Entryway Basket

I've seen many posts on entryways and of course loved many.  My entryway is nothing special...it's a slab of lenolium at the front door which is in my living room.  Behind the door we have a coat rack which my dad made for us and a crappy Walmart shoe rack on the floor.  We still have the crappy Walmart shoe rack but I hope to change that soon if I can find the right piece of "Another Man's Trash" to make what I want for our shoes!  With all the inspiration however I have at least been thinking about updating my entryway and made a step towards doing so!

What do you see other than a gravel driveway that my husband wont keep his crap off of?  All I see is a crappy fouton that has seen better days.  My husband already welded it together once and the weld broke again....we decided it just took up too much room and it was time to let it go!  I've been inspired a lot lately to see potential even in garbage!  These end pieces are "mostly" wood and I knew just what to do with that basket!

So I took both end pieces off of the metal frame and took them to my dad's!

We separated the baskets from the rest of the wood structures

Dad made end pieces to fit...he is awesome!

I cleaned them and painted them white to match the coat rack they would be above and of course all the doors and boarder in our house.

End result!  I'm very happy with it and it most definitely adds to the look of our entryway.  Especially since Mike has a tendency to put his hats and even his sun glasses on the coat rack which makes the coat rack cluttered and messy....for now his hats that he wears daily have a place where Mike can put them and not make me frustrated!!  :-)

There was another end piece...couldn't let it go to waste!  I thought to put it in the play room above the coat rack in there and maybe one day that will happen????  That is if we add an addition to the house and the new addition is the playroom!  For now I really like how it looks on my headboard!

Yes very plain jane.  I've thought about adding a few little things to dress it up but I'm currently working on another project which is going to make this wall look great!  Imagine what this looked like before the basket!!!

Inspired by Entryways in Blogland!

Tasty Tuesday/Italian Crescent Casserole

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Another Tast Tuesday and another recipe!  I found this on Pinterest; linked to Real Mom Kitchen.

Ingredients:
1lb cooked/drained ground beef
1Cup Garlic Pasta Sauce
1 Can 8oz Crescent Rolls
1 1/2 Cup Shredded Italian Cheese
1/4 tsp Dried Basil

Heat cooked ground beef and pasta sauce in skillet until warm.

Seperate crescent rolls into 8 triangles in a sort of spoke pattern.  Narrow tips should overlap rim of 3"x9" pie plate.
Press dough on sides and bottom of pan to form crust and cover pan.  Sprinkle 1Cup cheese over dough
Spoon meat mixture evenly over cheese

Bring tips of cresent triangles over filling to meet in center, do not overlap

Sprinkle 1/2 Cup cheese and basil on top  (I spooned some sauce on the top)

Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.


It was good and will be made again!  It was a little dry so we added some extra sauce...YUM!



Inspired by Tasty Tuesday

Applique Pillow

So here is another birthday gift for my little guy who turns 2 in April.  Those of you who have been following me have already seen a couple other birthday gifts I've made for him for this year and know that there are a couple more things still in the works.  I've been very busy!  In this entry I'm sharing with you a pillow I made for Gregory's bed set that I'm making him for his birthday.  I hadn't originally planned to make this pillow but when I made the Applique Pillowcase I did a practice "G" which turned out to look good!  So I didn't want to just discard it and decided I would put it on a pillow...so here we go!!!

I made the Applique obviously in the same way that I did for the Applique Pillowcase.                 

Then I took the fleece fabric for my pillow and cut a hole in it so that I could Applique my Appliqued piece showing through the hole from behind the main pillow fabric.  I think I've seen that this is referred to a reverse applique since it's sewn behind the main piece of fabric???

I pinned and sewed in my Appliqued piece

I made the pillow like you make every pillow...I took my two pieces of fabric...placed them right side to right side.  Sew around the edges leaveing a hole to turn it right side out.

I then stuffed it and hand sewn the hole shut

I think it turned out pretty cute and very unique!

Inspired by Gregory's Birthday!

I Dig You Treat Bags

To go along with my Tasty Tuesday post I figured I better get my Valentine's Day treats I made for the kids I babysit and some friend's kids up on my blog.  You've seen these everywhere but since I gave Sand buckets to all the kids at Halloween time as Trick-or-treat buckets I thought this idea would be perfect so the kids could have the shovels that go with their buckets.  Thanks to Kabbott for pointing this cute idea out to me!

All of my baggies....I wrote "I Dig You" on each of the shovels and put the shovels in clear treat bags with treats to dig through.

A little closer up!

For the babies I used puffs  to dig through

For the toddlers I used the greatest bite size candies!!!  M&Ms!!!! 

