Pepper Paints

Valentine’s Crafts

We went to a Valentine’s Day party today with some other homeschoolers and I was so impressed with all the craftiness!!

I  mustache you to be my Valentine!!!

Hearts!

Oragami hearts

Fortune cookie Valentines—cut out a felt circle, glue a pipe cleaner down the center, insert fortune and fold up and sqeeze into fourtune cookie shape! Genius!!

Look how cute these pins are!!!!

Molly made these. Hershey kisses, cellophane, flower petals, floral wire and tape. So cute!!

I LOVE these!!!! We used a die cut machine to cut the word love out of cardboard and then wrapped it in yarn. I first saw these here. We also used pipe cleaners to make the word LOVE and then wrapped those in yarn also.

Aren’t these so cute???? You still have a few days to get your Valentine craft on! Hope something here inspires you!

Hand Dyed Tiles

I have been ooohing and aaahhing over Artsyvilles  drunken tiles for a while now. We finally bought some alcohol based inks (adirondack inks) and some 10 cent tiles from Lowe’s and went to town!

We started with  the alocohol blending solution squirted onto the tiles and spread it  around with a toothbrush.

Then we gently dripped small amounts of the colored dyes on to the tiles. As long as the alcohol is wet the dye spreads and runs.

We used straws to blow around some of the colors and q-tips to draw into the colors. If  you add alcohol on top of the dyes it takes the color away.

This was so fun. No two tiles turned out alike. We also learned that you can’t really control the outcome. You think you have it just the way you want it to look and then the dyes just keep spreading and combining into something else. But they all looked really great!

This is the same tile from the first photo–look how it changed.

These dyes are permanent and will stain so prepare accordingly!

Slow and Steady

Building is a slow process!! Extreme Home Make Over and Holmes on Homes makes it seem like all the different trades show up at the same time and work through dinner to get the job done. Let me tell you–that ain’t so!! But we have made some progress!

We now have insulation and drywall!!

And we have dust–holy cow do we have dust! My lungs can attest to that too cough, cough, cough!! Even with plastic up the dust is everywhere! They don’t show that on TV either!!

Ginger’s room (the diagonal flooring) really looks small with it opened up!

I love the wood we picked out for the ceiling! With all it’s grain and knots it looks even better than we thought!

Here is a bedroom shot.

The metal roof on the screen porch has also been installed. It’s hard to tell from the photos but it is a copper color and looks so pretty in the sun. That is, when the sun actually shines around here!

Slowly but surely we are moving along. Hopefully sometime this Spring we will be able to “move in”!!

Progress!!

Our addition is coming along stunningly!! Luckily the exciting and awesome part out weighs the stressful, never ending decision making part.

Today they finished framing the screen porch.

It’s got me dreaming of summer time!!!!!

The screen porch will eventually have screens(!) and french doors leading into the house (where the paper with the green writing is) and  double screen doors opening onto the deck . (the large opening on the left) The area to the right of the screen porch is the deck (minus the railing and decking at this point!)

From the back yard

From the driveway

This is coming in through the new garage into our new expansive and bright hall way! We picked out really awesome tile for this space. I am really excited about all the possibilities of this new entrance way! We mainly use our back door to enter and exit the house several times a day. I always hated walking into the house through that blue door into our tiny dank hall way. It was so depressing. So I wanted to make this new entrance like a front door. We ordered a really nice wood door with a full glass view. I might  paint this space orange or yellow or some other bright color!

Eventually we are going to have a really nice back yard too……I swear! In the mean time we might need to call for another dumpster!

We Have Heat!!

Wow-it’s been so long I almost forgot how to update this blog! We have heat–luckily my husband spent the day at an HVAC/Electrical Class! He came home and hooked up our new furnace.  Or maybe I should back track a bit. Much progress has been made on our house addition since the garage demo post. Let’s see….

There was a back porch removed

There was lots of digging and hauling of dirt!!! Jake told me he felt like Mike Mulligan!

They dug for days!

Then there was pouring of gravel and concrete and building the foundation with stone blocks. And then came the framing and sheeting.

And then the trusses (this was truly beautiful!) I have a new love of architecture and hardware stores.

From there it was more framing and sheeting

Here is Ginger standing on our new pantry. This will eventually have railings and be a loft above the kitchen.

We have windows now too! And heat as of today–thank goodness!

