Christmas Wreath & Garland

Soooo my hubby  i just put up our Christmas wreath & garland.i really liked the garland from Pottery Barn, but the price $299 - auuuuuwww nauuuww. So i found one at hobby lobby, same size, with pines, berries & lights, at a better price. The wreath was $40 (with the 50% discound at hobby lobby) and i actually made the garland. Th garland, first off was still crazy expensive even with hobby lobby's "50% discount" (especially for the length that i needed) PLUS they didn't have one that matched my wreath. i bought the plain pine garland (which was about $3.50 per i believe it's 7' - don't quote me on this one - i bought 4 but only used 3) and i bought the red berries also from hobby lobby (they were about $0.60 a piece, i only used one bunch per garland piece since i just randomly placed them in the garland), the pine cones i bought from the dollar tree ($1 for a bag of about 8-10 of them), and the christmas lights we had from the year before. i twisted the berry pieces onto the garland with the same wire they came on, and the left over wire i twisted around the pine cones and then placed them in the garland. the hard part was twisting all the christmas lights around the garland (it's faster when you have someone helping). my husband then placed nails around the trim above the door and below the brick and then he placed the garland. i used the 40% discount coupons that HB has online to purchase the lanterns on the stairs and then added left over pine cones & berries in them and placed flameless candles that i purchased at the dollar tree in them. i had enough left over garland to place around my mailbox.

PB airplane knock off

there are a couple of versions of this PB planked airplane knock offs, but unfortunately when it comes to certain things, i can be super picky, and when it comes to copying/imitating things, i like to make it as realistic as possible. now don't get me wrong, i learned a lot from these other blogs too, but their outcome wasn't as close to the real thing for my liking. for my airplane, i bought 4 24" plywood squares from Home Depot (ab $16, thank you military discount aka hubby), i bought 1 bottle of antique white paint, 1 bottle of white paint, and 1 small bottle of burnt umber all from walmart and all acrylic. i also bought one of those sponge brush things that i used for the white paints and a SUPER OLD AND FRAYED brush for the actual plane. seriously, i looked everywhere for a brush bc i didn't want to spend money on brushes and was desperate enough to use a make up brush, so i looked for one under my sink when EUREKA! i found an old paintbrush that was stiff because the last person to use it didn't take the time to clean it off. i'm glad i used an old brush though, otherwise the lines would've been a little too perfect and i wanted to create the ragged/distressed/vintage look that PB has going on. (i have a lot of run-on sentences. ha. my english teacher would be ashamed). ok so this is what i did. i painted the planks of wood (on the knotted side bc i had messed up on the other side after trying to use mod podge to transfer an image using the directions from another blogger bc it added more character) with the plain white paint and allowed it to dry (one coat is enough, it doesn't matter if the wood can still be seen). next i used the antique white on top of it. now here comes the hard part. i looked at the different pictures PB has of their plane shot at different angles, and i drew the fuselage (i didn't even know what the crap that was until my hubby explained to me - 'it's where the people sit babe') first. the blog that does the knock off where she actually draws it on paper and then transfers it...well to me that 'fuselage' is a little too narrow, so i made mine fat. i think a little too fat, but i like 'em a little thick. hahaha. (btw the drawing was made in pencil directly on the painted wooden planks - you can erase). sooo then i started drawing the-thing-that-holds-the-propellers, i didn't want them perfect circles, so i sketched them out first and then used things around the house that were circular to make sure my circles weren't completely off. i drew the left part of the plane first, if you are facing the plane.after i finished painting the plane (i used one color - burnt umber- for the entire plane), i watered down some of the burnt umber paint and with a rag went over all the planks and then took the brush and dipped it in the paint and painted spots on the planks and then sanded those spots down a little. i took a lot of pictures and i think that's what helped the most bc it allowed me to look at my imperfections. also, i saved a picture of the actual PB plane on my iphone and then i would take pictures of my plane and just swipe back and forth between pictures to make sure they looked somewhat similar. there was A LOT of sketching. it does help if you are SOMEWHAT artistically inclined, BUT anyone can draw if they want. just look at the plane and divide it in shapes and don't look at is as a whole object. sketch it out...keep sketching until u get the shape you want. anyway, here is the finished project that will go in my eldest son's room:

this is PB:

 this one is mine:

Hello World!!

