Posts Tagged ‘favorite things

Well, my friends, I am FINALLY back from my oh-too-long vacay. For your and my sanity, I swear I’ll never leave for that long ever again!

Let’s get down to bid-ness…

First off, I just have to give a huge thanks to all the Guest Bloggers that posted here over the last month. Weren’t they all just fab?!! Honestly, I’m now following quite a few of them myself!

Also, if you are just dying to get a recap of our vacation, I made FIFTEEN posts about my vacation while we were on the road. Check all of them out here. I tried to add some humor to each post as not to bore you to sleep. One thing I’ve learned from all this vacation blogging: I hate vacation blogging. I LOVE DIY and decor blogging though, so I’m just going to stick with the home sector. Lucky you.

Okay, FINALLY, let’s just get to the good stuff, shall we?

There were exactly TWO major events that happened to me while on vacation that I think you will get a kick out of…

The first & most exciting:

I MET SHERRY AND JOHN!

My life has now come full circle. Who would have thought in a year and a half of blogging I would meet BOTH of my favorite blogs authors? In January I met Sarah from Thrifty Decor Chick (at Blissdom) and in July I met Sherry and John from Young House Love.

Our last stop on our vacation was in Richmond, Virginia to meet Sherry and John at a cute little coffee shop. They are the nicest, most humble, gracious people I’ve probably ever met. I was blown away at how down to earth they are in spite of being blog super-stars who have graced many a news story, been on the Nate show, and are featured in Better Homes and Garden almost monthly (at least it seems that way!).

I was just hoping they would give me 5 minutes for a photo. I was pleasantly shocked and grateful that they spent two hours with us instead. I’m sure everyone says this about them, but I swear, they were so easy to just hang out with. When we left I told Ben that I really thought we would be friends with them IRL if we lived near them. They are just that easy to be around.

Kinsey was smitten with their sweet adorable Clara. She has the blondest hair and the bluest eyes! And her personality is sweet as a button.

So yes, I’ve met YHL and TDC. My life is officially complete. I can die now.

In other, almost-as-exciting-news, I took pictures of myself in front of three famous bakeries, all from their own hit reality shows about cakes and cupcakes.

Carlo’s Bakery, from TLC’s Cake Boss.

Charm City Cakes, from the Food Networks Ace of Cakes.

And Georgetown Cupcake, from TLC’s DC Cupcakes.

I didn’t go inside any of the bakeries, and I didn’t get to taste any of their famous pastries. The lines at each place were ridiculously long. It was really fun getting to see the actual bakeries though.

And, finally, in other news… (what?! You thought I was going to leave you with no home update at all?!)…

We got home to our yard looking like this:

It’s just a hunch, but I’m thinking we have a sprinkler issue on our hands…

Good thing I know how to fix a sprinkler! (You can read my post about fixing a sprinkler here.) I’m really looking forward to digging up my front yard in over 100 degree weather. Yay for summer.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a fun, new, fresh post! Yippie!

Welcome to my first ever

Rock Your Recipes party!

On the first Friday of each month I’ll share a recipe with you & then you share a recipe (or two or three) with all of us!

For my first ever Rock Your Recipes party I’m going to share my family and friends’ favorite recipe that I make…

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Every.Single.Time. I’ve ever made this recipe, everyone oohs and ahs over it. It’s a crowd pleaser for sure. I get requests to bring this dip when I’m invited to parties. I usually have to double or triple the recipe because it gets eaten so quickly.

Now, before I take ALL the credit for this yummy (and SO EASY TO MAKE!) recipe, I have to just mention that it’s a Pampered Chef recipe. I use to sell Pampered Chef (hence the reason most of my recipes have PC stuff in them) and got the recipe from them. I’ve changed it up just a bit, but for the most part it’s a PC recipe.

This recipe will take you about 5-10 minutes to mix up and then another 20 minutes to bake. Super quick and easy.

Here’s what you’ll need for this recipe:

You pretty much just mix everything together in a bowl (minus the tomato and tortilla chips) and then put it in a baker (about 8×8).

I use this baker from Pampered Chef.

I like to add additional Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top before I bake it.

Now pop that sucker in the pre-heated oven and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until it looks bubbly.

Top with finely chopped tomato and serve with tortilla chips or bagel crisps.

So easy! And I swear, print this recipe up and make it for your next party. Everyone will love you!

This party is for Recipes ONLY!

* Link directly to your post, not your blog.

* If you post spam junk I will be forced to delete it. Don’t waste my time!

