Upside Pineapple Bars

Yesterday I was busy doing some baking for my guys and I made them one of their favorites upside pineapple cake bars. This recipe is really simple and a bargain being I can get white cake mixes usually on sale for .89 cents at my local store.
There is 2 ways I make these either moist or crunchy! both ways are yum!
For the most ones I take one white cake mix add 2 eggs, dump a can of large sliced pineapples and the juice all in to the cake mix and mix it up. Next I spread the dough into a large well greased baking dish, then I will melt 1 to 1 1/2 cups of butter on my stove and then add the butter to 2 cups of brown sugar and mix until its moist but crumbly. I then sprinkle this onto my unbaked cake mixture and place in the over at 350 degrees or until golden brown and tooth pick comes out clean.
I do the crunchy simple by mixing either 2 boxes of white cake mix or 1 1/2 mixes, adding only one egg and slowly adding about 1/2 or less of the pineapple juice and pineapple the brown sugar mixture remains the same. The mixture should lots stiffer like cookie dough and this will be a little harder to spread into larger baking dish and the dough will not rise as much as the moist recipe. But baking is the same, bake at 350 degrees and until tooth pick comes out clean, let cool then slice and serve.
There is so much one can do with a cake mix, bake all kinds of cookies by just adding one egg and reducing the water and it's faster cooking, but simple for those who don't have lots of time. I like it because you get home goodies for less and more. I have to say the white cake mix is my favorite because I get great peanut butter cookies, oatmeal cookies and yummy cinnamon rolls.

No Words For Friday, Just a Visit to the Woods

Good Friday to all just sharing pictures of the Oregon woods! Sharing a place that many don't get to see in Oregon because these were taken on work sites where my hubby was working.  I hope you all have a great weekend!

Working on a Cute Wall Hanging Quilt for a Monday

 

Good Monday to everyone! Boy! another month is just flying by me.  I have been wishing summer would come to the Oregon coast, it's just disappeared! The weather has been wet, cool and gray!

Today thought I would share this cute quilt I am working on.  The chicken fabric came in the mail the other day, an order from fabric depot.  I love fabric depot and I really don't go to Portland much anymore so its nice knowing Fabric depot is on line and thank heavens for that!   I love ordering fabric from them and this time I got some cute chicken farm fabric!

Sunday I spent cutting the pieces and deciding how I wanted the quilt to look.  Today I began sewing and have it all sewn together.  Now I have to add quilt batting and backing.  I am also using some really cute plaid cotton fabric with strawberries on it for the contrast and I love how it is coming out so far!  I also have to iron it again.  Which is what I did when I first started cutting out the pieces, ironing all the squares so that they will sew together easier and look nice and even.  I have not decided what I will back the quilt with but I have some heavier fabric that is a dark yellow with chickens all over it and that might just make good backing for this quilt but I may just go with a solid color, it's back to work on the quilt, hoping everyone has a great Monday.

Craft Project how to Recycle a Pint jug into Fun and Cute Decor

As I stated yesterday I would show you all how to recycle a jug like this into something like this...

and something like this one...

So let's begin...

What you will need a one pint jug

scissors 

cotton fabrics 

ribbon or cording

acrylic paints black, white, red and pink

buttons of various kinds or small wooden decorative items

Scrap book paper of various colors for the little black gal I am using brown card stock 

Modge Podge 

water

brown felt

yarn of your choice

paper towels or old rag cloth towels

Hot glue gun and glue sticks

The paper decor for the butterfly is from the scrap booking section in Jo Ann's and its call K&Company it's what I used to make the butterfly jug. 

2 1/2 inch foam ball

One wooden cloths pin

I have listed all that you will need to make both jugs but I am doing the demonstration with the black gal jug both are done the same way basically but there are a few differences and I will mention these as I go along. 

You can see that I have cut some strips out of the brown and red scrap book paper and I have my modge podge in a bowl.  For the mixture of modge podge pour in about a 1/3 of cup and add a small amount of water and mix well.  Also with the brown strips cut them smaller into little squares as it will be much easier to decoupage  the foam ball. 

You are going to soak the paper, both red and brow in the modge podge mixture and then carefully work the paper onto the jug and the foam ball.  I say carefully because the paper will tear easy and this is a project you will need time to be able to do.  In the butterfly jug I place the strips horizontal and the black gal jug I did the strips running up and down the jug.  You can also cut the strips smaller and decoupage what ever way might be easier for you.  

You can see in this picture how the jug is coming out when I ran the strips from top to bottom.  Before you do the ball place it on the jug and push down slightly as to make an impression of the mouth of the jug, this will be helpful when hot gluing the head on the top.  Now when you do the small foam ball it will take time and the paper is going to get real sticky try to work quickly as you can.  My foam ball looks really icky but it will not look that way when it dries.  You now need to let the jug and ball dry really well before the next steps so over night is good or use a blow dryer to quicken up this project.  I actually sat my ball and jug outside yesterday because it was a very nice warm day and this made the drying so much faster.

After the jug dries really well you can begin adding all the fun little touches, in the butterfly jug I used wire plaid ribbon and cut it to the length  I wanted and I looped it through where the jug handle is and tied a simple bow.  In the black little gal jug I am separating rope into small strains and will use one for a bow.

