Holidays!

I have been thinking about the holidays, Halloween (94 days), Thanksgiving (116 days), my Birthday-the big 30 yikes! (118 days) & Christmas (148 days)....I might get excited about holidays :) Anyway, I was thinking that it might be fun to host a crafting party/get together to make Christmas ornaments! Well, even if no one else comes I know I will be doing this this year. I have a ton of ideas and tutorials I've come across. And this could be started anytime after Thanksgiving.

Blog love

Several awesome blogs I came across today that offer free designs and clip art...worth a look, great stuff!



  

Mini Silhouette Canvas

I recently got really into using Mod Podge to create some wonderful art and saw some cute silhouette's that I thought I could recreate using some materials I had on hand and my doggie Halsey!

I took a mini canvas (3x3) and cut some craft paper and covered it for the background using the Mod Podge and then found a profile pic I already had of my little man and turned it into a silhouette removing the background and adding an effect that turned it solid black in my MS Word program, then printed it and cut it out. I added it in the center of the coveted canvas with Mod Podge, of course. I absolutely LOVE it and it can be done in 20 mins tops!

DIY Wedding Centerpieces

I got married in March and made a lot of the decor to save some money and to add a personal touch. I looked at tons of ideas online (this was before I discovered Pinterest however) but when I came across something similar to what I did I fell in love and knew what I wanted to create! Super simple and not very expensive. Also pretty original if you're looking for an alternative to the standard vase of flowers in the center of the table!

You need wine glasses of all shapes and sizes, you can't tell in these pictures but I had a variety. I got half of them from Goodwill for $1 or under each and the other half in boxes of 12 from Ross for around $10 a box, I believe. I used 6 on each table. Then you'll need flowers, I got silk flowers from the dollar store, came in bunches of 6 or 7 for $1. Just had to take them apart. I used 2 sizes in the same color. Then the candles. I got a TON online from candles4less.com for about $30. I used unscented white votive's. And I think my favorite was the diamond gems. I got them online as well. They came in a huge pack of different sizes from gemconfetti.com for about $30 in my one of our exact wedding colors! And to add a little more color to the table I got some pintuck table runners in our other wedding color at cvlinens.com for about $40 for 12 (I got extra, only used 10). And the flower petals were left over from the toss flowers I got for the guests and flower girl. Everything else you see was provided by the venue. I averaged less than $20 a table (closer to $15 probably) and think of how much it would have cost to go through a professional for a centerpiece!

Happy Fourth!

We celebrated the forth on the third with friends, family and food because the hubs had to work on the forth and I have a kidney stone and am afraid to go out and be stricken with pain (lol).

I gathered several recipes from the wonderful Pinterest and went to town. Hubs grilled some hot dogs and hamburgers and the father in-law brought some apple pie and potato salad and baked beans from work. Everyone else brought the beer & wine (that I couldn't enjoy due to the prior mentioned kidney stone!) Oh but I ate!

Here is what I made!

Baked Jalapeno Poppers via this pin.

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries via this pin.

And I also made some pink lemonade cupcakes with pink lemonade and butter cream frosting!

YUMMY!

No-Sew T-shirt Bag!

Found this crafty idea via Pinterest and knew I needed to try it ASAP! I have a ton of t-shirts I cannot part with and do not/can not wear any more so this is a great reuse of them! And I do not sew so being a no-sew project made it even more enticing to me!

Start with a t-shirt you don't wear any more, the smaller/thinner the shirt the better for this project.

Not only a shirt I love and don't wear but also one promoting being green :)

Now, cut off the sleeves and set the material aside for later use.

Next, cut the collar out in whatever shape you'd like. This is to make the bag's opening. Can be rounded, square or v-shaped.

All done with the top! Now time to secure the bottom to make the bag. You'll be using the hem of the t-shirt to accomplish this. 

Cut strips of material from the sleeves you have set aside. You only need one strip for however many holes you'll be making (you'll be threading the strip(s) through the hem to make a drawstring like bottom), I made several to make sure I had good ones. Once you cut the strips pull on them so they stretch and curl.

Cut one or two slits in the hem depending on the amount of holes. One will leave a larger gap at the bottom which you can see an example in the tutorial I linked. I made this with 2 and there isn't a gap at all. 

Thread the strip through the bottom of hem and pull as tight as you can. Use a safety pin to guide it through. You can have the bag turned inside out to make it more seamless on the bottom or leave it out and tie it in a bow for decoration. I turned mine inside out to tie it off. Since I used 2 holes I tied off my first and then did the same with the 2nd and tired both of them together for extra support and then cut off the excess strings.

This is the bottom of mine being tied inside out.

These are the two holes tied off together inside.

Super easy! I will be making more in the future. Great for kids too.

Dump Cake

For a potluck at work I made a "Dump Cake." Super easy and since I am tired from working all day today I am looking forward to that! Normally I NEVER use cake mix just because making cake from scratch is easy and I always have the supplies on hand, however, this recipe calls for cake mix and I like how no mixing will be required.

Recipe

1 (20 oz) can of cherry pie filling

1 (21 oz) can of crushed pineapple filling in syrup

1 box of yellow cake mix

1-2 sticks of butter (I used about 1 1/2 sticks)

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 pan

2. Pour pineapple (including syrup) in pan and spread evenly

3. Add cherry topping by the spoonful over pineapple

4. Sprinkle cake mix over the fruits covering the top entirely

5. Slice butter and place evenly over cake mix

NO MIXING! :)

6. Bake for 45 mins-1 hour

All done!

At the pot luck (top left on plate), was the favorite and must do again!

Many ways this can be done, different fruits and toppings. I plan on trying it with all cherries and chocolate cake next time!

Can also be made in a healthier fashion which I tried the other day (but didn't take any pictures).
Same idea but I used 2 (12 oz) bags of frozen mixed berries covered by white cake mix and topped with Sprite. The Sprite gave it a crispy topping but where the soda didn't touch the cake mix it didn't do a thing and remained powder. While eating it it still tasted good but was a little off setting scooping up the dry mix. Just make sure to cover as much as possible if you try that method!