June Highlights at Keeping the Castle
July 5, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under Castle News and Chit Chat, Home Making
Here are a few highlights from June at Keeping the Castle.
Free 4th of July Crafts and Recipe Book
May Highlights at Keeping the Castle
The Lowdown on McDonald’s Iced Coffee
What is the Temperature of Your House?
Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough Recall
Five Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
Cleaning Challenge: Clean Your Coffeemaker
Hamilton Beach Dispensing Blender
Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas Recipe
Health Benefits of Drinking Tea
Works for Me Wednesday: Bag Organization
Cleaning Challenge: Clutter Patrol
Which articles did you enjoy?
image (c) Karen Weideman
Helpful Links for This Week
June 30, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under Homemaking Blogs and Websites
I’m been surfing around the web and here are some articles that I’m enjoying or might be helpful to you.
Easy Patriotic Dessert Recipes
Too Many T-Shirts? Transform Them!
5 Ways to Save Money on Kids’ Party Decorations
Grilled Portobello Mushroom Burgers
Southwestern Style Potato Salad
How to Make Paper Floofs for Your Party
Enjoy!
Do you have any links to add?
image from kraft
May Highlights at Keeping the Castle
June 29, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under Castle News and Chit Chat
When I visit blogs, one thing that is time consuming is looking through the older posts. I’ve decided that to make things easier for my readers, I will make a post with links to articles that have been written that month. This will serve as an easy way to read the information that you feel could be useful to you. Since June is not over just yet, I’ll go ahead and wrap up May for us.
Kitchen Must-Have: Pyrex Portable
Gardening with Volunteer Plants
Primal Grill with Steve Raichlen
27 Patriotic Crafts from Martha Stewart
Kitchen Must-Have: Kitchen Shears
Laundry Must-Have: Tide BraBag
Clark Howard and the Smart Shoppers
Cute Food Treats from Bright Delights
10 Ways You Can Enjoy Your Yard This Summer
Which articles are your favorites?
image (c) Karen Weideman
Time Saving Laundry Tip
June 10, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under Laundry
Now that I have three children, it seems the laundry is endless. Well, honestly, it pretty much is (sigh). Doing laundry for five people can be a bit time consuming, but I’ve found a solution to some of the madness and it’s saving me some time.
My tip for saving time with laundry is to wash the clothes from one bedroom at a time. On Monday, I got the dirty clothes from my 11-year-old’s room and washed his clothes. The only clothes in the pile were his and the only clothes that needed to be put away were his.
Doing only one room of laundry at a time saves you time because you’re not wandering around the house putting things away. Just think of all the time you’d save if you did this with every load of laundry. Hopefully, the kids are around when their laundry is ready to be put away. With my 11-year-old, I put the clothes on his bed. He hangs up the shirts while I fold everything else. Then sometimes he helps to put the other items in his dresser drawers. With my 3 and 5-year-old, I usually just have them put away their socks, underwear, and pajamas. I fold and hang up the other clothes.
Of course, my system is not fool proof. With kids, sometimes they spill food on themselves or have a potty accident. I try not to do half loads, so I’ll throw in a bunch of other clothes. This throws off my system a little bit and takes more time, but it does save energy and water to do a full load.
If you’re able, give this system a try and let me know how it works for you. Or if you have any laundry saving tips of your own, feel free to leave those too. We can all learn from one another.
For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, visit We Are THAT Family.
image from sxc.hu
Save Time with Bed Linens
June 9, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under Laundry
Washing the sheets and blankets is definitely not one of my favorite household chores. It has to be done though, so we might as well find a way to make it easier. There is a way that you can save time and make this task easier.
Many folks take off their sheets and put them into the laundry hamper. Then they get out another set of sheets from the linen closet and put those on the bed. Later, after they’ve washed the previous sheets, they fold them and put them back into the closet. This seems like a lot of extra work to me.
When I need to change my sheets, I simply pull them off, wash them, dry them, and then put the same sheets back on the bed. I really thought that most people do their sheet washing this way until I was at someone’s house one day and saw them doing all the folding and such. I asked why they just didn’t wash them and put them back on. She said because it takes a while to wash and dry them. It does take small bit of time, but much less time than it would take to change them with a different set.
If you find you’re like this person I mentioned and struggling for time to wash and use the same set, then try putting your sheets into the washing machine as soon as you get up in the morning. Then before you go to work you can put them in the dryer. Or try putting them into wash when you get home from work and then put them in the dryer after dinner. See what works for you.
How is your laundry routine? Do change the sheets or do you use the same ones?
image (c) Karen Weideman
Links I’m Enjoying
June 6, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under General Housekeeping and Homemaking, Homemaking Blogs and Websites
Here are links to some of the articles I enjoyed this week.
Cindy at My Recycled Bags has recycled old t-shirts to make a really cute purse.
Erika at CraftStylish shows how to make tote bags from vintage bed sheets.
Mornings with Mom has a tasty looking homemade apple crisp that she says is quick and easy to make.
