Fierce Fireplace!

My fireplace has been ashy for years. It's in major need of some shea butter in the form of a massive cleaning. So I started by shoveling out all of the ashes.

There were a lot of these little shovel loads!

Then on my hands and knees I scrubbed down the hearth while singing "Cinderella, Cinderella, wash the fireplace Cinderella".

Then once all that was cleaned out I put back all of the candles:

Notice my black metal pointer silhouette. She was a First Monday find for $5. Wait, I mean I commisioned an scultpture artist to weld a figure of Tate into this silhouette-o-metal. Tate was so hard to get to sit still but, I think it turned out to be a real likeness.

Tate is already posing for her next commissioned metal artwork piece:

She calls this pose "The Lioness".

I do think the fireplace looks pretty fierce! Here is what it looks like at night with one candle lit:

I do have real fires in here on cold winter nights, hense all the ashes, but during the summer I like to keep candles in there.

So my next project will be painting out the whole inside of the fireplace black, with fireproof paint of course. Have any of you done that before? I think it is a much cleaner finish on a fireplace and I am now going to look up a tutorial on how to do just that!

Onesie Flower Pot

For Lindy's Sprinkle I grew some onesies! Not really, I did buy a set of five onesies like these cuties:

and then folded them like this:

Then in half again like this:

Then I rolled it from one end to create a "rose" shape and held it tight with a rubber band:

Then, I used chopsticks that I painted green as the stems and stuck them in a orange flower pot filled with styrofoam and moss at all different heights:

To cover the rubber bands I tied on some white rick rack that I had:

(Ummmm if you are sober this picture is clear.. Guess I'm wasted.)

I also then added some faux greenery.. is that taboo?

Nothing this cute could be taboo, could it?

I added some grosgrain ribbon as "leaves" for the onsie rose petals.

Then I wrapped it all up with some ribbon to make it a presentable gift! I had to use iridescent cellophane because I ran out of clear. Man, fake greenery, rubberbands, and now iridescent cellophane? What am I turning into, my mother?? Just kidding Mom, love you!

I added a sweet little gift tag with a Congrats stamp and a glittery "It's a boy!" trinket that I found at Home Goods and then this painted lady was ready to go out for a Sprinkle!

Lindy said it was too pretty to unwrap!! But when she does she will find some cute newborn boy onesies, so cute and practical!

Have y'all seen those diaper cakes? Hummm another cute practical present idea.. I may have to save that one for a future Sprinkle.

Let me know if you have made one before and I'll need a thorough tutorial with that as well, thanks!

Sprinkle Sprinkle, Little Star!

We threw Lindy a Sprinkle last Sunday at Mattito's. A Sprinkle is traditionally thrown for the second baby since the mom already has most of the supplies left over from the first. So, this gathering was because we wanted to celebrate the arrival of the second baby. We decided that brunch and a bottomless mimosa was the perfect idea! (Drinks for the un-pregnant ladies, that is.) Well, we kept this affair small and intimate; as intimate as you can be at a big, busy restaurant during a crazy brunch rush with bottomless mimosas! So, on the eve of the shower, I thought we should have something to signify that we were there all together. I had a bunch of left over fabric courtesy of Alison and started putting together these fabric corsages.

I started with this cute flowery fabric:

I cut a strip, about a foot by four inches, with peking shears.

Then, I made about a half inch folds alternating to create this:

Then I put a staple in perpendicular to hold it all together... Ummm I mean I sewed a stitch with my hand crank sewing machine. Just kidding, I used a stapler.

Then, I pulled the loose ends together and stapled each side closed to form a circle.

And here's the finished look:

I added a large safety pin so they could be worn during the shower.

I also made Lindy a version of her own, sporting a J, in honor of her sweet baby James! (Due in two weeks.)

Here is Amanda showing off my design:

Here is Lindy, the guest and baby of honor showing off their's:

She looks so pretty and glowing. I didn't even plan on matching her's with her dress but somehow it worked! Check out Lindy's blog of Reese Pendley, Lindy's daughter!

I think the Sprinkle was a success and everyone enjoyed the food, the drinks, and of course the company!

Stay tuned for my Sprinkle gift to Lindy: The onesie flower pot.

Pink!

 We got invited to the Pink concert (courtesy of Mel, thank you very much, it was so much fun!) and went last night. I have to say that I was not a major fan or really not even a minor fan but thought it would be fun and make us feel young and hip again! Well I had zero expectations but I have to tell you that Pink's performance went above and beyond any sort of expectation I could have had!

photo courtesy: Zimbo

She was amazing! Beautiful costumes, crazy sets, and great music. I guess I did not really realize how touching and real and raw her music is. I always just assumed it was some pop crap they played on the top 40's but when you really listen to it there is definitely a message. In at least every song she played last night anyways. So if you have not listened or haven't heard anything recently you should check it and her out because I am now obsessed!

photo courtesy: Zimbo

Dump Cake!

"Dump cake. A cake made by "dumping" the ingredients directly into the baking pan, mixing them, and baking the batter."
-Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 117)
Sounds simple, right? I'm obsessed with easy recipes and this has to be the easiests around. The dump cake, from what I hear, started sometime in the 1960's, but then mastered by me in 2009!

It is so simple and it takes about ten minutes or less to mix up and then about 55 mins to bake.
Here is my tried and true method for this cake, there are variations everywhere online, but don't be fooled, this one is the best!

