Solar Light Jars

Another version of Solar Jars...  This jar is painted with frosted glass spray paint. 

My Inspiration:  http://blog.freepeople.com

Click Read More for the Super Easy How To...

Patriot Tin Can Windsocks

The Fourth of July is just around the corner so I needed to spruce up the house with some patriotic decorations.  I found this great idea for Tin Can Windsocks at http://the-wilson-world.blogspot.com.  What a great idea!  I modified ours a bit.  We painted paint cans, of course, cut out stars in vinyl on the Silhouette and used ribbon for the stripes.  I liked them so much, we made quite a few of them.  

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Tin Can Windchimes

Steel especially had fun painting these.  Mom had to put them together.  We hung them on his playset on a flower hanger hook thing.  I was lucky to find 4 different sized cans quite easily.  Start saving those cans!!!

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Sponge Water Bombs

How about our some fun water bombs made from some sponges and string?!  

My Inspiration:  http://onecharmingparty.com

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Solar Mason Jars

I made some solar jars this weekend.  This one I made with a mason jar and metallic paint.  It glows nicely and creates a neat shadow as well.  

My Inspiration:  http://blog.freepeople.com

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Wooden Garden Markers

I found this wood burner tool in Walmart's clearance of all places!!!  I needed to put it to use.  I was in need of some garden plant markers...  Super Easy (after a bit of practice, of course)!

Materials

Wood Burner Tool (Regular Price $10 at WalMart)

Tongue Depressors

 I am pretty confident that you can figure out the HOW TO part... =)

I will add a few words of wisdom that may save you some time if you so desire to make your own...

1.  Make sure the tool is warmed up properly, my directions say 10 minutes.

2.  Do not press hard.  Apply even pressure but not hard!  Take some time to practice.  Pressing too hard will make circle indents.  You can see below I still haven't mastered it but this was my first stab at it and it was getting dark and I wanted pics.  =)

That's all I got.  Enjoy!

Project Garden Update #2

Garden Update!!  Just wanted to share our progress.  All of the plants are doing wonderfully.  Being this is our first garden, we didn't count on our plants surviving and we planted the plants a bit closer together than advised.  So far, so good though.  

I used garden twine to make my own tomato cages.  The hub installed garden stakes and secured them to the bed sides with screws.  I wrapped twine around each of the stakes, weaved it, etc. until I had three levels of twine around each tomato plant to form cages.  

For the cucumbers, I attached eye screws to the existing tomato stakes and eye screws on the inside of the garden bed front side in front of each cucumber plant.  I tied twine from the bottom eye screw to the top eye screw forming an angle.  I, then, weaved more twine perpendicular to the angles that I had just made, this formed a grid that will allow the cucumbers to climb.  (I learned this tip from a co-worker and avid gardener!)

 Lastly, our pumpkin patch is looking good, we have half the pumpkins that we planted, which we expected.

Dad's Framed Gift

 

Another gift for Dad for Father's Day.  

Materials

Wooden picture frame from the craft store

E-6000 glue

Acrylic paint, we used black

Sharpie paint pen, we used gold

Picture, we used one of Steel and Dad walking toward Heinz Field

Eye Screw, used to make a hook for hanging

Assorted washers and nuts

How We Did It

1.  We painted the frame with black acrylic paint and let dry.

2.  Steel glued on the washers and nuts using E-6000 glue.

3.  Steel wrote Happy Father's Day 2012 with a gold Sharpie paint pen.

4.  I attaching an eye screw to the top for and hook for hanging.

5.  I inserted a picture.  

Dad Rocks

Dad Rocks carved into a rock.  Steel and I made this for Dad/Hub for Father's Day.  It was a bit more of a 'Mom' project but Steel helped in spirit.  

How We Did It

1.  Steel picked out a rock from the backyard and wrote Dad Rocks on it with a black sharpie.  

 2.  I used a Tungsten Carbide Cutter bit in my Flexshaft (kind of like a Dremel) and carved Dad Rocks.  This was the first time I had ever attempted carving rock.  It is not so easy.  I'm sure it will come with time.  I didn't press hard until I had established good lines by pressing lightly over and over again.  The smoother the rocks the better, my tool didn't take too kindly to hitting ridges.  I don't really have any other good tips to help, perhaps at a later date, once I carve more.  I am sure that different rocks will be easier as some may be more difficult.

 3.  I carved the year on the underside of the rock.

Party Flops

Adorable?  I think so!  I have no little girls in my house to make these for so I had to enlist a couple because I could not resist making a couple pairs!

They were quite simple and cheap to make, yet VERY time consuming!  Imagine the possibilities!  Red, White and Blue for the Fourth?!

