Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Crush of the week #2

I have been crushing HARD this week. I mean like, I keep the tab pulled up for this item on my computer ALL the time.
And I have moved it to my shopping cart.

Which is all very sad because it just ain't happening right now... on this end/beginning of the month budget.

I'll share it with you though so you can crush right along beside me.

Brother Deluxe Electronic Sewing Machine - CS6000i
Brother Deluxe Electronic Sewing Machine - CS6000i

I know there are much nicer machines out there (Like the Brother Project Runway Special Edition--Say what!?) but this little buddy is a much more feasible option for me.

Therefore, I am crushing... hard...

~Happy crushing

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Bookshelf annnddd easy DIY Halloween yard decorations

Well hello friends, long time no see!!! Sorry I have been MIA, but I have been busy crafting, sewing and just being a pregnant mommy!

I want to share two old projects with you. Well, I say old, but I just (finally) finished painting the bookshelf today.

Procrastination=1
Rachel=0

I have a small dining room, or maybe I just have a large table. Either way, I don't have a lot of room and I have many many cookbooks.  I needed a small bookshelf that wouldn't draw attention to itself. The room is small enough without adding more furniture!

I got the idea and directions from this website.
After reading through the instructions I realized this shelf was built to hold CDs. I measured my largest cookbook and cut my boards one inch bigger.

It did turn out a little crooked. :/ I think that comes from my mad skill saw abilities.
Luckily Brent says he can fix it!
This is the final result with the cookbooks too.

It is nice and neat in the corner. And it the perfect size to hold all my cookbooks!

And.....
This project was something Brent and I threw together last Halloween. Brent had been working on the AC in the attic and he had some leftover insulation.

Being the creative geniuses we are ;) we decided to cut it in the shape of a tombstone and wha-la we had new Halloween decor!

How easy... Black spray paint and a skeleton from target. I love that it is shiny!
It is double sided too!!

I love the little easy fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants projects that turn out so great!!!

~Happy Halloween

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Persimmon cookies... Who knew?!


Anyone else finally feeling the cool weather?! I was SO very excited when I woke up this morning. I know it will leave again since it doesn't truly get cold here until Thanksgiving, but for now I am going to enjoy!

I don't know about you but cool weather always makes me want to BAKE! Today's recipe was picked, found, and made by hubby dearest.

I say picked because he had to go to the neighbors persimmon tree and get the fruit. Our neighbor doesn't even like them!

I'll have to admit... I had my first persimmon last week and it was, well, WEIRD! In my mind orange fruit should be tangy, but persimmons taste like fall. Seriously.
These cookies have won me over! My house smells SOOO good right now!

Persimmon Cookies
Ingredients:

1 tsp. Baking soda
1 c Sieved persimmon pulp
1/2 c Butter or margarine
1 c Sugar
1 Egg
2 c Flour
1 tsp. Baking powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Ground cloves
1/2 tsp. Ground nutmeg
1 c Raisins and/or nuts


Directions:
Stir soda into persimmon pulp and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar together.

Beat in egg, then persimmon mixture.

Sift flour with baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
Add to creamed mixture along with raisins or nuts. Mix thoroughly.

Drop by teaspoons onto greased baking sheets and bake at 350F 8 to 10 minutes.
He even did the dishes while they baked!

They smelled so good they woke Zadie up from her nap with a smile! :)
If you have any persimmons (or awesome neighbors:) you need to go make these cookies. Seriously... GO now!

~Happy Fall Baking




Monday, October 17, 2011

Rope lamp

I am going to time warp back to the past for today's project. I am currently in the throws of figuring out a Halloween costume for my sweet lil' peacock. If you read my last post you know I was having a hard time deciding if I should make or buy Zadie's costume. Well, there are no peacock costumes left in her size so make it, it is! (I won't lie... I am very excited about it too!) Anywho I am telling you this as an excuse for the lack of fresh new projects. There will be a good one coming soon... Promise!

A couple months ago I was browsing pinterest and came across this really cute rope lamp. I just NEVER have enough lamps in my house. I really need to go thrift store shopping and find some new ones, but alas I having been putting it off for the last 2 years little while. ;) Well, when I saw this lamp idea I was thrilled because I have this lamp that I spent a fortune (in my world) on- it was $40!!! What!? I don't know what got into me because it is a completely impractical color and the look is very modern for my taste.

