day 362: hot chocolates from the pioneer woman

orange hot chocolates ... seriously good!

day 362 and the winter cold REALLY set in today ... it was cold, i am cold, i longed for everlasting hot showers and warm drinks to take away the winter chills.  i found inspiration mid afternoon after trying every tea and coffee in the house to try a new hot cocoa recipe.  i had no cocoa so couldn't make the usual concoction the peeps and i love, but i had chocolate so i went with the pioneer woman's recipe.  Ree has all sorts of different versions of her delicious hot chocolate, i went for the healthiest looking one that used something similar to these ;)

the healthy part of the recipe :)

i didn't have the recommended oranges but we still have a tree laden with mandarins, so they made the cut.  the recipe also made the cut and is now pinned to my winter wonderland board on pinterest.

the recipe is painless, and i halved it to serve three instead of six.  for three you need two cups of milk, 1/2 cup of chocolate melts, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and for the orange, or in my case mandarin version, orange rind, and a couple of orange rounds.  as it was evening when i got around to making this, i couldn't be bothered peeling the mandarins so just added two clementine mandarins sliced to the pot and left them to simmer with the milk, then added the chocolate pieces ... it has been a long day.

the mandarins simmering with the milk

then in went the chocolate

i wish you could smell and taste this!

outcome:  steve declared this was the BEST hot chocolate he had ever tasted ... and i would have to agree .... why did i halve the recipe, why oh why? honestly the sweetness of the clementines in with the milk chocolate is divine and you just want to keep drinking it.  i didn't think i would like it because i am not a big fan of really sweet things.  but this isn't, it hits just the right balance and as our clementines were a little tart i think that only added to taste!  if you are a new zealander, think hot jaffas ... yum aye!

my sincere thanks to ree from the pioneer woman.  doesn't she have an amazing website for ... well, um, everything ... i have spent way to much time there this evening looking over all she has to offer :)

and as for those pineapple flowers ... AWESOME, even us mere mortals in the kitchen can make them :)  you will see more of them in the coming days, but here is a finished crisp one and i can tell you the intense pineapple flavour of them is magnificent ;)

this is the finished pineapple flower ... the rest are for a special project you will see soon ;)

day 361: pineapple flowers

the flower ... in progress, takes 24 hours for them to harden and mould in the flower shape!

day 361 and i have been SO desperate to try these flowers to see if they actually work for mere mortals!  the picture below has been trending on pinterest and i know why, aren't they amazing!

the beautiful sunflower made of pineapple .. photo sourced from here

the picture comes from the duitang website but apart from that i can tell you very little as i think it is written all in han (?) and google wouldn't translate it for me! so i went to google image search and found a how-to by brown-eyed baker that was totally in-depth and right up my alley as the images from here went perfectly with the words from here.  as such, both tutorials are pinned to my party ideas board on pinterest :)

you start with a pineapple, take the outer green layer off, then using a spoon or similar take divots out all around the pineapple so it no longer has a uniform flat face.  then slice very thin pieces of pineapple and put into a low (~100 degrees celcius/225F) oven for 30 minutes.  you then flip them over and bake for another 30ish minutes until they are dry.  take them out of the oven and mould them into a muffin tray where they are left to harden overnight.

my holed out pineapple, it was at this stage i had real doubts!

still the doubts as my pineapple slices weren't as thin as i though they should be

doubts starting to abate as they seemed to be looking more flowery now!

and into the muffin tin they went for 24 hours of hardening

outcome: my pineapple was so juicy i just wanted to eat it but for the sake of art i ate a mandarin and left the pineapple ... so pleased i did and the result is still pending ... more tomorrow after they have dried and hopefully hardened in place.  looking good so far though :)

my sincere thanks to the duitang website for the totally inspiring photos that went so well with the words from brown-eyed baker ... together these two websites made the perfect tutorial for making these pineapple sunflowers.

