Yellow Flower

I stumbled upon a gigantic yellow flower on Pinterest that goes along with the outfit below. 

 I love looking at all the clothing outfits on Pinterest... maybe it might inspire me to finally rid myself of sweatpants!  

The created outfit is found on Polyvore.

  I quickly headed over to see where the flower is from, kirnazabete.com. I about died when I saw the price!  335 dollars!? Yikes, that must be some flower!  Maybe it has gold dust sprinkled between the silk petals? :)

Lanvin Flower Brooch - kirnazabete.com

For about a dollar's worth of fabric, I tried knocking it off.  The original is made from washed silk.  I couldn't find yellow silk in our local fabric store, so I went with 100% polyester yellow.

 ( I know, a huge step down from silk)

I traced a silk petal from a previous store bought flower and on paper enlarged it by hand into various sizes.

I mostly used the larger petals.  To give the petals texture without having to sew much, I carefully burnt the edges and then held each petal over the flame until it crinkled.  There is something so fun about burning polyester....but if you do this, be sure to keep some water nearby.  

For the center of the petal, I used a 10 x 1 inch strip of the same fabric.

  I also burnt the edges and center of the strip to add texture.

Next, I stacked each petal until it looked the way I wanted it to, and then ran a thread through the center.  

For the center, I rolled the fabric and stitched it in place. 

I was still curious how the silk would burn, so when I was at the store, I picked up red dupioni silk to make a similar flower. All I can say is silk really stinks when it burns.  It smells like burnt hair, not very pleasant. 

I burnt the edges carefully, and started a couple of petals on fire. Yes, water nearby is very important!

 The silk petals lay flat, so to give them texture you have to pinch and sew in place.   

For the center of red rose, I took smaller petals and folded them into thirds. 

 There are three small folded petals in the center.  

The flowers were somewhat time consuming, but really, it wasn't too bad.  I had the excuse to catch up on Season 2 of Downton Abbey while I made them. {Love that show.} Nicole introduced me to Season 1 when I was down with my appendectomy.  I was hooked from the first episode!

See you soon!

Taste Like Chicken-What's Mike Cooking?

Tonight Candace and I stumbled upon

a most delicious new blog that is definitely worth sharing!

It's called Taste Like Chicken-What's Mike Cooking?

Maybe I watch too much of Food Network 

to the point of fantasizing about being a master chef some day 

or maybe it's my love of cooking that makes me drawn to 

learning more about cooking tools and techniques.

All I know is that I have devoured all the great tips

that this wonderful blog has to offer

and I'm making a list of the kitchen tools I need....

Michael Hart is the man behind the blog

sharing his 30+ years of cooking experience

and love of cooking.

It's a fun read and you'll learn a lot!

His male perspective and wit drew me in!

Make sure to check it out,

I'm excited to see what he does next!

P.S. Donald, thanks for sharing the link!

Mae's Closet Winners!

We're finally announcing the winners

for our wonderful Mae's Closet giveaway!

Don't these bunnies make you want to pull out all your Easter decorations!

Elizabeth was kind enough to offer 2 bunnies to give away and our winners are~

Cary M.

&

Lyndsey

Congratulations gals!

Thanks so much Elizabeth!

Next Year's Valentines

I survived Valentine's Day!

Sounds drastic doesn't it,

but that's about how I felt last night

after scrambling to make sure everything was ready for

my daughter's school party and then an hour later I had

my Sunday School girl's Valentine party.

I thought it would be fun to see some of the Valentines that

were homemade, which the Moms all got from Pinterest,

our favorite go-to place for ideas.

First up are the Valentines!

Above is my daughter's last moment scramble idea.

We were in Zurchers party store for a at least an hour

trying to come up with something.

It couldn't be too girly cuz ya know she's got boyfriends.

Clarification Boy Friends.  2 separate words.  Phewww.

Somehow the snakes were okay for girls since

they had red and white Valentine stripes.:)

Here are a couple I loved:

Okay, fortune cookies~LOVE this!

