Want some FREE STUFF?

OK, not mine, but check out this blog!
Tea Rose Home has been a recent obsession of mine, and inspiration for up-cycling t-shirts into beautiful creations! She can make, like ruffles and stuff--a stretch for me, but I can pull it off if I'm forced.
Anywhoo, she is giving away some fun things, check it out and enter! Here's a peek at a necklace...lovely!

What are you gonna do with ALL that Halloween candy?

A few years ago after Easter, I got tired of all the candy hanging around (really I needed to stop myself from eating it all) so I decided--either throw it all in the garbage--or chop up the candy and use it to make cookies. I went for the latter--to help save the landfills from all that candy, of course. I just used my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, and substituted the chocolate chips are for chopped up candy bars. They turned out great, and now my neighbors expect candy cookies after any holiday.
This year, I was just getting sick of looking at the huge bowl of candy my kids collected and the fact that we are living in a new neighborhood and I waaaaay overbought (we had 5 Trick-or-Treaters and I bought 4 huge bags!!) when my mom mailed me a recipe for Halloween Candy Cookies. I figured I would try it, and see if it worked better than my regular chocolate chip recipe. It recommends using Twizzlers etc. in addition to chocolate, and I must say--the chewy candies were a yummy addition! We used: Dots, m & m's, Reeces, Twix, Butterfinger, Twizzlers and even a few Tootsie Rolls got tossed in--among all the other chocolate candy bars that happened to be in the bowl. It did make a nice, chewy soft cookie that held in all that candy.
I didn't really look at the recipe before I started it, but we had so much candy that I doubled the recipe, not realizing how big the recipe was. We made a looooot of cookies, but ended up passing them out at work and sending some to a friends house. We didn't end up with too many left (but I still managed to eat one for breakfast today).
The Dirty Boyz loved helping unwrap and chop and, of course, in true Dirty Boy fashion, couldn't help getting thier (pre-washed) hands in the mix. Oh well. My kitchen will be clean, someday.



Here's the recipe if your interested in recycling your candy: (It was a clipping, but looks like its from AmericanProfile.com)

3 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 1/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. kosher salt
1 cup butter (YIKES!)
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 t. vanilla extract
2 cups chopped candy bits

*Preheat to 350*. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in bowl and set aside. Beat butter, sugars well until fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time then vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until combined, then add chopped up candy. Drop by Tablespoon onto baking sheet, and bake for 15-20 minutes (I recommend 13! I like them soft). Makes about 4 dozen.

Sweater Re-Do

This weekend I actually reached the end of my sewing basket! I hemmed/let down 6 pairs of pants, made 3 up-cycled jean shopping bags and finished a few other misc. projects, whew! Even the Dirty Boyz raided my fabric stash and made their own drawstring car baggies with some old truck fabric they found. Now I can officially sew anything I want... and Christmas is coming up, so many fun projects to be had! I have been spending TOO much time on sewing/crafting/scrapbooking/style blogs lately, and my mind is cluttered with ideas!
I bought this sweater at the end of the season last year for $2.99! I didn't love it, but, at the time it was a sweater! For $2.99! How could I NOT buy it? I wore sweaters like, everyday, in Idaho. Now the coldest it gets, ever, is about 50* so my latest project is turning all those winter things into things that I can actually wear here in sunny Phoenix.
Anywhoo. I started with this semi-frumpy-super-boring-don't-love-the-color sweater,

and some cute corduroy fabric purchased with 40% off coupon, chopped it up the middle, sewed the fabric around the raw edges and top and added a button. Ta-Da! Too bad I sent most of my frumpy sweaters to GoodWill before we moved. What was I thinking?


(Photo taken by said Dirty Boy, I hate adding picts of myself, but it looked better than on the table)
Here is one more pict of a sweater I chopped up the middle a while ago. It was light-weight, so I just stiched it up with some black thread, added some frog closures and a few buttons. Boring Target Sweater turned Cuter Cartigan!


I'm linking this post to Tea Rose Home, she does some amazing Re-Do's too, go check out her site and link parties!

TAGAN The Tooth Monster

'cause fairies are for chicks



Just a little late for Halloween...Tagan is back!
I made a bunch of these for Unique Botique last year, and they sold out so quick I didn't even have a template of the ones I had made left! He has been reserructed and comes in the four original colors: blue, green, orange and brown. Each uniquely unique and comes with his own special poem:
Stash your tooth in my pocket pillow at night
I'll bring you cash, and promise not to bite

UP-cylced Leather Wristbands

My bestest crafting buddy Angie and I made these leather wristbands made from recycled leather and leather scraps (give credit where credit is due!). I still have tons of leather and hardware left, so they are my next ETSY product to be added. What boy doesn't look awesome with a leather wristband?

Spooooooky Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I got this idea from another blog (Family Fun) I wanted to save them for Halloween to surprise the dirty boyz with some cute ghostly chair covers....better than sending the old pillow cases to Goodwill! What can you make with your old stuff?

Check back...coming soon!!

Leather Wristbands
Tooth Monster Pillows
Closet Organizers
Up-Cycled sweaters (clear out the moth balls, you know you have some to chop up too!)
Birthday T-Shirts