Emergency Candles

This month I made some emergency candles for our kits. 

Mine were super cheep, I bought everything on amazon for a steal! 

All you need is:

Soy Wax

wick

wick holders

jars

 I used tin cans from soup and canned foods. I saw some candles at Anthropology like this for $15!  it would also be fun in little Kerr jars

melt your wax in a double boiler (I just used a big and little pot that fit together, worked great)

 While your wax is melting figure out how to make your wick stay in the middle, this was the hardest part! but this is what i came up with! 

poor your wax in the jars, I used a Pyrex measuring cup. the wax cleans up really easy so you can use nice things and it comes right off! it takes about a day to dry and set up. I thought of this after but you could put essential oils in to make them smell nice!  For an emergency candle put a little match box in the top and there you have it! 

Growth chart

We've lived in 7 houses/appartments in our 10 years of marrage, and 9 of those we've had kids, I always wanted to mark up the back of our pantry door with their hight and age but what would the point of that be? so after all this time I saw this on pinterest and fell in love! So I immediatly made one.

 I just bought a 1x4x6 (it would be cuter if it was like a 1x6x6, but I have this little corner wall in our kitchen were I wanted to hang it), stained it, marked the inches and drew on some numbers! I started at 6 inches so it would be able to be hung and so my tall husband could mark his hight. 

Green cleaning

I've been really trying to get my family healthy with eliminating dyes and fructose and hydrogenated oils, all that good stuff. Then while I was cleaning I realized all the crap I'm sending around in the air in my house! I love to bleach the heck out of my bathrooms and that probably isn't good for us to breath in. So I did a little research and made this cleaner 

1/2 water, 1/2 vinegar 

cut up oranges or any other citrus

fill a jar about 1/2-3/4 full with your citrus then add your vinegar and water. 

Seal the jar and let it sit for about 2-3 weeks.

There was a ton of pulp in it so i strained that all out while poring it in the spray bottle. 

I was a little unsure about the whole thing, could it really clean as well as my trusty 409 and bleach? 

It was amazing! I started with cleaning my kitchen with it and WOW it was great, left no residue and cleaned my stove like crazy! highly recommend making this! 

Pines

I love Christmas decorations and this one turned out really cute...

I had this wooden box that you could totally make, so easy. filled it with some sprigs of pine from trimming our tree. Put some mason jars in with candles and wa-la! it was the perfect center piece for our Christmas Eve dinner.

fun kid gifts

So I'm a huge dork and always make my kids give thankyou's and card for people like teachers, coaches, friends, whoever deserves it! they hate when we do this but it always ends up being so cute! 

This one was for the swim coach, it was the end of the season and it was almost Thanksgiving so we made a turkey, duh! 

1st you make your kid find out their favorite candy bar. We then wrapped it in construction paper and cut out a head, feathers and feet. I didn't ask him to write things on the feathers, that was all his own and I was so proud of him! it was really cute like "you're a way better coach than coach Scott" and "Thanks for getting in the water that once". He's a pretty goofy kid. 

This is another one we did for all our little neighborhood friends for Christmas, SNOWMEN! It was a fun family activity, we made a little assembly line, one wrapped Hershey bars in white paper, the next glued on black dots for coal eyes and mouths, the next drew a carrot nose then we tied a scarf. They were really cute! 

Halloween Block Characters

It's been awhile since I posted on this blog, but I thought I'd share a really easy craft my sister and I made for Halloween.  We got the idea from this blog, but made a few adjustments.  Here's what you need:

• 6" wooden blocks (we cut down 2 x 4's)
• Wooden knobs (found at the craft store)
• Craft paint in sour apple green, orange, gray and white plus paint brushes
• Craft foam sheets in red and black
• Ribbon (for the witch's hat)
• Floral wire (for the witch's hair the pumpkins stem)
• Permanent marker
• Hot glue gun
• An old white t-shirt for the mummy

It's pretty easy to tell what we did just by looking at the pictures, but I'll give the details anyway. We first painted our blocks.  Then as they dried we cut out the foam for the different characters (the witch, vampire and Frankenstein).  Once the paint dried we hot glued the foam on.  We also cut the t-shirt into inch wide strips and wrapped our mummy block.  Next, we drew on the faces of each character with a permanent marker, which we found a lot easier to handle than a paint pen.  Then we added little accessories like Frankenstein's knobs, the pumpkins stem and the witch's hair (which we twisted around a pencil to get it to be curly.)  Also, for the witch's nose, we paint a triangular piece of foam green and hot glued it on. I thought they turned out really cute.  Even though it took a little bit of time, it was a pretty simple craft.

