A Very Dandoislion Life

My Friend Felt

2012-04-01T15:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had a really cool opportunity. The school I attended from K-12 had a craft fair and I got to set up!! It was kind of a slow day, but I did MUCH better at this craft fair than I did at the one I set up at last summer. That made me happy. So I took all the stuff I had stockpiled, including all those super cute felt headbands, AND I made some pins and keychains to go along with them. I'm bummed because I never took a picture of the keychains, so I can't show you those right now. I do have one of them left, but I'll wait to show you pictures until I have a few more to go with it. Here are the pins I made.

I started with the mushroom.

Then I did the heart.

Then the star.

And finally, the flower.

Of the four, only the heart sold this weekend, but that's okay. They're all going to go into my Etsy shop hopefully this week, if it ever stops raining! It's tough to take pictures without the sun! I'm also hoping my Mom will send me the pictures she took of my booth so that I can do an entry with them. I was very worried that my booth wouldn't look cute because I couldn't bring a lot of the props I wanted to use. It's tough to cart all of your stuff, two dogs (one being an Irish Wolfhound), clothes for the weekend, AND still have room for props. Despite all of that, I think my booth looked really cute and I got a lot of compliments on my stuff. My ego is definitely feeling it today. Now I can't wait until the next time I can set up somewhere!!

I've Been At It Again!

2012-03-07T01:41:00.000-05:00

I went kind of crazy making headbands this week. Playing with all the colors is just too much fun, and I keep getting more ideas for different creatures and things to put on them.

Here they are, all lined up and read to go!

I LOVE this one. I've had the flower in the center for ages and could never decide what to use it on. Found it!!

It's just so darn pretty. Then I made another star headband, as promised.

I think I might like it even better than the last star I did.

The gold star button is sparkly. I really appreciate that!

Another heart! This one in purples and pinks.

With yet another sparkly button!! The white button is one of my vintage buttons, so I'm excited about that. Then I did two different bird headbands because I was loving the green/blue color combination.

This time I really played around with the colors of buttons and thread.

Yet another vintage button! Can you tell which one it is? I need to thank my Mom now because she let me raid her button stash to find some super bright buttons. Then we went shopping so I could get even more buttons.

I love this guy a lot. Can you spot the vintage button here? This one is also sporting some of the aforementioned "new" buttons.

His coloring just makes me happy. That brings me to my favorite of this batch....my hedgehog.

Isn't she awesome?? Oh my gosh, I just love her to pieces. Seriously, I am in love.

She was a LOT more work than any of the others, but she was definitely worth it. Now I just hope that they sell at the craft fair!!

What do you think?? Do you love them? Like them? Hate them? Indifferent to them?

Oh Headbands, How I've Missed You

2012-02-28T12:02:00.001-05:00

Sunday afternoon I was supposed to do a craft fair, but it got cancelled. Bummer right? Well, I took the extra time to make some really cute headbands. The headbands themselves are re-purposed t-shirt sleeves. Then I cut out, and embellished, some felt shapes.

This is the first one I did. Originally I wasn't going to put stuffing inside the heart, but once I got into the project I changed my mind.

Man am I glad that I have a pretty decent button stash!!! These are all newer buttons, but I love mixing the vintage with the new.

This is the second one I cranked out. (I say cranked out as if it only took me a few minutes. HA) I decided to try some veins on the leaves and I'm very glad I did. They are so cute!

My favorite thing about this, besides the leaves and that turquoise is in my favorite color group, is that I finally got to use my turquoise and orange buttons!!

This one I think I would like better if I'd had a more yellow piece of felt for the wing. Don't get me wrong, I still really love it, but the wing is just a tad bit more orange than I would have liked.

You can see it a little better in this picture. Note to self: invest in more colors of felt.

This is the last one I finished this weekend/Monday morning. I'm not typically a big red, white, and blue kind of person, but I really love how this one turned out.

I'm going to do another one with a red star and blue headband. Who knows, maybe I'll make a bunch of them in different red, white, and blue combinations. I'm working on another flower headband, so the answer to that query is: most likely I will.

What do you think? Cute??

87? Way to go Grandma!!

