Custom Bleached Shirts

We are planning on working on different fun projects throughout the summer and this week we made custom bleached shirts for Olivia.

What you need:
-A shirt
-Freezer paper
-Bleach
-Spray bottle or water gun
-Cardboard
-Bucket or something to put the shirt in and get wet
-Rubber gloves (optional)

We couldn't find any plain colored shirts in her size so we got two tank tops from walmart.

1.  Draw on the wax paper what you want on your shirt... letters, shapes, designs.  Then you put them on your shirt wax side down.  What is under the wax paper will remain the color of the shirt and what is sprayed with the bleach will turn a lighter color.

2. Iron the wax paper onto your shirt (wax side down).  Make sure your iron is on medium heat and the steam is not on.  Iron for a couple of minutes until the wax paper is stuck all around the edges.

3.  Put a piece of cardboard inside your shirt so the bleach wont bleed through

4.  Fill your spray bottle or water gun with bleach.  You can cut the bleach with some water if you would like.

5.  Now spray your shirt!  Make sure you are not spaying into the wind or dripping the bleach onto your self.  The shirt will look better in only a portion of your shirt is sprayed instead of the entire thing and it also looks different if you spray a light mist or if you drip a lot of the bleach in one spot.

6.  It took several minutes before I could tell the bleached portion of the shirt turning.  And I left the bleach on the pink shirt for about 15 minutes.  It may just depend on what kind of shirt it is.

7.  When the shirt gets to the color you want it then put it into some water and swish it around.  The paper will probably start to peel off.  I went ahead and took all the freezer paper off at this point.

8.  After rinsing off your shirt put it into the washer machine before wearing.

I think they turned out pretty well.  The pink one does not look as good and the letters bled through.  I'm not sure if that was because I didn't iron them on as well or because I left the bleach on too long... or both.

The next day I found a brown shirt from Olivia's room and traced an elephant onto the wax paper.  I really like how this one turning out.  It started turning colors almost immediately after we sprayed the bleach.  It could have been because of the color of the shirt or maybe because we were out int he middle of the day and the sun was hot!  Either way I like it a lot!

Friday Fav: Homemade Play Dough

Olivia is having her 3rd birthday party tomorrow and the theme is Olivia the Pig.  If you have never heard of Olivia the Pig you need to check it out.  It is a TV show that comes on Nick Jr.  Olivia the Pig's favorite color is RED.  Anything she can have red, she does!  We are going to try to have as much red as possible at Olivia's birthday party.  So for the party favors at the birthday party I decided to make red play dough.

I went off the recipe on this blog, and this blog, and this video.  Most of the recipes I found called for Cream of Tarter.  I looked at Winn Dixie and Walmart and could not find it at either place!  After watching the video and reading the blog I scrolled down to read all of the comments.  Some people said that they replaced the Cream of Tarter with Lemon Juice and one person even said they added a little Vinegar to help slow bacteria growth.  I used these two suggestions but there were also others suggestions such as using Kool-aid packets to color and different extracts to scent.  I really wanted to add glitter but I couldn't find what I needed at Walmart.

These are the ingredients I ended up using:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups water
1 cup non-iodized salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 splash vinegar
1 splash vanilla extract
red food coloring

Put all of the ingredients into a medium or large sauce pan on the stove and used a whisk to mix them together.  Turn the stove on medium heat and use a wooden spoon to stir constantly.  After about 2 or 3 minutes the spoon will start to scrape some thickness up from the bottom of the pan.  Keep stirring making sure you scrape the bottom on the pan each time.

(The color looks a little different because the flash was used on some of the pics)

Your mixture will get thicker and thicker.  Just keep stirring.  Eventually all of the liquid will turn to a thick goo.  When this happens, take it off the stove and let cool for a couple of minute.

When the mixture cooled slightly scrapped it onto some plastic wrap onto the counter.  While it is still hot, fold and need it a few times.  This will help the texture become more like play dough.  I then separated it out into nine small balls, but you can keep it in one large lump.  You can also cut this recipe in half or wait until the end to add your color so you can have more variety in colors.

It was pretty easy and fun to make.  I took the balls and put them in zip lock baggies so I can give them away as party favors at Olivia's party.  Have fun with making this homemade play dough!

