Personalized Clock

I made this project as a gift for a bridal shower recently. I found the tutorial long ago and finally decided to make it.

With the hubby's help of course...I don't touch the power tools :)

My friend, who is the bride and the recipient of this gift loved it. In fact everyone at the shower was amazed that I made it myself. The mother of the bride was almost in tears over how much she loved this gift. I even had a little old lady (friend of the bride's family!) that wouldn't leave until I gave her my contact info so I could make one with all of her grandkids on it.

The tutorial originally came from Rosy Red Buttons.  I will give you my .02 worth on this project too.

1. Sam's Club does not offer a 12x12 photo size. They don't offer any 'even' (8x8, 12x12) prints that I could see. I had to order it as a 12 x16 and cut four inches off. This was ok since my photo was 'artsy' anyways and it didn't matter if I cut it apart. But, for a family photo or something with subjects all the way to the edges you may have to work on it. I really wish I had photoshop!

2. Sam's club does have the cheapest prices. My poster cost $3.14 after taxes and it was ready in about an hour. The next lowest price was $6.99 at my Walgreen's and the prices went up from there. I looked into having it done as a engineer blueprint at Staples but they start at $9.99. I wanted to keep this cheap!

3. PicMonkey is a great site. I never really got into Piknik so I was not too sad to see them go. Maybe I just didn't try enough. I didn't really 'get' it. But, I tried PicMonkey and it was so easy and I loved how the picture looked.

4. I bought my clock set at Hobby Lobby for $4.99 and bought an extra set of longer clock hands that were black for $3.49. The set comes with short gold arms and they didn't go with the image in my head.

5. I bought my numbers at Jo-Ann's for $2.99 in the Scrapbook section. Hobby Lobby has a much better selection. And, better prices. I originally bought some there but I didn't like the way they looked once I was done with the clock. Since Jo-Ann's is closer and the shower was two days away I didn't have much choice. They still looked nice but they were flat and I wanted them to 'pop' off the face a bit.

All in all once my husband cut the board for me it went really fast from there. I was so happy with how it turned out and so was everyone who saw it. I LOVE this idea and am so glad I found the tutorial!

My finished product:

This picture is one of their engagement shots and sums up my friend's personality well. She has had this shot as her profile picture on FB for months so she was excited to see it as the clock I think too!

Tangled hairbow holder

My niece turned one this past weekend and surprisingly I did NOT make her entire gift :)

When my daughter celebrated her Minnie Mouse birthday this January people took the theme and 'ran with it'. And, we now own nearly EVERY 'Minnie's Bowtique' toy on the market. Most of her presents matched the party for some reason. I decided I wouldn't do that for my niece since I figured everyone would probably be choosing 'Tangled' toys to match her theme.

Thankfully (in my opinion) she got a wide variety of items. I went against my gut and decided that the one piece of her gift that I was going to make would have a Tangled theme to it.

I simply bought a mini unfinished birdhouse at Michael's for $1; the one I chose had a tin roof to it. I also bought three wooden spools for .79 each and a round wooden plaque for .59.

A little glue, some paint, yards of yarn and some handmade bows (also by me) and she has a pretty cute hairbow holder if I do say so myself :) My sister-in-law has been asking for bows for my niece more lately so I thought this would be the perfect way to gift a bunch of them to the little cutie.

Another cardbox

Last summer my BFF asked me to try my hand at making her the cardbox she wanted for her wedding. I did and it turned out better than I thought I could get it to look. I blogged about it back then, too.

I guess I did a really great job because I was asked to make another one like it. A very good friend of mine from college requested one for her nuptials this June. She liked a lot about the original one I did and was pretty open to the design-she told me I could do what I wanted. It just had to be pink and black.

I began looking around online for some inspiration pictures so I could change up the original box a little bit. This friend is such a fashionable, modern yet timeless kind of girl. I mean, she always had the most chic dormroom in my opinion. This was a girl who used to dress up on Halloween as her icon: Audrey Hepburn and she looked fabulous doing it. I knew this box had to be great.

I used the same damask print in black and white on only two of the boxes. The middle box I made solid black so I was able to incorporate the pink on it. I also spray painted the box tops this time so they had a shny/glossy finish to them. I was afraid that the paint would warp or peel the papier mache boxes but they are still perfect and I love the way the black glistens :) I made the flowers myself out of satin and left the top blank this time. These flowers are what I would think of if my friend were a flower....the whole thing suits her and the 'feel' of her wedding to a 'T'. These boxes seem to get more detailed as I go along but I get better with each one I complete!

Triple Layer Lemon Pie

Have you checked out Kraftrecipes.com? You should. They have some of the easiest and idiot proof recipes. I have tried a TON of them and it's usually the first place I look when I want something quick and simple.

I made this pie for dessert after Easter dinner at my house. This is the 'laid back' meal of the day with just my husband and I and the kids with my parents.

Now, when I say idiot proof I mean only if an idiot reads directions and package sizes.