Ok so i have been absent for a few months...I gave birth to a healthy brown haired-blue-eyed boy July 8th. And yes, although it is exciting to have a new baby, it is also very very very TIRING, bc they apparently don't know how to appreciate sleeping time. Welcome back sleep deprivation. So anyways, all the crying plus lack of sleep plus constant breast feeding made me feel oh-so-tired (no time for blogging!), until a friend suggested putting baby on a routine. so i did, and oh has it worked WONDERS. at four weeks he was drinking 4oz of formula plus whatever from breast milk and eating every 3 hours and sleeping for about 4 hours. he just recently turned 10 weeks and i have changed his feeding schedule to every 4 hours with 6oz of formula (no more breast milk :( )...and the best part is...HE SLEEPS FROM 9PM UNTIL 6AM! and then he eats at 6 am, goes back to sleep and wakes up at 0930. HALLELUJAH!! in a nutshell, best thing to do with a baby - put them on a schedule. anyhoo, i worked on a little summin summin and finished today. i will post a blog on that in just a sec....

breakfast citrusy french toast & brown sugared turkey bacon

 i have a hard time with breakfast...coming up with ideas for lunch can be hard too, but breakfast poses more of a challenge, so when i saw this following recipe in a magazine (i can't remember which one), i copied it down. here it is:

citrusy french toast - serves 8
2 cups pancake mix
2 cups of water
4 teaspoons grated orange zest
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 c of butter, divided
16 slices of white sandwich bread
maple syrup
whisk first 4 ingredients and 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons butter in medium bowl until smooth. melt remaining 1 tablespoon in butter in a skillet over medium heat. dip bread slices in the batter, coating well. cook slices in skillet in batches 1-2 minutes on each side or until golden, turning with spatula. remove from pan; keep warm. serve w/maple syrup.

when i make that, i serve it with brown sugared turkey bacon,. i don't eat pork so i use turkey bacon, also it's less fattening.

1/2 cup of brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
8 slices of thick sliced bacon, halved
combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. dip each piece of bacon into mixture to coat. arrange each piece in an aluminum foil-lined broiler pan. bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until turkey bacon is crisp and sugar is bubbly. place on aluminum foil to cool, makes 16 pieces.

the turkey slices made that way is super delicious. if i don't have time to make the toast, i just buy the raisin/cinammon bread and toast that and spread butter over it and serve it with the turkey bacon and instant grits. hope u enjoy!

