day 315: snowmen for winter decor

the finished snowmen!

day 315 and winter is drawing nearer ... that's good and bad news right?  no more squeezing into swimming togs, but the cold and rain can be miserable for days on end, although the hot chocolates and snuggling up to loved ones is so comforting to the soul, but the long days become so short and dark they are a little intimidating to the heart.  i figured if i added some comforting winter décor to the house once winter got going maybe it would become more heart-warming even on those bleak freezing, wind swept days!

i saw this tutorial for wooden snowmen on craftaholics anonymous by linda and new that they would brighten any winters day ... and its been a while since i played with glitter so this project was a great excuse to get blingy with it :)   the tutorial is also pinned to my winter wonderland board on pinterest. below is a pictorial look at today's creating.

the materials used today

i started with a couple of coats of white gesso

and painted all the sides two times

then i added eyes with a black vivid before using mod podge to attach LOTS of glitter :)

the finished snowmen minus their scarfs

the latest members of my family ;)

outcome: the tutorial is fantastic and you can't go wrong.  the snowmen are simple but stunning, the way the light catches the glitter is mesmerising ... and makes me so jealous we don't have christmas during the winter months :(  but with a little more blingy winter décor around the house during winter, my green eye monster may be soothed somewhat.  what made me laugh was how they took on their own personality once the little scarves were added to them!

my sincere thanks to linda at craftaholics anonymous for this awesome idea, i am hooked on these cute little guys and their glittery goodness.  i love all the tutorials i have done from this website and there are bound to be many more i make in the future :)

day 314: stencilled pillow

a pillow for my boy

day 314 and those that have been around for the last 300ish days will know i love anything that can be personalised .... and that i love a good pillow to decorate ... today i am joining those two things together again to make a pillow for ben's bedroom.  he has a room that has a bit of a travel thing going  thanks to his love on tintin.  all the travel things i love are generally REALLY expensive because they are more for adults than a tween or they are for toddlers and are more geared to transport than travel.

time to put purchasing aside and make something instead.  i was hooked on this pillow as soon as i read diy personalised pillow with ... stencils!  the shelterness website has a great, good to follow tutorial on how to use stencils to personalise a pillowcase for your home.  this creation is also pinned to my general crafts board on pinterest.

all you need is a permanent or fabric marker, cushion cover, cardboard, pencil, ruler, and stencils.  for this pillow i asked ben for his favourite places around the world, most he hasn't visited but loves the monuments of the city or country, or has some connection to them.  the pencil and ruler are for ruling straight lines on the pillow, and the card goes inside the cover of the pillow so there is no seepage through to the reverse side of the marker.

the materials needed

rule pencil lines and begin!

the finished pillow

an up close of the imperfections ;)

outcome:  a rustic which means not perfect pillow for ben's room that definitely adds to the travel items in his room he loves.  actually in real life it looks heaps better, go figure.  he likes it, i made it, not my favourite thing i have done so far, but not the worst either :)

thanks goes to the shelterness website for the cool tutorial that was really easy to follow and gave me plenty of inspiration to make a pillow befitting my boy peep!  

day 313: chicken wire frame for photos

the finished chicken wire photo frame :)

day 313 and i am making use of an A2 frame that the glass broke in.  i absolutely love this chicken wire frame from the 36th avenue.  such a cool idea for hanging photos in a kids room especially as they have the ability to change them around as much as they want without needing to take the frame apart.  today's creation of a chicken wire frame is headed to pollyanna's room for just that reason.  she LOVES change, she is forever changing her room around and redoing parts of her room so a board where she can change photos around at will is ideal for her!

you need a frame, chicken wire, staple gun, wire cutters, some backing card (polly wanted pink ... go figure!) and that's it.  steve helped me with this project as the floor is still a little far down for my healing back.  we cut the chicken wire to about 1" larger than the frames measurements.  steve then stapled it down at one end only.  he then used the backing board to bend the chicken wire into the frame.  once the backing board had done its work bending the chicken wire in, steve folded the chicken wire over again into the middle of the frame so we could then use masking tape to cover the chicken wire.  we did this so the walls behind the frame wouldn't be damaged by the rough texture of the wire.  once that was done it was ready to hang and be decorated with mini pegs and photos!

