Let's Dare to Share!I

 It's Friday night, and you know what that means..

It is time to Dare to Share! 

If you joined last week's Dare to Share, you saw that it was the night before my step daughter's wedding. I am happy to say it was a BEAUTIFUL ceremony and day.  The weather was perfect, no major mishaps happened, and everyone had fun.  The was a minor mishap when I fell down during pictures, but it was actually pretty funny, and I was not hurt. I may have been a little embarrassed, but I can easily laugh at myself, and it is now a fun memory of the day. We were all impressed with the brides vision for the wedding. It took many hours of set up and clean up, but it was all worth it. If you would like to see the photos for your own decor ideas, you can see them in my post Beautiful Wedding Decor Ideas. 

This weekend I was originally going to be working at multiday festival with my friend's bakery.  We found out late last week that it was best if we did not do it, so I had extra time to work in my Etsy Shop this week.  I have added a few new Halloween listings recently  like my Pink Halloween Treasure Hunt.  

This weekend I will have time to be working on several Halloween crafts like this cute light up ghost.  He is really easy to make, and all the supplies are from the Dollar Tree. I will be posting how to make him and some other crafts this upcoming week. 

Speaking of the Dollar Tree, if you would like to keep up with Dollar Tree's new finds and crafts, I would love to have you join me on Instagram. I share new finds daily.  

Now that you know what I have been up too, I would love to see what you have been up to.  Link up and HAVE FUN! 

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Beautiful Wedding Decor Ideas

If you visited last Friday's Dare to Share Party, you saw that my bonus daughter got married this past weekend. It was a very long weekend with a lot of set up and clean up, but the wedding was BEAUTIFUL! We had such a great day with gorgeous weather.   The bride had a specific vision of what she wanted for her decorations, and made most of them over the last couple of months.

                                                

Part of her vision for the wedding is to make sure everyone had plenty to eat.  Since her actual ceremony was earlier in the day, she wanted to provide coffee and donuts, snacks to munch on throughout the day, and a catered meal.  Just like it sounds, it was A LOT of food.  The guest definitely did not go hungry, and there was still a lot left over at the end of the day.  In this picture you are looking at 192 cans of pop, beer, wine, lots of fruits and vegetables, cheese and snack meats. 

They were not sure how much water we would need.  With all of those other drinks, we had 5 or 6 water jugs left over. 

On the counter is chips, crackers and cookies. 

There were many boxes of decorations to bring to the venue. We had multiple cars, and it took a couple of trips. 

To save on cost, but still match her nature theme, the bride had been finding items at thrift stores, and on marketplace.  She used these on the dessert and snack tables.  

She rented tablecloths in her wedding colors.  Half of the tables had vine runners, and the others had green mesh runners.  Every chair had a green sash tied around it. 

Both tables were lined with small glass jars with tea lights (see below) 

I helped the bride make these.  We wrapped the top with twine around the top of the jar.  Inside the jar is a little bit of greenery, small pearls and a white tea light.  

The main centerpiece was gorgeous.  She used large gold wrapped cans as a vase for the bouquet of flowers that she made herself. The base was a slice of a tree.  

Each table had a table number which really helped when it was time to go to the buffet. We were at the bride's family table so we went right after the main bridal party.  

On the dessert table, the large wooden tiered trays old delicious cupcakes of different flavors from a local bakery. 

On this tray are chocolate cherry and strawberry cupcakes. 

The newlyweds cut a small carrot cake. The bride has to eat gluten free, so this cake was safe for her to eat. 

The bride made all of the corsages and boutonnieres. She hand painted each of the handmade flowers before making the arrangements. 

The morning of the ceremony the guests were treated with coffee and donuts while they waited. The wedding was outside under a beautiful tree.  It truly was a magical day, and the decorations helped make it feel that way. 

 

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Time to Dare to Share!

It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It's time to Dare to Share! 

Tonight my blog post is going to be short and sweet.  We have had a very long week, but for a very good reason.  My bonus daughter is getting married tomorrow!  We were at the reception hall 13 hours today/tonight, and there is still more that needs to be done.  We have an early call tomorrow, because as part of the wedding party we have some special tasks that need to be done before the early in the day wedding.  The reception hall looks beautiful, and the weather is supposed to be perfect tomorrow. We are really looking forward to this day.

