DIY Canvas Screenprinting

GOOD MORNING!

I am in a fantastic mood today. It is probably because I have gotten a lot accomplished over the past 3 days. I have been focusing on one of the spare bedrooms in my house the needed some good ole TLC.


So I decided what a inexpensive idea for some art to help decorate the plain white walls and fire place.


What you will need:


Painters Canvas
Acrylic Paint (color of your choice, but lighter tones work better)
Gel Medium
The picture you want to transfer
Spray bottle & Water
& Embellishments




*Enlarge your picture and photocopy it. The photocopy is what you will use.


*Paint the canvas to the color that you choose and let dry completely.


*After the paint dries, paint the canvas with gel medium, apply liberally, before the gel medium drys,flatten the photocopy face down and smooth out all the bubbles like wallpaper and let COMPLETELY dry before proceeding to the next step.


*Using the spray bottle lightly spray a section of the paper rubbing off one layer at a time until you can clearly see the picture.


* Make sure all paper debris is gone, and Embellish to your liking.


On the two canvases that I did, I used crackle paint to cover the corners which helped cover an imperfections, and added 2 of my fabric flowers to make Daisy's a little more girly.




So here is the final outcome.

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DIY Dog Bed

So in light of my new family member I decided he needed a really cozy place of his own. I was at Joann Fabric and found this great nutmeg colored velvet in the red tag section. I got 2 yards and I have had it setting in my sewing room for the past 3 months. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to use it for. Well Eureka!

I was at the pet store getting some new supplies for the puppy and some of the dog beds were ranging from $30 and up. I couldnt believe it.

So here is my version. It is super simple and you can use things that are in your house.

Things you will need.

-Pillow form, any size you want, I used a standard queen size pillow from one of the spare bedrooms
-sewing machine and all necesary accesories (thread, scissors, pins, etc.)
-fabric of your choice (in general, unless you have a large large dog and you are planning on making a huge bed, you will only need 1 yard of fabric.)

Standard Size pillow are 32" x 21", therefore you will need to cut 2 piece of fabric with a 1/2" seam allowance. Once you have those cut, you will need to cut the back rest piece. So the length will cover 3 of the 4 sides, equalling 75" and the height of the back rest can be whatever size you choose. I used 6". therefor I cut 2 pieces 75" x 6".

Once you have all the pieces cut it is time to sew. First start by sewing the pillow cover with right sides together, leaving one of the four sides open to insert the pillow. I chose to leave open one of the lengthiest sides for easier manuvering. Then sew together the backrest leaving both 6 inch sides open. At this point you are half way done. Here comes the tricky part. Now it is time to sew both pieces, the pillow cover and the back rest, together. Flip your pillow cover so that the wrong sides are now together. Same with the backrest, the ultimate goal is to sew both pieces together without sewing shut the openings. Below is a picture to better understand. Hopefully it helps, its really not a good picture.

Once you have that done insert your pillow, and fill the back rest with polyfil, aka stuffing. I left the pillow cover open so that when it comes time to wash this beautiful dog bed it doesnt take up the whole washing machine. Then simply gather and sew the ends of the back rest to keep any polyfil from coming out. Voila! Brand new dog bed that I actually like.

I know I did a good job  cause sometimes I even
catch this beautiful girl  taking a nap
in Duke's Window. 

*JoAnn's has a great section called Red Tag fabric. I periodically just go to see what is there. It serves me well most of the time, allows me to find fantastic fabric at an unbelievably low price.

So there you have it.....I have lots more stuff coming. Just a few technical problems the past 2 weeks.




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Breakfast and Lunch Mason Jar Meals

MMMMMmmmmmmm.....super easy....super fast....just plain old super.

I of course was on pinterest about 2 weeks ago and I had been eyeing the mason jar meals. I read a few pins, and took some notes and then made some of my own....enough to last all week. First let me start by saying that I leave for work at 5:45am every morning so the last thing I want to do is make myself breakfast or lunch and eating out all the time can be expensive. Trying these was one of the best things I have done in a while.

