New Planters

I’ve had several plants sitting in my kitchen waiting for a permanent home. Three tiny succulents were in my window sill, and it occurred to me they might fit in the old polka-dot bowl I had sitting next to them.

Wa-lah! Then began the hunt to find more of these “new” planters. Even though I’d prefer to de-stash, the best bets for these other plants were found at our local flea market. A teapot for my rex begonia…

The poinsettia from Christmas has been given a chance at longer life too. We’ll see how she fares outside of her Christmas florist donned wrapping.

I’m hoping the plants will thrive despite the fact I didn’t drill holes in the bottom of these pottery pieces. Just being careful to not overwater. I have used rocks or other objects in the lower sections of vases and pottery in the past to give water a place to go in a way, just not this time. These containers were on the smaller side.

In the mean time I’m encouraged by prettier plant life in the kitchen in the middle of winter!

First Silhouette Heat Transfer

One of my daughters picked out a cute top to go with some corduroys for Christmas. It was attached to a plain turtleneck—a two-for-one deal. My other daughter decided she’d like a new printed turtle neck too. I had some inspiration pinned from Hanna Anderson to get this project going.

I got the “cat silhouette” and the “flower tree” from the Silhouette online store.

I curved the flat end of the flower tree graphic a little so it appeared more like a branch than an upside down tree.

I followed the directions for using the flocked heat transfer material that came in the Silhouette Heat Transfer Starter Kit {thanks Mom!}. I did have to leave the iron on the material longer than it said for a couple of the spots that wanted to come up when I peeled up the transfer sheet.

The white flocked material picks up every bit of lint so it’s not so clean and white anymore {and it did make it through a normal wash!}. Yet this shirt is still a hit with my 6 year old!

New Life for a Tray

One of the few projects I completed for the holidays this year was an old tray that had not been used in years after getting broken. {Yet I knew it still had potential—my weakness!} Yay for one more thing out of the stash!

My husband came to the rescue with some kind of glue to keep the crack from getting worse. I decided to decoupage the bottom with scrapbook paper so it would not be seen. I chose papers that would work with Christmas but could be used anytime with the colors in our living room.

Here I’ve glued the five pieces on with Mod Podge. Then I put three coats on the top allowing each to dry before adding another. I had searched the internet to see if decoupage glue would alter the glittered paper and couldn’t find an answer. I tested a small piece and saw it dulled the color of the glitter a bit but was not significant enough for me to not seal the tray, especially when someone might set a drink on it at our coffee table.

The crack left some small indentations in the paper but I don’t think it’s too noticeable. If you try this like me on a shiny surface, take care to not get the Mod Podge on the uncovered surfaces. You can see it leaves a dull film that needs to be removed.

We’ll see how many more seasons we can get out of this tray now. :)

The Sounds of Pruning

All the leaves are off the pear trees now. Instead, green emerges between the rows of trees after the November rains.

Four times now in the last month I’ve heard the farmers out pruning the orchards. It’s amazing how rhythmic it sounds. Turn up your volume to hear the clipping along with some birds chirping, a rooster crowing, and some girlies giggling (while Mommy films!). You can see the back of our neighborhood and house in the background.

I am most familiar with pruning from John 15:2, but it is neat to see it happening literally:

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

I smile to think that He finds it as lovely to hear the pruning in our lives as I hear outside my door.

Some Last Minute Gift Ideas

I had thought several times about how much I appreciate some of my kitchen tools, then it occurred to me that others might like to receive these things too.

I call this an ulu but it’s not from Alaska. My neighbor gave me this herb cutter set, and I’ve loved cutting fresh herbs with this. There are some high priced ones out there, but I saw one that looks similar on amazon.com for $16.99.

This hard working juicer cost me 99cents from our grocery store here in Portugal. I love how it strains out the pulp and seeds and is easy to clean up. I did not find anything as cheap on Amazon, but surely something similar is readily available in your local stores. It seems like one of those items you don’t know you like until you try it. Cheaper than buying bottled juice!

