Candy Corn Halloween Treat Bags

Hello DCDer's! How's your October been? We've been great, here in Alabama. 2 birthdays out of the way (Little Man is 1! I am older than 1!) and now on to Halloween! We are planning to take our Little Yoda around trick-or-treating on our street and I wanted him to have a treat-holder-thingy that he can carry by himself (Doing things BY HIMSELF is very important to Little Man these days) and all of the retail options I could find were either 1. Ugly or 2. Way to big for him to carry around. So, I decided to make a little bag myself. I came up with a cute, little drawstring bag that is SO, SO easy and can be made in approximately 15 minutes. No lie. AND, as an added bonus, you can make it any size you want, so if you have bigger trick-or-treaters, you can make yours bigger. Or smaller. You know. Whatevs. Here's the little bag:

See! So cute!

You'll need: (this is for an 8 inch-ish, square-ish bag, you can change the measurements to make the bags whatever size you want...more on that later)

1 strip each yellow, orange and white fabric cut to 16 inches by about 3 inches (these measurements don't have to be perfect...just close enough)

Some thread to sew the thing together

Now:

1. Sew the strips together along the long side: yellow, then orange, then white. Like this:

2. Fold the top of the white strip over about 1/2 an inch (towards the wrong side)  and sew that down right along the raw edge (I used a zig-zag...you can do whatever floats your boat.)

3. Fold this in half "hamburger" style (so it's basically a square. It won't be perfectly square. That's okay) and sew the bottom seam and nearly to the top on the side seam. DON"T SEW THROUGH THE FOLDED OVER PART. That's where we are going to put the drawstring. Just stop right at the seam you made when you folded over the white strip. It should look like this now:

Mostly square, inside out, top casing isn't sewn shut. Good to go.

3. Take a strip of scrap fabric about 16 inches long and about 1/2in wide and stick a safety pin through one end. Use the safety pin to thread the strip through the casing at the top of the bag. Make sure you leave one end hanging out about 2 inches, other wise you have to pull it out and start again. The fabric will bunch up as you do this. Just keep pushing the strip through and straightening out the bunches as you go. It sounds more complicated than it is.

4. When you have the strip all the way through and hanging out of both ends, get all the gathers out of the top, so that the bag will lay flat again and tie a knot as close to the bag as you can, then trim the excess strips. On the left, bunchy. On the right, pulled flat and tied off.

You're done! When you pull the bag closed, you'll have a handy little handle for your little person to hold onto as they hit the neighbors up for candy!

I also shrunk the bags a bit and made several tiny little treat bags to take to people at church. I just reduced the size of the strips to 2.5 inches wide and about 12 inches long, to make a final bag about 5 inches square. Here's the little ones with a finished bigger size.

When they are closed, they look like little candy-corns! So cute!

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A Little Bit of Motivation...

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Eat Organic Cheaply, Part Deux

Photo credit: Palladinofarms.com

Okay, so if you're going to attempt to convert an entire family's diet from conventional to organic and continue to attempt to eat roughly the same way, well, you'll either fail or spend unbelievable amounts of money.

You CAN eat processed organic foods. They are quite tasty sure, but at twice the price of regular old conventional foods, well, that seems kind of silly.

Instead, perhaps, if you're striving for simply MORE organic and less conventional, you'll have more success by  picking and choosing the things that matter most to you and your family's needs.

For example, in our home the things that matter 100% the most are organic, free-range meats. The comparison between the two is unreal. So, for US, meat is king. It's also something we don't eat a lot of, so a couple of pounds of organic meat is do-able. If we had more sustainable, local options, believe me, we'd use them!

So, choose what matters most. Is it the pesticides on conventional produce? Or is it freeing yourself from conventional dairy products? Read up, and find ways to get what you need at it's most basic form locally. If that fails, then move to grocers who support organic farming and sustainability.

Be creative and find ways to get what you need. It doesn't have to double your food budget!

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How to Eat Organic Cheaply

From August 2011

Ezra enjoying gnawing toothlessly on an organic carrot stick. YUM. 

I can not tell a lie. Eating conventional foods is MUCH MUCH cheaper than eating their organic counterparts.

I will not be going into WHY one should eat organic foods beyond this:. the facts are simple: our world is sick. Our children are sick. Autism rates are painfully high, allergies are terrifying real, asthma is plaguing people. People are obese and dying from it. Pesticides, herbicides, GMOs, antibiotics and hormones infect our food at alarming levels.

Organic takes food to a different level.

If you don't care, can't care, don't have the energy, I totally get that because I have been there. Maybe a small change here or there might make you happier and the world a little better. Maybe not. Totally YOUR CALL.

Ain't life grand that way?

If you're interested at all, then you should give it a whirl. Gone are the days of organic=cardboard. Healthful, organic foods are available in every single variety a person could desire, for every type of diet on the planet.

