Easter 2014

I hope everyone had a great Easter this year! I know we did! As usual, I volunteered to host Easter - again, it is the BEST holiday to host for sooooo many reasons! Most important of the reasons - it is usually a brunch, so the food is pretty easy to make! Another reason, it is not a long, all day & night party. It is at most, a few hours long, so prep & entertainment is a lot easier! This year, I had to work right up to the holiday - not getting home until 11 pm the night before, so I knew it was not going to be extravagant. I still looked to Pinterest for ideas, and I have to say, they were ALL winners (unlike the chocolate covered strawberry "carrots" of last year)! I saw this idea on Pinterest and actually combined 2 posts to make this awesome bouquet...

I printed off the "Get Your Peeps On" sign from ModPodge's website. I then stuck the Peeps with plastic silverware and assembled them into a cure bouquet! I would have used skewers, but I didn't have any, and the utensils worked fine! I even put sugar-fee Peeps in for the diabetics in our family.The picture on Pinterest showed the rabbit Peeps, but sugar-free Peeps only came in the chick design, so they all became chicks! 

 Along with the Peep bouquet, I also put the flowers that we get for the moms on the table. It offers a great decoration, and the moms get a great gift at the end of the meal!

 One of my favorite ideas from Easters past was sticking parsley in the end of baby carrots and standing them up in "pots" of veggie dip. They are sooo cute, and sooo easy! I always make a "pilot" hole in the barrits with a fork or a skewer!

I also thought it would be cute to make edible robins' nests for each person. SUPER simple. I did what I always so - I combined a number of different pins to make the end result! I melted a bag of chocolate chips with about 3/4 cup of peanut butter in the microwave (about 30 seconds each time, stirring between intervals & stopping when it was all melted). I then stirred in some Craisins (some fruit is always good) and the then Chow Mein crisps. I added enough to cover all the noodles with chocolate.  Then I sprayed my hands with Pan and assembled the nests! I molded them on a foil-lined cookie sheet. I then let them chool in the fridge over night.  The next day, I picked out all of the baby blue Cadbury chocolate eggs and splattered them with a watered down chocolate mix. I placed them in the middle and then each person got their own nest!  So cute and so easy! Another Easter tradition?

 I also saw these on Pinterest. I used low-fat cinnamon rolls and unrolled them and made them into bunny shapes. SUPER easy! When they came out, I placed the icing on them and two Craisins for eyes and 2 almond slices for teeth! 

You might have noticed in the picture above the giant paper flowers on the table.  I used paint swatches in robins egg colors and cut them to resemble flower petals. I glued them to look like a flower and then sorted jelly beans by color, placing each different color in its own color coordinated cupcake liner. I then set them out!  Even something as simple as this made a huge impression! My guests loved having the jelly beans sorted and were always moving their favorite closest to them! 

 I always wanted to include this cool idea my hubby had... The Easter bunny always leaves a scavenger hunt for the kids. THis year I used Pinterest to make a more religious based hunt and it was awesome. My 19 year old daughter doesn't live at home any more so I had made the comment that I wouldn't have to do clues for her. She made a sad face and I knew I would have to. My hubby had the aewsome idea of "making her work for it, then" and we did all of her clues, then TRANSLATED them using Google translator into Spanish! It was funny and awesome! Latin next year?

 We had sooo many different foods, that I used a picture frame painted with Chalkboard paint to list off the menu. It was awesome for our guests and helped to keep me organized and not to forget to put anything out!

Another great Easter on the books!  I hope I inspired you to hold one of your own!

Easy Spring Project!

I love St. Patty's Day! I always have - I don't know if it's the color, the time of year, the parades or the celebration of my Irish heritage that I love the most! I put together a number of Pinterest ideas and created this adorable leprechaun hat (sorry about the blurry picture - my lens was scratched!).

I took a basic clay pot & saucer and painted the outside with Rustoleum's Black Chalkboard paint. After about three coats, it was ready to write on!

I them taped off a 1 inch band just under the rim of the pot. Using an 8 oz. Behr Ultra sample tinted to an Irish green.  That only too one coat. When I flipped the pot over onto the saucer, I had a leprechaun's hat!

I used chalk to draw a shamrock tucked into the green "ribbon."  I couldn't stop there...I then used Rustoleum Gold Glitter Spray and sprayed rocks to look like gold pieces and even a "buckle" that I make out of cardboard. It was a super easy and cute decoration for St. Patty's Day!

Afterwards, I was wondering what else I could do with this adorable clay pot. I realized it would be an adorable gift for Easter or Mother's day!

I flipped it back over and added some purple polka dots using a Glidden Dup paint sample that was tinted purple. I used the rounded end of the paintbrush to make the festive dots! I then used purple chalk to draw flowers and write a message for the gift receiver!  Inside, I tucked some garden tools, seeds and garden gloves! What an adorable gift!

Just an added note about the picture above...I have also used chalk paint on a coffee container (to write the flavor), around the base of a glass so people can write their names on them and on the glass of every old picture frame I have to create an inexpensive, portable and easy chalkboard!

Happy Spring, Everyone!

Chalk Paint

So, I have admitted (quite often, actually) that I am a Pinterest addict. Any Pinterest fan has heard of "Chalk Paint." I've pinned hundreds of pins detailing why to use it, how to use it, when to use it and even how to make it. 

