Oh Goody Goody....almost!

Remember when I wrote about my most favorite slippers ever a LONG time ago?

Goody Goody Bon Bons

 

Well, my friend Lindsey sent me a link the other day to a PDF pattern for some slippers and said, "I think you should make these."

Cute huh?

I've never made slippers though, but what's the worst that will happen?  About the worst case scenario I could come up with was to spend $6 on a pattern and make a disaster of them ...and that's not so bad.  So I ordered the pattern pretty much immediately.  HERE is the link to the pattern if you love them too.

And now, I might not need to spend $40 on slippers anymore because I adore these!  But you know I can't leave well enough alone, so I had to do more to them than just the basic pattern.

Here's a picture of the first pair I made for myself.  Well, one of them anyways.

I love them, but made some changes in the second pair to improve them.  I added elastic in the back (about 2 inches of it perhaps) to help pull them in on the heel, and I also made an insert with a 2 inch piece of foam sewed inside to make them super cushy.  The other thing that would make them better I think would be to put a piece of suede or something on the bottom to wear better.  That's probably not gonna happen til my 3rd pair though.

Here's the second pair that I made to give to a friend at a baby shower this week.  It's her second little girl....time to give Mommy something too I think.

These I really love.

I'm not going to bother showing you the steps because should you decide to order the pattern from THIS LINK, then you'll have the directions with all the steps printed out for you to reference.   There were great pictures to follow for the more timid seamstress out there.  It wasn't hard though.  Really.  If you can use a pair of scissors, read directions, and sew a straight line on a sewing machine, then I think you should give them a shot.  It was fun, and the embellishing part is really fun.  I'm thinking I have a great new gift on my list of things I can make myself!

I learned how to make those great fabric flowers on both pairs from a cute blog I like to read called Jones Design Company.  HERE is where she has a fabulous group of tutorials you can check out for more fabric flowers and other crafty goodness.  Plus...she seems like she'd be nice in person...and I really like nice people.

Thought I'd share.  I do love a good project.

PS. It took me about an hour and a half to make the first pair.  I probably spent as long making and deciding on embellishments for the second pair as it took me to make them.  And just so you don't think I'm ultra efficient or anything, it took me about 3 different times sitting down at my sewing machine to actually finish them for all the real life I had to tend to in between.  Oh yeah....I also ignored some housework to get them done.  Priorities people....priorities.

What's Cooking?! Play Dough Cookies....

You know sometimes you have certain childhood memories that just stick out in your mind?  Fun things you did that you look forward to doing with your kids when you grow up too?  I have a decent sized handful of things we did since my mom and her friends were super fun and creative.  We had cotton candy and lemonade stands,  we created a 1950's diner and served up lunch and malts on a couple of occasions, we baked and created all the time, and I have really fun memories of playdough style sugar cookies too.

It's been hot as all get out here lately in the South, and I decided that I needed to see if my mom could dig up that old recipe for playdough sugar cookies.  So that's what we did the other day and it was a blast!  This dough is better for playing with than the amazing regular sugar cookies that I make and it can be baked in shaped up to about 3/4 inch thick.  Beware that you do need some flour all over the surface you're working on to roll it out though.  What I'm really saying here is that it's messy folks...even when you contain the messes on individual cookies sheet trays....you're gonna have to vacuum immediately afterwards.  But it's fun....and childhood should be fun, and on occasion even really messy.

So do it.  You will have fun.  Your kids will have fun....and make great memories.  And that my friends is most certainly how to enjoy your life for dessert!

Edible Playdough Cookies

1 cup margarine, softened

1 cup shortening

2 1/2 c sifted powdered sugar

6 hard cooked egg yolks, mashed

2 tsps. baking soda

2 tsps cream of tartar

1 Tbs. vanilla

5 cups flour

food coloring

Cream butter and shortening; gradually add sugar, beating til light and fluffy.  Add yolks, soda, cream of tartar and vanilla, beating well.  Gradually add flour, mixing well.  Wrap in plastic wrap after coloring.  (I made 4 different colors.)  Chill 1 hour.  Hand shape cookies, not more than 3/4 inch thick.  Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.  Thicker cookies take longer.  Cool on baking sheets 1-2 minutes before removing from pans.  Cool on wire racks.  Makes 5 1/2 dozen 2 1/2" cookies.

Woo Hoo!  Fun had by all!  And I should warn you that if you have a lot of artificial food coloring to make your dough super fabulously colorful...your baby will have diapers for the next day that look like they came straight from the fanny of a leprechaun! WOAH!  That was a shock for sure!

Get out and do something fun today!

Flower Power

I'm doing the flowers for a wedding this weekend.  And by "doing,"  I mean arranging...all of them.  From all the bridal bouquets to the centerpieces for the 250 person reception...I'm their flower gal.

