Homemade Potpourri

Well the cooler weather has arrived. I'm not 100% happy or sad about it - somewhere in between I guess. It's always a bit sad to say good-bye to the beautiful 70 degree weather but thankfully there is much excitement in looking forward to the months ahead.

I will admit that on that first "cold" day I go a little crazy. I start to crave Christmas cut-out cookies, I turn on Christmas music and have to try very hard to resist wrapping anything in sight. Yes folks - it is only November 2 and I have already asked my husband when we can put the Christmas tree up. Being the sweetheart he is - he answered with, "whenever you want to is fine w/ me." :)

Another so called tradition in our house for these cold weather months is making homemade potpourri. When I smell the wonderful aroma that this stuff creates I start to feel that blissful feeling that you get this time of year - ya know? So I thought that I would share this incredibly simple recipe with you. I hope you and your family can enjoy it this season making many memories together.

Homemade Potpourri

Ingredients:

-One Apple

-One Orange

-Cinnamon Sticks (about 4 per batch)

-Whole Cloves (about 1Tbsp. per batch)

-Whole Allspice (about 2tsp. per batch)

Directions:

Cut up apples and oranges, put all ingredients into a small sauce pan. Add water until all ingredients are immersed. Put on stove burner on lowest setting. It doesn't take long to get a really good, strong scent. I let mine on for a while and then turn it off when the scent is strong enough.

I use the same batch for a few days. Keep it covered when not in use. When things start to look kind yucky dump it and put together a new batch. REMEMBER to always keep water in the sauce pan. You can add more water when the water level gets low. Take it from me - scorched potpourri does NOT smell good. :)

Enjoy!!

Landscaping

We have FINALLY done something with the front of our house. By which I mean landscaping. On Thursday the hubs and I shoveled, mulched, planted and watered. And here are a few pictures of the end results. Although there's a lot more to do. For me it never feels like things are really finished. My brain just doesn't work that way I guess. I'll just keep dreaming :)

My awesome antique wheel barrow! I love this thing. We were lucky enough to inherit it with our house! We found it waiting for us in the shed. :) I hope to plant lavendar in it.

I found the picket fence panels at a local antique store. Couldn't help myself!!!

My shrubs look pretty teeny and pitiful right now but we got them CHEAP!! I figure we can wait it out until they mature. We got them at Lowe's. It was their end of the season sale. We got the boxwoods for $0.99 each! None of the plants we got were over $10. What a steal!

Jewelry

Here are a few pieces that I created recently.

The first is a necklace that I created as a going away gift for my dear sister-in-law Karen. Her and my bro-in-law Nathan moved to Columbus this past weekend. He will be attending optometry school at OSU. We miss them!

You can view Karen's blog by clicking HERE

Here is a sampling of a few of the glass pendant butterfly necklaces that I make. I usually make about 10 at a time. The pendants are a little bit time consuming to make and I'm still tweaking the creation process. This time I used Diamond Glaze on the back but I've found that I don't like it as well as the resin that I used last time. Although it's much easier to use it doesn't seem to hold up as well and doesn't go on as thick. I wish I could find a product with the durability of the resin but was as easy to apply as the Diamond Glaze. Any suggestions??

I am in the process of getting my Etsy up and running. My shop is empty at the moment but I did find time to create a banner! I was pretty proud of myself considering that technology and I do not always get along. You can check it out here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/creativekeepings

Have a blessed day! :)

My Life Since April Part 2: A Birthday & An Anniversary

Life is great with 2 little guys. A bit challenging at times but always an adventure! Here is one of my favorite pics of the 2 of them. Can you see the ornery-ness? :)

In June our oldest little guy turned 2 years old! So hard to believe that he's that old already! He is such a character. We love him to pieces. :)

On July 7th the hubs and I had our 4th wedding anniversary. Time flies! I got the wedding video out and watched it and we went out to eat. I love my hubby! Here are some pics of that day 4 years ago when I married my best friend.

