Peanuts and Crows

One of our little grandgirls grew a peanut plant this summer.

 

She picked it out at the garden center, brought it home and planted it in a pot, watered it all summer, and last week she pulled it up and look what she grew!

 

 

 

Peanuts!!

 

 

Not usually a desert crop!

I saw these cute crows on Pinterest and thought I should make

a couple.  The undecorated crows are from the dollar store.

 

Then I just made them hats and necklaces and crowns and signs.

 

So fun!

 

Enamelware Display

 

I saw a cute little 3 tiered bowl thing at Everyday Treasures a few weeks ago and thought it looked like a fun fall accessory.   So, being the great copier that I am, I thought I should make one for myself.

 

I love enamelware and have a few pieces that I've collected over the years.

I found three bowls in graduated sizes and they worked perfectly for this project.

 

The posts in between the bowls are wooden candle sticks that I found at a garage sale but I've seen them at Hobby Lobby.

 

 

All of the pieces were glued together with epoxy.

 

I didn't use any screws but it would be easy enough to do if you wanted to make sure it held together.

 

 

Kinda chipped and a little rusty and I think perfect for a fall display.

 

 



Starting Sweet Potato Vines

 

Last winter I read this post on the Always Fixin Never Sittin blog.

 

I thought it was a great idea.  I love to plant sweet potato vines in my window boxes and planters.  They have such pretty lime green foliage and are so easy to grow.

 

So I went to the grocery store and bought some sweet potatoes from the produce department, brought them home, stuck some toothpicks in them, placed them in canning jars filled with water, and let them sit in direct sun. 

 

And then I waited.

 

And waited.

 

 

 

 

And in about a month I saw little tiny, hair-like roots.

 

And then I waited.

 

And waited.

 

And waited.

 

For like three months!

 

And then, finally, I found a tiny leaf.

 

And then a few more leaves.

 

And then I had to wait til May 15th when it's safe to plant them outside. 

 

I planted the whole potato with just a little bit of it sticking out of the dirt.

And here they are today.

 

 

I started with four.

 

One got some kind of mold on it and one didn't produce any roots or leaves.

 

But I did end up with two pretty nice little sweet potato vines.

 

The foliage isn't lime green.

 

And I probably could have bought two nice little sweet potato vines with the money I spent on the four sweet potatoes.

 

 



Sweet Potato Vines

 

A few weeks ago I saw this great idea on

the Always Fixin, Never Sittin blog. 

 

Kerin bought some sweet potatoes at the grocery store and put them in a jar with water.  They're supposed to grow roots and leaves and then she'll plant them in pots for her porch.

 

I always put sweet potato vine in my three window boxes so I

thought I'd give it a try.

 

 

 

Here they are in jars with water and in a sunny window.

 

 

Right now I have little white roots sprouting from the potatoes.

 

They've been in jars for about a month and no green leaves yet.

 

I'll let you know how they do.





Celebrating Spring

 

To celebrate the arrival of SPRING (yippee!!!) I decided

to do a little springish craft that I saw on Pinterest.

 

I used some old tea cups from the thrift store.

 

 

 

 

 I couldn't find nests that were small enough to fit in the cups,

so I had to make my own.

 

I bought some of this natural sisal at the dollar store and

formed it into a nest shape.

They looked a little pale so I dyed them in Pero and hot water.

 

 



 

 

Blurry picture!

 

Hot glued the nest in the cup, embellished it with some

dried hydrangea from last years garden, and added a

little wooden egg that I painted robins egg blue.

 

 

A bit of tea dyed seam binding on the handle for a hanger,

and you're done. 

 

 

Fun and easy craft to celebrate spring! (yippee!!)

Quick and Easy Ironing Table

When I was visiting my cousin in California last year I noticed

that she had made a handy little ironing table for her quilt projects.

 

I'm not much of a quilter but I thought it would be great

to have a place to press things right next to my sewing machine.

 

So I found an inexpensive wooden TV tray at a thrift store.

 

Padded it, wrapped it in cute fabric, and stapled the fabric to the bottom of the tray.

 

 

It sits right next to my sewing table.

 

I just swing to the right on my swivel chair.

 

I don't even have to get up.

 

Pretty lazy Mimi Sue.

 

why, yes I do have a lighted Christmas tree in my craft room all year long

 

 

 

I don't think it'll work very well for big projects, but

it's perfect for small things with short seams.

