Homemade party decor #3

Banners!  These are super easy and fun to make, and since you can use any fabric you can find, these can be festive for any occasion!  Go to the tutorial >here< and be creative with it.  Change it up and make triangle shapes or maybe add some letters!  Here is what I came up with:

The possibilities are endless!  

Homemade party decor #2

Going off our last post about pinwheels, you can always make smaller pinwheels with oragami paper, glue the backside together instead of fastening it with a brad, and voila!  There instant confetti, or glue them to toothpicks and make them into cupcake toppers!

Add some ribbon and a large pinwheel and some ribbon and you've got a unique centerpiece!

Homemade party decor #1

Over the next few months I'm going to spotlight some great ideas for homemade party decor that will make your party stand out, and won't cost a million bucks!

First spotlight:

Pinwheels!  We are prepping for a party next month so today we had a pinwheel making party!  We followed a simple tutorial with our own twist!  We used cardstock in a plain gold color and matching gold brads to fasten them.  To support our pinwheels, we'll be hot gluing some dowel rods to the back as ours are simply for decoration and we don't mind that they won't spin.  The great thing about these is you can make them in any size you want and there are endless paper options as well!

Check out our final products:

Simple, inexpensive, and chic!  

Happy Crafting!

What's cookin'?

I know this is a little off the beaten path of what we normally post, but it's delicious and cheaper than store bought so it fits in with our goal right?

Today I am making homemade granola!  I've made this recipe before-it comes from my mom who got it from an old cook book and altered it a little.  I will post the recipe with alterations (because that's how we make it).  If you try it out, let us know what you think!


3 cups Rolled Oats or Old Fashioned (not quick)
1 cup shredded or flaked coconut (unsweetened if you can find)
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (your choice-you can use sunflower seeds instead or do a half/half thing as well just remember to use non salted)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup honey (look for local as store bought is usually cut with corn syrup)
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup raisins (golden, regular, or even other dried berries if you prefer)

Combine all ingredients except raisins in ungreased 13X9-inch pan; mix well. Bake in preheated moderate oven (350° F) 25 to 30 minutes (longer if you double it) or until golden brown, stirring occasionally;after you take it out of the oven then stir in raisins. Cool thoroughly, store in tightly covered container in cool dry place or in refrigerator. Serve as cereal with milk or as a snack.
Makes 6 cups of granola
***Some changes I have made are I cook mine at 325° F because 350° F sometimes is too high. I also put in one tablespoon of vanilla because I like my granola to taste like oatmeal cookie dough-so sometimes I leave out the cinnamon and only use the vanilla and a small amount (1/4 cup) of brown sugar. I like to add sunflower seeds, flax seeds, or whatever you feel like that you might enjoy. I also use my metal bread bowl as it is easier to stir and holds more because I like to double the batch. 


I also add a little bit less than 1 cup of honey as I add the brown sugar to the butter when I melt that.  YUM!  

ENJOY!!!

DIY Baby leg warmers!

I'll admit, I've been on the hunt for some black and white striped baby legs for a while, but I couldn't justify the $15+ price tag, so I decided to check today while at the store and see what their sock selection was like, and low and behold I found some GREY and BLACK striped knee socks.  Even better than white and black!  So I snatched them and a few other pair of socks up to make some baby legs.  I used >this< tutorial.  It's very simple.  Cut off the bottom and sew them up!  I tried it with a sewing machine, and by hand, and while it takes a bit longer, I think I like doing it by hand better.  Here are two of my finished products:

It's baby season around here so I made a pair (on the right) for my niece and the ones on the left are for the little one I'm cookin' up!  I have a few more that I'm finishing up tonight (it literally takes like 5 minutes) and those will be going to other babies too!  Such a fun, simple and inexpensive, baby gift!  Oh and cute too! 

Turn an old T-Shirt into a bag

Today I wanted to experiment with this tutorial I had seen on how to make a bag out of an old T-Shirt. I had this Digital Underground shirt that was a little too short on me that I got for about $1.00 that I thought would work perfectly for this. It was my first sewing project completely on my own with no help or interference from anyone else so you know it was easy to do! This is a great bag because you can use it as a shopper at the grocery store for produce, or for the mall or bookstore, or you could make a bag out of a child's shirt for your daughter or son to use as an overnight bag or for dress ups or whatever you can think up to use it for! Maybe even Trick or Treating during Halloween! The steps are simple, you just take a shirt and turn it inside out, sew or surge the bottom near the seam across the entire bottom (you want to sew it together like you are making a pillow case or something similar), turn it back to right side out and cut the arms and neck off to make it look like a thick strapped tank top. After you finish those steps you are DONE! It's that easy!


Happy Sewing!