And you know I'm excited about it!  A little overwhelmed, but not by the flowers, it's by the other parts...like that my husband and son are in the wedding, which means that I'll be arranging and staging between things like the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner...and having to get myself and my family ready in time for the actual wedding.  That, and driving the flowers out to the church and reception, and placing them all to make sure that everything looks unbelievable for our friends.  It's going to be awesome...a lot of work, but awesome.

I'm excited too because the flowers are going to all be cut from a master gardener's garden...mixtures of fabulously wilder looking things.  Envision with me for a minute...hand tied bouquets...mason jar drinks...old fashioned red/white striped paper straws...burlap and jute....old chippy paint doors and frames....you know, the kind of stuff that's right up my alley.

And just to give you a taste of what I think some of this weekend's flowers might feel like, I thought I'd post a few pictures of the flowers that I did for the bride's lingerie shower a couple of weeks ago.

I love flowers.

 Don't you?

Went to my neighbor's garden today...I'm feeling culinarily inspired.  Hope that feeling holds through the weekend since I won't have much time for cooking the next few days.  Guess what I picked though today?  Figs....oh sweet heaven on a tree!  Yummy goodness coming up for you soon!

Fire for Father's Day...and more....

Since I'm out here in the Wild West doing things like hiking, trekking, wild animal sighting, building fires, and roasting marshmallows, I thought I'd share this super cute craft that I came across a couple of weeks ago from crafts.kaboose.com to do with my kids.  It's a fun way to show a little love to the great outdoors in case you're maybe not one who really wants to build an actual fire.  Or...if you are a pyromaniac, then this is probably still right up your alley because it looks like fire.

What you'll need:

• Old CD
• Rocks – about the size of a quarter
• Sticks
• A handful of soil, dirt or sand
• White craft glue
• Small scraps of red, orange and yellow tissue paper
• Toothpick

How to make it:

1. Cover CD with glue  and use a paintbrush or your finger to spread the glue out for an even coat. 
2. Cover glue area with dirt or sand and tap off excess. 
3. Use your finger to push back a little of the dirt from the edges, all the way around the CD, to make room for the rocks.
4. Squeeze out a generous amount of white glue onto the cleared edge of the CD. Press a rock into the glue. Repeat until entire rim of the CD is covered in rocks.
5. If necessary, break sticks into approximately 4 inch pieces. Using white craft clue, build a "fire" with the sticks by laying them down in a teepee formation, gluing as you go. Let everything dry for 2 hours (will not be completely dry, but won't slide around).
6. Tear tissue paper into small pieces, approximately 1" or 2" squares.
7. Place tip of toothpick into the center (don't poke through) of a piece of red tissue paper. Wrap the tissue paper around the toothpick.
8. Dab some glue on the tip and dip it into the sticks, removing the toothpick once inserted. Repeat around the top of the sticks with several red pieces, and then add a few orange toward the middle, and lastly one or two yellow pieces at the top of the stick mound.
9. Let project dry completely overnight.

I think it'd be a cute way to do an invitation for an outdoor party or campout as well.  Way more fun to open this than just your standard card invitation. 

Or, just make it for fun...because it's cute and your kids will appreciate you doing a craft with them.  OR...I just had an even better idea!  Make these this week and invite Dad to a family backyard firepit party for Father's Day.  Men like fire...Dad would appreciate the gesture, and to really make the gift awesome why don't you make a special package with the following other items....


S'mores Kit




Leatherman Tool

What Dad wouldn't love a Leatherman tool, a campfire, and s'mores?!  Or at least be able to appreciate the gesture of it?  Oh yeah, and fix meat and potatoes for dinner.  Try out this recipe for Flank Steak and Roasted Potatoes.  I just made Father's Day easy for you...and in case you didn't realize, it's this coming Sunday the 19th!



Happy crafting, cooking out, and now you have a recipe for happy Dads to boot!

- Logan

Don't forget to check out yesterday's post about the Polebridge Mercantile and enter to win the fun prize pack donated by the Mercantile!  Giveaway ends 12noon EST on Friday 6/17!



Milk and Cookies...

My friend Emily at Crisp Interiors sent me a link today to this and I just HAD to share!  So thanks Em for sharing and to  Family Chic for this creative dose of fun! 

 

I'm mad about cool bottle reuses and this one is seriously topping my list of fun ideas right now!  

 

Milk and cookies...

 

Reuse green Schweppes Ginger Ale bottles with just a straw and some store bought butter cookies. How fun is this for a party of for any afternoon snack?!  I'm thinking you could also do lemonade and lemon cookies, chocolate milk and EL Fudge, or if you're feeling super crafty make some fun shaped sugar cookies and poke a hole in the middle to make room for the straw before baking.

