crafts

Spilled My Cocaine Supply

by Lucky Red Hen on February 23, 2012

Nah. I didn’t really spill my cocaine, but it sure looks like it! Naturally, I’m kinda klutzy. Thinking ahead, I decided to fashion some wax paper into a sort of funnel to easily pour the powdered sugar into this cute jar. The first couple pours did pretty well until a glob plopped out and crushed my funnel (like that pesky chunk of ice at the bottom of your cup when it comes loose and punches you in the face). Argh.

Since my bloggy is on the mend (from eating entire/partial posts before/after I’ve published them, oy), I’ll drop small posts and see where we end up. There are big posts on the back burner, and the swimsuit issue (don’t get excited, trust me), but for now let’s keep it simple (stupid… I’m kidding, you’re not stupid, it’s the old K.I.S.S. addage I can’t get out of my head; just like “Yes, we have no bananas.”)

My kitchen pantry has been known for being the favorite spot in my house for visiting friend’s (and I’m not only talking to you, LaYen). Just last Sunday someone at church asked me if she could bring the 12 year old girls from her Sunday School class to show them (word gets around because I don’t think that gal has ever been in my house.) I try to keep it organized, though it’s tough with three plus other people in/out of there every day.

After Christmas clearance sections are a great place to pick up containers (that may or may not be filled with seasonal treats) for a fraction of the price. These jars were at Sur La Table for only $3.50ish from $19ish. I used the innards to refill my vintage candy machine (which matches my red, white, & yellow kitchen) then repurposed the jars for raisins, craisins, corn meal, etc. Because I’m not sure what will stay in each container, I used a write-erase marker to label the outside and instructed my family that if they smudge it they die. Just kidding.

I wonder if that’s what happened at Las Margaritas once when we ordered five Deep-fried Ice Cream desserts. Something was strange tasting, though we couldn’t place what it was until about half way through. They didn’t taste gross or rotten, just… weird. Dun dun dun… it was salt (which is NOT in the recipe)! The manager figured that whomever assembled them must have grabbed the salt bin instead of the sugar bin to roll the ice cream balls before coating with the crust. We DID finish eating them, even though they were weird, but at least we didn’t have to pay for them ;)

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Collecting Rocks at Golden Gardens Beach, 520 Bridge and NieNie Calendar Giveaway

by Lucky Red Hen on February 14, 2011

After getting my zombie post all typed up, photos added, and ABC checked (isn’t that cuter than “spell”?), I realized it was TOO HEAVY to post on such a light holiday, especially with the NieNie Dialogues Calendar giveaway. But the good news is that I already have a full post ready with photos and stories!

Saturday we braved the crummy Seattle weather to beach comb for the Conversation Love Rocks, um, rocks (I couldn’t just say Rocks rocks, could I?) Traffic was a BEAST (pouring rain, even though Seattle is used to it, isn’t fun to drive through, and being a passenger in it is stressful) and I-520, the floating bridge, was packed as cars slowed because of the gusts of wind that made the bridge sway and threw water onto the eastbound traffic.

The calm north end of the lake vs. the choppy south side never ceases to amaze me. Rarely is the scene on each side the same, smooth calm. When it is, you’ll see kayaks, paddle boards, row boats, and standing surf paddling.

Luckily the rain let up long enough for us to find the rocks the kids needed for their Valentine’s. The far end of the beach area had lots for us to choose from as well as barnacled stones to inspect, giant climbing boulders, and photo ops.

Our time spent at the beach was little, so we hope to go more often when the weather is more comfortable for hanging out on the sand and in the water. Hopefully that will be sooner than later.

MONDAY GIVEAWAY!
How about this week we giveaway NieNie’s 2011 Wall Calendar?!? Yay! I ended up with an extra calendar, so I’ll pass along my goof ;) If you don’t already have a 2011 calendar or want another, leave a comment to this post telling me what your FAVORITE MONTH is! Mine is October, because I dig fall and Halloween. Here’s a photo of the actual calendar (and shipping envelope). This will be shipping from a Seattle, WA, USA area post office, so make sure I can ship it to you for under 5 bucks, ok? I don’t have advertisers or sponsors paying for shipping. This is coming from my sweet little home (and wallet) to yours :) Winner will be announced Thursday and with the this Saturday night as the deadline to claim the prize or another winner will be chosen (so come back, mkay?)

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Alternative to Boxed Valentine Cards: Conversation Love Rocks!

by Lucky Red Hen on February 10, 2011

Oh! how I love to happen upon a blog that brings me joy! That’s how I found Color Me Katie (fun, colorful, happenings that she creates in her city and photographs to share), Another Lunch (think Bento box for kidlets) and Michael Naples (complicatedly simple still life small paintings almost daily).

[We announce the Monday Giveaway winner today, at the end of this post!]

