Fall Planter

Yesterday between the pumpkin patch and a birthday party I made a fall planter for my front porch.  It was such a great day!!  I love the way that my planter turned out!  I really don't feel like all the pictures do it justice.  Even my husband commented on the planter and that it looked nice.  That's big stuff, he doesn't notice much when it comes to details...

Saturday I went to a fall planting class at Wilson's Nursery (visit their website here).  At the class I made this sweet little pumpkin.  You could use this as a table centerpiece or as an outside decoration.  My kitchen table doesn't get a lot of sunlight so I'm keeping him outside unless I host something.  When I left I could wait to make a larger version for my porch.

The planter that I made looks like a lot which equals difficulty for some people -- it's super easy, promise!  I used a mixture of fall flowers.  These are all pretty hardy so they will survive lower temperatures.  But I also found out about this spray that you can purchase and it helps your plants when the temperatures get below freezing. 

I'm going to work around in a clockwise movement to tell you about the flowers that I bought.  We'll start at the top with the yellow mum.  You could of course get any color.  Right beside the mum is a pepper plant.  I got a purple version, they had red and yellow as well.  Then I got some pansies.  The white ones are trailing pansies, they will come down my pot and then the purple/blue ones are just your normal pansies.  The white thing that's in the middle is euphorbia, then I have heuchera (the purple thing), I lost the label for the green thing, but it's just a trailing plant.  There are more pansies, a cabbage and some wheat.  All of these flowers are annuals but they should last me for a while.  You could get any mixture of things.  In the pumpkin one I used lettuce and some fresh herbs so it's practical. 

I didn't have an urn or pot to put the plants in so I had to get one for my vision.  I really wanted a tall pedestool urn to put on each side of my door.  No luck though.  And I'm not an orderer, I want it when I want it.  I ended up going with one large urn that is sitting to the left of my step to get on the porch.  My porch is off center so it worked to just have one large pot and to place it on the larger side of the porch.  I got my urn at Garden Ridge for half price (yay!).  Since I didn't have a base to start with I had to buy more flowers.  A friend of mine made hers and she was able to save some of her summer plants that still looked good. 

I started by filling my urn with potting soil.  It took a bunch of potting soil.  I filled it basically to the top of the urn.  Then I started with my tallest thing, the wheat.  When you are putting your tall thing in there you don't really want to put it right in the center of the pot.  I put mine further back and to the left a little bit.  The next thing that I planted was the cabbage.  The trick to that is that you don't want to plant it straight up and down.  it won't be very pretty at all.  Instead, you want to place it at an angle.  Here's a picture of mine.  If I had planted it upright then it would have taken up more room and you would see the ugly stem.  Not exactly the look that I was going after. 

Once my cabbage was planted I finished by placing all of my other large plants.  I did the mum, the euphorbia, peppers and the heuchera.  When I planted those I also angled them.  The mum that I picked out was flat on one side.  If I wanted to plant them in the ground then it wouldn't be very pretty.  But because my mum was going around other plants the flat side was perfect. 

The last flowers that I planted was the green vine thing (real official) and the pansies.  The pansies were used as fillers.  I just plugged them in wherever I had a bald spot or a place where it needed something.  Here are some pictures of my planter moving around.  I planted all the way around.  That way, no matter where you are looking it is pretty.  If I put it against the house then I may not have worked as hard on the back.  All of my spots filled in nicely.  But if you had a bare spot or you didn't want to invest the money in the flowers then you could use a pumpkin and plop him in planter somewhere.  It would add a very nice touch. 

I have my tall things from the wheat, then the mums and peppers were a little shorter.  When I worked at a flower shop I learned that your design needs to be in the shape of a triangle.  It can be any type of triangle basically but it needs to somehow form a triangle.  At the planting workshop they talked about how it needs to be like a waterfall, it will have it's tall spots then it flows down.  With either description you will have something beautiful.  My angle for the picture isn't too good but here is a picture with the finished urn and my pumpkin on my front porch.  I need to work on my other planter that's on the other side but I don't have it in my to kill or pull up the flowers that are still blooming right now. 

I'd love to see pictures if you make a fall planter!

Happy planting,
Meghan

The "Old" Bottles

Today I'm sharing what I did with the "old" bottles that were pictured in this post.  I have to note why I'm classifying them as "old" bottles though.  Obviously they are just wine bottles.  There is nothing special about them.  They aren't some amazing thrift find or anything.  My cousin totally called me out on my old bottles.  However, my opinion on it is that once the wine is gone, they become old.  :) 

Forever ago I saved a picture from the Choose to Thrive blog.  Here is the link to the original post.  However, I've seen these pictures all over Pinterest (I've finally figured that out).  I knew when I saw the pictures that I wanted to make them to add it to my fall decorations.  Here is my finished product. 

