How to Cut a Watermelon

Summer and Watermelon just go together.

But sometimes Watermelon cutting can seem daunting.

I try to keep it simple and quick,  and easy to eat for my little ones.

Push knife lengthwise, straight into melon...

Then around like the hands of a clock, turning melon half way through.

Now that you have melon rings...

Cut rind off, around the ring, then remove rind.

Cut slices in a checker board pattern and place in bowl.

Repeat with other slices, either as needed, or all at once.

To get the fruit out of the melon's end cap 'bowls', use a melon baller or spoon and dig out 'balls' of melon.

Enjoy Summer!

Father's Day Handprint Craft

It might go without saying, but DIY Daddy is pretty handy around the house.

He also needs a few work shirts to get dirty in as he works.

Thus, our Father's Day Gift: a personalized Handy-Daddy t-shirt.

How to: Use craft paint and stamps to write out the saying.  (Clean paint off stamps quickly after use.) Then paint the children's hands and carefully place down on shirt, pressing each finger and palm down firmly, then lift straight up.  

Other possible sayings..."Zoe's Handyman", "Our Handyman", "Daddy's our Handyman", "Tyler and Emma's Handy-Daddy".

Top row: back of t-shirt.
Bottom row: front of t-shirt

Summer Mohawk

Last summer I thought it would be fun to take, now 3 year old Tommie's long locks and instead of going straight for a summer butch give him a mohawk for a bit first.  

He loved it.  His siblings loved it.  

So, fast forward to this summer, where Tommie has been asking for his mohawk back.

Alrighty kiddo, here comes your mohawk!

Summer Mohawk How-to

(For regular haircuts skip to step 2.)

1. Using a comb to make straight line parts, gather the hair in the middle of the head into a couple of ponytails--gathering and lifting the mohawk-to-be out of the way.  I don't go all the way to the neck with the mohawk, but stop a few inches up instead...that bottom hair doesn't mohawk well.

2. Cut all hair that is not in a ponytail using clippers.  In this case I used a #3 clipper attachment.  Work carefully around the ponytails, trying not to catch any hair you don't mean to.  Go over the hair with the clippers a couple of times to insure you don't have any long hairred straglers.

3. Using the ear attachment, clip/clean-up right around ears.

4. Clean-up and create a straight line at the neck, by using the clippers--no attachment--on lowest setting. Holding clippers upside down, start by placing clippers at desired hairline and 'shaving' down the neck towards shoulders, going down as far as there are stray hairs.  Make sense? ;)

5. When your finished cutting it should look something like this.  Ponytails down the middle an. a clean cut all around.

6. Take the ponytails out.

7. Style using mousse, fiber gum, hairspray, gel--whatever you've got--and a little hairdryer action to hold in place.

Note:  The above how-to can be used for regular hair cuts too, just cut all the hair instead of leaving a mohawk.

It's HOT! Time for a Milkshake!

We've been playing outside this morning, and it's hot.  Now I think we need something cold and yummy.

Banana Milk Shake

1 C. Milk

1 Banana

2 C. Vanilla Ice Cream

Blend it all in the blender until smooth.  Make more by doubling your ingredients.

Clearance plants

When I was at Lowes today I happened upon a couple of racks of clearance plants. A lot of them were $0.10 and the bigger perennials that I got were $0.50.  My grand total: $1.60. Not too shabby!

Check it out and see if there are any flowers/plants on clearance where you are.

Crepes with Strawberry Jam

Now that we have fresh jam in house we need something to eat with.

Time for some Crepes!

Crepes

2 Beaten Eggs

1 1/2 C. Milk

1 C. Flour

1 T. Oil

Dash of Salt

Combine all ingredients, stirring just until combined.

In a warmed, greased, round-skillet pour about 1/4 C. batter, then lift skillet and tilt it around in a circle to spread the batter thinly, thus forming a crepe.

Crepe making takes some time, so I will warm the oven to about 200 deg., turn it off and then place finished crepes on a cookie sheet in the oven to stay warm until I have finished cooking all of the batter.

To eat: place a small amount of jam down the center of a crepe.  Roll crepe up and watch them all disappear.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

We have been picking a plethora of strawberries, which can only mean one thing: 

Time for making JAM.

Freezer jam is very easy to make.  

There are only 3 ingredients: fruit, sugar, and pectin.

I can't tell you specific amounts because it depends on the pectin--which will have a recipe--but I do recommend using dry pectin over wet.

Note: Pectin can normally be found by the canning jars at the store.

Here are the basics of putting the jam together.

1. Wash fruit, cut off greens, and place in blender.

2. Puree in blender just long enough to get each berry through the blades, you want to have some berry chunks instead of just liquified berries.

3. Read your pectin recipe to know how many berries and how much sugar to prep.

4. Wash and dry jam containers: these can be glass jars, plastic containers, but keep it small-ish.

5. Combine, by mixing, pectin and sugar.

6. Mix pectin/sugar with berry puree for a few minutes.

7. After this mixing you will be able to see that the kam has thickened.

8. Pour jam into containers, leaving the top half inch unfilled.

Freeze and use as needed.

DIY Storage Boxes

I have been on the look out for storage boxes/baskets that would fit into our awesome Mud Room Unit that we built.  I haven't found anything that is the right size.  I happily discovered that the boxes that milk comes in from Costco are just about right.

To make them into pretty storage boxes:

Cut off the flaps (I used a box cutter)

Mod Podge scrapbook paper onto the front (a 12x12" fit the width perfectly and I just folded the excess over the top)

Add a layer of Mod Podge on top of the paper to protect it

Note: I tried to smooth the paper out as I put it on the box.  I did find that when I added the Mod Podge on top, the paper bubbled up.  It did flatten back out as it dried.

I just put paper on the front since that is all that will normally be seen, but you could do all the sides if you wanted.

$0.30 storage boxes!!!  Wahoo!!!

Mouse Alfredo

DIY Daddy put a few mouse traps up in the attic...but has yet to catch anything.

However, it was a Mouse Alfredo kind of night.  

What, you say, is Mouse Alfredo?  Alfredo sauce with a tablespoon of pesto aded in.  I happened to use a sun dried tomato pesto, but standard green pesto is just as delicious.  So my short recipe would look something like this:

Mouse Alfredo

1 jar Alfredo Sauce

1 Tb Pesto

1/2 lb shredded Chicken

Cooked pasta

"But why is it called Mouse Alfredo," you beg.

Because this pesto-alfredo sauce is a copycat of an alfredo sauce found on pasta entrees at Disneyland, would be the answer.  So the mouse part is thanks to Mickey.

Eat up.

Outdoor Rug a'la Paint

Today we were lucky enough to be invited over to a friends for a swim.

Which the kids absolutely love!

Any how....I really liked this idea of a painting a rug on the cement.

What's not to like.  Easily cleaned.  Water proof. Spill proof. Custom colors.

Just a really awesome idea that gets the idea wheels turning.