2012-02-21T10:41:00.000-05:00

My grandma "TuTu" turned 87 at the beginning of February. She's a pretty awesome lady and we all love her tons. For her birthday party everyone came to my parents house. We had pizza, wings, pickles & olives, and cake with tons of ice cream. My mom got one of those little helium tanks so that we could do balloons and she FINALLY got her Cricut Expression out to make an enormous Happy Birthday banner.

The sign also has all of Tutu's different names. That's my goofy sister Kira back there making faces at me and that's my Mom carrying the can of Scrubbing Bubbles around. She was doing some last minute cleaning.

There's my grandma! She was in rare form that night. She's a sassy lady and can be VERY sarcastic sometimes. Huh, wonder where we all get it from?

That card WAS hilarious!! For the last few years I've been trying to make more of my gifts for people, especially my grandmas, because I think it means more to give a gift that you had your grubby meat grabbers all over. This is what I put together this year:

Some pretty rosette magnets. They were simple to make and Tutu really liked them. Plus they're functional. She has many, many, many grandkids and great-grandkids, so she always has lots of stuff to hang on her fridge! I even made a bunch more because they were so fun to do!

Cool New Rugs!!

2012-02-20T01:53:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I decided to try out a new rug pattern for my t-shirt rugs. I made a bunch of small rugs that turned out great. Last week I decided to try my hand at a bigger rug. I chose the colors I had the most of in my stash: pink, dark blue, white, and black. I ended up running out of black, so I "yarned" a few more shirts.

This rug is about 32 inches. This pattern is great because I had no issues with curling or wrinkling. It increases very nicely.

Another thing that really helps is that I worked it on a flat surface and my stiches have gotten more consistent.

This one took me about 3 hours to do and that includes cutting the extra shirts into yarn. I actually finished it on Saturday after my parents and niece left. (They came down to bring us a new dryer!!!!) When I was done with it I decided to start a new one. This one I did in all blues and turquoises.

This one needs to be stretched out a little or something because it's looking kind of pointed on the outside round where the increases are.

These are some of my favorite colors. I wish I'd had a bigger stash of yarn!!!

This one took me about 2 hours or so, but it's a bit smaller than the other one. I think it's 26 or 27 inches if I remember right. Stitching these two rugs severely depleted my stash of t-shirt yarn. No problem though, it just gives me an excuse to go to the Salvation Army and do some shopping!!!

Feathery Yarn Wreath--Take 2

2012-02-01T02:01:00.001-05:00

Back in September, I decided to try my hand at making a yarn wreath. It went SO well that I gave the wreath to my Mom for her birthday...without taking a picture of it first. Oops. It was gorgeous and I'm still mad that I forgot to take a picture. Mom loves it, and she has it hanging in her cubicle at work now. I had so much fun making the wreath that I started another one right away. Then I promptly forgot about it, adding it to the pile of unfinished projects.

Last week, as my morning sickness was on vacation, I finished a couple of projects from that pile. The yarn wreath was one of them.

It felt amazing to finish things that have been hanging around my craft room (and brain) for months. I really like the way this one turned out, but the one I made for Mom really is better. Hmmm, maybe I should get her to take a picture of it for me.

You know, the idea of a "pile" of unfinished projects is actually very misleading. I have an entire room full of stuff that is awaiting my attention. This weekend we had some family visiting and a munchkin photographer managed to capture some photographic evidence...

Scraps waiting to be made into flowers. Frames waiting to be made into something!

T-shirts waiting to be cut into t-shirt yarn, headbands, and scraps for flowers

Spray paint waiting to be, well, sprayed. More t-shirts and scraps.

And one of my favorite unfinished projects of all....the hubs! He's a very proud and excited Daddy-to-be.

Seriously though, this is what I'm working on right now, or I will be as soon as I finish this post!

Hopefully it's going to work out. It's another t-shirt rug, but this one will be a series of connected circles of various colors. Tonight I'll be working on the blue circle. It's a different pattern than the one I used when I crocheted the rugs for my nieces at Christmas. I'm not sure whether I like it yet or not. The finishing off is bothering me. I don't like the bump it leaves, but I can't seem to figure out how to make it disappear. Anyone have any tips??

It's a Pretty Big Deal...

2012-01-27T14:04:00.001-05:00

that I am finally blogging again!!! I've been feeling horrible, and haven't been crafting since just before Christmas, because....I'm pregnant!!!! Today I am 13 weeks and am finally starting to feel good on a consistent basis. Hopefully that means you'll be seeing more of me. Want to hear the story of how we found out? It's actually kind of funny, but long.

