Lesson 99-Luggage Tags

Remember I mentioned that Husband recently got an awesome promotion?  Well said promotion involves a lot of traveling.  I wanted to get him a little congratulatory gift that was travel related.  I thought it would be cool to make him some personalized luggage tags.  Which is actually more difficult than I thought it would be.  There are packages you can purchase online.  But the cons were: 1)  I didn't want to wait for them to be shipped; 2) They only came in packages of 10 or more, I only needed 2.  Office supply stores had nothing of the sort.  So I improvised.

1.  I made the text in a Word document and printed on regular printer paper.  One side was going to have Husband's favorite football team's logo.  The other side has all the important info.

2.  Using the insert for a luggage tag we already had as a stencil I traced around each side on the paper and then cut each out.  I then glued each side to a piece of cardstock, same size and shape.  In retrospect, this was probably not necassary.  The lady at the office supply store told me it was a little thick for lamination.  Which brings me to...
3.  I took each piece to the local office supply store to be laminated.  They fit inside a business card pouch which only cost .99 for each one.
4.  After I got home with the laminated pieces, I punched a whole on the end wide enough to fit the straps through.  I just took the straps from luggage tags we already had.

5.  I made a little envelope with some left-over card stock and put the tags in there with a little message.

They are now residing in my dresser until we go to our congratulatory dinner tomorrow night.  I hope he likes 'em!

Happy Friday!  Hope your weekend is filled with all things fun!

Lesson 98-Sad, But True

Earlier this when I was planning for our Superbowl party I came across this

Ok, technically this isn't what I found.  I can't find what I found anymore.  But it's close enough!

I really liked it.  Cause it's true.  It sums up my marriage.  I wanted one for my house.  So I made one.

I started with a plain tray from Hobby Lobby, green, yellow stickers, white paper, yellow paper, and Mod Podge.

I painted two coats of green paint on the tray.  

Once in was dry I used Mod Podge to glue white cardstock strips resembling a football field (5 vertical and 2 horizontal).  

While it dried I stenciled letters on to  yellow cardstock to spell our "We interrupt this marriage to bring you football season".  This is the part where all you cool kids with a Cricut (or the like) will end up with cooler versions than mine.  The little letters ended up doing my head in, so I used yellow letter stickers instead.

Once my 'football field' and letters were in place, I covered the whole thing in a layer of Mod Podge.  On the outside of the tray I put some football stickers, cause I had 'em and they fit.  

 It now resides on our coffee table.  

 I like it.  But I'll be glad when I'm the coolest thing about Sunday afternoons again!  And if you're one of the cool kids that uses a Cricut, I'd love to see how it turns out!!!

Lesson 97-His Wreath

I decided that since football is so important to the hubs, that he could have some of his own football themed decorations.  With the beginning of the 2010 season this week its time to share the wreath I created for Husband.

Supplies

• 2 rolls of green ribbon (1.5 in wide)
• 1 roll white ribbon (1/2 in wide)
• Styrofoam wreath
• 2 packages of football buttons
• football Christmas ornaments (you know you've seen 'em in stores since July!)
• hot glue gun w/ extra glue
• kitchen knife
• scissors
• Scotch tape
• Gorilla glue

Step 1:  Wrap green ribbon around entire wreath.  I just used scotch tape to keep the ends in place.

Step 2:  I wrapped pieces of the white ribbon around the wreath.  I visually broke the wreath into 16ths (apparently geometry actually did do me some good).  These are the yard lines.  Used hot glue this time to keep the ends in place.

Step 3:  I arranged the buttons where I wanted on the wreath.  I then placed straight pins there to mark the spot.  With the kitchen knife I stabbed a hole through the ribbon into the wreath form.  I took a button, put Gorilla glue on the back and stuck it on the wreath.  I had to hold it firm for a while while the glue set.

Step 4:  Now it was time to attach the ornaments.  One was a cooler with a helmet laying next to it.  I decided that one dangle in the middle.  It is held in place with just a straight pin.  So far that's working fairly nicely.

 

I then added some ribbon at the top for hanging purposes.  The only football ribbon I found was too thin, so I just glued it to some thicker ribbon and then glued both to the back of the wreath.  Here it is hanging on our door.  

 

I think Husband was excited to finally get to hang it.  At least I hope he was!  But I wasn't going to make it team specific.  I don't want to make him feel bad because my team is superior to his ;-)

Lesson 96- Blogcation

After a fun-filled three day weekend with sorority sisters, pedicures, and shoe shopping overload, I've decided I need an extra day for catching up on all things domestic.  Husband was on his own for the weekend with the pups.  I got home this morning and did some cooking, cleaning and some laundry and I'm thinking one more day of catching up and I'll be back in the blog-o-sphere on Wednesday.

