Make Me Happy Monday: Junk Mail Stationary

Junk Mail Stationery from Yellow Owl Workshop on Vimeo.

My sister does this all the time, and the things she comes up with are just so cool that I thought I would share a little video that reminded me of her.

Oh to Sew...

Sewing in a Straight Line by Brett Bara – How to Sew a Round Bowl with Straight Lines Only from Rarebit Productions on Vimeo.

I think I need this book. I always want to sew things and I get stuck because I think things are too hard. I love books like this where they purposely make great things easy and simple, and you know, in life I feel like a lot of the simple things are the best things anyway :)

Crates to Garden Table

Can I please have this?? I am totally going to get Marshall to make me this! I wanted a table to do gardening work on and this is perfect! I didn't want to buy something pretty because well it's just going to get all dirty and making it out of crates is even better to me!! I can't wait for this!!

DIY: Succulent Plant Tower

Isn't this a wonderful idea? I saw it at Craftberry who was inspired but a West Elm planter and made her own! Isn't that great? I love doing stuff like that!

I love my water bottle

I finally made a carrier for my water bottle. It's glass, and pretty heavy when it's full and so often when I'm leaving the house my hands are all full and I get so close to dropping it so a "case" was very needed.

I (still) don't have a sewing machine so I took the time and did it all by hand. It took me forever (I got through a lot of House episodes!) but I really love it. I made it from a table center clothe my mom gave me. It was more the size of a napkin so I didn't really know what I was going to do with it but I just loved the pattern so I was really happy to be able to find a use for it.

Little Kid's Boots = Gardening Fun

My mom got me this really cute children s rubber boots from the thrift store a while ago and said "We'll plant something in them, it'll be great!" I'll tell you, I wasn't as convinced as her but now that I saw this photo on fredflare.com I totally see what she means, and I don't have to spend $14 to get the look either!

DIY Quilt Blocks

I haven't given up on my quilting project, I am still collecting fabric, so I thought as I go I would learn different ways to do things, so that when I do get to the actual making part of things I'd be ready!

Isn't this quilt block great? I think I will likely end up making a lot of random blocks like this and that's great by me!

Here's the tutorial if you want to make these as well!

(If you want to make any fabric donations to my quilting project let me know! I'd love that!!)

How to Make Candy Sushi

Wow, look at all that sugar! What a fun idea!

Have a great weekend everyone!

How to add buttons to your blogspot blog, without spaces

I was searching for a good tutorial on how to do this and I found that a lot of them weren't very detailed and left out things and just didn't totally make sense. I pieced together a few, and got a couple answers from my sister so I thought I would post what I did here. It seems that everyone has a different way, a different code, but I hope you find this helpful either way.

The buttons I am talking about can be anything from badges from other blogs, to buttons of different series you do on your blog (like mine you'll see to the right).

1) Upload your photos to some place like Flickr or Photo Bucket

2) Open up a new widget in blogger called HTML/JavaScript

3) Put in the code below:

<a href="THE URL OF YOUR BLOG" imageanchor="1" >
<img border="0" src="THE URL OF YOUR IMAGE"Â alt="Link to YOUR BLOG TITLE"/>
</a>

Note: You will need this code each time, for each button. Example: If you are five buttons to do you will have to paste this code in five times.

4) Insert the blog link in the two locations listed:

<a href="THE URL OF YOUR BLOG" imageanchor="1" >
<img border="0" src="THE URL OF YOUR IMAGE"Â alt="Link to YOUR BLOG TITLE"/>
</a>

5) Insert the URL for your image in the spot listed:

<a href="THE URL OF YOUR BLOG" imageanchor="1" >
<img border="0" src="THE URL OF YOUR IMAGE"Â alt="Link to YOUR BLOG TITLE"/>
</a>

Note: In Photo Bucket that URL will be labeled as the Direct Link

6) I suggest at this point to save the widget and take a look at how it looks on your blog and to see if it is in fact linking to where you want it to go (there's nothing like doing 10 of them and then realizing you did it wrong!)

7) Go back into your widget and repeat this as many times you need to get all your buttons loaded.