Friday Favorite: The Smoothie Life

Last week Clint found out that he got the full-time job he has been pursuing at McLean Engineering.  We will be making more money now but we didn't want that money to just go to whatever.  We decided to dedicate some extra money to our health.  We started our YMCA membership back and all this week we have been making smoothies.  Smoothies have been a trend in Moultrie for a few weeks now.  Beans and Strings have fresh fruit smoothies and a green smoothie that has spinach in it.  Also Carrie Viohl (my sister-in-law) has been making some crazy health smoothies and posting her creations on Facebook.  So we decided to try eating healthy smoothies either with our meal or as a snack in an attempt to eat less during lunch and supper.

Here are the smoothies we have made so far...


1st smoothie
Normal fruit smoothie with papaya.
Ingredients: 1/2 of a papaya, about 15 strawberries, 1 banana, Ice, milk
Tasted like a normal strawberry/banana smoothie.
2 1/2 servings

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2nd smoothie
Orange smoothie with papaya
Ingredients: 4 carrots, 1/2 of a papaya, strawberry yogurt, milk, ice
Tasted like carrots.  I added a little orange juice afterwards and it tasted more like oranges. We will put orange juice instead of milk next time.
2 1/2 servings

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3rd smoothie
Green smoothie carrots.
Ingredients: 2 carrots, 1 large handful of spinach, 1 kiwi, 1 banana, orange juice, ice
Too much of a carrot taste.  I added more juice so it would taste more like oranges.
2 1/2 servings

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4th smoothie
Orange smoothie with strawberries (Olivia's invention)
Ingredients:  1 carrot, 1 banana, about 10 strawberries, strawberry yogurt, milk, ice
Tasted a hint of strawberry
1 1/2 to 2 servings

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5th smoothie
Super green smoothie with blueberries
1 Banana, 1 handful of spinach, 1 green apple, 1 kiwi, 1 handful of blueberries, apple juice, ice
Tasted like green apple.  This one is a keeper.
2 1/2 servings

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6th smoothie
Peach smoothie
Ingredients: 3 peaches, 1 frozen banana, 1 handful of blueberries, vanilla yogurt, milk, ice
Tasted like peaches with specs of blueberries in it.
1 1/2 to 2 servings

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7th smoothie
Orange smoothie with mango
Ingredients: 2 carrots, 1 Mango, about 8 strawberries, vanilla yogurt, milk, ice
This one is my favorite so far!  It had a beautiful color.  I could really taste the mango and I didn't taste the carrots at all. Clint put a little extra yogurt than normal, that probably made it sweeter and pulled out the mango flavor.
2 1/2 servings

Another good thing about these smoothies is that Olivia loves them too!  She doesn't eat many vegetables by themselves so this is a good way to get her some of those good nutrients as well.

For today's Friday Favorite.... it is me as a little girl in two of my favorite pictures.  I have always loved this first picture.  I am at a Zoo somewhere looking out at a field of elephants.  The reason why I love this picture is because I L-O-V-E elephants... always have.

This one my mom showed me a few years ago.  It is me as a little baby.  There is a story behind this picture of where we were and who took the picture... but I forget what it is.  Either way I like this picture as well.

Friday Favorites

One of my favorite healthy snacks that I try to eat every day is this fiber trail mix stuff.  It tastes so good and is healthy for you.  Each serving has 6 grams of fiber it it.

The ingredients:

1lb Raw Almonds

1lb Raw Walnuts or Pecans

1 cup unsweetened coconut

2 cups raisins

2 cups Dried Cranberries

1 pkg Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate Chips

1 box Fiber one cereal Original

1 box Fiber one Honey clusters cereal 

Serving size is 1/3 cup - 6 grams of fiber

I don't use the nuts or the coconut.. Just not a fan.  It makes it harder to eat to me so mine isn't quite as healthy.  I also use the Golden Raisins instead of regular raisins.  This recipe makes a lot so I use two large, same size bowls and split it up half in each bowl.  Then I use my hands to fold the mix together.

Then pour each bowl in a separate gallon size baggie.  

You will need to freeze them so the mix wont go stale.  I keep them in the freezer and use a small sauce bowl to scoop out a serving when I want it.  Or you cam measure out 1/3 a cut into a snack size baggie so you can take it on the go with you.