Be careful. I thought there were only TWO sizes of Jell-O. The really big box and the small box. However, there are TWO small box sizes and evidently you have to search high and low and in the back of the shelf and all around to find the right one in lemon flavor. The recipe calls for 2 packages of 3.4 oz. jello. I just grabbed the small box that I thought was right...no, that would be the 2.9 oz box. Really??? We  need two boxes that are THAT close is measurement??? Needless to say my first pie did NOT turn out correct but after I bought everything over again adn got the right size this pie was delicious. Even my mom who doesn't care for lemon meringue pie and my husband who doesn't eat desserts often thought it was good.

Go here for the original recipe.

Triple layer lemon pie:

You will need:
2 pkg 3.4 oz. Jell-O lemon flavored instant pudding
2 cups cold milk
1 T lemon juice
1 graham cracker pie crust
1 tub Cool Whip, thawed, divided

Beat pudding mixes, milk and lemon juice with wire whisk about 2 minutes. This mixture will be thick. Spread about 1 1/2 cups of mixture into bottom of pie crust.

Whisk half of Cool Whip with the remaining lemon pudding mixture from above. Spread over pudding layer in pie crust. Top with remaining Cool Whip.

Refrigerate for 3 hours or until set.

Beautiful Breakfast wreath

I bookmarked this recipe over a year ago and couldn't wait to find an occasion to make it. This year I decided to make it part of our Easter breakfast. We do brunch with my family after church but we do breakfast and baskets at our house beforehand and this was a hit! I served it only with our hardboiled eggs and some sweetbreads....best meal of the day!

I originally found the recipe at Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo. My husband loved it so much he began thinking of different variations we could do with this not only for breakfast but for dinner too! The only picture I got of it though was the one HE took of the whole table before we ate. He was that excited over how good the whole meal looked I guess...he NEVER picks up the camera for anything!

All you need for a really good breakfast are one roll of crescent rolls, five eggs (scrambled), pre-cooked bacon, and shredded cheese. That's IT!!! If you click on the link she has step by step pictures but here is my run down (more for me in case the link ever goes inactive!)

Separate your eight crescent rolls and lay in a circle on a pizza pan covered with parchment. The wider ends should all overlap in the center of the wreath with the pointy ends on the outer edge. Almost looking like a sun. Lay one piece of precooked bacon on each piece of dough. Spoon your eggs  onto the wide ends of the crescent rolls in the center of the wreath but not filling the 'hole'. Sprinkle some of your cheese on top of the eggs and bring each pointy end of the crescents up over the eggs and into the middle. Top the wreath with more cheese and bake until the crescent rolls are done. You should have something that looks like this:

Again, there are much better pictures on the original link but we were too hungry to try this that we didn't stop to take any more pictures!

Dinosaur Tail

I gave birth to a little girl over two years ago. When they said: "It's a girl!" I immediately began dreaming and looking forward to dresses and cute shoes and tea parties and hair bows and all those girly things. I do have tea parties but while my girl wears outfits like a t-shirt and her pull-up with her snow boots :) And, forget about hair bows. They don't last five minutes in her hair usually and that is only when she lets me brush her hair without screaming thorugh it. I spend most of my days chasing her around trying to get her ponytail holder and bow back in her hair.

A few months ago was when she showed some real interest in two new things.

Dinosaurs and Pirates.

She still shouts 'argh, mateys!' whenever she sees even a picture of a pirate. And if she sees a dinosaur she puts her hands out like claws and begins to roooooooaaaarrrr! and chomp her teeth. While my husband was out of the country for a while back in February I decided to make her a real dinosaur. Plus, it kept me from going crazy and gave me something to do :)

I found the super easy instructions here after finding them on Pinterest.  I put it on her that morning and she had a BALL!! She thought this was the greatest thing ever. My pictures are not the best because I couldn't get her to stand still long enough to take a good one! She also really liked helping me stuff it :)

All in all the supplies cost me about $8 and I bought 2 remnants and had a lot left over. GREAT project and so super simple to follow and understand!

Easter Cupcakes

I haven't been doing much 'magic' lately outside of making sure two children survive each day and get their basic needs met. Well unless you count not drowning in laundry magic :) But, I do have a few things that I am hoping to blog about soon.

Starting now.

I asked my mom to let me provide Easter dessert. She does a fancy brunch and when my siblings leave to be with their 'other sides' they come home with us (my 'other side' is out of state) and we do a much lower key dinner. I found these adorable cupcakes on Pinterest and made some changes to make them less time consuming for me. I decided to do this at 9:00 the night before Easter when I was exhausted and kicking myself for stretching myself too thin for the weekend :)

Here is the link to the instructions. And, her blog is amazing! Check out more than just this recipe. I bookmarked the whole thing instead of just the one link!

And, here is my version of the cutest dessert ever...

The kids loved my cupcakes and even a few of the adults indulged. I think they came out great and was really proud of myself.

Instead of the mini chocolate chips I took mini brown m&m's and flipped them over so the 'm' didn't show. Instead of piping on a beak I went through my sprinkle stash and found a container of black and orange large circles. I bought them and only needed the black ones so I was lucky to have a bunch of ornage ones left. I snapped one in half and put both pieces, broken side down, in the frosting and it looks just like an open beak. I also didn't add any feet or wings to mine and I think they are just fine without them.

The only problem with these is I still have about six of them left and they are staring up at me every time I walk through my kitchen...very hard to resist :)