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Video: Hot Glue Confetti Hearts

You know what they say – nothing says romance like hot glue and a vacuum canister full of confetti. Okay, maybe they don’t say that, but it’s an annual valentine tradition in my house. Every year I make another batch of these hot glue confetti hearts and every year I love them more. Now that is romance!

I published a tutorial on these hot glue confetti hearts over at ElizabethBanks.com a couple years ago. Unfortunately, her site turned into a Tumblr account a while back and the content on the old platform went away, including my tutorial. Sad face. This means, every few weeks, I get an email from someone who found the project on Pinterest but doesn’t know how to make them. There are multiple reasons I didn’t/couldn’t recreate another photo tutorial, so I’m using this as an excuse to take the next leap: video!

Many thanks to Kristen, my video guru, for getting this off the ground. I have wanted to learn video editing for ages but it’s never gone past the occasional cat video on Instagram (the rambling tour of my craft studio shot on an iPhone doesn’t count). As this is my first stab at video making, I trust y’all to let me know if this is something you want to see more often. Video takes a lot more time to pull together than my standard posts (a lot!) but I can see how it shortens the learning curve. And it’s sort of fun for both of us. For sure, it’s new territory. I have watched more craft videos in the last two weeks than the last two years combined, so I am a new (BUT VERY DEDICATED) club member.

Do you watch creative/craft/instructional vidoes on Youtube? Let me know if you have a favorite channel. I would love to check it out!

Heart Punch Garlands

by aunt peaches 7 Comments

My friend Noeleen came over for a snowy afternoon last week. We could have busied ourselves with corn chips and trashy TV, but instead we got crafty and painted coffee filters. Yay us! There were no particular plans for what to with them, except that it be nifty looking. Well, I think we succeeded. Each heart is like a tiny abstract painting. The only word for these is cheerful, which is exactly what I need in my life right now!

Valentines Day isn’t typically considered a big holiday for decorating, but for this of us who are still feeling the pangs of Christmas, I’ll take any excuse to get festive I can get. Sometimes that means stringing up some cards, or, in this case, stringing up some hearts.

Materials
Coffee Filters
Watercolor (I strongly recommend working with small tubes of watercolor rather than the flat palettes – the colors will be much richer. All you do is mix a pea-sized blob of paint with a spoonful of water and you’ll get a ton of color in a hurry. Kids will love working with big blobs of color too, instead of tiny little pots).
Brushes
Water
Palette

Not pictured..
Hole punch
Twine. (Not string, twine. The kind with a rough and hairy sort of coarse texture. Smooth string will slip right through the holes, but the coarse stuff will hold just great. I found some red and white stripe twine at Michaels, but regular brown twine from the hardware store works great too).

Instructions
The key to making a lot of hearts fast is to work in small batches. Before you start anything, divide your coffee filters into stacks of five. Also, think about working on a waterproof table cloth or lay out a flat plastic garbage bag. Most watercolors are easily washable but you don’t want them sinking into your table.

One: Keeping the wet filters in stacks of five, paint the surface of each stack and watch the colors run to the lower layers. When they dry, you’ll find that the top layers are saturated with color and distinct patterns, while the bottom layers will be more muddled and pastel. Hang each stack to dry overnight. If you are in a rush, you can throw them in the oven at 200f for 10 minutes, or throw in the dryer for a while.

Two: Take a stack of 5 dry filters (smaller hands may need a smaller stack), fold in half, then quarters, then eighths.

Three: Use a scissors to cut a basic heart shape. You know how this part works.

Four: Still keeping your stacks in place, use a hole punch to create random holes all over the surface of the heart.

Five: Run your twine through the holes in the heart. Enjoy!

PS: If you have leftover painted coffee filters (you probably will), you can make flowers out them. Look here, it’s easy!

