Archive for August 2012

Features and Friday Link Party # 45

I was so busy working on painting a table with homemade chalk paint today that I almost forgot to post this week's features and party! Yikes! Luckily, I remembered and we can all admire the most clicked on links from last week's party! Keep scrolling to link up your latest and greatest project in this week's link party too!

Pudel-Design

DIY Paddle Decoration

Silver Pennies

Anne Sloan Chalk Paint Love

Sarah Dawn Designs

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

God's Growing Garden

Spicy Dill Pickles

Whimsically Homemade

Scrapbook Paper Envelopes

Re-glazing A Sink or Tub

10 comments

DIY, House progress, paint, refinish, tutorial

What do you do when you can't get rid of your old sink or tub but it's worn, the wrong color, or ugly? Re-glaze it! "But that's pricey!" you say! "You need to hire professionals!" you say! Well, I say, "Forget about it. I got your re-glazin' right here!"

Our Last Ditch At Summer!

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We are taking a little vacation to Lancaster, PA today for a few days. I can't let summer go! I am holding onto it with both hands but I know I'll have to let it go soon as Molly starts kindergarten on Sept. 4th. But until then I can wahoo it all the way through the end of August!

I have some plans for September though since I'm not working full time. If I write them here I will have to do them, right??

Blog Related
1. Clean up my blog a bit. Dedicate more time to keeping it current and relevant.
2. Create some type of advertising fee menu and learn how to start making a little money by doing this.

Non Blog Related
1. Get a grip on my cleaning schedule (like, um, cleaning something..anything...ever)
2. Establish a chore system for Molly
3. Start meal planning

What do you think? What are your goals either long range or short?

Ok, so I'll see you on Tuesday or Wednesday! Or as my niece might say, C U on 2sday.

Cheers!
Jenny

Features and Friday Link Party

4 comments

Happy Friday! Anything cookin' for the weekend?

Well, here are your top favorites from last week's party! Thanks for linking up!

Love Grows Wild gave us an awesome tutorial on how to sew envelope pillow covers. Easy peasy!

This greeting card organizer by Anyone Can Decorate is enviable. I need this! Check out the link for the finished project!

Projects and Inspiration

1 comment

What's going on here lately? Well, we're getting ready for Molly to start Kindergarten. The first day is on Sept. 4th but we have a few meet-n-greets, orientations, etc. to attend before. She seems very blase about the whole thing, meanwhile I'm going crazy with excitement for her. I just know she's going to dig it in a huge way!!

What else? My mom is visiting. She came up from NC with us when we came back from the beach. I love having her here. She really is the best person I know and my kids adore her. How can they not though? She's enchanting!

I am in the middle of some projects and found that a bunch of you (youse for my NJ/PA peeps) have been doing some fun things! Check these out!

Hip2Thrift

Chevron Wreath

I love that this wreath is so simple but makes a huge impact!

Ready Home

DIY Pallet Headboard

This does not look like a pallet DIY project! It's so well done!

We Heart DIY

Dresser Makeover

I love the contrast in this dresser makeover!

Crafts Unleashed

Halloween Banner

This banner is spooky and festive but glammy at the same time!

My Ordinary, Every Day, Happily Ever After

Dining Table

I have no words...this is gorgeous! I want her to make me one too! Oh please!

Tomorrow I'll have some party features and the link party!

Cheers!

jenny

Guest Blogger: Kelsey from Fancy That Notion

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blogs, guest blog, guest blogs

I'm so happy to have Kelsey from Fancy That Notion here today to show us some of her favorite projects, including a beautiful and delicious sounding fancy drink! Thanks for guest blogging today, Kelsey!

Hello there! My name's Kelsey! I blog over at Fancy ThatNotion

Here are a few of our recent projects:

Bubblewrap stamped notecard

I hope you'll stop by sometime! We'd love to have you:) Also, come check out our shop if you would like!

Today I'm sharing my family's favorite way to cool off during those hot August days:)

In my family, nothing screams summer like a tall glass of "electric lemonade." The delightful mix of raspberries, lemon, and fresh mint (!) is so satisfyingly refreshing, and yet so simple.

