Bisquick: FIRED

Bisquick, you may be heart healthy and come with Box Tops for Education, but you're easily replaceable when it comes to pancakes and waffles in the morning, so you're FIRED!!!

My friend Annie gave me this great pancake mix recipe:

4 cups flour 

3 Tbsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp, 2 tsp sugar

So, I mixed it all up using 2 cups white flour and 2 cups whole wheat flour and put it one of my Tupperware storage containers.  In fact, I threw all the ingredients in the container, put the lid on it and shook it to mix them up.  Super easy and a quick and easy swap for Bisquick.

I put some packaging tape on the side and listed the ingredients that need to be added when I'm ready to make waffles.

Just add 1 egg, 1 cup milk and 1 tbsp of melted butter to 1 cup of the dry mix.   And, the waffles we made were delicious!!!

Current Project: cooking from scratch

There's a million reason to do it (environment & health being the primary two), but I'm making an effort to reduce the amount of processed foods our family eats.  I'm a mom who cooks most of our meals, but there are so many handy shortcuts that I'm going to strive to avoid.  I make no promises of a processed-free future, but I strive to make improvements.

Another failed Science project

I was really looking forward to rock candy, but after about a week, I deemed this another failed science experiment.....such a bummer.  I cooked the sugar water to the temperature it said to in the book, but I think it may have been too long.  I'm willing to try again, but first I'll do some online searching and compare instructions first.

I'm still saving!

I've been so busy with YumaMom that I haven't been posting much over here.  But have no fear, I'm still saving!!

Commissary on 2/26/10 = $22.10
Commissary on 3/5/10 = $6.34 (smaller shopping trip)
Walmart on 3/11/10 = $12 (got many things for free!!!)
I also saved money at Albertsons (about $4.00) when we bought Odwalla drinks, but I can't find the receipt.

Previous total was $157.62 + $44.44 (todays post total) = $202.06

Making Crystal Rock Candy

Today's Science project: making Rock Candy.

We borrowed the book, "Solids, Liquids and Gases" by Melvin Berger from the Station Library last weekend that contained instructions for making Rock Candy.

For Trent's reading today (he reads 20 minutes a day), he read all about how to make rock candy - almost the entire page you see here.

We took 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water and boiled until 242 degrees.  A watched pot never boils.

We tried the non-thermometer way of testing to see if our sugar was hot enough by putting a small amount into a bowl of cold water and it should have formed a ball......uh, ours didn't do that (?).  Then we set up our cups with strings and safety pins like the book said.  Although I read about using a stick/skewer instead and think I would have preferred that method. The book said our string needed to hang down to the bottom, but not touch the bottom.

Then we poured our sugar water into the glasses. 

And because we like to spice things up, we added a little color.

And here are our finished projects.  I'm not sure whey they're so cloudy.  We must have messed this up somehow.   Watching something grow in a class that reminds me too much of the avocado seed that never flourished - we tried twice!  How are we supposed to watch the crystals form?  I'm confused.  Did I screw up another attempt at doing a science project with my kids.  We'll just have to wait and see.

Selling on Etsy - listing an item

First, I logged onto Etsy using my user name and password.  Then I clicked "Sell" in the top menu bar.  Next, I clicked on "List your Items" in the main body of the web page.

Step 1: Item description and list material used to make item.
Step 2: Categorize and Tag your item - I chose 13!!!  These tags are what is used to pull your item in buyer searches.  If I search for "red infinity scarf" my scarf should show up because those 3 words were also 3 of my tags.
Step 3: Choose the price you want to sell your item for, & create a shipping profile (listing the cost for shipping and what countries you want to ship to)
Step 4: Upload the pictures you want to use
Step 5: Review and FINISH!!

Now I just wait for someone to come along and buy it, right?  Click here to see my scarf on Etsy!

Selling on Etsy - creating a seller account

Etsy is a well-known site for buying/selling handmade items. It's a bit like Ebay in the sense that different people can list their items on it, but it's done with set prices (no bidding) and all items are hand crafted. I've browsed the site a few times, mostly looking for craft ideas, and until now, that's been the extent of my relationship on Etsy.  My neighbor keeps telling me I should sell my infinity scarves on Etsy.  So.....here I go.  I'm going to share my experience with you. Follow me!

Creating an Etsy Seller Account: The process of registering a seller account is pretty user-friendly.  Before you start, you'll need a user name, an email address (only one Etsy account per email address) and your credit card to verify your identity.

1) go to Etsy.com
2) click on "Register" in the top right corner
3) when creating your account, you'll need to choose a user name. If you become a seller, this will also be your shop's web address. I chose katesprojects, so my seller web address should be http://katesprojects.etsy.com. You'll also provide a password and your email address and click "Submit"
4) confirm your account by logging into your email account and opening up the new email from Etsy. The email should contain a link, clicking on the line will complete your registration and open a new window.
5) To sell something, click on "SELL" in the top tool bar.
6) Click on "Get Started"
7) Enter your personal info (name and address), click "NEXT"
8) Enter credit card information for verification purposes. You will be charged $1.01 to verify. Paypal can still be used to pay seller fees.

Selling on Etsy: Listing at item costs 20 cents and Etsy charges 3.5% of the sale price.  All listings get up to five photos for free and the listings stay up for 4 months. 

Shop Set-Up: Found as a link on the left hand side.

For simple steps on listing your item, click here.