Watermelon Love, Again

I've already shared a handful of watermelon inspiration from my own creations and around the web. I couldn't help but share some more I have been smitten with, since yesterday August 3rd, was National Watermelon Day. (Anyone wonder if there is a national day for everything? I mean really, there is probably a National Sock Day.) Anywho...here's another watermelon round up to honor the day.

I made this watermelon card using my Silhouette. (I'm still learning how to work that machine, so this is obviously very simple!)

How stinkin' cute is this watermelon ice cream pie from Raising Memories? Not to mention super tasty looking.

Photo credit: Raising Memories

What about this watermelon sandwich made by Jill at Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons. My niece would love this!

Photo credit: Jill from Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons

Soooo I love frogs and this frogmelon is just awesome. (Again, from Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons) Great spinoff of the shark melons.

Photo credit: Jill from Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons

Sherbet was my favorite treat at the ice cream shop my dad took my sisters and I when we were younger, so it always brings back great memories. I may just have to make these watermelon sherbet cups from Red Couch Recipes asap!

Photo credit: Red Couch Recipes

I just think these homemade layered watermelon pops from Phaedra's Adventures look so yummy. Must try!

Photo credit: Phaedra's Adventures

Don't these watermelon cookies on a stick from Munchkin Munchies just look incredible? On my ever growing list of stuff I want to try to make, is attempting royal frosting. Someday!

Photo credit: Sue from Munchkin Munchies

This little watermelon craze I've been on this summer started with my watermelon cake pops and here is another spin on the cake pop concept: watermelon cake balls (made by Tonia from The Gunny Sack) that look like a watermelon cut in half! Love it!

Photo credit: Tonia from The Gunny Sack

I really will try to be done with watermelon things until next summer, but I can't make any promises. Every week, more adorable, creative ideas flood the blogs and I just can't help myself! Watermelon screams summer to me. I'm just not ready for it to end!

Duvet Cover Quick Fix Tip

If anyone has ever had a down comforter covered by a duvet and had it bunch up on one side or down at the bottom of the cover, this quick fix tip is for you. All you need is a handful of safety pins.

Pull your duvet cover inside out and lay it on the ground. Match up the comforter by laying it on top of the duvet. Then, start safety pinning every 12-15 inches or so around your comforter.

Finally, pull it inside out and button/zip the end up as normal. You won't even notice the pins, except how great it is to have your comforter stay in place.

DIY Coaster Tiles [Pinterest Challenge Summer 2011]

Stopped pinning and made:

It was only last week that I joined Pinterest, but I fell fast and am so in love with it. Seriously though, I don't know what took me so long. Anyways, I could gush for a while, but I'll jump right into the project I chose to accomplish for:

I was so excited to see other bloggers' posts for this challenge, including the four who initiated the challenge: Sherry from Young House Love, Katie from Bower Power, Emily from Style by Emily Henderson and Lana from Making a House a Home. There is also a different link party on any of the previously mentioned sites for anyone who participated in this stop pinning and make it challenge.

Here's the pin I used for my challenge:

Source: lightrefreshmentsserved.com via Mallory on Pinterest

Suuuuuuper simple and sooooo inexpensive. No exaggeration. Read on.

All you need:
  1. mod podge
  2. paper (your stash is waiting to be busted)
  3. 4x4 inch tiles (Home Depot for 16 pennies each!)
  4. felt (optional, if you want to protect whatever the coasters will sit on)
  5. glue gun or heavy duty sticker - like 3M products (only necessary if you are using felt on the bottom)

Cut paper of your choice to fit your tiles. I cut mine 4 1/8 inch by 4 1/8 inch because I wanted the paper right up to the edge of the tile. Then, mod podge the paper onto the tile, making sure to get it nice and smooth. Let dry. Give it a second coating if you wish.

Finally, an optional, but finishing touch to complete the coasters, is adding felt to the bottom of the tiles. To do so, just cut a 4x4 inch square of felt and attach.

I couldn't help but buy 12 tiles, so I made two sets of 6. Not quite sure which one I like more, but I think one set may become part of a wedding gift for one of the two weddings I am attending in the next month.

So, there it is, my first Pinterest Project. I'm hoping to stay motivated to make/do more of the inspiration I pin. What does one do with a pin once it has been created? Do I delete it from my board? If it were a cork board, I guess I would probably take it down...Thoughts?

Baked Ham & Egg Cups

This past weekend my amazing friend from college, Cara, came to visit from Austin, Texas! It was so awesome to see her and we all had such a good time catching up in person. On Saturday morning, I made these baked ham and egg cups and they were quite a hit.

Here's how I did it:

Lightly grease the number of cups you plan to make. Then, add a large piece of ham, pressed into each cup. Scramble about one to two eggs less than the number of muffin tins you plan on filling. I made 7 ham and egg cups, so I scrambled 5 eggs. Pour your egg mixture into the muffin tin, filling about halfway. The eggs will rise up quite a lot. Try not to allow any egg to leak outside of the ham "liner." Also, do not worry about how large your pieces of ham are, because if you look how big mine are, then scroll to the final picture, the ham bakes down quite a bit.

Then, add your toppings. I was very plain, only adding pepper-jack cheese and a few spices. You could add onion, tomato, peppers or whatever else you like on top of your eggs, in addition to your favorite spices.

Finally, bake for 12-15 minutes. Just check the done-ness by wiggling the pan a little. If the middle of the cups move, leave them in for a little longer. If you use a white cheese, it will blend in once melted. See?

Pop out of the tin and serve with your favorite breakfast foods. Our choice on Saturday was Michelle's famous crisp-edge pancakes. Some bacon would have made breakfast pure bliss. (It was pretty close though, as usual.)