So since I am exhausted and need to get some sleep before our huge day tomorrow, let's get this party started! 

Link up and HAVE FUN! 

 

 

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Dare to Share Saturday!

 It is Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

Are you ready for some football? I know I am very excited about this weekend, football is back at both the college and pro level. Ohio State has their first home game, and my Bengals have their first game of the season. :) Who Dey! 

We are also now in the final week of wedding prep for D's daughter's wedding.  I just finished some printables to use at the reception.  Last weekend I found a dress that I am pretty sure is a keeper, and we also bought almost 200 cans of pop with some great Labor Day deals. There are still things to do, but it is a good feeling to have a lot of it completed 

I know I mentioned a few weeks ago that I am now helping my friend with her bakery. We have a few events and a birthday cake coming up in the next few weeks.  What I love about this time of year is that we are starting to make Halloween treats to sell. I will be sharing more about our events and treats in the next few weeks.   This week I shared a post how to make devil fruit cake.  We were recently asked to make these for a birthday party, it wasn't too hard once we learned what they actually were. 

 

During last week's party, I posted that my Halloween Treasure Hunt was going to be live over the weekend. If you did not see my update I posted on the last week's party, it went live on Saturday.  You can see it in my Etsy Shop here.

Now that you know what I have been up to this week. I would love to see what you have been up to.  Link up and HAVE FUN!  

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How to make a Devil Fruit Cake

Recently I started helping a friend with her bakery.  I have always loved to bake and making sweet treats, so when she asked me, I was quick to say yes.  She told me that we had an interesting cake request from a customer, but she was not sure exactly what they were asking for.  I have to admit I did not know what a devil fruit cake was at first either but I love to learn new things. I soon found out that they were from the anime series called One Piece.  One Piece is the longest running anime that started back in the late 90s and is still going.  Devil Fruits are very important to the characters of One Piece, because they give the character who eats it special powers. 

We were asked to make three small different devil fruit cakes.  One of the most popular devil fruits is the Gum Gum fruit which belongs to one of the main characters.  We also really liked the heart shape devil fruit called the Ope Ope fruit. 

Each of the cakes have swirls on the outside.  We decided to used fondant to make the swirls and attached it to the outside of the cake. 

This cake is the Chop Chop fruit.  

 We colored and rolled all the swirls for all three cakes and also made the stems out of fondant, hoping they would stay intact.  

They turned out pretty good, the customer was happy. and that's what counts.  There are a few minor things we would do a little differently next time, like color the fondant underneath so there is no white showing through.  We are now working on fall and Halloween items for a neighborhood market and a local festival. Stay tuned to see what we make.   

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Let's Dare to Share!

It's Friday night, and you know that means..

It's time to Dare to Share! 

Happy September! I know I say this every month, but how is it already almost fall?  While I do not look forward to the cooler weather, I am super excited about football season starting and Halloween.   Another very exciting thing going on this September is we have a wedding in the family.  D's oldest daughter is getting married in a couple of weeks, and we are busy helping with preparations.  One very important thing that I need to do this weekend is find a dress to wear.  While I am not the mother of the bride, D is the father of the bride. He will be wearing a tux, so my dress can't be too casual.   It is not a super fancy wedding, so it should also not be too dressy.  The wedding  will be outdoors (weather permitting) and the reception is in a quaint hall at a park reserve.  I have an idea of what type of style that I would like in my mind, now hopefully I can find something like it.  

I am in the process of making several Dollar Tree fall/Halloween DIYs that I will be sharing on the blog and Instagram when they are finished. I am still looking for a few supplies.  One of my favorite easy DIYs is how to make Halloween Gnomes. I originally made my gnome twins a couple of years ago. I reposted how I made them this week, since the craft pumpkins are back in stock at most Dollar Trees. 

