Handmade Chalk!

Barnum and I followed a GREAT tutorial from Skip to My Lou to make our own SIDEWALK CHALK!!

Cindy gives FANTASTIC directions that are easy to follow and A LOT of fun!! Just look!!

It IS messy. It is MESSY FUN though!! I promise!!

Of course I couldn't stop at the eggs!! Barnum's little friend was having a special day to celebrate getting her insulin pump so we made some pink hearts just for her!! I went out on a limb and tried our luck with Cindy's directions in a silicone heart mold. It did the trick and it didn't harm the mold in any way!

The results are in. You can definitely tell which one was our first egg and which one was our first heart!! Heee heeee!!

Please check out Skip to My Lou for 100 MILLION awesome ideas and FUN!

Sugar Shamrocks

Bailey and I made these Sugar Cube Shamrocks quite a while ago!! They were inspired by none other than my sister-in-law! She surprised me with some around Valentine's Day and I instantly fell back in love.

Sugar cubes take me back to Citizen's Bank. You see children, there was a time when people actually had to park their cars, WALK into the bank and do business face-to-face. When your Grammy was doing said business, your mommy and Aunt Amanda were over at the coffee station throwing back as many sugar cubes as possible. We would break for a second to grab a bag of salty popcorn and then take right back up with the sugar cube madness. Ohhhhhhh the sugar cube!!

Bailey and I used the trial and error recipe and it worked the first time!!

Needed items:
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons of water mixed with 3 drops of liquid food coloring
1 candy mold in desired shape


Combine all of the ingredients into a medium mixing bowl and stir with a fork until the color is distributed evenly through the sugar.


Use a teaspoon (the old English standard! 1 teaspoon= 1 lump of sugar) to fill your candy molds. A butter knife can be used to even out the tops.

Let the filled candy mold set for 15 minutes. In the meantime, cover your mixing bowl with a damp paper towel so the remaining sugar doesn't dry out.

Turn the candy mold over to release sugar cubes! Fill and repeat until all of your sugar is gone!!

Finally, organize them into corny Shamrocks to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!!

I'm linking up to Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday! Please check it out for some more Yummy treats!!

Faux Metal Planters

We have been digging in the dirt around here! I wanted to spruce up our front porch so I set off to my local Garden Ridge for a 12" metal planter to hold my Rosemary tree and an extra large metal planter to hold an ornamental evergreen.

I gasped in horror when I saw the prices!! They ranged from $69.99-169.99. No way, no how!! After snaking through row after row of out of budget metal planters, I happened upon some PLASTIC planters. Thankfully, they were $7.99 and $39.99!! The plastic planters had great decorative touches and I knew the finish I wanted was just a can of spray paint away!!

Here is the before:


I used RustOleum's Universal Hammered Spray Paint. It was quick, cheap and easy! This is the 12" plastic planter. It contains my Rosemary Tree and a few dwarf marigolds I threw in for color.


Here is a picture of the "Hammered Metal" finish.

Total Cost of Project: $92.50

2 plastic planters= $52 (including tax)

Dirt= Straight outta the garden!

Rosemary Tree= A lovely gift from a friend

Dwarf Marigolds= $1 for 6

Ornamental Evergreen= $29

1 can of RustOleum's Hammered Spray Paint= $8.50 (including tax)

Alyssium to border the Evergreen= $2 for 6

Happy Planting My friends!!

I will be linking this project up at:

Me and My Bucket-Show Us What You're Working With

The Shabby Chic Cottage-Transformation Thursday

Go and check out the participants!! The ideas are VERY creative!!

Sea Salt Caramels

About this time last year, I was introduced to Sea Salt Caramels by my dear Abby while at Berings. I fell in LOVE!! Well, my SIL was headed downtown to do some shopping there and I asked her to pick me some up. Much to my chagrin...they DO NOT CARRY THEM ANYMORE!!

Would my SIL make me do without?? NO! She went home and MADE ME SOME!! Woooooo-hoooooo! They were to DIE!!! Now that I have been privy to such a recipe, I feel it is only fair that I pay it forward!!

The recipe comes from the very lovely, Elizabeth LaBau. She writes at Cake or Death? and About Candy. She is darling and I highly suggest adding her to your Reader!!

Cast of Characters:

Monitoring with the candy thermom. I HIGHLY suggest using your LARGE stockpot!! You will feel much better about your adventure and get better results.

OK, OK!! I fess up! I HIGHLY suggest using the large stockpot because I tried THREE times and my caramel never, Never, NEVER, ever set up!! I was forced into making "caramel sauce" 3 TIMES!!

BUT!!! Wait a minute!! Be STILL MY HEART!!! What was waiting for me when I came home from BSF on Monday night??? This:


Which when flipped out of the pan looked like this:

That is right. The Strong Man does it again! He got his caramel to set up perfectly. THE FIRST TIME!! Torture. Ya'll it is PURE TORTURE that everything comes easily to him!!

Next up: Cutting and Dipping and Sprinkling, oH MY!!

Cutting

Dipping

Sprinkling

YUM, YUM go and get you some!! Please check out Elizabeth's recipe here!!

I will be sharing this post at:

Make it Yours Day @ My Backyard Eden

Show Us What You're Working With @ Me and My Bucket

Sharing Ideas Wednesday @ Trendy Treehouse