Valentines Day Cards

Hey Everyone! I'm a big Valentines Day fan, and I was looking for a fun, "grown-up" valentine I can make for my friends and family! Isn't this a fun valentine?

Credit has to be given to Sherelle Christensen and her adorable blog: My Crazy Life as a Farmer's Wife, because she created this project! She graciously has included a printable template so everyone can make these cute valentines:

(Click on the picture to follow the link)

How to make these Valentines:

1. Print off your template:

2. Cut out your shapes

3. After cutting out your shapes, cut a little trigger hole for the gun.

4. Use a fun punch for your holster's embellishment: 

5. Glue the edges of the holster shut, and glue your punch embellishment on the holster

6. Write your little sayings on your valentines (check out this post before you do!). You can include a fun little heart sticker like I did, for some added texture. 

7. Attach a stick of gum with double-sided tape, and you've made your own fun valentines!

How fun right? I'm sending these out tomorrow! 

Thank you!

I have a giant smile on my face because I'm checking out the: "stats" for this blog and it has a CRAZY number of pageviews!! I feel so popular! haha. Thank you everyone who reads my blog :)

...if they ever make a movie about my blog and me (a la Julie and Julia) I'll make sure you all are written into the script somehow!

Growing even more produce!

Remember my green onions that I was able to regrow by keeping the bulbs in water?

I just learned you can do that with many other types of vegetables!!

Look at this cute blog that teaches you how to re-grow celery:

p.s. rip orchid :(

Phalaenopsis Orchids

Okay, I have a confession to make. I killed two out of my three Phalaenopsis orchids on my drive from Maine to Virginia...I haven't told many people because I am so ashamed!! I love orchids and I feel like I have murdered a pet or something! Here are some pictures of them before break. Look how happy and healthy they are :(

That frog-looking thing is a humidifier. Orchids are tropical plants, and they like humid weather. Maine is really dry, so I plugged a humidifier in next to my orchids.

The orchids on the far left and far right were the ones I rescued from Walmart. The middle one is a healthy one I bought at a grocery store!

When I bought these orchids, their leaves were droopy, from too much water. After some TLC, look how firm those leaves are!

This was the other Walmart orchid-- he was a little more sick than the others, but was doing well after I repotted him. 

I love white phalaenopsis with red lips! 

Look how gorgeous that white phalaenopsis' root system/leaves are!

I bought two of these guys (the ones that are not in bloom) at Walmart on sale. They were the: "just add ice" variety, and as many orchid growers know, the pot these orchids are grown in don't have enough water drainage. Plus, the Walmart employees keep them waterlogged-- which is a recipe for disaster for Phalaenopsis growth. After I bought the orchids, I pruned away the rotten roots, and put them in terra cotta pots with proper potting medium conducive to Phalaenopsis growth. After a few weeks they were looking amazing!! I was really proud with myself because they were looking so healthy and happy!

However, I wanted to take them back to school with me. They were troopers on the drive until I forgot to take them inside from my car one night...I can't believe how stupid I was! Ugh what a mistake. They all FROZE and their leaves were all wrinkly and fleshy. They were disgusting-- my friends would not stop joking me about how gross they felt and looked.

I had to throw the two from Walmart out (the ones without blooms) sadly. They just weren't strong enough to survive the frost. However, the grocery store orchid was much more mature, and although it's leaves had frozen, it still had some good roots. I thought I may be able to save him, so I didn't throw him out.

What my grocery store orchid looked like after being left in a freezing car overnight. 

As you can see, the roots are still green and plump-- which indicates they are healthy. 

I cut away the dead leaves, and kept the crown (where the leaves meet) and root system in tact.

I then repotted him, and I'm hoping that he'll be able to pull through.

Who knows-- maybe he'll pull through, maybe he wont. I thought I'd at least try before throwing him out. Here's to hoping this orchid will come back to life!!

They say the more orchids you kill, the better you get at growing them. Hopefully that proves true for me!!

DIY Dollhouse: Windows

Here you all can see I've started cutting away windows for the dollhouse!

First, I did some measurements so they wouldn't look too wonky.

I drew where I wanted my windows to be, and then cut out the area with an exacto knife.

Looking good!

DIY Dollhouse: Third Floor

Okay finished the floor for the Third floor!

DIY Dollhouse: Second Floor

Hey everyone!
Okay, here is what I have done with the dollhouse so far--the second floor! I'm going with a: "funky-seventies" theme for the doll house, so the decor will reflect that.

First, I borrowed a stencil from a lovely friend!

Using a pencil, I used my pencil to outline the stencil on the shelf.

Then I'd move it over and draw in more...

I got a little excited and started painting early...

 Next, I came in with a lighter blue and filled in the geometric pattern

Isn't it fun?! :) I've got two more floors to finish because it's a three shelf bookcase so keep checking back! I don't have much time to craft these days, so the project is going pretty slow. Just be patient with me! haha

DIY DOLLHOUSE

It's 7:14 (AM), and for those of you who know me-- you know I'm NEVER awake before the sun comes up. However, I have just woken myself up from a dream (or stroke of genius) with the most AMAZING idea ever! I'm going to make Harley a dollhouse! AHHH I'M SO EXCITED!! I wanted to buy Harley a dollhouse at Christmas, but they are quite expensive. However, making your own dollhouse has to be inexpensive right?! I'm going to try to use materials I already have lying around, and I'm not going to spend over thirty-five dollars. Think it can be done?

Here's a cheap bookshelf I have in my room which I bought from Target in an effort to get organized...but later questioned what I was thinking buying one of those: "build-it-yourself-composite bookshelves." I'm happy to see it can be recycled!!!

Keep checking by and see this bookshelf's transformation!! :)

Gift Wrapping

Here is a gift I was able to wrap using one of Martha Stewarts' punches. It was really easy to do, and it makes the gift look fancy.

Here's how I did it:

• Wrap your gift as usual
• Use your punch on two sides of a strip of paper

•  Then tie a ribbon around it all! 

This is so easy, and gives your gift wrapping an elegant element to it.

Strawberry Strudel

My sister left for Oxford a few days ago, and I wanted to make her a little treat for the morning before she left. It was really nice-- we were able to have a last minute get together and have some quality: "sister time." I brewed some nice coffee, and made this yummy strudel. It wasn't hard at all to make-- try it out!

What you will need:

Puff Pastry Sheet

Pastry Cream

Fresh Strawberries (I used about one package)

Egg Wash

Apricot Glaze

Directions: 

• Thaw your puff pastry sheet from the freezer
• Prepare your pastry cream. (It's the same recipe from the pomme du tarte, so click on the link for the directions).

•  Flour your work space so that you can roll out your puff pastry sheet.

•  Now, spread out your pastry cream in the middle of the rolled out puff pastry.

•  Make 1 inch slits on both sides of the puff pastry and brush it with your egg wash.

•  Dump your strawberries on top of your pastry cream.

•  Fold up the top and bottom of your puff pastry to: "tuck" your pastry cream and strawberries in.

•  Taking each of the one inch pieces, fold them from one side of the strudel to the other. The egg wash acts as a glue, and will keep the pieces in place.

•  Transfer your strudle to a baking pan (If you don't flour your surface enough, your puff pastry will get stuck to the parchment paper-- like mine did!)

•  Brush egg wash on the top of your strudle and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until your strudle is a golden brown.

•  Pour your apricot glaze on your strudel while it's still hot.

Enjoy!