before & after: dresser

A couple of years ago a very kind friend gave me this dresser, her mom had artfully painted it when she was a teenager. I really adore the turquoise color it was before, but it had this odd brown glaze that needed to go! Although, I'm sure in the 70's that glaze made the piece. I've considered painting it several different colors over the years. After moving in with the boyfriend magenta was out of the questions!

I'm sure the original wood finish was beautiful as you can see from this blurry picture.

One handle was missing and several of the others were severely bent. After using 3M's green paint stripper to clean up the handles I was able to bend them back into shape with giant pliers + vice grips.

As you can tell I removed the pulls on the two smaller drawers and patched the holes. I wanted to keep as many as possible. Since I was missing one of the smaller ones I found these mother of pearl knobs at Anthropolgie. I feel the Anthro pulls really PULL the piece together. (HAR, HAR, HAR, I soooo funny!)

My sweet Mama gave these to me as a Christmas present after seeing them on one of my Pinterest boards. I also considered these had I gone with a turquoise color, but I thought it need a bigger change.

So there you have it!

gig 'em!

My precious little sister started her freshman year of college at Texan A&M this year. I could not be more proud of her! Some the best memories I have from college include going all out for the Saturday football games. We had so much fun making shirts, painting our faces, and being part of the Baylor Line! Soooo.... this year for her birthday I made a college football survival kit. As hard as this is to say.... GIG 'EM!

I created a box to hold memories, a large quilt for those chilly Fall games, and crazy shoes. I also included face-paint and t-shirt paint. It would be cute to include ribbons for the girls to tie in their hair, but I couldn't find any A&M Maroon here in Chicago.

I made these ridiculous shoes, but hey you are suppose to look crazy at football games riiiight?

I did it! ;)

Hello, 2002 french manicure. HA!

I use this tutorial to make a super soft, faux chenille blanket. The back is incredibly soft with tons of texture. I used six layers of flannel and a solid Kona cotton under the flannel that was not cut. I like that it hides the backside of the printed cotton face. I have to warn you this takes a TON of thread. For the first time, I used up an entire spool of thread on one project... and then proceeded to use TWO more. For a total of three large spools. Stock up so you don't run out at midnight trying to finish the quilt!

I love you sweet girl!

we can dance if we want to

I do NOT have a green thumb. I've never really been able to keep plants alive in my apartment. So I thought I would try out a terrarium. Plus, I love the idea of an apothecary jar as a sweet little plant habitat.

Plants

Soil

A couple of pieces of beach glass (not visible just to hold down the mesh)

Mesh*

Activated Charcoal

*You could use a layer or rocks here. Basically you need something to keep the charcoal from floating up through the soil like perlite does in a potted plant. I could not find small dark river rocks.

FYI- These two plants are not friends.... one thrived. The other suffered a sad, beautiful death. No really, it was beautiful. The poor plant turned the most gorgeous shade of midnight black. I finally had to pull him out when I gave in to the fact he was dead not just going for "elegant". I think it might have been root rot, don't really know. :)

christmas morning tradition

Every year I look forward to these little treats my grandmother {Nono} makes for Christmas morning. She always makes these cheese balls as well as sausage balls, the good ol' Bisquick recipe. I mastered the Bisquick sausage balls a couple of years ago. The key is the hottest sausage and sharpest cheddar you can find. I made the sausage balls for Easter a couple of years ago and I'm pretty sure they are responsible for my boyfriend falling in love with me. I now call them boyfriend catchers!

I love both of these recipes. They are super simple and both are terrible for you, I am certain. However, they taste delicious, everyone in my family loves them, and they have very fond memories for me. Isn't that what a good recipe is all about?

Nono received this recipe at her bridal shower. I made her repeat it to me for the 100th time this year, but this time as soon as I got back to Chicago I made up a batch. I changed a couple of things to make them wheat/gluten free and GUESS WHAT?!?!?!?! You couldn't tell!!!! I wanted to cry tears of joy, but instead I stuffed the entire cookie sheet of cheesy goodness into my mouth. I wanted to share, really I did- I PROMISE, but as soon as Boyfriend and Mr. Miles witnessed my frenzy I think they both ran from the kitchen in fear! I took this picture from the second batch.

Nono's Christmas Morning Cheese Balls

2 (5 oz each) Jars of Kraft Old English Cheese

1 1/4 c. Brown Rice Flour (I used Bob's Red Mill Brown Rice Flour)*

1 stick of butter (at room temperature)

1 egg (you do not need the egg if you use regular wheat flour)

Rattlesnake Dust or Cayenne to taste

Cream the room temperature butter, cheese and egg together. Add the flour and spice. Roll into quarter sized balls, dust with a little more spice if you like (I do!) and chill dough overnight. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees. For optimal flavor enjoy on Christmas morning while opening presents!

*If you are using traditional wheat flour you probably need 1 1/3 c of flour and you do not need to add the egg.

the christmas season begins!

A couple of cards I made this weekend. I have another really cute idea too. Hopefully I will be able to finish it up and post it by Friday. Let's just say thread and the heat embossing tool I have do NOT get along!

After seeing the pumpkins I made for Fall several friends brought these trees to my attention. The tutorial can be found here. My original plan was to paint the trees gold, however I am currently obsessing over reused paper and rainbow so for now they are going to be left as is.... well with the addition of LOTS of glitter of course!

drink your whisky like a man!

I think glass etching is my new favorite craft! I made these rocks glasses for our Thanksgiving celebration. Personally, I can not take even a single sip of scotch with out wrinkling up my nose. Which I am pretty sure led to me offending a guy helping us at Binny's the other day. What can I say I'm more of a white wine girl! But I still think these rocks glasses are great fun. Scroll down to see my lovely models demonstrating the proper way to drink scotch.

I created the images using Illustrator, Sure Cuts A Lot software, and a die-cutting machine. A helpful tip: place the "inside" of the stencil on whatever you are etching first. This gives you a good idea of scale and placement. You will be able to determine if you need to re-cut the stencil before actually etching the glass. In the picture below you will see how I used this technique before I placed the stencil on the other side of the rocks glass.

Your stencil will probably have a couple of wrinkles to accommodate the curve of the glass. Just make sure to burnish any edges the etching creme will contact.

The finished product

My models demonstrating how to drink scotch like man! ;)

joy

I used the technique described in this video- NOT as easy as it seems! I have had a lot of trouble getting the bottles to break cleanly, but it is getting better. This was the very first bottle that I was able to cut perfectly. I decided to use the green bottles for a Christmas decoration. After cutting the glass I used an etching cream with vinyl stencils I cut on a die-cutting machine.

YAY for Christmas decorations! I can't wait for the day after Thanksgiving- an ENTIRE day of decorating and hot chocolate! :)