Two days before Thanksgiving I was supposed to start my period. I've ALWAYS been very on-time for that event, which is crazy since I'm late for everything else. I felt horrible that week, so I figured that I must have recorded the my start date wrong for last month's cycle. The night before Thanksgiving, I was at work, and I kept thinking "Okay, if it doesn't start tonight I'll buy a test in the morning." Well, morning came and I'd talked myself out of it. Then, the hubs was late meeting me to head to my parents' house. I was annoyed and had to use the bathroom, so I headed over to the grocery store. I went to the bathroom and walked around for awhile. The entire time I was arguing with myself about whether to buy a test or not. (I've made that mistake before. You know, I was a little late and bought a test out of excitement only to have my period start an hour later.) Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and bought the test. Then I spent 10 minutes in the bathroom trying to decide whether to take it right then or to wait. I ended up taking it and got this result...

I almost passed out right there in the grocery store bathroom!!! My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for almost 8 years with no luck. None. Then this!! Well, needless to say, I forgot all about being annoyed with him for being late!! When he showed up I showed him the test and he was speechless. He was shaking, he was so excited! The hour and a half drive to my parents' house was a killer. We couldn't WAIT to show someone!!! As soon as we got there I took another test, you know, just because. That one looked like this....

Just a little bit darker!! Then, I showed my Mom and said "So, um, what would you think if you saw these? Do you think they would be positives?" Her response? "Well, it seems like it. Are they yours?" HA HA HA. She thought maybe they belonged to one of my girls at work or something. When I told her they were mine she was in shock. Then the hugging began. This was THE best Thanksgiving EVER. We told both of my parents and all of my siblings, and then the hubs told his family when he called them out West later that day. There was NO keeping it a secret. It would have been impossible for us.

Not too long after that, the morning sickness set in and my desire to do ANYTHING went away! Now though, I'm feeling pretty good and have started crafting again! I even have a post coming up on a wreath I just finished. Thanks to everyone for sticking around. I can't WAIT to get started on the nursery. There are tons of projects floating around in my head for that one!!!

Rag Rug Re-Do!!

2011-12-05T00:38:00.001-05:00

So, I told you all that I was thinking about ripping apart the red/yellow/orange rag rug and stitching it back up to look more like the pink and purple one, right? This week I did just that.

Here's what it looked like before

I wasn't crazy about the way the colors kind of step-laddered. So after a re-do, here's what it looks like now.

I like that all the colors are in their own rounds. Oranges are all together, yellows are all together, and reds are all together.

I'm still having some trouble with wrinkling/curling. If I have time I may take the last round out to fix it, but the curling is very minor. It might be something that bugs me enough to fix it, but it might be something I can live with. I haven't decided yet. Part of my problem, I think, is coming at the end of the rounds where it joins. I haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet, so there's a little bit of ridge there. I think I also need to work on my stitch tension. Just some things to work on for the next one!!

Rag Rug Tutorial---Sort Of

2011-12-03T09:41:00.001-05:00

A couple of people have requested a tutorial on how I made the rag rugs I've posted in the last couple of weeks. To be honest, I used tutorials I found on other blogs and a pattern I bought from CraftSanity magazine. So I would feel bad if I redid all their work and called it my own. Instead, what I'm going to do is provide all the links I used to get my info.

The T-Shirt Yarn tutorial I used came from Let Birds Fly. My strips are 2" wide for this project because it makes the rugs thicker.

I started off using an excellent tutorial on crocheting round rag rugs from The Sunroom. This pattern uses single crochets and I used it to make the rag rug no one has seen. You know, the starting rug that doesn't look that great and I have every intention of fixing, eventually.

Then I found this pattern using double crochets. It was published in issue 4 of CraftSanity magazine and you can get the entire magazine, as a PDF, for $5. It's definitely worth it because, turns out, there's lots of good stuff in there!! I really like the way this pattern works up. It's pretty and it's fast.

I think that's it! Oh, the hook I use is a size Q, 16mm. Hope that helps!!

Another Rug!