Ready. Set. Post!

This party will be open until Sunday, November 7th at 10am CST.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Ya, ya, I know, it’s NOT EVEN TURKEY DAY YET!

BUT, and that’s a big fat BUT…

Don’t you want some Christmas crafts NOW so that you can make them for the entire Holiday Season?

Ya, that’s what I thought! You are welcome!

Make an adorable Christmas Tree out of terra-cotta flower pots!

(Isn’t this just adorable?)

Do you want to know how to make this? And I’m going to be extra super nice and include a cost break-down for you as well. Yippie!

If I’ve peaked your interest and you want to make one, read on! This isn’t a hard craft. You’ll love it.

To make this exact tree:

First you’ll need some terra-cotta flower pots.

I bought enough for 3 different sizes of trees, so don’t have a panic attack. I’ll show you the other two trees as I finish them over the next week or so. You really only need 4 pots and a saucer for this tree.

The pots need to be PRIMED before you paint them. I just used a brush and painted the primer on all of them. The saucer needs it on both sides, but the pots only need primer on the outside and the bottom.

Once the primer is dry, spray paint your medium sized pot (you have two of these – 4″ pots) with the brown spray paint. This will be the stump of the tree. Set this aside until the end.

Spray paint the lip around the top of each additional pot and the entire saucer with the white spray paint.

When they are dry tape off the lip of each white pot.

Now spray paint the 3 pots with the Olive spray paint. Make sure to paint the bottom of each pot as well.

When the green paint is dry, remove your tape. The edge doesn’t have to be perfect, but if any of the green bled really bad you’ll need to touch it up with a little white paint. I just used some white acrylic paint to touch up one or two spots.

Now it’s time to add the glitter! This part was really fun!

I put a big blob of the school glue in a paper bowl and then added a bit of water (maybe about a tablespoon or so). Mix the glue and water together to make a soup type consistency.

Now just paint the liquid glue on the areas where you want your glitter. I painted all the edges of the pots and saucer (minus the brown pot).

Work in small sections. Paint the glue, add glitter, paint more glue, add more glitter.

I used a large cookie sheet and just poured glitter over the glued areas over the cookie sheet. At the very end I scooped all the extra glitter up and put it back in the container. Believe it or not this was not that messy!

In the middle of your crafting you may want to take a lunch break and watch some TV. …in your PJs.

I tried the glue mixture AND Mod Podge, and honestly, for this project they worked about the same. School glue is much cheaper!

Now it’s time to wait again. Waiting is the biggest part of this project. Wait for the primer to dry. Wait for the spray paint to dry. Wait for the 2nd layer of spray paint to dry. Wait for the glitter glue to dry….

When it’s FINALLY dry (it really only took an hour or so), you can bust out your red paint!

Now, let me give you a little tip. I NEVER squirt paint out onto a plate. NEVER. It’s messy and wasteful. I just unscrew the cap and pour a little paint into the lid and use that to dip my brush. So easy!

Next I just free-handed some red dots all over the pot.

When the dots were dry I coated them a 2nd time so they would be more vibrant. While they were still wet I put a sequin in the middle of each dot. It’s glued on by the wet paint.

Wait again. This time for the red paint to dry.

Now it’s time to stack them!

Turn your brown pot upside down and set it where you want your Christmas tree to sit.

Place the saucer UPSIDE DOWN on top of the brown pot.

Place your 6″ pot upside down on top of the saucer. Place your 4″ pot upside down on top of the 6″ pot. Place the 3″ pot upside down on top of the 4″pot. Yadda yadda yadda….

For the topper I just found a metal star napkin holder at Goodwill. I spray painted it yellow and coated it in glitter. I set it on top with the ring for the napkin around the top pot.

*NOTE* I did not glue the pots together. I would recommend keeping this away from small children and pets that can knock it over. You can glue them together if you’d like, but I like to keep them separate so that I can nest them after Christmas for easier storage.

There are so many possibilities for this tree! I’ve got a 2nd one in the works that is 4 layers tall with a larger base and larger saucer. You can decorate these ANY way you’d like! Add any topper you can think of! I’ve got two more I’m making that are totally different from this design. Be creative! They don’t even have to be brown and green! Paint one hot pink and lime green. Paint one gold. Glue on bells and bows. The possibilities to decorate these are endless!

If you make one for yourself, PLEASE let me know! I’d love to add you to my Share.Inspire.Create. Party. I’d also LOVE to see all the great color palates you come up with.

Happy Crafting!