15 Lunch/Breakfast Mason Jar Meals

I made 5 different kinds.

Breakfast- Oatmeal (banana/ nutella)
                Oatmeal (blueberry/ cinnamon)
                Egg Fritata- Tomato Basil

Lunch- Pasta Salad (with Tomatoes, Peas, Parmesan, and Italian Dressing)
            Spaghetti (tomato sauce and Parmesan)
            Tuna Salad (Tuna, lettuce, carrots, Parmesan, and sunflower seeds)

Oatmeal Mason Jar Meals

The key to the oatmeal is simple..... Fill the mason jar half way with rolled oats, then the other half with your choice of fruit and spice. Then fill the whole jar with coconut milk. The coconut milk gives the oatmeal a fresh taste. Put the lid on, shake well, and refrigerate overnight. *depending on the ripeness of the fruit, these may only last about 2 days.

Oatmeal, Spaghetti, and Pasta Salad

The Egg Fritata is not as simple.....but by far the best one. Mix together 1 dozen eggs, 1 cup half and half. Then the veggies and spices of your choice. Tomato Basil is PERFECT. Fill Mason Jars half way. * Do NOT exceed half way....when these are baking they spill over if too full.
Bake at 350F for 20-30 minutes. Make sure the fritata is baked all the way through and top has browned. Let completely cool and put lid on and refrigerate. These almost 2 weeks in the refrigerate.

Pasta Salad.

This is so easy its almost a crime. Cook noodles till tender. Barely cover the bottom of the mason jar with Italian Dressing, add tomatoes and peas, then noodles on top. put lid on and refrigerate. When you are ready to eat, shake well and bon appetite. I had the pasta salad yesterday for lunch with a banana and it was honestly the best portion control I have had in a while. I used half quart wide mouth jars for all the lunch recipes.

With my left over noodles I made just plain old spaghetti jars, filled the bottom with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese, then noodles. I only made 3 of them and David had them all eaten in 3 days....Those were obviously his favorite. Since he is working outside on the farm all the time he wants something he can come in and grab for lunch and these are just too convenient.

The tuna salad option was also easy peasy. Make tuna salad to your liking. fill the bottom of the mason jar with tuna, fill the rest with lettuce. done.....

I am definitely going to make these again....They are totally worth it.

I give 4 stars to Mason Jar Meals.

My mom and dad are starting a garden at our house so there should be lots of fresh veggies this year and I'm sure going to be canning and freezing. Any techniques you have found that work?

Here are some pictures from my life since I have been away.....

Daisy out in Daddy's Fields

My Dad's Dog, Bentley, came over to help Garden, but
Bentley decided he would rather drive instead

Baby Duke being a Ham for the Camera

I can't believe how lucky this shot was.... Daisy just saw a groundhog when I snapped this pic.
She is ready to Pounce. But NO WORRIES. No Groung hogs were hurt.

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BRIDAL SHOWER

My cousin is getting married on May 12 2012. We have been planning for almost a year now. This past weekend we finally had the bridal shower. I have posted some pictures for inspiration. We were on a relatively fixed budget so these are some great ideas for a bridal shower, if you are currently going through the process.

 We made super easy favors, I bought fat quarters of quilting fabric and followed a tutorial I found on pinterest to make these beautiful fabric flowers.

These beauties are in a Longerberger Pitcher.
Unfortunately its not mine....But it might be one day.

I have made about 200 of these now in all different colors.
I will be doing another post on these as well.

We made Smoothies, cupcakes, fruit kabobs, pierogie casserole, donut tower, meatballs, pasta salad, broccoli and cheese bites, ham and cheese bites, calico beans and so much more I can't even think of all the food we had.

Donuts from Dunkin!

Pineapple and Banana Cupcakes

Chocolate and Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Garlic Dip, Hummus, and more Hummus.
This plate set is adorable, I am still trying to find where you can buy it.
My cousin forgot where she bought it.

