St. Patrick's Day Potluck Idea

Hey all! I was going through some old pictures on my phone and saw this one and thought I should share. A couple years ago my work department was having a St. Patrick's Day potluck with awards for the most creative Irish/St. Patty's Day themed food.

I wanted to do something quick and simple but still fun and creative. I did a general Google images search for St. Patrick's Day for some inspiration and came across an Irish flag. I had appetizer style veggie pizza on my mind and decided to do an Irish play on that.

I didn't take pictures of the process because I did this before blogging but it's pretty self-explanatory and the pic of the end result should really be all you need. I used  a roll of crescent rolls and covered a cookie sheet with it, making sure to seal the seams well and baked it according to package directions to make my crust.

I made a spread with well-softened cream cheese and a packet of ranch dressing mix and slathered it over the cooled crust. I then took some mozzarella cheese and put it in a gallon sized Ziploc bag, added a few drops of green food coloring and shook it up to evenly coat the cheese.

Using cheddar, plain mozzarella and my green colored mozzarella, I made the stripes of the Irish flag on the top of my pizza. To add just a little something special, I used a few green pepper rings and little pieces of green peppers (for stems) to make shamrocks for the top of the pizza. Here is the end result:

The final result was adorable and I ended up winning first place in my department competition!

I made this with items I had on hand but this would be great with shredded carrots, cauliflower and broccoli or shredded lettuce. Really, as long as the colors work, you can use anything! I realize this flag is supposed to have the green on the left side but didn't realize that until much later. Anyway, nobody noticed :-)

I love St. Patrick's Day and made some great projects last year. First, there was my glittery Luck O' the Irish plaque. Then, I made a fun wreath with a rainbow and shamrocks. (I still love this wreath but think I'll change it up a bit this year. I really do love the area with the shamrocks and would like to do that to the whole thing.) Finally, it wouldn't be St. Patrick's Day in my house without some Corned Beef and Cabbage!

I don't know just how much I'll be doing as far as decorating and crafts go this year. I just have too much else going on. I'll be sure to keep you updated! What do you like to do for St. Patrick's Day? Is it your favorite holiday like it is mine?

2011 Wrap Up

Hello friends! 2011 has been a big year and I can't wait to share with you some of my favorite posts and happenings.

My five most popular posts this year have been:

#5

Easy DIY Art

I love these in my bedroom. The cream color adds some much needed light to the space!

#4

Another Waverly Fabric SCORE!

I paid $14 for 2.75 yards of this gorgeous Sun N Shade fabric and am planning on finishing up my deck project this summer. Here are the fabrics I'll be using.

#3

Downstairs Bathroom - DONE!

This summer I did a mini re-do of my downstairs bathroom. It was just the freshening up I needed...and SO simple! I've since added a DIY Sunburst Mirror to the spot next to the mirror. It's the perfect finishing touch!

#2

Craigslist Dresser...Done?

This was another one of those never ending projects. I had so many problems with the paint bubbling up and I spent so much time sanding and re-sanding. In the end, it was worth it! This is the perfect storage solution for DVDs, diapers and wipes, toys...I love it! I do still need to buy the hardware I've got picked out but I'm having a difficult time getting myself to spend the money. The knobs and pulls are $5 each and I know that doesn't sound like much but that's $60 total and I just don't want to take it out of my budget. I am planning on a re-do of this whole space sometime this year so when I begin that, I'll buy my knobs :)

#1

New Reading Bench

This was by far my most popular post this year and one of my favorite projects. This goes to show you what a little bit of elbow grease can do. I bought the bench for $20 on Craigslist, pulled off some nasty upholstry and padding, repainted and reupholstered it. For a $30 total investment, I have a fun new piece of furniture and a great addition to my little girl's room.

So, those were my most popular posts of 2011. I want to share a few of my personal favorites.

#3

Valentine Wrap-Up

I loved the Valentine's Day crafts I did this year and I smiled every time I looked at them. I can't wait to get them back up and to do even more this year :)

#2

Owl Love You... (Before & After)

I love this little guy. He just makes me happy :)

#1

Lattice Entertain You...

