Cadbury Egg Popcorn

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So, it's no secret that I am a huge popcorn lover.  I eat popcorn as a snack at least once a week, if not more.  Check out my Scotcharoos Popcorn and Microwave Caramel Popcorn for more of my favorite recipes.  This easy recipe is a fun seasonal variation of the simple popcorn/candy coating mix.  Throw Cadbury Mini Eggs in anything, and you can bet I will eat it.  I've even substituted them for the chocolate chips in my Manntastic Chocolate Chip Cookies.  That was a good idea.

It's so simple I can hardly call it a recipe, but here we go!  For a treat to share with a group, I'd double this.

Cadbury Egg Popcorn
1 bag microwave popcorn or 1/3 c. unpopped kernels
6 oz. white candy coating (a.k.a. almond bark, but not white chocolate chips)
5 oz. Cadbury Mini Eggs candy (1/2 normal size bag)

First off, pop your popcorn, either in the microwave or with an air popper, then add to a large mixing bowl.  Put your Cadbury eggs in a ziptop baggie and whack it with a rolling pin or hammer, so that each egg is at least broken in half.  You don't need to go crazy here, just make sure that you don't have any whole eggs.

Add the broken candy eggs to the popcorn bowl and set that aside.  Next, melt your candy coating in 30-second intervals in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth.  If your coating came in a block like mine, make sure you chop it up into 1-inch cubes before melting.  Once the coating is all melted and smooth, pour it over the popcorn and Cadbury egg mixture.

Stir or fold everything together to combine.  I have found that folding the melted coating into the popcorn is the best method to evenly distribute the coating and keep the popcorn mostly intact.  When everything is evenly coated, pour out onto a jellyroll pan (cookie sheet with lipped edges) and let cool.  Once the candy coating is hardened, which shouldn't take long, break it up and you are ready to enjoy.

And believe me, you will enjoy!

Linked: TT&J

Sweet Scallops and Christmas Bells Fabric Swatches

Sweet Scallops (Boy)

These are the rest of the fabric swatches that I got in my last order from Spoonflower.  It's always so fun to see how my designs print up.  The scallop fabric turned out particularly well, in my opinion.  I tried two different colorways this time around, boy and girl, thinking that they would make great baby prints, but they could definitely work for older kids and other projects.

Sweet Scallops (Girl)

I also finally got a print of my Christmas Bells fabric.  It turned out as expected, which is always a good thing.  I'm not sure what to do with it, besides make a holiday quilt.

I Heard the Bells

This morning, I finished the zippered pillow I was talking about on Tuesday, so I will be able to post a new tutorial for it next week.

St. Patrick's Day Lucky Charm Printable

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It's time again for the free printable of the month!  Everyone needs a lucky charm for St. Patrick's Day, and it doesn't get easier than this.  With the scalloped background, this one looks a lot better in a frame.  You can either get a document frame, or just grab an 8"x10" frame and trim the paper down, which is what I did.  I took 1/4" off each side and 1/2" off both the top and bottom to fit it in the frame.

As always, my printables are free, but please give credit where credit is due.  To download the printable, click on the image.  It will take you to a new page, where you can right-click and save the photo.  Then, just print the image the original size, and it will be ready for use.  You can frame it, put it in a tabletop easel, hang with clothespins, or whatever else you can come up with!  Any questions or requests?  Send me an email or just leave a comment.

 Linked up: Six Sisters Stuff, Classy Clutter, Tatertots & Jello

New Bird and Houndstooth Throw Pillows

Decorative pillows can be so expensive to buy, and sometimes it's hard to find exactly what you want.  I love being able to customize the look of my home by creating my own pillow covers.  The task can be a scary if you have never tried it before, but if you can sew a straight line you can make pillow covers.  This isn't a tutorial so much as a lookie-what-I-did post, but I think it can be inspiring nonetheless. 

For the pillow on the right, I used most of the fat quarter linen canvas print of my large-print brown/black houndstooth fabric and was able to get a 16"x16" cover from that, with a little bit to spare (my hope is that I can use the remainder to make a new wallet).  The back is just plain black cotton fabric that I had on-hand from my cherry blossom pillow covers.  I also did my first zippered pillow cover with this, using this cheesy video riddled with product placement as a surprisingly instructional guideline.

I got a yard of KAS's Oslo Amethyst home decor fabric (the bird print) for my birthday a few months ago, and I have been dying to use it for something.  Our sectional came with three big pillows, and I decided it was finally time to replace them.  I found 20"x20" down pillow inserts for a great price at IKEA, and I found the backer fabric as a remnant at Joann. 

I was able to get three 18"x18" covers out of the fabric I had, and I still have a bit of that left as well.  For the closure on this pillow, I did two slightly overlapping pieces on the back and two big buttons.

I just love how much it has brightened up my couch area!  Plus, I got to pull in some of the purple accents I have been slowly working into my family room since I painted the hallway purple.  The color of the hall (and hopefully soon, laundry room) is actually pretty close to the purple in the pillows.

Next on the list?  A pillow for the new bench in our bedroom.  This one is a really fun shape and a predictably "me" print.  It will also have a zipper.  Would anyone be interested in seeing a tutorial for that?

