Potpour-wreath!!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve everyone!!  Are you looking for a quick and easy last minute Christmas craft?  How about a do-it-yourself "potpour-wreath"?  It's decorative AND scented! 

This idea came to me the other day when I received a bag of potpourri in a gift exchange.  I liked how "chunky" it looked and enjoyed the different shapes within the bag.  It wasn't just made of hardened petals.

I found a grapevine wreath at Wal-Mart for $3.50.  Originally I had envisioned using an evergreen style wreath but could only find the grape vine style.  But now that I've completed the potpour-wreath, I'm glad I used the grape vine style wreath because of the rustic style of potpourri in general.  I think the potpourri went better with the grapevine overall than it wold have the evergreen style wreath.

I found a nice big red velvet like bow to go on top.  It was only $.97 at Wal-Mart!  Since the potpourri was a gift, I'm not sure what the cost was.  But you can find potpourri just about anywhere for next to nothing.  Just make sure you get a bag with interesting pieces and some good "big chunks".

This bag had nice big flowers, little flowers (perfect for filling in spots and getting the "trickle over" effect to spread things out), spiral shaped thingies, and fruit shaped pieces!

I had a silver cord "embellishment" --I love that word--left over from my craft night where I made the chalkboard cookie sheets, see last blog.  I found these for $1 at The Dollar Tree.  This made a nice wrap around.  A ribbon would have also been nice.  I really liked how the silver cord looked, however.  Again I think it was the overall rustic and chunky look of the wreath that contributes to this.  To me a ribbon seems more suited to traditional styles and flowers.  I wanted something different.

I trimmed off some of the wild jutting out vines that grabbed everything that passed it and tempted the cats too much.  I didn't want to put any one's eye out either!  I could just see someone bending in to smell the potpour-wreath and POKE!  OUCH!  Safety first!

I then separated the big chunks from the little chunks in the potpourri.  I was a little disappointed the the potpourri wasn't Christmas scented.  I guess I just assumed that it was since it was red.  If that's important to you and your wreath, you might remember to check the fragrance first!

With my trusty glue gun in hand, I set about affixing the bow first, then twined the silver decorative cord around the wreath.  This part was somewhat difficult due tot he fact that the viney things kept wanting to grab at the cord and any time I had to unwind it and re-adjust it there were some snags.  It was easy to cover them up with glued on potpourri though.

Then came the fun part!  Selecting and gluing on the potpourri pieces to the wreath was the most fun.  It was almost cathartic standing there, arranging, deciding what looked good where....the way a good craft should be!  I started out with the biggest chunks and main pieces, then worked in the smaller pieces to fill in and blend.

I went for an asymmetrical design, with the main cluster to the right hand side of the wreath, below the bow.  I like an off-centered looking wreath myself.  Again, maybe this looked best to me due to the intentionally imperfect nature of the materials.

I even used some of the better-looking dried petal pieces.  This particular bag was good about having larger ones and a nice twirly shape to them.

Overall, I enjoyed creating my potpour-wreath very much!  I will enjoy giving it to my aunt for Christmas day after tomorrow.

Merry Christmas and enjoy!!!  Happy DIYing!!!!!
--Amy the DIY Monkey

Hummus for the holidays!

Last night I made my famous homemade hummus for our Christmas party.  It has now become a given that I make my hummus when there's any kind of a pitch-in or a get-together of any sort.

I really don't remember where I originally found the recipe, but I've thrown in some variations from time to time.  Hummus is a very easy and very delicious chick pea based dip.  It's great with pita bread and pita chips, tortilla chips (soft or crunchy), or veggies.

The first time I made it, I opened up my cans of chick peas (AKA garbanzo beans) and poured them in a bowl.  I thought I'd use the hand mixer to mash them up.  BIG mistake!  I was finding chick peas all over my kitchen for days!!  They're really bouncy and buoyant little suckers!!

So, first off you need either a blender or a food processor.   I just use a blender, because I do not have a food processor.

Here are the basic ingredients:

2  cans of chick peas or garbanzo beans (about 15 oz. cans each)
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
2-3 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste)
3-4 fresh garlic cloves

You can find the chick peas anywhere.  I've found them at Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Meijer.  They're in the canned vegetables/beans section.

