Girl Clock

We were short a clock.  My daughter's room needed a clock, because I need to know what time it is at bedtime to know how mean or relaxed I should be.  I couldn't find anything I loved for under $40, so instead, I bought a new kitchen clock for $15, and recovered my kitchen clock, with this lovely girl print.

I'm pretty sure its super homemade looking, but that's ok, Nan likes that there is a drawing of her, complete with her butterby wings.  I made a gross error, but the picture doesn't show it so we won't talk about it.

Not Canvas

To add more uniform my kitchen and more specifically to my kitchen curtains, I decided to wrap some left over material around a canvas.  But then I realized I could just recycle an old clock box. Which I think is actually easier because its easier to staple into cardboard than wood. Then I hung whisks up, I can't tell if its a cute inexpensive wall hanging, or if its a throw back to the 70s.

What do you think?  Don't answer that unless its affirmative. 

(My kitchen is looking so good but still in the works.  I have to paint my chair rail and then hang it up.  Our phone outlet is that ghetto brown color, nor we don't use a phone outlet, and one day we need a new table.  Our current one is falling part and the chairs doesn't match.) 

Kitchen Curtains

All of our windows came with these weird blind things, that actually work great with open windows, which we always have since we have no A/C.  All except our kitchen window. It was suggested I use a roman shade, but I have no modeling around the window so that was a no go.  I watched a lot of Clean House episodes on Netflix before me moved, so I really wanted to have curtain rings, because the designer uses curtain rings on every episode.  And even if I didn't like them before, after two seasons of seeing it, I wanted it.  Just like that Big Mac.

 So obviously I made these curtains, I wanted a light airy material, I was thinking like a white seersucker stripe with maybe a little bit of silver thread in it, but I found these material instead.  I think I love it, I love the material, but I didn't want a bold print that was too in your face.  My mom assured me this was not a bold print.  I love having a kitchen curtain. I think it matches quite well with the rest of my kitchen, I think it helps pull everything together.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Icebox Cake- 6th Birthday

So normally I post what I have done.  But this is a plan.  My son thinks he likes cake, but yet his pieces of cake go virtually untouched.  One day he is going to grow up just a bit more and realize no matter how exciting cake is, he doesn't like it.  What he does love is chocolate chip cookies, so I'm hoping to make this for his birthday next year.  Yeah I'm planning like eight months in advance. Its from Martha Stewart's July 2011 issue.  Its a Chocolate Chip Cookie Icebox Cake.   

Can you believe I couldn't find a picture of it anywhere online?  So this is snapshot of the magazine.  I did find this blog that changed the recipe slightly, seems very useful. I'll have to try it earlier than 8 months from now.

Also, speaking of icebox cakes, I've always wanted to try this one. But it calls for Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafer cookies, and considering they are hard to find in a B&M stores, and amazon makes you buy in bulk they are a little pricey and I've never thought my husband would appreciate $53 charge from Amazon for cookie to make a cake.   But then my mom came up with a great idea when I was talking to her about icebox cakes, use chocolate graham crackers, sure it would look different, and might taste different but I don't know what it tastes like anyway.  Although maybe they would go totally soggy.  I don't know, I'll have to try.

Subway Art Updated

I took a picture of my house, and washed it out, placed the words on top, then hit sepia and print.  I love it, I love seeing it in my bathroom.

Subway Art

I figured I need more reminders around my house about what my goals in life are for my family.  What better phrase than Joshua 24:15. But how to display?  Once again, no access to vinyl lettering, and I'm not much of a crosstitcher, never finished the one I started at 11. So I decided to make subway art that I could frame.  From all the blogs I see subway art is all the rage.  Not professional but not bad for my lack of graphic design software. My lines are all skewampy.

Cover Up

Above the door in my daughter's bedroom the paint was chipped and there was some large holes in the dry wall, so I figured it was cheaper to make a sign for above the door than repaint the whole room.  I bought a sign at Ross for $3, because that was cheaper than buying a new board at a craft store. Then sanded off the previous phrase and painted with left over latex paint from painting other rooms. I picked light green because she has quite a bit in her room, from the backing of the flower clip board, to her baby quilt, to one of the layers of tulle in her dust ruffle.  To see more pictures of her room.

 The lettering is by far perfect, because I free handed it.  Partly because this was suppose to be a low cost project, but mostly because I have no access to anyone who does vinyl lettering and partly because I wanted it to look unique. I had to hang it on wire because the previous plaque had holes for wire.

I think it turned out pretty cute.  Its sanded a bit for the shabby chic look, but the picture does not show that.  The phrase is, "Quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep, I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep."  Sure my daughter is barely a baby anymore, but I thought it was fitting, since I want her to stay two forever, and we still do quite a bit of rocking her, because she loves to be wrapped up in her blankets and held. Not to mention I still think of my 5 year old as my baby.

