Pony Bead School Spirit

Welcome to September!

Kids back to school, cooler days, crackly leaves, and College Football!

This house cheers for the Nebraska Huskers! Go Big Red!!!

So today I'm going to share our crafty project from yesterday and I'll be linking it up with Sara over at Mom Endeavors. Sara hosts a College Football Tailgate party...a great place to check out lots of fun & footbally (totally a word) ideas!

(and I forgot to mention...Sara cheers for the Huskers, too!)
On to our project!  The Sun Catchers from I'm Feeling Crafty caught my eye and I've been wanting to try it for a long time.Yesterday the kids were all antsy and needing to focus on something and I thought, "Carpe Pony Beadium!" (that is Latin for Seize the Pony Beads)

We got to work picking out Husker colors from our bead stash. It was about this time that I realized I only had a handful of clear pony beads. But we were in GO mode...so we kept going!

I let my little Pony Bead Artists have free creative license with arranging the beads in their muffin tins.

All Right! So you take your beads and arrange them in the design you want in a metal pan or muffin tin. 

Single layer would have been better...but this was a Fly By the Seat of Our pants sort of project.

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees and bake your beads for 20ish minutes. 

And you will get awesome melted bead mosaics!

Then my Hubby drilled some holes for me. Feel free to leave a comment about how he needs to stop chewing on his nails...he won't listen to me!

And string them up!

Since ours didn't turn out to be transparent...I went for wind chimes instead!

This is something we will do again with clear beads. I have Visions of Christmas Presents swimming in my head! Taking a little more time to make sure the beads are all flat and in a single layer would make the finished project smooth. But I kind of like our Funky Bumpy Clacky Wind Chimes!

FYI...this did make our house smell pretty bad. I'm not sure if it was the opaque beads or maybe my oven just really needs to be cleaned (blush!). We opened all the windows and let the house air out for about an hour. I see that these are doable on the grill...and I think we'll experiment with that next time!

25 Days Of Ornaments Twenty-Eleven!

Happy December Everyone!!!

I'm really feeling the Christmas Spirit this year. We've had some fantastic weather this Fall and I think I'm just ready for some snow and some frost and all the cozy things that go with that!

Last year I challenged myself to make 25 ornaments (one for each day) from December 1 through to Christmas Day. And I DID IT! And I had so much fun, that I want to do it again!

So here I go!

Drum Roll, Please.........

Aren't they sweet? Old Fashioned Looking Baubles!

I found the incredibly easy pattern HERE. They crocheted up so quick and used hardly any yarn. These would make great stash busters and look great on a tree or decorating a gift! And you can embellish them as much or as little as you want...I used sequins, a lazy daisy flower and buttons.

I chose some non-traditional colors because I knew where I wanted to display them:

On Miss Kat's new Super Pink Tree!

What's that?

You want to see more of the tree???

(and, people who know me in real life...no jokes about me buying a pink tree!)

We couldn't resist it! The boys have a blue one in their room. Too cute, and the kids LOVED decorating their own trees, not to mention the insta-night-light the pretty glow creates!

I wasn't about to shell out five bucks for a tree topper, though. Did you notice Kat's star?

Gotta love it being held on by a hair clippie!

Her "super shiny shiny star" started out life as...

...a pumpkin pie tin! I used the tip of my scissors to draw a star on the flat bottom and then cut it out. It was easy as, well, Pumpkin Pie!

Now I just need to whip up some mini-tree skirts!

Please come back tomorrow for Ornament #2!

Ummmm...Enter Lame No-Blogging Excuse!

Any excuse I could give for a three week absence would be totally lame.

But I'd like to point a big finger at Pinterest!

Do you all Pin? 

If you do, come follow me. I'll follow you back! If you don't and want to jump on the band wagon, I'll hook you up with an invite! 

Whoa, Baby!

I heart it will all my big puffy heart! A billion Greater Than 3's!

However. My adorable hubs said to me last night, "Oh. You're on Pinterest again. When was your last blog post?" In his cute and innocently helpful tone. Grrrrr. I hate when he's right!

So I hope you all aren't mad at me! Maybe a 'been there done that' sort of thing? To make it up...I've got a project to share that I found (drum roll) on Pinterest!!!

Milk Glass on a Dollar Store Budget!

Love, Love, LOVE it!!! I found the idea and pinned it HERE on my board. The original link is from the awesome blog, Keep It Simple, Sister . I'm not sure about Pin / Blog / Link protocol...so I thought I'd include both! (any thoughts or ideas on this would be greatly appreciated!).

The vase is plastic...from the Dollar Tree. Yep. A whole dollar. Then I spray painted the inside white. Yep. That's it! Spray painting the inside keeps the shiny glassy look on the outside. And, you're done!

Here's a close up of the detail on the vase! I'm pretty excited with the end result!

It was so inexpensive and quick to do...now I have extra time to waste on Pinterest!!!

Two Dollar Apothecary Jar!

Or shall I say Four Dollars for TWO Apothecary Jars???

Wanna See?

I know they're not REAL Apothecary Jars...mainly because I made them. But I still think they look cool! And they were only two bucks a piece! BONUS!

I've been seeing a bazillion posts with jars and candlesticks and cake trays and goodie tiers and what-nots. So, I was cruising my Dollar Tree the other day and I found these tall vases and these short taper candlestick holders.

I bought two of each! Then I came home and grabbed my Krazy Glue. I ran a beading of glue around the rim of the candlestick holder and connected it to the bottom of the vase.

After a minute, they were stuck like...well...like glue! Still, I let it set upside down for a few hours. Then I put them on the piano!

But they looks so EMPTY! And since tomorrow is March...they needed to be Irished Up!

Much Better! Pom Poms! The PERFECT accessory!

I'm This Post up @ These Parties!

Giggles, Glitz & Glam

Made By You Monday

Sew Can  Do

Keeping it Simple

Miss Crafty Pants

Singing Three Little Birds

Ninth Street Notions

Krafty Kat

Not JUST A Housewife

DIY by Design

{Dot}{Dot}{Dot}

Funky Polkadot Giraffe

Blue Cricket Design

Valentine's Day Wreath

I've been spending a lot of my time reading other blogs and gathering Valentine crafty ideas. Now I need to start DOING!

My first official craft was this cute little wreath I found here at Trendy Pockets. I love the poofiness of it! Mine didn't end up so poofy. In fact, when I first finished, I wasn't sure I even liked mine. But it's grown on me!

So you want to start with a styrofoam wreath form. Mine was white to begin with, but if your's is green, you'll want to paint it white, pink or red. Then you'll need some loofas! I had a new white and pink one in the cabinet waiting to be used. Find the part where it's cinched in the center and snip the cord holding it all together. You will then have loofa guts spilling out on your table!

I think mine didn't end up as poofy, because my loofas were tiny to begin with. I was also surprised that the "pink" one was really a combination of pink and white. OH WELL!

I started with the white "material" and hot glued the of one of my loofa entrails to my wreath. I then just loosely wraped it around and around, hot glueing the ends and then glueing the next piece of material right on top. I fluffed as I went.

I had gone on a Valentine Hunt at the Dollar Tree and found the exact same heart picks as the original poster! My life is so exciting!!! So I snapped off the stick part and hot glued the hearts on top of the loofa poof(a).  I saved the pretty cording that the loofa came with and glued it onto the back to use as a hanger for my new wreath!

What do you think?

It does need more poof. But I like it a little bit more every day!