Book Review

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Like the first two books in this series this one started off very slow, but then soon picked up and became a real page turner. I am not sure I like the ending but am left wondering if he had had plans on leaving it open to write another book sadly since he died right after writing these books we will never know.   I encourage everyone to give this trilogy a try. 




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Leather Name Cuff

One of my daughter's friends was about to have her birthday and she wanted me to make something for her. The challenge was that she is pretty much a tomboy who will only add a little splash of girlie from time to time. After digging through my "to work on pile" (which is way to big by the way) I came across the supplies I had gotten to make a cuff for my son and the light bulb came on. What I used for this one was a leather cuff or bracelet with the snap I love these I get them at Hobby Lobby, also the leather clear leather finish, needles, and I used a cord necklace for my sewing material.  In the scrapbook sections I got the metal letter charms, there was already a hole in the top so hubby drilled one on the bottom for me. I also had some enamel paint on hand that I used.


I first spelled out her name and laid it on the cuff to figure out my spacing, then I took my piercing tool and made two holes for each letter in the cuff. Next I used a tooth pick to add the enamel paint in the letter so that it would pop.

 After they were dry I cut one of the cord strands off of the necklace and threaded it onto the needle, I have to say it took some work to get the needle through the leather because of the cord, it made it a bit thick at the eye, but that's what hubby's are for right! I sewed on each letter started underneath the metal piece so that I could cut and tie each one off and it would be hidden it gave them a very clean look. After that we decided that it could use a little something else so I got my Irock out and we added the orange crystals to it. Micalee loved it and has been wearing it daily. She really likes how the leather is now starting to age some and darken up. I guess I really need to get to making the one for son LOL.

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you decide to follow. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone, I just wanted to share with you the projects I did for our green day. I made a shamrock for the front door out of felt, then a very quick and easy shirt for one of the boys. Lastly I had to have something green to wear so I wasn't in danger of getting pinched so I made this necklace out of the left over fabric from making the shirt. I hope everyone has a fun and green day!!!  I have several projects to put added so keep an eye out next week.  I also would like to just thank everyone for stopping by and taking the time to check out my blog.              
Margo

Time Out Chairs

I have two awesome little boys who are both 20 months old that I take care of everyday. It has become clear that the dreaded terrible twos is starting to creep in. So after some chatting with the mom's on how I would like to start time out, I came up with making a time out chair. Thanks to my BFF who has several old Sunday school chairs in her garage (LOL check out that dust)  I was well on my way. One of my mom's right away asked if I would make one for her house also so that she would have the same thing to use there.  My first step was to clean the chair with soap and water and then put painters tape on all the metal parts. Next was to spray paint the base and back of the chair. My plan is to have the chair in my entry way so I wanted to use a color close to my wall color (shown in the first pic) so that it doesn't stand out to much. These chairs are pretty old so I was worried about how much paint the wood was going to soak up but it only too one can to do both the chairs.

After letting the chairs dry for 24 hours I then taped off the wood parts and spray painted the metal black. I had pictures of this but somehow they didn't come out on the camera :(    Now it's time for the fun part, I pulled out some foam stamps that I'm not sure I have ever used yet and used them to put the time out on the back and then numbers on the base. I did have to so some touch ups with a paint brush to make sure everything was even.  I used the tips of the paint brush to make the paint dots, then it was time to add the fun robots that I cut out of material I have for another project. 

 

I just figured out where I wanted them to be and used the trusty Mod Pod to adhere them to the chair. There will be a noticeable area where the MP is so what I did was after it had dried so that the material wouldn't move. I covered the whole area with MP so that everything looked the same. Lastly I sprayed them with a clear enamel gloss to seal them. I just love the way they came out cute but not over the top. You guessed it once the other mom saw it she had to have one for her house too so I will be making one more this weekend. 

Margo

Happy Birthday

Yesterday was my Birthday and to make it even better it was also Fat Tuesday, being from Louisiana this is a big deal to me. So of course I had to make a king cake for my b-day cake, this was my first attempt at making one on my own and I was a bit nervous. I went to Allrecipe.com  and found this recipe so I though here goes. I didn't start taking pics till after the mixing, kneading and two hours of rising. So we begin with the rolling out of the dough......I was a bit worried because it was really sticky when I was kneading it but it rolled perfectly.

Then I mixed and added the filling it smelled so good at this point lol. It didn't look like it was going to be enough filling but it was perfect. Next I rolled it and then the slits. Then it was time to let it sit for 45 minutes to double in size, then baked for 30 minutes hmmm looking good. Now time to color the sugar for the topping, I had purple fingers for several hours :).

I couldn't wait till time to take a taste and man oh man let me tell you it was amazing. Just as if I had bought it in a bakery back home. Now everyone is asking when am I going to make a another one, I am thinking about doing it this weekend. 

I was thrilled with my presents also, they got me a Nook (hmmmm and I have that to read pile lol) I am loving it. I am looking around the net for some info on the ins and outs of it. If anyone has any favorite book sites or info sites please share. My roses are just stunning I can't get over how beautiful they are. Then there is my card lol, I don't do sweets much but I do love this one candy bar so they took two and made them  as my card. I so love this idea and I have to give hubby big props for coming up with it. 

I have put a couple of books on the Nook so far and I can't wait to add more. I am also loving the fact that you can put music on it to since I usually listen to it when reading.  I want to thank everyone for the Birthday wishes. 

Margo

Just Finished Reading.

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It was a slow start, once the story got going it was an interesting read and the plot took a turn I hadn't expected.

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                                                                         Margo