Easy Valentine's Day Updates

Last weekend I pulled out my Valentine's Day decor. I was itching to get it out because after we take all the Christmas stuff down, the house feels a little "blah". I started distributing the goods: a "be mine" sign here, some conversation hearts there, and when I was done, my mantle seemed to be a little off.

Those blue candles, they just don't go (please ignore the fact that the right one is totally off center).

So I did a quick search through Pinterest and found a quick and easy idea:



Source: DIY Budget Weddings



 

Just wrap some pretty paper and/or ribbon around the candle - easy! The last time I was at Michaels, I picked up some Valentine's Day scrapbook paper (for another V-day craft project that I am hoping turns out well - stay tuned!) so I just took one sheet and cut out a couple 3" strips.

And taped them around the candle.

Full disclosure: I obviously don't burn these candles - I wouldn't recommend wrapping candles you would use with paper!

 

 

I also pulled out the Subway Art print I posted on last year and added it to the mantle. Much better, don't you think?

Source for print: 36th Avenue

Moving on to the kitchen - I wanted to add a sweet message to my pantry door chalkboard like I did for Christmas. Another search on Pinterest got me some great ideas. I found tons of printable chalkboard-like signs, but apparently unlike most of the chalkboard owning bloggers out there, I don't have the skill to pull it off in my own handwriting. So I tried to find the simplest looking one to try and replicate. Here is the winner:


Source: Brenda's Wedding Blog (apparently I have weddings on the brain!)
 

Love the message, and the fonts aren't super fancy. I still had to alter it to make it easier for me and it took me way too much time. But here is the end result:


Another instagram shot - are you following us yet? Find us at pinstersisters

Not perfect, but cute and sweet. It makes me smile every time I walk into the kitchen. I still have a couple more Valentine's Day projects up my sleeves, so stay tuned for another mushy sweet post from me next week!



Belated Christmas Wrap Up (again) - Part 2

In Part 1 of my Christmas-stuff-wrap-up, I talked about hosting the Christmas dinner, but now I am onto a couple fun Christmas kids crafts. I have noticed for awhile now that "quiet books" seem to be pinned a lot. I never really knew what it was until I started browsing through the "Kids" boards. From what I understand, its a book full of things to keep kids busy and quiet. Felt seems to be a popular material used in these books. Apparently felt sticks to felt. I then started to notice felt wall hangings, and in particular, felt Christmas Trees:



Source

What a smart way to give kids their own tree to decorate without messing up the real one. Rachel from Sol and Rachel made this adorable little tree during her own little Christmas Pinterest Craft-a-thon. Since there is no actual sewing involved, I knew I could tackle this.

I started with a large rectangle of green felt and just free-handed a tree shape on one side with some chalk:

Then I cut it out, folded it in half and traced my edge on the other side and cut that too. I wanted it to be symmetrical so I figured that was the easiest way. After that I just plopped myself in on the floor in front of the tv (watching National Lampoons Christmas Vacation) and started cutting out the decorations. I decided that it would be too hard to tape all the little edges of the tree to the wall, so I hot glued the tree to a rectangular piece of white felt. I also hot glued the details (the bottom part of the lights, the ribbon on the gifts, etc). Here is my final product:

I tried both 3m strips and masking tape behind it to keep it all up, but it just kept falling. So eventually I resorted to just taping with masking tape along the edges. JJ seemed to like taking all the pieces off, and it took a little help to get him to stick them back on. I am sure he will appreciate more next year, but it did keep him a little busy this year.

After it was attacked by JJ

I think before I try and hang it up next year, I will follow Amanda's advice from The Little Giggler and sew some D-rings on the top so I can hang it from hooks like her snowman:

Source

Onto the next craft: How could I let Christmas go by without using my baby's footprint or fingerprint on something. I mean its all over Pinterest:





Source: One Artsy Mama



Source: Beneath The Rowan Tree

Source: Kideas

I settled on this one (naturally its from Disney, I am a semi-closeted Disney nut):



Source: Disney Baby

  

I bought a brown stamp pad from Michaels and decided the best way to get a good print was while JJ was eating. So I covered the footrest of his highchair with plastic wrap (in case he set his inked foot down), gave him some Crunchies, and started stamping his foot.

Once they were dry, I attached a red pom pom for the nose, and some googly eyes. I tried to glue some brown pipe cleaners on for the antlers:

But they would not stay on no matter how much glue I used. On to Plan B, a brown sharpie:

Lastly, I glued it onto some Christmasy paper (also seen on clothespins on my Christmas Card Holder from last year). I made a bunch and used them as cards for JJ to give to his maany babysitters over the last year (and of course the grandmothers). They were a big hit!



