Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Inspire Me: Chalkboards

It was a wonderful Easter weekend wasn't it?  My parents came to town and we had the most perfect weather and soaked up as much outside time as we could hiking, riding bikes and enjoying each other.  Which means my flowers inspired project is still waiting for just the flowers!  And so I'll hold off until its perfect and pretty to show you.  But I'm on to another project while I wait, inspired by one of my faves. Chalkboards.  Enjoy, and Happy Tuesday!


Chalkboard Frames from Lovely Lindsay at Project: Craft.



Photo Props 


Make your own chalkboard paint.  Any color.


Placemats.  Brilliant.


Labels... in embroidery hoops.


Doors and To Do.


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Thursday, April 21, 2011

Happy Earth Day!




Yay for Earth Day!  


I've been recycling for a while.  It takes a little effort since I have to drive it to a drop site but its worth it.  On my last trip to Portland I was in Ikea and picked up something that would work in the small space I have to fit our recycling to keep it from taking over our laundry room.  


It is the Dimpa recycling bag and it was $9.99.  It has three compartments and works perfectly for us.  I just put it in the back of the car and head to the recycling drop.  It always makes me smile when I'm not the only one there saving the earth. ;)  I used two of my favorite things Picnik and my silhouette to make it a little funner to recycle.  And just so you know, since we have been recycling we maybe have one bag of garbage a week. 


So whats stopping you?!  Don't be trashy ;)  Start recycling!

And if you are looking for some other great ways to love our earth, my friend Amelia came up with a great list of things to do! 

1. Ride your bike
2. Skip the bath or shower (it's just one day!)
3. Pay everything online
4. plant or tree or anything for that matter
5. update your lightbulbs to enery efficient ones
6. set up a compost bin (you'd be surprised how much you can throw in there)
7. Recycle something (start with paper, just put it in a different place then the garbage; their are recycle places all over, Maya Angelou has one)
8. Keep the lights off (and all electricity for that matter)
9. Eat only plant based foods (it's only one day and you'd be amazed how much that does for our world!)
10. If shoppings on your agenda but recycled or used, you'd be amazed how fun the thrift store can be!

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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Pimp My Bike: Basket Liner Tutorial




I have the CUTEST bike evah.  I love.love.love it.  We sell a lot of bikes at Greenies but none have captured my heart they way the Tree of Life has.  It is an Alexander Girard limited edition Electra and riding it is one of the happiest things I do. 


 I finally broke down and exchanged my light for a basket this winter.  Its a fun wicker quick release but it was needing a little sumthin.  So I used my mad skills to make a liner for it. And I was so excited that it actually turned out how I pictured it in my head. So I wrote out a tutorial for you so you can learn how to make your own basket liners.  This would work great for easter baskets too.  You can read the full tutorial after the jump...

{I promise you should read the whole thing because this liner has the sweetest little pockets you've ever seen!  

Monday, April 18, 2011

Inspire Me: Flowers



Ranunculus in every color.


Fabric Flowers to wear in your hair, or anywhere.

I hope that Heather Bailey's Pop Garden never goes out of print.


Pretty Paper Petals


Gift Card Bouquet



Flowers for Teacher.
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Friday, April 15, 2011

Pallet Shelf

I'm going to try something new. At the beginning of each week I'll have an inspiration board coordinating with something I've been working on.  Then sometime later that week I'll show you my project. You know, kind of organize myself a little bit.  Well earlier this week I showed you some pretty pallet pictures.  

My friend Lyssa game me this pallet shelf back in December.  I've been waiting to spray paint it, but this week I decided to stencil it instead.  I used my silhouette to cut a stencil and mixed up some yellow paint.  I don't have much on my shelf  yet.  But it is the perfect spot for my hoop art from my fab partner Andrea.  { I participated in Life Made Lovely's hoop art swap.}  It adds a nice sunny touch to my dining room, although I might move the whole thing to my craft room since there isn't anything on the walls in there. Jars of buttons and flowers will be a nice touch don't you think?
 
Happy Weekend! 
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Thursday, April 7, 2011

Have A Cookie!


I know that there are a million claims to the best chocolate chip cookie recipe.  And I don't know if there coupld possibly be THE very best one but around here my aunt Chandra's recipe is pretty popular.  It is my friend Lindsay's birthday today so I packaged up some of these yummy goods just for her. {You should be able to eat as many cookies as you want on your birthday.} If you are in the mood to try them out I'm posting the recipe just for you!  Oh and last night we tried sprinkling the dough with sea salt before baking...  Um.  YUM!  Adds a whole new level to how good these cookies are.  So whether you are trying out this recipe or using your own and you go for that whole salty/sweet thing, I highly recommend adding a little sea salt to your cookie!


One other cookie tip!  I cream the butter and sugars for 3-5 minutes.  After that I only mix until incorporated.
What are your cookie tips?!


 :: polkadot paper and tape strip from pugly pixel
:: fonts are snf sketch black out and ld string bean both free from scrapnfonts
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Saturday, April 2, 2011

How I'm spending my weekend

If you are curious of what I'll be doing this weekend I'll be making these...




working on this...



... and going to church in my pajamas.  Twice a year my church {that would be the LDS Church} holds a General Conference.  It is broadcast from Salt Lake City and thanks to modern technology I get to enjoy listening to our prophet speak from the comfort of my home.  As I was trying to find the link online to stream the video on our TV I found out that it will even be streaming on Facebook.  If you are interested in checking out conference you can find it streaming HERE or HERE and here is the facebook link...


{fancy that you can even watch it right here!}

Have a fabulous weekend!
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