A suitcase and a Deli Doll?

November 16, 2014November 16, 2014 | mollyeleen

A deli doll- yes you read that correctly. “Deli Doll”…what on earth? Let me start at the beginning

Today the girls and I spent the afternoon at my moms home. Today was no unpacking, no lifting boxes and no moving furniture day. If you recall she moved in August and we moved in September; it seems all our spare times goes to unpaking, lifting and rearranging furniture. But today we sat on the sofa and looked at vintage magazines that my mom found in this suitcase. Relaxing and hysterical.

Shall we start with a little holiday decor, for the exterior of your home? Christmas is right around the corner. “For nighttime hospitality, and to create a dramatic effect, here’s the ultimate in professionally ability. Frame your door way with a pink flocked tree that fits flatly against your house.” Okay can we just agree on how fabulous this is! And if anyone actually did this… kuddos! I would love to do this to our home. However, I am pretty sure Hubby would think I had gone over the deep end of crazy town. And where do you find a pink flocked tree that big. Obviously I would have to make it and I definitely do NOT have time for that. If anyone does this, you are my hero and I want pictures!

How about some crafting? We all love a little of styrofoam crafts don’t we? This stelar little book has some nifty ideas; not sure which is my favorite. A few of these like the Santa’s and the chimney scene could have potential. Like on the so tacky it’s cool scale. Not even sure what the top left is supposed to be. We guessed an ornament of some sort, but not really sure.

Now my favorite. The recipe books. Really it’s amazing. Truly amazing what people used to eat. Maybe some still do, but in my world WOW! Shall we start with a round of “Ring Around the Tuna” from the “Cooking with Jello” book circa 1960. “Ring Around the Tuna” would be a delightful salad for any dinner party. Salad? How is this salad? It contains lime jello, canned tuna (drained of course), pineapple, green stuffed olives and celery. Maybe the garnish of curly endive and radish roses make it salad? YUM! (okay really I can not even imagine what this tastes like). Next comes the Viking Ship Sauce Dish carved out of a cucumber… very creative. Honestly I might just be crazy enough to do this one day. I will share if I do. And can we just take a moment to look beyond the Viking ship cucumber and notice the tinsel garland on the table. Okay that looks pretty. Why didn’t I ever think of that?

Then we have the desert spread. Lot’s of delicious looking cookies, popcorn balls and a lovely cake. We started reading what kind of cake this was, looks like some kind of lemon, raspberry cake…But wait! It’s not an actual cake on the dessert table- oh no. It’s a sandwich “cake!” My mom and I where in complete hysterics at this point. Sandwich cake? Yes of course. It’s a ham and egg sandwich made to look like cake. Plus it has cream cheese “frosting.” If I was at this party and chose to have what looked like a lemon raspberry cake and took a bite to discover it was a ham and egg sandwich– I would probably get sick. If you make this Poinsettia sandwich cake, please don’t put it on the dessert table. Right?

And now the best thing ever. Yes I am being facetious. Very in fact. No party can be complete without the Deli Doll. Yes The Deli Doll!!! Yes this “conversation-sparker with her skirt of tempting cold cut meats” is…. I don’t even know what to say. The article says “The deli-doll is attractive featured by herself or on a tray surrounded by more cold cuts or breads” I… yes. I still don’t have the words.

The reality is, the ladies of the past where very creative and innovative to say the least. I thank them for bringing an afternoon of laughter of my mom and I, we enjoyed every minute of it, maybe not the way the ladies of the past intended but still. There where so many other tempting bits that I didn’t share here, like the Spanish Polenta that didn’t have one spec of polenta in it or the brain patties (yes), plus there was an assortment of egg cart flowers to make and tulle christmas trees! I am thinking a “Tasteful bites and crafting of the 50’s and 60’s Party” is in the near future, we just can’t let these delicious recipes and crafts go to waste. I am not being facetious this time either 🙂

Sprinklings: the “candy queen”

October 30, 2013October 30, 2013 | mollyeleen

A few days ago I gave you a sneak peek of the costume I made for Kiddo. Remember this pic:

Ten yards of tulle (I used the 102″ wide tulle) in many colors, ribbon, crown ornaments, crocheted stretch band thing, and plastic candy garlands from a few christmas’ ago. And after a few hours it turned into this

The Candy Queen! We found inspiration all over pinterest for this costume, although they where all candy princesses. Kiddo wanted to be a Queen. I’m not sure how the costume would be different to be a princess, but to her it’s a Queen.

All in all this was the easiest costume I have made for Kiddo so far. It’s one of those big bang for your buck kind of things. Yes it took a few hours, but really it was simple… oh and for all of you who don’t know how to sew (we need to fix that) this is a no sew costume.

