Years ago, my Grandmother ordered pads of $1 bills from the bank prior to going on a trip. She always had tips at the ready for maids, baggage handlers, bellman and cab drivers…since banks no longer sell pads of bills, I make my own – it only takes about 10 minutes plus drying time!
Since I rarely carry cash, money notepads are a must for me! If you have any questions, just message me on Instagram (Lifetart)
On Instagram in January, Pipandrooneedleworks posted a Needlepoint travel roll that her husband had made for her and I thought “Hey! I want one of those!” …but I can’t stitch leather like that – so I came up with this! If you don’t have a sewing machine I will bet this will still work by just riveting straps onto a thicker piece of leather – as long as it is still pliable enough to roll up!
This is a rather “rough” tutorial – no time for pretty pretty pictures right now – but the technique and information is here…and that’s really all you need. Make sure you read ALL the information!
If you have any questions, just go to my LifeTart Instagram account, scroll down to the July 17th post and message me there as I don’t “do” email.
There you have it! Make sure to read the information pics below!
In the past I have taken a shotgun approach to gardening – I would just walk into garden center, pick what I liked, bring it home and plant with abandon with little regard for plant light requirements – not good – it turns out that those little plant tags that tell you about light requirements are really important. A couple of years ago, after getting REALLY tired of spending money on plants just to kill them later, I came up with this idea. Now I go to the garden center, check my Sun & Shade chart and buy plants that grow in the conditions of my yard….things are much better now… here’s how to make your own chart on your iPhone!
I’m a big fan of using plastic baskets as car trash cans (try it and you’ll never go back to using a bag!). As I was unloading plants from the back of my car I used the empty trash basket to carry 6 pots of herbs to the patio. Setting them on the table, I noticed that they looked kind of cute in the basket and wondered if I could just use the basket as an herb garden – I figured “it’s plastic – why wouldn’t it work?”. I left the herbs in the basket and put them by my back step and watered them every day. I wondered if they would continue to grow in their little pots… it became evident that they needed to be in more soil than just their little plastic pots… and I was getting really tired of watering them every day!
I wanted to keep them by the back kitchen steps because it is more convenient than where I usually grow herbs and I had become attached to the whole “basket” idea, so I set about figuring out how to plant them in the basket without dirt leaching out every time I watered them – AND how to avoid the responsibility of needing watering them frequently (I live in New Mexico and our humidity hovers around 10-20% ). I came up with this idea and it has worked beautifully – I much prefer it to my old herb container garden on the drip system! If you try this, just make sure to heavily water the basket once a week – the water crystals/granules need a chance to soak up enough water to see the plants through the next 7 days or so!
Give this graduation gift a try – Book safes are my favorite thing to give to kids heading off to college – things tend to “disappear” in dorms and it’s good to have a hidden place to store extra cash and credit cards! This post with video is also on Lifetart Instagram account!
I was at Costco last week and saw these grill mats and thought “Hey! I’ll bet those would be great for working with glue guns!” – they are!
1. They are designed to withstand heat.
2. Glue peels right off of them.
3. The mats are big so you won’t accidentally lay the glue gun down on the table instead of the mat.
4. Four sheets are $16 instead of ONE silicone baking mat for the same price! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻😊
With Spring Break just around the corner, I thought I would share how I make travel photo books! Too many times the photos I take on vacation either stay on my SD card or phone and never make it onto my computer – and if they do happen to make it onto my computer, they never get any farther than that!
Last summer, we took a three week trip to SE Asia and I was determined to record it, share the photos with friends and family while we were in Asia and have a photo book at the end!
I came up with this idea and it worked flawlessly!! Enjoy!
STEPS:
1. Set up a new Instagram account for vaction photos – i.e. JaneDoeVacationPhotos. (I prefer having a special account for vacation photos so I don’t have to sift through all my day-to-day Instagram posts to see my vacation photos.) If you already have an Instagram account you will need to provide a different email for your new Instagram account – just open a new email account – i.e. JaneDoeVacationPhotos@gmail.com)
2. Make your new account private or public. I made ours private because we were gone for three weeks and I did not want strangers to know we were away from home.
Last night I was making Ina Garten’s Raspberry Crumble for a school function and thought I would use that recipe as a base for thumbprint cookies. I played around, added a few ingredients and came up with this recipe for these cookies! Half were gone by this morning – a sure sign of a good cookie recipe! Hope you enjoy it!
I have searched and searched and SEARCHED for how to tie a straight bow! FINALLY I found out how!! Recently I received a gift of Jo Malone perfume from my dear husband. Upon looking at the bow on the box, I noticed how beautiful it was – how symmetrical – how even – how it didn’t tilt to one side like MY bows! As I carefully untied the bow, I took photos of each step of untying (it would drive me crazy to watch someone open a gift as slowly as I did – he is a very patient man!) and I made a video of how to tie this most perfect of bows! Here is a link to the video – for your reference and my own!! Enjoy!!
I had a cocktail party in my studio last night and served these amazing scone ham sandwiches and thought the recipe would be a good one to share because everyone at the party asked for the recipe!
Savory Cheddar, Thyme & Sweet Corn Scones
Astoundingly good, savory and wonderfully chewy!
Makes approximately 30, 2″ scones
Ingredients:
2 c. Self-rising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp. English mustard powder
1/4 tsp. ground Cayenne
Paprika for sprinkling
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. minced fresh thyme + about 30 whole leaves for scone tops
1/4 c. cold unsalted butter
2 c. grated cheddar cheese
1 can of corn
3/4 c. 2% milk plus extra for brushing
juice of 1/2 lemon
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
1. In the bowl of a food processor, mix flour, baking powder, mustard, cayenne, salt and minced thyme leaves. Cut butter into 6 slices and add to flour mixture. Pulse until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Add most of the cheese and all of the corn and pulse until incorporated. Mix the milk and lemon juice together and with the processor running add to flour mixture through the feed tube. Very quickly, it will form into a thick batter/dough – don’t overwork the dough. Don’t panic! This is a very wet dough!
2. Put dough on floured board, sprinkle with flour on top and knead a few times. Using a medium spring-loaded scoop (like a small ice cream scoop) – or a spoon, drop 1/2 golf ball sized pieces of dough onto prepared baking sheet.
3. Brush each scone with a little bit of milk and lightly press ball down with brush. Sprinkle with a bit of cheese and paprika and add a thyme leaf or two.
4. Bake for 7 – 12 minutes or until scones are risen and golden brown. Cool on rack.
Add shredded ham to dough while kneading or add Herbed Cream Cheese Spread and ham to make little cocktail sandwiches!
Herbed Cream Cheese Spread
1/2 c. cream cheese
1 Tbs. butter
1 tsp. minced fresh thyme
Salt & Pepper to taste
Mix all ingredients and use as spread for scones.
Recipe adapted from: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/749706/cheddar-and-sweetcorn-scones
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