Work Table

I love Pinterest! I am getting so many neat ideas from the site but it also motivates me to do them. I have been in need of a work table for years. Since I have my own upholstery business, I really needed one. I had designed one in my head but never got around to doing it. Then I saw a work table on Pinterest that motivated me to make one. Well, I should say, get my husband to make me one! He is a busy man, so the best way to get one was to tell him that I wanted one for Christmas.

The table on Pinterest used book shelves as the end bases and then the table top was made out of doors. I bought 4 shelving units from Menards; two have cubbyholes and two have straight shelves

Here is my sweet husband putting the shelving together.


He then screwed the units together and put two 30" doors for the top. He anchored the doors to the units to make it sturdy.
Here is the end with the book shelf units. I also ordered a cutting mat to fit the top. I ordered the size 5' X 8' and then we had to cut it down to fit.

Here is the other end with the cubbyhole units.



I had him add a lower shelf between the two ends so I would have a place to store all my rolls of fabric. The pinterest table was made with shorter shelving but I really like it tall. I am only 5'4" but I can either just sit on the bar stools or when I am standing and measuring/cutting fabric, I do not have to lean over so really saves on my back.



The final touch was adding a grid under the cutting mat. It is AWESOME! It is so easy to measure and cut when I have this grid. I used permanent marker to write measurements so it is easy to measure out my fabric.



And here it is! I LOVE IT! I can't even begin to tell you how fun it is to do projects on it. I will be blogging about the Roman shades I made (another Pinterest idea) and let me tell you, doing it on this work table was a joy!

Snowmen Cookies

I love Pinterest! There are so many great ideas on it and here is one. It is snowmen cookies and here is the site to go to on how to make them: http://www.crazydomestic.com/2010/12/melted-snowman-cookies.html

I used store bought sugar cookie dough as one site recommended to do which made it so easy. I shaped them into balls and flattened down and into a shape to resemble a puddle.

This is royal frosting that I made to give the melting snow effect; bought the Wilton Meringue power mix at Hobby Lobby to make the royal frosting.

Once the frosting is on, microwave large marshmallows for about 20 seconds or just until they start to puff up. Make sure you use lots of shortening on the wax paper that you put the marshmallows on. Also, use a lot on your hands as you pick up the marshmallows to put on the cookies. Decorate with frosting and here they are! Turned out so cute and they are tasty too!

Heavenly Potatoes

Another Pinterest success!! These potatoes were a huge hit all around. I just used a regular baking potato, sliced it in thin strips, making sure not to cut all the way through. This makes the accordion shape. I then put butter between each slice, topped with olive oil - to give the skin that nice crunch, added garlic salt, pepper, and topped with coarse sea salt. They were put in the oven at 425 for over an hour. Delicious!!!

Sheets in a Pillowcase

I must confess. I am addicted to Pinterest!!! I could spend hours just scrolling through all the wonderful ideas and pictures that are out there. My husband was a little less than enthused with my new hobby, that is until I made one of the recipes that I found on that incredible little sight, which I will post about later. :) All of a sudden, even he was a huge fan.

Anyways, one of the ideas that I found and tried was the folding sheets and putting them in one of the pillow cases. I have never liked the way a fitted sheet looks when folded. Even if I do all the tricks to make it look like it's flat partner, it just has a messy feel.

So I tried the sheets in pillowcase thing last time I washed my sheets and I have to say, I love it! It looks even better in my linen closet. Also, I don't have to worry if I have all the pieces to the sheet set when I go to make the bed, because they are neatly contained in the pillow case. Thanks Pinterest!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Madelyn

Emily wanted a birthday shirt for Maddy's 2nd birthday which is coming up on Nov. 22. I found a cute skirt on the 75% off rack at The Children's Place that ended up only costing $6.00. I bought two skirts so that I would have one to cut up to use in the applique. Here is her 2 yr. old shirt.

And now the total outfit with the cute corduroy skirt.

I decided to do another shirt that was not personalized so later her baby sister will get to wear it. Also, thought that she would wear the skirt more if it had a neutral shirt to go with it. I also took some extra material and made rosettes for her hair that I hot glued hair clips to them.

Grandchildren Thanksgiving Shirts

Thanks to Pinterest, I got this cute idea to make Thanksgiving shirts for some of the grandchildren. It is done with ribbon and applique; and was very time consuming. I do hope they enjoy wearing them because they are made with love from Grandma!

Fall Fruit Arrangement

I was asked to bring fresh fruit to a lunch the other day. I decided to be festive and instead of a bowl of fresh fruit, I put them on wooden skewers. I wanted to be fancy so came up with this idea to display the fruit. My original idea was to use a decorative squash to set on top of pitcher with the wooden sticks stuck into it. As you can see in picture, the squash became a part of my fall decoration, as it proved to be too hard to stick the skewers into it. So when that failed, I took a piece of Styrofoam and put it in the top of pitcher.
The only thing I would do different is not to assemble until I got to the lunch location. It proved to be hard to travel in this condition.