Link Love No.29!

Hi everyone, how was your weekend? I bet many of you had a wonderful time on Halloween. It all started on Friday, I had a Halloween parade to attend at my kid's school, after the parade, I went to three different class parties for each one of my children. Around 3 o`clock, there was a company Halloween party at my husband`s work. Then, there was a church party to go to. It was a great day, well, especially for the kids.

Now it is November; are you ready to switch gears for Thanksgiving? I am planning a "Thanksgiving giveaway" like I did last year, so start looking around for the blessings in your lives! :)

I have five links that I am going to spotlight for this week.

There is always something new to learn every week. Have you ever heard of "Paintable textured wall paper"? Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom used this paintable wall paper and did wonders to her stairwell wall. Isn't it pretty?


Simply Step Back used a men's Sweater to make a cute tunic top for herself! I think the new sweater fits her well and is very pretty.


Jcrew inspired floral ruffle top was linked by Welcome to the Good Life. There are many t-shirt repurposings out there, and I think this is one of my favorites! I want this top for myself!


Check out this well put together tutorial for a flirty flower pin by Twelve Crafts Till Christmas. I bet many of you are starting to thinking about Christmas presents for your friends and family (yes I am one of them). I think it is so cute by it self or as a part of the wrpping of a gift for Christmas.


Creating Comfort shared some amazing furniture redos. She has an eye for transforming something plain into something beautiful...Great job!


Usually, I do five spotlights... but I had to share this one for Halloween next year.
I was going through the links, and the title, "Ghost Poop", caught my eye... "What is that?" I thought. So I went to Can`t Stop Making Things. Isn't it so fun and clever?!


Thank you all for sharing your awesomeness (is that even a word?). Have a great start of the week everyone!

Fall Gingerbread and Transferware

One of my favorite fall breads is gingerbread. There's just something about ginger, cinnamon, cloves and rich molasses that make it so delicious.

I love to pair fall foods with my brown transferware. I'm certain it makes everything taste better.

I purchased the transferware several years ago when I came across them at Home Goods. I bought twelve bowls, salad plates, and dinner plates as I thought they would make wonderful Thanksgiving dinner ware.

This is what the pattern looks like. I love the birds with the flower adornment.

This is the mark on the back.

This monogrammed 'B' silverplate was my Grandmother's everyday ware, but I keep it tucked away for special occasions. I actually found an entire set of this pattern at a flea market, but without the monogram. I wonder where one would bring silverware these days for monogramming?

Gingerbread Recipe:

2 cups organic all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 cup low-fat organic buttermilk

1/2 cup organic sugar

1/2 cup organic molasses

1/4 cup organic low-fat milk

1/4 cup organic canola oil

2 large organic eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray.

Combine flour through cloves in a large bowl with whisk. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk through eggs and stir with whisk. Pour into flour mixture, stirring until moist.

Bake for 45 minutes or until done. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes and then remove from pan. Enjoy.

Happy last weekend of October to you! xo

Polka-Dots

My friend's nine-year-old daughter got the chance to have a say in the re-decoration of her bedroom. The theme:

Polka-Dots!!

And, since she's a very good friend, I got my chance to help!

Her very talented husband was tasked with creating a daybed with a round back board. I got to help with upholstering the headboard, and covering it with dots. First he cut three different sizes of circles from some 1/4" board. He has lots of handy tools to do things like that (and yes, I'm jealous). The tool leaves two tiny holes in the middle of each circle, and we used those like buttonholes, stringing wire through each set.

Next we cut a circle of batting the size of the wood, and then a circle of fabric a couple of inches larger.

Using a handy-dandy staple gun, we then stapled the fabric to the back of the wood circle.

It helps to staple North/South/East/West first, and then fill in the rest.


Ta-da! A cute little padded dot.


Oooh, look! LOTS of cute padded dots!

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We laid the dots out on the headboard to get an idea of placement. Then we drilled holes in the headboard for each dot. The headboard was then covered with thick batting and white duck cloth.

Next we had to string all those wires from the dots through the front of the headboard, finding the holes in order to get out the other side! That step was lots of fun.

Here's what it looks like with all the wires sticking out the back side. Notice the neat and even pleating of the headboard fabric all the way around. We're very proud of that :-).