Today’s side track brought me quickish, kidlet-friendly projects at Red Bird Crafts as well as a brief heart warming read about her Nanny Ruth’s legacy. Wish I was as diligent as Ruth about documenting life so that one day it may be a treasure to those who read it. Some day, perhaps. [sigh]

When I saw her Conversation Love Rocks post, I just KNEW my daughter might want to make them instead of the Dr. Seuss Valentine’s in a Box we were going to buy. Surprise to me when my 11 year old son wanted to make them too! Psst, parents/friends at my kidlets school, please don’t spoil their Valentine surprise, mkaythanks :)

Our plan is to hunt for the perfect rocks this Saturday. My kidlets have already decided on what fabric they want to use for this friend and that friend. The 7yo has been creating poems, too! [squeal, she’s really good at it, but even if she wasn’t it’d still be precious!]

Thanks to our quilty neighbor down the street, Laura, for giving us free range on your scrap stash!

[Side note: Laura and I were at a service project Tuesday night, making lap quilts for some assisted-living elderly folks, when she tried laughing at me for stock piling the scraps. In my defense, we needed some big enough pieces to hand embroider each recipients name to make labels/tags for the quilts… but I DO love me little pieces of fabric/paper swatches. When we got down to it, she admitted that she, too, keeps little bits, figuring that one day she’ll sew them to each other to make a true Scrap Quilt. She offered to let us come pilfer through her stash whenever we want!]

And now, on to our Monday Giveaway winner of Elena’s 3-Day Green Smoothie eGuide is…

wait, I should also mention that
for the next 48 hours (until Saturday afternoon)
my Lucky Red Hen readers can use code
3DGSLUCKY
for 20% off the eGuide in Elena’s store

* AUBREY *

Congratulations, Aubrey! Send me your email (click on the envelope in the upper right of my blog) so Elena can get you your FREE eGUIDE… WOOT! I hope you like the smoothies as much as I do… actually, I’m going to go make one now for an afternoon snacky snack :) On hand I have apples, frozen bananas (always have those in the freezer), frozen blueberries, grapefruit, spinach, hemp seed and aloe juice. I haven’t used grapefruit before, don’t really eat it by itself, but it’s good for me and smells delicious so I’m going to give it a try!

P.S. Need a wall calendar (I remember one year going two months without a wall calendar because I couldn’t find THE PERFECT one; maybe you don’t have one yet or want/need another)? Like reading NieNie Dialogues ? Next Monday’s Giveaway is NieNie’s calendar, brand new, never been used, still in celophane wrap in case you want to gift it to someone else! (I happen to have an extra one; this giveaway is in no way endorsed by NieNie or her peeples, in case I need to say that for some reason… and it will be shipped/delivered from me.)

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Despicable Me Minion Treats & FREE Giveaway

by Lucky Red Hen on February 8, 2011

[edit: I wrote this yesterday on my fancy smart phone with my index fingers but it doesn’t look so smart now that I can’t get it to post and have to REWRITE all that work. Hmf.]

My SIL’s bday is today (Sunday; I’m barely getting this post written before midnight [11:58pm], so I hope this counts as me remembering her; especially since I’m writing this on my phone and I just realized I can’t upload the picture from here)… happy birthday, Britanny :)

Last Sunday, the extended family celebrated the February birthday’s at grandma and grandpa’s house. We had another obligation with the youngest, so our oldest (and the Feb. birthday boy) got picked up by his aunt and uncle to enjoy the bday festivities without us. He said he didn’t care that we weren’t coming, since he’d be getting gifts and have Carte Blanche dessert without his sugar-intake-police mom there to decrease/monitor his portion :p

They had yummy dinner, watched Despicable Me on the big screen, and partook of miniature, edible minion’s made by Britanny (she says she found them on the internet somewhere).

The base is a Twinkie (you know those things NEVER deteriorate naturally, hurl); the blue is dyed frosting; black licorice whips for the mouth, goggle straps, and hair; sour, gummy worms for arms; and Sweet Tarts for goggles.

We shared them with some dinner guests. ED couldn’t stop laughing when we presented him his dessert. He has had only ONE Twinkie in his whole life and didn’t remember what it tasted like! That’s probably for the best, don’t cha think?

Speaking of Twinkies… how about a 3-DAY GREEN SMOOTHIE EGUIDE for our Monday Giveaway?!? Well, not actually smoothies, you make them yourself, but a intuitive guide to Green Smoothie’s from my friend Elena at her Eat Healthy, Be Happy blog. She won a FREE BLOG HEADERlast week from my wondrous blog designer, The Blog Fairy, and wanted to pay it forward. Paying it forward is what all the cool kids are doing ;)

Here’s my experiencewith Elena’s 3-DAY GREEN SMOOTHIE CHALLENGE eguide. WARNING: your smoothie doesn’t have to look so green (I swear it doesn’t taste green), but it does in the beginning when you’re learning about the program and following her recipes. The bright green coloring has been replaced by purple hues since I’ve been using red, blue and purple colored fruits. Spinach in the raw/uncooked form tastes like nothing, so you’re tasting the banana, apple, orange and whatever other fruit you use instead :)

Trust me.