Olympic Ribbons

My family does cowboy camp every summer for our family reunion. Since this summer is the Olympics we're going to have our own little cowboy Olympics! I saw these little ribbons on pinterest (my favorite place)  and I'm going to attach a little treat to them and write what they won! 

They're super easy to make and you could do any colors/patterns.

here's a link for the how to... RIBBON HOW TO

Blinging up your cheap curtains

Okay so blinging might not be the right word for what I did, there are no rhinestones or glitter on my curtains (that would not be cute), but I did take some cheap 10 dollar Target curtains and jazz them up a bit and this is how I did it:
After looking at way more expensive curtain options for my very NON-permanent living space I realized that just some cheapo plain Jane curtains at Target would suffice and be the most practical option for us at this time.  The problem is, I can't ever leave really plain things alone, I always have the desire to jazz them up.  So I decided to buy some fabric that matched my living room and do some jazzing.

1) I cut a strip of fabric wide enough and long enough to cover the bottom of each panel (I think I purchased 3/4 of a yard and that was plenty to cover the bottom of my curtains).

2) I then folded the top end of the fabric under to give it a more finished edge and pinned and then with the other edges I tucked them around the edges of the curtains and pinned.

3) I then sewed about a quarter of an inch around the entire parameter of the fabric to secure it to the curtain and then ironed it to give it a nice finished touch.

4) And then I was done.  Easy as pie I tell you... actually I dare say it was easier than pie!

Felt bows tutorial

 
 I've had a few friends ask about the felt bows Norah wears (the only bows that Norah wears) so I thought I'd put together a little "how to" for whom ever is interested.  I can't take much of the credit for these.  Sure I make most the ones she wears, but my friend Whitney was my Yoda in the process, she taught me everything I know about felt bow making and so I am passing on her knowledge, that I have absorbed, on to you:
1) Purchase your felt.  I got mine on ETSY, I searched "wool felt samples" and there are a few sellers who dye their own felt (its great quality) and you can pick a certain number of sheets in any colors you like.
2) Purchase your elastic, no matter the size of head of your baby or little girl, I prefer the 1/8 inch SOFT elastic, I love how its small and all the attention can go to the bow, thus making it look more like a hair clip than a huge headband.

Lets get started. So the easy way to do this is just to use a glue gun, but you can use a needle and thread for some parts if that makes you more comfortable.

3) First up, determine the size of bow you want (length and width) and cut a strip the desired width and double the desired length of your bow.

4) Next circle the strip around and glue the ends together with a THIN layer of glue (too much glue will make it too bulky and stiff).

no matter what I did with this photo it just
would not post horizontal, so hopefully looking at it
doesn't make you dizzy.

5) Then pinch the middle of the bow together to get the puckering look in the middle and put a small dot of glue inside to hold the pucker.

6) Cut the desired width for your center piece and make it long enough to go around the middle of the puckered part of the bow with some overlap for gluing in the back.

7) wrap the center piece around the center to create the bow look and put a thin strip of glue on that center strip in the back to connect the two ends.

8) You can actually stop here if you want, but I like to put the "ends" on to make it look like a tied ribbon. Cut to shorter rectangles that are the width of your bow and snip a triangle out of one end. And then snip the corners off the square end so that it fits the tapering of your bow.

9) You then glue those pieces on the the back of the bow near the end of the length of the bow... when doing it this way you reduce bulk in the middle of the bow so that it doesn't sit too high off her head.

