How to Hull Strawberries With a Straw

Over the Memorial Day Weekend we took the kids strawberry picking for the first time. They loved it and I'm pretty sure they picked their weight in strawberries.  

Since I've been busy passing out strawberry snacks for what is going on five days now...I thought I'd share a really easy and fast way I discovered to hull strawberries.

3 (Easy) Easter Treats for Kids

The countdown to Easter is on! If you're looking for some last minute Easter treats to make with the kids - you've come to the right spot.

I always like to cook with the kids when I can and they are always threw the roof when I ask them.  The rice crispy treat robin's nests and Easter cut outs are are super easy to make and the best part is they're a 2 for 1 deal: make one recipes get two desserts!

I started by following the directions on the back of the bag of marshmallows to make traditional rice crispy treats. 

I had the kids pouring in the marshmallows, stirring them up between meltings in the microwave, and then pouring in the rice crispies.  I poured the sticky mess onto a medium size cookie tray so they would be a little thinner and easier to work with.  Then I set them in the fridge to cool for about 30 minutes.

When it was time to cut the RCT cut outs, the kids took turns using an Easter egg shaped cookie cutters and two bunnies (my daughter came to call them bunny head and running bunny).

Construction & Work Zone Birthday Party Ideas

My little man is counting down the minutes until his third birthday. It's not for two months.  That must feel like a lifetime for a two year old.  He's been counting for months and months and months.  He's essentially been counting since his second birthday....which is where we're going to take a trip down memory lane to because way back then I wasn't such a great blogger.  Two It Yourself was just getting off the ground and I never thought to share all the amazing (I'm bias, yes) work zone party ideas I came up with for his party.

I spent weeks prepping for this party - everything from making each guest a Home Depot-style apron to ordering plastic construction hats and caution tape to figuring out the perfect construction birthday cake.  I have links to the majority of the tutorials so just click 'em as you see 'em!

Usually favors are handed out at the end of the party, but we did it a little bit differently.  Each guest joined Blake's Work Crew as they arrive -- with a construction hat and personalized tool belt.  I ordered the construction hats on Amazon and they can be found here.

I had left over drop cloth material from my upholstered headboard project so I made each of the 25 guests (What was I thinking with 25 1-5 year olds???) a tool belt complete with a personal Home Depot-inspired logo.  Aren't they just adorable!!

Re-use Yankee Candle Jars: How to Remove Wax from the Glass Holder

I don't know about you, but I have been burning through Yankee Candles this holiday season...pun intended.  The Yankee Candles come in such beautiful glass jars I really want to save them to upcycle after the candles were long gone...but before that I had to figure out how to remove the wax from the glass holder.

First, I peeled off the label.  Don't worry about any left over residue right now, you can use goo gone after you get the wax out to remove it. 

After the label was off, I burned the candle down as low as possible.  When most of the wax had melted to liquid I poured it into another container.  (Actually I consolidated it into another candle of a very similar scent).  You could also empty it into an empty soup can or another glass jar. 

After I poured out the liquid wax, I let the rest of the wax harden up in the original Yankee Candle jar.  Once it was solid, I used a paring knife to cut wedges - about 6 or 8 sections - into the hardened wax.

DIY Dollar Store Chalkboard Tray

For a recent dinner party I served a cheese tray. Instead of the usually guessing/sniffing/tasting game, I decided I would be nice to my guests and let them know what type of cheeses we had.  I made a chalkboard tray using a tray I bought at the dollar store and some chalkboard paint from the craft store.

The tutorial for this is stupid it's so easy...

Ok, so to make your DIY chalkboard cheese tray you need a platter (mine was plastic), chalkboard paint, and a foam brush.

Squeeze some of the paint right onto the tray (not too much because if it's too thick it won't dry very well) and use the foam brush to evenly spread it all over the tray.  I tried to brush all in the same direction. 

DIY Faux Chalkboard Menu Board

My husband and I recently hosted a small dinner party for about four other couples.   Since I wasn't doing much in the way of decorations - my house is already decked out for Christmas - I decided I would just do a few extra special party decorations.  I had been given a free trial upgrade by PicMonkey to use their Royale Package I decided to make a Faux Chalkboard Menu Board.  It came out awesome - despite my misspelling on Nutella (sorry 'bout that, 'Tella- I hope we can still be BFFs).   More on why I didn't fix it in a minute...but first how I made it using PicMonkey.

I started by "creating a design."  Since I was printing it at home and wanted it to be as large as possible, I selected the 8 x 10 canvas.   Using the chalkboard background in the 'School' theme, I was able to make the entire canvas a faux chalkboard.  Then I added an overlay at the top and made it transparent before adding my "Menu" text.

Then it was time to start adding my menu items.  I used all the different chalkboard-like fonts available on PicMonkey.  Some of them are part of the standard free package, and a few like Sketch Block and Stroke Dimension I could only gain access to because I had the free trial of PicMonkey's Royale (indicated by the little crown).  

Salt Dough Recipes for Ornaments: Handprint Santa and Christmas Gift Tag Ideas

Sure, so Mother Nature gives us a 70 degree day smack dab in the middle of December - along the Mid-Atlantic- and makes it RAIN? What is up with that? That's like the worst tease ever.   Wah Wah Wah...and so we were stuck in side...again.  And guess what this mom had up her sleeve...another kids hand print project!  I have a whole board of handprint art ideas on Pinterest..and I have to say they are very popular!  The one we made today is different than anything we've made before because it's actually a 3D ornament, instead of just a paint hand print.