2011-11-28T00:30:00.001-05:00

Last week I finished the T-Shirt Rag Rug for my younger niece, and I have to say, I love the way this one turned out!! Her favorite color is purple, so I tried to use more purple than pink.

The yarn I used for the two inside rounds is actually doubled up yarn. The first couple batches of T-Shirt yarn that I made, I cut really thin. When I wanted to use it for this project I just doubled it up. It worked perfectly and it gave it kind of a neat texture.

The fabric on the last couple of rounds came from a twin size sheet made from t-shirt material.

I'm so happy with the way this one turned out that I'm actually about to rip apart the rug I made for my older niece so that I can fix it. I like having all of the pinks in their own rounds and all of the purples in their own rounds. The orange/yellow/red rug has more of a ladder appearance to the rounds. Yep, definitely changing that!!

T-Shirts Transformed

2011-11-20T22:47:00.001-05:00

A month or so ago I saw these awesome tutorials on Pinterest about making your own t-shirt yarn. I knew I had to try it. So, I bought some t-shirts at the Salvation Army on "Family Day"...

And got to work. It doesn't take long to do, especially once you get the hang of it. I got a bunch of yarn from this batch of shirts.

I used a couple of different tutorials because I was confused about one of the steps, but the best one is from Let Birds Fly. With all this yarn I was psyched to get started on some projects, so I started a rag rug. A rag rug that I will not show you here because I messed up the last couple of rows. It ended up getting all wavy and the method I was using to fix it was, shall we say, jacked. I'm planning on ripping the last few rows out to fix it, but I'm too busy right now working on Christmas presents!! Speaking of Christmas presents, I made this rug for my oldest niece. (SHHHH, no one tell her!!!!)

For the last couple of years her favorite colors have alternated between orange, yellow, and red, so I used all three. I think I like it. It's MUCH nicer in person.

I wish the rows were only one color, but it's tough to get enough yarn with t-shirts to do that. Time to start looking for some sheets!!! What do you think?? Do you think she'll like it? I hope so!

Oh, one more thing...I got some new socks this weekend...They're wicked bright....

They seem to almost glow, and there are five more pair where this one came from.

HollaBirthaWeen 2011!!

2011-11-15T00:51:00.001-05:00

HollaBirthaWeen was awesome again this year. This year had some of THE best costumes, and we had a ton of fun.

For those of you who don't know, HollaBirthaWeen is a Birthday/Halloween mash-up started by my friend Fuss and me a few years ago. Our birthdays are 5 days apart, and since they're only a few days before Halloween, we invented HollaBirthaWeen. Here's a picture of Fuss this year. She's dressed as a "Nana" because she turned 30 this year. What an old broad. (Side note: please don't judge our icky kitchen floor. It's super old and one of the major projects on our to-do list for "hopefully" this coming year)

She had cookies in her bag and kept asking people if they wanted one. Here's another pic of her with our fancy birthday cake.

Yeah, our friend Vic, the crazy cat lady made that for us. I almost couldn't eat any of it because it was TOO convincing.

That stuffed cat moves and cries like a real cat. CREEPY!!! We had some great costumes this year, did I mention that already?

That's my husband with the "beard" shirt on. If you don't watch the digital shorts from SNL, you won't understand his costume. He played the song and danced for his entrance.

That's my little brother as Johnny The Homicidal Maniac and my brother-in-law as Sheriff Rick Grimes from Walking Dead.

My brother's girlfriend as Nail Bunny, Johnny The Homicidal Maniac's pet. Those ears are awesome.

Sexy Sax Man!!!! He can play that sax too. He serenaded us with "Careless Whisper" all night long.

My sister Kira in her Steampunk costume (she and our Mom MADE that hat!), my sister Shellie as BatGirl In Sensible Shoes, and me, as the 11th Doctor from Doctor Who. I couldn't find a bowtie and didn't have time to make one, so I used a ribbon. You get the idea though. Soon after this things started to get crazy....

Our friend Laura makes THE most beautiful pig I've ever seen!!!

We had SO much fun, and then, the next day....THIS happened....

The hubs and his cousin Scott hanging out in the snow getting jazzed for winter camping. It was super heavy snow and it knocked our power out. Luckily, it was only out for about 8 hours. We sat and talked with Scott and his beautiful wife. It was actually very peaceful.

I wonder what will happen next year?!?

All Apologies and New Hobbies!