the materials

cut the wire to about 1" larger than the frame

use the base board to force the wire to bend into the frame

then bend the wire over towards the middle of the frame

use masking tape or something similar to tape over the wire so your walls are protected

the completed frame ready for polly to "organise" as often as she likes!

outcome:  one very happy mummy and daughter .... this is one piece of decor that is definitely worth having, especially if you have a daughter that likes changing things!  what i love most about this, however, is that it's different, it's cool looking and it is REALLY usable!

my sincere thanks to the 36th avenue for the awesome idea and the fabulous tutorial you provide readers.  fantastic inspiration for all the holidays, crafts, recipes, everything i need ... i will definitely be following this website for more inspiration :)

day 312: gift wrapping with book pages

the completed gift wrap

day 312 and i need to get some gift wrapping done today, with no car and no wrapping paper i needed something creative to happen if i was going to get any gifts wrapped!  lucky for me, i can venture to pinterest and find inspiration ... today's comes from julia at vintage with laces.  she was in a craft swap and used vintage book pages as her wrapping ... how cool is that, actually ALL the vintage things she makes look AMAZING, just gorgeous :)  julia's inspirational packaging is also pinned to my gift wrapping and gift ideas board on pinterest.

i figured i had some old book pages from a couple of books that are beyond rescue (half the pages are missing) that could be totally up-cycled into some gift wrap bags!

so for today's craft you need some vintage book pages, a sewing machine, and stamp pads.  i made one side 2" larger allow for a tab to be folded down to close the pocket.  i clipped the corners of the large side with a decorative corner punch to make it a little prettier!  then i used some distress inks to give the book pages a more vintage feel.  i didn't stamp an imagine on the front because i don't have any beautiful stamps and i am a total novice at stamping so it wasn't a good idea ;)  i did have some vintage looking lace so added that instead.

the book pages cut to size

my prettying of the gift wrappping!

the distress ink i used on all the edges to soften all the fresh cuts

added the lace, and a split pin to close the flap

outcome:  i really liked making this, it's such a nice change up from my normally crisp, clean lines!  i absolutely love the feel of this and plan to use book pages in heaps of projects coming up because its so rewarding!  great reason to visit the second hand bookshops over the next couple of weeks!

julia's blog vintage with laces is truly inspiring if you love anything old worldy with a touch of feminine ... her trinket finds are SO cool!  i have to thank her so much for providing me with such a great alternative to your standard gift wrapping :)

day 311: sports flipbook for home school

the home school PE flipbook

day 311 and we have spent the day organising hockey, going to hockey, purchasing hockey equipment, signing up for hockey ... are you getting how my day went ... yes we are about to head into the winter sports season and my peeps are both playing hockey.  and because i am kind-hearted a sucker i am the manager of both their teams.  it will be a fun season but not just yet ... why you ask? ben played in a hockey camp today and after he had finished he gasped "i am shattered, my legs hurt, my arms ache, and i can't move".  soon after this outburst he had a mental meltdown, went home, ate dinner, and feel asleep.  this had me pondering, well of course i have spent the last six weeks sedentary and guess what, so had they as a product of my back injury.  it was time for not only me to get back into shape but also the peeps clearly.

on the drive home from the hockey i remembered pinning something that might help kick start some fun exercise (sometimes it's really helpful living in the country far from anything as the long drive is a great time for thinking and problem solving but i digress).  pinned to my home school projects board is a PE flipbook from home grown mom.  its a book that has all sorts of PE ideas in it, one for each page so it never gets boring or routine ... just what the peeps and i need.

i have to agree with home grown mom, PE is so important but it's probably the hardest thing to make fun when you home school.  i have a child who would rather read than do anything else, so PE needs to be fun, exciting, and a little whimsical to get him on board.  don't get me wrong he loves swimming, hockey, and home school group kiwisport but aside from those group activities you will not find him riding a bike or running around outside instead he will be reading.

so this PE flipbook definitely has me excited for making our daily PE/exercise more exciting and, therefore, more appealing to my peeps.  i filled a 6x6 photo album with lots of different ideas for PE ranging from an hour (swimming) to half an hour for the more exhausting ideas ;)  the flipbook is full of things the peeps like doing and i intend to ask them for a page number each day and whatever is on that page is what we will do.  the pages easily pop in and out so i can change them around to make sure it really is a mystery what we will do for PE each day.  the activities include swimming, basketball, bike riding at the skate park, frisbee, to name a couple.

