Valerie Frances Kall
25 Handmade Gifts Under $5. If your gift list is long and your budget is small here are some great Handmade Gifts that you can make. Keep in mind that handmade items are not just beautiful but special… I love to give them and I love to receive them. In my opinion they are the best! Jersey Knit Bracelet Lovely! This would make a perfect gift for any of your girlfriends. You can choose the colors and recycle t-shirts that you have around the house. Cheap and cute! Tutorial Paper Clip Earrings Tutorial This is a brilliant idea… and the possibilities are endless. Love it! Printed Candles Who doesn’t love a candle? Think about how many different stamps you could use to customize this project. tutorial Hot Chocolate Art! What a great gift for neighbors and teachers… I am personally a hot chocolate lover so this would make a great gift for me tutorial Tile Coaster You can buy these plain tiles at Home Depot for under a dollar.
I’ve seen them with family pictures also… Way cute! Tutorial Bow Belt I was amazed how easy this tutorial was. So Pretty! DIY! 7 new stylish ways to de-clutter your beauty closet. Popsicles! Not to sound full of myself, but I’m pretty sure this is the be all, end all of popsicle roundups. There’s a little something for everyone: the foodies, the purists, the ones who prefer frozen yogurt, the ones who prefer a little alcohol, everyone. Tweny-five options to be exact. The post I did last summer on the cold guys was one of DC’s most viewed ever, so I thought you’d all be up for another round – was I right? Click on the photo to be taken to the recipe. All photos and recipes copyright of their respective source unless otherwise noted. How to do a faux bob | BEAUTY EDITOR.
Sponsored Holy hot rollers! I’ve been poking around our Toronto LG Fashion Week Flickr feed—which you may both have a gander at as well as use on your own site—and discovered the most gorgeous, glamorous faux bob hairstyles at the Rachel Mara show last night. And THEN, in what can only be called beauty synchronicity, I realized that Freida Pinto and Hilary Swank both wore a version of this look at the London Film Festival on Monday night. I love when that happens, because when celebs wear what’s on the runway, it means we’re dealing with an actual, honest-to-goodness Real Trend. Here’s the runway version: And here’s what it looked like on Freida: And Hilary: Freida wins, don’t you think?
See how that works too? Now here’s how to do it—no matter which texture you prefer: 1. 2. 3. 4. Are you a fan of the faux bob? The Simple Gibson Tuck @ @ Sara Lynn Paige PhotographySara Lynn Paige Photography. I’ve received a lot of compliments on this easy rendition of the once popular Edwardian hairstyle, and I keep thinking to myself that Victorian is in right now and I should share this simple style. But it wasn’t until a make up artist stopped me in a coffee shop in Traverse City asking me how that I finally put my foot down. As soon as I get back from Ireland, I thought. Well today it’s snowing up a storm outside and I don’t have everything I need to bake the muffins I wanted, so here we are!
These photos aren’t the greatest display of the Simple Gibson because I didn’t have a mirror and I’m SO picky that I wanted the photos of the hair to match the video, so I took them right after the video. The look is a lot cleaner when you have a mirror. What You Need ★ comb ★ hair tie (it doesn’t really matter what color) ★ bobby pins ★ roller (optional) What You Do Pull your hair into a ponytail. Using A Roller Using a roller instead of your finger is also an option. Pattern | Tutorial | Paperweight Granny African Flower. [Update April 13, 2012: I made a purse out of this motifs, tutorial is here.] [Update August 11, 2011: Thanks to Mia again for providing more information to answer some questions at the comment section. Please find the information of the type of yarn, hook size and the resulting flower size at the pattern section.]
This is the first time I come across African Flower… well, accurately speaking, this is the first time I know that this crochet block is “African Flower”. Just like Granny Square, African Flower is a crochet block but in hexagonal shape, it can be joined next to each other to become a bigger piece and make into blanket, afghan, shawl, bag, table runner, cushion cover, soccer ball toy, coaster, pincushion, dress etc…. you name it! I am putting this into my to-do list Get the step by step photo and written crochet pattern after this jump.
Thanks to Mia, who shared her African Flower crochet at Pinterest – one of my favorite stop-overs when I needed inspiration. Pages: 1 2. Nutty Irishman Cupcakes. Wine Cork Crafts and Wine Cork Projects - 30 Ways to Reuse Wine Corks. Echo House: A Breathtaking Interior Design. It is time for yet another home that left us speechless as we were checking out its diverse and breathtaking interior design. “Echo House” comes from Kariouk Associates and is located in Ottawa, Canada. The architecture team’s challenge was to make a renovation of a 1924 Victorian building and integrate it in its environment. The exterior can remind one of two blended cubes, which makes for an original design. But to be honest, we took a strong liking in the home’s interior arrangements, as we noticed they are full of pleasant surprises. Books were an important factor that “modeled” the design. It can be easily observed that they are present in unconventional places.
