New Year's Eve Earrings - Mother Crafter

Our last post of 2013 - thanks Vanina ;-)

2014 is here! You can welcome the New Year with these quick and very easy earrings that will add spark to your outfit. The best part: you can make them in, like, 20 minutes. Seriously! 

 

You will need:

• A small fabric scrap (sequined or sparkly)
• 2 feathers
• 2 Earring hooks
• 2 Jump rings or ring connectors
• Scissors and a hot glue gun

 

(See my new pair of scissors? My friend Julieta gave me these along with a matching measure tape and a cutting knife. They are from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. So cute!!!) Cut 8 strips out of your fabric (approx .25" by 2.25"). Open one of the jump ring or ring connector and insert 4 strips through it. If your fabric is thick and does not want to cooperate (certain fabrics have attitude ;)) you might want to use an embroidery needle to make a hole at the top of the strips. It should look like this: 

Close your ring. Now put a tiny dot of hot glue at the top tip of your feather and glue it to the wrong side of one of the strips. Put the hook on and... you are done!! See? I told you it was a fast and furious tutorial!

  

 Repeat all the steps to make the second earring. Or just use it solo. You can also play with the length of the strips to make it longer or shorter. 

 

Happy 2014! I look forward to continue creating and sharing with you a lot more awesomeness through the New Year. Here is to a year full of happiness, love, health, inspiration and craftiness! Thank you for reading my blog. Salud y chin chin! (that is Cheers! in Spanish). You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Bloglovin! -- Craft on, Vanina mother crafter ~ handcrafted happiness

A Winter Blues Solution - Stone Cottage Adventures

Hello to everyone at Inspiration Café!  I love being a monthly contributor!  My name is Marci and I blog at Stone Cottage Adventures.  Normally, you see me sewing, gardening and crafting.  Not today! 

When our clocks "Fall Back" and the evenings are dark so early, something changes for me.  Some folks call it Winter Blues.  Once home from work after cooking and eating, I do absolutely nothing!  This year I challenged myself to fight this strange behavior with reading!  My goal is to read one book per week until the clocks "Spring Forward".  With my schedule, that's been working out about right.  It has been a GREAT battle plan and my Winter Blues have not been so bad!  BTW...  I am so very grateful to live in a society where girls are allowed to read! 

In the comments, please answer at least one of the following questions: 

1.  What are currently reading?  I'd love to hear about it!
2.  Tell us your favorite line from a book.
3.  How many books have you read this year?  Do you set reading goals for yourself?
4.  What do you think are the best or worst book to movie adaptations?

If you are curious about the books I've been reading, just click on the title to see my review!  Here they are in no particular order:

One Summer in Arkansas by Marcia Kemp Sterling
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussman
Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford
I Want to be Her by Andrea Linett
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

My favorite line from a book is:  "She is too fond of books and it has addled her brain."  Louisa May Alcott.

I am frequently disappointed with book to movie adaptations, but must admit I love Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea.

OK!  It's your turn!  Let's hear your thoughts about books!

;-)  -Marci

Saturday Weekly Wrap Up 49

Hey Everyone,

It's the last weekend before Christmas! Is everyone ready?

 I'm not sure we all are, but its time to see what we have been up to this week...

Heather at The Beating Hearth

Toffee Butter Cookies

Chocolate Embelishment for Cookies

Mel at Mellywood's Mansion

Craft Room Caddy

Snow Man Candy Jar

We Love Melbourne - Botanical Gardens

The Ghosts Of Christmas Past

Mini Knitted Christmas Stockings

 

Natalie at NorthShore Days

Frozen Yoghurt Iceblocks

Santa's Key

Our Fantastic Contributors:

Christmas Guest Room - A Few Miner Adjustments

REINDEER GAMES - Bliss Ranch

 And this week Danni finished up our series ...

'Tis The Season

 with

Tis the Season for Snowcream Sundaes

 

 Wishing all our readers a very Happy, Healthy and Safe Christmas filled with love...

Have a great week

xxx

 Nat, Mary, Heather, Danni and Mel

 

Inspiration Cafe is looking for guest posters and contributors. If you would like to guest please let us know, we would love to have you. If you would prefer a feature instead, feel free to drop us a line. New or old posts welcome.
 

Christmas Guest Room - A Few Miner Adjustments

Christmas Guest Room...No Frogs Allowed

We have this room.

It is over the garage and according to our blueprints it is called the "bonus room".

We call it something different though.

The FROG.

{Sidebar: I love~hate frogs.

I hate real live frogs.  They terrify me.  We’re talking frozen-in-fear-screaming-at-the-top- of-my-lungs-like-I-am-dying terrified. Their hopping pattern is so unpredictable...how do I know it won't jump across my foot?!? But I love frogs. 

Cute frogs on scarves.

Ceramic frogs that your best friend sends to you for your birthday a million years ago to hold the dish sponge, but you take to your classroom to hold post-its and think of her instead.

Anyway, The FROG. It stands for Family Room Over Garage.