Too much time

The other day I just had too much time on my hands.  You can only read, clean your house, and watch TV for so long, I did all of the above for at least 2-3 hours each, plus the previous day was will with the same. (I of course I interacted with my kids while doing two out of the three, I pretty much ignore them when reading.) But oh what was I going to do other four hours, that didn't involved feeding my children or sleeping? And was cheaper than buy useless stuff to fill up my void with? Make cupcakes of course. 

I decided to go with a patriotic theme in honor of the Air Force Academy's graduation Thunderbird fly by. I think they are spectacular if I do say so myself.

Grandma Carol's Famous Strawberry Pies

My husband, his siblings, and everyone they went to scouts with grew up making my mother in law's famous strawberry pies with a secret ingredient. My husband is totally easy going about everything, except his mom's pies. I tried to make him one three years ago after his mom gave me the recipe. He told me it didn't taste right. That is the one and only time he has ever told me that. He dreams about opening a strawberry pie shop, named "Grandma Carol's Famous Strawberry Pies".  I was at my mother in law's the other day, and she sent me home with some red goo, she ran out of strawberries. I cut up the strawberries normally she keeps them whole de-stemmed. But it was her goo, and it still didn't taste right! I'm a pathetic.

I always wonder what Liz would think of the pie, in all her vast pie knowledge.  But it would do no good to ask, because she could never tell me if she didn't like them. My husband could never forgive someone who didn't like his mom's pies, and I can't keep a secret from my husband. 

Better Late than Never, Valentine Brownies

About two weeks after Valentine's we finally made our heart shaped brownies. I was suprised how much the boys like brownies. I haven't made brownies regularly since before I had a colicy infant. Chocolate doesn't do well for colic. I was surpised everyone liked brownies, I only remembered me liking them.

Even though these are all cute and valentiney everyone liked them plain better.

All things Gold

For the Gold Birthday party. 

We decided we needed gold awards, and treasure.  Instead of making all the awards gold, I decided to go frugal and had multiple colors.  They were a big hit everyone was pleased to have one pinned on them.  I of course made them in case there was any question in anyone's mind that they weren't homemade. 

I thought they looked pretty cute on the kids, and I was glad they didn't end up looking girly when the boys put them on.  For treasure everyone got gold crowns, which my son soon took off, for his more unique homemade crown. 

For the rest of the gold we had a treasure hunt via birthday boy's request.  The treasure they found was their gift bags. I couldn't find any gold gift bags I was impressed with, so instead I took lunch sacks and covered them in gold glitter.  I went with normal brown bags instead of white or anything else because it was a boy's party. The bag was filled with "gold," chocolate gold coins, winners gold metals, big plastic money, all stuff the birthday boy picked out.

I also caught Martha Stewart's article in a recent issue about Number Themed Parties, so we made a big gold 5 with balloons.

We finished the party off with white mini cupcakes with gold sprinkles.  I think mini cupcakes are better for kids, some kids only lick the frosting where other kids can eat two mini cupcakes, the amount of one normal size.

For course the party included a trip to the party store for gold colored supplies like plates and streamers.

Cookie Cake

We have a lot of parties and birthday celebrations during the middle of February, so in an effort to think of dessert that my family likes other than cake, I remembered my son loves chocolate chip cookies. Then I thought of a big cookie pizza cake thing. This was my first effort, and it was fun to make but needs a little perfecting and more chocolate chips. It was removable from the pan, but then I realized I didn't have anything big enough to put it on. I guess I need a bigger plater. My five year old was thrilled to see such a big cookie.

Mini Cakes

Mini cakes are my new favorite hobby. I've been interested in mini cakes for a long time now, made my first a year ago, but have recently become obsessed with the functionality of it, especially now that I have two mini (6") cake pans. I use two 6" cake pans from Wilton, with a box mix, then make cupcakes out of the left overs.  I have a beautiful small cake, more than enough cake for us to eat, with just enough left overs.  I freeze the cupcakes providing us with another desert on another day, preferably Monday night.  A mini cake fits on a dessert plate instead of a dinner plate.

Now I don't have to eat a whole cake in one week! I love it.  Plus they are so cute. Notice how that cake is smaller than my child's hand, and he doesn't even have large hands.

Valentine's Cards

I had a lot of squares of material with hearts cut out of them from my heart garland, so I recycled some of them to make valentine's cards.  I sewed the material on to paper to make the cards.  We bought packaged valentine's for the preschool class, but sent these to grandma's and such.

Valentine Birthdays

I teach two five years in church.  I technically have five kids, but two show up.  One of their birthdays is today, just like my hubby, so I made him cupcake cookies. He is now six.  The cookies turned out cuter than I expected. I was quite proud with myself.

I only made a few cupcakes because they were so much work, mostly I made valentine cookies.