Bottle opener with cap catcher...

I was having a hard time.coming up with a gift idea for someone in my family. I googled and googled ideas and could really find anything until I stumbled upon a bottle opener with a cap catcher for sale on etsy. I thought hey! I can totally make one of these and it would be perfect for that person in my family!

I already had the bottle opener, the wood and the jar. The only thing I had to get was the clamp!

With a little bit of stain and some screws I put together a really cool gift that I would have loved to get myself!

 

 

Popsicle stick reindeer frame....

Christmas is approaching rather quickly and so is the December break. That means its time to send home the gifts the children make for their parents. This year we made popsicle reindeer frames.

You will need:

4 popsicle sticks
Glue gun
Brown paint

First I glued the popsicle sticks together to make a frame.... i measured around a 4x6 photo since we would be using these for pictures of the children.

Next i had the children paint the frame brown and also had the children make 2 handprints for the antlers.

Then i photographed each child wear a Rudolph nose. I used a red piece of construction paper and tape to temporarily stick it to their noses. (I will not post photos of the kids so here is a picture of yours truly)

I used picmonkey.com to edit the photos with the black and white focal effect to leave only the nose red.

Then we attached the hand prints to the top of the frame and inserted the picture and there you have it! Rudolph the red nose reindeer!

We gave these as gifts to the parents and they were a huge hit! 

Simple Handprint reindeer

I love using hand prints to make crafts that parents can keep forever. I try and do one for each holiday. For the Christmas holiday we made handprint reindeer. Its super easy and cute. They also make great gifts for grandparents. (NOTE: The children glued on the eyes and nose where ever they wanted. Thats what makes each one so unique)

Simple handprint menorah

Keeping with my latest theme of Hanukkah, today I am posting a quick and simple craft to help celebrate the holiday! This week we made Hand-print Menorahs. Some blue and yellow paint and a couple of tiny hands make a super cute decoration you can keep for a lifetime! (The "flames" on the candles are made using the childs finger. )

popsicle stick Star of David...

Since Hanukkah is just around the corner, we have been focusing on projects for the holiday. We like to send home gifts for Hanukkah and Christmas. This year we made popsicle stick Star of David frames to send home as gifts from the children for their parents. Its really simple and makes a super cute gift to save forever!

What you will need:

* 6 popsicle sticks (we used the larger ones)

* hot glue gun

* paint (we used blue glitter paint but choose what you like best)

First I made 2 seperate trianges. Its best to do it this way so each corner comes out even.

Next I glued the 2 triangles together to form the star.

After I put the stars together the children painted them, I took photos of the children and will place them in the center and use the star as a frame. You can add a magnet to the back to put it on your fridge or you can attach and string and hang it. 

 

What are some of your favorite Hanukkah projects to make with your kids?

Betty Crocker gluten free product review...

I am always trying out new gluten free products. I've learned that not everything always tastes great and its a lot of trial and error in finding products that actually taste good! Betty Crocker makes gluten free mixes for cakes, cookies, and brownies. I am sure they make other products but those just happen to be the ones that I have tried. 

To me, these brownies taste so much better than "regular" brownies. Whenever I go to a get together and have to bring something I always make these. Most people can't believe they are gluten free because they think gluten free stuff will taste bad.... but Betty Crocker choclate gluten free brownies are always a hit!

Because I was so amazed with the brownies, I decided I would give the chocolate chip cookies a try. Once again I myself couldn't believe how good they were. I have tried other brands and this one is by far my favorite.

Last on my list is the gluten free yellow cake mix. I actually just made cupcakes with this mix tonight, which prompted me to write this product review! This was my first time using this mix and the cupcakes came out delicious. So for all of you gluten free eaters out there looking for yummy desserts I suggest you try Betty Crockers gluten free line. You won't be disappointed!

Christmas Tour

Welcome to our first Christmas home tour! This weekend I have been very busy putting Christmas touches all over the house. Here you get to take a peek and hopefully find some inspiration of your own. Enjoy!

This wreath hangs on an old window above my kitchen sink that I bought upstate and little red berries sit in a glass bottle that I found in dead horse bay.

I also added wreaths to some of the kitchen cabinets and garland above.

In the living room we have placed our tree in front of the window. This year I decided to place the tree inside a bucket. I love the way it looks inside of it!

We don't have a fire place or any kind of mantle to hang our stockings from... so I had to improvise. I decided to use our buffet table to hang them. I also used alot of objects that I already had and pieces of nature and tweaked them to make them fit my Christmas decor.

