Apple Dumplings to Die For

Have you heard of THE PIONEER WOMAN?  Well, if you haven't you are gonna, and if you have, then you know she is AMAZING!  The Pioneer Woman a.k.a. Ree Drummond is an amazing cook, photographer, and has endless amounts of talent.  For Christmas I got "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" cookbook and can I tell you I am a very happy woman!  She has so many excellent dishes, but, today we are discussing Apple Dumplings!

Can you say "YUMMY?"

They are to DIE for!!!  And, I am DEAD serious.

Now, for those of you who are thinking "I don't cook or bake." 

Well, blah, blah, blah.  These are so incredibly easy and so irresistible. 

You will not stop eating.

So, go here to get the recipe.  You will be so happy you did!

Get cookin' girls!

I {HEART} Valentine's Day....Again!

Remember when I told you all to ignore the empty candlesticks?  I found a solution!  I know the easy thing would have just been to put some CANDLES on them, but oh no.  I can't just put candles on them...they needed something with a little flair!  So, here you have it.  I used half of a styrofoam ball and covered it in red felt to make it look like a group of roses.  Turned out kinda purty huh?  Keep reading..I will tell you how!

Here is a Valentine's Day Topiary...that will never die!  Why?  Because those roses are not REAL!  They to are red felt.  So fun, right?  Wanna learn?  I thought so!  Here we go.

SUPPLIES

- A Topiary or a styrofoam ball and a dowel.

- Several (and I mean several) 3 inch felt circles.

- Straight pins.

- A cute pot or tin.

- Moss, leaves, rocks, whatever filler you fancy.

- Ribbon to dress it up a bit.

Take each circle one by one and fold it into quarters.  When it looks like this, stick a straight pin through the bottom.  The pin is there...it's just hard to see.  Sorry!

Insert the straight pin into the styrofoam ball and repeat until entire ball is covered.  You can add more or less to reach your desired fullness.  This is really easy and just takes a little bit of time!

Before you know it, you get a little something like this.

Not to shabby! Next, you can wrap ribbon around the dowel by hot glueing one end of the ribbon to the bottom of the dowel.  Wrap the ribbon up to the top and hot glue the other end to secure.  Cut a long piece of ribbon(s) and tie a cute bow at the top.  Insert topiary into pot/tin/bucket and cover with filler.

Now, get to creatin' !!!!

Twine Frame

I found this really cute, quick, and easy frame makeover on Brown Paper Packages blog. 

Isn't it just cute?  I thought it was so adorable, I had to make one of my own.  Especially because I had all of the supplies in my craft closet.  Now what's better than that?  I didn't have to go to the store and buy anything! So my craft today was FREE!!!  Love it when things are FREE!!

Here's Mine!

Pretty cute huh?  And is only took about 10 minutes!

Instructions....I had this super ugly frame that I found at the dollar store.  I don't know why I bought it, I just did.  Maybe I was thinking I would spray paint it...I love spray paint too!

But nope, not today!  This frame is getting a twine makeover!  You can use any frame you have laying around that you just don't love anymore, or maybe doesn't match anything.

Next step...your twine!  Wrap the twine around once and tie a knot.  Then begin wrapping around and around the frame until it is covered.  You can do the corners too, I didn't because I had something different in mind.  Once you complete wrapping the frame, tie another knot on the backside to secure the twine.  You can even pull out some hot glue gun if you want.

I then found a pair of tights that Charlee doesn't wear anymore and cut 4 strips.  They are approximately 3x1/2 inches.  I hot glued one end on the back side of the frame and wrapped it a few times (pulling it kind of snug) and glued the other end on the back side of the frame.

Then find a flower and hot glue it to the frame. And then you have this!

Yes, I think the flower might be a little TOO big for this frame.  But, never the less, I like it!

Go on, get to it...get craftin' girls!

I {HEART} Valentine's Day!

I am in LOVE with Valentine's Day this year!  Why?  Because the LOVE of my life will be home from Iraq to celebrate in this romantic day of LOVE!  And I am sure there will be plenty of LOVE going on!  Yeah, sorry WAY TO MUCH INFORMATION! 
I was in the crafting mood but didn't want to go to the store.  I began to browse my house (which many of you know is full of crafting crap!) thinking to myself what can I make today?  When a little light when on in my brain (yes, it is a little flicker of a light...not big and bright!)  I had tons of wood scraps, valentine paper, ribbon, vinyl, sandpaper and a new PINK cordless drill.  (Oh yes, it is as cute as is sounds!)

So a few hours later...... Ta Da!!!

Don't mind the empty candlesticks...I am working on something fun to put on there.

The idea just hasn't come to me yet!

A Little Love

INSTRUCTIONS

I found some thin wood laying around and cut them into 5.5x5.5 inch squares.

Pulled out my new FAVORITE thing in the whole world...SPRAY ADHESIVE (truly where has this been my whole life?  I LOVE IT!) 

Cut some fun reds, creams, tans, and cute colors of paper into 5.5x5.5 inch squares.  They didn't have to be to perfect because I sanded the edges to make it all nice and pretty! 

Spray your super awesome cool spray adhesive all over the back of your paper and stick it onto your wood square!  Careful you put it on where you want it...once it sticks, its stuck!

Sand down your edges so they look how you would like.  After I sanded them, I inked the edges so they looked all rustic and distressed...that's how I feel some days...rustic and distressed!

I used my Cricut to cut out the vinyl letters.  You can stencil them, print them, whatever works best for you!

I like vinyl...it makes life easy.  Oh and it will pull off!  So when I don't want so much LOVE around, I could change it to....KISS or HUGS or GO AWAY, oh wait, I need more squares for that!

Then I pulled out my cute PINK power tools...the drill!  And, drilled two holes in each square. 

Cut four strips of ribbon, looped them through the holes I made with my PINK drill (yes, having it PINK makes it much more fun to use!)  Tie your knots and Ta Da, You're Done!

XOXO Blocks

INSTRUCTIONS

I love blocks!  I must truly be a kid at heart because I even catch myself building little towers with these dang things!  Here are 2 1/2 inch blocks that have been sanded nice and smooth...like a babies bottom.  Okay, not that smooth, that takes WAY to much time.  But, they are smooth enough! 

I also LOVE stain.  I stained all the blocks in a dark "Provincial" wood finish.

Cut out paper squares just slightly smaller than your blocks and once again, use the SPRAY ADHESIVE and glue on those bad boys, apply your vinyl and in a matter of minutes, you have some super cute blocks!

You can always mod podge over the top for extra security.  I am to lazy and don't want to take the time.  And, I can never seem to find a foam paintbrush when I need it.

My original plan for my "XOXO Blocks" was to have three more smaller blocks that would adorn my childrens cute faces sitting on top of the XOXO, because we do a lot of that at my house!  We all LOVE hugs and kisses...cuz seriously?  Who doesn't?

I hope everyone has a Valentine's Day full of LOVE!  Happy LOVE Day Ya'll!!!