Justin's Birthday!

Today is my wonderful son's 22nd birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JUSTIN!!! Mike and I are so proud of of him and the fantastic young man that he's become. He is an incredible gift and a blessing to us each and every day!

To celebrate his special day I am making Chicken Parmesan for dinner tonight, which is one of his favorite meals, along with a chocolate oatmeal cake. (Click HERE for the cake/frosting recipe.) Lastly, here's the fun little birthday card that I made for him:

I highlighted the number 22 simply by tearing out the inside of a velum tag and then I stitched it to the paper using hemp twine. Easy peasy!

Thanks for letting me brag on my boy again! Have a terrific day!

Unique Decorating Idea...

Today I thought I'd share with you a fun and unique way to add a little extra texture to a boring wall. Our main bath is decorated in a fishing/boating motif, so I incorporated a small fishing net into the decor to add some interest to one of the walls. Using a staple gun, I simply stapled the net to the wall at an angle in a drapey fashion. (Is "drapey" a word?!?!?) Anyhoo - after hanging the fish pictures over the top portion of the fishing net, I "borrowed" some antique fishing lures from my hubby's collection to hang on the net. I used hemp to tie the starfish to the net and hung the life preserver to the wall with a small nail. (NOTE: I purchased the fishing net, starfish and life preserver at Hobby Lobby).

Thanks for looking! Have a SUPER day!

Altered Gift Tin for Bosses Day

Here's a fun little tin that I made and gave to my boss/friend, Gina, for bosses day. I adhered the decorative paper to the tin box with Mod Podge, (man I loooove that stuff!), and then added the ribbons and stamped flower images for a little extra pop. I then filled the tin with some of Gina's favorite things...Bath and Body's Warm Vanilla Sugar shower gel and lotion, a fluffy shower pouf, and some Bliss creamy dark chocolate!

Thanks for looking - have a happy day!

New Blog Header...Thanks to Tresa's Blogtoberfest Tutorial!

This weekend while my fellas went camping in the Kiamichi Mountians, I stayed home to nurse a bad cold and decided to create a cool new custom photo blog header, courtesy of the amazing Tresa Black's AWESOME tutorial! (Be sure to check out Tresa's blog for some "Fabulously Artsy" inspiration, as well as to enjoy the wonderful blogging tips and tutorials that she is providing during the month of October.)

To create the header, I uploaded photos of some of my creations from previous posts to Picasa and then followed her simple, step-by-step instructions to create a custom blog header. It was really fun to do, and, (if I do say so myself - ha! ha!), I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out! If creating a custom blog header is something that you've been wanting to do, then I HIGHLY suggest that you hop over to Tresa's blog and follow her step-by-step tutorials to make one of your own.

Have a wonderful week!

Quote Sunday

"The secret to having it all

is believing that you already do."

~ Unknown ~

Silly Saturday...

Some folks go all out for Halloween, don't they?!?!?

Have a fun and safe weekend!

Hair Bow Storage/Display Board Tutorial

This week's Fabulous Friday challenge over at Frosted Designs is to create a project using "fancy trim". Here is the project that I came up with...it's a hair bow storage/display board for a little girl:

I made this cute display board for my adorable great-niece, Kayle Ann:

And, because I'm sure that you too have adorable little girls in your lives who also wear super cute hair bows, I am sharing a tutorial with you so that you can make a hair bow storage/display board too!

Here's a list of materials that you'll need for this project:

• 9" x 14" artist canvas
• Acrylic paint, (I used Folk Art "Sunny Yellow")
• Various decorative ribbons and trims
• 13 buttons
• Hot glue gun
• 2 thumb tacks
• 4 mini binder clips
• 4 screws
• Staple gun
• Sponge brush
• Hammer

Begin by painting your canvas with acrylic paint:

Once the paint has dried, layout the design with ribbons. Using a staple gun, attach the ribbons to the backside of the wooden canvas frame. Your board should now look like this:

For extra stability of the ribbons, you may want to add staples to the front as well. You'll be covering up the staples with decorative buttons, so they won't show:

To create the loops for the headband hangers, cut 4 pieces of giant rick-rack about 3 1/2" long. Fold rick-rack in half and staple to the back of the canvas as shown:

Your board will now look like this:

Screw binder clips to the bottom of the board...these will hold hair elastics:

Cut a length of giant rick-rack to use as a hanger. Fold the raw ends of the rick-rack under and use a thumb tack to secure on the sides of the board. (You will need to hammer the thumb tacks in place.)

Tie 1/8" satin ribbon through each of the buttons and form a bow. Using a hot glue gun, attach the buttons to the ribbons on the canvas as shown:

Create a decorative ribbon, using 1/8" satin ribbon and a button, to attach to the center of the hanger. Your hair bow storage/display board is now finished and ready to hang on a wall to hold the adorable hair baubles that belong to the special little girl in your life:

The "Fancy Trim" challenge at Frosted Designs is open until noon on Oct. 20th, so why not join the fun and enter one of your projects? I'd love to see what you create! Click HERE to see the rules and the wonderful prize.

Happy crafting,

Brilliant Idea!! New Use for Dryer Sheets!

Last weekend my sweetie hand washed my Mustang and tried out a new technique for removing dead bug splatters, (ICK!), from the bumpers. A friend of his from work told him that the dead, stuck-on bugs would come off really easily simply by wetting a dryer sheet and rubbing it over the "buggy" areas:

Well, I am here to tell you that it worked like a charm - no heavy scrubbing at all! BRILLIANT!

Hope this great tip helps you the next time you wash your car!

Have a wonderful day!

Salty-Sweet Treat

This evening I threw together one of my favorite treats and I'll be taking it to work tomorrow to share with my co-workers! It's SUPER SIMPLE to make, and is great to serve from a cute, fall candy dish or to scoop into individual little bags to give away. Either way, I'm sure it will become a favorite of yours too!

All you need to do is combine a 22 oz. bag of candy corn and a 20 oz. jar of lightly salted dry roasted peanuts. That's it! I like to put a scoop in my candy bowl and have cupcake liners available for people to help themselves to how much they want.

Have a blessed day!

A Fun Weekend and a New Fall Tote Bag...

I had such a fun weekend! Mike and I took a little road trip to our former hometown of Miami, OK, on Saturday. I had lunch with my long-time pal Cristi, (we've been friends since the 3rd grade), and then we did a little shopping. Here's a photo of us goofing around and trying on hats:

We had a terrific time catching up and laughed so much...good friends are such a blessing!

Mike and I also spent some time visiting with his dad, and then we ate a delicious BBQ supper with his sister Sandy and her hubby Don. My sweetheart of a sis-in-law Sandy made this GORGEOUS fall tote bag for me...

Here's the front view - don't you just love all of the cute details that she added??

Here's a view of the back...such pretty fall colors!

And lastly, here's what the inside looks like...don't you just looooove all of those fantastic pockets?!?!?

I'm getting ready to load all of my stuff into it so that I can start carrying it to work tomorrow. Thanks, again, Sandy...you are AMAZING!!

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Blessings,