The hearts will stay on the twine without knots. I promise. That’s why you need twine instead of string. Between the little hairs of the twine and the slightly rumpled texture of the coffee filters, they will stay wherever you put them. At the end of the season you can unstring them, or use them for other artsy niftiness.

If, for some reason, you can’t get your hands on coarse twine, I suggest using regular string and a pile of inexpensive beads slightly larger than the holes made by your punch. Instead of trying to tie knots in the coffee filters (which will likely tear) just tie a bead every 5″ and they will hold up the hearts just fine.

There really is no reason why these would need to be hearts. You could make them circles or squares or funny shapes. Hang them up in a window all year long. Or maybe use them for party decorations. Or a photo backdrop. I like the idea of a big bunch of them hanging on a wall like a giant tassel or something. Or maybe just in the corner of a ceiling. Or, bust out of the vertical thing. String them horizontal…

They look great near a window. The punch holes create these sort of Swiss cheese thing.

If you like the idea of this garland but don’t want to wait until Valentines, I made something similar with feathers last fall using markers, which were a little less messy (if you are into that).

Or, if you want to stick to the heart garlands, I made these out of plastic grocery bags. Yes, I said plastic grocery bags.

Well there you have it folks. Three viable options for keeping festive this frozen February weekend. Have fun!

Kitchen Itchin’

by aunt peaches 34 Comments

About an hour after my home was featured in Design Sponge last week something happened; I walked around my house, gave a moment of grateful thanks to live in this wonderful place, then took a deep breath and decided I wanted to change everything.

Everything.

Why is that? I can’t imagine I’m alone in that, am I? I have a friend who spends huge amounts of time and money decorating her house, then, as soon as it’s done, she wants to move. Crazytown. Look, I’m not that bad. I certainly don’t want to move, but I do want change. In particular, I want to change the room that gets used the most: the kitchen.

So, let’s go in the kitchen. My cluttered, happy, well-loved kitchen. Keep in mind, this photo was taken this morning. No special styling or editing. Dishes in the sink, cat food on the floor. We are getting real y’all.

So, if yo have been following a while, I have shared what feels like seventy thousand photos of my kitchen over the years, but I have never shown the floors. Now you know why. It would one thing if they were just beige and boring linoleum, or, plain white tile. But no. I have beige and boring linoleum AND white tile. Why? No clue. I suspect this is because when I first moved in the dishwasher leaked a little. That might have caused the floor to peel up, and instead of fixing the leak they patched the floor. Because that totally makes sense, right? (Read: sarcasm). I want a single surface. One or the other. Or something new altogether. The almighty authority called The Interwebs tells me I can lay down vinyl tiles on top of everything in an afternoon. Has anyone actually done this? Do you have experience or advice to share? I’m all ears. I have zero interest in investing time/effort/money into hardwood or anything quality. I just want a functional floor that is easy to clean and that creates a single flat surface across the room. The existing tile/ridge situation divides the room in a way that makes me want to keep things as open as possible, which has thus far prevented me from getting what I always, always, always wanted: a kitchen table.

As much as I love having that yellow rocking chair in the room (and was just talking about the virtues of a comfortable chair in the kitchen!) I desperately want another flat surface in the house. Like a table. I need a table. Any given day of the week, I have 3-4 projects going on, and my dining table isn’t cutting it. I love the idea of having an old wooden farmhouse type of table in the center of the kitchen where I can eat lunch, or sit and paint in the morning, or take photos in the afternoon. It’s going to be a challenge to find one large enough to be worth the trouble, but narrow enough to not swallow the space. But I’ll find one. I have decided it. Lia Griffith is always taking the most fantastic tutorial photos on these textural wooden backgrounds and every time I see one, I always think WHY DON’T I HAVE A WOODEN TABLE? And then I’m like, I DON’T KNOW. YOU ARE A BIG GIRL. HURRY UP AND BUY A TABLE ALREADY.

So now I’m just talking to myself.

Let’s look at this other corner of doom that you never see on the blog.

