Before and After Nightstand

Pin It My sister-in-law redid her nightstands that she was given for free - that's right - free.  Look and how gorgeous they turned out!!!!

I have a few things of my own that I am going to paint.  I have a couple small nightstands that I'm going to paint black.  I would like to antique them, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that with the black - so if you have tips PLEASE let me know.  I also bought some little chairs that I'm going to paint and give to my daughter for Christmas along with a little table.

I would love to see your before and after projects so please link up here:

Design Seeds

Pin It I LOVE Design Seeds.  It is a great website with different color swatches.  Whether you need to find colors for a room or to help you figure out what to wear for family pictures, this site will help you immensely!  There are pages and pages of swatches, so there is one that is bound to be calling out your name. 

Freezing Basil

Pin It Earlier this year, I had a basil plant in my house.  It was fantastic to have fresh basil for spaghetti sauces and whatnot and it only cost me $3.  Well on a short trip to Idaho I kind of forgot about the plant.  When I got back he was looking rather sad and I didn't think he would make it.  Well I watered him and he came back!  Yay!  We were only gone for 3 days, but on our trip to California we were going to be gone for over a week so I knew the basil wouldn't make it.  I did some research about how to store fresh basil.  There were several techniques, and I'm not sure if one is better than the other, but I ended up doing a freezing technique.

How to freeze basil cubes

1. Harvest the basil leaves
2. Wash, pick the leaves off the stalk and then use the salad spinner to spin out most of the water
3. Pat dry with kitchen towels
4. Stuff the herbs in ice cube trays
5. Fill the tray with water. Use your fingers to push the leaves down into the water as much as possible as they tend to float. 
6. Place the ice cube tray in the freezer
7. Once the ice cubes are frozen, remove them from the tray and transfer to zip-lock bags
8. These cubes are now ready for use

You can simply add the ice cube to your spaghetti sauce or whatever else you are cooking.  It's wonderful!!!

Shrink Plastic Buttons

Pin It I found this AMAZING tutorial on how to make Shrink Plastic Buttons on Scissors.Paper.Wok I will definitely be making some of these.  I just need to get a machine that will cut the pattern and some shrink plastic.  I can't wait!

Snicker Doodles

Pin It Yesterday I was browsing some of my favorite craft blogs and came across a delicious looking post about snicker doodle cookies on Make It Do.  I love snicker doodles and just HAD to try their recipe.  I highly recommend it!  They are so delicious and soft mmmm!  Here is their recipe.

Snicker Doodle Cookies

         

1 cup butter

1 – 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

3 cups flour

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

 

  For rolling

3 Tbsp. sugar

3 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cream together sugar and butter.  Add eggs and blend well.  In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.  Slowly mix into the sugar mixture until incorporated.

Shape into 1 inch balls and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.  Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 8 – 10 minutes.

Lack of Craftiness

Pin It I'm sure you've noticed the general lack of craftiness on my blog lately.  To be perfectly honest, I just haven't felt super crafty lately.  I've mostly just felt tired and this is why:

I'm pregnant!  I think this baby has been draining away my "craftiness".  I have been lucky though and have only had one day of morning sickness.  I'm hoping that my desire to create things comes back soon.  I'm nearly done with the first trimester so I should stop feeling soooo tired - hopefully.  I'm due January 15th and am really excited.  This will be baby number two for us.

Books I've Read and Plan to Read

Pin It I thought I would share a list of books that I have read recently and what I thought of them.  I also wanted to put a list of books that I am thinking of reading to find out YOUR opinions on them or if there are other ones that you think I should read.

Books I've Read Recently

I absolutely loved The Book Thief.  As morbid as it sounds, books about the Holocaust are actually my favorite.  I have read several books about stories during the that time period. The Book Thief put a unique spin on the normal Holocaust story.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it!

 Ella Minnow Pea is a fun book.  It's written in the form of letters between friends.  As certain letters of the alphabet become banned, they have to figure out ways to communicate their feelings.  It's really quite clever.  It's a short read, which was nice.

 My husband really wanted me to read Ender's Game just because I'm rarely read science fiction books.  While this book is probably more geared towards guys, I did enjoy it.

 Ender's Shadow is a book written about the Ender's Game story, but from a different person's perspective.  Honestly, I enjoyed this book more than Ender's Game primarily because I liked the way this character thought.  However, you should probably still read Ender's Game before reading Ender's Shadow.

 Kite Runner had been on my list to read for a while.  I had heard it was a great book from several of my friends.  While the story is somewhat disturbing, it is a major eye opener.  I really liked this book.  We watched the movie and were really really disappointed.  So I would not recommend the movie, but definitely recommend the book.

I hated this book.  My brother said this book was amazing, so I gave it a chance.  Well I really didn't like it.  It''s about a father and son crossing America after pretty much everyone has died.  There are a few people left, but they aren't to be trusted.  I don't know.....maybe you'd like it, but to me it was just depressing.

 I read The Help a while ago and thought it was absolutely fantastic.  I highly recommend this book to you.  They are also coming out with a movie, which I'm hoping is good.  Seriously, read this book!

 My husband and I just listened to The Hunger Games on our trip to California.  It was different than we thought it was going to be, but overall we enjoyed it.  There are two more books in the series that we are planning on reading.  I will warn you, it's a bit gruesome, but it is a good book.

I am currently reading

I am currently reading this book.  I'm only a few pages in, so I can't really tell you if I like it or not, but I'll let you know when I finish.  My mom's book group read it and thought it was good though :)

Books I Plan on Reading

Room

The Catcher in the Rye

The Alchemist

The Lucky One

Unbroken

Life of Pi

These books were rated really well and a lot of people seemed to like them.  Other than that, I really don't know anything about them, so I'd love to know your thoughts.  If there are other books you think I should add to my list let me know!