My Aunt Lisa loves to cook and bake so of course she did a majority of that. I think the coolest thing she made were the pineapple cupcakes, The icing was to die for. When we were creating the menu for the shower, She had mentioned the pineapple cupcakes and coincidentally I found another tutorial on pinterest for the cupcake top that looks like a flower and is made out of extremely thin slices of pineapple. The slices of pineapple are placed in a cupcake tin and put into the oven the dry into the flower shape.



LOVE THESE!
My Aunt Lisa did such a
Great Job.  



My cousin and her soon to be husband are going to the Caribbean for their honeymoon, so there was a beach/Luau theme. I made a beach bag and we filled it with things they will need on their honeymoon, like flip flops, sandals, sunglasses, suntan lotion, towels, etc. We got her a makeup bag and filled it with travel size items, like Advil, lotion, makeup remover, tissues, nail file, etc, anything she would need on her wedding day.

I bought a beautiful white silk robe for the day of the wedding and embroidered it with Mrs. Oquendo. The robe was a great price too.

This was the perfect place to put the door prizes
and the message in a bottle.

I made these from twine I bought at JoAnn's and random burlap and satin.
Relatively easy to do.

I had the idea to include a message in a bottle type game. So I made some cute bottles and everyone wrote notes to the bride and groom, and shoved them into the bottles. Then on the night of the honeymoon, they will smash the bottle and get to read what everyone wrote. We did one for the honeymoon and one for the first year anniversary. It was super cute, especially when we put it under the fish net. We use clothespins to clip lots of pictures of the cute couple.

We played a game, in the game everyone get 2 seashells, if the person says "bride," "groom," Lauran," or "June." and someone catches you saying it, you must give them your shell. Whoever has the most shells wins. I was surprised at the response that it got. Everyone was pretty involved and tried catching each other. I did horribly and lost both my shells within 10 minutes of the shower starting.

My Aunt Lisa was following tradition and made a hat out of all the bows that were on her shower gifts, then what happens is, at the rehearsal the bride needs to wear as she goes through the rehearsal.

She is hating this right now.

She is going to kill me if she sees this. HAH.

I hope my cousin had as much fun as we planned for. I hope she loved all her great gifts. So much creativity and love was in the air. We can only hope she got everything she wanted and more.

NEXT STOP on the wedding tour, THE WEDDING.....and I thought planning the shower was a lot. These next 2 months will be busy busy busy......

Till next time.
Allylynn

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Introducing "Duke Reginald Winkler"



Duke Reginald Winkler

He is a 3 month old Havanesse puppy.

I am still getting to know him, but so far he is mischievous, hilarious, playful, curious, fearless and very independent. His tail wags every time I walk in a room.

He likes to sleep in David's Boots

He still doesn't understand the camera

He hates getting baths

He tries looking innocent, but he doesn't have me fooled.

So I was reading through my paperwork and on one of the forms it said no raw hides until 9 months old. I was concerned because this puppy likes to chew, a lot. I took him to the vet for one of his routine check ups, and casually asked the vet if he could have raw hides. I thought I was going to get the same response as the paper, no raw hides, however the vet said, yes he can have raw hides, but just make sure they aren't made in China. I thought to myself, Is she just saying  that because she wants everyone to buy American made products? Or is there something wrong with them. So I did a little research...........AHHHHH Raw hides from foreign countries altogether....Horrible.
I went to Bark.com, there is an article specifically about the dangers of raw hides from foreign counties. (its embedded and will take you directly to the article if you would like to read it more in depth). I continued to read and found hundreds of comments at the bottom of the article, people talking about their dogs almost dying because of these raw hides.
So I set out on the next mission of buying all new raw hides. I went to Petco, and found it hard to find any raw hides made in the US, poor labeling, and if I did find some, they were pricey! So I looked online, and found, American made Raw hides. After careful consideration, I decided I had enough. All this just for raw hides.
I decided to ask around as I have many health conscious dog owner friends. I was given a few dog treat recipes. The best one for my dogs is below.

Frozen Banana Ice Cubes

What you will need....

