Fabric-covered Canvas Key Holder

I hate to see something go to waste, but I also hate to see junk lying around.  I had a little extra fabric from recovering some seat cushions and wanted to use it for something, but I wasn't sure what.  It's been hanging out in the utility room for a while, until I saw an idea while browsing Pinterest.  The ideas that I saw on Pinterest were more geared towards jewelry, but I needed something to hang keys on so here's what I came up with:

1.  I purchased a 12" x 12" square canvas from Michael's. 

2. I cut the fabric that I had a few inches bigger than the canvas, and the wrapped it almost like a present.  Don't forget to wrap it tightly, and be sure to iron the fabric before you start if it is wrinkled.  I secured the fabric to the back with staples.

3. I pre-drilled holes in the bottom of fabric-covered canvas with a small bit, and then screwed in hooks that I picked up at Home Depot.  They only had brass and silver, but I'm sure they could be spray-painted for a particular look.

Voila!  Here it is on the wall:

This project didn't take very long at all, and now that I have all of the hooks it would be easy to do again.  Christmas gift anyone?

Cornbread Salad

I love to go to a restaurant and then go home and attempt to recreate a favorite dish.  This recipe is inspired by a side that I had years ago at the Red Brick Cafe in Mobile, AL.  Since I last tried it they've relocated and I'm not sure if it's still on the menu or not. 

I haven't had it in a while, but I had some leftover cornbread and didn't want it to go to waste.  I used the leftover cornbread to make the salad and took over to my parents' house to watch the Saints, much to their delight (it's a favorite of my mom's).

2 packages cornbread mix of your choice (I like the Cottonpickin' Cornbread, but any will do)
4 slices of bacon, fried and crumbled
1 cup of mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
2 green onions, sliced, green tops only
1 - 2 cups shredded cheddar, to your taste

Prepare the cornbread according to the package directions, and bake in an 9 x 12" pan.  After the cornbread has cooled, crumble it into a large mixing bowl.  Add all of the other ingredients and mix until incorporated.  Serve at room temperature or chilled.

The leftover cornbread that I used was jalapeno cornbread.  Feel free to improvise.  You could also add diced tomatoes, corn (into the cornbread or just into the salad), chopped green pepper, etc. 

Anyone pinning?

I've seen several cute ideas on Facebook lately, and usually a comment or two would mention that, "I saw it on Pinterest".  "What is this Pinterest?", I asked . . . Apparently it's blowing up right now.  Basically, it's a virtual bulletin board where you can "pin", organize and share all of the great ideas that you find while trolling the web.  When you were a young teenager, did you have a bulletin board that showcased all that was cool in the world?  This is the same thing for grown-ups.  I have a male coworker who speculates that Pinterest will lead to an epidemic of diabetes in 20-30 something year old females, but what does he know (oohh, that caramel apple brownie recipe really does look good). 

However, just like any other source on the Internet, be sure to double, or even triple, check your facts.  Someone pinned that you could make cake out of cake mix and canned pumpkin alone.  I did a little fact checking, and even Hungry Girl agreed, so I tried it out.  My intention was to send them to work with my husband for a luncheon tomorrow.  I made cupcakes, but after they cooled and I tried to unwrap one to give it a try, the wrapper stuck to the cake and it tasted terrible.  I'm a little annoyed that I wasted my time and money, but lesson learned.  Apparently it takes a little bit more than just cake mix and canned pumpkin to bake something that I would like to eat.  If it sounds too good to be true (like diet soda), you probably shouldn't eat it.

So that my husband doesn't show up empty-handed at work tomorrow, I'm making Peanut Butter-Pecan Chocolate Chip-Granola Cookies instead.  I didn't have much on hand in way of ingredients, but somehow had everything I needed to whip up some delicious cookies. 

Yarn Wreath

My sister is very creative and extremely gifted, and she's an inspiration to me (i.e. - I like to copy her ideas!).  She made a yarn wreath for my mom that was so cute, I had to attempt one myself.

This is a little project I was hoping to have finished before the baby shower that I blogged about previously, but I ran out of time.  Fortunately, I did get it finished before baby Lillian's due date, so it's currently on the way to the proud parents-to-be.

I started with a pressed straw wreath form.  I left the plastic on the wreath and wrapped it with some cheap yarn I picked up at Wal-Mart.  The wrapping is the most time-consuming step.  After finding a couple not-so-pretty spots, the only advice I can give you is to wrap tightly.  When all of the form is well covered, you're finished.

The decorating is entirely up to you.  My wreath looks nothing like the one my sister made, except that they both started with a yarn-wrapped base.  For my "Welcome Lillian" wreath, I cut some flowers out of felt and secured them to the wreath with corsage pins, which also look like little stamens.  I cut two circles out of alternating color felt squares (using two different size glass rims as my guides), and then cut the "petals" freehand.  They don't look perfect, but I was going for a little bit of a rustic look so I was very happy with how they turned out.

I picked up an "L" from Michael's, painted it with some leftover wall paint, and hot glued it directly to the wreath.  The ribbon was purchased at Wal-Mart, and it was my husband's idea to wrap it around the wreath.  You'll see that I made a bow and placed it behind the stand-alone flower to give it a little more punch.  Here's the finished product:

I hope that Lillian will enjoy her little "welcome to the world" craft.

Teacup Baby Shower

I <3 showers!  I had the pleasure of co-hosting a baby shower with a great friend for one of our besties, and I've procrastinated too long in sharing the details.

