Savory Cupcakes

I made these 'cupcakes' for dinner the other night.

They're tuna rice cupcakes. If you like tuna casserole, you'll like these.

I got the recipe from Sweet Peas and Bumble Bees blog.

It was just Dax and I at home, but I think I'll try them again when the kids get back. I may also try them with peas in them too.

If you decide to give them a try, let me know what you think.

Sweatshirt Refashion

I saw this post (it has a tutorial) awhile back and decided that I needed to try making a sweatshirt into a vest for myself.

The other day I was going through the clothes that my son had pulled out to get rid of and found this black sweatshirt. I don't think he had ever even worn it.

The tutorial says to use a sweatshirt that's a little smaller than you would wear, so this one was perfect.

I got out my scissors and went to work. I cut off the arms, the bottom band, and around the neck. Then I cut it up the middle. I used a plate as a guide for rounding the bottom and around the armholes. I cut it into a racer-back style in the back.

By the way, that's all you need for this refashion. Just scissors. There's no sewing involved.

When I was finished cutting, I wound up with this.

I actually wore it belted but I had already taken it off when I remembered I should take a picture. lol

It was quick and easy - two of my favorite things!! My girls are all out of town right now so they haven't seen it. I'm pretty sure that when they do they'll be going through their clothes in search of sweatshirts to cut into themselves.

Crochet beaded bracelet

Have you seen this bracelet at Nikki in Stitches?

(picture taken from her blog)

I absolutely love it!!

I tried making one this weekend, but mine didn't turn out anywhere as nice as hers. So I'll be pulling it all out and starting over again. I was finally starting to get the hang of it as I decided to quit. The beginning was just too bad to try to hide. lol

Kid crafts

Last weekend was Dax's birthday. All three of the girls made him something for his gift. None of them had any coaching from me what-so-ever. As a matter of fact, I didn't see any of the gifts they had made until they were done. I'm really proud of the things they came up with (they did do some searching on the internet) and so was Dax. Gifts from the heart are always the best!

Addison made this with popsicle sticks.

Abigail went a little crazy with the crafting and couldn't stop. lol She made all kinds of things.

She made this pop-up card.

This camera out of construction paper. It's folded into a triangle so that it will stand up on its own.

I suspect that for the lens she used the baking tin from her easy bake oven. :0)  This picture of her and her Dad when she was little sure makes me miss my babies. They grow up sooooo fast.

And she made him this 'beer'. The mug is filled with his favorite Lindt white chocolate truffles and topped with large marshmallows. By the way, have you seen the new jumbo marshmallows they have out now? They're huge!!

And Kirsten drew this picture for him. I thought she did a great job of drawing. She found a picture online and looked at it while she drew this one. I couldn't even trace it this well. I have no talent for drawing or painting at all.

I just love to see them be crafty and creative. It does my heart good that they have an interest in it.


However, someone doesn't have any interest at all. As you can see, there is no homemade gift from our son. He couldn't be bothered. LOL

New use for old books

You've probably seen all of the awesome projects out there using old books and folding the pages into a new design. Awhile back I made some jack-o-lanterns using that concept.


But when I saw these birdhouses at Red Hen Home I knew I had to give it a try.


Mine aren't a nice as hers but I'm pleased with them just the same.

She has instructions for two diffent ways to fold them, so I tried one of each. They're super easy and pretty quick. I think it took less than 30 minutes each.

These were both actually made from one book! It was a really long book so I cut it down the middle of the spine. I would really like to find a taller book to make one more with for this grouping.

I just need to go dig through my boxes. I have a bazillion books in boxes all over the place. Very few of them are actually books that I'm interested in reading but the kids and I went to the dumpster for the paper recycling to drop off some shredded files and it had a ton of books in it. I think they are from a used book store that closed down. So the kids dove into the dumpster and retrieved the books. They loved it!!! Now they're disappointed every time we go back and there isn't anything for them to climb in and get. lol

One lesson that I did learn while doing these is to make sure the spine is well broken in. The book I chose had a good patina because it was pretty old, but I don't think it had ever actually been read. When the spine is still like new it's much harder to bring your pages into the circle. I had to glue all the way down the spine and then try to hold that together while the glue dried without messing up the folded pages.

Do you have any other book folding ideas? Remember, I've got a lot!!

Penny Mat

I know I said in the last post that I had too many BOM's going on, and I do, but one of them isn't a block at all. I've been wanting to learn to work with wool so I signed up for a penny mat of the month club (PMOM?).

The first mailing was at the end of June and it started with this mat.

I'm participating in this one through Homestead Hearth and I really enjoyed this first penny mat. I can't wait to see what the next one brings. The kits include everything you need except the thread.

I was pretty pleased with how this one came out, especially since it's my first attempt at anything like this.