The olive oil is in any grocery store too.  It's usually in the baking aisle with the other cooking oils.

The tahini is the most mysterious of ingredients.  So far I've only found it at Meijer in the "specialty foods/international foods" section.  It's a tall, narrow glass jar.  It looks like a light brown/beige kind of color.

Of course, garlic is always in the produce.  It's usually next to the onions.

Everything is pretty inexpensive.  The chick peas are around $1 per can.  The olive oil is around $3.  The tahini is the most expensive part, usually around $5, but it lasts the longest.  If you keep it refrigerated it lasts months, see the expiration dates on the packaging but you should be able to get at least 4 or 5 batches out of it, if not more.

Directions:

Drain 1 can of the chick peas and not the other can, you'll need the "juice" for consistency (of course this is according to your own taste and you can adjust it)

Place chick peas and the allotted juice in a blender

Add the tahini and olive oil

Add the garlic cloves, I use a mincer, it looks like a nutcracker where you place the peeled garlic clove in a well and push it through a screen (be ready to smell it in your house for a while though)

Place the lid on the blender (trust me the beans bounce) and blend until desired consistency is achieved.  I like mine medium smooth, no chunks, but not too liquidy, again it's according to taste


I often times will add a little salt and pepper to taste as well.  Other things you can do include:

Red pepper flakes (like you put on pizza) about 1-2 tablespoons
Parmesan cheese (again, like on pizza) about 1-2 tablespoons

There are many variations you can create with hummus.  I've read about spinach being added too.  I think I'll give that a try sometime.

I plan to play around more with my hummus and will advise you on how it turned out (or didn't turn out).  If you have any good hummus variations, please send them my way!

The good thing about hummus.....it's relatively healthy!  The most high calorie or high fat item involved is the olive oil or tahini and there's very little of each.

Enjoy!

There's no place like home for the holidays.

Hello everyone!  Welcome to my first blog posting ever!  I had a great weekend full of crafts and parties and can't wait to share some of the great things I've learned.

My husband and I are enjoying our first Christmas in our newly-built home.  Being a crafty-girl and a party-girl, I couldn't wait to make our first Christmas memories with some great friends, fun crafts, delicious recipes, and a fun party!  I think I was able to accomplish them all!

Friday night was "craft night" with some friends.  Until we have children, one of our spare bedrooms is going to be my "craft room".  However, we decided to do our crafts downstairs so that we could enjoy a little traditional Christmas movies while making our creations.  Luckily, my kitchen, nook, and family room are all open to each other so it was perfect!  I also really appreciated the electric kitchen island, perfect for glue guns!

I decided to create cookie sheet chalkboards that can be hung on refrigerators and can hold magnets.  I think these might make some cute Christmas gifts.  I've seen these a few places and like that you can decorate them many ways and that they are a practical decoration as well.  You can write on them with chalk and use magnets on them.  This can take the boring out of "we need milk" when you get to write it on your own super fun decorative chalkboard!

I decided that one one of the chalkboards, I'd paint a snowman then I could make magnets for the hat, gloves, buttons, etc.  This way you can "decorate" the snowman with the magnets.

On one of the other chalkboards, I thought it might be cute to paint on a Christmas tree where the ornaments are the magnets.  This would allow you to "decorate" the Christmas tree too!

I made the magnets from some Christmas erasers I found at The Dollar Tree.  They're Santa heads and reindeer heads, and I think some snowflakes in there too. So my chalkboards have lots of little Santa heads floating around on them, but it did turn out cute.

I also bought some art foam at Wal-Mart to cut out different things.  I used this to make the snowman top hat and gloves, etc

One of the other ones ended up being a "cookie sheet" with the magnets being the "cookies".  One of my friends brought a big 'ole tray of "cookie" ornaments that you roll out and bake and cut out just like regular cookies!  But you don't want to eat them, she was nice enough to stop me before making that mistake.  I'll post that recipe for you later because you can use that for all holidays should you have the cookie cutter or talent to free-hand some cupids or bunnies...anyway I digress....  She shared a few cookie ornaments with me which I painted and made into magnets.  These became my "cookies" on the cookie sheet!