1-2 Bananas (preferably newly ripe)
water
Peanut butter

Mix all in blender until smooth and creamy.
Put in Ice Cube tray, then in freezer.
Once these are frozen, you can clean the tray and put the treats in a freezer bag. These treats are perfect for hot sunny days outside. Both my little buddies love them.
What is also great is that this recipe can be easily modified, exchanging apples for bananas or even using both. Just remember there are certain foods to avoid when cooking for dogs, so be careful.

Talk to you soon




 

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Chocolate Covered Strawberries

CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES- The easy way

I have found this is the easiest way to make chocolate covered anything. It is best for making small batches. If it is a loved one's birthday these are great and super easy. If you ever used magic shell on your ice cream, this is the same thing.

NOTE* You will eat them while you make them so make sure you have a few extra strawberries. :)

Every Christmas and Easter my grandmother would make homemade chocolate. Everything from pretzels to peanut butter eggs. She always used a double boiler, which is the correct way to melt chocolate, however, double boilers are pretty expensive. I don't have a double boiler so.....here it is.....

What you will need:

1 bag of semi sweet chocolate morsels
a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil
a saucepan for the stove top
as many strawberries as you want ( or pretzels, rice crispy, etc.)
Wax paper
Freezer space


First make sure you turn your burner on a very low heat. (if you have it set too high, your chocolate will burn, better safe than sorry, keep it on very low heat.

Cover to bottom of the saucepan with the vegetable oil. It should just barely cover the bottom of the pan.

Add the semisweet chocolate morsels and let them melt into the oil. You can add as many or as little as you want, but please remember that the more morsels that are added the thicker the chocolate will be.

Stir regularly

Once the chocolate is creamy you can start dipping the strawberries in the chocolate.

swirl the strawberry in the chocolate until it is coated and then lay on the wax paper.

Once you dipped and swirled all your strawberries (or whatever you have chosen to use) place the plate with wax paper in the freezer until the chocolate hardens.

yup, its that simple.

My apologies, these pictures are not great. The lighting in my kitchen is horrible, however next time I promise more quality pictures for you.

THANKS~TILL NEXT TIME

ALLYLYNN

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Losing my Best Friend



Reggie rockin my sunglasses. So Sweet!



Losing My Best Friend, Reggie

So, I started this blog on Dec 1 of 2011. Since then my life has gone through a complete tail spin. Bad luck, crying, horrible feelings, you name it.

The worst night of my life, my best friend Reggie, ran into the road and got hit. It was horrible I was outside with Reggie and Daisy, my 2 dogs. My boyfriends mom showed up and started walking across the street. Normally they would both stay in the yard, before I knew it. Reggie was laying on the road. I ran into the road, without even looking to see if another car was coming, Picked him up and brought him in the house. It was the longest 3 minutes of my life. I didnt know what to do. I realized Reggie wasn't breathing and it was horrible.  My heart dropped and the pain set in. I couldnt sleep that night. I kept waking up to cry. Reggie was the most lovable and caring dog. I can honestly say that he knew me better than anyone. He was always there for me. I just couldnt imagine walking through the back door without him coming to see me with a sock in his mouth. I honestly didnt know how to move on. I cried for weeks everyday.

My boyfriend, the best in world, was torn. He didn't know how to make it better. Which anyone who knows our relationship, knows that he is my savior, he always finds a way to make things better. Well, this was one of those times that no one could make it better except Reggie. I missed and still miss him so much. He was with me for seven years from pup to a fine young man.

So with all of that, I was depressed and solitude, didnt have any ambition to continue with life aspirations. Then it hit me, DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE. I needed to give myself reasons to feel better. I knew I wouldnt feel better by sitting on the couch and crying. I knew if I accomplished something I have been working on, I would feel better.

So here it is, My list of things to do



1- create a new blog post 1 every week

2- everynight for an hour work on getting my sewing room in order



3- enjoy the moments I had with Reggie, and learn to appreciate every second with all my loved ones.

I will talk to you all soon.

Be Good.

~AllyLynn