Easy Halloween Pumpkins

Here are my Halloween pumpkins!
I wanted to decorate my door this year so I made a Jack-o-Lantern that won't rot!

Some cardboard boxes were cut up into pumpkin shapes and decorated with construction paper. Easy, right?

Then I just glued some paper scraps on the back so I could run some string through them and hang it!

Memory Jars DIY

We took a trip to Long Island recently and I just love collecting little pebbles and shells and such so I came up with a way to put these little gems to use!

It's such a nice way to save these little memories.

I found this great big shell which was lucky since I didn't think to bring a sand container along! The big shell didn't fit in my jar but it carried the sand for me!!

I came back from the trip to find the first of my homegrown 'maters all ready for snacking!

Birthday Cake Mix CD DIY

My boyfriend had a birthday not too long ago and so I whipped up a little birthday cake mix for him!

Check it out! I took 2 pieces of cardboard (thin like cereal boxes), traced a CD sized square, cut them out, punched holes, tied them together, and then decorated!

oh! and I compiled a bunch of awesome swing/blues songs on a CD to slip inside. Can't forget that part!

Also got to see the Franklins while they were in town.

 Incredible machines!! and Still running about a century later..how does your car measure up? lol.

Patriotic Baseballs for a Festive Centerpiece

This is a project for those old baseballs. Mine was an old Red Wings ball.

I started by tracing 3 sizes (big, medium, tiny) of stars on the middle section.

Then I painted the background blue, carefully leaving the stars white.

As you've probably already guessed, the next step is to paint red and white stripes on the unpainted section.

I found it helpful to draw the lines before painting.

It looks great! Imagine a bunch of these in a bowl. Bam! Patriotic centerpiece.

Strawberry Lemonade Pancakes

 So Summer officially began the other day and we needed an appropriate pancake breakfast. Who's up for some strawberry lemonade pancakes?
Ingredients: see above ;)
2cp flour
4tsp baking powder
handful of uncooked whole oats (for fiber)
1cp lemonade drink mix
1/2cp-1cp of chopped strawberries
2 eggs
3tsp vanilla extract
1&3/4 cp milk

  Get the griddle fired up to 350degrees (or heat up the frying pan). Mix the dry ingredients in mixing bowl then add in all the rest and stir until all combined.

 Pour that lemony goodness out (about 1/4 cp per pancake or whatever looks good) and wait for some bubbles before flipping to cook the other side.

These were so good we didn't put syrup on them. You could make an icing with milk and confectioners sugar or use a cream cheese topping, though.. Just a thought! 
Happy Summer everyone!
 

Garden Gnomes Galore!

OHMYGOSH! These were so much fun to make.

 I cut some pretty basic shapes out of colored paper (rectangle, half circle, triangles, etc) and glued together.

But where do you see gnomes but in gardens?

 So I decided to make him into a plant stake (translation: I needed to make him a little more durable).

Mod Podge to the rescue! Yes, my Mod Podge bottle has a superhero cape but that's another story...

Next up: get one of those handy, multi purpose wooden skewers (or you could use real plant stakes, but who does that?) and tape the cute little guy to it.  Tape on the backside.

Bah! Who can help but love this?! They are going to snazz up all the planters in my new apartment!

Sock Critters!

This is my version of a sock animal tutorial I found on Pinterest.
Theirs was a bear but mine is more cat like, don't you think?

Mine is more baby friendly, though, with embroidered eyes and nose instead of using beads or buttons.

She even sits up! 

Wheee!
Here's the link to the tutorial:
http://themetapicture.com/this-is-how-you-create-a-teddy-bear-from-a-sock/

The Craft Room Continues! also, Eggnog pancakes

Some of you may remember that we are converting the basement room into craft central for yours truly.
Above is the folding basement door that I painted awhile back.
What to do with the middle section?

This.
and what did I use?

Gift wrap from the McKenzie-Childs Christmas gift from my lovebug last year!

Just cut it, glue it and enjoy it!!

All that work makes a girl hungry.
Time for some pancakes?
I think so.

On my fab new Christmas griddle- the gift that gives back. lol.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! We've been making everything on it- if I could make spaghetti on it I totally would!!

Instead of milk, I threw in some eggnog for a nice seasonal breakfast !

Who likes Eggnog? Festive French Toast

Here comes the Christmas kitty!
Gaston's 2nd Christmas and he was so excited about all the presents under the tree.
In fact, we couldn't get him to leave them alone and had kitty scratches in the wrapping paper of several gifts!

But the most exciting part of all was the Eggnog French Toast for breakfast.

..and here's all you have to do: add 1/4 cup of eggnog to 2 eggs and beat until blended.
Dip the bread into the mixture (we just had regular sandwich bread but fancy it up with a nice crusty loaf of french bread)
Then fry in a skillet or griddle on both sides to cook the egg.
Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and fruit, whipped cream, or maple syrup!