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Bottles Full of Light

The other day, I wrote about attempting to drill through glass and I finished up the project this weekend. I think it turned out beautifully — I love the idea of bottled light! These would be pretty by a wintery window or under an entry table. I like the way the gold paint makes the bottom of the bottles look misty and glow-y, even during the daytime. I’ve got a ton of images and DIY instructions below if you’d like to try this too. For tools and supplies, I started at my local True Value. I started with these apple juice bottles from Whole Foods. Next, I used my handy scraper tool to take off the label. Once the bottle was clean and label free, it was time to drill through the glass. [UPDATE: Hah! Next we painted. I used a disposable sponge brush and Liquid Leaf paint — but any metallic enamel paint should work. Once the paint was dry (it dries very quickly), we started stuffing the lights in. And that’s it! This is another project as a True Value Blog Squad Member.

Homemade Skinny Chocolate Cake Be still my chocolate loving heart, a moist chocolate cake made from scratch with only three tablespoons of oil in the entire cake! Top this with some chocolate syrup and fresh raspberries and oh my, what a chocolate dessert! I've been experimenting making a cake from scratch with less fat for a few days now and after a few rounds I finally got it to where my taste testers (aka husband and friends) all thought it was great and couldn't believe it was light. My secret? This recipe was created for those of you who like to make their cakes from scratch, but if you prefer a quicker method by using a box cake mix as an ingredient, see my Super Moist Low Fat Chocolate Cupcake recipe. This cake rises beautifully and the coffee brings out the flavor of the chocolate. I made this in a 13 x 9-inch pan and used a heart cookie cutter to cut out hearts, but you can make this into 24 cupcakes, a bundt cake or 2 rounds. Ingredients: Preheat oven to 325°F. Add the applesauce until mixed through.

Two Tone Treasure + How to Paint Furniture Wow, such inspiration from this week’s Paint Projects Party, you simply must visit so many of these links! There are over 400 projects to browse, from furniture to floors to fabrics to home accents. Oh the power of paint never ceases to amaze me! Nothing makes me happier than a great second hand find, and the opportunity to revamp the new treasure for a great cause. This one was for a good friend of mine who recently had a baby girl. She’s been a little preoccupied with her little one, so her hub and I conspired to makeover this piece for her nursery, currently a work in progress, but sure to beautiful when the space is finished. I’ve been looking for the perfect dresser for her for awhile now, and finally scored this one at a local thrift store last week, I was so excited! With all the pieces I’ve painted over the years, I realized I should write up a full step by step for repainting an old treasure like this one, including cosmetic repair, priming and painting so here goes!

Abbie’s Stir Fry… Our cute little daughter, Abbie, made me a cookbook for last Mother’s Day…. She got the recipes from her Home Ec class at school and has made some of them for our family. I asked her to make a couple again so we could post them on my blog! This Stir Fry is perfect for kids to learn to chop vegetables and use the stove. She did a really great job! Everyone loves this dish so help your kids give it a try Abbie’s Stir Fry Makes 4-6 servings Ingredients: 1 c. 1 c. 1 Chopped Carrot1 Chopped Celery 2 pkg. Nonstick Veggie Spray 2-3 Tbsp. 1 2/3 c. Instructions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. This is a really good recipe to start kids off in the kitchen! molten chocolate cakes with raspberry coulis Welcome Stumblers - Glad to have you here! If you enjoyed this recipe, please consider subscribing to my RSS and/or following me on twitter to receive other recipes. this was a hectic week - lots of work and no time to post for picky cook - sad. while i was working on thursday night i had ashton kutcher on ustream in the background to see if he would beat cnn to a million followers twitter. i felt i was watching history. i believe what happened on thurday will make the social web more accessible to people that are currently not utilizing it. i was cheering for ashton for two main reasons....1. i work in the industry and think he is an incredible ambassador for social media. 2. i love it any time the "little guy" beats the "big guy" so cheers to you ashton for reaching a million followers before cnn! enough tech talk ... this is a food blog! molten chocolate cakes with raspberry coulisadapted from Jean-Georges Vongerichten via bitten Method1. 2. 3. 4. 5. raspberry coulis chocolate fondue

