Iron Craft Challenge #2 Orange - Reveal

It's time... to REVEAL!!!

The 2nd Iron Craft Challenge was Orange.  

I didn't post a teaser last week, because I just couldn't think of anything crafty that would be Orange = (

I guess because we are in full on Valentine's mode at our house... 

it's Pink and Red everywhere.

After a trip to Hobby Lobby to look for Orange, I finally found it:

WOW!!  RIGHT!!!  

I LOVE Burlap!  So what better choice than Burnt Orange Burlap!

I've been wanting to make another wreath out of Burlap, so I thought that this would give me the Perfect Opportunity! 

So let's get to it! 

I used approx 2 yards of Fabric, and cut 4.5 x 4.5 squares.

I folded the square in half (diagonally).

 Then, folded in half, again.

 I then folded up the little pointed end slightly and poked one leg of a U pin through it.

 I was running a little short on U pins, so I actually used two Burlap squares on 1 U pin.  Just stuck 1 folded square on each leg of the pin.

 Then I stuck the pin into my Straw Wreath.

Then I repeated the same step and to make a row of three.  One pin in the center, one pin towards the center of the wreath and one pin towards the outside of the wreath.  Here is one completed row.

Then I kept working until I had finished the entire wreath.  

OK.... there's one little secret.....  

I ran out of Burlap.  

I probably needed another 1/8 of a yard.

Look REAL close to the bottom..... look a little flat?  

YES.  About 4-5 pins are missing.  HA!

Oh yeah.. here's what Addison worked on while I was covered in Burlap scraps:

A good nap ; )

For the 'N', I had picked up one of those cheapie letters while I was at Hobby Lobby and covered it with a sheet of moss.  I think I found the Moss at the $ Store.    

Here's a close up at my 'N':

And that is my Orange Burlap Wreath!!

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial....  have a wonderful Tuesday!

Talk to ya'll soon!

This Week... in PRE-Review

PRE - Review???

Not sure that's ...... Valid English......

Anyway, here is a glimpse into my Week:

Something I Made:  

Sandy's Chicken Parmesan from SparkPeople.com

It looked & smelled soooo yummy in the Oven!  And tasted pretty good..  Gracie liked it and ate it for two days!  Which is HUGE for my kid! 

Here are the ingredients, I had everything on hand (which is FABULOUS).  And it's made with Ritz Crackers, so it's less calories and FAT! YEAH!

 This is the Chicken, all coated up and ready for the Oven.  

Now for what I'll be working on Later this Week:

I was SO EXCITED to wander in to Michael's and see that Paint, Foam Brushes, Wood Frames and Heart Shaped Rocks were all on SALE....  and right in the front door area!!!  

Do ya know what that means??

A FABULOUS Valentines Gift craft!

I'll update you later on my progress.  

I think Gracie (my 'Craft Corner Blog Assistant') may actually do this Craft.  

She loves to make it on the Blog.

What my Hubs is up to:

This is from a couple weeks ago... the Hubs has discovered Duck Hunting!  

He's always enjoyed Deer Hunting and of course Fishing, but now he has taken on the DUCKS!

Watch out Daffy and Donald!

The Dog, Reese, belongs to a friend of ours.  Isn't she too cute in her work vest!

SO, it's a GIRLS WEEKEND for Me, Gracie and Addison this week.  Hopefully I'll be able to finish up some projects that I've been working on and post next week!

Talk to ya'll later,

Vanilla Cake w/ Strawberry Cream Frosting

All I can say is YUMMMMM!!

I don't know about you, but I LOVE anything Strawberry!  

So when I saw this picture:

at Perry's Plate my mouth started to water!  

Well, I finally got around to making it!

Oh... and this was from SCRATCH.  

So needless to say it took me one day to make the frosting and the next day to make the cake.  

But it was well worth it...

Not to mention that my counter and everything around my counters (my iphone) was completely COVERED in Flour.

