Milk Carton Skeleton

Wanting to get the Halloween decorations up this weekend? How about recycling your milk jugs and making a hanging skeleton? Directions here.

Vacuum Cleaner Pudding

Got this recipe off of starwish on a yahoo group I'm with. Thought I would share it here, this is like the ultimate making do with leftover desserts recipe.

My Mother used to make this for the family. With meals and packing lunches, she had an odd assortment of leftover cookies/cake/pie bits 'n pieces. She saved everything (including the crumbs in the cookie jar). When she had "squirreled away" enough (in the freezer) to feed the family (usually once or twice a month) she made her "famous" Vacuum Cleaner Pudding ("You never know what you're gonna' git." Forrest Gump).

Vacuum Cleaner Pudding Oven: 325 / 30 min.
Microwave: 50% power / 15 - 20 min.

Broken cookies (including crumbs)
Misc. leftover cake and pie
one package of instant pudding/pie filling (flavor your choice)
Milk (see pudding instructions)
2 whole eggs
vanilla flavoring to taste (optional)

1. Press cookies/cake/pie into greased loaf pan
2. Mix milk, eggs, and vanilla
3. Warm the milk mixture until it is hot - but not boiling
4. Pour pudding powder into milk mixture and blend
5. Pour liquid over the top of the dry ingredients in the loaf pan
6. Cook until set up (check by inserting knife point)

Cut into squares and serve warm, topped with whipped cream/ice cream or even warm milk.
Enjoy!

Wowser Wednesday - Fitted Sheet Bubble Dress

Kate emailed me to see if I had ever heard of how to change a fitted sheet into clothing while taking advantage of the elastic already in it. I hadn't but I found this lady, Ivy Frozen, on Threadbanger had. Here is her tutorial video as well.

Sock Cuff Paint Helper

I painted my living room and dining room awhile ago and I like to freehand paint, but sometimes I got it where it wasn't supposed to go, normal stuff. So, I had a rag with me, but I kept leaving it behind or it wouldn't dry in my pocket so I'd pull it out to use and just smear wet paint, etc.

So, I found a really handy type rag for this. I have a whole bunch of sock tops left over from my make a rug out of socks project in my rag box. So, I put it on my wrist and it was immediately available to pull up and use to wipe off excess paint and dried quickly. I think I used three of these, one per gallon of paint. Then I just threw them away.

Hassock Cover

With my new couch and pillows, my unmatched hassock stuck out like a sore thumb. So I had to cover it. I took more of the bedsheet I used to cover one of the pillows. I took the measurement of the top of the hassock across the top and to the middle of the sides. So my top was 20" x 23" and from the sides down to under the hassock cushion was 3", so I added a 1/2" seam allowance and cut out a 20 1/2" x 23 1/2" top piece and then (2) 3 1/2" x 20 1/2" pieces and (2) 3 1/2" x 23 1/2" pieces.

Then I sewed the small edges onto the big piece making a box. I then stuck the fabric "box" inside out on the hassock cushion. At the corners, I pinned the material so that it was tight fitting.

Then I took tit off and sewed using the pins as my guide. I tried it on the hassock to make sure it fit, then cut off the extra fabric. And put it on to complete my living room.

Rescue Couch - Cover It

If all else fails in making the couch presentable, I intended to buy a slipcover. (I'm really not good with sewing huge fabric pieces and I'm really bad at cutting big pieces too, so I intended to buy one.)

But if you are a better sewer than me, here are 3 sites with slipcover sewing directions. One, Two, Three.

But, with such huge pieces of fabric, my guess is it may be a better deal to buy a slipcover from a discount place anyway. Here are four sites I thought seemed to have good deals on slipcovers. One, Two, Three, Four.

Rescue Couch - Cover Pillows

The people who sold me the couch took off $18 from the original price and threw in two zebra pillows to entice me to take it. (They had another shipment coming in and needed the room.) Obviously, zebra pillows don't go with a brown and black checked couch, but no problem, I could make them match.

I took a brown turtleneck from my scrap clothes pile and a lone bedsheet.

For the first pillow, I took the turtleneck, turned it inside out and sewed up the bottom closed. Turn it back right side out and I squished the pillow in through the neck hole.

Then I tucked in the neck to lay flat and then tied the arms across the chest.

For the second one, I made a coverslip for the pillow from the bedsheet. The pillow was 19"x19" So I cut a piece of fabric 20" tall and 30" wide. (To get 30" I took the main size across, 20", and added two halves, 10" to come up with 30"). I should have only made it 19 1/2" tall since it came out a little loose.

Then you hem the short 20" edges and then fold them in, the edges overlapping each other until the width is 20" with the right side of the fabric on the inside facing each other.

Then you pin across the top and bottom and sew straight across these seams.

Turn that rightside out and slip it over the pillow, the overlapping fabric keeps the ugly pillow from showing through the seam and lets you take it off for washing. So here's the end result.

Rescue Couch - Stain and Pet Hair Removal and Tears

The next problems were small ones.

There were stains on the couch bottom were liquids had dripped down between the cushions, so I used my homemade oxi clean and a white rag to clean that.

