Be Still My Chocoholic Heart

 

Stephie, over at her blog Made By Stephie made these delicious bits of chocolatey goodness. 

They are Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

 I saw them yesterday over at Today's Creative Blog "Get Your Craft On" linkup. I want now!!!!! You know you do too :)

She's got all kind of other yumminess..foodie and non foodie, but she had me at chocolate.

Winner Winner, What's For Dinner...

 Welcome to those stopping in from


Now my son can check our new "Dinner" board when he comes home from school instead of it being the first question he asks me. The debate was chalkboard or dry erase since there have been so many great examples of each. But I finally decided last week when Erin at Crafts & Sutch did  a cute dry erase message board ( so cute that it was picked as a favorite thing this week at All Thingz Related ) that dry erase was the winner.

Started w/ a $.01 frame from one of Aaron Bros $.01 sales (they're a national chain and a couple of times a year the have a sale where you buy one frame for reg price and get another one for $.01 so who knows if this frame was the $.01 or the full price one but I digress):

 

It was too shiny and I wanted to tone it down so I painted it with a taupe acrylic and then dry brushed it with black.  I used the cardboard backing that came in the frame to make the main part, covering it w/ scrapbook paper and an acetate border I got at a sidewalk sale at one of my favorite haunts. They were on sale for $.10 each so of course I bought 10 of them. They were a dime! How could I buy just one? :

That's my stack of acetate thingies in the rubber band. Then I got out some clear acrylic stamps and spelled out dinner and realized there's only one "n" in the pack so I turned a "u" upside down because I didn't want to go back in and squeeze the 2nd "n" in.  Both to fit the letters on the acrylic block and because I knew I wouldn't get them perfectly straight, and then I would be cranky, I put the letters on kinda jumbled.

Here's the whole thing (together with Tuesday's dinner plans ... if you can't read my handwriting, it's chicken skewers, broccoli, pasta) :

I'm not much of a week at a time meal planner....more of a this is what's for dinner TONIGHT kind of planner so you won't see a M,T,W etc. board here lol.

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Vintage "Diamond" Birthday Card

We celebrated a 75th birthday this weekend, and with diamonds being the traditional item associated with 75th anniversaries, I decided to go with that theme. I used sheet music from an old book of the same that I bought at a used book store, glued to numbers I cut out on my Cricut from a recycled cereal box.I also cut a circle out and covered it w/ sheet music to serve as a base.  I wrapped a silver pipecleaner from a package I bought on sale after Christmas last year ( I mean in preparation for Christmas THIS year because I'm just that organized...mkay, that works) around the circle and stuck the numbers on top w/ foam tape. I think it's a vintage-y looking card...maybe of a type from around the time the recipient was born?

 I had a package of tulle circles I picked up at the $1 Tree and folded those in quarters which I put behind the circle thingy and then embellished the number with adhesive "diamonds". NOTE: not a mailing friendly card...best given in person.

"Dollar-kea" Mirror II...Now With Mod Podge

I made this mirror last week without really knowing where it was going. I finally decided what I wanted to do with it which is to put it in our bathroom but it's going to replace a botanical print that's part of a pair so I needed to make it a friend. Since I decided it was going in the bathroom, I thought I should seal the paper with Mod Podge so I went back and sealed the first one too.

Started with the basic Malma frame and this time, a plain frame from the $1 Tree:

 

Used some more of my ginormous roll of industrial capet tape to tape up the Ikea mirror and painted the $1 Tree frame and the edges of the Ikea mirror black.  Chose different but complementary scrapbook paper and some more silver handmade paper scraps and adhered to the Ikea mirror:

 

You can't see it too well but will be able to in the finished product... before I painted the $1 frame, I super glued ( for small things I am in love with Locktite's super glue gel) two keys that are actually scrapbooking stickers to the frame. It was plain and I wanted some dimension. They're "Jolee's" dimensional stickers...I got mine @ JoAnn's during one of their 40% off sticker sales:

If you're wondering why I bought a plain frame if I was just going to put stuff on it, I wondered that too, but hey, it's what I do :)
So for this one I sealed the base mirror with Mod Podge before I glued the frame on, and while that was drying, got out my silver Rub n Buff and aged my key frame. End result:

Total cost $5 ( adding in a buck and change for 1/2 package of 40% off key stickers since I used the other half for another project)

Here are the two together:

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Welcome Fellow Friday Followers!

 

It's OFFICIAL! It's A 100 Follower Giveaway!

Update: When I first put this up today,  I was at 97 follwers and had titled it "3 Away From A Giveaway.
It's official now, I have 100 wonderful followers and it's such an exciting milestone to reach!

So the giveaway will close one week from today and I'll post the winner on 6/18!

