Cute Little Fabric Tissue Holder

This past weekend, I was given the opportunity to go on a fabulous girl-friend trip to Southern California. I was so excited to go since it was my first girls trip EVER!! We went to Burbank and the IKEA store (first time in that place...WOW!! is it BIG,) but our main event was going to the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena. While we were down there, we stayed at the most beautiful hotel, The Langham. We ate at all kinds of fun places, shopped at all kinds of cool stores, talked like grown ups and behaved like them too! It was amazing. Totally what the doctor ordered. It was so cool that it worked out for me to go and to be with a great group of friends. I am truly blessed. :)

To "celebrate" our trip, I was inspired to give a little gifty something-or-other to my travel buddies. I searched for the perfect thing to whip up and found this really cute little tissue holder tutorial that seemed like it would be perfect!
Since I had also made a commitment to you guys, to do a Pinterest inspired craft or recipe weekly, my gift project did double duty. So, Pinterest Project Post week 2 complete! Hooray! (Check out week 1 here.)

Super easy to make. I finished mine in about an hour or so. You could easily make up a bunch and keep them handy for last minute thoughtfulness. Here are my final results, all packaged up. :)

Copycat Chick-Fil-A Recipe!! (Year of Pinterest- #1)

Contrary to a friend's opinion, this is a piece of chicken breast and NOT a tonsil. Haha.

I am still in a blogging funk. Boohoo.Can't seem to find the motivation and the inspiration together in the same place at the same time. But I was shown an idea!! I was perusing through my online home-away-from-home, or one of them at least, Pinterest, and noticed someone had the guts to post "365 days of Pinterest." I was intrigued. Was someone really crazy enough to attempt that??! No way! I could never do something as awesome as attempting a Pinterest inspired project or tip or recipe every day for a year! Or could I ???

I thought... and thought... and decided HECK NO! I do not need something else to nag at me on a daily basis. Ha! But I could definitely handle one thing a week!! Then that concept would surely guarantee me a blog worthy report at least 52 times a year. At least in theory anyway... So, here I am gathering myself to present you with my first weekly project. I got the inspiration from a Pinterest and it led me to an awesome website full of yummy recipes. I suggest you go head over and check it out, when you get a chance. Table For Two, is its' name. Tell them I sent you. (Not that it matters. I just think it would be fun to baffle them.)

This is the recipe I tried tonight. They call it Chick-Fuh-Lay nuggets and sauce. WOW, was I impressed! Knocked my families socks off! I mean, we LOVE Chick-Fil-A!! But we have to drive 45 minutes out of town to enjoy it. And of course, we always get a craving for it on SUNDAY! (The day it is closed, for those of you unfamiliar folks...) And we LOVE the sauce. It is one of the reasons that make their food so good. Needless to say, we are happy happy people now that we can make a copycat Chick-Fil-A sauce recipe all by ourselves. I went ahead and made some homemade macaroni and cheese and got a fabulous seedless watermelon to go along with our dinner. Such a yummy spread, if I do say so myself. I will say, in our defense, we know (at least I know,) that it is, without a doubt, a sometimes meal. I promise we will not be making this 6 times a week or even 6 times a year for that matter. I mean, any chicken recipe that calls for powdered sugar in the coating and then deep frying?? It is something you save for special occasions. Maybe. ;-)

Anyway, I just want to go on the record and be held accountable. I will be blogging a recipe, tip, project or SOMETHING that I get the inspiration for on Pinterest. I will be sure to link to the original website and tell you all about it. I promise to even show you my failures. I am just cool like that...
Soooooo... please come back next week and check on me. I would appreciate your company. Thanks!! ;-)

Cure Your Hiccups!!

Been crazy in our house lately! End of the school year with 4 kids makes life a little more difficult. (Who am I kidding. 4 kids is ALWAYS more difficult...) What has made it even more interesting is that my husband recently received a promotion (along with a shift change) at work. Hooray for promotions and accompanying pay raises!! However, it has turned our world upside down to say the least... SO, I haven't been inspired to do much blogging. Until this morning...
My lovely youngest daughter has had hiccups off and on for a few days now and as cute as she is, it is a tad annoying after a little while. (Just keeping it real. lol.) After the holding of breath and brotherly scaring failed to work, we got more serious in searching for answers. Then suddenly I recalled a fabulous remedy that hadn't been pulled out of my arsenal is quite some time. This bout of diaphragm spasms called for the big guns... So...
I had my daughter grab a glass of water and I searched the junk drawer (come on, you know you all have one...) until we found a book of matches that I was CERTAIN we must have. Then, I gave my daughter the whole "drink it all without stopping" speech, lit the match and extinguished it in the water. She drank it down quickly and she set the cup down. We stared at each other for half a minute or so waiting to hear the dreaded hick sound. Nothing. We began to giggle. Stared at each other a little bit more, waiting. STILL nothing. HOORAY!! Conquered the hiccups. Yep. Next mission?? Tell all the world about this free fail-proof cure. First stop- the blogosphere. ;-)