and because i am a proud mama, i thought i would show you what the peeps baked today, venus transit cookies ... all by themselves, in honour of venus making its transit across the sun :)

ben and pollyanna's venus transit cookies

day 360: teds in bed dipper spoons

the cutest hot cocoa dippers, so sweet :)

day 360 and the weather outside is frightful, oh how could winter come and spoil my lazy days sipping coffee and watching the world go by sitting on the deck? sigh.  today i am trialling another craft for the weekend, hot cocoa teddy bear dippers ... i have little people in mind for this one :)  the great minds of jellyfish jelly have come up with this fabulous gifting project.  as such, i pinned this idea to my gift wrapping and gift ideas board on pinterest.

jellyfish jelly actually have all different kinds of things in chocolate beds, i keep looking and wanted to try each one but decided to try the teddies for the spoons today.  i am really keen for these to work as i think the peeps coming on sunday will love to make these.  below is a pictorial illustration of the process.

melt both white chocolate and milk chocolate

fill the well of the teaspoon with white chocolate and lay a teddy on top

you will need to lift the spoons up so your teddies don't slip backwards down the handle .. even a mushroom will do ;)

once the white chocolate is set, put a blanket over the teddy with the milk chocolate

while the milk chocolate is still runny sprinkle on some colour :)

once they are set, they are ready for a dip in some hot cocoa! YUM!

outcome: aren't they just so cute .. it's actually really fun making these as they take on personalities of their own with the different faces and depending how much blanketing you give them.  then i started to play with the sprinkles and could have got totally carried away but i only heated a little bit of chocolate ... i did have enough to make a double bed one though ;)

many thanks to jellyfish jelly, its great ideas like this that have made the last year so enjoyable and out of the ordinary ... i urge you to do the same, it has been one of the happiest years of my life!

day 359: pallet bird decor for spring

the finished rustic bird decor for spring :)

day 359 and we are BUSY getting ready as we run out of days until the party ... yikes, scary!  we have a LOT of pallets around here as some of the crafts that party goers will be able to indulge in use pallets.  i found this pin on pinterest a while ago and as there were lots of pallet offcuts lying around today, it seemed like a good one to go with for day 359's project.  speaking of pallets, i promised you a picture of steve's home built free cape cod chair ... it's cool aye!

a tutorial is coming in early july for how you can make your OWN free cape cod chair

the button birds tutorial comes from angela of button bird designs and as she says this is a great project as it doesn't have to cost anything if you use what you have around.  i really loved the vintage look of her designs and immediately signed up to follow her :)  the tutorial is also pinned to my general crafts board on pinterest.

angela uses a combination of fabrics and papers to make her birds.  for my one i went with a couple of scrap papers i had that needed using from the vast pile of bits i have doing nothing ... ahh, this is such a satisfying project in so many many ways!  once the birdie pieces were cut, they are adhered to the pallet wood with mod podge or similar product.  then once the mod podge is dry, sew up a button and glue it to the bird as its eye ...

what you need, i used a picture from angela's blog as the bird template

templates cut, now mod podge them in place on a piece of rustic wood.

make sure you mod podge the entire front of the wood, then leave to dry

add an eye

done, day 359 is finished :)

outcome:  i love these, i am going to make a whole lot to put up in a collection for springtime.  they are so cool and i absolutely adore their rustic look.  oh, and did i mention how simple and cheap they were ... total bonus, but a great bonus nonetheless!

my heartfelt thanks to angela and her amazing design skills. i spent ages on her blog button bird designs looking at some totally inspiring projects that i am going to try in the coming months.

day 358: cosmo cricket gift box

the finished gift box

day 358 and i am counting down and starting to get excited about the impending 365th day that is only a week away now!  it was a stunning winters day here and i spent most of it drinking coffee and hanging out with the family.

so it wasn't until this evening for pinterest 365, i made gift boxes from the cosmo cricket blog.  they are so cute and this tutorial comes with a video to help you out with the folds.  the tutorial is also pinned to my gift wrapping and gift ideas board on pinterest.

