Pinterest Inspiration: Football Door Hangers

My craft {and recipe, decorating, photography, holiday, and party} to do list keeps getting longer and longer...mostly thanks to Pinterest! I am seriously pinning amazing ideas way faster than I can create them! A few weeks ago I pinned a really cute Football Door Hanger that I knew would be perfect on my front porch along with my Football Windsocks! I had all the supplies in my craft stash, I just kept putting off making them...until I finally convinced a few of my friends to come over for a craft day! We spent a few hours turning plain burlap into these adorable Football Door Hangers:

I don't have a step by step for you...mostly because I was dealing with Eli and trying to make four of these without getting too confused! {Check out Amanda's blog post to see her step by step.} They are actually really easy to make. We started by cutting out some plain burlap in the shape of a football, two footballs per door hanger. Then we spray painted one side of each burlap football with brown spray paint. After the paint was dry we added the fun painted embellishments to the piece that was going to be the front. You can also paint on two of the burlap footballs and make it reversible. My friend Tonya is apparently a great free-hand painter so she did the letters:) After the paint was dry, we layered two of the footballs together and then used a stapler to attach them to each other leaving one end open to stuff them. We added in a ribbon to the top to hang them with, stuffed them with plastic grocery bags, and closed up the hole using the stapler. Pretty easy and SUPER cute! That's one project I can mark off my {Pinterest} to do list!

Have you been working on any Pinterest inspired projects lately?

Wordless Wednesday: Our Day So Far

I Learned All I Know About Cobblers Thanks to The Pioneer Woman

Cobblers. For some reason everyone else seems to make amazing fruit desserts, and I just can't figure it out. I admitted to this last year when I shared a great Cherry Crunch recipe. And even though I did figure out one fruit dessert, I still  had trouble with cobbler...that is until I watch the new Pioneer Woman cooking show on Food Network. She shared an easy recipe for Blackberry Cobbler that is apparently magic because this weekend I made the most scrumptious peach cobbler using her recipe {and some fresh peaches my hubby picked up for me on his way home from a business trip}. Besides the fact that this is a really great cobbler recipe, how cool is it that Ree is a blogger turned tv show host! Call me crazy but I think that is just awesome. Now on to the recipe.

 Fresh Peach Cobbler

adapted from The Pioneer Woman's Blackberry Cobbler

Ingredients:

1 cup self rising flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup milk

1/2 stick butter, melted

6-8 fresh peaches, peeled and sliced

cinnamon and sugar for the top

Directions:

Mix together the flour, sugar, and milk.  Stir in the melted butter. Pour the batter into a buttered 10X13 baking dish. Add cut up peaches {or whatever kind of fruit you want to try} on top of the batter. Top the whole cobbler with a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 for about an hour. Cool slightly and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Friday Flashback: Craft Edition

**I haven't been very crafty latley, so I'm sharing a little flashback craft. This fun Mod Podge project was originally posted back in November of 2009.**
*******
Fall Mod Podge Pumpkins

This is how our project ended:

Despite the major mess and the {now} dry and scratchy carpet, our Thanksgiving/fall pumpkins turned out SUPER cute!

Just in case you want to make a HUGE mess and some SUPER cute pumpkins...here is the list of supplies and steps we followed to make them.

*******************************

Plastic pumpkins {mine were $1 at Walmart}

Scrapbook Paper {8 sheets for $1 at Target}

Mod Podge

Paint Brushes

*********************************
Tear scrapbook paper into small pieces

Attach the paper to the pumpkin and continue to coat it with Mod Podge until all the paper is wet and stuck to the pumpkin really well. This is the messy part, because the only way to make the paper stick really well is to work it with your hands! Eli and I worked on some painting while Henry and Grant were finishing up their pumpkins. These SUPER cute and oh so chubby handprints are going to be turkeys and leaves once I get my paintpens after them! Just a little hint....be careful when painting with brown paint, because your kiddo might think it is chocolate and try to lick it off his hand! :)

Then use a foam paintbrush to apply a coat of Mod Podge all over the pumpkins and let them dry. 

Our pumpkins {coated with Mod Podge} drying on the table...picture taken by Henry {because I still had a two inch layer of MP on my hands}!

Our finished Thanksgiving/Fall Pumpkins!

By the Numbers

7

The number of loads of laundry I attempted to do yesterday.

5 1/2

The number of loads of laundry I actually finished. I say 1/2 because the trusty load of whites is still sitting in the dryer getting more and more wrinkly every minute they sit there waiting for a fluff and fold.

1

The number of people who knew what the medicines were in the picture I posted yesterday.

11

The number of awesome blog friends who were concerned and emailed or commented on my Real Life post. Apparently I forget that even though I share a lot on my blog, I don't always share the more mundane details of my life...like the fact that I have a chronic illness and have to take way too much medication for someone my age.

