seasonal wreaths

head on over to my other blog if you want to see what seasonal wreaths i made this year

wedding shower crafts

i made a few crafts for a bridal shower. check out the post here

change, change, change

my other blog is getting a much needed makeover. i am also spending more time and energy on that blog. i definitely plan to continue crafting as much as possible and dreaming about someday being a stay at home crafter something. an itty bitty survey has convinced me to combine for a while. this blog will still be here, but for now all my latest crafting will be on my other blog. come on over to the party. http://aubreyzaruba.blogspot.com/

if i get really ambitious, i will post a link over here when i do a crafty post over there, but no promises...

Better than sex cake pumpkin version

most everyone loves the chocolate version of this cake. i meant to blog/link the recipe weeks ago, but that never happened. i have since lost the link and the credit to the place i got the recipe, but it was super easy.

preheat oven to 350*

mix yellow cake (only the cake-no other ingredients) and small can of pumpkin

bake according to directions or maybe a few minutes less

let cool for at least 10 minutes

poke holes with the end of a wooden spoon

pour sweetened condensed milk over top

cover with cool whip

drizzle with caramel ice cream topping

sprinkle with heath toffee bits

make it.  you won't regret it. promise.

Halloween/Thanksgiving Blocks

I saw these blocks somewhere a few years ago and promptly ordered the vinyl to make them. 1 set of blocks for 2 holidays sounds perfect. I have quiet a few fall decorations and minimal places to put them so Celsey and I decided to make/give them for a gift.

The hardest part was figuring out what colors to paint the blocks. Making sure we didn't have the same color 2 letters in a row was hard. In case you decide to make them, here are the details.

You need 11 blocks total that are 3" wide if you want them the same size as these
-4 blocks that are 4.5" tall
-4 blocks that are 3.5 "tall
-3 blocks that are 3" tall

This is how the blocks are paired up

G I V E (heart) T H A N K S
T I R C  or       T R K A T E

you can obviously see the colors in the pictures, but just in case...
G-red
I-orange
V-yellow
E-Green
(heart)-orange

T-yellow
H-green
A-red
N-orange
K-yellow
S-red

This turned out to be a really fun gift. I ended up really loving the packaging.

Pumpkin Seeds

We carved pumpkins with the little tykes in class the other day. I saved the seeds and was so excited to bake them. I couldn't remember exactly how I did it last year. I got a few ideas from Pinterest and ended up doing a mix of savory and sweet.

Sweet
Seeds
Honey
Coat. Stir. Spread on baking sheet. Bake at 300• for 30 min. Sprinkle with brown sugar and bake another 30in.
Review- sticky mess. Had to be warm to get off cookie sheet. Not my fave.

Savory
Seeds
Olive oil
Chili powder
Garlic salt
Cumin
Toss with garlic oil. Sprinkle spices. Bake 60 min at 300•

Review- better than sweet but not as good as last year which might have been olive oil, brown sugar, and chili powder.

Anyone have any good tips for pumpkin seeds?

natural face products

sometimes i read things online and think...i really need to try that. sometimes i love it and sometimes i don't. i read about using coconut oil for eye makeup remover, and absolutely love it. i also read about making toner from water and apple cider vinegar. i have been waiting forever to run out of my clinique toner so i could try it out. let's just say i didn't love it. the recipe is 3 parts water to 1 part apple cider vinegar. i was pretty excited to know exactly what was going on my face. i expected to love it. i gave it a good couple of weeks, and it's just not for me. i patiently waited for some store to have clinique bonus time and marched my little self straight to the mall to get my old toner. i'm so happy to have it again. i guess all natural isn't always better. let me know if you try it. what all natural products do you use?

halloween decor

halloween/fall is finally all up at my house. the weather feels a little less like summer and more like fall so it feels a little better having the house all ready. here's a tour of halloween/fall

purchased sign from st george craft fair

pumpkins from last year's halloween crafting

candy corn wreath from craft night out a couple of years ago

on the garage door. also from last year

in the corner of the kitchen counter

there aren't a ton of places to put things so the pom pom garland is on the blinds and these other cute blocks are just on the kitchen table

the rest of the cute blocks on the bookshelf with some gold litter acorns

Baked Apple Chips

 

people keep talking about baking apples and other delicious fall foods. i tried baking apples last year, and it was a bit of a disast. i decided to give it another try. i searched baked apple chips on pinterest and came up with this recipe. i used raw sugar which i still think was ok. i tried to slice them evenly, but it didn't quite work out. the baking part was a little tricky...like a lot longer than she said, but they are so yummy. i'll probably ve making these again soon...maybe even tomorrow.

makeup

i saw this post on thebeautydepartment.com a while ago and pinned it right away. how many times have you dropped your makeup? it's so annoying! i knew sooner than later i would need this tutorial.

Source: thebeautydepartment.com via Aubrey on Pinterest

i ended up needing it sooner rather than later. 

i don't even know what happened to this mac eye shadow, but one day i opened it and it looked like this.

i tried out the tutorial, and now it looks like this. i think i used a little too much rubbing alcohol, but it worked really well. definitely using this again.

halloween pom pom garland

Brianna invited me over the other night to make a Halloween pom pom garland. If you have a pom pom maker, these things are pretty easy, but they definitely take time. It actually took us 2 nights of pom pom making to get enough for the garlands. After they were all done, I tied them onto black yarn/floss. I used the width of my hand from thumb to pinky to measure (totally accurate measurements). I didn't go in a pattern which I like better. I love how it turned out, but I don't really love where it's hanging. I'm still trying to figure out what to do about that. Until I figure out something better, it's hanging on the kitchen blinds.

