Christmas Wreath

The holiday season is finally upon us!  Of course, it doesn't feel like Christmas is near until the decorations are up.  To kick the month off right, I began by making a new wreath for the front door!  

I began by wrapping a wire wreath form in 2" ribbon.  

Once the form was covered in ribbon, I used hot glue to attach ornaments directly to the form. 

Attaching ornaments...

First round complete!  Since there were occasional small gaps, I went back around again using smaller ornaments to fill the holes. 

Ta-da!

I hung my wreath with some pretty ribbon and called it a night!  Come on, Christmas =) 

Fall Wreath

Even though it doesn't feel like it, fall is right around the corner!  I figured I would get into the spirit by making a new wreath for the front door.

I scoured the web and could not find any wreath ideas that were quite right.  I ended up wandering the craft store aimlessly until I assembled (in my head) this guy...

Supplies: grapevine wreath, mdf letter, ribbon, decorations, and pumpkin spice latte ;)

I made a ribbon and wired and hot glued it to the wreath so that the wind would not ruin it.  I separated the pumpkins from the decorative "branches" and wired and glued them to the wreath as well.

 I thought about leaving the letter plain... but figured I would try spicing it up a bit... so I painted it plaid.

This baby is ready to go on the door! 

What do you think?

Cute Spring/ Summer Wreath!

I decided that I wanted to have a go at wreath-making recently.  Here is a fun wreath I made for our house for the summer...

I took an old picture frame and removed the back with an exacto-knife before wrapping the frame in yarn.

(Our craft stores were OUT of wooden "G"s the day I decided to do this project... so I made our G out of cardboard!)

I created flower embellishments out of yarn and buttons to attach to the corner.

Voila!

I hung the wreath with additional yarn because I thought it was more interesting than wire.... what do you think?

Furbaby Biscuits!

I hate wasting food, so when I realized I had a few over-ripe bananas and a plethora of eggs laying around, I started thinking of what I could do with them. 3 pairs of longing eyes caught my attention and it was decided... dog biscuits.

These homemade furbaby treats are healthy and delicious! I promise your four legged friend will loooove them!

These are for me?!

What you need:

Cooking spray
2 eggs
1/3 cup natural peanut butter
Honey
1.25 cup flour
1/3 cup wheat germ

Preheat your oven to 300.

Mix 1 egg, peanut butter, and honey (I drizzled a small amount in for taste).

Once the wet ingredients are well mixed, mix in flour and wheat germ.

Prepare a cookie sheet.

 

On a (heavily) floured surface, roll out the dough to your preferred thickness (I made mine about 1/4 inch) and cut out your biscuits!

Use the egg white from your second egg and brush the tops of your biscuits.
Bake for 40 minutes (or until your biscuits are golden).

Voila!



6 thumbs... er, paws up!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day!

The Hubs and I never go crazy for v-day, but I still like to do a lil' somethin' somethin' to make it special!

Home-made Valentines... (I know... I am sooo romantic ;)

TNT... you're DYNOMITE!

I wrapped Rolos (the most delicious candy ever) in construction and bound them together with pipe cleaner.  I then fashioned the "wick" and "flame" using pipe cleaners and construction paper, respectively.  Easy and fun!

Piloting humor. (Does the rest of the world still enjoy moustache jokes?)

I hope that everyone has a fantastic Valentine's Day!

Deployment Counter

So, I saw an example of something like this on a blog and immediately knew I had to make one.  Being perhaps a hint  "OCD", I relish in just about anything ritualistic (that word sounds so negative, I promise I'm not crazy). 

 

Having a counter to track the days of hubsy's deployments is such a fantastic idea! It creates an easy visual for how long I have to wait until he returns... and gives me something (albeit a small something) to look forward to in my morning routines (rituals?).

I know that seeing the "Days Down" jar fill up will be very satisfying for me.   

Also wonderful, is how simple this project is. 

All you need for this project are: jewel rocks for the counters (I had about a bazillion laying around from a past project), two mason jars, and card-stock for the labels. That's it!

My mason jars fit 4.5 months of jewel rocks perfectly.  If you are counting down a longer deployment, you could always use larger mason jars or smaller counters (buttons might be a cute idea for a counter as well)!

<3

Pallet Shoe Rack: Defeater Of "Shoe Piles"

I don't know if "shoe piles" are a problem for any other families, but in my house, they always seems like an issue. We kick our shoes off when we come home and then leave them beneath the foyer table. This pile continuously grows until A. I get tired of the clutter and haul everything upstairs or B. we have house-guests and frantically toss the shoe mountain into the garage.

Well, a solution may have fallen into my lap recently.  The hubsy recently ordered a large item and it was delivered on a pallet... (Finally I have a pallet!)  Being the pack-rat that I am, I leaned it against the wall behind the recycling so that I could dream up something to do with it.  When I went to sweep out the garage today, I started stacking the shoes on top of the pallet (to get them out of my way)... when, low-and-behold, I realized that I could place them into the pallet.....

like this!

The only drawback I see so far is that I am unable to put my decorative/ embellished flats into it- for fear of scraping off the applique... but that seems a small price to pay to keep our shoe collection clean and organized up off of the floor. (Plus- for some weird reason, I LOVE the way pallets look.)

I, of course, think this is genius... hubsy is not totally convinced of this beautifully simple shoe pallet plan. What do you think?!