Doily Pumpkins

 So I am the girl that only likes flowers that match my house. I decorate for Christmas with white and silver and I don't decorate for fall. So I was trying to think of a way to bring some fall into the house with too much orange and I came up with doily covered pumpkins. This project probably took 10 minutes and when you are done just peel off your doilies, wash them and they are good as new. The step by step instructions are below images.

Doily Pumpkins:
Materials Needed: 1 Pumpkin, 4-6 Doilies (Vintage), Liquid Starch (Wal-Mart).
1. Pour starch into a bowl and dip doilies in the liquid starch
2. Place starched doilies on pumpkin and stretch until flat
3. Continue placing doilies until the pumpkin looks they way you want it too
4. Let it dry over night
5. Wipe off excess starch.
6. Enjoy

Gray Morroccan Tile Stenciled Fabric

I never can find exactly what I want so that is why I try to make a lot of things. I really wanted a Moroccan tile fabric but couldn't find it anywhere so I found this stencil and this fabric and joined the two together. I was really worried about the paint bleeding under the stencil or the paint smearing when I moved the stencil but I haven't had any problems yet. I used some left over house paint and so far it has turn out great. I am hoping to stenciling 5 yards of fabric and then starch it to the wall. I think I may stencil some fabric for pillows. I will post again if any of it works out. I hope you enjoy!

DIY Wallpaper Jars

Do you ever feel like you need some cute containers for q-tips, pens, and other odds and ends, but can't find exactly what you are looking for? I just realized that Anthropologie will send you wallpaper samples for free. So I gathered up some old glass cups and jars and covered them with wallpaper samples and other crafty things I had laying around (upholstery binding, ribbon and twin). I am obsessed with this Cole and Son Woods wallpaper so I was excited to have in my home in some way. Hope you enjoy!

yellow shower

My friend Elizabeth recently came to visit, so we through her little shower. She is having a little girl but she isn't super girly so I decided to go with a yellow theme to tame down the girlishness. I already had this Dwell fabric to make pillows for my deck, so I cut it up into runners. Then I designed these yellow papers to use as the flag line and just printed them off. It is hard to find fun modern papers especially a chevron print. For the centerpieces I used apple sauce jars, I had 5 just laying around I guess that is your life when you have a little one. Anyway I wrapped them with the same paper and some twine. You can download these papers by simply clicking on the patterned images below. You can use these to mack your own flag line. Also if you print it in black and white it comes out as a really nice grey. Hope you enjoy.

Dollar Store Birds

I really wanted some little accessories to put out on may deck but didn't want to spend too much money. I happened to be in the dollar store and saw these birds and thought they had some potential. So I painted them white and antiqued them a little bit. O and how cute are these pots...yep they are form anthropologie, but they were surprisingly cheep.

terrarium with handmade mushrooms

So when I was a kid I was addicted to making things out of sculpty clay. Recently I was at a friends house and she had handmade mushrooms and instantly I was reminded of all the clay bunnies and such that I had made as a kid and thought I could make those with the same clay. So I bought some for like a buck and made some mushrooms. It is really nice because the clay fires for 15 min in the oven and the mushroom maybe took 10 min to sculpt. I defiantly love a quick craft, it makes you feel so accomplished. Anyway here is a terrarium I made with moss from my back yard and a strawberry plant. I also added some budding sticks and of course some handmade mushrooms.

DIY Birch Tree Wall Mural

I really wanted to paint birch trees in our nursery but I didn't want it to look like a mural. I wanted it to look more like wall paper. So I got a quart of the same paint and had it mixed at 25% lighter than the wall paint. I used a small roller to paint the trunk of the tree. Then I went in with a smaller brush to paint the branches. Next with the same brush I painted the darker bark marks with the original wall color. This was probably the hardest part because it is hard to see what you have painted because the colors appear the same when they are wet. Now you are done. It is really easy, also because the colors are so similar it is very forgiving. Have fun!

modern vintage nursery

Today I finally got around to photographing August's nursery. I still want to put a couple more things up on the walls but I thought it was time to post an image of the whole room. I really wanted a gray nursery but finding the right gray was quite tricky. Lucky we only had to go through two colors. Next I am also going to post a DIY on how I painted the birch trees. It was really so easy. I hope you like it. Try not to get distracted by the ugly carpet.

