I’m wrapping up a few tea towel designs this week! I really like how they’re turning out (I’ve done my happy dance several times), and it’s so much fun to design for fabric for a change. Here are some of the original sketches I’m working from. I love drawing on graph paper. It’s reassuring to have some gridlines to start from rather than a completely blank piece of paper.
I love s’mores, but they are awfully messy. No matter how I eat them, I always end up with strands of melted marshmallow all over my chin and caked in my hair. These bars are the perfect solution. I do miss the campfire a little bit, but my marshmallow-free hair is totally making up for it (not to mention these taste about 10,000 times better than actual s’mores). A big thanks to Kim at Lovin’ From the Oven for the recipe!
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.
I’ve always liked having plants around the house. Mine usually live for a few months to a year, and then they die and I replace them. Well, lately I’ve noticed that my houseplants aren’t dying. Right now I have 17 plants around the house, because I keep buying replacements expecting some to die like usual, but they just don’t. In fact, they are growing! I’m no pro and there are a few houseplants I still can’t keep alive (maidenhair fern’s hate me), but for the most part I’m doing all right. Now that I’ve figured out how to best care for my houseplants I thought I would share a few tips.
Houseplant Care Tips
1. Plants need light. Put your plants near windows, or in room that is bright with natural light. If a plant starts looking sickly shortly after you bring it home, try moving it to a different spot in your house to see if it improves.
2. Don’t forget about them. This was my biggest problem. Finally I came up with a regular watering schedule so I wouldn’t neglect my plants for a weeks at a time. I’ve gotten in the habit of watering my houseplants every Monday, and they are thrilled.
3. Don’t overwater. On your designated watering day, stick your finger about an inch deep into the soil of each plant to see if it needs water. If the soil is still moist, skip watering that week. If the soil is dry, add a little water.
4. Fertilize. I didn’t do this for a long time because it seemed like it would be a hassle. Then I found this liquid houseplant food that you use by squeezing a few drops into your watering can every time you water. It’s really easy, and I’ve noticed lots of new growth since I started using it.
5. Talk to your plants. This is silly, but I talk to my plants. They like a little encouragement (“Good job little guy! I see you have a new leaf coming out!”) and a pat on the leafy head.
If you are still dubious about houseplants, here are two that you won’t be able to kill. Seriously.
Philodendron
They come in several colors, will survive in everything from low to bright light, and can go a while without water. They’re also satisfying to grow because they quickly vine all over the place. I got tired of one of my philodendrons and tried to kill it by neglecting it for a few months—finally I just threw it out still alive. These are tough plants!
Snake Plant
I’ll admit I’ve killed one snake plant. I didn’t water it for 3 or 4 months, and then I overwatered it to compensate and its roots rotted. As long as you don’t do that, you’ll be fine! I’ve had one in my basement for a few years that hardly gets any sunlight. I always forget to water it, and it still looks great.
> > >
The houseplant problem I’ve yet to solve is fungus gnats. If anyone has tips I’d love to hear them! My big terrarium is infested due to gnat larvae being in the soil of the succulents I bought. So sad. I’ve tried all sorts of remedies like cinnamon, letting the soil dry out completely, mosquito dunks, peppermint tea, and two types of insecticides—none of which seem to bother the gnats in the least!
I found my perfect shade of red lipstick—NARS’ Cruella. It’s not too bright, and it’s a bluish red so it compliments the cool undertones in my pale pink skin. When I showed Daniel he said, “Whoa, you look like someone out of a fairy tale!” Best lipstick compliment ever. Now I wear it when I want to feel a little bit magical.
After turning off my alarm in the morning the first thing I do is check Pinterest on my phone…while still laying in bed. I’m a total pin-head. Is anyone else suffering from this affliction? If so, the North Carolina Museum of Art is hosting a Pinterest-themed meetup next Thursday evening! Basically it will be a bunch of people that love Pinterest chatting about how awesome it is, making Pinterest-inspired projects, and eating snacks. There will also be a panel discussion, and I’ve been invited to be a panelist! If you’re local it would be great to meet you there. You can purchase tickets right here, and the rest of the details are below. I’m really excited to find out what we’ll be making… I hope it’s a terrarium (maniacal grin).
Now I kinda want to start a club called the “The Pin-Heads”. We’d sit around doing DIY projects, baking, making crafts, and generally being creative… in a tepee filled with pillows and twinkle lights.
I love making lists. I tried a few list-making apps on my phone, but nothing beats the feeling of scratching a completed task off a piece of paper. I’m old fashioned I guess. I prefer long skinny notepads for my to do lists, but since those are hard to come by I made my own 4.25″ x 11″ notepad (the perfect list-making size). You can download my design to print, and follow the instructions below to make your own notepad!
Supplies:
pdf file to print (download it here—for personal use only please)
8.5 x 11 paper
printer
paper cutter
a piece of chipboard cut to 4.25″ x 11″ (you could cut up and reuse a cereal box)
glue
4 clothespins
How to:
1. Open the pdf file in Adobe Reader and make sure your printer is loaded with paper. Click print. In the print dialog box make sure “page scaling” is set to “none.” Print a test page to make sure everything is aligned properly. If you cut the page in half vertically you should have one to do list centered on each half. (Home printers often print slightly crooked due to the way the paper feeds through the machine, so your lines may be a bit slanted on the page. Don’t worry about it—it won’t hinder your list-making!)