They turned out very cute and I know my little man was so excited to pull it out of his gift!!!  He says while taking a big breath "WOW"!!! 
Sorry the my pictures just do not do these little guys justice!

Inspired by Kabbott!

Tasty Tuesday/Dipped in Chocolate

Here we join again for another Tasty Tuesday!  Todays post is not much about cooking but just me showing off what I did for my hubby for Valentine's Day.  Now you are asking..."Okay why didn't she post this last Tuesday when it was indeed Valentine's Day!?".  I do not have a reason....I'm just posting it today!  You can do this anytime though...Valentine's Day was just an excuse for me to make some chocolatey goodies!


I bought some candy coating chocolate after Christmas when they were clearanced...they are still good until 2013 but I guess the store just didn't want to hold onto them so I stocked up!  They are so simple...we used the same stuff when making our cake balls at Christmas time.  You simple microwave according to the directions and then once it's nice and creamy you start dipping!

Got our Strawberries

Dipped them and placed them on Parchment Paper

Had plenty left over after I was done dipping the Strawberries so I started dipping some pretzels

YUMMY!!

These goodies have been a huge hit at our house!

Dipping was slightly time consuming but so worth it!!  Thanks for visiting!

Inspired by Valentine's Lovin'

Tasty Tuesday/Crockpot Chicken

Hello everyone, I've got another recipe that I found on Pinterest linked back to this site The Larson Lingo...it's as easy as you can imagine!

Ingredients:
Bag of Chicken 2.5-3lb bag
8oz pkg of Cream Cheese
Can of Black Beans (Drained and Rinsed)
Can of Corn (Drained)
Can of Rotel

Combine Everuthing on top of chicken in crockpot

Cook on low 6-8 hours (Stir about every 2 hours)
Let sit in crockpot 30-45 minutes while turned off (Tickens while standing, you can leave chicken  in one piece or shred)

Serve over rice or in tortilla


Our reviews...it wasn't all we hoped it would be.  We tried it served over rice and then as left overs we put it on tortillas.  Very bland.... once we put taco sauce on it it was much better.  It was super easy to make though....just put everything in and thats it!



Inspired by Tasty Tuesday

Gregory's Birthday/Bed Sheet

So I decided it was about time to share with you another item I have made for Gregory for his upcoming 2nd birthday!  As started here...I'm making Gregory an entire bed set for his birthday that he can use in his crib but is being made primarily for the toddler bed stage!

This is simple...it's a loose sheet.  I opted not to challenge myself with a fitted sheet b/c I feel so overwhelmed already with all the stuff I'm wanting to make that it will be easy enough to use solid colored fitted sheets on his bed!

First I ironed down the edges of the top strip of my loose sheet, so I could sew them under

I then ironed it in half

I placed it so the patterned fabric was between the folded top strip so there would be no rough edges, sewed it all together.

I also ironed down all the edges folded in twice so there would be no rough edges at all, pinned them in place so I could sew all around the sheets edges.

Simple as that!



Inspired by Gregory's 2nd Birthday

Pet Tree

    Since Gregory was born we have quickly accumulated many many many stuffed animals; I'm sure you can relate!  I'm horrible about getting rid of Gregory's things and I know I need to get better at this but when I look at the stuffed animals that we have kept which is more than we have ditched....I think of who got them for him and how much he likes this one or that one.  So yeah....we have a lot!  I am not a fan of the "pet net"....  I had one as a kid and they work fine, but for a 1 1/2 year old, they don't make a lot of sense.  He wouldn't be able to reach any of them and they are kind of an eye sore.  Maybe if we had a play room for Gregory....but the play room is for the babysitting kids too.  So after some research I found different ideas of keeping these little fellas from taking over my home.  The one I decided to go with is called a pet tree.  I did this before I started blogging so I didn't take pictures as I made it but here it is!  Pretty clever I think!

I took measurement from floor to ceiling in Gregory's room, cut down a PVC pipe to fit.  I painted it brown...for a tree!  I bought the white plastic chain at Home Depot...wrapped it around the length of the pipe (The chain is simply wedged in a little cut my husband put at each end of the pipe b/c we didn't want to cut the chain or anything so we could change it's use through the years...yes we already have future ideas for it in it's entirety!).  I ordered the clothes pin hangers through ebay...strategically placed them along the chain.

Pinned the stuffed animals all over it!

The pet tree is just leaned in a corner in Gregory's room.  I had/have? intentions of stabilizing it but in it's state even if Gregory pulls it over it isn't damaging.  It's light weight....this also makes it possible for Gregory to play with them if he wants and keeps the stuffed animals up and out of my way!! 
(Yes that is a tote in Gregory's room....he keeps growing out of his clothes so I just fold them up and put them in the tote as he grows out of them!)



