More Recycled Bows

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!  We had a nice quiet Christmas in our apartment in Jakarta.  It was different not to be around friends and extended family, but it was also nice since this was the first time we had ever celebrated Christmas just with our little family.

Anyways, awhile back I posted that I had made some recycled gift bows.  I ended up making tons of them for the Holiday Market fundraiser put on by the school my kids attend.  I put mounting tape on the bottom of the bows so the kids (first graders were in charge of the Holiday Market) could just peel and stick like you would on a normal gift bow. 

I kept the wrapping paper from our Christmas gifts, and I will make more holiday bows for next year.  I think this craft is a great way to give new life to all that wrapping paper that would otherwise just end up in the trash.  I love making these bows…it really can be addicting because making them is so fun.  I just love the way the recycled bows look. I think they are so much more interesting than your average bow. 

Teacher Gift

My son made a snowman from an empty peanut butter container.  I got the idea from Google images when I searched for container crafts.  The hat is made from the cuff of an old sock and the scarf is made from a band cut from just under the cuff.  He colored the band green with a marker, and we tied it on the container.  I helped him tie a bow around the top of the snowman’s hat.  He cut out larger circles from black paper for the eyes and smaller black circles for the mouth.  He cut out an orange triangle-shaped piece for the nose.  The face parts were glued onto the container.  We originally put cotton balls inside the jar.  Then, I thought it would be a good idea to line it with white paper and put a treat on the inside. We took out the cotton balls and I put in some home-made treats. 

My son also made his teacher a card. I wrapped the snowman and card in a clear plastic bag that used to contain some cardstock I bought. I tied it off at the top with a gold ribbon that was from a previous gift someone had given to us.

The whole gift minus the treats was made from re-used items.  I thought it would be nice for my son to give a gift he had made himself…a gift from his heart. I hope his teacher likes it.  We are going to make more snowmen stuffed with treats to give to friends.

This snowman craft is a good way to use those old jars and containers I’ve been accumulating.

 

Gone Public

I made the new blog (http://www.5abroad.blogspot.com/) public today.  I think I've sorted out all the travel and living in Indonesia-related posts.  I hope that this change will be a positive one.  If it doesn't help anyone else, I think it will help me be more organized and focused for future posts.  Sorry for any confusion.

New Blog

I've decided that I want to have this blog focus on things related to living a more sustainable lifestyle.  Therefore, I am moving any posts about traveling and living in Indonesia to a new blog: http://www.5abroad.blogspot.com/.  It will probably take me a few days to move the blog posts to the new blog and to reorganize both blogs.  I will make the new blog public soon.  I want to make sure that I am not duplicating content in two separate blogs. I hope you will come visit me at the new blog and continue to read about our adventures living and traveling abroad.

Another Turkey Craft

I was looking for another craft for the kids to work on and found some fun ideas on pinterest.  I combined a few things that I saw and this is what I came up with:



My 3-year old let me trace her hand.  Then I cut out the shape of her hand on different colored sheets of paper.  I did both the right and left hands.  My daughter put glue on the hands and I helped her attach them to a toilet paper roll.  The face is also made of scraps of colored paper.  I thought leaving the toilet paper roll open on top looked a little funny so I added a hat. 



We put the finished turkey in our front entryway next to the toilet paper roll pumpkins that we made for Halloween.  I just removed the jack-o-lantern faces from the pumpkins.  This was a fun craft to make with my little one.  I love looking at her little handprints and she loves her turkey!

Thanksgiving Turkey Craft

So we were a little late in getting started on Halloween crafts so I thought we would get an earlier start on Thanksgiving.  Sunday evening the kids made turkeys from a paper plate and scraps of colored paper.  They decorated the turkeys with markers and crayons.  I had the kids tell me what they were thankful for and we wrote them on the feathers. The older 2 kids wanted to do their own writing. It was so sweet to read the things they were thankful for: friends, family, church, the earth, toys, bed, clothes, food, home, car, etc.  We had lots of fun making these turkey decorations.







Our new wall decorations! Looks like one of the turkeys is missing a foot…lol.