Some were a bit more "smooshy" than others and my boy has a fat foot, but I think they came out cute. I had other grandiose plans to do a whole bunch more holiday stuff, like having a fresh bunch of Egg Nog Muffins ready for Christmas morning and getting the most adorable shot for a Christmas card, but in the end I am happy I could get these little things done, along with all the gift buying, wrapping, hosting, and oh yea, working I had to do as well. There's always next year!

Stay tuned, in my next post I am going to review the Personalized Board Books I ordered as a couple gifts.

Vellum Paper Mache Igloo

Some of you may recall that every year, my department at work throws a children’s holiday party. Last year the theme was snowmen and I made the Styrofoam snowmen centerpieces. This year the theme was penguins. I had some difficulty trying to think of a cute, relatively inexpensive centerpiece idea. Then, I came across this adorable igloo made out of Vellum paper from Bloesemkids.

Bloesemkids

I thought that this would be cute if I could find some penguins to place outside of the igloo. So I started my search. I went to Target first where I found these cute little penguin ornaments.

Target

Score! They were $2 a piece which I thought was a reasonable price. So I picked up 10 of them. I also bought some latex balloons and flame less candles while at Target.

My next mission was to find Vellum paper and Mod Podge. I went to AC Moore. I found the Mod Podge easily enough. However the Vellum Paper was no where to be found. Now, prior to this project, I didn't even know what Vellum Paper was. A nice employee at AC Moore said they had it but it was sold out. I did a quick Google search to see what other stores sell Vellum Paper. And low and behold, Office Depot was one of the first places that popped up. Luckily enough, I was in the same shopping complex as an Office Depot. So off I went and picked up a pack of 50 sheets.

Now at this point, I need to apologize for the next set of pictures. I was in a rush to get these done in time for the party and only took a couple photos with my phone. However, Blosesem Kids has some better progress pictures. So be sure to check them out if you are planning to do this project on your own.

The igloos are fairly easy to make but are a bit time consuming. I started by cutting up the Vellum Paper into strips. I made sure to save a sheet or two for the archways. Next up was blowing up the balloons.

I placed the balloons in bowls (to hold them steady) and started to paste the strips onto the balloons. My first attempt did not go well. I spread way too much Mod Podge onto the Vellum Paper, which caused the paper to crinkle up. To fix that, I watered down the Mod Podge just a tad. Then using a sponge brush, I spread a very thin layer of the adhesive onto the Vellum Paper and placed it on the balloon.

The paper still crinkled a little bit but not too badly. Then I just continued to place the Vellum strips all over the balloon.

Each balloon took about 30-45 minutes to paper mache and used about 2-3 sheets of paper. Once I finished with the balloons, I covered a few glasses with plastic wrap and mod podged a few strips of paper near the rim. This is for the igloo doors/archways. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of this.

I let them all dry overnight. In the morning I slowly deflated the balloons. Then, using scissors I cleaned up the edges of the igloos and cut holes for the doors.

To finish the project, I broke out my hot glue gun and attached the archways to the igloos. I also attached the penguin ornaments with the hot glue gun to keep them steady.

And that’s it! I think they came out cute. I put the flame less candles inside the igloos but unfortunately, the party room was a bit too bright to fully appreciate that detail.

The party was a great success! One of our biggest turnouts! I also wanted to share this photo of the party entrance. We had a blow up penguin that welcomed everyone. So I cut out some penguin footprints out of orange construction paper and taped them to the ground leading up to him.

Total cost for the centerpieces

(10) Penguin ornaments                      $20.00

(1) Mod Podge (16oz)                           $9.89

(1) Pack of Latex Balloons (15pk)      $1.32

(1) Pack of Vellum Paper, (50sh)       $12.29

(2) Flameless candles (9pk)                $26.00

Total for 10 centerpieces:                 $69.50

Price per centerpiece:                        $6.95 – not too shabby!

Grace and I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season! I have many posts to type up so keep checking back. We’ll have plenty of new posts in the New Year!

Valentine's Day Print

I love that these subway-art-like prints are available all over the internet for every season! It makes for such a quick and easy festive decoration. I pinned this Valentine's themed one a couple weeks ago

Source

From The 36th Avenue. A quick trip out of the printer and slapped in a frame and we have some Valentine's Day festiveness.



Here's the other side of the mantle. I just threw some conversation hearts in a jar and stuck a little heart I already had there.