knock-off evelyn's favorite pasta recipe

if it's a recipe, is it considered a knock off? anyway, this is by far the best dish i've ever had at any restaurant. it comes from none other than the cheesecake factory. it's not completely exactly like it because i've added a few of my own favorite ingredients and taken out some that i didn't like of theirs, but it is still OH SO YUMMY!
SERVES:2-3 people
INGREDIENTS:
Penne Rigate Pasta---------------1 to 1-1/2 cup
Eggplant--------------------------1 chopped
Broccoli---------------------------1 cup chopped
Sun-dried Tomatoes--------------2 tbsp (i buy mine from kroger)
Green bell pepper-----------------1
Pine nuts--------------------------1 tsp (optional - i don't use those)
Olive oil----------------------------5-6 tbp
Garlic pods-------------------------4-5
Salt---------------------------------as required
Basil leaves-------------------------few chopped
Parmesean cheese-----------------1/2 cup grated (optional)
I really like capers and kalamata olives, so I usually add those at #5. You probably won't find the kalamata olives in walmart, but you will in Kroger. I use the entire small glass bottle of both capers and kalamata olives. The sun dried tomatoes taste better if they are in preserves rather than dry which is how walmart sells them, so you'll have to get the tomatoes from Kroger also. With those I usually use half the glass bottle. Also, so that the eggplant doesn't taste bitter, chop it up and let it soak in water with about a teaspoon of salt.
DIRECTIONS:
1.Keep all the vegetables(eggplants,broccoli,bell pepper) freshly chopped and set aside for frying.
2.Measure 1 to 1-1/2 cup of pasta and throw them into hot boiling water.
3.Add very little salt,tsp oil and boil until the instructed time on the pasta packet.
4.Do not drain out the water immediately.Do it prior to mixing with the fried vegetables to avoid drying.
5.Heat olive oil,add chopped garlic, pine nuts, green peppers. Then add the broccoli and lastly eggplant.
6.Maintain the heat on medium-low and cook till the veggies are 1/4 th done for 4-5 mins.
7.Drain out the pasta and add them to veggies along with some salt,basil leaves,sundried tomatoes and saute them for 5-6 mins.
8.Do not overcook them.The veggies should be slightly crunchy rather than soft.
9.Turn off transfer to serving plate and sprinkle with parmesan cheese for more flavor.

Enjoy!!

owl baby shower for boy

owls are SO flipping cute to me and i like how they're a symbol of wisdom. i knew i wanted to have a theme for my baby shower (for a boy) & i didn't want it to be the usual rubber duckies or noah's ark (i'm not knocking either one of those themes, i just wanted something different), so i surfed the web. the majority of the ideas for the decoration came from this website. here are the pictures & ideas for games:

i made these cupcakes out of white cake mix (is that what it's called? lol) from walmart and i used the cream cheese icing for the white and added blue food coloring to get the blue cupcakes (i only used a couple of drops) and of course used the chocolate icing for the brown cupcakes. i used a zip lock bag and snipped a VERY small piece from the corner to pipe out the designs onto the top of the cup cakes. (just place the icing into the zip lock bag, squeeze it all to the corner where you've made the hole, and start decorating!)

these owls were my favorite! all i did was follow the instructions on this site to make the felt owls and placed them as the center piece on the dessert table. i bought the felt at walmart and some of it was felt i had lying around from previous crafts. the styrofoam balls i also purchased at walmart. you can get all this also at a craft store, but walmart was cheaper for me. the nest was a little basket i found in the garage, but you can also get a lot of little twigs and super glue them together. i used an actual egg for the nest by poking a small hole at the bottom with the tip of a knife and shaking the inside of the egg out & then rinsing it. i super glued all of this to a tree branch from my back yard.

these are various shots of the dessert table. the place card for the dessert table read, 'chocolate, sugar, and sweets whooo my!' in one of the apothecary jars i placed chocolate malt balls & yogurt covered raisins. in the other i used hershey kisses and this new cookies and cream hershey kisses that looks like a tablet. i also made coconut macaroons (SO easy to make and SO delish, here's the recipe) and a pineapple dessert that is also delish but i'm not sure what i did with the recipe (shame on me!). i had some blue plastic safety pins i just scattered across the table and the place cards i made from left over paper from the owls (which you'll see in a bit) and left over blue tissue paper from the martha stewart inspired paper pom-poms, instructions here.

this was probably the 'most expensive' piece because of the owl hole puncher i bought at michael's (it's martha stewart, $19 i think). i got the little blue diamond jewels in the scrap booking section at walmart and used them as eyes on the owls. i took brown yarn, also from walmart, and i taped it to the wall and bought the clothes pins from family tree, super glued the owls to the pins, and pinned up the ultrasound pictures the tech had given me on my 5 month visit. 

 this was the blue drink. all i did was add one of those liters of ginger ale, two 64 oz white grape juice, and blue hawaiin punch. there wasn't a recipe i followed, i just added all these to taste. for example, if you don't want too much bubbly, use less of the ginger ale.