How fun is this arrow made from a Glow stick!

I had to share this yummy recipe too from Kraft!

They are Strawberries 'n Cream Minis!

They are the yummiest creamy sinful Jello Jiggler I've ever had!

I found these cute condiment cups at Walmart

and they were perfect for the individual servings for the party.

Of course we had cupcakes and that yummy Betty Crocker Chex Mix.

Holy smokes that was tasty!

I forgot to grab a picture but I tried something different with punch this year~

Have you seen these at The Container Store or Walmart?

Well I made up my punch in the larger one and used it at both parties.

It holds 2 1/2 gallons and it doesn't leak all over and isn't glass breakable.

I was pretty proud of myself for not dropping $20 on a cheap punch bowl

and only $8 on one of these.

Even better~the kiddos could get there own refills!

I admit I'm bummed it's all over so quickly, but.....

Who's ready for EASTER!!!!:)

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is it...the last of the bulk candy.  I don't know what I was thinking when I bought that much candy!I added jellybeans into a glass vase, using a smaller vase to hold the water for the roses.

 It is an easy and unique way to give those you love flowers.

 This pretty Easter jellybean centerpiece was my inspiration, found at A Passion For Creativity. 

Today I also made the Betty Crocker heart peanut butter cookies that are everywhere on Pinterest.

I went over to their site and noticed that Betty is using a different recipe for the peanut butter cookie.  I'm sure it's great, but Nicole has been using an old Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie recipe that you can't go wrong with.  If they are not overcooked, these cookies are sooooo good. 

Here's the recipe:

1/2 c. margarine or butter

1/2 c. peanut butter

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 c. flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

Refrigerate, bake at 375 for 7-9 minutes. 

We are off to all the class parties..I swear holiday party days at school are some of the craziest.

  Nicole will be back tomorrow to share her Valentine party ideas!

Vintage Style Bunny Giveaway from Mae's Closet!

These vintage bunnies by Mae's Closet make us so happy and excited for Easter and Spring to arrive!

Here is a little about the talented creator and owner of Mae's Closet:

My name is Elizabeth Isom and I am a self taught mixed media artist residing in Utah. I am a mother and a wife and love spending time with my munchkins any time I get. My love of vintage things began as a child. I was raised by a mother and grandmother who were always surrounding me with pretty things and that is where I get my inspiration from. I love to combine Paper Mache, tinsel, glitter and one of a kind vintage embellishments to create a piece that can be loved and cherished for years to come. My work has been published in two magazines and am currently working on the third. Each piece is hand poured, sculpted and painted. I personally sign and date each one for authenticity. Art ranges in price anywhere from $35- $175.

Elizabeth would like to give one of these adorable bunnies to TWO lucky readers!

To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is follow Mae's Closet blog!

Come back here and leave us a comment letting us know you did.

(The giveaway will end on Saturday, February 18th.)

Aren't they the cutest? The tinsel and bunny tails....love!

 

Cupid's Apples

Okay so Candace seriously bought close to 5lbs of red hots. 

Let's just "say" it was her medication doing the talking......

So what do you do with that many red hots?

We attempted to make candied red apples of course!

There's lots of great recipes on the Internet so we tried 2 of them.

One was so hard we thought our teeth would crack off with one bite.

The other made us think our fillings would be left behind.

Yummy right?

Well they sure look pretty in the picture.

My daughter thought they were straight from the Evil Queen from Snow White.

We thought we'd entice the boys by shooting arrows through them

as if that would be cool to a boy as long as it's not "Cupid's" arrow.

Not cool Mom....

Do you have a successful perfect red candy apple recipe

like the kind at the fair that melts in your mouth?

Please let us know, we're too young for dentures...

 

Valentine Candy Bouquet

 This is what happens when I am stuck in the house recovering from being sick with limited access to crafting supplies...I get creative with candy! I didn't have the energy to hit the craft stores, so my major shopping trips were to the grocery store. It's amazing what you can find if you look hard enough!