Your kids will think you are especially fun for this!  Imagine doing it with Christmas cookies for Santa.  Possibilities are endless!  If only Oreos had holes in the middle!!!

 

I also think this would be cute with any other glass bottles you could save...mini coke bottles, club soda bottles....cute cute cute!

Hope you're having a great day!

Getting Crafty...Massive FAIL!

Since Tid Bit is out of school for the summer, I decided that I needed to figure out some crafty things to do to pass the time with a bit more fun.  So, first thing this morning I set out to make this day full of crafty fun!  We headed out early, went to get bagels for breakfast and then hit Walmart to buy some colored yarn.  See, I had this awesome idea to make baskets with glue and yarn.  You know, where you blow up a balloon and mix a little water and glue and soak your yarn in it.  Then you drape the yarn all over the balloon and hopefully it looks like this in the end.

Yarn Basket Tutorial

Adorable right?  I didn't find the tutorial that I linked until after I made a mess of things.  I read one thing that said to mix equal parts water and glue...I think that might have been just one of the places where I went wrong.  Don't do that...just use glue.  Another thing I failed to realize was that apparently Tid Bit was opposed to getting "all gluey" today, so I ended up being the "gluey" handed one.  So much for blogging during craft time.  I also set the balloon on an empty soymilk container too, which wasn't good since the yarn that fell down stuck all over the box, and the balloon would get too weighted down on one side or another and flop all over the place.  Fortunately, I did realize that I shouldn't pop the balloon until the yarn is completely dry...which it's not...even 5 hours later.  Will have to keep you posted on how that turns out later.  For now, here's what we're dealing with....

 Don't you love how the yarn is just hanging off the sides.  This craft was not awesome today.  I'll try it another day though when perhaps Tid Bit is feeling a bit more in the mood for gluey-ness.

I did salvage the crafting extravaganza though with a couple of twigs from outside and the yarn we made such an effort to acquire today.  Check this out...

God's Eye camp craft

Pretty cute huh? 












Apparently it's called a "God's Eye."  No idea why, but HERE is a tutorial for making them if you're interested.  It was easy and I couldn't find our popsicle sticks so I sent Tid Bit outside hunting for good twigs for a solid 20 minutes...they worked great.  Once he got the hang of it he made three of them. 

Now he's insistent that we go outside and have a lemonade and cotton candy stand and sell these amazing wares.  He has also made some paper and ribbon bookmarks and drawn 4 pictures of our family and our house to sell.  His sweet little heart wants to do all of this to earn money to put in his Jesus jar and send to help the people in Haiti... "because even though it's been a long time since the earthquake, those people and dogs and buildings in Haiti still need our help."

Makes my heart glad to hear that even if our crafting wasn't what we thought it was going to be...he's turning it around to do something great!  Thatta boy!  Guess it wasn't such a fail when I look at it from a child's eyes afterall.

Secrets of a Great Illusionist....Creativity Revealed!

"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original."- (I don't know who said this, but it wasn't me.)

I'm always beyond flattered when people pay a compliment about something creative I've done.  Honestly, I think I'm often not sure how to receive the compliment, so I try to figure out how to explain how I did it, or remove some of the credit just given...or something...I just don't really know how to receive it well.  So when several of you generous compliment givers out there have paid compliments on the bench post I did for today, I have felt a little funny..and wanting to explain how I did it to you.

And here's what I told a friend who sent me an instant message about it all on facebook today: "I think the only reason I'm able to turn out something good in the end is because I'm not afraid to completely crap it up in the process."

And that's the truth.  

My friend Laura, who I've told you all about before, did a post today that I didn't see until just a minute ago (after I was already thinking of writing about this.)  It's where I got that quote above...the one at the top.  And she posted a whole video of some guy talking about this very thing, and how kids are more creative because they're not afraid to mess up.

That creativity is lost, not learned.  What a concept huh?

Salvador Dali painted with squid ink a few times.  Did you know that?  He literally stepped his foot on a squid and squished it around to make a painting.  I thought it was kinda weird when I saw it in Spain back in college (still do think it's weird for that matter), but there was something really beautiful about it too.  Maybe it's just that often originality is beautiful.  (I should note here that Salvador Dali did some wacky stuff...so he may not be the best example...I just thought of the squid thing to illustrate a point.  But really, think of any famous artist...ground breakers.  They did something new...because they redefined the lines of what was beautiful....what had been perceived to be beautiful up to that point.)

Anywho...I just wanted to tell you... thanks for the compliments, but the Secret to the Great Illusionist here... is just... Don't be so afraid to fail at something that you never give it a shot!  If you're not prepared to be wrong or to screw something up, then you'll never come up with anything original!  So my advice to you is....whatever you've been thinking would be neat to try but you haven't because you're afraid you'll mess it up, TRY IT!  And if you mess up, just remember...