I really loved it at the time I bought it but the thrill has worn off. Plus, my dinning room use to be painted a similar color so it helped bring that color into my living room, but I recently changed my DR to gray so now it is kind of just a misfit. 

So,  I went to Home Depot, bought two rolls of sisal rope, whipped out my handy-dandy hot glue gun and wha-la I was on my way to a new lamp.

It was so easy and it is SO much closer to something I would actually use in my house. Here is a close-up of the rope.

I literally just started gluing the rope at the bottom right above the cord hole and wrapped and glued until I got to the top. I began and ended on the same side so that I would have at least one pretty side.
This lamp has not seen it's last modification though.
The lamp shade is getting recovered. It looks like they just glued this fabric to a sheet of poster board. I am going to rip the fabric off and hopefully reuse the same backing. I am thinking about using an off white jute fabric. I would love to do like a blue and white striped and go for the nautical look, but it just would not fit in the decor of my abode.
I also need to do something with the orange knob at the top of the lamp. I am thinking either brown spray paint or more rope. I guess you (and I) will have to wait and see! ;) I hope you like my half finished lamp. Come back soon and see the finished product!

~Happy re-purposing

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Halloween Predicament

I am in a bind. I don't know what to do! Halloween is coming quick and Zadie has no costume! I wanted to make it myself this year, and I found a VERY cute DIY idea just last night. Here is a picture.

If you have now totally fallen in love too here is the link to the instructions.

So, being totally inspired, I began researching online for the different parts of the costume.

This is my predicament:

When I went to the Gymboree website to look for tights I found the the costume of my original inspiration for the peacock was on sale.
Pretty Lil' Peacock Costume
I could get the whole costume for under $20. I am not sure I could make the other costume for that cheap and, being the frugal momma I am, that really matters. :/  But the DIY costume is WAY WAYY WAYYYYY more cute!

What to do? What to do?

Friday, October 14, 2011

Fabric Wreath tutorial

In the big mantel/ shelf reveal Wednesday (Ok, I know it wasn't big to you, but to me it was huge!:) I showed a picture of my new fall wreath. I also promised a tutorial so here it goes.

Just a reminder if you forgot!

I created the wreath form from some pipe insulator I got from Lowes.
I very elaborately ;) connected the ends together with duct tape. No one will ever see this form so use what you have.



I went to my fabric closet and picked out some fall-esk fabric. P.S. I LOVE this fabric! I just stole it from my grandmother's stash and I think it is lovely.


I cut out two 5-6 inch thick strips. I was not very exact because it doesn't really matter since you will be covering parts of it while wrapping.
(Sorry about the foot shot)



I started wrapping at the duct tape, not for any particular reason just because I wanted to. I hot glued the fabric to the foam as I wrapped.



A close up view.


The finished product... and another foot shot. Sorry guys!



I wrapped the wreath, in the same direction as the fabric, with some orange lace I also collected from my grandmother's stash. I just love her!

I have shared before that I tend to OVER decorate things and I am really trying to work on this. So in the spirit of change I decided to keep the wreath very simple. Also, as I shared last post, my favorite part of the fall mantel was the burlap window frame. So I did not want to steal any thunder from that piece.


So cute and Simple.I love the shabby chic look so I decided to leave the fabric ends not hemmed and I did not try and wrap the lace perfectly even.
Gotta love the imperfections!



Finally, I hot glued on some fabric flowers and Wha-la I was done! I did not take step by step pictures of the flower-making process because it wasn't very pretty! ;)



The lace for the top flower was just a scrap piece of ruffled lace that I wrapped and sewed tightly at the bottom and just let the ruffles do the flowering part.

The middle flower was a scrap of burlap. I tied a knot at one end and twisted the rest of the fabric and wrapped it around the knot.

The bottom flower is some soft netting I bought in the Halloween section of JoAnne's. I just kinda gathered it in a wad in my hand and rearranged it until I liked the look and then I sewed it up.

I warned you it wasn't pretty :/

But the wreath sure is! I think it looks great on the burlap back-drop.



If you have always been intimidated by making your own wreath you should really try this method. It cost me about $1 to make. The wreath I really like at JoAnne's was $60 dollars!! Even with it being 60% off I believe I got the better deal!

~Happy wreathing (that is totally a real word)





Wednesday, October 12, 2011

New shelf ~ pseudo mantel

One day I will own a house with a mantel... and a fireplace... and if I am REALLY lucky the house will be located in a place where a fireplace will actually be used. 