The 3-DAY GREEN SMOOTHIE EGUIDE Giveaway Rules:

Internationally friendly giveaway (it’s an eGuide, so it will be delivered via email)
Leave a comment on this post with your feeling about Green Smoothies
The winner must claim their prize by coming back this Thursday and sending me an email so I can forward the info to Elena
For extra entries, you can subscribe to Elena’s newsletter and/or subscribe to her blog RSS feed as well as subscribe to mine :)

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Drea's Going to Mexico!

by Lucky Red Hen on December 23, 2009

As you can tell (by the title of this post), Drea is going to be in Mexico for the holidays (she left 15 minutes ago, wah!) In hopes of safe travels for her and her family, I dedicate today’s post to her FIRST date dance that happened a couple weeks ago. (Psst… I miss you already! Thanks for my Christmas clock.)

Sometimes I get a wild hair and take on projects I don’t even know how to do. Case in point: I told her I would make a fascinator (fancy hair clip with feathers) to match her dress and since I was doing that I should go ahead and whip up some matching earrings and necklace. I’m crazy, I know, but I think they turned out pretty fantastic :D

Warning: These images were taken with a lame point-n-shoot that I don’t really like using. Carry on.

Here’s the “fascinator” hair clip…

The earrings and necklace…

Her cute smile and the necklace up close (and blurry)…

Her friend, and date, Reid…

Reid cooking the meat for spaghetti sauce…

Aren’t these brown eyes TO DIE FOR?!?

Drea with our friend, Bella, and Glen like a monkey on her back

Glen (my partner in crime, and by crime I mean board/table games like Wackee 6)
with his date, Dom(inique), and their perfectly hued outfits!

Drea, hurry back!

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Christmas Photos

by Lucky Red Hen on April 17, 2008

We’re way past Christmas (has it really been that long?) and I’m trying to organize this house. Seems that the places I thought would work for things aren’t so I’m rearranging. Don’t even get me started on the garage (looking forward to Ben making shelves so we can find stuff). We still haven’t unpacked everything, so I wonder if my attempts to organize will be shot once we open the rest of the boxes.

Anywho… as I’ve been shuffling, I came across my precious Christmas photo cards and pictures that friends and family send every year.

For the record: I LOVE getting photos from friends and family, anytime of year.

But now I wonder what to do with them. They’ll certainly not go in the trash (I don’t throw friends and family in the trash, thank you). I’d rather them not spend the year in a box somewhere. There are too many for frames (although they all DESERVE a coveted spot in a frame, but I don’t have the space to then put those frames). Not being a fan, the traditional peel and stick albums aren’t an option, especially because I’d like to have them alphabetized then add to them each year.

Ooh, that reminds me of something that might work… but I still wanna know if you have ideas.

I diiiiid see a cutecutecute album thingy that a friend at church made for each of her girls. It was a SUUUPER simple idea, although she did WAY more than my short-attention-span could handle (in a scrapbooky sort of way). Right about now would be perfect for a visual aid, but I don’t have one so you’ll have to use your imagination.

It’s an A to Z book. Each letter has it’s own page. Each page has a picture of the subject of honor doing the particular letter, like: asleep for Sleeping, laughing for Joy, looking cute for Cute, holding a ball for Ball. Then each page had simple lettering added such as “S is for sleeping” applied with the S being a die cut. To finish, each page is laminated (thickly), hole-punched and attached using a simple binder ring (kinda like a skinny metal shower curtain ring) with matching ribbons knotted to it. SOOO cute!

Q: So do YOU have any ideas for the Christmas pictures?

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Apron Swap – My Creation

by Lucky Red Hen on March 23, 2008

… and I literally mean my “creation” because it was my first attempt at an apron, or anything like it, and I did it without a pattern.

I don’t sew much lately, but had the fabric from two Christmases ago when my MIL, SIL’s and I collected our handpicked fabric for our holiday craft project. I never got around to making it for myself, so the fabric was lonely and begged for some attention. I felt guilty waiting such a long time to make it for myself (I would think of how long it took everytime I saw it) so it made sense that I’d make it for someone else instead. Why am I saying “so” so much? Sheesh. Anywho, I LOVED the pieces I picked out and, apparently, my swapping buddy did too…

“your apron buddy loves her new apron and hasn’t taken it off for two days. She almost wore it to bed the first day!! You are adorable.”

Here’s the apron my swapping buddy sent.

Here’s the Apron Swap coordinator’s blog.

Here’s a link for the current swap (sign up April 28 – May 5 and mail apron by June 9, 2008).

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Apron Swap

by Lucky Red Hen on March 6, 2008

Don’t you just LOVE getting an unexpected package on your doorstep? Isn’t it even BETTER when the contents exceed your expectations?!

Abby at A Feathered Nest coordinated an Apron Swap for anyone who wanted to join. Having been busy with moving, my sewing machine is sadly neglected. There’s just something about running fabric under the sewing foot in a steady rhythm that I miss. So I signed up with an idea of what I’d sew and got mine from Kimberlys French Bee Collection in the mail today (she also has an Etsy store). I almost didn’t open it because I haven’t sent mine yet (for the record, I wrote my buddy a letter letting her know it’s coming soon), but excitement took over and I couldn’t resist. Sew cute!!!

Thanks, Abby, for coordinating this fun swap :0)

And THANK YOU Kim for the darling apron!!!

Lookie what I got…

I’m SEW excited about the apron I’m making (hope my buddy likes it)!