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Thursday, September 30, 2010

BOO! Dollar Store Ghosts

Halloween is just a month away so here is a fun and super duper thrifty craft... Dollar Store Ghosts! Kudos to my mom who came up with this idea.

You need:
-A clear slightly frosted glass candle holder thingy (I'm sure that must be the official name for it) from the dollar store for you guessed it, $1... mine is from Dollar Tree.
-A fake tealight. These were 2 for $1 at Dollar Tree.
-black paint pen or marker of some sort - most own this already

So now for the incredibly long and complicated directions... haha just kidding. Take black pen and draw a ghost face on your candle holder thing. It slopes down on half of the holder so I made that shorter part the back. Put tealight inside. TA-DA! Was that simple or what?



Now you are ready to display your very scary ghost craft! And it only cost $1.50. I am going to make a few more to have a little family of ghosts :)



Linking up here:
Making the World Cuter MondaysToday's Creative BlogBlue Cricket DesignHooking up w/HoHRemodelaholics AnonymousJAG Show and Share DayFrugalicious FridayFrouFrouDecorWeekend Wrap Up PartySunday Showcase Party

Monday, September 27, 2010

Clemson vs N. Texas and Dip Recipe

As I talked about here, Eric and I went to Clemson for the first game this season vs North Texas (an easy enough team so there is very slim chance of losing the first game). With a 3:30 game time, we could easily go down just for the day. We loaded up the car with tailgating essentials early in the morning and arrived in Clemson a little past 10. We were meeting Brooke and Kevin, friends from college and some of their family. This was the first time we had seen them since our wedding. Brooke is expecting a girl in December so I was excited to spend some time chatting with her. How cute is her baby bump :)


The weather turned out to be wonderful which is rare in SC in early Sept... usually it is extremely hot. We had a wonderful time tailgating and each brought a few things. I think the key to a good tailgate is definitely great food with some of it needing to be filling so you don't feel like all you ate was chips. Speaking of chips... one thing I made was a very simple but yummy ranch salsa dip! I have been making this for years and it is always a favorite at tailgates and parties.


Ranch Salsa Dip
You need 1 packet of ranch dip (it's powder, usually near the dressings), 16 oz. container of sour cream (I use red. fat), and salsa. I mix the the packet with the sour cream and then add salsa until it has the desired salsainess that I want. You could use whatever kind of salsa you preferred. It goes great with any kind of chips, crackers, veggies, etc.


After plenty of tailgating we were off to the stadium. I always enjoy walking through the campus, Clemson has the best college campus (in my opinion so that means it has to be correct, how can you argue with that right?) and brings back tons of memories. I love how it looks when everyone is wearing orange and how loud it gets in death valley! It did get a tad hot during the first half of the game but we won so that was great!





As always we had a fantastic time in Clemson. It's only been a few years since we were going to school there but, we did feel a little old when we saw some of the freshmen guys faces... did they really look that young when we were freshmen?! haha

I can't wait until the next time we get to go to Clemson for a game!! GO TIGERS!

Linking up here:
Making the World Cuter Mondays
Today's Creative Blog
Blue Cricket Design
Hooking up w/HoH
Remodelaholics Anonymous
JAG Show and Share Day
Frugalicious Friday
FrouFrouDecor
Foodie Friday
Weekend Wrap Up Party
Sunday Showcase Party

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Name Blocks Tutorial

I've seen these before around blogland and thought I would make my own variation. My friend Katie came over and we got to work on our craft. I also got to use my recently purchases Silhouette for the first time (minus testing a couple things when it first arrived).


You need:
-1 2x4
-1 2x6
-Cardstock
-Craft paint & brushes
-Mod podge
-And a way to cut the wood

Eric cut our wood out for us which he said was not the easiest to do with the saw choices we had and a circular saw would have been better. You would want to tailor the length to your needs but the 2x6 was cut to be about 3 1/2 in. long and the 2x4 was cut to be 9 1/2 in. long. Then some more of the 2x4 was ripped for another skinnier block that was also 9 1/2 in. long so that the 2 2x4's now are about the height of the 2x6. I say about because it doesnt match perfectly and normally I am somewhat of a perfectionist but that's okay and I'm okay with it :)


Next Katie and I painted our blocks. I chose white and she chose green and a mixed blue color. I did my coat kinda thin so you could see the wood through it.


