May wrap up - 90th!, mirror frame, sugar scrub, flower wreath

 Jolie wasn't the only May birthday we got to celebrate. This amazing lady is my grandmother, Dorothy Kelly. On May 20 she turned 90 years old! I am so blessed to be able to call her Grandmother! I love her so much! And despite her declining health, she is still a spit fire & is definitely one of my favorite people in the entire world!! Happy Birthday Grandmother!!

She likes to have blankets on her lap, so I made her this minky blanket. Of course it's pink, It's her favorite color too. I really liked the brightness of this color combo & she loved it! Mom says she uses it almost every day :)

Here's a picture of me & Drew at her party.

Mother's Day was also in May, so I decided to make my mom & mother-in-law sugar scrubs. It was a first for me & I'm not sure I'd ever make them again!! They were super messy (ok, that could just be a me problem) to make & I was never super happy with the consistency. I went with a lavender scent.

At least they're pretty :) 

I also finally framed out the mirror in the guest bathroom. It was soo much easier than when I did the master because I had confidence in what I was doing! I love the transformation!

But- do you see what happens when you ask your husband to send you a picture of the after because you forgot to? He doesn't even notice that there's a light out! O well, thanks husband!!

I also made new, colorful wreaths to go on the french doors in the kitchen. My first try at flower wreaths by myself. Not my favorite, but they'll do.

And that is May, all wrapped up. I think!

Valentine's Day goodies

Happy Valentine's Day! (in May) I didn't decorate too much for Valentine's Day. Maybe I was a little burned out from Christmas. Well, whatever. I did make a new deco mesh wreath for our front door. The red/pink color combo was a little hard since we have a red front door, but I think it turned out lovely :)

I might not have felt crafty, but I was ready to get back to baking! I had seen some really cool new things on Pinterest that I wanted to try. My friend Kinsey came over & we had a Saturday morning bake date. I am a tad ambitious, so I had five different pins I planned to get done. Sadly, we only got to four & one was a FAIL due to me trying to do too many things at once!!

After seeing this Pin, I knew I had to figure out how to do this rose cake! I loved it! The tutorial said it would be really easy. I didn't believe it, but it really was! You use a large star, 1M tip & just do swirls, but backwards. You start in the middle where you want your flower to be & swirl out & around. Super easy!

Here's a shot of the cake in progress. We were really shocked how well this was working!

Instead of doing the swoops in the empty places between the roses like the tutorial, we went with the little stars blobs.

We then went back & added edible sugar pearls. If it looks a little shiny, it's because we used an edible sparkly glaze. I think the whole combination makes it an even softer & more romantic look. Isn't it pretty? :)

Our next decorating attempt was ruffles, as seen in this Pin. The tutorial says to use tip 104, holding the narrow side of the tip towards the cake & the wider side towards yourself. You then just pipe in vertical columns working back & forth. It was really easy, but our cake wasn't tall enough to really get it going.  

Since we were having so much fun with the roses, we decided to finish the ruffle cake off with roses on the top. And yes, our ruffles look a little fat. I think the icing had gotten a little warm at this point so they weren't as crisp as they would have normally been.

Here's a better look at the whole cake. Cute, but not amazing.

Next up was this super cute & easy red velvet cupcake design I found pinned by Martha Stewart. This was probably the easiest of the day, but still a very pretty cupcake. Start by baking red velvet cupcakes. Since we were just playing this day, these were made from a box. After they have cooled completely, cut off the tops of the cupcakes with a serrated blade. Punch a heart shaped hole out of the cupcake tops with a small cookie cutter. Then spread a thin layer of icing on the cupcake before replacing the tops. Fill the heart with more frosting & then sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Like I said, pretty easy & super cute!

Our last pinterest decorating attempt of the day is where my failure occurred. See that Pink blob inside the cupcake that's been cut in the half? "What's that?", you ask. Well, it's supposed to be a heart. But it's not. Because I wasn't paying attention. Here's how to do these correctly: Make your cake batter. Separate 1/3 of it into another bowl & add desired food coloring. Pour the 1/3 batter into a greased square baking pan. Bake only until it is firm enough to cut into, not the fully allotted bake time. Stick in freezer to quicken cooling. When the cake has cooled, use a heart (or whatever shape) cookie cutter to cut out shapes from the colored cake. Put a dollop of the remaining 2/3 cake batter in the bottom of each cupcake liner. Then stand the hearts up vertically in the liner, filing around the heart with remaining batter. Make sure all your hearts are facing the same direction in the pans. Bake cupcakes as directed. And here's the part I screwed up- when removing the baked cupcakes from the tins, make sure you remember which way the heart is facing & line them up in the same order on your cooling rack. If you don't you will not know which way the heart faces, which results in not being able to see an actually heart when you cut the cupcake in two. You just see a pink blob.(above picture) Is it possibly the side of the heart? Regardless, it's not something you can fix after you've made this mistake. You can cut into as many as you like (we tried 4), but at that point it's just dumb luck if you happen to cut it right. We did not.  