custom silhouette necklace

Well I felt like Christmas sucked the life out of me. The holidays really are a lot harder with a baby. We'll see if I ever get motivated enough to take my Christmas decorations down. So that is why i haven't posted lately. My husband has been working late on the weekends, so I have been inspired to craft. Here is my new "favoritist" thing. I am so excited to wear it but I pretty much stay in my comfy clothes all day so I hardly have a chance to show it off. For Christmas I illustrated silhouettes of all of the grandchildren for my mom and family...it was a big hit. So then I wanted to think of more ways to use August's silhouette and this necklace was the first thing that came to mind.
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twig mini caramel apples

So I was in the mood to make some kind of fall treat for a group of our friends. Where we live there are a couple of wild apple trees so I thought maybe mini caramel apples would be fun. No one can ever finishes a whole caramel apple anyway. I didn't have any sticks to put in the apples so when my husband was picking the apples I picked up a couple of apple branches from the ground and cut them into small sticks. I soaked and scrubbed the sticks to make sure they would be clean enough to use. I also cut the ends at an angle to make them sharp. Then in between naps and poopy diapers I managed to stick the apples, make the caramel and dip them. My favorite thing was that a lot of the apples still had there leaves on them.

owl lamp: before and after

Well i haven't quite finished the nursery so I thought I would post a couple of small details here and there until the nursery is done...
... So I got this lamp at a thrift store it was supposed to be $8 but it happened to be 50% off. Yes!!! I was so excited I grabbed it right when I saw it and kept it close by my side I was seriously worried someone might try to steel it. Then when i got to the counter they could not believe I wanted such a ugly thing. Even my husband thought i was crazy, but now I think it is beautiful. He still thinks it's "whatever".

nursery and me

Here is sneak peak of the nursery. My mom took this photo... I think using my 5D has started her off in her photo carrier.

anthropologie inspired planter

I want to the anthropologie in Carlsbad a couple months ago and was completely inspired by how they used moss in there store displays. So when i found this office storage box on sale at target and I knew just what I wanted to do with it. We'll see how long it lives for... I don't exactly have a green thumb.

Orange Chocolate Mini Cupcake Recipe

ORANGE CHOCOLATE MINI CUPCAKES
1 Box Chocolate Cake Mix
Replace Water with Orange Juice
Replace Oil with Grape Seed Oil
1/2 Orange Zested
Follow box directions with the added and replaced ingredients. For parchment cupcake papers cut 3 1/4” squares and squish down into cupcake pan.

ORANGE ZEST ICING
4 Cups Powdered Sugar
8 Tablespoons Butter, Softened
3 Tablespoons Orange Juice (add more juice if needed)
1 Orange Zested
Mix all the ingredients until smooth. Use a round piping tip to pipe the icing. Zest an additional orange for to garnish and sprinkle a little sugar on top.

Baby Baker Cupcakes

So I wanted to think of cute way to tell my coworkers I was pregnant. My last name being Baker "Baby Baker Cupcakes" were the first thing that came to mind. So I made chocolate orange baby cupcakes with orange frosting. I went all out real sugar and not gluten free. They were so good. I didn't have any cupcake papers so I used square pieces of parchment paper, fortunately my friend came over and helped me cut out the papers. I think I like them better this way, it kind of gives them an organic look. I also made my favorite detail, cupcake flags, that said Baker No. 3. They went over really well all the boys ate multiple cupcakes, one girl thought I was starting a new business and another thought they were so cute she didn't read the flag. I got one hug for the cupcake and another huge hug once I explained I was having a baby. I might need to be a little more clear next time.

cupcake flags

My two other friends and I through a 30th birthday party last summer and I designed these cupcake flags to help celebrate the day. I love how they turned out. I think a cupcake flag bring a fun charm to a cupcake. My friends made most of these yummy goodies. I just designed some other cupcake flags I will post that soon.

gluten free banana bread

So I have been on a gluten free diet now for about 6 months. I just recently made this banana bread and I love it. I also cut out refined sugar so I try to bake with agave. I cheated a little bit though and put in organic dark chocolate chips.


Gluten Free Banana Bread recipe
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup agave
2 eggs
3 ripe banana
1-3/4 cups Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup organic dark chocolate chip

Beat together butter, agave, eggs and banana. Add remaining ingredients and mix together. Pour into a large greased loaf pan. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 1 hour, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.