Happy Easter

Wishing you and your families a very blessed Easter!  

And to the true celebration that Christ is Risen.

Crayon Art Easter Eggs

This is an artistic and fun way to decorate hard boiled eggs with materials on hand.

All you need is:

• Eggs
• Egg carton
• Crayons
• Plastic pencil sharpener

It's very important to ready the crayon pieces BEFORE boiling the eggs.

First, peel off half of the paper wrapped around the crayon colors you want to use.  Then using the pencil sharpener, make crayon shavings by twisting in the sharpener.  (Note: I recommend using an inexpensive plastic sharpener from the local drugstore, as the crayon wax residue is difficult or almost impossible to clean off, so we threw ours away after this project).

You can mix any combination of crayon colors you like, working either with a color theme, or a mix of the entire crayon box.  The more variety of crayon colors, the more varied the result will be for your unique abstract colored egg blend.  Once you have a good mix of shavings, set aside in containers on a work surface.

Now it's time to make your hard-boiled eggs.  The key is working with the eggs IMMEDIATELY after hard boiling, while egg shell exteriors are extremely hot.  I put my eggs in a pot of tepid water and bring to a boil.  Once the water is boiling, I reduce heat, cover the pot and simmer for 10 minutes.

Once eggs are boiled, using kitchen tongs, quickly move the hot eggs back into the egg carton with the pointed side of the egg faced down. 

Immediately sprinkle the crayon shavings on the rounded top side of the eggs and watch the crayon wax melt instantly from the heat of the egg shell .....

Haydon's egg art

 Continue sprinkling shavings until you get your desired egg art colors.

Debbie's egg art

Janet's egg art - I Love how the blue tones add a rich feel.

Let the crayon wax dry until completely cooled and remove from the carton.  There will be some crayon wax built up adhering some of the eggs to the carton, but it's easy to pull off and you can remove any unwanted clumps of wax and not hurt the artistic results.

Place in simple Easter baskets and enjoy the display of modern egg art.

Merry Christmas

 

From our home to yours... Merry Christmas!

Rectangle Christmas Wreath

I've seen a lot of creative holiday wreaths and have been wanting to make a new one for the front door this year. I saw this wreath here and liked the rectangular shape as a fresh look.  This is my variation of the wreath which was fairly simple to make.

Materials needed:

• Wood 1x4 by 8'
• Wood glue
• Staple gun with staples
• Green garland
• Few sprigs of fresh green branches
• Burlap ribbon - 4" width (10 yards)
• Decorative berries
• Wood letters

I don't have any wood scraps, so I bought an 8' long 1x4" strip of wood at Home Depot and cut it into 4 strips with a jig saw. I cut two 18-3/4" strips and two 24" strips.

I don't possess carpentry skills, but do have a Black & Decker jig saw that comes in handy on various craft projects.  My saw cuts were not perfectly straight so I sanded down the edges a bit, but the imperfect cuts still work out fine since they will be hidden by greenery.

If you have various carpentry tools, you could secure the wood strips together with nails in grooves for smooth framing.  But I used wood glue and staples, which is easy, but you need to allow the glue to dry over night before you cover the wood with greenery.

I used an 8' strand of garland, one roll of burlap ribbon and some berries I had on hand.

 Next you need to secure the green foliage by stapling to the wood with a staple gun. I divided the strand in half stapling the middle of the garland to the midpoint of the bottom strip and stapled the greenery around the wood frame in a way that covers all wood.  Don't worry about wood gaps showing through, as the wired branches can be bent to hide the frame after the garland has been stapled securely around all four sides.

I'm not always a fan of fake greenery, so adding some sprigs of fresh cut greenery like noble fir or spruce gives a more natural look.  I added some initially, securing in place with the wired green garland, and then added a few more as needed after the ribbon was added.

 To attach the burlap ribbon, start by stapling the end to the back of the frame and then wrap around the frame diagonally.

The ribbon will also hide any gaps where wood might still be showing, so you can play around with the positioning of the ribbon before stapling in place. 

Add berries in a few areas with a glue gun and any additional fresh greenery where needed.

 For the letters, I kept them natural for good contrast against our green front door, but you could spray paint them red or add glitter.  You can either staple the letters to a jute string on back, or use a hot glue gun to secure.

Tie or glue to the underneath side at the top of the wood frame.

Finally, make a bow with the burlap ribbon and hot glue to the garland.

It is a bit heavier than standard round fir wreaths, so I needed to secure a larger nail on the front door to accommodate it. I love the results.

Happy Halloween

For our door wreath this year, I took this prior year's raffia fall wreath, added a Halloween sign and black ravens to welcome trick-or-treaters.

 

 

I also found huge white pumpkins to adorn the front porch and planted Chrysanthemums mixed with cabbage plants for the pots.  I got the idea while in Chicago last month to place small white pumpkins in the planters and love how it looks.

(Blurry photo) But I added fall color to spruce up these thinning tree pots for Hallow's eve.

 

Valentine's Day Dessert

 I saw this easy heart-themed dessert on Stone Gable blog and it's not too late to put it together for Valentine's Day.

Ingredients:

• Puff pastry
• Heart shaped cookie cutter
• Ice cream
• Strawberries
• Chocolate sauce
• Sugar
• Confectioner's sugar
• Mint leaves

Cut the strawberries ahead of baking and if they need some sweetening, mix with a little sugar and let sit while you make the puff pastry hearts.  Lay out room temperature puff pastry on a flour covered surface.

Cut out heart shapes and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or wax paper.

 
Stone Gable recommended putting the cookie sheet back in the refrigerator, as cold dough puffs better... which made the difference.

 

Cut in half and serve with chocolate sauce, a scoop of ice cream and strawberries.

Dust with some powdered sugar and mint garnish.

 

 

Enjoy and Happy Valentines Day!

 Thanks to Stone Gable blog

Married Humor

I saw this clever advertisement today.

 

 

It just so happens to be in front of a Jeweler.... which made me laugh.

Plus Valentine's day is next week, which I thought was classic marketing!!

 

Do you think the sentiment is true or false?

Happy Halloween

There's nothing like a dog to patiently allow you to love him in every which way!

I thought a "groom" costume was appropriate this October 2012 season.

Easter Eggs - the Real deal

Life has been crazy so my blogging was put on the shelf for awhile...

But I was buying dog food this week at our local Feed Barn and this was on the counter.

Various hens' naturally colored eggs are God's version of an Easter egg.

Simple and perfect color tones.

May Easter's message bring you joy this Palm Sunday.