The last one I just decided a "Santa's List" would be cute. Then one could use it as a festive grocery list or phone number list....list of things to do..whatever!  It just popped into my head when I was standing there staring at the last blank cookie sheet at 2 in the morning, and was determined to decorate them all!

I ffinalized a few of them with some silver and gold cords, pine cone thingies, and just some various little things I found at The Dollar Tree that I thought might look good glued to a cookie sheet!  This is the part I enjoy because you can just eyeball what you find that's within your budget and think of ways to use it. 

Where did I get my supplies?

I went to two places to gather supplies, The Dollar Tree (this is one of those "everything is $1 stores, if you don't have a Dollar Tree in your area, you probably have some sort of $1 store).  There I gathered whatever "dimensional embellishments" I could at $1 each.

I also found some acrylic paint and brushes here.  I would recommend getting something larger than this little row of paint wells, however.  I ended up using some of my friend's paint.  But again, that's what's so great about crafting together, other than the fun, is getting to share each other's stuff!

I also found cookie sheets at The Dollar Tree, but they were pretty small.  The next time I make these, I may spring for larger sheets.

The I went to Wal-Mart for the chalkboard paint, magnets, and for the "decoration" accessory magnets.

Supplies and cost:

Cookie Sheet, $1 each at The Dollar Tree

Chalkboard Paint, $3.97 at Wal-Mart

Chalk, $.96 at Wal-Mart

Magnets, $1.97 for 18 adhesive backed discs, and $1.97 for adhesive backed strips, at Wal-Mart

Paint, $1 at The Dollar Tree

Various seasonal and decorative "embellishments, $1 each at The Dollar Tree

More Dollar Tree embellishments.....

Paint brushes, $1 at the Dollar Tree also, but you'll need a wider brush for the chalkboard paint, I already had that on-hand

Art Foam, $3.47 at Wal-Mart, and I still have tons left for other projects

Christmas erasers, $1 at The Dollar Tree, made the "floating head" magnets!  They were the perfect size for the pre-cut magnet disks too

Any troubleshooting?

When I get together with my friends to make crafts, I want something that is easy and doesn't require a lot of materials. Who wants to spend a lot of time running around getting what they need to make what they're going to make?  And who wants to take time out from your girl-time to stop and go get supplies?  It's best to have it all on hand and ready to go so you can just enjoy the fun and the company.

Having said this, I learned a lesson with this one that I think is important to share.  Get your cookie sheets and paint them with the chalkboard paint a couple of days BEFORE you plan to decorate them.  They take a while to dry and if you are like me, you're impatient and want to jump to the fun stuff when you're with your friends.

The chalkboard paint, found in the craft aisle at Wal-Mart, not in the hardware paint section, recommends 2 coats.  They recommend an hour of drying time in between the two coats, AND 24 hours of curing time after the second coat! 

I couldn't wait to begin the fun part and began to place magnets on the paint because it felt dry to the touch.  Well, now I have to go back and repair the chips that occurred when I removed the magnets only to find the paint stuck to the magnet back and hole in the paint where silver cookie sheet is peeking through!

Another pitfall to avoid is to make sure you secure the backs of the cookies sheets with an ample amount of Domagnets if you plan to hang them on the refrigerator this way.  Do not rely on the adhesive backing to secure the back of the cookie sheet to the refigerator.  You must glue them on with a glue gun.  The added decorations will add much weight to the sheet and if not properly secured...BAM!  They fall to the floor and there you are repairing again.  Yes....I was again impatient and overlooked this vital step.  I'll be spending some time today repairing....  :(

Needless to say, I'm more about thinking of the ideas and making variations on them.  I'm not so much a very good engineer of the mechanics of it all.  So assuming there's someone out there that's like me, these are some things for you to consider. 

This was lots of fun and I'm left with enough paint for at least one more cookie sheet.  I am left with quite a bit of other supplies and embellishments such as magnets and foam.  Perhaps my refrigerator will need some cupids and hearts soon then?????

Happy DIY'ing everyone!!!  And Merry Christmas!!!  Happy holidays!!!!