Pom Pom

I've seen these all over Pinterest and have been wanting to make some for Marlee's room. I finally got around to it last night!! It took me a while to figure out how to hang them so it would work, and I don't know if i quite accomplished it, but I tried. I also got them up and realized I should have done green instead of yellow to match her room better...Oh well, It will do for now!! They were really fun and easy to make, and i bought everything I need at the dollar store!! Here's a link to a great tutorial !

I did a couple with two colors, used white thread to hang them, and instead of floral wire, I used white pipe cleaners, because I already had them lying around. :)

Apple Pie

I made the most delicious apple pie last night (if i do say so myself...) I didn't take any pictures because there wasn't much time from the time it came out of the oven to the time it was on my plate...and it wasn't the prettiest pie ever. I haven't mastered the beautiful crust technique yet.. anyway, trust me, it was delish and if you're in the mood for apple pie, give this one a try!!! I adapted a recipe I found and this is how I made it!

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

1/2 cup unsalted butter

2 TBL all purpose flour

1 TBL cornstarch

1/4 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

dash of cinnamon

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

6 granny smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced (I used the cheese slicer on my food proccesor to slice the apples)

Preheat oven to 350.

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour and cornstarch to form a paste. Add water, vanilla, cinnamon, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

Place the bottom crust in your pie pan. Mix 3/4 of sauce mixture with apples, and place in crust. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the remaining sauce mixture over the top of the crust. Bake for an hour, or until the apples are soft.

**I placed a baking sheet on the bottom rack of the oven to catch any drips.

original recipe

Ornaments

I've been so bored lately, so I decided that Marlee and I needed to do a little fun project together. And when I say Marlee and I, I really mean Marlee watched for all of about 3 minutes and I did the rest myself...It's okay though, I still had fun doing it myself, and she had

fun playing with her toys. win, win. I found a recipe on all recipes and made homemade ornaments!!

You need:

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

Preheat oven to 325. Mix flour and salt together and slowly add in water, stirring with a large spoon. Once it hold together knead with your hands until it's soft. Roll out the dough and cut with cookie cutters or make your own fun designs!! You'll want to poke a hole in the top so you can hang it later too. I used a straw. Place on a cookie sheet and bake until hard. The recipe says for about an hour. Mine took about 40 min. Let them cool completely and then have fun decorating!!

I tried making one with Marlee's hand print..It didn't work out too well. You have to look reallllly hard to see it :)

I made a cute little snowman too!! (Yes, I have too much time on my hands...) I'm letting this one air dry.

I left Marlee alone while I took pictures...notice the upside down tray...

and my not-so-clean-anymore floor...

Well, that was my day today. Pretty fun, and gave me something to do!

I LOVE Christmas!!!!

Laundry Detergent Update and Apothecary Jar

So, I've been using my homemade detergent, and I've gotta say, it's been great!! It was a pretty thick at first, but i just stirred it a few times and it's been great!! it smells good, and feels clean, so I can't complain!

Now onto my Apothecary jar! I've seen them all over Pinterest and have been wanting one so bad!! I love all the things you can do with them/fill them with. Sooo, lucky me, I found one at Savers and got a little candlestick holder at the Dollar Tree, glued them together and, viola!!!!! I love it, and am sooo ready to decorate for Christmas now!!! So be on the lookout at your thrift stores for these cute jars, I know I'll keep looking for more!

I think it needs a little ribbon on the top...Thoughts?

Oh, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Laundry Detergent

I've been looking for little ways to save money here and there, and when I saw a recipe to make your own laundry detergent, I thought I'd give it a try! I made it today, but haven't tried it out yet. But let me say that my whole house smells amazing!! :) It was really easy to make, and according to the recipe it will do 576 loads!!! and guess how much i paid?? Right around $6.00!!! I'm sooo excited to start a load and see how it does. Once I find a really annoying crayon that is stuck in the dryer somewhere, and causing blue spots all over our clothes, I can finally do laundry again :) I'll post an update on how we like it!! Here's a link to the recipe and directions!! Oh, and for the soap, I used a Fels Naptha bar of soap. I found Everything I needed right in the detergent isle atWalmart. Enjoy, and have a beautiful Sunday!!!

Paper Book Pumpkin

I saw this on Pinterest and I had an old book lying around, so I decided to try it out. My pumpkin came out rather large, but It'll do for now.

I think I'll try to find an orange ribbon to make it more halloween-y (is that a word?). Here's the tutorial I used! The only thing I did differently is I didn't use a tea bag, but used some brown paint watered down on a paper towel to rub on the edges. Have a great Monday!

Halloween

I've been working on a whole bunch of things this week, and finally got one done :) I made Marlee's Halloween costume, and it took a looong time. I'm no master seamstress by any means, so i'm very glad i own a seam ripper...It was a little frustrating at times, but ended up turning out exactly how i imagined it would! I got the idea from a Pinterest photo. The original is a lot cuter, but I tried my best!! No tutorial on this one...I probably could never duplicate this again lol.

such a cute little model!!

So today I went to Hobby Lobby for the first time in my life. Sad right? Overwhelmed would be an understatement of how I felt about that place. That place has everything. Sooo, I had fun walking around (and dragging my husband) to check everything out! We walked by these really cute monogrammed picture frames that we both liked, but they were $25...I decided that it looked easy enough to make, so i did!!! It was a lot of fun! When I finished, I thought it needed a little something to sit next to it, so I grabbed some twine and mason jars and went crazy :)

Now maybe I need some cute flowers to put in my jars :) This whole project cost me a little over $11.