Okay, usually that black and white curtain is pulled closed. But why bother toady? Let’s get in and dig up the dirt Dr. Phil style. And by “dirt”, I mean plastic laundry baskets with small appliances and cookbooks. Because I’m classy like that. And, obviously, this little under hutch situation is a huge waste of space. I think it’s intended as a breakfast bar where you put stools and stuff underneath. Good idea, but the thing is, the counter is actually cut on a diagonal and is less than 11″ wide towards the left end. Enjoying breakfast on 11″ of flat surface against a flat wall isn’t exactly the way I want to eat my eggs. I contemplated putting up doors or tearing off the counter, but neither one of those is a viable option (long story). Three years later, the curtain remains and the pile of stuff continues to grow. Not good.

Good news: Dale suggested I leave the counter situation as-is and install some diagonal cut shelves underneath. I’m having a hard time visualizing, but he also offered to do the installation, so I’m enthusiastically all in. And as long as this corner is getting overhauled, I think I’m going to take out that single wall shelf I put in and replace it with three smaller stacked shelves. I can do those on my own, but the under shelves are the big deal as I cannot cut wood to save my life. I hate saws. I’d like to think I’m pretty handy with power tools, but there is something about electric saws that I cannot handle. It’s usually easy enough to get around by getting the folks at Home Depot to do it for me, but they only do straight cuts. No diagonals. All the more reason to be thankful for Dale’s intervention. Thanks Dale!

Anyway. None of this is going on for a while, but this winter has me itching for change. Part of me wants to just overhaul the whole thing nice and white and clean, but the reality of the way I live and the things I love…yeah. No. Nice and white will never be me. I just want something comfortable and interesting and with room for growth!

Welp. First up is the flooring front. I’ll keep you posted, but if anyone has any idea on first-time vinyl floor installation, holler.

10 Minute Bead Mosaic

by aunt peaches 3 Comments

With Fat Tuesday less than 2 weeks away, now is just about time of year I like to round up a really good excuse to hoard Mardi Gras beads. This year, to celebrate, I put together a decorative tray that doubles as year-round wall art if you play your colors right. It’s fast, cheap, and a good way to use up those 7 weird beads you’ve been keeping in the back of your junk drawer.

Yes, you know the beads I’m talking about.

Hop on over to see how to make it at Ilovetocreate.com!

Painted Thrift Store Purses

by aunt peaches 21 Comments

Last December I started painting gift bags and I liked it so much that I was sad when January rolled around and I had nothing left to paint! This is my problem. I have some weird emotional baggage when it comes to comes to painting for the sake of painting, so somehow, sticking to familiar/functional/inexpensive objects allows me to free up my creative mojo, which is exactly what I want right now. The dreariness of winter has a way of squashing my creative spirit, so a simple project like painting old thrift store purses is exactly what I need. Also, cute purses. Look!

There really isn’t any design or method involved here, just a series of slaps and dashes and color. Lots and lots of color.

Thrift stores are fantastic for finding pocketbooks for a dollar or two. Many of them appear to be new or nearly-new, and lot of them are made from leather, silks and satins. I almost feel bad painting them!

The key ingredient here is an all-purpose paint that will stick to fabric or vinyl, and great flat brushes. Mark-making is such an easy way to create simple patterns, but if you don’t have a couple of great brushes, it’s much more difficult to get the paint to lay down just right. Double-tip brushes are especially handy for building up leopard-like patterns in a hurry.

Apparently Lolabelle does not approve of this method and decided to knock everything over.

Thanks, Lola.

Heads up: you might see some more painting projects around here the next few weeks. I’m not sure if it’s a phase or the stirrings of winterish cabin fever, but I’m on a painting binge and I hope you’ll ride it out with me!