Over in my Etsy Shop my newest Halloween Treasure/Scavenger Hunt will be going live this weekend.  Spooky season is such a fun time of the year, and I have so much fun creating new listings for my shop.  I hope to add several this month if time permits. If you ever thought about making and selling printables, I took this course and loved it. It really helped me get started with my shop.  Students receive so much support, and the Facebook group is one of the best I have ever been in.  I do need to disclose that I am an affiliate for the course, but I would definitely share how much I love the course even if I wasn't. 

Update on the Halloween Hunt. It is now live and if you would like to check it out, you can find it here.

Speaking of time, it is now time to get this party started! Link up and HAVE FUN! 

 

 

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Easy Halloween Gnome DIY

Gnomes can be very easy, and inexpensive to make, and there are a lot of different ways you can make a gnome. The way I am going to show you today, all you will need is a few items from the Dollar Tree and a glue gun. 

Another thing nice about this craft is you can easily change out the gnome hat for each holiday or season with different fabric.  I used Halloween fabric for this tutorial, but Dollar Tree has so many cute patterns available throughout the entire year.  

** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links

The items you will need are: 

• Dollar Tree styrofoam craft pumpkin  - they are  available in orange, white and black in store and online.  You can currently buy the orange and white pumpkin in smaller quantities of only 4 on their website.  Another cool thing is when you order online, you can often have your order shipped free to your local store.

string mop head

• Crafters Square fabric cuts -  you probably wont need to buy this in bulk, but you can see some of the fun Halloween prints available this year with the link.

• wooden beads - Dollar Tree has beads available in all shapes in sizes that would be great for gnome noses. 

• floral foam styrofoam cone - they are currently available online in small quantities of 4.

• Crafters Square glue sticks

The first thing I like to start with when making my gnomes is the beard.  You will need to pull out 16 strands from the mop and lay them on a flat surface, 

Cut each strand in four pieces.  The easiest way to do that evenly is to cut the strand in half, and then cut each half into half.  You should end up with 64 pieces each about 4 inches long. 

With your glue gun start gluing the pieces at the top of the pumpkin. The strands will be longer than the pumpkin. Glue them as close together as you can if you do not want the pumpkin to show underneath. 

Continue gluing on strands until they cover the half of the pumpkin.  

After you have all the strands attached to the pumpkin, the next step is to pull out the stem.  The reason why you want to remove the stem is so the cone will lay flat on the pumpkin in the next step.

Glue the cones on the top of the pumpkins. 

 After the cone is in place it is time to make the hat.  Fold the fabric into a triangle shape, and cut to the size you would like for your gnome.  The smaller the triangle, the smaller the hat.  I made mine a little bit on the bigger side.  

With  the right side of the fabric on the inside, glue the edges of the flat side of the triangle together.  (you can also sew this edge if you do not want to use glue). Once the glue has cooled, turn the fabric right side out.  

Place the hat over the cone and adjust it so it looks something like this.  You can glue the hat in place, but if you plan on changing out the hat for different seasons, you may want to use a small push pins to hold it place. Once you have the hat in place, glue on the nose.    I named this gnome Trick because I used the fabric with scary jack-o-lanterns. 

I named this gnome Treat because of the candy corn on his hat. 

Trick and Treat 

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It's Dare to Share Saturday!

It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

Have you been affected by crazy weather this week?  I am currently visiting my family and friends in Michigan this weekend.  In the last two days Michigan has experienced several tornados.  My kids who are in Michigan live over an hour apart and both of them had one of the tornadoes in their areas. (both are okay)   There is a lot of damage around the state, power outages, and a lot of clean up to do. One of the main highways near where I used to live has been closed for over a day now because over 20 vehicles (semis and cars) were affected by at least one of the tornados. There have been some deaths and major injuries in a few locations. I will found out more about the damage this weekend during my visit.  

In addition to working at the preschool/daycare, and my Etsy Shop, I have also started helping a friend with her bakery.  We have a few events and markets coming up in the next few months.  This week we were asked to make Devil Fruit Cakes for a birthday party.  Neither one of us knew much about Devil Fruit cakes, but I did some research and was able to learn enough that we were able to make a few of them.  Here is a few of the cakes in progress.  I am planning on sharing more about them in a blog post. 

Since it is really late right now, I want to get this party started.  

I would love to see what you have been up to this week, so link up and HAVE FUN! 

 

 

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