Bird Silhouette

I saw this cute picture on Pinterest and I knew I had to do it for Marlee's room. I did the same thing I did for this post. It took me all of 5 minutes to do, and I think it's so cute in her room :)

Ruffled Shirt

I saw this cute shirt on Pinterest and knew I had to make it for Marlee! I think it turned out soooo cute!! It really wasn't hard to make but it took a loooong time...Anyway, here it is!!! I added some cute little cap sleeve kind of things too :)

I can't get on to pinterest right now, but I will put a link to the tutorial as soon as I can get it!!

Got it!!! Here it is!!

LINK

WREATH...AGAIN

So I don't really like the last wreath I made..The colors aren't really what I envisioned. If anything, It will make a good wreath for the fall. So I went about making a new one this morning!! I love this one!!! I found my inspiration here.
I think She kind of walks you through what she did, but I just kind of made it up as I went along. It was really easy to copy!! AND i used the same kind of flowers from the necklace I made a few days ago! The biggest plus about this project was that it cost me nothing!! I had everything lying around from other projects!

TABLE RUNNER

I was looking at cute table runners and saw this one that i LOVE!!!! I must make this!! I love the fabric so much and want this exact one!!


Cute right??? Check out the tutorial here.

FELT FLOWER WREATH

Since we moved here I have wanted to make a cute wreath for our door, and finally did it!! I don't know how crazy i am about the colors i chose, but it will do for now..My projects never turn out as cute as the original, but I think the idea is cute!! I'm sure anyone could make one cuter than this.

I don't have anything to hang it on the door yet, so here it is hanging on the door knob :)

You can find a tutorial for this here

NO-SEW FABRIC FLOWER NECKLACE

I wanted to make a new neckalce, so i went to the thrift store and found this for $1.99. Ewww..This is the weirdest necklace i've ever seen..


Soo I found this cute tutorial and transformed this necklace into this one!!!






I think It's super cute, and only cost me $1.99!! Enjoy!!!

4TH OF JULY

I found an awesome tutorial for the cutest dress and just had to give it a try!! I've never really sewn clothing before, so it was interesting, but I think I kinda figured it out :)

my cute little model :)

i found the tutorial here!!
(hers is much much cuter, but hey, i tried!!)

NO-SEW PILLOW COVER

Okay, so i may be obsessed with pillows lately..don't hate. I was blog stalking ONCE again today and ran into a tutorial that I saw a while ago and finally had to try out. After all, the chair in my little girl's room looked lonely...I didn't have quite enough fabric so it's kinda scrunched up, but you get the picture. PLUS if you don't like to sew, this is perfect!! Check out the tutorial here!!!





It's kinda big for the chair, but it'll do for now!!

OWL LOVIE

I thought I was done for the day...but i got bored after I put the little one down and decided to make her a little lovie. I'm really into owls right now and have seen little stuffed owls in blogs everywhere, so i decided to make one for MY lovie :) I don't really have a tutorial for it, because I just made my own pattern and cut out eyes and a nose and stuffed it...Nothing too difficult. I also put rice at the bottom so i could put it in the fridge for when my lovie gets an owie. If you wanted to see a tutorial for how to make a similar one, go HERE.

MONOGRAM

I was crazy blog stalking the other day and found tons of things I can't wait to do!! I had some stuff lying around so I decided to start with this cute little plaque!! It was sooo easy and cute, i think :) Here's where I got the tutorial! I skipped the part where she put the beige paint underneath, and just put two coats of black on it. Also, I don't have a cricut like she does, so I just printed out a big "G" and carefully cut it out with a pair of scissors. While the black paint was still a little bit tacky, i put the paper down so it would stick a little bit so i would get clean lines.

BABY BOOTIES

I've been trying to make a decent pair of these little shoes for a while now but it's just not really working for me..My mom found a cute tutorial and I tried those today and this is what I came up with.





They're kind of awful if you can't tell...The straps ended up coming out in different spots..but i tried..i really tried. I just thought I would pass along the link again for anyone who might be interested. If you do it right, they should end up really cute, so don't use my attempt to judge the pattern :)

Here's the LINK!! Enjoy!!

FRAYED EDGE PILLOWS

Lately I've been wanting to change up the decor in our apartment but it seems so hard...We can't paint the walls, and have to make do with the floor plan...So I've been changing small little things and finally got to the couches! I decided to make some cute pillows to jazz it up :) So i found this amazing tutorial and made my own cute frayed pillows. I LOVE it and, once i get more fabric, will make some more soon!!! Here's what i came up with!!

These were sooo easy and fun to make!!

YUMMY COOKIES

I found a really good sugar cookie recipe online and tried it out!! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

and the Glaze:

• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons milk
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon butter

Directions

1. Melt the butter and add to rest of ingredients. Mix until creamy.

   

   

my little helper :)

FABRIC WALL ART

So, i saw this a while ago but never got around to trying it..but I was super bored tonight and decided to go for it, and it was soooo easy!! It only took me like 10 minutes to do. I've always like vinyl wall art but never wanted to spend the money on it... :) This is an awesome (and cheaper) alternative! I used this video tutorial!!



I made this "M" for Marlee's door. I just printed out a big "M" and traced that onto the paper. It kinda looks like i cut it out crooked, but that's just how the font made it :)
Maybe I'll Do some cute flowers with the scraps that i have left...