Beautiful Tomato Cage Christmas Trees!

So Jake decided to make tomato cage Christmas trees...because he saw it on Pinterest!

"Holiday Design Tip – Alternative Christmas Trees!"-Original pin by New England Design and Construction

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  It's the hap-happiest season of all!  Eeeeee!!!

OK so this was supposed to be a guest post by my boy, but he would rather make the trees than write about them. 

Jake is really into Christmas.

As in he may be the illegitimate son of Clark Griswold.

"This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny f-ing Kaye."

Love Christmas Vacation! LOVE IT!

OK, so back to the tomato cage Christmas trees.

Jake thought these would be easy to make and very inexpensive.  He was totally right!

The tomato cages were only $1.30 each! And we had a few strands of 100 bulb colored lights in the attic so we decided to bring back the 80's!

Why did colored lights go out of fashion?  They're so festive!

If you're a perfectionist like Jake, the first step would be to paint your tomato cage the color of your light cord.  So green in our case.

Let's talk about how this picture is all wrong in every way.

First of all, its upside down. But I cannot for the life of me convince my computer or any editing software to turn it counterclockwise.  I give up.

Secondly, no he did not spray paint anything on our driveway!  This was totally staged.

Moving on.

OK after the paint dried, he zip-tied the loose ends together.  This will be the top of the tree.

Now, the only thing left to do is wrap the lights around the 'cone' and find a place to display them proudly!

They started out in the flower bed...

And ended up on the porch!

They are festive, aren't they?

And all for less than $4!!  Score!

Jake gives this project a thumbs up.  He doesn't do 'grades'.

It was easy, it was cheap, and it's super cute (definitely my words, not his!). 

He says 'hello'.  He's up on the roof, stapling down the chaser lights.  Clark would be so proud!

I'll Have a Glass of Pinot with My Christmas Ornament Wreath, Thank You

So I decided to make a Christmas ornament wreath...because I saw it on Pinterest.

"No Wire Hangers! (Well Maybe Just One)"-Original pin from Eddie Ross

Wow...isn't that wreath amazing?  I love it so much, I'm thinking about getting it printed life-size and taping it to my door.  Because after the last 24 hours, I am convinced that is the only way I will ever have a beautiful ornament wreath out there!  And I'm sure as heck not trying to make another one!

Here we go.

I have been dying to make this wreath in red and gold for Christmas.  But I am allergic to paying full price, so I was waiting for the ornaments to go on sale at Hobby Lobby.  Well, they were finally 50% off this week but most of the colors were sold out.  I got the last tube of red.  The only other color left was brown.  Surely there MUST be some gold somewhere.  Right?

So I'm looking around the store for some flipping gold ornaments.  And the whole time I'm thinking, "Where da gold at?  I want the gold!"

Now, if you're from Mobile, AL you are probably laughing out loud right now.  Maybe even holding your sides you're laughing so hard.  If you're not from Mobile, you're probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about. 

And there you go.

Sadly, I never did find da gold.

This project got off to a bad start.   Maybe you'll have better luck.  This is what you'll need if you decide to make your own wreath.

The burlap is just for fun.  I foolishly thought I could make a pretty burlap bow with which to hang my wreath.  But, as it turns out, burlap is not really into making bows out of itself.  Nope.  Not at all.  It is, however, into making your nose twitch and your skin itch.  Yep, it sure is.


Anyway, start by bending a wire clothes hanger into a circle.  Easy.  Then untwist the neck so you can thread the balls on.

I swear, every time I would move a glue stick out of the shot, Miss P would throw two more in.  And I had the WORST case of Dead Arm Disease in the history of America from carrying her sweet sleeping self all over Hobby Lobby for an hour!  Me and my one good arm finally just gave up.  So there.  Glue sticks in the shot.

Lack of perfection is probably a good theme for this post anyway.

I read all of the directions on Eddie Ross's site.  I really did. I just thought it was kind of silly to go to the trouble of removing the tops of the ornaments just so I could hot glue them back on.  Especially since only one of my arms was working properly.

Lazy is a really tough hurdle to clear isn't it?

So I didn't hot glue the tops.

Things were going so well.  I was just sliding those balls on so fast with my one good arm.  And everything was fine until I tried to twist the hanger back together.  That sad little worn out arm just couldn't hold it.  There's a lot of tension in the wire after adding all those balls.

The wreath flew out of my hands and across the table.

I think I sat in the chair with my mouth hanging open for a good minute.  Just thinking.  About not being lazy, mostly.  Because when the wreath landed across the table, nearly half of the balls detached from their tops.  Yeppers.  Sure did.

Nothing like 25ish ornaments bouncing around your dining room at midnight.

Hello, old friend.

Sipping and thinking...

What's that old saying?  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

So I took every last ornament off the hanger and took off every last top.  I glued the flipping tops down and put them all back on the dang hanger.

This guy was taunting me, I swear.  Can you tell?

A little while later...I finally got all the balls back on the hanger.

