DIY Lamp

Mr. Creole and I tend to eat a pretty healthy amount of oatmeal these days (mmm fiber) and I have been saving the containers for a project. It took me a good three months to finally find something to do with them that wasn't going to look like a 3 yr old did it. These are the supplies I acquired for my project:

*Elmers Glue
*Glue Gun
*Jute
*Coffee Filters

 The first thing I tried was painting the container a dark-ish brown to cover the logo then glue the jute to it. I have to admit that it turned out to be an utter failure. I forgot to take pictures but it looked quite the mess. So I tore off all of the jute and started over. I glued a couple layers of  flattened coffee filters to the container. 

Then I added the jute. It looked MUCH better.

 After that was done I punched a hole in the bottom part of the container with scissors and put my new "lamp shade" on the top.

Eventually, I will put something like sand in the bottle and will wire it to actually be a working lamp. For now, it sits in my dining area with the sole purpose of looking nice.

 

 Which, if you ask me, is needing a bit more help in the decorating aspect. The mismatching wood of the dining set and my "hutch" really don't help set a theme. :) I am thinking about painting them but am unsure of what colors to go with. I know that the finish will be "distressed" to give it some character but I will have to give it some more thought I think. Plus, that huge open space above the "hutch" is... well... HUGE... and BARE. I have been wanting a really big mirror to go there but haven't been able to go thrifting yet... sigh.

Rainbow Cake

First off, I feel I need to owe those of you who regularly visit my blog an apology for not keeping up to date on the goings on of the "Creoles". It's not that I haven't had the time or the material to add it's simply that I have been lazy resting. So I will put up a couple of the things I have saved up now. First off, Mr. Creoles' brother got here today :) So that has been pretty fun. His birthday was last month and so Mr. Creole and I thought it would be kinda neat to make a cake for him. I decided to be my uber creative self so I did a rainbow themed cake.

First, I gathered my supplies.

*Cake Mix
*Diet Sprite (Mine is HEB version)
*Frosting
*Gel Food Coloring


I found this idea on the internet and thought I would give it a go. All you do is add the soda to the cake mix and stir it.  The batter will end up fluffy and oh so yummy looking. I, then, divided it up into parts and mixed in my color til it was the desired shade. I then poured my batter one at a time into a sprayed and lined loaf pan (I don't have any cake pans yet).

I baked it at 325 for about 50 minutes and let it cool.  Then I did my creative thing and decorated!! This is how it turned out.

 The rainbow is made out of peanut butter m&m's (Mr. Creole just had to have them instead of skittles lol).

This is what the inside looked like.

I am a rainbow making genius!!!!!! The cake was soooo tasty and surprisingly moist too!!  Turned out to be lots of fun. 

This is a great idea for any kind of festivity or holiday as you can use different colors and shades.

Cajun Boil

 The makings of an excellent crawfish boil

  

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Easter Crafts

So I did these a couple of weeks ago but haven't actually taken the time to hook up my camera and upload the pics.

The first thing I did was make a springy wreath out of a magazine I picked up from the local grocery store. The first thing I did was make all the roses out of the paper.  You can see how to make the ones I made here.
Took forever but was a great way to pass the time :) I also really like this origami version. Then I cut out the shape for the back out of cardboard. I began pasting all the roses to the cardboard using my trusty new glue gun. As I got closer and closer to closing off the circle I began to realize that I didn't have enough roses to cover it completely. So, being the genius I am, I improvised and switched up my plan.  So, I took some purple felt and made a bow for the top.

After that was done. I gathered some of the other things I got for Easter decor and realized it was all rather boring. So, I added my own flare:

 

  It was lots of fun :)

Sunburst Mirror Wall Decoration

I have always had a desire to paint rooms in the apartments I have been living in. However, because I do not want to have to repaint everything white when we move out it's something I never really put into action.  So, I have to come up with alternative ways of making our overly white walls a little more "home-y".  That way we don't feel like we are living in a psych ward :) I did some looking online and found an idea I liked here.