the pages easily come out so i can change their order around

have to have a 'your choice' ... it will be like hitting the jackpot for the peeps!

the finished PE flipbook for our home school fitness

outcome: well i'm excited to get started so that's a step in the right direction!  i am sure i will get the peeps on board too and hopefully this simple but awesome idea will provide us with a lift in our fitness, something we clearly all need in this house!

home grown mom has an amazing list of PE ideas for home schoolers (or anyone really) on her blog and lots of different ideas and web resources as well, definitely worth checking out!  and i sincerely thank her for coming up with an idea to put the fun back into our home school fitness ... :)

day 310: two for one

tonight's keep ingredients :)

day 310 and i was completely indecisive today so we have gone with two creations ... roasted broccoli and skinny strawberry fool, except for the strawberries were replaced with blueberries making it a blueberry fool (if there's such a thing) instead.  both recipes are pinned to my recipe must do's board on pinterest.  the roast broccoli recipe comes from the barfoot contessa courtesy of the amateur gourmet's website.  the skinny strawberry fool recipe is from skinny taste ... if you are doing weight watchers, or any diet really, this website is AMAZING!  so pleased to have found it given i am just starting weight watchers.

i followed the recipe of the roasted broccoli to the letter.  its hard not to when all you do is dust it with salt and pepper, then toss it in oil before slicing several cloves of garlic and tossing them into the oven dish as well.  bake and serve :)

as you can see i used frozen broccoli and it was just fine :)

the roasted broccoli

as for the skinny strawberry blueberry fool, as i said, i used frozen blueberries instead of the fresh strawberries and organic unrefined sugar instead of agave nectar.  my yoghurt did have a strawberry twist to it though as that was all i had on hand at the time :)

stew the fruit with some sweetner and simmer to reduce down

once you have the blueberries cooling from being stewed, fold these two ingredients together

the finished skinny blueberry fool :)

outcome: both are embarrassingly easy to create but trust me you will want to make then bother over and over again.  the broccoli is so good with the garlic which seems to make it slightly sweet and just so scrumptious.  to make it a little more healthier, next time i will try just spraying it with oil olive rather than using several tablespoons!  steve and my mum were sitting there eating the skinny (blueberry) fool and kept saying "this is actually really good" and such like ... i think they were a little sceptical when i pulled out a can of "cream" to put in the dessert, not something i have used often!

my gratitude goes to ina garten for the awesome broccoli recipe, this recipe is even better than having broccoli with cheese sauce ... seriously that good for me!  and i am also incredibly grateful to skinny taste, not just for this delicious recipe but also for all the recipes i use in the coming months :)

day 309: rolo pecan pretzel hugs

these are awesome :)

day 309 and another weekend has almost come and gone with plenty of cleaning, a little bit of crafting, and a lot of lego making with the peeps.  i figured something easy today would go down nicely and this variation on pretzel hugs definitely ticked that box!  they also looked like a perfect treat for supper this evening.  i'll get busy on the weight/exercise thing tomorrow ;o)  the recipe comes courtesy of glorious treats and boy are the treats on this website glorious!  it is also pinned to my recipe must do's board on pinterest.

all you need is rolos, pecans, and pretzel twists for today's creation. it's exactly the same as making the other versions of pretzel hugs you will know they are ready to come out of a 150C oven when you touch the top of the rolo and the chocolate is soft.  don't wait for the rolo to change shape as the chocolate will have baked too long if it does :)

top the pretzels with rolos, then pop in the oven for a few minutes to soften

squish the melted rolos with a pecan and cool

serve them up (if you HAVE to share them!)

outcome: yum, yum, yumyum, yum ... these pretzel hugs are even better than the originals because they have the added factor of caramel!  they were here this evening and gone this evening ... need i say more?

it is with a growing waistline that i give thanks to glory from glorious treats for today's recipe.  the rest of her blog is full of the most incredible edibles and party ideas, i urge you to take a look at her daughters 6th birthday!