Homemade Valentine's Day Card from Charlotte

Now, I myself am not a huge fan of Valentine's Day.  I guess I just don't like celebrating a lovey-dovey holiday when I know lots of other people are doing the same thing on the same day.  I pride myself on usually being outside the Valentine's Day box.  But Charlotte, is a romantic and wanted to show her boyfriend Porter some love on this holiday.  So I helped her make a large homemade card.

We used a large plastic/cardboard heart that we used at the garden center for store decorations.  

 Then we used scrapbook letters, valentines day stickers and printed photos of Porter and Charlotte to decorate the card.  This was a very simple project.  I spent maybe 15 mins putting the whole thing together and it turned out really cute.  It reads, "Porter, be mine, Charlotte."

 A photo of Porter

Charlotte's baby photo

 She is so proud of her card.  She couldn't wait to give it to Porter.  We saw him yesterday for the super bowl and he brought her a pink stuffed wiener dog toy to remind her of him.  What a sweet boy! She also wanted to share her dog treats we just made so we gave him some to take home.

I tried to take a photo of the two together but they play so rough and wild it is hard not to get a blurry picture so I gave up!

Wheat and Corn Free Treats for your Dog

This morning I made Charlotte some delicious dog cookies.  Since Charlotte is a breed that gets lots of food allergies I make sure not to feed her any corn or wheat products because these are common food allergies for dogs.  I found these two recipes from a really cute website called Life with Lulu and Wally too!  Its about two Boston terriers and their daily antics.


The site has some great homemade dog treat recipes, both wheat and wheat free versions.

So this morning I made the Wheat Free Blueberry Flax Dog Cookies.


Mine looked different than the ones from Life with Lulu, mainly because she cut hers into nice looking squares while I rushed it and threw them on the tray in giant heaps!

The ingredients are:
2     cups rice flour
3/8  cup flax meal
1/4  cup blueberries
1/8  cup coconut oil
1/8  cup apple sauce
1     cup water

Bake at 350 degrees for 30nmins or until they turn light brown.  Then, turn off the oven and leave them inside to slowly cool for an hour with the oven door closed to keep in the heat.

I couldn't find any flax meal at the grocery store so I skipped this part, but I think the cookies turned out just fine.  They were a little on the chewy side but Charlotte still enjoyed them.  She loves blueberries!  Even I sampled them and thought they were pretty darn good.

That looks like a happy customer to me

 Mmm, thanks mom!

 Then, we made some peanut butter cookies using more rice flour. Another wheat free recipe from Life with Lulu.

The ingredients for this recipe are:
1   cup peanut butter
2   cups rice flour
1   cup milk

Mix ingredients together. Roll flat so dough is 1/4 inch thick.  Cut dough into squares or use whatever cookie cutter you have in the kitchen and place on a baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 mins and let cool before feeding to your hungry kitchen helper like Charlotte.


This recipe made a lot of peanut butter cookies.  I gave some away and am saving some for another dog treat recipe coming later this month.  They turned out delicious.  I sampled these ones too.  If they had any sugar added to them they would taste just like regular peanut butter cookies.

 While I was busy making the cookies, Charlotte was busy cleaning the peanut butter container out for mom.  What a nice girl.

Etsy Shop SALE month

To celebrate the 1 year anniversary of my Roosevelt Kid shop on Etsy.com and to celebrate Charlotte's first birthday, all items are 25% off through the end of February!

Autumn Forest Painting

 I finally finished a painting I've been working on since September.  I wanted something to remind me of the fall, my favorite time of the year.  So I painted a group of trees in the woods with lots of oranges and browns to coordinate with the rest of the living room. I love aspens and used them as inspiration for my abstract trees. I didn't really know where this painting would lead me when I started it.  I think that's why it took so long to finish it.  For most of fall it sat on the wall above the couch a blank white canvas with pencil marks on it.  Then in November I finished the sky and the tree canopy.  And finally, yesterday I painted the forest floor and the tree trunks.

This painting is the largest canvas I've painted.  Its by no means the best painting I've done.  Its pretty sloppy and I kept running out of paint so the color doesn't match up in a lot of places.  But, I really like it and from a distance you don't notice my mess ups that easy.

Hurray! The painting looks great above the couch.  

Indoor Flowers for Winter

Yesterday I finished another project for the entryway.  I made some wall hung glass vases filled with primrose. This January I've been feeling a little blah with all the rain and clouds everyday so I wanted something to remind me spring is on its way. I chose primrose because to me they symbolize the first signs of spring since they are the first flowers after Christmas that arrive at the garden center. This project was very easy and only took a few hours to complete.  It was inexpensive as well.  I think at most I spent $10 on this project. 