Bath bomb recipe Here is a Friday Flashback about making bath bombs. Bath bombs make the perfect Valentine’s Day gift when packaged to look like a bomb along with a tag that says, “You’re the ‘bomb’!” They would also make cute teacher appreciation gifts! How to make foaming bath bombs Supplies: 2 Cups Baking Soda 1 Cup Citric Acid 4 teaspoons massage oil ( or 2 teaspoons essential oil and 2 teaspoons olive oil) Spray bottle with water mold (60 mm 2 part plastic ball) (I am also thinking the bottoms of two large Easter eggs could be used) This amount only made 5 bath bombs. Mix baking soda and citric acid in large mixing bowl. Add in 4 teaspoons of scented massage oil (or other combination of skin safe essential oil for scent and another oil for moisturizing the skin). This next step can be a bit tricky because you don’t want your bath bomb to start fizzing. You will continue spraying until the mixture will clump in your hand when squeezed. Fill one half of your mold. Gently remove the ball from mold. Enjoy!

DIY Mason Jar Tumbler Lid- In ONLY 3 Steps I've been dying to get some of these tumbler lids since I saw them on Groopdealz May 3rd. After missing out on snatching up the deal, then shopping around the internet for them, I was discouraged, because they are ridiculously expensive!!! AND I couldn't find a tutorial on how the heck they were made. Materials Needed: Mason jar lid Seal or Grommet Drill and 3/8" drill bit Wire cutter How to do it: 1. 2. 3. VOILA! Just make sure you wash the mason jar and lid good to get rid of any debris. TIP: Use the same jar, just new lids while making holes. Now I have to be honest, if it wasn't for the guys at Lowes, I would have never figured this out on my own, so really all credit for this post goes to them! So after the Lowe's man helped me pick out the size, I then had to put my pride aside and ask what size drill bit I should use. The most HILARIOUS (sarcasm) part of this encounter: When Craig came home from work, I showed him the new lids. WHAT! haha.... guess I should have asked him first, huh. xo

braided jersey scarf | Ladybug Blessings December 15th, 2011 So I am really enjoying wearing scarfs this year. I saw a tutorial at Put Up Your Dukes for this braided scarf and pinned it a while back waiting for a time to make it. Well last night I finally got around to making it! I follow the tutorial at Put Up Your Dukes with only a few changes….mainly I used pieces I had (salvage bin at Joann’s is a great place to find cheap material for projects where you only need a little bit!) Forgive the pictures, mirror shots are always adorable, right?? (From Put Up Your Dukes) I apologize that it is so blurry, my mirror shots never work. It was a really good reason!

How to Upgrade your Builder Grade Mirror - Frame it! I love framed mirrors in the bathroom but I really don't like the idea of ripping out a large builder mirror to replace it with a smaller framed one. Not only is it hurting the environment, it hurts my pocket book. So at our first house we framed our builder grade mirror with some cheap MDF molding and ever since, we have been hooked on this cheap, but with a huge impact, solution. I saw on Our Suburban Cottage, over a year ago, an amazing mirror that she created in her bathroom. Using her design, my husband was able to create this stunning addition to our master bathroom's mini-reno. I fully intend to redo everything out of this bathroom when time and money permits; but for now we had to do cosmetic changes that have made this bathroom livable for a few years. We did two bathrooms with this type of frame. Before (when we bought the house): After (after some minor and inexpensive changes): Method: Paint all the trim both back and front. Isn't it absolutely AMAZING!?!? What do you think?

DIY Bath Salts | Gift in a Jar So, I was at Michael's last week, and happened upon a huge jar of mineral/sea salt, it was cheap so I had to buy it. I knew it would come in handy at some point. It did. I decided to make a homemade bath soak. Super easy. Super Yummy! What you need: jar (I used the Ball jelly/jam jars measuring 250ml) mineral and sea salt essential oil (or in my case extract) food coloring small piece of fabric How to make it: Pour enough salt to fill a jar, or two. That’s it! You can use any scent you prefer. # kristanlynn xoxo This post was sponsored my Little Miss Momma.

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