Happy Monday: Bill Murray Edition

by aunt peaches 6 Comments

Because it’s Groundhog Day, I thought it might be fun to theme out today’s Happy Monday in honor of Groundhog Day (the movie) star, Bill Murray. True fact: Bill Murray and I were born in the same hospital on the same day. Not exactly the same year, but whatever. This makes us twins and thereby it’s okay if I gather weird facts about him like some people collect their fingernail trimmings. Don’t act like this doesn’t impress you.

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What’s the safest way you can spend $6 on the internet? Bill Murray fingernail decals. PS: She also does Benedict Cumberbatch.

Ten surprising facts about the movie Groundhog Day. Did you know they cut out the most expensive (and arguably signifigant) scene, which was one of the reasons why Bill Murray and Harrold Ramis did not speak for many years after? me neither.

A tour inside the town where Groundhog Day was filmed, Woodstock Illinois.

Did you know Bill Murray was nearly cast to play Hans Solo in Star Wars until Lucas decided to cast his carpenter — a guy named Harrison Ford.

He’s also missed out on a lot of film roles because he doesn’t have an agent or a manager and only gets offers for scripts from people who leave phone messages on a 1-800 number that he rarely checks.

This Bill Murray cocktail looks fantastic, as do these 22 Bill Murray themed gifts.

Remember that time Taylor Swift and the Haim sisters went to Hawaii and wore Bill Murray sweatshirts to be ironic and stuff? Yeah. That was weird.

Also, remember the time Bill Murray dressed up like Liberace and drove a white Rolls Royce onto the stage for his interview with David Letterman?

Apparently, there is a list of songs inspired by Bill Murray but I am currently unable to locate it. Anyone?

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Unrelated news: The 2015 Valentine swap is in full swing! I sent out several hundred emails yesterday. If you signed up and did not get an email yesterday with your addresses, please check your junk mail first. If you still don’t see one, please make it easy for me to find your information by replying directly to the automatic confirmation email (it arrived just after you signed up).

16 Valentine DIYs to Try This Weekend

by aunt peaches 1 Comment

I don’t know about you, but I’ll be glad to saw farewell to January and move one step closer to spring! This weekend I’ll be getting’ my valentine on. How about you?

1. origami love notes  2. heartbreaker candy favors  3. 40+ free valentine images  4. oreo valentines
5. wax doily hearts  6. strawberry and cream cake  7. striped glass vases 8. sparkling heart wine charms
9.  newspaper hearts  10. art with conversation hearts  11. DIY rose rings  12. metal stamped valentine hearts
13. decoupage ginger jars 14. dyed sheepskin  15. valentine heart glasses (printable)  16. ombre crepe paper roses

Also. Lola took up residence in my new heart print bag from Bando. I think this is her way of telling me it’s time to go away for the weekend!

Miss Paty’s Dinosaur Dip

by aunt peaches 5 Comments

Folks, it’s that time again. Time for another epic adventure into the world of Midwestern party food. And because Sunday is the Super Bowl, now is as good of a time as any to share one of the most critical and pressing issues of the day: hot dip.

Before we get into this, I need to make sure you understand the role of professional sports in middle America. Chicago in particular. People who don’t live in Chicago do not understand how much Chicago people love sports. I know you think you do, but you don’t. You think your Uncle Jim really loves sports, but unless he is from Chicago, he really doesn’t. And if you have an Uncle Jim who loves sports AND he lives in Chicago, well, then you know exactly what I am talking about. I am talking about people who have lost their damned mind.

As somebody who did not move to this area until adulthood, the sports thing can be problematic as I do not give a crap about sports. At all. This time of year is especially rough for me as the Superbowl is upon us and I lack the vocabulary to describe the vastness of the crap I do not give.

Late-night last Sunday, I was buying kitty litter at Walgreens and the guy at the check-out was like, “DID YOU SEE THE PATRIOTS? WHAT ABOUT THAT PASS?????” And it wasn’t like he needed to talk about it, but like he just auto-assumed I would want to talk about it too. Because everyone here does. So I was like, “Yes sir, I’m a thirty something single woman who enjoys making late-night runs for cat supplies specifically, specifically, so I can find someone to talk to me about football.” And he was like, “THAT’S WHAT I FIGURED!”

