March Recap Via Instagram

We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday.

Somebody ate lots of peanuts.

 Jason and I took Henry and Grant to a concert. Building 429 was our fav and we are still rocking to their CD in the car everyday!

 I got new shoes in preparation for our big trip....

 ...then Eli wanted to show his shoes off too!

 I baked a yummy pound cake for our neighbor who had a death in their family.

 We worked on the Airstream...well Jason work. I helped a little and took pictures:)

 We cleaned the icky gross {but now clean after three gallons of bleach} water tank.

 Eli and I did a little thrift store shopping.

 Eli wrote his name for the first time. I was pretty impressed because we haven't really worked on it!

 Henry and Grant got free Krispy Kreme donuts for all their A's on their report card!

 Eli and I went shopping at Target.

 We had some really scary weather!

 I made Pecan Butter cookies for my sister...and sample a few of the broken ones.

 Four generations on a Friday night....Jason didn't know how to use the camera on my iPhone:)

 I accidentally put the milk and bread a little too close together in the car!

 We had pancakes and scrambled eggs for dinner! Breakfast for dinner is always fun!

 Eli and I did some more Target shopping.

 Eli picked me some "flowers".

 Somebody thought it would be fun to put a bunch of dinosaur stickers on the stairs....and they are still there!

Never Underestimate the Power of a Hot Glue Gun

A couple of weeks ago, I came across this tutorial for Fabric Covered Roller Shades on Pinterest. I immediately pinned it to my Project Airstream board because I knew it was the perfect solution to replace the hideous 1970's wall to wall curtains that we took out of our Airstream. I kept the idea for those cute fabric covered roller shades in the back of my mind, and on one of the many days that we were shopping at Lowes last month I decided to grab a few of the cheap vinyl roller shades and experiment. 

Now if you can't tell from the title of this post, I did NOT start out using my hot glue gun first. Honestly I thought  for sure that the hot glue would melt the vinyl and make a huge mess. So I kept my trusty hot glue gun in the drawer and tried a few other things.

My first attempt was with spray adhesive {yes I know it's number 2 in the picture, but it was the one I tried first}. It was a major FAIL! The spray adhesive was way too sticky and it was nearly impossible to get the fabric attached to the shade without a ton a wrinkles. I sprayed the fabric and carefully placed it onto a scrap piece of roller shade, but it was really crooked and wrinkled. So I tried to reposistion it....and it just went downhill from there. Needless to say, spray adhesive is not the way to go when making fabric covered roller shades!
After the spray adhesive failed, I did a little more research and found a couple of people who said they used fabric glue. So I picked up a big bottle {for $12} at the fabric store, and came home all excited to make this project work the second time around. I was so sure that the fabric glue was going to work that I started with the actual shade and not a scrap. The only problem was that I think I was a little too excited because I used way too much fabric glue, which then soak through my fabric and left a gross dried glue film all the way up both sides of my roller shade...not a pretty look. I attempted to salvage the roller shade by covering the edges with some white ribbon, and it turned out okay. But I was not going to take the time to line all the edges of the {7 other} roller shades with ribbon...so it was on to plan C!
Plan C included my trusty hot glue gun {who I should probably apologize to for doubting}! I pulled out a scrap piece of roller shade, plugged in my hot glue gun, and decided that even if it instantly melted a huge hole right through the darn roller shade that I was at least going to give it a try! And surprise, surprise it worked! No melted hole, no soaking through the fabric, no weird dried glue film....just a perfectly attached piece of fabric! 
As of now I don't have a single shade finished and hanging to share with you, but I do at least know HOW I'm going to go about doing it now! And hopefully this post will help anybody who is thinking about making a cute {but not nearly as simple as it seems} Fabric Covered Roller Shade. When I do get all my roller shades covered and hanging in the Airstream, I will be sure to share a few pictures. And just in case you missed it, the moral of the story today is "Never Underestimate the Power of a Hot Glue Gun"!
Linking up here..
Tatertots and Jello
Serenity Now
Someday Crafts
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Wordless Wednesday: Field Day Fun

Pecan Butter Cookies

I love to bake! My love of baking is basically the downfall of any weight lose plan that I've ever been on....mostly because when you bake, you have to taste test! Plus there is always that one {or five} cookie that breaks that you just can't put on the serving tray. Anyway, last week my sister was down for a visit and she requested these cookies {Pecan Butter Cookies} because they are her absolute favorites. So of course even though I'm on a diet and don't need to be anywhere near cookies, I baked a couple dozen for her...and I maybe taste tested a few too:)

 This recipe is one that I tore out of a Martha Stewart magazine a few years ago. It was the Cookie of the Month....and after my first time making them I knew why they held that distinction! They are so yummy. They only take a few ingredients. And everyone LOVES them! I almost always make a double recipe of these cookies because they go fast!