 

And when I'm not using it, it folds up nice and flat so it's easy to store.

 





Valentine Birds

So it's a week past Valentine's Day but I thought I'd show you a little Valentine  project

that I saw on line somewhere.

 

They're made out of Dollar Store Christmas doves, some red and cream shred,

scraps of scrapbook paper, scraps of ribbon, craft store nests, and a glass candle holder or a glass punch cup.

 

 

Oh, and a couple of puffy, glittered hearts.

 

Make a little cone for a hat, embellish it with a junk bow.

 



 

Just glue everything together with hot glue.

 

Oh, nice, I just noticed my vacuum photo bombing my picture.

 

I made two in less than an hour.

 

 

And that included gathering up the supplies.

 



Maybe I should make some St Patrick's Day birds too.

Valentine Art and Candy

 

I've been kind of enjoying looking at other people's altered art.  In fact I have a board on Pinterest where I'm collecting ideas and You Tube is full of tutorials and inspiration.  Some of it is pretty complicated (ink splatters, chalk dobbers!) and some of it isn't. 

 

So I thought I'd try to make some uncomplicated Valentine altered art.

 

It was fun!

 

 

I Mod podged book pages and scrapbook paper into a cute

little cottage on a thin canvas.

 

 

I made up a few small cellophane bags of mixed Valentine

candy topped with vintage paper doilies for some of my neighbors.

 

Candycorn is not only for Halloween anymore.

 

I found the pink candycorn at Walmart in a big tub.

 

 

 

Shall we talk about the Dove strawberry swirl chocolate hearts?

 

Yummy!

 

Valentine's Day comes at a time of the year when we all could use some bright colors and happy shapes in our gray and gloomy weather. 

 

Unless you live in Florida or Southern California!

 

 

Scrap Wood Trees and Stars Projects

 

 

 

I saw some little scrap wood trees at our local

garden center a couple of months ago and thought

they were pretty cute.  They had a pretty hefty price tag on them

so I thought I'd try to make some on my own.

 

And this is the result.

 

 

 

Made from old flooring, 2 X 4's, quarter round, sashing, and mdf.

 

All things found in the garage stash.

 



 



Embellished by

glittering, stamping, mod podgeing, and painting.

 

 

I saw these stars on Pinterest made from all kinds of materials.

 

 

The mister sliced up a 2 X 4 in 1/8 inch pieces and then

glued and stapled them in a star shape.

 





 

I painted them a nice Christmasy red and stuck one in each of the

window boxes.



Both projects were almost free.

 

And that's kind of nice at this time of year.

 



Thanksgiving Cornucopia

 

We're having Thanksgiving at our house this year.

 

So I thought I'd share with you what I made for our dinner table.

 

A waffle cone cornucopia!

 

I found the idea last year on the House of Whimsy blog.

 

 

Put the cone in a steamer pan for about 30 seconds.

 

When it gets soft and flattens, quickly pick it up with tongs

 

and mold it in the shape you want with your fingers.

Hold it for a few seconds and it hardens up again pretty quickly

 

leaving a cornucopia shape.  If you squint.

 



 

I had to go to three stores looking for waffle cones.  Apparently it

is a seasonal item here in northern Utah.

These cones are from Keebler and there were a few broken ones in the box that we couldn't use.  And I broke a couple when I was

trying to shape them.

 



But we have enough since there will only be nine of us for dinner.

 



I'm pretty sure the grandkids will love them.

 



Fall Wood Letter Blocks

 

Some of you know that I haven't had an original idea since 1986.

The year my 4th and last child was born.

 

I'm really good at copying other people's original ideas

though.  My house is full of other people's wonderful ideas that are so plentiful on the internet.   So thank you Pinterest and all of you clever bloggers out there. 

 

Here is a fun idea from this cute blog.

 

Thank you Thistlewood Farms!

 

She used leftover molding and I used leftover flooring.

 

I bought chipboard letters at Hobby Lobby.

 



              I dry brushed the wood and letters with acrylic craft paint.

 

You could use any color you'd like, and use any words you'd like, and use any size blocks you'd like. 

 



                    Then I glued on the letters with hot glue.

 

 



 And that was pretty much it.  A quick and easy project.

 

I think they turned out pretty cute.