My Life Since April Part 1: The Story of Cyrus

I'm back! I am FINALLY writing a new post for this little blog of mine. Poor thing has been rather neglected over these past few months. All for good reason though I assure you. So this post will be a multiple part entry. My life has been pretty darn exciting since my last post!

What is all the excitement about you ask? Well........

Here is a picture of me on May 20th.

And here is a picture taken on May 23rd:

Pretty exciting!!! Don't you agree? :)

Meet Cyrus Mark Kaufman. Born at 4:14am on May 23rd 2010. Weighed in at 7lbs. 15oz. and was 21" long.

So that was the short version of the story. Here is the long version for those of you who may be interested.

I always love to hear people's "baby stories" so here is ours...........

Cyrus was actually due on May 29th but I had a feeling that he would come early. For weeks prior to his birth I had been having a lot of contractions. A lot of nights I would be awake for a few hours because they were painful enough that I couldn't sleep. We even had about 3 hours of false labor a week before his birth. I wondered when he would make his appearance.

Then at about 12:45am on May 23rd I woke up with some pretty serious pain. 'Just more contractions' I thought to myself. I had been so frustrated by the false labor the week before that I didn't even try to time them. I figured they'd probably stop and so I tried to go back to sleep. But they kept coming and were getting stronger. So after a little while I went downstairs to use the restroom. By this time I was in quite a bit of pain. I decided that this must be it! I made it up the stairs and woke Jeff. We called my parents to come stay with Raine and around 2am we left for the hospital.

It was about an hour drive to the hospital but it sure seemed a lot longer!! Jeff drove as quickly and safely as he could considering that it was really foggy outside and he was pushing on my back to ease my pain. On the way there my contractions were pretty fierce. They were about 2-3 minutes apart by this time. I was getting a little worried that we wouldn't make it to the hospital in time! But finally we got there around 3am. We had to go in the ER entrance since it was after hours. Jeff got a wheelchair and wheeled me to the women's pavilion. They took us to our room and I got my gown on. The nurse examined me. I was already 7cms dilated. I told her right away that I wanted an epidural. (I didn't have one last time and wanted to try it this time!) They don't usually give epidurals after you are 8cms dilated so they had to work fast.

Once I had the epidural everything was a breeze!! I could not believe how it took the pain away!! After having one with no pain meds. it's really hard to imagine that anything could completely take away pain that intense, but it did! A couple minutes after I got the epidural the Dr. came in and examined me. I was completely dilated. He broke my water and told me I could push. I pushed 3 times and at 4:14am Cyrus Mark was born!

Big brother Raine was so excited to meet "his baby."

just got home. :)

kisses for Cyrus.

How to break a window. Part 1

Don't worry. Although you may not realize it yet, sometimes breaking a window is a good thing! (I wouldn't recommend telling your kids that.)

I've had a project idea in my head for some time now (If you know me, you know that I have an average of about 1.25 million project ideas in my head at any given time) for an old window I had in our shed. I will start by saying that we have been working on remodeling our dining room (as many of you already know) and there is 1 window in there. It's kind of a focal point in the room/house but there's a small..... well maybe not so small problem. It's a VERY old window that is not very attractive and doesn't open. (Is it still a window if it doesn't open?) So needless to say, I wanted to dress it up a bit. SO enter the old window in the shed. Unlike our dining room window this one has panes, character, and is not ugly. (or at least I don't think so. :) So I thought 'why don't I hang this window in front of the ugly window?' hmmm.......

After some measurements I decided that the project was a go! The color wasn't quite right. It started out a hunter green (sorry didn't get a pic before I painted! sometimes I just get a little too excited!) so I painted over it w/ a cream color. Anyway, enough w/ the neverending story. Here are some pics.........

Let's take an adventure. Off we go to my shed of treasures!

Ok...... well they're treasures to me anyway. My husband would call this stuff junk. To each his own I guess. :)

A close up of some of my "someday projects." I just love that old frame and the old rusty wire fence.....