We use pliers to pull the wires straight, then bent them to the side and stapled them in.
Bent the wires in another direction, and stapled them one more time.
They ain't movin', baby!

C. (that's the daughter) got to help by pounding in the staples and any loose wire ends.


Naturally we had to get an idea of what it looked like half-way through...


But then, here it is, all completed! C. looks pleased!


Obviously we chose to use lots of different fabrics, incorporating C.'s chosen colors of pink, purple, with a little green and turquoise thrown in. Plus it helped us use up our respective stashes (but not by much).

It was several weeks later when the bed was completed and assembled, but....here it is!

See the cute polka-dot panels on the ends?

The ends of the bed are actually bookshelves (they face out), and the panels are the back side of the bookshelves, padded and polka-dotted like the headboard.

Yes, I know the bed's not made. If you have a nine-year-old in your house, you should understand!

I also helped with the painting. Two walls and the ceiling are purple. Reeaaallly purple. The other two walls are pink. Reaallly pink!

I covered the shades on the ceiling fan in some polka-dot material...


...and I painted two garage-sale lamps pink and covered the shades for those as well. Hmm... they're supposed to have multi-colored yo-yos on them too! I made them...I'll have to ask my friend what happened to them...


Fun room, don't you think? And I'm not really complaining about the color. You should see my daughter's room...it's NEON green, also with polka dots!

Taste of the season ~ Butternut Squash Soup ~

I have been in a cooking mood lately. I have tried some new recipes, and also I have been experimenting with the pressure cooker. It is fun.

Several days ago, I made this butternut squash soup. I have been wanting to make a "fall soup", and when I was at the grocery store, I bought a butternut squash impulsively. Without knowing exactly what am I going to do with it.

I googled "Butternut Squash Soup" and read many recipes and reviews (well, I didn't want to waste the squash...). I found a recipe here. It sounded easy and tasty, also, it got so many positive reviews. I had to try it.

Mmmm... It turned out good. It was so yummy.

I tweaked the recipe a little, instead of cutting it small and boil it, I cut the squash in half and baked it. Also, I used sour cream instead of cream cheese, because I didn't have any. The soup was very thick. I think I am going to make it slightly runnier next time, but I loved the taste.

It is getting cold, what have you been cooking in your kitchen lately?

Decisions, Decisions

I finally had some time to search for drapery fabric for my living room redo. While there were an overwhelming number of choices, I ended up with two of my favorites - silk and linen. I am having a hard time deciding between the two as both options would work wonderfully. Hopefully you can help!

Before I show you the drapery fabric choices, however, I wanted to share another development in this room which may sway your opinion. During my search, I fell in love with this fabric:

I have already made two large pillows – one for each of the chairs. I loved the graphic nature and playful quality of the large print. The color picks up the red in the Rosmaling plate and helps coordinate this space with other rooms in my house.

Now back to the curtain fabric options.

Choice number one is a blue/gray silk - the top fabric sample shown below - from Calico Corners.

Silk fits with the feel of the room and the color plays beautifully off the foyer rug just outside the door. My hesitations with this option are twofold. First, I don’t want to make the room too formal. Second, gray is such a popular color at the moment, I don’t want the room to feel dated in a few years.

Choice number two, also from Calico Corners, is off-white slubby linen banded with navy blue slubby linen.

This option is safe and classic. I don’t think I would ever grow tired of white and navy curtains. My hesitation here is with the red and white pillows the room may feel too nautical – red, white and blue.

This is going to be a hard decision as I truly love them both.

What would you do?

Link Party 29 and Family Trip

I have been working on a couple of jewelries lately, but I haven’t gotten around to taking pictures of them. I promise; it’s coming soon! Meanwhile, I am going to share some of the pictures from out family trip from a couple weeks ago.

Bryce Canyon… It was so pretty. I have seen it before, but it was still breath taking.


Pretty acorns… looking at them and the gigantic rocks & squirrels made me think of the movie “Ice Age” (have you seen that movie? It is one of our family’s favorites and very funny too).


I was thinking that; (maybe somewhere in this canyon, a squirrel is trying to squeeze an acorn between rocks or something. Then, that would cause the rocks to tumble down the mountain… uh, I hope they don’t fall on us…)

I know that’s silly, but sometimes my mind works that way. Call it a childlike imagination; you will understand when you watch the movie…

The trees were so pretty I had to ask my husband to stop the car so I can take the picture.