When I saw the original posting I didn't really read it to see what her bottles were.  I search all summer for 4 bottles that I like and that would give me the look that I wanted.  She used old root beer bottles for hers.  One night while pouring a glass of wine I decided that these bottles were perfect.  I like the curve of the bottle and I'm very happy with how they turned out.

They were SO easy to do!  Once the bottles were empty, I peeled away as much of the labels as I could.  This process was not much fun.  You could do it while watching TV or when you are in class (like I did -- love online classes).  Then I soaked the bottles in warm water for about 20 minutes.  After that I used my Pampered Chef scraper for my stones and got the rest of the labels off.  I took the bottles to my cousin Sarah and she bedazzled them.  I love all the things that she can do with vinyl!  After Sarah was finished with her vinyl magic I put some wheat in the bottles and I was finished.  I love them! 

This morning I went to a fall planting group class at Wilson's, a local nursery in Frankfort.  I made an adorable fall piece and tomorrow I hope to make a large fall planter.  I'll be sharing pictures once it's finished. 

some pumpkins, old bottles, tons of orange and a whole lot of candy corn = FALL!

Guilty --- I am horrible at starting things and then getting another idea and working on that, then taking FOREVER to come back to the first idea.  Anyway, that's kind of where I am right now on my fall things.  I have many ideas and I'm still so excited about all of them but most of them are only partially started.  They are coming though, I promise!  Here are a few pictures of some of my ideas. 

These are some of the things that I've bought for fall so far.  The pumpkins are pretty much ready to go they just need something to go around them.  I have some fallish material.  I'm not much of a leaves and pumpkins kind of girl when it comes to the fall things.  Basically I just picked out some browns, greens and oranges that I loved.  I have some cones and yarn that will be so cute (again, once it's finished) - this one is totally a stolen idea from my great cousin.  She owns an awesome store in Frankfort - check out her website and see what she's blogging about.  I also have some of that awesome mesh material for a Halloween wreath.  It's all going to be great...stay tuned!

The other picture is of some wine bottles.  I saved something in my favorites (I know, still working on the pinning thing) months ago and I'm finally making that project come to life too.  That's all I have for now - the beginning of many things.  I'm sitting back with my Starbucks and some homemade banana bread now on this cool rainy day.  I'm getting ready to start cutting fabric though so look for another post coming later this week.  I know, I may become a real blogger if I start posting more than once a week.  Ha!!

Fall Wreath Tutorial

Fall is my absolute FAVORITE time of the year.  I love the colors, the smells, the weather, I just love everything about fall.  I am so excited about decorating for fall.  I have never really taken the time to decorate for fall even though I love it.  This year I'm going fall crazy!! :)  Today I'm sharing my fall wreath.  I had an idea for a wreath but it was going to be a lengthy process.  I saw a wreath tutorial on another website and I fell in love with the simplicity of it.  here is the link to the model wreath.  She put a full tutorial on her blog but I'm going to include one too, even though it's not much different.  Here is a picture of my finished fall wreath.

what you need

grapevine wreath

 large flowers - I used 3, the other tutorial used 4 flowers

berry sprigs - I used 2 five foot pieces

fluffy things

floral wire

wire cutters



First I positioned the hydrangea, my large flowers that I used.  I grouped them all together pretty close.  I used hot glue to secure the flowers. 

With the rest of the wreath I put the sprigs of beads.  I have a screen door so I used the crystal bead things instead of just colored balls.  I used wire to hold the beads down.  You could see my wire but we will cover that up in the next step. 



You can barely see the wire, but it was enough that it would make me crazy!



Then I cut the fluffy things up into individual sections.  I used hot glue to secure the fluffy things in the wreath.  I just placed them wherever I had wire or any spot that I thought I needed something else.  I really liked the idea of using the fluffy things instead of just using the beaded things. 

Then I was finished!  SO easy!!  I was pretty excited about it and when I showed my mom she requested one with sunflowers.  That's the great thing about this wreath, you can use just about any type of flower or beaded thing or even fluffy things (those are all of the official names...).  Here is a picture of my finished wreath and my Mom's.  My Mom's wreath was harder to make than mine because I had to wire in all of the sunflowers from both sides.  The grapevine wreath was a little skimpy so it wouldn't hold the sunflowers in, even with a crap-ton of glue.  Still happy with the way that it turned out and my Mom loved it - even better!  Let me know if you make one.  I'd love to see pictures!