Chatsworth Gardens, Derbyshire, England

Hope you all had a super fun-filled weekend too and a good (but unwanted) return to work tomorrow.

Lesson 95-Oops! I Did It Again

No...this isn't an ode Britney Spears, because I was never really was a fan.  This is more of an ode to Pottery Barn.  A while back I shared with you my love for these Pottery Barn candles.

But like most things at Pottery Barn they were priced way higher than I was willing to pay.  So I shared how I made my own.  I loved the way they turned out!  But I needed at least one more--two candles just didn't look quite right.  About a month later while thrifting with my MIL, I found another candle at Goodwill that would be a perfect addition to the burlap candle family. 

My first time making these I used spray adhesive.  And I quickly learned that spray adhesive and I aren't friends yet.  One reader kindly suggested that I try melting the candle then pressing the burlap on, allowing the wax to act as an adhesive.

Oops!  Husband caught me without my wedding ring!

 And it worked...most of the way around the candle.  But then I got to a spot where the burlap simply wouldn't stick.  So I pulled out my nemesis 'Spray Adhesive' and finished the 'old fashioned way'.  Luckily I was able to complete the project without being plagued with sticky-fingers again.  I think the third candle was the perfect addition, how about you?

Psst...wanna see more burlap projects?  Just click here!  And here!  And have a great Friday!!!

Lesson 94- Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes

The other day I was definitely in need of some cupcake therapy.  And the combination of peanut butter and chocolate sounded heavenly.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp. baking soda
3 tbsp. baking cocoa
1 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 large eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners. 
 
Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Mix at low speed for 30 seconds while scraping bowl.  Mix at high speed for 3 minutes, scraping bowl every minute.

 
Spoon cupcake batter into liners until they are 1/2 to 2/3 full.  You should have enough batter for 24-36 cupcakes.
 
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

 
Cool 10 minutes in pans then move to wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting: 

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons milk, or as needed
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar 

Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy. 

Then I put 3 chocolate chips on top for decoration.  

I enjoyed them thoroughly even though they almost put me in a sugar coma.  Husband however, didn't like them.  But...I took them to Bible study where there were enjoyed.  So, I'm gonna go with the majority on this one. 

 

Lesson 93-Lights! Mirror! Action!

I know...super cheesy title.  But sometimes we all need a little cheese...

Starting Memorial Day weekend, Husband and I started our bathroom update.  Doing a full bathroom renovation was definitely not in the budget.  But I figured we could update the bathroom fairly inexpensively.  And thus started our summer long project of working on the bathroom.  So for the next few weeks I'll be sharing little projects that we completed before revealing our updated and brand new bathroom.

I've gotta start with a major oops!  I forgot to get a picture of the the hideous lights we got rid of!  But I'll let you use your imagination.  I'm sure you've seen them before.  They looked something like this...

But they were brass instead.  Gorgeous, right?  Nope, I didn't think so either.  So we chucked them...

 

The lights were kind enough to leave their mark so they wouldn't be forgotten.

This was when I realized this project might be more work than anticipated.  But we patched them up using Qwik Patch and painted over them, so this picture is now the only proof we have of the hole that once was.  On to installing the lights.  Please make sure to turn off lights from the circut breaker.  My husband chose not to do this (my guess is to show how macho he is) and ended up getting shocked.  But he was ok, no major damage done.  His hair was just extra curly for a day ;-)

 

Now...on to fixing the mirror!

For this portion of the project we bought one piece of molding that was 18ft long from Lowe's and 4 decorative square things (okay, who wants to tell me what those are called?).  We had the guy at Lowe's cut the molding to fit the length and height of our mirror (minus 4 inches that were taken up by the decorative square things).

When we got home we covered the dining room table.  I don't recommend using the dining room table unless you decide to do this project in the middle of summer and you live in Phoenix.  

 

We used Liquid Nails to adhere the pieces together and masking tape to hold them in place until it was dried.  We let it dry for a full 24 hours before moving the frame.  Then we carefully carried it from the dining room to the bathroom and stuck it to the mirror, again using Liquid Nails and masking tape.

 

After a few days we removed the tape, did some touch up paint and cleaned the mirror.  I think it's beautiful and considering it only cost us a mere fraction of what a framed mirror would have.  We were happy Newlyweds!

Break down of costs:

• New vanity lights: $40.00/set
• Light Bulbs: $20.00 (cause we bought the eco-friendly supposed to last for years bulbs)
• Molding: $8.99 + free cuts from nice Lowe's man
• Liquid Nails: $7.99
• Masking tape: $3.99
• Touch-up paint: free

Total cost for new lights and mirror: 120.64 + tax

Wanna see more from our bathroom update?  Click here.  Or here.  And I'll be back in a couple of weeks with more projects we completed in the bathroom.

And Hurray for being half way through the week!!!

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