Yummy Yummy in my Tummy

So, the past month has been a busy one and when I started this idea, I thought that making a weekly entry on a blog would be easy peasy. But trying all these new things, finding the time remembering to take a decent picture and write about it, has been a bit of a challenge (I guess that's why I started this in the first place, huh?). But I have been pinning and will be adding some cool things but in the meantime, I wanted to address the deliciousness I find on Pinterest.
My bookshelf is stocked with dozens of cookbooks with hundreds of delicious recipes, but I never crack them open and always find dinner to be a chore. What am I going to cook seems to be a nightly drama and I constantly wish for the Dinner Fairy to leave me magic pots that cook on their own (and do their own grocery shop too, and dishes). Now I think I am a pretty decent cook but I find myself in a dinner rut from time to time, making the same dishes and being so bored with the meal the first time that I don't even want the leftovers. Enter Pinterest.....
I have pinned soooo many yummy meals from there and in the midst of crafting, I thought, wait a second, why am I not making any of these recipes? Is this board my online bookshelf, that I will never crack open? So I printed a handful of them, made a shopping list and have been trying a new one each week. Tonight, I went for broke and made two new ones, lasagna roll-ups and low-cal artichoke dip. The dip was so good, my darling picky eater kept coming back for more. I have just printed out a few new ones, plus pinned a few so I am excited to see what comes next.
What are your favorite Pinterest recipes??

Ribbons, Ribbons Everywhere

So in continuation of the baby shower theme, this next project was inspired by an item I saw online and I decided to see if I could find a tutorial and do it myself. The ribbon topiaries came out amazing and exactly like the ones I wanted to order but each one took me about three hours, a ridiculous amount of straight pins and about 60 feet of ribbon per centerpiece. You can find some amazing tutorials like the one I found on Polka Dot Birthday (Ribbon Tutorial). I changed things up a little by using an all-in-one topiary form that included the ball, dowel and base that I found at AC Moore (see here). I trimmed the excess of the form and placed it in a painted terra-cotta pot that I painted with acrylic paint and kept them in place with a little hot glue gun.

I will say that I think using these forms made the centerpieces a little larger than I originally thought and if you are planning to make a smaller version, then I think you will probably use a little less ribbon and will have to use the styrofoam ball, dowel and foam base as mentioned in the tutorials as I found the pre made forms only in the size. So I cut 6 rolls of ribbon into 3" pieces. Each roll of ribbon was roughly 9 feet of ribbon and I tried to pick a variety of ribbon that complimented each other and had three solids and three prints for the first piece and then switched it up for the subsequent pieces. 

I started in little clusters and then kept adding making sure to not keep too many of the same color in one spot and make things even. It is a little time consuming and the larger you make the balls, the more time and more ribbon you will need. Lastly, I hot glued some of the same shapes from the lollipop boxes to the pots so it would continue with the nautical theme.
They came out a lot better than I expected and they were a hit at the party!!!!