Project Chicken Coop: Pinterest Inspiration

The week between Christmas and New Years at our house was spent working on a fun outdoor project: a chicken coop. We made quite a lot of progress during that time and I have a lot of pictures to share with you. But before I show you what we came up with, I thought it would be fun to share some of the inspiration that I found on Pinterest. It still amazes me how much stuff there is on Pinterest!

Source: communitychickens.blogspot.com via Kelli on Pinterest

 

Source: Uploaded by user via Kelli on Pinterest

Source: backyardchickens.com via Kelli on Pinterest

Source: tinyfarmblog.com via Kelli on Pinterest

Source: onetreephotography.com via Kelli on Pinterest

Source: lifeatcobblehillfarm.blogspot.com via Kelli on Pinterest

Source: communitychickens.blogspot.com via Kelli on Pinterest

Sugar Cone Cornucopia

I saw these SUPER cute Thanksgiving treats floating around the blog world last year. And I have to admit that when I first saw them, I was pretty skeptical that they would work....that's probably why I didn't attempt them last year. But earlier this week when our preschool choir director asked if I could come up with a snack for the kiddos, this was the first thing I thought of. I searched Pinterest and found a couple different versions all with different directions {I never did find what looked like the original inspiration. If you know where it is let me know and I'll credit them!}, so I grabbed a couple of sugar cones and tried out a few techniques. After a failed attempts, I came up with the perfect way to make and fill these cute Sugar Cone Cornucopias!

Start by gathering your supplies:

sugar cones

chocolate 

fall sprinkles

Cool Whip

Reese's Pieces or M&M's

Take a couple of paper towels, fold them up into a square, wet them, and then ring out most of the water. You want them to be damp, but not dripping. Place your wet paper towels on a microwave safe plate, then place the bottom half of the ice cream cones on the paper towels and cover them up. I found that two at a time worked the best because you only have a little bit of time to work with them after they come out of the microwave.

Microwave the cones for around 30 seconds depending on the strength of your microwave. You want the ends of the cones to be soft enough to mold without burning the part that isn't in the paper towel. You also need to re-wet the paper towel after two 30 seconds runs in the microwave.

Remove the plate from the microwave and pull back the paper towel carefully. They will be hot! Pick up your cones, and working quickly bend the end of the cone using your hands, the counter top, or even a clean pencil. You will have to hold the ends in place for a few seconds until they cool enough to keep their shape. 

This is a great projects for kiddos to help with, but they don't need to help with the cone making step because it can be really hot! So let them start helping after all the cones are made:) I actually made all the cones at home and then took them with all the other supplies to church and the kiddos all got to decorate and fill their own cornucopias! 

After you finishing forming all your cones, melt a little bit of chocolate in a coffee cup or small bowl. I used almond bark and I just put one square in my cup and microwaved it until it was melted. 

Then dip just the very end of the cone in the chocolate...

...and place your dipped cone in a small plate of fall colored sprinkles.

Set the cones aside so the chocolate can harden. While you wait on the cones, put your Cool Whip in a small plastic bag and clip off one of the corners.

Use the plastic bag to fill the cone up with Cool Whip...

...then place a couple of Reece's Pieces or M&M's in the Cool Whip. 

Now you have a SUPER cute Sugar Cone Cornucopia that kids and adults will love!

Linking up here..

Tatertots and Jello

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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
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Nutter Butter Snowman Snacks

If you have kiddos in school, you more than likely have more than one Christmas party to attend this week. That also means you more than likely need to take some sort of yummy treat too. I know some parents would much rather be the plate/cup/napkin bringers, but I LOVE to bring something fun and yummy for the kiddos to enjoy...even if it is way harder than just picking up some cups:) So if you're like me and crazily think that bringing cute treats for your kiddo's class is fun, then try out these {oh so adorable and really not that hard to make} Nutter Butter Snowman Snacks.

 My inspiration for these cuties came from Pinterest {surprise, surprise}. Here's a link to my pin and a link to the blog post {My Pretty Purse} where the pin is from:)

 Start by dipping your Nutter Butter in white candy coating aka almond bark. I used a toothpick stuck in between the two cookie pieces to dip them {though it didn't work every time because the toothpick slipped out or the cookie broke}. While the candy coating is still wet add two M&M's for buttons, mini chocolate chips for eyes and a smile, and an orange tic tac for the nose. They are SUPER cute this way, but to make them even cuter add some earmuffs too! I did the earmuffs the same way I did with my Simple Snowman Snacks last year....curl up the Pull n Peel and place them in the freezer to harden {this helps them keep their shape while the coating dries} then place the Pull n Peel on the snowman's head with two M&Ms on either side.

SUPER cute and really not that hard to make...though a little time consuming with all the small candy pieces. If you are concerned about nut allergies, you can use any other oval shaped cookie in place of the Nutter Butter.

What kind of fun treats are you making for your kiddos this year?

Mini Muffins Make Me Smile

And hopefully they will make you and the person you share these with smile too...because this SUPER cute decorated egg carton is filled with Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins!

 I pinned this cute egg carton idea from fiskar.com a few months ago. I was waiting for just the right time to make them, and staff appreciation at church turned out to be perfect time for me to whip up some mini muffins and try them out!

To make these, simply cut scrapbook paper to cover the top and front of your egg carton. The inspiration one only covered the top and left the egg carton writing visible on the front...but I wanted to cover most of the writing up for a cleaner look. The inspiration one also added some cute scrapbook paper and little note inside, but I figured the muffins were a good enough surprise inside without the little note:) I used spray adhesive to attach the paper, but a glue stick would work fine too.

Honestly, I was a little skeptical about the mini muffins fitting into the egg carton when I first got started, but as soon as they were cool I started sitting them in the egg carton and they fit perfectly!

Fill up your egg carton with yummy mini muffins, tie them up with some pretty ribbon or raffia, add a little note, and you have a perfectly cute and edible gift to show your thanks to someone!

Here's the recipe for the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins {from allrecipes.com} just in case any is interested:


Ingredients

• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.
2. Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.
3. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

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?