2011-11-13T11:29:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone!! Did you miss me?? Well, I know that it's typical for a blogger to apologize after a long absence and give a reason for their lack of blogging. However, I'm not going to do that. I took some time off because, well, this blog is for me, by me, and I just didn't feel like working on it. (I'm fickle like that) During my absence I was still pretty busy crafting (and forgetting to take pictures of the stuff I finished), helping with flood clean-up, going on vacation with my entire family to Florida, and hosting one hell of a kick-ass HollaBirthaWeen party. I'm back now though, so don't worry.

One of the things I was supposed to be doing while I was away was some craft fairs. That didn't turn out the way I'd imagined it. The first one was a bust. It was very poorly organized, but I still managed to sell a couple of things. The second one, well, I got sick and couldn't go. The third one, I got busy with vacation planning and FORGOT to send in the application. Ugh. There's a bunch of stuff that I finished up specifically for these fairs, but forgot to post them here. I'll show you just a couple...

These frames were originally a bright gold. I spray painted them silver and glazed them black. I haven't decided what to do with them yet though.

This chalkboard was originally a really super ugly painting in a cheap plastic frame. With a little spray paint, I got this!

This frame is one of my favorites. I think it would be awesome to use as a card display at Christmas, but it could also be a jewelry holder. There are a bunch more projects to show you, but I think I'm going to give them each their own post because they're just that awesome.

Another of the things that happened in my blogging absence was that my area got hit with some major flooding. In my last post I mentioned the weather we were experiencing as a consequence of Hurricane Irene. Well, 2 weeks later we got dumped on again by Tropical Storm Lee. It devastated large portions of our area and many of our friends were seriously affected by the flooding. I spent a couple of mornings after work helping our friend Laura clean up at her bookstore in Owego, NY. If you are ever in that area, make sure you check out Riverow Bookshop. It's a fantastic store! I wish I'd had time to do more, but by then it was time for vacation!!

My family took an incredible vacation to Orlando. We hit up the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Universal (Harry Potter world was my FAVORITE!!), Sea World, Aquatica, Medieval Times, and the Beach all while staying at a gorgeous house that my parents rented for us for the week. This topic deserves its own post, so stay tuned for that.

Within a couple weeks of our return from vacation it was time for HollaBirthaWeen. This year we had some of THE best costumes. Again, it deserves its own post, so I better get crackin on that one too.

Lately, I've been really busy crocheting. A few years ago my Mom bought me a kit to teach myself how to crochet, and I've gotten pretty into it. I've done a bunch of dishcloths...

Love these colors.

I've also started working on some African Flowers. Eventually they will be a blanket.

So that's my last couple of months in a nutshell. Don't worry, I'll be back soon with new posts. Thanks to my sister Kira, I'm feeling very inspired now. See you soon!!

Weather Insanity!!

2011-09-08T11:07:00.000-04:00

Okay, I want you all to know that I AM still here. Like so many other people, last week our power was out thanks to Hurricane Irene. After 3 days without power, I didn't feel like crafting. I'm trying to play catch-up because I'm supposed to do a craft fair on Saturday. However, in the past couple of days we've had torrential rains that led to some pretty serious flooding. That led to some extra time at work and now I need to sleep. I'm just tired. I know that there are a lot of people out there that have it waaaay worse than me. I'm super thankful that I made it home today, my house is standing, and I have electric.

On that note, I'm going to go sleep for a few hours now. Maybe when I get up I'll actually accomplish something crafty. Wish me luck.

Christmas? Already?

2011-08-17T01:20:00.000-04:00

So, I did my first craft fair this past weekend. It wasn't exactly what I had imagined, but more on that later. I just want to show you a couple of wreaths I did for the craft fair. I started out with some wreath forms that I bought at a yard sale for $.25 each. Yes, I said a quarter each! The lady selling them had 6, so I took them all. At that price how could I not? Anyway, I wrapped them both in two different color ribbons. One has a gray ribbon on the bottom and the other has white. Then I wrapped them with some ribbon my Mom gave me and added some book pages to fill them out. I used more of the base ribbon to make a hanger.

The pages came from an old romance novel I found in the attic. I have to admit, I was skimming the pages as I attached them. The story was, well, kind of lame, but still entertaining.