Here are my inspirational ideas.  I wanted to do the glass tubes inside a picture frame (bottom right corner) but I didn't think it would look as well on our white wall in the entryway.  So instead I used a board I had in my possession as the backdrops to these flower containers.

First I painted a design on each of my wooden board pieces.  Originally I wrote out the words "Nature" and "in bloom" on each of the boards but once I did they looked corny to me so I covered them up using the same stencil as on my desk from early this summer.  Click here to see my previous desk project.

Once the paint was dry (I let it sit overnight) I used the drill gun and made two holes a few inches apart where I wanted my glass jars to hang.

Then I potted up my primrose.  Since there is no drainage in the vases I filled the bottom half with decorative stones to keep the roots from rotting.

Then I used some leftover wire to wind 3 times around the neck of the vase and twist tied the wire together to keep it from slipping.  I then pulled the wire through each of the holes I drilled through my board and twist tied them again on the back.

Then the final step was to hang them on the wall. 

 

This one I had to redo because I first attached the vase to it upside down.  It only took me a few extra minutes to redo thankfully.

 Hurray for a cute and easy way to bring the outdoors into your home!

 I realize the house will eventually get too warm for the primrose and they will eventually out grow their containers but I designed this to be easily taken apart and changed from time to time depending on the season.  You could even put fake flowers or some cut flowers inside if you wanted.

 Looking at the flowers through the sunburst mirror.

D.I.Y. Sunburst Mirror

 This weekend project was to make an impressive star burst mirror using very simply materials.  I have been looking for ideas to dress up the entryway and make it flow a little better with the office area.  I thought about hanging up our long boards in this area but they are pretty heavy and I didn't want to damage the walls with a lot of hardware.  Plus the wheels get very dirty and would make the white walls look dingy after awhile so instead I browsed the Internet for ideas and found this great mirror tutorial at hisugarplum.blogspot.com.  It was very simple to make and only cost about 10 dollars.  I bought a pack of shims at home depot for 5 dollars, a 6" and a 12" wooden floral wreath at Michael's for 3 dollars and a 10" mirror from a thrift store.  It only took a few hours to put together and was hanging on the wall the following day.

 Once the mirror was hung on the wall it looked great!  It was the perfect size to fit the wall and coordinated perfectly with the wood details from the office area and the hall closet.  This was the best idea I've found in awhile.  I love this mirror!

After hanging up the mirror Oz wanted to take my photo in the mirror and describe how the mirror was constructed.  It was not a very good explanation on my part, so if you want to see how to make the mirror for yourself click here

New Year Resolution for 2012

It hasn't been until very recently that I started to make goals for the upcoming year.  Mainly because I never had anything I felt the need to really improve/give up for the year.  And, I am terrible at sticking with my resolutions.  But now that I am starting to set realistic goals that are something I want to achieve, I am much better at following through and completing my personal goals.  This year I am setting 3 goals:

Goal 1: Spend Less $

As much as I live within my means, I realize I should be saving more than spending.  My weaknesses are crafts and gardening.  To help me save rather than spend I am going to cut back on the amount I spend on gardening and crafts by using up the materials I have on hand before buying anything new for future projects.  My room is packed full of enough fabric, yarn, ribbon, felt, and misc. crafts to last me several decades. By finishing my past projects I hope to not buy anymore fabric or scrapbooking supplies for the next year.  I have already started on this goal by finishing all the misc. earrings that I have been wanting to put together for the last year or so.

Goal 2: Balance Out Working and Home Life

I love my job but working 5 full days at a physically demanding work place can take it out of me by the weekend.  This coming year I would like to balance working hard at work, finding time to craft and just remembering to relax.  I like to stay busy.  When I'm not at work I am usually making plans for my next craft project or redecorating the house.  It is nice to have hobbies and passions but when they consume your whole life its time to reevaluate what is important.  I want to make hanging out with my friends and family a major priority again.  To accomplish this I have cut back on working for the winter months, slowly curbing my desire to design 24/7 and am learning to take life as it comes by unexpectedly.  

Goal 3: Spend More Time with Charlotte

I think I've been doing a pretty good job giving Charlotte the attention she needs.  But she is a very active little dog and loves to play and exercise.  I am making it my priority to give her the physical and mental development she needs as an active dog.  I am working on waking up earlier to get her a second walk in the mornings, taking her to the park more, finding new dogs to play with and for her up coming birthday I want to get her the equipment to start doing agility obstacles.  All of this will benefit the both of us and keep us both in shape.  

So those are my goals for the new year.  I know I will follow through with them because I have the desire to balance out my financial, mental and physical life.  And since I have set small goals within my larger goals, I have smaller steps to take to make my resolutions stick for the whole year and beyond.  If you have set goals for yourself I will you good fortune in achieving your own goals.  Happy New Year!