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Sunday, November 28, 2010

Snap on rosettes

Wow it's been over a week since I last posted! I was really busy cooking/baking and finishing up gifts for Thanksmas. Thanksmas? Yes, that would be Thanksgiving + Christmas during the Thanksgiving weekend at my inlaws. This year I decided to make some of the nephew & nieces' presents so I have a few fun ideas to post about coming soon!

For 2 of hubby's nieces (ages 3 1/2 and 8) I bought matching tops. I bought 2 fabrics to match the blue color in the shirts and then actually used an old black top of mine for the 3rd fabric. Then I made the fabric rosettes I talked about in my rosette necklace. You hardly need much fabric to make them. I made the older niece's rosettes slightly bigger since her shirt was bigger.


I sewed half of a snap onto felt circles and hot glued the felt circles onto the back of the rosette. Then I sewed the other half of the snap onto the shirt (make sure all are the right halves to change out the rosettes on the shirt).


This is great because it gives the girls the choice of picking out what rosette to wear. Very easy and so stylish!

Note: this tutorial is for personal use only please

Linking up to these parties:
(M) Motivate Me Monday, Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Monday MarvelousJust Something I Whipped UpThe DIY Showoff, Mad Skills, (T) Today's Creative BlogAll Thingz Related, Tip Me Tuesday, (W) Whatever Goes Wednesday, Spotlight Yourself @ It's So Very CheriCreations by Kara, Blue Cricket Design, We Did It Wednesday, (Th) Hooking up w/HoH, Somewhat Simple, Get Your Craft On  Thursday, (F) Remodelaholics AnonymousJAG Show and Share DayFrugalicious FridayFrouFrouDecor, Fingerprints on the Fridge, (S) Weekend Wrap Up Party, Weekend Wander, (Su) Sunday Showcase Party, Sundae Scoop

Friday, November 19, 2010

Zucchini Boats Recipe

I am being featured today over at Envy My Cooking!! Woohoo! My Zucchini Boats recipe is so easy, tasty, colorful, and only has 5 ingredients!!

Perfect timing with the holidays coming up to have another fantastic side dish up your sleeve... or in your apron pocket haha!

So go here to see the recipe! And check out some of the other great recipes on their site.


They really are delicious! Mmmmm cheesey! Yum!!


Linking up to these parties:
(M) Motivate Me Monday, Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Monday MarvelousJust Something I Whipped UpThe DIY Showoff, Mad Skills, (T) Today's Creative BlogAll Thingz Related, Tip Me Tuesday, (W) Whatever Goes Wednesday, Spotlight Yourself @ It's So Very CheriCreations by Kara, Blue Cricket Design, We Did It Wednesday, (Th) Hooking up w/HoH, Somewhat Simple, Get Your Craft On  Thursday, (F) Remodelaholics AnonymousJAG Show and Share DayFrugalicious FridayFrouFrouDecor, Fingerprints on the Fridge, (S) Weekend Wrap Up Party, Weekend Wander, (Su) Sunday Showcase Party, Sundae Scoop

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The not 1 hour apron

We had another Crafting Saturday Morning Day!! Previous Crafting Saturday mornings resulted in Name Blocks and a Fall Wreath. This time we wanted to do something Christmasy... we threw around ideas of an advent calendar or ornaments but in the end decided to do aprons in Christmas fabric. Katie and Gen came this time and Gen brought her sewing machine and a tutorial for a 1 Hour Apron.


Let me just tell you that would be true if that was meant in like dog years or something... Gen made hers first since she was the only one among us who had ever used a sewing machine before and it took her about 1 hr 45 minutes. And that was with her having experience sewing. Perhaps a 2nd time it would have been somewhat faster but definitely not as fast as 1 hour. Katie and I took even longer to make ours due to learning how to use the sewing machine (which really wasn't that hard surprisingly) and having the thread get stuck in the machine a few times.... this is how our crafting morning turned into a crafting day complete with lunch from chickfila brought by our husbands :)

Maybe the 1 hour applies if you have elves that help you. That would have been great and very Christmasy too! Anyway, this 1 1/2 - 2 hour apron tutorial is pretty great and fantastic for beginning sewers your first time using a sewing machine and you don't need many supplies to make it. As long as you have a sewing machine or access to one of course.

We felt like such pros by the end that we added a pocket which is not in the tutorial. Definitely adds more cuteness in my opinion so we showcased it with some of my kitchen utensils. We found our fabric at Hancock. On sale. Obviously. Gen and Katie used the same fabric but did it opposite and it still does make very different looking aprons.


Perhaps any other color shirt would have looked better with red and green than my orange one but hey it was gameday so that is to be expected.


We were so proud of our finished products! I cannot wait to do some fabulous Christmas cooking and baking in this apron!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Fabric Rosette Necklace

I decided that for our Clemson Reunion in October I needed a really fun accessory without breaking the bank. I have seen these rolled rosettes all over the place. In fact they are also in the Burlap Wreath. So I made a rosette necklace :) I have also seen some that have a bunch more rosettes/embellishments called bib necklaces.