Halloween Crafting

celsey, her mom, aunt, and cousin, and i made these awesome halloween crafts last weekend. mucho thanks to her mom and aunt for doing the majority of the work. i basically have no where to put such cute things so on the kitchen table it is. i need to get a better picture of the alien with the earrings and the teeth. it will make you want to die of cuteness.

Popsicles

i saw this recipe forever ago and have been meaning to make these popsicles ever since. i finally bought some popsicles molds at ikea for way cheap and made them. i love the simplicity (banana, orange, pineapple. blend. pour. freeze) and the no additives. too bad popsicle season is over. i will still probably make more of these.

clutch revised

i just realized i never posted this and apparently i never blogged when I made this originally with bonny. these clutches turned out a wee bit bigger than i originally thought. i'll probably use it for a baby gift instead. i decided to add a little embellishment. i made a few fabric flowers and stuck 2 rhinestones in the middle. everything's better with a little bling.

bandana apron

i saw this online a while ago and immediately pinned it. the tutorial is no sew, but i worried it would fall apart easily. so, i did a little sewing. i'm loving these. if you have a special occasion coming up, you just might be getting one of these.

Source: go.tipjunkie.com via Aubrey on Pinterest

wall art

chelsea usually puts the kids' names on the wall in the nursery. she kind of wanted something a little different for kyler's room but needed something big enough to cover the holes from karson's name. usually i would look around pinterest or blogs or something, but this time i used my very own creative brain. we're from the south so we like monograms. we put kyler's initials on fabric. here's what we did.

1. one giant canvas can get pricey so i bought 3 small canvases at big lots (side note..buy canvas at big lots...it's cheap). jeff attached them together with a staple gun.

2. cover canvas with fabric and staple to the back of canvas with staple gun

3. paint letters with craft paint

4. hot glue letters to canvas

this project was cheap...like less than $20 cheap, and it turned out really cute. it didn't make it to the wall before i left town, but i'll try to get a picture of it hanging on the wall.

cucumbers---->pickles

earlier this summer i had homemade pickles at celsey's parents' house. they were delish..like best i have ever tasted delish. i have been dying to make them ever since. last weekend, we went over and bottled cucumbers to turn them into pickles. we had a little mishap when we forgot the water in the mix. we had to start over with the liquid which made for a lot of laughs and a little pain in the rear. i can't wait for 6 months for those things to be done. yum!

jewelry holder

chelsea wanted to make something to hold ALL of karlee's necklaces. she is really getting into jewelry these days which i totally love.

my roommate jess had something similar to hang necklaces, and i have wanted to make one ever since. since i already have a giant jewelry, i've never made one. i was really excited to make it for karlee (but mostly chelsea and jeff did the whole thing)

supplies

block of wood (sometimes you can get lucky and find scrap wood)

paint (we used a cotton candy pink) and paintbrush

tools (drill, wrench, tape measure, pencil)

sandpaper

drawer pulls

paint block of wood. you'll probably need 2 coats. sand edges if you want to distress. (we meant to do that but kind of forgot)

measure where you want the holes and drill holes. grab edges with wrench and slowly twist into block of wood

hang on the wall 

voila. so cute for a little girl's room. would also be so cute for a grown up room.

freezer paper stencil apron

celsey's husband shawn had a birthday a couple weeks ago. because he has such an awesome wife, he got a present every hour of his birthday. we got together one day when he was gone hunting to craft an apron for grilling.

it was fairly easy and pretty quick. grab some freezer paper, pencil, print out of what you want to stencil, exacto knife, and paint and paintbrush.

1. iron whatever you are going to stencil on

2. print out a stencil, put under freezer paper and trace

3. cut out stencil with exacto. be very careful in your cutting

4. iron stencil onto fabric. make sure to iron really well. any spots not ironed well will cause paint to bleed.

5. paint over stencil. may require a couple of coats of paint. make sure to let thoroughly dry in between.

6. remove freezer paper and voila

another cake

no matter how crazy busy i am and how little time i have available to make a cake, i just can't resist a gender reveal...especially when no one (not even the pregnant parents) knows the gender. i got to make the ducky cake again for a gender reveal party on monday. sadly, celsey wasn't available to help which scared me a lot, but it actually turned out great. i just love this little ducky.

it's a boy! 

(basically if you have me do a gender reveal, it will be a boy. i'm buying mass supplies of blue food coloring immediately)

thanks jana for letting me make the cake and thanks alison and brian for being surprised. also thanks for letting me take this picture straight from fb:)

color matching with paint chips

most people have probably seen this pin floating around pinterest.

 

Source: therigneys.wordpress.com via Aubrey on Pinterest

i have seen it a few times and wanted to make it but never did. i finally got all the stuff (paint chips from home depot and clothes pins from the craft store) last weekend but ran out of time to actually make it. i wanted to take some down to vegas with me so instead of packing at 10:30 the night before a 6:00am flight, i was crafting. it's a way easy craft project. i kind of followed this tutorial except i used a glue gun because that's basically all i ever use.