Juicing

Myself and my husband decided we were going to start incorporating fresh juices into our diets.  There is no question that juicing your own fruits and veggies is far more healthy for you.  Let me back up, we were initially going to do a full blown reboot.  If you've seen the documentary Fat, Sick, And Nearly Dead you're probably familiar with what I'm talking about.  If not, I highly recommend watching it.  It was very interesting.  

As I said, we were going to do a reboot together.  However, I am still a nursing mother and can't risk detoxing and having those toxins released into the breastmilk.  So, I can only do a partial juicing.  But, that is still a million times better than nothing at all.

There are a couple downsides for me.  One, it can get expensive buying the amount of produce required.  The second (and the biggie)...  I still have children that I have to cook for.  So, I'm drinking juices and then preparing delicious smelling/looking breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.  HAHAHA!  Ahh, the temptations!  It is much easier, though, knowing that not every meal is going to be a juice for me. 

The above photo was our day one breakfast juice.  It was delicious!  We started very simple to ease us in.  For this juice, I used our Breville juicer and combined apples, oranges, and strawberries.  It was a good pick blend for breakfast.  Plus, it is a BEAUTIFUL color!  So pretty, right?  It looks like the sunrise.  Quite appropriate. 

My hope is to try out a lot of different recipes as well as creating my own.  I'll try to log some of them as we progress. 

**Random tip:  if you are serious about juicing, invest in a GOOD juicer.  When I was pregnant my husband did a 14 day reboot and then our cheapy juicer pooped out on us.  His goal was 30 days, but the juicer had other plans.  It gave up on day 14 or 15.  The juicer we had was a simple juicer from Walmart and was only about $30.  It wasn't really made for constant juicing.  I think it was really just for the occasional juicing....  in which case it would have been fine.  But the motor just couldn't handle juicing 4-6 juices PER DAY for that many days in a row. 

DIY Wall Art

Right before last fall, I got this random itch to paint.  I'm not a painter now, nor have I ever been.  But, something just made me want to paint!  I figured I could put something together that would look fairly decent and, surely, I could save a few bucks doing it myself!  

You can purchase a pack of canvases for a very reasonable price.  I always get the cheapest ones or the ones on sale.  For avid painters, I know they'll tell you they're garbage and to invest in the better ones.  But, as I pointed out...  I'm no painter.....   at all.   

I mainly stuck to 8x10 canvases.  There was no particular reason for that, I just thought they'd be the most versatile. This is one of the several pieces I put together.  This canvas went through some trials before I was happy with it.  It has about 3 under layers of mistakes that got painted over.  This baby started as a family hand print piece.  It didn't work out so I spray painted a white primer over it. (I'm SURE that is a HUGE no-no in the art world!)  Then it became something else but I didn't like the colors.  Rinse and repeat.  We did this motion a few times until I decided to randomly slap some colors on and blend them.  When I got that far I thought, "Ohhh, it looks like a sunrise or sunset!"  It stayed!  YAY!  I did some searching for birds on branches in silhouette.  I worked from a couple different photos to get the exact look I wanted. 

Did you know that birds are much easier to paint than they seem?  It is just a couple connected ovals, a triangle, and some brush swishes (official term, hahaha!) for the tail.  I like birds more than I thought I did!

OH!  And I sealed in the painting with an acrylic sealant in matte finish.  I did use all acrylic paints for this.  I have since purchased a glossy sealant (which was more for my son's Halloween costume last year and then it got tossed in with my supplies, so I use it now!) which, at times, I like more.  It seems to bump up the color intensity more than the matte one.

Spring Gardening

chives

I don't know about you, but I really like the idea of having my own herbs growing.  However, my husband likes to say I have a black thumb.  I can get things growing (sometimes) and then they'll die off.  A few years back I had a fabulous herb garden going in my backyard.  But, fall rolled around and I neglected them and by spring they were long gone. :-(   

parsley

That is why I now am trying another round of growing my own herbs...  indoors!  I have a big, wonderful window that gets fabulous light.  It is especially good in the morning.  It is an eastern facing window so the plans love it. I have my aloes there, too (not shown).  