This newspaper hut is pretty cool. Be sure to bookmark this for those summer days when the kids are bored out of their minds. Whip out this idea and your kids will probably call you “the coolest mom ever”.
During the summer, my husband and I enjoy using our fresh tomatoes to make tomato casserole. Michelle Smith also has a recipe for Greek tomato pie.
Charity & the JAMband have seven songs that you can download for free. Thrifty Mommy has more information about this.
For those of you that like to make handmade gifts, you might like this tutorial on making watermelon soaps.
I have a pot rack that hangs from my ceiling above my kitchen island. I had never seen one that hangs on the side of your cabinets until I saw this DIY Simple, Modern Pot Rack tutorial.
I hope you enjoy these ideas. If you have a recipe, cleaning tips, craft, etc, please leave your link in the comments. Thanks. Have a great weekend!
image from sxc.hu
The Martha Stewart Blog
June 4, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under Homemaking Blogs and Websites
I knew Martha Stewart had her own show, magazines, and website. I’ve also seen her on twitter, but it wasn’t until today that I discovered she has a blog.
On The Martha Blog, you’ll find more of her tips for gardening, entertaining, holidays, collecting, home, pets, giving, travel, and more. This week, she has posted some promised pictures of her honey bees. She discusses an issue with the bees not building the hives correctly and tells what the problem was the hive, and also gives 18 pictures for our viewing. After discovering The Martha Blog, I realized that it’s been around for a few years. lol I guess you learn something new every day.
Martha Stewart has built quite a name for herself. She must have an army of people working for her, but even still, I wonder when she has time to sleep! Most of her tweets (on twitter) seem like they are actually from her personally.
Do you enjoy the tips that Martha Stewart offers?
image from the martha blog
Works For Me Wednesday: Bag Organization
June 3, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under General Housekeeping and Homemaking, Organizing and Clutter Control
After I started teaching school, it didn’t take me long to figure out that kids have lots of little pieces, parts, and do-dads for everything. Whether it be flash cards, game pieces, craft supplies, or other whatchama diggers, you’ll be needing some kind of organization to keep these little parts from scattering all over the house or classroom.
While I have been fortunate enough to review some plastic organization bags, the cheapest, most frugal and earth-friendly choice is to reuse the plastic zipper bags that we get from purchasing bedding and other home accessories. I have put to use all of the bags in our house that have come with shams, curtains, sheets, comforters, etc. I have two of them that are used for sleeping bags and as you can see here, I am using this one for all of the children’s bubble supplies. This bag came with my daughter’s crib bedding. It’s been around a while.
The clear zipper bags keep all of the parts contained and since they are clear, you can easily see what’s inside. In this case, the plastic bag also keeps the bubble solution from leaking.
Do you reuse your plastic bags?
For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, visit We Are THAT Family. Image (c) Karen Weideman
Links I’m Enjoying
May 21, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under General Housekeeping and Homemaking, Homemaking Blogs and Websites
Have you all missed me? I know that I’ve missed you. After a few exhausting weeks and over 20 hours on the road, I’m happy to be back at home. Here’s a few links I’m enjoying today.
I’m craving burritos since reading about these Brown Bag Burritos at The Finer Things in Life. I need to find the time to make some of these and freeze them for quick meals.
A few years ago, I could have used this recipe for frugal potting soil. I had some flower beds to build up and fill with dirt. I remember buying the cheap potting soil and even then, it was pretty expensive.
Summer is just around the corner and that means cook outs with baked beans. Passionate homemaking has a recipe for homemade baked beans. I’m looking forward to getting another freezer so that I can begin to make large batches of foods to freeze.
These bacon wrapped hotdogs would go great with the homemade baked beans. It’s time to fire up the grill.
I have been thinking a lot lately about my balance between computer life and home life. It is a daily struggle. How much time is too much? Homemaker Barbi has part 1, part 2, and part 3 of Crystal’s interview.
Hope you enjoy the links. Do you have any homemaking links to share? Please leave them below.
image (c) Karen Weideman
Links I’m Enjoying
April 26, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under General Housekeeping and Homemaking, Homemaking Blogs and Websites
A few years ago, my mother-in-law made no-sew fleece blankets for my children. Since they are made from two pieces of fleece, they are so warm. Be on the look-out for fleece when it goes on sale.
Sandy has posted about a free subscription to Organic Gardening. Hurry before they’re all gone!
FamilyLife Culture has an article on How NOT to Treat Your Mate. All of us could probably use a reminder in these areas.
Each Easter, I look forward to buying a package of Peeps marshmallows. Thig & Thistle has come up with a recipe for making your own. You might want to bookmark this recipe for next year.
Melanie gives new meaning to naturally dyed eggs. These eggs are beautiful!
I thought this list of wacky pet names was cute. Enjoy a smile or two.
These “pickled worms” would make a nice and funny treat or gift.
I’ve been saving all of our empty peanut butter jars and now I’m looking for cute crafts using the jars. Any suggestions?
image by Karen Weideman