When I started this blog, I really had no idea what to expect. Would anyone see it? Would anyone like it? I know these are things we've all felt and asked ourselves. In my wildest dreams, I had no idea that in a little over a month, I'd be at almost 100 followers. WOW. So first, thank you to each and every one of you who has chosen to follow me and my nutty ramblings and crazy ideas, and for the support and encouragement you've provided. 

Thank you to all of the bloggers who so willingly share their ideas and creativity. A special thanks to Megan at Shabby Blogs for providing people such lovely and free blog designs. Another one to Karen, "The Queen of the Graphics", at The Graphics Fairy for her generosity as well in sharing the incredible images she finds.

To call out other blogs that have inspired me in some way would be to list every single one that's in my blog reader list so this thanks is for all of you.

I'm still new at this and haven't explored the whole sponsor / advertising things ( mostly because I have no clue how!) so I don't have a "professional" giveaway for you. What I do have, is something I made that I hope represents how much joy I take in making things. The winner will receive this "Dream" box, filled with some items I hope will spark their creative muse. 

Ephemera, charms, hand stamped gift / hang tags, embellishments, a special treat and there MAY even be chocolate!

"Da Rules"

•  As of this writing, I'm 3 followers away from 100 followers
• The giveaway will close one week from the day I reach 100 followers
• To be eligible to win:

1. Become a follower if you aren't, and leave me a comment telling me
2. Refer a friend and if they become a follower, leave a comment telling me
3. If you're already a follower, leave a comment
4. Post about this on your blog, leave a comment and a link to your post telling me

 I will use random.org to generate the winner.

That's it! I'm keeping it simple because have I mentioned, I don't know what I'm doing?

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Paying It Forward

Update:  Imagine my surprise when I saw that I'd received another lovely award yesterday!

Thank you Michelle from All Home Cooking. All Year Long  for thinking of me. Truly, I am so honored. I thought I'd combine it wit this post because I'm going to admit up front that I'm going to cheat a bit. This award asks us to post 7 things about ourselves and since I'd just done this and am not that interesting really, they're all on the list below!  The guidelines for accepting this award are...

• Thank the person/people who gave it to you.
• Tell 7 things yourself.
• Pass the award on to 15 bloggers, whom you have recently discovered, and think are fantastic.

So I am passing this award on to:

1. Calamity Anne's Adventures
2. Charm Bracelet Diva
3. Chic on A Shoestring Decorating
4. Christine & Co
5. Crafts & Sutch
6. I Been Thinkin' 'Bout Inkin
7. Leksi Designs...This Handmade Life
8. Life In My PJs
9. mbellished
10. Mich in LA
11. Mosaic Magpie
12. Pony Tails & Fish Scales
13. The Little Green Bean
14. The CraftInMe
15. Get Craftin

Fun blogs with great ideas and definitely worth a visit :)


If you've never seen the movie of the same name or are unfamiliar with the term, simply put it's like a future propelled "Golden Rule". You do nice things for other people and they do the same to others, thus, paying it forward. Dawn K from  The Way I See Things surprised and blew me away by presenting me with two awards! I'm humbled and honored:

So first things first and a huge THANK YOU Dawn!

And now time for me to "Pay It Forward" which is as much fun as receiving the awards!

For the Trendy Blog Award :  

Once you receive this award, promise to share this with 10 other bloggers that you think are Trendy too.  

•Post about your award in your blog.  

•Share with the bloggers .

•Ask them to give this award out to 10 as well.

Ten Trendy Bloggers I'd like to recognize are:

1. Cricky's Corner
2. Food,Wine, and Mod Podge
3. Green Submarine
4. All Thingz Related
5. Lorrie Everitt Studio
6. Singing Three Little Birds
7. Twelve Crafts Til Christmas
8. A Little Lovely
9. Le Chateau des Fleurs
10. Lemon Tree Creations

For the Honest Scrap Award:   

Once you receive this award, you need to share 10 lies honest things about yourself, and then pass the award along to other great bloggers. So here goes about moi:

1. My husband and I couldn't stand each other when we first met
2. My husband and I each insist the other was the first to be interested ( he was!)
3. I really, truly, honestly, am a chocoholic
4. You would never know from looking at me that I'd rather shop at Home Depot or wander through a junk yard than a high end department store
5. I wear lipstick every day
6. I rarely plan out my projects
7. I love to cook
8. I use waaaaaay too many movie quotes and exclamation points!
9. Growing up, I read the encyclopedia WILLINGLY
10. I hate Facebook yet I have a blog. Go figure!

OK so now that you can't get the time it took you to read that back, drumroll please for those receiving the "Honest Scrap" award for their inspiration and awesomeness and for which you don't have to be a scrapper:)  :

1. Simply Scratch
2. The Graphics Fairy
3. Blue Artichoke Interiors
4. One Cheap B*tch
5. Pumpkin Tart
6. Room To Inspire
7. The Scrap Shoppe
8. Things I Learn From Bear
9. Under the Table and Dreaming
10. The Sewing Dork

So congrats, and please go check out these great blogs!