I know, I know…don’t fall off your chair. We are back with a few crafts. The first craft is a little holiday-ish, but we had so much fun making it.

Of course we “borrowed” the idea from the lovely HowDoesShe? blog and I thought since our friends here in California wouldn’t have a white Christmas they really could use a little snow!

So we set about making some. Cornstarch, kosher salt and lots of glitter. We learned after the first batch that this is best mixed up OUTside.

Of course, if you need to “make” snow where you live, it is probably nice enough to make the mess out in the courtyard.

We packaged it up in empty paint cans (we got ours from Ganahl for a few bucks each) –

Downloaded the label from HowDoesShe and added the paint can opener and a bow –

And, voila! Fun little gifts that were so much fun to give.

And we brought out Eva and the heat press for a few other gifts to give as well.

A little (pink glitter!) princess tee for a sweet niece –

And a new logo and some “work” shirts for Mom & Dad –

I’m antsy to get started on some other projects around here.

Of course, if you are following me on Instagram/Facebook you already know my newest passion…baking BREAD!

My first batch was for our New Year’s Eve dinner with our good friends. I got the recipe from King Arthur’s Flour and I used herbs de Provence and butter in between each “slab.” It was really pretty good.

And then I decided that I was going to try my hand at sandwich bread since the girls headed back to school this week and would need lunches every day. The sandwich bread has been a huge hit.

I love the fact that the bread is really only 4 or 5 ingredients. No high fructose corn syrups, no preservatives I can’t pronounce. It makes me feel better to have control over one small part of our every day eating.

Tonight I tried Kaiser rolls since we were having pulled pork sandwiches and I didn’t have any rolls. They were really good – nice and dense and able to withstand a big helping of meat.

I’ve been using Nick Malieri’s Bread book. It is so easy to follow and has all kinds of other recipes. I’m sure the book and I will become great friends.

So that is a few things that have been going on around here. Tell me what great Christmas crafting you all did over our break?

Haaalllo there my crafty friends! We are trying to get back into the swing of summer projects after all the vacationing we have been doing. There’s some progress happening in the kitchen (as I sit here typing with my hair full of sanded bits from my ceiling) but nothing really that I can show. Maybe next week?

Last week, in my usual schizophrenic way, I decided that I couldn’t go another minute without fixing our outdoor furniture. Yes, I did have about six other irons in the fire, so to speak, but I got another splinter while we were eating dinner on Sunday. It was not my first splinter, so the outdoor furniture moved up on my list of to-dos.

When we got the furniture last year I waterproofed it right away, but an entire year baking in the hot California sun had made our furniture brittle and thirsty! When I had waterproofed it last year I really liked the darker initial color, so I decided to stain the furniture to get that color that had faded out…back.

After sanding everything down, I used the MinWax Wood Conditioner just to give the wood a little extra love. The wood conditioner is really easy to apply – it is thin and you just apply it with a paintbrush.

It dries really quickly and you are supposed to apply your stain within 2 hours of the wood conditioner. So I broke out the stain. I used the MinWax Gel Stain in the Light Cherry stain. This too is very easy to apply – and the gel consistency means no drips, which is very good for me since I tend to be a messy painter/stainer!

So I was very pleased with the color. I like that it has a little bit of teak/cherry redness to it and makes it pop out on the courtyard. BUT, I couldn’t leave it as is. We needed some polyurethane to protect the stain and wood. My new friend in the paint department at Ganahl Lumber assured me that I should use this marine polyurethane because it is the varnish they use on boats and it will last for a few years and I will not have to do this again next year. Sold.

I’m not completely sold on the glossiness of the poly yet, though. I like the more matte/satin finishes generally, and this one is very shiny. But, I think it will dull down in just a few weeks in our hot sun and if it saves me a few days next year…I think I can live with the gloss.

Anyone else had any adventures in outdoor staining lately?

Eva strikes again.

I am certain by now you know of my love for our Silhouette machine. Look what a little vinyl did for these teacher end-of-year gifts. Instant personalized cups for summer!