This time I really focused on not letting go of the wreath while twisting the hanger back together.   Great success on the second attempt!

And here is the finished product:

Ok, it's not that bad.  But does it look like Mr. Ross's wreath?  Not. At. All.

Let's talk about why this might be.  For starters, all my balls are the same size which made little open spaces (smaller balls mixed in would have been a nice touch).  Secondly, there's no glamorous burlap (or satin I guess) bow.  And I only have one color going on (thank you Hobby Lobby).  These are all fatal flaws.

When I finished this monster in the wee hours of the morning, all I could think was, "I'd rather have my $10 back." 

I give myself an L for Lazy on this one.  If I'd just followed the instructions exactly (various sizes of ornaments, glue the dang tops on, make a satin bow), I know I would have ended up with a fabulous wreath.

Instead I am missing three hours beauty sleep and $10 from my wallet!

Lesson learned.

At least until the next project.

Happy crafting, friends!

Happy Owloween!

So I decided that Miss Precocious should be an owl for Halloween...because I saw it on Pinterest.

 "Last Minute Kids' Owl Costume"-This pin originally came from Alpha Mom. 

I am a Chi Omega and of course it is my sincerest (secret) hope that Miss P will be one as well.  So I'm doing all I can to brainwash her instill in her a love of all things owl before she goes to college.  So far this has included an owl-themed birthday party, owl clothing, owl lovies...and most recently, an owl costume for Halloween.

Or Owloween as I'm now calling it.

I saw this cute little do-it-yourself owl costume on Pinterest.  I read the info over at Alpha Mom and I thought I would give it a try.  

The last two costumes we bought were cheaply made and I'm sure they were fabricated from formaldehyde or something even worse.  So I was really excited to make a costume that I knew didn't involve neurological toxins or Asian sweat shops!

These are the materials I chose:

That's a roll of lavender organza, gray knit, pink felt, and a purple bandana.

Yes, a bandana...

And there is no way Miss P would ever keep those cute sunglasses on (the little model from the original post is wearing sunglasses made to look like owl eyes) so I decided to look for an owl hat instead.  I found this one over at The Children's Place.  

Super cute, reusable for the next few winters, and it was only $5 when I bought it!  Fab!

I chose the fabric colors around the color of the hat.  Actually choosing the fabric was the most difficult part of the entire project.

You see, shopping is not easy for me!  I have a disease.  They don't have a medical term for it yet (this is all very serious).  So I'm calling it Retail Anxiety Disorder.  RAD for short.  

I get sweaty and twitchy when I have to make a decision about what items to purchase. I probably looked like this in the middle of Hobby Lobby:

It isn't like this at the grocery store.  There I have a specific list that includes brands, quantities, etc.  

But send me out clothes shopping or, in this case, to find material, and I need four Xanax and a glass of wine! 

That explains why I panicked and bought like...10 yards of fabric (and a bandana).

For someone who is something like 26 inches tall. 

Sigh...

Anyway, the base of the owl body is a plain purple t-shirt from Hobby Lobby.  They have so many colors to choose from!

I would have used a long sleeve shirt but I just couldn't find one that was cheap enough to justify gluing feathers to!

I cut out about 90 feathers.

I ran a strip of hem tape about an inch above the hem of the shirt. 

I chose hem tape because, well honestly I couldn't find my fabric glue. It was one of the things we lost in the move.  (Think very dramatic, like Halle Berry, Things We Lost In The Fire.  Except it's "Fabric Glue-Things We Lost In The Move.")

After I had the hem tape ironed down, I placed the feathers onto the tape in no particular order.

Yeah right!  I am the QUEEN of OCD.  Of course there was an order!  But I tried to make it look like there wasn't.  Can you tell?

I am really glad I accidentally picked a variety of fabrics because when I laid them out next to each other, the texture was really good.

After I got a row of feathers lined up, I just pressed down with all my might using the iron (on the highest dry setting).  Now, I will admit that felt and organza are not the best choices of fabric to pair with hem tape. The felt is too thick and the organza is too thin.  I ended up hot gluing the felt pieces on so they wouldn't fall off.

I made a ring of feathers around the neck.  I may have had to cut the neck a little bit for Miss P's large and precious head to fit through...

And since I had like, oh I don't know, 9 yards of fabric left, I decided to cover her pumpkin tote in feathers too.

I just hot glued those on. Man, I love a hot glue gun!  I can't think of anything else so versatile and useful that only costs $2!!

And here is my little baby hootie testing out her "owl suits" as she calls it.

Hoot Hoot!

So this project was a little time consuming, but it turned out so cute.  I totally love it!  I give it an A++!!  Especially since you could pretty much do this for free using any fabric scraps you might have laying around instead of buying fabric like I did. 

Be extra sweet to any little hooties that come your way and have a Happy Owloween everybody!

Scream Cheese Brownies

Hey Everyone!  This is a special guest post from The Good Girl over at GoodGirlsInc!  I'm so excited that she decided to share this sweet treat with us.  Be sure to check out her clever blog ASAP! 

