How to Make Your Own Coconut Milk

Here's something interesting to do at home.  Make your own coconut milk!  My son is lactose intolerant.  He usually drinks almond milk so we're no strangers to non-dairy milks in our house.  I could say that I tried this because it's better than the pre-made stuff you can buy, but really we did this because we bought a coconut on a whim at the store one day and had to figure out what to do with it.  After some youtube watching and googling, here's what we did.

First, take a screwdriver and hammer it into two of the dots on your coconut to make holes.  Then let the coconut water drain out of the holes into a cup (this is not coconut milk!).  You can drink it if you want.  I've heard it's kind of good as a sports drink.  I think I might freeze it into ice cubes to use later in smoothies.

Then comes the fun part.  Put the coconut in a ziploc bag and let your kids throw it on the ground outside until it cracks.

 

My son was so proud of cracking it into 3 pieces!

Now you need to get the white meat off of the shell.  There are probably some easy cool ways to do this that I don't know about.  I just use a knife to cut little sections and pry off pieces like this.  Make sure your knife is sturdy.

One coconut gave me about three cups of meat.

Now all you do is either grate up the white part of the coconut, if you have the time and inclination, or just put it through your food processor and chop it up really small.  

Then add 2 parts hot water to 1 part coconut, so for this one I added 6 cups of hot water.

My food processor doesn't fit that much (oops learned that the hard way and kinda made a mess), so I added 3 cups hot water to all the coconut, processed it, strained it, and then put the coconut meat back into the food processor, added the next 3 cups of water, and strained again.

If you have cheese cloth around you could use that instead and probably get more milk out.

And you're done!  You can put it in a jar or pitcher and let it sit until the cream separate if you want to.  There should be a small amount coconut oil (maybe a couple of tablespoons) in there that will form a solid at the top.  I've been using it as a lotion.  Keep the milk in the refrigerator and use it up because it will only keep for a few days.

 

Baby Proofing a Book Shelf Tutorial

With my first baby, we didn't have any book shelves where she played, but we protected one of our shelves with our DVD player on it using velcro and a piece of sheer fabric.  Then with my son, we just dealt with the book destruction that comes with kids and books.  You know all those people who say baby proofing is just for lazy parents who can't teach their kids no?  Well whatever.  I tried that.  We lost some books with my son.  No matter how many times you say no, they still want to try to rip paper because it's just so much fun, apparently.  Eventually he grew out of it.  Even today every once in a while I'll look and see my husband, standing in front of the book shelves, frowning and sighing about all the ripped covers.  Sad.

With baby number three, we have two bookshelves in our main living space, and I was considering moving them into my craft room just to keep them out of her reach, but there's really not a great space in there for them.  As she's crawling and on the verge of walking, the shelves seem to be a favorite area, and I can see that she's starting to notice the joys of paper-ripping.  The other day I found my youngest baby with a choking-sized piece of Robert Jordan's Crown of Swords cover in her mouth, so something had to be done.

There probably isn't such a thing as a baby proof bookshelf, but this is what I did to make my bookshelves baby-resistant.


What you need:
-Enough fabric to cover your shelves.  You should probably measure before going to the store, if you're a planner like that. I picked up 3 1/4 yards of chevron printed burlap at Walmart (didn't measure first, so I hoped it was enough and it is more than enough).  I guess burlap in the fall is a trendy thing, or something? I would not use any stretchy fabric.
-Coordinating thread.  I used tan.
-Grommets (buy the pack of whichever size you like that has the grommet installing kit if you don't already have one)
-Hammer
-7/8 inch cup or mug hooks (4 or more for each shelf) these are the ones I used, but in silver color.
-Felt scraps

 First, measure the open area of your book shelf that you want to cover.  Then cut your fabric with 1 1/2 inches extra on each side.  If you are not using something that unravels like burlap, you may want to make a smaller seam allowance.

When you are cutting burlap, I would not use your nicest scissors as I've heard it can dull them quickly.  My really old dull scissors still cut it just fine.

Using a very hot iron (cotton setting), press the seams in twice on two opposite sides (turn under 3/4 of an inch each time), then sew them with a top stitch.  I had my machine set with a sturdy needle to stitch length 2 and a narrow zig zag.  Then press the other two sides in twice and sew them.

Next, set the grommets in each corner, following the directions on your packaging.  I stitched on a small piece of felt in each corner to give the material more strength before setting the grommets.  Make sure they are close enough to the edge that your cup hooks will fit over your seam edge and into the hole.  Hold a cup hook up to the edge to make sure before you put the grommet in.  I avoided putting it right on the seam as much as I could since it would be uneven.

Here's a good video for setting grommets that you can refer to.