And…I saw some family tree prints with the little birds (for each birdie in the family!) awhile ago and decided that I wanted to tackle family trees too…only doing it as canvas/painted art. With THREE best girls with June birthdays, I decided this was the craft to try. With only a minor set-back, I think they turned out pretty good.

I started with some square blank canvases (thanks to Hobby Lobby!), and painted them a base color – the color I wanted the trees to be – not the major color.

And then I cut out the tree & birds with Eva and adhered it onto the canvas.

This is a good way to use up bits and scraps of odd colored vinyl, since you are not really using the applique. I used outdoor vinyl, because it is what we had. It is however, very hard to make sure the edges are really applied well on the canvas. I tried to smooth it down while I pressed on the back of the canvas to make sure it was adhered. (This will become important in a minute or two…)

Then…paint your overall color over the top of the vinyl.

(Yes, sorry about switching paintings on you…same steps, different tree and colors!)

Let dry, and peel the vinyl up. You *should* see your object outlined and colored in the color that you put down first.

And it DID work, but since I didn’t get all of my edges all pressed down perfectly, my tree and birds were kind of jaggy. So I ended up repainting the tree by hand to get it nice and smooth and neat. But at least I had a good outline to follow and didn’t have to freehand it.

The text, on the other hand, did not fare so well. So I ended up cutting the text out of vinyl again and just using the text instead of the paint trick.

There was no way I was getting nicely printed text from my paintbrush. It worked just as well.

I think they were liked by all, and I can’t wait to make one for us for our new kitchen.

Hello, Crafty Peeps!

Once again I feel like the only time I get a second to pop into my poor neglected blog is it to put up a Snapshot or post a CT. Last week was no exception. We are hitting the end-of-school-year crunch, T-12 days and counting around here before it is SUMMER time! We have seemed to skip the chilly May days, and there doesn’t appear to be any June gloom on the horizon either. It has been hot, and summer-y already, so we have been spending lots o’ time out-the-doors! I’m desperate to get our outside looking live-able, especially since I’m still stuck in a holding pattern on a lot of INside decisions.

Addie and I have been weeding, planting and gardening away – we even harvested a few tomatoes that the critters didn’t get to yet for our Sunday dinner. I’ve sort of become obsessed with vintage-looking outdoor stuff. I got this pot last summer to keep our hose in – I love the green rustic patina finish on it.

Many, many years ago – I found this old wire potting holder at a flea market. It really hasn’t been given the proper love or attention all this time, so we brought it back out and are putting her to good use, too.

(Looks like our herbs could use a little drink, Addikins!)

When Birdie #2 and I were shopping a few weeks ago I found this planter that I LOVE, and it fit in with the sort of vintage-y vibe – in that lovely green color – so I snapped it up. (Thank you, HomeGoods!)

And when I was shopping for something totally unrelated at Orchard Supply last week, I spotted this old box-turned-planter.

Now there is NO love lost between me and petunias – especially pink petunias – but the box…oh, I loved this box. So I used my birthday money to make a bit of a snap purchase. I figure sooner or later those pink petunias will be history and I can plant something I really love in that awesome box. (It also fits in our outdoor fireplace perfectly!)

One thing I have been seeing everywhere and dying to create are these mason jar lanterns. You can see the PotteryBarn ones run almost $8 a pop…I’ve found them elsewhere for a little cheaper, but I want a whole bunch of them…and I don’t want to spend a whole bunch of money! AND…I just happen to have a lot of old jars (I knew I was keeping them for something!) lying around. So to make them look like the old vintage jars, I used this tutorial and got to work.

I love the blue she used for her jars, and I’m truly a sucker for those old blue jars, but I wanted a little more green feel to mine. So I used her recipe, 1 tsp. glue, 1 1/2 tsp. water and two drops of blue coloring and added one drop of green. Brush it on and let dry…

Perfect color. I did get a few streaks, but I figure once the sand and candles get in there, we are going to be just fine. I did try to fashion some wire “hangers” out of…wait for it….old wire hangers. But they are not flexible enough and I can’t get a close enough fit. So I’m on the hunt for some different wire.

To be continued…

I didn’t do too terribly much crafting around here last week, but I managed to get one little project for me, off of the list.

