Valentine's Flowers....and failing.

I love finding great things in Pinterest to try; both crafts and recipes. Normally I see things and think "Hey! I could do that! Psh! Easy!"

Then I try said craft/recipe/project and when I'm finished the end result is not quiiiiite what I was hoping for. Then I try it again and make changes until it's pleasing to me- and that is what you lovely people see here on the blog. Well, today I will share both the fails and the successes...just so you can get a good laugh in for the day (at my expense, of course).

Let's start at the beginning, shall we? I saw this bouquet on Pinterest:

(from MarthaStewart.com)

     Fun idea for Valentine's, right? Fill up your vase with red candies- festive and sweet (literally)! I thought "Heck yeah! This is gonna be great! I can do that!" I ran out to Trader Joe's for some flowers and bought a bunch of Red Hots at Target and sat down with a vase to get cookin'. Then I realized the issue:

1. Flowers need water to survive.

   and

2. If you fill the vase with water and candy, the candy will bleed and become a gooey sticky redish mess.

Huh. Then how the hell did that little scoundrel Martha do it? I swear that woman is magic. I came to two ideas, either:

1. The flowers in the picture are fake, thus not in need of water

  or

2. There is another, smaller vase with water holding the flowers and the candy is surrounding it.

Dang. I didn't think of that when I planned this seemingly easy decoration. This my friends, was Fail #1.

I realized- WAIT!!! If I just go to marthastewart.com I can find out! I did and of course, it's two nesting vases (see it here).Well, I didn't have two vases that nested together, so it was time to problem solve. 

This brings us to Fail #2. I thought,  "Well, I have glitter and a heart punch and ribbon, how about I just throw it all together in a jar and it will be rustic and whimsical and cute at the same time!" Man, never try to mix rustic,whimsical, and cute. Or at least think it through. This is why:

I think the major part of Fail #2 was adding the glitter. It's like a unicorn threw up in my makeshift vase. Bummer.

What did I learn from these 2 fails?

1. Sometimes, it's better to actually read the directions when you see something you like.

     and

2. Red Hots are delicious.

This story doesn't end in a fail my dears. I was too annoyed at this point that I was ruining a perfectly good bouquet of flowers so I grabbed one of my trusty blue Mason jars and got to making it Valentine's worthy. I had punched out a bunch of hearts from some stock paper, so I simply glued them back to back around a little bit of fishing line!

 Here's the before- which looks perfectly lovely without hearts...

 ...but just a little bit better with the simple heart garland, right?

 Here's how it looks a little further back...and with some candles too! (You'll see those in a post to come)

 So there you have it. I guess 3rd time is the charm. Dang Martha and her nesting vases...Trickery I tell ya.

What do you think of the final product? Are you lucky (smart) enough to read the directions before you jump into a project? I need to rename my blog  "The Impatient Crafter". Seriously.


P.S.*On another note---are there any Richmond bloggers that will be going to the Richmond Comedy Coalition "Richmond Famous" Show tomorrow night? Fellow RVA bloggers Sherry and John from Young House Love are featured, and I'm going for a night of great improv comedy! PLEASE leave a comment or email me if you are, I'd love to meet you! You can find more on the event here.

oh, and i totally forgot to link up on monday with brassy apple, so this will just be a "make it thursday"

4 seasons mugs

Mug Madness, take 2:

I saw these 4 seasons mugs on Pinterest a while back and completely loved them. I guess I'm on a mug making kick after the MPLS city skyline mugs from a while back. I checked out the Etsy shop they came from, planning on purchasing them if they were the right price. I mean, support small or local businesses and artists, right?

My jaw dropped when I saw the $144 price tag. PLUS a $12 shipping charge. Yeah, I like them- but there was no way that I was going to shell out over $150 dollars for mugs. I knew I could DIY a version for a tiny tiny fraction of the price,and that's just what I did!

     I made a stop over to the trusty Dollar Tree and grabbed 4 mugs (for a dollar each, duh).

I already had my Porcelaine marker from my last mug-making project, so the cost was zero for that!

          I started out by drawing the same stick tree on all four mugs, and went to decorating season by season from there on out. Since fall is my favorite season- I started there. A few falling leaves and some straggler birds flying South for the winter later, I was done. Boom.

            Winter took about 30 seconds- just some dots of falling snow and a slim crescent moon.

          Spring turned out a little crowded with the budding leaves, bird in the nest, and passing clouds:

Summer finished strong with a tree full of leaves, a bright sun, and a flower hiding in the grass:

  Here they are all together!

As finessed as the Etsy collection? No.
$152 dollars cheaper than the Etsy collection? Yes.



Which season mug is your favorite?

Jewelry Tree!

I hope you all had either a wonderful Christmas or 6th night of Hanukkah last night!

For those of you who were introduced to my blog from my guest feature over at A Simple Affair - welcome back!

For those of you that first saw me over on A Simple Affair- this post is the same- so spoiler alert: you already know how this DIY project turns out...sorry!

