T-Shirts to SKIRT!!

I just came across this on Pinterest and HAD to share it! This lady is a GENIUS!!  She took three T-Shirts her Hubby thought were better suited for rags, and turned them into a way cute skirt.  I might actually just go buy me three t-shirts from the mens section of Walmart, and try out this idea!  I am linking her tutorial now so you dont have to wait on me to get to this project on my to-do list. It would take a while and its just too great not to share.  Enjoy!

T-shirt to Skirt Tutorial

where to start?

So,if you are anything like me you have that one room in your home that you just kinda live with it.  It doesn't inspire you, and you just live there you don't exactly love it.  Confession time!  For me its my bedroom!  We moved into this house a year ago and would you believe that the only thing hanging on the wall of my bedroom is the mirror over my dresser?!?!?  I do NOT like my bedroom! it is a place for me to sleep and that's IT.  I spend as little waking time in the room as possible.  Which is pretty sad, especially since the sleeping time I spend there isn't all that great either cause our bed isn't the most comfortable in the world house (I have literally woken up from being so uncomfortable and went to sleep in my old queen bed that my son inherited).  So I am about to embark upon a whole new journey of reclaiming what once used to be my favorite room, my oasis of calm in a crazy noisy house.  I am stumped though.  I am still working on choosing a color palette and style.  So lets put it to a vote and see what you guys think.

White with Yellow & Gray?

Brown & Blues/Turquoise?

Black & White

Or if you have any other idea, chime in, because I am really open to ANY suggestion here as it is pretty much a completely BLANK slate.

I will say the attached Master bath is in chocolate brown and sea foam green (thanks to the sea foam green tile on the walls). So that can be kept in mind, but as you can see I am open to going in a completely different direction than that

My plans for the room are new comforter/bedding (hopefully with a new mattress set!!!), curtains, wall/paint color (currently a drab tan), and accent wall decor.

Please please PLEASE leave me a comment and let me know what you are finding inspiring for room decorations now. 

There is also a very cool giveaway going on over at another blog, that I very much love to read, and it goes right along with this project so go give it a look. Enter the drawing if you are suffering a similar decorating crisis, and leave a comment saying you read about it on my blog please.  You might just help ME win it ;)

tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com <------- The give away you want to check out!!!

Thanks...oh and DON'T forget to comment on what you think I should do!!! 

Its a Cricut Cake wonderful day!!

You may, or may not, know what a Cricut is, and how completely AWESOME they are.  So let me fill you in...they are AWESOME!!!!  (wait didn't I just say that?) Anyway, I just bought one!!!!!  I got an amazing deal on EBay for a Cricut Cake machine that's brand spanking new! 

Here's a picture of what I got by winning the auction:

And this is what all comes with it:

*1 (12 in x 12 in) food-safe cutting mat* EXCLUSIVE! “Cake Basics” cartridge*  1 stainless steel cutting blade* 1 power adapter * 1 cartridge skirt* 1 silicone keypad cover* 1 cartridge port cover* 1 stainless steel blade basket* 1 cleaning brush* User manuals and guides

Images included on the Cake Basics cartridge

I am so excited I have been plum giddy since winning it for a price that is less than a third of what I would pay for one at Hobby Lobby or other suppliers!  Its just AMAZING!!  So I can not wait to get my new toy in and play with it making all kinds of wonderful vinyl cutout letters, cards, monograms, pictures, designs, and yes ICING designs too. 
I will be having so much crafting fun, and you KNOW I will be sharing it ALL with you.  Okay, I guess I can quit rhapsodizing about it and give you some bare facts about it.

This is what it can do:

Cricut Cake is designed to cut frosting sheets, gum paste, and fondant for baked goods, an can also be used to cut cookie dough, cheese, tortillas, modeling chocolate, gum, and various soft candies. This machine will cut through soft food materials. This will require you to experiment to get the right consistency of food and the proper settings on the machine.

It neglected to say, because they don't approve of you doing this, that it can also cut some of the other mediums that the original Cricut Expressions can. I will just have to change out the blade housing to what the Expression uses.  Hurray for me!!

There was mention about food safety concerns when using the Cake to cut non-food mediums on some of the discussion boards.  The concern is about using some papers due to the ingredients found in the papers Since I am using separate blades and cutting mats and thoroughly cleaning my machine I don't think that will be an issue.



I know you are already eager to rush out and get yourself one right...or better yet run over here to my house and start playing around with it too.  Oh I am beyond excited! Now I have to get winning some cartridges to use with it.  Yay more shopping!! 

