Wednesday, July 29, 2015

diy donut chair

hey you, how's your summer going?

holy cow my summer's flyin' by!
we've been traveling everywhere by car 
from canada all the way to the carribean by boat.

lucky for me with the very few days 
i had at home between vacations, 
i was able to clean out some stuff out of my kids' rooms.

so i headed to good will to make 
a pretty big donation with old toys, clothes, and such, 
when my eye caught something that had me turn around after i left the donation spot for a closer look in the store.

it was love at first site and i knew 
immediately what i was gonna do with it.
yes it was a little dingy and i didn't even care 
if it worked or not, 
but still i just had to have it.
and look it still had the ikea label on the bottom of it and 
to my surprise the seat worked 
like a charm going up an down! 
score!

i took it to my craft room and got busy...








i do! i do!
but i do love krispy kreme kind!
have any of those?
ahh! there it is thanks to dimensional mod podge :)

one more step to do.

ok so now that my chair is done, 
i gotta go get me a donut!

but it sure was worth cleaning out my stuff so i can donate stuff and get more stuff?!?!?



Friday, July 24, 2015

insect light mason jar

this post was originally published on My Mommy Style a few weeks ago here
here it is again, just in case you missed it!

i'm here today with a ton of gratitude to the girls of 
My Mommy Style for allowing me to be a part of their 
summer learning series!

looks like this week is all about insects.
thinking about what i was going to make, i fondly remember the days of catching fireflies as a kid in jars and watch in amazement as they glowed in the dark til my mom said it was time to set them free.

now as an adult living in florida with NO fireflies in our area for my kids to catch,
i have a way to catch that same 
firefly fun by making this:
we used a kerr mason jar for this but any jar will do.
it's quite simple and tons of fun to put together.
here. i'll let the pics do the talking:
we left 4 on the strand and pulled 6 off.
they come off the lights fairly easy with just a little tug.



we got the washi tape from target during easter but any washi tape will do.

before we go onto the next step, i wanted you to see why taking 6 bugs off the light strand was necessary.
LOL! 
we left 4 plain on the light strand.

ok next step:





and place it right next to your kiddo's bed so they can watch in amazement all the bugs in their glory.
and the best part about this is you never have to set the dragonflies free :)




Tuesday, July 21, 2015

tomato sugar cookies

being crafty, my friends' ask me for creative ideas all the time. which for me, is truly an honor to help, but for some reason when they ask me for something creative, 
my brain automatically freezes.

they'll say, 
"lisa what do you think i should do about so and so's bday gift?"
BRAIN FREEZE.
"hey can you help me think of something for so and so's party?"
BRAIN FREEZE.
"do you have any original ideas about blah blah blah?"
BRAIN FREEZE FREEZE FREEZE.

sigh.
i dunno why it does that. 
i guess it's the pressure of coming up with something right away to blow their mind or whatever that i just go 
completely blank?! 
go figure.

then when i get a chance to be alone, my brain is like a floodgate of ideas.
go figure.

anyway, such was the case when a friend asked me to make something for a patient of her's who recently became a widow to a very successful tomato farmer, and that's the only thing she told me about this woman, other than that she was depressed and my sweet friend wanted to cheer her up.

dang! the pressure was on!
but when i calmed myself down i decided to make her some tomatoes.

different kinds of tomatoes like these:
i made some tomato sugar cookies.

weird?
i dunno.
but she sure liked them.
let's see how i made 'em shall we?
i used this recipe which was really an easy one to follow and the dough worked great.
i actually colored 90% of it red, 7% green, and left the rest plain.

ok ok i know those percentages are goofy but just so you know i totally guessed on the amounts to color.
hopefully you'll get a better idea of how much to color too after you read the whole post...

now where were we?
oh yeah, let's take a look at the inside of a tomato.
yikes! i thought.
how the heck am i gonna do this?
so i got to thinking again and came up with the following 
(thank goodness i was able to thaw out my brain freeze!)

first i rolled out the red dough and cut circles with a 3 inch round cutter.
next, i did this:
then i cut over the cookie cuts again with the cutter, removed the circles, cut a few in half, and got some candy seeds.
(oh the original cookie cuts make it easier to center the middle part of each tomato). 
ok i got my tomato slices.
let's make some whole tomatoes now.
now they're ready to bake. 
ta done!
yippee!
the cookies actually worked-thank goodness i didn't have to royal icing these since i am the poorest piper i know! 
but hey...what about the icing part? 
are these cookies sweet enough?

no prob. 
i got some store bought cookie icing and did this:
make sure you ice/frost the BOTTOM of the cookies cuz, hello!...
and there goes my tomato treat basket.
something you could make for a summer barbecue picnic or a fruit and vegetable/farm party.

just don't put these tomatoes on any hamburger or salad...
:>O





Saturday, July 18, 2015

fishing pole pretzels

do you have an animal you don't like?
spiders? 
alligators?
sloths?

as for me, i hate worms.
any kind of worm.
they give me the heebie jeebies.

i can handle any kind of blood and guts and dismemberment (and i'm only saying that cuz i'm a nurse) but show me a worm and that's the end of me.

especially maggots.
OMG even typing that word sends me straight to anxietyville.
heck i can't even handle gummy worms.

so why all this wormy talk?
well, it's cuz a ton of people use worms in the summer months.
for fishing.
cuz apparently fishes love worms.

yick! gag! hurl!

ok that's enough gross talk.
let's get on to the good stuff shall we?
like this:
it's an edible fishing pole 
(if you don't count the attached string at least).
and the best part about it is there are NO worms involved.

i am in the middle of making a fishing/camping/hunting party for a stepdad's 60th bday of a very good friend of mine.
he loves all that outdoorsy stuff so i had to make a fishing pole treat for the party.

here's how to do it.
i used a clean roll of string taken straight outta the package.
if you are freaked out about using string, maybe you can try dental floss for the fishing line.
i've seen people use licorice before but 
licorice and pretzels=weird taste to me.
string and pretzels=yummy (?!?!?!)

those mega m&m's are on steroids i just know it.
ok so hey i heard some of those fishes got away from the sharks a week or so ago but uh oh! looks like they were caught instead...

let's stick them in a glass to display them shall we?
and warn everyone to 
REMOVE the string when they munch on them.
cuz if they eat the string they will get upset with you and then you'll have to worm your way out of it.
yick! gag! hurl!