She's a Big Girl Now.

The time has finally come for us that Princess Newbie is done with her baby highchair. She kept climbing out of it (and in it). So it was no longer safe to have around, as it was. We asked our parents to get her a booster chair for Christmas but they all kinda balked at it. You could tell they had toys in mind for her gifts, not a booster seat.

This is the chair before:

This is the chair I picked out when I was pregnant with Princess Girly Girl, six years ago. I knew I wanted a wood chair so it would last through all my kids and hopefully be saved forever. That's the sentimental pregnant woman brain, thinking about things for kids lasting forever. HA! Now I know better. Things for kids do not last. While this chair has lasted for years, the varnish was wearing off and it was getting harder and harder to get food off the wood and the tray was now launching springs across the kitchen whenever you took it off the highchair. I could have never sold this thing, I would have had to put it on the curb, squashing the memories and love.

So I decided to redo it and I did.... while Damion was at work.. without telling him. I think he's growing to love my surprises. I'm growing to love the jigsaw he got me for valentine's day.

I cut off all four legs with the jigsaw to make it short enough to fit under the lip of the table but still high enough to give her a little boost. Then I painted it green but ran out of paint before I finished it. When I got to the store to pick up more paint, they had a color called London Gray on sale for only $2 per can of spray paint. So I changed the color and picked up the gray. I painted it and then Mod Podged scrapbook paper onto it to break up the color some. Don't we all love Mod Podge? I want to build a house out of Mod Podge. Finally I distressed the edges so a little of the green still comes through and gave it a good coat of varnish.

Now this little chair is around to stay for awhile. 

It makes me happy but it makes Princess Newbie even happier. I'll do anything to keep the biter of the family happy.

Perfect Christmas Gift: Edible Coal

I think this is one of my favorite ideas of all time but the pictures don't really show the glory of it, so be warned and use your imagination.

My neighbors have had a bad week. They had to put their dog to sleep in the middle of the night, only to find out the next day that the landlord is putting their house up for sale and they have to find somewhere else to live. That is a rough week to me. They also have a good sense of humor and a slightly darker side than I do so I knew they would get a kick out of this gift.

What gift you ask? A bag of coal.. a yummy yummy bag of coal.  Here's what you need to make these pieces of coal:

You will need Dark Cocoa Mint Candy melts,
Black sanding sugar,
and Marshmallows.

I know black food coloring is in the picture but I wound up not needing it, so just strike that from your grocery list. You will also need straws or skewers and a glass of rice.

First melt your candy melts, following the instructions on the package.

Place your marshmallow on a straw or a skewer and roll it in the melted chocolate. Use a fork or spoon to coat the places that you missed such as the top and bottom and then scrap off any extra chocolate. Tap it on the side of the bowl to shake off more excess chocolate and then place the straw end in the glass of rice so that it can start to set up.

Don't let it harden, just let it set for a minute or two so that the weight of the sanding sugar won't pull the chocolate off the marshmallow when you dip it in the sugar.

when it's set for a minute or so, roll it in the sanding sugar to coat the whole marshmallow. You might have to use your hands to sprinkle it on the bottom, where the straw is.

Stick this back in the rice and let it set until totally hardened, about 20 minutes.

Now you'll have edible coal. My husband did not believe me that this was edible at first.

However it is edible, and delicious. It tastes like a fluffy Andes Mint. Yum. Seriously.

So now you have your coal, what are you going to do with it?

I put the coal in an extremely shiny Ziploc bag. Then I printed out the "Save Santa, Be Naughty" on white cardstock and attached it to the top of the bag. You can use staples to do this or punch holes in both the bag and cardstock and weave ribbon through the holes. Finally I made a loop on the back of the cardstock so we could hang it on their door and run.

This is the back:

Tonight Princess Goofy went and hung it on their door, knocked, and then we all ran away. Hopefully they enjoy the joke but not as much as they enjoy their treat!

Because I love you, here's the graphics that you can use to make your own. Just right click on it and save or if you do have photoshop CS and above and you want a copy of it in .psd format, just email me or leave a comment with your email address and I'll send it to you.

And remember.. Santa is getting old people. Be nice and save him a trip... by Being Naughty!