I have now added the rope and I have cut a scrap of cotton fabric that is about 3 inches wide and 12 inches long.  I am using it for a Shaw and have knotted and hot glued it a little on each side.  For the butterfly jug take the butterflies and bend just slightly and hot glue them down the center on the back side and place where you would like them to go, be sure to hold in place for a few seconds.  On the butterfly jug use a wooden cloths pin with the rounded head, you can find these in any craft store, I found mine in Jo Ann's.  Take the wire ribbon and gather it, then put the hot glue on the pin and press the ribbon around, be careful not to burn your fingers doing this, it's a bit tricky doing this part.  Then I tied some red ribbon around the top of the pin and added a touch of hot glue.  The hair is black yarn and I just cut a few pieces and knotted those together and hot glued to the top of the cloth's pin.  Then I took my oil based acrylic paint pens and added eyes in black and pink for the mouth and cheeks.  I took the hot glue and placed some glue in the center of the pin, placing it on top of the mouth of the jug so that it will remain in place and not fall off.

In this picture below I have added the cute wooden decor which is some purple flower and I am hot gluing them on.

Before you add the head  (foam ball) paint on the facial feature you would like, cut your yarn and knot it for hair then glue onto the top of the foam ball.  I also cut out a large triangle and tied it onto the head shaping and hot gluing into place.  You can also see that I have added some wooden cute frogs to the bottom of the jug.  What I did for arms on the jug was to cut out 2 small arms from brown felt and I stuck them slightly under the Shaw and hot glued them into place.

I know this project seems long but I am talking about how to do both jugs! and I hope I have made this simple and fun to understand how to recycle these neat jugs into something else.  Once again my brain is cooking with a new idea. You are welcome to post any questions if I have not made something clear for doing this project I will be glad to answer them.  I have also filmed this and I thinking about adding that to YouTube in a few days.  So there will be a verbal tutorial.

Recycled Mississippi Mud Jugs into a Butterfly Jug

My neighbor gave me these to recycle, I am recycling them but in a different matter. I have created a cute craft idea for these jugs and I was playing around with one of the three I have, of course I took pictures of it and I am thinking about making it a craft project to share with all of you.

This is the finished recycled jug that I now call the butterfly jug and was this lots of fun to create, so in a few days I will post how I created this cute project and share what items you will need to recycle these neat jugs.

Already my brain is cooking and stewing up some new ideas to do with the remaining 2 jugs. I will show how to make this one and I am thinking about something totally different for the other jug.

It just was something to do a very quiet Tuesday afternoon besides just sitting back and watching some silly t.v show.

Just for Dad on Father's Day, Sweet huge Sticky Buns

This is an easy recipe to do up for dad either on Father's day or anytime.  What you will need:
3 loafs of frozen pre-made bread dough ready to thaw; thawing and rising the night before.
3 cups of brown sugar
3 cups of Marmalade (orange)
1 cup of favorite nuts, walnuts, pecans, etc
1 cup of coconut
1 cup of butter melted
Thaw out frozen made up bread all 3 loafs over night and let rise in a very large mixing bowl.
The next morning either Father's day or any day, weekend,  take the risen dough and roll out on a well floured surface. Brush on the butter to the center of the rolled out dough and then sprinkle about 1 cup of the  brown sugar.  Roll the dough up, making a very long roll, slice the dough about every 3 inches, you will have some very large rolls when they are done rising and baking.  Place the rolls onto a large well greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly brown and tooth pick comes out clean.  Now on the stove mix all the other ingredients; brown sugar, nuts, coconut, marmalade in a sauce pan on medium high heat, stir often and let come to a slight boil still stirring often, boil about a minute, remove and drizzle over cooked sticky buns and finally let cool slightly because you want to serve these warm.  One of these makes a feast! the picture I shot does not quite do them justice!  This is a nice treat anytime or to do something nice for the man around your home.  I know my two men just love these!

Fourth of July Foam Magnets Craft Project and A Painted Plate for Dad

This is a very simple fun project you can do using craft foam.  I call these my Fourth of July foam Angels.  What you will need for this project

scissors 

flesh colored foam 2-3 pieces depending how many you would like to make and these are large foam magnets measuring 9 to 10 inches long.

hot glue gun

Red, white, blue craft foam

buttons of various kinds 

gold cording

yarn or cotton floss 

round heavy duty magnets

acrylic oil base paints of various colors.

What I have done first was to cut out my shapes for the body and dress.  The body is flesh colored foam and for the head I cut out an egg shape, the hand and feet are also round circles.  I have done this so that those that can not draw so well will find making the body easy.  Now the dress, fold the craft foam in half.  Now on the fold cut a neck line by cutting a half circle, then cut out from the half circle to start the sleeve. Come down and make a funny shaped triangle, this may be a little hard to under and if it is you could just draw out the dress using the photos as your guide and then cut.  Hot glue the head to the dress and do the same for feet and hands.

To do the facial features you will need some oil based acrylic paints, which is what I like to use and I have these in a marker form that you can buy at Jo Ann's or any art store.  I like them because they blend so nicely.

Now cut out some stars in contrasting foam colors; I happen to like my stars a little less than normal.  I have also stained a wooden pop stick for the wand and I used a bit of instant coffee to do this.  I have hot glued the star and stick to the hand of the angel.

In this photo I have used some black craft yarn, I have wound up the yarn and knotted in the center and hot glued it to the head of the angel.

I am adding the round heavy duty magnets with hot glue, because the angel is 10 inches I am adding 4 magnets; one on each hand and two in the center.

This is the angel finished and sitting on my refrigerator.  I said I needed to get something done for Father's Day in my last post and I created this painted plate.  The picture is a daddy bear with his son and I will be adding it to my store in a day or two along with the magnets.  I hope you liked this simple way to decorate for the Fourth of July working with craft foam.