Happy Fall,

Meghan

Making the Cut

Well today was the day.  For the fourth time I got my hair cut - when I say cut, I really mean cut!  During high school I decided that I wanted to grow my hair out for Locks of Love.  I successfully grew my hair 12 inches and then cut it super short.  Since then I've done it 2 other times.  Today made the fourth time that I have donated my hair.  This time instead of Locks of Love I am donating to Pantene Beautiful Lengths.  You can read about it here I made the switch because for Beautiful Lengths your hair doesn't have to be as long.  As much as I loved my long hair it was starting to drive me crazy and not all of my layers were 10 inches, which is the requirement for Locks of Love.  I wasn't sure that I could wait until it was all the right length.  The minimum for Beautiful Lengths is only 8 inches so I went with them.  Both are an amazing cause and are worthy of donations.  Here is a line from the Beautiful Lengths website that kind of made me want to cry (because I'm not emotional or anything...ha!) "To us, it’s hair, but to women with cancer, it’s hope."

Here is a picture of me and my hair before I put it in the envelope to mail it off.  It looks short in the picture but the longest layers were 10 inches with most of it being just a little over 8 inches.  It will take me a while to get used to having short hair again but I'm so happy that I did it.  I just hope that I can make it look ok tomorrow morning...

I know this post wasn't about crafting or sewing but it's something that's important to me.  Thanks for reading, the crafty post will be back soon.  ;-)

Dreaming of Fall

I have tried my best not to complain about the weather at all and just remember that I always want the heat when I have car duty in January.  But I’m sooooo ready for fall!  My nephew plays football so I love putting on a sweatshirt, getting a coffee and going to his games.  I love the colors of fall.  Halloween and Thanksgiving are my favorite holidays.  Fall just makes me happy!  So today I’m sharing one of my new favorite fall treats. 

My mom actually requested this cake few her birthday cake.  She is obviously ready for fall too.  My sweet friend Jessica made this for another friend’s baby shower a few years ago.  I was always so anti pumpkin.  I never like it even though I’m pretty sure I can’t remember trying it at all.  Well Jessica made this pumpkin cake for Tiffany’s shower and I thought that I would hurt her feelings if I didn’t at least try it.  She had worked so hard on it I at least owed it to her to try it.  Well that ended up being a mistake because not only did I try it but I fell in love with it.  I don’t think that she got to take any leftovers home with her that evening after the shower.  Last fall I called Jessica for the recipe and she happily shared.  I took it everywhere I went last year.  It looks like a lot (there are a bunch of ingredients) but I promise it is so easy to make and will wow people who like pumpkin.  ;-) 

Pumpkin Spice Cake

15 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature

3 cups of all-purpose flour

2 ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon

¾ teaspoon of nutmeg

¾ teaspoon of ground all spice

3 cups of sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/8 teaspoon of salt

1 1/8 teaspoon of baking powder

1 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda

1 ½ cups of canned pumpkin *See note below

¾ cup of warm milk

*Pumpkin note – When I tasted this recipe for the first time at a friend’s baby shower I fell in love it with.  She had accidentally bought Libby’s Pumpkin Pie mix instead of canned pumpkin.  I liked it so much that I accidentally add those extra calories every time I make the cake. 

*Another pumpkin note – pumpkin is not the easiest thing to find in August.  So you may have to wait until closer to fall to make. 

1.       Preheat oven to 350*

2.       Spray a bunt pan with non-stick spray.  I mean really coat it.  I’ve made this cake several times and I still haven’t been able to make it pretty when I take the cake out of the pan.  I even break out Crisco for this, which I never use.  You want it slick!!

3.       Sift the dry ingredients together except for the sugar and set aside.

4.       Beat butter and sugar with a mixer until it’s fluffy.

5.       Add eggs one at a time on low.

6.       Mix pumpkin and warm milk.

7.       Add the pumpkin mixture to the butter mixture.  Beat on low until it’s combined.

8.       Add the remaining flour mixture and beat on low.

9.       Pour into pan.

10.   Back for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

White Chocolate Ganache

¼ cup of white chocolate chip morsels.

2 tablespoons of heavy cream

1.       Melt chocolate with a double boiler.  I don’t have a double boiling pan so I take a pan and put some water in it, just a little bit then place a glass bowl on top of the pan to melt my chocolate.  Works for me!

2.       Whisk in heavy cream until fluffy.

3.       Drizzle of slightly cooked cake.

I pretty much do the ganache different every time I make the cake.  I start out with those measurements as my base but then it’s too thick so I add more cream.  It still tastes good and looks pretty on the cake.  I definitely remember Jessica’s being thinner on her.  It was almost like a thin coating where mine is like a thicker icing.  Either way, enjoy!  Here is a picture of my make-shift double boiler. 

