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Decoupaged Wood Butterfly Garland/Spring Inspired.
I’m so excited about the coming Spring. When on the the hunt for some new faux florals, I came across this cute pack of eight wood butterflies which included a string to hang them as garland. At the same time I found some beautiful floral napkins on Etsy and I started planning my next project. For $3.00 these were definitely coming home with me:) The napkins were approximately $.80 a piece and I purchased 6 of them. I knew I would want extra ones for future projects. After lightly sanding off any rough areas, I painted the wood forms, on the front and back, with white acrylic paint. This will…
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Decoupaged Glass Bottle Using Rice Paper/Air Dry Clay/Spring Inspired
Between our large home projects I usually have smaller craft projects I’m working on. The upcoming seasons always motivate me to make home decor either for our home or to give as gifts to others. I find its such a great way to pass the time and get the creative juices flowing. Even simple projects such as this, made for no specific reason makes me feel good and starts me thinking about how I would like to change my house for the upcoming Spring. From blueberry pancakes to an empty glass Maple container comes my first spring inspired craft of the season. I love the shape of this particular bottle…
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Easy One Pot Dinner/Use What You Have
I was clearing out my refrigerator before grocery shopping for the week and pulled out everything that either needed to be used before going bad or was a remaining ingredient that just didn’t make it into other preparations. I don’t like to throw away food and try my best to use EVERYTHING. The recipe for this pork stew can be found below. During these winter months in upstate New York, I prefer to prepare meals that feed my family multiple times a week from one day of cooking. I rely heavily on one pot meals like stews and soups. It’s also convenient for my family to have meals like this…
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Beginner Friendly Decoupaged Ornaments Using Napkins, Glue And Chalk Paint
My relaxation during the holiday season involves personalizing gifts and making them myself. This can prove to be time consuming but by keeping them easy and giving them some consideration ahead of time, these crafts and smaller projects have become one of my biggest stress relievers. This project requires little skill and a few affordable materials. One of the things I look for when the holiday season starts are assorted shapes of wood ornaments. These bell shapes are one of two I came across this year at Michael’s. These are approximately 4″ x 2 1/2″ which is a size I enjoy working with. They aren’t to small where the picture…
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Easy Holiday Accent Pillow Slipcovers Customized For A Gift Or For Your Home
My favorite gifts to give are the ones I make myself. I enjoy personalizing them for the recipient and making something that is functional. In doing so it has encouraged me, over the years, to sharpen my sewing skills and learn new crafts. This year I decided to make some holiday accent pillow covers and give them as gifts to a few of my family members for Christmas. I enjoy having seasonal slipcovers that can be changed along with the seasons. Slipcovers take up much less space then pillows so they are much easier to store. Here are the two pieces of precut fabric I found this year at Joann’s…
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Cooking And Freezing Fresh Sugar Pumpkins
I like to bake and cook with pumpkin throughout the year. Like many other squash varieties pumpkin is versatile when baking and cooking. For most of us pumpkin is available on the shelves of our local grocery stores all year long and the canned version tastes great. But I can’t bring myself to throw away those perfectly good little pumpkins we decorate with during the Autumn months. I don’t like to throw away food and this method of cooking these little pumpkins only takes and hour. The hardest part is cutting them up. Start by cutting your pumpkins in half from top to bottom. (I normally cut the stem off…
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Home Cooked Orange Scented Cranberry Sauce
I love to make my own cranberry sauce for our holiday meals. Its easy to customize by changing the sweeteners and spices. This recipe requires no more then one half hour from start to finish and very little cooking experience is required. One other benefit is it makes my home smell amazing! Here’s how you go from this⇑ to this⇓ I start with a medium size sauce pan. I then combine all the ingredients in the sauce pan before turning on the heat. This recipe is a combination of fresh cranberries, coconut sugar, orange juice, cinnamon sticks, water, a pinch of salt and the zest of one orange. ( The…
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Moist And Delicious Sourdough/Gluten Free Cinnamon Walnut Muffins
I became a sourdough enthusiast and began my starter earlier this year and I’ve been loving the process! Due to family health concerns, I’m becoming more mindful when baking and have been experimenting more with sourdough and gluten free recipes. I’m in the early stages of learning this technique but I felt with the slight modifications I made to make this recipe my own, the results were worth sharing. The key to this delicious muffin recipe is to let the starter, flour and water ferment overnight. Now let me tell you about these easy and tasty little treats:) These muffins begin with active sourdough starter, Flour (I have only used…
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The Best Sweet And Spicy Pumpkin Seeds
I love to cook with pumpkin during the Fall season. The big “Jacks” we carve definitely aren’t as good to cook with as the smaller sugar or pie pumpkins but the seeds are great when well seasoned and roasted. After going through the trouble of cleaning these big guys out, make sure you treat yourself with theses tasty, sweet and spicy, crunchy treats. It’s a nice alternative to candy once you’ve had your fill after Halloween. To clean the seeds put them a bowl of warm water and swish them around. ( I use my hands) After a few minutes the pulp will start to separate from the seeds and…
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Roasted Eggplant And Easy Tomato Sauce With Rigatoni
This tasty meal came together quickly and I think would also work great using zucchini in place of the eggplant:) The recipe will follow at the bottom of the page. I started out with this large eggplant which I peeled and cut up into 1″ cubes. Once that was done I coated the cubes with olive oil, Italian seasonings, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I spread the pieces on a cookie sheet and roasted the eggplant until browned at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. TIP: If some of the cubes stick just scrap them off the sheet with a spatula and throw them into the sauce. They ad great texture…