The are a few different salt dough recipes for ornaments floating around out there, but I did this one <<<.  To make one Santa handprint ornament and eight other small to medium size ornaments I went with 1 cup of flour and half a cup each of salt and water.

This is a toddler-friendly craft and since I had a pint size helper, he helped me mix the flour and salt together in a bowl.

Chocolate Banana Paleo Ice Cream Recipe

It's not often that I share a recipe here on Two It Yourself and even more rare that it's a Paleo recipe, but this one I just couldn't keep to myself.   If you're wondering what the frickety frack is Paleo it's often referred to as the "caveman diet."  My husband and I have been Paleo for about 5 months and while it was a tough transition (I consider it more a lifestyle than a diet), I love it now despite no dairy, grains, processed foods/sugar, or peanut butter.

But what do you do when you're paleo and in desperate need of an ice cream fix? You know what they say about invention, right?  Necessity is the mother of invention and believe me this mother was in need of some ice cream like asap.  I tried to guilt my husband into getting me a carton of cheat ice cream (it didn't work) and we were all out of Coconut Bliss, but we did have some frozen bananas.  That would work...oh and believe me it did!  And so here is my Chocolate Banana Coconut Ice Cream:

Ingredients: 

• 1 Frozen Banana
• 1 tbs almond butter (I like Barney Butter Smooth Almond Butter)
• 1 tbs unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1 tbs mini Enjoy Life chocolate chips

Instructions: 

1. Place all ingredients into a food processor. 
2. Mix until the banana turns into mush and the ingredients form a well-blended frozen ball of goodness.   
3. Enjoy!

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Halloween cake pop ideas: How to make pumpkins and candy corn cake pops

Why bring some ordinary slice and bake Halloween cookies to the party when you can bring these adorable little guys!  I mean come on...you know you want some Halloween Cake Pops (or at least your kids do!)

Inspired by cake pop master Bakerella and my friend Linsey who made an entire barnyard of super cute farm animal cake pops for her son's birthday a few years ago, I decided to make my second batch of cake pops.

DIY kitchen storage ideas: Repurpose food containers

If you're like I was you have a few stray baggies of spice mixtures or rubs you've mixed up (lucky you if you actually labeled them) and/or perhaps a half-used open-so-long-it-won't-close-correctly box of this or that in your pantry.  That was me - and I'm here to tell you all is not wrong with the world (or even your kitchen).

July 4th food ideas: Red, White & Chew Fruit Kabobs

Happy Birthday, USA! You know how to get your kids to eat their fruits and veggies? Put 'em on a stick...oh, and in the shape of a flag!

Check out these adorable American Flag fruit kabobs I made today (in about 15 minutes) for a July 4th picnic we're going to. They're pretty straight forward, but I do have a few tips.

You'll need:

12" wood skewers
3 pints of strawberries (tops cut straight off)
1 large container of blue berries
4 bananas (cut in large chunks)

DIY Construction Birthday Cake in 3 steps: Bake, Break, Ice

We just had my 2 year old son's birthday party and I got a little into the theme...okay, okay, I admit, a lot!   Like I may have been more excited about all the trucks and whatnot than he was.

Anyway among the themed food and decorations was this awesome construction/work zone birthday cake.  It seriously has to be the easiest DIY cake out there -- and I'm no cake decorator.  In fact, I usually let the kids take credit blame for cake icing jobs.

For the construction cake I just baked a chocolate box cake in two round cake pans.  I put them in the fridge to chill for a few hours before I started icing.  I iced the top of the bottom cake and then stacked the second cake on top.  As you can see, my cake's pretty rough...

How to make a personalized DIY cake stand or cookie tray

It has been a very productive day and I'm currently on a DIY roll..so here goes another!

I hit up thrift stores today and came home with these two gems ugly things with the intention of making what turned out to be a $5 cake stand -- the cost of the candle stick and the plate combined (I already had the rest of the supplies.)

Here's how it went from a candle holder and plate to a cute cake stand or cookie tray...

I used the incredibly strong Epoxy glue to attach the two pieces.  It's heavy duty glue and it worked perfectly -- after about 30 minutes it was dry and ready to be spray painted.

I went with navy blue because I had it on hand and it would match my dishes. Just as I was about to pull the trigger, I decided to personalize the cake stand. 

I used stickers to write the saying and made sure they were all stuck down really well.

As you can see I am not the best speller because I actually spelled "sneaked" incorrectly.  Of course, did I catch this before I spray painted? NO! But, I did catch it in time that I was able to peel the "E" off and use a little bit of nail polish remover to scrub it out.  Then I put the "A" in the spot and spray painted that spot again.  It actually worked pretty well...but obviously I didn't win too many spelling bee's in my day.

Once it was all dry, I started peeling off the letters using the tip of a steak
knife.  This was actually the hardest part as some of the paint didn't want to stay where it was supposed to.  Or was it because I was impatient and peeling before it was completely dry? Hmm...

And here's the finished product. What do you think? I especially like it because it matches the rest of my dishes, too!

For the record...my husband says he doesn't "get it"? Probably because he always eats the last one!