Beanie

If you didn't read the background story to this inspiration check it out here.  This is my second project, this one was a lot more exciting and I think the flower turned out much better than the ear warmer one.  This flower I ended up making it up also because the tutorial I was using was super confusing.

Crochet Ear Warmer

Here's a little background story to this post.  Christmas Eve I stayed up late with my sister  Jamie to talk, and while we talked, she was making a crochet case for a kindle.  Then a few weeks ago the young men and young women in the ward crocheted some beanies to give to the cancer center here in Logan.  Tyson made 3 beanies, between this and my sister crocheting, it made me want to start crocheting.  My mom got Karlyn and me into 4-h when we were younger and we learned how to crochet.  I'm left handed but do a lot of things right handed; so when I was learning, my teacher taught me how to do it left handed.  I can only imagine how hard it was for her to teach me, I'm sure she had a lot of patience.  I only crocheted a few small things, probably because doing something big made me bored quick.  I took me a minute to remember how to crochet, it's been years since I've done it.  Here's the first project, the flower was much more complicated than I thought it would be, so I kinda did my own thing.  Not super excited how big the flower turned out, but pretty good for my first project.  If your interested in anything crocheted check out CrochetByJamie on Etsy, she has super cute things on there. 

Necklace Redo

If you remember a few months ago, I made this necklace.  Well, I wore it once and it was really itchy with the ribbon I used because it was very big and I put the black flower in a bad spot.  So, I redid the necklace without the clear beads.

Here's before:

and here's after:

Which do you like better?

Day 30...Spicy Three Bean Chili

This is a great homemade Chili, it doesn't have meat in it, but I'm sure you can substitute meat in.  Here's what you'll need:  I found the recipe here

 Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeño, seeded, minced
1 red bell pepper, seeded, diced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 to 1 tsp chipotle chili powder (more for spicier chili)
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tbsp Ancho chili powder (or other chili powder)
1 cup tomato sauce
3 cups water (more if needed)
1 (15-oz) can black beans, drained
1 (15-oz) can pinto beans, drained
1 (15-oz) can red kidney beans, drained
1 pound package frozen sweet corn, thawed, drained well
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
6 oz pepper Jack cheese, shredded

Day 29...Lemon Garlic Spaghetti

This is a really good and healthy recipe and very easy to make.  Here's what you need:

Lemon Garlic Spaghetti
Serves 2

4 oz dry spaghetti
1/4 cup grated parmesan
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/2 lemon
2 tbsp pine nuts
5-6 basil leaves, chiffonaded

Day 28...Braided Bangs

I recently learned how to french braid, and I love it!!!  Every time I get my hair and bangs cut, it doesn't take long for my bangs to grow out, and they grow fast!!  It is sooo annoying!   So, instead of getting my hear cut every 4 weeks, I end up putting my bangs up.  Now that I've learned how to braid, I usually braid my bangs back.  You can find some really good tutorials on french braiding you can look at my board on pinterest here.

Day 27...Rosette Necklace

This Necklace was really fun and easy to make.  Basically you do the same this as fabric ring I made.  You can also get the tutorial at Little Miss Momma.  Here's mine:

Day 26...Christmas Wreath

This is the first time making a wreath, I don't think it turned out very well.  Maybe I'll give it another try next year.  I looked at a few different tutorials and came up with one myself.  Be careful when you're using the hot glue gun, don't let it burn you with glue and rip it off because it will rip your skin off too.  oops.  Here's my wreath:

Day 25...Spicy Cranberry Dip

I found a new love for my mini chopper with this recipe.  I made this recipe for a work party and it was a big hit and everyone loved it.

Ingredients:

Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip

Time: 15 minutes prep + 4 hours refrigeration

Yield: 15 Servings

     12 oz. package fresh cranberries

           ¼ Cup green Onion, chopped

           ¼ Cup Cilantro, chopped

           1 small jalapeno pepper (I didn’t use this in mine) 

           1 ¼ Cups sugar

 ¼ teaspoon cumin

 2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

 Dash Salt

 8 oz. packages cream cheese

Crackers (I used wheat thins and ritz)

Chop cranberries, onion, cilantro, and jalapeno in chopper.  Add all ingredients except for cream cheese, mix, cover, and store in fridge for at least 4 hours (sugar needs time to soak into the cranberries to break up the bitter taste).  I can't take credit for these pictures, they are taken right off Jamie Cooks It Up blog.

Day 24...Salt Scrub

This project was very easy and exciting to do.  I did this for a couple presents for Christmas this year and it is very easy and cheap.  What you need:  Jar to put it in, bowl to stir it in, 6 parts coarse sea salt; 3 parts epsom salts, to soothe tired muscles and reduce inflammation; and 1 part baking soda, to soften waters and alleviate skin irritation. Add a few drops of essential oils, and combine (I used 3 tablespoons of lemon juice instead of the essential oils). Add a few drops of food coloring, until you achieve the desired shade.  I got this picture off the internet, mine looked similar, I just never got a picture.

Day 23...Mod Podge

Here is a great do it yourself for mod podge.  What you need: bottle to put it in (I rinsed out a salsa jar), Elmer's glue, and water.  Pour glue in bottle and pour equal amount of water in bottle and shake well.  There are other diy's for this with different ingredients but I did this way because I knew I wouldn't use a ton of this because it will get a little pricey if you're using a lot of it.

Day 22...Subway Art

This was the easiest project I have done so far.  All I did was take a frame I already had and painted it with some metallic paint I also already had.  Then I found this PDF download for the subway art and printed it off and put it in the frame.  Easy Peasy...

Day 21...Accordion Paper Trees

These turned out so much cuter then I thought they would.  You will need: paper, hot glue, finials (painted white), skewers, and candlesticks (painted white).  Go to Landee see Landee do for easy tutorial.  Here's how mine turned out.

Day 20...Bottles

I wasn't super excited with the end result of this one this is what I wanted it to look like: Painted Bottles.  All you need are 3 bottles, sticky letters, paint (I used metallic, but wished I would have used the looking glass paint because it is more glass like).

Day 19...Glitter Trees

Okay, so I found this project on pinterest, and it said to use glitter.  Well, I decided that it would be really messy to use glitter, so I decided to use glitter paper and glue on the cones.  What you need is:  Styrofoam cones, glitter paper (any color), candlesticks (found at Hobby Lobby, painted white), finials (also found at hobby Lobby, painted white), skewers, and mod podge (awesome glue).  I will have a tutorial for that later.  So, I made sure to paint the candlesticks and the finials so they would be drying while I'm gluing the paper on the cones.  I had some tacks laying around so I used those to hold down the ends of the paper.

Day 18...Button Tree

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!  I definitely picked the worst 30 days to work on my diy projects, right around the holidays.  So, I took several weeks off, and now I back on track...I hope. :)  This project is super easy.  All you need is some scrapbook paper, buttons, letters and a frame.  I just hot glued the buttons on the paper to look like a Christmas tree.  I found the letters at Hobby Lobby and painted them white.  I found the frame for really cheap at TJ Maxx.