Fun Halloween

The kids had so much fun this Halloween.  I would never have guessed that the kids would be able to celebrate Halloween in Jakarta.  The locals seemed to know about Halloween.  There were costumes and Halloween decorations available at the stores.  Even our apartment complex put on a Halloween party for the kids and organized trick-or-treating.  We had a great time celebrating Halloween in Jakarta!

In a previous post, my daughter and I decorated a Pringles can to look like Frankenstein. She decided she wanted a whole Frankenstein family so we made a “Mommy Frankenstein” from another Pringles can and a “Baby Frankenstein” from a toilet paper roll.



I made some spider cookies for a bake sale at school.  It’s sugar cookies coated with white royal icing and swirled rings of black icing.



I also baked some owl cupcakes for a Halloween party.  I got the idea by doing a search for Halloween cupcakes online.  There are lots of cool images for owl cupcakes.  The eyes are made from Oreo cookies and the pupils and nose are M&M’s. 



Here are my three munchkins dressed up for Halloween.  My son wore camouflage and we bought a plastic gun.  We already had the helmet.  My daughter wore her ballerina outfit.  My youngest daughter wore a dress made from one of my old prom dresses, and we made a crown from tin foil and cardboard.



We had a fun-filled Halloween.   We hope you did too!

Festive Halloween Candy

I found a fun tutorial  here  while looking for Halloween treat ideas to make for my son’s class. I didn’t have any chocolate candy bars, but I did find individual packets of skittles.  I attached google eyes to a piece of black paper and adhered them to the skittles packets.  Then I wrapped each skittles bag in white crepe paper.  Here’s the end result.

I think the kids will really like the Mummy treats.  For those of you that were wondering where to get google eyes here in Jakarta, I got mine at one of the shops in the Mayestik Marketplace in South Jakarta.
I also made the classic kleenex lollipop ghosts.  The kids had fun helping me make the ghosts.  My daughter helped me draw faces on the ghosts.  It’s an oldie, but a classic.  Kids love these lollipop ghosts!

Do you have any fun and easy Halloween treat ideas you’d like to share?  I’d love to hear about it!

Halloween Crafts from Recyclables

My daughter has been helping me make Halloween decorations.  She loves to make things so it has been fun to do some fun crafts with her.

Craft #1
Jack-O-Lantern Luminary

I had an empty glass jam jar that I cleaned and dried.  I asked my daughter what kind of face she wanted on her jar.  She wanted triangle eyes, a square nose, and a triangle mouth.  I cut the shapes out of masking tape and put in on the jar.  She painted the jar orange.  Then she peeled off the tape and painted the face parts yellow.  I wanted her to leave them clear so that the candlelight would shine through better but she insisted on painting them in…can’t argue with a 4-year old. She could hardly wait for the paint to dry so we could put in a votive candle.  Here’s the end result. 



Craft #2
Empty Box Mummies

I saw a tutorial for some empty box mummies using an old white sheet and google eyes.  The tutorial is here if you want to see the original.  I thought they were adorable!  I had different sizes of empty boxes. My daughter picked out 3 that she liked.  We used toilet paper to wrap our boxes.  I unrolled a long piece.  Then I folded it in half so it would be thicker and not as wide.  My daughter taped one end and we started wrapping the boxes.  We wrapped along the top and sides of the box first and then around the middle.  Periodically I put in a couple of pieces of tape to hold the toilet paper in place.  I cut some round white circles from scrap paper.  Then I cut out some smaller black circles and glued them to the white circles.  Then my daughter glued the eyes to the wrapped boxes.  I thought they turned out really well. The smallest box is actually wrapped with a folded paper towel.  We tried that first, but it didn’t work all that well. 



Craft #3
Toilet paper jack-o-lanterns

I have seen fabric-wrapped toilet paper pumpkins before.  I also came across this tutorial explaining how to make tissue-paper wrapped pumpkins.  Instead of rolling the paper around the toilet paper rolls and tucking in both ends, I thought the pumpkins looked a little better if I just placed the toilet paper roll in the middle of the sheet of tissue paper and then tucked in the paper through the top.  I cut a small strip of green crepe paper for the leaves. I had my daughter crumple a piece of brown origami paper for the stem which we also stuffed through the top.  Instead of drawing on jack-o-lantern faces with a marker, I cut some face parts out of black paper.  My daughter told me what kind of faces she wanted for the pumpkins.  Here my daughter is posing with the box mummies and the jack-o-lanterns.