Hostess Gift Idea: Scented Hot Pad Tutorial

I have a secret, not the same one from yesterday but a different one. This one I can tell you but I'm a little ashamed of it. I never cook thanksgiving dinner. Every single year we go to my aunt's for dinner. I don't even know how to make stuffing from scratch. I'll stick with crafting, you stick with stuffing and the world will be a happy place.

So today I'm sharing this tutorial with you for a scented hot pad. It's a great gift to take to the person who is hosting you for thanksgiving if you are not cooking yourself. Plus it's also a great gift idea to take to neighbors this coming Christmas. You can wrap it up by itself or put it in a basket with some tea bags and a small tea pot.

The best part is one that you can't see. This thing smells amazing, even Damion commented on it. Then when you add a nice warm dish to the top of it, the smell radiates even more and it's wonderful and homey.

So for this project you will need:
1 piece of cotton fabric - 3ft x 3inches
1 piece of flannel - 3 ft x 3 inches
uncooked rice
cinnamon oil or candle fragrance
plastic baggie

The very first step you need to do 24 hours in advance, so make sure you add that time into your equation. Take two cups rice and add 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon oil or fragrance and then sprinkle with actual cinnamon. Put in well sealed container and let stand overnight or for 24 hours.

When your rice is ready, cut your fabric into two strips that measure 3ft (1yrd) by 3 inches.  Lay the cotton fabric, right side up on top of the flannel.

Next fold the fabric over until the ride sides are touching and stitch a line along the edge.

After you sew one straight stitch, go back and use a zig zag stitch along the edge to prevent the seams from busting when you add the rice. If you have a serger, that would be the best option. If you don't zig zag the seams, you might regret it.

I plead the fifth as to how that happened.

After your seams are sewn, it's turn to turn it inside out. I used a coat hanger with one end bent to help turn the fabric to the ride side facing out.

Next you need to stitch one end closed and then start filling with rice. I did not use the full two cups of rice, you will just have to play around with it.

Then it's time to start the rollin'.

To start, measure about an inch from the end and make an indention with your fingers, moving rice out of the way. Now turn it back onto itself to start the spiral. Do this one more time for the next turn and then it should start spiraling easily.

I started the spiral and then went back with my needle and thread to start sewing it once I had it layed out. I used a needle and thread to tack it down to itself from the inside every inch or two so that it would hold the spiral shape. I also hid the seam inside the spiral.

Tack it from the inside and no one will see your stitches! Keep going until you get to the end and then stitch that down to finish your scented hot pad.

Now you can sit down and enjoy a nice cup of tea.

Remember to always store your scented hot pad in a plastic bag to maintain the fragrance.

Faux Mercury Glass Pumpkins

The other day on Twitter someone was wishing they could afford the mercury glass pumpkins from Pottery Barn. The truth of the matter is that they are 1) sold out and 2) cost a little bit more than my grandpa's dentures.

So for the broke and loving it... here's a little faux mercury glass pumpkin magic.

First take a faux pumpkin. I had no patience when I came up with this idea to go buy a fake pumpkin so I just stole one of the mini real pumpkins off my mantle. Now I love the result that I got but will have to throw it away in a few weeks or it will be mercury glass via the old and moldy route next year when I pull it out of storage. So please start with a faux pumpkin if you want to keep it. They have faux pumpkins at the dollar store just in case you really want to break the bank.

Beside the faux pumpkin you will need gray paint, white paint, silver paint and a little black paint and magic glaze or diamond glaze.

I started with a foam brush just dabbing different shades of light silver and gray (from mixing it with the white) and dabbling it all over the surface. Use a lot of silver on this layer. The look we are going for is wild and crazy, right up my alley. Add lots of silver splotches all over this is what's going to give it dimensions in the end.

Next we're going to add some darker elements. Mix several different of dark gray shades using the gray and black and do several different random splotches, add a little bit of silver to all these colors as well. Then I used a skewer to do really dark gray specks. Don't totally cover the light gray and silver layer... just add a little to the top.

 Really you want to make sure at this point that you have a good mix of light and dark and it to have a little sheen over all. The pattern to making the faux mercury glass work will be a light silver layer, then darker layer and finally a lighter matte layer.