I wish....

Oh how I wish I could participate in this BOM program.


It's to make this quilt top:

(I copied this photo from their website.)



Isn't it amazing?! 

If you sign up early (before July 31) you can save $15 on the sign up fee. The blocks are only $25 per month and include the cosmo thread and fabric in the pictured colorway to complete them.

I am totally in love with this quilt and want so badly to sign up, but I've got so many BOM's going right now that I just can't justify adding another one to the mix. *sigh* Maybe if I can get some of these wrapped up before the October kick-off I could justify it a little more?

From mess up to a bracelet

When I was making this scarf I had a little glitch.


The crochet thread was joined in the middle of my ball. Although it was a very tiny knot, it was still too big for all of those seed beads I had strung to fit over it. I just cut it on the other side of the knot and continued my scarf without any more beaded strings.


I was part way through a string when I came to this little problem. I hated to pull it all out so I didn't. Instead I just sat and stared at it waiting for some idea to form in my head. Do you ever do that? I do it more often than I care to admit. lol

Anyway, it finally happened.

I looped it around to fit my wrist, leaving room to slide over my hand. Then I used the tail at either end (luckily they met) to wrap several times around and tied them together. That way my loops were bound together and wouldn't just unloop into one big circle when I took it off.

I really like the little bracelt that it made and may have to make some more. But on purpose this time!

Cupcakes

Dax's birthday was on Saturday.  His favorite cake is pineapple-upside-down cake. Since we're doing the whole diet and excersise thing I didn't want to make a whole cake. I wanted us to have a little portion control built in so I decided to try pineapple-upside-down cupcakes.


They worked out great!!

I didn't have a recipe, just a box of yellow cake mix and some crushed pineapple. Oh! And cherries.

I drained the juice from the crushed pineapple and set it aside. Then I made the cake mix according to the directions on the box. After that, I added some of the pineapple juice to the batter. No measuring, I just poured it in there until I thought it was enough.

Then I placed a cherry into each one of the greased muffin cups, sprinkled a little brown sugar in each one, and then enough crushed pinapple to cover the bottom. I filled each muffin cup until it was about 3/4 of the way full and baked according to the directions on the box.

When they were done, I turned them out onto a cookie sheet. It took a bit of time for them to release and if the muffin tin is too high, the cupcakes will fall out and flip with the pineapple side down. Not that I'm speaking from experience here or anything. :0)

They really were good and very moist, and they looked pretty cute too. If you decide to try it, let me know what you think.

Quick project

I saw a great scarf at Dollar Store Crafts and knew I had to give it a try.


Of course I couldn't just follow her directions. Where's the challenge in that, right?


Anyway, I had some crochet thread that I had already strung a ton of beads onto for another project that I just never went any further with. So, I decided to use that to make a lighter, somewhat blingy-er scarf. (I'll make up words if I want to.....don't judge me. lol)

This is what I came up with.

Here's a closer picutre....

The scarf is super easy. It's just a bunch of strings of chain stitches all knotted together. I used 10 strings to put my scarf together. I only have two rows in it with beads on it. I didn't want too much. On the first row with beads I actually counted how many beads I was adding in each time and how many stitches between adding beads. I didn't do that at all on the second row.

I was going to add more than two rows, but a little way into my 3rd string of chain stitching the crochet thread was joined together on the ball and my beads wouldn't slide over it. I didn't have the will to re-string them so I decided that three rows was probably just too much. Don't you agree? lol

As usual, my girls are already fighting over who gets to have it. Little do they know this one is all mine.

Insanity Update

We're still sticking with it. Insanity


Dax & I took our measurements on Monday. That was our one week mark and we're evaluating every week. I couldn't believe that my bust measurement was down and my thigh measurement was up! WHAT?! Everything else was still the same. Well, not everything. My weight was down almost 4 pounds. But still, smaller boobs and bigger thighs. Who works this hard for those results? Gaahhh!!


I'm sure hoping that the next measurements are better and more worth the effort than that. LOL

Birdie Block #3

I finished up the 3rd block in the Birdie Stitches BOM at Little Miss Shabby.

I am still loving the bright colors that I'm using for this. (Not that you tell they're bright from this picture.) I usually work with more muted colors so this has been a fun change for me.  This is the March block so I'm still behind, but as long as I'm moving forward with it, I'm happy. lol

Great cupcakes

On Friday night we had family movie night. 


At our house that means that we watched old home videos. When given the choice, that's what the kids usually choose.


Since Dax & I aren't eating any kind of junk food and the kids like to have a treat while watching movies I made some cupcakes for them.


I just used a box mix that I already had. I didn't want to have to make a trip to the store.


I decided on French Vanilla.