A special “book vault” was created in order to guard the hundreds of literary works. Sugar Plum: Belgian Raspberry Brownies with Truffle Ganache. Chocolate kiwi popsicles in Desserts recipes. DIY Designer Inspired Bracelet Party – Hex Nut Bracelet | The Looks For Less. I have no idea how we got this party started lol. I’m pretty sure it’s all Trina’s fault when she tweeted a link to a curb chain bracelet and 5 other bloggers, including myself, knew exactly what she was up to. Since then, if you follow me on Twitter, you may have caught me tweeting with my buds and swapping ideas about DIY designer inspired bracelets.
We were all so inspired that we decided to make bracelets and post all of our designs on the same day at each of our blogs – welcome to our bracelet party! I chose to make a Giles & Brother braided hex nut bracelet “look for so much less”. The real retails anywhere between $175-$250, but I put mine together for under $35! Read on for a how-to and links to my other blogger buds’ bracelets. The Breakdown I found a great tutorial for a hex nut bracelet over at Honestly WTF. If you’d like a bracelet with a bronze tarnished finish, very lightly spray both sizes of the brass hex nuts and beaded chain until you achieve your desired finish.
DIY: Banana Republic Braided Neck Tee Shirt | her new leaf. Lace Stenciled Framed Song Lyrics! (+our wedding music) If you’ve been following my blog, you know how I made 60 of these painted frames with song lyrics for our wedding decorations /favors… Well, a lot of wedding guests loved them and took one home, but we had a ton left at the end of the night, which we boxed back up and took home with us… So we now have 30 of them hanging on our big white living room wall! Yay!! There are several duplicate lyrics, some of which I already changed out to engagement photos, but once we get our wedding photos I’ll switch out some more lyrics with photos (but just a few, because we love the look of the lyrics!) So, hey, you want to know how to make these yourself? I made 2 different types of painted frames: textured frames that were just plain spray painted, and smooth(ish) frames that were painted with lace used as stencils.
I did them in batches of 6-10 at a time – sprayed 1 coat over them all, then went back with a 2nd coat over them all. For the lace stenciled frames, there are a couple extra steps. . / feat. DIY Hand Stitching, part 1. One of my favorite crafts is hand stitching-- it's fun, addictive, expressive and relaxing :) Over the next few weeks, I'm going to share easy ways to make your own patterns for hand stitching along with some tips and ideas :) These are some samples of my past projects-- I like to draw patterns freehand and use my handwriting.
However, sometimes I adapt clipart type images to make a more complicated pattern, like the sewing machine or I just stitch the outline of an image I love, like the Goonies "Hey You Guys" silhouette :) I use a Back Stitch for all my hand stitching because it's very versatile and I like the look but you can use any combination of stitches for your projects... there's lots of fun ones! Today, we're going to start with handwriting & transferring your pattern :) You will Need: - Card-stock or Thick Paper (I cut a piece of 6x8" card-stock & folded it in half to create a greeting card) - Needle & Scissors - Embroidery Thread - Scrap Paper & Pen - Thumbtack or Piercing Tool.
13 Super Secret Stair Storage Ideas. Apple Pies. I know, I’ve made a few pies lately. But see how these are different? Look at how adorable these are! I mean, come on. Could you resist? I sure couldn’t. We ate them before I had a chance to think about pictures. Oops. This is why I had leftover dough for that impromptu dinner. Although this recipe is a little time consuming, it’s no harder than making any sort of real pie. It still involves slicing fruit. Rolling out crust and making it look pretty. Mixing fruit and sugar and cornstarch. And taking bites with your eyes closed so you can focus solely on each flavor. Please give these a try. Apple Pies Inspired by Pinterest 1 prepared pie dough, rolled out and sliced into strips 6-8 large apples (really any kind of apple will do) 1/3 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling onto the crust 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 1/4 or 1/2 tsp cardamom, if desired 1 tsp cornstarch Juice of a lemon or lime, mixed with 1 cup of water 1 tbsp melted butter Preheat the oven to 375F.
Like this: Like Loading... Bag It. 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. 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? There's pudding, yogurt and applesauce in the mix! 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: 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!
Here is some incredible chocolate cake to celebrate with! Enough tech talk ... this is a food blog! Molten chocolate cakes with raspberry coulisadapted from Jean-Georges Vongerichten via bitten. 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!)
And so mine was a little longer and not as wide. I also added an extra braid in there. 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! EDDIE ROSS - Pink Ombre Cake. Here's a cake sure to sweeten up the Valentines in your life. Pick up three boxes of your favorite white cake mix—or work from scratch if you have the time—along with a bottle of Wilton's Icing Color in petal pink.
Split each box into two batches for a total of six, then add increasing amounts of dye little by little until you achieve the ombre effect. For the outside of the cake, I used a piping bag fit with a basketweave tip. Happy baking, everyone!
Getting started.