Craft #4
Pringles Can Frankenstein

I had an empty pringles can that I thought we could decorate as a Frankenstein. We wrapped green paper around the tube for the face.  We cut a strip of black paper and my daughter fringed it for the hair.  Then we wrapped most of the bottom part of the can with black paper and put in a strip of white paper with a little scoop cut out at the top to make his clothes.  I drew in the face with a black marker.  I also attached some brown rolled paper to the sides of the neck.  Here’s the end result.



I had so much fun making these crafts with my 4-year old.  It didn’t really cost us much to make these decorations.  The only thing I purchased that I didn’t already have was the orange tissue paper.  There are so many creative ideas out there for recycled crafts so get your creative juices flowing and go make something!  Happy Crafting and Happy Halloween!

Homemade Halloween Costumes

I didn't bring a sewing machine with me to Jakarta so this year we will scrounge around to see what we can come up with for Halloween costumes.  I usually like to come up with home-made costumes.  Store-bought costumes are expensive, especially if they are only worn once or twice.

One year I made a peppermint candy costume for my youngest.  It was relatively simple.  She wore a white onesie and white tights. I made a tutu and wrapped a white knit hat in tulle.  The peppermint was made from white and red felt stitched together.  I attached velcro to the front and back of her onesie and then attached the peppermints. 

After halloween, I just took the velcro off of her onesie and the tulle off of her hat. The tutu was good for dress-up play.  Everything was re-usable.  I used the peppermints for Christmas decorations.  The kids also liked playing with the stuffed peppermints.

For my other daughter, I took an old prom dress and whittled it down to size so that it would fit her.  I just took in all the seams and adjusted the length.  It didn't take that long and she loved the outfit.  We added a crown and a scepter and she was a princess. 

My son wanted to be a jedi.  His outfit was made from an old shirt, a bedsheet, and scrap felt I got on clearance.  We already had the lightsaber so he was all set.  I think all 3 costumes cost less than $5.00 in materials since I used what I had on hand.  I really enjoyed making the costumes and the kids were happy with the end result.

We love Halloween!

Recycled Bows

The kids are going to a birthday party later today.  I remembered some tutorials I saw awhile ago for making holiday bows from magazine pages.  I decided that I would make a bow for the birthday present.   I basically followed this tutorial here at New Green Mama.  I made this bow from a red plastic bag. I must say that plastic might not be the best material for bow-making since it is not very stiff.  Still, I thought it turned out okay.




I didn’t have any magazines on hand but I did happen to have a complimentary copy of Jakarta Expat which is a newspaper but printed on glossy paper like a magazine.  Here are a few bows I made from the newspaper.



Making the bows is a lot of fun!  If you have some old magazines lying around, you might try making some fun bows. There are lots of examples on the internet of some beautiful bows made from magazine pages.

Plastic Bottle Light Source

A friend of mine posted this video on Facebook.  I thought it was a fantastic resuse for plastic soda bottles.  Necessity is the mother of invention!

I was reading more about these soda bottle lights.  Apparently each one is equivalent to a 55 or 60W light bulb.  They are also good for up to five years!

Castle

My oldest loves playing battle with his Lego “dudes” and army men.  He also likes knights and castles so he asked if we could make a castle.  Mommy found a fun website to make a castle from cereal boxes, toilet paper rolls, and paper.  We printed the parts of the castle on scrap paper, the kids colored them, and then we pasted the paper onto the cereal boxes and cut out the pieces.  I did most of the assembling since it was difficult for the kids to fold the cardboard and to glue the parts in place. Here is the link to the website to make the castle.


The finished castle.



Ready to do battle. 



My son decided he needed another castle for the “enemy” troops so we made one out of a juice box container. He also remembered his other box creations and got them out too to use in the battle.





I think DH is planning on getting my son a Lego Castle for Christmas, but in the meantime, he certainly is having plenty of fun with his cardboard box creations.