Next we printed off our last names and the other words/numbers on my silhouette. We struggled a bit due to user error (apparently when you import an image you have to do the outline function for it to go through with cutting but a test cut will in fact work) and luckily my personal computer guru was there to help us. We tested out the size of the letters on navy cardstock since I saw myself using it less than the other colors but Katie actually loved the look of the navy so she stuck with that. I printed mine on black. (Note: if you don't have a silhouette you could cut them by hand or not use paper and just paint them on) Then we put a layer of mod podge on the blocks and placed the letters/numbers where we wanted them. We let that dry and then put another 2 layers of mod podge on top.



I decided I didn't want the black to stand out so much so I mixed a little bit of white paint with water and did a layer of that over the top.



I think they turned out great!! It's definitely thrifty since the materials are pretty cheap or you already have them on hand (the wood is enough to make like 5 sets). These would make a wonderful gift too!

Linking up here:
Making the World Cuter Mondays
Today's Creative Blog
Power of Paint Party
Blue Cricket Design
Frugalicious Friday
Remodelaholics Anonymous
JAG Show and Share Day
Hooking up w/HoH
FrouFrouDecor
Weekend Wrap Up Party
Sunday Showcase Party

Monday, September 20, 2010

Farewell to Summer

Sidenote: apologies for the delay in a new post. We switched my blog over to blogger from wordpress and took awhile to get everything working. There will definitely be more than 1 post this week so look forward to that!

Can you believe it's more than halfway through Sept?! I have this centerpiece on our kitchen/dining table that is so very summer and thrifty too. I took some play sand from Lowes and filled the bottom and then topped it with a tall candle and shells from the dollar store and a garage sale. I wanted to show it since I will be changing it out soon for something fall-ish.


Summer is probably my favorite season. I love sunny days, the beach, summer dresses and skirts, flip flops, vacation time, long days... I could go on. Yeah it gets hot sometimes but after growing up in FL I don't mind too much. I am sad that summer is coming to an end... but the positive side of that is....

 FALL. And FALL = FOOTBALL (college football that is, who really cares that much about pro. college is where it's at.) And lots of other nice things like changing leaves and pumpkin bread. So fall is a close 2nd to summer.

This picture makes me smile. I heart football. Everyone knows the south is all about hospitality, grits, sweet tea, and football :)


There is just something really happy about watching gameday, tailgating, and watching (or going to if you are lucky) your team play and watching all the other big match ups week after week. I have been a football fan my whole life. I was born a Gator fan and I became a Clemson fan when I went there for college so Clemson is my #1 and UF my #2. Since I have been a fan of both the 2 teams have not played each other so that is good news for me. Eric and I went to Clemson for the 1st game this year and we had a blast.. it's always great to go back. I'll do a post about that soon!

Are starting to enjoy fall or what? I know I am! GO TIGERS!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Peach Blackberry Crisp

If I had my little way I'd eat peaches everyday.

In addition to my love of summer veggies, I have a love of summer fruit... mainly peaches. I asked my friend Gen for this recipe after she brought it to our house for dessert when Eric and I made mexican food. She compiled it from a bunch of different recipes and I tweaked her recipe some too so I guess that makes it pretty original ;)  I made it 2 times this summer after trips to wonderful farmers market for peaches & blackberries. Both times everyone loved it.

Peach Blackberry Crisp

- 6 lg peaches peeled and sliced
- 1 cup blackberries
- 1/3 cup of orange juice (if your fruit isn't juicy you may need a tad more but my fruit was super juicy)
- 4 Tbs white sugar
- 1 1/2 c. flour
- 3/4 c. oats
- 1 c. brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 stick of butter


Mix fruit and place in bottom of a deep casserole dish. Mix orange juice and white sugar and pour over fruit. Mix remaining ingredients in separate bowl until crumbly. Sprinkle crumb mixture over fruit mixture. Bake in oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

You could do less topping if you wanted but I love the crisp part. It is wonderful served warm with some vanilla ice cream. And it definitely tastes better baked in a super cute casserole dish courtesy of Homegoods (where else?), just trust me on that one :)


So so good! Let me know if you try out the recipe. I wish peaches were in season for longer (get 'em now while you still can!) but this would be good with apples and some tweaking.

Linking up here:

JAG Show and Share Day
Weekend Wrap Up Party
Making the World Cuter Mondays
Frugalicious Friday
Blue Cricket Design
Remodelaholics Anonymous
Sunday Showcase Party
Today's Creative Blog
Hooking up w/HoH
FrouFrouDecor
Foodie Friday
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