Taking measurements: I had Kiddo put on the band thing (which becomes the top of the dress) I folded over two inches at the top to create a little extra support for the straps, then measured from her belly button to the floor. Kiddo measured 24″, so this is my final length for the tulle strips.

First thing to do is to cut all your tulle into 4″ strips. Very Important! – DO NOT UNFOLD THE TULLE! Keep it folded how is was on the bolt when you bought it, then fold it in half again along the length, and in half again. After folding you will have a piece of tulle that is the length of bought (1 or 2 yards) by roughly 6 to 10 inches. (In other words, when you are folding, you are folding the width to become 6 to 10 inches). This way when you cut your strips they will 1. be so much easier to cut and 2. will end up being 4″ by 102″ (or the width of the tulle you purchased). As for the length, I used 48″. (Why? because then folded in half the will be 24″ and that is the length of the skirt I needed for Kiddo.) Carefully stack each color of tulle, now unfolded, and cut through all of it to create the length (bottom left photo above).

Next, and for the next few hours, fold one tulle strip in half (lengthwise) put fold through one hole in the bottom row of the band and pull through a few inches, this creates a loop. pull the ends of the tulle through that loop and pull tight. Repeat, to create the first row. On my first three rows, skipped every other hole in the band. The last row, I added tulle in each hole in the band. Tips for this portion: 1. put the band around something solid (I used a game box) to keep it slightly stretched and 2. make sure you stay in the same row of holes on the band.

After awhile you will have a super full tulle skirt attached to the band top. Then we added ribbon as straps and tied a bow at the shoulder. (Add the ribbon the same way as the tulle but at the top, on front and back). I also added a ribbon around the band to “stitch” the folded portion down. Simply weave the ribbon through the holes and tie a bow in the front.

Next we took candy garland apart and used the pieces as beads and made three new necklaces…easy peasy.

Lastly we made a fascinator, of course. By gathering some scraps of tulle, beading some left over “beads” from the garland and attaching the crown ornament all to a head band, we had the perfect candy queen fascinator.

Right before the halloween parade at school today we had a crown change. The fascinator “is not big enough.” Luckily I had an extra crown ornament and headband to make a big crown. All in all this is one of my favorite costumes for Kiddo- it is so her. Happy Halloween friends!

Sprinklings of my reality is a 31 day challenge…one day left!

Sprinklings: I’m slightly obsessed

October 28, 2013 | mollyeleen

So are you a “pinner”? I sure am. For those of you not in the know… I am talking about Pinterest. I have been thinking of writing about pinterest for awhile now, wasn’t really sure I was going to write because what can I say other than it is a time suck that I do enjoy. And I have been wanting to challenge you all to a Pinterest Challenge (more on that in a bit).

Today I realized I have 91 boards and 3,419 pins. I think Electronic hoarder is a better title for me. The good here is that I do reference my “vegan for life” board for recipes all the time. And the “to do one day” board- well I actually have done about 20% of them. “Boo” has given me a lot of ideas for this Halloween and I am looking forward to this Christmas to try some of the new ideas I have pinned there. (Sorry for the mention of Christmas- won’t happen again till after Thanksgiving…my personal rule).

The not so good…there are so many other things I want to try. I’m sure I am not alone here right? For me, lately, the only way to get anything done is to challenge myself and tell everyone I’m going to do it…nothing like a little peer pressure. So I challenge you to…if your game.

The challenge is pick 3 pins from 3 separate boards and complete them by December 20, 2013. Are you game?
Here is what I chose, this wasn’t easy by the way- but I am happy with my choices:

To find links to these awesome projects, you can go to my VP 3 Challenge Board.

So if you are game, let me know. Send me pic’s of your projects and I will post your completed projects. Maybe you would like to write a guest post, I am game for that too.

Sprinklings of my reality read them all

Sprinklings: eek seven days away

October 24, 2013 | mollyeleen

Oh my! How can Halloween be in a week? Needless to say I have been knee deep in tulle, glitter and baby spit up all day working on Kiddo’s costume. I’m not going to share what she is going to be, but I will give you a hint:

Any guesses? And now that Sneaky B is snoozing again, off to cut some more tulle…

(wow this is a short post, pretty much a cheat for the 31 day challenge, but I posted!)

Sprinklings: spider webs

October 4, 2013 | mollyeleen

So I was up until 1:30 this morning with poor Sneaky B. She had major gas and finally after a five-minute bout of farting, she passed out. Poor thing, she is so gassy, maybe because she snorts like a pig when she is hungry (I will find a way to share her piggy self with you, I know she will “appreciate” that when she’s older) and swallows air, who knows I’m just guessing at the parenting thing. Any-who-

When I’m tired I feel like hanging out at home and since it’s October and we wandered around the dollar store yesterday for Halloween decorations, we might as well get into the spirit and decorate at bit.

