BFF Open House Link Party #151

Friday Eve...best day of the week! Hope none of you endured any awful April Fool's day pranks. Not a fan of that day. 

Here are some inspiring ( inspire Spring?) ideas from last week's party: 

My readers know I love making cards. This one from It's Always Ruetten is a must make idea. Perfect for so many occasions. 

Spring and birds go together don't they? I really like this layered stencil bird project from Laura at Pet Scribbles. 

Doreen over at Altered Artworks took her love of altering things to a bigger level. Ab fab makeover of this flea market found metal file cabinet to some new Industrial Chic storage for her workroom. 

I couldn't believe that this gorgeous cake was Diane's first attempt at cake decorating. Visit An Extraordinary Day for the details. I can assure you , my first attempt looked nothing like this. I'm not even sure it looked like cake! Easter, Mother's Day, showers ...

Finally this week's chocolate feature. Simple, classic, delicious and never tire of this combination. Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars from The Pin Junkie. 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

BFF Open House Link Party #150

Happy Friday Eve once again all. Can you believe this is the last party of March? Hope everyone's had a fun National Craft Month!

I didn't plan on this week's features being all jewelry (well not the chocolate one)  but that's how it turned out. I love that each of these projects can use found or re-purposed objects. 

Definitely going to try my hand at these Safari Leather Bracelets from Rena at Jewelry Making Journal. I recently cleaned out my jewelry box and took apart some prior creations but saved the beads to re-use and have some that are perfect for this idea. 

Baseball season is just around the corner and whether your an MLB , softball, or little league fan, you need to check out this idea from Terri at A Creative Princess. Home run! 

With ongoing discussion about the potential retirement of the penny, here's a way to preserve them for posterity. Artsy VaVa combined a penny ( she even has a poem) and a charm to make this cute necklace for St. Patrick's Day. It could be easily adapted to many occasions. 

Making macarons ( different from macaroons) has been on my to do list. For this week's chocolate feature I am drooling over this recipe for Mocha Macarons from Aimee at Twigg Studios. Everything she makes is gorgeous! 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Chalkboard Printable From Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

It’s been a while since I made a printable and then I saw this quote from Shakespeare’s " A Midsummer Night’s Dream". Once again Mr. Shakespeare sums things up so eloquently. I think this is a perfect quote to celebrate Women's History Month! 

I uploaded a chalkboard background to PicMonkey and chose  a script style font. Click on the image to bring it to full size then right click to Save As

My First Contribution to Live Creatively Inspired : Double Stacked Ring Woven Bracelet

Happy Monday . I'm excited to be sharing this woven bracelet over at Live Creatively Inspired where I'm now a monthly contributor. Hope you'll come over for a visit and check out the blog. The contributors are a talented group of ladies and I'm honored to be among them!

BFF Open House Link Party #149

Happy Friday eve all. This is the most creative thing I've done all week. Between College Boy being home for Spring Break (yay for a son who still likes to come home!) and migrating to a new laptop ( yay for not hanging up on every screen) and attempting to be on vacation from my day job ( and boo for that not happening completely) well that's been my week. Hope yours has gone well. 

Getting right down to the business of partying tonight and features will resume next week. Have fun!! 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

BFF Open House Link Party #148

Happy Friday Eve all. Hope everyone's had a good week. Excited to have College Boy home for Spring Break starting on Sunday. 

I've been doing a lot of Spring cleaning lately. Sorting through things I've held on to and now ask myself why, re-purposing others ( OK saving stuff to re-purpose) filling up the Goodwill donation bin etc. So this week's features include some reduce re-use recyle ideas. 

I love my reusable grocery bags . It took me a few trips to remember to put them back in the car for next time but it quickly became a habit.  Now I was lazy and bought them at the store, but if I need more, I'm going to remember this  DIY tutorial from Rachel at Holy Craft . She also shows how to use the same pattern as a gift bag . 

I'm old enough to remember using the phonebook for its intended purpose and young enough to wonder why the heck we keep getting them. I may just hang on to a couple to try some of these ideas that Caroline and Larissa from Creative Party Themes  rounded up. 

I've wanted to try some pallet projects but haven't wanted to commit to salvaging a full pallet. Steph from The Silly Pearl has a great faux pallet idea . Love her St. Patrick's themed sign. 

This week's chocolate feature is from Allison at The Pinterest Kitchen. I am now craving these Chocolate Iced Butter Cookies.  Pretty sure you are too!

Now on to this week's fun! 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

I Have My Own Castle: The Story of My "VIntage Romance" Necklace

This necklace all started with a charm. A very special charm, from a very special person. It was my birthday present back in September from College Boy.

There are so many things about this charm that just made my heart soar. The fact that it was from my son away at school who has a crazy busy schedule and took the time to pick out something with meaning. The fact that he found it at a little shop that specializes in creative and handmade things , and  that he knew that would mean a lot to me. But the part of it that brought me to tears was what he wrote in the card :

“I found it fitting that on this day, and each day after, a queen should have a castle as a reminder of the challenges you conquer”

The past couple of years have had some challenges.  Lots of changes, some planned, some not, and some right on top of each other. Not a lot of time for breath catching shall we say?  So when I read what he wrote in the card and saw this charm ( after melting into tears and slobbering all over myself) I knew I had to wait until the right idea popped into my head. One worthy of his gift.

I was poking around Michaels after Christmas and found this pendant and string of beads from the “Vintage Romance” line by Debby Anderson. My eyes landed on the pendant and it was the perfect backdrop for the charm.

I randomly strung some of the beds on wire and joined them in the middle of silver chain. I added another strand of beaded chain to the bottom portion of the necklace that joins the pendant.

I may never be queen of any country, but it’s more than enough for me that my son think’s I’m queen enough to deserve my own castle that now hangs from the end of the Vintage Romance pendant.

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