Easter, Easter I've Been Thinking

The Monday before Easter, we decorated eggs. We went a different route this year and I think it will be a few years before we try this again because it is a little messy especially with a 3 year old. You will need hard boiled eggs (obviously), glitter, glue dots, and a permanent marker.

First stick a glue dot onto an egg.

Then place the egg/glue dot into glitter.

Then using more glue dots, glitter, and a marker, create awesome looking eggs.

Can you tell she had fun?

Next, I decided to make baskets for my girls this year and I love how these turned out. I call them tutu baskets.

You will need: baskets (I got mine at Dollar Tree), scissors, and tulle (I bought 2 yards each of 6 different colors). And really that amount came out perfectly. I actually went back and bought more thinking I wasn't going to have enough but now I'm stuck with a lot of tulle that can't be returned. Oh well, I'm sure I can find some other project I can use the tulle for.

So first things first. I folded the tulle in half so that I could cut more strips at a time. And now you cut strips and strips of tulle. Mine were about an inch thick though it doesn't matter if they are all cut the same size because you can't tell. All that tulle hides lots of mistakes, which is nice. Anyway, the cutting was my least favorite part, but probably because I cut it on my carpet so I had a hard time seeing all the layers to make sure I cut through them all. Oh and I only used 3 colors per basket, so I had a purple basket and a pink basket at the end.

So as you know, all material including tulle comes folded in half already. So once you have your strips cut you're going to want to cut along the fold so that each strip now becomes 2 strips.

Then find the middle of the strip and fold in half and thread the fold through the basket but don't pull it all the way through.

Open the strip in the middle creating a hole and pull the two ends of the strip through the hole, essentially creating a knot.

Pull until the tulle lays flat around the basket's edge.

Keep doing this all around the basket alternating your 3 different colors.

And now you're done and you can enjoy your new baskets.  Go find some eggs!

Next up are my place settings for Easter dinner. I took on the feast this year so my aunt could have a break. She does dinner every Sunday/holiday so I think she really deserved it. Anyway, I wanted to make it look fun so I made a craft. You will need: mini flower pots, moss, mini eggs, and a glue gun. The eggs and pots I found at Dollar Tree.  The moss is at any craft store.

Place some moss in the pots and then glue the eggs to the moss. Done!

Last, sticking with my egg theme from the place settings above, are my cupcakes for Easter dinner. Click HERE for my inspiration. Mine definitely did not come out as cute as my inspiration because I didn't have the right frosting tip or cute little flowers but I still like how they came out. I just used a box cake mix and made regular cupcakes. I dyed vanilla frosting brown (if you're wondering why I didn't just buy chocolate frosting, I didn't want it to be too chocolatey, you know chocolate cake with chocolate frosting is just too much for some people), frosted the cupcakes, and then placed some Cadbury Mini Eggs on top. Delicious!

 

Aye, It's St. Patty's Day!

I sure hope you read that title in an Irish accent. If not, go back and do so now. It makes it so much better. Anyway, I know I'm really late with this post but if I'm being honest, I just finished these projects yesterday. In my defense, I was gone most of March so I didn't have time for the crafts. But things have slowed down and I finally did it. But before the crafts, let's talk food.

We were traveling on actual St. Patrick's Day so I didn't do anything special other then put me and the girls in green. Love them.

But a week later when my parents came for a visit, we went all out. I made green eggs and green shamrock blueberry muffins for breakfast. The muffins are easy. I used a box mix and just followed all the directions. The only change was that I added some green food dye. Pour mix in your baking cups and now comes the cool part. Place 3 marbles around the baking cup to make a shamrock shape.

Then bake in the oven like you normally would. So easy and you're done!

That night for dinner I made Corned Beef and Cabbage for the first time and it was super easy and yummy. I found a crock pot recipe on Pinterest (where else?) and just stuck to it. Well I did make one change and that was I used baby carrots instead of large carrots. Click HERE for the link to the recipe.

