Tiered Storage for my bathroom pretties

Okay, this is something I didn't exactly NEED, but I was inspired by this DIY tiered bathroom stand I found on Pinterest and thought I must try one too!

I bought two little dishes from the dollar store and the candle holder I already had.. it's one of our unity candle stands from our wedding! 

I used E-6000 glue and turned the candle upside down so the larger bottom part would be glued to the smaller dish which would be the top... leaving more room in the bottom dish for stuff. I glued one dish at a time, giving each some good drying time.

I think it's pretty :) 

5 Minute Scrabble Ornaments!

Yes, it's that time again.. getting ready for the Christmas season! That's always fun, however this year I'm not feeling as motivated as I was last year. I just spend hours trying to rearrange my living room again.. which is always a chore! We have two big recliners that were given to us when we first started out in our apartment, and now I'm trying to get rid of one of them just to give us a little more roominess. Not sure if I'm liking the new arrangement.. wish I was a little more creative when it comes to designing a nice living room! Anyway! We pulled the tree out of the closet and I set it up this afternoon. Haven't decorated it yet. I'll wait for Hubby to get home from work tonight. But I was playing around on Pinterest and saw some cute scrabble ornaments so I had to make some for us too! This project seriously took like 5 minutes! 

Get the hot glue gun, scissors, scrabble tiles and some ribbon- that's it! 

Pick out your Christmas-y words and glue them together!

Then dig around in your ribbon scrap jar, cut ribbon to the length you want and glue down to the back of the ornament. -- That's It! Told you this was super simple and QUICK!

Best part about the project-- didn't cost me a penny! 

Had everything in my craft room already! Love those kinds of projects :)

May you have a true peace in your hearts because of Christ's hope of eternal salvation, and may your hearts be filled with true joy because you are satisfied in Him!

Pleated Poppy Giveaway!

Go check out Not Just a Housewife and enter for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to The Pleated Poppy shop! You have to check this shop out! The most darling things I tell you! I want one of her ruffly scarves! 

Cloud and Raindrop Felt Mobile

It was a rainy day Friday, plus my day off . . And while browsing through Pinterest I spotted this adorable mobile and just had to create one for myself!

So I began with tracing a cloud shape I found on google images. (I don't like printing out my shapes and images just for cutting out and using as stencils, so I just enlarge the photo on my computer screen to the size I like and place a white piece of paper on my screen and LIGHTLY trace the shape.) Then I cut out the cloud, pinned to the felt and traced and cut out two clouds. 

Then I hand sewed the clouds together, leaving a small opening for filling with stuffing. And sewed it shut. 

It's the cutest, fluffiest cloud :) 

I cut out a tiny pink heart and hot glued it to the cloud-- isn't it darling? 

My felt raindrops are all attached with clear fishing line. The raindrops of the inspiration mobile I found on Pinterest were actually sewn together in a line (with a sewing machine) . . which would be better, because then they would be immovable. I never know how to work with clear slick fishing line. Oh well! 

No, this mobile is not for a baby. . 

. . yes, I made this mobile for ME :) 

It's hanging in our living room to make me smile.

I love the shadow it casts on the wall in the evening.

These would be super cute in a baby nursery and would make cute gifts too! hmm... I am going to be an auntie in February .. maybe I should add this to the Christmas list :)

I do like a romantic, cozy, rainy day. . .

Pom Pom Necklace. . and new boots!

 Last night I needed something to keep me busy while Hubs worked on his sermon that he's going to be preaching tonight. I just have to be doing SOMETHING. . I hate when I have idle hands. I could sit for hours looking at inspirational things online, but I hate doing that! (I love it, but I hate it .. make sense?) I just like to be busy making or doing something to make good use of my time. So I decided I would make me a pom pom necklace, just like Little Miss Momma's.

What I used to make my necklace:

Felt

Fabric

Hot glue gun

Scissors

Necklace chain

small wire cutters

First I cut 5 little 1 inch  or so circles out of the felt

Then I cut out same size circles out of the fabric

Okay, this is pretty much where I forgot to continue on taking photos of the process. . 

BUT you just scrunch up a fabric circle from the center, apply some hot glue to the point and glue the point right down to the middle of a felt circle. Continue that until you have a nice little pom pom as full as you'd like. 

Then after all 5 of the pom poms are made up, arrange your pom poms on a sheet of felt in the arrangement you want them to be for the necklace. Glue the pom poms down right to that piece of felt, except for the top two. This is where I got my necklace chain and cut it in half with my wire cutters. Glue one end of the necklace chain to the bottom of one pom pom, and then add some more hot glue and glue that pom pom down to the felt in its spot. Repeat with the other top pom pom. Now you're ready to cut the felt around your pom pom necklace (not around each individual pom of course!). 

(see LMM's tutorial for more photos of the process)

I actually glued some extra strips of felt to the backing just to make it sturdier, because it was a little flimsy and wibble wobbly with just that one layer of felt.

