Best of Luck - Tutorial Tuesday

This week's Tutorial Tuesday features a great card (aren't they all?)! It's super quick and easy to make and you don't even need any fancy cutting machines, programs or punches.

You may need to adjust the volume as I was having problems getting the voice over part to be very loud.

Bunny Watch 2012

Last night we discovered that a rabbit had made a nest and had babies in our yard! Thankfully they were relatively undisturbed despite being discovered by the dog. We have since put a small fence around it that will still allow the mama to get in to feed her little ones while keeping out the dog.

These pictures were taken last night when the nest was discovered.

 These pictures were taken this afternoon after we got the fence put up. Hopefully mama and babies will appreciate a little privacy and protection.

The dog is anxiously waiting for the bunnies to pop out of the nest. She likes to sit beside the fence and watch, almost like excited relatives wait at the hospital for a new baby to be born.

We will probably check on them later today or tomorrow to be sure mama is able to get to them and feed them. They had quite a scare last night so we're hoping they're all ok. We don't know how many there are, but as rabbits do, there are probably a few.

Gettin' Crafty This Past Weekend!

I know it's been a while since I've had a real, true crafty post and for that I'm sorry. To be honest, somewhere along the way I lost my mojo. I'd clean up my craft area (always a mess) and set to work on some great idea I had that day.

Most of the time, I'd just sit and stare at ideas and inspiration I found on Pinterest or had sketched out on paper. And I'd sit and stare some more....and even a little more for good measure. Shortly after that I'd throw in the towel and do laundry, play a computer game or continue on my job search.

This weekend was different! I actually made three cards! I credit this miraculous spurt of creativity to receiving the Close to my Heart Art Philosophy Collection. I won it in a drawing on Jayma Malme's blog Playing with Paper. Thanks Jayma if you're reading this! It's full of great cuts and amazing coordinating stamps and more goodness than I can ever hope to write about in a blog post of a decent length. It really helped inspire several new cards.

This card was as fun to make as it looks (well as it looks to me at least!). Somewhere along the way I had seen a layout on a square card that used squares behind a center image. Because my cards are A2 sized, and I really like working with that size and shape, I decided to change the squares in the inspiration to rectangles.

It might be a little hard to see, but there the same cupcake used as the focal point is stamped as a watermark on the light pink rectangles. I didn't have any patterned paper I felt matched or went well enough with this, so I essentially made my own. Looking back, I may also have taken a bunch of different cupcakes and stamped and/or embossed them in different ways to create a similar look, or the look of a purchased patterned paper.

The focal cupcake is embossed with clear glitter, adding a touch of sparkle to the card. As you probably know if you've been reading very many of my crafty posts, I love glitter. I hate when it gets all over though. I really feel like this is a great solution for glitter getting everywhere. For the most part, once the image is stamped and covered in the embossing powder, the loose glitter stops there. After it's been heated, melted and dried, the glitter is in there and it isn't budging.

"Happy Birthday" is embossed in silver to give a pop of something other than pink.

As always, this card is available for purchase in my Etsy store. To get to this card, click here or on the Etsy Store tab above to get check out the whole shop.

Thank you!

Minute Maid Watermelon Review - Foodie Friday

I love watermelon, especially when they are super ripe and really sweet in the summer. Nothing is better on a hot day than a big bowl of watermelon (except maybe lemonade from the fair, but that's another post for another day). I was excited when I first saw this at the grocery store, but somehow managed to hold off trying it until it was on sale. Boy that took a while too.

I can say with 100% certainty that when I poured that first glass of pink watermelon goodness I was expecting nothing less than the flavor of a ripe summer watermelon. I really should have read the carton a bit better before psyching myself up for something that sounded so delicious. The carton itself says it's a "flavored fruit drink with other natural flavors." (You can also see the nutrition info in the photo below if you're curious)

Yup and that's exactly what it is too. It is not a wonderful way to sample summer in a glass. It does not taste like the ripe summer watermelon I've come to know and love. It does not taste like any naturally occurring watermelon flavor I have ever sampled at all. It tastes like a watermelon Jolly Rancher.

I can already hear it now, and did hear it from my husband when I made the above realization aloud. Yes, watermelon Jolly Ranchers ARE delicious. They are one of my favorite flavors. However, if I wanted to drink one I would dissolve a whole bunch in some vodka and drink chilled (anyone else seen that floating around Pinterest?). I do not want to start my day with a Jolly Rancher drink.

I wanted a fresh from the vine, ripened in the summer sun and them squashed, juiced and strained into the carton watermelon deliciousness. What I got was pretty much the same as when someone takes a sip of Sunny Delight and expects it to be orange juice. It is an orange drink, much as this is a watermelon drink, not a watermelon juice. The difference is huge.

Had I read the ingredients a little better (pictured below), I guess I would have known what I was getting into, especially since the second ingredient is HFCS. We live and learn. I have learned to not buy watermelon flavored beverages and I'm still on the lookout for watermelon juice. I spot a great niche market if someone can make it work!

July 2012 Hits & Misses - Beauty, Craft, Food and Lifestyle Favorites

I am an avid watcher of YouTube videos, especially those related to crafting and beauty. One of the things I've seen going around for a while, mostly on the beauty videos, is to showcase a few things you really loved from the month before. Even though I haven't really seen this done on many blogs, I thought it was something that would still translate really similarly between the sites (video v. blog) and it might be a great opportunity to share with you some of MY favorites from the previous month.