Pecan Butter Cookies

{makes about 2 dozen cookies}

1 cup pecan halves of pieces

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Break pecans into pieces of give them a rough chop in a food processor. Cream butter and sugar in a mixer until pale. Add vanilla and salt. With mixer on low gradually add floor, beating until just incorporated. Stir in pecans. Cover dough and refrigerate until firm or overnight. 

2. Drop 2 tablespoon scoops of dough onto baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake until the edges of the cookies are gold, about 15 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Dust with confectioners sugar before serving.

Recipe from Martha Stewart

 These cookies are very delicate so you have to be extra careful when moving them from the cookie sheet to the cooling rack, or you may end up with a couple of broken cookies...and you may have to eat them yourself:)

 They look so pretty all dusted with confectioners sugar and stacked up high on a serving plate.

Do you love to bake as much as I do?

What is your favorite cookie to bake?

Linking up here..
Tatertots and Jello
Serenity Now
Someday Crafts
Skip to my Lou

Embroidery Hoop Easter Wreaths

My front doors have been bare since the week after Valentine's Day. For some reason I just couldn't get myself motivated to make something cute and springy to cover up my bare front doors. Maybe it's because I've been SUPER busy with a bunch of nothing....or maybe it's because the weather has been fluctuating between pouring rain and ridiculous heat {at least for March anyway}. Whatever the reason, I figured since we only have a couple of weeks until Easter I should get busy making something kind of spring like before I miss my chance and summer is here!

As I was walking through the fabric store last week looking for some fun green fabric for the Airstream, I noticed these oval shaped embroidery hoop. The first thing I thought when I saw them was that they look just like an egg...I guess that's about right since eggs are oval shaped:) Anyway, I stuck them in my tiny cart on top of with Eli and walked around the store for a while trying to talk myself into buying them. They were kind of expensive {about $13 each, though they did have smaller size that was only $8} to just hang on my front door for a few weeks, but after stumbling across some cute polka dot and paisley fabrics on clearance I decided to buy them and see what I could create.

 cute springy {clearance} fabrics:

 Start by laying out the hoops and cutting the fabric just a little bit bigger than the outside of the hoop.

 Then use a screwdriver to open up the hoop and place the fabric between the two pieces. Pull the fabric until it is smooth, and then tighten the hoop back up with your screwdriver.

 After you have the hoop tightened, turn it over and use a sharp pair of scissors to trim off the excess fabric. 

  Once you have the base of the wreath finished, you can embellish your egg shaped wreaths anyway you want! I created a couple of pennants with a pattern, a sharpie, and some coordinating fabric. Then I hot glued the pennants pieces onto a strip of raffia and attached that to the outside edge of the embroidery hoop. I also added a small sign that says "Happy Easter" with a flower rosette.

 These were really simple to make, and they are the perfect spring addition to my front doors! My favorite part about this project is that you can take the basic idea of an egg shaped embroidery hoop wreath and really turn it into anything you want for Easter!

Linking up here..
Tatertots and Jello
Serenity Now
Someday Crafts
Skip to my Lou

Wordless Wednesday: Puddle Jumping

Life Right Now

Do you ever feel SUPER busy when you really don't have that much going on?

Like you are running around like a crazy person, but really things aren't that crazy?

That is how life has been around here lately!

Busy, but really not that busy. But busy enough to make sure that I don't get to any of the fun & frivolous stuff that I love to do...like craft and blog:)

Life lately has been:

P90X

soccer

Airstream

laundry

P90X

Airstream

P90X

laundry

dishes

P90X

soccer

Airstream

P90X

I think maybe I'm more tired than anything, which is why I feel so busy when I'm really not! This P90X stuff is kicking my butt...but it is also shrinking it! I'm down almost 15 pounds since we started the program a little more than 3 weeks ago {on March 27th}. But I have to tell you, it is HARD work! We have been getting up early...like 4:45 am early, and sometimes staying up late just to fit in the workouts with our busy schedule. Jason has been really busy at work lately too, which makes keeping a consistent workout schedule even harder. We are sticking with it though, and I know that by the time May rolls around and we start our summer trip, that we will be in pretty great shape!

We {and when I say we here I mostly mean Jason with a little bit of my help} have really been working on the Airstream a lot too. We bought a new AC unit and got it put in. Removing a really heavy hunk of metal from the roof of a travel trailer and replacing it with another really heavy hunk of metal is kind of a tough job.  

Here are a couple of pictures of the old AC removal for your viewing pleasure...

 ...and the giant hole that was in the top of the Airstream for a few hours until we got the new AC installed:)

So to recap:

We've been busy doing P90X and fixing up the Airstream....which means I haven't been crafting or blogging.

I hope to get back to a little more normal soon, but I don't know if that is really going to happen or not! 

*What has been going on in your life lately?*