My Inspiration
www.oneshetwoshe.com


Materials
Pair of Flops (Old Navy 2/$3 for kids, 2/$5 for adults - 6/23/12 they are on sale for $1!!!)
Water balloons - I used 36 per side (72 per flop)

How I Did It
I attached 36 water balloons to each side strap of each flop starting at the thong, alternating the round and stem ends of the balloons pointing outward in a rainbow pattern.  I tripled up on the green balloons for the lime pair to bring out the green.  Every once in a while I would get air trapped inside the balloon where it was tied, I remedied this by making a pinhole (with a pin) to release the air.  Each pair took me about 40 minutes to make and I got sore fingers!

Project Rain Barrels - UPDATED

 UPDATED

Project Rain Barrel Complete!  Okay, not really, only one rain barrel complete.  I ran out of time and I cannot wait to post this so the other two barrels will have to wait until the weekend to be finished.  Yes, 3 rain barrels, if you're gonna do it, DO IT!  Right?!?  

We painted a food grade, 55 gallon drum and transformed it into a rain barrel.  I put a pipe at the top for an overflow and two spigots, one for filling water cans and one for connecting a hose.  I am very pleased with the results.  My inspiration? Kathy at Lovelace Files!  Thanks Kathy for the great idea!!!

UPDATE: When the hose is attached to the bottom spigot, well lets just say it doesn't work as I imagined.  Even when the barrel is full, there just is not enough pressure to use a hose, the water comes out but lifting the hose stops the flow.  So the bottom spigot is just used for emptying the barrel of stagnant water or leaving it open when not collecting water as in winter months.  

I do have plans to make the tops of these barrels look a bit nicer...stay tuned...I should be posting on that within the next few weeks!  

Click Read More for the How To...

School's Out for Summer

 

 Steel first and last day of Kindergarten!  Boy, has he grown...but still refused to let me get a good picture!  Some things will take longer to change...Arrgghh!

Chocolate Kahlua Cupcake Cups

Okay, I messed this up but my good ol' friend Heidi Ho came up with a quick remedy to my situation.  I was going to frost these with my fabulous Cool Whip Frosting but... I forgot to take out the Cool Whip from the freezer so I popped it into the microwave to defrost for 10 seconds and well, let's just say, it was not just 10 seconds.  My frosting was not going to be frosting.  So...Heidi Ho to the rescue...she suggested throwing the cupcakes into cups and spooning the still delicious frosting on top!  Still tasted great!  And BTW...what a great idea for packaging individual cupcakes as well! 

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Project Privacy Fence Complete

Our privacy fence is complete!  (Well, at least one side...)  We love it.  It looks so clean and neat.  The hub (with the help of a few enlisted friends) poured concrete to fill in the area in between the drive and the fence for permanent weed control.  The concrete also stretches back along side of the garage for garbage can storage.  We couldn't be happier (or at least until the entire backyard fence is replaced with vinyl).  See Phase I here.

Graduation Boys

  

Well one boy graduated high school and one boy graduated kindergarten, all in the same week!  Now, how often does that happen?!  =)

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Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chips

Heather made this wonderful fruit salsa with homemade cinnamon chips for our Cinco de Mayo feast at work.  I thought I would share the recipe with you...

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Pallet Herb Garden

I love my Pallet Herb Garden.  With lots of luck, I can keep my herbs alive long enough to take my clippings and freeze my fresh herbs for later use.  I found my inspiration at http://kellymoorebag.com.  

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Mosaic Stepping Stones / Bird Baths

Steel and I made these stepping stones / bird baths using clay pot saucers adorned with mosaic tiles and shell pieces adhered with mosaic tile adhesive found at the local craft supply store.  

 

Project Garden - Update #1

The hub built us a two-tiered garden.  Sorry, I have no tutorial.  I let him handle this on his own.

I bought the green wired fencing at the local discount store to keep our Puppy clean and out of our garden.

I had very bad luck with the seeds that I planted indoors.  They were great indoors but I was too impatient and did not introduce them to the harsh elements slowly.

All the tomatoes died.  I had to visit the local garden center and buy new plants.  The peppers are doing wonderfully!  The hub also built a bed for a pumpkin patch.  It seems the animals are already getting to those, all should be good.  I planted way too many for the area.  I planned this so that I could trim back the weaker plants to make more room for the stronger ones.

See our planting post here.

I will keep you posted on how our garden is doing.

Simple Gift Bags with Tags

Just wanted to show off my simple gift bags that I cut out initials for Avery, Mom and Dad on my silhouette and punched a hole in the top corner and tied it to a plain paper gift bag with coordinating ribbon.