Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Spring Letters

cLast year I made these spring letter blocks, and this year I thought they needed something a little more to them. I was checking out Market Yourself Monday on Sumo's Sweet Stuff and saw these adorable blocks over at Inspiring Creations. I thought I could just make a few of those fun paper flowers and add some buttons and ribbon to my blocks too. So thank you Lindsay for the tutorial and the "inspiration".



St. Patty's Day Burlap Wreath

Ever since I saw this wreath that Jen over at Tater tots and Jello made I wanted to try one too. I figured since I have NO St. Patty's Day decorations (except for the cute leprechaun hat we just made in craft club) I would do a St. Patty's Day one. I don't think mine turned out near as cute as Jen's but I like it. She has a tutorial of how to make it too! Thanks Jen for sharing your talents with all of us!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Felt Playhouse

I'm sure most of you have seen those cute card table felt houses out there in the blogging world, and I absolutely love them! Well, my cute hubs brought home an enormous cardboard box from work like 8 months ago, and has recently reintroduced it to our little Izzie's room. (**argh**) Well as CUTE as this box is, especially with all the coloring all over it, it needs a new home and a new face lift. (Good thing we are getting ready to finish part of our basement!) Enter super cute felt playhouse! I had originally been thinking how I could make this box cuter since Izzie obviously loves it so much, I thought about painting it, but it wouldn't turn out near as cute. Here is the infamous box!




I haven't quite decided everything I am going to put on her house, but I think she needs a garden, a puppy, a kitty, a mailbox, a fruit tree, and maybe some other fun surprises. I'll be posting some pics of what I am making.

In the meantime, here are some websites of where I got my ideas:

Homemade by Jill
This and That
Sew Much Ado

Go ahead and channel your inner sewing goddess and whip up a fun playhouse for your little one!

Izzie's big girl room makeover

Well, it's finally that time to change Izzie's room. We moved in just over a year ago and about 6 months ago I decided how I wanted to paint it. Well, I finally have the paint and am ready to get going on this big project. Here are some pics of the before so you can see how boring it is.


Notice the ugly curtains, we need to fix that right away!





List of what is going to be done:

*paint all walls (may take a while since there will be lots of stripes)
*paint an older dresser we have~remove the changing table
*paint the bookshelf
*remove the large cardboard box and make a felt playhouse cover for it (more on that in my next post!)
*make curtains, I bought the ones that are in there and they are not near dark enough. We need some serious black out curtains for that girls room, so I've got some cute ideas that i'm excited to try out.
*make a feather boa wreath
*finish magnet board
*find bedding

This is a tall order and lots to do, but i'm so excited to finally be working on it. Part of my delay was that I'm going to need to move her into our spare bedroom, which until recently was FULL of junk! Now that I have that cleaned out, I can get going. I'm excited to show you all the finished product too. I will be doing posts of projects that I put together, and then a final reveal...get excited!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Bow Holder



I made this bow holder for my little girls room to match her bedding. I got the tutorial from Make it and Love it. I love all of Ashley's stuff over at Make it and Love it and think she is increadibly talented. I love all her how to tips for sewing since i'm going to be trying out some projects soon.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

What's for dinner?

I found this blog that I love for recipes. It's Or So She Says... They create their own versions of restaraunt meals and share the recipe on their site. Please go here to see the rest of their blog. I loved this recipe and it was so easy. I didn't have enough potatoes to make the garlic mashed potatoes for the side dish, but I'm sure they are wonderful too. FYI: The honey mustard recipe makes a lot so you can save it for another dish or just cut it in half.

