Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Homemade Apple Pie Filling

Ingredients:

3x 600mls glass jars
6 large apples (if you only want some apples in the filling, then only use 4 apples)
1teaspoon cinnamon
5 cups water
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1cup corn starch
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2½ cups sugar
1 pot
1 ladle
1 wide mouth funnel

Directions:

Sterilize your jars how you would like, with bigger jars, I like to use the dishwasher just to make sure I can sterilize the entire jar, because most of my pots are not big enough.
Cut out the core of your apples and slice thinly, then put aside until jars are sterilized.
In a large pot, mix sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cornstarch, and water on high heat stirring continuously until it boils. Then let it sit and boil for 1 minute, no more and remove it from the heat.
Add your lemon juice to the pot and stir it in.
Take your apple slices and stuff them down as much as you can into each jar. (I like a lot of apples so I try to stuff as many as I can in, but if you only used 4 apples, then just fill them about ½ way with apples.)
Use a ladle, and funnel to scoop out the contents from the pot (your sauce) into each jar. (Do not fill your jars up past ¼ inch from the top of the jar, or if you freeze them, they will explode!) You can use a smaller spoon to help push the sauce down more into the jars if you over stuffed them like me.
Wipe the edges of your jars and lids and seal them up.

You are all ready for pie making season!!!


Saturday, October 24, 2015

Candy Corn Garland

A simple little treat for all my stay at home moms or nannies who have some craft loving kids on their hands and want a fun new idea to prepare for Halloween. 

10 paper plates
markers yellow and orange
scissors
hole puncher
string thick, and sturdy (rope like)

 

Start by making a circle in the middle of the plate very lightly in pencil about 2 ½-3 inches in diameter. 
Then  using orange, color from the edge of that circle out about 2 in thick. 
Finally from the outside of the orange all the way to the outside of the plate, color in yellow. Do this to every plate, before cutting the plates up in quadrants like a pizza. 
Then take your hole puncher and punch two holes in opposite corners of the yellow section, and use your string to string together your candy corn shapes into a garland.


Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Halloween Snacks

Its almost Halloween, so pumpkin carving season is upon us!!!

Ive always tried to limit the amount of pumpkins carved each year, because I thought it really a waste of pumpkin, however this year we have been going crazy with our pumpkin carving because we decided to use the entire pumpkin!

Pumpkin Seed Snacks:

After you gut your pumpkin, take the seeds and separate them from the pumpkin innards, in a colander and let them soak for about 30 minutes in cold water.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Remove the colander from the water (don't throw it away) and spread the seeds out on a cookie pan. Then sprinkle with whatever seasoning you like. We like to use a garlic-salt combination, simple salt and pepper works well too.
Then stick your pan in the oven for 45 minutes (or until seeds turn a brown color)and let cool for 5-10min  before enjoying a healthy yummy snack!!!



Hint of Pumpkin Coffee

Ok so I don't know who started pumpkin coffee, but I don't like a lot of cream in my coffee, so I found a different way to get the pumpkin taste without all the cream. (remember the water you soaked the seeds in, use this water now, and)

Use a colander to soak the pumpkin "guts" in for about 30 minutes.
Then remove the colander and use this water to brew your coffee.
PUMPKIN COFFEE PRESTO!!!

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Jolly Rancher Candy Apple

I am so excited for Halloween, so aside from having my house decorated already, I have started making the candy apples. So I read somewhere that you can make candy apples with Jolly Ranchers and figured I had to give it a try.  Any ways for those of you who have followed other directions and not had much luck, neither did I, but I was determined to make these delicious sounding treats, and so I found a way.  Please try it out and let me know what you think.

          First you have to pick out the “good” colors right, so we picked out Blue Raspberry, Cherry, and Grape (watermelon, would have probably been mixed in if someone hadn’t eaten them all already, haha... I think 3 green apple flavors made it in as well) unwrap these, and put them into a pot, or bowl you can heat up. 
*To cut time on melting crush your candy up in ziplock baggies before putting them in pot or bowl

              Next take a larger pot, or pan and fill it about ½ way with water, and place your candy bowl inside, making sure that there is no chance of the water getting mixed in with your candy, then set this on high with a lid until the candy melts, which should only take about 15 minutes.

             While the candy is melting grab some wax paper and set it out on a flat surface like a cutting board, or a plate, as a place to set your apples when they are candy coated. The other option is to grease a plate.

Immediately as the candy is liquid enough to run a spoon through, dunk your apple in (personally I like to turn the heat of for this, but if you do so, you have to move quickly, because it will only take seconds for your candy to harden up again). Now if you are like me and only decided to get 2 bags of jolly ranchers, you wont have enough candy to dunk the apple all the way in, so use the spoon, to scoop the candy and coat the apple with it.