now for the game table. i made a place card that said, "life's a hoot." trying to find games that weren't the same games everyone knows by memory because they are always played at baby showers was really hard to me. these are the games:
1. Guess WHOOOO!: on the invitation, i told the guests to bring a picture of herself as a baby, so the basket you see is where the pictures went when the guests came in, but they were not to tell anyone that was them as a baby. the guests later had to guess who was who.
2. What's on the tray: the basket the guests had to put their pictures in was sitting next to several baby items (about 20 of them), so naturally, they looked at these items when placing their pictures in the basket but a lot of them probably didn't pay much attention to it. well, for the first game after everyone was sitting down, we put away all the items and had the guests write out as many items they could remember.
3. Rice/Safety pins: for this i had two bowls of rice and in the rice i put 20 small safety pins (make sure they're closed, you don't want them to poke your guests *snicker*). you get two guests and blind fold them and they have a minute to see who can dig out the most safety pins (trust me this game is hard bcz those little safety pins feel like rice).
4. Birthing Baby: for this game i bought a bunch of plastic easter eggs and small plastic babies that fit into the eggs that i found at hobby lobby. i placed a baby in the egg and filled it up with water, placed them in a bowl and let them freeze before the guests came in. when they came in, they were each given an egg and who ever 'birthed' the baby first (had the baby completely ice free) was the winner.
i must admit that i did do some of the typical shower games where you unscramble words. i used scrambled baby animal names (for example, oalf - foal). i also did another game where we had a bunch of plush babies (you can use potatoes) and divided up the guests in two teams and had buckets on one end. each team member had to place a potato between their legs and without dropping them quickly go across the room and drop them in their team bucket. my favorite game was one that i made from scrap paper and poster board was pin the sperm. i found this online but the poster cost $15 (not including shipping/handling), so i made it myself. you don't need to use scrap paper, i did because i didn't have all the markers (thanks to my three year old - lol). i made the little sperm out of black scrap paper, same with the ovule and just used scotch tape to stick them to the poster. i printed out a bunch of pictures of my husband's face and placed one on each sperm and a picture of my face to the ovule (or is it ovum??). this game is played just like 'pin the donkey.'

this is what it looked like after everyone was done trying to pin the sperm to the egg.

hope this gave someone ideas for their baby shower!

the awesome soon-to-be nursery drawer

ever have that feeling...where you went to a store and then all of a sudden you hear this glorious music and see a light beaming down from the sky, so you follow it...and there it is...something from your dreams. i've had that feeling. twice. once with my car. i knew i wanted it dark grey & stick shift and i had gone through the entire lot looking at cars when out of the corner of my eye the clouds rolled back and the sun beamed down directly on top of my car. well i had that feeling today. i was at the thrift store (it's called providence, and it's almost like a salvation army/goodwill) not looking for anything in particular when i saw a cluttered area filled with dressers and drawers and desks. but something caught my eye. the light beam was shining down in the middle of a cluster of old furniture directly on top of this super huge super awesome drawer. and it didn't have a price, but the other drawers and desks (smaller ones) around were priced around $100-$150. i quickly waddled around the store trying to find a worker. she came, looked at it, but didn't know the price so she called another lady. this lady came, looked at me, and then looked at it and said, "it's $40." REALLY?!?! $40?!?! i didn't wanna smile at her when she said that bcz i didn't wanna chance her increasing her price. i emailed a picture of it to the hubby to see if he approved (since i'll be needing his muscle work to sand it down). after what seemed an eternity, he emailed me back and said, "yes if you like it & there's nothing seriously wrong with it, get it." i checked it, wiggled all the drawers looked at the back - it couldn't be more perfect. after much adieu, here is a picture of it. i would've preferred to do a before & after, but i'm SO excited i found this FOR FOURTY BUCKS that i wanted to make a post about it. i plan on sanding it down, adding a dark stain, new knobs & removing the center drawer doors. it will go in the nursery.

it's massive and all real wood. this picture does not do it justice.

now this is a picture i found on the web, i can't remember if it was from another blog or what, otherwise i would link it, but i like what they've done to this drawer & i was planning on doing something similar to it.