10) And you are now down with your bow! next just cut your elastic the desired length for your childs head and all you have to do is overlap the ends slighty and glue them together.  Then just glue the bow on the top and you are done! (I like to put a dot in the middle and one on each end to tack the bow on good so it lies nicely).

 You can make one to match any outfit and any size of head...

    And here is my cute model...

Door Mat

I had to share this, I once again got the idea from Pinterest, my new love.

Here's the link for the how to...

DOOR MAT

it's so easy to make, I had to buy all my materials, and it only cost like 6 bucks!

have fun!

Framed Decorations

I'm not exactly sure of the technical term for this framed 3D art that I keep seeing on pinterest, but I thought I would try it out myself.  This is a very inexpensive decoration to create, especially if you have scrap paper lying around.  The first framed decoration I made was for our entryway.

I had the little house paper punch already and I found paper that matched the colors of our living room.  To make the houses 3D, I used double sided foam tape strips you can buy at any craft store.  I recommend getting the frames from DI or the dollar store and paint it the color you want.  I popped out the glass, traced the background paper to be the same size and then created the design I wanted.  I'd say the hardest part of this craft is trying to get all the houses evenly spaced.

I decided to make another decoration similar to this for Valentine's Day...

I used the same method, but this time I used stencils for the different shapes and just cut it out.  As my 3-year-old nephew would say, Easy Peasy.

A felt garland

I am hosting a shower at my place and I wanted to make things look a bit more festive.  In fact, I've always wanted to have something I could pull out for parties and get togethers to make my apartment more festive so I decided to make this.  I bought a stack of a variety of colors of wool felt on Etsy and I have found so many great things to do with it, I LOVE FELT!!!  Anyway, it was super easy and you could do it in any color combination you'd like for any occasion.  You could probably do a number of different shapes as well... anywho, here's how its done...
First off I purchased bakers twine from Amazon, but you can get it on Etsy too and I'm sure a number of other places.  I like Bakers twine because its cuter than normal string...

Next I started to get circles out of my felt... no need for a perfect circle, I just cut them haphazardly and slightly different sizes, I think it looks cuter and more eclectic that way.  I then laid out the colors in the pattern I preferred and then I heated up the ole glue gun and put thin strips of glue down the back of each circle and slapped on the string and TADA... a garland was born.  Super easy, super fun, and super cute... at least I think so...

melting crayons

I love to color, I have the sweetest little girl that would color with me for hours on end. I also have these 3 little boys, that love to break crayons. I don't know what it is about boys and crayons but they can't resist that little snap noise you get from breaking a crayon. And, who wants to color with a half crayon, not me!

So we decided to melt them into big fat crayons! we all sat down and started peeling, 2 minutes later they had left and I was peeling.

Heat your oven to 300. I used mini muffin tins, USE LINERS! unless you want to throw out your tins afterwards.

I cooked them for about 10 minutes, just check on them every few minutes till they look pretty melted. Be careful when you take them out it's like water, and you don't want all the wax on your muffin tins. let cool, peel the liners off and then color again!

We tried to keep like colors together but you could do swirls. I stirred mine up with a toothpick after they cooked to mix the colors a little more.

Happy coloring!

This week I'm going to try...

Finger Knitting!

Click on the above words to see a post from an amazing craft-ess (I love her blog... love it!)... "She blogs she blogs" does a fabulous tutorial on finger knitting and I just bought my yarn today.  The plan is to make a long garland to hang above the window in Norah's room... I can't wait! I'll let you know how it goes! 

Valentines burlap wreath

I LOVE Valentines Day! I went to pull out my V-day wreath and it had sadly seen it's day, SO...

I covered it in burlap and made a super cute new wreath!

Supplies: heart shaped wreath, 1-2 yds burlap, a needle and glue gun

wrap the wreath in burlap strips about 2-3 inches wide.

with more strips twist them till it's like this (above) then wrap it in circles, like making a cinnamon roll. when it's rolled how you want get a string from the burlap, you'll have plenty, and sew it up on the bottom to hold the shape.

Then glue away!

and there you have your Valentines day wreath!

Happy V-day!

