Easter Pinterest Party Decor Post Delay...

I Apologize

This weekend has already been so fulfilling and we still have one day left!  I promised a 3 part (3 consecutive day) blog post on my Easter Pinterest Party--- My decor post is delayed... a few days.  But, for very good reason.  

Family Time

Our little family does not have much time together usually.  My husband took Friday, Saturday (he normally does have Sundays off) and Monday off this Easter Weekend!  We headed up north on Friday midday to stay overnight at my Uncle Scott's house in the Countryside of Bellingham.  It's SO BEAUTIFUL and peaceful there, I feel refreshed.  Even after hosting my best friend Toni's Jelly Bean Themed Co-Ed Baby shower, AND driving home tonight- putting my Easter Breakfast meal together, being Easter Bunny and doing Madisyn's Basket and Stuffing Eggs with my Hubby and writing this quick post.  

The Jelly Bean Baby Shower was fabulous and I cannot wait to share!

Thank you for being understanding that my decor post is delayed- I am planning to close your Easter Evening with some little lovelies tomorrow!  

I hope you have a Peaceful Easter with family and friends!

& Toni

A VERY Easy Sweet Treat

I enjoy baking- but the fact of the matter is, I AM TERRIBLE AT IT.  I don't like to measure- and that never seems to work out in my favor when it comes to baking.  The one thing I do make on a regular basis is bananna bread- it seems that is pretty hard to mess up, because mine almost always comes out yummy, and I always try new recipes.

For my Easter Pinterest Party I wanted to make a sweet something- and I wanted to to be pretty.  Since I made the Sparkling Lemonade, I thought it would be fun to come up with a treat that was also Strawberry/Lemon.  So I started searching for some pins, and came up with this:

Source: gourmetrooster.blogspot.com viaTracie on Pinterest

My mom had given me some personal sized gram-cracker crust tins, so this was perfect!
I followed the directions on the side of the Jello Lemon Pudding box and poured the liquid pudding into each individual pie crust.  Before the pudding was to set, I chopped up some strawberries into little squares and sprinkled them in the middle of the pies.  Refrigerated for 3 hours and then garnished with Mint!  

So easy, and so YUMMY!

They looked beautiful on my Easter Party Table and tasted great with the Strawberry Lemonade!

Until tomorrow when I share with you our Easter Decor Crafts!

Crisp Sparkling Lemonade, A Simple Sweet Treat and More!

My Easter Pinterest Party was this last Saturday (rescheduled from a month earlier because everyone's schedules are getting so busy these days!).  It was a small group, but as always, a BLAST!  We had some great snacks and came away with 4 adorable pieces of Easter Decor!

This will be a 3 part post- 

Today: 

I want to share with you a Sparkling Lemonade Recipe I concocted that turned out DELISH!

Tomorrow:

A really quick and easy Sweet Treat (If you didn't know already, I DON'T BAKE VERY WELL(Or at all, really)).

Friday:

And of course, I can't help but show off our Super Cute Crafts!  All in time for your Easter Celebration!

Crisp Sparkling Lemonade

If you have never made lemonade with Real Lemon Juice Concentrate- you need to try it, SO fresh tasting!  

The Recipe

• 2 Cups Real Lemon Juice
• 1.5 Cups Sugar
• 2L Chilled Club Soda
• 6 Fresh Strawberries (Pur`eed to a sauce)
• Ice Cubes

Simple right?!

1. Mix the 1.5 Cup Sugar with the 2 Cups Real Lemon Juice- stir until you can't feel any gritty sugar left on the bottom of the container.  At least 2 minutes.
   
   
2. Pour in the chilled 2L of club soda.
   

To Assemble:

1. Put ice cubes in the bottom of a glass.
2. Pour 2 spoons full of Strawberry Pure' over the ice.
   
3. Fill Cup with Lemonade.
4. ENJOY!
   

See you tomorrow!

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THE 36th Ave

Quick Pillow Slip Cover- A Borrowed Tutorial

Good Afternoon Friends!
I found a little time (little is all it took) during Nap Time today to FINALLY redo our couch pillows.
The ones I had previously were just too large, and the fabric had gotten really yucky from one now 18 month old spit-upper. It was time for an upgrade!