An additional idea: One year we gave someone a small juicer along with some cherry syrup as a cherry limeade set.

 

This Cutco slicer (I call it a bread knife) is one of my favorites. We have many cheap fresh baked breads available here in Portugal, so this knife is used daily in our house. I was blessed to get a few Cutco knives, but don’t get stumped by the brand. I just think everyone would appreciate one! I saw a Henckels brand on Amazon for $12.95 that had many good reviews.

My last suggestion is not for the kitchen, but for someone to relax and enjoy, kids and adults alike. My girls and I recently finished reading Understood Betsy together, and I think it will remain one of our top favorites. It starts off with an orphan being taken care of by her overbearing aunt—this part can even get on your nerves it’s so bad. But stick to it because the lessons Betsy learns once she has new caregivers are very entertaining and insightful.

I’m always up for gift ideas and recommendations, so I hope this is helpful to someone else too. May your last days before Christmas be full of peace and joy instead of stress!

Yarn Balls and Ornaments Wreath

Last year I decided I didn’t want to use all the ball ornaments on my tree this year. I also wanted a new wreath, but those are not plentiful here in Portugal. So I decided to use what I had apart from buying some yarn from our dollar store. There are many examples of yarn ball wreaths online, but I got my idea of mixing the ornaments and yarn balls from The Pleated Poppy blog.

I covered all the ornaments that I didn’t want to show with yarn. I used some craft glue to attach the yarn to the ornament, then tucked in the end when I had finished wrapping it with yarn.

You can see part of the Styrofoam stand I made above to spray paint some of the ornaments pink.

Once everything was ready, I used the ornament hanging parts to wire them onto the wreath {necessary with the wind we can get here}. A couple of the tops of the ornaments kept coming out when I was putting them on. I think they lost they’re stay-in ability once the neck of the ornament was covered. So I used some hot glue to keep those tops secure. So far we haven’t seen the need to have hot-glued any others!

We are pleased with the fun color on our door and to have this project off my to-do list from last year!

Bunny Birthday Party

Our now 8 year old daughter decided to have a bunny themed party this year because we bought our new born rabbits this month a year ago. They would celebrate birthdays together. Here’s the birthday girl and her sister:

When we found this dress at H&M, this started the ball rolling on how to work out the theme. She also liked an invitation we’d seen that had bunnies and chevron stripes, so stripes stuck as well as pink. I was able to come up with a similar-ish invitation with my Silhouette Studio program.

I used the same rabbit silhouette shapes for décor and cupcake toppers

and the same paper for a miniature pennant banner.

This was my first cake to attempt to decorate since my cake decorating extraordinaire friend is not in Portugal now. Thankfully the bunny cake idea we tried came with thorough directions and step-by-step pictures.

For activities, we brought in the bunnies for the girls to have their pictures made with them and hold them if they wanted to.

We made a carrot piñata simply with a cone of poster board reinforced with duct tape and a newspaper-filled tissue-paper-covered ball for the stem. The birthday girl had the first few hits and then got to be the first to hit it again after everyone else had a chance {and break it open!}.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had stamped some paper sacks with a rabbit stamp for treat bags. They came in handy after the loot was dropped from the piñata!

We also had some sack races so the girls could hop like bunnies. The girls kept wanting to go again and again!

We got to introduce several of the Portuguese girls to Shrinky Dinks. We had printed two bunny outlines on printable Shrinky paper, cut them out, and had the girls color them with markers. These would become the charms for the necklaces they were making. It was a joy to see these girls get excited about the shrinking in the oven!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It might be helpful to discourage kids from using dark colors that will only darken with shrinkage. Yet it is difficult to curb how they want to color it as they see fit!

Here are my two girls’ necklaces. We forgot to coat the charms with a glaze, and my eldest has already seen hers’ smear when it got wet. We’re going to try to fix it with some permanent markers.

Girls, necklaces, charms, candy, a bunny cake with sparklers and candles, lots of pink--it was a great party!