In nearly seven years of marriage I don't think I have ever had coasters in my house. I don't know why. It is just one of those things you never remember to get at the store. 

   Plus, it is so hard to find adorable coasters, don't you think? I decided to make my own version so that I could match them to my house. 

    They are way cuter, they work great and they are cheap! Can't go wrong with that. I picked up eight square tiles from Home Depot for $0.16 a piece, three sheets of scrapbook paper for $0.50 each and one sheet of felt for $0.25 from Hobby Lobby. Here is how it works.

1)  Give the tiles a good wash to get all of the dust off of them. 

2)  Place the tile on the back side of the paper and cut out. It doesn't need to be perfect but make sure there is at least 1/4 inch on each side.

3)  Paint the Mod Podge on the face of the tile and place paper. You need to do this quickly because it dries so fast. 
   I usually place the paper where I want it and crease it to give me a guide before I put on the glue. That way the pattern isn't crooked when placed.

4) Turn the tile on its side and knife off the excess. This will give it a perfect fit over the edges.

6) Paint the glue on the edges of the tile and fold over the paper. 
     I did one side at a time because I found that it doesn't stick as easily as the smooth surface.
     It helps if you tilt the tile on its side and let the glue dry before doing the other edges.

7) Paint Mod Podge onto the face of the coaster.
     You can use a liberal amount just make sure you don't leave any globs.
     Keep in mind that you will be able to see your brush strokes.
     Let the glue dry and repeat this step  5x.

8) Use the precision knife and cut out 4 small, felt circles for each coaster.
    Cork would probably look better but I had felt lying around. 
    I traced a big button to get a perfect circle. :)

9) Glue 4 felt circles to each coaster. Voila, you are Finished!

    I don't know where I got this craft idea. I just woke up one morning and was like, "I'm going to make Isabel some owl shoes." 
   This is the type of project I like to call Fake-It-Till-You-Make-It! I had no idea what I was doing at first....trial and error.

    These handmade shoes were a lot of fun to do, but it did take a little while. Here is a step by step tutorial if you are interested in making these.

    First we are going to need some materials. I did forget a few things in the pictures, so look sharp. 
    The pattern took me for-ev-er to make, so I thought I would save you some time and scan it in. Well, my hubby scanned it in. :) You can just print the pdf document below and start cutting away!

Materials:
1. hot glue gun
2. scissors
3. pen
4. needle and thread
5. 2 buttons and 4 beads
6. mod podge (opt)
7. ribbon
8. felt (gray, cream, purple, beige, tan, brown,
9. satin fabric (opt)
10. pins (opt)
11. lighter
12. pattern

 1. Cut out your pattern and trace 2 shoe faces, 2 soles and 2 straps on gray felt. Cut out.

3. Trace 2 shoe faces and 2 soles on cream felt. Cut out.
    Keep the excess cream because you will use it again.

4. Place the cream felt face on top of the gray felt face. Line them up as perfectly as you can without letting the cream go over the gray. Glue them together with the hot glue gun.
    Use the glue sparingly!  

5. Pin the glued faces to the sole of the shoe. Make sure the cream is facing up or you'll have white shoes!
   Make sure you don't pin too tight...you need fabric for gathering around corners.
6. Cut off the excess heel. Make sure you don't cut too close because you are going to have to sew up the heel. You can always cut it closer after you have sewed. 

7. Use a running stitch to sew the face to the sole. Keep the height in the toe area.

8. When you get to the heel, change to an overcast stitch.

9. Change to a running stitch again when you sew up the heel. 
    Cut as closely as you can to the heel stitch without cutting the threads.
Note: You want to sew diagonally so that the shoe will curve at the heel. 

10. Take the cream sole and place on top of the bottom of the shoe.        Trace inside the seams to get a better fit. Cut out.

(The cream sole goes inside the shoe)

11. Place the cream sole you just cut out onto the wrong side of your satin fabric. 

12. Hot glue the fabric to the sole.

13. Turn the shoe right side out. 

14. Trim back the face of the shoe. (The picture shows it wrong. I did this right side out to see the shape better.) 

15. Fold the shoe in half lengthwise and cut an angle from the heel to the face. You want to cut both sides at once so they are not uneven. I just eye-balled this until I found the shoe shape I liked.

16. Gently burn the inside edge to melt the felt. It burns very easily, so keep it at distance. This will keep the felt from looking fuzzy.

17. Glue the satin sole to the inside of the shoe.

18. Glue the ribbon onto the inside edge of the shoe. Glue a vertical ribbon on the heel to hide the seam.



   Starting to look cute!

19. Put the tiniest bit of Mod Podge onto each end of the 2 straps. (Hopefully you didn't throw away your straps like I did! lol)
   If you don't have Mod Podge, you might be able to melt the ends a little bit. I haven't tried this, but it might work.  

(This is just to give it some strength. You don't want the felt ripping the first time you button it!)

20. Sew the button on and hot glue the strap to the other side.

Now we make the little guy.

21. Trace and cut out the owl out of the beige. 

22. Melt the edges to make it sharper looking.

23. Trace and cut out the purple chest, two cream eyes and two tan circles. 

24. Cut out the cream chest circle.

Note: Make sure to melt the edges of everything you cut out to give it a clean sharp look.