Happy fall,

Meghan



Lovin' Long Skirts!

 So I am absolutely in LOVE with long skirts rigth now!  I heart these long skirts for many reasons.  The main is one that maxi dresses just don't look right on me.  I am pretty broad through my ribs and the maxi dresses that I have (because even though they aren't the most flattering thing on me they are SO comfortable so I own a few, ok, several of them) just kind of drop after my chest.  Which then makes me look larger than I actually am.  I'm not small by any stretch but I don't want to add any visual appearance of more weight, what girl does?!? 

I have seen several tutorials for maxi dresses and I even went out and purchases several yards of jersey knit material.  It's so soft.  I'm pretty sure that I could take my leftover pieces and make a blanket out of it.  I didn't want to try and make a dress for fear that I would put all kinds of work into it and never wear it because I didn't think that it looked right.  So I decided to try a maxi dress instead.  I was very pleased with the results.  It's definitely not perfect so don't zoom in on the few pictures that I have.  For some reason I got too excited and forgot to take pictures along the way.  Fear not, it was super easy so here goes!



The finished maxi skirt



I purchased my knit material probably 3 weeks ago.  I was so excited about it but was terrified to try it because I've heard that you have to do special things to sew with knit material because it's stretchy.  I do good to sew a straight stitch so I was afraid I would mess something up.  I found a blog though that told me exactly what to do but I can't seem to find where I saved it to give that person credit.  I had to purchase a ball-point needle.  They were super cheap.  Then I switched my sewing machine to a zig-zag stitch.  You have to use this because the fabric will stretch.  If you use a straight stitch then you may tear the stitch out creating a hole in your skirt.  The bonus to knit is that it's very forgiving so any mistakes or imperfections in the skirt won't really show up.  ;-)

To get my measurements and form for the skirt I took one of my knit dresses and used it as my model.  I cut my material to match the existing maxi dress.  The dress came in a lot at the waist.  Instead of following the line in I left it wider because I knew that I was using elastic for the waistband.  Once my material was cut I sewed down one side making the side stitch to the skirt. 

CAUTION:  When sewing knit material you have to let your sewing machine do the work.  If you try to push or guide the material it will create issues.  I have heard stories so I tried my best to just let my machine take the fabric in.  It worked out fine. 

After I had my side seam I folded to top over about 1.5".  This was to allow for me to thread the elastic throught he waistband.  Here is a picture of the skirt once I made my first side stitch - ignore the pinning at the bottom, I got smart... But the top is where I folded over to make the opening for the elastic waist.



Then I stitched up the other side of the skirt.  Don't sew all the way up.  Stop when you get to the fold over for the waist.  If you don't stop before that then you will end up with a big tube because you won't be able to thread the elastic through.  After sewing the other side almost all the way up I put a safety pin on my elastic and put it through the opening (sorry for the lack of technical terms, one day I may figure everything out...).  Once I had my elastic all the way through I finished off the seam by sewing my elastic together to close up the rest of the side stitch.  

Even though I pinned up the bottom I ened up not even hemming the bottom up.  Knit won't fray (score!) so I just left it as is.  My finished piece is pictured above.  Not perfect but a start.  So excited about making my next one.  I have some black knit just waiting for some free time...

After making my knit skirt and absolutely loving it I decided I was a master seamstress and I got an idea.  I had a maxi dress that I bought from Forever 21 on sale for like $15.  I loved the pattern.  Each time I tried it on to wear to school I started to fret because it had a slit at the top with some button detail or something.  I teach kindergarten and I'm constantly bending over so low cut tops or tops with a slit in them are not ideal for teaching.  So I would always hang the dress back up on the hanger.  The dress is pictured below.  I hadn't even brought myself to take the tags off of it yet.  Well I decided to take my maxi dress and turn it into a maxi skirt. 

I took the knit skirt that I made and matched the height up to the maxi dress.  I then added 1.5" to the top of my skirt so that I had enough room to add the elastic without making the dress too short. 

After cutting the dress into two parts it hurt my heart.  I was afraid that I had totally screwed something up and instantly regretted that cut.  I moved forward though.  I folded over the top part and sewed a hem across.  After that I fed my elastic through and sewed the elastic pieces together with my fabric.  I didn't have to sew a bottom hem because I used the hem from the original dress.  I literally made this dress in thirty minutes while I was watching the latest episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians.  Here is a picture of my finished skirt.

It totally makes me think of a teacher skirt.  My most favorite teacher ever Mrs. North wore long skirts all the time.  I'm just updating the long skirt with a belt and some sassy jewelry.  I have another refashion idea that I'm working on I just need the finishing piece. 

Happy sewing,

Meghan