I really liked the idea but didn't really feel attached to the end result. I felt like the colors were too sharp, something that would stand out a little too much on our pristine white walls.  But I decided to try it out anyway.  So I started rolling out my magazine pages. 

I like something that looks a little more rustic than in the original idea.  So I got some brown paint from the clearance rack at Hobby Lobby for $.50 (woohoo!) and watered it down. I painted each of the rolled magazines with the mix. When they dried they looked almost like old newspapers.

Then I started to assemble with my hot glue gun by pasting the small ends of the rolls to a round piece of cardboard I cut out. 

After that was done I pasted another circular piece of cardboard to the top side of papers to give it more stability. I didn't really know what to do with the middle part of it. I didn't like the idea of putting more paper in the middle for fear of it looking like a pile of trash pasted to the wall.

So... I put a round mirror in the middle (that I got 50% off!)  I took a scrap piece of fabric and attached it to the back and hung it on the wall in the dining area.

I have to say I am quite happy with the way it turned out. 

 

Yes, I know... I didn't show the entire dining room. Well, there is a reason for that :) It is a bit of a mess right now with all my crafting glory all over the place ha ha. When I get the place cleaned up a little bit I will take a picture of the entire wall and post it :)

This post is in memory of my beloved mini hot glue gun.

It has served me well for many years and did its best to glue my projects until the very end.

We were quite the team til it died with a flash of light, a loud bang and lots of smoke.

Goodbye my beloved.

It really does look rather pathetic...

DIY Hanging Wall Pockets

Wall Pockets 

So this is where I got the idea for the wall pockets. The originals are about $80 if you were to buy them off the internet... and obviously, I am not going to spend money on something like that at the drop of the hat.  So, I thought I would do something with the time I have while Mr. Creole works over 10 hours a day lol

I had cardboard from our move so it was nice that I didn't have to buy any of that.  However, because I am just beginning my crafting journey I didn't have hardly anything "on hand" like fabric or spray adhesive or even glue sticks for my glue gun.  So for everything I spent around $15 for the fabric and other things. It will be nice when I am able to buy things on sale just because they are on sale and then look for opportunities to use it.

The project took me about 2 days to finish.  Long hours sitting on the floor gluing and cutting (I used a pocket knife since I don't have an x-acto knife) but I got it done!

I also don't have a label punch like she did. So I will have to make something to break up how black it is.  Maybe make some fabric flowers or something to paste to the pockets.

This is what the finished product looked like

Cute pug

You can only tell its not wood when you get up close.

This is it hung up by the front door.  

The cute FAMILY sign I found at Hobby Lobby in the clearance section for $2! Woohoo for thriftiness!!

I love the way it turned out :)

I chose to hang it differently than they did.

Mr. Creole was really impressed when he saw what it was I was working on... I think I am surprising him with my domestic abilities ha ha! (I think he is discovering my true identity... SUPERWOMAN!!!) He is always commenting on my cooking and crafting :) He makes me feel like superwoman.

I can see myself making more of these in the future for other rooms. It would be fun to do some in patterned printed fabric for future babies rooms or the future office/library/music room. I really wanna get one of those things that cut out letters for just about any surface ( I have no idea what it is called... silhouette??). I would love to do a decal for the top or even a quote. 

April Fools Day Spaghetti Cake

I was bored yesterday and decided to make Mr. Creole a cake... and I thought it would be fun to do some thing for April Fools Day. So I decided to do something out of the ordinary.  This cake is all edible... I used the black bean cake recipe for the cake itself then butter cream frosting for the pasta (to make the "pasta" you can scoop frosting into a sandwich bag, cut a corner with scissors to make a circular opening and then squeeze the frosting through the hole) and strawberry jam for the sauce. The "meatballs" are made of cake crumbs rolled into a ball. Mr. Creole actually asked me if it was real pasta when he got home ha ha! Sure is yummy!!!