 

The whole mantle

 Side note: I want a new mirror for over the fireplace. I am thinking something like this or this. I am looking for something roundish and but light in color so you can see it against the brick. Any thoughts/suggestions? Are starburst mirrors over?

Low Calorie, Quick, Coq Au Vin

It's amazing what having a baby can do to your perception of time. I set out to accomplish a couple things each day (like updating the blog) and I just never get to it. Sorry for my lack of posts lately - I have a stockpile of things, I just can't seem to get to the computer to type them up!

Since I am still trying to work on time management - anything with "quick" in the recipe is right up my alley. This has been one of my most popular and repinned pins:

Low Calorie and Quick Coq Au Vin

Low calorie is also appealing since I have only a couple weeks left to get myself to be able to squeeze my gut and butt into my work pants. The recipe was easy - but forgive me, I didn't take many pics:

Sauteing the chicken

Sauteing the carrots, mushrooms, and tomato paste

Liquids, peas, and onions added and simmering

The only pic of the semi-finished product I have!

The Verdict: As promised, it was delish! I was afraid it might be a bit bland, but I was wrong. I served with some biscuits instead of mashed potatoes as suggested - I think the sauce would be great on the potatoes - next time!

Things to Consider: I would probably add some more carrots and peas - it had room for some more veggies. It also took a little longer for me than the times listed, but I have a tendency to have my heat too low (I am paranoid about burning stuff on the outside and it still be raw on the inside).

This is definitely making it into the normal rotation. It was hearty and warm for winter, plus sort of an "all in one" and one pan meal. I will definitely be checking out more from Skinny Kitchen soon - I don't want people to think I am pregnant again!

Snowman Centerpiece

Recently my company hosted a children’s holiday party for our associates and family. The theme was snowmen. One of my tasks in preparing for this party was to figure out what the centerpieces would be. We wanted something to go with the theme but not too costly. I was thinking of just doing 3 Styrofoam balls stacked and decorated but I was afraid it would look cheap. Of course I decided to peruse pinterest to come up with an idea. I came across this pin from AlyssaBeth and thought it was cute.

AlyssaBeth

I figured I could do two or three of them per table. So off to ACMoore I went with AlyssaBeth’s snowman as my inspiration.

The first thing I noticed when I got to ACMoore was that all Styrofoam products were 50%! Already I knew this would be a successful shopping trip. Then as I was perusing the aisle trying to decide what size Styrofoam balls to buy I saw this craft idea hanging up.

ACMoore

I thought, ‘I could do that!’ So I gathered all the supplies:

• 12” Stak Tree
• 4” ball
• 6" ball
• 2 different colors of yarn
• Snow Accents
• ½” red pom pom
• Chenille stems
• Glue gun

For eight of them, it cost about $120.  Not too shabby!

Now you’ll have to excuse my photos. I did most of this while I was home visiting my parents and didn’t have my camera with me. I only took a few pictures and they were all taken on my phone.

Step 1.

Glue the six inch ball to the Stak tree base with the small opening facing up.

Step 2.

Glue & stack the bottom three rings of the Stak tree to the top of 6” ball.

Step 3.

Glue the 4” ball to the top of the rings for the head. Paint the 6” & 4” balls with Snow Accents.

Step 4.

Stack the last 4 rings on top of the head.

[these are all 8 of mine at this stage]

Step 5.

Cut lengths of yarn to fit around the Stak tree rings and glue into place.

Step 6.

Fold a chenille stem in half and twist the ends together for the arm. Wrap a piece of yarn around the chenille stem starting about ½” up from the twisted end and glue into place. Cut a small length of the opposite color yarn and glue around the end of the arm for the gloves trim. Repeat for the second arm. Insert the arms on each side of the body. Glue to secure (I sadly forgot this step).

Step 7.

Glue on the pom pom for the nose and paint on the eyes. At this point, I wanted to leave them without mouths. I thought they looked adorable and I was afraid of messing them up after putting so much work in.

Step 8.
But after thinking about it, I figured kids would probably want the snowmen to have mouths. So the final step is to paint that on. And you’re done! If I was a bit more artist, I would have painted on different expressions on the faces of each snowman.

They came out really cute and were perfect as the centerpieces! Everyone at the party really enjoyed them and wanted to take them home. Since there are only 8 of them, we had to hold a raffle to see who could keep them.

They were fairly easy to make but it was very time consuming to make 8 of them. How do you think they came out?

*Our adult holiday party is in mid-January and peacock inspired. Stay tuned to see what I come up with for that party based on pins I’ve seen.

Update: Looking for other winter centerpiece ideas? Check out my igloo centerpiece.