So Ugly it is Cute?

If I don't get some things done around my yard and office I'm going to have one sorry winter and my hubby might ground me from the computer, which is most definitely justified. I feel like if I get everything done outside, then I can have an enjoyable and relaxing winter. The problem is that I actually have to do the work. I can't just sit around and gaze into blogland or Pinterest... and let's not forget the children... who is actually watching them or better yet, taking care of their needs? Not sure, I'm on the *%$# computer. (on a side note... the best part of posting on this blog is that it cleans up my language a little... fortunate for the reader I guess, although most are probably adults... haha okay, all of my 12 readers are probably adults.) Anyhow, I do have one of the biggest potty mouths, but that is my one and only flaw....lmao! Uh oh, now I got myself started... okay okay I'm rambling and I promise to keep this blog G rated from now on.
This lovely little wreath pictured below is the first one I have ever made. Not sure I like it but I did make it myself, and sometimes that is all that matters. I got the basic design style from K.I.S.S and that can be seen HERE. I think burlap is a great material for fall. I'm still staring at the picture trying to decide if its cute or ugly? Stylish? I don't know... I didn't want to use traditional fall colors because that is so last season... hahaha... You can't sense my sarcasm via text but I'm quite the smart alick... and I shouldn't even be allowed to use the phrase, "so last season," considering I still have clothes hanging in my closet from high school... oh, and I wear them!

Ugly or cute, doesn't really matter... I like it! I made the entire thing out of recycled or upcycled items. The flowers used to be maternity shirts and centers were old earrings. The yellow and gold embellishment was on a hair comb that I painted. The burlap I had on hand and I covered up an old ugly wreath that had seen better days. Happy Fall Ya'll!

Me and My Friend PaintShop Pro...

If it isn't bad enough that I'm already addicted to blogging... now I'm addicted to Pinterest. Last week while wasting massive amounts of time I found great camera and Photoshop techniques. Most of the things I looked at can be found HERE. After sorta kinda maybe figuring a few things out on my camera I switched gears and started looking for ways to improve my editing. I have a program called PaintShop Pro and it is very similar to Photoshop only better. After wasting yet another afternoon on youtube searching tutorials... I learned a ton, so I decided to test drive my new finds on my friend Carrie's poor little guinea pig children. I ended up taking 346 pictures and editing around 35 of them. Here is a preview... I just love the feet... oldest to youngest left to right.
I'm not yet a master at making the eyes sparkle, but I can make them change colors:)

Isn't he the cutest! Great thrift store prop and it was already blue:)

Saw this technique of slowing down the shutter speed and thought it turned out pretty cool... those are her brothers on the merry-go-round in the background moving.

Tried to make the eyes pop... maybe too much? I think they are beautiful.

Loving the frame... still haven't mastered the vignette thing but I'm getting there.

Now the above photo was a fluke... this was the very first pic I took of the evening... I applied a glamour technique and wah lah... beautiful and innocent.

Coconut and Lime Salt Scrub Tutorial

Thanks to the Lovely Laura at Live.Laugh.Photograph I was inspired to create some salt scrubs of my very own to gift to friends and teachers and what not. Her post is very good and I wanted to give her credit for the inspiration even though I kinda made up my own recipe. Just a dollop of this stuff scrubbed into your hands or feet and then rinsed leaves them silky smooth and smells so yummy! To begin you'll need EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), lime or lemon juice, coarse salt, some fragrance oil.
The recipe I have found works good is... 5 cups coarse sea salt, 1 cup lime juice, 1 cup EVOO, and 3 tsp of coconut-lime fragrance oil (plus more in the jars)

(Purchased the oil below at Walmart) Combine the ingredients in a large bowl. If it isn't your desired consistency then add a little more EVOO.

Smells so good..... I lastly spooned the mixture into jelly jars, then added about 1/2 tsp of fragrance oil to top off each jar. I added a little twine and label which you can print HERE. I printed on cardstock and attached to the jar. So charming and so easy! Perfect homemade gift for any occasion and so easy! This recipe filled 9 jelly jars.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and recipe. For a few other crazy little tutorials click HERE or to follow me on Pinterest click HERE.

Do It Yourself Baptism Cake

We recently baptized number 4. For these ceremonial celebrations it is definitely etiquettely correct to serve cake right? Well I didn't want a plain old sheet cake, so I went for one of my classic chocolate recipes and added a dove stencil. I downloaded the dove from the silhouette store and then cut it out on some pretty heavy card stock... also printing the baby's name at the bottom. I laid this over the cake and sprinkled my heart out. I carefully lifted the stencil and tahdah!

Fence to American Flag Tutorial

Hello blog... it has been awhile since I published anything that I was excited about... until today:) I finished this flag months ago but hadn't gotten around to posting about it until this morning! Hurray... the older two are at school and me and the girls are enjoying this overcast morning. This lovely little flag was made out of our old and rotting fence.

I saved three pieces of the wooden fence.... the metal gate was another project I may never post about... sorry!

I began by using a crow bar and removing the slats... one by one

Using the old and rusty nails I found a new place to hammer and placed the slots much closer together.

When I was finished it looked a little something like this.

Definitely needs some paint... spray paint was my first choice for primer, but this old wood needed a brush for sure... FYI... if you do something with old wood or barn wood... spray painting on primer will take forever and so just go straight for the can and a brush.

So after the paint and a sealer and a few post holes with a little sand for back filling, I stuck this beauty in the back corner of my backyard. Love it!

My sweet little two-year-old made such a patriotic little model!

For the love of blogging!

I'm so sorry to anyone who is looking for new content on this little blog. Summer is busy and so is this crazy house. I look forward to blogging many new projects this fall. I got to go to Hobby Lobby last week and loaded up with supplies for some fun new stuff once the kids go back to school. Remember my Flower Ball Post? These cute little things are super easy to make but very time consuming. Well right before we were gonna have company for the weekend I couldn't find the two I had in the living room. Both the 7 year old and 4 year old swore they had no idea where they were... and I believed them... silly me! In an effort to prepare for more company this weekend I was doing a little cleaning and guess what I found tucked away in the toy cupboard...The sweet little 4 year old looks at me and says, "oh, I guess you found them."
What a stinking little liar... and no remorse or fear or anything... not sure what I'm gonna do about this. Still laughing at that little boy, put still pretty peeved... maybe at myself because I absolutely believed him. Advice on 4 year old boys is always welcome! And so that it appears as though I have posted something of substance I'm re-posting this pretty flower ball picture... Now that they are Found!

Tuesday's Recipe... Kit Kat Cake

OMG... Crazy busy week, but in the midst of all the craziness... I stumbled upon this picture while I was searching new recipes. My little guy doesn't have a b-day until January but his two favorite things in this world are probably Kit Kats and M&Ms. He will love this!!! Some of the measurements really crack me up, since I'm so used to my "American" cups and teaspoons. The creator is Australian. Check out her POST... it is fun. Thanks Dunnn to Perfection for the great idea!