Chocolate Strawberry Dessert

I bought some strawberries the other day, but the kids seem to have decided that they don’t like the local strawberries.  I think they are not as sweet as the ones they were used to back in the U.S.  Maybe I just don’t know where to get good strawberries, but all the ones I have bought so far do seem to be on the tart side.
So, since I had a couple of containers of strawberries, and no one wanted to eat them, I decided to make a dessert.  I looked at several different recipes on the internet and found one that was delicious!  We all liked it a lot.  Unfortunately I can’t find the website where I originally found the recipe. 
Here is the recipe I jotted down:
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips ( I just used the local brand of chocolate chips I found at Lotte Mart here in Jakarta…I don’t even know what kind of chocolate chips they are)
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. water
1 8 oz. package cream cheese (I used the Yummy brand that comes in a little tub…it’s roughly the equivalent of a block of cream cheese)
2 pt. strawberries
3 Tbs. strawberry jelly + 2 Tsp water
Place all the ingredients except for the strawberries and the jelly in a pan and stir over medium to low heat until everything is melted.  The filling should be nice and creamy.  Pour into a cooled pie crust.   Wash and remove the strawberry stems.  Put the strawberries on top of the filling and drizzle with strawberry jelly mixture.  Chill the dessert for 2 hours until the filling has set.
I used a ready made chocolate pie crust that a friend had given me awhile back.  I think this dessert would go really well in an Oreo cookie  pie crust.
Oreo Crust
Roughly 20 Oreo cookies with the cream removed
3 Tbsp melted butter
Crush the cookies inside a plastic bag with a rolling pin or hammer.  It’s easier to smash them in small batches.  Mix with melted butter.  Press into pie plate or pan and bake at 350F for 15 minutes. 

I actually didn’t have any strawberry jelly…just jam which is why the the filling looks a little lumpy between the strawberries.  It still tasted good.  The kids devoured it…strawberries and all!

Blueberry Cream Muffins

The kids love blueberry muffins so I've been on the hunt for a good muffin recipe.  I've tried a couple already, but they weren't all that good.  I came across this recipe for Ann's Awesome Blueberry Muffins and everyone loved it.  I halved the recipe and made 12 large muffins instead of 24.

Here is the recipe halved.

Ann’s Awesome Blueberry Muffins


2 eggs

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup sour cream

1 cup blueberries


1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

2) In a large bowl, beat eggs. Gradually add sugar while beating. Continue beating while slowly pouring in oil. Stir in vanilla. In separate bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking soda.

3) Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture alternately with sour cream. Gently fold in blueberries. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.

4) Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.


I rolled the blueberries in flour and a little bit of sugar to keep the blueberries from staining the batter purple.  The kids loved the muffins except for the blueberries.  They thought they were too tart.  DH and I liked this recipe alot.  I think next time though, I may try it using canned blueberries.  That way the blueberries will be sweet and not tart.  I think my kids would like them better.  I still think this recipe is a keeper!

Maybe a little bit overdone but they were still nice and moist.

General Tso’s Chicken

One of DH’s favorite dishes is General Tso’s chicken.  I found a recipe online awhile ago that we really like.  I have modified the recipe a little since I am trying to get away from using corn starch.  Corn starch is used a lot in Asian cooking to thicken sauces and to make fried foods like sweet and sour chicken or pork.  The recipe as written makes a really good General Tso’s chicken dish.  We thought it still tasted great using flour instead of corn starch. I have made it both ways.  Serve the dish with plain rice.  This dish is definitely one of our family favorites…enjoy!
Here is the original recipe:

Sauce:

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup water

1+1/2 tsp minced garlic

1+1/2 tsp minced ginger root

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup cooking wine ( I did not use cooking wine)

1+1/2 cup hot chicken broth

1 tsp monosodium glutamate (I never use msg)

Meat:

3 lbs deboned dark chicken meat, cut into large chunks

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tsp white pepper

1 egg

1 cup cornstarch

Vegetable oil for deep-frying

2 cups sliced green onions

16 small dried hot peppers

1) Mix 1/2 cup cornstarch with water.  Add garlic, ginger, sugar, 1/2 cup soy

sauce, vinegar, wine, chicken broth and MSG (if desired).  Stir until sugar

dissolves.  Refrigerate until needed.

2) In separate bowl, mix chicken, 1/4 cup soy sauce and white pepper.  Stir in

egg.  Add 1 cup cornstarch and mix until chicken pieces are coated evenly. 

