the following free crochet pattern:

Source: amigurumipatterns.net via Domestic on Pinterest

It's David Tennent as the 10th Doctor Who! In amigurami form! Epic. I decided he would be the perfect way to try out crocheted plush characters.

That was a mistake.

I started him in September, and finished him two days before Christmas. His hair was a NIGHTMARE to do, and hand sewing all those teeny tiny pieces together was horrible. I don't know why people crochet stuffed animals! I'm used to sewing them, you cut out your pattern pieces and then sew them together, easy. When you crochet amigurami you have to not only sew them together by hand, but you have to make the actual pieces! Why?!?!

The next time I crochet a plush anything, it will be a ball.

But he did finally get done, albeit three months later. Here is my crocheted Doctor with my son's toy T.A.R.D.I.S.

I've actually posted about him before, briefly, in our first "What We're Loving" post of 2013.

Final Verdict: I would never, ever do this again. Tiny crocheted Converse...what was I thinking? But objectively the only problem I have with this pattern is that the instructions for the hair are almost unreadably bad. And in no way is that the way she did the hair for the Pin above. Other then that, it was pretty surprisingly straightforward.