Soooo... here is what I did. I found some cute orange polka dot fabric at Hob Lob and used a coupon. I just love polka dots... I mean what girl doesn't. I also grabbed some Liquid Stitch and felt and I already had some beads and ribbon.

First you make however many rosettes you want on your necklace. Honestly there are a million tutorial in blogland on this so you could just google it. I cut my fabric strips around 1 1/2 inches going parallel to where they cut the fabric. Then I folded my strip in half the "hotdog" way and glued with Liquid stitch so no fabric underside was showing.



Anchor one end with something (like an old check box) and twist the other end of the fabric until it is as twisted as you want. Then start rolling at that end while gluing with dabs of liquid stitch along the way. I have seen people use a hot glue gun too but I think this was better and spares burned fingers. Just keep gluing and rolling until your rosette is the desired size.  I did 1 larger and 2 slightly smaller ones.


I glued them with a glue gun onto felt exactly how I wanted them placed for the necklace. Then I trimmed the felt. Afterwards, I realized it would have been easier to cut the felt and then glue since I did not have the best pair of scissors and trimming took awhile.

Next attach whatever ribbon you want with a glue gun. I added knots at each end and a matching bead for a little pizazz!
Glue an identical piece of felt over your ribbon to hide it and for sturdiness. That completes the rosette necklace!!
Here is what it looks like on. I am also wearing it in a bunch of pictures in the Clemson Reunion post. LOVE IT LOVE IT! I cannot tell you how many people complimented this necklace! I paired it with simple orange 1 bead earrings I made. It was the perfect accessory and of course Clemson colors :)


*This tutorial is for personal use only please.

Linking up to these parties:
(M) Motivate Me Monday, Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Monday MarvelousJust Something I Whipped UpThe DIY Showoff, Mad Skills, (T) Today's Creative BlogAll Thingz Related, Tip Me Tuesday, (W) Whatever Goes Wednesday, Spotlight Yourself @ It's So Very CheriCreations by Kara, Blue Cricket Design, We Did It Wednesday, (Th) Hooking up w/HoH, Somewhat Simple, Get Your Craft On  Thursday, (F) Remodelaholics AnonymousJAG Show and Share DayFrugalicious FridayFrouFrouDecor, Fingerprints on the Fridge, (S) Weekend Wrap Up Party, Weekend Wander, (Su) Sunday Showcase Party, Sundae Scoop

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Clemson Reunion Weekend

This is one of those weekends I look forward to every single year... time spent with my college girls (and their significant others and some of their family) and this year was no different for our 4th annual Clemson Reunion. Gosh is this really the 4th football season since being a student!?


This was the first year that Eric and I didn't have someone to stay with that still lived in Clemson, so we decided to rent this condo off of VRBO. It was easy to get to, 15 minutes from campus, and had everything we needed - just as described and avoided higher hotel room costs. I recommend it to anyone looking for a place to stay in the Clemson/Anderson area. We took Friday off work so we could go to pot belly deli for lunch, walk around downtown and of course stroll through the beautiful campus on a wonderful October afternoon... ahh memories.

We made various tailgating food (including Tiger Tails and Tiger Paw muffins- will post about these soon) before we went to dinner with Brooke and her dad. Then most of us met up at Tiger Town Tavern, an annual tradition, for some fun.




We were up bright and early Saturday morning. And I mean we were at our same Strom tailgating spot we have met at for years at 8AM. We take this tailgating stuff seriously. It was quite a chilly morning but definintely warmed up by game time. Lots of eating, drinking, cornhole playing, and picture taking took place.



I'll do a post soon about how I made this rosette necklace.


These are my girls (minus Marjorie who couldn't come)! I love them!



We all take a ring picture together every year. We are pretty big on traditions if you hadn't noticed.


Some of us only get to see each other once a year so we enjoy every minute of it!

I got to stop by to see Brooke H. again with her cute baby girl bump.... not too much longer :)

We had lots of fun cheering on our tigers against the terps with our big block of seats! And they retired Spiller's jersey.




Then of course back to more tailgating the rest of the afternoon/early evening. And I got to see Christa below - one of my fabulous axo littles!


Shannon has a little baby bump too :)


It was quite dark and a little dewy when I took this hence the spots.... oh well. Can't wait til I have a DSLR!


We finished out the evening back at TTT watching some more football.


In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I feel so thankful to have our annual reunion and that I have been able to stay close to these wonderful friends I made in college. I am already looking forward to next year! GO TIGERS!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Tiger Tails

My friend Shannon found a recipe for Tiger Tails and said that they would be really cool for our Clemson reunion tailgate... they sure looked like they would be! She was flying and it wouldn't be easy for her to make them so I said I would try them out. I do love all things Clemson so it seemed perfect to have a recipe that screams Clemson in my back pocket to whip out at any time.