We kept the dining room pretty simple... added another shutter to hold Christmas cards and a few more wreaths and a Christmasy center piece.

What are some of your favorite christmas decorations??

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Popsicle stick snowflakes

This is one of my favorite projects to make because its so simple and doesn't take very long to make. Here I will give you a step by step on how to make these pretty snowflakes with popsicle sticks and a hot glue gun!

For one snow flake you will need 9 popsicle sticks.

Next take 3 of those popsicle sticks and glue them together with the hot glue gun as shown in the picture below

With each of the remaining popsicle sticks cut the ends off on an angle.... discard the middle piece. I used a regular scissor to cut them but you may also use a blade.

Attach both end pieces to the end of one of the sticks you glued together in step one. Repeat until each end has a V shape. 

Next I painted my snowflake with elmers glue and then used a mixture of white sand and silver glitter and sprinkled it on and let it dry. Snowflake complete! 

You can even attach fishing. line and hang them in your windows or on your christmas trees. Super simple and pretty!

A taste of Christmas...

So I have started the process of christmas decorating! And since I haven't posted in a while I decided I would give you a teaser of the christmas tour.... enjoy!

Indian Corn Craft...

Since thanksgiving is almost here we have started  doing thanksgiving crafts with the children. Today we made a simple "Indian Corn" craft. We used legos dipped in paint to make our corn kernals. Then we added brown paper to the top! They came put so cute and look adorable hanging on our classroom wall! 

Hope everyone enjoys their Wednesday! 

keeping you in the loop...

Sorry for the  lack of posts lately. I do have some super cute projects coming your way. I plan on doing a home tour and making a few changes to the blog. Please bear with me. I am hoping to add a shop to the blog as well. Have a great day!!

Last Minute Halloween Costume DIY

I always try to out do myself from the previous year with homemade Halloween costumes. This year with the help of Pinterest I was able to combine a few different ideas to create my flower pot costume. The whole thing cost about $20 and everything I purchased was from Walmart.

First I bought the a plastic tub and cut the bottom off. Next I used duct tape to attach the flowers to the inside of the tub. Then I tied a piece of elastic through the handles of the tub. I took one flower apart and used some of the pieces in my hair.

For my makeup I used a piece of the flower I took apart and cut it in half. I attached it with eyelash glue and used purple shadow to blend.

This is probably one of my favorite last minute costumes! What are some of your favorite DIY Halloween costumes?

Bedroom tour

As many of you know I live with my roommate and her daughter. When we first moved in in february she gave me to go ahead to decorate the whole place except for her bedroom and her daughters. Its been a long journey and I still have a long way to go. Throughout my posts I will take you along with me as i "complete" each room. (we all know a room is never really finished). Naturally when we first got here i started with my own bedroom because no one gets a good nights sleep with a bunch of chaos surrounding them. 

I never really know how I am going to layout and decorate a room... its usually a bunch of trial and error. And because of this I try to keep everything low cost. I do a lot of my decor shopping at home goods, tjmaxx, marshalls, and michaels. These places are good for picture frames, bedding, towels, and odds and ends at reasonable prices. Other times just like everyone else I find something on pinterest and want to make it so I throw in a little DIY!

This year I have been very lucky to have "found" all of my bedroom furniture... not my bed of course. Most people don't realize that they are throwing away these wonderful pieces of furniture. I am a sucker for antique dressers, they just don't make things like that anymore... so when I found 2 on the curb they had to come home.

Here I will take you on a tour of my "never finished" bedroom:

We will start with the before pictures:

And here are the Afters:

My bed is made up of 2 old closet doors (free) and sheer white curtains... the cost to make something so pretty and easy was about $10. You don't have to spend a lot of money to have something beautiful. This bedding is from Lauren Conrads line at Kohls.

 Here is the first dresser I found. The detail alone caught my eye. The wood was a little dry so I cleaned it up with some lemon oil. There is something I love about the wear and tear on this piece. I never aim for perfect. So this dresser stayed as is.

This desk/vanity is another find. It was in pieces when i found it and i put it back together and painted it. Its become one of my favorite finds. I added the before picture so you can see the difference.

 (before and after)

This little mug is a favorite. I pulled this out of the sand at Dead Horse Bay.

This is currently what my bedroom looks like... although I doubt that it is going to stay this way very long. I recently found a 1930s vanity that will need a place to go in my bedroom once I am finished restoring it. So swaping out furniture usually means rearranging the entire room. Stay tuned for an update!