My New Member

Please welcome the newest member to my blue room... A sewing machine! So thankful for my art teacher and friend from highschool gave it to me. I just picked her up from the shop where she got cleaned, tuned up and one new part! The nice elder man and ladies all said its a great sturdy machine that runs like new! Now, i need to remember the Lessons debbie taught me before hand surgery. Craftiness just a little more exciting for me!

"Sharpie" Mugs

I have an obsession with markers - it's true. Especially with sharpie markers. You walk in my blue room and you can see them all hanging by color in the cans. So, I'm always looking for new ways to use them. Now, all over Pinterest I've seen decorating mugs & bowls with sharpies. You get a mug. Take your favorite sharpie markers- decorate. Then you are to bake it in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes and poof a nice fun mug! Well... After a few hand washing the marker goes away and its not really permanent after all- bummer! I really like the simplicity of just creating with markers on a mug but knew there had to be a way to make it more permanent. So I did some digging around in my art books and thought back to my pottery days- duh!? Oil based markers! Or glass markers!! Sure enough I was correct and sorta solved the Pinterest fail.

So to make a cool hand drawn mug or bowl you will need:
- oil based sharpie markers OR glass markers (I like Decoart brand)
- ceramic or porcelain mug or bowl
- oven
- cookie sheet

1. Shake your makers really well and test them out on paper- remember these are oil based so super permanent
2. Plan out what you want to draw on your mug/bowl
3. Decorate and draw on your mug or bowl
4. Let them dry at least an hour
5. Place mugs/bowls on cookie sheet in COLD OVEN.
6. Turn oven on to 400 and set timer for 40min
7. Let mugs bake for 40min.
8. When timer goes off, turn oven off and let mugs cool in oven
9. You now have a personalized hand drawn mug or bowl!

*i have run my mug through the dishwasher on hot and it all stayed the same!

*Decoart markers colors all stayed the same while baking. However some of the oil based sharpie marker colors got a little darker.

Here are a few examples my sister an friend made with me the other day just before valentines.

Hand surgery

On Thursday i had hand surgery and thankfully the surgery went well however I can't use my hand as much as I thought I could! Which has me bummed bc I don't think ill get to craft as much as I'd like too especially with Valentines Day around the corner! So, here's hoping I get creative by using my left hand and figure out ways to use what I can of my right hand :)

Valentines Banner

So, I love valentines day, it's one of my favorite holidays!! A day devoted to telling people you love them! Plus pink and sparkles! I recently made a quick little pennant banner to hang by my fireplace for valentines. It was super easy. I used my friends Cricut and punched out th letters. Cut burlap into triangles. Painted the edges with pink acrylic paint. Then strung it up with pink ribbon! I love how it turned out. When my entire mantle is decorated I will post pictures!

Chalkboard Wine Glasses

I LOVE chalkboard paint! It's the school teacher in me and the artist in one medium, so fun. I have wanted to make wine glasses but never knew who or what for. Well my friend had her birthday and I thought they would make a cute gift, with a bottle of wine and some nice chalkboard pens. It took longer than expected and was a little tricker too. Drying the glasses was the hardest part making sure they dried evenly and with out any dried paint globs. I think they turned out great! Just remember...Once glasses are done, they should only be hand washed.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

I had been wanting to make these pancakes for a while, but they are so sweet and so NOT good for you that I felt like I needed to wait for a special occasion to make them.  I decided that New Years Day was the occasion I had been waiting for and they turned out to be so good!

I had looked at several recipes for these and they are all kind of the same, just with a few tweaks here and there.  

Before you start, you need to prepare all the components.  So make a batch of your favorite pancake batter (I ALWAYS use Bisquick.  I have a funny family story about that...I'll put it at the end of the recipe).  Then mix up the cinnamon filling.  

Cinnamon Filling:
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
 ** this makes enough for pancakes for 2-3 people (i was making them for 5 people, so i doubled it)
Melt the butter, add the other ingredients and put in a zip lock baggie

Then make the glaze that goes on top of the finished pancakes:

1/2 stick butter (melted)
2 ounces room temperature cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
splash of vanilla extract
Over low heat melt the butter, mix in cream cheese, then stir in powdered sugar. set aside.

Now start making your pancakes.  Add your batter to the pan.  Let them cook until bubbles begin to form.  Then take the zip lock bag with the cinnamon filling and snip the corner of the bag.  Starting from the center of the pancake, squeeze out the filling in a swirl shape.  Just keep the filling about a 1/4 inch away from the edge of the pancake.  Cook for another 2 minutes or so (until the bubbles on the surface are popping) then flip the pancake over and cook till finished.  Keep doing this until you run out of batter or filling.  

When you serve the pancakes, drizzle a little bit of the glaze over the top of them.  

These are SO sweet but SO good!  Plan on 2-3 pancakes per person. 

So my family are pretty loyal to Bisquick pancakes.  My grandma (who is famous for her pancakes) swears by it.  My Papa used to be a traveling salesman and as he would go on his sales route, he would stop in various restaurants.  One restaurant's pancakes were, in his opinions, "heavy as lead balloons" and were clearly not made with Bisquick.  My Papa asked to talk to the chef, told him his opinion of his pancakes and explained that using Bisquick would fix the problem.  The next time my Papa ate there, they were using Bisquick to make their pancakes. :o)

When we were little, we'd ask my grandma to make our pancakes in different shapes (our initials, hearts, etc).  With a bunch of hungry people around the table, she didn't have time to make all those shapes, so she would make normal circle pancakes and tell us they were planets, soccer balls, basketballs, golf balls, tennis balls, etc.  Took us a while to catch on... :o)

The "Blue Room"

So, third room started out as a office... Then came the crafts... Thus it became the office/craft room. Well, if you also open the closet it has more crafts BUT it has my bags and clothes as well so it's now just being called "the blue room" I love the blue room! It's also bright in there bc of the windows and gets tons of light. I have been spending lots of time in it which is great. Well, I feel as though the room is pretty much organized as much as it can be. Here are the latest pictures of the peg board, which is next to my computer which also doubles as the TV. I took these pictures while Sitting on opposite side. i also finished reorganizing the back of the door organization as well! When I look at it just makes me smile. So colorful! Organized! Fun things!