Great Hair tutorials!

So anyone who does not know I am a Hairdresser by trade.  I have always loved doing hair especially Hairstyling and makeup.  When I was in High School I did every ones hair and make up on our drill team before competitions and performances.  So Naturally I went into that field when I graduated from high school.  Right now I am not currently working in a salon, but do a lot of hair for friends and family still.  My goal is to have a  salon in my house in the near future to work out of as soon as my youngest starts Kindergarten.  Anyway after sharing that boring background story on me I will move onto what I really wanted to share in this post.
 I am always trying to keep up with the latest hair cuts and styles so I am often looking on the online for good ideas.  The other day I came across this great blog called "The small things"
 She is also hairdresser and she has amazing step by step tutorials on the cutest hairstyle ideas!  At least I think they are cute :-)  here is a link to her Hair style tutorials.  Here are a couple of my favorites

the elegant half up.

and the Bouncey Curled under

Love this Birthday idea!

 
I have two daughters having a birthday within a week of eachother.  While looking up birthday ideas I came across this one.  I think it is so clever!  Although I wont be able to use it I thought some of the rest of you might be interested. Paula I especially thought of you.  I could totally see Ben enjoying this Birthday party idea :-)  Find it here at Plucky Momo.

Recipes and a Stitchery!

I am a huge fan of the "Taste of Home" and Quick Cooking Magazines! I used to have a subscription, but the magazines would stack up so I stopped getting them. With the idea that I would buy the cookbook that would come out at the end of the year with all of the years recipes. But I never did end up doing that. A couple of weeks ago I went to our local Library with my kids and while browsing I discovered that there was a whole section with cook books. I decided to check out some that caught my eye (most of them were Taste of Home). I have been going through them picking out recipes that sound good to me and trying them out.

What a great way to find recipes without having to buy the book! I don't know about you, but I usually have several favorite recipes in my recipe books and then there are a ton that I don't care much for and then all those books take up space in my cupboard. I wish I had thought of it sooner! I have been slowly copying down ones I know will be good and favorites that I have tried out on my family :-) Everything so far has been a hit with them!


On a different note!


I have been getting back into doing stitchery lately. I have not done it in several months because I have been too busy. but I got to teach a stitchery class to the 12 and 13 year old girls at my church. I wanted something with a Beehive and flowers and a good quote. I could not find anything I quite liked so I compiled several ideas from different patterns and made it my own!

here is what I have done so far.

I will reveal the finished product soon :-)



Also I will update you on how my gardening is going soon :-)

Projects I want to try!

I have not been doing much crafting lately because I have been focusing on garden stuff, but I am starting to get back in the mood again! 
I found these two projects this morning that I want to try.   It is funny because they are both sewing projects and I always claim that I am not a very good sewing person, but I keep getting attracted to these cute projects!

First I love this coin purse at Paws and Thread.

She has a tutorial to show you how to make it.  I (as usual) am going to make some changes and cut some corners.  Instead of pleats I think I will gather the bottom half instead.

Next I love this ruffle purse!  It reminds me of my ruffle aprons.  Especially the little half aprons I am making right now for my friend.

You can find this purse here  If you want the pattern for this one I think you have to buy it, but I am going to try and figure it out myself.  I have this inner part of me that always yells out "I can do that!"  I rarely buy others craft items because I love the challenge of trying to make them myself.

I actually am posting this later then the first half of this post.  I found another tutorial that shows the gathering idea for the clutch purse that I was talking about.  You can find it at From an Igloo. 

Where to put all those recipes!

There is a blog I like follow called Controlling My Chaos and she never disappoints with the recipes she posts!  And even better she makes the cutest digital scrapbook recipe cards that you can print out as 4x6 photos.  I had all of my favorite recipes from her blog printed out at Wal Mart, but you have to make sure you pick the true to size prints or they get cropped wrong.  So I have had all these recipe card photos, but I had not found a good solution as to where to put them yet ( I did not want them to get smudged and ruined). 
Well the other day I was at "Michael's" (craft store)  and I FOUND THIS!

It is a cute Paula Dean brand recipe binder (On clearance) that came with plastic protector sheets that hold 4x6 cards and it also has tabbed dividers with the different food categories!  Yay!  I finally found my solution :-)

I love that it is not too big and it holds my recipes perfectly!

One of my favorite recipes I use a lot is her Salsa recipe.  It is so easy and it tastes a lot like the Salsa you eat at Mexican restaurants. 

 I want to add some of my other favorite recipes to the binder so I decided I needed to start making my own cute digital scrapbook recipe cards.  Here is one that I made of the Bread recipe I posted yesterday.