These are my absolute favorite project from this past year. I fell in love with the fabric and got an awesome deal when I found it in the clearance bin at Joann. Unfortunately, I only had enough for one window. I hunted and hunted for this online but this color isn't made anymore. (It's Waverly Lovely Lattice in mocha. They do make this in the Sun N Shade fabric but I had the 100% cotton and needed the same to match up to what I already had.) Finally, I tripped over a store that had this online.

I love everything about this fabric. The weight, color and pattern are perfect and the curtains are perfect for my living/dining area. Almost every time I look at them, I can't believe how lucky I was to find that second five yards :)

2012 is going to be a busy year for me too. I've got a monster list of projects and to-dos that I'm planning on posting soon. Included in that list will be converting my guest room/office into a nursery for a baby boy coming in April. That's my biggest DIY project planned for 2012. (The baby, not the room!)

I've had so much fun looking back on 2011 and it's inspired me to forge ahead in the coming year. I've loved all the friendships that have developed through this blog and all the support I've received. Thank you ALL for making it wonderful :)

Linking up to:

Surprisingly AWESOME Christmas Decor!

My mom sent me this image today from House Beautiful. Awesome!! I don't really have anywhere to put it but I wish I did! This would be such a simple and inexpensive DIY - they're just paper wedding bells!

(click pic for source)

Anyway, I was just so struck by this that I had to share. What do you think? Am I way off with my love of this idea?

Corned Beef & Cabbage

I've said before that St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays and I stand by that. Also, corned beef and cabbage is one of my favorite meals :)  Here is how I go about making it.

Start with your corned beef brisket. What makes corned beef brisket special is that it is wet-cured in a brine (typically) spiced with mustard seeds, cloves, allspice, peppercorns and/or other pickling spices.

Put the brisket in a stockpot with included spice packet and enough water just to cover.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat, simmering for 2 1/2 - 3 hours.

When you have about 15 minutes remaining, add a quartered onion, some quartered potatoes and large carrots, sliced.

I didn't have any carrots on hand so I just skipped them. Yes, it did feel like it was lacking something but I think it was mostly color I was missing.

When potatotes and onions have been cooking for about 15 minutes, remove brisket to a warm pan, covered, and to the pot add a cabbage, quartered.

It was so tender I shredded it trying to take it out of the pot!

The potatoes and onions, half cooked in the broth from the brisket.



Allow cabbage to cook for 15-20 minutes and transfer to platter.

And there you have it - a super easy, yummy dinner...best of all? It only takes one pan!  If you're lucky and have leftovers you can make corned beef hash for breakfast the next morning...I'll show you that next :)

Do you like corned beef? 

At The End Of The Rainbow...

I've been promising a St. Patrick's Day wreath and I didn't want to close out the week without delivering. The problem was, I just couldn't decide what to do. I still wanted to do something with a rainbow but I just wasn't sure what. I was thinking that it would be fun to make a wreath into a rainbow somehow but I really didn't want to spend much money. I headed to Joann Fabrics to pick up some yarn because I really loved the texture on my Valentine's wreath. When I got there I realized that I didn't want to spend even $2.50 on each skein when I needed so little each of six different colors. I was walking around aimlessly trying to find inspiration when I saw these little spools of ribbon. The grosgrain was $1.00 per spool and the other was $0.50 each. That sealed the deal.

I grabbed a foam wreath form, two different shades of green felt and six colors of the rainbow (I don't mean to be a snob by leaving out indigo, I just didn't have room for it in my plan!).

Because I had six colors I marked off eight sections on my wreath form - six for the colors and two for the shamrocks.

I wrapped the ribbon the same way I would have my yarn, filling each section with the next color in the sequence ROY G. BiV.

I just used straight pins to secure each color in place.

I printed out a few different sizes of shamrocks to use for a pattern...

...and traced them on to my felt and cut them out.

I used straight pins to attach my shamrocks to the wreath. (I decided to wrap the last two sections with some black yarn I had on hand - just to make it look more finished.)