TIP: when cutting your burlap cut one string wherever you want to make your cut and pull it out. It will give you a line to cut on preventing fraying. Hopefully that makes sense!

Christmas card display

Sorry for the post Christmas Christmas post... hopefully you can use this idea for next year.  We live in a tiny apartment and knowing where to put all the Christmas cards we get is a challenge, they usually end up in a pile.  But this year my mom (who was visiting for the birth of our baby), started hanging our cards from our garland, and it looked SO cute! We just used mini binder clips and attached the cards to various bows of the garland and it looked great... so go ahead and copy my mom's genius for next year...

(Belated) Christmas Decor

I was putting away my Christmas decorations the other day and among all the holiday craziness I realized I forgot to post the simple holiday crafts I made this year.  I thought they turned out cute and were really inexpensive, especially if you have scraps of scrapbook paper lying around.  I already put tutorials on how to make both the Christmas trees and the presents on my own blog, so for the sake of time I'm just linking to my blog if you are interested in making these for next year.

Paper Christmas Tree Tutorial  (I got the idea for this off of pinterest.com, but I put my own little twist on it.)

Paper Stacked Gifts  (My friend taught me how to fold these boxes, which is pretty easy.  You could really use this as decoration for any holiday depending on the design of paper you use.) 

A pie for New Years

This is my first post on Poshish. I've been meaning to post something for months, but quite frankly...I am not all that creative nor am I good at DIY projects. I am only now beginning to have courage when it comes to sewing and crafting. However, I consider myself an excellent cook and hope I can share some of my favorite recipes with you. We are going to be watching a lot of football over the next few days, and we feel like there isn't a better way to watch football than to watch it with food. Here's a delicious french silk pie (chocolate cream) recipe:

French Silk Pie
3/4 c. butter, softened
1 c. white sugar
3 one ounce squares unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
2 tsp. pure vanilla
3 large eggs

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter for 1 minute. Add sugar, 1/4 cup at a time and continue to beat until light and fluffy. (3-5 minutes) It must be mixed long enough so it is no longer gritty. In a separate pan, melt chocolate in a small bowl over hot water. Do not let the chocolate harden up. Slowly add chocolate to butter mixture until mixture is smooth and creamy. On medium speed, add eggs one at a time, beating after each one before adding the next egg. Scrape bowl. Add vanilla and mix again. Spread over pie crust.

Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 c. powder sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
chocolate curls

Mix cream, sugar and vanilla until thick. Spread over chocolate. Add chocolate curls if desired. I just shaved a hershey's bar on top of the pie.

My pie crust
1 cup flour
1/3 plus 1 Tbsp. shortening
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 Tbsp. cold water

Cut shortening into flour and salt mixture. Add cold water. Mix well. Roll thin and put in pie pan. Poke crust. Double foil the top and put in oven at 400 for 8 minutes. Remove foil and cook for 6 more minutes. 

If you want more baking recipes, I added 12 yummy treats during December under the tag "Peanut creations" on my blog: A handful of peanuts... If you want more recipes, let me know and I'll continue posting them here.

Sunbeams

I just got called to be a Sunbeam teacher! I am so excited, and my cute little girl is in my class. I found this fun idea on PINTEREST my latest obsession.

I was worried because I was a nursery leader for ever and none of the kids would ever sit still for a lesson. So I searched and searched for some ideas and this was the winner.

Cut out an egg for each of the children and they have to sit on it and keep it warm just like a mommy duck

Then at the end of your lesson if they've sat on their egg you let them have a baby duckling made out of pompoms and googly eyes. my kids were so excited when I was making these so I hope the sunbeams like them too!

I made the red one and thought it looked a little like an Angry Bird! haha hopefully the parents don't think I'm letting them play that at church!

pine tree sprigs

this was another fun idea I got from my favorite place, pinterest!

just cut some little sprigs off your pine tree or if your lucky like me the tree lot will have tons of trimmings they'll let you take for free! get lots of little glass jars (baby food jars work great and I know you all have some of those around!) fill them up with water and your trimmings. It made a really cute center piece for our Christmas dinner