 I didn't take a lot of pics while I was mixing everything (it looked like a regular cake mix), but here is the finished Cake... it was rather TALL.  And if I was going to take this somewhere I would have put some strawberries on the top to Pretty it Up, but it was just for us, so LETS GET TO IT! 

Here is a better look!  YES... 4 LAYERS OF HEAVEN!

 AND... It was even BETTER the next day, after is set in the refrigerator over night.  

Now, off for another piece  ; )  Talk to ya'll later!

Iron Craft Challenge #1 Cotton - Reveal

If you haven't heard yet... the crafty folks over at Just Crafty Enough have started the 

Iron Craft Challenge 2013.  

I just love the logo:

"Are you crafty enough?"   Oh...they were calling me out!  HA!

 The first challenge was 'COTTON'.  Easy enough... right?  Well, since Valentines Day is coming up (sooner than you think), I decided to make Valentines T-Shirts for the Girls. 

(it feels so good to be crafty again)

Gracie, hamming it up for the camera in her NEW shirt.

I found the t-shirt for Gracie and a onesie for Addison (both around $5 ea), then found some cute fabric at Wal-Mart for only $.97.  So, my total for this 2 shirt project was only about $11.  

Crafty & Thrifty... two of my favorite words!

Here's some pics of my project in process:

 

Bonus....  The t'shirt for Gracie came with a Box Top for School.  I've never seen this before.

This is the Fabric with one of the shirts:

First, I pinned the Pattern Fabric to the back side of the shirts, print side up.

I had printed out letters from my computer, just pinned them to the front of the shirt (over top of where the pattern fabric was pinned), then sewed along the edges of each letter.

 I actually didn't use to 'O' in LOVE, I used a Heart shape.  After sewing all of the letters and the Heart shape, I just pulled off the paper stencil I was using.

I then turned the shirt inside out and trimmed around down the Pattern Fabric, so there wouldn't be so much extra on the inside... 

Last, I cut out the opening of each of the Letters and the Heart, revealing the Pattern Fabric behind.

And here are the finished T-shirt and Onesie:

Had to take the Pictures separately, because the little one went to sleep before her Big Sister got home.

She ALWAYS makes me Smile ; )

Thanks for taking a look at my first Iron Craft Challenge.  There is a new challenge every other week.. .so check back, I'll be adding more projects!

Talk to ya'll soon,

Let's Make It Monday.. Monthly Onesie Update

Addison is 3 Months Old  ;  )

WOW.. It has really flown by, considering during those three months we had:

Halloween 

Thanksgiving

Christmas

New Years

6 Birthdays

Hubs with the Flu

Me with a Stomach Virus

And two mice in the house! (Yikes)

But... Addison made it thru the tough and hectic moments.  What a trooper!  

You gotta be born strong in the Nichols house.  HA!

Here is our little cutie:

Sorry, it's a pic of a pic.  

If the 3 month onesie looks familiar.. It's from a 'What I Found Friday' post from last year.  

Check it out to see how I made these cute onesies for every month.

Talk to ya'll soon!

Random Wednesday.. Iron Craft Teaser

Happy Wednesday!

Well, it's a week to go until my very first Iron Craft Challenge is due.

This weeks Challenge....... COTTON.

I've got my idea and my supplies, now all I have to do is 'THA WORK'!!  Which can sometimes (for a procrastinator), be the worse part.  

This weekend for SURE!

Here is a Teaser of what I will be using in my Cotton Challenge:

Now that I see look at this close up... my Pink's don't actually match.... HMMMMM!

Oh well, hopefully the end product will look OK.

Here is a Link to Just Crafty Enough's Blog that details the Iron Craft Challenge 2013.

Talk to you all soon!

Let's Make It Monday

Happy 1st Monday of the New Year!

I know, I know, UUUGGGHHH, Monday!  But... It's NOT raining here and the sun is shining, it's a good day!  Hopefully for you too!  ; )

I got very proactive this weekend and came up with my 

Menu for this week:

Sunday - Burbon Chicken w/ Brown Rice, Collard Greens and Mac & Cheese.