We were tired of all the pink, so we went with purple & blue swirls to top our failed heart cupcakes. Pretty colors, but maybe more Mardi Gras.

The one we didn't get to, was this brownie, strawberry cake & vanilla icing Pin.

Doesn't it look pretty & Valentiney? Next year I guess!

Kinsey took half of everything home- thank goodness! And the rest I sent with Drew to school. He gave the cake to his teaching partner Mrs. Bruton, who had just celebrated a birthday. It worked out well!

We had a great day but after we finished I was crashing off my sugar high & didn't want to bake for a while. Or at least until the next week!

Merry Christmas from the Selfs!!

I'm almost enjoying the fact that I am so far behind on this blog! It's letting me go down memory lane! And oh how I miss my Christmas decorations!! I worked hard & made ALOT of different things for the first time. Here are some pictures of our home & my creations :)    btw-this is not our tree. This picture was taken at Drew's school party, which was not an ugly sweater party. He just wanted to stand out.

I can't even explain how much I loved my tree this year! We used white lights & I made garlands for the first time. We are a hodge podge ornament kind of family so Drew & I pick out a few new ornaments every year. I also started a tradition last year, of making us each an ornament every year. The things I plan to improve on our tree next year are the topper & the tree skirt. I fell in love with this burlap ruffle tree skirt, but I just ran out of time. O well, it will be done next year!

Here's a close up of my two garlands. One is a cream burlap that got folded back & forth with thread run through it to hold it together. The red one is tulle that I ruffled on my sewing machine. I really love the contrast together! I got the idea here.

These are the ornaments I made last year. Pretty good for my first attempt! I spray painted clear glass balls, used marshmallows to paint the dots & cut our names out of vinyl with my cricut.

I got this sign for our yard at Canton. I think it is super cute! I plan to try & make them next year for our families!

Here is our AwEsOmE front door! This was the first piece of our all-out Christmas decorating to be completed. My mother-in-law Diana, is very crafty & made this garland for me, while we were sitting in the hotel in Canton. It is made out of burlap, deco mesh & ribbon. Luckily, she taught me how to do it as she was making it! I think it is gorgeous!! I have never had a garland around our entry before. This was the start to my Christmas decorating obsession! 

Here's a close up of the deco/burlap. I just love it! I had never used deco before either & discovered I could do soo many things with it!!

Like Christmas wreaths! I made this wreath for my friend Sandee. It is my favorite wreath I've made. I love that green & red sparkly ribbon.

 This one I made for Drew's school's Christmas party.

Once I started with the garlands & deco mesh, I had a problem stopping. This is inside our kitchen. I made this garland all by myself! It did have a hook in the middle where it draped, but I was having some problems with the hook staying stuck to the wall. I finally got it fixed, but didn't get a picture. I made those wreaths as well. Red & cream burlap, folded like the tree garland, threaded onto a hangar.

A close-up of my handy work :)

 Did I mention, I got a little obsessive with the Christmas decorating?! This is the door leading to our bedroom. My husband just laughed & shook his head. I eventually took it to my mom to hang in her house.

Like I said, the many uses of Deco Mesh. I saw this Pin for a deco mesh lighted Christmas tree & knew just who needed one, my three year old niece, Jolie. But of course, since she's related to me, it needed to be pink!! She loved having her own Christmas tree in her room!

 This is my nephew Cade in the shirt I made him. Isn't he precious?!

 And the outfit I made Jolie on Christmas day. Her tutu was getting a little crazy from all her antics, but she was adorable!

So, as you can see, we had a very colorful & festive Christmas at the Self house! Drew is pretty worried what next year will bring since I learned how to do so many new things in December. He is convinced we will be start decorating in October & have garlands around every door frame. He may be correct :)

Merry belated Christmas!!

a very PINTERESTING October!

The month of October was packed full of crafts! In fact, I don't think I baked a single cupcake all month! Most of my projects, especially for Halloween, came from my favorite website ever, Pinterest. Here's what was so pinteresting (as Drew likes to say)about October!

At left, is my first ever wreath attempt. I really like it! Here's my inspiration.

I made these shirts for our niece Kambryn's birthday. I think they are super cute! I love the big flower on this one!

My friend Amanda called me in need of gifts for a baby shower. She asked me to make her a wipes case, bib & onesie with the new baby's initial. W, for Willow.

These turned out cute, but it's all pretty standard for me at this point

I LOVE this! Of course, I saw the idea on Pinterest! I am a bath-a-holic, so I thought this would be pretty perfect. It was also a very fun surprise for my husband when he went in to turn on my bath water :)

This brilliant idea came from House of Smiths. I'm trying to organize our laundry room & the ironing board seems to always be in the way, no matter where I stick it. This was the answer! My only problem is the wall hangers I used on the back. They weren't flush with the board, I had used D-ring hangers. Because of the weight of the ironing board, it pulls the sign & the D-ring hangers away from the wall, leaving a gap between the top of the sign & the wall. Thinking it was only a cosmetic problem, I rolled my eyes & moved on, I didn't have anything else to use that night. Well, as of 4 months later, the weight is pulling the screws out of the wall (no Drew, I didn't use a stud. This time you may be right!) Looks like I will have to be addressing this issue in the near future!