No, actually, I didn’t. He asked me about the Patriots and I smiled and made a feeble sort of “whoooo!” sound like I totally knew what he was talking about. Because I am an enabler. I just let people assume I care. I don’t. But who am I to squash their interests? Also, the one thing I really like about football season in Chicago is the food, so I let it pass. If I nee dot sit through 3 hours of watching men in tight pants pass a ball around so I can get a shot at a decent serving of hot dip, I’m there.

I am so there.

Holy crap, y’all. This dip, whoa. This dip. It is cheese. It is hot. It is spicy and creamy and gooey and buttery and everything that is gloriously Midwestern. This dip is football night in America IN MY MOUTH.

This dip is loosely based on a recipe made by one of my childhood heroes, Miss Paty, but I rediscovered a couple of variation recipes on Pinterest about a year ago when I was doing the low-carb thing. Now I just make it whenever people come over in quantity, and every time I tweak it a little to make it just right. It feels especially retro served on Ritz crackers, but it also goes good-n-fancy with rye crisps or melba toast. Or just a half-empty bag of Tostitos. No judgments.

Miss Paty called it dinosaur dip because when it is cooked the surface looks straggled, bubbly, and slightly volcanic. Things will be oozing. And hot. If you have ever seen the 1988 dinosuar-themed cinematic tour-de-force, The Land Before Time, you will recognize why she called it dinosaur dip. If you have not seen The Land Before Time, you need to get on that.

THE BASE
In a bowl, blend loosely:

2 Bricks of cream cheese
1 Cup mayonnaise*
5 Jalapeno’s diced, minus seeds to make it sorta-spicy, with seeds and ribs to make it crazy-spicy.
2 Cups shredded cheese (I like to mix colby and mozzarella)
5 Slices crispy bacon, crumbled
Handful of diced green onion

*When I say mayonnaise I mean Hellmann’s. There is no substitute. And if you dare make this with Miracle Whip, I will find you. I’m not going to say what I will do to you, but I will find you.

Mix it altogether and smoosh it into a parchment-lined casserole dish at least 10” wide (it might be easier to divide between 2 small pie dishes).

THE TOPPING
In a bowl, blend with a fork:

1 cup of crushed crackers (I STRONGLY recommend using Ritz, but I have tried it with saltines and oyster crackers and it was okay too).
1/2 cup parmesan
1/2 stick of melted butter

Bake at 350 for 30minutes, or until gold and bubbly. It takes legitimate effort to overcook this stuff, so I suggest erring on the long side than short. The depth of the serving dish and the thickness of the dip will impact cooking time greatly, so keep that in mind.

Note: This is not the kind of dish to make at home by yourself, unless you really want to, and you have a good pair of sweatpants, and a wine slushy to cut the cream heat situation. And yes, I just used the term cream heat. If you make it for a crowd, before it goes in the oven, set aside a scoop for the next day. It’s excellent when smeared and broiled over a baked potato or crispy green beans, making this dish slightly more healthy but every bit as delicious. And it will still pair nicely with that wine slushy.

Enjoy!

House Tour on Design Sponge

by aunt peaches 19 Comments

Long ago in a time when dinosaurs roamed earth, before the dawn of the iPhone, before there was Netflix, before I had a blog, before I worked for myself…I used to sit in a cubicle all day and gawk at home tours on Design Sponge. I used to wonder who lived in these places and what it might be like to one day live somewhere like that. Some place interesting. Inspiring. Some place that that somebody wanted photograph.

Welp. That day has come!