Monday - Subway  (we have activities on Monday's, so Subway is a good healthy fast food).

Tuesday - Salmon w/ leftover Brown Rice, Collards, Mac & Cheese and some new Green Beans.

Wednesday - Parmesan Chicken w/ Bread & Salad.

Thursday - Any of the above that is still left over, OR, Soup and Sandwiches.

Friday - You're on your own....

Saturday - Good luck with anything other than Cereal from MOM!  Ha!  Ha!

As you can see, Friday and Saturday are unpredictable... (we usually eat out).  But I thought that I was doing good this week.  I got my menu together BEFORE going to the grocery store.  

WOW!  What an ingenious idea!  

Sorry, I'm slow to this domestic thing.  I'm just lucky to have matching shoes when I leave the house...

So... Sunday.... I made Burbon Chicken.  

If you haven't tried Burbon Chicken, you should be able to find it in any Mall Food Court nearby..  the vendors of the Burbon Chicken are usually yelling at you to come and try the Burbon Chicken as they hold up a pick on a toothpick from behind the 'very sanitary' counter.  

Anyway.... the Burbon Chicken at the Mall is FANTASTIC.  So when I found a recipe on Sparkpeople.com (a weight loss helper website) and it boasted that it taste just like the Mall Food Court version, I had to try it!

You can find the recipe I used here, Burbon Chicken.

Here's how mine turned out 

(sorry, I used my iphone instead of my camera... I'll do better next time):

Here is my Chicken cooking in Green Peppers, Onions and Olive Oil.  Doesn't look very appetizing.

Here is the Marinade... It didn't smell very Yummy.

And here is the finished product.  

I actually looked and smelled MUCH better once everything was combined, and tasted pretty good.  

UNFORTUNATELY, I didn't think that it tasted like the Mall Food Court Burbon Chicken, but it was good.  

I'd make it again! 

Also.. I just wanted to give a heads up...  On my Menu for Tuesday is Salmon.  I have found a WONDERFULLY Yummy, already marinated, prepackaged Salmon that takes no time to cook.  

I used to find this at Walmart, however, they've stopped carrying it... BUT, I just found it at my local Ingles Grocery Store.  This tastes Fabulous, it's easy to make and everyone in the house likes it!  Even my 7 year old.  

It's certainly worth a try if you see at your local Grocery.

Anyway... have a great Monday, and I'll talk to you soon!

What I Found Friday...

Welcome Back!

It's the first official 'What I Found Friday' of the New Year... and I've found A LOT!!

I've been Blog Stalking and Pinning away, all of the goodies that I want to create and duplicate this year.  Here are a few of my favs that I'll be working on first:

YUMMY   ; )

This Strawberry Cream Cheese Vanilla cake from Perry's Plate will be one of my 1st creations of the new year.   Doesn't it make you want to scratch-n-sniff the computer screen!!  

Where is Rachel Ray's Smell-o-Vision when you need it??

New to me this year is Just Crafty Enough's Iron Craft Challenge.   

Every other week the great minds at Just Crafty Enough will post a Craft Challenge based on a Theme, Crafting Material, or Technique.  You have two weeks to come up with your creation.

I thought that this would be interesting and hopefully challenge ME a little.  If you are interested in joining the Challenge, click here for all of the details, and let me know if you sign up...  

PS.. the first challenge has begun!

Here is a Scrapbooking Organizational project that I want to complete:

It should be fairly simple.  Just a Paper Towel Holder, Clear folders and Binder Rings.... we'll see... I found this great idea on Pinterest via Tumblr.com.

I'm not sure if I've posted these cute frames or not, but they would look GREAT in my Kitchen!

I've picked up the frames at Michaels, so now all I have to do is finish the project.  Easy Enough!  

I spotted this on Homespun With Love.

So there are my first projects for 2013... 

what are you working on in the New Year??

Talk to you soon!