Bare wall leading downstairs

This is my poor little wall that is in much need of TLC. i added those frames that i bought from the thrift store (they cost me from $0.50-$1.99) & later painted black (this was before i discovered the many talents of spray paint - which, in my personal opinion, is much cooler than duck tape & that was hard to beat). Anyway those little frames have sat on the wall empty for a while partly bcz i've been lazy & in much greater part bcz my computer has been getting fixed so i haven't been able to print any pictures. I need to add two more things to that wall (or maybe rearrange the frames) & it'll be finished, but i just thought i'd share my work in progess.



if you have a bare wall leading down the stairs, you can unbare it (lol) by getting frames of different sizes, textures, and shapes and place them on the wall. the best place to buy frames at are thrift stores and yard sales. you can always spray paint them whatever color you want or sand them down and stain them. this wall by thrifty decor chick was my inspiration.

before & after (half) of my kitchen cabinets

ok so when i did this i had absolutely NO idea that spray painting required technique. seriously. when i told my husband what i did he laughed and was like, 'duh. you should've asked me about it.' i hate it when he knows more than i do, which is rarely ;) anyway, i wanted to decorate above my kitchen cabinets. it was bothering me not having anything there...except for this HUGE white gothic looking candle my cute little husband stuck on top of one of them (unfortunately i don't have a pic of that). i browsed through google (i can't function without that website) and saw either modern, southern, or minimalist decor & didn't like it. the interior of my house gives me a very Mediterranean feel, which my husband accentuated when he bought the huge painting that hangs over one of our couches in the living room, so i thought i'd go from there. my mom had a lot of those ceramic vases (you know the old-timey-white-with-blue-design type) that she was going to throw away, so i asked her for them...and this is how my ceramic spray painting ability came about. for those out there who have NO idea, just like me, how to spray paint ceramic, i'll explain it to you: first, choose your colors. i bought mine from wal-mart. i bought white primer (which i didn't use the first time - BAD IDEA) & then the color i wanted to use (in this case, cherry red). next, find a spot where you can spray paint (away from wind or falling debris). ok so here comes the hard part (it was for me at first), after you clean the vases (wipe off the dust if they are old, there is no need to try and sand them down), spray paint the primer on. when you spray paint, you must hold the can at least 12" from the vase and spray in spurts moving from left to right or from up to down or vice versa (in other words don't spray paint too close or on one spot for too long or you'll get streaks and blobs - speaking from experience). you coat the entire vase with primer until it's white (if you are using a darker color on top there's not need to have it completely white, it's ok for some of the design to show through as long as it has been sprayed with primer). after about 10-15 minutes, you spray on whatever color you chose. make sure you spray the lower portion of it and around and in between the handles if there are any. wipe off any excess paint fromj the can- or pour it out in between sprays, because again you don't want globs or streaks. let that dry and there you have it, an almost-brand-new vase! here are the before & afters of half of my kitchen cabinets. the other half i am still working on. being 8 months preggo & having to climb ladders, shopping, or doing projects outdoors in this 120 degree weather is not exactly easy :)

BEFORE

free vases from my mom (i didn't take a before of the other vase)

i bought this frame for $2.99 at the thrift store and the painting at hobby lobby for $6.50. i took the painting out of the mat and cut a square the size of the frame from a black poster board i had lying around.

this vase used to be kakhi with brownish designs...and now it looks like this! that's the pear painting i framed. the faux ivy i bought from michaels for $7 (i used the same branch of ivy, just cut it in half for both cabinets & i still have some left over).

these are the vases pictured previously. i apologize for the quality of the picture, i took it with my phone bcz i didn't have my camera on me. the basket that sits behind my vases i bought at hobby lobby for no more than $6.

this is a close up before so you can see the basket and color of the vases better

 

Recap:

3 vases = free!

faux ivy = $7 @ Michael's

frame = $2.99 at thrift store

black poster board = "free" i've had it for a while, usually it's a $1 at dollar tree

basket = $6 at hobby lobby

i'd say not bad for my first decorating session. i still have 2 other cabinets not pictured above i am in the process of doing. i'm leaving the other two cabinets pictured above empty bcz i don't want it looking cluttered (and the ceiling is pretty close).

