A New Pair of Earrings

  Whenever you are in need of a pair of earrings to go with an outfit and you go shopping for them you can never find them.  For a long time now I have been looking for a pair of stud earrings that are navy blue.  I can't find them anywhere.  Well...I made my own...with nail polish and extra pairs of pearl/ball stud earrings.  Here is how I did it.

What You Need:
1.  Empty toilet paper roll or styrofoam
2.  Pearl/ball stud earrings or hoops
3.  Nail polish of your choice
4.  No chip quick dry top coat nail polish


How To:
1.  Remove the backs off the earrings and stick them through the empty toilet paper roll or styrofoam.  You can press the roll down and slightly smoosh the roll flat so it won't roll around.
2.  Paint each earring starting from the top and working your way down.  Make your strokes are even.
3.  Once the polish has dried paint your top coat and let them set.

  Enjoy your new earrings!  The fact that I had some studs of the same colors sitting around in my jewelry box I painted a few different pair.

  Happy new earrings!  I hope you try this and save some money.

Nail of the Day: Sally Hansen's Nightwatch

  Fall is here and that means to bust out the darker colored nail polish.  I wear dark colors any time of the year but this time more than others.  I went looking for Sally Hansen's Fall line of colors because I noticed I didn't have very many dark colors. The main color I was looking for was the dark navy color called Nightwatch and luckily I found it!  It is a great Fall color and it matches my new purse so I really had no reason not to buy it.  

  On my ring finger I put Fergie's Wet n' Wild Kaleidoscope Eyes.  It has teal, purple and gold chunky glitter.  Happy polishing!

Sunday In The Kitchen: Pie Filling Muffins

  Last week I made muffins with only using pumpkin pie puree and yellow cake mix.  I wondered if it would work the same way with apple, cherry, lemon, etc. pie filling.  Sure enough, it does!  There are so many combinations that you can mix up.  The three I chose to whip up are apple pie filling with spice cake, lemon pie filling and white cake and raspberry pie filling and chocolate cake.
  Mix your pie filling and your cake mix, bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.   These make such quick and easy muffins.  The one thing I didn't like about the raspberry were the seeds.  I wouldn't do it again.  The apple is a perfect morning muffin and the lemon would be a great tea party muffin.  Try it out.  I think you will like it.  Happy baking!

Raspberry Chocolate

Apple Pie Spice

Lemon Cream

No Sew Mini Grocery Bag Holder

  Liquid Stitch came to the rescue on this project.  I STILL need to thread the bobbin on my sewing machine and I really wanted to make a mini size grocery bag holder.  So, I decided to put the product to the test.  Here is how I did it.

What you need:
1.  Two pieces of fabric 7" wide 10" long (this will give 1/2" inseam on both ends)
2.  Liquid Stitch or Fabric Fusion
3.  Elastic string 10" in length
4.  Two pieces of ribbon both 5" in length
5.  Iron
6.  Safety Pin

How to do it:
1.  Fold and iron 1/2" inseam on both ends of each piece of fabric like in the picture below:

2.  Take your Liquid Stitch and run a thin line along the cut edge of your fold leaving an opening on both sides of each piece.   Then iron.
3.  Run a thin line of Liquid Stitch on the length side cut edge and then place pieces pattern sides together.   Remember to keep your openings on the side top and bottom of both pieces.  You will need to keep them open to thread the ribbon and elastic string through.
4.  Loosely tie your elastic string to your safety pin.  Thread it through one end of your bag.  Tie your string but make sure you have a big enough opening to get your bags out.

5.  Clip your ribbon to your safety pin and then thread it through one side of the other end.  Repeat for the other side.  Tie your ribbons making a loop for them to hang.

6.  Turn your bag inside out and fill it full your grocery bags and ENJOY!

  This has become very convenient for me.  I am thinking about making more.  Happy no sewing!

DIY Dry Erase Do Not Disturb Sign

  Sometimes when I am at the craft store I buy things that I really have no purpose for or I pick it up with great intentions of doing some sort of project that never gets done.  Then there are times that I put things to good use and have an excess left over and I don't want to get rid of it.  This is how this project came about.
  Remember a few posts back about the dry erase reusable labels I bought?  After I used them on the jars I several of the labels left over.  As I was going through my craft closet I found these wooden 3x3 picture frames that I never did anything with and I thought they would make perfect "Do Not Disturb" signs to hang on the bedroom or bathroom door knobs.  However, I wanted to be able to change the sign if I wanted.  For instance, if we were  expecting company I could change the sign to say, "Be Our Guest" and hang it on the guest bedroom door knob.  Then I had an even BETTER idea. What if I made it double sided like the ones at the hotels, and I could use the dry erase labels to make it easier rather than changing out papers with messages on them.
  Yep, it happened, and this is how I did it.

What you need:
1.  Wooden (ready to paint if you want) picture frames.  I used 3x3 frames.

2.  Paint- only if you found frames that needed to be painted.
3.  Hot glue gun
4.  Dry Erase labels
5.  Ribbon

How to do it:
1.  Paint your frames if need be.  I painted both sides so you couldn't see the back of the other frame when you flip the sign over.

2.  Take the chip board or card board piece that comes in the frame, center the dry erase label and apply it to the board.  Place them in the frame.
3.  Hot glue your ribbon to the back side of one of the picture frames.  Then hot glue the backs of both picture frames to each other.

  4.  Write your desired message and hang on your door.

  I am thinking about hanging one on my office door that says, "Blogging in Session".  Cute I thought.  Happy sign making!

Sunday In The Kitchen: Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

  While I was on Pinterest the other day I saw these pumpkin muffins that only took two ingredients.  Yellow cake mix and a 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree.  Last year at Christmas time I used cake mixes to make our cookies and they were a great success so I figured that these shouldn't be a disaster.  I was right and thank goodness to Katy at www.sweet-verbena.blogspot.com I now have an easy go to muffin mix.  I added milk chocolate chips to mine because I just couldn't resist.  These came out moist and delicious.

What you need:
1.  Yellow cake mix
2.  Pumpkin puree-15 oz. can
3.  Chocolate chips-11/12 oz. bag
4.  Cupcake liners

  Seriously this is all you need.

  The hardest part was choosing which cupcake liners I was going to use.

What you do:
1.  Mix the cake mix and pumpkin puree together until it is well blended
2.  In a separate bowl add 1/2 tablespoon of flour and the chocolate chips.  Stir the chocolate chips until they are evenly coated with flour.  This will help prevent them from sinking all the way to the bottom of the muffin.

3.  Add the chocolate chips to your muffin mix and stir.
4.  Fill your cupcake liners about 3/4 full with your muffin mix.
5.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

  Enjoy!  What I love about these (besides being amazingly delicious) is that they are not an overwhelming pumpkin taste.  Trust me, I love pumpkin, but these are perfect for those that are not huge fans of it.  You know the ones that teeter.  I am going to attempt to try this method with apple, cherry and blueberry pie filling.  I know I will probably have to add a little bit of flour but I think it will work.  I will keep you posted on that.  Happy baking!


 

What a Little Rust-oleum Can Do

  Rather than going out buying a new soap pump, hooks and light covers I decided to spray paint them with Rust-oleum.  It saved me over $50! I only spent $10 for the can of Rust-oleum and I have a ton of it left and many more things to spray paint.

Before:

After:

  Simple fix to change something for a very minimal price.  The light covers alone were $10 a piece to replace so it was well worth it.  Happy spray painting!