Beach Day - DIY's and Survival Kit

Hopefully you are ready for a beach day because that is the focus of this week’s blog post. The colour we chose is again in the Tarte eyeshadow palette and it is called “Beach Therapy” and it is a matte peachy/sandy shade.

Our focus is getting you beach ready so we have some great crafts that you can take with you on your beach day as well as a must pack list of items to make you comfortable for your beach day.

Crafty DIY’s

Something that is so easy and great to take with you to the beach, are DIY decorated flip flops. All you need is a pair of plain flip flops (you choose the colour you like) and then you can find some little adornments that you can hot glue gun to them. You can do a sparkly jewel theme, a shell theme, or any other idea that you may come up with. You can just attach one big flower to each and spruce up the plain pair of flip flops just like that!

Take a look at this for inspiration...

http://www.marciseither.com/diy-fabulous-flip-flops/

Another cool idea we saw was this beach hat. The one in the link below is inspired by a watermelon but you can do any pattern or design that you like. You just need to find a big straw sun hat and some craft/fabric paint and then you can create whatever you like and it’ll keep you protected at the beach and be a fashion statement! You can also add some ribbon (by hot gluing) or other decorative elements (by hot gluing or sewing) if you like.

https://studiodiy.com/2016/06/09/diy-watermelon-floppy-hat/

Something really cool that we found is a decorated cooler. Even your cooler should be stylish at the beach. For this one you’ll need a cooler, preferably a white one, and then you can paint it to a colour that you like and decorate it with vinyl pieces that you can cut out and make whatever shapes you want.

https://thecraftedlife.com/diy-cooler-makeover/#more-12407

Here are a few more things that you can make for the beach (an umbrella, a cover up, and a towel) which take a bit more effort to make. These do require some more skill, haha, so if you are adventurous, then give these a go.

https://sugarandcloth.com/diy-retro-beach-umbrella/

https://www.merricksart.com/diy-friday-pom-pom-trim-beach-coverup/

https://www.simplesimonandco.com/2015/05/simple-diy-beach-towel-tutorial.html/

Beach Day Survival Kit

Ok, so now it’s time to look at the must have in your beach bag for a perfect beach day!

Sunscreen

First Aid Kit (make sure you have band aids, alcohol swabs, after bite, antibiotic ointment/cream, allergy medicine, and a pain reliever)

Change of clothes and a towel

Cooler

Aloe Gel

Sunglasses

Hat

Beach Blanket

Beach Umbrella

Beach Chairs

Portable speaker

Hair Elastic/Brush

Card Games

A good book

Chapstick with SPF

Comfortable beach shoes (flip flops or sandals)

Sand Coasters

Sand Toys/Sand Castle Making Supplies

Sports Stuff (Frisbee, volleyball, baseball mitts, beach ball)

Rubber Dingy/Inflatable Toy or Boat

Towel Clips

Cool Drinks (juice boxes, pop, Gatorade, premade drinks in a bottle, water)

Snacks (fruits, veggies, cookies, chips, crackers, freezies if you have a good cooler)

Lunch/Dinner (sandwiches-egg salad is always a good cool one but any cold sandwich works such as cucumber, ham and cheese or roast beef, pasta salads are another great option, as are wraps, coleslaw, potato salad, bunwiches, cold fried chicken, green salad, and hot dogs)

Portable BBQ (if allowed)

What to do with Thanksgiving Leftovers

With Thanksgiving coming up, you might have a lot of food leftover! I always do the basic reheat or sandwiches, but there is so much more that you can do with these leftovers. This week we have just the blog for you. We’re doing a Thanksgiving leftover blog and we’ll take a look at a bunch of things you can do with your turkey leftovers.

The obvious things would be your cold turkey sandwich. You can make the basic with bread, lettuce, and lots of mayo. Or you can make a warm one with stuffing piled inside of it and cranberry sauce and gravy; really utilize all of the leftovers. You can even make a toasted hot turkey sandwich. I’ve done open faced ones on toasted bread with gravy poured on top or you can add some stuffing on that as well. Make it fancy and upgrade your bread (make it a panini or pita), but you really want to use what you have leftover from dinner; don’t add too much extras. I love making clubhouses with my fresh turkey. On toasted bread with lots of mayo, I layer on turkey, bacon, avocado, tomato, and a little lettuce and sometimes cheese. So divine!

Another popular thing to make with turkey leftovers is turkey pie. Buy a pie crust or make one. Mix some of your leftover veggies (bean, corn, carrots, and peas are the best) add in some chopped onions and celery and then pour in your leftover gravy with a bit of salt and pepper and any other flavours you like. You can decide how runny you want your pie filling to be. If you don’t have enough gravy left you can add in some water, chicken broth, or cream of chicken soup until it reaches the consistency you want. Pour the filling into one pie crust and then place another one on top and brush with some egg wash and put in a few slits on the top. Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes or until golden and you can see the filling bubbling.

Pasta is always popular. You can make a tomato based sauce or rose and add turkey to it along with some veggies or you can make more of an alfredo sauce with turkey added to it or you can make a baked tetrazzini.

Soup is also a good way to use up your leftovers. You can make a turkey noodle soup with veggies and your turkey. You can even add in some mashed potatoes in. If you like a really hearty soup you can make a chowder as well.  

Other less obvious but creative things to make are waffles topped with turkey trimmings, mashed potato pizza, cranberry mixed in with your oatmeal/yogurt, turkey poutine, frittata, quiche, turkey dumplings, apple/pumpkin pie milkshakes, turkey and stuffing stuffed peppers, turkey lasagna, turkey roll ups, turkey nachos, turkey chilli, enchiladas, turkey egg rolls, turkey and veggie casserole, turkey and veggie Shepard’s pie, turkey hash...the recipes are endless! 

One recipe that really stood out to me was this turkey dinner in a biscuit.

https://www.bobbiskozykitchen.com/2015/12/turkey-dinner-in-biscuit.html

Take a look here for more ideas..

https://www.google.ca/search?q=thanksgiving+leftovers&rlz=1C1PRFC_enCA731CA731&oq=thanksgiving+leftovers&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0l5.3423j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8