25. Glue two brown half moons for under the eye.

26. Glue on bead eyes and eyelashes.

27. Trim any excess.

28. Glue to shoe. Dun-dun-dun-dah a cute owl shoe. Now to do the next one...make sure you don't make two left feet!

Who has the cutest shoes on the block???



Have you tried this project? I would love to hear how it turned out! Send me pictures!

      This is the holy grail of biscotti recipes! These are absolutely delicious. Most people think that biscottis are hard. This is not true with these ones. 
      This recipe makes about 50 wonderful, soft biscottis. A cup of hot coffee and a biscotti is all I need to make the grumpers go away! They are also a household favorite, so I make them all of the time. 
       These are one of my favorite things to serve guests. In fact, I've had so many people ask for the recipe that I decided to post it here so that everyone can enjoy them. Happy Baking!

Ingredients:                                                     
2 1/2 c. flour                                                       
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 sticks softened butter
2 large eggs + 1 egg white                                           
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 c. dried cranberries (craisins)
1 bag white chocolate chips 


Note: You will also need parchment paper, cooking spray, ziplock bag and the obvious blender and cookie sheet.

Beat the butter until it is fluffy. Add the sugar and almond extract. Beat again. Add 2 eggs one at a time. Beat the dough until it is fluffy. 

Add salt and baking powder to the mixture. Slowly add the flour making sure not to over-beat. Beat on low until the flour is just mixed in. Add the craisins to the dough and gently mix. The dough should be a sticky cookie dough consistency.

Divide the dough onto a cookie sheet. I use a stone because it doesn't stick. If you don't have a stone cookie sheet put parchment paper on a metal one.

Flatten the divided dough into two logs with a rubber spatula. The dough is very sticky, so I use cooking spray on the rubber spatula to make the job easier. Make an egg white wash with the remaining egg. Brush the sides and tops of the logs.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 min. The center of the log should spring back when touched...a spongy consistency. Let cool completely. Note: Do not over cook! The biscottis will become very hard if you do.

Cut the cooled logs into rows about an inch wide and then two columns.

Turn the biscottis on their side and bake for another 3min. Turn them around and bake the other side for 3 min.

Melt about half a bag of whit choc. chips in the microwave. I do it in 15 second intervals two or three times mixing in between.  The chocolate burns very easily so keep a watchful eye on them. Place the chocolate in a ziplock bag and make a very small cut at one corner.

Swirl the chocolate onto the biscottis. Voila! Wasn't that a cinch?

      Making headbands for Isabel was my project for this weekend. This totally consumed my life for a few days. Fun, fun. I guess my creative juices started flowing because I ended up making WAY too many! I'm going to try my hand at selling on Etsy.com. We'll see how that goes. lol 

      Here is a tutorial if you are interested in doing this project. Be warned...extremely addicting and messy!

Materials:
Hot Glue Gun
Scissors
Pen or Pencil
Headband elastic
Tape Measure
Buttons
Embellishments 
Felt/Fabric (I used a polyester fabric)
Something to trace a circle (I used a bottle top)
A lighter (forgot this in pic)
Hot Tamales (A crafting must!) 


    Be creative! You don't have to buy the embellishments. I think the most beautiful ones are the ones that are completely hand made. Design is in the imperfections. :)

Measure and cut the elastic. I make them about 15 inches for kids. If you want a more exact fit, measure the head and subtract 1/2 inch. Adults are around 20 inches. Make sure you test the material, though. If it is really stretchy, you want to subtract a little more that 1/2 inch. Some firmer materials you need to subtract a little less than 1/2 inch. 

Trace two different size circles onto your fabric. I used a bottle cap for the bigger and a Keurig cup for the smaller. Cut them out and melt the edges with a lighter. This keeps the fabric from fraying, gives it a nice curl, and adds color dimension.

Glue the fabric circles together. Hint: Less is more! I alternated between front and back because my fabric had two beautiful colors. 

Trace a flower onto the (dark brown) felt. Cut it out and glue it to the embellishment. Cut out a large flower out of the brown felt and then a smaller flower out of the purple felt. Then, cut out a circle felt between those two sizes. Glue them together and add a button. 
Note: The first time, I free handed the flower onto a piece of paper then traced it onto the felt, but I wised up and got a stencil from the store because I was doing so many.

Fold the white felt in half. Arrange the three flowers onto the felt and trace the shape. Make sure you trace it quite a bit smaller. Cut out so that you have two pieces that are exactly the same.

Glue the flowers onto one of the white pieces.

Glue the headband onto the back of the flower. Then, glue the second white piece into the back to hide the headband. Ta-da! You've got a beautiful headband!

      I can't BREATHE without coffee! Not when I am only getting a couple of hours of sleep each night. I love Starbucks, but at five dollars a pop...who can afford that? Not when I drink nearly five cups a day!

      We got a Keurig Brewer for Christmas this year (lucky us!), so we have been having fun trying out new brands. I did find a fabulous deal for the Keurig at SamsClub, though.

      I'm totally addicted to the Butter Toffee right now! A wonderful sweet, nutty, caramel flavor. Yum.  


    Have you tried this? Do you love it, like it or hate it? I would love to hear what your Cure for the Crazies is!