Daytime view and night time view:

Sorry for the blurry photos–my auto focus is broken and according to my eyes with out glasses this WAS in focus! This is a shot of Ginger’s old bedroom (the green walls and carpet) now open to the new part. That was a small bedroom but now it looks even smaller!

New steps-horray!! Anyone who ever came to my door and tried to enter while carrying anything or happened to be greeted by the dogs or kids (which is everyone, always!) knows how awkward our old steps were and how awesome these will be!

Here we are at the bottom of the stairs, standing in the new super wide hall way looking at my old back door. To the left is my bedroom and to the right is another bedroom.

This is our new bedroom and below is a lucky kids new bedroom (luck is in the eye of the beholder because there is a war going on for my current bedroom)

We have hard wood floors and tile picked out and new appliances purchased. All I have to say is thank god for Pinterest and google!! I love you both beyond words! And more empty promises to update more often! Sorry!

Win a Bounce Dryer Bar & a $50 Visa Gift Card!

I love to hang my clothes outside to dry, but here in Central Ohio, that amounts to a couple short months of warm enough temperatures and sunshine to get that job done. That means the other eight and a half months I use my dryer. Which to me means lots of static electricity. My kids hate finding their socks pasted to the quilt Aunt Rosie crocheted a few years back!

So when I was asked to try out the new Bounce Dryer Bar, I quickly agreed. I don’t usually use dryer sheets for a couple of reasons. I forget to use them and I find those sheets stuck to the quilts just as often as I find the socks. I don’t particularly like the perfumey scent of most dryer sheets either! After receiving my Bounce Dryer Bar in the mail, I anxiously unwrapped it and headed to my dryer. It easily stuck to the side of the drum in my dryer and within seconds I was armed with a Bounce Dryer Bar that promised me fresh, soft, static controlled clothes.

Sure enough, my clothes were super soft and the static was under control. I chose the unscented Bounce Dryer Bar and was pleasantly surprised at the lack of the overwhelming scent of typical dryer sheets. My entire load smelled clean without a perfume scent.Which is just the way I like it! I absolutely love the convenience of the Bounce Dryer Bar. No more having to remember to throw a sheet in with each load. With no static electricity, I managed to fold an entire load with no lonely, unmatched socks left over. Now that’s a bonus!

Yet, the real bonus for my dog-loving family is that once our clothes went through a load with the Bounce Dryer Bar, it definitely lived up to its hair repellency claim! Normally we are a static magnet for our pets’ hair but not so after using the Bounce Dryer Bar! I love the convenience of the bar! Months of soft, static controlled clothes and bedding! And so simple too! Just stick it and forget it! Visit Bounce’s Facebook page for more information on the Bounce Dryer Bar!

Would you like to try one? You can win a Bounce Dry Bar and a $50 Visa gift card from Bounce and BlogHer right here. Leave me a comment, or answer this question to enter: Do you dry clothes outside when it’s warm? Why or why not?

Rules: No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. The Official Rules are available here.

For more opportunities to win, visit the Bounce round-up page on BlogHer.com to read other bloggers’ reviews!

Spider Web Snacks

We seem to be having an extra busy Halloween season around here this year. We have had to bring something to share to several events already with yet a few more to come. I brought  The Perfect Pumpkin Cake I shared the other day to a potluck but decided to make something more festive for a couple of other Halloween parties we were attending…Spider Web Snacks.

Now as much as I would like to say this was my great idea..I found it on Pinterest. I have said it before, I LOVE PINTEREST!! And I will say it again, I LOVE PINTEREST!!  As a visual person, this site takes the cake!

These were easy to make and called for only a few ingredients. You just need a little time and space.  And having a little helper around really helps!!

First arrange pretzel sticks into a star pattern on a lined cookie sheet or large tray

Next melt some chocolate (white or dark)

Now pour that melted chocolate into a plastic baggie and cut a tiny bit of the tip off. This makes it so much easier to make webs around the pretzels. Be sure to drizzle the points in the middle together really well and make sure to hit each stick on your way around the web!

Next we tried putting 2 raisins into the center of melted chocolate for spider bodies. Then we covered the raisins with more melted chocolate and made some legs.

And after about 4 or 5 of these my helper quit on me! So I was on my own. I decided to simplify– but I must say I like my version better!! I skipped the spider in the center and just shook some Halloween sprinkles into the melted chocolate. Ta da…

Just the right combination of salty and sweet. These were a big hit with both kids and adults alike!