You can't see it very well, but I sprayed the pages with silver/white Smooch Spritz. They have a shimmery look.

You can kind of see the shimmer in this picture.

I think they'll be really pretty for Christmas, but they could also be displayed year-round in the right kind of decor. They didn't sell at this fair, but I'm doing another one next month. Hopefully they'll sell. Or maybe I'll just list them in my Etsy shop. It's looking pretty bare these days.

My 1st Jewelry Box

2011-08-10T01:50:00.002-04:00

I'm still here. This weekend is my first ever craft show, so things have been crazy here at home. Then last weekend my body had the nerve to get sick. Apparently it didn't get the memo about the craft fair coming up. So in all the insanity, blogging has taken a serious backseat.

One of the projects I'm taking with me this weekend is my first attempt at making over a jewelry box.

Here's the original

And the inside

My hair looks cute, right? Anyway, I got this little beauty for $3 at a yard sale. That was a little more than I wanted to pay, but that's just because I'm really cheap. I spray painted it turquoise, added some scrapbook paper in various spots, and painted a white dandelion on the front.

The second drawer met with an unfortunate end. Somehow in the spray painting process it swelled up. When I put it back in its spot, it got stuck. I yanked, and the knob fell off. Oh well, it makes for a nice little cubbyhole I guess.

I'm not positive, but the paper inside the big cubby looks uneven. I am NOT a precision person. Ugh. No hair glimpses in this picture. Sorry, it didn't look so hot today. I got it cut anyway. Stay tuned for a post about that!

Do you like my dandelion? I think it's pretty cute. Well, maybe it'll sell and maybe it won't. Only time will tell.

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Adventures in Baking

2011-07-26T03:40:00.000-04:00

At my house when I say I'm going to bake something, that usually means I'm about to experiment. I typically feel the inspiration to bake something new at THE worst possible time. For example, in the middle of a flipping heat wave, 10 minutes before I need to lay down to sleep before work, or my personal favorite--when I'm missing some, or most, of the ingredients.

Last week I was dying to make zucchini bread. I picked an enormous zucchini from the garden and some wild blueberries from around our house. I really wanted to use the recipes I found last summer to make some muffins and bread. Problem? It was hovering around 105 degrees outside and was already 83 in my kitchen. Yeah, not a good time. I waited....and today was cooler!! That meant baking was the plan as soon as I got home from work.

First up, Banana/Blueberry/Currant whole wheat muffins. Oh yeah baby! My husband is in love with these bad boys. Today's batch is the fourth I've done in 2 weeks, but it's the first batch with currants (picked from the bush in our backyard). I found the original recipe last year on AllRecipes.com and made some changes based on reviews and my personal tastes.

Banana/Blueberry/Currant Muffins

Ingredients

- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
- 1/2 cup fresh currants
- 1/2 cup applesauce
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix the whole wheat flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, mix the bananas, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla extract.
3. Mix the banana mixture into the flour mixture until smooth. Fold in the blueberries and currants. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan.
4. Bake 16 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
The structural integrity of this batch was a bit compromised by the immense amount of berries I packed into it. However, the taste is phenomenal. You can find the original recipe here. Did I mention that these are only 4 Weight Watchers points? Cause they are. That's not too bad for a muffin!!!

Now, on to the Zucchini Bread!!! This is another recipe I found on AllRecipes.com last summer. It's my favorite zucchini bread recipe EVER. The problem with the recipe as written on the site is that it uses a LOT of vegetable oil. Last year I used half applesauce and half vegetable oil and was all set to do that again today. But then I used the last of my applesauce on the delicious muffins. So, I had to find a new substitute.

After a little digging around on the internet I discovered that you can substitute beans for vegetable oil! You just puree the beans and sub it in for the oil. If you're making something that will be light in color, you use a light colored bean. If you're making something dark, like brownies, you use a dark colored bean. I grabbed a can of white northern beans out of the cupboard and pureed it up in my blender. Then I got to work.

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
Directions
1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
My loaves took a lot longer than the recipe said they would, and I had to turn the temp up to 350 degrees towards the end because, well, I needed to get to bed. I'm not sure whether the difference is because I increased the amount of zucchini, added the beans, used bigger pans, or my oven is starting to fail. No matter, the bread is awesome!!! It's even better than when I made it last year. It's by far the best zucchini bread recipe I've ever had.

