Halloween

I've been a little busy lately. Not busy busy but I decided to make the kid's halloween customs this year on my own. They were not a big deal, I was done during two naptimes (but lately we have a little trouble with naptime so it makes everything a little bit harder to accomplish).

The ideas came from a book my mom brought me last year. It has a couple of custom ideas in it and we decided with Daddy that our son is going to be a Vampire and our daughter is going to be a witch.

For the vampire custom I used two XL size T-shirts that I bought on sale. One black and one red. He had gloves on, I cut off the end of the fingers. We made a bat shape of wire. We painted his face white and sprayed his hair black.

The witch was even easier. A black L-size T-shirt was the custom and we just put my sons belt on her with purple and green fabric stripes. She had a hat on that I cut out of black foam and put fabric stripes on it too. Her face was painted white too.

My favorite

Right now this is my favorite. I just finished it yesterday for my son. It's for his books until Daddy makes a shelf for them.

First I wanted to paint "books" on it. But I am still hoping that one day the shelf is going to be ready and then we are going to use the box for something else so I just put boyish patterns everywhere.

Baby wipes and diaper boxes

I am always looking for storage solutions to get my kids, my husband's and my stuff to get organized. But I never came across the perfect solution because I had really nothing in mind. And it is hard to look for something when I don't even know what I am looking for. That's why I started to use diaper and baby wipes boxes to store our stuff.

Then one day my friend asked me why I don't wrap them into some kind of wrapping paper with patterns on it. I was thinking about it and I liked the idea but it was just not me who just simply wraps boxes in wrapping paper.

First I started to use plain scrapbooking papers and glued them on the boxes and then I stenciled flowers, animals, cars for my son and other patterns on them. But unless they are on sale scrapbooking papers are not the cheapest solution because I needed at least four of them to cover a wipes box and six for a diaper box.

I made like 8 boxes for the kids with scrapbooking paper when I came across my husbands painter covering papers in our garage. He stocked up on them because they were on sale but then he stopped using them. So they were just sitting in the garage. I measured the boxes, cut out the right pieces for the boxes, painted them and stenciled them.

Since then I made tons of them and they are perfect for my craft stuff, paints, flosses, for my husband's paperworks and stuff. And they are more then perfect to toss the kids toys in them.

But I found them not to durable. What I mean is that they got dirty easy. Espacilly what the kids used. So I got some decoupage finish and put two coats of it on the boxes. Now they are shinier, I can clean them easy.

Now that my kids are almost out of diapers, I mean, my daughter is almost potty trained too. She is potty trained during the day, we just have some problems at night. So now I am not going to have any more boxes, I just have to find another "supplier" for myself.

Vegetable diet - Summary

I finished the third week of the "green" diet yesterday. I am happy I did it and I let myself talked into it for three weeks in a row. I lost ten pounds during three weeks. I am much more energetic than I was before. But three weeks was enough.

The first week was not easy but it was not so hard than I thought before. When I first read the "rules" I was a little bit afraid because I was not a "vegetable person" before. But that changed too during the diet. I became familiar with more vegetables, how to prepare them in several ways.

The second week was actually fun. I really enjoyed it. That's why I started the the third week.

But the last week was hard. I always waited for the next day to have something else than vegetables. But I ate yogurt when it was allowed and it was not enough. I wanted to get through the day as soon as possible to have fruit on the next day. But I made it. Only on Sunday I had two slices of cheese with my vegetables.

Now I have to be careful what I eat. I have the rules, what and when I can eat. And I need them because I eat sometimes food that I don't even need, when I am not even hungry. I am still going to eat lot of vegetables but I am going to have cheese, fish, egg and meat too. And finally I could have eaten my oatmeal for breakfast today. Before my diet I had oatmeal every night, sometimes two. And this morning I could have only the half of it.

We are planning to do a week of "green" diet again before Christmas and then after Christmas an other week. We will see.

Vegetable diet Day 7

This is the last day of the diet. On the seventh day actually we can eat everything what we eat during the first six days: vegetables, as much as we like, 1 cup of plain yogurt, half of pound fruits, 2 slices of whole wheat bread.
This was too much for me. I ate one slice of whole wheat bread for breakfast. I made broccoli-puree for lunch, and I had a cup of yogurt with strawberries for dinner.
I lost seven pounds during the week but that was not the most important. I feel much better. I have more energy, I get up easier in the morning even when I am up until 1 o'clock in the morning and get up twice during the night because my kids need me. And I do a lot more during the day too. My husband asked me one morning: "When do you sleep?" - because I went to bed when he was already sleeping and got up before him and I still was not tired at all.
And this energy give me the strength to do another week. Only this week on the first two days I put some milk in my coffee because the first week I drank it plain black. It was not too good:D Then on Wednesday I started to put some creamer in it too. But I did the whole week the same way like I did the previous one.

And guess what? My friend wants to do one more week. I don't know what to do. Because I really would like to do it. I just don't know if it is healthy to live for three weeks only on vegetables and stuff. And I don't know what I should eat after three weeks of dieting that I don't gain back all the weight I lost. Or what should I start with?
We already did our weekly grocery shopping today and I bought a lot of vegetables again. So I think I am going to stay with the vegetables and I am going to add a little bit of cheese or meat sometimes and we will see.

Vegetable diet Day 6

My breakfast was only a cup of coffee with milk. That was what the diet description said. It was not too much. So around 10 I had to eat a little bit of broccoli-puree. It was not to much either. So I was really hungry at lunchtime:D

My lunch was broccoli-cauliflower-puree. It was really good. I am sure I am going to have this later too not just during the diet.

In the rest of the day I only ate fruit. First I had some watermelon and for dinner I had a fruit plate of nectarine, plump and strawberry. I was thinking to add some watermelon to it but this was enough.

Vegetable diet Day 5

Yesterday - the 5th day - was a little bit harder than I have tought. In the morning I made pancake for the kids. I was okay with that because I am not into pancakes anyway. And I could have eaten a cup of plain yogurt.

At lunch time I had to feed my friend's baby because I was watching her yesterday and it was a little bit of a challenge not to eat what the kids did (usually when I feed the baby I have to feed my two-year-old too, otherwise she eats by herself).

But I got through lunch time and I ate mine. I made green beans with tomato. It was good. Than in the afternoon came a new challenge my friend bought the kids homemade cookies. Oh I love cookies:D But I survived without them.

For dinner I had the rest of the green beans.

A couple a days ago my friend sent me an e-mail that she does not want to stop on Monday. She wants us to do two more "buttermilk" day (drink only buttermilk and water). I said okay.
Now yesterday she told me that she wants to do the whole seven days again. Well I don't know. I really feel good, I lost a couple a pounds too. I do not miss meat, but I miss my evening oatmeal now and my afternoon yogurt.
But I think she talked me into it anyway. But I told her "NO MORE". Maybe in a couple of weeks.

Green Beans with Tomato
Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen green beans
3 medium tomatoes
half of onion
2 garlic cubes
olive oil
salt
pepper
On the olive oil I simmered the onion for about 5 minutes. I put the peeled and cut tomatoes on the onion. When the tomatoes started to let out some water I just put the green beans on it and salt and pepper to taste. I put the lid on and steamed it for about 20 minutes.