Tiger Tails Recipe- makes about 30*

1 bag of Wilton Candy Melts - Orange
1 bag of Wilton Candy Melts - Chocolate (you wont need the whole bag)
(I have found Wilton Candy Melts at Michael's and Super Walmart)
1 bag of pretzel rods (try to pick a bag where most are not broken)
All vegetable shortening (I used Crisco)

Melt the orange candy chips with 1/4 cup of shortening in a bowl for 30 seconds at a time and stir in between. You want do it on a lower power the first couple times and then increase it. If you try to melt it too fast it won't work and becomes cake-like. Once it is really smooth and viscous, pour into a tall glass. Dip pretzel rods in about 3/4 of the way a few times until coated. Lay them on the wax paper to harden. When you get down near the end you will have to tilt the glass to coat them 3/4 of the way.

Trick - if you want to make as many as possible you can use the broken prezel rods by dipping in the broken end... they won't look broken just shorter.

Melt about 1/4 bag of chocolate candy melts just like you did the orange ones with a tablespoon or so shortening. Spoon into a ziploc and cut off a tiny bit of the corner. This is how you apply the tiger stripes onto the orange part of the pretzel rods. Just go back and forth for a stripe effect. If any of your stripes go onto the wax paper and too far off the orange part then you can just break those parts off after they harden - many of mine were like that and it was easy to do.


*I doubled the recipe and made about 60 since it was easy enough to double so we would have plenty at the tailgate. These were very easy and I could see them adapted for many different things... like white with green and red for Christmas! If you aren't a Clemson fan feel free to become one so you can make this recipe ;)  I suppose it would also work well for some other sports teams or even just for fall or a kids party. Kids like tigers right?

These are kind of like chocolate dipped pretzels and have a salty sweet thing going on.


And this is what I got from hubby when I said pose with your Tiger Tail... ya just never know what you'll get (hopefully this doesn't turn you off from making them)


The Clemson Tiger Tails were a big hit at the tailgate :) I will definitely make these again... I can see them being something I make for our reunion every year. I will do a post about our reunion soon! Hope you enjoy!

Linking up to these parties:
(M) Motivate Me Monday, Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Monday MarvelousJust Something I Whipped UpThe DIY Showoff, Mad Skills, (T) Today's Creative BlogAll Thingz Related, Tip Me Tuesday, (W) Whatever Goes Wednesday, Spotlight Yourself @ It's So Very CheriCreations by Kara, Blue Cricket Design, (Th) Hooking up w/HoH, Somewhat Simple, Get Your Craft On  Thursday, (F) Remodelaholics AnonymousJAG Show and Share DayFrugalicious FridayFrouFrouDecor, Fingerprints on the Fridge, (S) Weekend Wrap Up Party, Weekend Wander, (Su) Sunday Showcase Party, Sundae Scoop

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Fall Decor

 I love decorating the living room for the different seasons especially as my collection of items to decorate with grows each year... growing even more now that I have started to DIY stuff. First up is the table centerpiece. This used to have sand and shells in it. I fallified it with pumpkins/gords, pinecones, and leaves all on sale from michael's. I reused the candle.



Here are all my dryer vent pumpkins around the fireplace and tv. I put 2 on the mantle where I previously had 2 candles.  


Next to the mantle area is this little table that hold the DVR (for now anyway) and it is decorated with a few fabric pumpkins from my godmother. I stuck another one on a table in our living room nook area.


Here is one of the couch side tables with 3 cute little fabric pumpkins from my godmother. That is also my new houseplant! Why is this exciting? Well I had one that used to look pretty good and after we moved in it started dwindling and looking pathetic. It took me like 3 hours to pick out a new one in lowes... well not really but I'm sure hubby thought it was 3 hours. I had to make sure it was very low maintanance and didn't need a lot of light ya know... who wants to go around replacing plants all the time anyway. So choose carefully is my philosophy.


Other side table with halloweenish decor... now that halloween is over I can turn that into a more thanksgivingish table with some turkey stuff. Stay tuned. The fabric pumpkins (along with every fabric pumpkin I own) were made by my godmother. The frame was in the package from my mom that I talked about here. She saw it here and decided to make them for a few cool people. Me included :) And no the paper does not come with the words on it- that wouldn't be much fun to make if it did.


Here is our sofa table under our picture collage all autumned up. The candy corn was another item from mom's package and she saw them made here. She also made the doorknob pumpkin done here. Geez where does she find all this free time... at least I can benefit from it :) Fabric pumpkins of course from my godmother, new this year.. I love the little details on them! And all the ghosts and goblins I showed you how to do here and here. Guess those need to come down now.



October did seem to go by so quickly but at least only the halloween stuff has to go and fall can stay... that is until it is time for glorious Christmas decor!


Linking up to these parties:
(M) Making the World Cuter Mondays, Making Monday MarvelousJust Something I Whipped UpThe DIY Showoff, Mad Skills, (T) Today's Creative BlogAll Thingz Related, Tip Me Tuesday, (W) Whatever Goes Wednesday, Spotlight Yourself @ It's So Very CheriCreations by Kara, Blue Cricket Design, (Th) Hooking up w/HoH, Somewhat Simple, Get Your Craft On  Thursday, (F) Remodelaholics AnonymousJAG Show and Share DayFrugalicious FridayFrouFrouDecor, Fingerprints on the Fridge, (S) Weekend Wrap Up Party, Weekend Wander, (Su) Sunday Showcase Party, Sundae Scoop
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