the complete bag is made from a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock.  i made mine with a patterned piece that was double sided so it would look good inside and out.  the actual bag doesn't require any adhesive but it does make it sturdier.  as these are going to be one of the 20ish crafts i am providing at a certain party in seven days time, i decided to go without the little topper and just use ribbon to bring the top together.  i love how the box becomes like the shape of a house once the ribbon is secured!

there are four score lines to make this box

once i had done all the folds, i did use tape in these places to secure it together a little better

hopefully the pocky gives you an idea of how big these are inside ;)

the finished gift box

love how it makes the shape of a house when it's all secured together!

outcome:  definitely a great gift box, nice and sturdy for heavier items as well. at the party the makers of these sweet little gift boxes are going to put cookies in them to take home.  this little box could be filled with all sorts of lovely things and image how cool they would be for halloween or christmas goodies!

my thanks to cosmo cricket for the awesome tutorial, never would have got the folds without the video, but that made it so easy thankfully!

day 357: pallet welcome sign

finally i have used some pallet wood on p365!

day 357 and i figured before the 365 days are up, i should really do something with pallets ... anything really pallets are everywhere on pinterest!  the ideas are endless, signs, bookcases, hanging gardens, headboards, tables, outdoor furniture, there are tons of uses for freebie wooden pallets.  steve, my dear husband, has just finished a cape cod chair out of free pallets ... it cost the sum total of $0 as he even used the carcoal fence paint to finish it off :)  as i am writing this its dark, so i will show you a photo of it tomorrow, it's very cool.  i am rather more technically challenged when it comes to wood and nails so i went for a project that required no building ;o)

i used this tutorial from jaime of that's my letter.  she personalises absolutely everything with names and shows you an awesome trick for how to paint perfect letters on wood every time.  you simply print out the word and then use a ballpoint pen to trace over it with the wood beneath giving you a slight indentation in the wood making it easy to just "colour in"!  given i am using pallet wood, mine is going to be far more rustic than hers so i am excited to see if it woods on rough wood as well.

i went with a welcome sign and decided to put the word doc at 100% to eyeball the size against the wood i was using.  then i printed and traced over the letters onto the wood ... then did some colouring ;)

getting the sizing right

if you look carefully you can see the outline of the traced letters :)

done :)

outcome:  not bad given the wood was so very very rough.  i am totally excited to do this again using something smoother given how cool this outcome was!  it looks really good next to all my white things, a nice contrast to their starkness.  totally recommend doing this as it really does work AND stops any runs escaping the letter you are working on thanks to the little indentation around each letter.

sincere thanks to jaime of that's my letter, have always wondered how to transfer typesetting onto wood without a silhouette machine and now i have the answer :)

day 356: fabric on walls!

polly's new barbie garden thanks to ironing fabric on walls ... can you hear the glee in my voice!

day 356 and i have been DESPERATE to try this idea since i pinned it a couple of months ago but thought i had better wait until we move into our new home before i deface any walls!  ironing fabric on walls totally intrigues because of the awesome and endless possibilities that it could open up.  i have given up waiting for our house to sell and decided to attack pollyanna's barbie house walls with some iron and fabric :)

this idea i found on this thrifty house who found it from the brassy apple ... i love that both ladies took a totally different idea for their iron wall art and they both came out fantastically.  i decided to start with some trees along the side of the house without the front door and some bushy shrubs would be a great start to pimping out polly's barbie house with fabric :)

i mocked up some templates for size then set to work cutting and adhering the bonding to the reverse side of the fabric.  then it was time to get down to ironing the trees and shrubs onto the actual house!

the magic ingredient for decorating walls with fabric ... this is what bonds the fabric to the wall ;)

the boring façade of polly's barbie house :)

the finished wall ... happy with a new garden!

outcome: there is nothing better than spending a friday night pimping out a barbie house with fabric, heat'n'bond, and an iron ... it was so much fun, i totally wish i had my own one to do!

many, many thanks to this thrifty house and the brassy apple girls for this wonderful crafty idea, i am totally pumped to move now just so i can graffiti our new home with fabric :)  .... come on house, SELL!