Simply This and that: May 2012

Heat n Bond Saves the Day

My son came home from Scouts the other night and begins to tell me that he didn't like the flag they were going to use for camp this summer and that he was going to make a better one. He asked if he could use some fabric and away he went.

A little later he came and shared his idea for his flag and all he needed from me was to sew everything for him once he cut the objects out. Now, normally I would be more than happy to do this for him but he wanted it done quickly and I'm planning a big family get together for this Saturday and getting us all packed for a trip that we leave for on Sunday. To me, sewing was not an option.

Then the little light bulb went on in my head and I thought of the next best thing to sewing the flag. Heat n Bond Ultrahold is a lifesaver! Thank you to the inventors of this great product for saving this mom some quality time!

Here's the finished flag. Not bad for an 11 year old huh? I did end up sewing the ribbons on to tie it to the pole but that was the least I could do after taking the easy route out of not sewing it.

Deciding to Blog and an Award

A few years ago I decided I wanted to start a blog about the little projects I was doing or recipes that I loved and wanted to share. So I began posting things here and there and loved seeing my projects on my blog. The only problem was, I was completely terrified to put myself out there. The fear of rejection was too much for me, so I didn't tell anybody about it.

One day as I was looking at the blog, I noticed that someone had made a comment on a post. I got so excited and realized that someone found my little blog. Then fear struck me when I realized that SOMEONE HAD FOUND MY LITTLE BLOG! I immediately made my blog private and there it sat for a couple of years not really giving it a second thought.

During those couple years I was busy teaching preschool, built a new home, and we decided to have another baby. So I was busy and had plenty to do. After the baby was born, I made the decision not to teach for a few years and was loving all the time I was having with our new son and the time to work on projects that I had been putting off. As I started working on these projects I decided to put them on my blog again but still never told anyone, nor made it public. Until this past April when I decided I was ready to put myself out there and make this blog live. I remember laying awake half the night, sick to my stomach and wondering what in the world I had just done. Who was I to think I had anything creative and inspiring to share with others?

It's been 2 months now and I still have moments where I'm not completely sure of what I'm doing but I'm discovering that there are so many wonderful and kind bloggers out there. It's a lot of work to get your name out and to get people to come to your blog, so when someone leaves an encouraging comment, one of your projects gets featured, or you get a new follower, (yes that's exciting to me) it gives me the push to continue. Within the past month, I've been given the Liebster Blog award and I want to give a big Thank You to these three ladies for giving me the extra boost of confidence that I needed to keep blogging.

A Huge Thank you to:

Holly at A Bakers House

Jonell at Like Gamma's House

Megan at The Homes I Have Made

Once a blogger is fortunate enough to be recognized, here are the rules of passing on this encouragement to others:

1) Thank your nominator (and link back!).
2) Nominate 5 other blogs, with less than 200 followers and post a comment on each blog letting them know they have been given the award.
3) Copy and paste the award onto your blog.

I would like to pass on the award to the blogs listed below: I enjoy each of these blogs because they inspire me.

Naptime Delights

An Organized Mess

Full Hands, Full Hearts

Create, Craft, Love

Accidentally Wonderful

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Here's a recipe for all you chocolate lovers out there. So yummy and chocolaty with chocolate chips and a chocolate glaze on top. It's especially good with a cold glass of milk. With the weather being cold and rainy outside it was a perfect day to bake these delicious brownies and watch a movie with the kids.

One of my favorite food blogs is Recipe Girl, this is where I discovered the brownie recipe that she adapted from Joy Wilson's new cookbook "Joy the Baker". So many great recipes from both blogs!

You can find the recipe here. (The only change I made was instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips, I used milk chocolate).

This post is linked to these parties:
Bloom
We Like to Learn as We Go
House of Hepworths
Loving this Crazy Life
Blissful and Domestic

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Monogrammed Canvas Tote

My daughter has the most wonderful piano teacher who's kind, patient, and so encouraging. Lilly bug has been taking piano for just over a year now and still loves it! Thank you Mrs. Snow!

We wanted to thank her for all she's done for our daughter so I made this cute canvas tote for her. She also plays the piano and organ at our church, so we figured she could use a bag to carry all her music books in.

I used scraps of fabric that I had to make a ruffle and fabric flower. For the ruffle I used fabric that was 3"x21". Using the widest straight stitch on a sewing machine sew all the way down the middle then pull on the thread to gather the fabric to look like a ruffle. Pin in place on the tote and sew the ruffle down the middle.

For instructions on how to make a fabric flower go here. After making your flower, hot glue the flower on.

For the letter, I ironed some Ultra Heat-N-Bond (red package) to the fabic then used my Silhoutte to cut the letter out and ironed it on to the tote. Viola!

You can find some other fun teacher appreciation gift ideas here.

Keep up to date with the latest posts by liking my facebook page here.

Orange-Lemon Cake

This cake has been a favorite in our home for the past few years. It's quick to make and has the yummy taste of citrus. It's a perfect dessert for your summer time gatherings.

Orange-Lemon Cake

1 package (18-1/4 ounces) lemon cake mix
1 package (3 ounces) orange gelatin
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup canola oil
4 eggs

Icing

1 cup confectioners' sugar
3 to 4 teaspoons orange juice
orange rind (optional)

Combine cake mix, gelatin, water, oil and eggs in a large bowl. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into greased and floured 10 inch bundt pan. ( I used the Baking spray with flour and it came out just fine).

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

For icing, combine confectioners' sugar and enough orange juice to achieve desired consistency. Drizzle over cake.

This post is linked to these wonderful parties:

What's Cooking, Love?