With the bean substitution this bread is only 5 Weight Watchers points for a whole slice, and 3 for half (I say go for the whole slice). Without the substitution, using the full cup of vegetable oil, a slice is 7 points. You can find the original recipe here.

Did I mention that I'm on Weight Watchers? Because I am! I've been on the plan for almost three months and have lost about 12 pounds so far!! I'm going to try to share more of my food type things with you as I experiment my way down to a smaller size.

More Stash Busting Butterflies!!!

2011-07-19T01:04:00.000-04:00

After that first round of butterflies, I wanted to do more!! I scoured my local thrift shops to no avail. Then I checked the closet in my craft room and found 3 metal butterfly coat hook thingy ma jigs!! I forgot to take a "before" picture because I was really excited to get them painted. I just spray painted them and gave them a quick glaze.

You definitely cannot see the glazing in these pictures. It was just too sunny to get a good shot of it!!

You can kind of see the glaze a little bit in this picture, right up near the body.

Same with this little guy.

I think the orange is my favorite color, but I really love that green!!!

That was a super quick project. I'd say it took about an hour, same as with the other butterflies. Want a sneak peek at what I'm working on right now?? Good, because I have pictures.

Exciting, right?? I thought so!!

A Good Sign...

2011-07-15T10:30:00.000-04:00

It's a pretty good sign that you've inhaled too many spray paint fumes when you start asking your dog for advice on paint colors. Wait, I do that ALL the time... Please don't judge me! She looks like she might know a thing or too about color choices, or food.

Since I'm here already, guess what! Marni, at Sassy Sites, uses a random number generator to pick a top spot every week from her FFA Friday link party and this week she chose me!! She'll be doing a spotlight post on me on Sunday and my button will be displayed on her blog. Cool right?? I certainly thought so!! Marni does a lot of work spotlight all bloggy awesomeness out there.

Also, Gail, from My Repurposed Life, "caught" my butterflies this week at her Catch as Catch Can link party. Gail is incredible with power tools and creating awesome furniture out of, well, junk! Check out her blog to see some of her fantastic creations.

And finally! My Chicken Wire Memo Boards are in the running for Best of June at To Sew With Love!!! Head over there and vote for me! I'm losing badly right now to some super incredible projects. Voting runs until Saturday I think. The ladies at To Sew With Love are awesome. They work really hard promoting the handmade world and sharing their incredible sewing tutorials with the world. Go give them some love (and vote for me).

Well, I'm off to inhale more spray paint fumes and chat with the dogs a bit more.

More Tiebacks!

2011-07-13T00:15:00.001-04:00

Okay, so, I have officially applied for my sales tax ID number so that I can get started doing craft shows! I won't go into my opinions on the fact that I have to do this. Suffice it to say, it doesn't make me a happy camper. I'm hoping that it ends up being worth it!! Lately I've been working on a LOT of projects because obviously I'll need stuff to sell at said craft fairs. Last week I finished another set of curtain tiebacks that I LOVE.

The ribbon flower is made from an awesome purple/silver mesh wired ribbon.

The ribbon between the flowers is also a silver/gray color.

The flowers on the other side are from a gray satin-y material that I blinged up with some crystals by Jolee's Jewels.

They're so pretty!! When I posted the last set I made, someone asked about how they work. On the back of each flower is a magnet. When you put them on the curtain where you want them, just make sure a little of the fabric is between the magnets. No hooks on the wall or anything.

GEEKING OUT on the INTERNETS

2011-07-07T12:37:00.000-04:00

My sister, Kira, called me a little while ago to inform me that she was in the process of geeking out. She's watching the live feed from the Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 world premiere in London. We chatted for a little bit, and then, well, I logged on to my computer. I keep tearing up! I'm such a nerd, and I'm VERY proud of it!!!! I can honestly say that I've never cared this much about the end of a movie series. If you are a Harry Potter geek, go check out the live feed. If you're anything like Kira and me, you'll tear up and clap and cheer loudly.

Another 70's Re-Do

2011-07-07T02:03:00.000-04:00

Remember these frames from the post I did a few weeks ago about my thrifting finds? I'm pretty sure they're from the 70's, but I forgot to check.