I have wanted to vinyl-up some of these jars for a long time. Birdie #2 and I made the monthly pilgrimage to the mecca (Hobby Lobby) last week and all of the glassware was 50% off, so perfect time to stock up on jars.

And then we just cut some tags out with outdoor vinyl (so we can wash the jars!) and one project done!

I hadn’t washed them yet, so that is why they are still hanging out on my table, but they look cool, huh?

Now the girls were plenty crafty for Mother’s Day. This is what Addie gave me on Sunday (well, Saturday night because they couldn’t wait!) –

And inside the bag was a silhouette her teacher did –

I put it in a frame so I can hang it, and I also took a photo of Em yesterday so I can do one of her. I love these! And the silhouette really does look like Ad’s profile.

And Em brought home a handmade gift, too – my most favorite gifts in the world.

And a close-up of the letter than accompanied the coupons –

“A multi-tasker and classy.” That is what I am to my girl. Eh. I’ll take it.

And the other present they brought out, although it isn’t handmade or crafty –

It does make rockin’ ice cream. I think we are going to have some fun coming up with our own homemade treats!

Any Mother’s Day craft goodness that you can share today?

If you ever need to put together a Harry Potter party…stick around. I have been buried in the ol’ internets the last few weeks, culling ideas for Em’s party this Saturday. First craft on deck – the invitation. I found this cool “owl delivered invitation” on Pinterest and couldn’t find the source, or the original creator of the invite. I’m embarrassed to admit, I became a bit obsessed about these adorable balloons. I even googled “owl balloons” until it dawned on me. “Uh? Ohhhhh….it is just a white balloon with the owl drawn on it with Sharpie markers.”

Ahem. Yes. So…we got to work.

We started with an invitation that ripped off the acceptance letter to Hogwarts printed on some tan paper.

I wanted it to look old, weathered and parchment like, so after I printed them out I tried to use some vinegar and was about to bake it when I realized that it was just smearing the ink and making me crazy. I couldn’t “parchment” the paper up first – because then it wouldn’t go through the printer.

So I crumbled them up and started to wander through the my craft bins for something that would help age the paper.

Score! My parents got me this distressing kit that I had forgotten about. It has a little brown chalk pad that is perfect for rubbing over the wrinkled paper and makes it look perfectly aged.

And then I burned the edges a little bit to make them look officially old.

And rolled the scrolls and tied each to an owl balloon. All of the owls here are just waiting to deliver their invites…

We even got an owl rsvp back!

NOW…on to the list of other crafts that have to be done by Saturday’s party.

So, it was a little someone’s birthday around here. And you know how we love to do it up on our Birthdays in our house. It gave me a few opportunities to break out Eva and make some tees…

Our traditional “number” t-shirt to wear on birthday day:

Next year we will have to get a bigger shirt, big enough for 2 numbers. (sigh)

Birdie #2 and I are a little bit obsessed with the British “Keep Calm & Carry On” signs, (or anything British, really) so when I saw these being knocked off, I had to make a volleyball one for Em:

And for Easter we made carrot whoopee pies. It was a mix I found at Target, but the packaging was so stinkin’ cute, I couldn’t walk away. I mean, look at it!:

They were ok. And then Em decided for her “treat” to give her classmates, she wanted to do whoopee pies as well, except in chocolate. Seemed easy enough, I mean…easier than the cakepops, right?

While I was reading the recipe, I realized they were just using a cookie sheet to make the “cake part” of the pies. Now, thanks to JB, I do own a lovely whoopee pie pan, but it only makes 6 pies at a time. I needed 36! So I decided to try the cookie sheet to speed things along. Epic fail. So worth the extra time it takes to make the pies in the proper pan – or buy a second pan, I suppose.

Not that they tasted bad, but those irregular blobs that didn’t quite puff up like they were supposed to kinda grated on my perfectionist sensibilities. I mean look at these:

And now look how pretty these are:

See? At any rate, the pies were finished and delivered to school to the delight of all the third-graders (and a few choice first-graders, too!):

And I’m sure the kids didn’t get my pun, but I liked it and I guess that anything to keep Mama happy when she is covered in flour and frosting is good:

And the birthday girl enjoyed them, so that is really all that matters: