Make It Monday: PT Edition

It's Monday. I made something. Make it Monday is back, Boy-eeeeee!!!!

So, yeah, we pretty much have the best PT office on the face of the planet. They're just MADE to do what they do. The whole place rocks. Need a reference? Let me know. I'll point you in their direction. Anyway, we've been on a "crash pad wait-list" for months. MONTHS. Which is fine. We're not the only family that needs a crash pad. And our turn came up! 

What's a crash pad? Oh, honey, a crash pad is God's perfect gift to sensory seeking kiddos. It's basically a giant pillowcase filled with foam chunks. Nothing fancy there. Just all kinds of foam chunks in all kinds of sizes. Their office has one that HAS to be 8'x5' big. Huge. The little one has to earn her crash-pad time because she loves it so much and would do nothing else for the whole half hour if we let her. All that beautiful sensory input crashing all over her little body. Mmmm-mmmmm good! 

Apparently our PT has connections with local furniture shops that send their leftover foam over to the PT office instead of trashing it. They called me this morning with the good news and the conversation went a little something like this:

"Hey, just wanted to let you know the foam is in for your crash pad. Are you still interested?"

YESSSSSSS!

"Can you pick it up today?"

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!

"Would you be coming by this morning?"

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Want one of your very own? Well, here's what you need for your very own Crash Pad:

Foam (Cost- Free. Well, not FREE. PT ain't cheap, people, and we have just about a year under our belt. Ohhh.... THAT'S where all our vacation money went. -sigh-)

I can only tell you how we got the foam, all 5 trashbags full. I've seen the stuff at JoAnn's but never priced it before. Ideally you'd have chunks of all different densities and sizes. You're gonna be cutting up chunks of foam into smaller, more manageable chunks. Be sure they're all different sizes; no smaller than your hand, no bigger than your head. (if you're me you'll be chucking them into a big ol' box that a tub came home in....Long story). Lots of therapeutic ripping and cutting for you Mommies.

(Then you child might woke up and see the box-o-foam and be in heaven.)

Fabric (Cost- Free.)

I went into her linen stash and took out a flat sheet. See, she doesn't use flat sheets. I've tried to get her to use them but after tucking her in she'll sneak out of bed, rip the bed apart and then cries that she's not tucked in again. She sleeps on a fitted sheet and then a blanket on top. A thick one for cool nights, a thin one for warm nights.... So I have this pile-o-flats that I can use for whatever. Like Crash Pads. You could run out and buy a flat sheet. That can't cost more than $10, right?

You simply sew it up. I took the sheet and folded the top to the bottom and sewed two sides leaving one whole end open, like a pillowcase. Then stuff ALL THE FOAM into the "pillowcase". Be sure to mix up the sizes at this point. Little pieces, big pieces, squishy pieces, dense pieces. All mixed up. Shake it up. A lot. Get the foam in it however you can. 

Then sew. it. shut. 

You're gonna need a lot of space to place this giant mound of foam. Clear off the dining room table. The WHOLE table. Clear it off. 

I can also suggest that an extra pair of strong hands might have been worth the wait. Just someone holding it closed while you run the machine. Not required... just the peace of mind knowing you're not going to break a needle and send the sharp tip into a hunk of foam for your sweet child to impale themselves on........or something.

Then you just let them go buck-nutty. Because they will.

So there you go. Therapy tools can be as cheap as free instead of hundreds of dollars. Don't spend hundreds of dollars. Please. We'll make it together. Promise. Just bring over the supplies and a cup of coffee. 

T-shirt Dress

I know today was Tuesday... but it was really a Monday. You can't get any more Monday-ier than the day after a three day weekend.

The Man goes off to work leaving me with a very sad child (she loves her some daddy-time) and we cuddle. A lot. So with all that one-on-one, "play-with-me", constant-skin-on-skin-touching time we needed today I was very thankful for naptime.

And then I remembered it was "Monday".... and I needed to make something.

And I knew what needed to be done.

See, little girl had a batman phase. I don't think it's 100% over, but it's not as pronounced as it used to be. So when she got a batman shirt for Christmas she was excited. Now, it's passed over every morning for skirts and dresses. So I thought a batman-dress would be a perfect solution to keep the item in circulation.

This past weekend I found the perfect "batman yellow" shirt at the thrifty shopper to use for this project.

It was time... to make the shirt-dress.

You will need: 

A t-shirt that fits your child. 

(It's OK if this shirt is a little too short like the one used here. 

You're gonna make it much longer soon.)

An adult size shirt (basically, a ton of fabric for a little bit of money)

*optional- Computer with Netflix subscription playing Season 2 of Parenthood (So Jasmine can go all the way to Europe for work but Crosby has to be "on duty" 24/7? Oh, and Julia wants another kid so we should just do it? Fine... whatever. Dude, don't even get me started on Adam. He's gonna burst. I just know it. Dude's gonna blow. a. gasket.... Sarah? I like Sarah in a "cheer for the underdog" sort of way but I'm glad she's not my sister. Girl's got iss-ues. )

Annnnnyway.

You're gonna wanna cut the sleeves and the collar of the big shirt off. 

ah-like so

Then, using your serger (or your friend's serger) or your sewing machine (or your friend's sewing machine) or a needle and thread (I'm pretty sure you're on your own on that one) sew from the top of the shirt all the way down to the bottom.

See, when you use a serger you get a nice, "professional", edge which is why I suggest bringing that serged edge all the way to the bottom.If you're using a sewing machine there isn't much reason to go all the way to the bottom save having a "store bought" look. So if you wanna save yourself 10 minutes you totally could just sew a line where the sleeves were in order to make a tube.

At least in my opinion. 

(For goodness sakes, it's 10:30 and I'm exhausted just re-reading this! Do whatever you want.)

Once you've got yourself a large fabric tube you attach that to the smaller shirt, right sides together. You can baste the skirt to the top to give it a ruffled look. You can pleat it and pin it so you have little darts where you want it.... do whatever you want. I'm betting that if you're still reading you have a basic grasp of sewing on a machine. Most everyone else has checked out right now. 

A serger really comes in handy for projects like this one. 

If you don't want to invest in a serger, invest in a friend with a serger. 

Now this is where you stop. You make a loosey-goosey simple dress for a girl in your life. Don't complicate it. Move on. Don't try to be fancy. You'll save yourself an hour + of your life.

If you do decide to be fancy you're gonna wanna take the sleeves off, attach new sleeves made from the sleeves of the "skirt material" shirt, attach one perfect and spend at least 30 minutes trying to make lightning strike twice. You'll also decide to shorten the skirt part, forgo going upstairs to get your mat and circular blade, just "eyeballing" it and taking it up 5 inches too short, deciding that you want to try to give it a "cabbage leaf" edging causing you to adjust every. stinking. dial on the serger. All while sweating profusely because who turned the summer on?!

Then naptime will be over. You will not have done dishes, put away laundry or even showered. But you will have a gift for your sweet child. 

And this is how it will look. 

Her face says it all.

Her words? 

"Can you try again? This is for a boy."

Rating: 7/10. Would do again. Would stop before trying to be fancy. Would get the circular blade out. Would measure... would choose pink or the color du jour: "Elsa-blue".

1 1/2 Ingredient Body Wash

So it's a Make-it Monday..... with a Try-it Tuesday.

Yesterday I made some body wash. This is a project I've wanted to do for some time but I've had some epic fails in the past. With a little bit of research I found it's all in the soap you start out with.


You gotta use Dove. Not Irish Spring, not Dial, not Yardley....Dove. No I don't have any product endorsements in this blog (yet) but I'm telling you for this recipe you want Dove.

For this recipe you will need:

Dove Soap (2 4 oz. bars)

Water

Yup. That's it...... two ingredients. Not even. Let's be real, here.  Water shouldn't really even count.

One and a half....

Snnnnniiiiiifffffffff! Ahhh,  smell that fresh soapy smell. It's awesome!

You COULD use any of the Dove soaps you wanted. The Pinky stuff, the Man-smell stuff. Whatever. It just needs to be -say it with me- Dove soap.

Here's the hardest part- Grate the two bars of soap.

As fine as you can, as much of it as you can.

You want this puppy to melt up fast so no big chunks-o-soap.

Put 4 cups of water and your two grated bars of soap in a BIG pot and put it on Med-Hi heat.

Like last week, you don't want this to boil over so stay in the kitchen and stir it up every so often until all your soapy chunks are gone and you have a big pot of clean smelling white stuff.

Once it's boiled down transfer the soap liquid to a bowl. I used my kitchenaid mixer bowl but if you don't have one, any ol' bowl will do.

And let it sit. For a long time. A couple of hours, until the liquid cools down and thickens a bit. 

I waited until the metal bowl was warm enough for me to touch it with both hands.

Side Note:

Hand wash the pot you used to boil down the soap stuff. Or you'll have four inches of bubbles in your dishwasher and an overflow of bubble water all over your kitchen floor.

Bonus: I have clean kitchen floors now.

Mix the soap in your kitchenaid or with a handheld mixer for a few minutes. Nothing magical about it. Just enough for the cool stuff on the top and sides mixes with the molten hot stuff in the middle. 

Funnel into bottles. I used condiment bottles I found at the grocery store for $1.50 each. 

That's it. Really.... Body wash for a couple bucks.

Now, although I made it yesterday I didn't USE it until today.

Do I like it? I LOVE IT!

It smells happy, it's thick,it cost me about $1.75 to make and I don't have to hide it from my family like I usually do!  I can make more for next to nothing. 

This was out of the bottle yesterday afternoon. A little runny. A little "meh".

I mean, it smelled good... but meh.

24 hours later.... look at that high quality body wash! 

That ain't no Suave body wash!

It's DOVE Body Wash!!!

Rating: Another win!!! If you like body wash and don't wanna dole it out in little paper cups to the family like I've contemplated, this is for you! Like I said, the hardest part is grating the soap. You can do this!!!

Extra bonus win: Your kitchen will smell nice and soapy clean for at least 24 hours..... I'll let you know when it fades!

Liquid Dish Detergent (Borax free, no weird ingredients)

I spent a good hour pouring over recipes and grocery store websites. Picking and choosing meals everyone in the family would eat that were a little bit more nutritious than pasta and canned marinara sauce. Planning meals that could stretch from dinner to lunch and hopefully a bit to go in the freezer for later, too. I searched multiple grocery stores for the best choices in produce. I cleaned, cut up and divvied up veggies and fruits, putting them in individual packets for grab and go snacks. I had breakfasts, lunches AND dinners planned for a full 5 days.

I was feelin' pretty good about myself. I was all struttin' around the kitchen: "Who's that Proverbs 31 wife? Yup, you know it! Don't be hatin'. I'm just followin' scripture, boyyyeee!"

Then it was time to do dishes. With no dishwasher detergent.

-Pffffffffftttttttt-
(That's the air escaping my personal Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon.)

THEN I remembered that someone on Facebook had recently posted a recipe for dishwasher detergent. Scrambling, I looked it up but one of the ingredients was citric acid which I didn't have and Borax which is..... -sigh- in my opinion it's good for some things but not for others: Laundry soap? yeah. Tub scrub? sure. Dish soap that may, theoretically, end up in my, and my family's, digestive tract? can we find something else?

So a little Google search found me a recipe with ingredients I had on hand and no borax... and off I went making some dish detergent.

You will need:

1 1/2c Water

1/2c Vinegar

1/4c Dish Soap

2 Tbsp Salt

2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

 1 Tbsp Washing Soda

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.

Stir on stove over medium heat until dissolved.

(NOTE: You do not need to boil this mixture. 

From previous experiences with liquid laundry soap I knew 

it does not take long for things of this nature to boil over. 

Take a few minutes, stand at the stove and stir 

until you feel the granules of the salt and washing soda "disappear".)

Let the soap cool and store in a glass container.

(or in the empty dish soap container you threw into the recycling yesterday. Not pictured.)

Happy Bubbles!

The bubbles look happy. The soap smells heavenly.... but does it work? Let's find out!

Today is Cinco De Mayo and I happen to have had a ham hock in the freezer from our Easter Ham. 

You know what that means! Beans and rice!!! MMMmmmmmmmmMMMM!

On my (nearly licked clean) plate is the aforementioned beans and rice. Some salsa, sour cream and cheese melted from the warmth of the beans straight 

from the dutch oven. MMMMmmmMMMM!

This was sitting in my sink for a good 45 minutes as I ran around after dinner doing other "wifey-mothery-facebooky" things.

I'm a slacker and generally don't rise off my dishes prior to going into the dishwasher. 

In fact when we went dishwasher shopping (11 years ago?) the only feature I wanted 

was to not have to pre-rinse my dishes... 

we got that dishwasher. 

Long story short, the dish was not pre-rinsed. Just popped in the dishwasher as is. 

Did it wash?

You tell me.

That be a clean plate.

A bit blurry but look at that shine!

So we got a win here! This is my new go-to dishwasher detergent! No borax (which really isn't good for washing dishes what with the fact that it's usually a main ingredient in ant bait), no citric acid, no other weird "I gotta go back to Wegman's.... again!" ingredients. 

Rating: You should totally do this! Today! Go turn of your computer/mobile device and make it, you'll be happier for it! (Happy bubbles, remember?!)