Then remove the apple and set it out to dry either on you wax paper or greased plate. The wait for this is about 20 minutes, 5 if you put the apples in the fridge.


These apples are super hard to eat so we slice them up and eat that way instead of whole.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

3 Steps to a Better Business

SSL

“Sit down, Shut up, and Listen.” This was my 4th grade teachers favorite thing to say but she would tweak it to be sit don’t, SHHHHHHH, and Listen, it wasn’t until later in life when I heard it used again that I heard it used with more force and began to understand it for what it was worth. ”Take the cotton out of your ears and stick it in your mouth” this was one of the first lessons I learned when I started my business, and surprisingly it wasn’t from a business owner. Many times as business owners we want to show off our knowledge, and so we feel the need to have an answer for everything. This is great in the sense that it shows confidence in yourself, your product/service, and in your company, but as a business owner having the humility to accept that you do not know everything can show that you are way more knowledgeable than the one with all the answers. Lets face it, we don’t know everything, and being able to accept that and learn from others shows that we are smart enough to know that. It also invites people to see that you are open-minded which is something most consumers like. Every once in a while take a few days or even a week, where you keep your opinions and answers out of it, and just listen to others, you may learn something.

Read Between the Lines

We live in a society today where people get on any website and post their opinions about you or anyone else. There are 2 ways to look at this. 1 these comments are normally negative and to stay positive we ignore them, or 2 if you read between the lines, you see that these comments are giving you ways to run your business better.  There are many times when everything you read is negative, and this can be demoralizing at times if you don’t look at it the right way. Even if comments where someone is just complaining and whining, you can see that obviously something went wrong with that persons experience with your business and give you an opportunity for improvement. When you start to see a pattern in negative comments, don’t look at it as something bad, look at it as a way to make yourself better, a way to change those comments into return customers. Customer Discovery is so easy to do these days due to site like Angies List, blogs, or even Facebook. Most people have no problem posting positive or negative comments about products they like or dislike. If you read them or listen to them, you will find ways to appeal to your customers better. If you don’t, someone else will.

WHY?

If this word is not in your vocabulary already, then add it.  Along with being able to listen and read between the lines, being able to ask why is really important. So say you are in one of your quiet days and you are listening to someone just bash your product/service, instead of instinctively ignoring the criticism, or trying to figure out the “between the lines” reason, just ask why?  What happened that made the person so miserable? Then here is the kicker, after you ask, LISTEN! If you genuinely care about your business, then you need to genuinely care about your customers opinions. So do not ignore the criticism, do not forget the praises; listen when people tell you what they want, and don’t want. Most of the time if you show a true and genuine interest in someone’s wants and needs they will let you know, and then guess what. They have told you exactly what they want from your business, no guess work! This can reduce your guess work, lower your risk, and increase your customer base, why, because you listened, you interpreted the negativity, and you cared.


Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Seashell Fun

Heyy all my crafty mommies, and shell loving kiddos!!! No longer do you need to feel as though the shells collected from the beach this past year were a waste. Not that collecting seashells are every really a waste of time, but still, this is just a conformation for you all.

I have put together a list of things you can make with your seashells, to liven them up or put them to good use:

1. Seashell portraits
One of the simplest things you can do with seashells, is to gather all of the really big ones and paint them. We used nail polish for this because they were left outside and our traditional paints would have washed off, and acrylic is too thick for our liking. You can make everything from  memory shell, to  pictures of fishes!
PS: dont think your artistic skills are up to par? No problem! Paint a shell all one color and let dry, then using some clear glue, make squiggles all of the shell. Next pour a colorful sand on the shell and let dry to make your shell look like fan coral.




2. Seashell Earings
This is another super well known use for seashells, but why leave it out? You don't always have to invent the wheel, sometime remembering a good idea is good.You can buy earring backs at just about any craft stores as well as wall mart.I use a hot glue gun for this craft just so that it sticks better, but a super glue will work as well.
       1. Paint your seashell (if you would like) and let dry
       2. Once dry glue it to the earring back, and let dry

3. Seashell Vase
Personaly, I am not a fan of flowers, but my mother loves to send then to me for every occasion, so I have an ever growing collection of flower vases in my house, that look dull since I don't try to fill them with flowers. So this summer I went on a quest to find and collect 500 tiny seashells to help fill my vases with. I ended up with a lot more and was able to fill all of them up. This is a great touch to our bathroom, and my office,  reminding me of the beach all year round.


4. Seashell Mobile
For this craft you want to use slightly more light weight shells, since drilling a hole in them increases the risk of breaking them and your glue may not hold up on  a heavier shell. The easiest way I have found to do this is with a clasp, glued to the concave side of the shell. Use a thick piece of string to loop through the clasp and then again around a wooden ring, before tying off at the top.
Side note: seashells re really porous, so regular glue does not always work so well with them, however Beacon has a sea shell glue that works really well. If you use this kind please be sure to let the clasps sit for a whole day before continuing, because it takes a while to set.