I want to see pictures of your next big project when you finish...or little one for that matter!  Some of you might need baby steps, but if you're like me, just grab hold of something big and have fun possibly ruining it!  I think you'll surprise yourself at what you can accomplish when you take the pressure off and give yourself license just to have fun trying!

Happy creating friends!

- Logan

Trash to Treasure....Antique headboard bench!

I'm writing this on Sunday night.  I'm so excited that I just have to post this for you to read first thing on Monday morning!  I have a meeting at 9am, and this couldn't wait til afternoon!!!

The Hubs had a meeting tonight so I put the kiddos to bed and just finished sewing a pillow a little bit ago.  I'm now happily perched on my bed with jammies on, 27 Dresses on the TV (fab-o movie if you need a great chick flick), a handful of Cabury chocolate eggs (the little ones with the crunchy shells), and my computer chocked full of pictures of my latest project just for you!!

It's time to reveal the antique headboard I converted into a bench!  Just have to warn you...there are ALOT of pictures.  I documented how we did it to show you in case you happen to score a cool headboard and need to do something with it other than attach it to the end of a mattress!

 <-----This is the before on the left.  Had been in someone's barn for ages and then in our garage for probably 6 months...filthy, but full of potential!

Below is my big helper and me.  We sanded the headboard down a little to reveal some of the layers of paint, and then we cleaned it off really well.

Above on the right, are the 2 pieces of wood (1x8, and 1x10) for the seat that I stained using MinWax walnut stain.  Below is the frame that I made for the seat.  The Hubs cut the first piece that fit along the back between the posts, and then I measured, cut, and screwed the rest of the inner part of the frame together.  Then I pre-drilled holes into the legs and attached them to the outside of the frame.  We put a piece of 1x3 along the front to give a bit more stability and make the legs look flush along the front.

Because of how I had to attach the legs on the outside of the frame, The Hubs cut a couple of little blocks to mount the 1x3 along the outside and make the leg look flush with the side again.

 Tid Bit had been wanting to paint this thing for a week, so finally he got his chance.  The headboard had layers of paint, so we had to do our best to replicate that layering.  First we stained the wood, then painted green (Sherwin Williams Tansy Green to be exact), then a coat of cream (don't know the exact color because it was just $2.50 in the reject section at Lowes, but was perfect), and then finally the taupe-greenish-gray color.  The closest match I could find was Benjamin Moore Sag Harbor Gray, but I didn't have that.  So... I mixed some Benjamin Moore Nantucket Gray with some yellow, and black, and brown and got a color that was actually an even closer match!  Hooray for a genepool that passed on an ability for precision color mixing!

<----So here it is up close...it was still wet in this picture, so the color does look a little off.  Trust me, it's just right!  Remember the giant gouge that was in the top of the headboard too...yeah, I painted over that as well!  All it needed now was to dry and then be sanded down to show all those beautiful layers that Tid Bit so carefully painted!

Ok...so see below!  Sanded down a bit to make the new part look old too!  I think it turned out pretty smashingly!

When I started looking at it all done and pretty, I decided that it needed a little something cushy!  The other day I was thinking of upholstering the back, then I thought of upholstering the seat, then I decided I liked it so much just like this, but I now had a dropcloth that I'd washed and dried to do something amazing with...so I made pillows!  And because I didn't want to spend more on a monogram than I did on a 4x12 length of dropcloth, I decided to create a stencil and paint our initial onto the pillows!

First I found a "W" in a font that I liked and blew it up to be ginormous on a regular sheet of printed paper. Then I traced it onto a sheet of heavy duty stencil paper and cut it out.  I made sure to leave some points of connection for the inner pieces that would have fallen out otherwise.  I used spray on stencil adhesive to get the stencil to adhere to the fabric to make clean lines.  To apply the W,  I used a round paintbrush and dabbed some bronze paint onto the stencil.

See how there are some breaks in the W?  That was from the connection points that I didn't cut out.  No worries though, I just used a small detail brush to fill those areas in!  And below you can see the finished stencil!

I didn't do a tutorial on how to make a pillow.  I figured I'd taken enough pictures today and honestly, there are a million pillow tutorials out there!  If you really want me to do one sometime though, I will, but you will have to comment and say so!

So here it is...the bench AND the pillow!  In fact, I actually made 2 pillows, but need an insert for the other one...so hopefully you can get the jist with only one!

So that's it!  I'm pretty pleased with it!  Now all I have to do is decide where in my house I'm actually going to put this beauty!  Happy Monday!

- Logan

For more fun craft ideas, check out my new friend Beth's blog here!