Linking to:

Tatertots & Jello

WhipperBerry

Here’s a little more of what she has to say about the event,

“Come be a part of Utah’s first annual Frugality Boot Camp. It’s a day-long retreat where you will be enlightened by renown guest speakers from all over Utah, showered with take-home gifts, good food, and lots of fun, and you’ll learn everything you need to know to live an overall frugal lifestyle…the easy way. It’s guaranteed that you will save your family at least $200 or more in your first month after attending the retreat, or your money back. So really, there’s nothing to lose!”  Go to www.frugalitybootcamp.com or click on the poster below to register and learn more.

I love these turquoise corduroy pants that I bought for my daughter a few years back from a local thrift store.  However, she is plum wearing them out….I just discovered holes in the knees this week.  So, I simply chose some coordinating fabric, ironed it on to some fusible interfacing and cut out the flower shape using my Silhouette Cameo.  LOVE that this machine has the capability to cut fabric.  I wanted to be lazy and sew around the flowers with my sewing machine, but the legs were to small so I had to resort to good old fashioned hand stitching.  A simple blanket stitch and voila!  –NEW PANTS!

Right now the dollar store has little wooden shapes in the craft section that work perfect for this project…a pack of 10 for $1.  They had 3 shapes at my dollar store:  butterfly, flower, and dinosaur.  On your way home from your next shopping trip, stop by your favorite Chinese take-out spot and ask if you can have 4-5 pairs of the disposable wood chopsticks.  That gives you 10 sticks which you simply attach to the back of the wood shape with a little wood glue.  (I used a clothespin to hold mine in place while the glue was drying….which doesn’t take long). Tip:  use a sharp knife to separate the chopsticks….they don’t always break at the correct spot.

If you subscribe to the blog (sign up to the right), you will receive an e-mail with a silhouette file attached so that you can cut out matching, slightly smaller flowers on chalkboard vinyl.  Just cut, peel and stick!  Wouldn’t these make a fun gift?

What I have growing in my kitchen window.  This little planter is perfect for my window sill  (someday I will have a garden window!) and also came from the dollar store!  I made my own little SIP system (sub-irrigated planter) as an experiment.  I’m excited to see how well it works….google it, it’s very cool

I originally came upon this idea here.  I’ve seen suckers all over the place this year…all for $1.  Walgreens has them, but my favorite finds are from the Dollar Tree and Big Lots.  They have different colors, some shaped like flowers, and on spinners (pictured below).

Spinning Sucker from Big Lots

Since we traditionally do our egg hunt on Saturday, I am going to place my daughter’s seed packet amongst the eggs for her to find.  Then I will explain what they are and we will plant them in a little pot of dirt.  Easter morning, we are hoping something delicious to have ‘sprouted.’ 

I have to say, this treat turned out so tasty.  It was a total experiment and we loved the result–the combination of mint and chocolate with a little salty crunch was just right.  Pretty much all of our supplies came from one of our favorite local kitchen stores, Orson Gygi.  You can order supplies from them online if you are not local   Here’s how to make some for yourself:

Ingredients:

10-12 Cups Caramel Seed Popcorn, popped (about 1/2 cup seed corn),

3/4-1 cup of white chocolate chips or candy melts

1-2 drops peppermint essential oil or peppermint extract (amount would probably be more like 1/4-1/2 tsp of that depending on how minty you like it)

1/2 cup roasted, salted peanuts,

1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips.

Instructions:  Melt down chocolate, add green food coloring and peppermint extract.  Stir over popcorn, peanut, chocolate chip mixtures until well coated.  Done. 

If you have not heard of caramel seed corn, let me be the first to get you in the know!  It is a revelation if you like making coated popcorn recipes.  It is like the popcorn that you buy in those tins at Christmas time.  It pops into perfectly round kernels and leaves you with very little popcorn that is in small pieces or all broken up like traditional popping corn results.  Try it, you will love it!

I am including a free printable of the tag that we used…. if you are a lucky (no pun intended) silhouette owner, click here for a print and cut.  If you are still saving your money, click here for the pdf version that you can cut out yourself with the ol’ scissors method

Here is the pottery barn inspiration for $699:

My version for $60 (in all it’s Halloween Glory ):

He’s a pretty dapper not-so-scary kind of dude.  We like carameled apples around here, but they taste excessively sweet to me when fully drenched in caramel.  So this was a good compromise.

Here’s how we made him:

Hair:  Caramel and miniature chocolate chips.  Use good caramel like the one sold here (great tips for carameled apples as well) …it makes a big difference.  Now I know it’s a lot, but it stores for a year and you don’t have to peel wrappers.  Bonus.  I skewered the bottom of the apple first so that I could dip the top of his head in the caramel and chips.  Then you can pull it out and place it properly.

Eyes:  Miniature Oreos, mini chocolate chip for the pupil

Nose & Mouth:  Just bought a small amount of that mix you can buy at most grocery stores that includes candy corns, jelly beans, boston baked beans, and good and plenty.

Neck Hardware:  Tootsie Rolls, cut in half, held in place with a toothpick.  You could use caramel here too…just shape some prior to melting.

I just drew on the stitches with a tiny bit of melted chocolate and a toothpick.  Attached everything with a little melted caramel or chocolate.

Enjoy!

My favorite part about this project is it’s versatility.  The components dis-assemble so that you can 1) store it flat 2)Use interchangeable plates to change the look 3) still use the candle stick as a candle stick!

The tiered effect is created by using a simple candlestick that unscrews at it’s base and at it’s top (this is actually quite common….visit the thrift store and start trying to untwist the older (usually gold) candle sticks.  They are also often times hollow in the middle which allows you to make one this way which is where my inspiration came from (her whole blog ROCKS).  Doing it Amberlee’s way also makes it so you can use a candlestick that only unscrews at the base…it is a little more money with the addition of the allthread and drawer pull, but well worth it for the finished product.  I’ll post some pics as soon as I complete some using Amberlee’s method.

So all I did was spray paint my candlestick, screw holes in the middle of my plates (you can use ceramic or melamine plates), and screw it all together.  Doesn’t get much easier than that!  You’ll want to use a ceramic bit if you try tackling this project, otherwise you are at higher risk (the risk is always there) of breaking the plate as you screw the hole.  Try a little masking tape on top and bottom of the plate where you’ll be screwing your hole as well.

Do you like?

Note:  oooh…it would also be pretty to add a gorgeous, fresh white flower to the top to finish it off….just put a little water in the top of the candlestick and place the flower with an ultra-shortened stem in.  It will last long enough for your event…