Side Projects

What can you make with an old plant stand and an old record? A side table! My mom and my grandmother actually made this for me for Christmas. They painted the plant stand gold and glued an old record to the top of it and BAM- super cute side table.

Speaking of gold.. I painted this one. I found this mirror by the garbage at my apartment complex. I painted it gold. I had some faux bamboo sticks that I painted and hot glued to the mirror in a kinda hollywood regency style.

More Swizzle Sticks!

I made some more swizzle sticks from bamboo skewers and beads. I used some beads from old necklaces and from when I was making jewelry. Of course I washed all the beads before using them.

Here is what you need for this project:

Bamboo Skewers

Hot Glue Gun

Beads

Add some hot glue to the end of the skewer and stick the skewer through the hole on the bead. The glue will dry in about a minute. Then you just need a cocktail to swirl with your new swizzle sticks!

Easy DIY Flower Arrangements

Flower arrangements do not have to be complicated or only ordered from a florist. You can make a floral arrangement from any type of green leaves or flowers from around your home.

I live in an apartment and I found all of these flowers and leaves from around the apartment complex and picked a couple I likes. The leaves are from a lemon tree and have a fresh lemony scent. Be careful though, my lemon tree branches had thorns! I just cut them off. Put everything in a vase, or a jar like I used, with some water and BAM! Floral arrangement.

I add a cap of bleach to the vase water to keep bacterial growth down which keeps your flowers fresh even longer. I learned that trick from Ina Garten. Shes amazing!

Easy Breakfast Sandwich !!!

Here is what you will need for this simple and fast breakfast sandwich:

Bacon (1 slice per sandwich)

4 Eggs

2 Shoots of Green Onions

English Muffins

Cheese of your choice

Salt and Pepper

Butter

Optional:

Avocado

Hot Sauce

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Lay your bacon slices on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes depending on how crispy you like your bacon. 

Scramble eggs with salt and pepper to your liking. 

Chop and saute green onions in 2 tsp of oil for 2 minutes. 

Add eggs and scramble by mixing eggs every 10 seconds.

Place english muffins in the oven straight on the rack and bake for 2 minutes or until toasted.

Remove english muffins from the oven when toasted, butter both sides and add your cheese on one side. I used american cheese because I like the way it tastes with eggs and bacon. Then place your bacon over the cheese. Then add 1/4 of your scrambled eggs on top of the bacon and close with the other half of the english muffin. Enjoy!

After making this sandwich, I thought and wished I had some avocado to also put on the sandwich. I think it would have been delicious. I just love avocado! 

You could also add some dashes of hot sauce to your sandwich too for a little kick. I did and it was soOo good!

Vintage Cocktail Shaker

I was at the local thrift store when I stumbled upon this vintage cocktail shaker for $2.99. I thought it was very interesting because it had all the popular cocktail recipes printed on the glass from the 50's and 60's.

Mad Men Roly Poly Glasses- Super Deal!

I have been watching Mad Men lately and I have been drooling over the roly poly silver rimmed glasses they use. I priced the Dorothy Thorpe glasses and they go for about $60- $70. CRAZY! I gave up because they were expensive and rare to find. Then one day I was at an estate sale and saw 6 silver rimmed roly poly glasses in the back yard in the junk section of the estate sale. They had no price so I asked an estate sale worker how much for the 6 glasses and he said 2 BUCKS TOTAL FOR ALL 6 GLASSES! CRAZY GOOD DEAL! I took em and wrapped them up.

I also found 2 silver rimmed champagne glasses at a thrift store later in the week. I must have stumbled upon some good luck.

A Life Vest For A Dog

My grandma use to put a doggy life vest on her dog when they would go out on their boat. She no longer had use for it and so she gave it to my mom. My mom's cat fell in the swimming pool twice in one week and my grandma thought my mom could put the life vest on the cat. The vest was way too big for the cat. I couldn't believe they made doggy life vests and I just had to see it on my mom's dog Brooklyn.

Here is the cat Boots

Here is my moms sharpei Brooklyn in her doggy life vest! Sooo cute! And my mom always sews sweatshirts for her dog so Brooklyn is also wearing her grey sweatshirt underneath the life vest. As you can see, Brooklyn kinda hated the vest so we took it off after pictures.

DIY - Wine Glass Lamp

So I kept seeing these wine glass candle lamps on Pinterest and I just had to make some. I thought they were so charming. Here is how to make one for yourself.

What you need:

Pretty Paper

Wine Glasses

Hot Glue Gun

I started by making a template because I did not want to waste my pretty paper and I was making multiples to give as gifts. I used my template to cut the shade for the lamps.

Glue the ends together with hot glue.

Place a lit tea light in the wine glass and put the shade on top. I thought they were darling when lit. They reminded me of the little lamps that use to be in the center of all the restaurant tables in the 50's and 60's. I wish restaurants would still have little lamps on them.

Easiest DIY Project Ever! Swizzle Sticks!

I have a ton of extra ribbon that I acquired from my mom's insane collection of ribbon and I finally found something to do with it all. PRETTY SWIZZLE STICKS FOR COCKTAILS! 

All you need is:

Ribbon

Any sticks- wood or plastic- found mine at the dollar store

Hot glue gun

Directions:

I cut my ribbon into 3 inch pieces.You can cut your ribbon pieces longer if you want. Then you glue the ribbons onto the sticks.

VOILA!

Now you and I have some awesome swizzle sticks for our next cocktail party!