Zen Pillows and other preparations...

Since I was in High School, my room has always been decorated with a tropical theme.  I love to feel like I'm in a beachfront hotel all the time.  It was always the same idea, just different decor.  Even once we were married, we had a tropical bedroom.  Well, for the first time in 10 years, I took the palm tree plant out of the bedroom and replaced it with something different...Bamboo.  I decided on an Asian theme because I wanted my home to have a lot of relaxing and natural colors.  I painted the walls gold, purchased a white comforter & a bamboo plant from Ikea, and added some browns, tans, reds, and beige colors throughout the room.  I didn't like the original throw pillows on the bed, so I've been on a hunt to replace them for months.  Well, the hubs is coming home soon and I'm running out of time to make this house perfect.  So I decided I'd just make my own.  I absolutely love the pillows I found over at Dear Lillie, so I used them as my motivation.  I purchased some iron-on printer paper, muslin fabric and covered some old pillows I had in my studio. I printed Chinese symbols on 3 pillows.  The symbols supposedly say, "Love, Friend, and Goodnight", but I don't speak Chinese, so who knows if they are accurate.  I chose these phrases because my husband and I always tell eachother "I love you, you're my best friend, goodnight" every night before we fall asleep.  It's a long story how this came about, but trust me, it's our thang!  Anyhow,  If you decide you want to partake in this project, remember to flip your image before printing because you iron it face down.   I'm not going to do a tutorial because it's pretty cut and dry.  But here's a photo step-by-step just in case you need a visual.

Some fellow Army wives/girlfriends and I went to the nail salon today to get our nails and eyebrows done in preparation for the homecomings this month.  My son was so kind to snap a photo for me.

I just have a few more tasks to take care of this week (repainting the coffee table, highlight my hair, detail his truck inside and out, etc) and I should be all set for the hubby!!

Laces Out, Dan!

So I've been holding onto this box for a while, patiently waiting for football season to begin.  I sent it out a little early still, but I have already passed the official cut off date for packages, so it's now or never.  Well anyhow, I had a lot of ideas for cookies, but I thought I'd again mix it up and throw in something new...so this week I made Rice Krispie Treats with chocolate peanut butter coating and vanilla bean icing for laces.  This recipe was sort of made up on the fly...so I'll give this tutorial a (pathetic) shot.

1) Make your Rice Krispie Treats
-Melt 3 TB of butter over medium
-Add 4 cups of mini marshmallows and stir until melted
-Mix in 6 cups of cereal
-Spread into a pan coated with cooking spray.

Sorry I have no photo of this. But if you don't know what Rice Krispie Treats look like then you probably aren't getting enough electricity in that cave of yours to turn on your oven anyhow.

2) Make a sinful coating
-While the treats cool, melt 4 squares of bakers unsweetened chocolate in the microwave (about 1 min).
-Remove and stir in 1 cup of peanut butter (preferably smooth and/or creamy...the peanuts in the chunky don't make for a pretty surface for these footballs) and heat for another 30 seconds in the microwave until soft.
-Once the treats have cooled to a room temp, spread this dangerous mixture of chocolate and peanut butter over the top.
-Cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour (until the chocolate mix is hard to the touch)

I didn't have a pan that was an appropriate size so I improvised...deal with it.

You can stop here and cut squares later, but If you want footballs...continue on...

3) Make the footballs...
-Use a football shaped cookie cutter and cut them out
-Smack yourself in the forehead for needing a tutorial for this step


4) Lace it up
-Combine 6 tablespoons of milk with 6 tablespoons of corn syrup in a mixer.
-Add in a tablespoon of Williams-Sonoma's Vanilla Bean Paste (if you don't have this, run out and buy it now!!)  If you aren't fortunate enough to get your hands on this paste, just bust out the regular old blah vanilla extract. *WARNING* It won't taste nearly as awesome. ;)

Legal Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for any damage caused to your wardrobe, taste-buds, or kitchen in the baking of these footballs.  They are extremely rich and not recommended for the amateur eater. 
 