You will need:
1 box of yellow cake mix
1 can of any brand; apple, peach, blueberry, cherry, schnosberry, pie filling or any flavor you so desire.
(I just used apple last weekend and it was oh-so-good!)

photo courtesy of: flickr.com/photos/waffles2005/304677752/

(ummm no, that is not my thumb nail, ewe...)

1 can of crushed pineapple
2-3 tablespoons of chopped pecans or walnuts
1-2 sticks of butter or margarine
-optional whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

1. This is the most important step*: Buy a disposible 13' x 9' cake pan like this one below:

photo courtesy of: We Sell Coffee

*OK, this is in no way required or the most important, but it is for me!!

(I do this so I can take this cake over to a friends house and leave it and not have the left overs at my house!)

2. Grease that pan, with any spray or butter. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees (F).

3. Open the cans of pie filling and crushed pineapple and dump into cake pan then mix up with a spoon and even out.

photo courtesy of: The Pioneer Woman

4. Evenly sprinkle over the fruit mixture the whole box of dry cake mix.

5. Cut up 1-1.5 sticks of butter or margarine into even sized pats and evenly distribute over the top of the dry cake mix.

photo courtesy of: The Pioneer Woman

6. Sprinkle over chopped nuts.

7. Bake in oven for 45-60 minutes. Check on it at 35 minutes to see if there are any dry or unbuttered portions of the cake, if so then add more butter to the top at that time to the dry areas.

8. Once the cake is browned and golden remove from oven and let cool slightly.

9. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

photo courtesy of: The Pioneer Woman

This cake is more like a crumble and best served straight fromt he oven with vanilla ice cream! It is a perfect fall time treat! Try it tonight and let me know what pie filling you used!

Mel's House

Our friend Melody bought a house in a historic neighborhood of Dallas. The whole neighborhood including her house and the houses around her are so cute. On our way over to see her we passed many houses that I would love to live in!

Really pretty tudor style brick homes. Check out that chimney and leaded glass!

I love the large porch on the arts and crafts house below. Do you see that stained glass window? Amazing!

And here's Mel's pretty blue house!

I has a beautiful porch, a perfect spot for those two rocking chairs!

Her backyard was equally as cute. A perfect spot in the shade to watch her Great Dane, Napoleon play!

At the back gate there was a vine covered archway that looked like a door to the secret garden.

Inside and outside there were a ton of original details.

 Look at that molding around the doorway. I love the original back door in black against the light blue color.

She has beadboard throughout her bathroom that is also original.

Melody has asked me to help her decorate her house so that is why I am only giving this sneak preview of the interior. She has a ton of details and character to her cute little blue house. I cannot wait to help her in making it her own! More pictures to come of the interior and some before and after shots as well.

Labor Day/ Birthday Recap

I had the best birthday and a wonderful Labor day weekend! Since my birthday was the 5th, we decided to head to Canton for the world famous First Monday Trade Days! Which is acres upon acres of flea market booths, craft booths, and antique booths. Plus everything in between!
Online I found the cutest little cabins to stay in for the weekend, that were right across the street from the Trade Days. It was called Mill Creek Ranch Resort and it was so nice and fun! I highly recommend if you are ever in East Texas to stay with them. They were so nice and friendly and helpful! They drove us everywhere on golf carts and shuttled us to the Trade Days.

The cabin we stayed in was so cute! It was surrounded all by big trees and a bubbling creek.

Inside had one queen size bedroom and a loft.

We set up a full size air mattress in the loft. Here it is not yet blown up.

The stairs to get up to the loft were so tiny and cute!

This is the view from the back porch, so peaceful and serene.

Here is the view from the front porch. All of the cabins look differently and are painted cute colors. It kind of reminds me of summer camp bungalows! Instead of bunk beds and dirty floors, inside it is an air conditioned immaculately clean cute little cottage!

When we first arrived, after unpacking and ohhh-ing and awww-ing over everything we filled up our cups with margarita swirls and set out on a nature walk. (If you want the recipe let me know!)

We walked around the many ponds and creeks on the grounds.

Abby found a cool old dead tree that she wanted to climb.

I felt like we were really in the country with these old looking electric poles.

Pretty places with gazebos and arbors everywhere!

Elephant ears and creeks galore! Also a fallen tree that Abby thought she could cross. No way!

At the top of the fallen tree that Abby wanted to use as a bridge was this mushroom covered fern surrounded log. It looks like a gnome house from the Gnome Mobile!

Then on Saturday we went to the Trade Days and I snapped a few shots of cool things I would like to own.

Like this beautiful glitter house that Jessica was also admiring! (No, she's not flipping me off!)

This pretty buffet or sideboard table.

(I think it was $350 though, not bad for a marble top.)

A wall of Ball jars! Plus old canisters, and a vintage washing board! So many uses, I would love to have all of them! (Yes, I am a hoarder.)

A cute old childs tractor. I just love the rust color and the old look of it. At $500 though don't know that I love it that much.

A few things that I do now own: These old vintage wooden sleds, one for me and one for my mom. We are going to use them for Christmas decorating. (They were only $20 each!)

This set of nightstands. Perfect for my room re-do. They were orginally marked $159.99 and we got them for $80! Talk about a bargain, 50% off!

We had a fun and exhausting weekend in Canton and we cannot wait to do it again!