Fabulous Finds Friday

1. These scrappy stars

2. This recipe is not a new find, but one that I love. I made it for my 4th wedding anniversary yesterday.

3. I really like this idea for one of those cheap bookshelves. In fact, I have one I want to try it on.

4. I don’t live by a Target, but was in a city that had one on Wednesday and had a wonderful time wandering and looking at all of the fun home decor items they have.

I snapped this picture of these two cute pillows yesterday. If I had a job, I would probably have purchased them for my couches, but I was good and refrained.

I also found this mirror while browsing target.com today:

Did you find anything fabulous this week?

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Arts and Crafts

Which begs the question why have I not done anything with my chipboard album?

I think I am officially not sane this week.  Ah well.  Moving on.

E

 

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Star Garland

The chipboard album I have is a primitive star shape.  For my challenge I opted to make a garland like Kristen did.

It sat on my table and I thought of all kinds of different words or purposes to make a garland for.  At last I settled on just experimenting with things that I like.  I got out some scrapbook paper I bought purely because I loved it, painted the chipboard aqua, and decoupaged the paper to the stars.

I’ve loved red and aqua for years and I’m not tired of that color combo yet.  After making the aqua stars I remembered some red paper rosettes I made months ago.  I got them out, added some aqua and white rosettes for an alternating pattern, then glued a flower cabochon in the center of each.

I then strung the stars on some white vine ribbon and hung it in the living room across an antique mirror.

I have a problem with saving the craft supplies I love the most.  I’m not sure what, exactly, I’m saving them for.  The “perfect” project, perhaps?  Perhaps I’m afraid of running out?  I’m learning to use what I love because if I keep it too long I’ll love something newer instead.  This project was fun because I used things I love.

Now I get to see those favorite colors and designs instead of having them packed away in a closet.  Happy day!

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Chipboard baby banner

Each of us had a chipboard set that we decided to use for a challenge.  I’m planning a baby shower for this weekend and decided to make a banner to use. I started by painting the chipboard- I used some leftover paint from when we painted our house.

The chipboard sucked the paint in and dried really fast so it was pretty easy.

 

I found these chipboard letters at Hobby Lobby on clearance and thought they would be perfect for what I want.

I decided to keep it really simple and just add the letters and ribbon.

Here’s the final product. It will be hanging up on Saturday to celebrate this baby boy’s expectant arrival.

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Fabulous Finds Friday

1.  

Can someone please purchase this for me?  I can just picture how incredible this would be for the children to play in at the beach this summer.  Dreamy.  {and just a tad bit overpriced and out of my range but nonetheless beautiful}.

2.  I love this dish towel from Crate and Barrel

 3.  Fun rug

4.  These bright clogs for my muddy garden work.  I have this bad habit of wearing a pair of shoes out, getting them all muddy and leaving them on the porch, then wearing another pair out and getting THEM muddy.  Note to self:  just get a pair of mud sloggers and wear those.

 

Happy Friday!

E

 

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Found

So, I’ll admit it openly:  I’m a junker.  I will stop the van for junk.  I will shamelessly take it out of trash piles.  I will stop at garage sales anytime I can.  I love to fix up an old piece with gold old strong bones that someone else was going to throw away.  I love old things.  I just love junk.

I have had an old projector for a long time and have been wanting to find some of the old movie reels as well.  I have seen a lot of plastic reels but was ecstatic to find this big box full of metal reels and other goodies.  I snagged them for $5 for the entire box.  You can imagine my delight as well to have the metal be blue.  I’m thrilled to add these to my old camera collection that I use as decor {nice excuse for collecting, don’t you think?}

My father has always had a good eye for useful items and at a young age instilled in me the love for a good deal.  Even as a teen I found great deals at garage sales and thrift stores.  I wish I had a photo of my all time favorite:  Lime green and yellow adidas shoes.  I wore them until they were nothing but threads.  Ah well…

E

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Sea Shell Addition to Table Centerpiece

A couple weeks ago I posted about this table centerpiece.  I have since updated it to look like this: Last week we took a short little vacation down to the panhandle of Florida where I picked up some sea shells.  I had never been to Florida, and I was amazed at all of the beautiful sea shells on the beach!  I felt a little bit like a hoarder when I filled my daughter’s sand bucket up with a variety of shells.  However, now that I am home I wish I brought back more!  At the time I didn’t know what I was going to do with them, but when I got home I realized this would be a great place for us to be able to see them and remember our trip.

I love how they are all so unique.  There are imperfections in every one, but each one is still beautiful.

This is one of my favorites:

And of course some grubby little hands couldn’t resist taking the sea shells that mom was taking pictures of.  As long as I can keep them out of the baby’s mouth….

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White Chocolate Oreo Popcorn

On Thursday we had some friends over for a game night.  Since I have an obsession with making yummy popcorn, it’s my go-to snack when I want something sweet.  Here’s my new popcorn (and instructions on how to make it):

 

I was going through my pantry and realized that I had a bunch of these mini oreos that I needed to use.

So I decided to make some oreo popcorn.  I used 3 of these mini bags for the oreos, but you could use regular oreos also. I’m interested to try it with mint oreos and may do that next.

My husband bought this wonderful mini chopper for me for Christmas, and it was definitely worth the money. (especially since my husband hates chunks of tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc).  I poured the oreos in and started chopping them up. You could also put them in a ziploc bag and smash them that way too.

I ended up with about 3/4 cup smashed oreos. I tried to leave some bigger pieces, but at the same time you don’t want them to be too big so they won’t stick to the popcorn.

You want to pop your popcorn next.  If you are using an air popper, I did 3/4 cup unpopped kernels.  If you are using microwave- I would say it is equal to 2-2.5 bags.

Next, I melted the chocolate. You can use white chocolate chips or vanilla almond bark. Since I had Almond bark on hand and think it’s easier to melt, that’s what I used.  I used 3 cubes.  Once it’s melted, pour it into the popcorn and mix it up.

And immediately pour in the Oreos. Mix well and try to resist eating it all now.  I would recommend spreading it onto a cookie sheet with wax paper for the chocolate to harden. It’s not necessary, but that’s what I did.

I made two batches of this and by the end of the night it was basically gone. I would definitely make it again and would love to hear what you think if you try it!

 

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Fabulous Finds Friday

1. I love this block by Swim, Bike, Quilt

2. This embroidery by Stitched in Color

3. This video- sent from my brother as an example of how cool the Coldplay concert he went to last week was. The priority of going to one of their concerts just jumped up higher on the list. Too bad there isn’t one near me in all of the concert dates. Apparently as you enter the concert you each get a different colored bracelet and you don’t know what it does until later on when they all light up…so cool.  (sorry, the video will not embed- follow the link ) Coldplay Xylobands. If you think it’s as cool as I did- here’s a longer video.

4. I so want this magazine.  

 

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Quilt Along Blocks 7 & 8

Well, I’m caught up on the Canton Village Quilt along blocks for a few weeks.  It’s nice to have them done.  I’m really happy with how all four blocks turned out.  The greatest lesson for me in this project is to look beyond fabric choices that are completely not my style and see the potential in the design.  Each block has been a pleasant surprise for this reason.

It’s also been fun to make two blocks in each design, allowing me to experiment with color schemes a little.  I enjoyed making both colorful and black/white blocks.  Thanks, Kristen, for introducing me to this quilt along!

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