Note: If you don't want any spaces between your buttons simply don't leave any spaces between the code. When you do buttons as a picture widget you will automatically have spaces because that's coded into your template. It gets a little more complicated to get rid of those spaces so this is the easier way to go about a group of buttons

8) Save the widget and in your design page of your blog drag it to where ever you want it to be in your layout


Pretty easy right? I hope this helps! Happy blogging!

If you want some more help on your blog here's a great site!

DYI: Paper Flowers

Aren't these flowers so pretty? I've been out of the how Do It Yourself thing for a while 1) because I've been so busy 2) because I did so many for a while that I had too much stuff and 3) because it can get a bit expensive if it's just for fun. BUT I think when we're all set up in our house and I'm working on my sewing/painting corner I'm going to make myself a nice vaseful of these pretty flowers! And I never have to make sure there's water which is a total plus for me!

Check out the post on The Bridal Cafe for the full DIY!

DIY: Faux Metal Wall Art

Isn't this great? It looks like a bit of an under taking, not something I'm not going to be doing any time soon (mainly because I don't have a wall for them yet) but I'm for sure putting it on my "Must try" list!

Check out the full post and all the great details at Suzy's Artsy Crafty Sitcom

How To Fry a Candy Bar

Ok, I'll be honest, I still think this is pretty nasty, but I think I need to try it. What do you think? I mean there's already so much fat in there, but people seem to go crazy for these things, so there's got to be something good about them. I think it would be a fun thing to try for a double date!

Ollie's Valentine's Day Sweater Redo

So I thought that Ollie needed a little something for Valentine's Day. My dad and his wife got him a sort of sweater suit for Christmas but it didn't totally fit him. I wasn't too sure what I was going to do with it but then I thought "re-purpose it Amanda, of course!" No need to have it go to waste, and Ollie looks so cute all dressed up too! So here is my little project! Just in time for the big day!

The heart is on the back of the sweater.

He had to know what I was doing so he spent a lot of the time while I was working sitting up on my lap.

Pretty cute right?

Make Me Happy Monday: How To Make Fried Ice Cream

Oh my gosh, I want this right now! I think I just might make this as a treat for Marshall sometime! I always sort of wondered how they made it. Now I know!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Making Vanilla

So for Christmas my mom got me this make your own vanilla jar. It came with the vanilla stocks and the cut jar and it's super simple.


All you need to do is cut the beans length wise and add vodka. You have to seal it and let it sit for 4-6 months and then you have vanilla! I thought that was a seriously cool idea!
A little expensive to start it out (I think she paid $5 for the jar) especially considering I made the mistake of using Marshall's Gray Goose instead of getting something cheaper (I only had a little bit of Smirnoff so I used that first) but you can just keep refilling the vodka as it runs out so I thought this was great! I'll write again and post a picture in 6 months when I know how well it works and how good it taste. I'm curious if it's going to turn dark like normal vanilla extract.

Valentine's Day Delights

Alright so it's the month of love and well I love it! I thought I'd share some fun decor and DIY fines with you lovelies! Happy love month!!

Aren't these cute pillows? Very fun and a totally doable DIY!

Aren't these cute hair clips? I found them over at The Purple Bee

This is a great DIY from Michele Made Me

Isn't this a great idea? I love a little themed center piece decor.

So yummy! Best part? You can buy them!!

This looks so yummy. I wish I could find the recipe!

Aren't these cute! A great idea from Bakerella

(Click on the photos to bring you to the source and all the great DIY details!)

Fun right??

How To Tie a Cherry Stem In a Knot With Your Tongue

I'll be honest, this is something I've always wanted to learn how to do.
Happy New Years!

DYI: Brooch Bouquet

I LOVE these bouquets and I sort of just want to do one for around the house but sort of wondered where to start. I had to look no further because Off Beat Bride put out a post!

Looks pretty simple right? Check out the rest of the post to get all the details!

DIY: Personalized Gift Tags

Aren't these such a great ideas? Just make some copies of photos of your family when they were young, trace a pattern on the back, cut them out, attach the string and there you go! What a wonderful change for the usual!