My picket fence panels. Picked these up at a local antique mall. Still deciding where exactly I want to put them.

And there she be! My cute little window! All the way in the back of course. :)

So after digging it out here is the window after it's paint job but before some other modifications. Modifications you ask? Well this window was pretty darn heavy due to all those glass panes. Plus, having a little one running around and one on the way. I didn't feel too safe about hanging this window inside with all that glass in it. This is an old window remember and that glass just shatters! It already had several cracks. The mom in me just didn't feel good about it. So.........

Here we go! Time to break some glass! I put an old towel under and over the glass so it didn't fly everywhere. Then just used my handy little hammer to break it to pieces! Kinda fun! :)

One pane down 11 to go!

After the glass was broken I had to go around all the edges and remove the old glue stuff that held the glass in. Some of the pieces of glass wouldn't come out until the glue was removed.

Lots of glass! After all the glass and glue was removed I took a sanding block and sanded all the edges to make them smooth and kid friendly.

So here's the window after all the glass was taken out.

I antiqued the window a little bit more to add some vintage charm.

Using my secret weapon to make the edges stand out - my brown ink pad.

I added some metal "eye screws" (probably not the technical term.) So that I can hang it.

So that's where I'm at with the project right now. Keep watching for the big reveal. I need to get my chain to hang it shortened and buy a couple more pieces. Can't wait to finish it!

Kitchen Update

Well the kitchen is coming along. Had a bit of a break in work there for a few weeks. The guys who are working on it for us suddenly got very busy at work and didn't have the extra hours to come work at our place. However we are back to work now and we are getting close to done!! YAY!

So without further ado here are some updated pictures............

Check out my sweet faux barn beams! I love them!! Just makes it feel so cozy in there! In this pic you can also see my little custom-built hutch. It needs to be painted cream yet but I love the details they added. I just drew a template for the scrolly design you see at the top and sides and they cut it out for me. The hutch will house our microwave as well as some baskets for storage & etc. It will also be getting some crown molding at the top.

Here's the sink side of the kitchen. still a work in progress. Did I mention that I love those beams? :)

So as you can see there's more to be done but we are inching our way to the finish line!! Can't wait! The decorator in me is getting pretty ancy!

Back in the Blogosphere!

I'm back! Sorry it's been so long. I am FINALLY finding time to update this little blog of mine. Just 5 weeks until our due date and time is flying by! So much to do in so little time!

Anyway, here are some goodies I made today at work. Had fun making these mini cards. They're only about 3.5" x 3" but I think they turned out cute and they were really fun to make! If you have any questions about what stamps I used & where to get them just post a comment & I will get back to you. The cards are property of Country Craft Cupboard. You're always welcome to stop in a see all of our samples in person!

I wish this next one would have photographed a little better. The lighting wasn't great. I chalked the edges in a blue green and I really like how it goes w/ the red/maroon heart!

Love those little birdies. :)

Recent Projects

Finally...... a new post! Somehow life gets ahead of me and I just don't find the time to post as often as I'd like. Nonetheless here is a new post with some of my most recent projects. I don't seem to find much time to craft at home right now. Usually my time there is spent taking care of Raine, doing housework and working on our kitchen remodel. However, I am blessed to have a job that allows me to create at "work." I took my camera along today so I could show you all my creations! I was in the mood to make some tags! :) If anyone is interested, click here to visit the country craft cupboard website. If you live in the area stop in a check us out! All of the tags below plus hundreds more samples are to be found on display in store. We are a craft supply store with everything from rug hooking supplies to scrapbooking to fabric and cross stitch.

Here is my mess. haha. Creative minds are seldom tidy right?

And here is another of my recent projects. :) 29 weeks and counting!

This week I'm joining Cindy over at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday and Kim at Twice Remembered for Make your Monday. Head over and check them out!

Have a blessed weekend!