Upside Down

For those of you who don't know me, I would like to share something about myself.  I handle projects one of two ways.  Either they are extremely thought out and done WAY in advance (doesn't happen too often) or they are completely last minute (this is pretty much what usually happens), and come with bursts of inspiration.  Those either turn out AWESOME or Ok.

Well last night I had one of those Oh My Goodness moments.  I have known for a week that it was my week to bring a snack representing the "letter of the week" for my daughter's Kindergarten class.  I even thought about it some yesterday, but had no real idea what it was going to be.  Mainly because It was for the letter U.... U!!!!!  I was told cupcakes wouldn't be a good idea because they had been done the week before.  So here I am thinking umbrella's?  Umbrella cookies?  Unicorn horns?  I dunno it was craziness!!!

Finally inspiration struck (at 10pm I might add).  I sent my Hubby to Walmart to get me a roll of premade sugar cookie dough, a bag of M&Ms, and a bag of Chocolate chips. I then began to assemble my epiphany:

UPSIDE DOWN COOKIES

This is basically what it consisted of:
Please disregard the stained up and much used cookie sheet...Reynolds Wrap Non-Stick saved my cooking life!!  LOVE this stuff!!

I bake everything on it and I promise no one is paying me anything to say this!

Take dough and roll it to form a ball

Then press one side of the ball into whatever ingredient you choose. 

You already know I am using M&Ms and chocolate chips, but after tasting the delicious results I'm thinking there will have to be more experimentation to see what else will tickle my taste buds.

 



Next press the cookie ingredient side down onto the cookie sheet making sure that the ingredient is completely covered by plain sugar cookie



Next cook as directed (ummmm put yours the right distance apart on the cookie sheet ok?)

It was 1:30am and all I wanted was to be done with it all sooooooo this is what mine turned out like:

Quick tip...when using the Reynolds Wrap Non-Stick you can slide it right off the cookie sheet and your cookies will cool super fast!

And might I say they were DELISH!!! (no matter the crazy square shape they turned out in)

Oh, and the kids all loved them too <3
I almost forgot, Hubby had this comment " that's sugar cookies with chocolate chips? I think that might be better than regular chocolate chip cookies!"  If you had any idea how much he LOVES chocolate chip cookies you would know that's saying a LOT! <3!

A Blooming Great Idea!

Ok, well I thinks its a great idea!! This one even impressed my hubby, and that's saying something when he takes notice!!  "What is it?!?!?!" you ask? hang on hang on, I'm getting there! Its simple really, and anyone (I do mean ANYONE) can do this.  Are you ready???

Potting your plants in crazy containers. 

you know things you wouldn't normally stick plants in??? (mind blowing right??)

Recently I purchased some pitiful looking plants from the clearance section at walmart.  I know, why buy those? they are just going to die, like immediately!!... Right???  Well no, maybe not if they are given some TLC. because most of the time the poor little guys have just gotten too big for their little homes, and need a bigger pot (also known as getting root bound).  Anyway, I proceeded to start re-potting.  Then I ran out of pots!  Oh No!! crisis alert!!  I was already in the potting soil up to my elbows, pouring sweat in 98 degree heat, and really wanted to finish up what I had started.  We had just returned from our beach vacation, and there they were, my sweet babies' sand castle buckets sitting out.   So inspiration struck!  I rinsed them out and started potting my plants in them faster than you can say hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle! (why you would be saying that while potting plants is beyond me, but you get the drift)  I then went crazy! I grabbed an old canystriped popcorn bucket, to pot one for my old fashioned ice cream table.  Boy, that looked so cute.  Of course I took pictures, cause as I was admiring my handiwork I thought "I can NOT wait to blog about this!!" but I did, wait that is.  Well that's what happens sometimes.  The thrill passes, and you have to wait to get motivated all over again.  Oh, I almost forgot! If you try this for yourself and your containers dont have any drain holes in the bottom of them be sure to hammer a few nails into the bottom for excess water to drain out (dont leave the nails in of course!  you are nailing them in to make the holes, not leave them there!)

So anywho, here are my wonderful slightly good pictures.  Hope you enjoy my inventive pots, as much as I enjoy seeing them dotted around my patio and porch reminding me of a great summer vacation in a truly unique way. 

If you have tried something like this or think its totally nuts, go ahead and leave me a comment telling me about it.  I'm game for your opinion, and welcome any ideas and tips!

Dont look at the actual table as its due a revamp too!

Plants look pretty good alive too now after all that TLC huh?  Gooooo ME!!  lol