Then hold your panel up to the shelf and hold up a hook and figure out where you'd like to screw the hook in.  Mine look like this:

You should probably pre-drill your holes, but I got lazy and didn't so I kinda split one a tiny bit.  Oops!  The others went in with no problems.

Place all four hooks and put up your panel.  If you want a book, just slide the grommet out of the hook and then replace it.  If you don't want hooks, consider sticky velcro, or even tension rods as an alternative.

No more book eating in my house.

Credit goes to my friend Abby for the idea.  I think she has something similar at her house!

Pool / Beach Bag Tutorial

I purchased a mesh laundry bag to re-purpose into laundry room sink lint filters for my washing machine, and while I was cutting it apart I had an idea.  This would make a really handy beach or pool bag.  So I put one together and since I was super bored today, I also made a tutorial.

All you need is...

The laundry bag measured 22" x 34" and cost about $1.50.  I think I've seen these types of bags at the dollar store too, but I don't have one near me.

The fabric was some kind of heavy weight home decor or maybe even outdoor fabric that I've had in my craft room for a while.  The yellow print is from the Laurie Smith Collection 2004 and it's called "Zig Zag."  I had 1 1/2 yards of it, but I didn't use it all.  If you don't mind the straps being stitched together from smaller pieces, you could probably make this bag from 3/4 of a yard or less.

First, lay out your mesh bag and decide how deep you want your bag to be.  Cinch up the drawstring top and lay it on the floor.  You want to leave the cinched up portion so that your finished bag still has the drawstring for a closure.  I removed the bottom six inches of the laundry bag.  This left me with 18 inches between the bottom and the bag and the beginning of the cinched up portion.

Next, cut off the seams on the sides of the bag all the way up to the beginning of the cinched portion (along the dotted line in the picture above).  I cut off about 1/2 an inch on each side.

To make the bottom of the bag, take your decorator fabric and cut out two pieces that are as wide as your mesh and 6 1/2 inches tall.  For mine, the measurement was 21" x 6 1/2".

Turn under one of the long ends 1/4 inch twice on each piece of fabric, press, and stitch.  Then set them aside.

Next for the upper horizontal straps that become the top of the bag, you need to cut two pieces of fabric that are as wide as your mesh, and three inches tall.  For me that was 21" x 3".

To make these strips into the top straps, you turn under both of the long ends 1/4 inch, and then fold them lengthwise and press. 

Pin them to hold them together and set them aside.

Lastly for the handles you need two very long strips of fabric.  Since I already had 1 1/2 yards, I just cut these from my long length of fabric.  If you have less fabric, piece together enough to make two handle pieces that measure 3" x 56".

Press them the same way that you pressed the horizontal straps, turning under both long edges and then folding in half the long way.

Then take these long handle pieces to the sewing machine.  Sew down the length, close to the edge all the way down the open end of both handle pieces.  This is the way I prefer to make handles.  I find sewing right sides together and then turning the whole tube inside out to be really frustrating, but if you prefer you can make them that way instead.

At this point, these are all of the pieces you should have.

Now it's time to assemble the bag.

Lay the handle down where you would like it to be and pin it to the top layer of the mesh only.  Lay the horizontal strap on and also pin to the top layer of mesh only.

Lay one bottom piece on the mesh and pin.  Make sure it covers the bottom of your handle straps.

 Then sew these pieces to the top layer of mesh along these red dotted lines.  Sew an x inside of the red square boxes to give the handles extra strength.

Then turn it over and do the same to the other side of the mesh bag.  This is what is looks like opened up:

Now place right sides together, and pin along the bottom and both sides of the bag, all the way up to the original seam of the mesh bag.  Sew along the sides and bottom (the red dots in this picture).  Make sure to line up the horizontal top strap and the edges of the bottom fabric.

Lastly, box the two bottom corners.  To do that you fold your corners like this (with the bag still inside-out).  I measured 3 inches from the corner and drew a line.

 Sew along that line...

and then cut the corners off.  I used pinking shears to keep fraying down.

Turn the bag right side out and you're done.  I put two beach towels and some sunscreen in there and there was plenty of room for more (floaties, sandals, Frisbees, food, whatever).  The drawstring keeps it all contained.  It's perfect for some summer fun.

**As always, this tutorial is for non-profit personal use only please.  Make your own, make one for a friend, but don't make them to sell.**

Lemonhead Spring Wreath

Bright yellow is such a cheerful color.  It reminds me of springtime.  This wreath looks like it's made from tasty Lemonhead candy, but not to worry.  No Lemonheads were harmed in the making of this wreath.  It's made from ping pong balls, of all things.