I used mostly green straight pins but also a few yellow and blue in places where they wouldn't be too noticeable.

For a hanger I pinned some scrap ribbon to the back. I used two pins on each end crossing over each other to make them extra secure.

And the finished product. I wasn't so thrilled with it when I just had the ribbon on but when I got the shamrocks on I started liking it a lot more. I still think I'm going to do it differently next year but for now I really am happy with the finished product!

I love the 3D effect from the shamrocks!

I was able to use a 40% off coupon on the wreath form so the total cost of this wreath (including tax) was $8.10. I've still got plenty of ribbon and felt leftover for some future use and because I didn't use any glue this can be totally taken apart if I want - perfect for some cold winter day (next year maybe?) when I'm feeling crafty but snowed in...and that happens a lot in North Dakota!

So what do you think? Do you like wreaths as much as me?  I'm off for the weekend, we're visiting family out of town. Early next week I plan to show you some fab finds from a recent thrifting excursion. Now I just need another semi-warm day to paint them up!

Valentine Wrap-Up

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm such a lucky girl this year (well, every year, really!). Today I received a beautiful bouquet at work from my husband and one from my daughter (okay, so my mom bought it but it is still my sweetheart's name on the card).

I decided to celebrate by doing a quick wrap-up of my Valentine's Day projects.

First, I made a simple framed picture for a sweet little vignette in my living room:

Next, I put up a sweet little garland.

Then, another garland that was even easier but just as pretty:

And finally, my favorite project, a pretty heart and flower wreath.

I had so much fun coming up with these ideas and making these this year. I'm a little sad that they will have to come down so soon but excited to start working on St. Patrick's Day and Easter!

I've also got a post started about my party I hosted this weekend. It was such a good time and I took so many pictures...I can't wait to show you what we had for food!

Oh, one more thing...Yesterday was such a beautiful day with temps in the 40s so I decided to start a couple spray paint projects for my master bedroom. So far I'm thrilled with the results and I can not wait to get those posted!

Once again, happy Valentine's day. Take time to tell someone special how much you love them :)

A Pretty Valentine Wreath

Well, here it is...less than a week to Valentine's Day and my last (probably?) Valentine's Day craft.  Now, I'm not going to lie - this one wasn't as easy as the others but I think the finished product is just a little more special.

I love the look of yarn-wrapped wreaths and although I love the typical felt flowers on them, I really wanted to try a different idea I had floating around in my head.

I started with a simple foam heart-shaped wreath form and some white yarn I had on hand from another project.

I wrapped and I wrapped and I wrapped some more - sticking a pin in every so often to keep it from unravelling.

I didn't bother with the pointy parts. You will see why later.

For the flowers, I cut strips of fabric roughly two inches wide, scalloping one of the long sides.

I used hot glue to secure one edge (usually the narrower edge, if there was one) to a pencil. You really could use anything - you will be taking it off the pencil, just using it as a start.

I pinched and glued and twisted and pinched and glued...

Once I got about this far, I took the pencil out and just kept gluing three - four inches at a time.

I pinched and sort of twisted the fabric as I went to make it look a little more full and real...as real as fabric can look!

The back was fine to stay just as it was. In fact, having the back sort of flat worked well for hot gluing them to the wreath.

...the finished product. To make some flowers larger I just used a longer strip of fabric.

Here is my wreath and my big stack of fabric flowers.

Remember, I said I didn't bother trying to cover the points.

I used a length of some ribbon I had on hand and used hot glue and straight pins to secure it to the wreath, and just went to town hot gluing the flowers on...

This is why I didn't care about covering up those areas...


...the flowers took care of it for me.

I really love this project. I had the idea for the flowers floating around in my head for a while. I didn't use a tutorial but I'm not saying I came up with the idea on my own either. I'm sure it was a culmination of several tutorials I've seen.

So, this wraps up my Valentine's Day series. I'm on the prowl, looking for awesome St. Patrick's Day ideas. It just so happens that St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays...do you have any ideas to share?