“Mommy we haven’t done art together in ages”- guilt ridden mama had to make time today to do some art with Kiddo. Oye I feel horrible. So with decorating on hold, it’s time to be creative with Kiddo. Remembering a project from decades ago, we gathered our supplies and got messy.

Pasta, Glitter Spider Webs

What you will need, very simply, pasta, glitter & glue.

Supplies: plastic plates or cardboard & plastic wrap, a large bowl and a bit of patience

First, Mama cooks some pasta, al-dente please. Added bonus- if your kid likes spaghetti cook extra from lunch, my kiddo always chokes on spaghetti so no added bonus for us today.

While the spaghetti is cooking, I drew a picture of a spider web on paper, to help kiddo out a bit, and covered it with plastic and Kiddo got “Fashy” to be creative.

When you have al-dente spaghetti let it cool then your ready to get messy!

Added the cooked spaghetti to the bowl, cover it with glue and glitter and mix it up with your hands. Then create spider webs on the plastic cardboard or plate. Add some extra glue and glitter why not, and then let them dry (this takes FOREVER! like 24 hours FOREVER). Once they are dry carefully pull them off the plastic and hang them up.

Pretty cute for a quick project, but more important got to spend time with Kiddo doing art.

This is part of the series Sprinklings of my reality, read them all now

“Sneaky B’s” Nursery!

July 24, 2013 | mollyeleen

I know you have been waiting on pins and needles to see our master closet turned into Sneaky B’s nursery so here you go!

So this space was originally our master closet, we will call it a master closet because it is attached to the master bedroom. Each side has a five foot opening to a six foot by two foot space of hanging clothes and behind the pink hanging fabric is a second door to the bathroom. About two years ago, we changed this space to be his and her’s offices, mine was on the left, Hubby’s on the right. When we did that, we added a wall to wall hanging closet system in the master bedroom (thank you ikea!).

Today it’s a super cute (I think) nursery space for our sneaky baby who is due to arrive in less than 20 days! Can you believe it? I sure can’t, most of the time…but then, that’s just a “due date” right? It’s anyones guess when she will decide she is ready to “pop on out of that belly” as Kiddo says.

So here is how it went down. After days of clearing out (a special thanks to my Mama who helped big time with this!) and collecting new and thrifted items, it was time to put everything together.

The starting point was the fabric that is hanging behind the crib, like wallpaper. I loved the colors, not really baby girl but still girly enough without being all pink. Next came the birds, for some reason I wanted birds in the nursery space. Confession time…I hate birds, chickens, feathered friends. I don’t want them close to me, I don’t like that they poop while they fly, I don’t want to touch the feathers Kiddo finds EVERYWHERE, I don’t mind looking at them from far away, but yuck I don’t like them, so why I needed to have birds in the nursery I have no idea. At least they don’t have feathers and these ones are cute.

Okay, so back to the space. I had to find a “mini” sized crib, and thanks to the internet, that was super easy. This one is DaVinci Emily Convertable Mini Crib in white, I found it at diapers.com.

The chair I found at Ikea, it’s not what I was originally thinking, something soft, cozy, white…but I sat in this and loved it. Done. The piece next to the chair and the dresser where thrifted. Happy day!

The dresser was very dark but fantastic quality, so a bit of white paint = super cute dresser! Kiddo helped out too, with painting the space, she is a pro now that she helped paint her room you know.

So there you have it, Sneaky B’s Nursery. And now we wait… we are so excited for the day Sneaky B “pops on out of this tummy!”

a date!

June 29, 2013 | mollyeleen

Not a romantic date with Hubby, unfortunately, but a reminder of one of the happiest days in our lives. I can’t take any credit for this idea because of course I saw it on pinterest, shocking I know. But I loved it and now, or very soon, it will be hanging somewhere in our home.

With all of the cleaning out and moving furniture around it was nice to be creative for an afternoon. It also helped that is was freaking hot here today! (Your out of control Mother Nature!) On any normal day, we would not be venturing out in this heat and being preggers, NO WAY… not even to the car thank you!

So here is what I did, so simple and effective. A few weeks ago I bought this “lovely” painting while out thrifting to use as a canvas for $2 – SCORE!

With a little white and gray paint, printed out numbers and some patience….

“Lovely” painting is now white and of course Kiddo was painting too, the only way to get anything creative done with a 4 year old, is to have something creative for her to do to, at least in this house.

Layout the numbers how you would like them, trace around cut out prints, calmly paint and….