Ingredients:

· lemonade concentrate (pink or yellow)

· sprite

· ice

· frozen raspberries

· fresh mint

The exact measurements will just depend on the flavor and texture that you want, but here are some general guidelines to follow:

Put a handful of mint leaves, a handful of ice cubes, a few handfuls of frozen raspberries, half a can of lemonade concentrate, and an eye-balled amount of sprite into a blender. Blend! That's all there is to it. And you have one of the most amazing tastes of summer! Enjoy!:)

It's Jenny again! Doesn't that sound super yummy? But that peanut butter pie is killing me. I want to eat that right now.

Cheers!
Jenny
Email me if you have a project you'd like featured! juniper20@gmail.com

Happy Birthday to Me

7 comments

I'm 39 today. I feel like an old hag. I hate growing old! I wish I was one of those people who could enjoy the process, wear their grays like a badge of honor, and accept the inevitable. I can't! I want to be 23 again! But time marches on.

So I was driving home from Home Goods today and noticed someone was throwing out these in recycling.

13 of them in total! I am going to spray some black because they are dirty beyond cleaning. But all in all I am excited to be able to go nuts with mums around the house in these.

So happy birthday to me! 13 used and dirty plastic plant urns! Guess at 39 this is the stuff that excites me!

See ya at the nursing home!
Cheers!
Jenny

Features and Friday's Link Party!

8 comments

blogs, features, link party

Thanks to all of you who linked up last week! Here are some favorites! If you are featured please grab a button!

Chronic Christian Crafter

Twine Monogrammed Art

I love how rustic but still elegant this artwork is! Would make a great gift!

Bear Rabbit Bear

Carolina Flower Quilt Square

I adore the colors in this darling quilt square. I give Melanie a ton of credit for all that effort too!

It's All Connected

Burlap Lampshade

Can we ever get enough burlap? I don't think so! What a fun way to dress up a drab lampshade!

Now Things Are Cookin'

Tomato Basil Quiche

This looks so good and healthy! I love the idea of using shredded potatoes for the crust!

Silver Pennies

Shabby Chic Tables

And do we ever get enough table transformations? Heck no! Silver Pennies shows some distressing techniques too!

Now onto this week's party! I hope to see you!

Guest Blogger: Confessions of an ADD Housewife

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blogs, Cookies, guest blog, guest blogs

Hey everyone! We had a great time in Ocean City, MD despite Molly having a little stomach thing one night and a sprained knee the day before! Now we are in the outer banks of North Carolina, my favorite place to be in the summer! We had a blast last year and it occurred to me that it's my 1 year blogging anniversary!! I love commemorating it with guest bloggers so here is another one! Micki from Confessions of an ADD Housewife is giving us a taste (heh heh) of her early blogging days with this delicious sounding chocolate chocolate chip cookie recipe! Check out all her cool ideas on her blog! And remember, if you pin anything on this post please go back to her site and pin from the ORIGINAL posting!

I've been working on perfecting a cookie recipe. I'm not one to reinvent the wheel, so I started with an excellent recipe from Alton Brown. I've been tweaking it for awhile with different types of milk, trying to get just the right richness and softness. I've tried using things to make it healthier, like flax but it wasn't quite the right texture.

Last night, I tried a new combination that hit it out of the park and tastes exactly like the chocolate chocolate chip cookies from Subway...the ones our local shop no longer serves.

So here it is... Please try it and let me know what you think! Next go around I'm going to try mint chocolate chips or maybe mint extract instead of vanilla.

Clone of a Subway Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie

2 sticks unsalted butter or margarine
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 C dark cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons half and half
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Melt the butter. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and add in cocoa powder. Set aside.
Pour the melted butter a large bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons half and half and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly add the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Use a spoon or rubber spatula.
Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Guest Blogger: Kelly from A View Along The Way

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blogs, guest blog, guest blogs, vacation

We're having a great start to our vacation! And I am so happy to have some guest bloggers who are graciously helping me out this week! Please welcome Kelly! I'm a huge fan of her blog and her style. Her office is amazing. Yay for Kelly! And if you pin any of her gorgeous pictures please please please go to Kelly's blog and pin from the original source!! Thank you!