This actually started because my son had a school lesson on seeds and how plants grow.  We created a germination bag and watched as our seeds sprouted. I had a bunch of seeds left over so I potted them!  Now I have baby chives, parsley, basil, basic grass, and celery growing.  We did have lavender but I've already managed to kill it. So sad. 

celery

I would like to put together a raised garden and get some veggies and such going outside once it gets a bit warmer.  I've seen a lot of pinterest ideas that look easy enough.  Don't they always, though?

What are you doing to kick spring into high gear and get in the mood for the warmer, brighter weather?

Converting Normal Tanks to Nursing Tanks

I don't know about you all, but I have spent a ton of money on nursing tanks.  This was the case after both of my children.  One tank top alone doesn't seem too bad when looking at the price.  But, to get several colors that will work under all of your outfits starts to add up quickly!  This second time around, I only bought two nursing tank tops.  But, I only had a black and a grey.  I wanted more colors, however, didn't want to buy anymore!  I refuse to keep throwing money out the window like that when I can spend a fraction of the money and get multiples!

I kept seeing pins on Pinterest about converting your regular spaghetti strapped tank tops into nursing tank tops.  You can do this with any of them, but I prefer the kind without the shelf bra built in.  Too many layers on the ladies while nursing gets uncomfortable (for me!).

You start by taking your regular tank top and cutting off the strap at the base in the back.  Then, leave a couple of inches in the front.  I should have taken photos of this, but please forgive me.  You will make a VERY TINY loop of the remaining couple inches of strap.  Go smaller than you might think.  You only need enough to fit over the clasp on your nursing bra.  Sew this down and VOILA!  You've converted your tank into a nursing tank!

See the small loop?  It should be tiny otherwise it will slip down your bra.

This is the loop slipped over the clasp on my nursing bra.

This is the nursing tank on, attached to the nursing bra.  I wear these under other wide strapped tanks, tshirts, etc.   But, it makes it nice when I am out and need to nurse.  I can slip up the over-shirt without exposing my belly and easily unclasp my bra (taking that side of the tank with it) and nurse my little one.  This way, nothing is exposed.

I'm so thrilled with the results.  I've made several already!  I have a lavender, a black & white stripped, a black, a grey, a cream/white, and a tan.  I'm thinking about getting more colorful ones since all (but the lavender) are neutral colors. 

OH!  And I should mention...  you can obviously convert any tanks that you already own.  This would be the most cost effective.  However, I didn't have a lot to work with, so I bought my tanks from Forever21.  They were $1.88!  That's WAY cheaper than any nursing tank top that you'll find in the stores.   Also check places like Platos Closet, or any second hand retail store.  The lavender tank I got from a resale store for $1.00.

DIY Floral Headbands

Long time no chat!  I haven't been doing much in the way of nails or reviews.  However, on one of my slightly more energetic evenings I decided I was going to try my hand at making some baby headbands.  There are several different styles that I would like to make, but this was the first to check off my list.  I cannot recall who I first saw these from, but I know I came by it on Pinterest.  I think the one I most closely followed was The Penny Parlor.

These are so incredibly simple to make and the variations are endless!  This is just my first batch.  I'd like to expand the type and color of flowers as well as the center piece in them. 

I selected some gerber daisy style of flowers and pulled them apart.  This means popping the flower off of the stem, removing the plastic underside of the flower, and pulling apart each layer.  Some people keep the plastic middles of the flowers, but I didn't want any plastic left on the flowers.  I wanted to just work with the fabric layers.   

I hot glued each layer back together and then a white button (for most) into the middle. For the clip portion, I bought some pre-wrapped alligator clips.  You can get these at the craft store (which will cost you more), at a hair supply place (Sally's would work fine), Walmart, or even the dollar store at times.   If you buy the naked version (aka: not wrapped in ribbon already) you can either leave them as is or buy a thin ribbon and glue that around them yourself.   I lazily selected the pre-wrapped kind to cut out an extra step on my first batch.  I glued those down to the backside of the flowers.  I like the idea of being able to change out the flowers on the headbands, which is why I took the route of clips and not sewing down the flowers. 

Tada!  Cute flowers that you can clip to any fabric headband!  Above and below are the same flower, just on a different band.