Potions for Halloween

On a Sunday morning when I SHOULD be getting ready for church-I am making potions.

I had seen this potion idea around the blogosphere, I thought it was cute, and I wanted to try it. 

I knew that old spice rack with the 20 glass bottles (from Goodwill) would come in handy someday.  (That's what those bottles are from.)

Dang-I only had green and yellow food coloring.  Okay-that's when those kiddie water color paints come in handy.  (That's what the red, orange, blue, and purple are.)

I wrote the names of the potions on some name tag stickers I had.  In case you can't see them they are-love potion, truth serum, waking potion, eye of newt, sleeping potion, and antidote.  I tried to keep them on a positive note-you know instead of blood and brains and stuff like that, cause that freaks me out a little bit.

Have a happy and safe Halloween, everybody!

Before and after: Jessie's tv stand

A friend of mine (I'll call her Jessie), asked me if I would paint up this tv stand that she had inherited.  It was a lovely stand, but a little too dark for her taste, so paint it up I did!

Taaaadaaa!!!!  Here she is with a coat of primer, two light coats of paint, a little brown paint rubbed on and then off with a damp rag, and a heck of a sanding to the edges.   I like it, and Jessie, I hope you do too.  If not-I can always paint her again.  :)

I dragged her outside for her photoshoot.  (She's on wheels!)  I grabbed some fall decor from the basement (that never made it out this year) and decorated her up.

See this little runner?  I made this from a little ziploc baggie of already cut triangles that I picked up from Goodwill, a few years ago.  I think it looks autumnal.  (I love that word!)

I have a notion to just set some bowls of candy out there for the handful of Halloweeners I get.  That way they won't need to come into my GROSS basement!

Have a great Saturday evening!

A Rocco the Rottie calendar



I've been buying a rottweiler calendar for my daughter for Christmas for many years.

Lots of sweet pictures of sweet dogs. But-dogs we did not know, none the less.

Not anymore!



I made and ordered two Rocco the Rottie calendars from Artscow today.  One for my girl for Christmas, and one to keep here.

Go here  if you want to have a look see.

PS-That font is called 'GoodDog', and I thought it was perfect!

Indoor succulents



I needed something for my newly thrifted bear planter.  (I think it's a planter-does anyone know if it really is?)  I had seen on Flickr and other blogs and such, succulents growing indoors-so I thought I'd try my hand (or thumb-haha!) at it.   Very cute I think.  We shall see if it works for me.....

 

And here's Mr. Rocco at almost 8 months old and well over 100 pounds.  He's been getting into some mischief today and getting on my last nerve.  Doesn't he have a guilty look on his face?

Oh, and he wanted me to ask you and be honest, please-"Does this bone make my mouth look big?"

Friday's and Sunday's finds

Here are my Goodwill finds from Friday and Sunday-

::3 'vintage' sheets in very good condition.  (Washed, dried, and folded-yeeeehaw!)
::At least 5 yards of barkcloth(?).  (I think that's what it is.)  I'm not sure what I will do with it but for 29 cents-I went ahead and brought it home.  It's kind of ugly, but yet I like it.  I think you understand.  :)
::Cool-looking color drip candles
::A little bear planter(?).  I think it's a old, but I'm not sure.
::A little can of Minwax faux finish.  This kind of stuff comes in handy at times.

So there you have it-my thrifty finds.  Thank you cheap Goodwill with the good stuff!

Here's hoping that if you are a thrifter-cheap and good stuff comes your way too!

Project Happy Camper!

This, my friends, is my new, old (and I mean old!) 1972 Swiss Colony (hey-I thought that was a cheese and candy mail order company!) camper. 

My mom had told me that my uncle and aunt were trying to sell this camper quite cheap and that there were no takers yet.  She told me it was in good working order and that they had just put in a new air conditioner and hot water tank. 

I never had any intention of buying a camper-but I got to thinking.  (Dangerous, I know!)  I've always been fascinated with tiny homes and having everything you need to live within that small space.  Whenever I see a tiny little shack of a house-I always think to myself-I would love to buy that thing and fix it up.  Well, buying an extra house so I can fix it up is not in the cards for me.  But fixing up an old, well-loved, well-used camper-that i can do!



I love-before and afters, something from nothings, being resourceful...you get the idea.  :)



Sooooo-when my happy camper gets here (to my house) (my dad needs to do something to his truck-add an electric brake system? before he hauls it here) I'm going to start working on a little transformation. 



I'll be using lots of cleaner, primer, paint, fabric, and whatever else I can find around here.  And lots of Goodwill finds-I'm sure!

What I won't be using is a lot of money!



I am determined to make this little camper homey, warm, easy on the eyes, and good smelling!  A place that makes you want to come in, sit down, have a cup o' tea and stay a while.

