Blueberry Buckle

Time Needed: 1 hour
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: 1 t lemon juice, 1/3 c milk, 1/4 c butter, 3/4 c sugar, 1 egg, 1 t lemon extract, 1 1/2 c flour, 2 t baking powder, 1/2 t salt, 2 c blueberries, 2 T butter, 1/4 c sugar, 1 T lemon juice
Directions: Preheat oven to 450. Stir lemon juice and milk together and set aside. Stir together butter, sugar, egg, and lemon extract. Then add milk mixture, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix until just moist. Gently stir in blueberries. Transfer to a greased 8x8 pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the cake tests done. Spread glaze (recipe below) over the top of the cake and bake another 5 minutes. Watch carefully to ensure it doesn't bubble over. For the glaze, combine the extra butter, sugar, and lemon juice and microwave just until melted and smooth.

Don't be scared by all the glaze still left in the corners of the pan in this picture. This was snapped right after I pulled it from the oven. In another 2 minutes, the glaze had been absorbed.

Thanks, Tiare, for this wonderful family favorite from your home. It'll be added as a favorite in ours as well. And thanks, Richard, for requesting it!

Baby A's gifts

I'm not going to "how to" this one unless someone leaves me comments wanting to know how I did what I did. Anyway... here's what I made Baby A.

All three of these have the same material: yellow on one side and pink on the other. All three are also quilted with batting in between each layer. What you will not see is the beanie I crocheted her. It was my first beanie and it was... well.. at least the thread stayed together! It was not pretty, but I sent it anyway... more as a joke, and to give the cat something to play with.

This cute bib will hopefully keep the drool and spit up in some kind of designated area.This little burp cloth also holds the same destiny, except it won't be tied to her while being used.I hope this quilt helps keep her nice and snuggly and, if I get my way, it'll become her favorite blankie.
Look at her, using the blanket. Aww! What a sweetie! You can tell from the look on her face how much she appreciates it... and loves being awake. :) I gave her the onesie as well, but I let someone else make that one. After all, a girl can only hand make so many goodies for her cute niece in one night to send in a surprise package!

Teacup Candles: Revisit

Remember this project? Well, I just couldn't get enough. I've been searching for the perfect teacups ever since. And on Tuesday, when thrifting with Monica and Heather (co-captains of Bring Your Own Glue Gun night), I found these beautiful, delicate, midnight blue tea mugs. They're smaller than the other teacups I did. In fact, they're about the size of a shot glass. But look at the color! What a beautiful antique treasure I was able to find, and for 49 cents a cup, you bet they came home with me! Take a look!

Craft Flashback 2

About 10 or 15 years ago, my mom took these 2x4 pictures of Jesus, glazed them onto tiles, and stuck them in a frame. She gave it to me when the hubs and I got married and raided her stuff for stuff to call our own (those couches were exhibit A). Isn't it beautiful? Go Mom!

Spring Door Wreath

Time Needed: 15 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: straw hoop, 2-3 silk leaf vines, 1 bunch of silk calla lilies, 2 fake birds, 1 package of speckled eggs, 1 spool of matching ribbon, glue gun and glue sticks
Directions: Wrap the leaf vines around the straw hoop and strategically glue into place. Glue the eggs down wherever you want them to go. Then attach the birds and stick the calla lilies into any empty spots or wherever they seem to fit best. Thread the ribbon through the top part of the straw hoop and hang from your door frame. Easy, fast, and oh so cute!
Final cost of this project: $9. I got everything except the eggs at the Dollar Tree and the eggs were on clearance at Hobby Lobby. I love my life!

Baby A

This is Baby A. She is the first grandchild on my husband's side. We are so excited to have such a beautiful niece and we are so thrilled to welcome her into the family.

(Badly Needed) Office Redo

Notice that I've used "badly needed" in a few posts now? Yeah, get used to that. Spring cleaning not only means dusting and organizing, but redecorating as well. Also, this post might be a slight homage to the Dollar Tree.

This is not a how to post. I know, weird for me. Sigh. Life moves on. Anyway...

I did not take a "before" picture because I was so embarrassed about the state of affairs in here. For months, this entire room had been... well... you know how you always have that one messy drawer, the one where all the junk you don't know where to put anywhere else goes? Yeah, this was the state of the whole room. And I'm not really good about motivating myself to clean, so there you go.
Well, I decided it was time for action after heading to the Dollar Tree. I have come to love and cherish the Dollar Tree. Seriously, there are some real steals and deals in there. One of the things they had was these fabulous folding organizer bins. The white cabinet is full of them. All of them came with dividers, but I left those out of 2 so I could put bigger stuff in there. So now rather than being the cabinet from hell, it's the cabinet where all of my stuff is neatly organized.
I then looked at the top of said white cabinet. Boring. It needed a facelift. So I used things I already had and dressed it up a bit. The hub's great aunt passed away last year, and she was a hoarder. On one trip to visit, my in laws brought some fabulous old books, which I used as a base for my lamp. I had a Willow Tree statue of a reading girl, so on she went. Then one of the teacup candles I made previously joined the mix. Then (and this is my favorite part), I added the suitcase. My friend Monica bought an old clarinet at a thrift store and is cleaning it in order to turn it into a lamp. I know, it's gonna be amazing. More on that later, I'm sure. Well, she didn't want the case. After cleaning the clarinet, it was too gross for her. Well, you bet your buttons I dibbesed that guy. And look how cute he is! Add a little greenery behind it so that there's not an awkward empty space, and there you go! Vintage tablescape for free!Then I moved on to the table. I used to teach junior high (at 26, saying something like that makes me sound a bit pretentious and like I'm trying to be more like 50 - tee hee!) and when we moved away, I took the long, skinny card table I put in my classroom with me to use as my craft table. Well, as you can see, it's visible now. I put everything away, cleaned it up, only left the essentials on the top, and wiped the whole thing down. Glamorous? No. Functional and actually usable now? Heck yes. You'll notice that I bought some hanging organizers and duct taped them to the sides. The duct tape is under the table so you can't see it, but then I can hang stuff from the side of the table that I need but that won't go anywhere else. Again, thank you Dollar Tree.
Well, at this point, the wall was bare. Not to fear, Dollar Tree to the rescue again! Did you know they sell vinyl at the Dollar Tree!?! It's in the home office section, and it is a bit limited, but come on. For a dollar? Yeah, that's happening. So I bought two kits, one with a cute phrase and one with butterflies. And there you go, a cute and super cheap wall decoration.What you're not seeing in the room is that in the corner where I was standing to take the pictures used to be a quilting frame and 5 huge boxes full of food storage. Not very visually appealing. Well, they've all found homes in the closet now. Thanks to the hubs for the help on that one - my flimsy arms were not about to take on the challenge of hoisting 75 lb boxes of freeze dried food storage to a height taller than myself. And there you go! The room is clean and organized and a major project has been completed with an entire room overhaul. And the total cost? Well... $10. Yeah. And for that $10, I bought 2 vinyl sets and 8 organizational stuff-holders (that's the official name of those things, by the way). And this, of course, warranted that I share. Now if only I could find the motivation to do this with the rest of my house... :)