Thanks so much for letting me crash your beautiful blog today, Jenny! Think of all of us when you're relaxing and vacationing! I'm Kelly and I blog at View Along the Way about DIY home decor projects, and how we're fixing up our gross ol' foreclosure to feel more like a home. It's not always pretty... and it's definitely not always easy... and it might never EVER be finished... but my blog is a little peek at the View Along the Way.
Here are a few projects we've taken on to try to make this crusty ol' place start to feel like ours. 1. DIY Upholstered Platform Bed and Headboard I saw this beauty over on Jonathan Adler's website and it was a measly $2500.

Yikes! That was over our budget by oh, about 90 percent. So we got to thinkin'...

and got to workin'...

and came up with this, for under $300.

I love that our bed was a project my husband and I made together. You can see the full DIY upholstered bed tutorial here.

2. Office Makeover. We have this room. This empty room.

After we bought the house, we removed the popcorn ceilings, added some crown moldings and new (DIY) hardwood floors, and left it this way. And it has sat there, empty for THREE AND A HALF YEARS, until we finally got to work making it functional for us. (Speediness is probably not our strong suit.) My handy husband built this built-in bookshelf wall:

And we JUST found this new (to us) desk from craiglist:

And now we finally have FUNCTION. I can tell you this for sure: function > no function. You can quote me on that. We still want to add some DIY lighting, a rug, art and window treatments, but I'm loving it so far.

3. DIY Curtains Let's just put it this way: no one has ever asked me to sew something for them. I am TERRIBLE and have not the slightest idea what I'm doing, ever. So my first attempt at DIY curtains was just to paint these pre-made panels I picked up:

(You can see the striped painted curtain tutorial here.) But then I started getting cocky. Started thinking that I would never have to buy curtains AGAAAAIN!! Because I learned how to sew a straight line, even if that "straight line" is not usually actually straight. So I got to work sewing these lined back-tab curtains for my master bedroom:

And then for my daughter's nursery:

I posted on how to sew lined back-tab curtain panels here. Are they perfect? No. Are they CLOSE to perfect? Um... also no. But they are functional, and they sure are cheaper than custom curtains! I'll take it! We still have a LOOONG way to go to make our house the way we envision it, but I'm having so much fun on the journey, and I hope you'll join me!

You can subscribe to the blog here, and follow me on facebook, twitter or pinterest. Hope to see ya over there!

Calling Guest Bloggers and Friday Link Party

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blogs, guest blog, guest blogs, link party, North Carolina

One of my greatest talents is being able to leave the most important stuff to the last minute. Jim adores this quality in me. Like the time we were almost late to his class reunion because I was at the mall exchanging a skirt. Or the time we missed out on some of my disability insurance payouts because I waited too long to call and tell them I gave birth to Molly. Oh good times, good times. Well, here I go again!

I'm going on vacation on Saturday for a week. I'll have my computer but I doubt I'll have much to post about while I'm carousing in the outer banks of NC. Sooooo, if you are interested in being a guest blogger for next week (August 12-20th) let me know! I'd love to have you. Just send me an email to juniper20@gmail.com and send me the HTML. Your post can be a recycled old post that you are especially proud of or something new. Thanks!

Now, onto this week's Latest and Greatest Friday Link Party!

Rub-n-Buff Inspiration

5 comments

decor, decorating, DIY, furniture, inspiration, living room, table

I've been wanting to make my metal and glass end table a little less yellow and a tad more gold. It had these little brown spots on it too that I kinda didn't understand. So I grabbed a trusty tube of Rub-n-Buff in Gold Leaf and gave it a little more glam! Rub-n-Buff is a metallic wax that comes in a variety of colors. It is exactly what I wanted so I'm excited about how it turned out! I keep looking around the house to see what else can I turn gold!

Joann.com

Here is a picture of what I started with. It doesn't really show the yellow color of the metal. It was more of a mustard color than gold than it appears here. Trust me though...it's better.