May 2012 | Crafted Niche - a lifestye blog that shares DIY crafts, recipes and tutorialsCrafted Niche – a lifestye blog that shares DIY crafts, recipes and tutorials

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Pin-spired Baby Sushi Gift

May 30, 2012 in Gettin' Crafty

I love finding creative baby gift ideas. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure expecting moms LOVE receiving all the essentials… but sometimes it’s fun to think outside of the box.

Last summer I whipped up a super simple photo-prop baby gift for a friend. She loved it, and is still using the blocks for her weekly baby photos.

With another Mom-to-Be in need of a gift, I headed to Pinterest in search of an idea I remembered seeing floating around. Isn’t it amazing what you can find on that site?! (Sidenote – if you need an invite, just shoot me an email and I’d be happy to do it!)

Oh man… I hit the jackpot. I found what could be the cutest gift -

As a sushi-loving gal, I can feel the sacrifice of a Momma-to-be that’s had to drop her chopsticks and give up sushi for 9 months. Now that’s love! I studied the how-to instructions for this project and headed to Walmart / Target for a supplies run.

Ok… I can’t wait any longer. It’s killing me. I’ll just show you pictures, and then give you a run-down of what’s inside!

I don’t have step-by-step photos of this project. I wanted to give credit where credit is due and direct you to Creative Dollar for the full how-to.

So what’s inside? Well, this gift was for an expecting couple that chose NOT to know the sex of their baby. (I know… I’d never be able to wait. Kudos to them for the will power!) It made shopping a bit tricky though, since so many of the smaller baby accessories seem to be either pink or blue. All in all, there were:

3 pack of white onesies (Walmart)
2 yellow wash cloths (Walmart)
2 white with yellow piping wash cloths (Target)
1 squirty fish bath toy (Walmart)
2 pacifiers (Target)
Foot booties / rattles (Walmart)
Wrist rattles (Walmart)
Decorative plate (Walmart)
Black plastic tablecloth (Walmart)
Rubberbands (Had ‘em)
Black electrical Tape (Had it)

Are you wondering what the red fluffy schtuff is? Don’t get excited… it was just for looks. The sushi needed a pop of color and texture. I had some large-scale, oversized pipe cleaners laying around so I snipped some short pieces to tuck in a couple rolls.

When shopping, just look for items that can be squished, rolled or sweet-talked into looking sushi-esque. …and yes, I think all three of those techniques were used in the creation of this gift!

After these photos were taken we added a couple chopsticks and wrapped the whole shuh-bang up in a shrinkwrap bag.

The gift was a hit and I definitely recommend you pin this project for future inspiration. Don’t forget to visit Creative Dollar for the full how-to!

…..and now I want sushi. Yum!

Meet My New BFF – Miss Alli

May 21, 2012 in Outside

Oh goodness.

I absolutely HAVE to tell you about my new BFF. She’s AWESOME. She totally seems like a clean-cut, proper girl, but let me tell you – this chick is not afraid to get in there and get her hands dirty.

She helped me this Saturday with some yardwork. I know, right? A friend who will actually help with YARDWORK?! Pretty much impossible to find.

…but not this girl. She’s bad-a$$ like that. Pardon my french, but I can’t downplay her awesomeness. I’m pretty sure we’ll be BFF’s for life.

What’s that? You want to meet her… well, first I have say – don’t be intimidated. I met her over a year ago and was TOTALLY unsure if I could hang. I felt out of my league, but this weekend I finally decided to give her a go. I mean, what did I have to lose?

….maybe a finger?

Meet Miss Alli! Her name’s actually Alligator Loppers, but I think we’re on a first name basis after Saturday morning.

This is probably a good time to point out that in no way are Alli’s parents, Mr. Black and Mrs. Decker, asking and/or compensating me to write this post. I just think Alli’s so awesome that I had to tell you about her. Then again… it’s probably an even better time to say that if Mr. Black and Mrs. Decker want to send me some of Alli’s other friends to get to know, I TOTALLY would. {wink}

You see, my Dad first brought me Alli on my Birthday last year. He knew we’d hit it off right away, but I was nervous. It’s like hanging out with the coolest, toughest chick in school.What if you’re not cool enough? …Or what if you only have 9 fingers after you meet? It’s a potentially high risk situation!

Alli thought she could help me with a dead bush in my yard, and I was willing to try. What started as a burning bush two years ago has finally fizzled out. Burnt Bush. Toasted. Ashes… you get the picture. He didn’t fare so well in last year’s drought…

Ewwww, eye sore. Time to get the heck outta dodge. I grabbed Allie, an extension cord, and my big girl panties. Time to chop that bush down!