I love it! 

I wore it to church today :) 

New boots! Got them at Ardene in my mall for like $13. They really aren't going to be super great for winter and snow and wetness, but I like them anyways.

Wearing a clearance dress I got from Walmart, thrifted cardigan (had it forever), boots from Ardene, $3 clearance walmart scarf (my new favorite), pom pom necklace by me!

It's a pretty day today. . very fallish like.

.. and you know how I feel about Fall!

Dollar Store Birdie Makeover

Yippee!! I finally have a project to share!

Yesterday I was at the dollar store picking up a few random things for my sister's baby shower I'm throwing next month. I spotted these sad little creatures . .

. . and decided to take them home and give them some love.

First I sanded them a tiny bit to rough them up, but it didn't really do much good. They look and feel like wood, but .. I don't know what they are. Then I painted them with acrylic craft paint. It took quite a few coats before it really starting sticking well. After I painted them I did a coat of a clear polyurethane, to make them smooth and slicker. 

  

Prettier already! 

. . but I wanted to try out the antiquing look. So I took my plain ole black acrylic paint . . 

. . and brushed on a little at a time . . 

. . then I wiped it away with a wet rag (old under shirt that was on its way to the trash), leaving the black in the cracks and crevices. I've read on some other major DIY blogs that regular paint won't work as an antiquing glaze, because it doesn't wipe away as nicely like glaze does. But I actually have to say this worked perfect! . . see for yourself

I found that after brushing on some black in a spot, then first rubbing it in with a DRY part of the rag before wiping away with the wet part helped to keep some of the black stuck on and not just completely wipe away. Gave it a smudgy and dirtied look. I'm super pleased with how well the acrylic paint worked as an antiquing glaze.

I love these little birdies! They're so cute and sweet now!
 ( I originally got the idea from here )

Love Birds . . that's us!

Aren't makeovers fun?!

Beef Stew and Dumplings

OoOooHhh... this was a GREAT dinner tonight! .. seriously, I'm wanting to eat leftovers for a midnight snack! I thawed my meet cubes in the fridge over night and got it all started in the crockpot at 9 this morning. 

Here's the recipe I found online, but I'll just share here what I did for mine tonight cause it's just a tad different.. not by much though.

1 carton of beef broth

1/4 - 1/2 cup of Italian dressing

1/4 - 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce

1 tsp. dried oregano leaves

1 lb. of 1-1/4 inch stewing beef cubes

1 lb. potatoes cut up in chunks

4 large carrots cut in chunks

onion chopped up (I never use a whole one for the two of us!)

little bit of chopped fresh garlic (I added that) 

I put the broth, Italian dressing, BBQ sauce, and oregano together in the pot first. Then I browned the beef cubes for barely a minute in a pan on the stove and added them to the pot, along with onions and garlic. Turned the crockpot to "low." The potatoes and carrots actually didn't go in until an hour later, cause I had to run to the store to pick up some carrots. So I just decided I'd wait to put the potatoes in when I got back. The recipe said it should cook for about 8 hours on low. Mine was done probably around 6 hours, but I kept it going till Hubby got home for break. (The meat was perfect and tender!)

At around the last hour of cooking, I added a mixture of 3 Tbsp. of flour and 1/4 cup of water to the stew.. The recipe said to remove the meat, potatoes and carrots before putting those two ingredients in, and then serving it with pouring the thickened up juice over the top. But I just left everything in. It didn't really thicken up too much anyway. 

I also made dumplings! Hubby's grandma made a yummy stew with stew dumplings one Sunday afternoon and I LOVED it! So I found a recipe for those too, since I'd never made them before ..(I hadn't even eaten them before till I had them at his grandma's!) These are super easy to make! 

Dumplings for Stew: 

1 cup of flour

2 tsp. of baking powder

2 Tbsp. of dried parsley

1/2 tsp. of salt

1 beaten egg

1/4 cup of milk

2 Tbsp. of vegetable oil

First combine the dry ingredients, and then beat together the milk, egg, and oil in separate bowl. Stir that into the flour mixture. It will be really sticky and gooey. 

Just plop the dough into the crockpot by the spoonfuls, right on top of the stew. 

Twenty minutes should be enough time for the dumplings, so the recipe says. Mine actually cooked for about an hour. Hubby was supposed to be home at 4, so I put the dumplings in at 3:30.. but he wasn't able to get home till around 4:30! They were still perfect and yummy! 

Oh baby, it was the best meal I've had in a while! I know I just followed a simple crockpot recipe, but I'm still proud of myself for tonight's dinner. .. I'm not so great at cooking dinners.. most of the time I just don't like to.. That probably sounds terrible, but ... oh well, it's the truth :) I didn't say I "don't" make dinners. It's just not my favorite thing to do is all. Anyway, dinner was YUMMY over here! .. and I'm kind of craving some more right now! . . .