5. Seashell Necklaces
Of course, there are so many ways to make a seashell necklace, and it is probably one of the most common use for seashell findings. My daughter and I went all out this year, using both gemstones, and shark teeth to help add creativity to our necklaces.
(from left 3 mermaid, one just shell)
      
 1. Paint your seashell
 2. Decided if you want the mermaid version or shark version
                   
             A.Mermaid: Using a glitter glue, glue a colorful gem in the center of the concave side of your shell before adding a final layer of glitter.
                   



B. Shark: Using some glue create a puddle in the concave said of the shell, add the shark tooth, or teeth, then top off with a top layer of glue in order to trap the tooth, teeth into a glue resin.

3. Let Dry before adding it to your necklace





Thursday, September 17, 2015

Homemade Wreaths

Hey guys so Autumn is coming and that means Thanksgiving!!!  I absolutely love fall colors and weather.  So in light of the changing seasons I have started putting together some more fall appropriate crafts for all you crafty souls, and parents of craft loving kids. The first is a homemade wreath. You can make these with leaves, pinecones, small sticks, walnuts, and pretty much anything else you find in nature. For this, due to the chemicals in the spray paint and the hot glue guns please work with a parent or responsible adult.





Step 1 is going out and collecting these items. Yes of course you can go to Michaels or other crafts stores and buy these items, but getting to take a long hike where your kids are engaged in finding “treasures” and hand picking your wreath parts makes the wreaths that much more personal.
            A quick side note is to make sure that if you are collecting pinecones or sticks, make sure they are dry in order to minimize any kind of molding or deteriorating. If you are getting leaves though, you want to make sure that they are still green, and are not falling apart with dryness.
 




Step 2 is to spray paint your “treasures”. So pick out some fun fall colored spray paint and spray your findings in whatever colors you like. I put down newspaper as a table cloth (you can use gloves to protect my hands from being painted as well as a facemask to minimizes the chemicals being breathed in) and then spray an even coat of paint to the item and then lay it out on another sheet of newspaper in order to dry for at least 4-5 hours.
            Side note: if you are painting leaves, then let them fully dry and then set aside in a book and press for 3-4 days.






Step 3- grab your glue gun, your painted items, and your wreath rings. It’s time to put it all together. Set up a new newspaper table cloth, and then set your pinecones, sticks or base wreath items out around the wreath ring and applying ample amounts of glue, stick them to your wreath. Then take your leaves, walnuts, or other more frilly, or fun items, and glue them on as well. Then let the glue dry and your items set which should take about 4-5 hours.
 












Step 4-  This is the Glitter Step!!! So once your wreath is dry enough to move it to an upright position, tape a piece of newspaper on the back-side of the wreath and using a glitter spray paint to glitter-fy the wreath. Then remove the newspaper from the back side and allow your wreath to dry completely before hanging in your house or on your front door.

As a side note, try to hang your wreath indoors, and out of too much sunlight, because otherwise the wreath will break down faster.

Here are some of the wreaths that my daughter and I have created:





Monday, September 14, 2015

BeYou-T-Fit Survey

BeYou-T-Fit:  Heyy guys I have been doing some research for my business, and I am looking for people to fill out a 5-7 minute survey. Please follow the link to help me out!

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

The Human Resources side of the ADA and Businesses

Managing people is one of the most god-awful things you will have to do in a business. This is regardless of weather you are a people persona or not. As a business owner you are who everyone looks to both for leadership and mistakes. Perfect example would be our president. We love to look for faults in our leaders, in fact I can’t think of a single president that has at least one negative thing said about him. You will please some and anger others, but in the end the most important thing is that you follow the law as closely as possible and stand up for the choices you make. 
Some of the major risks involved with human resources is the ADA, not only is it so unclear, but people expect you to treat this group like a Godsend that can do no harm. Please do not take this the wrong way, but I know plenty of people who would fall under ADA qualifications that will use this to their advantage and take advantage of you, as well as many other that have a better understanding of what to do, and not to do as well as how to do what you ask of them, and simply wont do it under the assumption that you will treat them as everyone else does (like a wonder of the world). Needless to say people who do not fall under the ADA qualifications will attempt to take advantage of you as well. Going back to looking for faults in our leaders. Your employees will scrutinize, and analyze every move you make to see if you are doing something that could possibly give them an edge in suing you and making them rich. People also live under the impression that life is fair. They also assume that fair means everything goes their way, and so when things do not go their way they also look to do whatever they can to make you suffer.
Best thing to do is to thoroughly screen during the application and hiring process, and stay on top of things. Like I said do your best to uphold the law and then stand by your decisions.

