Crochet Cell Phone Cover

I don't like industrial products. If I can create and make something by myself, I do it. And that is... Well, almost everything. Cute little things are special challenge for me, because they are made so quickly. Just for the time someone needs to go to the shop and find the thing he likes, I am going to make the same thing for myself, unique and with personal note.

Cell phone cover is so easy to make. You just need to choose the technique you are going to use. For me, it always depends on materials I have on hand that particular moment. Today the first thing I saw when I opened my craft-closet was glittering yarn. So, my new cover is going to be made of it.

Crocheting a cell phone cover is in the category Easy to make. The whole process is really simple. You just need yarn - as many colors you like, and an adequate crochet hook. I used glittering yarn and a hook No 2.5.

To start your work, you just need to crochet a simple chain as long as your phone is wide.

Now you star from the third loop from the hook, with a single crochet.

Work all around  (both sides of the chain) with single crochet.

Go to work along all in single crochet just untill your work is high enough for your phone.

Next round you start with ch2, then double crochet all around.

Finish this round with slipstich in the top of the first double chain.

The last round you will work all in slipstich. Finish your work.

You can pull some nice ribbon zig-zag through the last round (worked in double chain) and add some interesting pearl to the end of the ribbon.

That's it. Simple, but just the one you made by yourself. Those are some of the covers I made earlier:

Six-hands Cheese Crescents

Two kids and me in the kitchen... The plan is to make something for breakfast, I hope it is going to be edible :)

What are the benefits of making food with kids? Flour everywhere over the kitchen, white faces and hands not visible under the dough, some undefined forms of dough spread all over the kitchen table... And it won't be over very fast, they enjoy the game :)

But this game can always be educational. You can turn it into math class, learn colors, fact about some groceries...

This was our game (children of 3 and 6):

- How many eggs do we have in the box?

- When we use 2 eggs, how many remain?

- Where does this milk come from?

- What animal gives us the milk?

- How do we get flour?

- Where does it come from?

- What is the egg consisted of?

- What color is which part of an egg?

- What shape is this?

- Can you make a triangle?

And so on, and so on... Depending on groceries you use to make what you intend to.

Today we made cheese crescents. Very quick and easy to make. Children can make them, too. They are so sweet with their little tools (stolen from play-dough) and enormously large aprons, that goes all to their toes. But it is useful, when you think of all the spilled flour...

That's what we needed for our crescents:

For dough:

- 2 cups of white flour

- 4 oz cottage cheese

- 1/4 cup milk

- 1/4 cup oil

- 1 egg white

- 3 tsp backing soda

- 1 Tsp salt

For spread:

- 1 egg yolk

- 1 Tsp milk

- sprinkle of salt

- sprinkle of pepper

I poured everything we needed into the cups, kids poured it into the bowl. Counting all the time. Then we mixed everything thoroughly - kids for the beginning, then I finished the dough. I divided it into three equal parts and spread two of them into the rounds. Then we used knives from play-dough to cut them into eights (elder child did it perfectly). I made the first crescent to show kids how to roll them, and with a little help they finished the rest of the rolls. The third part of the dough was left for freeform shaping. It came into some weird forms, pretended to be crescents... Small tiny crescents, more like fingers, but very cute. The prettiest, absolutely. Made by sweet little hands.

Final step was to coat them with spread and they were ready to get into oven, for about 30 minutes.

At last we could sit and wait for our breakfast. It was so yummy!

Made by pretty little hands. The best breakfast ever.

I send hundreds of kisses to my dear friend who gave me this recipe, it is really fantastic. We had a great time, and a great meal.

Sring Spirit All Over Me

Sunny days, cozy evenings... Ideal for long pleasant walks along the nearby riverside. This is the perfect time to increase our physical activity and wake up from winter laziness. I choose power walking - it increases my heart rate, makes me feel better and I climb the stairs without noticing it... Don't have to take a half an hour pause to get breathing to normal anymore.

I enjoy my power walks very much, regardless I sweat so much. When I come home wet from head to toes, the nice shower waits for me. That's another place where I brought spring spirit. I am going to have a total remedy of myself.

