Cupcake Challenge Anyone?
Also, they have some of the cutest stamps I have ever seen. I loooove the vintage cupcake set.
Contest ends Friday, June 26th at midnight.
Sunday, June 21, 2009Cupcake Challenge Anyone?Also, they have some of the cutest stamps I have ever seen. I loooove the vintage cupcake set. Contest ends Friday, June 26th at midnight. Tuesday, May 12, 2009Cushy, Comfy, Family Room PillowsSo... I just thought I would try to make some myself. I started with two pieces of 100% cotton unbleached muslin fabric and sandwiched fusible cotton batting between the two pieces. I then loaded my sewing machine with lots of pretty khaki-colored thread, switched to a walking foot, and machine stitched straight lines. In my usual style, I did not start out with a plan and just used the sewing machine guides to space the lines. For the second pillow, I used the same colors but varied the stitches a bit. This time, I did not start with diagonal stitches, and made stitches that were parallel with the sides of the pillow. For the blue stitches, I did three blue stitches very close together. To make the actual pillows that go inside the covers, you just sew a slightly smaller pillow to slip inside the cover. There are so many possibilities for stuffing the pillows now - memory foam stuffing, down-like stuffing and the poly-foam type stuffing. I just used the basic stuffing for these and I can safely say that I spent less than $5 each. Lots of time, sure... but very little cash. Time becomes meaningless in the face of creativity. Albert Einstein Thursday, April 30, 2009100% Cotton TherapyI am so happy to say, I think I have finally mastered the turning around at the end of each row so my edges are now straight. With practice, has also come the ability to make multiples of the same size so an actual color coordinated set of dishcloths is now within my reach. The dishclothes are fun to crochet and they make thoughtful and practical gifts... especially if you add some cool dishwashing liquid as part of the gift. You can never have too many cloths for handwashing dishes or cleaning the counter. I also think a gift set of hand crocheted clothes would be nice for the bath, too... with some body wash. I love Zum Body Lemongrass Body Wash. I have just learned that they now have aromatherapy laundry soap, which I would love to try at some point... $19 for 32 loads is pricey but the Sweet Orange or Eucalyptus-Citrus fragrances sound fabulous. Labels: crochet, practical gifts, quick projects Wednesday, April 29, 2009Sharing the love of stitchingThe back of the pillow is bright and cheery and coordinates with the thread colors - magenta and green - that are on the front of the pillow. I love giving personalized gifts so it was especially fun to present it to the new homeowners. Microsoft Word will let you outline almost any font on your computer so it is easy to create designs to embroider. My niece and I opened up MS Word and I asked her what she wanted to embroider. At first she said, "Welcome Home Jessica" because her sister was due home the next day from a band trip. I suggested "Jessica" and told her that it was probably not something she was going to be able to complete before Jessica got home the next night. I told her that it usually takes me daaaaaaaaays (weeks? months? years?) to finish a project. She said she enjoyed it and wants to do another project. Yeah! I will not attempt to estimate her completion time on future projects. Labels: embroidery Tuesday, April 28, 2009Decoupage Your Ceiling- Mr. Peacock Style![]() Speaking of decoupage, we are working on something new... an idea that Vicki came up with and it is sure to be a decoupager's dream item. We are hoping to have it ready for The Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington... about a month away. The countdown is on. Can't wait. Monday, April 27, 2009Today's Strawberry HarvestWe planted several plants a few years ago and they send out runners to start new little plants each year. Some years are better than others -- it seems like every other year is especially fruitful. Not only do the strawberry plants make practical and beautiful ground cover, they, of course, are healthy and delicious. While no calories were spared on the fresh whipped cream, would you ever be able to tell that there is spinach puree in the brownie underneath? There are lots of spinach brownie recipes out there and tonight I tried a new one from recipezaar.com. This one calls for frozen spinach but I used fresh spinach... just steam it for a few minutes first. Brownies (with spinach & carrot) 3 eggs 21 ounces brownie mix 10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/3 cup carrot juice 1 tablespoon milk Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9"x13" pan with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray. Squeeze out the liquid from the spinach. Place spinach, vegetable oil, milk and carrot juice in a blender and puree until smooth. In a large bowl, combine the brownie mix, 3 eggs, and the spinach mixture until well blended. Spread batter into pan and bake 40 minutes. Wednesday, March 25, 2009New Storage Cabinet for clam hinge (Stampin' Up-type) boxesWe (shophowdoyouglue.com) have the storage boxes in four sizes and they are beee-you-tiful. They each hold ten boxes so you can just slide out the box that you need. You can stack them or, as Shelley suggested, add a handle to the top. If you do add a handle for easy transporating, you might also want to add a strap to hold the boxes in place during transporation. Of course, I'm sure you could go all out making a really pretty handle and strap. We expect to ship out orders received for these cabinets on or around April 18th. If you order by April 3rd, you will get $5 off of each cabinet. This month has been a little crazy so far - - lots of projects going on! We are trying to get our house ready to sell, so we have been busy trying to apply everything we have learned from all the HGTV that we watch. With each improvement we make, I begin to rethink moving. Our house, which we have lived in for almost 9.5 years was a very basic house when we moved in -- even to the point that none of the windows have window sills or trim. We have made improvements over the years --mostly flooring, lighting, and landscaping. This week we are working on window sills and window trim for our windows. We have started with four windows downstairs that are along one wall that encompass the kitchen, a breakfast area, and a family room. Now that I am a blogger, I actually remembered to take a "before" picture (after one of the windows was mostly complete so I didn't get a "before" of that one) and will also take "after" pictures to show you the result. While I do not really enjoy painting all of that trim, I think I am going to love the result. And then there's the yardwork... lots of weeding and planting going on. So, thank you again for reading my blog (all four of you). I can't tell you how happy and excited I was to get comments on my last post. Happy Spring! |
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