When I purchased my fabric for my dining room chairs I made sure I would have enough left-overs to do pillows to match.  (Haven't seen my dining room chair makeover?!  You can find it here!)  I love the idea of tying together my living room and dining room through fabric!

The tutorial I used was by Make It and Love It.  You can find it here!  I am excited about the benefit of this being a slip-cover so I can take them off and wash them if I need to!  I hope to get more life out of these pillows than the ones I had before!

What do you think?!  The cheery fabric adds a lot to the room!  I think it makes our family photos on the wall pop too!

 I took some close-up's so you could see how the slip cover works- its two pieces of fabric that overlap like an envelope!

My husband and I do a lot of lounging on the couch in the evenings, so it was important to me that these pillows be comfy to use, and look cute.  I purchased the pillow forms from IKEA.  They are filled with real down and were only $14 each, I think?

I am craving a little fun and funky accent, however- and I do have some smaller pillow forms I am not using- I think I'll have to experiment with some burlap lace during a nap time, sometime soon!

Have a great afternoon!

Embellishment Easter Egg Applique' Toddler Shirt Tutorial

Hi All-  It's feeling strange to me that Easter is less than two weeks away.  Is St. Patrick's Day always this close to Easter?  Maybe its just me?!

Madisyn's Photo-Shoot

Anyway- Madisyn had a mini session photo-shoot with the lovely Miss Lindsay of Lindsay Porter Photography this past Saturday.  It was held at Fox Hollow Farms in Issaquah.  "You have not heard of Fox Hollow Farms", you say?!  Well, Oh My Gosh you need to go!  I especially LOVED going this time of year because there were baby animals of ALL KINDS!  Never-mind that it was FREEZING and drizzling just enough to be annoying,  Madisyn really could care less- the music and the "Neighs" were enough of a distraction from the cold that she didn't notice she was cold- and enough of a distraction that it was difficult to get her to stay in one spot long enough for a photo of HER, by herself.  Seriously, if you live in the Seattle area- please check it out!

The Project

Seeing as this photo-shoot had the potential to be with real, live, cuddly bunnies and that it was so close to Easter, I thought it would be appropriate for Madisyn to be Easter-y.  I had pinned a Ruffled Easter Egg Shirt last year that I never got around to making and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make something like it for Madisyn!  I altered the design, as I almost always do and took pictures along the way so you can make one too, if you'd like!  This will be a quick and easy tutorial.  Here's my inspiration- Enjoy!

The Tutorial

1.  Create stencils for the Easter Egg Shapes- I actually already had one that was the perfect size from my   Specmine Art Project- I used that one for the largest egg in the middle, and cut another- smaller version out of heavy cardboard for the outer two.  (I always keep these stencils I create- in one of my organizer drawers, because you never know when you'll want to use the same shape again).

2.  I traced my stencils on the paper side of my Wonder Under and cut them out.  I decided I wanted the two outer Eggs to be fabric, so I picked some out and ironed the two smaller eggs on to each fabric and cut around the egg shape.  I laid out my 2 fabric eggs with the large egg that was still just Wonder Under to figure out how I liked them arranged on the shirt and used my iron to adhere the two small eggs.

3.  Next, I used the zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine and sewed around the edges of the two small eggs, pulled the top threads through to the inside of the shirt, tied them off and cut them short.  Then, I ironed the large egg in the middle (slightly overlapping) the other two.

4.  Once the fabric cooled, I carefully peeled off the paper egg, leaving behind just the Wonder Under.  Using my "embellishment stash", and some pretty ribbon  I then started to lay out strands across the egg in a pattern that was pleasing to the eye.  I cut each strand with the edges contoured to the edge of the egg, as best as I could.  I would lay out about an inch wide section and then carefully iron over the strands to secure them.  (Be very careful to not touch your iron to the wonder under- it makes a sticky mess).

5.  Once my egg was created with my embellishments and ribbon, I used a plain stitch on my sewing machine and went around the outside to secure the edges and finish it off.  

It looks cute there, but it wasn't quite complete- to finish it off- I securely sewed on boutique bows at the top  of each egg.  They were exactly the finishing touch the shirt needed!  What do you think?!  

An Irish Blessing for You

Toddler Chair Makeover and Matching Table Build- FREE

Madisyn's Great Grandma Gulit picked up some really nice toddler sized chairs at a garage sale for her last summer.  Only problem was--- there were no seats.  Grandma knew that wasn't a problem for us.
Madisyn is reaching the phase where she isn't eating well, and being confined by the high chair doesn't seem to be helping- so Mommy and Daddy decided it was time for her to have her own table and chairs to eat/color/read/whatever her heart desires at!

I absolutely LOVE the look of farm style tables- and since I inherited a SOLD OAK table and chair set that is gorgeous, but not farm style AT ALL, I'll live vicariously through my daughter.
We started by priming the chairs with KILZ- which is ALWAYS worth the extra step.  We actually used two coats, because we knew we wanted the chairs and table base to be white, and it's always hard to get good coverage with white.
We also very quickly, and easily built the base for the table using Ana White's Clara Table Plans and primed that as well.

 It was a goal of ours with this project to not purchase ANYTHING to make it. So, in our search through our scraps and reclaimed wood pile, we were having a hard time finding wood (we wanted to use) as the table top and matching seats for the chairs.  Kyle had the brilliant idea of ripping down 2x4's.  I'm so glad we did, because I LOVE the way the wood grain looks, and I don't think we would have achieved the same dramatic, rustic look with pine boards.  We did have to adjust the table plans a bit to fit the size of the table top we decided we wanted once we laid out the ripped 2x4's.

                                The 2x4's                                                                                                   Ripped to 1/2" thick       

My Handsome Husband (Kyle) Sanding Away

To attach the table top to the base, we used a 1/2 inch drill bit and created a pocket hole for a screw to put in the top of the four 2x2" table legs.  

For a nice finish, we created plugs for the holes with 1/2 inch dowel, glued them in and stained over the top of it all with MINWAX Early American Wood Finish.  

The chair seats were carefully put together with the scraps left of the ripped 2x4 for the table top.  We used a jig saw to cut out half circles to go around the round chair back poles.  The White, High Gloss Latex paint we used for the bases turned out beautiful, and it will be easy to clean up all sorts of spilled food.

Madisyn was THRILLED (can you tell by that awesome CHEESE face?!) when we brought it in to show her, she had to get "up" and sit in a chair as soon as she saw them.  The perfect place to read her favorite mini princess book.

The next morning, it was the PERFECT place for breakfast!

Madisyn approves, and Mommy is jealous of her Farm Style Table- Not too bad for FREE?!
We'd love to hear what you think!

Linked Up At:

House of Rose

Spring iPhone Wallpaper!

Spring is ALMOST here, right?!  

I keep telling myself that with these Dreary Seattle Days that seem to be so persistent.

To help it feel a little more springy for you until the sun starts balancing out the rain- here are a FREE lock screen and home screen for your iPhone!  
CLICK IMAGES TO BE DIRECTED TO IMAGE TO SAVE- DIRECTIONS BELOW (if you need them)

                                               "Spring" for your Lock Screen                                                  

 "Spring2" for your Home Screen

Here's How:

• Just click the image and you will be redirected to where you can save it from on my website.  
• If you do it right from your phone, hold your finger down over the image until the menu comes up and click "Save Image".  
• Then go to your Photos on your home screen and find the image you just saved.
• Click on it to open it to full screen size.
• Click the arrow in the bottom left corner.
• Then click "Use as Wallpaper" in the bottom right corner.
• No need to crop or move, just press "Set".
• Then use the first one with the large frame in the middle as your Lock Screen.  Save "Spring" as your Lock Screen.
• Save "Spring2" the one with the Rick Rack as your Home Screen using the same steps above- and

ENJOY!!!

In Need of more Spring?!  Here are some of my previous blog posts you might enjoy!

Linked Up Here:

House of Rose