I have a hard time passing by the Valentine bulk candy without stopping to fill a bag.  Red and pink gumdrops, jellybeans, red hots....I can't help it!  They are just so darn cute.  I also found Valentine candy corn. Gross to eat, but they make perfect petals for flowers.  

  

For the base of the candy flowers, I used Styrofoam discs that I painted red with craft paint.  I poked the small dowel into the Styrofoam disc and added a bit of hot glue to stabilize the foam. 

Each piece of candy was added with a hot glue gun. I made sure to use a low temp gun to avoid some serious burns to the fingers!

I also grabbed a bag of gummy ring candy (Peach O's) at the store that fit perfectly around the large gum drops. 

For the heart shapes flowers, I used heart shaped cookie cutters to cut into the foam. The cookie cutters worked surprisingly well on the foam!  

I gave it a good crunch with the cookie cutter and then cleaned the rest up with a knife.  I think the red hot hearts are my favorite.

Painting the Styrofoam the same color as the candy helps to hide the gaps.

 Nicole and I have made candy topiaries a couple of times, like the Jelly Bean and Halloween topiaries.
(I missed Nicole this time...she didn't want to catch what I had!) In those cases, we used Styrofoam balls, which are easier to place candy around.  You have to get creative with candy placement on the discs. 
I filled the edges of these flowers with red hots to avoid getting too bulky.

I hot glued layers of Styrofoam into the glass vase, making sure there was room for the jellybeans to fit along the side. Next I added the flowers, then filled the vase with pounds of jellybeans. I used heart lollipops to fill in the empty spaces. All of the stems were wrapped with green floral tape and the heart leaves were made from scrap paper.

It's nice to know I can still enjoy Valentine's candy without having to eat it.  It's also a lot less tempting to eat when there's gobs of hot glue on each piece! :)

 

February Wood You Like To Craft

Today we are showing how we put together this fun Valentine heart hanger

over at Wood You Like To Craft!

Krystal from Sassy Sanctuary started yesterday with her inspiration piece and

in the next couple of days you can see what Wendy from Crafty Goodies

and Melinda from Under My Umbrella do!

Make sure to stop by!

SWAK!

This week I've been busy making some Valentine letters
and I just had to use some of the cute My Mind's Eye paper
that we used on the Valentine banner.
My pictures don't do the paper justice but they were still fun to do!

I'm missing my crafting partner in crime Candace!
She is doing much better thanks to some
great antibiotics for her bronchitis~she is quickly on the mend.
So I thought I'd share some ideas for my daughter's school Valentine party
that I'm scrambling to put together today!

First off Candace shared with me this great resource for sending out
the party invite and volunteer checklist for the school party.
I don't know about you but as the Room Mom I feel like all the notes get lost in transit
from school to home and then everyone simultaneously volunteers to donate
the bag of M&M's so I'm left with a bunch of phone calls begging them to bring
fruit and veggies.  Jealous aren't ya!



































The site is called BringIt! and it will email out a note to everyone
on your list, with a sign up sheet, first come first serve.
It will then send out email reminders before the party so nobody forgets!
Brilliant isn't it!  It's totally free too!

But what do you guys do for treats?
Above is pictured a white chocolate version of Muddy Buddies
recommended by my daughter's teacher.  Yum right? Here's the link for the yummy recipe courtesy of Betty Crocker!  I'm soooooo making these, party or not~they will be in my belly or more accurately on my fanny, thighs, jowls.....I could go on and on.:)

I know a lot of schools have outlawed sweet treats
and luckily ours just encourages us to be healthy.
I looked on Pinterest which is an evil site for someone on a diet....
and there are so many yummy treats~but are they healthy?
So here's my plea for help~~~Do you have any great ideas to share!
I'm officially desperate and need help!
Leave us a comment and let us know!