For frosting the cupcakes I knew that I had some heavy cream that needed to be used so I decided to whip it up. Once I did that I added powdered sugar to get it a little bit thicker than I would normally make it.


That's because then I took a jar of butterscotch icecream topping and poured in about 1/2 a cup, beating it into the whipped cream well.


It turned out really good. (I tasted it!) And I know the kids liked it because they ate two cupcakes each. lol And, by the time it occured to me to take a picture, they were all gone.

Quick and easy bracelet

I LOVE bracelets.


I actually like all kinds of jewelry. I've had my ears pierced since I was 7 (which is a really long time ago.) I know I had been begging my parents to let me do it for a couple of years by then. I think I just finally wore them down. lol But I really like bracelets and almost always wear one.


So imagine how excited I am when I can find one that I can make myself and it's quick and easy. (Not that I have any problem purchasing them already made either. lol) But my word this year is THRIFT and I'm really trying had to stick to it.


Anyway, I made this while I was cooking dinner.

While things were cooking and didn't require my attention, I stood at the island and strung these beads onto some memory wire.  I got the idea from Yellow Blackbird. Why in the world didn't that ever occur to me? I'm going to make another one like she did with more colorful beads in a variety of shapes and sizes. This is just what I had on hand to give it a try because I couldn't stand to wait.


She did 5 different super easy bracelet tutorials on her blog. You can find them here, here, here, here, and here. Go check them out. I love her ideas with the bangle bracelets, but I have a pretty small wrist and have trouble finding bangles that will actually stay on. *sigh* But I'll certainly be on the lookout for some!

For 60 days

I'm still working on my projects, but it's just gotten slower than usual. That's because on Monday, Dax & I started the Insanity workout DVD's. OMGosh!!!!


I thought I was doing really well with how far I was making it on our first day until I realised they were still just doing the warm-up. The real workout hadn't even started yet!! Gaaahhhh!


I am trying to continue with my projects, but I'm almost too tired to move by the time we get done. LOL That really puts a damper on my play time.


Here's a pretty acurate 'before' picture.

I really want to get rid of the 'muffin top'.  We took real before pictures in almost nothing, but (barf) I'm not showing those to the whole world.


I decided to put this out there to help hold us accountable for making it through the whole 60 days. We've made it through 4 days so far and this morning I had lost 3 pounds when I got on the scale. Now, I know that's water because we've been sweating out butts off, but I'll take it. I also asked Dax this morning if he thought our bodies were going to be sore for the entire 60 days. lol


Anyone else already been through this torture? Will I really survive and feel better by the end?


Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to finish up with some of the things that are in the works and update with something more fun. lol  Wish me luck!

Happy 4th of July!!

I hope you have a wonder Fouth of July!


I just wanted to show another really quick thing that I made to help decorate for this holiday.

 It's all made with stuff I had on hand, which I always like. :0)

I used it to drape across this cake stand that I had some other decoration on. It sits in the middle of my dining table.

I thought it added a nice touch to the set up.

Recycling or Upcycling

Either way, it's making someing great out of something ordinary. :0)


I got this really great bracelet from Whoop D Whoop (if you haven't been there you really should go) from sodacangirl.

It's a bracelt and the 'charms' are made from a Pepsi can. I also got one from her that was made using a Arizona Tea can, but I gave it to my Mom.

Anyway, how great of an idea and how fantastic of a bracelet does that make? I love the bracelet and spent some time looking at it trying to decide how she made it. I finally decided to hit the scrapbooking department at the store and buy a punch and try to make my own.

I decided on a flower shape. I had a diet root beer can at home so decided to try the punch on it. It worked out perfectly!! I used a hammer and small nail to put the holes in mine for the jump rings, but next time I'll just use a tiny little hole punch (especially since I found mine the other day while looking for something else. lol)

Here's my finished product:

(I wish the pictures were better, but I took them at night.)

One of my daughters has already claimed this one. My kitchen counter is lined with different cans that they want made into bracelets. I love the fact that they are now looking at the colors and patterns on soda cans to decide if they wan a bracelet out of them. I like it anytime I can get them to see something a little different that its usual use.

I have to say though, that it took me a LONG time to get those charms onto that bracelet. I spent almost a whole week doing it because I was getting sooooooooo frustrated that I would have to put it down and walk away. Then, on the last two charms an easier way to do it occured to me. Typical!

Another one done

I got my 2nd pillow for the cat block of the month finished.

These are so stinkin' cute!


And, honestly, once I actually get around to working on it, they stitch up really quickly.


I needed to listen to a class online and managed to get about 1/2 of the stitching done in that one session.


This block of the month is from Daisy Cottage Quilting. In addition to this and the Annie BOM that I'm doing, she's got some other really cute things!