I don't have a picture of a singular final product (out of the tin) because apparently we were too eager to scarf them down. I altered this recipe just a smidgen because I like my eggs scrambled, although you could just crack one egg into each cup if you do not want them scrambled.

Speechless Sunday

Copyright Laura George, from her Etsy shop.

Chocolate Ooey Gooey Butter Cookies

My sister went camping and wanted to take an easily portable treat. What better than cookies? We tried this Chocolate Ooey Gooey Butter Cookie recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything. Quite tasty indeed.

Christy (aka The Girl Who Ate Everything) got this recipe from Paula Deen.

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
confectioner’s sugar, for dusting
1 (18 ounce) box moist chocolate cake mix
1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature
1 egg
1 stick of butter, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the cake mix. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so that you can roll the batter into balls. Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon sized balls and then roll them in confectioner’s sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and gooey. Cool completely and sprinkle with more confectioners’ sugar, if desired.

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Have You Tried Instagram?

Bear with me for a minute while I geek out here. My friend Stephanie told me to try the (free!) iPhone app, Instagram. I'm not sure if it translates to Android phones or not. I'm sure there is something similar.

I just love the ease of this app. You can take a picture with it or pull one from your Camera Roll on your iPhone and then choose a filter, which is the best part! They have 15 different filters, most of which are somewhat descriptive of what the filter is, for example, "1977" really makes the photo look like it was in a box stored from 1977. My favorite filter is "Earlybird." Here are a few of my most recent filtered photos:

I love how retro this picture looks!

 

Sweet little ballerina. Again, she is 3 years old, born in 2008 - not the 70's.

Precious Happy Olivia

My feet in the field, farm girl at heart.

Now I realize I should have done before and after to show off Instagram's coolness. It's free, so give it a try because it can give little camera phone pics some ooomph.

Pinterest's Most Recent Victim

Captured last night. Yup, that was me. I think I may have hopped on this train late, although I do see "Pinterest" in the title or mentioned in many posts each week. It was only a matter of time before I was sucked in. I had so many hours to kill plenty of things to do last night, but instead managed to start my first few boards. I could have stayed up all night doing that. For those of you who don't know what Pinterest is, in short, it is a virtual bulletin board you can "pin" any picture from anywhere on the internet to your own "boards" you categorize. It is also very addicting.

I follow Sherry and John from Young House Love (who doesn't? they have hundreds of comments per post!) and saw this post introducing:

Sherry & John at YHL are teaming up with Bower Power, Making A House A Home and Style By Emily Henderson for this. The idea behind this challenge is for you to actually make something you have pinned, since it is so easy to pin and pin and pin and pin without ever setting aside time to do something you thought was super cool. So, even though I've been pinning for barely over a day, I'm going to do it too and post my complete project on the August 2nd "deadline" of the challenge.

Here are a few pins I'm thinking of doing (nothing extravagant since I'm getting on board a little late):

Source: 7layerstudio.typepad.com via Mallory on Pinterest

Source: theivytwines.com via Mallory on Pinterest

Source: housetweaking.com via Mallory on Pinterest

Look out for August 2nd's post and until then, follow me on Pinterest by clicking the icon below! You should join the challenge too!

Homemade Cards Giveaway from His & Hers!

A very long while back, I posted about my TBF List. Never heard of one? Well, it stands for To Be Finished. Mine's quite long, but not nearly as long as my To Start List - which probably shouldn't be so long, considering I haven't finished some things I've started.

On this ever-growing-mostly-thanks-to-the-million-creative-blogs To Start List, is Make a stash of homemade cards. for the following reasons:

1. As adorable as some Hallmark cards are, $4-5 isn't in my budget. They're so incredibly marked up.
2. Stash-busting: my scrapbook paper/embellishment stash is nearly out of hand.
3. I love handmade cards: making, giving, getting. The whole shabang.
4. I never have a card on hand for the occasion. (I did make a load of thank you cards for my friend as a baby shower gift a few months ago.)
5. I want to write more thank-you notes for every day appreciation I have for others. (I'll post on this more, later.)

That all being said, this morning while visiting one of my favorite bloggers, the hilarious and very talented Erin at His & Hers, I saw this post. It was a great reminder and inspiration for me to get a stash of handmade cards made. I know if I sit down and do it, it won't take too long! Plus, I love making them. She's giving the 4 below away to a reader, so go check them out!

She is such a sweet person and her posts make me laugh every time. I'm 99% sure we'd be friends in real life. (Hopefully, she doesn't find that idea too stalker-ish.)

5 Things to Make with Fresh Strawberries

I just love berry season and am so thankful I live in a part of the country with an abundance of berries: blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, black raspberries, boysenberries, marionberries, logan berries and of course, strawberries! Whew. This week, I think we are going to go pick some raspberries. Until then, here's a recap of the yummy, fresh strawberry recipes I made using our 17 pound haul of the pretty red berries.

Strawberry Syrup Recipe Comparisons

Strawberry Cream Cheese

Strawberry Stuffed French Toast

Fresh Strawberry Lemonade

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

I didn't make jam because my Grammy beat me to it, which means the whole family had plenty for the rest of the year. I did want to try the cream cheese stuffed strawberries I see all over blog land. Or the patriotic, red, white and blue strawberries (dipped in white chocolate then dipped in blue sprinkles).

This past weekend was the Oregon Berry Festival in Portland. I so wish I would have been able to go. However, this weekend was jam packed with a family reunion (6 hours driving round trip) and wedding of a long time friend. Hopefully next year!