Birthday Ideas For Deployed Husband

deployment is never easy. trying to figure out what to send to your husband is also never easy, especially when it's his birthday. i had to read countless stupid forums to try and gather an idea of what i could send to my hubby. some of the things you obviously can't send. i mean, chocolate + approx. 7 days of traveling + super hot middle eastern desert temperatures = a gooey warped mess by the time it gets to him. alcohol customs would take (i heard same with porn - but why would you send either one of those to him?? anyway, i placed those two in my blog just in case some reader has the weird idea of sending her husband that). so to make a LONG story short, i'm going to list a few ideas and also instructions on what to send sweet hubby who is overseas protecting our freedom and country.

1. I found this cute key ring  for $19. Fortunately, you can make that for a lot less. I don't have a picture of the one I made because I did one for my husband last year & didn't think to take a picture, and now the key ring is with him...overseas. I have no idea what the name of those pieces are, but all I did was go to Home Depot to the section where the small nuts & bolts are and I just picked the ones I wanted out for him (I had the above picture on my phone & used it to find the different pieces). All of it cost me about $5. I found a small black jewelry box that I placed the key chain in & used fabric paint to write out 'I'm Nuts About You.' He loved it.

 2. Make a happy b-day 'banner' with the help of family/friends. I know it looks ghetto with their eyes blacked out, but nowadays the internet can be creepy and/or people may be sensitive about their pictures floating around internet space. This idea is pretty self explanatory. I called my husband's family/friends and assigned a letter to each of them and then put the pictures together on 'paint' (you don't even need photoshop for this).



web acquired photograph

3. Mason Jar Cake. You will need:
1. Mason jar
2. Cake mix + ingredients
3. Non-stick cooking spray
4. Food coloring (if you want the above results)
5. Ribbon, string, colorful/patterned paper, pen - depending on how you want your mason jar decorated
6. His favorite icing!
7. Sprinkles, Gummies, M&Ms - his favorite topping

Wash the mason jar out (if you are reusing an old jar, purchase a new lid). Prepare the cake mix. Here is where you will use the food coloring if you want the above picture result. You can use small bowls or containers and place a little bit of the batter (this all depends on how much you want of the color & how many colors) in each container and add a few drops until you have the desired color into each of the batter filled container/bowl. Completely cover the inside of your mason jar with the non-stick cooking spray and pre-heat your oven according to your cake mix instructions. Pour the batter into the jar (if you are doing the rainbow cake, some of the colors may bleed together, but it shouldn't too bad). You'll have to eyeball about how much batter to place into the jar depending on how many colors you want to use, so long as all the batter is just under the 1 cup mark  you're good (this also goes for if you are just doing his favorite 'red velvet cake' recipe or 'chocolate cake'). Place the jar into a baking sheet and put into oven after it is done pre-heating. Set the timer for about 15 minutes less than the cake mix instructions, but be checking it since ovens can vary. DO NOT ADD THE ICING. For the mason jar to seal itself off properly, you will need for it to be hot and for the lid to be at least room temperature. Close the jar (not too tightly) and in about 15 mins or so you will hear a popping noise (that's the jar sealing itself). The icing will need to be sent in its own container, so don't open it, to keep it from spoiling.
Now to decorate. You can cut a square out of fabric with, say, your husband's favorite football team pattern or colors and tie it down with matching ribbon over the lid (this can be purchased at Hobby Lobby). You can also print onto (i call it) sticky paper your thoughts and cut it out and stick it onto the jar. You can tie a spoon to the jar also so it's ready to eat as soon as he opens his package up. There are many different things you can do with this, just don't forget to NOT add the icing or sprinkles.

