I don’t like throwing things away, some say thrifty, some say hoarder I say environmentally conscious. I honestly like to get the full use out of things and thought I’d share some tips, here are five tips for repurposing 🙂
Category: DIY and Crafts
Become a cupcake angel
When people think of me, baking doesn’t come to mind, at least I don’t think so, if you think Ella and baking comes to mind, come over, lets chat, I’ll bake for you and food poisoning will come to mind, hehehehe. Okay I’m not that bad I can follow a recipe pretty easily and no one has ever gotten sick off one of my recipes. I’m just more into decorating than baking. Even so I have signed up to be a cupcake angel J
Cupcakes of HOPE is a Non-Profit Company whose aim is to raise awareness and funds for families in need of medical assistance, through cupcake themed fundraises.
I had a lot of fun making bows as Oh!Boy for Reach for a Dream earlier this year and thought this was an equally noble cause for Oh!Boy to get into, because childhood illnesses are close to my heart and cancer even more so.
So on the 26th of September my cupcakes will join hundreds being sold for this noble cause, I think I’ll stuff those babies full of chocolate so they have a chance of being noticed among the crowd of those donated by professionals J
All jokes aside I’m quite excited
Do consider getting involved, they swear that all they require is the cupcakes are made with love… click below for more details
I have included a basic cupcake recipe to get you started and fellow bloggers AMELIA, RUTH and LUCHAE will be posting recipes of their own so keep an eye out
Basic vanilla
· 2 cups flour
· 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
· 2 teaspoons baking powder
· 1⁄2 cup butter, softened
· 3⁄4 cup sugar(if you like your cupcakes very sweet, add a little more.)
· 2 eggs
· 1 cup milk
· 1 teaspoon vanilla essence(optional)
Directions
1. preheat oven to 375f or 150c; line muffin cups with papers.
2. cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. beat in eggs one at a time.
3. add flour (mixed with baking powder and salt) alternating with milk beat well; stir in vanilla.
4. divide evenly among pans and bake for 18 minutes. let cool in pans.
(recipe from food.com)
DIY family wall for kids room
I am blessed to come from a pretty tight knit family, Aidan LOVES his cousins (Caleb, Kammy and Cruze are our siblings kids and Taylor, Kirsten and Cody are my cousins kids) We try to set up as many play dates as possible and it is such a blessing to watch them grow 🙂 I thought it might be fun to put up some pictures of them in Aidan’s room but didn’t want it to be your run of the mill framed pics so this is what I came up with. . .
 |
| I took pictures of “the crew” |
 |
| Using a simple photo program I converted them all into sketches, LIKE SO Using a different colour for each kid |
 |
| Aidan set to work colouring in his cousins |
 |
| This project could actually work as a colouring book for a family day me thinks 🙂 |
 |
| I then used prestik some animal stickers I got at Crazy Store and pegs to create wall clips |
 |
| See so cute!!! Aidy then chose which animal match which |
 |
| The wall in conjunction to his room |
DIY magnetic tic-tac-toe
So even though I sell busy bags over at www.ohboykids.co.za I love them so much that I will continue showing you how to make your own like this magnetic tic-tac-toe game 🙂
 |
| So easy |
 |
| You need metal tin, washi tape, patterned duct tape, felt, magnets and scissors |
 |
| My tin came free with sanitary pads, hehe |
 |
| First I covered the tin with patterned duct tape to dude it up a little 🙂 |
 |
| I used the washi tape for the lines on the inside…like so |
 |
| Stick the magnets to the felt (paper works too, in fact probably better) |
 |
| Cut out 6 felt and magnet squares in each colour |
 |
| TAH! DAH! now tic-tac-toe away |
Toddler tips (&recipes) for the sick and tired
As many of you know, I work in an office, three days a week, this week it was office Monday to Wednesday and from home Thur and Friday. This Thursday the flu fairy came and hit all three of us with it’s wand, good and proper. So I found myself feeling horrid, with a bunch of sewing and a cranky, sick toddler who wanted attention… These are some of the things I did to keep him busy and give him some mommy time between tasks…
If you follow me on INSTAGRAM,FACEBOOK or TWITTER you might have seen one or two of these, but these are my sick toddler hacks:
Trick them into healthy eating:
 |
| We made these based on THIS recipe but with macadamia nut butter Just mix a cup of the nut butter an egg and 6 table spoons of sugar and bake for 10min I decorated with melted dark chocolate |
 |
| We also made “ice-cream” because he saw the moulds while we were at clicks pharmacy and I thought why not I just filled the moulds with yogurt straight from the tub and froze… quite yum and he actually ate it, go mom |
Keep them busy
 |
| To buy myself some sewing time I glued a magnet to a craft stick Popped a few coins out of his money box and made a game out of “fishing for money” |
 |
| I let him practice his cutting with a pair of bladeless scissors (from woolies) and play dough it is easy to cut and recut and he loved it… “Aidy do it self mommy” |
 |
| The rest of the time I just put him to work or locked him in the car 🙂 *I’m kidding don’t kill me |
Please comment with your tricks for entertaining your sick toddler and for getting healthy food in them when eating sounds like a punishment to them.
Have a great day and ya’ll come back now you hear, 🙂
10 great diy gift ideas
I love crafting, I especially love crafting gifts for loved ones. With this in mind and with it being birthday central around these parts I thought I’d share the ten favourite gifts I have made on www.justellabella.co.za … Hope you find some inspiration 🙂 just click on descriptions for tutorials.
 |
| Button magnets |
 |
| t-shirt scarf |
 |
| Sewing kit |
 |
| Ginger&Rooibos foot soak |
 |
| Air dry clay |
 |
| scarf camera strap |
 |
| Gingerbread scrub |
 |
| Bookmark |
 |
| chocolate dipping spoons |
 |
| Button bracelet |
