Gardening tools - Fix Up!

Ok,  my organizational skills need help.  

Well... my "putting it back" skills need help!

So these little beauties were left out in the elements too long.  I still liked how they worked, but did not like the splinters in my palm. (insert frowny face here).  What to do?   FIX IT!

garden tools - fix me

 

...get a little paint.

...dip the wooden end in the paint.

...let it do a little bit of drying.

















Tada.... these tools are ready for some real work.

Now, if I can just figure out how to get it to rain every other day or so, I would not have to invest in a sprinkler system.


(I know, all ya all are laughing because Arizona is the land of perpetual sunshine and rain is once every 90 days or so.  That equals withered, parched plants.  But gardening tools are so cute... I keep trying to grow a garden anyway!)

-Tara

DIY 70's Chandelier Revamp

My husband inherited some ugly... uh, I mean *lovely* vintage antelope lamps from his grandmother. Definitely unique, but not exactly as chic as I would have hoped. And being an "heirloom" I couldn't doctor them, paint them, change them... nothing.

Finally, my hubby said, "It's too dark in here and I don't have any space on the bedside shelf. We need new lamps."

HALLELUIAH!

So we traded them in for a pair of chandeliers! They couldn't be too big because we want them by the bedside, and they couldn't be just any chandelier...

Here's was my idea:

I took another uncool 70's light fixture, the kind that hangs in the dining room, and took it apart. I didn't want the glass dome, just the mini chandelier inside of it.

But don't throw away the glass dome! You can use it for gardening... but we'll get to that another time. :-)

I taped off the electrical connections and sockets, and then spray painted it a happy red.

Time to reassemble! Of course, since it was made as a light fixture for the ceiling, the chord needed to be replaced. I rewired it so it had a 15 foot chord (long enough to hang AND plug in), then added the plug and a switch on the chord.

*Be sure to put the switch in a place you can reach it!*

Now for the finishing touches... must have BLING! Being the beadoholic that I am, I found a giant crystal bead and wire wrapped it to the bottom of the chandelier.

Ooooo... Aahhhhh...

I found a beautiful, yet simple garden hook from the hardware store to hang it from. Yes, I could have used ceiling hooks... but what fun is it to be like everybody else?

And there you have it - my 70's lamps replaced with stylish updated chandeliers!

The hubby is happy with the brighter light, easy-to-reach switch, and complete space on the bedside shelf!

Speaking of those shelves (ugh!), time for another revamp...

~Jannie

Warning: incredibly non-diet. Free-day food only. (or whatever for those of us that never really follow a diet...)

I made these last week altering a few recipes to make my own. They are super yummy. Do not eat right out of refrigerator, or your dental work will hate you. I wish I had a picture, but we ate them before I remembered...

Homemade Twix Bars

Ingredients

Cookie layer:

•  1 stick (4 ounces) butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
•  1 teaspoon vanilla
•  1 cup flour

Caramel layer:

    * ¼ cup butter

    * ½ cup white sugar

    * ½ cup brown sugar

    * ½ cup light Karo syrup

    * ½ cup sweetened condensed milk

Chocolate layer:

•   1-2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300º. Line 8 x 8 inch pan with nonstick foil or greased regular foil.

Cookie layer: Beat together 1 stick butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Add the flour. Press evenly into pan...you may need to flour your fingers to prevent sticking. Prick crust with fork. Bake 35-45 minutes till crust is golden.

Immediately after removing crust from oven, run knife around edges to loosen crust. Cool completely so the crust is firm enough to support the caramel layer.

Caramel layer: combine ¼ cup butter, white sugar, brown sugar, karo syrup, and sweetened condensed milk in microwave safe large dish. Cook on high in microwave 6 minutes, stirring every two minutes. Stir and pour into cookie layer.

Chocolate layer: Let caramel cool about 5 minutes. (This creates a semi-firm layer for the chocolate chips to land on, but don't cool too long or the chocolate chips won't melt). Pour chocolate chips over  slightly cooled caramel and let melt. When melted (about 5 minutes), spread to edges. Chill till chocolate is well set. Cut into strips to serve. Store covered in refrigerator, but remove a few minutes before serving or your dental work will remove with it.

T-Shirt Hat

I tried a fun little project yesterday... thought I'd share.

I got on the bandwagon with the recycling of t-shirts.
("up-cycling" in todays world)
I found the instructions here.

 The hardest part was the flower. (seriously)

So what you do is measure the circumference of your head and add an inch.

Cut out two strips from the old t-shirt that length. Just keep the t-shirt together and cut the two pieces out at the same time. Then cut out a circle out. You can do this using your math  c=d x ∏ (pie) (3.14) or just cut out a 7" circle like I did. You need two of these also. And trace a brim from one of your other hats. Cut out two of knit and one of firm interfacing. Cut the interfacing a little smaller.

Sew the two long pieces together as if they were one piece and make them into a tube. Open the seam and topstitch open. 

Now sew the two circle pieces together.

Pin and sew the tube to the circle.

For the brim, sandwich the interfacing in between the two brim pieces and topstitch them together remembering that this will not be a finished seam. Tuck brim into the center front of the hat. Mine ended up being about 1 1/2" in, between the layers of the tube. Just check to see if this brim length looks good on you. Pin and sew going all the way around the hat. Add your flower. I added elastic in the back. You can do that too if you like.

And your done. 

This hat is also on my other blog. Go here to see what's going on there.
So I'd love to see yours if you make one.

Christmas ornaments on a branch

I needed a cheap Christmas decoration that took up some serious wall space. Here's what I came up with.

I swiped a branch and tacked it to the wall. Then I made paper ball ornaments that are all over Pinterest, and with my SIL's help (and beads) added string to them. I took red wired ribbon in about 3 yard lengths, pulled out one side of the wire on that length, and then gathered the ribbon into a spiral. I hot glued the spiral to a cardboard circle, and POOF!

A rose! I then hot glued the roses to the branch. Cheap. Sorta quick. And disposable if I want it to be!
Merry Christmas!
Summer

Caramel Apple Wedges -- Yum!

 Need a treat for the Festivities?   I tried a different version of the Caramel Apple.....

I made a wedge.


You need:


Caramels
apples
milk
lemon juice
craft sticks
wax paper


Prepair the apples first by cutting them in fourths and taking off the core parts.  Line up the apples on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.  Next unwrap the caramel and melt the caramel and the milk in the microwave.  I used a 2 cup glass measuring container. When the mixture is smooth, pour over the apples.  Poke a craft stick into each apple slice.  Refrigerate to solidify.  Eat!!!


Too Good!  


Tara--

To see more pictures and more details on the instructions, please visit the link below.

Caramel Apples - Whimsyfunk

Spider web

My dd is insisting on decorating for Halloween this year. In the past two days we've made spiders, ghosts, a spider web, a cat, and candy corn bunting. Today is plastic bottle luminaries day, from choosetothrive blog.  But I just wanted to show you our spider web that has pretty good curb appeal.
We put small nails in the large octagon shape and one nail in the middle. Then just wrapped black yarn around the nails and tied it off. We hung plastic bag ghosts (bags over plastic balls) and pom pom spiders (with pipe cleaner legs) from the web.
The candy corn bunting was a paper plate painted with a yellow circle and an orange circle around the edge. We cut the plate into 8 pie pieces, hole punched the edges and laced yarn through it. We hung it with sticky tack.
Last is the cat she drew and cut out. We used a glue stick sparingly to adhere it to the inside of the window.
She is have a spooky good time.