And for dessert I made pudding cups. I made way too much and could never finish it but it was yummy. Here's how to make them. You'll need a box of instant vanilla pudding, a box of instant chocolate pudding, green food coloring, mint extract, Cool Whip, a Hershey's chocolate bar, and crushed Oreos (I used Mint flavored to stick with my mint theme).

Make the two puddings according to the box directions. Dye the vanilla pudding green and add the mint extract, as much or as little as you want. Split each pudding in half, so you'll have two bowls of vanilla and two bowls of chocolate. Now split the Cool Whip into thirds. Place one third in one of the chocolate bowls and mix, and one third in one of the vanilla bowls and mix. Save the last of the Cool Whip for assembly. So now you should have a dark chocolate bowl, a light chocolate bowl, a dark green bowl, and a light green bowl. Now you are ready to assemble. (In the picture below, the other two bowls are the crushed Oreos and the Cool Whip.)

It's better to use a clear cup so you can see how pretty it looks but really any cup will work. So first, place some of the crushed Oreo at the bottom. Then I layered the pudding like this: dark chocolate, dark green, light chocolate, light green. I then sprinkled some more crushed Oreos on top, placed a dollop of Cool Whip on that and then shaved some of the Hershey's chocolate bar on the very top. Voila!

As mentioned, there was way too much so I would use the small boxes of pudding mix, not the large.

So now for the crafts. I made a rag wreath. I won't go into the process making because my sister already blogged about how to make one and I just followed her instructions. See HERE. The only thing I did differently was use an actual foam wreath instead of a wire hanger. The only problem was I bought some material that were in scrap sizes so they were only 9 inches long. I was still able to tie them around the wreath but they were short. I did buy some regular sized material too that was 12 inches long so those worked fine. But I actually like how the wreathed turned out with the different sizes. I had 9 different patterns and I think I used 11 strips of each.

Last, is my LUCKY sign. It's like my Valentine's Day sign I made HERE. Just scroll to the bottom of that post.  So, I followed all the same steps. Paint your 12" x 12" canvas with black stripes.

Then cut out a shamrock shape onto green felt. I printed a shape off the computer and then traced it onto the felt. Hot glue gun the felt to the canvas.

Then start gluing the buttons onto the felt. I did it section by section but made sure that I ended on an edge so there wouldn't be any empty spaces in the middle.

Tada!

But see those big empty spaces that aren't quite big enough for another button. Well I just glued buttons on top of those empty spaces which gives it a 3-D effect. At the bottom of the canvas, I used my stickers to spell out LUCKY and you're done! I'm still trying to decide if I want to add a stem but for now, it's finished.

I'm Back from my Hiatus with Breakfast Popcorn

Hi all!  Jenn here.  It has been a long time since I've posted anything creative.  And here is the biggest reason why:

Last fall, the hubby and I produced Baby #4 (our first boy)!  It was a rough pregnancy for me and I couldn't bring myself to do anything besides laundry and feeding the family.  And then the boy was born, weighing in at nearly 10 lbs.  No wonder I was miserable.

Anyway, we also found out last fall that we will be moving this summer.  There were a lot of projects that we wanted to do to the house while we owned it.  And with a date for leaving approaching, the hubby decided it was time to get those projects done.  So, we (meaning mainly him with just a little help from me) have been spending all our extra time doing those.  I may have some pictures of our paint job to post later, or I might not...we'll see.  I think I have a pretty good excuse for being uncreative.

I did make a new carseat canopy for the boy because we can't have him using a girly one now, can we?

It turned out pretty cute.  This was my first time working with Minky material and it may be my last.  FYI: Minky may look super cute, but it is super stretchy making it difficult to so with.  You've been warned.

Okay, now to the real reason of this post: Breakfast Popcorn.