Houndstooth Fabric Test Swatches

I love getting mail from Spoonflower.  I designed a simple houndstooth pattern for my mom, so we could do custom colors of brown and black.  I also printed a fat quarter of the pattern large-scale on linen canvas to make either a pillow for my couch or a new wallet, or both if I am lucky.  I also tried out a few other fun color combos in small-scale.  Two of the color combos had to be tweaked, so I don't have the samples of them yet.  However, the Orange Dream version turned out really well the first time:

This is an 8"x8" test swatch on the new Kona cotton.  Love it!

This last photo is the brown/black combo in a full yard printed in the small scale.

I am really excited to get started on some projects with my new fabric!  These designs are also available to the public for order.  You can get brown/black large scale, brown/black small scale, orange/white, jade/grey, and aqua/butter.  I also got some other test swatches that I'll be showing off early next week.

Yellow and Green Bird Birthday Cake

My oldest gal turned three last week, and when I asked her what she wanted for her party, she said a green bird cake and yellow balloons.  I had been wanting to try a tiered cake, so I figured this was the perfect time.  It was a little bit of an ordeal, but only because my Kitchenaid stalled on me while I was making the fondant!  It's not something that should happen with a stand mixer, but mine has always been a little bit wonky.  Which is sad, since I really like it otherwise.

I had to finish kneading the fondant by hand, which wasn't my favorite.  Since my mixer was overheated and I had scheduled myself so tightly on party prep, I had my husband pick up a giant tub of decorating icing from the store.  I usually make my own frosting for my cakes, but given the situation this was a great alternative.  The frosting was surprisingly tasty and creamy, and lots of people asked about it.  I piped it on as the polka dots on the green fondant ribbons and as the nest for the green fondant bird on top.

For support, I used bamboo skewers in the bottom layer.  I didn't do cardboard under the top layer, since it was only 6" rounds, but it did sink about a half an inch.  Next time, I will do both bamboo and cardboard for extra support.  I used this recipe for a beefed-up chocolate cake from a mix, and it was a huge hit as well.  The only thing that I did differently was to leave out the chocolate chips, since this cake was for little kids.  This recipe is a real keeper, though, and next time I will add the choco chips.  With the leftover batter, I also made a bunch of cupcakes, since I just can't help myself.

I made the cupcake toppers with the print and cut feature on my Silhouette.  I love that I can create my own design, print it out, and then cut the printed page.  And no, I don't get anything for saying that I love it (although I wouldn't turn it down. . .).  I ordered the cupcake liners, thinking they were greaseproof.  They were definitely not, but I just popped another one over them and they still looked super cute.

DIY Farmhouse Headboard

 

We finished our new headboard!  Well, I should say that Chris finished our new headboard.  Aside from me helping him hold things tight during assembly, he did all the work.

It was an easy build, with plans from Ana White.  We adapted the plans to make the headboard a few inches wider, and we didn't make the whole bed with footboard and side rails.  Since we already had a bed frame, we just attached the headboard to that.

I love how it turned out.  We used a black stain instead of solid black paint.  The difference is subtle, but it adds another dimension to the piece.  After staining, we did a clear coat of polyurethane.  We only did one coat since this is more for show than actual use, but for a table or chairs, I would do at least two coats and maybe three for extra durability. 

As you can see in the photos, I've redone our letters to resemble Anthropologie's Oversized Zinc Letters.  I'll share the easy fix in another post next week.  They will eventually hang on the wall above the headboard, but right now I am working on a new central piece to replace the fencing.  Once that is done, I will be able to hang everything above the bed.

Felt Flower Grapevine Wreath

As some of you know, I have this grapevine wreath that I got with a plan to reincarnate it all the time.  It's been a fall wreath and a winter wreath chandelier, then it took a break in my closet for about a year.  During that time, I tried out some other kinds of wreaths and door decor, like the tulle wreath, candy corn hanger, and red feather wreath.

Here it is again!  It's about time I busted this thing out.  This go-round, I was going for a more season-neutral theme, to a point.  I didn't want something that I would necessarily have to take down because a certain season just ended, but I also don't plan to leave it up all year.

While I was making these felt flowers, I thought that some of them would make really cute hair clips for my girls.  So, in the spirit of interchangeable wreath, I just put each flower on its own clip, so now I can rearrange the flowers and use them as hair clips when we're ready to switch things out again.  I can also switch out the color scheme very easily.

I found a bunch of super easy tutorials for the flowers from Craftiness is not Optional.  I used the rolled felt flowers, scalloped mini flowers, and the layered felt flowers.  I also threw in a simple spiral flower, similar to the ones I did on the modern baby shoes.

Another thing that I added to the wreath that you can't see in the photo is a felt lining on the back.  This is the only wreath I have that scratches my front door's paint, so I cut one-inch strips of black felt and hot glued them all the way around the wreath on the back, so they created a big circle.  It's great, because now I don't wince every time someone opens the door!

I was pleasantly surprised at the easiness of this project.  Seriously, felt is so forgiving, and I was able to do all of these in one day.  I recommend using wool felt.  It is much thicker, looks higher-end, and comes in so many cool colors.  I found mine at a quilt shop.  All I needed was about four sheets of felt, a glue gun, and some hair clips to make these (all of which I had on-hand).  These flowers would make great accents to girls' headbands or even as a gift bow.

Linked up: Tatertots & Jello