For the dog hair stuck in the cracks, after I vacuumed, I used duct tape to pick it up. It works better if you scrape the hair off by rubbing the tape across the hair rather than press and pull.

There was a "tear" at the seam of the back, it looked like it had torn, but really it had just pulled away, so I squished the metal holding strip back into place by stretching the fabric back where it went and then hitting the metal gripper with a hammer to keep it stuck.

I had one small tear on the bottom flap that I whipstiched closed with a matching thread color.

Rescue Couch - Make Your Own Febreeze

The next major problem with the couch was someone let their dog lay on it, so it smelled like a dog.

First, I took off the cushion covers, washed them and put them back on. But the unwashable rest needed dealt with.

So, I decided to make my own febreeze. All the febreeze recipes I googled had fabric softener in the ingredients which I don't have, so I read a whole bunch of recipes and made one myself with the ingredients I had and thought would be helpful.

1 c. distilled water
1/4 c white vinegar
1 T rubbing alcohol
1/2 T baking soda
(essential oil drops if you want it to smell like somthing, but I just prefer smell of clean over perfume)

I put that in a spray bottle and shook it up. Then sprayed it lightly on all the surfaces and let dry overnight.

Success! It no longer smells like a dog!

If you start expirementing with making your own cleaners, always check and make sure the items you are mixing together aren't dangerous when mixed. Here was a sheet I consulted when I made the above mixture.

Rescue Couch - Fix Cat Scratch Damage

At my yard sale, I had a money goal. If I made so much, I got to move my futon into the office for a guest room and get a cushy couch. I had seen one at the second hand furniture store, and it was in good shape and long enough for my hubby to lay on.

Well, I made my money goal, but the couch was sold when I went in on Monday. :( But I had been so psyched for getting a couch, I went searching for another. I found one in a bit worse shape but for only $5o and in a color that would go with my other furniture (the other one would not have matched, so I had intended on buying a slipcover for it.) But, it had some cosmetic flaws, so this week, I'm showing you how I rescued the couch.

The most glaring problem was that a cat had used it as a scratching post. So I cut off the really long strings with scissors, but then I got out my sweater shaver.

And shaved off the cat thread pulls.

Before After

Food Bag Waterproof Barrier

Use animal feed bags anytime you need a waterproof barrier, like:

Under indoor plants so the water doesn't seep into the object it's sitting on
As a crib protector between the mattress and the sheets
As a drop cloth
Under messy kid paint projects
Under a sand box to make a barrier between the sand and the ground so weeds don't come up through

Can you think of other similar uses? Put them in the comments to share.

Food Bag Arrow Target

Are you an archer? Turn a feed bag into a target. Get together an animal feed bag, cushions or old clothing, duct tape and a sharpee.

I have cushions from an old couch, long story on why I still have them, but I do. But clothing or leftover carpet padding (Oooo! I have leftover carpet padding, that's what I am using next time!) or something similar will work I am sure. Turn the bag inside out to show off the white plain surface. Then cut your material to size if it's a cushion or pack it with your material until it's tight.

Then, fold up the top and secure close with duct tape and draw on whatever kind of target you want.

Then have at it. I had to go take it for a few shots to see how it went. I did poorly since I couldn't find the arrows that went with my bow. (I know excuses excuses, but got to brag on hubby, they were both hand made, I just didn't want to wield the 60 pound bow that went with the arrow I found that evening.), but you can see the holes. It's not exactly self healing, you will have to redo it in the future, but I think you will only have to replace the bag, the inside would be just fine to reuse.

Food Bag Tarp

Do you need a tarp in a hurry? Or did the last one get a hole and you're frugal enough to make your own? Forgot to buy one to cover up your yard sale tables the night before so they don't get damp?

Well, just cut open a whole bunch of animal food bags and duct tape them together until you get the size you want. Easy!

Food Bag Apron

Hubby's going deer hunting and we're planning on processing the meat ourselves. Big mess calls for extra tough apron. So....

I took a chicken feed bag (any animal food bag will be of the same plastic canvas material) and cut it open.

I then held it up to hubby and drew out the armpit for where he wants it to hit him. I also cut off two strips from the bottom of the bag.

Then I folded over the bag and cut out the arm hole so it is identical on both sides.

Then I took the arm hole hole and cut off about a two inch section along the outer edge, this will be the neck thing, whatever its called.

Decided to be lazy and not sew, I'm sure you could sew it, but I got out the white duct tape I happened to have and taped the neck tie together and held it around hubby's neck to see how long he wanted it. And then duct taped on the two strips for ties.

I reinforced on the back with more duct tape.

So hubby is now ready to handle a butcher's mess if he gets lucky enough to get a deer with the bow and arrows he has been busy making all year.

Print Specialty Paper

Don't need a whole a pad of specialty paper for graphing, musical scoring, kid's handwriting practice, Yahtzee scoring, etc.?

Then Print a page off from the internet.

The home page just shows you the most popular ones, look at the left hand column for the categories of paper you can print to find what you want.