2. If you are satisfied with your test print, go ahead and print half as many pages as you’d like in your notepad. I printed twenty 8.5″ x 11″ pages so that my notepad would contain forty individual sheets.
3. Cut the printed 8.5″ x 11″ pages exactly in half vertically, so you end up with 4.25″ x 11″ to do list sheets.
4. Stack the 4.25″ x 11″ sheets on top of your chipboard. Holding the notepad upside down, tap the top edge on a table until all the edges are perfectly aligned. Clip one clothespin to each side of the top of the notepad to hold the pages together.
5. Spread glue on the top edge of the notepad. I squeezed glue onto my finger and smoothed it onto the paper. Make sure all the edges are coated with glue, but be careful not to use too much or the paper will ripple. It doesn’t take much. After gluing, use the remaining two clothespins to clamp the center (see photo).
7. Let the glue dry and remove the clothespins. Don’t leave the pins on for too long, or they may leave indentions in the paper.
8. Make lists to your heart’s content!
I just realized that I’ve never done a font post! That’s crazy, because I love fonts. In fact, I currently have 14,375 fonts on my computer. I have no idea how I ended up with so many, because I only use a fraction of them and most of them are way too ugly to use anyway. Maybe someday I’ll sort them out. In spite of my large collection, I can’t resist downloading free fonts here and there. A lot of the freebies available are pretty gross, but there are plenty worth keeping (spoken like a true font hoarder). You can download the fonts below right here: Ranger, Hagin, Wisdom Script, Titillium, Museo, Blanch
This year instead of putting my gardening efforts into another doomed vegetable garden, I decided to plant a butterfly garden. Before hitting the garden shop I printed out these extensive lists of butterfly friendly flowers and shrubs recommended by NC State’s horticulture department. Having a specific shopping list made it so much easier to not be overwhelmed by the rows and rows of plants yelling “Hey, pick me!” (Can anyone else hear them, or am I crazy?)
Last weekend my Dad came over to bring me some salvia and help me plant, and he dug 7 or 8 holes in the time it took me to dig one! I dig like such a girl. Below are the perennial lovelies that now live in my garden, along with Armeria, Rock Foil, Butterfly Weed, and Butterfly Bush (which aren’t pictured because they’re not doing anything particularly pretty yet). I’m also planting parsley, since butterfly caterpillars love to nibble it. If you see any butterflies this week, tell them to stop by. Have you ever planted a butterfly garden?
Today I tried rhubarb for the first time, and I was pleasantly surprised. I love it! This rhubarb pie has the perfect balance of sweet and tart. If you’re one of those make-your-own-piecrust overachievers you could win a contest with this recipe. It’s so simple to make too!
4 cups chopped rhubarb (if using frozen rhubarb let it thaw out first)
1 1/3 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie (I used store bought)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
Sift the sugar and flour together. Sprinkle 1/4 of it over pastry in pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Cover with top crust.
Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes, and then cover the edges of the pie crust with aluminum foil to avoid over-browning. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
Original recipe from allrecipes.com, with a few tweaks from me.
The other day I came across this beautiful painted wooden spoon tutorial. I trashed all my wooden spoons a while ago after finding splinters in my cookie dough, but I figured I could apply the same technique to a terracotta pot. I love the contrast of the high gloss shellacked paint next to the matte terracotta. This would make a great Mother’s Day gift with a set of DIY herb markers and a plantable Mother’s Day card tucked inside!
Supplies:
terracotta pot and saucer
masking tape
paint brush
primer
acrylic paint
aluminum foil
shellac (available at hardware stores, this kind worked great)
twine & hot glue (optional)
How to:
1. First tape off your planter. This part is a little tricky since the pot tapers. I found it best to tear roughly 2″ pieces of tape and overlap them around the pot, being careful to form a straight line with the bottom edge of the tape.
2. Prime the pot and saucer and allow them to dry. I let mine dry for about an hour. You can skip the primer if you want, but then you’ll have to apply more coats of paint to get full coverage.
3. After the primer is dry, paint the pot and saucer with acrylic paint. Let the paint dry and reapply if necessary. My pot needed two coats of paint.
4. Next you’ll apply the shellac to give the paint that high gloss shine. If you’re using spray shellac, cover the unpainted edge of the pot with aluminum foil to make sure it stays shellac-free and keeps its matte finish. Apply the shellac according to the package instructions. I used two coats. Carefully remove the tape after your last coat of shellac.
5. Let your planter dry for 24 hours or more before setting it in the saucer. Otherwise you might have problems with the shellac sticking.
6. If you like, tie a bit of twine around the pot. The twine adds interest by bringing in another texture, and it will also cover any imperfections where paint may have oozed under the masking tape. If you have trouble with the twine slipping down, a few dots of hot glue here and there should solve the problem.