Loving This Crazy Life

It's Overflowing

I Heart Nap Time

Craft O Maniac

The Crafty Blogstalker

Pretty Letters and a Magnet Board

Here are a couple more projects for the daughter's bedroom. It was extremely rainy yesterday morning so I had a great excuse to stay inside and finish up these wooden letters. Super easy and fun to give each letter it's own look.

I traced each letter on different scrapbook paper then used mod podge to adhere the paper to the wood. I used brown distress ink on the edges then added different embellishments.

This one happens to be my favorite:)

The second project is a magnet board. I made one a while back but didn't match the new room colors anymore. This little cutie hangs on the back of her closet door. You can find the tutorial to make the magnet board here.

Laugh Printable

Still working on little accent pieces for our daughter's bedroom and wanted a cute saying to frame. I have always loved the saying "A laugh is a smile that bursts". When I taught preschool, I had this saying made into vinyl lettering and put on the wall so the kids could see it everyday!

I'm still learning how to use Photoshop Elements, so this isn't professional looking by any means but was fun to make and it looks great in her room!

Click here to download quote without watermark

This post is linked to these parties:
Bloom
Naptime Delights

DIY Fabric Flowers for Pillow

Here's another project from my daughter's bedroom that we're decorating. This is a quick and fun way to add an accent to any pillow. As you can see, the colors she chose for her room are green and turquoise. She's loves it because it's looking more "grown up".

To add a little something to this plain green pillow, I took some strips of turquoise fabric and rolled them into flowers. I followed this great tutorial from Trey and Lucy to make the flowers. Then hot glued the flowers onto the pillow. Easy Peasy!!

Fabric Scraps Wreath

A few months ago I bought a wire wreath frame to make a Spring wreath for the front door. But with five kids' schedules I never got around to it. So instead of a wreath for the door I finally took the frame and made this simple wreath made from fabric scraps for our youngest daughter's bedroom. We're in the process of decorating it (it's about time) after being in our new home for 1 1/2 years. At this pace, give us another 25 years and we'll have the entire house where we want it. Enjoy the journey, right?

It's a simple project but takes a little time. Put in your favorite movie or, now that the weather is good, sit outside, soak up some sun and tie a hundred or so fabric strips.

Supplies needed for this project:
Wire wreath frame-found at most craft stores. I got this one at Micheals.
Fabric scraps-cut into 1" by 6" strips- didn't count how many, but it's quite a bit. I used 6 different fat quarters and used 3/4 of each one.
Ribbon to hang

Take the fabric strips and begin tying them to the frame until it's filled in to where you like it.

Can you guess what colors she chose for her bedroom?

I Spy Pouch

I've seen a few different versions of these I Spy bags floating around and thought how fun it would be to make some for the kids to have while we're waiting at the dentist office, karate lessons, older kids sports events, church..... you get the picture right?

These are so simple to put together. Here is what you need for this project:

Binder pouch-Walmart for .97 cents

Plastic Pellets-Hobby Lobby-in the doll making section for $3.99/bag

30 or more small objects-you can find a lot in your kids junk drawers:)

Hot glue gun

Ribbon-optional

After collecting all of the small objects, I laid them out onto a piece of white paper and took a picture so I could print this out as a picture key of what to find.

Fill the pouch with all your small goodies and pellets. One bag of these pellets will almost fill two pouches.

Zip up the pouch and put hot glue along the whole zipper so it can't be opened.

Along with putting glue onto the zipper, I took some ribbon and glued it over the zipper so you couldn't see the zipper anymore.

Print out your picture of the objects and laminate for durability. I also made a written list and placed it on the back before laminating. Use a binder ring to attach to pouch.

Cinnamon Streusel Dessert Pizza

One of my favorite things about going to a pizza place is the dessert pizza! It doesn't matter the variation, they're all so yummy! I found this recipe through Pinterest and for sure had to give it a try! You can whip this dessert up in a jiffy and it only takes a few ingredients. The kids give it two thumbs up! Next time I make this dessert, I'm going to try it with apple or raspberry pie filling.

Cinnamon Streusel Dessert Pizza

Ingredients:

Pizza dough-make your own or use store bought refrigerated dough
1 TBSP melted butter
Cinnamon

Streusel:
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP vegetable shortening
2 TBSP Vegetable oil

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1TBSP milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix together streusel ingredients with fork or pastry blender, then set aside.

To make pizza, pat dough into a 12 inch pizza pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Poke holes in dough with fork to keep bubbles from forming. Brush dough with 1 TBSP melted butter. Sprinkle cinnamon all around buttered dough. Top pizza with streusel mix.

Bake at 450 degrees for 8-9 minutes depending on the thickness of the crust.

Mix icing ingredients. Add more milk if it needs to be thinner. Drizzle over pizza. Cut and enjoy!

{Recipe adapted from Rumbly in my Tumbly}

Stenciled Lamp Shade

This lamp has been sitting in a closet for years now just waiting for someone to take pity on it and make it useful again. Today is that day! It used to be in our oldest daughters room but now I'm revamping it to match our youngest sons bedroom.

The first thing that needed to be changed was that lovely pink stripe.

So I taped around the pink stripe and painted it orange. While that was drying I got started on stenciling the lamp shade.

I found these cardboard animal stencils at Micheals a while back and chose four animals that would match the decor in the baby's bedroom.

Taped them onto the shade so they were evenly spaced.

Then used a foam pouncer to apply the paint inside the stencil.

Then when they all dried, (I was a little inpatient so I used a hair dryer to speed up the drying process) I pulled off the tape and stencils.

All finished! It matches great with his bedding and canvas wall art I painted a couple weeks ago!

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