We got the idea for a teacup theme after we settled on the venue - Serda's Coffeehouse in lovely downtown Mobile, AL.  The DIY invites had a baby peeping out of a teacup.  We continued the theme with the decor.  I love using doilies, because I think they're elegant and they're also inexpensive.  I filled a teacup with some faux flowers and put it on a matching platter.  For a centerpiece, we planted some indoor plants in a teacup pot, and then awarded the plant to a lucky recipient of a painless shower game (the winner's doilie had a picture on the underside). 

Here's a picture of the spread:

It was a co-ed shower, so the food had to be cute, but hearty enough for the guys.  We served crudite with Green Goddess Dip (from Southern Living June 2011), chicken salad croissants (per the mom-to-be's request), fruit, Spinach Salad Wraps (from BHG August 2011), a bacon cheese ring (molded into the shape of a heart).  I always seek out recommendations and suggestions from the honoree, and when she told me she really loves cream cheese these days, we opted for mini-cheesecakes rather than a traditional cake.  Given that space was limited, it also helped not to have to cut up a large cake - people could just grab their own.

The baby's name will be Lillian, so I was able to reuse a decoration that my sister made for our wedding, and I brought a lily pod from home to make it a little more special.

I found many of these ideas by browsing other blogs.  When searching for inspiration, I suggest that you start with Google, because chances are someone may have already created something wonderful that you can borrow. 

Purge

One of the not-so-exciting parts of moving in with my new husband was consolidating our possessions.  I don't think that either of us was as diligent about purging as we should have been.  Now all of our stuff and both of us are here in the same place, and apparently we have boxes of things that we don't need. 

This lead me to wonder why it's so hard to let go of some physical possessions.  My boxes of books were heavy!  I'm quite positive that I'm not going to reread the Carlos Fuentes that I've been toting around since my freshman year of college.  However, every time I see that book it reminds me of one of the best summers of my life, the summer that I studied abroad in Mexico.  I just can't bear to part with it or many of my other books from college.

Then there are the things I can't imagine why I'm holding onto, like the box of Disney VHS cassettes.  Yes, I said VHS cassettes.  I think at one time I thought they would be collectible.  They're collectible, alright - collecting lots of dust.  I registered for a Craigslist account about 2 weeks ago.  Why haven't they been listed for sale yet?  I really don't have a good answer for that.

El Cheapo Florist

For whatever reason, I feel that if I'm having people over then I have to have some fresh flowers.  I wish I could afford to have fresh flowers every day, but unfortunately I did not hit the Lotto last week.  Flowers are expensive (I should know, I just bought a bunch for the wedding - the biggest expense after catering). 

Borrowing some wisdom from one of my mom's best friends, I have found that you can stretch a dollar by foraging for items in your own back yard to add to your bouquets.  At my last get together, I bought bunches of sunflowers and daisies from a local florist that sells them for $5 a bunch.  I cut some ferns from the yard to add to the daisies.  To augment the sunflowers, I gathered some dried lily pods from the pond and some magnolia branches and made a really nice arrangement.

I spent $10 and ended up with 3 arrangements and one flower for a small bud vase.  At that price, maybe I can afford to have flowers around more often.
 

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

At the urging of various family members, my husband and I hosted an open house at our new home last weekend.  I didn't set out to have a theme, but when we stumbled on some Wizard of Oz invitations at Hallmark, a theme was born.

I really forgot how much I love that movie, and having a theme really spurred my creativity.  I crawled the net searching for ideas, and borrowed some from different blogs that I checked out.  Check out some of my photos:

Due to sorry picture quality, you probably can't read the sign, "Ding Dong the Witch is dead!".

We're still eating lollipops :). 

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Donated Bar Stool Refashion

I've really been amazed at the generosity of our friends and family as Lucas and I have started our lives together.  As he was building our house, people cheerfully volunteered their time and expertise.  After the house was completed, friends and family came through again with all kinds of odds and ends for our house. 

Just before the wedding, our officiant came out to our house to meet with us before the wedding and was forced to sit on a stool too short for our tall bar.  He told us he thought he had some stools that he wasn't using and would be glad to let us have, and they were perfect.  No more standing up and eating meals!  A huge thank you goes out to the Motes family.

To make our new stools stand out, I decided to cover the seat cushions.  I visited Ely's Fabric Warehouse in Mobile, AL to find the right fabric.  With football season coming up, it was hard to pass up a fabric that made me think of one of my favorite teams, the NO Saints.  After a mere $13 for the yard of fabric, I was well on my way to a barstool refashion.  Here's how it went down.

Before

I cut the fabric to be close to the size of the cushion.

Then, pulling the fabric very tight across the cushion, I stapled it to the underside of the cushion with a small stapler that I picked up at Wal-Mart.

Voila!  After

Lucas gets points for the assist - he detached and attached the cushions from the stools.  Teamwork!

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again

I attempted a wedding blog, but unfortunately I wasn't able to devote as much time as I'd like to My Itty Bitty Southern Wedding.  Since then I've gotten hitched, and hopefully I'll have some more time on my hands to share some of my favorite things with the whole wide web. 

Posts to come:
- Donated Chair Refashion
- Follow the Yellow Brick Road to an Open House
- Teacup baby shower

I'm also open to suggestion.  I hope that you'll let me know what you think.