I'll try to pick 1 or 2 (or more!) favorites for each category, but have no fear, each favorite will be a true favorite. I won't just choose things to have more products. I'll choose things I've been using on a regular basis or have used several times and loved. The same goes for the misses - they'll be things I've tried to make work or just wasn't happy with, not just a random assortment of things that merely didn't make it to the hits list.

Below you'll find a bunch of the things I've come to love and/or found very useful in the month of July. I'll also try to provide links where you can find out more info and/or purchase the items if it looks like something you might enjoy as well!

Hits:
Food:
Ice water - Every night before I go to bed I've been putting a plastic cup about half full of water in the freezer. In the morning I add a bit more water to the now frozen cup and it keeps the water cold for a long time as the huge ice chunk melts. It also adds more water to what's in the cup as it melts. I keep a near constant rotation of cups with ice like this going. I've found it helps me drink more water since I only really like it cold.

Freezer pops - If you live anywhere in the US, your summer has probably been pretty hot here lately. With temps and heat indexes soaring into the 90s and even sometimes above 100, I'm all for finding cheap ways to beat the heat. These freezer pops certainly helped. I found 36 of them for about $2.50 at Walmart, but found 100 for $3.50 at Meijer just this past weekend. I'm not really too picky about exactly which flavors are included in a pack as long as I have my pink ones and my blue ones. I tend to pawn the orange and grape ones off on my dad though.

Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Teriyaki Marinade - As you can see from the bottle above, this has gotten quite a bit of use this month. I think we've had 3 or 4 meals with it and there's still enough for 1 or 2 more. It's really, really good on steak. When I use it, I like to get the steak in the marinade in the morning to then cook in the late afternoon/early evening for dinner. As with any marinade, the longer you can leave it sit the better.
 

Lifestyle:

My "fancy" flipflops - I call these fancy because they're silver, sparkly and a whole ton more fancy than the flip flops I usually wear. I scored them on a trip to Dollar General when everything with a yellow dot (tons of their summer shoes and clothes) was 70% off. They were originally just over $6 and I got them for just under $2. Not bad and really if they don't last much longer than this summer, for $1.something I won't be too upset.

Craft:
Empty food boxes - I've found TONS of uses for these bits of scrap cardboard. The added benefit is that it keeps all the cardboard out of the landfill, even if just for a little bit longer.


Beauty:

Eyeko Skinny Brush Mascara - I won this mascara in a giveaway on a beauty blog a few months ago. I'd used it here and there, but recently started wearing it almost every day - even if I didn't do a full face of make up, I put this on. I've read mixed reviews of it, mostly from people who hated the brush. When I first started using it, I wasn't all that fond of the brush either. However, now that I've been using it for a while I've figured out how to use it for my lashes and the results are amazing!

Algenist Complete Eye Renewal Balm - A quick disclaimer that this is extremely expensive. Far more than I would really ever pay for an eye cream at this point in my life to be honest. However, I received a sample in my Birchbox a few months ago, and that sample has lasted a long time. The directions say to apply it twice a day - morning and night - but I've just been applying it at night. It really hydrates my under eye area and helps to smooth out some of the fine lines and wrinkles I have developing under there. I feel like I'm a bit young to be having these creeping in already (and they've been there for a while now) so I was happy to find that this is helping. I can really tell a difference when I don't apply it the night before. Instead of being more smooth and less wrinkly, there are tons of fine lines and wrinkles that my makeup tends to settle in. I've also found that if I need to use concealer under my eyes, putting on a little bit of this before doing my makeup helps keep the concealer from settling into things and makes it last longer.

Misses:
Food:

Tea Forte Minteas in Lime Mojito - If you read my last Birchbox review, you'll know I was not a fan of these at all. I've never had a mojito before so I'm really not sure how they're supposed to taste. That said, if these are true to flavor (or as close as you can get sans alcohol and being solid v liquid), I don't want to try one. I definitely get the lime flavor, but mojito? I'm not sure. Also, for something with mint in the name, I'm looking for something a bit more minty.

Lifestyle:
I couldn't think of anything I'd used in daily life that I was less than thrilled with.

Craft:
I really tried to think of something crafty I was using or tried to use recently that just wasn't working out for me and I couldn't think of anything. This is a good thing, right?

Beauty:

DG Beauty Makeup Remover Tissues - I know that sometimes you really do get what you pay for, but not always. I thought I'd give these relatively inexpensive makeup remover wipes a whirl because I'm always looking for a better way to get makeup, especially eye makeup, off my face at the end of the day. These were not the wipes for me. They do an ok job, but I sometimes felt like I was having to go over and over the same spots to get everything off and/or going back over with another product completely to feel like my face was makeup free. This was especially true for my eye makeup. As I stated above, the Eyeko mascara I've been using usually comes off pretty easily with a bit of water and/or a good soak in the shower. I thought it should be no problem for these wipes to get it off if it really comes off pretty easily. Nope. I'm not sure if they aren't moist (shuddering at that word) enough or what the deal is, but I need to wet my face a few times to loosen the mascara before I can really get it off with the wipes. Once it's loosened with a little water it comes off with just a few swipes though.