Ours is the guest room.

So when the boys asked to decorate last week, I said yes. A thousand times yes. However, it was a little too early for me to have Christmas downstairs. So we took it to the FROG.

The theme: Frogs. Kids and Christmas cards.

My friends send out the loveliest Christmas cards.  Maybe people keep them through the season and then recycle them on January 1^st.

But I, I think they are too special to toss.  So I keep them. And then I think, what can I do with these?

Make a few Miner adjustments and decorate a tree of course.

This year’s tree dons last year’s Christmas cards.

I smiled from ear to ear as I fit those cards in and the boys buzzed around hanging their ornaments. Mostly, too close to each other, but they are happily hanging there. This is their tree after all. Our guests will love the warmth this tree brings to the room. And the added "bonus"….there are no actual frogs hopping around.  No one wants to hear me scream.

REINDEER GAMES - Bliss Ranch

Hello Inspiration Cafe readers.  I'm Bliss and I blog at BlissRanch.  I think when Danni asked me if I would like to do a guest post she was hoping I'd show you a furniture creation, maybe something like this Kodak Dresser.....

or maybe a piece of furniture that rocks.....

But it's December for goodness sakes, and Danni is such a deer.....

So instead I'm going to tell you about the log reindeer we make for friends and family.

This is one project that I start for the holidays well before the snow flies.  My husbands Uncle Tony was our inspiration about 20 years ago.  He made fairly good size deer then strung lights on the antlers and one year he made some small ones for us to hang on the tree.

Uncle Tony's Mini Deer Ornament

That started my obsession with making them as gifts, plus we have plenty of the raw material laying around.

Future Reindeer

One Christmas Eve some "deer" friends of ours went to church and while they were gone we implemented operation "Not Tonight Deer".  The covert mission involved quietly placing "Oh Deer" and "Yes Deer" on their walk way to welcome them when they arrived home.  My husband Brawn and I thought we were pretty darn funny.

Over the years we have made lots of Rudolphs, and every one looks different.  The newest ones were made for each of the Grand kids with their names.

No I do not have a grandson named Rudolph.

 Our original deer had big wiggly eyes, but those didn't hold up so well in winter, and neither did their faux white fur tails.  And more than a few red noses have smashed to the ground.

Now we make most of their body parts out of wood.
Brawns in charge of the main body, tails and ears, I do eyes, antlers, legs and finishing touches.

They get a coat of glitter so they sparkle in the snow, some get jute with bells, and some get scarves.

 The scarf on this deer was an old knit hat with pom poms that I cut up.

Antlers are usually better looking, 

but there were mosquitoes out in antler making country when this one was made.

These ones are out to pasture.  Winter is hard on deer.  The one on the left is bark-less - Brawn made it that way.  These will get all cleaned up with new noses and scarves, fresh antlers, missing legs replaced, and soon they will line our walkway.

 The deer Uncle Tony made had noses that would light up.

Ours do not.

When this deer comes out of the shed it will go live at our oldest son's home, but first it will get some better antlers!

Thank you for inviting me Danni, I'm so very happy to be here and offer up a taste of Bliss Ranch inspiration at the Inspiration Cafe!  Everyone is welcome to stop in at the ranch.

Tis the Season for Snowcream Sundaes!

Happy holidays everyone!  Tis the season for all things winter here at Silo Hill Farm and we are loving the snow this time of year! For all of my friends who live in tropical climates...you're missing out on this dish of lusciousness that only comes with the freezing kind of precipitation....

 Nothing makes my heart happier than snow, except when my grandson Jacob spends the night.  When both things happen together...well, I'm ecstatic!  Such was the case last week.  He wanted to play in the snow.

We talked about how there is magic in snow and how that is what you see sparkling in the sun.  (It's a grandmother's job to perpetuate magical myths, right?) I asked him if he had ever eaten ice cream made out of snow.  He had not.  I promised we'd make some as soon as sledding was over.  Took a while, because sledding is just way too much fun and I hope all of my tropical climate friends get to try it at least once in their lives!
Before we came in, we gathered about 6 cups of clean, fresh snow and left it out on the back deck until we were ready.

We rounded up our ingredients.

1/2 C. milk
1/2 C. Half & Half or cream
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

And now...6 year old Jacob will show you how easy it is to make!

Pour it all in a bowl.

Stir it up until the sugar dissolves.

Bring in your 6 cups of fresh clean snow and add it in one cup at a time.

Stir it up some more.  Stirring is serious business.  When you're done it should look kind of like this....

Throw it in the freezer for a few minutes and get your bowls and spoons ready.

Fill them up, adding the toppings of your choice. Believe it or not...Jacob is a purist and likes his ice cream and his snowcream plain.  (All of those toppings like coconut, chocolate chips, whipped cream and a cherry, were for me!)  Now...take a taste.

A good chef will savor the flavor and wait just one moment before giving his  review.

Chef Jacobs opinion of his first ever snow cream?

Wonderful!  There is magic in snow.  You can even taste it!