Fall Spider Web Craft

So the Fall is slowly coming upon us, but don't be fooled, September is only 6 days away so we are well on our way to full blow Fall weather. Along with the weather changes there are many things right like the leaves changing colors and falling, the morning dew returning (at least here in Delaware), and most importantly, the spider webs. Ever notice that there are so many more spiderwebs in the fall than in the spring? Well heres why:
"Garden spiders have a seasonal timetable. They hatch in the spring, reproduce and die in the fall. So while they lie low in the early summer (trying to keep from being eaten), by now the survivors are large enough to start spinning webs. And they're in a hurry because the females need to lay their eggs and, well, you know ... that "die" part." To read this article click here


But enough about that, if you are a craft person like me then here is a simple fun activity to do with kids of any age, or even just for yourself.

All you need is:
1 can, white spray paint
1 piece of construction paper

All you need to do is:
Find spider web, and spray it all over with the spray paint, then place the construction paper behind the web and press it up against the web. Then cut the web along the edges of the paper, and Voila!!!


You can also switch up the colors. My mini and I decided to use glow in the dark paint and make some glow in the dark webs for halloween. Be creative, and please share your spider webs with me.

Monday, June 29, 2015

Two ingrediants, two days, Mommy hack to summer rash cure!



So my daughter was experiencing a terrible rash on the back of her neck to which we discovered was a heat rash,also known as miliaria, so I did some research and came up with a remedy that not only cooled, and calmed her down enough at night to get her to sleep peacefully, but also got rid of her heat rash completely in 4 days.
I decided to do a corn starch and Aloe Vera mixture that I could apply heavily to her skin every afternoon when she come home from school, and night after her bath. I would say that you can apply it during the morning as well but it looks really weird when it dries, and it kind of gets on everything.

So I used ½ cup corn starch and ½ cup Aloe Vera. (I used the Aloe Vera that had no dies or perfumes added because they are always really sticky and would counter effective to the cleaning out of her pours.)
Then I mixed (in w whisking fashion) these two ingredients together with a small fork until nothing was separate anymore, and it simply looked like a white lotion.


I applied it every afternoon when she got home and every night after her shower before bed. I saw results by day 2 and by day 4 the rash was completely gone. 


For other tips and tricks to staying healthy check out the blog entries at www.beyoutfit.com

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Natural Squirrel Repelant



So as some of you know I have had a squirrel climbing into my house now for few days and it is not to pleasant to have a crying squirrel stuck behind your walls, nor is it fun to wake up to the nonstop scratching of them trying to get in or out of your house through the worlds smallest space. So after being woken up too many times by this little guy I decided to do something about it. Ok so quick back ground before I tell you what I did is that as child my father loved birds and so we had bird feeders everywhere, and all the little birdies came to eat and build nests in our trees. Little did we know that squirrels happen to like the same food as birds and squirrels are bigger, and scarier than the birds. It wasn’t long before all of the birds were gone and there were only squirrels. We stopped putting out food, but by that time the squirrels had already settled in and were trying anything and everything to find some food, they starting eating my dogs food and would have no fear of us trying to chase them away. My parents bright idea was to then catch the squirrels in traps and then drown them in a big trash can of water.  This actually worked for them, and about 2 summers later we were squirrel free, but my father never put the bird seed back out again.
Because of this though I was determined to get rid of this squirrel in a more humane way. I found out that squirrels hate hot peppers. All of the homemade repellants though only included cayenne peppers, which for some reason I could not find in actually pepper form, anywhere! So I decided to try out some recipes and see what worked for me and my squirrel.
 


1 Green Pepper (you want a male pepper, because they are more acidic and do not have the sweetness of the female pepper. To tell the difference look for the pepper with 3 bumps at the bottom instead of 4.)

2 cups red wine vinegar


3 cups water


5 Jalapeno Peppers


1 juicer                         







 
Chop the tops off all the peppers and cut them down to manageable sizes that you can put in your juicer. Then juice. (be careful when you are juicing the Jalapenos that you do them slowly and do not breath in deeply. Some of the juice is going to come out the top and it may choke you up a bit. Save the reins.)

Pour the juiced peppers into a container, then add the 2 cups of vinegar,
and top off the rest with water.
Leave this container out uncovered at room temperature for about 2 days, and then transfer to an empty squirt bottle. (When you squirt this make sure that you are up wind, or that you are not in an enclosed space. The juice is strong and you do not want to inhale it if you can avoid it.)


***The reins can be used to make a super-hot salsa, or add them to a chicken rub to make it extra spicy!!!***



I have a garden as well and some cats that like to run around my neighborhood. This mixture should keep away a multitude of animals, and although it is spicy it is 100% consumable and non lethal to any animals.