Ok, so this is another re-post, courtesy of our server fail!!

Anyway!  My darling cousing Jax, from Aly and Ash, just had her second baby boy, and he is A-dorable…  I helped her make some nursery bedding for this precious little bundle (more picture coming soon) but my favorite piece of all would have to be the quilt!!

Aren’t these colors and fabrics amazing!!  Jax has excellent taste, what can I say!!  I am sooo loving that snuggly minky on the back.

This was by far the most challenging quilt I’ve ever made, but sooo worth it!  I LOVE how it turned out!

The most maddening thing just happened!!!  Our server crashed, and we lost a BUNCH of stuff, including ALL my posts from Monday on!! 

So I’m going to re-post my tutorial from Tuesday, today, and the rest of the stuff as the week goes on.  Sorry, but I’m just so sad to have lost this post, there were so many sweet comments from so many of you, including some new followers that I hadn’t been able to meet yet…

Moving on!!  Ok, here we go…  A cheery, bright, spring-time wreath to match the warm sunny day we’re finally having!!!  Think positive Stace!!!

Supplies:

• an old (or new) frame

• can of outdoor spray paint

• wired ribbon

• styrofoam wreath form (I used a 12-incher)

• 3/4 yard chiffon (for wreath) 1/4 yard (for flowers)

• buttons

• straight pins

• rotary cutter and mat

• sewing machine and thread

• hot glue gun

• felt

Step 1:  Spray both sides of your frame with a coat of spray paint, allowing to dry for an hour between coats.  Allow to dry for 24 hours before hanging on the door.

Step 2:  Fold your fabric in half.  Cut the strips of chiffon into 2.5 inch wide strips.  I used 8 strips for the wreath, and 2 for the flowers.  You can use as many as you want depending on the look you’re going for.

Step 3:  Sew a gathering stitch (the longest straight stitch setting on your sewing machine) down the center of your strips.  I sewed the stitch along the side for the flower strips.  For more details and pictures on sewing ruffles go HERE.

Pull the bobbin thread on one end of your strip to gather the fabric making a ruffle.  Continue, until the entire strip is a ruffle.

Step 4:  Pin one end of the ruffle to the back of the wreath form.  Wrap the ruffled strip around the wreath layering just slightly. 

Secure the end with a straight pin, and begin a new ruffle right where you left off. 

Continue wrapping and pinning until the entire wreath is covered.

Step 5:  Make your flowers.  Cut a 2-inch circle out of felt.  Hand stitch the ruffled strip to the circle beginning in the middle of the circle, turning and stitching in a spiral pattern, working your way to the outside.  Turn the end under and stitch into place.  Sew or glue a button or embellishment to the center of the flower.  Secure the flowers to the wreath with hot glue.  This can also be done without stitching, just by using hot glue.  Go HERE for that tutorial.

Step 6:  Cut a LONG strip of ribbon and tie the wreath to the top of the frame making a bow.  Cut another smaller piece of ribbon, wrap through the frame and use this loop to hang on the door.  Don’t worry, the big bow will hide it!

Voila!!  A springy little welcome for all your friends and visitors:)

Linking up HERE this week!

Have you ever made a dessert to have it completely fall apart on you???

Well, that has only happened to me once in my whole life, and so I thought I would blog about it today.  JUST KIDDING!!!  It happens all the time, I’m just brave enough to blog about it today:)

So, I was trying to make this dessert from KRAFT …

And I came out with this!!!

 HaHa, not too appetizing right…

So… I had some leftover chocolate frosting that’s completely out of this world.  Thank you Sister’s Cafe.

You get where I’m going with this right…

Ingredients:

• 1 baked cake (I used a pound cake for this recipe but any cake will do)
• 1 jar of chocolate frosting (I used about 1 1/2 cups of leftover chocolate frosting)
• 2 cups of milk chocolate chips

Directions

Crumble up the cake first.  In a large bowl, combine crumbled cake and frosting.  Mix together to form a sticky consistency.  Form into 1 inch balls, and place on cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. 

Place cookie sheet in freezer for about 10 minutes to firm up the balls.  Meanwhile, melt your chocolate chips in microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth.  Dip the balls into melted chocolate and place back on parchment to set up.

BEWARE!!  These are soo addicting and delicious:)

So, as it’s snowing outside, I’m typing up this post with all the desires for spring, a girl can have!!

These darling posts are not making it any easier:)

A Little of This a Little of That has the sweetest spring mantel display, LOVE this!!

Look at these clever little book page eggs from Southern Scraps

This faux chocolate egg topiary from Krafty Kat looks so good, I could eat it up right now!!

Thanks for some fabulous ideas ladies!!

Grab a featured button if you’d like!

Ok, here we go again, but you can never have enough decor balls!  I LOVE spring.  Warm weather HELLO!!

I found some darling yarn balls around Christmas, thinking, I could totally make these!!

Sooo…  I went with a spring version.  I’m loving these bright spring colors:)

Supplies:

• styrofoam balls of different sizes (I used between 2 and 4 inch balls)

• different textures and colors of yarn

• hot glue gun

• chiffon

• rotary cutter

• sewing machine

• thread

Step 1:  I saw some darling ruffled fabric balls over on Tatertots and Jello awhile ago and got the idea to use chiffon.  Begin by cutting the chiffon into strips that are 2 inches wide. 

Go HERE for another tutorial on how to ruffle the strips.  Glue the ruffled strips around the ball, wrapping and glueing as you go. 

Trim any excess fabric to give it the look of a ball.

Step 2:  Place a dab of glue somewhere on the ball.  Cut the end of the yarn so you have a nice edge.  Start by securing the strands to the glue. 

Wrap the strands around, laying them flat against the ball, glueing as you go.  Continue wrapping until the entire ball is covered.  Trim the end and glue in place.

Step 3:  Place a dab of glue somewhere on the ball.  Secure one end of the yarn strand to the ball. 

Begin wrapping and crisscrossing, gluing a few of the intersections of yarn as you go, until the ball is completely covered.

I threw these cute little balls in an apothecary jar, and voila!!!

Spring decor balls!

Linking up HERE this week!

I LOVE a chocolate mint combo… and I always think of “mint” in March, maybe the whole St. Patricks Day thing…

Anyway, I took a basic homemade oreo cookie recipe and minted it up for the holiday:)

Mint Oreo Cookies

Cookie Part:
1 package chocolate cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 – cup oil
2 tsp mint extract

Cream Cheese Filling Recipe:

1/2 cup butter 
1 block of cream cheese (8 oz)
3-4 cups – powdered sugar (depending on desired consistency)
1 – tsp vanilla extract                                                                                                                                                                        1-2 tsp of green food coloring

Cream butter and add cream cheese and mix well.  Add vanilla.  Add powdered sugar slowly until you reach your desired consistency.  Last, add the food coloring to your desired shade of green.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Add oil, mint extract, and eggs to cake mix and blend together. Roll dough into balls (about an inch in diameter) and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.  Remove cookies from sheet and place on cooling rack.  To assemble the cookies, add a heaping spoonful of filling into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie similar in size on top of the filling.  Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie.  Continue until all cookies are filled and sandwiched.

Beware, these bad boys are SUPER messy, but sooo delish!!!

Linking up HERE this week!