According to the hundreds of pins, the reasons to use chalk paint is as follows:

1) No prep (other tan cleaning the surface) is required. No more sanding, deglossing, stripping or even scuffing. No priming - just use it!

2) Adheres to most any surface - wood, metal, glass, painted, varnished - you name it!

3) Most streak-free paint available

4) Smoothest, factory-like finish

5) Goes 3-4X farther than regular paint

Trust me, I have read all the write-ups and even though we sell Plaster-of-Paris in my department, I was a bit hesitant to try to make my own. Heck, I had just developed a love interest in liquid deglosser and it was working for my & my customers' needs just fine. Then, a few weeks ago, I received these small boxes marked, "New Product." Hmmmm. I left them alone for four whole days! I should receive an award. Protocol has it that I have to wait for our MET team to unpack new products in their new "home." Well, after four days, I couldn't wait. I ripped open a box and guess what! Home Depot now has Chalk Paint! Seriously! We have had it available on-line for months; however, here it was, sitting in my hands! It took me about two minutes to open one up and begin trying it out! I found some old cabinet doors and a heavily-used paint brush and tried it out.

 Guess what?

?

?

?

It was just as awesome as all the pins had stated! Beautiful finish (even with the wrong brush), clung to the beat-up, varnished door without primer or sanding, and the finish was BEAUTIFUL! I put the door on display and everyone that passed the door had to reach out and touch it! Every. Single. Person. I scheduled a class for that weekend to educate the public about our new product!

The turn-out was amazing and even though we only have seven colors, we are selling out! I even tried a glaze/paint mixture over the top to age it and guess what? Perfection!

A little 8 oz jar is $8.48. People are always shocked - for that little jar? But that little jar does almost as much as a big quart! I tried it on a glass jar, a metal display stand - it does work on all of the surfaces! We completed one entire door and scuffed to to apply an aging glaze, but was so pretty that we left it as is. 

Americana Decora is the company and I have had numerous customers come in and clean us out because they said they have been purchasing another brand on-line and pay up to $35 for a little 8 oz jar! There is a wax that you can put over the top as a protective coat and even that is pretty cool! Most furniture waxes are heavy & STINKY & require a lot of elbow grease. This wax is actually a liquid that you can brush or rub on and has no smell. Pretty awesome. 

Now, I just have educate our employees that it is not "Chalkboard" paint...

Turn a Crate into Something Great!

 Every so often, my store gets in a shipment of storage crates. I snagged one and decided to try an idea I saw on Pinterest. Using a medium grit sanding sponge, I gently sanded all the rough edges. Then I decided to try a product that we sell called Polyshades by MinWax. Instead of staining 2-4 times, then applying a clear coat over top, it claims to have it all in one can. I chose Bombay Mahogany with a Gloss finish. I used a Wooster brush made for oil stains. When I began applying the PolyShades, the crate began to change immediately! I let it dry over night, gently rubbed it with 0000 steel wool. I removed the excess shavings with tack cloth and then applied the second coat. I let it dry over night and it was perfect! I chose some decorative shelf brackets and attached them to the shelf and the wall. The finished product is shown below and looks AMAZING! Needless to say, we sold out of our crates within two weeks and are patiently awaiting more!

Easter 2013

My plate is quite full between being a mom, daughter, full time retail manager, owner of a rental property, not to mention a daily battle with fibromyalgia & chronic fatigue syndrome. Needless to say, I don't have much left to host holidays and parties. I did, however, find that hosting Easter each year for my children & parents (and sometimes siblings), is the one holiday I can manage to host. First of all, it is usually brunch. Breakfast & lunch foods are soooo much easier to manage than full dinners & hors d'ouvres. I also find the decorating fairly simple as well. Most of the decorations can double as brunch treats! Also, it is usually short, church, a nice meal and an egg hunt (weather permitting).  In 2012, we did it on our own, without the help of Pinterest and I knew this would be my holiday! Last year, I looked to Pinterest for inspiration, and it was small, quiant but adorable!

 A tulip plant made a great centerpiece and then my mom was able to take it with her as an Easter gift!

In the lower left hand corner of the picture above, you can see one Pinterest failure. I tried tinting white chocolate orange and then dipping strawberries in it to resemble a carrot. So cute on Pinterest, not so cute in real life. They ended up pink. Pink blobs of strawberries stuck to the plate!

My favorite Pinterest idea was the carrots in the planting pot. I bought little pots from the dollare store, then put cellophane inside (they didn't say food grade), and filled them with veggie dip. I then placed 6 baby carrots standing up in each pot. They were so adorable! Plus, I added a spring of parsley in the ends to really resemble home grown carrots!

The food (other then than strawberries) was delicious! We used a number of recipes from Pinterest, the two BEST were:

  

Cheese and Cream Baked Potatoes

Found on heatherchristo.com 

Easter Brunch: Baked French 

Found on dwellonjoy.comToast

We also had ham, rolls, green bean casserole, hard boiled eggs & Easter chocolates. Again, simple & sweet! I gave up cheese this year for Lent so I have a feeling that this year will be all about the CHEESE! Check back and see...