Here and There Halloween Decor

Once an elementary school teacher, always an elementary school teacher. I love holidays and I love decorating for them. 

Just little bits of holiday around the house... :D 

Ready for Baby*Ready for Fall! :D

Well, we're in the last stretch before our baby boy arrives. Less than one week to go before my due date and I can hardly wait! While I'm waiting for our "little man" I've been nesting like a crazy woman. The other day my mother-in-law and I picked up some pumpkins at Trader Joes and now I feel like my porch says, "Fall."  

Now we're just waiting for our little fall arrival. :)

Diaper Wreath

Check out this ADORABLE diaper wreath one of my girlfriends made for me! I thought it was SO cute and creative! I'd never seen one of these before!

It's going to be so hard for me to ever dismantle it and actually use the diapers! It's just too cute. I'm thinking maybe I'll hang it on the door when our little man arrives?? 

Here's what it looks like on the door. 

Cute, huh? :)

I'm DEFINITELY storing this idea away for future use. It would be just perfect for a baby shower and makes such a fun and unique gift. 

Thanks, Kristen!! :D

I Highly Recommend....

Rocks In Your Guest Bathroom Sink! :D

I saw this in one of my girlfriend's guest bathrooms and thought it was awesome. Of course, she had this really cool bronze faucet that looks like an old-timey water spout. It was just perfect. However, these are still is dressing up my little sink a bit. I think it gives the room a bit more personality, don't you? I had never seen it before, but apparently others have. My friend and neighbor around the corner has some rocks in her guest bathroom sink as well! 

I'm playing catch-up apparently. :)

A New Etsy Supply Shop Discovery!

This summer I discovered a great little etsy shop with lots of fun goodies. I recently got a shipment from AR Creations and just look at all the wonderful things I have to "play with" now! :)

(You can always click on the pictures to make them larger.)

So many pretty and fun things! I've already used some of the supplies today to make a gift tag for a friend's baby gift. :)

The seller is a WONDERFUL communicator and responds quickly to any and all correspondence. As a matter of fact, I owe HER an email right now! :D Check out all the fun finds at Annie's shop HERE.

A Remodel for My Craftin' Corner

The other day my husband and I were working to clean out a little more of our overly-crowded and cluttered garage. As we were going through one box, I found this.

Immediately I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do with it and what I wanted to use it for. It took a little convincing to get my husband to let me have it. His mother He had decorated in quite a bit of the Americana style before we got married. I like it, but it's not really how I decorate. So....after much conversation and an agreement that the flag would be saved, he let me loose! :)

He was TOTALLY wonderful and even did the spray painting for me since I'm still pregnant and still not supposed to do it myself. What a trooper! :) Thanks, Honey. 

I don't have a picture of it, but I had gone to Lowe's earlier and gotten some thin sheet metal. However, they would not cut it for me there. :( I thought they did everything, but apparently, they don't do this. Sooooo......

I went and purchased my very own pair of these. 

I think they're called tin cutters. I don't really remember. My husband says it's usually the man who always hears his spouse complaining about the "buying of tools." In this family, it's turning the other way around. I told him that I only wished they could have been pink and black. Then I really would have loved them. :)

They worked "ok." They weren't the easiest things to use. However, they did the job and cut the sheet metal to the size I needed. 

Here is the finished product.

I LOVE IT!! It's exactly how I wanted it to turn out. It's the perfect place to hang pendants that I'm working on, store supplies and keep the bottle cap magnets, etc. :D

Another "Southern Living at Home" purchase from the past.....

now being used to shelve some of my craft supplies. 

A $25 shelf from Walmart and one of my favorite signs I already had were just perfect for the space and....

VOILA!

my very own little crafting corner! 

I'm just thrilled to pieces! :D I still have some work to do, but it's a start! What do you think?

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Sour Cream Coffee Cake Success!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE "Southern Living at Home" decor. The company has now been renamed "Willow House", but I've been an addict for many years. I love beautiful dishes and I love to entertain, so it was a natural fit. I actually became a consultant for the sole purpose of being able to somewhat afford my addiction. My poor husband did not fully comprehend my affinity for the products until he'd already committed "to death do us part." :D It's okay though... he has his own vices that I had been blissfully unaware of as well. So....we'll call it even. :D Anyway, on with the blog. 

One of my most recent Willow House purchases was this beautiful cake plate and cover. 

Don't you just LOVE the ruffle around the edge?? 

I had borrowed a girlfriend's cake plate for the last two years for my husband's birthday cake, so I decided it was high-time I got my own. The problem....my cabinets are so jam packed with other dishes, that this little beauty has to stay on the countertop for the time-being. Well it can't sit there empty, so I looked for something "pretty" to put in it. 