Inspired by too many stuffed animals!

Tasty Tuesday/Jalapeno Cream Cheese Poppers

    Hello again...I found this recipe on Pinterest...yes I joined the masses.  I held out and held out but I kept getting invites so I gave in to see what all the fuss is about.  I've refused to get addicted but I have found quite a few good ideas through pinterest.  The reason I decided Pinterest may be a good idea for me is b/c I have a Blog Notebook shown here.....but as you can imagine it gets so full of random things here and there...it's hard to keep up with where things are in the notebook which makes them hard to find.  Pinterest...well I have my boards with pictures of the things I'm wanting to do and I can go straight to the source for help if needed.  Okay I got off the subject.......

So this week I made Jalapeno Cream Cheese Poppers, easy enough recipe of course....so here we go.

Ingredients:
1 Pkg Cream Cheese
2oz of canned Diced Jalapenos
1 tbsp sugar
8oz crescent rolls

Heat oven to 375 degrees
Use 3/4 of the cream cheese and put in a bowl, 1/2 can jalapenos, add sugar.  Mix well, mash w/ fork.

Open crescent rolols and seperate into 2 rectangles.  Pinch triangles together.

Spread mixture onto rectangles, roll up long ways.

Cut into 16 slices

Put on greased cookie sheet

Cool 13 minutes or until golden brown

In my opinion they are good and definitely have a kick.  In the original site she states that the sugar is a must for her but I kind of think for me they may have been better without it.... too much of a sweet taste for me but to each his own!

Inspired by Tasty Tuesday/Real Kitchens Everywhere

Pin Cushion

So you've seen them everywhere I know.  It started off as the same o' same o'.......  but when I thought I was finished I realized it needed something......... you'll see!

Warning this is a tad lengthy, however I wanted to show you how this awesome piece came together!

A while back I got I posted about some thrifty finds I had.  Well I finally got around to working w/ the small glass bowl with stem that I got for a whopping $1!  I bought it w/ a plan since I had seen a lot of the cute pin cushions made this way. 

Well if there is anything you may know about me in keeping up w/ my blog is that my bedroom is in black and white...I'm definitely a black/white kind of gal!

So I painted it black!  I did go over and over about painting the stem white or silver (to match my refurbished desk more) but in the end I just decided on black!

I cut a circle that I figured was big enough....I don't really know the deminsions but I went w/ about 4 times as big as the mouth on my bowl.

I sewed around the circle (just like you would a yo-yo)  I did not tied a knot yet or pull the thread too tight b/c I need to fill it so I then set that aside

To fill my little fabric baggy I made:

I cut two circle about the diameter what is going to be the top of my pin cushion (would be the bottom of the fabric baggy or yo-yo)

I sewed the 2 circles together but left a hole, turned it inside out

Then I filled it w/ rice....I would have just used batting but have seen a lot of people use other things so the pins wouldn't just push right through.

I hand sewed the hole shut and put my rice pillow into my fabric baggy

Then filled the fabric baggy the rest of the way w/ batting

I pulled the thread tight, knotted and clipped it to close my fabric baggy for good!

Some hot glue in my bowl

and a nicely placed filled fabric baggy

There she was.....finished right!?!?  It just didn't look finished!..............

There it is in it's little home....still looks bare?  Well it did to me.
    Well I decided a little personalization would really help this cute little piece...but how to do it??  The best way would probably be paint but free hand painting would not cut it so I had to make a stencil and since the pin cushion was all put together the stencil would HAVE to be flexible but sturdy enough to where I would stay in the lines....Masking Tape it was....yes masking tape.  I love masking tape! 

There is my masking tape!

Here are some letter stickers that would be a pretty good size for what I was looking for....but my name starts w/ S and I am plain out of S in these stickers!  I would have to use the backing!

I cut the outline from the sticker sheet and stuck it to my masking tape

I traced it and cut it out of the masking tape w/ my xacto knife

I stuck my new stencil in the center of my pin cushion

I splotched black paint over my stencil w/ a round paint sponge and then let it dry

When I pulled the stencil off this is what I got...IT WORKED!

Here is what my little station looks like with my now "finished" pin cushion.  What do you think?  Which is better?  With the monogram or with out it?

Inspired by Blogland



Parties I'm Attending:

Homemaker on a Dime: Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop

More the Merrier Monday


Manic Monday

Make the Scene Monday

The Bunny Hop

The Creative Spark

Beyond the Picket Fence

Gluesticks: Get Your Brag On