If you're not convinced do some further googling. I promise you'll see what I'm saying. I'm a convert to the whole institution, and no I do not eat and feed my family organic foods 100% of the time. But I do as much as I can, which is far more than it used to be. I'm getting better each and every week.

So, let's say you WANT to eat organic, but need to be careful on your budget? Welcome to my new series:

HOW TO EAT ORGANIC CHEAPLY!

Awesome-sauce. I know.

Today's lesson: It's more of a "don't worry" than a "do do."

Don't bother with organic bananas.

Yup. If you want bananas, just buy conventional ones.

Why? Because the skins are VERY VERY thick on bananas. So while they are still covered in pesticides and other yuckies, the fruit itself is fairly well protected.

If you're eating on a budget, don't spend your careful grocery budget on organic bananas. There are things that matter FAR more.

There? Don't you feel good? You're ALREADY ON THE RIGHT PATH!

Congratulations.

Stay tuned friends. This is a good one!

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Make Vintage-Inspired Blue Glass Jars

I'm deeply in love with Pinterest. The things I see on there! Mason jars are EVERYWHERE. And one of the coolest ones I saw was turning regular old clear glass into blue.

So pretty.

So I did it myself for some vases for a baby shower I'm hosting.

From August 2011

From August 2011

From August 2011

It's not quite as smooth or as clear as I would like. I need to mess with my glue to water ratio. I did exactly as she said and mine are cloudier than hers.

 I'm thinking I'll wash them off one more time and try again  before Saturday to get them perfect.

But it did work! So pretty!

Mason jars. I love thee.

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Goals for the New School Year

From August 2011

So, the new school year is coming upon many of us. 

A fresh start. 

A blank slate. 

A new spiral bound notebook of possibilities.

Okay, enough of that. 

I am a bit obsessed with goal-setting. New Year's Resolutions? Don't mind if I do! Birthday? Goals galore? New school year? Yes please!

So, I've got a whole slew of goals to accomplish this year. Personal, for the kids and for our family. 

Do you? 

I mean, it can be as simple as, "Andrea will learn to tie her shoes this year!" And then you work with her on it. Even if she isn't quite there by summer 2012, at least you worked toward it! Good for you!

It could be also, "Read a book a month as a family." See how very school-related that is?

Set three goals for the school year! 

1. Personal

2. Kids

3. Family

ANNNNDDD GO! 

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*Is this thing on?*

Hi Friends, can I still call you that? How are you? I'm fine, thanks...

What would you say if I... um... started posting here again?

You see, I've missed you, my diet coke diet friends. So much. My life is making more sense, and I found that I was posting A LOT of DCD-type material on my personal blog. Silly really. That's what THIS space is for.

So, if you would be so kind, to um, read here again?

I'll move some of my stuff over from The Ing Family just for you.

Does that sound like a plan?

I think that we could have a lot of fun.

Oh, and random sidenote, I think I will have to change the name of this here how-to blog. You see, some advertising/sponsorship opportunities have fallen through because of the *name* of The Diet Coke Diet. Some silly thing about "protected" or "copyright" or "Trademark." SILLY things really.

Anyone have any good ideas? Cuz I got NOTHIN!

Hi. It feels good to be back.

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Kid Art Display

Kids (all kids, I think) love to display the things they create. Heck, so do grown-ups! When the boys create something "artsy" they want to show it off. Our walls/fridge have served us well the past year of home schooling, but um, I realized we needed to make different arrangements when Spencer stapled (23 times) to the wall a piece of paper with a tiny bit of art on it.

Don't believe me? Think I'm exaggerating?

Exhibit A:

From August 2011

Overkill much?

So, I started combing the interwebz for options for "kids art displays" many featured frames and clothes pins and other lovely homey type things.

Then the thrift store came to my rescue. What's that? A giant, glass-less frame for 10 dollars? Don't mind if I do! Excuse me? Krylon spray paint? Oh, yes please! Clothes pins? I'll just rob ma clothes line! Wire? Home Depot, you got my back!

And thus the "kid art picture frame" was born. I just painted it, sanded it to make it look less, erm, nice. Cuz really, "nice" doesn't stand a chance around here. And then I attached a picture frame hanging kit three times to the back. It's pretty, and messed up a bit and uneven, and well, exactly as it should be.

Not too shabby. Just shabby enough to fit in around here. I had the boys draw me some stuff to put up for picture taking. They came through... kind of. "This is you when you're angry, Mom," says Henry.

Hmm.

Alas, can't win them all.

Here it is folks: $15 dollars.

From August 2011

Love the shadow-y phone pics. Sigh, my SD card for my camera is MIA

But, regardless of craptastic photography, I am in LOVE with it. LOVE!

So, there. Yup, I have no conclusion to this post.

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