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching Rachael Ray.  It was before the Oscars and she was talking about making different types of popcorn (i.e. Pizza Popcorn, Buffalo Popcorn...).  Well, just last Monday, we had our 7th snow day of the year.  The kids and I decided to have a movie marathon day (My two oldest daughters, ages 7 and 10, wanted a Harrison Ford marathon.  I was so proud.).  To make it even more fun, I thought I'd try a fun popcorn to go with it.  Since we were starting in the morning, I decided to make a Breakfast Popcorn.  I was thinking along the lines of cereal when I put it together.  Here is what I used:

Home popped corn (not microwaveable because it will be too buttery, though kettle corn might work)
Melted butter
Powdered Hot Chocolate
Powdered Sugar
Captain Crunch Oops All Berries
Dehydrated Marshmallows
Yogurt Covered Raisins

Okay, so first I popped the popcorn, then I drizzled 2 or 3 Tbsp of melted butter over the bowl.  Next, I sprinkled the hot chocolate followed by the powdered sugar over the popcorn and mixed it all up.  Finally I tossed in the remaining ingredients and Voila! you have Breakfast Popcorn.

I really wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it was pretty yummy.  The kids devoured it.  And the great thing is is that you could add whatever you like best in your own cereal, like fruit or nuts.  My kids love Raisin Bran Extra (the kind with the yogurt covered raisins), anything with Marshmallows, and chocolate cereal, so I went that route.

Valentine Treats

So here are a couple recipes I tried for a party and on actual Valentine's Day. And I'm feeling lazy so mostly I'll just link you to the recipe I followed.

First, for a party Dave and I were invited to, we were asked to bring an appetizer. Well I jumped on Pinterest to find a Valentine's appetizer and found these: Mozzarella Cheese Filled Hearts. Click HERE for the recipe.

I'm not going to show you my step by step process because I just followed the recipe I found. Some tips though: 1) roll the dough thinner because mine ended up tasting too bready because they were too thick (on the link to the recipe it suggests using pizza dough in a can so maybe that's why mine were too bready because I just used the biscuits), 2) use stronger flavored cheese because the mozzarella disappeared in the bread or maybe again that's because mine were too thick, and 3) follow how the recipe cuts up their cheese, in heart shapes. That way the cheese is in every bite. I just cut cubes so the cheese didn't fill out the whole heart. And I just used Marinara sauce in a jar (which helped them taste better since they were so bready) instead of the Pesto recipe.

On Valentine's Day morning, I got up with my husband (I usually get to sleep in longer) and made a pancake breakfast. I made regular pancake mix and split the mix into two bowls. One I dyed pink and the other purple. Then I made regular round pancakes.

Then I cut out a heart in the middle of each pancake using a cookie cutter.

Then I switched the hearts, so the pink heart goes in the purple pancake and the purple heart goes in the pink pancake. And voila.

I got the idea from Pinterest (where else?) and their pancakes were more vibrant (I think if you cook on a lower temperature for longer they don't get the brown color, but ain't nobody got time for that). Click HERE for my inspiration.

And for dinner I made Virgin Strawberry Daiquiris. They were just 'meh.' Nothing too amazing but still fun. Here's the simple recipe: blend 12 oz. Sprite, 10 frozen strawberries, and 1/2-1 cup ice cubes. Pour into fancy cups (I got them in the $1 section at Target). Garnish with whipped cream (I also added sprinkles).

I also tried a new pizza recipe. It's called Easy Pull Apart Pizza Bread. Click HERE for the recipe. And some tips: 1) lessen the olive oil. When I flipped the bread out, oil was literally dripping from the pan. 2) I had to cook mine longer by like 15 or 20 minutes because the middle wasn't cooked all the way through yet. So plan on that. Because we had to cook it longer, the outside was crispy so we couldn't really pull it apart so we just sliced it. And we used Marinara sauce to dip it in. It was yummy.  And it was easy.  I had my 3 year old slice the biscuits into quarters (she used a plastic knife and loved helping).

An X-O-rdinary Craft

Okay so here is my last Valentine's Day craft I made for this year.

I made an "XOXO" sign. Here are the supplies you need: Valentine's paper, two X and two O wood letters, Mod Podge, paint brush, cardboard box , and an x acto knife.

Grab four sheets of your cute Valentine's paper and flip it over, design side down.

Mod Podge one side of your wood letter. Flip the letter over and stick it to the back side of your paper.

 

 

Now you're ready to cut.  I used a broken down cardboard box as my work station so I wouldn't cut through my table.  Use your x acto knife to cut away the extra paper, revealing your letter.

