Sunday, November 13, 2011

Flower lights!


So I was browsing Pinterest and came upon a great idea. (I didn't pin it so now I can't find it otherwise I would link it.) Anyways, you take flower cupcake liners and put them over twinkle lights to make flower lights. This would look great in my little girl's room with her purple fairy theme.

I'm in the craft store and on impulse grab some liners and some lights. This is when the project becomes much harder and way more expensive than it has any right to be.

First I grab some of the bigger lights as it was a string of 25 and 50 twinkles would be way too many. I get them home and start cutting X's in the bottoms and removing the bulbs to put on the liners. I get about half done and plug them in and they are way too hot to have paper shades. Stash the lights for another purpose and start over.

This time I find a set of 10 little battery operated lights. They work. A little short and dim but they work. Except that 2 "D" batteries lasts one bedtime and then burn out.

Finally the real Christmas stuff gets rolled out and I find a string of 35 lights. Jackpot! Except by now, I'm nearly out of cupcake liners so I have to get more of those...

But hey, they work!!


The lights were kinda close together so I spaced the shades every-other. But they perfectly stretched over her window and match her curtains and look adorable with the plant I'm training over the window. To get the liners on, I just centered them over the bulb and pushed until they popped through. It was that easy!

I think I'm going to put these on a aquarium timer so they come on just before bedtime and go off at dawn. (My little girl likes a lot of light and has been sleeping with the closet light on and the door open, I hope this will let us turn off the closet light.)

As far as cheap: If I had done it right the first time, it would have cost me $4 for the cupcake liners and I think another $4 for the lights. As for the trial and error.... I'd rather not think about it! =)

Monday, November 7, 2011

Gobble! Gobble!



I was scanning Pinterest with L (3 1/2) on my lap when she saw this and said "Mommy, I want to make a gumball turkey!"

Since she started school, she hasn't wanted to make much of anything so I jumped at the chance and started rummaging through the cupboards for supplies. We used a milk storage container for the body because I didn't have any baby food jars and we used feathers because I had some and a foam triangle for the beak and a heart for feet and attached it all with glue dots.

L loved it! She spent a considerable about of time playing with it and we had to refill it for the pictures. We might make these again for Thanksgiving with different containers and Reeses Pieces.

Hopefully more Halloween posts coming but for now, we go with the flow. =)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Halloween food!

Happy Halloween! (A week late.) I was in a baking mood and L didn't want to help so I made these treats myself. =)

The jack-o-lantern cupcakes are just cupcakes out of a box with frosting out of a jar tinted orange. The faces are melted chocolate piped onto wax paper and then placed on the cupcakes after they hardened.

A few of my favorites:




Here's my graveyard dessert:



To make it, I made a big box of pudding and put it in the bottom of my pan and let it chill. Then I put a box of Oreos in the food processor until it was crumbs and I put this on top of the chilled pudding. The fence is pretzel sticks attached with a bit of chocolate. The headstones are Milano cookies with chocolate piping. Then I added candy pumpkins and marshmallow ghosts. (The ghosts are on toothpicks so they "float.")

Pretty easy. Cute and the best part is that I sent them to a party with my husband so I wasn't tempted to eat them all!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Make all the things!

Hey y'all.

This blog is intended to be a dumping ground for various creative endeavors. I'm a historic costumer but that seems to have taken a backseat for now. But in the event I start doing it again, this blog will probably serve as a dress diary.

I'm a knitter and it seems that knitters like to blog about knitting so some of that will be here too.

I'm a mom. Before my daughter started school and started refusing to do so, we used to do a lot of crafts so those will go here soon. And once my son stops eating the crayons, his crafts will too.

And I just joined Pinterest and now I want to make ALL the things. I have ideas percolating for hand made Christmas gifts that will hopefully will be awesome and I'm having the urge to hit Goodwill and do some upcycling.

In recent weeks, I've made a Yoda costume for my little boy (1), a fairy costume for my little girl (3) and a spa wrap and hair wrap for my little girl. Hopefully, I will get my act together and get those up soon. But now, make the bed and go retrieve the little girl from school