I start from my hair. Washing it every day after walking and sweating makes it dry and tired-looking. Store bought conditioners and masks never gave me expected effects. So, now I use only natural ingredients to put onto my hair. Instead of any industrial hair mask, I cover my hair with olive oil and spread it over well with my comb. Now hair goes under the plastic cap and wrap with the hot towel, that increases effect of oil. After half an hour (or more, if you like) hair can be washed the usual way. It will be shiny, silky and amazingly moisturized.

Next stop is my body. After constant use of soaps that dry a skin, it needs a good scrubbing. The best of all scrubs is made also in my kitchen. I mix equal parts of sugar, coffee grounds and olive oil. This mix I add to my skin and gently scrub whole body, then wash in usual way. Skin is soft and silky, and doesn't need any body cream at all, as olive oil moisturizes it just enough.

Then I get out of the shower and skip to my face. The same scrub can be used on face, too. After washing it gently using mild soap, I don't wipe it with towel, but on the wet skin put some olive oil with my hands, gently massaging it. If skin is too oily after that, it just needs to be slightly washed with lukewarm water and without using a towel left to dry itself. This is the best way to moisturize your skin.

Whole body remedy using supplies from my kitchen. Nature all over me.

Now I am ready to have my special spring meal, with plenty of green vegetables... Afterwards, instead of coffee I used to make before diving into my favorite book, now I make energy juice mix. All made by myself, following mom's recipe. It recovered me after many child sickness periods, so it does now.

I just love spring, it makes me so fresh and new.

Spring Came Into my Kitchen

Ok, winter's finally over. No more clouds, no more wind, snow, rain and fogs. Sunny days are waking up the nature. Sun is peeking through the windows into my home. And showing me everything that I have to do - immediately!

Well, I started with gathering supplies for all-day-long action.

- Microfiber cloth, several of them

- Abrasive sponge, for persistent stains

- Paper towels

- Baking soda

- My magic cleaner

You wonder what is Magic cleaner? That is my homemade cleaner made of natural ingredients, found in my kitchen, non toxic and safe for my hands. And the most important, it cleans really magically, just as not any chemical, store bought cleaner does. To make it I need:

- one spray bottle

- 1 Tsp white vinegar

- 1 Tsp dish washing liquid

- water to fill the rest of the bottle

There is no stain in the kitchen that can resist this cleaner. Just spray it on the surface, wait for several minutes and clean with microfiber cloth. That's all. Your kitchen is going to shine. I use it for kitchen appliances, tiles, cabinet doors. I also use it for microwave and for the oven. If your oven needs a tougher cleaning, you just sprinkle it with baking soda and spray the cleaner over it, then leave it for half an hour. After that, you may need to use an abrasive sponge to clean it thoroughly and wipe with paper towels. Now you can wipe your oven with clean  microfiber cloth, and if needed spray some more times with cleaner just to clean it perfectly.

When I used this cleaner for the first time, I really didn't believe that it is so efficient. But it is really amazing. No more rubber gloves, no more tough scratching, poisoning smell of chemical cleaners, pain in my hands... Now I clean the kitchen and don't get tired at all. It is just unbelievable.

The same spray I am going to make for next week, when I plan to clean my windows. Just add some rubbing alcohol into the mix, and my windows are going to shine on the spring sun.

Now I enjoy spring cleaning - never believed that this is going to happen some day!

Mom's Recipe Collection

Smells from the mom's kitchen are something that all of us surely consider as the most precious memory to our childhood. No one ever knew to make such a delicates from nothing as mom did. There wasn't a moment or a day that there wasn't a delightful plate full of smelly sweet things placed on our kitchen table. Although, every Sunday a delightful smell of fresh rolls or some kind of pie discretely ran under the door of my room and sneaked into my bed. Who could resist it and don't get up immediately?

I am living far away from my birthplace for a while, but every time when I go to visit my parents' home, I have to dig into mom's recipes and make something from her collection. She isn't among us for several years, but every well known scent from the kitchen brings her back into the house. As smells spread around the house, I expect that every moment I am going to see the dearest face calling us to come to the table. Although the recipe I use is the same that she did use, it never tastes and smells the same. Only one person could make it that particular way. But I am never going to change some recipes and the way of making some food. This is one of the most precious things I inherited from her. And with every meal made from her collection, her spirit is there with me. My dearest company.