But doesn't it look good?! The front hooks that hold the board are from Hobby Lobby.

 Next up was finishing the many October birthday presents I wanted to do. I swear everyone in my family is born in October! Including me! The first project I had was helping my sister-in-law Teria with the decorations for my nephew Cade's first birthday. She decided on a little red wagon theme. Here is his party shirt. On the back, we used the same gingham & spelled our his name across the shoulders. Super cute!

With my cricut & the help of my friend's new cameo, we made this banner, flags for the cupcakes & labels for all the food & drinks. It was the first party that I had done after catching the Pinterest bug. It was a very fun party & I am sorry that I don't have any more pictures than this! I will have to get more from Teria!

I LOVE this DIY canvas print of my nephew Cade that we used as a decoration. I got the idea from Pinterest, originally this post at Girl Inspired. I had a 11x14 print made, modge podged it on a canvas, then distressed the it to give it the antiqued look. Isn't he cute?!

 And here he is again, this time in a shirt I made him for his birthday. I saw this Pin & knew it would be a perfect shirt for Cade!

My next project was a wreath for my mom's birthday! I love this burlap Christmas wreath that I found on Pinterest & knew it would be perfect for mom. I used the tutorial from Craftaholicsanonymous to do both the wreath & the burlap roses. It was very simple & easy to follow! My only problem was that I didn't like any of the colors of burlap that I could find at Walmart & Hobby Lobby. I was making the wreath for my mom to hang up in her classroom as a year round decoration, so of course I wanted it to be her favorite color, purple! Apparently I was feeling very ambitious, because I decided to dye my burlap to get the color that I wanted. My husband thought I was slightly crazy since I had never dyed anything in my entire life. But, after being colored in an ice chest & washed out in the washing machine (twice), I love the color purple I ended up with! BTW-She loved it to!

 I got into a little bit of a tutu phase towards the end of the month. After spotting this Pin with a very easy to follow tutorial, I knew it would be perfect for the baby present that I needed to do. Baby Tenley was born in January & I can't wait to see her in the onesie & tutu I made for her! She is such a beauty!!

My next tutu was for my best friend's daughter's first birthday. Her name is Kallie, or Princess Kallie, or Kallie Kat :) Since her mother & I met at A&M, I thought a maroon & white tutu for game days would be perfect! I wasn't completely sold on the two colored tutu but I ended up really liking it. Here is a link to my best friend's blogpost about the party. She went all out with a Disney Princess theme (of course!) & her cameo got a work out! She made banners, printables, all the desserts and a tutu for the party princess. Really, if someone was throwing me a party, it could have used most of the exact same elements. And yes, I was caught wearing several pieces of the princess costume jewelry :)

Kallie was awesome!! Especially how she dove into the cake! We are NOT shy around here about our love for cake!

And now for all of our Halloween decorations! Every single one was a Pinterest inspired or straight up copied idea! 

First up, the wreath for my front door. I loved this Pin, but instead of taking me to a tutorial, it was an etsy shop. Sorry, I'm not buying it, I want to make it! As you can see, I have a red door so I didn't think the orange wreath would be a good match. I decided to go with black. I cut up my burlap strips, got my wreath form, put in Twilight & went to tying. And tying. And New Moon. And tying. I had NO idea it was going to take that long! O well, I really liked the way it turned out!

 Next I made a wreath for my french doors. Here, I decided to use the same folded burlap technique that I used for my mom's purple one, but in orange! I didn't want to do the roses, just a simple bow.

This is quite possibly my favorite things I made for Halloween. I think they are soo cute!! I saw the idea here & thought it would be a perfect, relatively easy craft that would look great in the house. All it is, is 4-5 2x4s glued together and distressed with a bow on top. The original idea used ribbon to tie them up, but I have a TON of green tulle lying around from my wedding in 2009 so I thought it would be a perfect way to get rid of some of it!

This was with sanding, but without the black distressing from the ink pad. Drew took this one to school & gave it to his partner teacher who enjoys decorating. I seriously love these!

After seeing a very easy ruffle table cloth that Girl Inspired made for her daughter's birthday party, I decided I needed a Halloween table cloth! I got a full size orange sheet from Walmart, cut it down to the correct dimensions for my table, added a ruffle & it was done! I love anything with ruffles!

I had seen several posts on Pinterest using Apothecary jars filled with various things to add pops of color around the house. Luckily, I have several of these jars lying around, I just needed some candy corn & oreos! Which turns out wasn't the best idea. I didn't realize I even liked candy corn until I had a huge jar of them in my living room!

And last, but certainly not least, is the Halloween decoration that my husband helped with! We copied this Pin.

Take 5 2x4s cut to various lengths, screw them together & paint! The painting is where Drew came in. He is definitely the artist in the family, he free handed all the faces. The ghost is a little scary for me, but he was doing it voluntarily, so I let him go with it! Super cute!

So that was my very pinteresting October! Makes me tired just thinking about it all over again. And also, now you know why i haven't blogged about it until February, way too busy!!