Design Sponge featured a full our of my home today. It feels a little surreal. I’m still flabbergasted they asked in the first place. The photos are from last fall, which is just enough distance from things for me to look at the images and almost forget that I’m looking at MY HOUSE. If you are long time readers, you will probably recognize most of the spaces but perhaps you can get a little more context. If you are a new reader because you popped over from Design Sponge, welcome.

Special thanks to the folks at Design Sponge for featuring my home. To Grace Bonney for being one of the first people to support this blog and get it off the ground back in 2010 (that yellow coffee filter flower tutorial keeps on clicking) and to Max Tielman for his generous words and putting the whole thing together. I am blown away. Thank you.

Day = Made.

Party On, Silverware

by aunt peaches 26 Comments

Silverware is a funny thing. My guess is most people don’t pay much attention to it unless they go to pick up a fork and it’s dirty, or maybe when they are registering for wedding gifts. A spoon is a spoon. A fork is a fork. Big whoop, right?

It wasn’t until a few years at an Italian restaurant where I took notice. Instead of having one set of dishes or silver, everything was a little…different. All the plates were white, but slightly…different. All the silver was quality stuff – substantial, real silver – but no two pieces at the table matched. How odd it felt to cut into to chicken Parmesan with two beautiful instruments so clearly designed to function apart. My silverware at home was a small set of discontinued Crate & Barrel, which was missing a few forks, and reminded of times I would have rather forgotten. It looked nice enough but carried no character. Not that I spent a lot of time thinking about it. I didn’t think about silverware…

…and THAT got me thinking. Actually, it got me doing math (!) My 35 years multiplied by three meals a day totals out at somewhere around 38,000. That’s 38,000 occasions when I have held a fork or a spoon and used them to shovel something in my mouth. Thirty-eight thousand. Why would I spend so much time and money considering a shirt that I’ll wear, what -10 times, if that — and not pay attention to the objects that I handle every day? Why? Why was I not thinking about silverware?

You can’t tell the scale from the photo above but these are serving pieces. Large. They belonged to my father’s mother. My guess is they migrated to our house at a family dinner in the early 80s while the larger set of everyday forks and knives remained at my grandmother’s house. The story was that the set was purchased by my uncle as a gift for his mom while on military leave in or around Vietnam. I remember using them as a kid specifically because it was always my job to wash them afterwards while the adults sat around the table and drank. Everything else went in the pink dishwasher, but it was my job to wash the golden silverware by hand. At the time, I thought it was a rotten chore to give a kid because they were hard to handle without poking yourself on a fork tine, but, the knife-edges are irrationally dull. So, as chores go, it could have been worse.

Because the three lonely serving pieces were gold, I have never used them much. I just kept them around a memento of my father’s family. Then a couple weeks ago I spotted a coordinating assortment of those trident style forks and butter knives in a cast-off bins at Goodwill. I nearly did not get them, but then sold myself on the idea thinking they might make a good photo prop or something. Then the next week I spotted a few more at nearby store and took it as a sign: TAKE ME HOME. Then, of course I got on Ebay and there has been no turning back ever since.

Because they are handwash, I don’t see these gold beauties going into daily circulation. I’m not that fussy. My friend Ann (cherry blossom Ann) is a collector of all sorts of good things – a few years ago she was kind enough to gift me a set of Lady Hamilton silver, and it’s excellent stuff. A classic pattern, and durable enough to withstand the dishwasher but real enough to tarnish if I don’t occasionally hand wash with baking soda.

The one thing about the gold collection, though, is the odd shapes. Cappuccino spoons. Teensy shrimp forks.

I mean, WTF are these?

I don’t even know.

They all look alike, but non of them match. It’s especially obvious with the knives. Not the blades, not the handles. At a glance it all looks the same but is actually a hodge-podge of different sets. I sort of love that.

I love the idea of having a set of silver with a history. A past. I love the idea of everyday objects carrying a character and a history of their own. And now they are all chatting and dancing together together in my kitchen drawers.

Party on!

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