St Patrick's Day Wreath

I think before long my new neighbors will realize I have a wreath for every holiday. Yeah, I'm one of those people.
My hubby & I are both of Irish descent. We don't take St Patrick's Day too seriously, but we do take time to honor our Irish heritage.
First stop: a wreath.

You'll need:
plain Styrofoam wreath (or something of similar material)
glue gun
scissors
1/2yd fabric
felt (I used 6 pieces)

Using a template, cut circles of at least 2 sizes out of the felt. The smaller size will help fill in the gap that the larger ones create.

Cut the circles into spirals. If you have fancy-edged scissors use them to create interesting edges on your flowers.

Starting on the outside, roll the felt together. Try to keep the bottom edge as flat and even as possible.

Cut the fabric into 3 inch strips and wrap around wreath.

Use a low-temp glue gun to glue the flower together. Then glue the flower to the wreath.

Keep going until the wreath is covered or the desired look is achieved.

Camera Buddy

I often kid that I have four jobs: housewife, student, shoe salesperson, and photographer. I love all of my jobs (sometimes I love the student job less), but I'm most excited about being a photographer. I get to meet lots of interesting people and capture so many special moments. One of the toughest things about that job though is making sure the kids look at the camera. Most of the time they want to focus on Mom or Dad or some shiny object that just caught their eye. This helps:

I love my little guy! He's really easy to make. Even better, I bought everything I need from the Dollar Tree! I made this little guy for $2!

You'll need a puppet animal, scrunchy of a coordinating color, fabric pen or marker, needle, and thread.

Place the scrunchy on top of the body of the puppet & trace the outer circle with a fabric pen or marker.

Cut out the hole.

Sew the scrunchy into the hole that you just created. Also, sew the bottom closed where your hand would normally go.

Slide the puppet onto the lens of your camera.

Pretzel Treats

I'm gonna do a two-fer. Two treats, one episode ;)

Depending on the one you want to try, you'll need either Rolos & pecan halves or Hershey Hugs to go along with the pretzels. The squares work better than most pretzels. I've tried many kinds and this is best.

Lay the pretzels in a single layer onto a cookie sheet. Top each pretzel with a Rolo or a Hug.

Bake at 350 3-5 minutes. Top Rolos with pecan halves. Top Hugs with another pretzel.

Enjoy those little guys!

Cake Batter Pancakes

A classmate bragged about the b-day breakfast she made her husband. So guess who had to give it a go...

Man, they were yummers!

Needed:
1 1/2c flour
2/3c yellow cake mix
1Tbsp sugar
3/4tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1-2c milk
sprinkles

Combine flour, cake mix, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add 1c milk, eggs, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Start with a cup of milk, but add more as you need. You want it to be consistency of regular pancake mix.

Preheat your skillet. Fold in sprinkles into the batter. Cook as normal.

Want to make it a little more special? Pour the batter into squeeze bottles & squeeze the batter into shapes and letters.

Oh--one more thing!
The glaze!

1c powdered sugar
1/2Tbps milk
1/2tsp vanilla
sprinkles

Mix the sugar, milk, and vanilla together into a glaze. Stir in sprinkles.

Pour over pancakes.

Oh my gosh! So good! ....be right back...gotta make some pancakes!

craft storage

Thanks for excusing my long absence. I missed blogging & I hope you missed me!

I recently decided I need to organize my craft stuff a little better than my current system.
Current system:

Source

New system:

Hey, it's a start.

I found these wooden drawers at a craft store in town. 

I then painted the outer part blue. Did you know you could water down acrylic pain & make it go on a little easier? Well, now you do. Then I used some stencils found at Wal-Mart to create a little design with gray paint.

I painted the drawers & now it's holding all my stuff!

Taking a break

My husband and I went out of town for the extended holiday. This week is also mid-terms. I am too busy studying and finishing up projects for school to work on any crafts or new recipes. I promise to be back next week though. In the meantime, please visit some of my favorite blogs:

Kitty Cats and Airplanes

Fake It Frugal

This one isn't for crafts or recipes or anything like that. Kjerstin decided to live without mirrors for one year to see how her self-image and confidence would change. It's almost the end of her journey, but she has gained some interesting insights.

That should keep you busy until I come back. I could also use some prayers for mid-terms. Even if I don't do well, I hope to maintain my sanity!

Feather Necklace

I didn't realize how long it's been since I posted a craft! My apologizes. Hopefully this:

The necklace, not the mannequin. 

will make up for it.
Remember when my camera ate the pictures of my brown sugar apples? Yeah, well, I was doing this at the same time so all pictures are kaput. However, if you click on the pictures that are posted, you can get a bigger view of the images. Sorry!

Needed:
1 meter in chain
2 feathers
spray paint
2 crimp beads
2 jump rings

Spray paint the feathers. I chose silver. I don't like the way gold looks on me.
Once dry, apply a crimp bead onto each feather. There are several different styles, I think these

Source

are easier to work with, especially since I'm new at making jewelry.
Using jump rings, attach the crimp beads to the necklace.

Wear that bad boy!

I found the craft feathers worked okay, you just have to make sure to choose some stiff ones. The spray paint can make the fluffy ones do weird and ugly things.