This is one of my favorite cookbooks - a wedding gift from one of my sweet neighbors when we lived in Oregon. I found a recipe for Sour Cream Coffee Cake and thought it sounded tasty and would look pretty. :) It was both! The recipe is below the following pictures if you would like to try it out! 

Cooling on the stovetop.

Sitting on the ruffly cake stand I just adore :)

Mission Accomplished! No empty cake plates in this house, no maam! 

Hmmm.....this could be a problem. Chronic baking could lead to a chronic growing out of my clothes....

Gonna have to really try hard to either exercise a TON of will power and let my husband gain the majority of the weight....or I'm gonna HAVE to make some room in those cupboards! :)

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Prep: 30 min; Bake: 1 hour; Cool: 30 min  *16 servings

Brown Sugar Filling (Recipe Below)

3 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1 1/2 t. baking soda

3/4 t. salt

1 1/2 c. sugar

3/4 c. butter or stick margarine, softened

1 1/2 t. vanilla

3 large eggs

1 1/2 c. sour cream

Vanilla Glaze (Recipe Below)

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Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom and side of angel food cake pan (tube pan), 10x4 inches, 

12-cup bundt cake pan or 2 loaf pans, 9x5x3 inches, with shortening. 

Make Brown Sugar Filling (see recipe below); set aside. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. 

Beat sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat about one-fourth of the flour mixture and sour cream  at a time alternately into sugar mixture on low speed until blended. 

For angel food or bundt cake pan, spread 1/3 of the batter (about 2 cups) in pan, then sprinkle with 1/3 of the filling; repeat twice. For loaf pans, spread 1/4 of the batter (about 1 1/2 cups) in each pan, then sprinkle each with 1/4 of the filling; repeat once. 

Bake angel food or bundt cake pan about 1 hour, loaf pans about 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan(s) on wire rack. Remove from pan(s) to wire rack. Cool 20 minutes. Drizzle with Vanilla Glaze (see recipe below). Serve warm or cool. 

Brown Sugar Filling

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/2 c. finely chopped nuts (I used pecans)

1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon

~~~~~~

Mix all ingredients.

Vanilla Glaze

1/2 c. powdered sugar

1/4 t. vanilla

2 to 3 t. milk

~~~~~~

Mix all ingredients until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. 

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I'm NOT Dead....REALLY! :D

I've just been a crazy nesting woman trying to get ready for our first baby who is due to arrive in less than three weeks. We were out of town for almost two months, so you can just imagine how crazy behind I am and how much of a panic I've been in to get things as close to perfect as possible. I have managed a few projects and recipes in the in-between moments as of late and will be posting those over the coming days provided our little man doesn't make a surprise early appearance. I've worked on carving out a little crafting space for myself and LOVE how it has turned out. It's not roomy, but it's cute. I've made my first coffee cake ever and it was so YUM! I've got an "organizing for baby" project to show you and I've discovered a fun etsy shop with lots of goodies! That's the teaser....now I need to download all my pictures and get to blogging! Don't give up on me, girls! :D I'm a sporadic new crafter wanna-be who will find my groove soon enough. :)

Recycle and Give a Gift!

A few posts back, I showed you a tutorial I had found that solves the dilemma of having all those shopping bags pile up. Today, I'm showing you a tutorial I found on how to make your own gift bags with something you probably throw out on a regular basis. :D

While blog-browsing the other day, I found this idea over at Not So Idle Hands. It's an older post and she had Stephanie from Somewhat Simple as a guest blogger. I thought it was a cute idea and, since I actually had the materials up here in Mammoth Lakes, I gave it a try this morning. 

Here are the supplies that you will need: 

A Cereal or Snack Box

Mod Podge

Sponge Brush

Scissors or X-acto Knife

Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

Wrapping Paper or Scrapbook Paper

Embellishments of Your Choice

Cut the top tabs off of your box.

Measure the length and width of your box and cut your paper to fit. I used scrapbook paper because that's all I had while up in the mountains for 7 weeks. However, after trying this project, I think the wrapping paper might be a little easier to work with. 

Use your sponge brush to cover your box with Mod Podge and adhere the paper to your box. Smooth out any bubbles or creases.

Make a crease on the sides of your box. Hopefully, your crease turns out being a little more centered than my crease did. :D 

With your scissors or x-acto knife, cut handles out on both sides.