They're not much to look at art-wise, but the frames are sweet. At first I was going to make more backless frames, but then I got a better idea, a bulletin board/dry erase board set! In awesome colors...orange and purple. Oh yeah baby.

Unfortunately the writing is kind of hard to see. All of my dry erase markers were dried out (ha ha) except one. It's not the best kind to use for this, but I really wanted to share this with everyone. The fabric I used behind the glass is vintage fabric that my Mom gave me. Mom is great, she fully supports my crafting habit and, in fact, encourages it with gifts of awesome stuff. The rosettes I made from vintage fabric from my stash. I glazed this frame, but it's hard to see in this picture. It looks rad.

I think the bulletin board is my favorite. I love the way the glazing stands out against the orange. More vintage fabric rosettes and a super cute picture of my beautiful sister with my beautiful nieces. The pointing finger is a download from *The Graphics Fairy*.

I love the way they look together. So cute.

What do you think? Are they cool? If you weren't crafty would you buy them? I'm going to start doing craft shows soon, so I want to get some stock built up.

Butterfly Re-Do

2011-07-06T00:31:00.002-04:00

Does anyone remember home decor items like these from the 70s?

Buy them here

They are plastic but were made to look like wicker. Anyway, I've had some in my stash for, probably, two years minimum. Mine had been painted a sickly Pepto-Bismol pink and were sad looking. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of just HOW sad before I started painting. Anyway, I decided to paint mine different colors and glaze them.

I had a little trouble with the glazing because there are SO many nooks and crannies on these butterflies.

The glaze does a nice job of highlighting those nooks and crannies though.

So it was worth the extra effort.

The sun was out today, so I actually got some decent pictures!

I'm not sure which one is my favorite. I think maybe the green and blue ones are my favorites, but that might be because I like the actual butterfly design better.

They look really nice on the barn! Maybe I should leave them there!!

All told, this project took me about an hour to finish. That's without the "paint drying time". The butterflies I got for $1 at a yard sale. I know that because they still had the stickers on them. Yeah for stash busting!!!!

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Oooh Tiebacks!

2011-07-01T23:11:00.000-04:00

Okay, I got a custom order awhile ago for some curtain tiebacks. They are FINALLY all done, thank goodness. I accidentally made two of the ribbon flowers with the wrong side of the ribbon up, so I had to remake them. Aren't they pretty?

I used vintage lace for the middle piece this time, and a pretty blue fabric for the rosette on the other side.

The way the ribbon flower peeks out from around the rosette is so cute.

The ribbon is a pretty pink/blue color.

What do you all think? Will she like them? I really like the way they turned out, and I think I'll be using lace more often.

A Joyful Song AND a Project? Believe it!

2011-06-28T02:07:00.003-04:00

This song makes me dance around like a goofball. You can HEAR the joy pulsing through all of the performers. Listening to Mumford & Sons makes me happy anyway, but then add in Laura Marling and Dharohar Project? Wow. It makes me grin from ear to ear. I just wanted to share it with you all because, well, it's awesome and you deserve some awesomeness.

Now, the project. Do you remember the post I did last week about my recent thrifty finds? In it, I showed you this frame that I bought it at the Salvo for either $5.99 or $6.99. I can't remember now. Either way, pretty steep price, but I HAD to have the frame. Had to.

Well, I spray painted it Apple Green by Rustoleum and glazed it with a dark gray. Then I added 6 wires in silver and copper. Each strand of wire is actually a double twist of wire. It alternates between silver and copper.

It can be used for pictures, earrings, or even a memo type board.

I love that you can put all different sizes of picture on it, and that it's so easy to switch them out.

I LOVE the color. I'm actually going to buy more sometime this week because I like it so much.

Today when I got home I gathered up all my earring so I could show you what they look like hanging on the wires. Of course, I had to clean them first, so the project ended up taking me a lot longer than I had planned. Oh well, they look wicked cool.

It turns out I have waaaay more pairs of earrings than I thought I did! I might have to use this frame for earrings after all! I want to wear all of them right now! See the watches hanging amidst the earrings? Up until a couple of weeks ago they were broken. My brother's girlfriend makes awesome jewelry and she fixed them for me. Thanks Bethani!!! (She also made the teal pair of earrings hanging on the second wire down. I love them.)

What do you think...jewelry or pictures? What would you use it for?

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