Feather Earrings: DIY

I have a pretty rad job at a law firm as a receptionist..that sounds like it would be the opposite of fun. But it is actually more of a dream job. I do something different everyday. Some days I am a travel agent, some days a party planner, or a dog sitter or a personal assistant or a wardrobe consultant and some days we have craft hour.

My boss's wife, J, was having a themed event and the theme was "Quail". We were going to make name tags with feathers and buttons but she couldn't find any buttons she liked. J loves feathers and she had to do something with them so she had the idea to make earrings. She didn't know how we would do it, but her crafty receptionist  played for a few minutes and came up with an awesome and easy way to make the feathers and earring blanks into some pretty ear adornments.

 I am currently in a serious relationship with summery boho fashions so this was right up my alley. I love these earrings and plan to make more.


Supplies:

• Earring Blanks 
• Hot glue/super glue
• Feathers, any will do, just whatever you like
• Tape
• Coordinating thread
• Fishing line

Instructions: 

Put the feathers together how ever you want, what ever you like. 

Cut a 1inch or smaller piece of fishing line. (you use this to attach the earring blank to the feather bundle) 

Loop the fishing line and tape it to your bundle of feathers.

Wrap bundle, over the tape with your thread until it is completely covered. 

Put a dot of glue on the back of the string wrapped section and wrap the string a few more times and snip it. 

Slip the fishing line loop into the earring blank

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Here are some of the earrings I made today:

Homemade Yogurt Drops

So the Hubs and I are trying to be a little healthier and our biggest hurdle in that adventure is snacks. 

We are the snackin'-est people you will ever meet. 

We always have popcorn, dips, chips, salsa, candy, cookies, crackers, and Little Debbies on hand.  We are trying to adjust our eating habits so baby A learns healthy eating habits and doesn't become one of America's junk food babies. We have noticed how much she emulates our choices and actions, and we decided we had to make a swift change.

In our search for healthier snack alternatives, I remembered that I saw something about make at home yogurt drops by putting yogurt in the freezer. (Of course I cannot find it now, I guess I didn't actually pin it, I just thought I did)

They turned out pretty awesome and tasty. They are great healthier snack option over grabbing a handful of candy or some ice cream. And with all the flavors of yogurt out there, you really have so many choices for flavoring, thank you Yoplait! These are a really delicious snack that will be perfect on these warm Spring days here in South Georgia. I tried plain vanilla this time, but I am really excited about trying some Key Lime Pie and Strawberry ones too!

  

The only downside is that you have to eat them when you take them out of freezer like you would ice cream, a popsicle or any other frozen snack. They will start to melt back into regular, unfrozen yogurt that you have to eat with a spoon and you lose the ease of eating them like a pop-able snack. So, they don't travel well.

THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED: 

•  Yogurt- Any size, any flavor, it all depends on how many you want to make and your personal taste preferences
• Ziploc bag
• Wax paper

THIS IS HOW WE DO IT:

 (You probably  just sang that in Montell Jordan's voice! If you did, you totally just aged yourself, that song came out in 1995, haha!)

Lay wax paper over a plate or cookie sheet. But please make sure that your cookie sheet will fit in your freezer before you finish all this hard work. 

Scoop out your yogurt into the Ziploc bag, between 1/3 and 1/2 full

Snip the tip of the bag and make little drops on the wax paper covered plate/cookie sheet. 

Freeze overnight, and ENJOY! 

Boho maxi-dress DIY

I saw this awesome maxi dress on pinterest and it linked to this adorable blog, "Sweet Verbena"

I was reading through her tutorial and it seemed pretty easy and I decided to try it. I had a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby so 2 yards of brown jersey knit came up to only 7ish dollars; at least if it failed, it wasn't like I was out a lot of money.

So I followed her instructions (except the dyeing). If you can sew in a semi straight line you can sew this dress. It is flowy so mistakes are easily hidden. And you don't even have to finish the raw edge it you don't want to because the jersey knit rolls on the unfinished edges. I personally like the raw edges, it adds to the laid back feel of the dress.

A great beginner project. And don't let anyone tell you knits are hard to work with, use a  zig zag stitch it and it is a breeze.

The fabric is about 30 inches wide so it is super flowy and gathered on my small frame, but the good news is that this dress can grow with you, if you gain or lose or find your self in need of maternity wear. In fact I wish I had a dress like this when I was pregnant!

I am going to dress it up a bit with some jewelry and accessories and cute wedges and wear it to work this Friday, and I plan on dressing it down and taking it to the beach too!

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Self-Frosting NUTELLA Cupcakes

I love Nutella. And the word love is a serious understatement. I usually just eat it straight from the jar, but I saw this recipe on Pinterest and figured I had to try it. I have never made cupcakes from scratch and if it has Nutella in it, it can't be bad, so I tried it and it was a huge hit!

The recipe is super easy and it turned out so great.

(Find the site the pin and recipe came from  HERE)


1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup canola or mild vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4-1/2 cup Nutella, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 325F.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter, oil and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt; add to the butter mixture and beat on low speed just until combined. The batter will be very thick,but that makes it easy to swirl the Nutella.

Divide the batter between 12 paper-lined muffin cups. Drop a spoonful of Nutella on top of each, and swirl through the batter with the tip of a bamboo skewer, knife or other pointy object. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until springy to the touch. Tilt them in the pan to help them cool. Makes a dozen cupcakes.



 I feel so accomplished baking something from scratch and the feeling was amplified when my taste testers couldn't get enough of them!