Click on the card to make it bigger, then copy and paste it to whatever file you want it to go to.  I just put mine in a file I made on my desktop called blog recipe cards.

Happy Blogging :-)

Dollar store inspiration!

Like I said in my last post my Ward had our Super Saturday last weekend. One of our crafts we did were Barn stars mod podged with with scrapbook paper.  I wanted to make one for each season that I could switch out hanging in a frame or on my front door, but unfortunately I could not justify the cost of purchasing 4 of them :-(  Also I just loved the rustic look of them and could not bare to mod podge over them so I decided keep mine rustic and hung them in my old American themed front room.

Then while I was visiting the dollar store a couple of days ago I made a discovery!  I saw these Tin Stars with tacky snowmen and Santa's painted on them.  And then my crafting light bulb went bing! up above my head :-)  I bought a bunch of them for a dollar each and spray painted them with oil rubbed bronze spray paint.   mod podged the scrapbook paper on and antiqued the edges. 

 I have only done the Christmas ones so far, but I plan on making Fall, Spring and Summer too :-)  Next on my agenda for this craft is to find a cute open frame to hang them on.  I think I want to hang it on my door. Oh and Paula, just pretend you did not see this or the apron set ;-)

April Bug a boo book pick!

If you are the type of adult that just loved the Harry Potter series and have not been able to find a replacement after reading book 7 then you  need to try the Fable Haven series written by Brandon Mull!  He just came out with the 5th book in the series "Keys to the Demon Prison" at the end of March.  So that is my April book pick, but if you have not read the series yet I suggest you start with the First Fable Haven book. Brandon Mull is such a creative and imaginative writer!  His writing style is completely different then J.K. Rowling, but similar in the way he shocks and surprises you on your reading journey with outcomes that you are not always mentally prepared to accept.  ( You Harry Potter readers know what I am talking about ). 
In our family we have an order of who gets to read the new Fable Haven book first.  I first got Fable Haven for my daughter Amandas Birthday 2 or 3  years ago.  She read it so fast and furious that I knew it had to be a good book so I read it next then my Husband Mike called to read it next much to my oldest Daughter Natalies dismay. So she had the misfortune of having to wait and read it last. (Joseph my 9 year old has not been mentally mature enough to read them until now, but he is in the middle of the Percy Jackson series right now).   So that has been our Fable Haven reading order ever since.  Amanda finally finished reading " Keys to the Demon Prison "  last night so I am anxious to get started! :-)

In search of a cute cheap bag.

I have been in search for a cute inexpensive Garment/Temple bag because mine is feeling a bit outdated and the velcro is worn out.  I found this one and I think it will do the job minus the bow!

They have them at Caroline and Company for about $22.00 and free shipping!  I have seen those same bags going for double the price andI figured I would not even be able to make one for as cheap and with my impatient sewing skills it would not look  as nice either :-)

Paula! Paula! Where for art thou Paula!

Sweet Lizzie's!

This is the stash my family came home with last night from Sweet Lizzie's

It is a new Old fashioned style candy store here in Tooele Utah. 

here is a picture of the inside of the store.

The owner also owns the Famous Sweet Pea Boutiqe here in Tooele.  All you Tooele people know what I mean :-)  It is an fabulous store here with gently used Baby - Teen items that are name brand, trendy & cute!  And the prices are really reasonable.  I have bought all my babies clothes there.  They are very picky about the things they accept so the selection is fantastic and it is hard for me to not go overboard in that store!  She has just started a blog where she is starting weekly give aways.  Last Fridays give away was a $20 gift certificate!  You can do a  lot with $20 in that store!

So anyway back to Sweet Lizzie's.  My kids had gone over to their friends house about a week ago and they had yummy candy from Sweet Lizzie's and that is all I have heard about for days!  So we promised them we would go there for Family Night and that could be their Family Home Evening treat.  What a charming little store!  They have the upstairs set up to be a party room.  Both my older daughters now want that to be where they have their next Birthday party.  When we walked in I thought how do I know that Women (owner)?  And then she mentioned She owned Sweet Pea Boutiqe and I realized that is where I knew her from.  What a neat lady! There needs to more people like that in the world.  She said that they are trying to help liven up the Tooele downtown area.  I agree!  The Tooele downtown area has the potential of being so Charming!  

Danielle was stealing candy from the stash  with the speed of lighting while I tried to take the Candy stash  picture.

luckily she could not get the lids of the toxic waste candy :-)  If you want to cry try one of those candies!