This is from one of tne of the viewpoints. The air was so clear and crisp we all enjoyed getting out and exploring a little. Well, we still stayed in the safety range. :) (I was thinking about the TV show “Man vs Wild”… would I be able to survive if I were stuck out here all by myself?…The answer: “No”.


On the way home, I saw this beautiful sky with clouds.


On day 1, we went to the Goblin Valley. I took many great pictures. The next morning, I accidently erased them all! I was so disappointed that it took me a while to recover from that. (until I was stuffed from the breakfast).

I have been spending a lot of time with my family, and with all the activity going on right now I'm just real busy, but I want to get back into creating more soon. Fabric stash, yarn, beads and all the other stuff is calling out to me!

Ok, I know you have something under your sleeve, don’t be shy and share with us!

1. Please post something YOU made. It doesn't matter if it is crochet, quilt, clothing, anything would be fine. I want to see it! If you use someone's idea or patterns please give them the rightful credit.

2. Link to your specific post, that way it is easier for everybody to find and read it.

3. Please grab the "Tea Rose Home" grab button, and link back from your post. If you can mention the party in your post or place the button on your side bar, that would be great! I want more people to have a chance to come and show off their creation.


<br /><a href="http://tearosehome.blogspot.com"><img border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5462799092490427250" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 126px; height: 160px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuoA01dPDcxCv9Ku09VYtszSXA0_T7FXqIzGCrwEgkVFc0iH6Odrctb37Xnb2X1S-la8wBXHBzIAuYLRqt-QdLdVoVbXgOK8JmMJuJJddy66mk2pygB_tIigOtSDA50N0l7LEbzg3Ii-M/s200/GrabButtonLinkParty.jpg" /></a><br />

How to Install Drapery Hardware Brackets

After the curtain hardware was painted and glazed for my living room makeover, it was on to the installation. As you will find from the tutorial below, this is a very simple project which even the most inexperienced DIYer can feel confident about tackling. Whether your brackets are wood (like the ones in this tutorial) or metal (like those pictured in my family room below), the process is the same.

Womans Day Budget Decorating

Photographer – Michael Portenio

Stylist - Donna Talley, Regional Editor and Producer for Meredith Publications

Tools:

Small level

Drill
Drill bit
Screw driver
Hammer
Pencil
Stud finder

Background Information:
I prefer to hang curtain panels about 5 inches or more above the window molding and about 3 or 4 inches outside the width of the window - like the ones shown below in my daughter's bedroom.

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By using these measurements, the window appears larger and the ceiling taller and less of the window is blocked by the curtains allowing for more natural light in the space. Of course, these guide lines are subject to change depending on the architecture of the room.

Procedure:
Measure the placement of the bracket using a small level.

As you can see from the photo above, the rod will be hanging 5” above the window but the height of the bottom of the bracket is lower.

It is important to use a level to keep the bracket plumb, i.e. straight up and down.

Once the bracket is in the correct position, use a pencil or screw to mark all four of the holes placements.

Using the stud finder, determine if there is wood where you will be attaching the brackets. If there is wood, skip the next step as wall anchors will not be needed. If there is no stud, you will need to use wall anchors. Most times they are included with the brackets.

For wall anchors: Drill pilot holes for the plastic wall anchors using a drill bit slightly smaller than the wall anchor to allow for a snug fit. Tap wall anchors into place using a hammer. (I don’t have any pictures of this part, as we were lucky to find studs.)

Attach brackets to wall, through the bracket holes and into the wall anchors if necessary.  Use a screw driver and the provided screws.

Gently tap in button caps with hammer to cover screw holes.

Note: I was a little disappointed to discover the brackets I purchased did not come with caps to cover the screws. It was an easy enough fix – 3/8” oak buttons from Lowe’s solved the problem – but I found it hard to believe they were not included with the brackets. To me, without the caps the brackets look unfinished.

Place curtain rings on rod (which I did not do before I took this picture - whoops!) and screw in finials to ends of poles. Place rod on brackets.

Now that the hardware is up it is time to find the fabric for the curtain panels. I have my choices narrowed down and will be sharing them soon.