Maybe next year-happy camper will be sitting at a camp ground!




Until then, do you want to come along for the ride???

Ohhh-this is gonna make some good blog fodder, I think!

PS-Some of my house pics are on Etsy's blog The Storque today.  Very exciting for little ol' me!



A good breakfast

Banana muffin topped with Nutella. 

I highly recommend it!

Another homemade book

I didn't lose my mojo-I made three little blue cookbooks.  I may make one more.

And I decided to make my mom a book of copies of my scrapbook pages that I did two years ago during a two week scrapbooking stint.  So I got busy copying the 20 some pages I had of 'the grandkids' onto cardstock.   I ended up running out of ink-so I'll have to wait till my new ink cartridges get here so that I can finish. 

I made the book cover from a file folder with some fabric glued onto it, and then I stapled each corner of the covers for good measure.  I punched my holes in my cover and pages and just used jute to bind it. 

It's a very rustic and very simple little book.



And I think Mom will likey.  I mean, why wouldn't she like a scrapbook of her grandkids???



Rocco, Santa-Santa, Rocco

I saw Rocco kissing.....
Santa Claus

Hmmmmm-it doesn't seem that Rocco's too impressed with Santa Claus.

I found this santa at a thrift store, dirt cheap. This is going to my friend, Dawnie. She collects the smaller, old fashioned blow mold santas and they look absolutely adorable lit up throughout her home. Although this santa is neither small nor old fashioned-she said she'd take him in.

PS-Speaking of Santa if you want to see what I got my sister, Kim, for her birthday/Christmas-go here.

An heirloom cookbook

When I made lemon squares this week-I pulled out a little recipe booklet that my mom had made for me for my bridal shower.  A little blue book with 32 hand written (by my mom) recipes.  I've always loved this little book, probably because I love personalized things.  I had thought about trying to reproduce this book for other family members before, but finally this week I took action!

On the left is the original and on the right is the one I made.  It was a little more time consuming and harder than I thought it would be.

It involved a lot of copying, cutting, gluing, punching (hole punching-that is, although I felt like punching the wall a few times too).

I had everything I needed right here in the house (although, I am now running short on some supplies).

I used:  copier/printer, INK (biggest expense!), cardstock, plastic photo sleeves, scissors, hole punch, glue, cardboard,  strawberry wallpaper (to line the insides of the cardboard covers), sandpaper (to sand the edges of the covers),  and jute.

And tada!  An heirloom cookbook.  Now, hopefully I don't lose my mojo, and make more so I can give them to certain family members as gifts.

Lemon squares

I decided that instead of stopping for Chinese tonight, I'd actually make something to take to Ladies Missionary.  My mom and my aunt used to make these a lot around Christmas time.  They are sooooo good!

My mom had this recipe in  little  hand written recipe booklet she gave me as a bridal shower gift over 20 years ago.  (I was working on reproducing this recipe book today-more on that later.)  I think it's a pretty common recipe but just in case you don't have it, I'll put it here.

Lemon Squares

2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup melted butter  (I just realized, I only used 1 stick and that's only 1/2 cup-it seems just fine!)

Mix together and pat in a 9 x 13 cake pan.  Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes.

Filling

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2  cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder (oops-forgot this!)

Beat eggs till thick, add rest of ingredients.  Pour on crumb mixture.  Bake 25 minutes more.  Cool.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!!!

Autumnal collage

Happy fall, y'all!!!

A beautiful day today!

It's a gorgeous autumn day here in western Pennsylvania-it's just beautiful outside.  So beautiful, I actually went outside-more on that after I tell you about this delicious chocolate.  I bought this at Target on Saturday-(my mom and my sister forced me to go into a couple stores).  Oh, this is a good one.  I like dark chocolate, but honestly I like milk chocolate better.  But this was so good because it had toffee bits in it and that made it sweeter.  Try it-I don't think you'll regret it!



Okay-on to the beautiful day!  Here's my pup, Rocco.  Isn't he a gorgeous one?  I love how his front legs are crossed and his shadow!



I basically let my flowers go (in other words, I didn't water or weed, and everything pretty much died) after we threw Hoper's graduation party which was the beginning of July.  These came up sometime after that-these are from last year-in other words, they are volunteers! 

I found a feather out in the yard-I thought it would make cute fall decor.

The zinnias are almost all dead-but there were still a few-so I cut them and brought them in.

This wheat is everywhere and I think it's quite beautiful!

Hey-it pays to go outside once in a while!  I think I need to do it more often.

I hope it's a beautiful day where you are too!  :)

Scrapbook scans

(I had a little two week scrapbooking stint two years ago!)

I'll probably get to see my girl's face later today, for a few minutes anyhow.  I usually do on Friday afternoons.  :)