One Stencil: Two Ways

I know that it's not technically Spring yet, but I couldn't help putting up my decorations as the much needed sun shines in through the windows. 

Our front room is my favorite color during the winter, a deep maroon that works perfectly for short, dark days, but when I want to add a touch of Spring the usual pinks, light greens, and pastel blues just don't work right.  I usually go with muted tans and whites but this year I added a little chocolate and cream to the mix!  I used a stencil two different ways to add a little bunny to my mantels.

The first way I used the stencil was on wood.  After dC finished with our new headboard he had a lot of little end scraps left behind.  I couldn't resist making something out of them. 

I glued them together using a little Gorilla glue.  Usually I don't like this stuff because it expands into a foamy mess, but that's only if you use too much.  A little bit goes a long way!    I left the edges un-sanded and uneven, then painted it white, wiped off the excess with a paper towel, and left it to dry.  This gave it just barely a wash of white on an already light wood.

Then I cut out my bunny silhouette and traced it onto the wood.  And here is where I think the fun begins.  I love painting, but I have zero talent without the aid of paint by numbers, so this project is perfect for me!  I used a fine brush and painted in the "chocolate" bunny.

The second way I used the stencil was to paint on burlap.  I taped the stencil onto burlap and much like my stencil wall art I painted over the stencil to transfer the image onto the burlap.  It took three coats to get the coverage I wanted, which equals a lot of patience.

Then I found this great old hanger my mom had given me and used it to hang up my second bunny.

 

 

The turquoise and white coffee pots and white pitchers are all lovely gifts from my mother in law's collection.  They work so well to help bring bright and light colors to our otherwise dark room!

Thanks for stopping by!

This week I am linking to Lines Across and Craftberry Bush

Spring Garden

We've been busy around here getting our garden up and ready.  This year we rented a rototiller (instead of digging up the plot by hand!  Whew!).  dC got the ground ready, we all planted the seeds (cantaloupe, cucumbers, onions, grape tomatoes, spinach, romaine and broccoli) and I made a new little herb garden for the wall of our shed.

We had recently acquired a pallet, and I knew I wanted to utilize it somehow outside. So I had dC hang it on the the shed's wall, add some eyelet screws and I took it from there.   He did the majority of the work though!

First Fender and I planted the seeds in small terracotta pots, I wrapped twine around them, and then found that they were pretty easy to hung if I made a slip knot loop in the back!

To mark the pots I wrote on wine corks, with a little toothpick stuck in the bottom.

Though it rained most of the time, I love getting outside with my family!  Now I can't wait to pickle the cucumbers when they grow this summer!

Happy Easter!

We had a quiet Easter this year (no egg hiding or Bunny visits), so I decided to keep the table centerpiece just as simple.

I made two simple cake stands out of tin cans and old cake pans.  I got the idea from here and just deconstructed it a bit.

Then I topped them with egg cups and mini terracotta pots (that I painted white) filled with eggs straight out of the refrigerator.

I also used a overturned spring form pan to elevate a white pitcher full of flowers from my yard in front of driftwood from the Oregon coast.

Tea pots are topped with craft paper eggs that I picked up at the craft store for $1.50 each!

Hope you get to spend some time with family!

Happy Easter everyone!

Fender turns FIVE!

Today my little boy, born a month too early, weighing only 4 pounds 13 ounces, will turn FIVE!  It always feels like time is slipping away when I look at him, but it also helps me stop, focus on him, and take in every little one of his nuances while I can. 

As I walk down memory lane, I wanted to share some of my favorite birthday party moments with Fender throughout the years...

Year 1:  Fender's First Cake 

I got a thumbs up for this one!

A banana cake made into a monkey head.  He got to eat one of the ears!

 

Year 2: Thumb Worthy



You knew things were good when a gift was "thumb worthy!"

I did the monkey thing again since they were his favorite, but this time went with cupcakes!

 

Year 3: He's getting so big!

This was the photo of the year!  My aC took this one of Fender blowing a dandelion fluff while playing tag at his party.  My hubby and I edited out the neighbor's house in the backyard and voila!  One of our favorite photos!

This was the year of Lightening McQueen. 
We made our own pinata...

...and I did a Lightening McQueen cake mold cake and swore I'd never do this again!

Year 4:  Fender's first bike!

He had been riding a trike for years and was very excited to get his first bike (with training wheels of course!)

I did an ice cream shop theme this year and Fender had fun with all of the sprinkles!

And while we're at it, let's just add a few more photos to embarrass the kid when he turns 18...

PEEPS!!!

Peeps are by far one of my favorite candies!  They are fun year round, but of course they are meant for Easter!  I found this recipe to making your own sugar coated marshmallow shapes.  (Thank you Martha!)  I've made marshmallows in the past, but it was much more fun to pipe into birds.

One trick I'll fill you in on - you need to quickly, I mean quick as a bunny, get your shapes into the sugar.  They begin drying instantly and won't take on as much coating.

I used light colored sugars that I usually sprinkle on cookies (yellow and green), as well as regular white sugar. 

Besides the birds and a few nests for them to sit on, (and for me to eat), I made hearts, and even piped out "F" and "M" for the kid's names. 

The peeps last for about a week in a Ziploc bag and are better to eat the next day since they will have gotten more solid - perfect to prep ahead of time for an Easter party!

Composting!!!

dC and I try to recycle, donate, reuse, and thrift as often as possible.  While cooking the other night I decided to pull a Rachel Ray and throw all of my trimmings, peels, and scraps into a bowl on our counter instead of lugging the garbage can out.  When I was finished I realized that I had more food waste than regular garbage! Thus the idea to begin composting began! I read helpful hints here, and here.  Then I grabbed the family and headed outside to see what we could do!

First dC drilled holes in two storage bins for drainage and aeration.

Then I had the kids rake the yard and collect the debris for the first layer in the bottom.

Then to add some dirt to the buckets, dC dug up our garden.  This is what happens when you forget a carrot from last year's planting...you get a ginormous one!



Then the last thing was to add our kitchen scraps and mix them in. 

We also poured some water on top to help with the decomposition.  It's been fun to reduce the amount of garbage that goes into the landfills and in a few months we'll have some great compost for our garden!

What Came First?

When I started collecting "white" years ago, I began small with egg cups.  My grandmother had passed down her milk glass chicken candy holder (always full of sticky jelly beans) and I thought it would look cute to have egg cups as well!

Having egg cups kept me thinking of different ways to decorate with eggs each Spring.  A fun project that you can do with blown-out dyed eggs is to decorate them with blades of grass.  I made this one over 5 years ago and it still looks great!  You can follow Martha Stewart's instructions here.  Or you can do it for free by using grass from your backyard and a bit of watered down glue (as I did).

Spring Soaps

In the spirit of keeping busy and findnig fun things Fender and I can do together, I found these cute soap ideas over here and thought we could get a head start on decorating for Easter.  They are very simple to make and Fender had a lot of fun helping out!

I grated two different colored bars of soap into two separate bowls.  He really wanted to help, but I saw severed fingers in my mind! 

Then I let Fender add a little water (about a Tablespoon per bar) and mix it up with his hands. 

Good clean fun!  It should stick together like this:

The bunny was easiest, we just filled the cookie cutter with the shavings and pressed down until it had an even consistancy across the entire mold.

The striped egg was done the same way but in three parts. I even did a layered butterfly and a ball that basically used up the remainder of what we had left over.  Fender likes using the ball the best in the bath!  They needed to dry for a day in the mold and then they just slid right out!