What’s the point of mowing around a dead bush anyway? Poking me in the back, scratching my legs. Noooo thank you. You’ve worn out your welcome, burnt bush.

Here’s where Alli and I really hit it off. I wish I could show you just how great our first time hanging out was, but we had to keep our eye on the prize. Two hands! No really… without two hands to help her along, Alli won’t chip in and pull her weight. She just shuts down. Literally. That’s fine by me though – I respect her for that.

After just 5 minutes, Alli and I had made quite the dent in our morning project. What a hand! I would have been snipping and chopping all morning if it weren’t for her help. Yup, she’s cool like that.

See! Alli’s totally a get-in-there-and-get-dirty kind of girl. That’s a good friend to have!

….another couple minutes later and we had that bush knocked down to the ground…

Booyah. Buh-Bye Bush. So long. Don’t let the ‘gator getcha on your way out.

We totally knocked that out in less than 10 minutes!

Alli. is. AWESOME.

When we finished with the burnt bush, we scoped out the rest of the yard, hoping for something else to tackle…. but unfortunately I only have one tree. I can guarantee you though, when that tree needs some branches trimmed, I’ll grab Alli to help! (…and I can’t wait!)

No really guys… Alli is awesome. I like to think of her as a chain saw with training wheels. I was very intimidated at first. I won’t lie. I read the manual about 15 times, completely terrified of the first 2 pages of warnings. I just couldn’t stand to look at that bush one more day. Saturday I decided it HAD to go.

I’m pretty sure I closed my eyes when I first turned her on.

<Hindsight dialogue: Ummm Dana, I don’t think that’s going to save you…>

But after we zipped right through the first branch, I was HOOKED. Chalk this one up to yet ANOTHER power tool I was afraid of and now I’m totally digging. (Other examples…. miter saw, circular saw, jig saw…. apparently I’m afraid of things with blades and sharp teeth?)

If you live nearby and wanna have Alli over, just let me know. She’s totally game for hanging out with others. If you’re not so close, don’t fret… she has plenty of family. Just do a search for ~~Mr.~~ Black & ~~Mrs.~~ Decker Alligator Loppers and you’ll pull up a long line of her family tree.

If you guys ever get to meet, I hope you like Alli as much as I do!

That Trash Could Be Treasure!

May 4, 2012 in Building and Repurposing

This is definitely not my typical post, but I have to ask you a question.

Why do people throw away things that could EASILY be repurposed?

Seriously! I wouldn’t exactly call myself Captain Planet, but I can’t help but shake my head at some of the things people just toss in the trash. Furniture especially! If you don’t want it – someone else might.

Yesterday I made a run to Lowes on my lunch break. (Side note – if you follow on Facebook, you know I was stressing about wearing a dress. Ack.) On my way back to the office, I wound up behind a trash truck with a loaded dumpster. What did I spy in the trash??

A dresser sans drawers and what appears to be a chest! Now I know… some people don’t want a dresser without drawers, but for all we know, the drawers could have been in that dresser too! Blog-ville is JAM-PACKED with awesome dresser makeovers with pieces just like this. Sometimes they remove the drawers and add baskets. Helloooooo genius!

Here’s a closer look at the loot:

Be honest though – am I crazy for contemplating telling that driver to pull over? For wanting to climb up in there and dig out the chest with the scrolly legs? Is it strange that I sat at the stoplight staring at the big dresser thinking about how easy it would be to turn it into a great TV stand with basket storage and shelves for DVR and DVD players? Sigh…… they don’t look like trash to me!

Just in case you haven’t stumbled upon the awesomeness, I wanted to share one of my favorite blogs for all-things repurposed – Roadkill Rescue! Beckie runs the show and has created such an awesome collection of projects for you to get lost in. Stop by and wander around. You’ll love it! I totally drooled over this dog bed… I know, I know, how many beds does Roxy really need!

I’m a sucker for a good before and after, and you can’t get much better than a good curbside-makeover! Last year I made over a trash-pile coffee table and am STILL loving it. So much so, that my “nice” coffee table is collecting dust in the basement.

…and I know my sister Karen is scolding me in her head right now, convinced I took these photos while going down the road. Karen – I’d like to point out the traffic light pole pictured in the first photo. I was NOT in a moving vehicle when I snapped these photos. We were stopped at the light and I took the opportunity to creep up closer. So there!