Smothered Chicken


4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Garlic powder and seasoned salt to taste
1 T. vegetable oil
8 oz. button mushrooms, cut in half or quarters
1 c. shredded Cheddar cheese blend
½ c. chopped green onions
½ c. real bacon bits (real bacon works best and tastes the best)
½ c. tomatoes
1 bottle BBQ sauce


Flatten chicken breasts to ¼ in. thick (or just cut chicken breasts in half horizontally). Sprinkle with seasonings. In a skillet, brown chicken in oil for 4 min., or until mostly cooked through (you could also grill them if that is easier) In a separate pan saute cut up bacon until crispy. Drain the excess grease. Add mushrooms to the bacon and cook until mushrooms are soft. Place chicken breasts on a cookie sheet or in a 9x13 pan. Squeeze a generous amount of bbq sauce on top of each chicken breast. Top the chicken with the mushroom and bacon mixture. Sprinkle the cheese all over the tops of the chicken breasts. Cover and cook until chicken is done and cheese is melted, about 10 minutes. When chicken is finished, top the chicken breasts with the fresh tomatoes and green onions. Serve with garlic mashed potatoes and honey mustard sauce.





Honey Mustard Sauce


1 c. mayo (can use fat free or low fat)
3/4 c. Dijon mustard
¼-1/2 c. honey
1/8 tsp. Cayenne pepper
2 T. Lime juice
1 tsp. Ginger powder


Mix. Add extra honey or lime for desired flavor.


Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes


5 lb. russet potatoes (or red potatoes)
½-1 whole 16oz. tub sour cream (depending on how much moisture you need in your potatoes)
1 cube butter
8 oz. half & half or milk
Fresh or dried Parsley
1 clove garlic
Salt & Pepper
½ c. Parmesan cheese (optional)


Peel potatoes and cut into large chunks. Boil water and add potato chunks. Boil until potatoes are fork tender. Drain majority of water from potatoes. Mash potatoes with either an electric mixer or potato masher. Add whipping cream, butter, sour cream, garlic, salt, pepper & Parmesan cheese.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Clip Boards

Over a year ago I made these super cute clip boards for a craft boutique my SIL Traci was doing, and sadly enough I didn't sale one of them. I have a bunch and I know they are super easy to make, but I'd like to get rid of them. So if anyone needs a cute gift for a friend, V.T., sister, mom, daughter, or whatever please shoot me an email (sarahjane.nuttall@gmail.com) and I'd be happy to get you one. Here is what I have:

2-Create
2-Projects
3-Inspire
5-Babysitter







*update* I know this is a shameless plug but I really do want to get rid of these. Maybe when I have more time and can put some more projects together i'll do a little giveaway!
*update* I only have 2 projects and 5 babysitter clipboards left!

Door Headboard

I love HGTV and years ago I saw some designer, can't remember who, use an old door as a headboard. I have loved that idea ever since. My SIL, Brooke, saw the same thing and went to work trying to find out how to make one. Well, she found the "how to" on Martha Stewart. I found my old door at a consignment shop in SLC called Emilie Jayne (absolutely love that store, if you have time go check it out it's super fun!) My door was $50 and my sweet husband sanded down the whole thing and helped me paint it. We attached some crown molding to the top and hung it over our bed. I love the way it turned out! Now I just need to get some different bedding...

Tuesday Morning

For those of you that live in Utah, I happened to go into Tuesday Morning today. Now I didn't even know they still had these stores, so I was intrigued to see what I could find. Well, I wasn't disappointed. Look at this huge frame I got for $7.00! I couldn't believe it, its not that bad, hate the color, but with a little spray paint and a pic of the temple, it's the PERFECT size for that empty wall in my family room. I am so excited!
Oh yeah, and for those glitter lovers out there, I also got some glitter. They had a 4-in-1 tub of glitter with 68 grams of the larger size glitter for $1.99, and a 3 pack of .63 ounce size for $1.99. Great deals!

Valentine's Word Blocks

I actually made these babies last year. They were so easy and cheap! I got the paper from Roberts and the vinyl lettering from a woman who I know. Now that I have a cricut i'll be making a lot more of these for other holidays.

Old Window Frame Project

I got this idea from my cute SIL, Brooke. When they moved into their new home (well older, new for them) they gutted the whole thing. Lucky for them they had these old windows that they removed. I love how big it is since I have large walls to cover. It was super easy too, all you need is an old window. I would recommend cleaning it really well. I touched up some of the paint, and then just cut paper to the size of each window pane and added pics and embellishments. I just used tape to hold the paper in so that I can change out the pics when I need to. Super fun, and super cute!

Here is a close up: