The Janlynn Christmas Stocking Cross Stitch Kit

I finished my second cross stitch ever recently. When I was in high school I had a friend whose mother had stitched a stunning Christmas stocking for each one of her nine kids. When I saw them I remember thinking, I'm going to do that one day for my own children.

I have two little boys now. The second stocking is in the works and I promise to finish it by next Christmas. In the mean time, here's the first one!

Now, to cut it out and put backing on it. Why is that the hardest part for me?

The Underwear Snowflake

It's potty training season in our home.

Owl Voodoo Donut

I didn't make this, but Voodoo Doughnut did. I love the idea of having a giant personalized doughnut instead of a cake. And then I love eating the idea.

Earlier this year my wonderful coworkers ordered this for my office baby shower because I like owls. Thanks, guys! Even in retrospect my mouth waters.

Hidden Mother Victorian Portraits

A little Victorian portrait of our son, hidden-mother style. See a full collection in the Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things.

The Family Tree Cross Stitch

I really got into cross stitching this year. This is my first cross stitch, a family tree I made as a wedding gift. (It looks kind of lame with the names blotched out, I know. Dang privacy.) I got this family tree cross stitch kit from 123Stitch.

I really like Janlynn patterns and kits a little better than Dimensions, I think. I love the traditional hand-designed look of this specific pattern rather than a computer-generated pattern based on a photograph or painting. This pattern is so classic, like a centuries-old family tree sampler.

My one tip for cross stitching? Following the pattern, pick a color and stitch an area only stitching half the X (one stitch, /) over an area. Then you can set the pattern aside and go back, filling in the other half of the Xs (\) without pouring over the pattern and counting. It makes things go much faster!

How to Make a Braided Rag Rug

Welcome, all ye good people, to a how-to instruction guide to make a braided rag rug out of old/repurposed t-shirts! DIY or bust!

STEP 1:  Collect old t-shirts in the colors you fancy.

33 t-shirts @ $0.65 each @Goodwill Outlet Bins

STEP 2: Allow family members to steal shirts for wearing purposes.

  

STEP 3: Cut up t-shirts into 2" strips with rotary cutter and mat.

STEP 4: Braid strips together, mixing colors or using one color/tee at a time.

STEP 5:  Sew braids together in a circle on a flat surface by hand or machine.

Sew on a flat surface.

Hand-sewn Stitches

NOTE: If the braids are too small (1" like in the photo below), the rug will be more susceptible to ruffling/lettuce-leafing/curling. (Not great. I started over with 2" strips for a thicker, more sturdy rug, sewing on a flat surface (table, board, floor) this time to avoid rumples.

 

BLOCKING: If the rug is warped, wrinkly, wavy, or curling up in places, you can block it like you would a knitting project. Get it wet and lie it flat in the shape you want it. You can even lie a sheet over it with bricks, books, or any flat, heavy objects holding the rug in shape and pressing down and warpage. Let it dry like this and it should keep its shape.

WASHING: The finished product can be machine washed (use a laundromat triple-loader for larger rugs) or soaped and hosed down, then dried flat in the sun on a driveway.

This round glass table was a perfect working space for keeping the rug flat.

Chocolate-dipped Oreos

If you ever have extra melted candy-making chocolate, things might get a little out of hand. Oreos and almonds were our targeted subjects. Didn't have bacon on hand.

The Mistledoe Favicon

I'm going nuts with the blog. It's becoming a whole new craft project.

I used this Favicon Generator editor to design my own favicon: a little mistledoe. You can find her at the top of your browser and on the corner of the blog tab. Aren't mini deer just the cutest thangs?

The Pomegranate Clock

Hours of antioxidants.

Fast forward, or rewind--whichever you choose, to Chrismas 2009 when I happened to draw the same brother in law in the family Christmas gift drawing. Well, how do you top ear paintings?

This time I asked him for an object or any old "thing" he liked or that represented him well. He chose the wonderful POMEGRANATE. I love a good fashion fruit, and the pomegranate fit the bill. Like, check out this pomegranate painting by Ilse Kleyn. What a classy fruit. My father-in-law imagines that in heaven people just sit around eating pomegranate seeds that have already been shelled by angels.

There are fashion fruits and there are fashion vegetables, like the artichoke. I mean, if Pottery Barn can convince you to buy dead artichokes in a box for $24.50, you know there are people out there who are genuinely passionate about artichokes.

In true Mistledoe fashion, I stayed up on Christmas eve finishing this project. These Walnut Hollow clock kits and clock parts are so easy to assemble and make great gift ideas.

Other ideas for clock decorating:

• cover face with fun fabric
• modge podge it with photos/magazine clippings/newspaper articles
• paint a face on it
• spraypaint it a solid color
• cover it with vintage wallpaper or wallpaper scraps
• dip it in chocolate and eat it

Tempering Chocolate: Boy Scout Candy Molds

At the tail end of my husband's service as a Scoutmaster (although, never fear, he's Scout Committee Chairman now; we shall never be free), I was at the local BSA supply store and saw these boy scout candy molds while he was buying merit badges for the upcoming Court of Honor.

Refreshments, anyone? Why would anyone attend these things otherwise? Is an embroidered patch really considered incentive?

Anyway, I've never tried working with candy molds before and just figured you could melt chocolate chips or something and pour them in.

Wrong. Of course it's so much more complicated. Most things are. (That is, until I learned about candy melts. See the "Chocolate-covered Strawberries" post.)

HOW TO TEMPER CHOCOLATE
Working with real chocolate requires tempering (here are Ghirardelli's chocolate tempering instructions). Too bad my thermometer broke, so I was kinda flying by the seat of my pants. But here are the steps I followed, essentially:

1. Buy bar chocolate. Apparently there's something in chocolate chips that makes them not right for this sort of process. I bought pieces of broken slab chocolate from the Winco bulk bins.

2. Chop up chocolate. Here's what mine looked like:

3. Melt 2/3 chocolate in double boiler. Remove from heat and stir in the rest to melt.

4. If you're smart, measure the temperature of the chocolate and follow directions. [I skipped this part.] 

5. Pour chocolate into molds and refrigerate to set. If you do it right, the chocolate is supposed to set beauifully with a nice snap when you bite or break it. Unfortunately, while mine looked really pretty, they didn't set very well and were melty to the touch and fairly soft even after being chilled. Maybe I needed to let them sit in the fridge longer, but we couldn't miss the Court of Honor, now could we?


6. THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP: Forget about this whole process and buy microwavable chocolate candy melts. Eeeeeeasy.

The Instagram Poster

Prinstagram Poster

I love Instagram. I feel only a little sorry for anyone who follows me because I probably post three times as many pictures as I should. Is one a day the standard? I don't even know. So if I average like three photos a day does that mean I'm an instajunkie? I post some pics of my boys, and some of the rest of the world (as if the rest of the world matters in comparison).

Printing this poster was a great deal through Prinstagram. I would love to print enough over time to cover an entire wall.

I took this poster to FedEx Office to see if they could scan and print copies of it, only it turns out that would cost three times as much as just ordering another one from Prinstagram. Soooo . . . no brainer.

We also ordered 4 of the minibooks (2 books of 50 photos each for $12.00) to mail to the grandparents. It's just too much, I know. Too much CUTE.

Paintings: The Christmas Ears

When it comes to giving Christmas gifts, I'm usually at a total loss. Like I said in my last post, I'm not a huge fan of spending a lot of money on holidays. I also think the most meaningful gifts are those we make, the ones we put our heart and time into.

For the family Christmas drawing each year, I try to make something, unless I'm pregnant and working full time and exhausted, which happened last year. Sorry, world. Here's 2008's gift to my brother-in-law: a pair of ears.

Acrylic on Canvas

He's tone deaf, so I thought this was especially appropriate.

Halloween Tissue Ghosts

Tissue Ghost

 

I heard through the grapevine that people spend more money for Halloween than Christmas. Is it true? Could it be? People do spend soooo so so so much money and time on Halloween decorations, costumes, costume parties, pumpkins and pumpkin carving, and CANDY. Of course, candy, the most important part.

Well, I never budget for holidays, so I don't like spending money on holidays, especially holiday decor. I like the thought of decorating for holidays, but I rarely do it because

1. if I do I'll never take the decorations down until the next holiday (or maybe never) and 
2.  does a mother of two tiny boys have time for that? Meh.

Well, kudos to me, I actually put up some Halloween decorations for, like, the first time in my life. Tissue ghosts. Practically free. Cost: a few unwiped boogers.

Do you even need directions?

1. Ball up wad of tissue.
2. Wrap it in another tissue.
3. Tie some string/yarn around it.
4. Draw eyes on it with a marker.
5. Loop thread through the top of the ghost head with a needle.
6. Attach the ghosts to the ceiling with safety or sewing pins.
7. Leave them up forever.

Recipes: Chocolate-covered Strawberries

I was in Utah for my sister-in-law's wedding and my mother-in-law had the idea to make chocolate safari animals as thank-you favors to give out at the African-themed wedding reception. Because I had trouble tempering milk chocolate for my Boy Scout chocolate experiment a couple weeks prior, we went to a candy makers supply store, Baker's Cash & Carry in Murray, Utah for some professional advice. 

There we discovered the world of candy making and supplies. It was like Willy Wonka's factory. We taste-tested chocolate wafers made for candy molds and went to town making hundreds of safari animal candies that week. 

What we learned about chocolate wafers is that unlike real chocolate, which has a cocoa butter base, the wafers for candy molds have a vegetable oil base so they don't require tempering and won't have cocoa butter streaks when they set. Winco carries candy wafers in the bulk section in all sorts of colors for melting if you ever want to play with it. I had no idea what they were before. 

Anyway, I brought home some of the extra wafers and was excited we had them on hand so I could use them again for some dipping. The chocolate melts so quickly in the microwave and sets super fast with a short chill. I didn't even have to put these in the fridge to set; I just set the plate by the open window and the cool night air was perfect for hardening the chocolate.

Looks like I'll be eating a lot more chocolate in my future. This stuff is far too easy to work with.

Recipes: Shroomin' Cheesy Mini Quiches

I wanted to make personal quiches for my son's birthday brunch, but I didn't want them to be tiny, like the ones you would make in mini muffin cups, the little 2" variety. Rather, I wanted them to be more like "personal" size quiches--like fun size instead of bite size.

So I kinda made this recipe up. I looked at a few recipes but couldn't find quite what I was looking for, so here's what I ended up with, and it turned out really well!

Ingredients
2 boxes premade refrigerated pie crusts (4 crusts total)
4 eggs
1/2 C grated/fancy-shred Parmesan
1/4 C grated cheddar
1/2 red pepper, diced and sauteed
3 white mushrooms, sliced and sauteed
1 1/4 C whole milk or half-n-half
1/3 C whipping cream (optional)
smoked or regular paprika
fresh-ground black pepper
dash Creole seasoning (I like Tony Chachere's)

Directions
Cut up each pie crust into 6 pieces (you can stack all four and cut them at once using a knife or pizza cutter). Ball up portions of the dough, roll them out, and fit them into 2 muffin pans for 24 quiches.

Filling: Mixture the 4 eggs, Parmesan, cheddar, milk/half-n-half, whipping cream (again, optional), and spices. Sautee the red bell peppers and mushrooms and let cool before mixing them in. Spoon filling into each muffin with just enough for all 24.

Baked them at 350° for about 30 minutes or until the crusts started browning. Super rich and delicious!

Recipes: Food Network's Pumpkin Cheese Ball

Rolled in cheesy Doritos.

I love eating food that looks like other food.

I saw this Pumpkin Cheese Ball in Food Network Magazine and had to give it a go for my son's birthday brunch. He was born the day before Halloween, so I have the feeling I'll be whipping up a number of fall- and Halloween-themed party foods for many years to come. 

Mmm. Fall.

I used the Kitchen Aid recipe for the cheeseball: 1 cup freshly grated cheddar, 1 cup freshly grated swiss, 1 8-oz block softened cream cheese, a few dashes Worcestershire sauce, paprika, garlic powder, and chopped fresh chives all worked together with the Kitchen Aid at a decently high speed to mash the cheeses together real nice-like. 

Then you just shape the cheeseball into a pumpkin shape, coat it with crushed nacho Doritos, and top it with the stem of a bell pepper. I used the dull side of a butter knife to press in some grooves around the pumpkin. And voila! We served it with orange and black Halloween tortilla chips and Kashi TLC crackers.

Faux Antiquing: How to Antique Furniture

An online tutorial on faux antiquing: in other words, do-it-yourself instructions for restoring and refinishing old furniture to look antique.

Here it is, a step-by-step guide to faux antiquing for beginners like me!

It's like magic.

From this . . .

. . . to this! Bam!

Materials:

• old piece of furniture
• plenty of sandpaper or a sander (with grit coarse enough to strip old finishing)
• steel wool (coarse) or (again) sander
• a candle/chunk o' disposable wax
• ink/permanent marker (optional)
• 1 can paint (base coat, latex)
• 1 container glaze
• a paintbrush (and little roller, helpful for bigger items)
• screwdriver
• rags

Step 1: Remove Hardware & Prep Workspace
Remove knobs, handles, screws, hinges, etc. from the piece and set aside. Set your piece in a good working space where you can paint and make a decent mess. Clean up for us was super easy; we spread out an old bed sheet in the room over some plastic tarp/tablecloth-type stuff and threw it all out when we were done.



Step 2: Protect Unpaintable Areas
Cover up any mirrors or places you don't want to paint. I didn't have masking tape or anything, so I tucked some saran wrap into the corners of this mirror and it worked beautifully:

 
Step 3: Sand
 Remove the old finish/varnish. With this piece, I wanted the dark stain to show through, but I took off the shiny varnish layer so the paint would stick. This took a while, but it was a pretty big piece. After sanding, vacuum up the sawdust and wipe down the wood with a damp rag for a clean painting surface.



Step 4 : Ink Corners (Optional)
I brushed some Indian ink around the corners to show through. It was an experiment, but it looked pretty cool in the end. You can also use a permanent marker to add some black touches on the finished product, but I think that looks better on carvings and more intricate designs. This piece didn't have much flare in the woodwork to accent, so I just focused on edges.



Step 5: Wax
Not your legs. Because you'll be removing paint from certain areas to give the piece a worn, antique-ee look, you use the candle to rub on the corners and areas where you want the paint to come off easily. This step was really helpful; once the paint dried, it took a lot of elbow grease to scratch it off again, but you could tell where the wax was. It really worked.



Step 6: Painting

The fun part: painting! I got a whole gallon of paint, but I didn't even use half the can for two coats on this massive piece of furniture. I chose a shade of humble gray and a taupe glaze, which really warmed it up in the end. I painted in the morning and scraped some off at (see the next step) night, and that was enough time for the paint to dry.

Coat One

The saran wrap was a go! Worked like a charm.

Coat Two

Don't forget the doors!

Step 7: Get that Worn Out Look
Use the steel wool to scrape off your base coat where you want the piece to look worn out: corners, around hinges and handles, etc. It looked kinda lame with such new-looking paint, but using the glaze really helped. I hated it at this point, but I loved it when we were done . . . so don't give up yet!

Step 8: Glaze

This is when my husband joined in to help me glaze. He went around painting the glaze on and I followed him with a rag. We used the rag-rolling technique, removing the glaze and texturing with a rag. I used an old towel with a good cotton-y grain to it.

*Note: The finished product had kind of a chalky, matte texture. I think it would have been awesome to spray or paint a coat of lacquer over it for some gloss and protection. I also hear that using a finishing wax (wax on, wax off) like Minwax^® Paste Finishing Wax is a good protecting agent that also smooths out the finish.

And let it dry!

Viola!
The finished product: a new place for books.

That was that. On the Monday before a Saturday housewarming party I picked up two halves of a large piece of beat up furniture ($15 per half) at Savers. I bought paint and materials on Tuesday (for about $60), sanded on Thursday (4 hours), prepped and painted and glazed on Friday (8-10 hours), and it was ready to put up on Saturday morning (although it wasn't totally dry for the party).

A really fun project. Totally recommend it.


*After three years, I just sold this piece to a young couple. Last week, actually. A young New Yorker bought it for his wife's birthday. They had a cute four-month-old. So while I miss this piece, I'm happy it's in a good home. And I filled the space with a bomb.com retro table and chairs. And if I kept everything I made, I'd end up on Hoarders.