Add cup of vegetable oil to help separate chicken pieces.  Divide chicken into

small quantities and deep-fry at 350 degrees until crispy.  Drain on paper

towels.

3) Place a small amount of oil in wok and heat until wok is hot.  Add onions

and peppers and stir-fry briefly.  Stir sauce and add to wok.  Place chicken in

sauce and cook until sauce thickens.

The changes I made were:

For the sauce, I omitted the corn starch. Then after stir-frying the onions and peppers, I added 6 Tbs. all-purpose flour and stir-fried briefly.  Then I added the sauce and the fried chicken pieces and cooked the sauce for 10-15 minutes until the sauce thickened.

For the meat:  I added all the ingredients except for the cornstarch and the oil.  There is no need to add the oil since the pieces were not being coated in cornstarch. I mixed the chicken pieces until they were thoroughly coated.  Then I coated each chicken piece with all-purpose flour.  I deep-fried the chicken pieces until they were crispy.  Then I added the chicken to the sauce.

Solar Power for Ford Focus EV

Photo from: green.autoblog.com

DH loves cars and is always ontop of new things that are going on in the car industry.  He just sent me an email about the Drive Green For Life Program.  The program is the result of a partnership between Ford and Sunpower Corp. (a solar energy provider).  It allows a Ford Focus Electric vehicle to be charged via solar panels on the roof of your house. This offsets the amount of electricity that is needed to charge the vehicles at night and therefore lowers the monthly operation cost of the vehicle.  Also, because the Ford Focus electric vehicles run entirely off of electricity stored in the car's battery, there are zero emissions.  The cost is roughly $10,000. 

Check out this article to learn more about the partnership between Ford and Sunpower Corp. for solar charging Ford Electric and Hybrid vehicles.

I think DH really secretly or maybe not so secretly wants to get one of the new Ford Focus electric vehicles.  I have to admit, they are pretty darn cool and of course, let's not forget, environmentally friendly as well :)

Chinese Braised Soysauce Beef and Eggs

Growing up my mom would always make braised pork or beef with soysauce eggs. Alot of times she would also cook seaweed along with the meat and eggs.   I loved eating these dishes with rice or noodles.  The other day I was craving some braised beef and eggs so I decided to make my own.  The only problem is that my mom makes it with a spice packet.  I used to get the spice packet in Chinatown in Houston.  I looked online to see if I could find a recipe to make the dish without the use of the spice packet.  I used the basic recipe for braised soysauce eggs from the RasaMalaysia website with some alterations and additions.


Basic Recipe

6-12 hard boiled eggs
4 cups water
2-2 1/2 Tbs. dark soy sauce
3 Tbs. soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbs. sugar
1 stick cinnamon
2-3 star anise
1 spiced tea bag (optional)
salt to taste

Additional Ingredients

1/4 to 1/2 lb. of pork or beef (very lean cuts of meat are not as desirable--some fat is better--I used beef stew meat)
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbs. fresh ginger chopped finely
2 stalks green onions-cut in long pieces
2 red chilli peppers
1 tsp. powdered cloves (I think dried cloves would be better)
1 tsp. fennel seeds
1 tsp. coriander seeds
1/2 tsp. white pepper powder
3 tbs. cooking wine (optional--my mom uses cooking wine. I didn't use any).

I chopped up 2 cloves of garlic and about 1 Tbs. of fresh ginger.  I chopped 2 red chilies.  I also cut a few stalks of green onion.  I stir-fried these in about 3 Tbs. of oil to flavor the oil.

I chopped the beef up into bite size pieces.  I dusted the meat with flour.  I added a bit more oil to the pan and then I browned the beef with the garlic, onions, chilli, and ginger.

I put the beef into the crock pot.  Then I added the rest of the ingredients (water, soysauce, spices). 

The dish turned out pretty well.  DH liked it.  The girls loved the soysauce eggs and my son really liked the beef.  It didn't taste exactly the same as the way my mom makes it...I think the spice packet really makes a difference.  Still, I liked it overall. 

I saved the stock.  It is good for a few days in the refrigerator and the flavor seems to improve with age.  Today I will probably make the girls some more soysauce eggs and my son some more braised beef.  I'll use the leftover stock to make a soup to put over some noodles.  We'll probably have that for lunch.