Ruffle Henley

Sorry for the lack of posts lately!  Lest you think that I have given up on crafting, I better start posting all my recent projects!  Over the next few days I'll be sure to post what I've been working on.

For today's project, I decided to make a ruffle henley.  I saw these henleys in the Old Navy ad this week and fell in love.  Too bad though that recently I have bought plenty of clothes,

and I just couldn't justify the purchase.

Lucky for me, I had an extra shirt around the house that I could make my own ruffle henley!  Yay!

Oh my gosh, this was the simplest shirt to make ever.  Start to finish was all completed while my son was down for his nap.  Now that's a great project!  Here is what I did:

Step 1: Cut the sleeves off to the desired length

Step 2: From the sleeve portion, cut open the seam, and cut off the finished edge

Step 3: Sew the finished edge from the sleeve onto the front of the shirt. I sewed so that I could fold the added piece over so that there was a nice finished edge to the henley opening.  And then I cut along the shirt right where the seam is now.

Step 4: Cut strips from sleeve portion, make ruffle, and sew onto shirt.  Step 5: Fold over the edge and sew the buttons on to the strip.

This was taken before the buttons were sewn on, but you get the idea.

4th of July Cake Pops

This is a story about a failure.

What was originally supposed to be these beautiful 4th of July Cupcake in a Jar gifts for my VT girls...



Aren't they beautiful?

Mine did not turn out in any way like that.  My cake colors weren't as vibrant.  The cookie cutter didn't cut as neat and clean as I imagined it would.  The cakes were A LOT more difficult to get in a jar and have them look cute afterward.  The layers of frosting didn't turn out as pretty either.  Wow.  Cupcakes in a jar are apparantly not destined to be my specialty. 

But now I had blue, white, and red (ok..pinkish) cakes...what do I do with them?  Enter this lovely idea I remembered seeing online...





CAKE POPS!

When the directions include "tear apart your cake you just baked", I knew I could make these with the mess that was my cupcake in a jar attempt.

And here's my finished product:

They were so easy to make! 

I totally want to make some more.  Like all of these pretty things:

Adorable!

The baseball cake pops would be a huge hit around here.

But I love them all.

Headboard Accent Wall

Our latest home makeover project: A Headboard Accent Wall.  First, take a look at our inspiration photos:

Don't you love these walls?  When I saw them online I totally fell in love!  You can see the full post HERE.  We also used Decor Chick's Tutorial for this project as well. We used Decor Chick because that was the perfect tutorial to teach us all the steps.  We decided we didn't want an all-white wall, so we first painted our wall a beautiful green.  We were also going to go with a different pattern then she used, but in the end our vision looked too busy, and so we went with exactly how she did her wall.  And I love it!

Here is our boring before wall:

And here is the "After" wall that we are so in love with:

Our bedroom is starting to come together!  We're hitting up every yard sale we drive by on the lookout for some nice nightstands.  And next project on our to do list is a headboard.  We look all over, but just can't seem to find one that we love, so assuming that is still the case, we'll start making one soon.  I was also thinking of making a bedspread, but now I love our current comforter a lot more with the change in the wall.

Healthy Spaghetti

How come I didn't know about spaghetti squash before now?  Holy cow, it's amazing.  As if spaghetti couldn't get any quicker to make, along came the spaghetti squash and made spaghetti quicker AND healthier!  I really don't like squash, but this kind I can handle.  And since it's so easy to make, I can give you the recipe all in 3 simple photos!



Step 1:  Cut spaghetti squash lengthwhise and clean out seeds.  Cook in oven for 30-40 minutes at 375. Or you can cook it in the microwave in about 5 minutes - just put the squash (rind side up) in a bowl with a little water in the bottom.



Step 2: When the insides are soft, run a fork along the sides, and the squash separates into perfect spaghetti strands




Step 3:  Looks just like spaghetti!  Top it with whatever you'd normally put on the pasta stuff.  I love it served back in the shell, like the first photo.



Magnet Boards

My new favorite craft is magnet boards.  I'm just loving them right now.  I made one to cover an empty wall and to get all the craziness off of our refrigerator.  I love it.  It's in the perfect spot in our house to remind us of upcoming events and I can keep my kitchen looking uncluttered at the same time.

For a bridal shower gift, I made this cute little magnet recipe holder.  I love it too.  It's so perfect to hold a recipe on your counter while you're preparing dinner.

While buying stuff for the recipe holder, I just couldn't pass up getting supplies for another one.  This one can hold whatever you want it to.  I'm not sure if I'll keep this one or give it away yet.  Have I told you about my  new favorite store?  If you're in the Salt Lake area, and want a place for wood crafts, take a look at The Wood Connection.  I love everything there! 

And of course, no magnet board is complete without some magnets!  These were all made using glass beads with scrapbook paper modge-podged on the back or bottle lids covered with scrapbook paper.  Super easy!

How to Get a Man in the Kitchen

One of our very favorite things to cook together is creme brulee.

I love it because it's a dish that takes total perfection to get it just right.  The ingredients have to be mixed just perfectly, the custard has to be set just right after baking.  There are a lot of variables for it to turn out well.  And I love finding ways to garnish the dish so it looks beautiful when served.

My husband loves making it for this one reason:



The cooking torch

He loves using our cooking torch to melt the sugar on the top.  What man doesn't love an excuse to have an open flame?

ABC Bridal Shower

I've been busy the last month planning a bridal shower.  Now that it's over, I can post the full deal.

The bride-to-be is a schoolteacher, and we really loved the idea of an "ABC Shower" theme. Here are the invitations we sent out:

I love the poem on the invitation - it was a combination of ideas I found online, with some additions and revisions of my own.  Truthfully, I would have done the invitations differently to match the theme, but I didn't get my decor idea until after the invitations were sent out.  Oh well, live and learn.

The ABC theme was so much fun!  The gifts guests brought were so creative, and once I thought about the decorations, they were so easy to come up with (hence why I wished I would have thought about them before the invitations were sent out).  Here are a few photos of the day:


The banners were made out of old dictionary pages I cut and fanned.  I also had dictionary pages, cut in triangles, and hanging around the room, but I didn't get a good photo of those.



Close-up of the Wedding banner.



The dessert table!



To fit with the ABC theme, I made these labels for all the treats.  





Close-up of some desserts. 

This is a new recipe I tried, I found the recipe in the latest Better Homes & Garden magazine. 

The bars were so delicious! I am making these again!



Basket of advice for the bride.





Party favors for the guests.  Purses made out of cute paper, with some treats inside.



The shower turned out fabulous.  We ate, visited, played a couple of simple games, and she opened presents.  Wow! Some people are soooo creative with the letters they received.  It was so fun to see everyone's creativity. 

For the games, I found a simple page online with random items listed, and guests marked what of the items they had in their purses.  Different points were assigned to each item, and the winner got the prize.  Crazy what we women carry around in our purses!!  The second game was a "TV Show Couples" game.  I named a couple, and guests had to write down what tv show the couple was from.  Everyone did so much better than I would have done at that game!  I had a third game planned but we didn't end up playing it.  It was "Scattergories" game basically.  You know, since the theme was all about the alphabet :)

All in all, the bridal shower was such a success!  I love the "themed" bridal shower - it made everything so fun, and so easy to tie everything together and look great!  Hope you enjoyed seeing my ideas!

I'm linking to these parties:

Keeping It Simple
The DIY Showoff