Whole Lot of Bakin' Going On!

So I decided to become a baker...of things I saw on Pinterest!

and my interpretation:

Then there were these cookies...

and my interpretation: 

Then there were these little lovelies...

 

that inspired me to make these little lovelies:

Everything was going pretty well until I decided to try this guy...

 I guess you can't win 'em all.

See...this is what I love about Pinterest.  You see something that someone else has done and you think, "Maybe I can do that, too!"  

And sometimes you can :)

I'm On Twitter!

So I decided to get a Twitter account...

Follow me @BISIOPinterest!  Hopefully I will figure out how to 'tweet' soon :)

xoxo

Vintage Little Tikes Kitchen

So I decided to make-over my vintage 1980's Little Tikes Kitchen Set...and put it on Pinterest.

This pin originally came from  imremembering.com but I couldn't find the direct link to this picture on that site.

OH MY WORD!!!  I cannot tell you how excited I was to find this amazing Little Tikes ad!  I have been searching and searching the internet for a picture of this particular 3 piece kitchen set because it is the very one Santa brought me for Christmas when I was 4 (and it changed my life)! But I could never find a picture of it! 

Until tonight.  Sweet joy.

I wish I had a picture of my little 4 year old self on that blessed Christmas morning.  I know it exists...

Anyway.  This kitchen set is what I think of when I remember my childhood.  It was my favorite toy that I ever owned.  I played with it for hours and hours.  I cooked everything imaginable for my friends and family.  And I probably played with it until I was really too old to be doing such things. 

But I loved it so...  So much that instead of Goodwill-ing it, my sweet parents stored it away in the attic.  Apparently they loved it too.

Jump forward 20 something years into the future.  Miss P is two and my mom asks if we want to get out the old kitchen set for her.  My heart leapt in my chest!  YES!

Oh but it had seen better days.  The decals were peeling in places.  It was really dirty.  Some aspects of it seemed really ridiculous (even for the 80's).  I mean, did people really have tape players in their refrigerators?  Hmm...

Also, my dad had moved them from the attic to the garage in preparation of my picking them up.  And then he painted said garage with a Wagner.  Which totally sprayed paint all over my little kitchen set.  (Remember the stories I told you about my grandfather?  That nut did not fall far from the tree, let me tell you.)

So it was obvious from the start that my precious kitchen set would need a pretty radical overhaul. 

This is what it looked like when I started.  

That stuff that looks like dirt on the stove...nope.  That's paint.  Thanks Dad :)

Wonder if I left anything in there?

I think that fruit salad is still good!

Anyway, I decided to remove the labels first.  Orange and brown just aren't my favorite colors anymore.  Here's a handy little tip.  If you want to remove a label without leaving a mess behind, hold a hairdryer to the label for a few seconds.  It melts the glue and you can remove it all cleanly!  

Once the labels were off, I scrubbed the set with some degreaser.  Then I sprayed the pieces with Krylon Fusion for Plastic in River Rock.  Let me just say, I hate Krylon spray paint.  It is the worst product on the market in my opinion.  However, the Fusion line is decent.  And it's pretty much the only thing out there that can stick to plastic.   

In hindsight I wish we'd chosen a whiter color because the River Rock actually turned out to be a pretty dark gray.  Sigh...

As you can see I just covered the entire piece with paint.  I thought it would be easier to paint the details back in than to try to preserve them. 

I used Apple Barrel craft paint and scrapbook embellishments for the details.  I think they turned out ok.  What do you think?

 

The awesome tape deck is now a 'crushed or cubed' ice selection center and I replaced the wooden cutting board with a pretty pink damask cutting board.   I didn't touch the inside of the pieces.  I just couldn't get rid of the awesome fruit salad...

I'm so glad this memory from my childhood will now be included in my little one's memories of her childhood.  I can't tell you how many tea parties we've had since Christmas morning! 

Cheers!

Bless Your Nest! - Bird's Nest Necklace Tutorial

So I decided to make a bird's nest necklace...because I saw it on Pinterest.

"diy {bird nest necklace}" - Original pin from Sarah Ortega.

It seems like my friends are in the baby-having stage of life these days.  Which is a fabulous stage, if you ask me! 

There are babies everywhere!  Have you noticed?  I hadn't.  Until I had one of my own.  And now I see those little angels all around.  I guess its like when you get a new car and then everyone on the road is suddenly driving the exact one you have.  

Please tell me this happens to you too.

Anyway, a precious friend had just told me she was expecting miracle number two. Then I had a lengthy discussion with another dear friend who is contemplating having a baby (translate: I am begging her to have a baby-she will be an amazing mother!).  

Then I saw these adorable little bird's nests and I had to make them.  Like yesterday.  Because they are such a sweet way to represent your little family and keep them close to your heart.  

And seriously, I went to Michael's the same day and bought the wire and beads.  Couldn't wait to make this!

Here's what you'll need:

Beads of your choosing (seed pearls for me) and some jewelery wire (I bought 18 gauge silver wire-a mistake).  And you'll need a pair of needle nose pliers.  I forgot to put them in the pics!

Ok so I think I've mentioned I have a little problem with lazy.  I see these little gems on Pinterest and in my haste to make them myself, I often neglect to read the instructions.   As in I never read the instructions.  Which is why I bought 18 gauge wire instead of 24 gauge, which Sarah recommends.  

That means I couldn't get the wire to thread through the beads (the smaller the gauge the thicker the wire)!  When will I learn?  Probably never.

So what to do...

Improvise!  The beads came on a thin plastic string.  I just used it to tie three beads together.  If you buy the correct size wire, you can just thread the beads that way. 

I just knotted the string around the beads.  

Next I wove the wire between the beads.  Be sure to cross the beads on one side only.  This will be the unattractive back side of the necklace.  You don't want wire all over the front.  It should look like little eggs in a nest, not a mine field.

Once you have the wire through the beads, start to wrap the wire in a circle around the bead cluster.  You can make your nest as thick as you want.  Once you have the desired thickness, you can wrap the wire around the nest for added detail.  Like so:

Attach a jump ring before you twist the wire closed in the back.  Or you can just twist your wire in such a way so that you make your own jump ring (this is the part that the chain will go through).  

One mistake I made that really bugged me when I gave this to my friend was that I made the jump ring so that it would lie flat against the chest.  It should be perpendicular to the chest so that the necklace will lie flat. 

Also, my wire was ridiculously thick!!  I couldn't get it to bend properly in places.  This was super annoying.  Buy the proper gauge, people!

I am really loving Sarah's blog, by the way!  She is super crafty and she gives really thorough tutorials.  She even sells some items in her Etsy shop, Poppy & Pine.  

She is out of these lovely necklaces at the moment, but no worries.  You can make your own!!  

This project gets a big A+!  It cost less than $5 for the wire and beads and I have plenty left over to make several more necklaces.  This was so much fun for me.  I feel like these are going to be the next big jewelery craze.  

Better get busy ladies!