Last, I put a coat of Mod Podge over the paper to give some shine and also to seal the paper better. You're done. That's it. Super easy and super cute! 

I "Heart" Goodies

I love all the little holidays and Valentine's Day is no exception, as you can see from the last couple of posts. And now that this is the week of the actual holiday, it's time for the goodies. And this year, a homemade card.

So first the card. You will need: fake mustaches, photo paper, card-stock, Valentine's paper, paper cutter, and two-sided tape. I bought the mustaches, card-stock, and paper from Michael's.

One day, I made all of the family put on said mustaches, so we could get an awesome picture. Before printing, I added some heart embellishments to the corners for just a little extra something, something. Then I printed the pictures out onto photo paper.  

I trimmed the pictures with my paper cutter and then used a full 8 1/2" x 11" piece of card-stock to make the whole thing more sturdy. I used double-sided tape and taped two pictures (that's how many would fit on one sheet) to the card-stock.

On my computer, I made up some notes saying, "I "mustache" you a question. Will you be our Valentine?" Then I printed and cut them out. I taped the notes to a pretty piece of Valentine's paper and then cut them out leaving a small border of the cute Valentine's paper visible. Then I taped the note next to the picture on the card-stock. Last, I trimmed the card-stock so there was a small border around the whole thing, and you've got yourself a cute homemade Valentine's Day card.

Next, are the goodies, aka M&M Cookie Bars. These are some of my favorite treats to make because they're yummy and super easy. I'm just going to give you a link to the recipe I found because that's what I follow, plus I didn't take step by step pictures for you. The only thing I have to do differently is the baking time. It always takes about 5 mins. longer with my oven.  (And sometimes I add another 1/8 of a cup of flour if it's looking too gooey before putting it in the pan.)

Click HERE for the recipe.

So now that the card and treats are done, it's presentation time. This might actually be the most fun part for me. I love making things look cute. Supplies needed are: Valentine's plates, cellophane wrap, hole punch, ribbon, and scissors. I bought the plates and cellophane wrap from Michael's.

Place your goodies on a cute plate. Roll out the cellophane to desired length. Cut it off the roll. Pull the corners of the cellophane together and tie it closed with ribbon.

Hole punch a hole in your homemade card and thread the ribbon from your goodies, through the hole and tie in a knot. Using scissors, curl the ribbon and you're ready to deliver your Valentine's Day treats.

Picture Timeline

I finally finished a wall in my bedroom. A few years ago, I bought a vinyl phrase, "For Time and All Eternity," but never put it up because we were renting apartments and I didn't want to put it up, just to take it down after a year or so and not be able to use it again. So now that we have our own house, it finally made it onto a wall. 

Now for the picture timeline. I placed it centered below the vinyl phrase.  Here are the supplies you need: pictures, paper cutter, mini clothespins, paint, brushes, fishing line, clear pushpins, measuring tape, level, pencil, and scissors.

First, I picked out and printed some pictures that represent Dave and I's life from the time we met until now. Then I trimmed them using a paper cutter.

Next, I painted some mini clothespins the colors of my bedroom: black, yellow, white, and gray.

Then, I cut off a huge section of fishing line. I then clipped my photos to the fishing line with the clothespins.

Then I used a measuring tape, level, and pencil to figure out exactly where to place the pushpins (one below and to the left of the vinyl, one on the opposite side of the first pin, and one in between those two). Once I figured that out, I tied one end of the fishing line to a pushpin and put the pin in the wall on the first mark.  Then I put the other two pins in the wall. I draped the middle of the fishing line over the middle pin and then loosely tied the end to the other side pin with extra fishing line hanging off. That way I could figure out how low or high I wanted the dips to be before completely tying it off.  Just cut the extra fishing line off.

Last, I repeated the final steps again for a second row of photos and you're done.

I think if I did it over I would print the pictures all in black and white and use bigger clothespins.  But I still like how it turned out.  Oh and use an even number of pictures on each row.  I had 13 and it made it hard finding the middle because there was a picture in the way.

Also, someday, there will be a desk below the pictures for my sewing station.