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There were quite a few laughs during our last friends’ crafting event, whether it was trying to figure out where to hang over 20 dishtowels to dry or Shana thinking an actual banana would make a great stamp for the towels. However, all in all, this craft turned out to be quite a success. We got some plain, white, flour sack towels , and made citrus print dishtowels using acrylic paints and real fruit! They turned out SO cute (well, most of them–not the ones that I accidentally tried to walk under and smeared the towels and got paint all over my back–true story)! We found the idea on Instagram earlier in the year and had been wanting to try it. Although, we always worry about if it is going to be an “amazing” or “less than amazing” project. Sometimes the crafts that should seem easy turn out not so great and fairly difficult, so Shana and I deemed those “less than amazing”. However, this one turned out pretty amazing in my book. They are going to make great gifts this holiday season for my in-laws. You could also use them as host/hostess gifts, or better yet, have your kids make them for their grandparents!  First, I washed all the towels, and then we ironed them to get most of the wrinkles out. We cut some citrus (we used lemons, limes, and oranges) in half and cut out the “meat” of the fruit (but we left the membranes for the print). I squeezed out some of the juice first to make it less messy and that didn’t wreck the membrane.  After we got most of the membrane out, we turned the fruit over and let it dry for just a bit on paper towels. Maybe 15 minutes while we got the paint ready (we probably should have left them to dry longer, but we were impatient). We mixed a ratio of 1:1 acrylic paint and fabric medium on paper plates. The posts that I saw differed on whether to use a fabric medium or not, but I highly recommend it. The medium helps the paint adhere to the fabric. The towels looked great even after washing. This is where the strategies differed. We spread the towels out on cardboard, and we each painted the fruit on the inner membranes and on the outer rim of the fruit half. I used yellow with a lemon, green with a lime, and orange with an orange. Some people dipped their fruit directly in the paint on the paper plate. I painted the membrane and edge using a kids paintbrush (dipping the brush into the paint instead of the fruit). I thought that made it turn out more exact. You just have to make sure you are not just stamping the edge of the fruit (I actually trimmed some of the edge down) because then you are just printing circles.  You have to get that inner membrane to make the print too. We used one towel for practice which helped.  Then, we did whatever pattern felt fun for each of us. Some of us did rows of just one fruit, some did alternating rows of lemons/limes, some did groups of three fruits, and so forth. Then, we started branching out and getting a little more creative. We pulled out all my cookie cutters, and our friend Nicole painted the inside of a cookie cutter shaped like a pear onto the towel. It turned out great! Because we are sentimental, we also did a towel with all our handprints on it. I got to keep that one since we were all at my house. That would be a GREAT one for kids to make for grandparents.  I decided to give mine to some of our parents this holiday season, so I found one of my favorite hand soaps for the kitchen in a citrus scent and will wrap the towels around the soap. So fun! We had a great time, and whether it’s a girls’ night craft or a project with your kids, I hope you have tons of fun making citrus print towels too! List of items: Paper plates Small-medium kids’ paintbrush https://amzn.to/4mz9KPX Cardboard to lay towel on for painting Kitchen white flour sack towels  https://amzn.to/3JO2fWB Acryllic paints–colors of your choice (we used citrus colors) Yellow https://amzn.to/41P0heU Green https://amzn.to/4lHJp0E Orange https://amzn.to/46cVfuj Fabric medium https://amzn.to/4lKPslh Citrus of your choice (or hands or other items you want to use to make prints) Gift Soap Option https://amzn.to/48wRQJc

Weekly Menus!! The weekly menus are just that–weekly menus. We give five recipes-Sunday through Thursday. We don’t do seven days because of folks going out or reusing leftovers or just taking a night off from cooking and eating cheese and crackers. So you can arrange the five meals for any of the seven days in the week. The recipes range in complexity (but I’m no Julia Child, so don’t be intimidated). We don’t test all the foods so this is not a perfect week of meals. Most likely, I am trying all the recipes for the first time because I love new recipes. Sometimes I am using tried and true favorites, but ultimately, I’m just meal planning “out loud” for everyone. I’m not a meal expert. I may plan for recipes that aren’t very good. I will have too many chicken recipes in one week. I will repeat my favorite recipes because that is what I do when I meal plan. You will almost always see a form of tacos on the weekly menu because that is what I love. I’m gluten free so I always will make stuff without flour or replace it with a GF flour 1:1. I don’t fuss. Most recipes are fairly easy to follow along, but if it is too much for you, grab a replacement meal from our site or use one of your own tried and true favorites. Also, as far as technology, we are just trying all this stuff for the first time. So if something isn’t linking correctly, we are truly sorry. Give us a friendly heads up, and we will get it figured out. If you don’t like a meal, that’s okay, don’t use that recipe ever again. When all is said and done, we are just sharing our meal plans in hopes to spread love and reduce stress!

We do everything with a sense of humor because life is just too short, and food is just too good. Shana and Angel I plan the menus, and Shana and I cook them over the course of the week (okay, in my house, my husband cooks a LOT). We take pictures as we go and hope for the best. This happens two weeks prior to the menus being released. However, we don’t look back. So, Shana is busy posting and doing all the things online, and I am busy planning the next week. We don’t review what we did or tell you if something was good or not. We just plan, post, and then work on future planning/posting. So, ultimately, you are living in “real time” with us, even though we prepared it two weeks prior. The recipes in the menus come from magazines, cookbooks, and online sites. Some of the recipes are handed down from our families or friends, and we tried to credit all the sources to the best of our abilities. We also try to be healthy as much as possible, but sometimes a girl just needs a big plate of nachos.

You do whatever works for you. Use all the recipes for that week or use one or two recipes. You can print individual recipes or you can print the entire week’s worth of recipes. You can print out a grocery list for the week or just for one recipe. It is designed in categories (dairy, meats, etc.) so that you can mark off what you already have at home, and then you can head to the grocery store. I would add anything I needed for the rest of the week to the list, and it makes it so easy. You can also skip a meal or replace a meal as needed. Sometimes in a meal, I steam or roast vegetables, and it just says the vegetable on the meal plan. For instance, it might say spaghetti and roasted broccoli. For those days, the grocery list will just include the vegetable. I know that I have olive oil and salt and pepper for the roasting. Sometimes there will be videos or extra pictures, but those will be more rare as our time for making content is limited. The point of these posts are to help people, so if it isn’t helping you, then it is totally expected that you wouldn’t follow the site. If you feel the need to comment on posts, it would be awesome to hear comments about how you improved on something or what you specifically liked about a meal. Just saying you didn’t like the meal wouldn’t really help the community, as we all have different tastes. There definitely are meals that didn’t hit right for me or are just okay, and I won’t make again. However, let’s keep posts a place to share support on making life easier and making connections through food and the business of life.