So now we need to add the lighter matte layer. Up to this point everything has been pretty shiny so leave the silver out of the picture this time. Mix up some gray and white paint and dab over the top using something with some hard edges.

 I used a Ziploc baggie scrunched up but I think something like aluminum foil would be better. I was out because my children like to unroll it to make spaceships.

 

Now as the final step, coat the top and sides with Diamond Glaze.  For those of you who don't know what Diamond Glaze is, it's a type of clear adhesive that will dry hard and give you incredible glass like shine. You could use other clear shiny adhesives if you can't find Diamond Glaze. I found it at Hobby Lobby.  You just need some type of thick hard drying glaze.

Don't coat the bottom or you will never be able to get it off your table. I actually set it on top of the diamond glaze jar to dry.

24 hours later and you have this:

Beautiful.

If I do it again I will do two things differently.

1) use a faux pumpkin

2) use something with sharper edges for the light matte layer

3) try to get more dark details in there.

4) do more than one!

I have to get to bed now so I can rest up. Tomorrow I have a big day of teaching reading and counting to young minds.  Aren't my kids lucky?



String Pumpkins: tutorial

When I was a little girl my mom used to make easter eggs using string and starch. This week I decided to try making some string pumpkins since you might think I was a little crazy posting Easter Eggs right now.

It worked great so I decided to share them with you. Do you want to make some of these?

Let's get started...

You will need balloons (one per pumpkin), white glue, water, foam craft brush or paintbrush, and crochet yarn. That's all.

I could only find a yellowish orange crochet yarn but I didn't let that stop me. I also found a fuzzy thread on clearance that I used on one pumpkin.

First mix glue and water in a 3:1 ratio. It should be like a thick soup.  Use the glue to coat the entire balloon surface.

Slowly wrap the string around the balloon.

 Keep wrapping, occasionally patting the entire surface of the balloon and string with more glue. You need to pat so you don't pull the strings off the balloon.

Keep going... until your balloon looks something like this:

Then hang it up to dry by tying a string around the balloon knot.

Now repeat to make more and learn how fun it is to take pictures of floating orange orbs.



If you want to make a fuzzy pumpkin than you need to complete all the above steps including hanging it up to dry. While it's hanging up, give it one last coat of the glue/ water mixture. If you look at the fuzzy string closely, there is one side that is actually fuzzy and one side that is just a braid. Wrap the braid side around the pumpkin several times but do not reapply any more glue because then you will glue down the fuzzys. Just do a couple of passes, don't go too crazy or it won't have enough glue to hold it. Let it dry.

Let all the balloons dry overnight and then using scissors, snip the top of the balloon by the knot. As the air leaves the balloon, it will pull away from the yarn leaving you a perfect sphere. Pretend you see a photo here.

Pull the balloon out of the top and you're almost done!

Now to make the pumpkin shape, just lightly push the top and bottom inside the sphere until you have a pumpkin shape. It should hold on it's own.

Trim off any loose strings, add a stem and a leaf.. and here you go...

You could also add a felt pumpkin face for halloween using tape and then gently remove it for thanksgiving. I love the double duty crafts.

Go make pumpkins! No dirt, watering, or waiting for months required.

From Slipcover to Purse

I love IKEA.

The thing I love most about IKEA is their "As Is" section that is basically returned or broken items that are extremely cheap and great for crafts.  It really is the only reason I go anymore.

A few months ago I was digging through the bins in the "As Is" section where all the fabric items get tossed. I usually have good luck finding ottoman slip covers in funky colors and things such as this but this time I pulled out a full sized sofa slip cover in tan. It was priced at $5. That's about 5 yards of heavy weight fabric for $5. I think I heard angels singing.

The man working that area must have seen the stars in my eyes because without saying a word, he took it out of my hands and marked it down to $3. Then he handed it back to me and said, "have a nice day", with a wink. I told you there was angels! I think I got a little weak in the knees.

I had planned to cut it up and make slipcovers for our dinning room chairs but then some of the chairs fell apart beyond repair (we have kids) and so we bought new(er) chairs off of craigslist. So the slipcover has just been sitting in my fabric stash waiting for someone to love it.

It finally got the love it deserves....

Don't you agree?



























P.S. I entered this purse into Purse week on A Lemon Squeezy Home