Pizza !

Today's post is a diy post: We've been making our own pizzas!  Quite yummy.  We bought the crust; I'm not quite as adventurous as my Mom who can make the crust too, but the results are still tasty and probably healthier than store-bought.

left: Big J's / right: mine

Big J and I have different tastes and dietary restrictions so we made half pizzas. 

Big J's : This pizza has a traditional Spanish topping - yes Tuna!  weird right?

• Tuna
• Roast Peppers
• Pico de Gallo

Mine :  Mine is just a mass of olives which I like a lot.

• Black Olives
• Roast Peppers
• Pico de Gallo
• Feta Cheese

The pizza was slightly under-crisp, so for our second pizza, we looked high and low for a pizza stone, but found nothing.  We got a pizza pan with holes instead.   The second pizza turned out much better.  Not sure if it was the pan or that we are now better at timing the baking time.

left: mine / right: Big J's

My Pizza :  Almost the same as the first one, but substituted spinach for the pico de gallo.

• Black Olives
• Roast Peppers
• Spinach
• Feta Cheese

Big J's :  Again, almost the same: 

• Chicken Breast
• Roast Peppers

Making pizzas is quite fun to do and quick too.  I'm already thinking up more toppings and this might become a regular ritual.  The kids unfortunately prefer the pizza parlour

DIY Hanging Laundry Bag

Do you just throw your fine washables into the laundry?  I do, but I put them in one of those zippered wash bags first.  It's always a hassle because you either have to dig the stuff out of the basket or set everything aside to add later.

So, hangers to the rescue. Sometime in the past couple of years, I switched from being a regular pants wearer to a skirt wearer.  I'd like to think it's because skirts are more forgiving but have a sneaking suspicion it's really because pants are generally a little bit too long for me and require hemming.

So, when I first started shopping for hangers, I bought "skirt hangers" - the kind with a clip at each end.

But, I find they are not so good at securing the skirt.  If the skirt is heavy, it just unclips.  And in an over-crowded closet, everything gets all tangled up. 

So, I switched to "pant hangers".  They're like a giant clamp; the skirts tend to stay on the hanger, and no more tangling.

But what to do with the extra skirt hangers?  I still use them, but now I set a few aside to make hanging laundry bags for tights and other delicates.  This is the one for dark tights:

Easy Peesy!

For today's DIY:

1 skirt hanger ... IKEA 99 cents

1 laundry bag ... IKEA 2 for 1.99 ?

Hanging Circular Scarf Organizer

As you know, I have a lot of scarves.  My scarf drawer is becoming a tad unruly.  I've always wanted to try one of those belt-scarf organizers but the cost seemed a little pricey for a bunch of circles joined together.

source

So, when they had one in the as-is section at IKEA (returns, discontinued, missing pieces, clearance) for $5, I thought it was a good time to try one out.

I wasn't sure how you were supposed to thread the scarves through, so just looped them and left them hanging down the front.  With lots of scarves, I put 2 into each circle.

 

I only hung the longer thin scarves; the squares and thicker ones are going to stay in the compartmented drawer.  I'm sure there is a better way to loop them, but will try it like this for a while.

My closet is too stuffed for me to hang this inside, so I McGyvered a ribbon and door hook so that this could be at eye level.

I think it works quite well.

Walking on Air

What do you do about those shoes which are hard in the sole area?  Sometimes shoes have little lumps of glue which just poke into you, or they are just hard, period.  Today's post is a quick make-your-own item.

So I have some shoes which although flat, are quite hard on the soles of the feet.  I tried putting in some insoles, but they were a bit thick and made the shoes a lot tighter. 

Then, I spotted this:

This is a sheet of that bumpy squishy plastic that is used to wrap electronics.  My thrifty self thought it might work if I cut out a sole shape.

Voila!  Sooo comfy!  The shoes felt like new Docs!  You can see after a day of use how they really cushioned the feet.  And they don't eat up all the foot room.  Very pleased with this cheap way to add instant air pillows to my shoes.  And a way to re-use/recycle too!