Spring Accessories

I had to make another gift for my daughter to take to a birthday party and so I thought I would pull out my jewelry finding and stuff and see what I could come up with. It got late and I had to put my stuff away, but I think I could have kept going. It is so much fun for me to limit my supplies and be as creative as I can be with what I have on hand. Seems I usually like what comes out of it even better than if I plan and plan for stuff. Go figure! 

This one is mine. I think. It is definitely my favorite, that is for sure! And I didn't send it with my daughter to be a gift... SO... looks like it is gonna need to stay in my jewelry box. :) I got the pendant blanks from my new favorite craft store, "Pick Your Plum." I think I may share this picture with them. I also used an internet purchase, some cute little resin flowers, which may have been Pick Your Plum as well. I put it together by cutting some scrapbook paper into a circle, adding it with Mod Podge, cutting the prongs off of a pearl topped brad and attaching that. Then I added a rhinestone adhesive piece and the resin flower was adhered in place with dimension magic as I covered the entire surface in a light coating and allowed to dry. Then I added the bead triplet to the pendant's jump ring. It is hanging from a ball chain. I am loving it!!

  

This is actually a rag rose necklace that I made at a recent craft group meeting. I had forgotten about it and my younger daughter had taken it hostage. That is a good thing, since I had made it for her to begin with. It reminds me of those giant suckers you get at carnivals. I just thought I would go ahead and share it since I was in accessory mode. ;-)

This is one my oldest designed. I had already put together the gift she was going to give her friend and she liked my bottlecap stash (also from Pick Your Plum) and so she wanted not to be forgotten in the cute accessory department. SO... she chose a white bottle cap, micro fine glitter, flat backed rhinestones, and a cute little pink resin flower from the same bunch I used on my other projects. I just attached a jewelry bail to the back with E6000 adhesive and covered the base with the flower, etc, with more Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. She said it was "totally punk rock boss." Not sure what that means exactly. I am guessing it is a good thing. Of course, she is not here to confirm that is what she said, so I could be making it up. ;-) In any case, I am sure she will wear it to death in the coming months.

This is the one that my older daughter had me make for her friend. She was really happy with it's simplicity. However, I almost felt it was too simple. Oh well. And get this... I only have THIS picture of it! With the bubbles in it and everything. I am bummed. I am still a baby blogger with blossoming skills. (At least that is my excuse.) ;-) I was able to save it by moving the flower around adding some more Mod Podge Dimensional Magic (my favorite craft supply currently.) Anyway, it is so cute on her. Love it!

This is the rag rose and tulle hair clip that  my daughter had me make to give her friend for another birthday gift. I actually attached it to a tulle ribbon on the little box, along with a coordinating tag so it did double duty. I added a flat back pearl to the center for some fanciness. I think this is one of those things that is cuter in real life. My daughter said she liked it, so I guess it goes over well with the high schoolers. That is a good thing since it is a gift for one of those creatures. I need to keep practicing these sorts of things. I just attached an alligator clip to the back so she (the gift recipient) could use it in other ways if she wanted. Hope she likes it!

Flower Topped Pens

I am sure at this point everyone knows about these cute little pens. Just thought I would post them just in case there are a few people who have NOT seen them. You can't go wrong for a cute little gift or a little touch of color on a desktop. My daughter thought they were the cutest thing ever and we gave them away in her favor bag for her birthday guests, after we used them on a party game. I think they would be super cute to make a big bouquet of them for teacher appreciation week at the kid's school.

Started at the dollar store and found a bunch of bright simple flowers, a couple packages of regular old ink pens and some floral tape.

Cut the blooms off, attach to the end of the pens with a dab of hot glue (so they don't wiggle around) and secure with floral tape by winding it from about the middle of the pen, all the way up to the bottom of the flower.

Simple as that!