For those of you who didn't see my guest post, let me explain. Carly and I share a love for big, bright necklaces and I felt I needed to display the sparkling gems somewhere to show off their beauty. Our upstairs loft area is really open- and I wanted to find a place that Michael wouldn't have to stare at every day.  I finally decided that the wall that serves as a headboard for our bed was the perfect nook to start out:

After checking out Pinterest I decided rakes, towel racks, and shower bars were not right fit for me - but when I saw some tree murals painted I knew that a necklace tree coming out of the corner of the wall was the way to go. First I penciled out the tree: 

(Go ahead, make fun of it. I know it looks like a 4 year old drew it- but have faith!)

Next I mixed up a charcoal grey color- which  I figured would be neutral enough to highlight all the necklace colors and bold enough to stand out on the wall:

(Yes, I had to wear my highest heels to paint the top of the tree- being 5'2" + no step stool = fashionable painting)

See? Much better than the pencil sketch:

After the paint dried I began hammering paneling nails along the branches for the necklaces to hang from:

(Make sure you leave at least 6 inches between your main branches so all your necklaces can show!)

The final step was to hang the necklaces ... the ones I could find at least - 2 months living here and I still haven't unpacked all the boxes! 

Leaves are lovely and all, but wouldn't you rather have a tree dripping with jewels??

                           

After I hung all the necklaces I added some dangling earrings to the little, lower branches.  Doesn't it perfectly fill in the wall and the tree?

So there you have it- a great way to take a bare wall and turn it into a showcase for all your favorite statement pieces. How do you show off your great jewels?

P.S. Make sure to check out Carly's post on statement necklaces here!

Light it up

Project of the day:

I'm having a holiday party for the ladies I work with this Sunday and I wanted to have some tea lights up on the window ledges to add a cozy feel to the big apartment. I found the perfect pin for making some cheap tea light holders:

I grabbed four little glasses for 50 cents at a local thrift store :

 With a few cutouts of painters tape I came up with a few basic designs:

 I painted a simple layer of white acrylic paint over all the designs and let them dry for a few hours:

 (oh, and all the candy is leftover gingerbread house candy..)

I removed the tape and was left with these:

 And at night, all lit up:

 They're perfect on the ledge with the other winter decorations!

I can't wait to have these out for the party this weekend.. or every night for that matter- it makes the whole wall glow!

Glitter Gadol

       I know not everyone is a fan of Martha Stewart- but man...that woman can craft. Yeah, she may be a little pretentious and clearly knows her way around a jail cell, but her creative...gift...allows me to look over all that and pin her ideas left and right. This pin is just one reason:

Yes, really. I was raised celebrating Hanukkah, and let me tell you, most Hanukkah decorations do NOT look like this. I don't really get why most are so tacky, since Hanukkah colors are blue and white with a little gold..easy colors to make work. If you've never seen them - just take my word for it. That's why I was so happy when I saw Martha's glitter dreidel collection above. Target had wooden dreidels in two packs in the dollar section so I decided to dress them up:

First I painted them with glue:

Then I covered them with shades of blue and silver glitter:

Finally I painted a layer of Mod Podge over them to assure there wouldn't be blue glitter covering the apartment.

Now all that's left is to wait for them to dry and throw them in a glass jar on the window sill.

Thanks Martha for taking time out of your busy Christmas schedule to make these awesome glittery dreidels!


(Oh- and for the record Mom and Dad- yes I DO still love the decorations we grew up with- even the pop-out tissue paper ones. Maybe those the most...)

10-step Galette

I don't really like apple pie. I know, I know, SO un-American. The past few years at family Thanksgiving my mom and I have been making apple galettes - (basically just open-faced pies). By the time dessert comes around I am normally too stuffed to even eat any of the pie I helped make, but I vowed this year would be different. I saw this pin and it made me determined to not only make one by myself this year, but buck up to the American tradition of actually enjoying said dessert.

Looks good, right? To make it you'll just need:

1 pre made pie crust

3 medium sized Mcintosh apples (or another good baking apple)

1 lemon (both juice and zest)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

A preheated 400 degree oven

Step 1: Peel your apples. (I know, we're starting out with a REALLY  difficult one today...)

 Step 2: Quarter your apples as shown

 Step 3: Cut out the inside seeds (this will leave a flat surface on part of the apple making it easier to cut into slices)

 Step 4. Cut your apple quarters into slices- probably about 5 slices per quarter

 Step 5: Use a cheese grater to get all that lovely zest from your lemon-be careful not to go too deep into the bitter rind.

 Step 6: Squeeze all the juice into your bowl of apple slices and lemon zest, being careful not to get any seeds in the mix.

 Step 7: Add your sugar, cinnamon, and flour- then mix.

 Step 8: Roll out your pie dough on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

 Step 9: Begin layering your apples in the dough- leaving about 11/2 inches around the sides.Put the smaller/imperfect slices in the middle. Go around in one full circle and then do another layer on top of the first. Heap it up high- the apples will bake down in the oven!

 Step 10: Mix your large egg with a little water and lightly beat. Apply a light eggwash around the folds of your galette. Sprinkle the eggwash with sugar and bake for 25 minutes in the oven (or until golden brown)

The galette turned out completely delicious. We had it bake while we ate dinner so when we were ready for it it was hot and bubbly and delicious! Michael ate 3/4 of it, and Matthew and I split the rest. All the lemon juice and zest makes it taste incredibly bright and fresh. 

You proud, mom?