Materials needed:

• 98 ping pong balls - Buy a gross (12 dozen) online.  They don't have to be fancy ones, just cheap craft ones are fine.  I bought mine on Amazon.  Ebay is a good source too.
• 12 inch styrofoam wreath 
• Yellow spray paint - I bought one that said it is meant for plastic.  Look for a color that reminds you of lemons.
• White glitter
• Spray glue
• silk flowers
• ribbon
• hot glue

Spray your foam wreath with the yellow spray paint and let it fully dry.  Take that hot glue gun and glue on all of the ping pong balls.  This is trickier than it looks.  You would think that they would all line up perfectly, but because they're on a round wreath you need to leave little gaps to get the right spacing.  You might want to line them all up to make sure the spacing will work before you start gluing.  You will make five rows of balls.  I started with the inside row and then the outside one.  I worked toward the center row.  That way you can make sure the back of your wreath will lie flat.  The center row ended up not lying flat on the wreath, so several balls in that row are glued to other rows rather than to the wreath itself, which is fine.  You can't tell after it's all painted.

Next go to town with that yellow spray paint.  I painted it outside, even though it's still cold and wintery.  We were lucky enough to have a day around 50 degrees, which was just warm enough to paint.  I brought it inside after I did several coats so I could be sure the temperature was warm enough to fully dry the paint for 24 hours.

After the paint has fully dried, take some spray adhesive and spray small sections of the wreath and immediately sprinkle with your white glitter.  Spray adhesive dries quickly, so it's better to do a small bit at a time.  You could probably use spray glitter instead if you have some.

After the paint and glitter is fully dry, you can attach flowers or ribbon or other decorations.  Then hang it on your door.  I used a flat thumb tack to attach the hanging ribbon to the top of my wood door.

Spring is almost here!

Here are a few other Lemonhead wreaths I found online that inspired me to make this one.   

{Lil' Luna} {Sweet Pea}.

Pottery Barn Airplane Wall Art

I love to browse the Pottery Barn Kids catalog that comes in the mail for ideas.  My son's room has been decorated in stars since he was a few months old, and now to bring it into the toddler/little boy stage I'm starting to add airplanes to the stars.  So when I came across the Transportation Art wall hangings, I had to make one.  They retail for $69.00 each, which is more than I'm willing to spend, but for 7 dollars or so in supplies, you can make your own.

You need-
1- 16 x 20 inch blank canvas
2- sheets of scrapbooking paper or card-stock in coordinating colors.
    I prefer the thicker card-stock paper.  It doesn't wrinkle as much.
1- Acrylic craft paint  I used Folk Art brand acrylic craft paint in color # 420 "Linen"
1- Jar of Mod Podge in Matte.  You could use gloss if you prefer.
- Scissors
- X-ACTO knife and mat (or something to protect your table)
-Sandpaper

Print out the template for the airplane on regular paper, cut it out, and trace it onto your scrapbook paper.  I did the propeller in the contrasting color.  Cut the airplane and propeller out with scissors and set aside.

Next print your lettering onto the back of your contrasting scrapbook paper (the letters will print backwards so it will be the correct direction when you cut them out).  Since I had 12 x 12 inch scrapbook paper, I had to cut it to 8 1/2 x 11 inches to get it to fit into my printer.  Using an X-ACTO knife, cut out the letters.  I use my rotary cutting mat under the paper which you're probably not supposed to do, but it's better than cutting my table!  I suppose if you have some kind of auto-cutting machine that it would be faster, so you could do that instead.

Link to airplane template (pdf)

 
Link to text template (pdf)
Link to text template (24-bit bitmap) If you choose this option, make sure your print settings are to fit to 1 by 1 page landscape.

This should fit onto one 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of paper.  Check your page setup settings before you print, and do a print preview.  The font is Bookman Old Style in case you want to make your own lettering or change the size.  I just use the Paint program on my PC to invert the letters.  You click on "Image" and "Flip/Rotate."  Then choose the flip horizontal option.

Paint your canvas, let it dry, and sand the edges if you want a worn look.  Then brush mod podge onto the back of your airplane and letters and place on the canvas.  Let it dry fully and then do a top coat of Mod Podge over the entire canvas.  Make sure the airplane and letters are fully dry before doing a top coat or it will wrinkle.

PS- I got a fancy pants new camera for my birthday, so hopefully soon you'll have better quality pictures on my blog!

Update- As requested, here are the truck and boat graphics as well.

  Link to truck graphic (pdf)
Print on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper
*Note- if you want the tires to be a different size, just trace something circular that you have around.  I used the lid of a candle for these tires.  I think the one at PBK has a smaller front tire and bigger back tire.

Link to boat graphic (pdf)
Print on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper








If you're looking for another shape, try searching " _____ coloring page" or "______ silhouette" on the Google image search.  There are lots of other things you could put on these canvases.

I think I might make a white background and a green background one, but I'm still trying to find the right shapes for my son's room