A few months ago I were in one of those visits to my hometown. When I opened the kitchen closet and digged through handwritten notebooks and a pile of papers with recipes, it came to my mind to gather all that in some electronic form. At first I meant to retype all of them into one file and keep it on some safe place, upload it to some internet storage place... But I wil loose one of the great memories, lines that are written with her own hand, stains that we made making that cake or pie and that bring all those memories back. Therefore, I decided to scan the whole collection and turn it into one PDF file. Memories to keep and to pass to new generations.

There is one more thing that I decided: at the same time, I am going to share those recipes here. From time to time, every single recipe I choose for that particular day. I want to share my memories with someone else and I hope that I will make pleasure to some other family for their family meal. 

Serbian National Cuisine

Serbian cuisine is the mix up of influences of many conquerors, but also has a great variety of characteristic food.

Preparing meals is a special ritual in Serbian home and that makes kitchen the central place in the house. There are three main meals for a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Lunch is the most plentiful and most important meal, so if it is possible the whole family is gathering around the table. Plenty of bread is must have for every meal, especially home made which is consumed with almost every kind of food.

Vegetable or meat soups and broths are always on the table so Serbian women usually make them once in the week in very large amounts, cook them for several hours and later add pasta or noodles to daily use and make the different meal every day. Main meal usually consists of some vegetables and meat mixed in famous mousaka, sarma or stuffed peppers. Something that makes Serbian cuisine famous abroad is rostilj, especially pljeskavica (grilled minced meat made like a beef steak), cevapi (small rolls of mixed minced meat) and Karadjordjeva snicla. To make material for rostilj, masters of that job mix several kinds of minced meat, add lot of spices including red pepper and garlic, but exact formula they use is secret and that makes Serbian rostilj unique.

Salads in Serbian cuisine are also made in specific way. One of them is tursija, pickled mixture of green and red peppers, green tomatoes, small cucumbers, cauliflower and carrots. Furthermore, there is pickled cabbage, that is unforgettable for all Serbs who leave their own country and make it wherever they live all around the world. Another salad special for Serbian cuisine is ajvar, known as the "Serbian vegetable caviar".

To make ajvar you have to roast red peppers and then leave them in closed dishes for some time to rest. Next you need to remove skin and seeds off the peppers and then ground them. At this point grounded peppers are then mixing with oil, salt and garlic and cooking for several hours to reduce water.

Finally, prepared ajvar is putting into glass jars and closing with a tight lid. Some other specialties that are always on the table when a large company is gathering are kajmak, kacamak and gibanica, a kind of pie.

Many meals known as Serbian national specialties are not even in the vocabulary of other nations, so their names are hard to translate. So if anyone wants to uncover the secrets of Serbian food, he should let the experienced chefs lead him through that fantastic journey.

Living In The City

Great number of people in one period of their lives have to decide to move to the big city, because in their hometowns they don’t have an opportunity to study or to work. Some of them stay there for the rest of their lives, though they are suffocating in the speed of life, overcrowded traffic, great expenses of everyday life… But business people, who are looking for the chance to get on with their careers, find great advantages for that, just like the students who don’t have proper university in their hometown.

Often the most important sports or cultural events are organized in big cities, since most of the appropriate objects are built there.  All these activities just hypnotize all their lovers, who decide to stay and live in the big city, where they are able to have an absolutely fulfilled cultural life.

On the other side, living in big cities, the places full of noise, air pollution and congestion, can be quite harmful for sensitive persons. People who are accustomed to noise and crowd, spending their days in the cars and crowded buildings, chasing the time, often have some psychological problems. To get to the job, they often spend an hour or two, which can be very frustrating. Exhausted by the long busy day, they fall asleep immediately when they come home. They don’t have time for fun and friends.

Children who are growing up in closed space have more allergies and some other immune problems, than children who are living in the country. Playing in the grass, mud and generally in nature, let children who live in the country to come in touch with many bacteria and get immune to them. City kids often live in sterile space and that causes an underdeveloped immune system. To be healthier, just a 20 minute walk in fresh air can be helpful. Trying to spend more time in fresh air, they have to get away from the cities for the holidays and spent them on mountains or somewhere else in pure nature.

Although majority of people see the disadvantages of living in big city, they have to accept that kind of life when it is their only chance to get a job or wanted education.