Homemade Cookbook

When my husband and I were first married, I scrapbooked a lot.  So when I started accumulated a lot of recipes, I thought it'd be a neat project to make a scrapbook/cookbook.  At the time, I had never heard of anyone making one of these, so I was pretty proud of my unique project idea.  I see them more and more in scrapbook stores nowadays, but I promise, I thought of it first : P   Well anyways, after 5 years of marriage, the scrapbook has became fairly thick.  It's filled with recipes from blogs, neighbors, friends, family members, magazines, etc. In the beginning I used a binder with the plastic slip-in cover so I could slide in a pretty cover.  But I got bored last night and decided to sew up a new cover.  I attempted a tutorial of this project, but I'm not a very experienced seamstress and I'm not so good at tutorials, so forgive me if this isn't the greatest tutorial ever.  I did my best.  The cookbook isn't completely finished, however.  I'd like to add some embroidery to the side and perhaps a button clasp.  The pocket shown on the front is not actually sewn on yet, in case I decide to have it embroidered.  If you want a pocket on yours, make sure you sew it on before step 5.

 Supplies needed: At least 2 colors of fabric about a yard total should do.  You'll also need a binder.  Buttons and ribbons are optional. 

 

For the first step, lay your fabric out flat and place your binder on top.

 Leaving about an inch of edging, cut around the binder

 Now fold that edge inward, meeting at the binder edge and pin them in place.

  

Sew the trim down all the way around. (If you want a pocket or ribbons or buttons on the cover, do this before moving on to the next step.)

 Lay the fabric down again (facing up) and place the binder back on top.  Cut your second color of fabric  to match the size of one side of the binder, leaving about an inch and a half of space from the center like shown above.  Face the material down (like I've shown you above) and fold the edge over, pin and sew down.

 Pin the edges of the top and bottom together.   Slide the binder out and sew the edges together. 

 Repeat on the other side and flip the fabric inside out.  Slide your binder back in and tada!

 

Here's the inside of my cookbook.  To keep it personal, it includes photos of family members baking cookies...I'll go into more details about the contents of my cookbook on another day. 

 

Oh, Oh, Oh...It's Magic!

As a boutique photographer, I have an addiction to making tutus for use as an inexpensive and adorable photo prop for my toddler sessions.  Therefore there is a lot of scrap tulle lingering around my craft closet these days. I haven't had luck finding much use for these extra strands, until today.  This morning I discovered Pom Pom Wands. They're simple to make, cute, and they are the perfect accessory for the matching tutus I have all over this house!  They were a lot of fun to make, so I ended up going crazy with them.  I don't have use for 6 wands so I've put some of them for sale on my etsy page.  But if you'd rather make your own, below is a tutorial I've put together.

(Sorry if it's not a great tutorial, but I've never put one together before).

Step 1) Gather supplies.  Tulle (3 inches wide and approximately 10 ft long, or you can use several cut pieces that equal at least 10 ft long--the longer the fluffier your pom pom will be), glue gun (& glue sticks, duh), 12 inch dowel rods (I used 36 inch dowel rods and cut them into 3 equal pieces), & a couple spools of ribbon.

Step 2) Use the glue gun to adhere the main color ribbon to the dowel rod by applying a dab of glue every couple of inches and rotating the rod.

Step 3) Completely cover the rod until no wood shows through.

Step 4) Apply another color of ribbon to the rod by repeating step 2 (space this color out a bit).

Step 5) Continue adding different ribbon colors until you are satisfied with the colors of the rod, then set the rod aside.

Step 6) Cut 2 12 inch pieces of ribbon and set aside.  Pick up your strand of tulle and begin winding it around your hand over and over again until it's all wrapped around your palm.

Step 7) (This part can be tricky) Carefully slide the tulle from your hand and tie knot around the middle with the 12 inch pieces of ribbon you cut in step 6.

Step 8) Insert one blade of your scissors through the tulle on one side of the ribbon and cut the loops open and fluff the pom out.  Then repeat on the opposite side.

Finally, use to glue gun to adhere the pom to the rod and TADA!! You have a pom pom wand!  No go make some magic!