I have a new painting to hang and a reminder of our wedding date! I do know where it’s going, but I can’t show you until I have the room completed, right now it’s a disaster of half moved office space, piles of donations and an overwhelming amount of stuff to figure out what to do with (toss it Molly!). But I will show you soon, geez we only have 6 weeks till Sneaky Baby is due to arrive, not much time left to get everything done!

Speaking of showing you the “after” photos, in the last post I mentioned the Kiddo’s big girl room was completed and I would be sharing….well, I found a new vanity for her, the one we made here, just wasn’t cutting it anymore and this new one is so cute. Once it’s finished being painted I will show your the awesome find and the big girl room!

Showered with love

June 24, 2013 | mollyeleen

Last week I was feeling the love and this week I was showered with love with another baby shower for this Sneaky baby of ours. What I lucky girl I am!

This weekend was a baby shower with friends. Let me tell you I have the best ones around. It was a beautiful day…perfect. Really I could go on and on, but one of my friends who threw the shower for me blogged about it already, so instead of reinventing the wheel, you can read all about it here 🙂

Okay…wasn’t that a truly “Martha” event… Love those ladies.

cousinlove — A rare moment of quite…. I think it lasted 15 minutes

We also had my Mama, Niece and Nephew stay over for the weekend. Wow! Three kids in our tiny place that is in the middle of rearranging and removing of crap, who are all so excited to see each other…. well let’s just say if I wasn’t preggers I would have been participating in the cocktails with Hubby and Mama for sure! It’s 5 o’clock somewhere! But truly I do love them, love seeing them and wish they lived closer!

The Kiddo’s room was updated last week too. One thing we did was a little art project Kiddo saw on Pinterest, )Yes my 4 year old Kiddo loves to look at Pinterest with me for projects to do… love her!) What she actually said was “I really, really, really want that in my Big Sister room.” Okay will do and we did. And it was easy….here are the steps:

First find simple images on the web of the princesses of choice, or anything for those without princess loving kiddos, and print them out. I enlarged the image, and printed each quarter of the image and typed it together.

Then cut out the image and tape on top of the final paper for your silhouette, tape a lot to hold the image in place. I used dark pink wrapping paper…shocking! If you are not super stealthy with cutting you might want to use a thicker paper, it might be a bit more forgiving.

Once the silhouette is cut out, double stick tape to your background paper, I used simple white poster board, frame and hang.

Super cute little girl, I mean Big Sister, art for pennies.

More of the Kiddo’s Big Sister room to come later this week, I know you are sitting at the edge of your seat to see it (giggle)…

Today brings an entire new….

May 12, 2013 | mollyeleen

meaning & a tutorial of sorts.

Happy Mama’s day to all the mama’s out there. It’s extra special for me. The shock of the wonderful surprise of having a baby in a few months has finally worn off. Don’t get me wrong, I am still very overwhelmed at times, but so giddy it’s ridiculous I can honestly say when I was preggo with Kiddo, I loved feeling her kick, but now with Sneaky-B it’s an entire new level of love. That is to say, I never thought I would feel a baby kicking in my belly again. As the mama’s know it’s an awesome feeling and I am more than ever cherishing every little movement Sneaky-B has.

Today I got to spend the morning at the Antique Flea Market in Sacramento with my good friends and my mama. It’s was so much fun! Why hadn’t I gone to this before? I don’t know, it might have to become my monthly mama outing. Here’s what I scored:

I have been looking for a coo-coo clock for quite some time, don’t really know why, but I have always wanted one. Am very excited about it. The coo-coo clock and the mailbox will both be getting a facelift, you know I will share the outcome with you. For today, I have a simple paper rosette award to show you.

I made this little canvas for my mama for today. I think it turned out cute and she loved it. Happy Day. Here are the steps to make the paper rosette for the award.

Start by cutting out a few strips of paper. The width should be half of the size you want your completed rosette to be. For example, I wanted my finished rosette to be 3 inches across, so each strip is 1 1/2″ wide. The length is really up to you, the longer it is the fuller the rosette will look. Here I used 8″ paper, so over all I had 24″. Accordion fold each strip folding back and forth about a 1/4″ wide folds. Glue the accordion stips together to form one piece. Let that dry for a few minutes then glue into a cylinder (see left photo below).

Now that you have let your accordion cylinder dry for a few minutes, take a scrap of paper, smaller than your final size rosette will be, add some glue to this. Pinch in the top of the cylinder and gently push down… waa-la…you have an paper rosette. Carefully lift this up and set in on top of the paper scrap with glue. Set something a bit heavy on top of rosette to keep it in place while it dries, I use the glue bottle.

When it’s dry, add some cute cut outs, buttons, reinstones, whatever you want…ta da… a super cute paper rosette award.

Thanks for reading this random mama’s day post… it’s a bit all over the place, kind of like me lately.

molly b

creating, stitching, designing, thrifting

Crafting