Now....this is the part where I need you to use your imagination. :D 

Imagine the bag with yellow tissue paper sticking out and the cute blue raffia tied at the top. :D I don't have embellishments here, so that "cutsifying" will have to happen at a later date. That's what the glue gun is for though. Use rhinestones, ribbon or whatever your heart desires to make it pretty. :D I'm planning to put my little college sister's birthday gift in this. I figure she can use the "bag" for nail polish or manicure/pedicure supplies.

 I think this is such a cute idea and would be something fun to do with kids. It could also come in handy when you're in a bind and need a gift bag ASAP!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a side-note, I had some leftover scrapbook paper and a brainchild. I have to wait til I get home and can get to my supplies before I can implement my idea though. Darn it! 

 In a future post, see what I make with these! :D 

Any guesses?




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Check It Out! :D

Kenzie over at 9 O'Clock Dance of Joy is celebrating reaching 300 followers by hosting this fantastic giveaway! Check out this adorable monogrammed frame! 

Sign up to follow her blog and you can enter too! While you're over there, check out some of her great projects. You'll be inspired! :D 

Baby Leggings At Last!

I've been wanting to try my hand at making little baby leggings for my adorable little niece for awhile now. The only problem.....I had no clue how to even work the sewing machine. My husband and I are spending about a month and a half in Mammoth Lakes, CA. I figured there would be a no better time to work on my sewing-knowledge deficiency than when I was holed up in the mountains. 

My mother-in-law sent me the following:

 However, this was still looking rather intimidating....

and this was looking even more intimidating. Sadly, I'm not joking...I had no idea what I was doing. 

Thankfully, I brought this along. :)

You can tell that my two little fur-babies were incredibly impressed with my efforts. 

My first successfully threaded bobbin. I know I'm being silly here, but I felt it should be documented for posterity's sake. 

I found a baby-legging tutorial HERE at Calico that looked like a good first project. 

I started with these.

Cut off the feet...

and did a tight zig-zag stitch around the bottom. 

(Sorry for the side-ways picture. Cock your head to the left. :)

Here are the cute little leggings for my niece who is just learning to crawl. :) I can't wait to see how they look on her!

I did this with the part that was left over...I'm calling them footies. :) I think they're perfect little house socks or for putting on after the pedicure is dry. :) Maybe I'll put these in my little sister's stocking this Christmas. 

I had so much fun that I just kept going...

And that, folks, is the story of my first sewing project! I loved it and can't wait to learn more! There's a whole new world out there now! :D

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Shopping Bag Wall Art

So I was doing a little blog-hopping this afternoon and ended up finding this ADORABLE post over at In My Own Style. How many of you have a ton of shopping bags that you don't know what to do with, but don't want to toss out? 

How about a little wall art? What a cute idea! 

Click HERE to see the details of she did it.

I think my sisters Corrie and Caylen should start saving up their shopping bags for me so that I can make them one of these. :D 

Mice Cream

How is this for a fun end-of-summer treat for the kids? I found the idea in one of my cookbooks for kids and have made it for elementary and high school kids...it was a hit with both! :D 

I adjusted the recipe a bit and just used what I had on hand.

You just need the following: 

Vanilla Ice Cream for the mouse "body"

Three Chocolate-Covered Raisins for the eyes and nose

Two Round Mint Paddies for the ears

6 Chocolate Sprinkles for the whiskers

I didn't have any strands of licorice, but if I had it would have been the tail! :)

Cute, Cold and Fun

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We're In Mammoth Lakes, CA....

and have been for about a month and a half. Thus, not much crafting has been done since I ran out of most of my supplies. I have, however, been ordering supplies online like a crazy woman and am excited about getting back down to the business of crafting when I get home. I've made lots and lots of pendants though! Below are a couple of my favorites(I won't bore you with showing them all).

I have all my birthday gifts and stocking stuffers ready to go. I figure I'd better get things done now before Baby Browne arrives this fall!

My mother-in-law is being a dear and, along with a few maternity items, is shipping me a rotary cutter and mat. Thus, this coming week, I'll begin my journey of trying to figure out how to work my simple little beginner's sewing machine and how to make baby leggings for my niece. She won't quite be a one year-old at Christmas and I really don't think she'd appreciate jewelry quite yet.

I'll keep you posted as to how the sewing goes. I'm wishing I had my mom or MIL here with me to give me a crash course and I'm WISHING, WISHING, WISHING that I had learned to sew years ago. I'd be so much further ahead right now! :D

Meanwhile, until my package arrives tomorrow or Tuesday, here are a few pictures of me and my little family enjoying our time in Mammoth.

My Husband

His Bike, Not Mine :D

Our Two Little Wet Fur-babies Loving the Lake

Going to Dinner - Not too many dates left before baby arrives! :)