web acquired photograph 

4. Now this next idea is a good one for Valentine's Day but it will work for a birthday too. If you're the kind that doesn't mind, you can have some boudoir pictures done in his favorite team shirt, maybe army uniform...in all that you wear for the session, try to have at least in one picture something of his. There are some photographers that can be pricey, but check for military discounts and also, photographers that are getting started usually have lower prices, or you can sometimes purchase the CD with your photographs in it and you can edit them yourselves on picnik and create photo books with them on shutterfly.

Anyway, I hope this helped! I will upload more ideas according to the season and holiday later.

How To Age Books

Dear Pottery Barn,
I love you dearly, but sometimes you can cost a very pretty penny.
Sincerely,
Me.
I love LOVE love anything that has to do with books and libraries. If (and when) i have my house custom made, the room i will splurge on the most will be my library...split level with inside balcony, spiral staircase, built-in wall aquarium, nautical compass painted on the wooden floor...one can dream :) anyhow, so when i saw this PB decorative accent i thought, 'how perfect! i need something for my coffee table.'

 and then i saw the price, $39 for a bundle of books (four books). ummmm. NO. i surfed the web a little and read a few blogs of people that had DIY instructions on how to make books look 'aged'. there were some really complicated ones and some easier ones, so i'm going to share with you what worked for me. Through the many MANY school years i have put myself through, i have acquired countless numbers of books that are all stashed in the garage. I grabbed two of them to use as guinea pigs (but the project worked so i'm gonna use those as my 'decorative accent'). I ripped the very front and back cover off (you can do this to paper back or hard back books). I then found a container big enough and deeper in width than the book (i used a casserole dish). I used (decaffeinated) coffee for one of the books and (decaffeinated) coffee and some type of berry flavored tea bag for the other book. I just eyeballed the amount of coffee (probably about 3 heaping tablespoons - the darker you want the book stained the more coffee you would use i suppose). I placed the coffee (and tea bag) into the casserole dish and filled it with water (it can be hot or room temperature) and mixed the two together. I put enough of the coffee/water/tea mixture to cover the book (the book will float but then the pages will start to soak up the mixture). To make sure that the front and front pages of the book were wet/stained enough i used a spoon (anything really would work) to pour some of the mixture onto the book. I let one of the books sit in its "bath" for about 3 hours. The other sat in it for about 45 minutes. It just depends on how dark you want them. The darker, the longer they need to sit. I then took them out of their 'baths' and placed them on my back porch to dry. Because it is SO HOT outside right now in GA, i didn't have to wait but maybe half a day for them to completely dry. Now this is where YOUR creativity kicks in. In the PB catalog, there is a picture that shows the books with stamped numbers on their spines. If you want to do that, one blogger said foam stamps worked better for her because the spine was warped from the wetting and drying, so you would just need stamps (Hobby Lobby) and of course ink (distress ink is best too from what i gathered). Here are some web gathered pictures  for ideas (thank you google!)

 

and here are my books:

i'll be placing those on my coffee table along with a few other things, so i will post a before and after then.