 Hmmmm.... A girl can dream right?!

Since I currently live in a house with no fireplace, therefore no mantel, I created my own. I showed a teaser picture in my last post of a blank space above my couch.
So sad and bare! :(

 I have been seeing all of these cute pictures on pinterest and blogs of mantels. I was jealous to say the least. Then, one day I walked out to our wood pile and discovered the most beautiful rough cut wood. I gave Brent my puppy dog eyes and Wha-la! I had an amazing rustic shelf to use as my pseudo mantel. (He really likes to use his tools-My eyes had no affect on him)
Luna (one of my weenie dogs) decided to grace this picture as well. :) Here is a close up view.


I LOVE it!

I think it may need a pendant banner but I am still brainstorming that topic. My favorite piece is the window frame with the burlap. I thought this part turned out great! I also love my wreath. I will post a tutorial on that soon.

So, do you like it? Be honest- Do you think it needs a pendant banner hanging from the bottom? Let me know what you think!

~Happy fall y'all

Monday, October 10, 2011

Grandma's birthday

Tonight we celebrated my grandmother's 83rd birthday. She is such an amazing woman.
This is a picture of 3 generations of my family. Zadie baby was only one week old when this was taken-time flies. My beautiful grandmother is holding her.

I volunteered to make the cake for grandma's birthday bash and I of course chose to make my Granny Thomas's (grandma's mom) famous cake- 'Granny Cake'. I am going to share this old family recipe with you and I will probably hear about it from my grandma in the morning. Not that she will be mad that I shared it, I just gave her all kinds of trouble when she added 'our secret family recipe'  to the church cookbook one year so I have it coming to me! ;) Anywho, before I begin I just want you to know that this cake has no calories, or fat, or any other horrible thing you can think of that may clog your arteries or add inches to your thighs. This recipe if free of everything that may make you feel guilty because it is a family recipe. It holds dear memories of days spent at my great grandmother's house, and nights sharing the leftovers with the girls in my dorm at college. I remember helping my grandma make this as a little girl. SEE, all that good out ways any bad in this recipe and I am passing those memories to you so that you can enjoy this protein filled cake guilt free!

Granny Cake

Ingredients:
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup butter flavored Crisco
9 eggs (We all need some protein right!?)
3 cups flour
3 cap fulls of imitation vanilla butter and nut flavor

Directions:
Cream the sugar and Crisco together. Add the eggs one at time, mixing well after each. Stir in the flour and the flavor. Pour into a greased bunt pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 5 minutes.

Did you feel your arteries clogging just by reading this recipe? :) We eat pretty healthy at my house but when it comes to desert I just can not get into the healthy substitutions. My rule is to only eat one serving and to go running the next morning. ;) I am telling you, this cake is WELL worth the calories. I promise.
I got this from my grandma. I am not sure what I am going to do when it runs out! I need to start looking for it.

MMMMMM.......

This is what I brought home. I call that a success!

This is also the grandmother who taught me to sew and took time to make crafts with me when I was a little girl. So in honor of all those great memories, I decided to make her birthday card. I got the idea from Pintrest of course!
Fabric Emb Birthday Card
Isn't it cute! it is from the blog October Afternoon. I was having sewing machine problems again so mine did not turn out quite as cute as I was imagining but I still really liked it! I'll show you what I did.
I picked a 'calm' piece of scrapbook paper and cut it to a standard card size.

I sewed a scrap piece of brown fabric to the front of the card. It was meant to be imperfect. I am not THAT bad at sewing straight!

I picked two different pieces of fabric (only one is pictured) folded them in half and stitched loops and circles all over them.
I cut a stem and leaves out of one piece of fabric and I cut the flower out of the other fabric. I sewed a button in the middle of the flower and then I hot glued the entire thing to the card. Then I found a sweet flower quote online, wrote it on strips of paper, and then I hand stitched them to the card.

Finally I added our personalized note inside and the card was complete! I thought it turned out pretty cute, but I was definitely not being a perfectionist. Sometimes life is just more fun when you love the imperfections. 

Before I sign out tonight I have a little teaser for you...
While I was working inside Brent was working on a project for me outside. It has something to do with that sad empty wall. You will have to come back tomorrow to see the transformation!
P.S. Isn't Luna just the cutest thing! I love that puppy.
~Happy wondering

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