2

The number of shots that I have to give myself each week. Both shots are for rheumatoid arthristis which I was diagnosed with over two years ago. Here's the post that I shared back when I was first diagnosed with RA. Some things have changed since that original post...like my doctor, my real diagnosis {I technically have something called Still's Disease which is a form of RA}, my meds, and how I feel{almost normal most days}.

4

The number of times Eli peed in his pants yesterday. He did not have a very good day and for some reason didn't make it to the potty in time more than once. That makes doing laundry not very fun...maybe I should attempt something similiar to what Leslie is doing with her little boy:)

5

The number of times I made Grant write his spelling words yesterday. I still don't know how he is going to do on his test because he CAN NOT stop mixing up his b's and d's! One of his words is dad and I'm pretty sure his test is going to come home on Monday with the word bab on it!

3

The number of days I'm going to be spending over at my mom's house helping her with a party...it's kind of like a jewelry party on steriods:) Check out this website to see the stuff we will be selling.

0

The number of crafts I have worked on this week that I want to share with you. I have a ton of things on my list that I really want to work on...but I just can't find the time or the motivation! I'm hoping I at least have some fun door decor to share next week because it is time for my summer stuff to come down.

Wordless Wednesday: Real Life

It's a Tradition

Every year when the third weekend of September rolls around, my boys know we have big plans. And they look forward to those plans for weeks leading up to it. They will ask a million times when we are leaving...how many days left...when do we get to go to Clarkco.

{2010}

{2009}

Every third weekend in September, we load up the kids and head north to a little state park for a family reunion. The boys love playing with all their cousins and they love exploring. Here are few pictures from their adventures this year:

Same Time, Same Place

September 2009

September 2010

 September 2011



Candy Corn Waffles

After making fun kid friendly waffles this spring {rainbow waffles} and this summer {watermelon waffles}, I figured it was time to start working on some fun fall waffles! I had a couple of ideas in my head, but candy corn waffles won out as my first attempt...and I'm so glad they did! Aren't they adorable! My boys were so excited about them, except they were a little sad that they didn't actually have candy corn in them! I may have to work on that for next time:)

Start with your usual cast of {fun} waffle making characters: waffle mix and food coloring.

Mix up your batter according to the package directions and then divided the batter into three bowls. Leave one bowl uncolored and then add yellow coloring to one bowl and orange coloring to the other. I made a little more yellow batter since it is the largest area of the candy corn.

I closely inspected some real candy corn to make sure I added the colors in the right order:) Just in case you weren't sure it goes white, orange, yellow from top to bottom!

Spray your waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray....you don't want your candy corn creations to stick:) Start in the middle of your waffle iron with a small circle of the uncolored batter. Add a ring of orange batter and then a ring of yellow batter around the outside.

This is what a whole waffle will look like:

To finish up your Candy Corn Waffles, cut the whole waffle into fouths.

Next on my waffle to do list is going to be Jack-o-Lantern Waffles...and I'm thinking fall is the perfect time to try out some savory waffles too!

Football Windsocks

Early this week, I confessed that my front porch was still decked out with patriotic decor even though we are halfway through September. So yesterday I got busy making my porch a little more festive for football season instead of the 4th of July! I knew that I loved the look of my Tin Can Windsocks, and I wanted to put something up in their place...and what could be better than some windsocks made to look like FOOTBALLS!

I started with the same supplies as my 4th of July version: old formula cans, spray paint, ribbon, white contact paper, and twine. I cleaned out the cans, dried them really well, and then sprayed them with a good coat of brown spray paint.

After the paint dried, I brought them inside to decorate with white contact paper. I cut one inch wide strips of contact paper long enough to go all the way down the side of the can. Then I cut 3/4 inch strips that were about 3 inches long to make the cross stitches. I used 2 of the longer pieces and 6 of the shorter pieces per can so that I had a "football" on two sides of the can.

This is where this project gets really fun, because now you can personalize them to show your team spirit! I used maroon and white ribbon because we spend most of the year cheering for the Mississippi State University Bulldogs...plus the boys' school colors are maroon and white too! I think these would be really cute with almost any team color combo...blue and orange for Auburn, purple and gold for LSU...whatever team you cheer for! I cut my ribbon into 12 inch lengths and then hot glued them inside the can alternating the two colors.

After you add your ribbon, make two holes in the top of the can with a screwdriver and hammer. Then feed your twine through to make a hanger for your windsock.

Hang your Football Windsocks proudly on your front porch and then get ready to cheer on your favorite team!

How do you decorate for {or celebrate} football season?

"

Wordless Wednesday: A Good Book

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. ~Mark Twain