how to fix broken eyeshadow

TRAGEDY AT ITS BEST

web acquired photograph

don't you just hate that? when you hear and see your favorite eyeshadow hit the floor, face down, and you're afraid of lifting it up because you know what's happened? and a. it's your favorite color (that somehow matches everything), b. it was expensive, and c. they're out of stock or don't sell that color anymore. not to fret! they say everything in life can be fixed. here's one of those 'things.' you will need:
1. Rubbing alcohol 70% (the higher the % the faster it dries)
2. Spoon & butter knife
3. Syringe (like the medicine droppers that comes in children's cough medicines) or you can use an empty small soap or conditioner bottle (like the travel sized pantene pro-v $0.50 at walmart) - you need something that will squeeze out DROPS
4. An old piece of fabric (like a shirt or cloth napkin) or tissue paper (but the fabric will work better than the tissue bcz there's a less chance of it tearing)
5. Zip lock bag
6. A quarter
Let's get started:
Get a little bit of the alcohol and put some in whatever container you decided to use (the medicine dropper or soap/conditioner bottle). Put it aside. Place your eyeshadow inside the zip lock bag all the way into the corner, pull the plastic zip lock bag tautly over the eyeshadow, and using the butter knife or spoon, smash the pieces of the eyeshadow even more in its container by pressing the knife/spoon over the plastic covered eyeshadow. Take the eyeshadow out. Now grab the container with the alcohol and place a few drops (depending on size of eyeshadow - if small only a couple, if larger then more drops) of alcohol in the eyeshadow (the middle, around the edges). Take the fabric/shirt/tissue paper and place a bit more alcohol on it also, get your quarter and place it inside the fabric/cloth/tissue paper where the alcohol was placed, pulling the fabric/cloth/tissue tautly over the quarter (this is why a piece of fabric is better) and start pressing the wrapped up quarter over the eyeshadow. Press it over the middle, the edges, make sure you get everything! Let the alcohol dry (in about an hour if using the 70%), and PRESTO!! Your eyeshadow is whole once again.

so it begins...(finds!)

decorating the house! i need a new hobby (really A hobby), so i'm trying to do small DIY projects, not just purchasing already made/fixed up things from the store. that would be too easy. anyhow, this is what i found this weekend. i actually saw this white frame ($2) earlier in the week when i decided to venture out into my small town and hit all the thrift stores around. i saw it sitting on the floor and i really liked it but didn't purchase it because i couldn't think of what i would put in it or where. now when i see something and i really like it, if i don't buy it, it'll bother me, for a while, until i end up buying it. heck i even dreamt with it. yeah, that's how bad it gets. so i went back today and bought it and found this cool container-thing ($3) i'll be spray painting. my mom gave me this vase (free!) that i'll also be re-painting. i have a plan this time of how i want to decorate around the house so i'm excited!

the spirit of a boy, or the wisdom of a man

you do what you do 

and you pay for your sins

and there's no such thing as what might have been

that's a waste of time.

if there is one lesson to be learned from my life that i wish someone would have stressed enough, really drilled into my head, is that God always has a plan and a reason for everything. i lack patience, and that defect in my character is what brought me down. i wanted to experiment, i wanted to live, i wanted to enjoy. forever young. thankfully my parents had instilled in me religious values (although i don't agree 100% on how i was raised, so God alone is what saved me), enough to make me keep a few toes still in the church. i'm not sure how i started drifting away, maybe it was the friendships, my want to dabble in 'fun' things, the need for attention, the way i wasn't raised, maybe i thought God wasn't answering quick enough (there's my lack of patience), that youthful spirit that makes you feel invincible and immortal, maybe it was a combination of a little bit of all those. i can't say that when i fell, i fell hard. you see, God has a different way of finding people, each unique to that individual. He found me nonetheless, and thankfully. when this particular situation happened to me, one by one, people started turning their backs toward me. it was obviously figuratively, but their actions allowed me to really imagine that door slamming shut in my face. i had a lot of time alone and i came across (certainly not coincidentally) two books that really changed my perspectives in life: The Great Controversy and A Child's Guidance, along with my situation at the time. unfortunately i didn't completely grow from that experience. life would be too easy if it were impossible to make the same mistakes again...it's like catching a cold. you catch it and become immune to that strain, but there are so many different strains that you never really become immune to it. anyway, i found myself making rash decisions, yet again, and God's loving hand reaching out to pull me up on my feet. He must really love me and want me (as if sending His only Son to die for me wasn't enough - what ungrateful human beings we can be) because He has never let me down and knows exactly how to nudge me so that i continue my walk forward when i start to fall back. i wish that people could understand and see what all He has done for me. only He knows. what unfailing love!