So I decided to try this whole create-something-you-saw-on-Pinterest thing. I am not very crafty but I do like to eat. Especially chocolate. So I made some super cool Halloween brownies...because I saw it on Pinterset!

"Scream Cheese Brownies" - This pin originally came from Christy at The Girl Who Ate Everything.

We love sweets in my house. Probably more than we should. But it's Halloween, and everyone's allowed a little extra chocolate, right? So when I was looking around for some Halloween treats to make on Pinterest and saw these brownies, I just had to make them.

This recipe calls for a box of brownie mix, and I decided to use the Pillsbury Halloween Funfetti kind, which is basically regular brownies but with little black, orange and white candy sprinkles on top. It just seemed extra festive! Here's what I started with:

First I mixed the cream cheese filling. Now I will be honest here; when I heard the words "cream cheese" and "brownies" I was a little skeptical. That doesn't sound like the best combination. But I was willing to give it a shot. If it's got chocolate in it then it has to be good. So I got the filling ready to mix:


I used my nifty hand mixer my mother-in-law gave me (I guess she knew that would come in handy at some point) and got it to a smooth consistency like so (it looked pink to me when it was supposed to be orange so I was starting to get a little concerned):

Next I mixed the brownie mix according to the box instructions and filled a greased baking pan with 3/4 of the brownie mixture:


Now it's time to spoon the "orange" filling mixture into the brownie mix. Then put the remaining brownie mix on top and use a knife to pull the filling through the batter to create a marbling effect:


This is the point where I add my Funfetti sprinkles to the top of the brownies (note: the original Pin for Scream Cheese Brownies didn't have this). Then I pop them in the oven for 40 minutes at 350 degrees:


And now I wait. And smell the yummy goodness of brownies coming from my oven. But I've got a sink full of dirty dishes to do and that will help pass some of the time.



You know what else helps pass the time? Starship, lots of wine and some of my favorite websites (Because I Saw It On Pinterest and Good Girls Inc, of course!):


They're finally done! Take a look at how they turned out:



They need to cool completely at room temperature for about an hour and a half, then have to be refrigerated for at least an hour. Then they're ready to be cut and eaten!



Overall I give the Scream Cheese Brownies an A because they taste really good, are pretty easy to make, and are a festive holiday treat!

Happy Halloween!

-The Good Girl

Jack-o'-Lantern Luminaries

So I decided to make Jack-o'-Lantern Luminaries...because I saw it on Pinterest.

"Crafty in the Kitchen: Mason Jar Lanterns"- This pin originally came from Our Best Bites.

Halloween is probably my most favorite of the non-religious holidays.  The weather is finally perfect, the kids are so cute when they say 'Trick or Treat' that you actually want to give them the last Snickers...

And really, is there any other time of year when this could be considered appropriate?

That's our Jackie-lantern.  Our sweet Jackie Russell.  We love her.  But she did not love that we dressed her up and took her to Pet Smart!  Bless it.  I don't think she got the humor in her being a Jackie-lantern.  So next time, she is going as a...cat. 

Anyway, I saw those adorable jack-o'-lantern luminaries and I decided to try to make some.  I have a collection of old Ragu and baby food jars of various sizes so I am going to be using those instead of Mason jars like the ones in the pin.  

I think Mason jars are definitely a better choice for cuteness, but free is always a better choice...period.

The luminaries in the pin were made by Modpodging tissue to the outside of the jars.  And I don't have any orange tissue.  So I just painted the outside of the jars lightly with some watered-down acrylic paints I already had. 

Luckily, they look better in the dark!  

I used black scrapbook paper to cut out the faces.  Then I glued them on using Elmer's glue sticks. I knew that six pack of glue sticks I got on Amazon would come in handy!  Six pack.  Of glue sticks... Total impulse buy.  Glad I can justify it now. (On a side note, Miss P thought the glue sticks were for her 'wips'.  I guess they do look like lipstick...)

It was so much fun to give them different personalities.  That's Edward there in the middle.  The purple vampire.  Just 20 days until Breaking Dawn.  Not that I'm counting...

I put some real tea lights in the Ragu jars and battery operated tea lights in the baby food jars.  I was scared the real tea lights would make the smaller jars too hot and nobody wants glass blowing up in their face.  Am I right?

So, these are totally adorable...

Poor Edward, I shouldn't have watered that purple paint down so much.  It looks like he's bleeding.  Lesson learned.

My sweet husband, Jake (Training Day or Sixteen Candles?  I'll never tell...) wanted to make one of his own.  

Geaux Tigers!  Ha!  My entire family just hissed in unison.  I mean, Roll Tide...?

This project was so easy and didn't take long to do at all.  The lanterns would have been way cuter if I had done them with tissue like the original pin, but everything I used was free, so I am not complaining!

Overall I give it an A+!  And by the way, I'm going to start using a 5 pin rating instead of the grading scale (thanks for that idea GoodGirlsInc!).  The teacher in me won't like it but...it's totally more appropriate.  I'm just working on the pin graphics.  Wish me luck!